We both fought hard and tanked in this round. I personally feel that your Round 3 entry deserves better than a 6.9, and it kind of felt like some of the judges were particularly harsh this go-around. Anyway, consider me a fan and keep right on doing what you're doing! What matters most is that you enjoy it and find a good home for the music.
I'm a musician. Check out my band Botsing. I also make music for games, animations, short films, vlogs, etc and I write scripts, record sound effects, animate and voice act.
Bart van Zon
@SourJovis
Age 40, Male
Netherlands
Joined on 8/14/12
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Comments
Indeed we did. Thanks. I liked your song. You had the misfortune to come up against an opponent who scored very high in each round. I didn't think your song was less good though, but putting a number on work like this isn't really my style. If people just make the song they want and manage to express their thoughts or feelings that's all that matters. Not whether one song is better than the other. Competitions like this motivate you to make new songs. It's a good way to get exposure, comments, and get to know other musicians. The average score was pretty high this round I think. But the judges were probably harsher yes. With this much talent they have to create clarity about who they think is better. Many go a lower mark than they would've in previous rounds, others higher. I'll just keep on making music I want. You do the same. Music stays better that way.
Well you are one of the best in the Top15 of the music artist on newgrounds. Doesn't sound too bad, does it? ;P You did a great job.
Thanks. You know, since Newgrounds is "everything by everyone" I might as well say I'm in the top 15 of the world ;P
I feel you completely, man. The explanation I had for it was that the judging was clearly biased towards a cliche style of writing and maybe even a small community of people who know each other in the audio forum. I wouldn't go as far as claiming that, though. It'd be too wild a claim, especially because I had probably never ever gone into the audio forum before. But the cliche thing and what you said about people just trying to show off are most definitely true.
I was actually going to write a rant about it a while ago, but first I didn't want to because I didn't want some sort of judge grudge (lol) against me, and after I lost, I figured it'd look as me bitching about losing. In the worst case scenario, you're competing for what a certain group of people like the most, but if you think of the bright side, you'll realize that you got pretty far and thus really impressed these people considering they aren't fans of what you like to hear and write. Now imagine how much people who ARE in tune with your preferences would like what you write c:
The judges try to be very objective, so it wouldn't be nice to accuse them of being biased. Music is so subjective though, there must be biases of sorts. I was accused of making thin mixes. Maybe it's true. Personally I think my music sounds better, than many of the loud ones. You just have to turn up the volume. But when you have to judge up to 64 songs you don't turn the volume up and down all the time so the loud compressed songs sound better than the quiet neutral ones. I think it's that kind of bias you'll always keep.
Ranting will most likely turn against you. Even if you have good points. I didn't mean this to come off as a rant. The people who are still in are pretty good and they deserved their victories. I'm happy to have gotten this far. I've taken part in many competitions over the past year, and they made me think. Creating a song for a competition is quite a different experience, than creating something you feel like. It's less about expressing yourself. More about impressing the judges, and showing off what you can do. That should be said.
The upside of competitions is they're nice opportunities to get to know some new musicians and to let others hear my music. During competitions I always get the most new fans. Hopefully some who are in tune with what I make.
You make good points, and I felt obliged to respond to what you're saying because I try my best to make sure competitors get a good experience from the competition so I get bummed when I see people who are disappointed it.
I see what you mean about the competition forcing people to make a standout track with huge amounts of effort and demanding a lot of attention. I'm not going to try and deny it, because it's true, but I am going to try and defend that reasoning. We as judges cannot do otherwise. We can't judge how well you expressed yourself in a track, or give you bonus points for making a minimal track that's a nice break from all the behemoth tracks in the contest.
We judge how good certain factors in a track are - the composition, instrumentation, structure, transitions, production, and any other things that might impress. Then, we give a score based on how good those things are. It's what any other contest would do.
Don't forget that we're comparing tracks here, so giving a quality track with 1 minute and a half of content a higher score than a track of similar quality that's a full four minutes and has dynamics and mood changes and all that... it wouldn't really make sense or be fair. The latter would simply provide a more fulfilling listening experience. So yeah, I agree with you that making music for contests is going to be different than just making anything you feel like making.
However, I try to make sure that there's as little bias as possible. We have SEVEN judges from all sorts of backgrounds. On top of that, I make sure that the judges give reviews explaining their score. I think it's a lot fairer than just leaving people who lost in the dark about why they lost and what they could've done to improve their chances.
So yeah, I really don't think I can do much more than that to remove bias and improve the judging system. Just as another testament that we don't have bias towards certain genres or groups of people, take a look at the four winners of previous NGADMs: Blackhole12, Buoy, ProudAardvark and Kor-Rune. All different genres; Techno, Ambient/Jazz, Orchestral, and Metal. Some (Kor-Rune and ProudAardvark) weren't even that well-known in the forums or among the judges, and ended up winning.
Anyway, if you have any points the contest can improve on, I'd love to hear them. Also, thanks once again for the ranking list!
Thanks for your input. I agree with the points you make.
The problems I have regarding to competitions are personal. Not everybody has them. They have been building up gradually because 90% of the songs I made the last 8 months are for competitions. The only songs that do well are those with a "wow" factor, and I just can't get myself to make those kinds of songs all the time. I might need a break from competitions for a while. Or I'll have to handle things differently next persiod. I need to think about it.
Thanks for hosting the competition. I don't see how you could've done a better job. Don't worry about what you can't change. Good luck with the rest of the competition.
stunkel
You did great man!
SourJovis
Thanks! Glad you think so!