General Art The Music Community Competition: Week 1

[David]

Well, we had a few people have sent in their entries to the first ever Music Community Competition. So, that concludes the entry phase. Please listen to these entries, vote for your favorite, and give some constructive criticism to better their work. The general theme was "The Legend of Zelda." I wanted to keep the first one fairly simple, so a general subject was good.

Hero of Music's Entry - A Medley of 3 of the Themes from The Legend of Zelda
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTFbWoZ3p64
(This is not live music. It is essentially a really good quality MIDI file that I made)

Mandym287's Entry - A Guitar Hero Version of the Molgera Battle Music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wnjrx3Ki3XE
(Her mic and camera quality were pretty bad, so don't comment on that. Comment on the actual music itself)

MikauIncarnate's Entry - A Combination of the Underworld Theme and Bach's Fugue in C minor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fjvj6qgoEg
(Another MIDI file to video conversion.)

So, that's all of this week's entries. Thanks to those that participated. Our next subject is:
Ocarina of Time Music
Create a rendition of your favorite music from Ocarina of Time.
Entries are due:
January 8, 2011 at 11:59 in your current timezone
Please enter and I'm excited to see next weeks entries.

 

[Hero of Time]

To start off with, I would like to note that all 3 entries were great and that my comments are to help you improve and not to discourage you in anyway.

Hero of Music - I thought the way that you mixed the songs together flowed very well. The instruments came together to present the song in a way that sounded like it would belong right in a Zelda game.

Mandym287 - As a huge fan of Guitar Hero, I'd like to say that creating a song that sounds like the original is very difficult and you nailed it with little mistake.

MikauIncarnate - I liked how you mixed a Zelda song with a song that doesn't sound like Zelda at all and made it sound good. However, it seemed a little too non-Zelda.

Overall, all 3 entries were great, but I'm going to give a slight edge to mandym287 and vote for her.

 

[TheGreen]

All three pieces are really pretty cool. I like that there are a variety of mediums presented.

Hero of Music:
You are a wizard. I have no clue how you blended those songs together but they sound great. You've put the original works on a pedestal, but still you've created something original.

Mandy:
It looks like this took a lot of effort and that earns brownie points with me. I really like the medium and I think you should continue to explore what you can do with it. Audio was a bit quiet, tho.

MikauIncarnate:
I really like this mash-up. Classical music is more accessible to me. I really do like this piece, but I'm not a huge fan of the computer piano (did you use Finale?). It is well done though and I appreciate it's originality.

I went with Hero of Music because it's skillful, a finished product, and enjoyable to listen to.

 

[Meego]

Wow, I really am torn between Mandy and HoM but I think HoM's was just that bit better, a great merge of music there, I really liked it and I had to listen to it about 5 times because it was so good! Well done.

 

[Nicole]

I'd like to make a suggestion. In the future, you let the entries remain anonymous, such as "Piece 1, Piece 2, etc." People have a tendency to vote for their friends, and that would make it totally fair for all.

 

[MikauIncarnate]

HoM- I liked yours a lot because it sounded somewhat like an orchestra. I also really liked the orchestration and the way the songs blended into eachother
Mandy- I never knew that that was possible with guitar hero. That's really cool and it fits the song well.
Me-Wow. I did't realize how short mine really was until I actually listened to it.

It was a close call between HoM's and Mandy's but I ended up voting for HoM because it had more variety of (Midi) instruments.

HoM- I liked yours a lot because it sounded somewhat like an orchestra. I also really liked the orchestration and the way the songs blended into eachother
Mandy- I never knew that that was possible with guitar hero. That's really cool and it fits the song well.
Me-Wow. I did't realize how short mine really was until I actually listened to it.

It was a close call between HoM's and Mandy's but I ended up voting for HoM because it had more variety of (Midi) instruments.

 

[Zelda's_Child]

Wow, they're all so good! I love them all. I'm going to go with Mandy's, because I love the molgera music and I was stunned as to how you did it so well!

Quick question, are we allowed to sing for this?

 

[David]

Wow, they're all so good! I love them all. I'm going to go with Mandy's, because I love the molgera music and I was stunned as to how you did it so well!

Quick question, are we allowed to sing for this?

Yes, you are allowed to sing. As long as it follows the subject in some way or another, you may do whatever medium you want.

 

[Ghosi]

HoM: That was a really cool medley that I heard. Mixing up the song just sounded really awesome together.
mandym287: I really liked the way that it was performed on guitar hero. Very creative! It must have been also very hard. I probably wouldn't have fast fingers for the triplets.
Mikau Incarnate: Really nice piano skills! Mixing up a Zelda song with Bach sounded pretty good.

I decided to vote for HoM because I really loved the remix.

I also have a question. For the next competition, does it have to be a remix, or can I just play the song as it was written on an instrument?

 

[Random Person]

HoM- Yours sounded the most official, like it was really suppose to be apart of the Zelda series. Kudos for you, that was really good.

Mandy - Yours won my vote. Believe it or not I've never even played the game that this music occurs on but I thought it was so creative the way you implimented guitar hero.

Mikau - Nothing really to complain about yours, I just didn't know the song and the it wasn't my preference. It's all a matter of preference here.

 

[MikauIncarnate]

I also think that posting the entries with no name would be a better idea. That way it's just a little bit more fair.

 

[Ghosi]

I also think that posting the entries with no name would be a better idea. That way it's just a little bit more fair.

I second this motion. Unfortunately, some people vote for popular ZD members on here. It wouldn't be fair for the people who truly did an amazing job on their works. How about if we had a deadline for the voting? After the deadline, the names could be revealed and winners will be announced. Does that sound like a good idea/solution? :/

 

[David]

I'd like to make a suggestion. In the future, you let the entries remain anonymous, such as "Piece 1, Piece 2, etc." People have a tendency to vote for their friends, and that would make it totally fair for all.

I also think that posting the entries with no name would be a better idea. That way it's just a little bit more fair.

I second this motion. Unfortunately, some people vote for popular ZD members on here. It wouldn't be fair for the people who truly did an amazing job on their works. How about if we had a deadline for the voting? After the deadline, the names could be revealed and winners will be announced. Does that sound like a good idea/solution? :/

I would like to do the Anonymous entries until the verdict is reached, but seeing as how they are all posted on youtube, the username would be shown there. It would probably be different, but most names would be quite similar. If the people are willing, I'll have to get the people to either send me an email, or upload the file to some file sharing site and then upload them to youtube myself. This solution could work, but I don't just want to post my user name where everyone can see me. I got it! If you have an entry, or are very interested, send me a PM stating that you'd like to participate. I will then respond with my email address and you can just send me the video/audio file from there. I know how to upload audio to youtube easily, and then they will all have the same user name. I think that its a good solution.

And as for the time frame, I was going to put one into affect, but I wasn't sure how long to do it. Should I end it on Thursday, or Friday? Post your input please, if you have posted some criticism first.

I also have a question. For the next competition, does it have to be a remix, or can I just play the song as it was written on an instrument?

To answer your question, it doesn't have to be a remix. You can play the original composition as written on any instrument you choose. Thanks for asking.

 

[Aurelia]

All of them were great, I liked them all. Hero of Music's entry I liked the most, probably because I actually knew the theme song.
The other's were great, but, Hero of Music's was just better in my opinion.

 

[David]

Well folks... That concludes our voting stage.

Congratulations to Hero of Music (edited*) for winning this week's MCC!

Please, remember that all entries are due on the
8th of January

Again, the theme is:
Ocarina of Time

Also... I have some very exciting news. I discussed it with the staff of the site, and they have agreed to feature the winners of the GCC, RDC, and MCC each month on the news page! This includes the winner of each and every week of the month. So, we now officially have a prize for the winners! Also, they've agreed to sticky each of the threads so that people can see them when they go to the fan works page.

So, now that we have a prize, and a lot of people interested, please, send in your entries to me by the 8th. You can either shoot me a PM for me to give you my email address so that I can upload the file to YouTube myself, or you can upload it yourself, then I'll download it and upload it to my own account to keep the entries anonymous. All of the videos that I post will be private videos so that the originals can get search traffic, if you wish. So, thanks for your interest, and thanks to those that entered this weeks! I look forward to all future submissions, and don't be embarrassed about your entry. If you don't win, you can improve and try again next time.

*EDIT: It appears that some more people voted... I gained two votes since the last time I looked at the results. It looks like I won.