One Synth Challenge #73 special: Synthmaster (Jasinski wins!)

[MTLE]

What's with all the negativity and conspiry theories every month when the results are posted? Why enter a competition if you don't like to lose? Very sad...

I think part of it might stem from the "schizophrenic" (or rather bipolar?) nature of the contest and atmosphere in the forum during the contest. Let me explain what I mean.

...

Very nice explaination. Thats exactly what I meant before, but yours is more detailed.

[idfpower]

Congratz to the winners! Well deserved!

And many thanks to the participants that gave my track 5 points - very surprising I'm deeply honoured

Now, for the ppl that feel down about the whole voting issue - here's my 2 cents:

1. OSC is a weird stew: some focus on composition, others on original sound design, or production, and so on. So THERE'S NO WAY to know how well you'd do. EXPECT NOTHING. In fact, aim for the last place and let the other participants vote your track no. 1

2. The votes reflect how ppl see/hear the music. It may be a very logical and analytical approach, or very personal. Might be a well funded vote, or on a whim. They might like your song, or totally hate it. And that's OK. There will always be ppl liking your stuff, and ppl that don't or not even giving a rat's ass about it. It's times to learn that you can't please everyone - get used to it; the sooner, the lesser hurting it feels

3. Now the "nasty" part (not afraid of saying it, heh): THERE IS tactical voting. Some ppl might genuinely "hate" your song, but others might "bomb it" precisely because they feel it has the potential to score big. Remember, as friendly as it is, OSC is still a competition.

Starting from my own experience, I've been through all this: I've made some tracks that I thought were good and got poor results, and there were times when I thought my song was rubbish, and yet ppl liked it and ranked it highly. I got bombed, and at the same time got friendly votes from others My point is: if you hang on stuff like that, it might drive you mad. But if you jump in just to have fun making music and learn a lot in the process, there's no downside to it - even when you get the bottom list Don't take it personally, don't demand/look for explanations, just take things as they are and HAVE FUN!

[BlitBit]

@foxAsteria - I did really like your song, I only gave it a 4 instead of 5 because it was a little long for me.

+1 I also found the track interesting but was wondering why it needs 10 minutes. To me most was said after about three minutes.

[mcaitch]

Congratulations to Jasinski and the other winners!!!

Many thanks for all your comments on soundcloud. I very much enjoyed my first OSC round, and I am already addicted to this contest.

Looking forward to continue composing with DEXED...

[Wyrrdbryyngr]

@foxAsteria - I did really like your song, I only gave it a 4 instead of 5 because it was a little long for me.

no need to explain at all. i would have given myself a 3. i was trying a new method and it came out pretty convoluted. it was originally about an hour long...if i had more time to distance myself before the comp ended i would have removed most of that first half, but i get attached to stuff over time, even if it's not very good. thanks though and i encourage you to keep at it as well. i'm sorry if i rated you too harshly. i hope you will keep trying. you'll only get better!

@bjporter---that voting scale is pretty much exactly how I roll too, but with a +1 or -1 for personal taste and/or originality. i would still really like to see a voting environment more suited to honest criticism (anonymous) than pats on the back. i know i'm repeating myself...

i'm not upset about being rated poorly, just the total lack of criticism. i knew the song was too long, i said so in my description. not much else was said however. i prefer complaints to compliments, actually, i feel they are more honest. but i also know that most don't share that sentiment so i try to focus on the strengths (making me a bit of a hypocrite perhaps).

thanks everyone for your time and attention!! see you all again maybe in the next months...wasn't too excited by dexed.

my picks for the future would be: ATLANTIS or POLY 2106 (< tragically overlooked, imo!)

[Wyrrdbryyngr]

+1 I also found the track interesting but was wondering why it needs 10 minutes. To me most was said after about three minutes.

i agree. i just couldn't let go of enough of it at the time. i thought the second half was way stronger though, i should have ditched the beginning as it wore out the theme before all my favorite parts. thanks though!

[Wyrrdbryyngr]

oopy duply. is there no delete post option?

[bibz1st]

Congrats to all who took part.
Maybe too much emphasis is put on winning, remember the underlying thing about this is the "challenge" to yourself of creating a track with one synth.
Personally, I cant get my own track out of my head, not too bothered if nobody else likes it as long as I do it would be nice if others do but thats a bonus, was just nice actually finishing something. There were a few tracks that I could listen to time and again as well though. they were my 5's
Im not saying dont take it serious but maybe not so serious that it upsets you if it doesnt do quite as well as you think it should.

[fese]

i'm not upset about being rated poorly, just the total lack of criticism. i knew the song was too long, i said so in my description. not much else was said however. i prefer complaints to compliments, actually, i feel they are more honest. but i also know that most don't share that sentiment so i try to focus on the strengths (making me a bit of a hypocrite perhaps).

Well, I remember saying something slightly critical about your track, although maybe in a nice way, I prefer balancing compliments and (hopefully) constructive criticize because I don't want to come off as the stereotypical, nagging, complaining german . But I can fetch the boxing gloves if you prefer next time

Personally, I cant get my own track out of my head, not too bothered if nobody else likes it as long as I do

Yeah, me too, I still like it even if it might not be my masterpiece. Apart from the "one synth" thing I took up an extra self-imposed challenge and i am quite content with the result.

[Mojo42]

Hi all,
I have to be short this time, because I`m working nightshift again and this means I haven`t got much time for chatting at the internet. But of course at least I wish to say:

Congrats to the winners and to everybody who has joined

I will not discuss here the voting in detail (although I also do not agree with each result here) but I can`t complain, because iself didn`t vote. I didn`t vote because this time I don`t needed to vote, because I didn`t enter with song and so I was just a "guest", enjoyed the community spirit, had fun in making a couple of patches and was a pure "music consumer" this time and so had the freedom to enjoy all the relaxed "sunny sides" of the OSC only

In general I don`t like this voting thing, but for the case that I have to, because I am entering with a song then I try to be at least as fair as possible which means: Even if a song is not my taste, I try to be aware of other qualities like arrangement, melody, production, sound and so on and valuate this aspects of the song.

But that is just my way of voting. Different people = different voting behaviour. Some vote according their taste only (very subjective), but this also has to be okay, because this is meant with freedom and democracy that everybody is allowed to have his/her own opinion and also his/her own voting system. The point is that one simply has to be aware of all this and keep this in mind when entering this contest.

If one enters this contest he/she will be judged partially objective and partially subjective and the result of this both complementary voting systems is the final rating. This means: No one can count with a certain outcome, because it is simply incalculable and can be more than surprising. And because it is this way, it would be wise to take this ratings not too much serious and being more focused on the pleasant aspects of OSC which are: Learning, getting much feedback, discussing about music, sharing songs, getting cool inspirations, having fun together with the community (all those freaks here ) and simply having a good time

By the way: Thanks to all who were posting all this great production, mixing and mastering tipps here, this is the reason why one should enter OSC!!! Thanks a lot!!!

You see that my opinion is very close to all what idfpower has said and he is way more experianced in OSC as I am. Better listen to your "brother" idfpower I think this is a very exemplary attitude as well as also Doctorbob never loses his humour and good mood although I could understand if he would. This is a matured attitude we can learn from. Not only for the OSC, but for live in general. Being emotionally a bit more distanced to critique and bad ratings would increase the fun factor of OSC and live in general

Remind me to my own words for the case that I will be somewhen at the bottom

Cheers
Yvonne

[Wyrrdbryyngr]

But I can fetch the boxing gloves if you prefer next time

yes please.

i only wanted to win this time because synthmaster is awesome and i can't afford it...but o well. it is indeed a satisfying challenge nonetheless. i do sometimes wish this chronic "top 5" would give the little guys a chance once in a while. their productions tend to be rather untouchable...

[ballacr75]

Congrants to winners! thanks for your votes! sorry for my votes!
good luck all for the next round!

[ontrackp]

I think the best part of OSC are the comments. This is a very friendly forum and everyone tends to say nice things, which I appreciate, but for the last couple of OSC's I've started adding some more critical comments, and I hope they're taken as constructive.

As far as scoring goes - - it's easy to interpret why someone gives you a 4 or 5. They liked the song! And even though it's good to know why someone likes your work, I would always be more interested to know why I got a 1 or 2 -- what was it about my piece that was perceived as sub-standard?

At the end of the day I think the OSC is about having the opportunity to be creative, which is good for the soul, and everyone who succeeds in completing a piece deserves to be congratulated.

[GrokSynth]

Congratulations everyone (and the winners too)!

This was quite fun for me. I had a great time & loved listening to everyone's tracks.

Now I just need to go back and see if I can rearrange and remix it.

Thank you all

[rp314]

3. Now the "nasty" part (not afraid of saying it, heh): THERE IS tactical voting. Some ppl might genuinely "hate" your song, but others might "bomb it" precisely because they feel it has the potential to score big. Remember, as friendly as it is, OSC is still a competition.

The only real long-term downside to such behavior is that it might tend to drive away some who are very talented and not very thick-skinned in that regard. The idea is generally to try to do well but equally important is to achieve that against the best. Additionally, for some it might be much more fun to have such folks around, forced to listen to, and hopefully comment, on their entry.

That said, it's really not easy to prevent tactical voting, and it's probably not the main reason why one's transcendental work is not always recognized as such by the other participants.