One Synth Challenge #159: Surge XT (j5v Wins!)

[Double Tap]

Exactly - the prizes are not very important, it's the listening that matters to me, and the possibility of being on Silverpants's personal playlist is a prize I'd probably prefer to a plugin.

[ElVincente]

Exactly - the prizes are not very important, it's the listening that matters to me, and the possibility of being on Silverpants's personal playlist is a prize I'd probably prefer to a plugin.

Exactly right Imo!
And I'd add what is less hassle for Richard and BJporter to handle will be the best! Thanks for keeping all that running guys!

[doctorbob]

I wholeheartedly agree. The impetus to finish a track each month is what drives me (and thanks to RS and BJ, this challenge affords me this). It's also a lifelong learning experience, getting help and advice from those better placed and more experienced than me. I too would be honoured to make the SP playlist

dB

[diaseis]

I didn't put any thought into statistical analysis of voting, and I don't really mean to, unless someone can show me a good reason to.

I work with music and am fortunate to hear others music all the time, but it's somewhat rare these days that I feel like I'll want to listen to something again. Like, not many songs/artists go into those playlists that I listen to for my own pleasure.

Anything that I feel like could go in such a playlist is going to get at least a 4 from me, I'll give a 5 if I feel like it's truly well developed and finished. That's hard to do with only one synth even if that synth is Surge XT, but there were a few who impressed me!

I'm giving a 3 to anything that sounds good but not fully convincing somehow, and a 2 to anything that's just not really a finished song. I'd rather not give a 1 to anyone that I think actually made an effort, which everyone did. If someone submitted five seconds of a sine wave or something I guess I'd give it a 1.

I put all my 5's into a personal playlist and I listen to them regularly at work on shuffle. It's great instrumental music and it makes me smile. So I suppose in my way of scoring - I only give 5 if I want to listen to it in future for pleasure. A 4 might be well produced/written but does not make the grade for my personal taste.

I also do this, even though I sometimes give 5 points to stuff I know I won't listen later, mainly because I deeply admire and like the work but I couldn't listen to it casually (this is often the case for quality ambiance tracks, which I know I will skip if I'm casually listening to my osc playlist, but still really enjou when I'm in the mood of attentively listening [which is my voting mood ofc])

[IV!]

Judging the songs "on merit" and "pushing your favorites" is the same thing. We vote for the songs we prefer and not for anything else.

Well, not really... my humble opinion is here.

First of all, I am very glad that you listen with your heart and give preference to music in your evaluation! I think this is very important, and I will not hide that sometimes it began to seem to me that most of the OSC participants mainly evaluate the technical perfection of the track.

On the other hand, I think it's also wrong to ignore the pure sound design and mixing/mastering skills in the challenge, the purpose of which is to maximize the capabilities of one synthesizer.

For example, my system is as follows: I rate 1-5 for the technical level of a track (differentially, taking into account the capabilities of the synthesizer and the level of all tracks) and 1-5 for music (according to completely subjective criteria), then I give the track the average of the two ratings. Thus, for example, an earsbleeding dubstep track that I want to turn off after one second, but which is just unrealistically cool made with 1 instance of One Ping Only, will receive from me (1 for music + 5 for technique / 2) 3 points, and in my opinion it will be fair to this participant, who spent much more time and effort on this track than I did!) Also, 2 or 1 in my system will receive only weak and technically and musically tracks. By the way, I don't remember if anyone besides me deserved 1 from me...

This is all just my opinion and I do not urge you to change your criteria, especially since, with a large number of voters, the scores of one really disperse. Everything that I and some other OSCers have written is just information for reflection. Personally, I always go to the rating table and see who gave me how much, but not for the sake of vanity or future revenge) I just want to find out how other participants perceive my music in order to effectively continue searching for a fine line between my vision and the perception of society. So I'm not offended by 2 and 1. But for some here it can really be a terrible assessment (from a terrible person! ), although every real genius should know what it means to be truly misunderstood!

[Rahodees]

Judging the songs "on merit" and "pushing your favorites" is the same thing.

Scoring on merit may lead you to rate one song 5 and another song 4. Pushing your favorite, instead, would lead you to rate the first song 5, and the other song 1. In this way you can see they're not at all the same thing.

With that said, I think the fact that maximizing your favorite's chances requires skewing your other votes downward shows a weakness in the voting system. Ultimately, if everyone is being strategic, the system will devolve to a simple "one vote for my favorite" equivalent.

Of course, it's been mathematically proven that there is no such thing as a perfect voting or scoring system. So rather than redesigning the voting system we may need to just be consistent with a message that scoring on merits is the way to go, pushing your favorites is not, and the idea is for a favorite to _emerge_ from the scoring, not be pushed to the top willfully.

We vote for the songs we prefer and not for anything else.

This is evidently not the case based on the fact that we're using a five tier scoring system. We're in fact not voting. We're _scoring_. But even if you think of it as voting, it is clear that we're supposed to not only vote for the songs we prefer but also vote for some songs to be categorized as less preferred but still good, others as not preferred but not a disaster, and so on.

[emikaela]

I wholeheartedly agree. Even as a simple bystander who never participated, I am full of amazement at how well-devised the rules of the competition are.

you should consider joining us sometime, i'm curious to hear what you would come up with

[EvilDragon]

Wish I had the time and mental energy for it. Maybe some day I will!


Would probably get a bunch of 1s.

[RichardSemper]

Seems an entry has been missed from the voting list. We have now added it to the soundcloud list and voting form.
Sorry to everyone for the delay, I would ask everyone to give it a listen and vote if possible please.
We are extending the deadline to the end of the 19th kvr time. At the end of this any zero votes for the track will be assumed as 3 points.

Here is the track: (originally posted on p13):

https://soundcloud.com/scaradise/abstra ... Partnerize

[jackoo]

you mean it should have been linked here?

snip.png

[RichardSemper]

That was the one. The very next post looks like it was meant as an edit but was a quote, but the track is there as a link. This is why we missed it.

[rilderec]

It would have been a shame to miss this piece, because it is well

[IV!]

Voted for the third time) Great track, Scaradise, the main thing is don't forget to vote yourself!
Eh, wait three more days... disappointment...

[z.prime]

Unprecedented!

(also voteded)

[ELEX]

Re-voted. Considered rectifying any vindictive scoring while I was at it too ! But didn't...
Since there wasn't any to begin with.