One Synth Challenge #187: ExtraBold by Nakst (Jasinski Wins!)

[ZioMau]

I am a first time voter and I would like to cast some fair votes. Are you guys using some unwritten criterias or does each person have his/hers own system or is it just "My ears like this more than that"?

It's a friendly and funny contest. Vote (and comment tracks) in the way you want. Unwritten criterias don't exist. Everybody has personal musical criterias and priority(composition, experimentation, sound designing, production, mixing/mastering, ....) but always votes with fairness.

Ciaooo

[silverpants]

I am a first time voter and I would like to cast some fair votes. Are you guys using some unwritten criterias or does each person have his/hers own system or is it just "My ears like this more than that"?

There are many long discussions about how people vote, but there is no set way. When Zio says vote with fairness - he means your scores should be correlated with some personal judge of merit.

What we want to avoid is political/strategic voting. If I was an unscrupulous person, and I thought Zio was my biggest blocker to getting to No1, then I would vote him 1, regardless of my opinion of his track. We have seen voting blocks and suspicious behaviour sometimes here. But it's quite rare - fortunately.

Also - while you free to do so, giving most people a 1 as default won't endear you to people 1s are usually reserved for a track you really dislike or there is a clear production error. Some people never give 1s (only for themselves of course).

Last round everyone's median score they gave was either a 3 or 4.
If you give most entries a 3 or 4, and reserve 2 and 5 for exceptional good/bad, you won't ruffle any feathers

Some people strive to be as impartial/objective as they can.
Some people go purely on how much their ears enjoy the track.
I don't think there is any right/wrong there.
I personally vote subjectively. And I think if everyone does that - an objective score will emerge from the crowd.

[neverbeeninariot]

I am a first time voter and I would like to cast some fair votes. Are you guys using some unwritten criterias or does each person have his/hers own system or is it just "My ears like this more than that"?

Welcome!

You can vote however you like, there are no rules around the casting of votes other than you must give yourself 1 point and you must vote all tracks.

I think entrants would like to think that their songs are given a fair listen, and that you perhaps try not to let genre bias get in the way (yeah, impossible...), and perhaps also take the entrants skill level into consideration (though this can be hard to judge if you're new here).

Most people have some kind of system that they apply to try and be consistent, but whatever goes, really.

As has been noted above, the vote is public and becomes visible after the results are announced - that may or may not affect your decision to give everyone a 1, or a 5

[neverbeeninariot]

okay cool so i am not that crazy

Debatable ...

[robelanator]

I am a first time voter and I would like to cast some fair votes. Are you guys using some unwritten criterias or does each person have his/hers own system or is it just "My ears like this more than that"?

I was wondering the same when I voted for the first time last month. Searching through some of the older OSC threads where voting was discussed, I didn't see any standard practice. There were some people who graded on a curve where only a few 5's were reserved for only the "best" tracks in the current round. Other folks described giving out lots of 5's in rounds where they felt like the field was full of great tracks.

Personally, I ended up voting on a curve where everyone starts with a 3 by default. The top 25% or so of tracks that sounded the most interesting and/or technically accomplished to me moved up to 4's and 5'. 2's were for the small number of tracks that I found uninteresting and/or were produced in a way that made them unpleasant for me to listen to. I don't think I would score anyone with a 1 unless it was clear they didn't put any effort in at all.

Regardless of the scoring system, I think the hardest part of judging someone else's work is balancing my own subjective preferences with a somewhat objective evaluation of how well the concept was executed. For example, if someone submitted a hardcore track I don't know if I'd even be able to tell whether the genre conventions were purposefully and successfully adhered to (or subverted). I just know I probably wouldn't enjoy listening to it.

[seap]

It's a friendly and funny contest. Vote (and comment tracks) in the way you want. Unwritten criterias don't exist. Everybody has personal musical criterias and priority(composition, experimentation, sound designing, production, mixing/mastering, ....) but always votes with fairness.

I will do my best. I have listened to a handful of the previous months and it is not that easy to judge.
Some tracks do very interesting and surprising things with the synth, but overall the track just doesn't sound that good or the mix is flawed.
Other tracks are polished and well produced like any tune you would hear on Spotify, sounds great, but also a lot like 100 other tracks.

I will try to weigh in many different criteria, but in the end the overall "sounding awesome" is going to be number one criteria for me.

[Taron]

I couldn't have a wider smile, haha, everyone jumping on this voting topic.

In the beginning it felt pretty clear that the challenge is paramount, like "how far was a given synth taken in terms of production quality". Personal preferences would account for a lower percentage. Over time things sort of slipped more into the realm of preferences, favours and all manners of reasonings. Unfortunately that included personal grievances and the likes. A bit of kindergarten, so to say.

No idea how things went over the last year that I wasn't around much at all, but it would be great to get back to more objective rating, as it really is most helpful for everybody, even if you didn't like their genre or taste. But they shouldn't have to bend to get encouraged, but to evolve what they love creating. Tough ask, but it's not bad to keep that in mind.

[loord]

I am a first time voter and I would like to cast some fair votes. Are you guys using some unwritten criterias or does each person have his/hers own system or is it just "My ears like this more than that"?

I was wondering the same when I voted for the first time last month. Searching through some of the older OSC threads where voting was discussed, I didn't see any standard practice. There were some people who graded on a curve where only a few 5's were reserved for only the "best" tracks in the current round. Other folks described giving out lots of 5's in rounds where they felt like the field was full of great tracks.

Personally, I ended up voting on a curve where everyone starts with a 3 by default. *********


loord
These suntances impessed me:

***Searching through some of the older OSC threads where voting was discussed, I didn't see any standard practice. There were some people who graded on a curve where only a few 5's were reserved for only the "best" tracks in the current round. Other folks described giving out lots of 5's in rounds where they felt like the field was full of great tracks.

Personally, I ended up voting on a curve where everyone starts with a 3 by default.******

Not only for you is difficult to rate.I offered time ago make two cathegories in these OSC - one for composition,and one for sound.Because some tracks sounds amazing,but composition is bad/according my taste/,but you must rate....and - put somethimes 3,but are others too.5 stars I give only when Composition and Sound.I avoid compromisec espessially with music.I think these rates here are average,they are not show the real rates.But...not discuss about this and you will see much standart practice.

[loord]

loord
I didn'know where to write this - here or in Soundcloud,but may be doesn't meter.I thanks for all comments and advices for Different Deep track.But it has 28 feedbacks,a half of them not negative,but some OSC-ers said:**This I can't listen in headpfones,is too loud...***...?? Why you listen only with headpfones?I

I work only through speakers, my headphones create a feeling of unreal compression of all instruments, so - your feeling will not be the same when you hear the same track through a device, it will not be like with headphones. LFS does not help. If it shows -12 or more, but I don't have enough power /space - I will increase it until it sounds good to me.

[ZioMau]

It's a friendly and funny contest. Vote (and comment tracks) in the way you want. Unwritten criterias don't exist. Everybody has personal musical criterias and priority(composition, experimentation, sound designing, production, mixing/mastering, ....) but always votes with fairness.

I will do my best. I have listened to a handful of the previous months and it is not that easy to judge.
Some tracks do very interesting and surprising things with the synth, but overall the track just doesn't sound that good or the mix is flawed.
Other tracks are polished and well produced like any tune you would hear on Spotify, sounds great, but also a lot like 100 other tracks.

I will try to weigh in many different criteria, but in the end the overall "sounding awesome" is going to be number one criteria for me.

Don't worry too much, vote as you want and stay calm. then maybe over time you change your parameters but you don't have to study it. no one gets offended here. it's a fun game, there are no rich prizes or pharaonic contracts. We're all just here to have fun.

[UYMA]

I thought participating in the contest was enough to vote. I think I have to post 40 messages on the forums. I'm sorry for any inconvenience I'll cause in advance

[seap]

I thought participating in the contest was enough to vote. I think I have to post 40 messages on the forums. I'm sorry for any inconvenience I'll cause in advance

The rules are pretty clear, you just have to participate with a track to qualify for voting: "You are free to vote if you participated in the competition. If you did NOT participate, you may vote, as long as you have more than 40 KVR forum posts prior to the competition start. The only exception is if you are the developer of the Synth (You get one vote max)"

[UYMA]

I participated in the competition, but when I clicked on voting and entered my e-mail address and password, it said that my e-mail address could not be found.

[doctorbob]

My silly question, did you register first before trying to login?

dB

[empphryio]

It just automatically logged me in so I can't recall but I think you need to put in your username when it asks for you email, or vice versa. Or email BJporter, guy who made first post in thread, for help.