One Synth Challenge #196: Primer 2 (Taron Wins!)

[Taron]

Well, my response was regarding whassup being "baffled" by the results. I offer an explanation for how it comes that people show appreciation across genres, even if they would not listen to tracks they've given a high rating.
My explanation is based on how I interpret the concept of a ONE SYNTH CHALLENGE and not a TECHNO CHALLENGE or a COUNTRY CHALLENGE or what-have-you.
I do not make rules nor would I ever, as I believe they are evidence for the dysfunction of our world as a whole. In any ideal world we'd find harmony based on harmonic understanding of common goals and goals we can appreciate or that don't interfere with each other in detrimental ways.
I do, however, make suggestions and offer my interpretations. I hope they are allowed as well and may even find some respect, despite any disagreement.
SO, yeah, do what thou wilt, naturally, but offer me the same favour, please.

[silverpants]

Me being a muppet

[silverpants]

Me being a Muppet 2

[silverpants]

Well, my response was regarding whassup being "baffled" by the results. I offer an explanation for how it comes that people show appreciation across genres, even if they would not listen to tracks they've given a high rating.
My explanation is based on how I interpret the concept of a ONE SYNTH CHALLENGE and not a TECHNO CHALLENGE or a COUNTRY CHALLENGE or what-have-you.
I do not make rules nor would I ever, as I believe they are evidence for the dysfunction of our world as a whole. In any ideal world we'd find harmony based on harmonic understanding of common goals and goals we can appreciate or that don't interfere with each other in detrimental ways.
I do, however, make suggestions and offer my interpretations. I hope they are allowed as well and may even find some respect, despite any disagreement.
SO, yeah, do what thou wilt, naturally, but offer me the same favour, please.

I think we all welcome your suggestions and interpretations. Especially since you are such a skilled musician and have been playing OSC for so long. What you suggested could be good advice for many people. I'm not arguing with that.

My only point is your tone of voice. Maybe it's just grammar/semantics - but you make statements as if they are concrete fact. Like you are quoting written guidelines. Example:

"You don't "vote" for your favourite track, but you "rate" the quality of the result."

The tone of this sounds like a clear instruction. I worry that this could mislead newcomers.
I expect it is by accident - because you are clear from your second message that it is just your suggested way of voting. But that is not clear from your original message. They sound like statements of fact.

[Taron]

Well, my response was regarding whassup being "baffled" by the results. I offer an explanation for how it comes that people show appreciation across genres, even if they would not listen to tracks they've given a high rating.
My explanation is based on how I interpret the concept of a ONE SYNTH CHALLENGE and not a TECHNO CHALLENGE or a COUNTRY CHALLENGE or what-have-you.
I do not make rules nor would I ever, as I believe they are evidence for the dysfunction of our world as a whole. In any ideal world we'd find harmony based on harmonic understanding of common goals and goals we can appreciate or that don't interfere with each other in detrimental ways.
I do, however, make suggestions and offer my interpretations. I hope they are allowed as well and may even find some respect, despite any disagreement.
SO, yeah, do what thou wilt, naturally, but offer me the same favour, please.

I think we all welcome your suggestions and interpretations. Especially since you are such a skilled musician and have been playing OSC for so long. What you suggested could be good advice for many people. I'm not arguing with that.

My only point is your tone of voice. Maybe it's just grammar/semantics - but you make statements as if they are concrete fact. Like you are quoting written guidelines. Example:

"You don't "vote" for your favourite track, but you "rate" the quality of the result."

The tone of this sounds like a clear instruction. I worry that this could mislead newcomers.
I expect it is by accident - because you are clear from your second message that it is just your suggested way of voting. But that is not clear from your original message. They sound like statements of fact.

That's just my boundless passion speaking. (me) (also me)
I believe the only possible path for us to ever find any higher common understanding anywhere is by exchange of ideas and ideals. If we at least try to explain our understanding, if it was for the sake of more than oneself, so to say, we offer a puzzle piece.

We are musicians not only from all walks of life, but also from all genres imaginable, I think, at least potentially. What brings us together is the synth and the excitement to try our hands on whatever synth is put into play.
I liken this to a knife challenge for restaurants, like they all are given one specific kind of knife and show what they can do with it. One is a steakhouse, the other a vegan place and a sushi restaurant. If the sushi chef, an up and coming master, makes the most stunningly precise arrangements with fascinating cuts and flawless choices and the would-be-judge just hates sushi and goes: Yeah, the sushi dude wasn't good, but the steakhouse rocked.
...knife's suddenly stopped being criteria, nor did the quality of the achievement.

So, yeah, that's just something that always kinda troubles me a little. And I mean, why on earth would I complain? Maybe because of some of the stunning music I hear and find buried down the list, because it didn't hit a popular enough taste. Maybe because I worry that my idealism in that regard ends up being merely naive and of no consequence except possible 4 points difference for musicians I would love to know they understand how valuable their music is and how appreciated.
Or maybe I'm eerily self-righteous to a degree that I can't figure out my own over-extension into aspired sainthood? ....maybe it's that after all!

[liqih]

OSC is not about music tastes, but about the quality of use for a given synth! You don't "vote" for your favourite track, but you "rate" the quality of the result. How well was this synth used in terms of level of control, spectrum of sound (variety) and power of purpose. How fascinating or impactful was the creation. How good does it make the synth "look", I think. And only after all this should come your taste. When you don't like the music, but the above criteria are not in doubt, you don't rate the result low! Remind yourself: This is about the synth!

My respected friend, I disagree on that. My perception through the years at OSC is that "your favourite track" bias makes 90% of the scores. I learned to accept that. As matter of fact is quite easy to predict who will be in the top five once you know the people involved each month. Ciao with love.

[Touch The Universe]

Congrats Taron

[liqih]

Some people try to be objective. Some subjective. Both are equally within the voting guidelines. My opinion is that we could all be subjective - and the average result may approach a mythical objective score. Therefore i take a subjective approach and I don't mind that other people do too. But that is just my opinion.

May I chime in? I mostly agree with you SP, even more strictly I'd say :
"Some people try to be objective", but music is not objective by its own artistc nature, especially when we are spanning the world like here.
One of the beauty of OSC is for me the broad range of differences.

[whassup]

To me one of the strange while interesting things is the vague, the uncertain of such a thing as this OSC.
To interact with people that I mostly don't know and that make such vastly differently music.
For myself I have mostly no answers to many questions that I have about this.
So there is a lot of vulnerability involved for me.
Music is a matter of the heart.
I never clicked with anything remotely "music industry".
I always hated that. Elevator music? Advertisement music? Chuckle!
Film music is interesting. But all the industry is not what I am fond of.
I worked in the music software industry for several years.
That was enough "industry" for me.
Lotsa extremely cool people in this field. For sure.
My hope for this OSC thing is that I can get some answers to some of my questions that I have and to have interesting and hopefully more positive interactions because OSC seems to be a thing that rather unites than divides.

Having said all that:
Please! All HAVE your opinions and point of views and all that.
I have mine.
And sure we all can express them here.
I would like to avoid situations as in certain "vs" threads here on KvR which would rather drift me away from the idea of participating in the future.
What I mean is that nobody has to agree with me or change their mind because I say something with whatever authority. Chill.
I am really positively surprised of all the interesting and insightful and thoughtful comments I got for my tracks.
So I have no hard feelings for any of you.
All a bunch of cool, interesting individuals.

[Taron]

To me one of the strange while interesting things is the vague, the uncertain of such a thing as this OSC.
To interact with people that I mostly don't know and that make such vastly differently music.
For myself I have mostly no answers to many questions that I have about this.
So there is a lot of vulnerability involved for me.
Music is a matter of the heart.
I never clicked with anything remotely "music industry".
I always hated that. Elevator music? Advertisement music? Chuckle!
Film music is interesting. But all the industry is not what I am fond of.
I worked in the music software industry for several years.
That was enough "industry" for me.
Lotsa extremely cool people in this field. For sure.
My hope for this OSC thing is that I can get some answers to some of my questions that I have and to have interesting and hopefully more positive interactions because OSC seems to be a thing that rather unites than divides.

Having said all that:
Please! All HAVE your opinions and point of views and all that.
I have mine.
And sure we all can express them here.
I would like to avoid situations as in certain "vs" threads here on KvR which would rather drift me away from the idea of participating in the future.
What I mean is that nobody has to agree with me or change their mind because I say something with whatever authority. Chill.
I am really positively surprised of all the interesting and insightful and thoughtful comments I got for my tracks.
So I have no hard feelings for any of you.
All a bunch of cool, interesting individuals.

Definitely a really pleasant read and good attitude!
I have to tell you, there was a time when I started joining the OSC, where all the discussions kind of escaped me totally, like I didn't feel that there was any kind of wrestling of opinions. But that may have just been my own ignorance.
At that time I felt like we as happy hobby musicians really just sort of pushed each other up, giving tips, playing around and overall sort of just focused on music and technique/technology itself with little to no weight on behavioural concerns, I think. At least it felt to me that way. A kind of innocence that I dearly love.
I personally always also just really loved (still do) showing off what amazing stuff can be done with a synth. Such serious passion to create surprising sounds and tailor a track around what a synth can offer.
Nowadays it almost kind of annoys me that the music pushes into the foreground so much, because it feels like the synth then gets seen as merely a handicap rather than celebrated for what can be squeezed out of it. Don't know...just sorta bothers me, because if it was about music, there are plenty of other challenges out there, which have that as a highlight, if it had to be in a "challenge" to begin with.
So, yeah, to me the OSC will always be about encountering synths I never knew or revisiting those I wouldn't dive into so deeply if it wasn't for making a whole track with it alone. It's a reason to have fun and explore.
The extra bonus is the contact and interaction with their developers, participating in the evolution of those synths and all these things. Totally priceless fun to me!
I hope to one day have a new synth to share with the gang here, too, because I'm mildly exploding with ideas for a while now, but yeah...
...so yeah, it's just a whole lot more than "just music" that excites me about the OSC and the road it paves for making music itself.
...too much?! ARghhh...

[z.prime]

Now that we've got the voting discussions in full swing again... was there a decision on a random participant getting one of the Audible Genius courses? If not, is it kosher if I picked one of them and donated to a random participant outside of the top 5?

[NeuKatalYst]

Not until/unless Viroo picks their prize, no?

[RichardSemper]

Now that we've got the voting discussions in full swing again... was there a decision on a random participant getting one of the Audible Genius courses? If not, is it kosher if I picked one of them and donated to a random participant outside of the top 5?

From the results announcement post:

SPECIAL NOTE: About this Month's prize of "Syntorial & Building Blocks full course bundle - for two winners" - If not selected by our top five winners these will be awarded by lottery amongst the remaining participants.

[z.prime]

I should read things! In that case I'll skip a prize this round when it's my turn!

[RichardSemper]

Now that we've got the voting discussions in full swing again... was there a decision on a random participant getting one of the Audible Genius courses? If not, is it kosher if I picked one of them and donated to a random participant outside of the top 5?

Something I love about the OSC is this selfless and generous attitude among so many of our participants.