NinSheetMusic Forums

Hi folks! We know it has taken a while, but it wouldn't stay true to the NSM spirit if we got this done overnight, would it? After a lot of back and forth, public suggestions and some periods of hiatus, we got this ready.

The theme of this round is:
Inverse the mood!
A lot of video game songs are grim, dark themes played to illustrate absolute despair or just plain scaryness. The main villain's lair, deserted ruins full of monsters, zombie crypts, the examples are countless.
A lot of other video game songs underline a go-happy atmosphere, where smiling characters frolic under the blue sky and everyone is friends, all is all right and expressing worries would give a guy jail time. Sunshine and happiness is an absolute must, and magical mushrooms aren't uncommon.

But what if it was the other way round? How would it sound like if the undead roamed the happy fields, or the crypts were cleaned, lit and given a new paint job? How would Bowser's Castle sound if Baby Peach inhabited it? What would Route 2 sound like if all the Gastly in Kanto decided to move there? If a game like Left 4 Dead was reworked to be a mood booster for depressed preschoolers, how would that affect the music?
You decide! Your task is to take any video game song, and invert its mood. Make a skippy-beat song dark and gloomy, take a scary theme and turn it into a feel-good song, or anything in between. You may choose whichever instruments you like, but don't go overboard with them - unless you have a really good reason to do so. Also remember, you are to fix, add to and tweak existing songs - not make new ones. If you're a "definition type of guy" you might call this a remixing contest, but that word is hush-hush on here and tends to scare away potential participants.

Your score will be given on the following basis. Each category gives up to 5 points:

Concept and Execution (What does this music say and how do I say it?) Creativity is a key factor here. You don't have to be very good at writing music to get points, as this category rewards good ideas as much as musical talent. If you have a good concept, and manage to pull the idea of without gaping over too much, you will haul in the points on this one. Likewise, a perfectly formatted, fully playable piece with a sensible selection of instruments will suffer if it's plain boring.

Balance and Colour (How does the music overall blend together tonally?) Did you manage to make that jolly song as depressing as a November day without Internet connection? Is the feel of the music right? Have you created an atmosphere the listener would recognise? And does the song still resemble the original enough?

Instrumentation and Tonality (How effectively was my instrument choice?) And do every player contribute enough to the main "picture"? Sure, that bagpipe solo might sound awesome for those fifteen seconds, but then the bagpipe also has to play a part in the rest of the piece. Likewise, if all you hear for 90% of the piece is the piano, and then the 10 other percent are full of other instruments, you get a low score.

Playability and Technique (How hard is this piece? Is it playable?) Have you paid attention to the range of the instruments? Is the score equally challenging to play for all the instruments? If you for instance insist on adding flute arpeggios to a song like Dire Dire Docks, you better give the rest of the ensemble something to work with as well. If you have to hire a world-class professional musician to play the trumpet part, while the other instruments can be covered by a school band, you've done something wrong.

Score presentation (Is the score easy to read? Did I write the music correctly?) If you follow the NSM formatting guidelines, these will be five simple points to get.


You sign up for the round by handing in a finished product. No need to state in the forum that you enter/abstain, as it won't have anything to say if you don't hand in anyway.

After the judges have had their say, we'll make a poll so YOU can vote as well.

The winner of the judge's voting will get to choose a prize: Either a copy of Minecraft or a (one) chosen Steam game costing less than â,¬15 (£13, $20). We'll also see if we can make a small signature banner documenting the achievment of the winners for everyone to see for all eternity.

The accepted format is .mus. There are entire topics on this forum dedicated to the people who can't make a .mus file on their own. If you're one of them, check them out.
 
You submit by uploading the piece to an external site and posting the link here. If you've submitted arrangements to the site before, this shouldn't be new to you. If you haven't, head over to the Submission sub-forum to see how others do it. The judges will follow this thread closely, and a list of submissions will be edited to this post. Also, we kindly ask participants to post a link to the original piece along with their submission. Failure to do so (within the time limit, that is) will affect your score, be warned.

Submissions will be accepted from now on until midnight on October 31, 2011 (yes, Halloween itself). The judges will also be able to participate, but won't have anything to say on the scoring of their own piece (or was that score, seeing as "scoring" could refer to the sheet itself? Anyway, the jurors may be in play, but won't judge themselves).

Feel free to ask questions.

Now, have fun!

Submissions:

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Dahans' piece (http://www.mediafire.com/?3bei53ogljvi731), based off Pokémon R/B/Y - Lavender Town (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNJJ-QkZ8cM)

SlowPokemon's piece (http://www.mediafire.com/?d46uz6isjtvygma), based off Pokémon B/W - Route 4 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfWSZra_hRM)

Olimar123's "Dissonance in the Lost Woods" (http://www.mediafire.com/?tz92cwlmnpb9jz6), based off The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Lost Woods (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIyaVwrDro4)

Yay, it's finally up! NOW MAKE SOME SUBMISSIONS SO THAT I CAN JUDGE!!! ;)

Awesome, I'll start tonight!

Is there a length minimum or maximum? And can we take a neutral piece (say Prelude from Final Fantasy for example) and take it either direction?

^No minimum, but I think a total of three minutes would be a sufficient maximum, not counting eventual "eternal" loops (for example, a song can have a ten second intro, a 2:40 long part that can be repeated infinitely, and a ten second ending). If several people find this too hard to go within, we might stretch it. Feedback, guys, feedback!

Also, yes. Dragging a neutral piece in either (or both, if you so please!) directions falls within the "or anything in between" category (I should have clarified that a little better). By the way, making a neutral piece more neutral would too, by definition, but that would require some extraordinary creativity to get a good rating.

Cool dealz. And finally, are we judged by the color the midi produces or the color the piece would produce?

If we want to have, say, a flute section, but want multiple tones for the flute, do we need to include two/three flute parts to make it realistic, or can we just write out the full chord on one staff? The midi accepts that and it's much simpler. :P

Hmm, for this I say yes, put them all in one line, but you need to be consistent. If a majority of the piece uses two flutes at max, then two measures have three, then you will lose some points for instrumentation. If it is unison for most of the piece, and splits occasionally, then indicate to split with a divisi marking.

This is my personal preference, but indicate the number of players for each part in the part name: Flutes 1-2; Oboe; Clarinets in B-flat 1-2, etc.
If you cannot do this, then provide a scoring list when you submit your arrangement following the same format.

I think I'll just include multiple of the instrument, it's probably better that way.

Also... it would appear I only am using four instruments (excluding those multiple parts)... is this bad...?

If it works for what you are trying to do, it shouldn't matter how many instruments you use.

That is awesome. Also can we arrange stuff that's not from video games? Like stuff from movies/TV Shows etc.?

^The answer to that is bolded in the firs post. I guess you could, though, but that would yield zero points as it falls outside the specifications of the contest.

Quote from: Cobraroll on October 10, 2011, 09:25:18 AMAlso remember, you are to fix, add to and tweak existing songs - not make new ones. If you're a "definition type of guy" you might call this a remixing contest, but that word is hush-hush on here and tends to scare away potential participants.

Oh shit I just read this-Is it okay if I just use the motive of a song?

I didn't make mine note-for-note identical with only a small amount of change. For one thing, I'm not having it repeat endlessly, I wrote my own ending. I don't really care if I get marked down for that... I'm not having it be identical.

I literally just took the melody. thats it. is that kewl?

I have a question; are we allowed to show our arrangement to others for critique before submission?

I'd imagine that wouldn't be a bad idea or something anyone would go against.

Quote from: Olimar12345 on October 11, 2011, 06:21:40 PMI literally just took the melody. thats it. is that kewl?

Literally, JUST the motive. WE kewl? Yes? No?

The melody is essential to knowing what the original was and being able to establish that connection. A motif is much harder to do so because it's much shorter than most melodic material and can be taken from multiple sources (ike if it is the ground work for a couple of themes from the same game.) My answer would be reworking to melody alone is perfectly fine, but just one motif from a greater theme is not nearly enough to establish the original and understand what exactly you changed.

Whatever-I'm doing a short song anyway(the original song being 32 seconds long), so I dont think it's that big of a deal.

Hey are we still doing this? 'Cause I just finished my piece...

Yup, the contest is still running!

Perhaps we should have sign-ups next time. At least we can get an estimate of how many contestants there are going to be...
Looks like there will be little competition for the prize this time. The judges are happy, at least.

Kind of off-topic, but has the description for the music thread always been just a "?" ?  lol.

Wat we could've been submitting this whole time? Mine's been done for like two weeks.

Alright... here it is! If you call me crazy, I can understand that.

http://www.mediafire.com/?3bei53ogljvi731

:D

Wow. Talk about inverting the mood! It sounds like it belongs in Kirby's Epic Yarn! (This is coming from a judge!)
Unfortunately, not very playable when it comes to piano. Can you adjust that?

No he can not, if he submitted it then that version is final.

I think it's playable! I have seen much more difficult pieces ;).

Quote from: dahans on October 28, 2011, 04:35:55 PMAlright... here it is! If you call me crazy, I can understand that.

http://www.mediafire.com/?3bei53ogljvi731

:D

My arrangement is based on the following song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNJJ-QkZ8cM
Lavender town- Pokemon R/B

Anyway, could you edit your submission post with a link to the original song? The one you used as a basis for your arrangement? Thanks in advance!

Inverse: http://www.mediafire.com/?d46uz6isjtvygma

Original: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfWSZra_hRM

Contrast to what they did, I wrote a clarinet quartet. I call it, "Dissonance in the Lost Woods" (http://www.mediafire.com/?tz92cwlmnpb9jz6) (oh, and finale plays it a whole step higher than it will actually sound, just ignore that, lol.)

original- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIyaVwrDro4 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIyaVwrDro4)

So you...didnt switch it to concert pitch before entering in notes... -_- why wouldn't you with a Bb instrument...

In a larger ensamble setting I wouldn't pay the transposition much attention, but since it was only Bb instruments I turned it off all together; Its a nice little trick, really. Basically I wrote it all in C. This means I can talk to the performers without having to translate through concert pitch. It also makes managing accidentals and sheet music layout much easier. The only downside? It'll sound a whole step lower when actually played. Do I care? Nope. Therefore, No downside.  :P

Except that the person judging you cant hear it properly...and i meant when i write for Bb i change to concert pitch then change back when I'm finished.

OMG your not going to care if it is just a second off-once you start it(transposed or not) you'll forget all about it in a matter of seconds.

And that concert pitch tool? I'd try to avoid it. Like I said, I like to be familiar with the music I'm giving to my performers beforehand.

Quote from: Olimar12345 on October 30, 2011, 09:29:10 PMOMG your not going to care if it is just a second off-once you start it(transposed or not) you'll forget all about it in a matter of seconds.

I can just imagine you saying that face-to-face, Olimar. ^^

Quote from: Olimar12345 on October 30, 2011, 09:29:10 PMOMG your not going to care if it is just a second off-once you start it(transposed or not) you'll forget all about it in a matter of seconds.

And that concert pitch tool? I'd try to avoid it. Like I said, I like to be familiar with the music I'm giving to my performers beforehand.

Well, duh. No need to get angry, man. :) and I didnt know a tool existed...i always just check/uncheck where it says Display in concert pitch.

Wow, I didn't realize how angry that post sounds! Lol. And its a switch like you said, I was just refering to it AS a tool.

Quote from: Olimar12345 on October 30, 2011, 09:29:10 PMOMG your not going to care if it is just a second off-once you start it(transposed or not) you'll forget all about it in a matter of seconds.

And he's right. I don't really care that it's a step higher. For me, it doesn't change the feel at all. Considering I'm hearing beforehand this way, if I were to make it a step lower, it wouldn't sound right to me.

Quote from: Olimar12345 on October 30, 2011, 04:05:22 PMContrast to what they did, I wrote a clarinet quartet. I call it, "Dissonance in the Lost Woods" (http://www.mediafire.com/?tz92cwlmnpb9jz6) (oh, and finale plays it a whole step higher than it will actually sound, just ignore that, lol.)

original- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIyaVwrDro4 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIyaVwrDro4)

Not judging right now, but...how often did you use the actual melody? It's just...kinda grating on my ears.

Quote from: Dudeman on October 31, 2011, 05:24:57 PMNot judging right now, but...how often did you use the actual melody? It's just...kinda grating on my ears.

Quite often.

Quote from: Dudeman on October 31, 2011, 05:24:57 PMNot judging right now, but...how often did you use the actual melody? It's just...kinda grating on my ears.

Yeah, its always playing somewhere. sometimes you have to look really close to see it if you don't catch it the first time.  ;)
(there's a section in the bass where I literally just took the motive and did inversions and retrogrades to create its line)

Okay, peeps, unless this thread explodes with screaming protests, submissions are now closed.

Everybody applaud our whooping number of three entrants. Judging will start any week now. Stay tuned for the results!

Quote from: Cobraroll on November 01, 2011, 09:44:33 AMwhooping

Whoops. :P

Sooo...It's been 2 weeks....how's it goin?

Again, we're doing this in the NSM pace. Don't worry, it will be done some day soon.

To tell the truth, it's been kinda forgotten under schoolwork and other stuff. I'll PM the other jurors now and see if we can get this over with as fast as we can.

Don't worry, there will still be a prize to be won.

Just as a reminder to the judges (only got one set of votes in so far), and to everybody else around here, I created a poll so everyone can vote on their favourite.

Have your say, folks!

Should the participants vote? XD

The voting is open for everyone.

That includes the participants and the jurors (hint, hint!).

Okay, the old year is over, and that also concludes the voting period for the arrangement contest.

The competition was a tough one, with three very good pieces competing for the title. For those of you who don't remember, the theme for the contest was "Inverse the mood!"

Dahans submitted a variation on the Lavender Town theme from Pokémon R/B/Y. The usually quiet, eerie and sad theme was turned into a wacky joyful song, bringing to mind images of a fun fair or festival. Lavender Town is a seaside town after all, and it has many large piers nearby. Sure one of them could fit a carnival?

SlowPokemon did a take on the usually cheery theme from Unova's Route 4, from Pokémon Black/White. This theme is usually a fanfare-like song accompanying the hopeful young trainer through the deserts of central Unova, but SlowPokemon twisted it into a theme of mischief. Is that a villainous theme plotting against the authorities, or just nocturnal Pokémon playing tricks on bypassers? Either way, you better watch out for something on Route 4 tonight.

Olimar123 used by far the fewest instruments, and he was the only one to name his piece. "Dissonance in the Lost Woods" leaves no doubt on which part of LoZ: Ocarina of Time this theme was taken from. While this is usually an upbeat, rather happy song, in the hands of Olimar123 it just turns... creepy. A wanderer has walked too far into the woods, and trying to find a way out isn't as easy as he thought it would be. Also, is that something moving in the shadows? Have I been here before? Did that tree just... what is that sound? This theme cleverly portrays the rising panic as the forest itself seems to play tricks with your mind, and the exit just feels further and further away, no matter where you go. How did it all end, you ask? The theme answers: "Only one way to find out! Want to go looking for him?"


Only one of the judges sent in a full review (let's hear a round of applause for Dudeman!), but thanks to all of you who participated in the poll, we were able to find a worthy winner. Both Dudeman and the poll concluded the same, and I'm proud to annouce that the winner of our first arrangement contest is:

*drumroll*

Dahans!

Contact me to claim your prize, Dahans.

And that concludes our first arrangement contest! Time will tell if we make another one. It is also greatly depended on your feedback.

Applause for the participants! Tomatoes for the judges!

ha thats great! Thanks a lot. Id really like to know the prize^^.

Congratulations, Dahans!

Congrats, Big D!

Cobra, I'm interested to see Dudeman's review of everyone's! Possibly published...? :P

Quoted in its entirety:

Quote from: Dudeman on November 18, 2011, 05:17:20 PMLavender Town (by Dahans)

Concept and Execution: 5/5 (Absolutely amazing, interesting at every turn, great use of melody)
Balance and Color: 5/5 (Mood completely reversed, melody still used in a recognizable way)
Instrumentation and Tonality: 4.5/5 (Great orchestrated sound and completely appropriate, 1/2 point off for the somewhat awkward                                                           and random piano solo from measures 26-39)
Playability and Technique: 4/5 (Piece is not too difficult, but the piano solo is questionable)
Score Presentation: 4.5/5 (Format is correct; 1/2 point off for missing website title)

TOTAL: 23/25

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Route 4 (by SlowPokemon)

Concept and Execution: 4/5 (Could be some more instruments, but still interesting)
Balance and Color: 3/5 (The bells and the flutes sound a bit out of place, and the melody was not very recognizable)
Instrumentation and Tonality: 4/5 (Again, the bells and flutes sound too much like "happy" instruments)
Playability and Technique: 5/5 (Very easy, instruments have about the same difficulty)
Score Presentation: 3/5 (Subtitle not sized down and italicized, composer not bolded, arranger not italicized, no website title)

TOTAL: 19/25

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Dissonance in the Lost Woods (by Olimar12345)

Concept and Execution: 2/5 (Creative, yet repetitive and discordant)
Balance and Color: 2/5 (Very little of the actual melody used besides the first three notes, but mood still inverted)
Instrumentation and Tonality: 4/5 (All clarinets, yet I don't feel that clarinets are very appropriate for the Lost Woods)
Playability and Technique: 4/5 (Relatively easy, but those 16th note-arpeggios seem pretty difficult)
Score Presentation: 2/5 (No subtitle; no separate lines for arranger and composer; no developer, developing year or website title)

TOTAL: 14/25
(Please note that for this piece, I understand that Olimar only took the motif to work on.)

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Congrats dahans!

@dudeman-Your grading on my piece completely baffles me. (and I used much more that just the motive...  >.< )

EDIT: In fact, your grading over all of our pieces confuses me! And why did we all lose points for not having the website title on our sheets? These weren't for the site whatsoever!

Quote from: Olimar12345 on January 02, 2012, 11:33:23 AMWhy did we all lose points for not having the website title on our sheets? These weren't for the site whatsoever!

The contest rules said that the sheets needed to be formatted via NSM formatting guidelines, and I followed that to the letter. Sorry. :'(

I must agree with Olimar...this was slightly ridiculous. That rule should have either been way more apparent or not have been included at all.

I agree with this rule. The formatting guidelines are designed for content meant to be uploaded to NinSheetMusic. It doesn't apply to arrangements that are in the name of the arranger. If the arranger didn't give NSM the rights to upload it to the site, there should actually NOT be the site link at the bottom of the page. It was mentioned nowhere in this thread that this content was aimed at being put on NinSheetMusic.

In fact, isn't the manner in which the arranger decides to present a score... Up to them? Is it written anywhere that all sheet music required the composer line to be bolded?

Score presentation should be dependent on how attractive the sheet is as a whole!

Just saying. I am not recommending a re-do in any way. Just saying you may want to revise the definition of 'score presentation' in the future ^.^

Oh well, bound to get some screw-ups in the first round, eh?

It just illustrates how dependent projects like this are on volunteering and feedback. We had a few delays due to people being busy with other stuff, people were reluctant to both judge and enter, and the entire thing kept slipping in the direction of oblivion almost all the way through. It's also a little difficult to coordinate across different time zones (look at the first competition thread made) and ideas. We had a few misunderstandings between the judges. Either way, the goal of this first round was to iron out the bumps and lay down a foundation to base future contests on.

So, what is the consensus? Should we try again? Poll goes up.

Quote from: SlowPokemon on January 02, 2012, 10:46:27 AMCongrats, Big D!

Cobra, I'm interested to see Dudeman's review of everyone's! Possibly published...? :P

Thanks! Big D is an interesting nickname... I'd like to keep it! :D

Quote from: Olimar12345 on January 02, 2012, 11:33:23 AMCongrats dahans!

Thank you too! :D

And yes I'd love to participate in the next round.

I would also like to participate again. Could I also volunteer as a judge?

I'd like to apologize for my lack of judgment during this trial run, I'd like to try again, though we'd need to revise how we do things and plan it in a way that allows for the multiple time zones.

I'm interested in judging again! And I won't be so strict on the formatting this time...

Great, looks like there's some interest!

We have a discussion topic for arrangement contests already. I'll bump it, so we can leave this topic dedicated to the first round. Ideas would be welcome over in the bumped thread.