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 €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:
Dahans'
piece, based off
Pokémon R/B/Y - Lavender TownSlowPokemon's
piece, based off
Pokémon B/W - Route 4Olimar123's
"Dissonance in the Lost Woods", based off
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Lost Woods
