Arrangement Contest No. 8 in B# "Mix"olydian "Amalgamation"

[Zeila]

You don't have to wait up on me

[Maelstrom]

It's about that time.
Or, it's way past that time oops.
Since not one single entry had the same file assortment, these links are just to the dropbox folders I threw everything into.
The entries:
Bloop - Forgotten Ancient Ruins
Dajwxp - Heroes are No Different
Dekkadeci - Prism of Delight
Echo - Judge, Jury, and EXEcutioner
InsigTurtle - The Town That Once Was
Lkjhgfdsa_77 - Mario Medley
Static - Secret of the Celestial Tower

Poll coming soon

[mikey]

10 bucks says bloop wins

[Maelstrom]

Poll is now up, thanks to Deku.

[Dekkadeci]

Before I vote, just to make it clear: Can we vote for ourselves?

[mikey]

I would've voted for myself in mine but I just voted for the one I liked the best.  I'd like to think that would always end up being one that isn't your own

[daj]

Wow...so many fantastic works out there. Great job everyone! ^^

Voting was actually kinda tough, because a bunch of arrangements just wow'd me like never before. No hints given, except it's not mine ahaha. I think there were a bunch of arrangements which bring a whole new dimension to the concept of arranging, and narrowing it down to one vote between those was really frikkin tough.

I will say that I gave my vote in the name of creativity though, ehehe. Not that the other works weren't creative - it's just that this one had too many fantastic ideas to overlook.

Either way, great listening experience, all the best everyone

[Dekkadeci]

I figured "Screw it" and voted for my favourite arrangement that isn't mine.

Also, when does voting end and when do judges need to submit their evaluations by?

EDIT: Found the poll closing time. Still wondering whether judges need to submit their evaluations earlier or later than that.

[mikey]

it was really disappointing to me that I recognized absolutely none of the music, with the exception of licky's take on the mario main theme (which just didn't jive with me, sorry licky!).  There were 2 or 3 pieces that stood out to me above the rest though, and I can't say I actively liked any of the pieces, so I'm just going to vote for the person who I think did the best job.  Not to say you all did a bad job, you all did very well, and to boot you actually finished.  I'm just used to listening to these and thinking "wow I love it" but that didn't happen this time.

[Bloop]

Although I've always mixed songs in my previous AC entries, this one was fairly hard to write. But I do think everybody did a great job! I didn't recognize any other songs (just like noc), so I just chose the one I liked listening to the most.

[Dekkadeci]

I may as well release why I voted for the entry I did (but not who I voted for).

Picking my favourite reminded me of why I'd likely be a poor judge for contests like these: I picked my favourite based on these criteria I tend to use in my music listening in general:

• Catchiness: Probably the most importantly, I like pieces I remember. If I don't remember your piece within 3 listens, I'm out of here.
• Speed: I find slow pieces to be boring in general, to the point where I'd abstain from commenting on them in public places like YouTube and Musescore because I know I'm fairly strongly biased against them.
• Familiarity: I assign a few bonus points in general to arrangements or pieces I've heard/played before. Although this can backfire for poor renditions of pieces I've already heard (this means that I like professional recordings of concert band music significantly more than middle school band renditions, for example), this explains why I like listening to remixes and piano transcriptions. ...And given that, among all the pieces that weren't mine, I recognized at least one video game theme in only 2 of them...yeah, I was biased.
• Structure: Perhaps riffing off "Familiarity" a little, I like pieces more if they have discernable structures. (Structures often involve judicious use of repetition and warping of already used material.) This is probably part of why I love classical music.

You may have figured out several hints about which piece I picked, and I'll give one more: So far, it's the only piece where I looked up the VGM theme I hadn't already listened to before. And yes, I'm familiar with its other theme. (So, yes, I thought the unfamiliar bits were catchy.)

[braix]

I dropped out but I will eventually finish my mash up. When I do may I post it here

[mikey]

Haha dekka I was strongly turned off of your piece mostly because of how fast it was

[JDMEK5]

Guys where's mine? I submitted it

[Maelstrom]

Guys where's mine? I submitted it

To who?
I'm the host now.