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SMWC Idol 9 - Rules & Discussion

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Music

Originally posted by Sinc-X
Port a song from a non-SNES game, unsampled.
Wow gee unsampled? Definitely some regret not making it to Round 2. In a sense this should be a pretty fair round.
It'll probably accentuate song selection even more than usual (implying that wasn't already a problem.)
Yeah, that's going to make things more level in a sense. Will be excited to see what people come up with. I'm not a huge fan of the SmW samples, but when in the right hands they can be put to some pretty good uses. I think I'll give this one a shot. Better start now though, since the song I plan to port is gonna be a hard one...
Make more of less, that way you won't make less of more!
Originally posted by musicalman
Hmm, with foo_gep I've had weird issues with Gaussian interpolation and samples that hit full scale. It often makes clicking/crackling sounds. I normally don't maximize to full scale, I aim for -0.5dB which eliminates the effect but I do remember this was an issue, especially with simple waves like square. I didn't try the advanced options though, I'll give them a go. And not saying this is inaccurate, I have hardly ever heard a real Snes so maybe the hardware did this too, but this was the only time I ever noticed such odd behavior. With exception of the sample thing I described, I've found little reason to really fret about whether to use foo_gep or Spcplay. In fact I test my ports with both, mainly for curiosity's sake, and have gone back and fixed some samples because of related oddities. The main thing I take from this is that, if you are going to use Spcplay, just make sure it isn't an old version!

The SNES hardware definitely clips things that are too loud, but it doesn't apply a hard clipping filter you get that turns a sine wave into a square for example. If you can make an example of what you're describing I can record it from real hardware and compare.

Also, for the longest time SPC700 Player actually applied noise on pitch modulated channels if it was enabled on the previous channel, which the SNES doesn't do because noise gets applied after the waveform is calculated.
Originally posted by Brozilla
Definitely some regret not making it to Round 2.

There's no eliminations this year though. You can join Round 3 even if you didn't enter Round 2! (Or even Round 1)
Originally posted by Jimmy
There's no eliminations this year though. You can join Round 3 even if you didn't enter Round 2!

Saying I should've procrastinated Round 2 instead of waiting for Round 3. I never worked with SMW samples so it's like a disadvantage despite being the most fair of the rounds.
stages46 uses the looped piano to its advantage which is technically within the rules but I mean is it really unsampled at that point???
Originally posted by Sinc-X
gonna note this formally before i forget/ to make sure: #optimized IS allowed, if you wish to use it

It was discussed in Discord at one point. While it was allowed for submissions to use the optimized @9, I'm not exactly sure myself if that counts as unsampled.

Although, on second thought, if a port that used the optimized @9 was in the SMW music section (and no other custom samples were added), it would probably be labeled with a "No" for being sampled. Under that logic, I'd say it's technically unsampled.
Twitter
Thanks to Maxodex for providing the MP3 files, made my job slightly easier!

Here's a video featuring all of round 3's entries, including timestamps in the video's description.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOuM5vJsmm8
Originally posted by Giftshaven
Originally posted by Sinc-X
gonna note this formally before i forget/ to make sure: #optimized IS allowed, if you wish to use it

It was discussed in Discord at one point. While it was allowed for submissions to use the optimized @9, I'm not exactly sure myself if that counts as unsampled.

Although, on second thought, if a port that used the optimized @9 was in the SMW music section (and no other custom samples were added), it would probably be labeled with a "No" for being sampled. Under that logic, I'd say it's technically unsampled.

I thought the implication of that rule was that you can remove/use smaller versions of the samples so that there's more ARAM, not that you can use samples that have completely different properties and still count it as unsampled.

Optimized does make something sampled, because you're using different samples. The entire reason it exists is to emulate SMW samples so that sampled songs have more space. Like I said, it was technically within the rules, but it's such a stretch that I find it unfair to compare it to fully unsampled ports.
to me unsampled implies "insertable with scratch amk"--i.e. exactly what giftshaven said about it being checked off as not sampled if it were submitted. the discussion in discord was specifically about the looped @9 (from someone that didn't even end up entering mind you) and i explicitly allowed it, so it was something available to anyone had they wished to use it (which is why i made the post here in the first place, but maybe i should have specified about the @9?)

of course y'all can vote however you want but in my eyes it's not "unfair" in that sense
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hey all, just as a quick note: i may not be home at 8 tonight to close off this round so im just gonna push out the voting time by 2 hours. i have a special announcement to make after this round as well so don't worry about necessarily cutting into your round 4 entry time!!
soundcloud / bandcamp / twitter / buy/stream my EP / buy my touhou music / buy my NEW album!!!
Round 3 results:

1. Jimmy - wintervacation with score 87.97
2. Gloomy - viridian with score 80.35
3. Ultima - sky with score 79.55
4. Giftshaven - thewindcanbestill with score 77.28
5. musicalman - mole with score 74.4
6. Sinc-X - stages46 with score 72.78
7. Brozilla - basement with score 16.33

those scores tho l m a o
(not at home currently so no personal comments this time sorry!!)

Before round 4 starts, there are a few major changes being made after some Discord discussion that I think everyone will like.

FIRST. Henceforth, all rounds are extended from 10 days to TWO (2) WEEKS.
SECOND. For all remaining rounds, there will be ONE (1) day of LEEWAY between entry and votes -- yes, this is a DEFINED EXTENSION PERIOD. I will still not give out any unprecedented extensions, but there is now one extra day past the deadline for all y'all procrastinators, during which there will be a PER HOUR PENALTY. Exactly how big this penalty will be, I haven't decided yet, but likely something akin to -1 point / hour.
THIRD. To keep us on a consistent schedule, voting will also be extended to SIX (6) DAYS.
FOURTH. I am appending ONE (1) ADDITIONAL ROUND to the contest, to make an even EIGHT (8).

Hopefully these changes are a positive for everyone going forward! I'll update the OP shortly.

WITH THAT OUT OF THE WAY:

ROUND 4 CHALLENGE

The Choosing Of The Challenge

Port a song from an arcade game ORIGINALLY released between 1985 and 1995, inclusive; however no games developed by SEGA or Konami are permitted. You're encouraged to get obscure!

Round 4 is due Saturday, July 21st at 16:00 PT / 19:00 ET!
soundcloud / bandcamp / twitter / buy/stream my EP / buy my touhou music / buy my NEW album!!!
Originally posted by Sinc-X
6. Sinc-X - stages46 with score 72.78

smh you guys. You voted the best one second to last.
Also >tfw my worst port so far this year is the one that actually wins a round.
Originally posted by Sinc-X
Port a song from an arcade game ORIGINALLY released between 1985 and 1995, inclusive; however no games developed by SEGA or Konami are permitted. You're encouraged to get obscure!

Developed, published, or both? Either or this will definitely be more fun. Surprised Capcom wasn't excluded either!

Originally posted by Sinc-X
Round 3 results:
1. Jimmy - wintervacation with score 87.97
2. Gloomy - viridian with score 80.35
...
those scores tho l m a o

The individual ratings seem more consistent [and higher] compared to previous rounds. I think because SMW instruments naturally mix well it kind of leaves everything to song choice/composer skills.
Clearly an opinion but I *thought* your (Sinc-X) Round 2 entry was better though I can see why Mission 3 scored relatively well. After Round 4 voting I think we can get a general idea of the audiences behavior.

EDIT: Are remixes allowed or should it be as accurate as possible?
Wow, I didn't even expect to get this far with this submission, especially when I have been getting to a pretty low position on those rounds lol; tho if you ask me, I think what's weirder is how most of the people with lower places in the first two rounds suddenly got that far too (except Jimmy, which still got 1st place for some reason LOL); it's definitely nice that this happened tho, and I also feel a lot better compared to all the other two rounds, so that's good

also, this next round is going to be about (mostly) obscure retro Arcade games huh

this is going to be fun... >;]
Layout by Mathos
Developed--mostly just because I don't want to change the challenge now when people have already picked songs, like what happened last round.

Remixes are fine as long as the source material is evident.
soundcloud / bandcamp / twitter / buy/stream my EP / buy my touhou music / buy my NEW album!!!
kiki kaikai pls somebody
I SERIOUSLY HOPE SOMEONE DID KIKI KAIKAI OR ELSE I WILL BE VERY UPSET AND I WONT VOTE

Music

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