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Foreword
Introduction
Rules
Schedule
Entering
Judging
Introduction
The Process
The Categories
The Scale
The Comments
Conclusion
Registration
Prizes
Updates
Results
FAQ
Resources
Statistics
Contact
Changes since MC5
About
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Despite the fact that Round 1 uses only the Overall Appeal category, you
should still read all five category descriptions. Overall includes the others,
but wraps them into one score. Consequently, you need to know how to rate
in all five.
Overall Appeal: The most important category, this is the
only one used in Round 1. It carries three times the strength of the others in
Round 2. It's a catch-all category, quite literally. The idea behind this
category is that the whole may be more (or less)
than the sum of its parts. You should
evaluate the entire song, taking every legitimate factor into account,
such as technique, samples, form, and originality. This also includes the less
tangible
qualities, like how the other categories relate to one another, how the piece
works as a whole, what the song means to you as a listener. In Round 2,
this value should be close to the other ratings. It does not
need to be an average of the other four. But it should be fairly close.
Origniality: Unique music carries a lot of weight in the
Scene. We've been evolving musical style for over five years now, and we've
developed some amazing stuff. That's the reason behind including this category:
originality counts for something in Music Contest. A rating of 95 in originality
would mean a distinct set of samples, all used in clever new styles, with
atyipical chord progressions and a style that expands the limits of its genre.
A 95 may also mean a song with bizarre samples,
wild progressions, and an amorphous flow in a style all its own. But remember,
this is Round 2, and something that bizarre never would have made it here.
The point is not to confuse the listener, but to keep him rivited, intrigued.
This category is about expansion and exploration, not weirdness. On the other
end of the scale, a 25 in Originality would be given to a song with the same
sampleset as "When the Heavens Fall", used the same rhythm loop and chord
proression in every pattern, and didn't have a single bridge or mood change
throughout. You might give a 50 to a song that uses a few ripped samples,
repeats a drumloop 80% of the time, changes key only once, and sounds
typical for its style.
Form: Have you ever watched ice skating? They judge based
on two categories: technical and artistic. This is the "artistic" equivalent in
music. Judges should focus on how expressive the music is, how much emotion,
thought, and mood was put into the piece. A 95 in this category would be a song
that kept your interest throughout, with smooth transitions, interesting and
thoughtful progressions, and a distinct emotion or mood to it. A rating of 50
would be appropriate for a song that was broken into clear sections with minimal
transitions between them, a vague mood, and a generic progression. As you listen
to it, you find yourself wanting to hit the fast-forward button once or twice.
(Don't.) A song would deserve a 20 in Form if it was typical music for its style,
lacks any qualities to keep you interested, has no transitions, no discernable
versus, and few musical ideas worth noticing.
Technique: This rates the technical prowess of the tracker.
Points are given for effective use of effects, proper panning control, and
general tracking efficiency. Like Originality, this idea of "efficient" modules
is one of the basic principles behind the scene. Points should be
given for fitting a song into a minimal number of channels, with a minimal file size, especially if it's
of a quality that's on par with every other song. Good technique includes
using effects in just the right doses, with a style that shows a command of the
file format in which it was written. A song that
shows all of these qualities deserves a 95 in Technique. A judge might rate a
song at 50 if the composer neglected panning, used few effects (or used them
poorly), and opened a few channels where they might have used a trick instead.
A bad rating in Technique (25) would be given to a song that uses no panning,
opens 30 new channels for one chord and never uses those channels again, had one
second of silence on the end of every sample and uses vibrato at a depth of 9 on
a ride cymbal.
Sample Quality: This category rates how well the song title
was chosen. (Har har. That's a joke, son.) An excellent rating in Sample
Quality should be given if all the samples in the song are
clear, in-tune, and appropriate to the style. The
samples can be ripped, but should not be taken from a song where that sample
was a trademark (like the guitars in "Respirator", or the strings in "Zen Garden").
None of the samples should be extended riffs or long drumloops.
All processing should be well-done: consistent or effective reverb, chorused
where appropriate, well-balanced tonality, and so on.
All sample volumes should be adjusted properly. A song might deserve a 50
if the samples are a little hissy, a few pitches are slightly off (but not to the
point of distraction), a few samples are out of context or clearly ripped, and
the processing is inconsistant or ignored. Sample volumes might have been tweaked
but not fine-tuned. A song would deserve a 10 if each sample were tremendously
noisy, one pattern long, and completely de-tuned from each other.
Move on to the next page.
Round 2 online vote submission
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