.Start.of.Music.Contest.IV.Final.Results.......................................
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 Music Contest IV Final Results - 01 Sep 1996           Entries to Date :
                                                          MC1 (1993)    :  23
 Music Contest is a competition hosted by Hornet          MC2 (1994)    :  75
 Our archive is located at ftp.cdrom.com /pub/demos       MC3 (1995)    : 133
                                                          MC4 (1996)    : 157
                                                          Total Entries : 388

==[Contents]===================================================================

           Files
           Schedule
           Prizes
           Articles
             Foreword....................................Snowman
             Introduction................................GD
             General Information.........................Snowman
             The Final Results...........................Snowman and GD
             How Close is Close? (The Top 2).............Snowman
             Organizers Comments (Response)..............GD and Snowman

==[Files]======================================================================

=-------------------------------------------------------(General Information)-=

 Description  Location URL
 ------------ -------- ------------------------------------------------------
 MC4 Archive  USA      ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/hornet/mc/mc4
                       administrator: r3cgm@cdrom.com

 MC4 Mirror   Canada   ftp://ftp.micro-intel.com/pub/mc4
                       administrator: zapper@micro-intel.com

 MC4 Web Site USA      http://www.cdrom.com/pub/demos/hornet/mc/mc4
                       administrator: r3cgm@cdrom.com

=-----------------------------------------------------------------(MC4 Files)-=
Location /demos/hornet/mc/mc4 Size Description
=---------------------------- ---- -------------------------------------------=
mc4rules.zip                     6 MC4 Rules (04 Jun 1996)
mc4final.zip                    73 MC4 Final Results (01 Sep 1996)
/info/mc4vrnd1.zip               5 MC4 Round 1 Voting Information
/info/mc4vrnd2.zip              12 MC4 Round 2 Voting Information
/news/mc4-news.001              18 MC4 Updates Newsletter #1 (15 Jun 1996)
/news/mc4-news.002               7 MC4 Updates Newsletter #2 (01 Jul 1996)
/news/mc4-news.003              11 MC4 Updates Newsletter #3 (10 Jul 1996)
/news/mc4-news.004               8 MC4 Updates Newsletter #4 (20 Jul 1996)
/news/mc4-news.005               7 MC4 Updates Newsletter #5 (10 Aug 1996)
/rookie/*                          MC4 Rookie Entries
/rookie_final/*                    MC4 Rookie Entries (qualified for round 2)
/veteran/*                         MC4 Veteran Entries
/veteran_final/*                   MC4 Veteran Entries (qualified for round 2)

==[Schedule]===================================================================

 Date       Event
 ---------  ------------------------------------------------------------------
 15 Jun 96  MC4 Updates Newsletter #1
 01 Jul 96  MC4 Updates Newsletter #2
 10 Jul 96  MC4 Updates Newsletter #3
            | Due date for entry registration
 15 Jul 96  Due date for entries
            | Due date for voter registration
 20 Jul 96  1st round voting begins
            | MC4 Updates Newsletter #4
 05 Aug 96  1st round voting ends
 10 Aug 96  2nd round voting begins
            | MC4 Updates Newsletter #5
 20 Aug 96  2nd round voting ends
 01 Sep 96  Contest ends, results released,
            | MC4 Updates Newsletter #6 (final)

         *  <- You are here

 Music Contest 4 finished on time! :)

==[Prizes]=====================================================================

 _____Introduction

 The prizes for MC4 have been donated by Josh Rodman (K8to), Christopher Mann
 (Snowman), and Jens Puchert.  We have over $500 in prizes, due to our
 generous contributors.

 _____Veteran Division

 1st place - Soundcard of choice (up to $300 in value) or $100 cash
 2nd place - $75 cash
 3rd place - $50 cash
 4th place - $25 cash
 5th place - $15 cash

 _____Rookie Division

 1st place - Free MOD4WIN registration (a $50 value)

==[Articles]===================================================================

=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------=

 :: "Foreword"
 :: Snowman / Hornet - r3cgm@cdrom.com

 Music Contest was birthed in the fall of 1993.  In demo scene terms, that's
 about two generations ago.  Farandole, MultiTracker, and Fast Tracker 1 were
 the most popular trackers.  Necros sucked.  I hadn't even heard of DemoNews
 or The Hornet Archive.  You could still listen to every single new song that
 came out.  Only a small part of the scene had access to the Internet.  No one
 knew what the "web" was.  TraxWeekly was a year and a half away from its
 first issue.  To put it mildly, it was a totally different music scene than
 the one you know now.

 Back in 1993, I could easily host the contest all by myself.  A few mails a
 day, a calculator and scratch paper to tally the votes, a couple good BBS
 couriers to distribute the final results.  Back up all the entries to a few
 floppy disks and call it a wrap.

 Those were the days!

 Now in 1996, I can no longer host the contest all by myself.  Too many emails
 to answer, Perl scripts to write, people anxious to link the final results to
 web pages.  It's time to back up all the entries to CD and call it a wrap.

 This is today!

 Over the years, Music Contest has been growing and maturing.  Each year the
 rules are refined.  The entry count increases.  Information is spread faster.
 The contest is shorter.  This will continue.

 I used to fear MC losing its "down home" appeal.  In MC1, I could exchange
 personal mail with all the entrants... ask them how they felt about the
 contest, tell them secretly that I liked their song, remind them of
 deadlines, call them if their entry was uploaded incorrectly.  Even in MC2,
 the time I could spend with individual entrants was rapidly decreasing.
 Something had to change or the contest would become mechanical and devoid of
 color.

 With MC3, Floss was introduced as a co-organizer.  Our two roles were very
 distinct.  Floss handled public relations: answering questions, bugging
 judges to get their voting forms in, mailing entrants if their song was
 corrupt, etc.  Behind the scenes, I wrote the rules and automated things
 where I could.  It was a good relationship.  It worked out well.  Music
 Contest grew and improved without losing touch to the "scene".

 In MC4 the same approach was used.  This time around GD had the public
 relations job.  I continued to stay behind the scenes, monitoring contest
 progress and (as always) trying to automate things wherever possible.  The
 role of "Music Contest PR Dude" is a very stressful and time-consuming job,
 one I was more than willing to give to GD who foolishly accepted.  :)

 I have seen GD change over the past couple of years.  He has grown from a
 rather timid lad to a man not afraid to make command decisions.  He is able
 to contribute to the often goofy beat of the scene while still acting in a
 professional manner.  I look forward to working with him again in the future.

 GD asked me for this foreword.  He said to make it between 6 and 7
 paragraphs.  This is paragraph 11.  But I know he'll understand.  He's the
 co-organizer after all.  He might write me back and say that he was expecting
 a more well thought-out introduction, more of what the opening for the MC4
 final results _should_ be.  But you know what?  I don't care.  :)

 Music Contest 4 is now officially over.

 Looking forward to seeing y'all again in Music Contest 5.

 Take care.

=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------=

 :: "Introduction"
 :: GD / Hornet - gd@ftp.cdrom.com

 It's hard for me to believe, but for the past 6 months, MC4 has occupied a
 part of my free time in some capacity.  That's quite a long time in scene
 terms.  Because of this contest, I have suspended or terminated other
 projects I would have liked to work on.

 Don't get me wrong.  I assumed these responsibilities knowing full well of
 the sacrifices I would need to make.  However, this is the end of the road,
 and I am ready to move on.

 Before I go, I must mention a couple people whose actions can not be
 forgotten.

 Floss.  The PR guy for MC3.  A good friend who would tell me "Don't worry, it
 gets better" at the right times.  He allowed me to blow up at him for no
 reason, which I did several times throughout the contest.  He possessed a
 unique understanding of where such a display of frustration could come from.

 Snowman.  Founder of the Music Contest.  I believe he had a secret road map
 to all of MC4.  He knew which direction something should go, but allowed me
 to feel my way around until I learned it for myself.  In the event I got
 lost, he handed me the compass that I needed.

 Finally, I want to thank all who participated and all who enjoyed the
 contest.  See you next year.

=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------=

 :: "General Information"
 :: Snowman / Hornet - r3cgm@ftp.cdrom.com

 _____What was MC4?

 Music Contest IV was an international music competition.  It was held
 everywhere.  That is, it was not restricted to a party, but was freely open
 to all those who could simply upload their tune to our site.

 This contest was centered around our site ftp.cdrom.com.  There were two
 organizers for MC4: Brett Neely (GD) and myself (Snowman).  It started on 04
 June 1996, and concluded on 01 September 1996.  In total, there were 157
 entries and 81 judges.

 MC4 was the sequel to MC3, which was hosted about the same time in 1995.
 That contest had only 134 entries and 42 judges, so this year's contest has
 seen a slight growth.

 _____MC4 Entries with Songtext

 All of the Music Contest 4 entries have been patched to include song text.
 This text simply states that the tune was entered in MC4, lists the author
 name, and gives the rank of the song (if it qualified for round 2).  These
 entries are all located in:

   ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/hornet/mc/mc4/rookie  and
   ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/hornet/mc/mc4/veteran

 _____mc4final.zip

 If you are reading this text as a newsletter or on comp.sys.ibm.pc.demos, you
 may wish to download the official mc4final.zip file.  It contains the judges'
 comments for all of the songs.

 The official release location for the final results is:

   ftp.cdrom.com/pub/demos/hornet/mc/mc4

=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------=

 :: "The Final Results"
 :: Snowman / Hornet - r3cgm@ftp.cdrom.com
 :: GD / Hornet - gd@ftp.cdrom.com

 All song name titles and authors are listed in m4v_com.txt and m4r_com.txt.

 _____Veteran Results

    Song     Author       Title                 Orig Form Tech Samp Over Total
 -- -------- ------------ --------------------- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- -----
 01 m4v-pool WAVE         Pools of Poison       86.2 86.4 85.8 86.8 87.1 86.67
 02 m4v-fasc Necros       Tangerine Fascination 85.4 87.4 85.7 84.7 86.8 86.26
 03 m4v-univ Siren        Universe Electric     81.4 81.0 82.9 83.9 83.3 82.76
 04 m4v-tien Dustbin      Tienimi Vicino        83.3 79.4 77.2 82.5 79.7 80.23
 05 m4v-fequ Floss        Final Equinox         79.6 81.0 79.7 80.3 80.1 80.19
 06 m4v-ejec Zodiak       Ejector               83.8 80.4 76.2 79.8 79.5 79.86
 07 m4v-disf Yannis       D. Tendencies         81.8 79.5 78.4 77.2 79.6 79.45
 08 m4v-over Rage         Over the Seas         79.7 78.5 79.3 80.3 79.2 79.36
 09 m4v-surr Hunz         Surrender             80.0 78.3 79.3 79.7 79.1 79.26
 10 m4v-mank SoundMaster  Mankind Roots         85.1 76.6 77.9 78.8 77.4 78.72
 11 m4v-broa DD           Broadband Shuffle     80.5 77.9 77.7 79.0 77.5 78.28
 12 m4v-zeus Zapper       Zeus & Genevieve      79.0 77.5 77.5 77.5 77.0 77.53
 13 m4v-soar Human        Soar                  76.6 75.4 74.2 74.8 76.4 75.81
 14 m4v-pock Sikamikanico Pocketwatch           73.7 74.5 76.6 77.6 75.4 75.56
 15 m4v-morn Nexus        Morning Sunrise       78.9 76.0 75.0 75.1 74.4 75.50
 16 m4v-scat Andy Chen    Scattered Mind        76.2 73.3 75.6 77.4 74.3 75.12
 17 m4v-burn Vivid        Burning Symbols       75.3 72.8 74.7 77.6 74.6 74.90
 18 m4v-amor Mix          Un Amore Impossible   76.6 76.3 75.5 70.9 74.5 74.71
 19 m4v-ozon Tangerine    Ozone                 77.0 73.2 75.1 77.9 73.2 74.69
 20 m4v-brea Chris Jarvis Breath of Time        73.0 75.0 74.1 74.0 74.0 74.04
 21 m4v-fall Asyntote     Friends And Lovers    72.8 75.4 70.8 74.2 74.8 73.97
 22 m4v-grat Lloyd Yoon   In Gratitude          71.5 73.5 71.9 74.1 72.6 72.71
 23 m4v-turp Caramel      Turpentine Kisses     78.2 69.5 74.7 75.1 70.2 72.62
 24 m4v-blit Nemesis      Blitz                 72.9 71.5 69.3 71.5 73.5 72.30
 25 m4v-brit Smeg         Brittlestitch         72.0 71.2 73.7 72.7 71.0 71.82

 _____Rookie Results

    Song     Author        Title                Orig Form Tech Samp Over Total
 -- -------- ------------- -------------------- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- -----
 01 m4r-sout CosmicEclipse Southern Aurora 1996 79.0 77.1 79.6 76.0 77.7 77.89
 02 m4r-jaun Wolfsong      Jaunt                70.2 76.4 75.6 73.4 76.1 74.90
 03 m4r-flas Kleitus       Flash Counter        64.0 71.9 73.1 69.7 69.0 69.39
 04 m4r-hatc Rhythm Greene Hatchet at Five      74.1 72.4 66.1 65.5 68.6 69.16
 05 m4r-stee Sigma         Steel Connections    62.2 71.5 71.0 67.3 69.5 68.70
 06 m4r-azul Garfield      Azul                 65.0 64.7 68.6 66.5 66.1 66.21
 07 m4r-aqua Sledgehammer  Aquamarine           65.3 66.7 63.5 65.9 66.4 65.81
 08 m4r-coen Fred          Coencentricity       65.0 67.8 62.5 62.4 65.9 65.10
 09 m4r-take Pedro         Take a Second of Me  67.1 62.2 65.0 65.9 63.0 64.21
 10 m4r-atta turrican      Attack               63.8 61.4 69.2 61.6 63.2 63.70
 11 m4r-veng Vastator      Vengeance            71.0 61.7 58.7 62.4 63.5 63.53
 12 m4r-open Zanka         Open Spaces          69.6 65.3 58.1 54.2 62.3 62.07
 13 m4r-fore Xfyl          In the MC4 Forest    67.2 56.9 61.7 62.3 62.0 62.03
 14 m4r-clou Aspax         On a Cloudy Day      57.0 50.2 55.9 66.5 57.0 57.24
 15 m4r-dedi Darius        Dedicated            63.9 60.2 47.5 51.5 57.0 56.34

=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------=

 :: "How Close is Close? (The Top 2)"
 :: Snowman / Hornet - r3cgm@ftp.cdrom.com

 Some may wonder just how close this contest was.

 Here's a breakdown of the top two placed entries.

          "Pools of Poison"            "Tangerine Fascination"
            by Wave                      by Necros

 Judge    Orig Form Tech Samp Over    Orig Form Tech Samp Over
 -----    ---- ---- ---- ---- ----    ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
  01        75   73   77   71   74      70   68   69   66   68
  02        85   84   80   80   82      74   79   74   78   77
  03        90   90   90   85   89      90   95   90   95   92
  04        85   86   85   84   85      90   92   95   93   94
  05        94   93   92   93   93      92   95   94   94   94
  06        90   89   88   87   92      89   86   88   89   92
  07        85   83   85   82   83      86   90   90   88   89
  08        92   91   93   92   94      85   87   82   79   81
  09        80   77   77   75   77      80   80   75   77   77
  10        80   86   78   85   83      83   84   82   78   84
  11        85   90   95   95   92      80   90   95   87   90
  12        99   90   95   90   95      99   99   90   95   97
  13        90   92   95   92   93      82   89   81   86   84
  14        75   78   76   74   75      83   76   78   72   78
  15        90   90   90   95   90      90   90   90   90   90
  16        84   90   78   92   89      86   92   88   84   91
  17        91   86   87   90   92      88   90   94   92   93

=-----------------------------------------------------------------------------=

 :: "Organizers Comments (Response)"
 :: GD / Hornet - gd@ftp.cdrom.com
 :: Snowman / Hornet - r3cgm@ftp.cdrom.com

 > I think that no two judges should vote on the exact same group of songs.

 This is one area where we could improve the voting system.  We will consider
 this during the planning stages of MC5.

 > I want to give one more vote of confidence to Music Competition as I feel
 > it is the best tracking competition anywhere for dozens of reasons.  I just
 > hope that much more of the international scene would participate in it.

 It has traditionally been difficult to convince non-North Americans to enter
 Music Contest.  We've posted to Imphobia and splattered information in
 DemoNews but have only been partially successful.  While at Assembly '96 this
 year, we asked around and found that there seems to be a growing interest in
 MC (at least in Finland).  Hopefully the growing popularity of the Hornet
 Archive and DemoNews will help to spread the word to non-NA about MC in the
 future.

 > I should thank you who organize this contest.  It's very fantastic that you
 > have made a type of society on the Net.  Thank you.

 It's a lot of work, but comments like these make it seem worthwhile.
 Sometimes I think we started with a good idea and continued out of habit.  :)

 > I found the quality of music is definitely improving with the years, maybe
 > sponsorship of some kind could be organized so that the prizes got better
 > in relation to the music?

 Snowman: This is an area I'm starting to have reservations about.  While at
 Assembly this year, there definitely was an interest in the prizes.  I even
 heard a very big scene notable say that he wasn't competing this year because
 Assembly Organizing didn't pay out quickly enough at ASM95.  This saddens me.

 I am of the firm belief that you should enter a contest out of a desire to
 compete... a desire to take part in a scene event... _not_ to win prizes.  I
 am seriously considering having no prizes in Music Contest 5, if only to
 ensure that people are entering for the "right" reasons.

 > I did give really long comments however.  Why?  Because I want to try and
 > help these people out.  Try to show them what they've done wrong so they
 > can get better.

 That's exactly the intention of the song comments.  We want to provide a way
 for the judges to provide feedback to the participants' music.  Music Contest
 is unique in that every song will be listened to by many different judges.
 Having a diverse set of judges gives each entrant a wide array of responses.

 > Don't make us judge so many songs in second round.

 Having each judge in round 2 vote on all the finalist songs helps us ensure
 more consistent results.  Put another way; if 30 people vote on exactly the
 same songs, the results are more accurate.

 > One other thing.  For MC5, can there be a special player program that
 > supports all the formats that are allowed in the compo?

 It's difficult to find a player that everyone agrees on, let alone code a
 special MC player that fits the bill.  The closest thing we have to a scene
 standard player is Cubic Player.  If CP had supported Impulse Tracker modules
 this year, we would have had a single player.  We'll just have to hope and
 pray that CP will support all common formats when MC5 rolls around.

 > The "official" player should be the trackers that the songs were written
 > in, like Fast Tracker 2 for XM, Scream Tracker 3 for S3M, etc.

 In selecting an adequate player for Music Contest, we must consider these
 factors:

 - Acceptability of the player by the scene
 - Support for the module formats most often used
 - Player's ease of use by judges
 - Ability to use TSR voteform editor program within player program

 While using Fast Tracker 2, Scream Tracker 3, and Impulse Tracker would have
 made the entrants happy, they certainly wouldn't put the judges in good
 spirits.  Having to constantly switch trackers while judging songs, not being
 able to enter the scores while listening, etc. would have made the judges job
 much more work.

 Using a standard player for judging has become routine at parties with large
 numbers of entries.  There is a reason for this.  There simply isn't enough
 time in a large contest for judges to use multiple players/trackers.  Even
 in MC4, the Cubic Player/Impulse Tracker judging caused significant delays
 and complications.

 > MC is unique, the only compo where every person in the scene can enter and
 > start on equal terms.  Hope it keeps on going for a long time.  =)

 One of the things that sets Music Contest apart from other "online" contests
 (and even party music compos), is that _every_ song is given comments.  As
 the music scene continues to grow, musicians need more and more of an "edge"
 to get recognized and improve.  In Music Contest, you can totally suck as a
 musician and still be treated as an equal with everyone else.  You don't
 qualify for the second round because your name is "Necros".  You qualify
 because you wrote a good song and people liked it.  This is what I see as a
 model for music competitions.

 > For future contests, you might consider making time requirements on songs.
 > Such as more than 3 minutes, but no longer than 6 minutes.

 Good idea!  Next year we'll have a 4 minute time cap or something like that.

 > No comments.  Good contest.

 "Good contest" sounds like comments.  :)  Thanks for your support.

 > Almost every IT song is pretty good.  A new well supported tracker is born.

 The demand for allowing this format was high, and a large number of entries
 were .IT modules.  Do keep in mind that even the lowly Farandole Tracker once
 had its day in the sun (and placed quite well in Music Contest 1).  Now who
 even remembers FAR?  :)  Trackers are constantly evolving and Music Contest
 must evolve with them.  Chances are good that by MC8, Impulse Tracker will be
 considered just another primitive tracker from the music scene's yesteryear.

 > I think the judges should be e-mailed their judging numbers.

 All judges were e-mailed with their judge ID upon registration.

 > Authors should be allowed to choose their own 4 character song ID.

 To prevent authors from choosing any "revealing" or identical song-IDs, we
 assign them ourselves.  It's just an extra precaution.  Besides, it makes our
 bookkeeping a lot easier.  :)

 > Hey Brett.  I just wanted to say, after all the work you've done with
 > Music Contest 4 this year, your pants are on fire!

 Damn!  *smother*

.........................................End.of.Music.Contest.IV.Final.Results.

