Music.Contest.]I[.Voter.......................................................
.                         .                                                  .
.     MUSIC CONTEST       .                                                  .
.                         .   "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.    .
.          ]I[            .    For he today that sheds his blood with me     .
.                         .    Shall be my brother;"                         .
.  a Hornet Production    .                            - Henry V 4.3:60-62   .
.                         .                                                  .
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_____Overview

 Being a judge for Music Contest 3 is a heavy duty.  You will be directly
 responsible for deciding who wins... and who loses.  134 people invested a
 part of their lives to enter a song.  As judges, we have an obligation to
 each and every one of them to provide a fair and honest rating of their
 work.  We can not, _must_ not, let them down.

 In MC2, the first and second place Veteran songs were decided by less than
 0.03% overall score.  In other words, all it would have taken was one
 judge, changing a rating from 8 to 9, to change the outcome of the entire
 contest.  Keep this in mind when you choose your scores for MC3.  Remember,
 a song may be considered "good" or "bad", but its real destiny lies in the
 numbers.

 OK, enough of being serious.  This is supposed be fun, right?

 The voting system in MC3 is extremely complicated.  The good part is that
 you don't have to understand _any_ of it.  :)  To start voting, simply get
 to a prompt and type:

   MC3VOTER.EXE

 The program will ask for your judge ID number and spit out a voting form.
 Its as simple as that. All of the information you need will be on that
 form.  You may read on if you like, but it is not required.


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_____Voting Breakdown

 Each song will be scored in 5 categories:

   Samples     - Appropriate?  Ripped?  (Ripped samples are not necessarily
                 bad.  Use your own judgement.)  Too loud? Too quiet?
                 Sampled too low?  (Poor looping goes under "Technical")

   Technical   - Samples looped wrong?  Too much bass/treble?  Chords not
                 completely faded out (hanging notes)?  Pitch bends,
                 vibratos, retriggers ok?  Song too fast/slow?

   Form        - Did the song have good structure?  Started/ended ok?
                 Too short/long?  Too intense/weak?  Good chord structure?

   Personal    - How much did you like the song?

   Originality - Not necessarily a measure of innovation.  Did the song
                 sound "fresh" and "new", or was it a re-used theme from
                 tons of other songs out there?  Was it creative or clever?

 Each category has a different strength:

   Samples     - 20%
   Technical   - 20%
   Form        - 20%
   Originality - 20%
   Personal    - 20%

 In addition to the 5 categories above, comments should be given for each
 song.  There will be a place on your voting form for this.

 Here are 2 examples of what a comment might look like:

   "This song had good chord structure in the beginning, but around order 10
   it _really_ went out of tune.  With headphones on, the panning sounded
   really good.  Ending was very nice.  Didn't like the flute sample very
   much."

   "This song has a few problems.  In order 4, there was one note which
   didn't fade out completely and became a bit annoying.  Most of the
   samples were chosen well, but the cymbal crash was played _way_ too high.
   Despite some little bugs here and there, the melody was very catchy and I
   enjoyed the tune."

 Here is 1 example of what a comment should NOT look like:

   "In all honesty, this song sucked.  I can't believe this was even entered
   into the contest!  The tune started to sound good in the middle, but then
   it went right back to being horrible.  My suggestion: get a copy of Turbo
   C++.  'Cause dude, you ain't gonna make it as a musician."

 Remember judges, be compassionate with the Rookies, tough on the Veterans.


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_____Frequently Asked Questions

 Q: Ack!  My list of songs to judge includes my own entry to MC3.  What
    should I do?
 A: Just delete that entry from your list.  The program that set up up the
    voting lists was supposed to compensate for this, but a song or two
    might have slipped through.

 Q: I've been assigned all Rookie songs to vote on.  Can't I judge a few
    Veteran tunes?
 A: Of course.  AFTER you have completed the assigned list, feel free to
    vote on as many other songs as you want.  Option #2 in the MC3VOTER.EXE
    program will print out a list of additional songs.

 Q: Will anyone ever find out what my judge ID number is?
 A: Not unless you tell them yourself.

 Q: I think I recognize the author of a song.  What should I do?
 A: Just go ahead and rate it as you would normally.

 Q: Who _does_ know the names for judges and songs?
 A: Only one person in the whole world, and it's not Snowman.


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_____How Voting Lists Were Created (the fun stuff)

 Only read this section if you want to become an MC3 junkie.

 Judges were assigned either Veteran or Rookie songs but not both.  It was
 thought that if a judge was given songs in both divisions, the scores for
 Rookie songs would be much lower than they should.  For this reason, we ask
 that judges assigned to Rookie songs vote on their required songs first
 before they add extra songs to the list.

 Each type of judge (Core, Entrant, and Rookie) was split in half.  Each
 half was assigned either Veteran or Rookie.  In the event that the number
 of judges did not split evenly, the extra judge was assigned to Veteran.

 This process created 6 different types of judges:

   Core judges voting on Veteran songs
   Core judges voting on Rookie songs
   Entrant judges voting on Veteran songs
   Entrant judges voting on Rookie songs
   Observer judges voting on Veteran songs
   Observer judges voting on Rookie songs

 For each of those 6 types, we used the following algorithm:

   We wanted a song voted on as many times as possible.  We wanted judge
   voting lists to contain around 13 songs.

   numJudges = number of judges of a given type
   numSongs  = number of songs of a given type

   Find numbers "n" and "x" that satisfy the equation:

     x = (numSongs * n) / numJudges,

     where n is the number of times a song will be voted on, and
     where x is close to 13, representing the number of songs each judge
       will vote on

   Example: Assume 63 songs and 12 judges.  If we just divided 60 songs
   between the 12 judges, then each judge would only be voting on 5 songs.
   We want each judge to vote on approximately 13 songs, so 5 is not good.

   We take (63 songs * 3 judges per song) and get 189.  Then we divide 189
   songs between 12 judges, we get 15 songs per judge. This is what we want.

   Uh oh!  189 divided by 12 judges is _not_ 15.  We have 9 songs remainder.
   Now, we can't have 3 judges per song for a few tunes and 2 judges per tune
   for other tunes can we?  [group shout] "Of coz not!"  Well, we thought
   that those 12 judges were each going to vote on 15 songs.  We were wrong.

   We'll give the first 9 of those judges one extra song to make up for the
   remainder.  So now we have 9 judges with 16 songs, and 3 judges with 15
   songs.  Pretty simple, eh?  This is just where it starts to get fun.

   Let's assume that this example is for Entrant judges voting on Veteran
   songs.  Just to summarize:

     63 songs for this division
     The first 9 judges vote on 16 songs
     The last 3 judges vote on 15 songs

   Here's how we'd assign specific songs:

     Entrant Judge #01 votes on 16 Veteran songs #01-16
     Entrant Judge #02 votes on 16 Veteran songs #17-32
     Entrant Judge #03 votes on 16 Veteran songs #33-48
     Entrant Judge #04 votes on 16 Veteran songs #49-63 and #01    (rollover)
     Entrant Judge #05 votes on 16 Veteran songs #02-17
     Entrant Judge #06 votes on 16 Veteran songs #18-33
     Entrant Judge #07 votes on 16 Veteran songs #34-49
     Entrant Judge #08 votes on 16 Veteran songs #50-62 and #01-02 (rollover)
     Entrant Judge #09 votes on 16 Veteran songs #03-18
     Entrant Judge #10 votes on 15 Veteran songs #19-33
     Entrant Judge #11 votes on 15 Veteran songs #34-48
     Entrant Judge #12 votes on 15 Veteran songs #49-63

   Hey, this is complicated, but its starting to look pretty good now, huh?
   Uh oh!  What if Judge #6 happened to enter Song #20.  That means that
   he/she has been assigned their own song to judge.  We can't very well
   have judges voting on their own songs now can we?

   So we kick song #20 down to Judge #7.  Now everyone should be happy. But
   what happens if Judge #12 is supposed to vote on his/her own song?  We
   can't kick that song down to Judge #13 'cause there ain't no Judge #13!
   Well, if the last judge in the list is assigned his/her own song, we'll
   kick it back up to the first judge in the series (#1).

 So now we've gone through the above process for all six types of judges. If
 you are actually still reading this section, seek professional help.

 And to think... this is just one _small_ part of the song assignment
 program.  Couldn't I make this system any simpler?  Heck no.  By making it
 so complicated, there is a side advantage.  Whenever someone complains that
 the judging system is unfair, I'll just tell them to read this.  They won't
 have the patience and their complaint will die.  BLAMMO!  One less
 complaint for old' Snowy to deal with.  Ain't I a stinker?  :)

 Now maybe you can see why it took us a full week to get the voting lists
 out?

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_____Questions or Comments

 If you have any questions or comments, feel free to e-mail us.  We will try
 to answer as soon as possible, but it may take a few days.

 For questions about the voting system : Snowman - r3cgm@dax.cc.uakron.edu
 For questions concerning ID numbers   : Floss   - norg@cyberspace.com

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