AND SO WE COME TO IT AT LAST!

I am proud to present the final results of what has been a magnificent competition. Before I say anything, I would like to thank above all, all the competitors, all the helpers, all the judges, all the administrators and in short, everyone who in anyway formed part of this competition and helped to make it a success. Wouldn't have been the same without you guys (Yes, I love you all :3)

Before I start posting the results for each judge, I would like to remind you all of some points:

1) Please wait until I have posted all the results before posting anything yourselves, so as to avoid unnecessary confusion. I'll be using alts due to post limit and I will give the go ahead once I have finished posting the results, so you guys can start firing away :P

2) PMs will be sent to everyone linking to this thread. If you have already seen this thread, please disregard anything in the PMs which speaks about this thread.

3) Please remember that each judge is free to have their own opinion. If you disagree with any of the points mentioned in a judge's review; DO NOT start an argument in this thread. Please discuss it via PMs.

Also, regarding the prizes, I am still collecting all the rewards together and they will be given to the winners shortly so BE PATIENT. Remember it takes a lot of work to keep all this flowing.

Also, we've introduced a set of new honorable mentions this year, which will be posted later. Winners of these mentions don't actually get anything apart from the honour of going in the Hall of Fame and putting their names alongside the list of NGADM Winners.

So anyway I think that's it, let the posting of the Results commence!

RESULTS - SUPERSTEPH54

midimachine - No Homers Club

• Unpublished Submission

SUMMARY: You make Chip Pop sound like the best thing since sliced bread.

REVIEW: Really brilliant man. It has such a nice mood to it and as usual the composition is beyond amazing. This is fantastic.

Melodies shine here, as usual. The background riffs are playful and fun to listen to. The chord progression is very good and I like the minor changes like the one at 2:20. All of the melodies are very well-made, including the lyrics melody. The square solo halfway through the track leaves nothing to be desired, and the harmony is all great. Honestly, what you're managing to make with a just a Gameboy and a good singing voice is pretty incredible.

The sounds are all brilliant. This feels like I'm listening to an orchestra of 8-bit synths rather than a small set of 8-bit synths. The bass, albeit not being so significant, was a cool addition, and so was the staccato 8-bit synth used in the intro. The vocals fit very well, which surprises me since this is the first time I'm hearing vocals ever incorporated in an 8-bit. Regarding the singing, it's not perfect but it's still brilliant. The lyrics were well-written and while some verses had rhymes which felt a bit forced, I don't have much to complain about, and the vocals were very easy to understand as well, which is an improvement over White Dwarf. Awesome percussion too, by the way.

The effects are really cool and add a bit of dynamics to the song. The occasional pitch-bending and bit-crushing on the synths was really awesome, and the effect you did by echoing the last syllable of the chorus was very creative and fitting. I'm also hearing a few subtle notes sung in the background, which is also good.

The transitions are overall very well done. My favourite transitions would be the introduction of the vocals at 0:11 and an even better transition at 2:44 when you give the background riffs some space while keeping the vocals echoing in the background. However I think the transition at 0:55 is abrupt. Nothing too major but I think the words 'If you've got time to breathe...' came in too suddenly.

The structure is what bugs me a little here. It's a great structure, but in my opinion the square solo dragged on a little too long, the final repetition of the chorus felt a bit anti-climatic and the kick was introduced a bit too late into the song in my opinion. You used a similar structure in White Dwarf (even the lyrics are written with a similar layout) but I think the structure here needs a bit of touching up.

That's all that needs to be said. This song impressed me a lot. Catchy, creative and enjoyable. A recipe for success!

SCORE: 9.5/10
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ProudAardvark - NP - Piano Sonato No. 3

• 

  NP - Piano Sonata No. 3

  by ProudAardvark

  NGADM Final

  Song

  Classical

  11,942 Views

  PLAY

SUMMARY: Beautiful.

REVIEW: Dear God, the composition here is EXCELLENT. Really love this piece - I had no idea you were so good on the piano. Excellent job.

Like I said above, the composition is clearly what shines in this track. It's very original and unique, and some of the melodies are incredibly well-written (especially the melody in the section at 0:41 - 1:16). Moreover, I'm hearing LOADS of dynamics and articulations, and all sorts of things which help with the variety. The trills, glissandos, gradual increasing/decreasing of speed and loudness may have been small touches but they made all the difference.

There's an abundance of emotion and drama in this piece, as well. You definitely succeeded in making your track more dramatic because I really enjoyed hearing the changes of mood and climatic changes scattered around the track. Also, while I think the addition of an orchestra would make this sound better, I don't think it's that much of a problem that there's only a piano. The piano's a very powerful instrument and it managed to convey a lot of emotion and power that, while not rivalling that of a full orchestra, still makes for a great piece.

The performance is great in general. As I said you made very good use of the articulations and dynamics. I also love the supporting melodies played by the left hand. They complimented the melody very well. My only complaint performance-wise would be that some transitions sound a bit off, which is one of my main problems with this song. Some of the transitions seemed to make it all too obvious that one section finished and another started, such as the ones at 0:32, 1:47 and 1:56. Transitions like the one at 0:40 is what I'd like to see more, but at times it seems as though instead of smoothly going from one section to another, you just stop one without giving it a proper ending and then start another.

Which brings me to my next point. I know I'm not the only one to mention this, but I think the piece does lack a good progression. As I already said, the odd transitions from one section to another didn't exactly help the progression, but I also felt that some sections needed more time developing and seemed to end suddenly. This is mainly shown in the end where you just abruptly move on to the loud unexpected ending note, which is unfortunate because a gradual, soft ending would do wonders for this track.

Anyway, the problems I mentioned aren't as bad as they seem to be. They're only relatively minor problems and the composition is fantastic regardless. Loved it.

SCORE: 9/10
--------------------%u2003

RESULTS - ROBINDB

midimachine - No Homers Club

• Unpublished Submission

SUMMARY: Fun

REVIEW: I think if it's ok to use autotune in any one genre, that genre is 8-bit.
It was difficult to listen without being caught by the parts where you were out of tune.
At the same time it was very impressive hearing how you recorded background vocals as well.
The music is all perfect. The square solo was very well written, and the whole song is
catchy and interesting. It's just the singing that could have used improvements.

SCORE: 8/10
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ProudAardvark - NP - Piano Sonato No. 3

• 

  NP - Piano Sonata No. 3

  by ProudAardvark

  NGADM Final

  Song

  Classical

  11,942 Views

  PLAY

SUMMARY: Beautiful, but lacking.

REVIEW: There are parts that grab you and really communicate something, but then there are
parts that transition a little rough. The ending has a few off notes, and the final note
itself feels like a lazy and abrupt exit. Overall though, very well done, very beautiful.

SCORE: 8/10
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RESULTS - JPBEAR

ProudAardvark - NP - Piano Sonato No. 3

• 

  NP - Piano Sonata No. 3

  by ProudAardvark

  NGADM Final

  Song

  Classical

  11,942 Views

  PLAY

SUMMARY: Very memorable piece, very technical, dynamics weren't to my liking

REVIEW:
Production: Reverb can get muddy at times. Your use of dynamics can be a bit awkward, overpowers your higher end. You get a lot of click out of your lower notes but keep the higher end smooth at times, it's interesting but ultimately uncomfortable for listening. It sounds like you boosted the low end a tad too much when mixing this out. Score: 8.5/10

Writing: A whopping five minutes or pure piano, can turn good or bad, mostly for good here. 5 minutes is a long time to keep some form of unison between different movements, but this is was the strongest part of your piece, the contrast yet ties between varying keys and moods. The lines around 3:30 and on were truly some of the best writing I've ever heard, eerie and romantic yet very technical. The volume slam around 1:30 was my least favorite part about this piece, yes it leaves a very definite impression on the listener, which leads to a better memory of the song afterwards, but it could have been performed a bit better in terms of dynamics and just simple writing. Score: 9.8/10

SCORE: 9.15/10
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midimachine - No Homers Club

• Unpublished Submission

SUMMARY: Vocals weren't too enjoyable, very solid 8-bit production apart from that

REVIEW:
Production: Vocals were a bit out of tune (especially around 1:25), pretty big turn off. Vocals are too reverbed in contrast to the rest of the instruments in the track, kind of awkward. Your 8-bit production was above-par as usual, good drums and nice modulation of the leads. Score: 8.25/10

Writing (includes lyrics): The vocals were the centerpiece of this song, and since the singing isn't over the top technical, the focus turns to the lyrics. If lyrics don't leave an impression on me after an intense listening session, there's not much point in having them. Like reading a poem, and forgetting it straight afterwards. Lyrics struck me as overly cliche, reminded me of my poetry from middle school. Could honestly say I would prefer this track without them. Most enjoyable part was the solo 2:40, just by judging the NGADM I've gotten a real taste of your writing style and it just resonates nicely albeit a little similar between tracks. Score: 8.25/10

SCORE: 8.25/10
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%u2003

RESULTS - LIQUIDOOZE

midimachine - No Homers Club

• Unpublished Submission

SUMMARY: Pretty good!

REVIEW: The further you get in this competition, the better your 8-bit tracks become, it seems. This one is not an exception. There's a lot going on at the same time, which is good because it make the song more vivid. The solo starting at 1:40 is freaking awesome, and the backing vocals go perfectly with it. The snare is loud but not overpowering. The kick could be a liiiittle bit better in the beginning, because there it sounds kinda weak. I also heard some slight pops and clicks in the intro, but they're barely noticeable so it's okay. Overall the synths sound great, they're pretty well balanced, there's no sound that overrides another; this song is perfectly mixed and mastered.
I actually have one complaint, and it really is a HUGE complaint: the vocals don't fit the song at all. With this I do not mean that you're singing off-key (because you're absolutely not) or that vocals can't be combined with an 8-bit song (because your songs are the crushing evidence). What I mean is the following. Your vocals are the perfect example of a punk song: a minimal pessimistic touch and lyrics that never directly approach the subject. I could easily hear Green Day sing this, but then with fast-paced drums and rocking guitars, which is pretty different from the backing track you've used now. And that's what I mean: the vocals don't fit the track. They would perfectly fit a track like White Dwarf, because that one is more fast-paced, but this is more relaxed, and sounds way too happy to function as a backing track for these vocals.
Apart from the vocal problem, this song rocks!

SCORE: 8.2 /10

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ProudAardvark - NP - Piano Sonato No. 3

• 

  NP - Piano Sonata No. 3

  by ProudAardvark

  NGADM Final

  Song

  Classical

  11,942 Views

  PLAY

SUMMARY: Nice!!

REVIEW: It really is a shame this piece only contains piano, I really like your orchestral submissions. Doesn't take away the fact that this song is amazing. I can clearly hear the different feelings you put in this song, and the transitions between them are very well done. (This is the part where I realize I still suck at writing reviews for classical songs).
What I really liked was how you bring the listener back to the beginning at 3:21, it's pretty recognizable so it kinda felt good to me. Speaking of the beginning , I'm absolutely certain I've heard that little riff somewhere before. I think it's Within Temptation or Evanescense (or however you write that). It could also be from a movie, I dunno.
One small complaint: the ending is extremely sudden and doesn't quite fit. It's like you were just playing when all of a sudden you're like 'Okay that's enough' and you smack the key. It 's pretty awkward, but apart from that this song is great!

SCORE: 8.8/10
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RESULTS - DJINTHEDARK

midimachine - No Homers Club

• Unpublished Submission

SUMMARY: Great Combo!

REVIEW: I really enjoyed the meshing of styles in this track. At first it gives you the impression that it's just another 8-bit track, but then vocals come out and you get a completely different image in your head when listening. What I found to be ironically profound about this song was that at in the start, I found your voice to be somewhat timid and lacking, but as the track picked up, you became more confident and more pronounced in your singing. Whether or not this was intentional, I may never know. To me, I thought it unfortunately sounded like a remix, and not really an original work (I'm not questioning your legitimacy at all just so you know). It appeared that the halves of the song, being the vocals and everything else, were well... halves. While both of them in all respects were very well done, and it appears to me that don't necessarily conflict, they certainly don't want to work together to a culmination at which the song can reach its full potential. It may not even be a matter of the production quality, or rather an extension of the two styles coming together in such a way that they could never harmonize efficiently.

SCORE: 9.3/10
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ProudAardvark - NP - Piano Sonato No. 3

• 

  NP - Piano Sonata No. 3

  by ProudAardvark

  NGADM Final

  Song

  Classical

  11,942 Views

  PLAY

SUMMARY: Articulation

REVIEW: This was a very professional and quality piece. The first issue to me though is I do not find the consistency of the articulation throughout the entirety of the piece to be effective in creating the many different moods this piece employs. One thing I found to be very pleasing about this piece was the tremendously progressive emotional changes that took place, rather than what I was expecting to be very abrupt jumps from one movement to the next. What I also found to be clear and apparent was the way you used many of the same scale patterns and arpeggios and putting them into a different context to sound entirely new, and altering one or two small details to create the same effect upon the music, and thus the listener. While all of you phrasing was succeed well throughout the piece, I found the ending to have the opposite effect. I was indeed expecting a much more gradual halt to the music, but instead got a sudden one. And in light of this, I have decided that it does not necessarily dictate the quality of the piece, rather it once gain re-conceptualizes the emotion course of the piece. Which of course is neither good nor bad, only subjective to the listener and how they wish to perceive it.

SCORE: 8.9/10
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%u2003
SCORE SUMMARY

Midimachine vs ProudAardvark

Midimachine -- AVERAGE SCORE = 8.65

ProudAardvark -- AVERAGE SCORE = 8.77
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WINNER = ProudAardvark
--------------------

So there we go! A big congrats to ProudAardvark for winning the NGADM 2011, and to midimachine for coming so close and giving such a bloody hard fight. Well done both of you!

So Anyway, it's finally over, after all this time! Once again, thank you to everyone for making this a success! See you all next year!!!

P.S. You can post now :P

Wow, that's a close call! Congratulations to ProudAardvark for winning the contest and congratulations to midimachine for getting this far. Also congratulations to the restof the contestants who made great tracks but unfortunately didn't get any further! Also congratulations to all the judges for the hard work! And congratulations to Echo and Supersteph for organizing such a huge contest!
And congratulations to Tom Fulp for this wonderful site! Youda man!

And congratulations to Gary for entertaining us with the Numa Numa video!

And congratulations to Rebecca Black for having the courage to create a suckish song about Friday!

And congratulations to Justin Bieber for making out with Selena Gomez!

Aaaaaand I should probably stop now...

congratz guys :)

normality may now resume.

Woo, it's over. Big congratulations ProudAardvark, and great job to midimachine for coming so close.

Some things Echo neglected to mention:

1.) The sigs for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place will unfortunately have to be recycled from last year (except with new names and NGADM 2011 written down instead) because our sig artist still didn't finish the sigs and we haven't heard from him. Sigs will be done very soon.

2.) Tom has been PM'd about the store credit. It should be given to ProudAardvark, midimachine, Birdinator99 and aliaspharow shortly.

3.) I'd like to especially thank all the judges and backup judges myself. They all did a wonderful job and doing all that judging out of their own free will is really awesome. RobinDB also deserves a mention for being the only judge (apart from me) who didn't delay the results once. In fact, he was nearly always or always done one day or more before the deadline, so he deserves a round of applause.

We'll be updating you guys with suggestions for next year, honourable mentions, etc... shortly.

Yaaaay!!! Now we do teh RAC's right? :P

Any ways congrats to the winner, was a long battle but you finally came out on top :3

WOW! .12 difference!!!

CONGRATULATIONS PROUDAARDVARK!

I already told everyone how much I loved both of the songs, so I will just shut up.

They were great!

Wow, nice job ProudAardvark!

Those reviews, man; need to write 'em still...

i actually let out an audible "whoaaaaaaaaaaaaa" at the difference in scores and my girlfriend was like wtf and i was like URRRGH I CAME SECOND IN THIS INTERNET THING BY THE TINIEST AMOUNT and she was like k

BUT YEAH! everybody was real fantastic, especially my most worthy opponent!

OMG woah, that's twice I thought I was toast. Holy ^&# that was close...

Anyway, thank you so much! The competition was excellent, and as usual I really enjoyed listening to everyone's work and thoughtful reviews. Thanks for providing the extra motivation to write some new music that wouldn't have otherwise existed.

I'm totally stoked :D

And here are the sigs! As Supersteph said our Sig Artist disappeared off the face of the planet, so I had to reedit last years sigs and set them up for this year. Should look kinda different, but bear in mind that I'm no artist so I couldnt dabble too much.

Anywayz, here you go guys :3

Proud Aardvark - 1st Place
Midimachine - 2nd Place
Birdinator99 - 3rd Place
Aliaspharow - 3rd Place

Other prizes should come up eventually so be patient! Enjoy your sigs!

Echo

Yeah, frontpaging will happen on Monday if no other audio mods object. We'll also post any suggestions/ideas for next year in the suggestions thread soon, so that people can debate on which they like/don't like, and post any new suggestions too.

We would've followed the suggestion of having a flash to summarise the whole competition but the original flash artists have disappeared and nobody else volunteered, so that won't be an option this year. But next year we plan on doing it.

If you guys have any suggestions, PM us or post in this thread.

Here are the sigs all in one picture by the way:

Finally wrote those reviews -- great songs, guys.

I tried using my sig, but it's over 40kb, so uh, yeah. Am I doing it wrong?

Never had a sig before -_-

At 11/26/11 10:23 PM, Birdinator99 wrote: I tried using my sig, but it's over 40kb, so uh, yeah. Am I doing it wrong?

Never had a sig before -_-

Oops you're right. Silly Echo.

I'll make sure he fixes the sigs and makes them less than 40k.

Sorry for taking so long.

Sigs:

1st Place - ProudAardvark
2nd Place - midimachine
3rd Place - aliaspharow
3rd Place - Birdinator99

As for the store credit, Tom hasn't answered yet. I'll send him a reminder.

At 12/10/11 04:52 AM, Supersteph54 wrote: Sorry for taking so long.

Thanks Steph. No worries!

So what's with this honourable mentions thing?

At 12/11/11 04:53 PM, LiquidOoze wrote: So what's with this honourable mentions thing?

We're thinking of introducing a few extra achievements next year, such as Most Creative Song, Shortest Winner, Most Popular Loser, etc etc. You'll get to know more details once we finalize the suggestions gather up. ;)

Store credit has been issued, supposedly. Sorry for the delay, and thanks a lot to Tom.