Jump to content

Return of the Remix Tournament


jssf1992

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 60
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Huh . . . this was strange.  The averages all around (mostly*) were very close together, making this looks rather odd, but let's get to it.

The Highest rated song this time was Buskerdog's N.I.G.H.T.M.A.R.E. pick, with an average of 8.5!

The participant with the highest average across their picks was Garison Decrick at 7.1 (and yes, it was that close)!

The two qualified (not given by the same who picked the piece) 10s given were to Drunken Flower's picks of Blue Diamond and Sky Dust!

Personal favorite of mine were Blue Diamond, Sky Dust, Seal Sword/Alice in Wonderland, and Road to Moon.


So uh, I feel like I should point out that the over all average (each person's average averaged together) is 6.8.  The participants scored differed by less than one point (being 6.5 to 7.1) but it's odd to see it so low, especially since this Touhou we're working with . . . 

 

Still, I hope this was enjoyable enough to be worth everyone's time.  I still intend to set up a Halloween themed version in the coming week, if any of you would be interested in that.

 

*My picks were a negative outlier this time, sadly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well thanks once again to Jssf for hosting and everyone else for participating. This wasn't the best remix tournament I've done, but that's not to say there weren't highlights, as there definitely were. I found both Having a Dark Dream and Blooming Season great, I really liked the orchestral remix with two of Alice's themes, and I also loved 4th Radiance - but I want a version with the full thing! Well, guess there's nothing left to do but show my picks now.

Spoiler

twinkle * twinkle - N.I.G.H.T.M.A.R.E (Nhato Remix)

Cool&Create - Flying Marisa!!

Hatsunetsumiko's - A Voiceless Poem (thank you Ken for translating the title!)

Also yes that's right, all along THE DOOR WAS ME!!!

Okina Matara - Touhou Wiki - Characters, games, locations, and more

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I won't reveal my picks just yet, so we can see how others respond.  That said, I'll clear up that I'm not quite a participant.  I share some music (because I love sharing music), but I don't score anybodys' picks nor can I "win".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

jssf like 2 of mine, so im happy

 

oh you playing the guess game? maybe i'll hide in the next tourney
or in the Halloween if it hidden submission
it bugs me that you use 2 different shades of green, or the yellowish one is 75%? ?

letsee the patterns:
Amamiya, electro
Ken, look at the viewer count or the obscurity of the circle
Jssf, he listen to game music a lot
Busker ngl is hard, idk what he thinking, would be hard if he aint hide it.
Garrison, i uh... who?
Drunken, it's me.

 

well yes these are my picks

Spoiler

Sky dust
Reason: it's new

Blue Diamond
Reason: it's fun to look back in time looking for obscure circles, looking for a hidden "gem" ya see what i did there hehuehheho

Blooming Season
Reason:
image.png.f4dd236d2a873cad336270990790f898.png
 

also here's my other candidates for this tournament that i didn't submit

Spoiler

IRON ATTACK - India Stage Theme (Old Yuaxian) [Metal]
Why not submit? i dunno lol, i outta space i guess.

Phoenix Project - Charming Domiation ~ two faced (Charming Domination) [Metal]
might be too repetative for ya, but this great. same album as sky dust

S.S.H - 御伽の国の鬼が島 -MIS VER.- (Onigashima in Fairyland) [Power Metal?]
nothing to do with suika i swear, this one is intense. i dunno why aint put this.

PHOENIX Project - 御伽の国の鬼が島 ~ Trance Power (Onigashima in Fairyland) [Instrumental, Trance]
also aint know why aint submit this, probably to long.

Karento - My and Your☆MYOURENJI (Emotional Skyscraper) [Vocal, Disco]
i swear i'm not that fond of Emotional Skyscraper but this nice. not as good as Blooming Season, but a fun one

Sound Cyclone - Like a Mermaid (Mist Lake) [Vocal, JPop?]
i dunno why aint pick this one. i loved this one though.

Shinra Bansho - 御伽ノ詠 (Rural Makai City Esoteria) [Vocal, Folk]
Shinra Bansho is well known, im sure people will find this soon enough. this superb though.

Touhou Jihen - Midnight Escape (Magical Girl Crusade) (Vocal, Rock)
hmmm i wonder why not? touhou jihen is great but they already popular aint they? or just me lol. also y'all probably gonna get bored in first 80 seconds.

Foxtail-Grass Studio - 今日から明日へのグラデーション (Tomorrow is Special, Yesterday was not) [Instrumental, Ambient]
not so great as a single, best to listen the whole album when you in summer vacation at beach.
i have the album uploaded here if you want to check it out, navigation il mare

Riverside - 童葬祭 (Warabe Matsuri ~ Innocent Treasures) [Vocal, Acoustic]
Innocent Treasures best, but this well known already i guess????? i love singing this.

woah i posted too much, aint gonna have reserve for next tournament The_Saddest.png.d4cf15d7a83b3713e1f145056e244995.png

mob_suika-export.gif.6d8d97d0ef2df024e56271e49c363436.gif🍺 BEER FOR THE BEER GOD!!!🍺 mob_suika-export.gif.6d8d97d0ef2df024e56271e49c363436.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Alrighty then! Time for post-tournament comments.

First, my picks:

Spoiler

Idola Deus: I found this one just after it was released, and have been holding onto it for this tournament ever since the previous one finished. Because it was the opener, I didn't have time to warm up my commentary. The main highlight of the piece for me was its powerful build-up and overall progression. Previously I wasn't aware of what genre it fell into, and I look forward to finding similar arrangements in the future.

Star of Hope Arises in the Blue Sky: Big surprise, right? I'm not a big fan of modern chiptune made to sound retro; I see so much potential in the genre, and I believe the nostalgic aspect holds some artists back from taking full advantage of it. That's not to say I don't appreciate any retro sounding tunes, but rather to point out that chiptune doesn't have to be retro (and even some retro chiptunes got pretty creative; note the work of Tim Follin). I've got a stockpile of both retro and more creative chiptune remixes which I'll get onto Musical Discoveries eventually.

Road to the Moon: Technically this was someone else's submission (not in the tournament), because I didn't find it myself. I included it because it contrasted with my other entries, and as it turned out the rest of the tournament as well.

The overarching idea behind my choices was to showcase some of the less explored genres on the shrine. Music is an inherently emotional medium, and my natural tendency is stick with genres that appeal to me on an emotional level. I consider this a dangerous tendency, and try to combat it I've worked to vary my scope of musical appreciation. I believe a side effect of this has been a new tendency to appreciate the artform of musical arrangement. It's not nearly to the level I'd like, and won't be until I invest in some kind of proper training. But it has left me with an appreciation for variety in music.

At the start of this tournament, I was not familiar with the terms "drum and bass" and "nudisco" as musical genres. I remember some months ago when several "funkot" pieces were posting in Musical Discoveries, which was similarly a genre I had not encountered before. Even though I don't always like these new styles, I still appreciate being made aware of them and getting to understand other's appreciation for them (hence why I review my own entries, as a way to expound on what I enjoy about them and give others alternative perspectives).

For fun (and because I glanced over Garison's post on my way down to the comment box), here's my guesses for whose entries where whose:

Spoiler

Amamiya's are easy, since he waits till the end of the tournament to explain his choices.
4th Radience
Darkness Power
Lost Technology
Honestly I think I rated 4th Radience too low (again, wasn't warmed up at the beginning of the tournament). It's not stuff I'd listen to normally, but that's not to say I don't enjoy these genres. My biggest problems with Lost Technology were being too little too late and too chaotic for my tastes. Y'all have probably noticed my focus on a song's progression; I expect it to go somewhere, and for the journey to be something I can follow. That being said, I can appreciate the strong beat that both these pieces had, and by extension I can appreciate your appreciation for them. I'd love to hear more on what it is about this genre that interests you the most.

I hadn't noticed DF's tell without Garison pointing it out, but I already knew two of his pieces.
Blue Diamond
Blooming Season
You always surprise me with your far-reaching familiarity in a wide variety of genres. I was surprised the jazz wasn't better received, but then I have a rather weird love/hate relationship with the genre myself, so . . .
I hope you'll still occasionally stop in at Musical Discoveries from time to time; you seem to have a better sense of musical balance than I do, and I have greatly appreciated your findings.
I suppose the third pick was Sky Dust? Statements made about Cosmic Mind have led me on a searching spree; I'll try not to overload Musical Discoveries with them, and hopefully y'all can counter me with some True Administrator remixes (since I've never liked that piece very much).

Buskerdog's quite a bit trickier. I find I often relate to his tastes, and his commentary style usually differs ever so slightly on his own submissions, but even so I am not convinced I know his third pick. For the record, I had guessed these two before receiving external confirmation.
Flying Marisa
N.I.G.H.T.M.A.R.E.
Someone will have to tell me if Chipzel's Cadence of Hyrule arrangements count as nudisco; other than that possibility, I've never encountered this genre before. This was definitely the highlight of the tournament for me, and I've already been enjoying new finds from my further research.
Based on commentary style and subsequent process of elimination, it seems the third entry was Voiceless Poem? I'm surprised you weren't responsible for any orchestral arrangements, but then again I didn't contribute much in that way either.
Also somehow responsible for Star of Hope. ?

Garison's pretty open about his picks in an indirect way, and of course he's already clarified his choices above. I was just skimming, though, so we'll see how close I get from my previous knowledge and vague short term memory.
Having a Dark Dream
Sealed Sword/Alice in Wonderland
Blue Desire
That last one surprised me, since your commentary style was more brutally honest compared to your other two picks. Entries aside, I really appreciated your commentary through each round. Your tendency to relate what you're listening to immediately with past musical experiences leads to a branching-out perspective, and even further discoveries (expect Deemo to be featured in Other Game Music for the first week of November). I hope you'll be sticking around the shrine for a while!

That leaves J (I know your name isn't Joseph, but that's what I think of when I read your alias). Typically no one had two entries in a single round, which was an important part of my other deductions. Assuming I correct on the others, there should only be three possibilities left.
Song of the Mad Demon
Dancing Doll
Beyond that Door
I feel I owe you an apology for my inability to properly evaluate Beyond that Door. If I had listened to it for the first time without knowing what the lyrics were, I'm certain I would have enjoyed it more. But it is what it is, and I appreciate that you entered some pieces that the rest of us were unlikely to have heard or given consideration to on a strictly musical basis. For some reason, the idea of using fangame OSTs hadn't occured to me, or I might have held off on posting Luna Nights in Musical Discoveries in favor of including it in a future tournament. Regardless, I thank you abundantly for another rewarding and invigorating experience, and I look forward to future tournaments (Lord willing).

On a more technical level, J has already noted how fast this tournament went. I can't speak for anyone else, but a combination of excitement over the event and fear of being the one guy holding everyone else back contributed to my quick responses. If I might make a proposal, that future tournaments have a preset minimum time between each round (one-and-a-half to two days, perhaps?), so that those of us who like to reflect more on the entries could feel at ease in taking the time they needed for their review. Of course, everyone else may have preferred the faster turnover rate, in which case I'll make due. ?

Thank you all for another fun and informative experience! If I can figure out a way to contact them, there's a few Touhou fans on Bandcamp I'll try to invite next time. At the very least I hope the rest of us can come back and do this again soon.

TTT

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Garison DeCrick When I'm online, I default my registered birthdate to be both believable to anyone who doesn't interact with me and obviously ridiculous to anyone who does. For the record, I am equally older than you as J is to DF and as you are to Amamiya. Buskerdog is of course a timeless being who exists simultaneously on all our Youtube channels.

TTT

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Congrats Buskerdog!


So yeah it was a lot of fun, pleasure and i'm looking forward to next tournament (more for normal not haloween one tho) also hopefully maybe i'll be more unpredictable next time ?


Since my picks are clear i doubt it will be necessary for me to reveal them



I swear my library got a little bigger meanwhile and i appreciate this just because how often i'm listening music 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For the record, Ken's thoughts on what everyone picked is right on the dot.

Personally, I intentionally set out to use only Alice's themes this time, though in hindsight, I wish I had gone with Mystical Chain instead of Fantasy Maiden Wars . . .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

27 minutes ago, Garison DeCrick said:

Ayyy Foxtail-Grass Studio, I love their work it's so relaxing. I know one of their songs got featured in a really popular relaxing music playlist so hopefully more people are introduced to their work through that.

https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=0WSDaqx2qpc

that one is the legendary track, the video you linked is for this album
https://moriyashrine.org/files/file/452-foxtail-grass-studio-なつかぜメモリア/

but the song itself made first appearance in this album
https://moriyashrine.org/files/file/440-foxtail-grass-studio-pastoral-landscape/

 

also you can post only link by clicking this button after you pasted the link
image.png.d9d980b43cacf49285cedb61c8e6e8eb.png

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WSDaqx2qpc

 

mob_suika-export.gif.6d8d97d0ef2df024e56271e49c363436.gif🍺 BEER FOR THE BEER GOD!!!🍺 mob_suika-export.gif.6d8d97d0ef2df024e56271e49c363436.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 hours ago, Garison DeCrick said:

Speaking of relaxing, I was also very tempted to put in piano songs like kkcwkoh/kkcwkoh92's uploads or marasy8's pieces (those are just popular examples, I still don't want to reveal my lesser known picks just yet lol). But I feel they'd get rated lower due to their slow pace and how every note on the piano sounds the same. It's why I wasn't surprised when Buskerdog's "Hatsunetsumiko's - A Voiceless Poem" was rated low. (Though I do appreciate them taking the risk and putting it in regardless). Piano renditions were some of the first Touhou remixes I ever listened to, so I might just be biased by nostalgia towards them, but it really impressed me back then and I guess even now when you can get a normally intense in-game Touhou track and make it so... chill.

I think it's just the "tournament" format of this well... erh... tournament. It naturally encourages people to choose rarer more obscure songs since most of the time, I feel people unjustly see piano songs as mass produced relatively-easy-to-make "single soundfont midis". The current winning meta seem to be electronically-edited 3.5 to 4.5 minute songs with unique instruments, foreign vocals, a lower than 20k view count and an appealing digital drawing that's zoomed in somehow. Those are just my personal subjective opinions though.

I believe it's more a case of familiar songs being rated lower. The primary concept behind the tournament is sharing discoveries. While it's not impossible for some well-known and popular arrangements to be included, I think most of us don't see the point since it's highly likely that the others have already heard it. I wouldn't enter Alstroemeria Records Bad Apple!! because I can be 99% sure you all have heard it before. That being said, I myself submitted Yuuhei Satellite's Even the Blossoming Flowers will Eventually Scatter in the previous tournament, though mostly because I wasn't aware of how well-known it was (compared to some of the others, I'm still relatively new to the fandom).

As to the "meta," by far my favorite entry among the tournaments is Photoshop CS⑨, a relatively relaxed piece. I actually appreciated the musical arrangement in Voiceless Poem; my score was effected by the other elements of the piece (which I know you're familiar with). I won't deny though that the trend does seem to lean more toward upbeat synthesizer stuff. So for now, I'll consider this a challenge for future tournaments. ?
For the record, I try not to take the imagery into consideration on judging the piece.

On an unrelated note: If you haven't checked out the previous two tournaments, you really should do so! There are quite the treasures showcased in both! I'm thinking of reposting some of my orchestral entries from Monthly Music Sharing into Musical Discoveries to make them easier to find, but I'm not decided upon it yet.

Quote

Is one of them by chance Moon-Tone?

That would be interesting, but I'd be a bit intimidated to invite an actual music artist, especially without some kind of prior connection. I was initially thinking of a Bandcamp user called sumiyaani, since they were keeping tabs on my collection and seemed to have a varied familiarity of Touhou arrangements. But I've since found out they are Japanese, so between the language barrier and my lack of social media accounts, that isn't going to happen.

TTT

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.



×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.