Press your power button. Tune your instruments. Position your microphone. Open Marathon 2. It's time for MGSIV!

RULES:

1) Unlike previous competitions, there are 4 songs to be composed. These songs will correspond with the next 4 levels of Marathon 2. They are called, Eat It, Vid Boi!, The Hard Stuff Rules..., Bob's Big Date, and Six Thousand Feet Under. These levels make up the chapter Citadel, and that is what the resulting album will be called.
2) Each song must have a reasonable song length. I would consider 10 seconds or 10 minutes a bit outside this reasonable range. Try to keep the songs from 2 min to 5 min. I'm flexible, so going outside those boundaries a little bit won't lose you any points. Cutting a song down to around 1 min though may lose you a point in the "Length" category.
3) These submissions are songs for Marathon levels. Please don't include a full chorus or obnoxious singing in any of your submissions. A little bit, and I mean a very small amount of singing or background chorus is ok, but don't go overboard.
4) Deadline: All songs must be sent to me at thethug47@gmail.com by February 26th. That's over 2 months to make 4 songs.
5) Don't name your songs after the levels. Come up with creative names!

Your entries will be judged on the following material:
1) Interpretation of the Level: Does your song complement the level provided? Does it help set the atmosphere of the level and contribute to the gameplay? A bad example would be to play "Happy Birthday" during a war scene, while a good example might be to play "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" during a scene where a kid is looking through a telescope for the first time. 20 points
2) Musicality: How well the tempo, rhythm, notes, etc fit together. It shouldn't sound like a 6th grader randomly hitting stuff or pressing down keys on his first instrument. Listeners should be somewhat comfortable while listening to it, not cringing in their seats. 20 points
3) Creativity: This is your music so make it unique. I understand that many background parts repeat over and over, but don't create a whole song where the majority of the melody is the same eight notes played repeatedly. Jazz it up and make it enjoyable and fun to listen to, while still staying within the other requirements. 10 points
4) Sound Quality: If it sounds like trash or is poor quality, you will obviously lose points here. I'm looking for clean, high quality music with no white noise, unless the white noise is intended. 10 points
5) Originality: Remixes sound great and all, but the point of this contest is too create something NEW that complements the given level. Remixing M1A1 music or any other music will cause you lose points here and probably in a few other sections of the judging scale. 5 points
6) Length: If the song length is too long or short, points will be lost. The song should be long enough to show effort, but short enough to be precise. 5 points

TOTAL: 70 points/song. Each participant will be judged out of a total of 280 points because there are 4 songs.

As usual, the song that receives the highest score for a level will be included in the final M2 Soundtrack. If you plan on participating but don't have enough time to make all 4 songs, please try to make 1 or 2 songs. A song will be included in the album if it receives 50 points or more. That means those who enter songs for all 4 levels should shoot for a score of 200 points or higher. I'm looking forward to a good turnout and some great songs! Enjoy making music.

Hmm... I think I may actually use an instrument for this one...

Sweet! Can we put up songws we already made for no reason originally? Cause I have a few over at iCompositions that might work.

If it works, email it. I sent my three last time, and they kinda fit. But not really.

could i send you one song that fits well or... actually, fuck it ill do all of them.
minor singing... darn...
expect an epic.

I made a song for Hard Stuff. Here it is.

I was thinking about cheating. I have 2 or 3 songs already made without even thinking about the game, but they could work. How about you see if they fit?

[attachment=3421:048112.jpg]

I'll try and make something. I've got all winter break to do it.

So this album will be available for download on simplici7y or something?

Yes. MGSIII is on Simplici7y.

Yes, all albums will be uploaded to Simplici7y and Fileball.

For those who wish to submit songs they have already made, I'd prefer if you didn't use them. If you think a song really fits a level, I guess you could use it. But otherwise, please start your submission songs from scratch.

Thug, you're REALLY bad at archiving. I haven't been able to download any of these albums at all. Do better this time.

Because archiving is, you know, a completely manual process that requires lots of human input / is incredibly prone to errors, and nothing as simple as clicking "compress 'item'" and then uploading the file it spits out.

Nah.

This puts a damper on my jolly santa. All I do is right-click the folder and press "compress with .zip" with Stuffit Expander. Other people had a similar problem, but $lave posted a nifty solution here.

I thought Stuffit made .sit files?

stuffit makes everything.

Oh. Interesting.

Wait, whoah, what? Fileball exists? I apparently missied something between now and when fileball stopped existing.


Even babies!

Just unzipping from the terminal seems to work and is probably preferable to downloading stuffit expander. I'm not sure why the default archive utility is so fussy with files archived using stuffit.

It wont even download properly so i can do that.

What do you mean, you can't download the file? If your problem is that your OS tries to decompress the file automatically, the zipped file should still be in whatever folder you save downloads to.

yes, the file downloads wrong...
ima try it again, ill tell you...

It was a problem with my computer. I have two Mac pros here and one randomly crashes, the other has broken USB plugs. I've been trying to fix them with no luck. It worked, so dont worry about it.

Hey, I've got an unfinished song for "The Hard Stuff". I wanted to upload it early to get some criticism, and to see if anyone even thinks it would fit at all (I figured it might, because the s'pht levels are kind of sad, but then again, it probably wont work at all). I've only worked about two hours on it so far, so it's pretty rough, but I wanted advice early rather than late.
Unfinished unamed song link
iCompositions.com is work safe (any explicit song is marked "explicit"), so don't worry too much.

Edit:
One reason I think that going online to be critiqued is good is partially because it's really hard anywhere else; if I ask someone else, they're too afraid to say "it's shit" to my face. That, and I really can't discern what music of mine is good and what is bad, because I think that all of it is amazing. It's like (or so I would imagine) having a child: even if he's the worst kid in the world and is super rebellious and hates everything, you still love him because he is your child.

Also, if you think it sucks (because I'm pretty sure it does, I just can't tell myself), feel free to post "This is a piece of shit, throw it away".

My likes: The music is mysterious yet with a melancholic element; fitting the S'pht environment.

My dislikes: The abrupt "screech" noises near the end really seem to come out of nowhere, and the build up doesn't really build up to them. However, that "building up" low-pitched howl- I like a lot. It might just be my computer or the fact you haven't finished yet; the piece is riddled with distortion.

Thus: "It's not a piece of shit, but it needs work..."


My ideas for improvement: As this is the Citadel, I'd recommend some Gregorian Chant or something of that ilk; also maybe add a little electronic distortion to that howling noise.

I like it gmanyo, but what if you replaced the paino with a synth of some sort.

Precisely.

Since this is my field, ill happily critique you. alot.

WAY too simple. you've got a melody that consists of you hitting keys going right up the line and some fuzz at the end. Thats it. While I'm not suggesting bringing in the whole band, I think you should add a few more details, maybe even some loops. While its kinda scary, it shouldn't be. Make it ominous, but not scary. Looming darkness you don't know what to make of, not "OH GOD MY KIDNEYS, IT TOOK THEM". I am exaggerating but you get it. Replace the piano with two different synths that are slightly off. Needs more howling wind. (or cowbell)
Aside from this stuff, you're doing good. I liked how the last few notes were different. That was the best part of the piece.
To re-reiterate,
"Its a piece of shit, and it needs work. you can actually polish shit."

Really?

Yeah, really. The Mythbusters did it.

There is less than 2 months remaining! If you plan on submitting songs, I suggest you start making your first one soon, if you haven't already.

I totally plan on doing this and have been working on a few songs just for this.

Thug, will you be the one judging these songs? and How many submissions have you gotten so far?

Yes, I will be judging. So far I have received 0 submissions, but I'm sure I'll receive a few in February, if not before. I can't wait to hear your songs!

I'm almost done my first one, if it makes anyone feel better.

4 songs is a lot, but I'll give it a half-assed attempt. We'll see what I come out with. By the way, whatever happened to the last contest?

It's on Simplici7y here.

This reminds me: You have 1 month left before the deadline on the 26th.

Thank you, kind sir! When the world is mine, your death shall be quick and painless.

Polished shit is a great gift for anyone with a certain kind of grin (the pictures on many a cereal box come to mind).

Question about the contest... Should the music be more geared toward gaming experience or a sentimental reflection on the level in question? Or somewhere between the two? The reason I ask is because some music works in the game but not outside of it, and vise versa.




By the way, my first piece is done, you can listen to it here

as i am learning, it is SUPER hard to incorporate guitar into my songs for a marathon competition. I learned how to play the piano... yesterday, but almost the entire thing is piano... I seriously was not prepared for this...
Don't expect and epic if I can't make guitar sound good.

Does anyone think that this song would work for a level? I didn't make it for the game, but i could always just modify it so it loops. Or something.

While it does not convey the sense of moving in 3-D space, it is a good loop and not terribly repetitive. I would suggest adding some effects such as reverb and/or delay. Think about what the levels are like pertaining to this contest. I would strongly suggest writing a piece from scratch. Three of the four are lava levels with fire yetis coming at you from out of the dark. You want to convey the purpose of the level but also its feel.

One level is sewage.
Gmanyo, your song makes me feel like i lost a game of pong. I see you used garageband, so just switch the instrument to anything but bitcrusher.

Song 2 is uploaded here.

Good deal. Less than a week left.

Well, it needs a bit of polishing that i don't have the time for, but... the more i listen to it the more acceptable the flaws become to my ears. anyway, the guitar is a tiny bit off near the end and the synth aspect is a bit abrupt... but its OK. Its 12 minutes long, but i don't want the intro playing more than once, so i just copied the second part over a hundred times. The song itself reflects the slow buildup in the level, and also its emptiness.
E're you go!

Edit: importer is screwin with me. Cant upload, ill try email, thug.

So, uh, are the results out yet? Is this competition dead? I really hope not: I quite liked the idea of a fan-made soundtrack.

Yeah. Where's my prize?

To tell you the truth, I forgot about this project. After looking through my stuff, I found two songs from SynthNinja and one from Envy.

@gmanyo - I'm not sure if you want to use the songs you posted in this thread or not as your submissions. Just let me know soon.

I don't mind if you use them, but they're pretty sub-par. I mean, they're not really even finished. If we don't have enough contestants, I can try to make some songs or finish those ones up if anyone likes them at all. I'd like to, in fact.