Toast Beard Compo General

[sci]

well, I never intended image embeds to be a proper feature, but after ZIQ05 (with a theme that was pretty image-centric) it became a common request.

I don't really turn anything down unless it's saucy or something, but for now, yeah, the only way to get an image embed'd is to ask me.

[sci]

apparently reminence = piano.
I am ok with this.

here's what you missed:
sounds: http://toastbeard.bronyradio.com/a/ZIQ28/
words: http://pastebin.com/szfvyfEZ

and yeah I like this next theme:
http://toastbeard.bronyradio.com/a/ZIQ29/

:3

[Anorax]

here's what you missed:
sounds: http://toastbeard.bronyradio.com/a/ZIQ28/
- - - - - -
and yeah I like this next theme:
http://toastbeard.bronyradio.com/a/ZIQ28/

:3

OKAY YOU ASS

fix the links plz?

HINT: The theme for this week is here: http://toastbeard.bronyradio.com/a/ZIQ29/

notice the 9 in the URL and not the 8

[sci]

OKAY YOU ASS

>copy and paste link and just change the number
>forget to change the number
whoops!
sorry. fixed now.

[sci]

ok. it has to be said: we have some really awesome newcomers.

here's what you missed:
sounds: http://toastbeard.bronyradio.com/a/ZIQ29/
words: http://pastebin.com/2pPhpnBY

next theme is set:
http://toastbeard.bronyradio.com/a/ZIQ30/

possibly overdue, that theme.

[Freewave]

One thought and feel free to shoot it down but please consider it. I know the 1 week deadline has become an institution here on TB but what if we kept the weekly schedule and listen BUT made the deadline 2 weeks instead of 1. It's just so hard to find the time to put a solid new track from draft to complettion in such a short time frame that extending the deadline would get more submissions and better quality ones.

So something like
ZIQ31 start 4/7, deadline 4/21
ZIQ32 start 4/14 deadline 4/28
ZIQ33 start 4/21 deadline 5/5

So once you get past that first extra week delay each TB will still have a new weekly theme AND sync listen but it will just an extra week to get better quality submissions and allow people to make a good track in more than a week.

and you could do WAT ZIQ11 start 4/7, deadline 4/14 if you need something to pad in that first week delay before the policy begins working

I personally would take part in more TB if I had the time to meet the episode response or theme and the time to do so. I just can't get a finished track within such a narrow time frame and i BELIEVE that other may feel the exact same way.

[Freewave]

oops dbl post.

[sci]

here's what you missed ...IN SPACE!:
sounds: http://toastbeard.bronyradio.com/a/ZIQ30/
words: http://pastebin.com/g4rW5xQi

next week's theme is set:
http://toastbeard.bronyradio.com/a/ZIQ31/

this time, I have no idea how it'll turn out. but I keep some really weird stuff next to my desk, which could lead to weird/cool ponies. hopefully that's the same for everyone else. <_<

One thought

uhhhh I'll get back to you on that. (post-compo = tired and hungry and still need to watch the new episode)

[Legion]

I really need to work on being less insecure about my music.

>18:43:57 <Marshmelon> Super nervous, making excuses, explaining each part of your song.

This is not good.

[StormWolf]

Oh dayum this theme is going to be so interesting

[sci]

ok, proper response: ...this is going to be brief. <_<

make the deadline 2 weeks instead of 1.

Before you even mentioned it, I was planning on changing the length of each compo!

...in the opposite direction.

I'm not sure by how much, yet, but in my mind: One Hour = ideal, generally.
zorg suggested a 6 hour / "QDC quarter day compo", which I think would work pretty well, since you can miss half the compo and still have 3 hours to write a song.

I haven't really decided what the new length should be...but I'm pretty sure that cutting down the timeframe is a good idea.

some rationale: I don't want to just tell people "don't enter 12 minute epics", but I want to limit these things somehow. The best possible way is to limit the amount of time you have to spend on a song.
Creativity spawned from limitation.
The true meaning of christmas compos.

[Anorax]

aw, hell
there goes my compo entries

[Solarsail]

(Thoughts as a spectator of Toastbeard)

Shorter compo lengths intentionally impede the quality of entries. Toastbeard has been the place for a lot of key, well-known pony songs and musicians to get out there (Glaze's Rainbow Factory and Beyond Her Garden, Jackle's Griffin Village, Tomb's September and other songs, Aviators in general, Storm's Shadow of a Flower etc.)

These were made to the deadline in a week and, I think, impossible to see in a shorter contest. On the other hand I agree recently we are seeing a lot of 5-7 minute instrumental epics that (sorry) are inconsequential to pony music in that they rarely show up on EqD, no one else wants to remix them and the musician behind them doesn't get the promotion they deserve due to their skill . I don't know why the "big name" musicians aren't doing serious, lasting TB entries any more but shortening ensures they will defiinitely not. I'm also seeing much lower numbers of votes on winning* entries recently.

I don't know how you can get back to the ~ZIQ10-ZIQ24 level of participation but it was awesome to follow.

*Winning votes:

ZIQ10 - 10
ZIQ11 - 17
ZIQ12 - 12
ZIQ13 - 20
ZIQ14 - 15
ZIQ15 - 14
ZIQ16 - 13
ZIQ17 - 11
ZIQ18 - 16
ZIQ19 - 15
ZIQ20 - 14
ZIQ21 - 15
ZIQ22 - 16
ZIQ23 - 14
ZIQ24 - 13

ZIQ25 - 8
ZIQ26 - 7
ZIQ27 - 3
ZIQ28 - 5
ZIQ29 - 3

[Anorax]

maybe there should be a submission length limit, say no more than 5-7 minutes, preferrably 5?

[Freewave]

I will say that people have heard me talk at length about dj friendly club mixes of tracks (all i do mostly) and those are 5-7 min mostly. Above that does get ridiculous. You can't have anything less than 5 and get something that isn't a radio edit for electronic dance music. Not sure why TB would go shorter deadline but have people noticed that particpation and voting HAVE declined? That's shocking... it seemed to happen after the sync listen changed times. I'd love to get the newer crew into TB as it is the lifeblood of the community and it has a rich history within our community. I think its important to poll what people will think will improve it and keep it strong and reducing the deadline I can't think would be good for other than troll entries or WIPs.

Lets also realize we have a long hiatus where we'll have to do themed entries as new episode responses won't be an option.

[StormWolf]

key, well-known pony songs and musicians

Storm's Shadow of a Flower

Aww I am flattered

Also, a bit unrelated to what is currently being discussed but still related to toastbeard, I came up with a really good possible compo idea recently;

We should all go Ludwig van Beethoven style, and make music without listening to it!

Of course, this would be a challenge, and it would be very hard to regulate cheating and such, but I just think it'd be a really fun idea!

So like, we'd have to compose blindly, and also mix and master blindly, which I guess could be good practice in a way, just looking at EQ graphs, not listening, and trying to find the right EQ settings etc.

Maybe it should be a WAT or something, because with this kind of theme, it can be really hard to produce something that doesn't sound really badly mixed but iunno, I just think it'd be really fun~

[Random111223]

We should all go Ludwig van Beethoven style, and make music without listening to it!

Of course, this would be a challenge, and it would be very hard to regulate cheating and such, but I just think it'd be a really fun idea!

So like, we'd have to compose blindly, and also mix and master blindly, which I guess could be good practice in a way, just looking at EQ graphs, not listening, and trying to find the right EQ settings etc.

Maybe it should be a WAT or something, because with this kind of theme, it can be really hard to produce something that doesn't sound really badly mixed but iunno, I just think it'd be really fun~

That's a fun idea, i'd love to try this
It would be awesome to work on a song and then listening to it the first time at the compo. I think it can be pulled off if you have a small amount of music theory in your head and you pay attention to the levels and the frequencies.

[the4thImpulse]

We should all go Ludwig van Beethoven style, and make music without listening to it!

Of course, this would be a challenge, and it would be very hard to regulate cheating and such, but I just think it'd be a really fun idea!

So like, we'd have to compose blindly, and also mix and master blindly, which I guess could be good practice in a way, just looking at EQ graphs, not listening, and trying to find the right EQ settings etc.

Maybe it should be a WAT or something, because with this kind of theme, it can be really hard to produce something that doesn't sound really badly mixed but iunno, I just think it'd be really fun~

That's a fun idea, i'd love to try this
It would be awesome to work on a song and then listening to it the first time at the compo. I think it can be pulled off if you have a small amount of music theory in your head and you pay attention to the levels and the frequencies.

I really want to try this!

[Solarsail]

key, well-known pony songs and musicians
Storm's Shadow of a Flower

Aww I am flattered

Because it ended up being remixed by 30+ people and lots of them showed up on EqD. I was trying to be objective with my list there, to show how important Toastbeard was.

[Anorax]

I'm not sue what to do about participation, but what if there was a theme that was a WAT centered around collaboration?
EDIT: just now saw the slew of recent messages. So, ehat abiut a WAT that was not only "deaf", but a collaboration as well? (that'd be nigh impossible, but whatever)

you'd have to make sure you are both using the same daw and plugins though...

[Legion]

I'm not sue what to do about participation, but what if there was a theme that was a WAT centered around collaboration?
EDIT: just now saw the slew of recent messages. So, ehat abiut a WAT that was not only "deaf", but a collaboration as well? (that'd be nigh impossible, but whatever)

you'd have to make sure you are both using the same daw and plugins though...

I REALLY like the idea of a deaf Toast Beard, but I don't think collaborating should be a requirement of Toast Beard unless it really ties into the theme. Plus, I'd just want to do this solo personally.

[Applejinx]

Not sure why TB would go shorter deadline but have people noticed that particpation and voting HAVE declined? That's shocking... it seemed to happen after the sync listen changed times. I'd love to get the newer crew into TB as it is the lifeblood of the community and it has a rich history within our community. I think its important to poll what people will think will improve it and keep it strong and reducing the deadline I can't think would be good for other than troll entries or WIPs.

Lets also realize we have a long hiatus where we'll have to do themed entries as new episode responses won't be an option.

I'd love to get involved and I'm not frightened of shorter deadlines because I'm doing a daily music tumblr already- preproduction is its own sort of craft and there's lots of tricks that help with it, and I tend to believe good tracks happen fast or not at all, anyhow. I can't make this Saturday's TB because I'll be out of town visiting family but I'm pretty excited to actually get to hang around with a music community. I don't care if it's dwindled, it's still more friends than I have

[sci]

I don't know why the "big name" musicians aren't doing serious, lasting TB entries any more but shortening [the deadline] ensures they will defiinitely not.

I disagree thoroughly.

this is based off of what I've seen / experienced in #thasauce OHCs:
every week, the same group of people will gather in the chatroom for a few hours, write a song, sync listen, leave, and repeat.
and every week, the entries range from silly to amazing, with (much) more of the latter than the former.

I'm hoping that, maybe, if I shorten the deadline enough, the chatroom will become a bit more of a centerpiece of each compo (like with #thasauce), leading to more engagement (for lack of a better word).

Speedwriting is a challenge. Yes, you'll end up with some half-finished entries and yes, some people will just spend the time making a troll entry. but that's ok.
For the first group, they now have the base of a song that could become the next Rainbow Factory.
For the second group, hopefully the result is worth a laugh during the sync.

It will be different from TB as it is right now, but it won't be detrimental.

but have people noticed that particpation and voting HAVE declined? That's shocking... it seemed to happen after the sync listen changed times.

I don't think the schedule shifting and the participation decline are linked.
For myself, and the few people I've talked to about it, school is getting in the way.
If, when summer break starts, there isn't a resurgence of participation, then I'll start worrying.

everyone that just suggested themes

yes, good. I am taking notes. :3

[Kibbie]

A lot of people will be getting busy with school soon so I'm not surprised in seeing a little dip in the amount of people who put work into the toastbeard

OH yeah, can you vote in the toastbeard if you didn't submit a song that week?

[Freewave]

OH yeah, can you vote in the toastbeard if you didn't submit a song that week?

yep that's fine plenty of people do that.