Monthly MIDI Contest #9 - June 2012

[EnergeticEssence]

You, sir Morgan, can count me in!
I'm not sure, if I'll be able to write anything half-way good, since I've never written an anime theme, but I'll try my best ^^

[Kayin]

Oh, I forgot to mention : I'm in!

[MicroProcessor]

Sure I'll do this this time. Not as much my thing as SNES-esque boss battle would be, I feel bad about not being able to really participate in that one, but I still should be able to have fun with this!

[Zenkusa]

Interesting theme! Gonna participate.

[Charybdizs]

This is an... odd theme. It's ridiculously wide at present. What defines an anime theme? And how are we going to judge each other's entries regarding that at the end of the contest? Anime comes in all different forms, and they use drastically different styles of music. And there are always new styles. Why can't I just made any random song, and tag it as an anime intro theme? Technically it could be. There's not any defining principles on what an anime theme should or shouldn't be. They can be quiet, fast paced, happy, melancholy, saccharine, bitter, whatever the anime calls for.

Not to mention, we can't use vocals, which are a very important part of most anime themes.

[Xenu]

This is an... odd theme. It's ridiculously wide at present. What defines an anime theme? And how are we going to judge each other's entries regarding that at the end of the contest? Anime comes in all different forms, and they use drastically different styles of music. And there are always new styles. Why can't I just made any random song, and tag it as an anime intro theme? Technically it could be. There's not any defining principles on what an anime theme should or shouldn't be. They can be quiet, fast paced, happy, melancholy, saccharine, bitter, whatever the anime calls for.

The same can be said about a contest where you'd have to compose something for a color. What defines a color musically? And how would we judge each other's entries regarding that at the end of the contest? There is no defining principle on what style of music a color should represent. How can we possibly judge entries objectively on adherence to the theme?

Indeed, there is no written set of rules that defines what is an anime theme, and what isn't. Yet the same can be said about numerous other themes we've had in previous MIDI contests. What determines whether a song is fitting to the theme of an owl? What determines whether a song is fitting to the theme of Halloween? What determines whether a song is fitting to an "element" such as fire, water, earth or vegetal? What determines whether a song is fitting to any sort of picture?

Yes, there is a lot of variety among anime themes. It would be quite a shame if they all sounded the same. It would also be a shame if all the entries to this contest sounded all the same. The point of an anime intro theme is to engage the person who wants to watch it, and somehow not get boring after already having seen 20 episodes. Some themes are more restrictive. This theme is less restrictive. It goes without saying that musicality is going be important especially in this contest.

And I know that some entries are not going to sound like what I expect when I think of an anime intro theme. But I like that idea. I'm curious to see what people make of this theme. I like to hear things that I could never imagine before. I like to be amazed when people come with ideas I never thought of myself. If there is an entry that doesn't sound like any anime theme I heard, but still manages to engage me, I will give it a high score, of course.

Not to mention, we can't use vocals, which are a very important part of most anime themes.

There is nothing as subjective as musical taste.

In other words, you will have to get creative!

[KungFuFurby]

Oh, that is so true... it can be interpreted in a number of ways.

I've heard instrumental anime themes, especially when they had to be transferred to SNES games in almost all cases.

MIDI files are the only ones that I do test exports occasionally to ensure that they don't glitch out on some of the other MIDI players... though I'll admit it, only MidRadioPlayer and MIDISwing (which I believe uses a different synthesizer) are the ones I use. Quicktime stinks for debugging.

I also know that the MIDI files that I make are the ones I can give no warranty whatsoever, as there's no way I can test every single MIDI player... even if I were to test it on a Windows computer. They're also a bit more painful to test in real-time... the good news is that Harmony Assistant does MIDI output in real time. SimpleSynth (which in reality does hook up to Quicktime... not the best way to test, that's for sure) is my best bet, or I can just use any old soundfont with Harmony Assistant only. Personally, I'd prefer to test real MIDI outputs in real time, because otherwise it isn't really authentic MIDI output, now isn't it? ^_^ Then I can just test it on the other players with my test exports.

If you have extra MIDI players, you might want to test exports while you're working on your music to ensure it's working properly.

[AnthonyMorgan]

This is an... odd theme. It's ridiculously wide at present. What defines an anime theme? And how are we going to judge each other's entries regarding that at the end of the contest?

Well, myself I don't know anything about anime, except for the few I watched as a kid. But there is an obvious, common sense approach to writing an intro theme for an anime. It has to be short, catchy and evocative. Although there is no particular musical style more suited than another for it, there certainly are preferable song structures to use. It would obviously be questionable to write a requiem, or a 18-minute long background atmospheric piece here. You're probably worrying too much. It simply has to *feel* like an anime intro theme.

Also, the names of the entries might really help the listener get an idea of what you have in mind.

[KungFuFurby]

The number of themes that make it over a minute... don't know. I can't help but think of television snipping them down to one minute or less.

There is one that made an extended version of their original intro theme.

[Kayin]

I have to say that anime themes have drastically changed from what they used to be like in the 80's-late 90's until now. Opening anime themes are now generally already existing songs from artists in varying genres : it's obviously useless trying to compare the opening theme from Sailor Moon with the opening theme of a recent anime such as, for example, Persona 4 The Animation. So yeah, what "era" are we talking about here?

[EnergeticEssence]

I'd suggest something like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqX7JsfkNmk&feature=plcp

[AnthonyMorgan]

The number of themes that make it over a minute... don't know. I can't help but think of television snipping them down to one minute or less.

There is one that made an extended version of their original intro theme.

An anime intro might well be 20 seconds long, which wouldn't be great for a contest unless everyone did the same. Just like other MMC editions, having a 1-minute minimum requirement enables us to impose a standard to display a certain level of creativity and provides a solid basis to compare the different entries for the purpose of voting. It would only be a problem if anime intros could *not* be over 1 minute.

I have to say that anime themes have drastically changed from what they used to be like in the 80's-late 90's until now. Opening anime themes are now generally already existing songs from artists in varying genres : it's obviously useless trying to compare the opening theme from Sailor Moon with the opening theme of a recent anime such as, for example, Persona 4 The Animation. So yeah, what "era" are we talking about here?

No era specified. It might be any era.

I'd suggest something like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqX7JsfkNmk&feature=plcp

This theme, written by Dave Harris, is under 1 minute. It is a good intro theme though.

[EnergeticEssence]

This theme, written by Dave Harris, is under 1 minute. It is a good intro theme though.

Yeah, but it has an anime feel to it, and it is just an example. Anyway, I'd say, everyone can chose their own anime theme style.

[KungFuFurby]

Alright, back to work for me. I've already got a good chunk of music done on my end.

And provided that I don't run into any technical difficulties/distractions, I'll plan to enter one, but I'm not planning to vote. Maybe I'll do commentaries, but not voting.

[Charybdizs]

Yet the same can be said about numerous other themes we've had in previous MIDI contests.

Not really.

What determines whether a song is fitting to the theme of an owl? What determines whether a song is fitting to the theme of Halloween? What determines whether a song is fitting to an "element" such as fire, water, earth or vegetal? What determines whether a song is fitting to any sort of picture?

Halloween = Dark, Ghostly, Scary, Misechevious, Enchanted.
Owls = Wisdom, Quietude, Flight, Forest, Library.

You see, each theme has a set of moods behind it. You might ask, what makes a song sound "scary", for example? Chords. Harmonies. Whether we can consciously identify them or not, different combinations of notes mean different things to different people, in an almost universal way. It's just the way humans react to sounds. The problem I had with this contest is that I can't figure out what those underlying themes are. But, what Anthony Morgan said helped me out on that one a little.

It simply has to *feel* like an anime intro theme.

That's actually exactly what I needed. We don't really have an established list of what makes an anime theme an anime theme. There are certain characteristics that are shared between most themes, and those are what we need to try to embrace. Write a story, a synopsis of plot, with one short song. Now I'm getting excited, I might take part actually. I have story that might work perfectly. I must ask one thing though, what defines anime? Does that mean any general animated series, or does it have an actual tie in to Japanese roots?

I'd suggest something like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqX7JsfkNmk&feature=plcp

I laughed so richly. Dave Harris the hipster, writing pony music before writing pony music was cool.

The scary thing is that I recognize half of those ponies as earlier incarnations of modern ones. I could probably place a name to most.