Kevin

Hello everyone,   First of all, I want to thank everyone would participated in this composers challenge. We actually had more entries than with Dear Esther and Mass Effect 2 which is a very gratifying feeling.   I tell you that two of the professional composers (James Peterson and William Stromberg) were unable to review the entries due to professional commitments. However, Alain Mayrand and Vladmir Nikolov.   Before I announce the top three, I want to explain the voting process. People voted each entry out of 10 and then I averaged out the votes per entry to determine the winner. I have also complied all of the reviews and comments that people shared out the each entry so each composer will receive those comments from me shortly after this posting. Note: when you read them, each new number is someone else commenting on it.   It was very close between first and second place with 0.02 a difference between them.   The winner of The Artist Composers Challenge is: Entry 12 - CS_TBL of Filmtracks with an average score of 8.77 out of 10: 
Second place went to Entry 7 - HowdyDoodle of Reddit with an average score of 8.75 out of 10:
Third place went to Entry 4 - Sciscitatio of Reddit with an average score of 7.45 out of 10:
  If you did not finish in the top three but want to know where you finished, please contact me personally at composerschallenge at hotmail dot com or my personal email (if you already know it).   I have a few ideas of clips that I want to do for the next composers challenge. The next challenge will start sometime in the new year.   Kevin

Hello everyone,   First of all, I want to thank everyone would participated in this composers challenge. We actually had more entries than with Dear Esther and Mass Effect 2 which is a very gratifying feeling.   I tell you that two of the professional composers (James Peterson and William Stromberg) were unable to review the entries due to professional commitments. However, Alain Mayrand and Vladmir Nikolov.   Before I announce the top three, I want to explain the voting process. People voted each entry out of 10 and then I averaged out the votes per entry to determine the winner. I have also complied all of the reviews and comments that people shared out the each entry so each composer will receive those comments from me shortly after this posting. Note: when you read them, each new number is someone else commenting on it.   It was very close between first and second place with 0.02 a difference between them.   The winner of The Artist Composers Challenge is: Entry 12 - CS_TBL of Filmtracks with an average score of 8.77 out of 10: 
Second place went to Entry 7 - HowdyDoodle of Reddit with an average score of 8.75 out of 10:
Third place went to Entry 4 - Sciscitatio of Reddit with an average score of 7.45 out of 10:
  If you did not finish in the top three but want to know where you finished, please contact me personally at composerschallenge at hotmail dot com or my personal email (if you already know it).   I have a few ideas of clips that I want to do for the next composers challenge. The next challenge will start sometime in the new year.   Kevin

Hello everyone,   First of all, I want to thank everyone would participated in this composers challenge. We actually had more entries than with Dear Esther and Mass Effect 2 which is a very gratifying feeling.   I tell you that two of the professional composers (James Peterson and William Stromberg) were unable to review the entries due to professional commitments. However, Alain Mayrand and Vladmir Nikolov.   Before I announce the top three, I want to explain the voting process. People voted each entry out of 10 and then I averaged out the votes per entry to determine the winner. I have also complied all of the reviews and comments that people shared out the each entry so each composer will receive those comments from me shortly after this posting. Note: when you read them, each new number is someone else commenting on it.   It was very close between first and second place with 0.02 a difference between them.   The winner of The Artist Composers Challenge is: Entry 12 - CS_TBL of Filmtracks with an average score of 8.77 out of 10: 
Second place went to Entry 7 - HowdyDoodle of Reddit with an average score of 8.75 out of 10:
Third place went to Entry 4 - Sciscitatio of Reddit with an average score of 7.45 out of 10:
  If you did not finish in the top three but want to know where you finished, please contact me personally at composerschallenge at hotmail dot com or my personal email (if you already know it).   I have a few ideas of clips that I want to do for the next composers challenge. The next challenge will start sometime in the new year.   Kevin

It's a pity I couldn't contribute, but I've been very occupied with school lately and I've replaced more or less everything in my orchestral template with (far superior) Orchestral Tools libraries, as well as extending my setup with a slave computer running VEP, which cost me only €80 but comes in very handy, to say the least.

Hello everyone,
 
In the end, it turned out that we have 12 wonderful entries (which is more than the last two composers challenge).
 
Now that the contest is closed, the voting can begin. Let me be clear, everyone (not just composers) can vote and giving feedback on the entries is highly encouraged. The comments allow each of the composers to learn from this experience.
 
For voting, you rate each entry out of 10 (one being the worst and ten being the best). At the end, the votes will be added up and the top three will be announced.
Composers who entered this contest: You cannot vote for your own entry.
 
Here is the playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZTxpL6wfPQrOtsNIN8WMD5zPG0qhHsVy
 
These clips have been labelled for the purposes of anonymity. If you entered the contest or if you know someone who entered the contest, please do not name the entry in question or name the composer in question.
 
The deadline for voting will be November 27th. That gives you two weeks to listen to the clips and vote. I know that there are a lot of entries but if you do one or two a day, then it becomes easier.
 
If you have any questions, please contact me at composerschallenge at hotmail dot com.
 
Kevin

's two weeks left until the deadline, plenty of time to sign and write! There's two weeks left until the deadline, plenty of time to sign and write!
 
Remember if you enter, you will receive feedback from professional composers:
1) William Stromberg - Composer best known for Trinty & Beyond and Starship Troopers 2 and Master of Re-recordings.
2) Alain Mayrand - Composer best known for The Legend of Silk Boy and Orchestrator/Conductor of Elysium.
3) James Peterson - Composer best known for The Red Canvas (with its 12 minute Ballet for Brawlers cue).

How exciting! I'm not sure if I have the chops, but I'll at least try and participate. In fact ... I've already begun.

Hello everyone,
 
With the last Composers Challenge using an action clip from the award winning game 'Mass Effect 2', I thought that the next Composers Challenge should take us into another realm.
 
The Artist is an Oscar winning silent film which follows the life of an actor in the silent film era. Ludovic Bource wrote an Oscar winning score for the movie.
 
The 3 minute scene is from the dramatic climax of the movie where the actor is down in the dumps because, faced with the ultimate choice in life and his love interest is desperately trying to find him:
 
I thought that this clip would be a good choice because we have not had drama as yet and drama is an important genre to master. You could take any approach to this, don't feel like there is only way to do this; you could make it sound like a musical score from that time period or you could make it more modern sounding (since the emotion is timeless).
 
What is different about this challenge is that there will be professions from the film music industry reviewing the entries in addition to the contestants own:
1) William Stromberg - Composer best known for Trinty & Beyond and Starship Troopers 2 and Master of Re-recordings.
2) Alain Mayrand - Composer best known for The Legend of Silk Boy and Orchestrator/Conductor of Elysium.
3) Vladimir Nikolov - Orchestrator who worked on The Artist.
 
Also a couple International Film Music Critics Association members will also be commenting on the entries.
 
The deadline for this challenge is November 12th. Either the composers can:
a) upload their own entries to YouTube (but unlisted) and send me the link so I can make a playlist.
b) send me the music file (through a file sharing website), tell me where the music goes, and I can do it myself. The music file should be MP3 or equivalent.
 
It is important that the entries be anonymous. The identity of the composer videos will be announced after the voting has finished.
In regards to the voting, the composers, or anyone else who wants, will submit their votes/rankings by rating each entry out of 10. The votes will be averaged out of 10 and the top three will be announced.
 
Everyone will receive reviews on their efforts (either from other composers, members of the community or myself included). The composers of the challenge are requested to give a short review of the other works. If anyone who finishes outside of the top three wants to know how they did, then contact me. If anyone not participating in the challenge wants to be a reviewer, you are more than welcome to.
 
The prize for winning the Composers Challenge would be either one of the following (depending on the winner's preference):
a) A CD paid for by me shipped to the winner's address
b) A cash equivalent (up to $25-30 Canadian (exchange rates pending).
 
If you have any questions, concerns or comments, please contact me at composerschallenge at hotmail dot com.
 
Best of luck to everyone and have fun!
 
Kevin
 
PS: I forgot to mention that anyone who directly plagiarizes from The Artist score (even if the music was not used in the movie) will be disqualified. Use your own voice, not someone else's.

Hello everyone,
 
With the last Composers Challenge using an action clip from the award winning game 'Mass Effect 2', I thought that the next Composers Challenge should take us into another realm.
 
The Artist is an Oscar winning silent film which follows the life of an actor in the silent film era. Ludovic Bource wrote an Oscar winning score for the movie.
 
The 3 minute scene is from the dramatic climax of the movie where the actor is down in the dumps because, faced with the ultimate choice in life and his love interest is desperately trying to find him:
 
I thought that this clip would be a good choice because we have not had drama as yet and drama is an important genre to master. You could take any approach to this, don't feel like there is only way to do this; you could make it sound like a musical score from that time period or you could make it more modern sounding (since the emotion is timeless).
 
What is different about this challenge is that there will be professions from the film music industry reviewing the entries in addition to the contestants own:
1) William Stromberg - Composer best known for Trinty & Beyond and Starship Troopers 2 and Master of Re-recordings.
2) Alain Mayrand - Composer best known for The Legend of Silk Boy and Orchestrator/Conductor of Elysium.
3) Vladimir Nikolov - Orchestrator who worked on The Artist.
 
Also a couple International Film Music Critics Association members will also be commenting on the entries.
 
The deadline for this challenge is November 12th. Either the composers can:
a) upload their own entries to YouTube (but unlisted) and send me the link so I can make a playlist.
b) send me the music file (through a file sharing website), tell me where the music goes, and I can do it myself. The music file should be MP3 or equivalent.
 
It is important that the entries be anonymous. The identity of the composer videos will be announced after the voting has finished.
In regards to the voting, the composers, or anyone else who wants, will submit their votes/rankings by rating each entry out of 10. The votes will be averaged out of 10 and the top three will be announced.
 
Everyone will receive reviews on their efforts (either from other composers, members of the community or myself included). The composers of the challenge are requested to give a short review of the other works. If anyone who finishes outside of the top three wants to know how they did, then contact me. If anyone not participating in the challenge wants to be a reviewer, you are more than welcome to.
 
The prize for winning the Composers Challenge would be either one of the following (depending on the winner's preference):
a) A CD paid for by me shipped to the winner's address
b) A cash equivalent (up to $25-30 Canadian (exchange rates pending).
 
If you have any questions, concerns or comments, please contact me at composerschallenge at hotmail dot com.
 
Best of luck to everyone and have fun!
 
Kevin
 
PS: I forgot to mention that anyone who directly plagiarizes from The Artist score (even if the music was not used in the movie) will be disqualified. Use your own voice, not someone else's.

Hello everyone,
 
With the last Composers Challenge using an action clip from the award winning game 'Mass Effect 2', I thought that the next Composers Challenge should take us into another realm.
 
The Artist is an Oscar winning silent film which follows the life of an actor in the silent film era. Ludovic Bource wrote an Oscar winning score for the movie.
 
The 3 minute scene is from the dramatic climax of the movie where the actor is down in the dumps because, faced with the ultimate choice in life and his love interest is desperately trying to find him:
 
I thought that this clip would be a good choice because we have not had drama as yet and drama is an important genre to master. You could take any approach to this, don't feel like there is only way to do this; you could make it sound like a musical score from that time period or you could make it more modern sounding (since the emotion is timeless).
 
What is different about this challenge is that there will be professions from the film music industry reviewing the entries in addition to the contestants own:
1) William Stromberg - Composer best known for Trinty & Beyond and Starship Troopers 2 and Master of Re-recordings.
2) Alain Mayrand - Composer best known for The Legend of Silk Boy and Orchestrator/Conductor of Elysium.
3) Vladimir Nikolov - Orchestrator who worked on The Artist.
 
Also a couple International Film Music Critics Association members will also be commenting on the entries.
 
The deadline for this challenge is November 12th. Either the composers can:
a) upload their own entries to YouTube (but unlisted) and send me the link so I can make a playlist.
b) send me the music file (through a file sharing website), tell me where the music goes, and I can do it myself. The music file should be MP3 or equivalent.
 
It is important that the entries be anonymous. The identity of the composer videos will be announced after the voting has finished.
In regards to the voting, the composers, or anyone else who wants, will submit their votes/rankings by rating each entry out of 10. The votes will be averaged out of 10 and the top three will be announced.
 
Everyone will receive reviews on their efforts (either from other composers, members of the community or myself included). The composers of the challenge are requested to give a short review of the other works. If anyone who finishes outside of the top three wants to know how they did, then contact me. If anyone not participating in the challenge wants to be a reviewer, you are more than welcome to.
 
The prize for winning the Composers Challenge would be either one of the following (depending on the winner's preference):
a) A CD paid for by me shipped to the winner's address
b) A cash equivalent (up to $25-30 Canadian (exchange rates pending).
 
If you have any questions, concerns or comments, please contact me at composerschallenge at hotmail dot com.
 
Best of luck to everyone and have fun!
 
Kevin
 
PS: I forgot to mention that anyone who directly plagiarizes from The Artist score (even if the music was not used in the movie) will be disqualified. Use your own voice, not someone else's.

Hello everyone,
 
With the last Composers Challenge using an action clip from the award winning game 'Mass Effect 2', I thought that the next Composers Challenge should take us into another realm.
 
The Artist is an Oscar winning silent film which follows the life of an actor in the silent film era. Ludovic Bource wrote an Oscar winning score for the movie.
 
The 3 minute scene is from the dramatic climax of the movie where the actor is down in the dumps because, faced with the ultimate choice in life and his love interest is desperately trying to find him:
 
I thought that this clip would be a good choice because we have not had drama as yet and drama is an important genre to master. You could take any approach to this, don't feel like there is only way to do this; you could make it sound like a musical score from that time period or you could make it more modern sounding (since the emotion is timeless).
 
What is different about this challenge is that there will be professions from the film music industry reviewing the entries in addition to the contestants own:
1) William Stromberg - Composer best known for Trinty & Beyond and Starship Troopers 2 and Master of Re-recordings.
2) Alain Mayrand - Composer best known for The Legend of Silk Boy and Orchestrator/Conductor of Elysium.
3) Vladimir Nikolov - Orchestrator who worked on The Artist.
 
Also a couple International Film Music Critics Association members will also be commenting on the entries.
 
The deadline for this challenge is November 12th. Either the composers can:
a) upload their own entries to YouTube (but unlisted) and send me the link so I can make a playlist.
b) send me the music file (through a file sharing website), tell me where the music goes, and I can do it myself. The music file should be MP3 or equivalent.
 
It is important that the entries be anonymous. The identity of the composer videos will be announced after the voting has finished.
In regards to the voting, the composers, or anyone else who wants, will submit their votes/rankings by rating each entry out of 10. The votes will be averaged out of 10 and the top three will be announced.
 
Everyone will receive reviews on their efforts (either from other composers, members of the community or myself included). The composers of the challenge are requested to give a short review of the other works. If anyone who finishes outside of the top three wants to know how they did, then contact me. If anyone not participating in the challenge wants to be a reviewer, you are more than welcome to.
 
The prize for winning the Composers Challenge would be either one of the following (depending on the winner's preference):
a) A CD paid for by me shipped to the winner's address
b) A cash equivalent (up to $25-30 Canadian (exchange rates pending).
 
If you have any questions, concerns or comments, please contact me at composerschallenge at hotmail dot com.
 
Best of luck to everyone and have fun!
 
Kevin
 
PS: I forgot to mention that anyone who directly plagiarizes from The Artist score (even if the music was not used in the movie) will be disqualified. Use your own voice, not someone else's.

Not bad for a first time from either of you.

Not bad for a first time from either of you.

Hello everyone,
 
First of all, I want to thank everyone would participated in this composers challenge. We actually had more entries than with Dear Esther (even though the Mass Effect 2 was six minutes long!). That is very gratifying to see.
 
Before I announce the top three, I want to explain the voting process. People voted each entry out of 10 and then I averaged out the votes per entry to determine the winner. I have also complied all of the reviews and comments that people shared out the each entry so each composer will receive those comments from me shortly after this posting. Note: when you read them, each new number is someone else commenting on it.
 
Anyway, onto the results!
 
The winner of the Mass Effect 2 Composers Challenge is:
Entry 8 - Loert from the JWFan Message Board
 
Loert scored an average of 7.91 out of 10.
 
Second place went to Entry 1 - Manikin Skywalker from the JWFan Message Board
 
Manikin scored an average of 7.36 out of 10.
 
Third place went to Entry 2 - Alex (SkyLynx of the Filmtracks ScoreBoard)
 
Alex scored an average of 7.18 out of 10.
 
Congratulations to Loert for winning and Manikin and Alex for finishing in the top three.
 
If you did not finish in the top three but want to know where you finished, please contact me personally at composerschallenge at hotmail dot com or my personal email (if you already know it).
 
I have a few ideas of clips that I want to do for the next composers challenge. The next clip WILL BE shorter I promise than the one used for this challenge.
 
Kevin

Congrats!! And wow I got 2nd place?!

Congrats @loert!

Yikes! Crikey! Wow!
 
Thank you so much to everybody who voted, and for all the constructive feedback. So flattered to have won. Congratulations to Manikin and Alex for 2nd and 3rd place as well!
 
For what it's worth, I posted the audio track on Soundcloud, in case anybody is interested in having a listen.
 
 
Once again, thank you everyone for all the votes and comments. It truly means a lot!

Hello everyone,
 
First of all, I want to thank everyone would participated in this composers challenge. We actually had more entries than with Dear Esther (even though the Mass Effect 2 was six minutes long!). That is very gratifying to see.
 
Before I announce the top three, I want to explain the voting process. People voted each entry out of 10 and then I averaged out the votes per entry to determine the winner. I have also complied all of the reviews and comments that people shared out the each entry so each composer will receive those comments from me shortly after this posting. Note: when you read them, each new number is someone else commenting on it.
 
Anyway, onto the results!
 
The winner of the Mass Effect 2 Composers Challenge is:
Entry 8 - Loert from the JWFan Message Board
 
Loert scored an average of 7.91 out of 10.
 
Second place went to Entry 1 - Manikin Skywalker from the JWFan Message Board
 
Manikin scored an average of 7.36 out of 10.
 
Third place went to Entry 2 - Alex (SkyLynx of the Filmtracks ScoreBoard)
 
Alex scored an average of 7.18 out of 10.
 
Congratulations to Loert for winning and Manikin and Alex for finishing in the top three.
 
If you did not finish in the top three but want to know where you finished, please contact me personally at composerschallenge at hotmail dot com or my personal email (if you already know it).
 
I have a few ideas of clips that I want to do for the next composers challenge. The next clip WILL BE shorter I promise than the one used for this challenge.
 
Kevin

Hello everyone,
 
In the end, it turned out that we have 9 wonderful entries (almost the same as last time but this clip was longer).
 
Now that the contest is closed, the voting can begin. Let me be clear, everyone (not just composers) can vote and giving feedback on the entries is highly encouraged. The comments allow each of the composers to learn from this experience.
 
For voting, you rate each entry out of 10 (one being the worst and ten being the best). At the end, the votes will be added up and the top three will be announced.
 
Composers who entered this contest: You cannot vote for your own entry.
 
Here is the playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZTxpL6wfPQoZWjl9-wAAUiqxsG-PgKIK
 
These clips have been labelled for the purposes of anonymity. If you entered the contest or if you know someone who entered the contest, please do not name the entry in question or name the composer in question.
 
The deadline for voting will be August 19th. That gives you two weeks to listen to the clips and vote.
 
If you have any questions, please contact me at composerschallenge at hotmail dot com.
 
Kevin

Hello everyone,
 
In the end, it turned out that we have 9 wonderful entries (almost the same as last time but this clip was longer).
 
Now that the contest is closed, the voting can begin. Let me be clear, everyone (not just composers) can vote and giving feedback on the entries is highly encouraged. The comments allow each of the composers to learn from this experience.
 
For voting, you rate each entry out of 10 (one being the worst and ten being the best). At the end, the votes will be added up and the top three will be announced.
 
Composers who entered this contest: You cannot vote for your own entry.
 
Here is the playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZTxpL6wfPQoZWjl9-wAAUiqxsG-PgKIK
 
These clips have been labelled for the purposes of anonymity. If you entered the contest or if you know someone who entered the contest, please do not name the entry in question or name the composer in question.
 
The deadline for voting will be August 19th. That gives you two weeks to listen to the clips and vote.
 
If you have any questions, please contact me at composerschallenge at hotmail dot com.
 
Kevin

Why not? I've always wanted to compose music for a sci-fi space setting.
 
I'll give this contest a whirl. ^_^

I saw this thread and decided to make my own version just for fun... so no need to enter my name in your contest or anything. For the most part I ended up using some stock music I had composed a while back, mixing it with some cues I wrote this week. After seeing the cutscene, I thought that some of said music might work pretty well scored to it, at least in my opinion.
 
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4TAY1QZsUSYLXpJMTYwdVVvbzQ

Hello everyone,
 
After the success of the last Composers Challenge with a clip from the award winning video game 'Dear Esther', I have started another Composers Challenge but taking it into the science fiction/action category.
 
Mass Effect 2 is an award winning video game and a part of the most loved game sagas in history. Its mix of science fiction, action, drama and sheer epic nature makes it the perfect candidate for a challenge:
 
The scene is from the action-filled opening. I picked this scene because it allows the composer is weave together this sequence musically and be able to flex his/her musical muscles:
 
For those of you unfamiliar with this scene, our protagonist Commander John Shepard and his crew aboard the SSV Normandy are on patrol for enemies in the Terminus Sector. They come across something they were not expecting to find.
 
Do not be scared away due to the length of the scene and feel like you need to score it wall to wall. Depending on where you choose the point of where the music should start and stop, there could actually be less music in the scene than in the previous challenge of Dear Esther. But I do promise that the next Composers Challenge will have a shorter scene.
 
The deadline for this challenge is August 1st. Either the composers can:
a) upload their own entries to YouTube (but unlisted) and send me the link so I can make a playlist.
b) send me the music file (through a file sharing website), tell me where the music goes, and I can do it myself. The music file should be MP3 or equivalent.
 
It is important that the entries be anonymous. The identity of the composer videos will be announced after the voting has finished.
 
In regards to the voting, the composers, or anyone else who wants, will submit their votes/rankings by rating each entry out of 10 and also ranking each entry against each other. The two voting methods will be averaged and the top three will be announced.
 
Everyone will receive reviews on their efforts (either from other composers, members of the community or myself included). The composers of the challenge are requested to give a short review of the other works. If anyone who finishes outside of the top three wants to know how they did, then contact me. If anyone not participating in the challenge wants to be a reviewer, you are more than welcome to.
 
The prize for winning the Composers Challenge would be either one of the following (depending on the winner's preference):
a) A CD paid for by me shipped to the winner's address
b) A cash equivalent (up to $25-30 Canadian (exchange rates pending).  
c) A copy of Mass Effect 2 purchased via Steam or Origin.
 
If you have any questions, concerns or comments, please contact me at composerschallenge at hotmail dot com.
 
Best of luck to everyone and have fun!
 
Kevin
 
PS: I forgot to mention that anyone who directly plagiarizes from the original Mass Effect scores will be disqualified. Use your own voice, not someone else's.
 

Hello everyone,
So we have received all of the entries for the Composers Challenge, now it's time to vote. All the composers have received an email from me with a link to a Youtube playlist.
 
The composers have one week to vote on and rank the other composers' entries. After that the rankings will be compiled and the winner will be announced. Again, if you are a composer for this challenge, please check your email (or junk mail) for my email.
 
For those who just want to review the entries, here is the link (but your votes will not be counted).
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLShjA9iqcZ2eFYfABesvD9Xgd4krY2rvD
 
Again, The composers have until May 17th to cast your votes.
 
If anyone is curious about the next composers challenge, I have an action scene in mind from a popular epic science-fiction video game.
 
Thanks to everyone for their support.
 
Kevin

Hello everyone,
So we have received all of the entries for the Composers Challenge, now it's time to vote. All the composers have received an email from me with a link to a Youtube playlist.
 
The composers have one week to vote on and rank the other composers' entries. After that the rankings will be compiled and the winner will be announced. Again, if you are a composer for this challenge, please check your email (or junk mail) for my email.
 
For those who just want to review the entries, here is the link (but your votes will not be counted).
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLShjA9iqcZ2eFYfABesvD9Xgd4krY2rvD
 
Again, The composers have until May 17th to cast your votes.
 
If anyone is curious about the next composers challenge, I have an action scene in mind from a popular epic science-fiction video game.
 
Thanks to everyone for their support.
 
Kevin