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Questions! |
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- How to play midi files and get the best sound experience?
- What is this site for ?
- Who can participate ?
- How do I participate in the contest ?
- How can I post my photos ?
- Do I need a pretty thick skin to put a song in this contest ?
- Can I use a nickname ?
- How many submissions I can submit ?
- How can I rate a song in the Public Vote ?
- Where can I find soundfonts ?
- How to use soundfonts (or midifonts), midi files, mp3 and related stuff?
- Where can I find my submissions ?
- Where can I find a tutorial ?
- Why my submission was rejected ?
- Who do belong the copyrights to ?
- What is the TQA ?
- What is the Theme-Contest ?
- What do I need to be a reviewer ?
- When the results are ready ?
- Why some score/reviews are rejected ?
- What are credits used for ?
- Where can I find the "Merlin" and the "My Own" soundfonts ?
- How can I change or edit my submission's data ?
- And about copyrights ?
- Why some submissions are refused ?
- Submit to a contest or to the non-contest database ?
- What is mp3 space ? Do I need credits to submit my mp3 ?
- Why some submissions are "pendent" ?
- What is an "outscore" ?
- What does "waiting for vacancy" mean ?
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Answers |
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In order to listen to the midi files you must have a MIDI player associated with the .mid extension in your computer and a plugin in the browser. There are many free MIDI players available from the web. To play the files on this site we recommend the free Anvil Studio MIDI player/editor and/or the Van Basco midi player.
MIDI files sound best using either software or hardware capable to use soundfonts (*.sf2 files), GM compatible synthesizers, sound modules and wavetable soundcards. We recommend these free software: Synthfont and/or Timidity. You can download them on this site for free here. Also, check and download our free soundfonts and other stuff to get the best sound experience using midi!
| Beethoven bust award won by Dragan Popadic: |
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"I would like to say as I told before. This contest keep me composing. Sometimes I say to myself: It's enough, who needs your music? Who needs music at all in this soulless world? But here are people who like to share without earning money. That means share best part of their soul and spirit, because that's what music really is. And even if I am without ideas I am trying to compose, and always something comes to my mind. I am very happy if my music touches someone and make him/her to feel better for a moment. The same thing is when I listen to the music of the others here (of course not all the music here but still) and feel something nice. That's what this site is about. Opportunity to listen good music, to share it and to have friends somewhere who are so far, but every month we have a pleasant meeting here. Thank you all for that!" - Dragan. |
Nile River, music composed by Dragan Popadic:
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Official reviewers cannot use nicknames. And for participants it is not recommended.
Submit your composition! Look for in the left menus.
Read carefully the submitting page please.
" It is neither good nor bad, it is just a fact of life. People who have thick skins are confident in themselves and know where they stand in life. People who do not have thick skins are insecure and usually have self-confidence issues (sometimes ego issues as well). If person A is insecure, person B comments about A's music, and A has a bad reaction then it is not necessarily B's fault for making the comment. In this contest, it is NEVER B's fault for making the comment. I only say "not ncessarily" because in the outside world, some things do get out of hand. Nothing in the contest is out of line for comments in reviews, and the submissions are 100% voluntary. The last point is one to keep in mind for those who like to complain a lot ". Donya Quick, 2004 Dec 6.
In USER PROFILE you can upload and select your main photo. Additionally, you can upload 4 photos to your profile.
Three if one for each category (classical, popular and cinematic), or two for any category. See rules please.
Listen to a piece and use the Rate It button. To rate, use a score based on the following table:
Look for Donwloads, Soundfonts in the left menus. You can download soundfonts as also you can upload instrument soundfonts.
Soon after submission, in the Midi or MP3 Lists.
After it is approved, in the current monthly contest listing (look in the left menus for Old Index and New Index links).
You can also make detailed searches in the Search section or look for your name in the Composer Gallery.
You can find a tutorial in the left menus or here.
There are some possible reasons.
The most common happens when the author is identified in the submission form or inside the midi file tracks.
Also non original music is rejected.
We recommend to read the rules.
Everybody. Composers and listeners. Amateurs and professionals. Participants and reviewers. Men and women. Old guys and kids. However, mockery, taunt, obscenity etc are not allowed. Also, your submissions must be original.
The authors.
Top Quality Award, granted only to the best of the bests.
Every month we have a theme. If your submission follows that theme, you can try to win the Theme Contest Award as well!
To be a brave, understand the difference between a good composition played by a poor performer and a poor composition played by an excellent performer. Remember: this is MUSIC contest using midi, mp3 and Sibelius scores as media.
If you want to help us to make things better, then you can be a reviewer.
In addition, some good equipment to listen to midi files is highly recommended.
You can start right now in the Online Review page.
First monday after 15th day of next month. Look for in the Reviewer Room or in the top of the homepage.
We use a statistic normal (Gauss) curve to fit the results and reject those which are too far the acceptable range. The threshold is about 10%.
The main usage for credits is to pay for certain Merlin soundfonts downloads.
But there is also something called Participation Points (PPs). And users can exchange 10 PPs for 1 CR. (Your Account left menu link).
Users can get PPs participating: submitting compositions, writting messages in the forums, reviewing etc.
Thus, the credits are used mainly to encourage donations, but are not really necessary.
Please, click here to read information about midi, mp3 and soundfont stuff.
Do you want to download soundfonts? It's here.
Go to the soundfonts page clicking here.
You can submit/upload mp3-only files to the free upload space or submit midi+mp3 files to the mp3 space.
The user will be billed monthly by a small amount of credits (or Participation Points, automatically) for all megabytes stored in his/her mp3 space.
If there are credits, they will be deduced. If not, PPs will be deduced. Notice that Pps can be negative!
Indeed, credits are used to encourage donations but are not really necessary. This site is FREE!
Go to Submit, Update.
Notice you cannot change ANY data. Also, you cannot change your submission data while it is being reviewed.
You can change your submission's data while the contest is open (the current contest submissions) or after the results when the contest is closed and reviewed.
The copyrights belong to the author.
To ensure you are the author, we recommend that you do at least one of the following:
1- Post your work in as many public sites as you can, like this site. Of course, enter your real user name, picture and email address to identify yourself.
2- Mail your work to yourself (with attention to the date stamp) and do not open it after you receive it.
3- Register your work with the Library of Congress (USA) or some secure equivalent place.
See also Terms Conditions.
Submissions to the contest must be approved to participate.
The most common reasons for refusals are the following:
- ANONYMITY: the submission (midi, mp3 or score file, description, keywords etc) cannot reveal the author before the results.
- QUALITY: a minimum level of quality is required to avoid mockery, jokes, plagiarism, non sense etc.
- LIMITS: max 20 mins for ALL submitted works, min 1:30 for each work, max of 2 works on any category, max of 3 works on different categories.
- SIZE LIMITS: 350K all midi works; 15M each mp3; 20M all mp3 files each contest.
- ORIGINALITY: the composition must be original (see below rules for arrangements).
- NAMES: the composer must use always the same author-name for all his/her compositions.
Rules for acceptance in priority order (a lower rule can be broken if a higher rule demands to and exceptions will be judged by Sysop and official reviewers):
1- NUMBER OF SUBMISSIONS
2- ORIGINALITY
3- ANONIMITY
4- ENCOURAGE PARTICIPATION
5- EMPHASIZE QUALITY
6- SIZE LIMITS
7- TIME LIMITS
8- RIGHT CATEGORIES
You can submit your works to the Contest or the non-Contest.
If to the monthly contests, they will be reviewed, rated and will participate in the contest.
If to the Composer section, they will be posted in a forum to get public review and be rated.
A submission can be pendent for some reasons. Usually one of these:
- new user with email not confirmed yet
- more than one submission to the same contest; then it gets pendent waiting for vacancy at the end of submission period
- some error in the file submitted, midi or mp3, as name inside the file that is displayed in the player
The rules state you cannot enter several submissions to the same contest, without some limitations.
If you submit a second work to the same contest, for example, it remains PENDENT until the submission deadline. Other composers, with only one work submitted, get precedence and the pendent work goes to the next contest.
Usually, most get accepted in the same contest. BUT... this depends on the total number of submissions for each category.
Please, read the rules to learn more.
Based on Gaussian statistical calculations, a score that is out of some limits is considered invalid, an outscore.
The limit thresholds can be seen in the Contest -> Index -> Results -> Total page for each contest, columns MAX and MIN.
An outscore does not count to the resulting ranks while the review is still valid and appears in the result pages.
If you submit more than one work to the same contest, it will "wait for vacancy" because there are limits for each contest.
Single submissions take precedence.
If at the end of the month when the contest "closes" there is no vacancy, a 'pendent' submission can be refused or postponed to the next contest.
To know more about the each contest limits and submission restrictions, please read the rules.
You are welcome to participate, submit your compositions and listen to all free midi and mp3 files of this site.
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What you can find here |
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- Thousands of high quality original compositions in midi and mp3 format to listen to composed by the contest participants.
- A database with more than 5444 files in three categories: Classical, Popular and Cinematic/Orchestral.
- A monthly music contest to participate and enjoy!
- Public ranking, Theme-contest, Quizes, Polls, Essays, Forums and more...
How does the contests work?
For the regular midi contest you can submit your original midi (including a mp3 and/or a score-sib file) composition and it will be listen and reviewed by our staff of reviewers. They listen to, study each submission and rate them accordingly a set of specific criteria, choose the Top Quality ones and write down comments about.
The same is for for the mp3-only contest, except you do not need a midi.
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