# Is there a monthly mockup competition here on VI?



## JSTube (Nov 9, 2022)

I was thinking something along the lines of: provide a PDF that's not in violation of copyright, and then we can each submit our attempts to mock up that piece, using whatever hardware+software we have. 

If this has been done before, I apologize for the double-post, but I think it could be a fun thing to have continually on a month-to-month basis, as well as help some of us keep our skills sharp while we're not necessarily working on something.

The prize is just that you win 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in a poll, it's nothing serious beyond that! Just looking to have some fun. If anyone has any suggestions or ideas to add, feel free.


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## liquidlino (Nov 9, 2022)

Can we adopt the reamixed idea, which is that the winner each month gets to choose the next months piece to mockup?

We'd have to keep the pieces relatively short/uncomplicated I think - asking folk to invest more than 5-6 hours a month would lose interest fairly rapidly.


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## JSTube (Nov 9, 2022)

I like that idea, going off of that, I'm thinking maybe the top 3 finalists after the 'winner' is decided, the top 3 each get to put a suggestion for a piece (further making the 1/2/3 places more or less an 'equal prize'), which then gets voted upon by the community (so there's still an equal decision among participants, and to keep interest levels up).

Maybe this sounds complicated, but I think it could still allow a runner-up to introduce a good idea, while retaining the 'chance' to suggest something which will be voted upon.

Here's a clarified edit for what I'm proposing:

Essentially, each month is 2 polls -- one for which member did the best
mockup for the current month's piece, and then shortly after that poll data becomes available -- the top 3 winners for the month each get to put in their personal suggestions for next month's piece, which then gets voted upon once more by the community. The piece the community selects out of the 3 becomes next month's mockup. The community votes twice per month, once to gauge the contestants, and once more to select next month's piece.

The general idea of this is transparency and education of other members, but I think the trickiest part will actually be finding pieces that we're allowed to distribute score-wise, that are still modern enough to make people want to participate.


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## Henrik B. Jensen (Nov 9, 2022)

We only _talk_ about samples; we never actually use them.


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## Denkii (Nov 9, 2022)

You mean with people finishing tracks and all?


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## blaggins (Nov 9, 2022)

liquidlino said:


> asking folk to invest more than 5-6 hours a month would lose interest fairly rapidly.


Y'all can finish a mockup in 5 hours?!


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## liquidlino (Nov 9, 2022)

blaggins said:


> Y'all can finish a mockup in 5 hours?!


that's about how long I spent on each of the HTTYD mockups in my sig - they're about a minute long each. I think that's a great length for competition mockups. Or could be longer, but with less parts.


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## blaggins (Nov 9, 2022)

liquidlino said:


> that's about how long I spent on each of the HTTYD mockups in my sig - they're about a minute long each. I think that's a great length for competition mockups. Or could be longer, but with less parts.


Man I'm slow! I'll time my next one but I'm betting they take me closer to 20 hours for a similar length.... <sigh>


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## liquidlino (Nov 9, 2022)

blaggins said:


> Man I'm slow! I'll time my next one but I'm betting they take me closer to 20 hours for a similar length.... <sigh>


Where do you find you spend the time? Note entry / articulation editing / performance cc & vel editing / mixing?


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## JSTube (Nov 9, 2022)

Having a reason to reach the finish line is my Achilles heel


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## blaggins (Nov 9, 2022)

liquidlino said:


> Where do you find you spend the time? Note entry / articulation editing / performance cc & vel editing / mixing?


All of the above really, though note entry goes quite fast actually. I spend a lot of time picking the right articulations and massaging CC curves and velocity to get each phrase sounding realistic. Balancing levels across all the instruments is pretty time consuming for me as well, and mixing can take a long time if I'm messing with EQ and external reverbs or anything else like saturation and compression.


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## Denkii (Nov 9, 2022)

liquidlino said:


> that's about how long I spent on each of the HTTYD mockups in my sig - they're about a minute long each. I think that's a great length for competition mockups. Or could be longer, but with less parts.


My wife told me it's not a race.
It's a shrimp all you can eat with many seconds.
Maybe she was talking about a different competition but I don't know.
You see when I was born, a fairy let me decide whether I end up physically mediocre or with an extremely bad memory but I cannot remember what I picked.


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