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Spitfire Westworld - Winner Announced!

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I don’t think it was rigged either. That wasn’t what I quoted. But if a contest is rigged (ANY contest), you think that that would be ok, provided that you got a free clip to score to?

It would be crappy to learn it was rigged, of course. But what would you have lost, regardless (in this case)? Nothing. We all gained from it in some form or another. Otherwise, it's wasted energy that could have been spent being creative.
 
I think another competition is definalely out the window now.
After the dust has settled and time has passed I’d be very surprised if they would let the Moaning Minnie’s and Negative Nelly’s affect their decision to run another one or not. They’re called Spitfire - they don’t fly away at the first sight of anti-aircraft fire, they face it head on, and continue to spearhead other successful missions. The way to win against negativity is to carry on towards your destination; don’t let flak turn you back.

Legitimate constructive criticism, both from one’s own mind and that of others, can be hugely valuable. But most of those negative voices were not constructive, they were destructive—motivated by the worst kinds of human emotions. Don’t let them win. Use their words against them by becoming even more determined and steadfast.
 
After the dust has settled and time has passed I’d be very surprised if they would let the Moaning Minnie’s and Negative Nelly’s affect their decision to run another one or not. They’re called Spitfire - they don’t fly away at the first sight of anti-aircraft fire, they face it head on, and continue to spearhead other successful missions. The way to win against negativity is to carry on towards your destination; don’t let flak turn you back.

Legitimate constructive criticism, both from one’s own mind and that of others, can be hugely valuable. But most of those negative voices were not constructive, they were destructive—motivated by the worst kinds of human emotions. Don’t let them win. Use their words against them by becoming even more determined and steadfast.
I hope so, I can honestly say i am embarrassed to be classed in the same cat as some of these people as i did enter that competition.
After everything that Spitfire do for the community and they where treated like that.

I hope they do carry on giving us these moments of fun :)
 
I hope they do another one as well. As others have pointed out, having a deadline is great motivation to write and complete something. I found the process very rewarding. I've also found the controversy weirdly educational; seeing the different reactions has made me reflect on attitudes to strive for and those to avoid.

Also, if the Spitfire guys are reading: one result is that I'm thinking about buying SSO now. Having a chance (however improbable) of winning that got me thinking about it/looking into it.
 
For the sake of reasoned debate-what is it that the community does for Spitfire in return?
First of all, they provide us with valuable composer content of the highest quality. Yes we pay for that content but they are a business.
They have run contests before, they don't have to do that but they do.
Their tutorials are very good and enlightening.
We have the Pianobook comunnity which if you think about it, a guy that owns a huge sample library business, helps us to create free sample libraries for all to use. He didn't have to do that.
He also created the Music by 300 Strangers massive collaboration that i thourally enjoyed working on.
They interview many high porifile composers for us to watch and learn.
They have thew LABS collection that are all free.
They have the BBCSO Discovery library which is also free both of which help young composers that haven't got two pence to rub together have a great start in their endevours.
I could prob go on and on and half of what they do the the community i prob don't know.
That was just off the top of my head.
 
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For the sake of reasoned debate-what is it that the community does for Spitfire in return?
I know I read a post from Mike about this recently, but I can’t seem to find it. I think the main thing is advertising and customers. I’d guess this is the closest thing a company like Spitfire is gonna find to a room full of all their potential customers. So in addition to the advertising they pay for, they get the benefit of customers who own their products advertising them for free to potential customers.
 
Did I say anything about David’s entry or listening to all submissions or even that I thought it was the best, not sure where you even got that, and no I did not think it's the best by any means, but that really is irrelevant as per my post.

My comment was specifically referring to your comment I quoted. Nothing to do with the actual entry. My point was that not everyone thinks the winner didn't deserve it just because they lost.
You are absolutely correct. My apologies 🍾 I agree with you that many people probably think he deserved to win, or at least I hope that’s true. It really doesn’t matter who won, unless of course you are that winner. What matters is that people who entered now have the practice of scoring to picture if they haven’t done that before and a new piece of work to add to their reel. No one really lost in this regard as unlike most contests there was no entry fee.
 
I have been composing since i was about 17. I have come close to the music business on a few occations but for some reason didn't pan out for me.
Yes heartache as most composers strive to make it somehow in that business.
Now, i too am an old fart lol and now, i don't kid myself that i'm ever going to make it.
I am very happy with the music i compose now. It is not brilliant, it is not very technical but i get by.

My main goal has always been just for people to listen to and hopefully enjoy my music. That is what all composers really want. To have their music liked.

Entering competions is a great way to get your music heard and that's all it should be.
I have only ever been a runner up in a competion once and that was in the 80's, Midge Ure was one of the judges. I won an autographed copy of Ultravox's The Collection by the band.
To me, i had won. Not only did my music get heard but as a bonus, i got a prize too.

I wasn't expecting that so it was a great surprise and i am sure @David Kudell felt the same as the winner.

All the people that are bitching, did they REALLY expect to win?

Just upload your music and hope that people like what you created.

My entry has 215 views and 17 comments, all good and i am happy with that. People liked what i did.
I had 15 likes and 1 dislike. What's that all about? When i listen to another composers music, if i like it, i always thumbs up and comment on the piece. If i don't like it (which is not often) i don't comment and I NEVER leave a thumbs down.
Why do that? Is it cos they think the judges won't pick a piece or even look at a piece if it has a thumbs down. Is that what they do, go on every entrant and give a thumbs down? Sick people, that really winds me up.

Music for me is passion, i love it, i can't stop creating it, it is an addiction but most of all, i am greatfull that i have that addiction.

As far as cometitions go, just enter and enjoy the process.

As far as this competition goes, to all of us that didn't win or be a runner up....

This is not the competition you where looking for...
You may go about your business....
Move along....Move along!

As an afterthought, there are only two pieces of music that have ever brought tears to my eyes.
One is The 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky
The other is
Chevaliers de Sangreal by Hans Zimmer


That is when you know you have touched someone's soul!

From another old fart, wise words Keith! :grin:
 
Sorry, i mis read your post. I thought it said what do they do for the community.

All i can say is we interact with whatever they do for us and a lot of us are pretty loyal to them and their products.

Classic misreading Keith!

To misuse the old Monty Python “Romans” sketch:

Reg: 'All right... all right... but apart from better sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health ... what have (Spitfire Audio) the Romans ever done for us?' :rofl:
 
I think it maybe better for non software companies to hold a competition and maybe the movie industry or others like them to do this. The only reward would be a showcase of the winner on their website. Not sure how they would get any gain from it, maybe advertising revenue but I think companies like spitfire should stay out so you can minimise the bias.just a thought.
 
I think it maybe better for non software companies to hold a competition and maybe the movie industry or others like them to do this. The only reward would be a showcase of the winner on their website. Not sure how they would get any gain from it, maybe advertising revenue but I think companies like spitfire should stay out so you can minimise the bias.just a thought.
Why is it problematicissimo for Spitfire to do a contest? This competition was a blockbuster success for them. I totally relate to anyone entering the contest that did not win and got let down. However, don’t share your feelings about how upset you are about that with the public or social media. Keep it to yourself. This forum is not about puking 🤮 up every complaint one has about anything and everything in life. For that one must talk to your dog or pet or find a therapist, though most of those people are cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs!!
 
Classic misreading Keith!

To misuse the old Monty Python “Romans” sketch:

Reg: 'All right... all right... but apart from better sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health ... what have (Spitfire Audio) the Romans ever done for us?' :rofl:
Lest ye naught forget that the Rrrrrrrrromans brushed their teeth 🦷 with urine 🧐 So when they say “when in Rome...” perhaps one should pass on that moment 🤔
 
People out there on teh interwebz are acting like this was a contest to find a cure for cancer, and the winning vaccine not only doesn't cure cancer, but also causes your left leg to fall off and is made from ground-up orphan brains.

Even if someone was the composer on a show like Westworld, totally knew the context that the genre change thing needed to fit into, and received a detailed brief from the show runners, that brief would probably be.... brief. Something like, "When he goes into the genre shift, we need to call that out with the score somehow, it needs to swerve off the road a little bit. See what you can come up with." Getting even that paltry amount of specificity would be like winning the spotting session lottery, tbh.

I usually get about this much instruction: "Make it scary." Actually, that's about two syllables more than I usually got on a show I scored for 110 episodes - the show runner like to only give me three-syllable instructions: "Make it dark." "Big fun time." "Make us cry." "He's bad ass." etc. In this case, he'd have said, "Genre shift." "He trips out." "Brain fart time." "Take chances" or just "Go wild, man."

Plus, you know the producers are already telling the music supervisor to find possible needle-drop candidates, tracks ranging from Arvo Part to ZZ Top, to have in their pocket just in case - and you're also going to do a more "normal" cue as an ALT so you won't have to scramble if your weird-o idea doesn't get smiles all around.

So you're sitting there, puzzling over how to "swerve off the road" with only a half-day to do it, so you mess around with some chip-tune sounds and think to yourself, "I wonder if..." but you don't want to spend too much time on it and leave yourself not enough time to do an alt version, let alone the other thirty cues in that episode. So you spend the evening throwing together a version based on your off-the-wall, spur-of-the-moment idea, and you stick it in the pile. I see one of four likely outcomes:

- "Wow you really swerved off the road on that one! Cool idea but it's pretty far out. But we all loved it. Risky but we're using it."

- "Wow you really swerved off the road on that one! Cool idea but it's too far out. We're going with the alt which sounds like the chase cue from episode four."

- "Wow you really swerved off the road on that one! Cool idea but it's just a little bit too far out. Is there a way to take some of the crazy elements from it and integrate them into the alt? Like just a few of those sounds over top of the chase cue from episode four?"

- "Oh, didn't anybody tell you? We decided to use the Arvo Part track layered with the ZZ Top song."

In any of those cases, the minimum acceptable response is: "Huh.... Oh well, that works."

And even that smacks of grumpiness and butt-hurt-ery. An even more acceptable response would be, "Cool. Any thoughts on the cue for the end of reel three?"

I am surprised that this type of response is so rare in the flood of comments, or why so many are willing to go on record with petty protestations, lamentations, and accusations of nepotism, rule-bending, or incompetent judging. After all, it's their show and their contest, they can pick whatever music they want for it, for whatever reason, and they owe no composer or anybody else any explanation or justification - just like it would be in a real-world professional situation.

I knew there would be a zillion people whose dream is to work in a real-world professional situation, but I'm surprised that there are a zillion people whose attitudes are so far away from what would actually work in a real-world professional situation that they will never in a zillion years work in a real-world professional situation.


Couldn't have said it better.

(- "Oh, didn't anybody tell you? We decided to use the Arvo Part track layered with the ZZ Top song." LOL! )
 
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