Post by BassSquared on Aug 27, 2023 1:26:41 GMT
Welcome back all! I am back running my second Clip-Off, a bit earlier in the year this time so that the competition is actually over by the time the year ends. For the uninitiated, the Clip-Off is TRP's annual-ish competition in which contestants pick teams of three vocalists and send them up against each other like Pokemon, competing to see which squad of singers perform the best in a variety of categories.
Here's how it's going to work, which I have largelycopy pasted carried forward from last year's contest:
It's a bit much to take in I'm aware, but to those of you who have never taken part before, it'll make sense once it starts. If you want an example of how it will run, take a look below.
Because we've run this before and run into problems, there's some extra niggly rules below. Please read to avoid running into mishaps.
Also also also also, here's some general hints, tips and guidelines.
Finally, here's my team, consisting of three dudes with names that start with "J" for some reason.
(1) Jonah Nilsson- self-indulgent jazz fusion tenor with some bonkers runs and good highs.
(2) Jim Grey- the one who will take on any category that involves actually sounding nice. Plus good harmonies.
(3) Jon Ivar Kollbotn- kind of a left field pick, but hey, he's got good lows and is surprisingly rangey.
And thus concludes! Have a very merry Clip-Off and good luck!
Here's how it's going to work, which I have largely
{How the Clip-Off Works}
1. Pick your teams: From now until Friday, September 15, 23:59 EST, you must pick three singers who you plan on using throughout the clip-off. Outside of a few limitations (which I'll get into here), you're free to pick whoever you choose for your team!
In general, singers are first-come, first-serve when it comes to teams. However, if someone owns the range thread for a given singer, they will have priority on adding them to their team, if they so choose. Thus, it may be advisable to have a backup in mind in case one of your choices gets taken by their thread owner.
In addition, to keep things fresh, singers who have competed in the previous two years' clip-offs are not eligible for this year's competition. Note, however, that this only applies to singers who competed the full time, so former Alt-Team picks and teams who dropped out midway through are a-OK. The full list is below:
2. DAY 1-5: Selecting clips
The clip-off runs on a ten day basis. Within the first five days, you are required to upload clips for two predetermined categories (which, in some cases, you'll be allowed to vote on). You'll be against someone else for each category and they'll be required to do the same within the same time. On Friday November 11, I'll announce the round one match-ups!
3. DAY 1-9: Voting
Everybody is required to vote on at least three matches (outside of your own, obviously). In the first nine days in the round (i.e - at pretty much any point before I post the results), on two match-ups of your choosing, you will listen to each clip in both categories and choose which one you prefer, say why you prefer it and give a rating out of five.
Voting will be run through Google Forms to avoid looking at past votes - votes will all be revealed at the end of the round. To ensure every match gets a relatively equal distribution of votes, I'll update each thread with a "vote count", as every match-up needs a minimum of four votes to be considered valid (but preferably at least five).
4. DAY 10: Results
At the end of the round, I'll tally up the points and post them all on a thread, along with who you'll be facing for the subsequent round. Your points are worked out by your average and your category wins. For example, if you scored an average of 3.65 in one category and your opponent scored 3.30, you would receive 4.65 points (3.65 for your average + 1.00 for your category win) and your opponent would receive 3.30 points. Penalties (usually between 0.5 and 2 points) will be given to individuals that miss the deadline for voting or clips, or whose submissions are otherwise unsatisfactory (e.g. clips going significantly over time, one-word votes).
5. THE END
This process is repeated over ten rounds until we have an overall victor, who will receive a baked good of some description in the mail!
1. Pick your teams: From now until Friday, September 15, 23:59 EST, you must pick three singers who you plan on using throughout the clip-off. Outside of a few limitations (which I'll get into here), you're free to pick whoever you choose for your team!
In general, singers are first-come, first-serve when it comes to teams. However, if someone owns the range thread for a given singer, they will have priority on adding them to their team, if they so choose. Thus, it may be advisable to have a backup in mind in case one of your choices gets taken by their thread owner.
In addition, to keep things fresh, singers who have competed in the previous two years' clip-offs are not eligible for this year's competition. Note, however, that this only applies to singers who competed the full time, so former Alt-Team picks and teams who dropped out midway through are a-OK. The full list is below:
{Singers You Cannot Pick}
Ailee
Alan Hull
Alison Moyet
Andy Bell
Ariana Grande
Ayunga
Ben Folds
Billy Cobb
Billy Joel
Brendon Urie
Buzz Clifford
Cass Elliott
Cher
Chester Bennington
Conor Mason
Dan Avidan
Danny Elfman
David Essex
Dion DiMucci
Elaine Page
Elvis Presley
Eva Noblezada
Fei Yu-Ching
George Michael
Georgia Train
Hui
Jack Black
James Hetfield
Joe Lynn Turner
John Denver
Johnny Manchild
Judy Garland
Lee Aaron
Lorraine Ellison
Lzzy Hale
Mao
Matt Bellamy
Matt Farley
Maureen McGovern
Michael Cavanaugh
Moon Joo-Ran
Neil Cicierega
Neil Fallon
Ninet Tayeb
Noa Gruman
Paloma Faith
Ronnie Radke
Ryan Tedder
Sade Adu
Serj Tankian
Steven Page
Teresa Teng
Thomas Quasthoff
Tom Cardy
T-Pain
Trisha Paytas
Violetta Villas
Will Wood
Yma Sumac
Ailee
Alan Hull
Alison Moyet
Andy Bell
Ariana Grande
Ayunga
Ben Folds
Billy Cobb
Billy Joel
Brendon Urie
Buzz Clifford
Cass Elliott
Cher
Chester Bennington
Conor Mason
Dan Avidan
Danny Elfman
David Essex
Dion DiMucci
Elaine Page
Elvis Presley
Eva Noblezada
Fei Yu-Ching
George Michael
Georgia Train
Hui
Jack Black
James Hetfield
Joe Lynn Turner
John Denver
Johnny Manchild
Judy Garland
Lee Aaron
Lorraine Ellison
Lzzy Hale
Mao
Matt Bellamy
Matt Farley
Maureen McGovern
Michael Cavanaugh
Moon Joo-Ran
Neil Cicierega
Neil Fallon
Ninet Tayeb
Noa Gruman
Paloma Faith
Ronnie Radke
Ryan Tedder
Sade Adu
Serj Tankian
Steven Page
Teresa Teng
Thomas Quasthoff
Tom Cardy
T-Pain
Trisha Paytas
Violetta Villas
Will Wood
Yma Sumac
2. DAY 1-5: Selecting clips
The clip-off runs on a ten day basis. Within the first five days, you are required to upload clips for two predetermined categories (which, in some cases, you'll be allowed to vote on). You'll be against someone else for each category and they'll be required to do the same within the same time. On Friday November 11, I'll announce the round one match-ups!
3. DAY 1-9: Voting
Everybody is required to vote on at least three matches (outside of your own, obviously). In the first nine days in the round (i.e - at pretty much any point before I post the results), on two match-ups of your choosing, you will listen to each clip in both categories and choose which one you prefer, say why you prefer it and give a rating out of five.
Voting will be run through Google Forms to avoid looking at past votes - votes will all be revealed at the end of the round. To ensure every match gets a relatively equal distribution of votes, I'll update each thread with a "vote count", as every match-up needs a minimum of four votes to be considered valid (but preferably at least five).
4. DAY 10: Results
At the end of the round, I'll tally up the points and post them all on a thread, along with who you'll be facing for the subsequent round. Your points are worked out by your average and your category wins. For example, if you scored an average of 3.65 in one category and your opponent scored 3.30, you would receive 4.65 points (3.65 for your average + 1.00 for your category win) and your opponent would receive 3.30 points. Penalties (usually between 0.5 and 2 points) will be given to individuals that miss the deadline for voting or clips, or whose submissions are otherwise unsatisfactory (e.g. clips going significantly over time, one-word votes).
5. THE END
This process is repeated over ten rounds until we have an overall victor, who will receive a baked good of some description in the mail!
It's a bit much to take in I'm aware, but to those of you who have never taken part before, it'll make sense once it starts. If you want an example of how it will run, take a look below.
{Example Round}
This is the match-up of Alex61 and Baronessa in Round One of the Clip-Off. You have five days exactly to submit your clips, and until 23:59 EST Tuesday, June 9 to vote. June 10 is the Results Day.
The categories for Round One are:
1) Best Lyricless Singing - an act of singing passages without words, fairly straightforward, though the more nuanced and dynamic the clip is the higher it is likely to score.
2) Best Vocal Contrast - a showcase of one's vocal control by either morphing the voice from a clean resonance to intimidating rasping and/or shifting rapidly from low singing to high singing. Not necessarily a show of versatility, but of juxtaposition.
The pair are free to post their clips, voting commences as soon as they have.
The link for voting is here.
VOTE COUNT: 0
This is the match-up of Alex61 and Baronessa in Round One of the Clip-Off. You have five days exactly to submit your clips, and until 23:59 EST Tuesday, June 9 to vote. June 10 is the Results Day.
The categories for Round One are:
1) Best Lyricless Singing - an act of singing passages without words, fairly straightforward, though the more nuanced and dynamic the clip is the higher it is likely to score.
2) Best Vocal Contrast - a showcase of one's vocal control by either morphing the voice from a clean resonance to intimidating rasping and/or shifting rapidly from low singing to high singing. Not necessarily a show of versatility, but of juxtaposition.
The pair are free to post their clips, voting commences as soon as they have.
The link for voting is here.
VOTE COUNT: 0
Because we've run this before and run into problems, there's some extra niggly rules below. Please read to avoid running into mishaps.
{Rules}
• Rule change this time around- in order to give clips more flexibility, the total length of your clips should be under four minutes (6 for Full House, 15 for the finale) I don't mind if you go a little bit (literally only a few seconds) over or under, but try to avoid it if possible. Don't feel like your clip has to be too long for the sake of it, as well - in fact, people may be less inclined to vote on your match if you've used really long clips.
• You can use live clips, but please ensure that if you do, the audio is of decent quality.
• If your opponent has uploaded their clips before you, please, please, please do not look at their clips. I would strongly suggest spoilering your clips as you upload them for this reason - they can still be seen, but people will be far less likely to accidentally take a glance.
• If you decide to change your team before the deadline, please post again or make another post tagging me. If you edit your original post I might not notice it.
• I cannot stress this enough - please submit your clips in the order the categories were listed on the thread! I understand this may seem unnecessary, but it really helps when it comes to tallying up the scores - if you don't submit clips in the same order, people won't vote in the same order, and mistakes may be made when tallying the results (probably by me). The categories will always be listed in alphabetical order.
• You can tell voters to skip certain parts of your clip as long as it remains within the time limit (for example, if there is an instrumental, or part of your clip that does not fit the category as well). For instance, if you wanted to use from 2:00 - 3:30 of a song but 2:30 - 2:50 was an instrumental, you could say "the timestamp is 2:00 - 3:30, but skip 2:30 - 2:50". Please don't edit clips yourselves, that comes across as sneaky. To be clear, skipped time still counts towards the time limit- a clip from 1:00 to 3:30 would still require the other clip to be under ninety seconds, even if forty seconds of it is instrumental.
• Clips can be submitted via 4Shared or YouTube. If you're using YouTube, please specify timeframes. Note that some YouTube videos may be blocked in other users' regions, so you may be asked to provide an alternative link in that case. Vocaroo may be a temporary substitute at times if we have technical mishaps.
• You can't reuse clips! If you want to use a different part of a song you've already used, it must completely different (i.e - if you've already used a verse or chorus from that song, you can't use another) and it must be the same version as the first one (i.e - you can't use the verse from the studio version of the song and the chorus from a live performance).
• Rule change this time around- in order to give clips more flexibility, the total length of your clips should be under four minutes (6 for Full House, 15 for the finale) I don't mind if you go a little bit (literally only a few seconds) over or under, but try to avoid it if possible. Don't feel like your clip has to be too long for the sake of it, as well - in fact, people may be less inclined to vote on your match if you've used really long clips.
• You can use live clips, but please ensure that if you do, the audio is of decent quality.
• If your opponent has uploaded their clips before you, please, please, please do not look at their clips. I would strongly suggest spoilering your clips as you upload them for this reason - they can still be seen, but people will be far less likely to accidentally take a glance.
• If you decide to change your team before the deadline, please post again or make another post tagging me. If you edit your original post I might not notice it.
• I cannot stress this enough - please submit your clips in the order the categories were listed on the thread! I understand this may seem unnecessary, but it really helps when it comes to tallying up the scores - if you don't submit clips in the same order, people won't vote in the same order, and mistakes may be made when tallying the results (probably by me). The categories will always be listed in alphabetical order.
• You can tell voters to skip certain parts of your clip as long as it remains within the time limit (for example, if there is an instrumental, or part of your clip that does not fit the category as well). For instance, if you wanted to use from 2:00 - 3:30 of a song but 2:30 - 2:50 was an instrumental, you could say "the timestamp is 2:00 - 3:30, but skip 2:30 - 2:50". Please don't edit clips yourselves, that comes across as sneaky. To be clear, skipped time still counts towards the time limit- a clip from 1:00 to 3:30 would still require the other clip to be under ninety seconds, even if forty seconds of it is instrumental.
• Clips can be submitted via 4Shared or YouTube. If you're using YouTube, please specify timeframes. Note that some YouTube videos may be blocked in other users' regions, so you may be asked to provide an alternative link in that case. Vocaroo may be a temporary substitute at times if we have technical mishaps.
• You can't reuse clips! If you want to use a different part of a song you've already used, it must completely different (i.e - if you've already used a verse or chorus from that song, you can't use another) and it must be the same version as the first one (i.e - you can't use the verse from the studio version of the song and the chorus from a live performance).
Also also also also, here's some general hints, tips and guidelines.
{WikiHow}
• This may sound ridiculous, but please do consider whether you're invested enough in taking part in this. Drop-outs are generally frowned upon by competitors who are enjoying the competition and taking it seriously, since they tend to disrupt scheduling and suck the fun out of it for others. If you do want to drop out of the competition for legitimate reasons then that's fine, but it would be seriously appreciated if you could complete the current round in progress before you drop out.
• I'd recommend keeping an eye on this thread, the "Vote for Round Categories 2023" thread and the "2023 Clip-Off Calendar", as these are likely to stay updated with important information regarding the competition. You could bookmark them if you want.
• If you plan on playing to win, be careful when picking your team. A versatile team will serve you better in the long run than a team of personal favorites. If an artist has a very small discography, you may struggle to find enough material from them to work with. In general, singers that complement each other's weaknesses tend to do well; for example, a showy high rock belter can cover areas a smooth, traditional crooner can't, and vice versa.
• While some people may reason that they want a singer because they own their thread or they've done a lot of research for them (and that may be a deciding factor in cases where a singer is wanted more than once), you can really pick just about anyone for your team. Just be aware that some singer choices will be more popular than others; thus those picking well-known singers whose thread belongs to someone else would be highly advised to keep a reserve pick handy.
• Your reviews don't need to be too long (the length of a tweet for each clip is probably fine), but try to justify why you picked one person's clip over someone else's. Please try to vote as the category dictates, and don't give out "cookie cutter" votes (as in, things you could say about every clip submitted by that singer) - voting on things like how much you like a singer's tone may seem alright, but it doesn't fit in with a lot of categories. Consider it as if you were receiving your votes - would you appreciate how you've voted?
• Similarly, if you're not sure which match-ups to vote on, try to vote on ones which have fewer votes - if a match-up doesn't reach five votes by the deadline, we'll have to shift back the rest of the competition by a day until it does. Usually, if some don't have enough votes one day before, I'll tag people who haven't voted yet to let them know.
• Most importantly, try to have fun! The Clip-Off isn't a super serious competition, after all, it's merely to enjoy. Don't take it to heart if some of your clips get some negative reviews, that's just how it is sometimes. Many people in the past have been great sports despite not winning or being particularly successful, which is how the competition should be really.
• This may sound ridiculous, but please do consider whether you're invested enough in taking part in this. Drop-outs are generally frowned upon by competitors who are enjoying the competition and taking it seriously, since they tend to disrupt scheduling and suck the fun out of it for others. If you do want to drop out of the competition for legitimate reasons then that's fine, but it would be seriously appreciated if you could complete the current round in progress before you drop out.
• I'd recommend keeping an eye on this thread, the "Vote for Round Categories 2023" thread and the "2023 Clip-Off Calendar", as these are likely to stay updated with important information regarding the competition. You could bookmark them if you want.
• If you plan on playing to win, be careful when picking your team. A versatile team will serve you better in the long run than a team of personal favorites. If an artist has a very small discography, you may struggle to find enough material from them to work with. In general, singers that complement each other's weaknesses tend to do well; for example, a showy high rock belter can cover areas a smooth, traditional crooner can't, and vice versa.
• While some people may reason that they want a singer because they own their thread or they've done a lot of research for them (and that may be a deciding factor in cases where a singer is wanted more than once), you can really pick just about anyone for your team. Just be aware that some singer choices will be more popular than others; thus those picking well-known singers whose thread belongs to someone else would be highly advised to keep a reserve pick handy.
• Your reviews don't need to be too long (the length of a tweet for each clip is probably fine), but try to justify why you picked one person's clip over someone else's. Please try to vote as the category dictates, and don't give out "cookie cutter" votes (as in, things you could say about every clip submitted by that singer) - voting on things like how much you like a singer's tone may seem alright, but it doesn't fit in with a lot of categories. Consider it as if you were receiving your votes - would you appreciate how you've voted?
• Similarly, if you're not sure which match-ups to vote on, try to vote on ones which have fewer votes - if a match-up doesn't reach five votes by the deadline, we'll have to shift back the rest of the competition by a day until it does. Usually, if some don't have enough votes one day before, I'll tag people who haven't voted yet to let them know.
• Most importantly, try to have fun! The Clip-Off isn't a super serious competition, after all, it's merely to enjoy. Don't take it to heart if some of your clips get some negative reviews, that's just how it is sometimes. Many people in the past have been great sports despite not winning or being particularly successful, which is how the competition should be really.
Finally, here's my team, consisting of three dudes with names that start with "J" for some reason.
(1) Jonah Nilsson- self-indulgent jazz fusion tenor with some bonkers runs and good highs.
(2) Jim Grey- the one who will take on any category that involves actually sounding nice. Plus good harmonies.
(3) Jon Ivar Kollbotn- kind of a left field pick, but hey, he's got good lows and is surprisingly rangey.
And thus concludes! Have a very merry Clip-Off and good luck!
