[SotW] Song of the Week - WEEK 187 Voting/WEEK 188 Nominating

3 points - Kirby of the Stars 64 Original Soundtrack - Ripple Star
2 points - Cosmic Cop (Game Rip) - Zone B (Stage 2)
1 point - Alphabet Planet - T

As for the gaining issue, I'm fine with gaining, but I do think it needs to be raised to a higher volume.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

3 points - Alphabet Planet - T
2 points - Osaisentoka no Karaoke - Alice→Dere (Karaoke Ver)
1 point - Cosmic Cop (Game Rip) - Zone B (Stage 2)

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

3 points: Alice→Dere (Karaoke Ver)
2 points: Wep'keer
1 point: T

Overall, I think this was a pretty good experiment for the 6 tracks. I'm not sure if it would work all the time, but it seemed to work this week.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

<<2 Points>> Okami (Game Rip) - Wep'Keer
<<2 Points>> ixion - End of a dream, false memories -others-
<<1 Point>> Osaisentoka no Karaoke - Alice→Dere (Karaoke Ver)
<<1 Point>> Kirby of the Stars 64 Original Soundtrack - Ripple Star

I was speaking idiomatically.

2 points: Alice→Dere (Karaoke Ver)
2 points: ixion - End of a dream, false memories -others-
1 point: Okami (Game Rip) - Wep'Keer
1 point: Cosmic Cop (Game Rip) - Zone B (Stage 2)

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Concerning the Gaining issue, I've thought about it and it's ok now. It serves its purpose without hassle and most of the time fair. That people are sometimes complaining about it is really bad luck on their site that they or I accidently nominate a track that gets totally out of volume balance by MP3Gain relative to the other tracks. In this particular case I just think something is abnormal if the loudest part of that ixion track is not as loud as the whole average volume of Alphabet Planet - T and Zone B.

I welcome Crash's suggestion that the nominator can make a notice that his track be not gained for whatever reason. Just label it as such so other listeners are warned that the current track is not gained and therefore should be prepared to turn up or turn down the volume if needed or for fairness' sake. If everything is gained nobody would know to adjust the volume because it's a hassle and who tells what the original volume was. Indepedent from the quality there is a volume that everyone feels comfortable about, and I'm talking about that. A gained ensemble is taken as is, knowing about the exception one might adjust the volume.

Otherwise why not do it like the BSC, the songs there don't get gained, everyone is expected to provide songs with a sensible base volume. I mean, why the hell, you're nominating it and probably listen to it often too, it should have a defined average pop CD volume. The songs I that go from here to my favourites I have to ungain them or bring them down to a volume level I have set as a standard anyway.

About the entry numbers, I think I slightly prefer 8. 6 feels like a short breeze.

FELIPE NO

Quick votes:

(2 points) ixion - End of a dream, false memories -others-

(2 points) Okami (Game Rip) - Wep'Keer

(1 point) Alphabet Planet - T

(1 point) Osaisentoka no Karaoke - Alice-Dere (Karaoke Ver)

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Voting is closed and nominations are restricted!

1). [28] Osaisentoka no Karaoke - Alice→Dere (Karaoke Ver)
2). [23] Okami (Game Rip) - Wep'Keer
3). [18] ixion - End of a dream, false memories -others-
4). [15] Kirby of the Stars 64 Original Soundtrack - Ripple Star
5). [12/10.5] Alphabet Planet - T
6). [12/9] Cosmic Cop (Game Rip) - Zone B (Stage 2)

Seems like the general consensus on the number of tracks is "yeah, six tracks works, but I'd prefer eight, so let's only do that when nominations get low," to which I am inclined to agree, although what "when nominations get low" means is open to debate. Only when we can't cover a batch of eight tracks, or some higher bar than that? My personal bar for a low number of nominations has been when someone has a track in consecutive weeks (so < 16), although others may be okay with that.

Also, I did some experiments with increasing the gain volume. The problem with increasing the target volume is that, the higher it is, the higher the chances that it'll be too high for pieces for the softer pieces to reach without clipping. I tried Rimo's suggestion of 94 dB with a group of very soft and VERY LOUD tracks, and none of the soft ones could get that loud without setting off the program's clipping alarm (I didn't listen to them all, but I did check out one and there was some faint but noticeable clipping). There's a setting that will get the piece as loud as it can get without clipping, but that works only to the benefit of the louder tracks, because they have the headroom to stay loud while the softer ones will stay put at their limits.

I reduced the target to 92 dB and threw a bunch of random VGM tracks at it, and for the most part the tunes seemed to be able to reach that volume. I'm not sure how substantial a difference that's going to make for everyone, because it's not a big jump up from 89, but I'll try it with next week's batch and we'll see how it goes. For the heck of it, I regained this week's tracks at 92, if you want to see if you can notice a difference:

Get the Flash Player to play this audio file: Alphabet Planet - T
Get the Flash Player to play this audio file: Cosmic Cop (Game Rip) - Zone B (Stage 2)
Get the Flash Player to play this audio file: ixion - End of a dream, false memories -others-
Get the Flash Player to play this audio file: Kirby of the Stars 64 Original Soundtrack - Ripple Star
Get the Flash Player to play this audio file: Okami (Game Rip) - Wep'Keer
Get the Flash Player to play this audio file: Osaisentoka no Karaoke - Alice→Dere (Karaoke Ver)

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Yeah, I notice the difference. It's much better now.

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL

Alice->Dere, original vocal version (with subtitles):

YouTube Video

Although this was the actual reason for my nomination:

YouTube Video

How ya doing, buddy?

The new gaining sounds fine to me, but after the horrible experiences I've had with gaining I'm content to leave the whole issue in surer hands.

So is next week going to be 6 or 8 songs? We have enough noms to cover a full spread of 8 but less than 16 in the pipeline. Personally, I'd fall back on 6 whenever we can't cover 8, mostly because I can't recall the last time the queue had 16+ songs (which would pretty much mean every semi-regular participant had a nom up, something that doesn't happen so often).

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