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SMW Music Section updates + new and improved guidelines!

Hello again!

So, if you haven't noticed, our classifications for sampled ports and remixes were rather flawed. Songs that only used one sample were lumped in with the rest of the sampled songs, meaning good ports that used only a single sample but otherwise leaned on SMW samples could go unnoticed by a hack designer who didn't want sampled ports in their hacks. Additionally, there was a bit of confusion on whether or not remixes and heavily arranged songs should be labeled as ports or original, due to the weird blurry line that existed.

Introducing two new categories to the music section: Lightly sampled ports (referred to in the section under a modified Sample usage category as Light) for ports that use minimal external samples and still retain the feel of unsampled songs, and a Remix category under the Source filter for songs that take more creative liberties instead of a boring 1:1 arrangement.

With these changes, new guidelines had to be implemented to accommodate them... But then the entire submissions guideline page got revised, whoops!

You can read the updated guidelines at the bottom of this post, but the most important revisions and additions are listed as follows:
  • The guidelines are now split into rules and guidelines. The rules will be the main things to watch out for, things you'll want to look over to ensure that your port will get accepted. The guidelines are mostly for organizational purposes, proper submission etiquette, and general good guidelines to ensure ease of access for your submission.
  • Added a rule about including SMW samples. With the thread regarding SMW sample usage having recently been made, musicians now have a good frame of reference for what omitted samples would be affected. Ideally, you should work to include all the samples, but as a rule of thumb you don't want to omit a lot of them. Most people will live without Blargg or Yoshi, but if Mario can't jump, then you don't have a very compatible submission.
  • The misc. tags have been separated from the official taglist, since they're tags that have objective definitions set to them. Tag your Misc. submissions appropriately! Currently, the official taglist is still relatively undefined, and due to their subjective nature they'll remain so for the foreseeable future. Simply put, use your heads - the only way you can do wrong with them is if you're bullying me by doing so on purpose!
  • Goes without saying, but we no longer support .bnk submissions.


With all this said, most of the the updates simply boil down to more clarification. It's a bit meatier than it was before, but it's for the best - better to be thorough, after all! They may be likely to change very slightly in the coming days as feedback comes in - feel free to post your thoughts! Otherwise, hope you enjoy these new quality of life improvements, and I hope you continue to upload tons of cool ports - we hit 3,000 submissions the other day, so let's shoot to 4,000 submissions next!

and if nothing else, let's at least keep our submission count as far, far above the graphics section as humanly possible ;)



Huh. This is a nice update to the music section!
Also, I may have missed this in the announcement, but it seems like SMWC automatically detects whether a song uses lots of samples, or uses samples at all? I've looked back on my older ports and many others' old ports, and it seems like the site has adapted accordingly.
Originally posted by Nameless
and if nothing else, let's at least keep our submission count as far, far above the graphics section as humanly possible ;)

#smw{>_>}

Good job with the new sample and source specifications though!
Originally posted by Yung Gotenks
Huh. This is a nice update to the music section!
Also, I may have missed this in the announcement, but it seems like SMWC automatically detects whether a song uses lots of samples, or uses samples at all? I've looked back on my older ports and many others' old ports, and it seems like the site has adapted accordingly.


nah i just updated them by hand lol
So if I understood correctly, most of unsampled music should be considered as "remix", right? Since you are restricted in SMW Samples, and there are usually have no space to make it very accurate.
not quite - unsampled ports can still follow a song's arrangement quite closely, or at least as close as possible. remix is more for bigger deviations (whether it be new percussion tracks, new sections, a different key/time signature, etc.) if that makes sense
Originally posted by Nameless
not quite - unsampled ports can still follow a song's arrangement quite closely, or at least as close as possible. remix is more for bigger deviations (whether it be new percussion tracks, new sections, a different key/time signature, etc.) if that makes sense

Ah, I understand what you are meaning. Thanks for your answering!

Also, the new policy regarding music submissions is really neat.
Some submissions that use one or a few custom samples are still tagged as Many. I commented on two of them, but they still don't seem to be fixed.
I have a Discord server as well! (by joining, you agree to the rules)
-----
Basically, I believe in peace and bashing two bricks together.

Commenting on a song to get it fixed isn't a good way of notifying us to fix a song since none of us music moderators get alerted this way. You should really PM one of the music moderators or post in this thread (which you did). that way we're able to make note of anything we need to fix.

Anyways, I went ahead and properly tag those two submissions as lightly sampled.
Twitter
Originally posted by Giftshaven
Commenting on a song to get it fixed isn't a good way of notifying us to fix a song since none of us music moderators get alerted this way. You should really PM one of the music moderators or post in this thread (which you did). that way we're able to make note of anything we need to fix.

Really?! You don't read this site's feed on discord?!

Quote
Anyways, I went ahead and properly tag those two submissions as lightly sampled.

Thanks!

Originally posted by Nameless
and if nothing else, let's at least keep our submission count as far, far above the graphics section as humanly possible ;)

I feel tempted to learn to port music

Also, I accidentally edited my previous post adding the text above instead. Fortunately, you can do a rollback.
I have a Discord server as well! (by joining, you agree to the rules)
-----
Basically, I believe in peace and bashing two bricks together.

Originally posted by Emerald Shell
Really?! You don't read this site's feed on discord?!


nope!

Originally posted by Giftshaven
Commenting on a song to get it fixed isn't a good way of notifying us to fix a song since none of us music moderators get alerted this way. You should really PM one of the music moderators or post in this thread (which you did). that way we're able to make note of anything we need to fix.


pretty much this. i'm only one person and i did a majority of the initial tagging when the changes got made, but i know that there's a sea of songs that still need to be edited. i appreciate any callouts sent my way, even if its through a dm in discord or a pm! it's a more surefire way to get my (and, though i don't wish to speak for everyone else, probably everyone else's) attention.