
,---------------------------------=< THE >=-----------------------------------.
|                                                                             |
| pgggggq pggggs. ,sgggs. ,ggggs. pgq pgq ,qggggp pggggs. pgq pggggg. ,qgggg. |
: &&&&&&& &&&&&&& &&&&&&& &&&&&&& &&& &&& &&&&&&& &&&&&&& &&& &&&&&&& &&&&&&& :
:   $$$   $$$ $$$ $$$ $$$ $$$ `~' $$$ $$$ $$$ $$$ $$$ $$$ $$$ $$$ $$$ $$$ ggg :
:   $$$   $$$s$$' $$$s$$$ $$$     $$$s$$' $$$s$$$ $$$s$$' $$$ $$$ $$$ $$$ $$$ :
:   $$$   $$$ $$g $$$ $$$ $$$g$$$ $$$ $$g $$$gggg $$$ $$g $$$ $$$ $$$ $$$g$$$ :
:   %%%   %%% %%% %%% %%% `%%%%%' %%% %%% `%%%%%% %%% %%% %%% %%% %%% `%%%%%% :
|             %%%     %%%             %%%             %%%         %%%     %%% :
|             %%%     %%%             %%%             %%%         %%%     %%% |
|                                                                             |
`--=< music compo #26 >=----------------------------------=< the new wave >=--'

oh joy..

the happiness comes when the coding is complete,
writing the documentation :>

basically, it's quite easy to use. but i'll just describe
it for you.

if you didn't know, it's just a remake of the old 20mcvoting program
I made. :> 

if you dont know about the voting rules, please look down below.


- Hey, how do I vote?!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

First you start the program TT-VOTE.EXE

The first you'll see now is a "login" screen, just enter you handle here.
It'll be used as your handle during the voting, plus the votefile-name.

If you've been in this program more than once and saved the voteform,
the votes/comments are loaded (a file is being searched named,
'your handle.dat'), but more about the voteform later.

Now you see a sucky interface with some table of some kind with the
cursor placed under a 0, if it doesn't bug before that ;>. On the
leftmost column you have the name of the tunes, in the middle the
author, and to the right, 10 columns graded 0-9. Between the
Conetstants-column and the grade-column, you have the date for the
deadline of the compo.

Let's try to move around in the voteform, this is achived by pressing
down some of the cursor keys, just move a little. Pageup/Pagedown makes
you move to another page if there's more than 1 screen of contestants.

Pressing space in some of those squares will give them a grade, you see
the column numbers on the top?, that's the grade you give to the tune
on that row. Easy, eh? :>.

If you now try and press C, then a little editor comes up where you can
enter the comments for the tune on the current row. The editor is by
default in overwrite-mode, but can be changed to insert with the
Insert-key. (The Insert-sign will be highlighted).

You can move around with the cursor keys here too. And with the homekey
you'll get back to the first column on that line, if you press it more
than once, you'll get back to the topleft corner. The end key will
get you to the end of the last character being written. Then there
are delete and backspace too. They are like they always are in an editor.

When you are complete with your editing, press ESC. and it'll save.

Now say you've voted on some tunes, and suddenly wants to save a backup
copy, press F2. Simple as that. F10 exits without saving and Q exits
with saving. THE SAVED VOTEFORM WILL BE NAMED YOURHANDLE.DAT. It's that
one you'd be mailing me. F10 will always ask if you are sure to exist,
just as a precaution.

But what if you're exit the program and have saved some votes to come
back to it later. You see, this program always check after a file named
"yourhandle.dat" when loading it. So, when you are at the "login"-screen
and write the same handle as the last time. It'll now find that there
exist a votefile with that handle, and loads it. Tada.. your old votes
are there.

Hope these docs work fine with you, otherwise mail me. Bugreports and
such are nice too. (This is a beta, and let's hope the voting will
work fine :>).

You can also get the key help inside the program, just press F1.
(This does not work in the editor, because I'm lazy and made this
in a rush)


Rules
~~~~~

   * If you cant listen to the IT tunes, then just ignore to vote on
     them. It's better not to vote than just give it a random number.

   * Please dont name-vote, vote how much you like the tune yourself.

   * If you are a contestant, you have to judge to get your tune
     qualified.

   * If you made a coop, only one of you needs to vote, but that's not a
     must, both can vote if they wish.

   * You may not vote for your tune.

   * Mail your vote-forms to axelsson@freenet.hut.fi before
     the deadline stated in the votingprogram, left to Contestant.

   * The results will be spread next saturday night and sent to
     ftp.cdrom.com /pub/demos/incoming/tt/results as tt##-res.txt, where
     ## is the number of the compo.


History
~~~~~~~
v0.01á - First lines of code.
v0.42á - The meaning of life version, not for release.
v0.69á - Xyltburk cookieporn version, never released to anyone.
v0.80á - The beta of the beta version. not released
v0.81á - Non-public release, just for betatesting
v0.82á - First beta release.



DisclAiMah
~~~~~~~~~~

the usual stuff about that if you use this program, you use it on
YOUR own risk. so you better not sue me if something happens,
i got the best lawyers from bwta crew.


the trackering voting help
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HERE is a suggested rating system.  This may give some type of a guideline
by which you may judge tunes submitted for The Trackering contests...  

#       title           why

9       amazing         everything about it amazes you.  you don't feel
                        comfortable that you could do something like this.

8       excellent       gets a 'YEAH!' reaction.  both composition and
                        sound engineering are very good,  and all boosted
                        by 'style points' (see below).  a 'classic to be'.

7       very good       both composition and sound engineering are very good,
                        but it isn't quite a 'classic to be'.  less style
                        points.

6       good            catchy and good engineering - but nothing out-
                        standing.  neat but maybe no style points to push
                        it up.

5       above average   a little catchy or a little better composition
                        than average.  maybe slightly cleaner engineering.

4       average         nothing great.  clean,  tuned.  not very memorable,
                        and maybe very bland engineering (mono,  little
                        effects,  etc.).

3       below average   nothing great and lacking in either composition
                        or engineering (bad melody,  or out of tune,  etc.).

2       bad             somewhat bad idea, *and* bad engineering.

1       cruddy          all around bad,  maybe annoying or incoherant.

0       pure crap       hurts your ears to hear.  you think this person
                        either retarded or in need of a lot of help with
                        music.  no sense to it whatsoever.

Modifiers (slashes and style points):

Sometimes it can be hard to differentiate between a decent and good tune,
or a below average and generally bad one.  These tips may help you bump
tunes up or down based on some simple observations...

Slashes (-1 or -2 depending on how many of these it is in common with):

- samples are noticeably out of tune
- sounds are poorly edited or looped such that you hear clicking in the music
- song is brief,  maybe only a single groove,  or it is merely a cut and
  paste with small changes
- song is too similar to another song in a blatent manner
- composition is unduly dissonant (ie improper notes per chord) or melody
  and movement are a good bit incoherant

Style Points (+1 or +2 depending on how many of these it is in common with):

- difficult form of music to track or complicated musical form
- uncommon in tracking,  opens boundaries of what is normally done or ex-
  pected
- unique idea as a style or interpretation of a style of music,  or an inter-
  esting synthesis of forms
- innovative use of sounds (effects bytes used to make interesting sounds,
  etc.)
- little 'twists' like subtle nuances heavily present.  for example, very
  clever stereo imaging (slight chorus effect by using 2 channels) or
  slight detunes to modulate a patch for a more 'analog' feel.
- extra attention to style concerns of music or instrument.  for example,
  a sax that really sounds the way a sax is played,  or drums that accent
  the music instead of being a repetative groove.  or a brialliant energy
  building knob-tweaky effect in techno.

SO you would alter the score by 1 or 2 marks depending on HOW MANY of these
characteristics are in line.  If only one or two are similar,  or they are
apparent only minimally,  then only modify by 1.  Any more go to 2 and even
3 if it is blatently loaded with all of the characteristics.

The human factor:

Although the above system is fairly tight,  there is still a lot of room for
personal taste and interpretation.  If you don't like a tune,  you should
always feel free not to rate it highly,  even if it was done *well*.  And
vice-versa.  You will find that this system dictates someone with more
scrutiny will probably offer lower scores (what someone really experienced
will find very good is often much higher than what a learner will consider
good,  etc.).

Neil - /Sequencer 
ndv@h2oent.com
----


signed,

 axl (axelsson@freenet.hut.fi)

