Galah Posted May 2 Author Posted May 2 Round 5 🪷 Results Hey, Hitmakers! Welcome to the fifth results show for Golden Hit: Season 6! Y'all been waiting long enough, so let's not dilly-dally. Y'all ate this round! Despite being a little lighter on submissions, we still had a colorful set of results, with an average of over 8.5 oh my! But how closely did you score to that figure? Our first two writers unfortunately landed at the back of the pack in this highly competitive round, but trust me when I say your scores were still amazing and we did love your songs! Spoiler At #6 we have @Weld_E with "Vows to Veils". At #5 we have @Legend E with "Portals". Not thee E's. It pains me to see you both here after such an amazing performance all season, but at the end of the day they're still two top six smash hits. Turn it around in the finale!! Our next two writers found themselves in the middle of the pack in this highly competitive round, which actually means top three (or top three adjacent)... or does it? Spoiler At #3, earning a Bronze Hit Token, we have @helpthomas with "Far Away"! Also at #3, earning a Bronze Hit Token, we have @OreGuy with "Whispers"! We love this tie! It's so good to see you back after last week's break helpthomas, and your song was literally music to our ears. OreGuy, you've really hit your stride, with back-to-back podium placements. Which means our top two for the round are hurricane326 and @Prisoner! This would be both of your first #1s of the season, which means yes... we now have 5 unique winners consecutively! But who will it be? Spoiler At #2, earning a Silver Hit Token, we have hurricane326 with "Fade to Black"! At #1, earning a Golden Hit Token, we have @Prisoner with "The Final Dance"! Congratulations Prisoner!!! You did it! This is so deserved. I cannot believe I am saying this but well done on earning your FIRST Golden Hit token after six seasons! You're an incredible talent obviously, being the first to win two ATRL writing tournaments (a distinction which is still only shared with Jackson and Hug to date), but for whatever reason it just hasn't been the right season or the right time. And it almost wasn't again this time since you forgot to link your entry properly!! But once you did, it was amazing to see the depth and creativity that went into this piece and I'm so happy to be announcing you as the winner of this round. As for hurricane, consider this a HUGE win for you! I wouldn't say this has been your best season for one reason or another, but this song... let's just say I gave it a perfect 10 and hopefully that will explain just how I felt about it. It really was immaculate and I loved every word of it. You still have a real shot at taking this whole thing out yet again, so I can't wait to see what you deliver in the finale! ...and that wraps up our fifth results show! Congratulations to everyone, and remember that the scores of this round will not be made available until the live finale, so make sure to stick around for those! The top three will have their Hit Tokens created and posted here in the thread before the conclusion of Round 6's deadline. 🧑⚖️ Stay tuned for the final round of the season, coming up next right after this commercial break! (Okay there's no commercial break...) 1 2
Galah Posted May 2 Author Posted May 2 25 minutes ago, Hug said: I have been WP free for YEARS and I will take it to the top if that changes I'm at -15 WPs so beat that sister!
Galah Posted May 2 Author Posted May 2 Hey, Hitmakers! If you're reading this post, that means you've made it to the finale of Golden Hit. Congratulations! While there aren't any eliminations in Golden Hit, writer's fatigue and other responsibilities can often get in the way. If you've submitted for at least four other rounds at this point, you still have a great chance at winning this season! Without further ado, let me introduce you all to the final round of Season 6... It's back! For last season's finale, we handpicked four of our favorite challenges from Golden Hit's history, for players to either demonstrate how far they've grown, or experience for the first time if they didn't play the previous seasons. This season we're doing it again, with some of our other favorite challenges from Golden Hit's past, one from each of our previous five seasons. We believe these challenges were widely praised by players, scored some of the highest songs in Golden Hit's history, or just had some great untapped potential we'd like a new batch of writers to try. However, this season, this challenge has an additional twist the previous version did not have. Last season we had four seasons of material to choose from, and this season we have five. That is a lot of choice and flexibility! So, this season each writer MUST combine at least TWO of the following challenge prompts. This means you can complete two, three, four, or all five challenges in a single song if you're really ambitious, but the minimum is two. We made sure to select challenges that could work with each other, and look forward to seeing your creativity regarding this aspect. Please read through the linked original challenge entries carefully, as any stipulations to the challenge may still apply. 🏳️🌈 Season 1: Queer Pride challenge 🏳️🌈 Who says Pride should only be celebrated in June? This challenge is all about queer representation in music. 💤 Season 2: Dreamscape challenge 💤 Delve into your psychological bag by delivering a song inspired by sleep-related altered states of consciousness. 👹 Season 3: Demonic Compendium challenge 👹 The clear favorite from S3's Judge's Choice, flex your lore-making muscles by exploring the wrath of demons. ‼️ Note: Only Hug's Demonic Compendium component of S3's Judge's Choice challenge is valid for this round. ‼️ 🎶 Season 4: Samples & Sequels challenge 🎶 Unlock your inner Ava Max by incorporating lyrics from another song into your own, or write a continuation piece. ✈️ Season 5: Wanderlust challenge ✈️ Take us on a journey by writing a song inspired by a specific country, state, city, or any other location of your choice. Songs due via Google Form submission by Thu. May 9, 11:59PM EST There is obviously quite a lot to unpack here, especially if you are a new player to Golden Hit. I have hosted most of these seasons, and Hug has written songs for most of these challenges, so between the two of us we are more than happy to answer any questions you may have. The top three submissions will earn their writers a Hit Token, so make sure to submit for your chance at one of those. If you have not yet signed up for Golden Hit: Season 6, that's fine! Just submit an entry and we'll add you to the sign-ups list. Spoiler @Legend E@Jack!@beatinglikeadrum@punisher@Jackson@AccioMiley@Rotunda@worldwide angel@helpthomas@stupidjock@Nashe@Julia Fox@blastoisebaby@Armani?@fountain@Lana Banana@Lorenzo22@JonginBey@Invisibility@Weld_E@Forestboy@OreGuy@Prisoner@djcalpal@Kylie Jenner@Augmented 3
Galah Posted May 2 Author Posted May 2 Please read the challenge post carefully - and the individual challenge posts from seasons' past! tl;dr summary: There are 5 challenges to choose from this round. You must complete at least two challenges with a single song. We are not looking for multiple submissions per writer. Feel free to write a song with multiple parts if you want, but it must be submitted as a single song and entry. This is the finale so give it all you've got. You have a full week! Have fun! Any other specific questions please ask away and we'll do our best to answer ASAP.
OreGuy Posted May 2 Posted May 2 @Prisoner the legend that you are finally getting your well deserved Golden token 2
OreGuy Posted May 2 Posted May 2 (edited) 1 hour ago, Aurora said: Hey, Hitmakers! If you're reading this post, that means you've made it to the finale of Golden Hit. Congratulations! While there aren't any eliminations in Golden Hit, writer's fatigue and other responsibilities can often get in the way. If you've submitted for at least four other rounds at this point, you still have a great chance at winning this season! Without further ado, let me introduce you all to the final round of Season 6... It's back! For last season's finale, we handpicked four of our favorite challenges from Golden Hit's history, for players to either demonstrate how far they've grown, or experience for the first time if they didn't play the previous seasons. This season we're doing it again, with some of our other favorite challenges from Golden Hit's past, one from each of our previous five seasons. We believe these challenges were widely praised by players, scored some of the highest songs in Golden Hit's history, or just had some great untapped potential we'd like a new batch of writers to try. However, this season, this challenge has an additional twist the previous version did not have. Last season we had four seasons of material to choose from, and this season we have five. That is a lot of choice and flexibility! So, this season each writer MUST combine at least TWO of the following challenge prompts. This means you can complete two, three, four, or all five challenges in a single song if you're really ambitious, but the minimum is two. We made sure to select challenges that could work with each other, and look forward to seeing your creativity regarding this aspect. Please read through the linked original challenge entries carefully, as any stipulations to the challenge may still apply. 🏳️🌈 Season 1: Queer Pride challenge 🏳️🌈 Who says Pride should only be celebrated in June? This challenge is all about queer representation in music. 💤 Season 2: Dreamscape challenge 💤 Delve into your psychological bag by delivering a song inspired by sleep-related altered states of consciousness. 👹 Season 3: Demonic Compendium challenge 👹 The clear favorite from S3's Judge's Choice, flex your lore-making muscles by exploring the wrath of demons. ‼️ Note: Only Hug's Demonic Compendium component of S3's Judge's Choice challenge is valid for this round. ‼️ 🎶 Season 4: Samples & Sequels challenge 🎶 Unlock your inner Ava Max by incorporating lyrics from another song into your own, or write a continuation piece. ✈️ Season 5: Wanderlust challenge ✈️ Take us on a journey by writing a song inspired by a specific country, state, city, or any other location of your choice. Songs due via Google Form submission by Thu. May 9, 11:59PM EST There is obviously quite a lot to unpack here, especially if you are a new player to Golden Hit. I have hosted most of these seasons, and Hug has written songs for most of these challenges, so between the two of us we are more than happy to answer any questions you may have. The top three submissions will earn their writers a Hit Token, so make sure to submit for your chance at one of those. If you have not yet signed up for Golden Hit: Season 6, that's fine! Just submit an entry and we'll add you to the sign-ups list. Reveal hidden contents @Legend E@Jack!@beatinglikeadrum@punisher@Jackson@AccioMiley@Rotunda@worldwide angel@helpthomas@stupidjock@Nashe@Julia Fox@blastoisebaby@Armani?@fountain@Lana Banana@Lorenzo22@JonginBey@Invisibility@Weld_E@Forestboy@OreGuy@Prisoner@djcalpal@Kylie Jenner@Augmented wait a min. my ass is shaking bc this is kinda hard nnnn but gonna be fun writing it either way Edited May 2 by OreGuy 1
Galah Posted May 2 Author Posted May 2 5 minutes ago, OreGuy said: wait a min. my ass is shaking bc this is kinda hard nnnn but gonna be fun writing it either way Yes, it's designed to test y'all! But hopefully the added challenge of combining two or more challenges will really bring out the creativity in everyone - and from what we've seen this season, we know everyone is more than capable of it! 1
OreGuy Posted May 2 Posted May 2 On 5/1/2024 at 7:02 PM, Aurora said: Hey Hitmakers, I can't believe it's been over a Fortnight.mp3 since my last reviews were posted, wow! This round may have been small in submissions, but certainly not in talent. As the tournament is nearing its end, and this round was quite a big one, I wanted to at least give you some more in-depth reviews to thank you for your efforts this season! Round 6 will be coming some time in the next 12 hours or so, so make sure to check that out and give it your all in the final challenge of the season! You've all done so well. Hide contents 1. hurricane326 - "Fade to Black" Instrumental: Ooh this is lovely, this is a really nice versatile beat. I could see a synthpop artist working with this, or even an artist like The Weeknd taking it in a more R&B direction. My first instinct would definitely be to write something space-themed with lots of pretty astral imagery. Lyrics: Wow, I loved loved loved this. This is easily my favorite offering from you this season thus far. The lyrics referring to fate, destiny, and fading to black definitely felt inspired by or at least complementary to the sonics of the instrumental. The entire bridge section about, "transfus[ing] our worldly senses," and being, "endless dreamers," was sublime. This was quite profound, sophisticated, thought-provoking, and beautifully written. I love songs that provoke the listener to question. You also sought inspiration in two songs with really strong core themes, which undoubtedly aided you here. This was pretty much perfect to me, this is the hurricane we've come to know and love, and I look forward to seeing what you serve in the final round! 2. @Weld_E - "Vows to Veils" Instrumental: Wow, I wasn't expecting a ballad at all this round, let alone two songs in! Definitely not complaining, hopefully that means we're in for some beautiful, emotional lyricism. I'm anticipating a love song or perhaps a song about heartbreak from this instrumental alone. Lyrics: I really like the way you approached this challenge since it was your first time writing with an instrumental. This almost felt like a post-divorce song written for Katy Perry at times, it gave me 'darker sister of "Never Worn White"' teas. The imagery of the titular, "vows to veils," lyric was great, and I think this was a good centerpiece for your hook. I also really liked the, "on the edge of safe and sound," idea in your pre-chorus. A good chunk of this did feel a bit familiar and slightly uninspired, and to circumvent that I would have liked to see some of the more general and nonspecific lyrics changed into really analyzing what went wrong in this relationship, highlighting specific examples, words that may have been said, what was the turning point or the breaking point, etc. These are the things that really let the listener connect with an emotionally-charged ballad such as this. Thank you for giving this challenge a go, looking forward to seeing what you serve in the final round! 3. @helpthomas - "Far Away" Welcome back! I'm so glad you were able to submit something for this round. I will be judging your entry as a complete package as you were unable to supply the instrumental. Wow, I was not expecting this! Let me start off with the obvious: your voice is absolutely incredible! I love when we get recordings submitted, but the quality… this is not something they made, this some professional like, this **** is in different areas wtf? this ain't no homemade ****. Do you have any music officially released? If so, I will be streaming! Back to the song, this reminded me of a song I wrote a while back titled "Set Sail" at first, which was a nice throwback. Lyrically, I do think you have submitted stronger in this tournament, but melodically this was marvelous. However, an aspect of this challenge was to be lyrically inspired by sonic elements in an instrumental, which I don't know if you have necessarily done. This puts me in an interesting position, because while I don't know if you've hit the bullseye in regards to what this challenge was calling for, you've certainly excelled in ways I couldn't have anticipated and created a truly wonderful product inspired by a piano loop of yours. I really appreciate you sharing this with us, and look forward to seeing what you serve in the final round! 4. @Prisoner - "The Final Dance" Instrumental: Oh, I already know Hug is going to love you for this choice of instrumental since he was the main ambassador for the inclusion of video game themes. I don't know anything about this game, but sonically this was a very nice piece of music. I'm not sure what to anticipate lyrically. Lyrics: Wait a minute… hold on… not you serving concept album this whole time and me not even realizing it. Your mind… wow. I really liked how you translated the instrumental having three distinct parts to the lyrics of your song by also giving them three distinct parts, reinforcing their connection to the source instrumental. I love how you play with language, such as pairing "sense" with "sensibility", "immobility" with "inability", or "devotion" with "divinity". The themes you are covering here definitely feel like they could be something derived from a video game's lore, so that's another strong connection to your chosen instrumental. You're certainly a fearless writer when it comes to some of the more descriptive language, such as "rotten corpses" and cracking skulls. The second part took a more raw, conversational turn, which was a nice change of pace in this song. In a way this feels like an answer to the "All" portion of the "All or Nothing" finale challenge we saw in seasons 1 and 3 of Golden Hit, and were this submitted for that challenge I'd consider it a resounding success! The third part certainly had some wonderful references to your previous submissions. This piece certainly felt like a cinematic and theatrical conclusion to the story you've been weaving throughout this season, and I hope you stick around for the finale so we can potentially witness its encore or epilogue! 5. @Legend E - "Portals" Instrumental: This is nice. I wouldn't say it's my favorite instrumental of the round, but it's not bad. I appreciate that you gave one of the AI tools a try and experimented with that until you found something you felt you could work with. I didn't get a strong lyrical picture from it alone, however. Lyrics: I'm just going to rip off the band-aid, I thought this was a bit all over the place and possibly your weakest of the tournament thus far. The timestamps were helpful and I read through the piece while listening to the instrumental and the timing of everything with a natural rhythm felt right, so you did well there. The main focus of this challenge was to take the sonic elements of an instrumental and use them as inspiration for the lyrics, not necessarily to write a song to track (which was an optional extra). I fear you may have prioritized the wrong elements here. Focusing exclusively on the lyrics here, you have the bones of a really good song here I find, but I would have loved to see a bit more structure and cohesion. There's so many different line lengths, sections, and very little rhyming, which make it hard to picture where you are in the song. Honestly, now I'm starting to question if this really is as messy as I first thought, or just an experimental masterpiece. It's a fine line! I do like the titular recurring motif, and understand your approach of matching the core concepts and themes to those typically explored in this genre. I honestly am in two minds about this one. I've been such a fan of your output this season, and I hope you finish off your season with an undeniable masterpiece, just don't overthink it as I fear you may have done this challenge. 6. @OreGuy - "Whispers" Instrumental: Very nice, you made this yourself? We love a talented cast! Sonically, this makes me think we'll be in for a ballad, similar to Weld_E's submission. I'm getting love song or heartbreak vibes, potentially, but will be more than happy if you surprise me! Lyrics: Ooh, I guess I was kinda right about it being a love song, just in the sense that it's really a song about self-love. You have a really strong theme here, and I definitely echo the sentiment that it's a cathartic feeling to just embrace the bad in life and take it with the good and acknowledge and experience it in the moment rather than leaving things bottled up. "There's beauty in silence and today I'll allow it," is such a powerful sentiment that I agree with so much, I don't really experience loneliness and prefer solitude, so that resonated with me a lot. I also really enjoyed the references to your inner child and almost making up for lost time by reconnecting with him and allowing him to come to terms with emotions once concealed in whispers. There was a real sense of self discovery in this song which is honestly quite hard to capture. You had an amazing round last week and I believe you've done very well again, and look forward to seeing what you serve in the final round! On 5/1/2024 at 11:21 PM, Hug said: Hello everyone. My Round 5 reviews are HERE. Thank you to everyone who sent, you're instrumental to our success <3 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FdIqx6Pi90Q4h57JVSEuthWkjWXVQNXnQcqLcRCSUJc/edit?usp=sharing hurricane326 @Weld_E @helpthomas @Legend E @OreGuy @Prisoner these reviews are truly heartwarming and i am sooo happy that the message resonated with you guys let's go finale 1
helpthomas Posted May 3 Posted May 3 bronze baby thank you so much! and wow what a fun final challenge!!! 2
Prisoner Posted May 3 Posted May 3 13 hours ago, OreGuy said: @Prisoner the legend that you are finally getting your well deserved Golden token 1
Prisoner Posted May 3 Posted May 3 Thank you judges. And why is this last round so insanely difficult 1
Galah Posted May 4 Author Posted May 4 16 hours ago, Prisoner said: Posted in the wrong GH thread but i do have a concept. Gee I wonder what one of your challenge choices is?
Prisoner Posted May 4 Posted May 4 10 hours ago, Aurora said: Gee I wonder what one of your challenge choices is?
Galah Posted May 4 Author Posted May 4 5 hours ago, Prisoner said: We're going meta with this one Zuckerberg is shook! 2
Galah Posted May 6 Author Posted May 6 It's time to present the top three four of last round's Instrumental challenge with their bonus prizes: the Hit Tokens! I've reviewed the requests from our trio quartet of top writers for the week, and done my best to grant them for embossment. Celebrating a third place triumph with "Far Away": @helpthomas Here is your Bronze Hit Token embossed with your ATRL username and an anchor. Congratulations! This is your second Hit Token of S6, and second Hit Token of Golden Hit overall! Also celebrating a third place triumph with "Whispers": @OreGuy Here is your Bronze Hit Token embossed with your requested text and a cross. Congratulations! This is your second Hit Token of S6, and fourth Hit Token of Golden Hit overall! Side note, but I love how unintentionally cohesive both of these Bronze Hit Tokens look, like they're literally two of a set! 🧡 Celebrating a second place success with "Fade to Black": hurricane326 Here is your Silver Hit Token embossed with your song title and a hurricane. Congratulations! This is your first Hit Token of S6, and tenth Hit Token of Golden Hit overall! Since you didn't request anything specifically, I took creative liberty with this one—I hope you enjoy the interpretation! 🖤 Celebrating a first place finish with "The Final Dance": @Prisoner Here is your Golden Hit Token embossed with your requested text and a tombstone. Congratulations! This is your second Hit Token of S6, and fourth Hit Token of Golden Hit overall! I hope you all enjoy your Hit Tokens as much as I did making them! Feel free to use them as a forum avatar if you wish, or just let them be a reminder of your time in Golden Hit—ultimately the choice is yours, and if for whatever reason you are dissatisfied with your token or simply wish to change the embossed graphic/text please contact me and I can arrange a remake. Remember, the top three writers of each round will earn their own Hit Token just like the three four above, so make sure to submit each week for the best chance to claim one of these bonus prizes. 2 1
OreGuy Posted May 7 Posted May 7 3 hours ago, Aurora said: It's time to present the top three four of last round's Instrumental challenge with their bonus prizes: the Hit Tokens! I've reviewed the requests from our trio quartet of top writers for the week, and done my best to grant them for embossment. Celebrating a third place triumph with "Far Away": @helpthomas Here is your Bronze Hit Token embossed with your ATRL username and an anchor. Congratulations! This is your second Hit Token of S6, and second Hit Token of Golden Hit overall! Also celebrating a third place triumph with "Whispers": @OreGuy Here is your Bronze Hit Token embossed with your requested text and a cross. Congratulations! This is your second Hit Token of S6, and fourth Hit Token of Golden Hit overall! Side note, but I love how unintentionally cohesive both of these Bronze Hit Tokens look, like they're literally two of a set! 🧡 Celebrating a second place success with "Fade to Black": hurricane326 Here is your Silver Hit Token embossed with your song title and a hurricane. Congratulations! This is your first Hit Token of S6, and tenth Hit Token of Golden Hit overall! Since you didn't request anything specifically, I took creative liberty with this one—I hope you enjoy the interpretation! 🖤 Celebrating a first place finish with "The Final Dance": @Prisoner Here is your Golden Hit Token embossed with your requested text and a tombstone. Congratulations! This is your second Hit Token of S6, and fourth Hit Token of Golden Hit overall! I hope you all enjoy your Hit Tokens as much as I did making them! Feel free to use them as a forum avatar if you wish, or just let them be a reminder of your time in Golden Hit—ultimately the choice is yours, and if for whatever reason you are dissatisfied with your token or simply wish to change the embossed graphic/text please contact me and I can arrange a remake. Remember, the top three writers of each round will earn their own Hit Token just like the three four above, so make sure to submit each week for the best chance to claim one of these bonus prizes. these look so sick thank you!! - also submitted for this round. let's go finaleee! 1
Galah Posted May 7 Author Posted May 7 22 hours ago, OreGuy said: these look so sick thank you!! - also submitted for this round. let's go finaleee! 7 hours ago, Legend E said: the gif? It was fun to try something new! And yay for finale! 2 days left, so get to work everyone. 1
Galah Posted May 10 Author Posted May 10 That's time! Will begin judging these tomorrow. Of course if you are running a little late and still want to submit an entry, please do so ASAP.
Prisoner Posted May 10 Posted May 10 On 5/7/2024 at 2:50 AM, Aurora said: Celebrating a first place finish with "The Final Dance": @Prisoner Here is your Golden Hit Token embossed with your requested text and a tombstone. Congratulations! This is your second Hit Token of S6, and fourth Hit Token of Golden Hit overall! This is beautiful thank you . Such a nice symbol to close David's chapter and story (yes i get attached to my characters sometimes ff ) 1
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