Anime Expo 2012 AMV Contest Thread - WINNERS ANNOUNCED!!!

[milkmandan]

A little off topic, but it felt to me some of the audio tracks in the AMV contest were NORMALIZED??
I don't think Troy did it, since I didn't hear normalization on some other tracks, but there were some specific ones that did. (I was at the contest and the reshowing, I heard it on both showings)

Did anyone else catch it? or am I just crazy?

[irriadin]

A little off topic, but it felt to me some of the audio tracks in the AMV contest were NORMALIZED??
I don't think Troy did it, since I didn't hear normalization on some other tracks, but there were some specific ones that did. (I was at the contest and the reshowing, I heard it on both showings)

Did anyone else catch it? or am I just crazy?

Someone definitely played with the audio settings on my video in AMTV-Pro, during the first screening. The volume was lowered during the portion where my video got really loud.

[XStylus]

A little off topic, but it felt to me some of the audio tracks in the AMV contest were NORMALIZED??
I don't think Troy did it, since I didn't hear normalization on some other tracks, but there were some specific ones that did.

Did anyone else catch it? or am I just crazy?

As I was doing the compile, I did try to make adjustments. Most entries rode the red. If they clipped, I dropped them until they no longer did (usually -0.2db, -0.5db max). For quieter entries I boosted the gain until just shy of peak. One entry got the maximum +6db boost and still could've used more.

I didn't make any adjustments to the audio of the pre-show entries due to lack of time.

I'm generally touchy on messing with audio. It's been my experience that people are less forgiving of audio issues than video issues.

[XStylus]

Someone definitely played with the audio settings on my video in AMTV-Pro, during the first screening. The volume was lowered during the portion where my video got really loud.

It was left to the audio engineer's judgement to adjust the volume as needed, since the volume of the entries varied from video to video.

I do know that for the main competition the engineer aimed to set a fairly loud level and would adjust on the fly for each entry. If your video started quiet, the engineer likely punched it up accordingly, assuming that would be the level for the entire vid. When your video got loud, the engineer then likely had to make a correction. Kinda hard to plan that without advance notice.

[milkmandan]

I'm generally touchy on messing with audio. It's been my experience that people are less forgiving of audio issues than video issues.

I agree. Better to not blow out the audiences ears and actually get a formal complaint than to just lower the volume and 'maybe' lose out on some dramatic effect.

Someone definitely played with the audio settings on my video in AMTV-Pro, during the first screening. The volume was lowered during the portion where my video got really loud.

I AM NOT CRAZY YAY!

[Vlad G Pohnert]

I know for the secons showing, the Audio engineer adjusted each video... Overall and based on a LOT of othwer main events rooms. the audio was actually very clean! So you all are pretty lucky.. At some cons, the audio is set for rock banks with way too much base so you can't hear the lyrics...

As for the messup for my videos, honestly, it was three small studders and that's all... Troy did ask if I wanted to play it again at the end, but I said I was fine with it... Now it would of been intresting to find out how will it would of done if not taken out of the finals But then again it ment someone else got in so it was all good in the end

Vlad

[Rider4Z]

A little off topic, but it felt to me some of the audio tracks in the AMV contest were NORMALIZED??
I don't think Troy did it, since I didn't hear normalization on some other tracks, but there were some specific ones that did. (I was at the contest and the reshowing, I heard it on both showings)

Did anyone else catch it? or am I just crazy?

i DID notice that. Yue's Dreamer in particular, both during the contest and rescreen.

[XStylus]

i DID notice that. Yue's Dreamer in particular, both during the contest and rescreen.

I noticed that with Yue's vid especially, and at first I wondered if I accidentally spiked the gain at the end. I checked, and I hadn't. I inquired with Yue about it and it was in her source. I was half tempted to try correcting it, but didn't have the time, plus it's a veerrrrry fine line to cross (not to mention this is Yue we're talking about, god help me if I tinker with one of her vids).

Hmm. That's a good topic to dwell on for a second. What's everyone's thoughts? On one hand, there's the ideology that vids should be shown exactly as the creator sent them. On the other hand, there's the ideology that a coordinator should try to correct simple mistakes such as aspect ratios and gain issues because generally everyone points the blame at the con and the coordinator if something isn't quite right.

I like Vicbond007's saying: "I can't make bad look good, but I can make good look right." I decided this year that I would do the same. There was a lot of aspect ratio corrections done this year, for example. I do intend, however, to revamp the judging system to give a tiny penalty to vids that I have to make You-Should-Know-Better corrections to.

[DriftRoot]

Hmm. That's a good topic to dwell on for a second. What's everyone's thoughts? On one hand, there's the ideology that vids should be shown exactly as the creator sent them. On the other hand, there's the ideology that a coordinator should try to correct simple mistakes such as aspect ratios and gain issues because generally everyone points the blame at the con and the coordinator if something isn't quite right.

Audio-wise, I don't know very much about it, but it always is very distracting during a screening to hear very obvious differences between the audio tracks. Obviously you have to work with what you get, but if you've got five videos out of 35 which just need manual or on-the-fly audio adjustment to sound more like the rest, and one of those videos was mine, I'd definitely want it to be adjusted. I want my AMV to sound as good as possible.

Does the .org even have any guides for prepping audio for contest screenings, similar to Scintilla's older guide for MPEGs? It would be great if that were in the official guides area or stickied, if there is something lurking around in the forums.

[Scintilla]

... and the ballots themselves deserve a special mention. Ingenious. I got everything I needed on that ballot (AMV Title, song, creator and anime) and while I did feel like I was spoiling the suprise knowing which anime was coming, it helped oodles when I was voting and taking notes for later download.

... you mean AX's ballots did not already contain that information in previous years?