00:00
00:00
Newgrounds Background Image Theme

MovementalStudio just joined the crew!

We need you on the team, too.

Support Newgrounds and get tons of perks for just $2.99!

Create a Free Account and then..

Become a Supporter!

Ways to improve the Audio Portal?

108,522 Views | 625 Replies
New Topic Respond to this Topic

Response to Ways to improve the Audio Portal? 2018-03-04 16:00:28


It would be great if there was a way to incentivize rating and reviewing music. I always found the fact that there's two different scores for one piece of music unnecessary; there's one for the overall score (what actually affects the song's score) and the score you give in your review (which doesn't affect the song's score). That seems backwards and counterintuitive. The score for the review should affect the score overall because that's a more thoughtful response anyways because that person is taking time to review the song. You should get rid of the dude with the headphones and make it necessary to review a piece in order to score it. 1 score, 1 review, every time. It encourages feedback and community, which the audio portal has lacked for years. And of course, these are just my opinions.


It's yo boy

BBS Signature

Response to Ways to improve the Audio Portal? 2018-03-05 10:11:02


At 3/4/18 04:00 PM, djt820 wrote: It would be great if there was a way to incentivize rating and reviewing music. I always found the fact that there's two different scores for one piece of music unnecessary; there's one for the overall score (what actually affects the song's score) and the score you give in your review (which doesn't affect the song's score). That seems backwards and counterintuitive. The score for the review should affect the score overall because that's a more thoughtful response anyways because that person is taking time to review the song. You should get rid of the dude with the headphones and make it necessary to review a piece in order to score it. 1 score, 1 review, every time. It encourages feedback and community, which the audio portal has lacked for years. And of course, these are just my opinions.

This is actually exactly what we are doing - we're moving content pages to a single voting panel, which will be based on the stars since they allow for half-stars. We're working on some ideas to make it more fun than the current star voting bar though, since some people will miss the cartoon / word bubble voting bars.


Working on Nightmare Cops!

BBS Signature

Response to Ways to improve the Audio Portal? 2018-03-05 21:49:13


At 3/5/18 10:11 AM, TomFulp wrote: This is actually exactly what we are doing - we're moving content pages to a single voting panel, which will be based on the stars since they allow for half-stars. We're working on some ideas to make it more fun than the current star voting bar though, since some people will miss the cartoon / word bubble voting bars.

That sounds really great and I am looking forward to it. Thanks for the response, man! Cheers.


It's yo boy

BBS Signature

Response to Ways to improve the Audio Portal? 2018-03-18 02:33:25


Lol!
but bugger off testuser472. You love vaporwave and your just being (insert anime character reference here) about it. Nice try!

At 2/24/18 05:51 PM, TestUser472 wrote:
At 2/24/18 11:40 AM, JvsKiller wrote: Isn't a good idea put new eletronic genres in NG like Electro Swing, Future Funk, Vaporwave and Minimal?
2 of those would go in house, minimal i guess goes in techno, and vaporwave doesn't belong here.

At 3/18/18 02:33 AM, EiG wrote: Lol!
but bugger off testuser472. You love vaporwave and your just being (insert anime character reference here) about it. Nice try!

i haven't even listened to any vaporwave

inb4 IT'S JUST A JOKE TEST USER


if you want some bass of mine click here https://testuser472.newgrounds.com/audio

BBS Signature

Response to Ways to improve the Audio Portal? 2018-03-21 15:59:34


At 3/5/18 10:11 AM, TomFulp wrote:
We're working on some ideas to make it more fun than the current star voting bar though, since some people will miss the cartoon / word bubble voting bars.

Hey man. Happy to see you still lurk our little corner over here!


lel

BBS Signature

Response to Ways to improve the Audio Portal? 2018-03-27 11:02:30


I agree that we really need to revise the rating and voting system. Maybe even make it so you have to vote/rate on at least one song picked at random matching the genre of the song you are about to post. Make it so they have to be reviewed with a minimum of 50 words in the review. And, it could be smart and pick a song that has no reviews, over one that has many reviews.

It's just too much a shame how it feels most people just post their songs without reviewing others. You even check their profiles and see that they only submit content, and hardly ever review any. Personally, I think if somebody is respectful, then their profile will show more reviews than submits. We shoudln't have to force it, but it's getting out of control if you ask me. The only way to get lots of reviews, is to have a large fanbase already, otherwise your song is buried almost immediately, never to see the light of day again.

Response to Ways to improve the Audio Portal? 2018-03-27 23:11:40


At 2/11/18 04:07 PM, RedAndrew wrote: This might come off as nitpicky but I really miss the old design on the sumbissions where you could see the (I don't know how it's formally called) sound waves moving around. Or just the setting of letting the disk spin around . Now it's just too simplified and much more boring.

Though there is one issue with that. Since now all you can see are yellow sound waves (like on soundcloud), the pointer that shows in which part of the song you are can be lost in the yellow, since it's also yellow. That happens if the sound waves are too high. And that sometimes happens and I have no clue what part of the song I'm in and where should I skip it to.

Again I'm probably being nitpicky but I really hope someone can relate to this.

I agree, I liked the different visualizers. Just gave you something to look at while listening I suppose. What would really be cool is if they made it so you could choose any of the three views, whether its the old visualizer, spinning disc or just sound waves. We'll see I guess...


in a beautiful place out in the country...

BBS Signature

At 3/27/18 11:11 PM, Hyenaedon wrote:
Again I'm probably being nitpicky but I really hope someone can relate to this.
I agree, I liked the different visualizers. Just gave you something to look at while listening I suppose. What would really be cool is if they made it so you could choose any of the three views, whether its the old visualizer, spinning disc or just sound waves. We'll see I guess...

The old visualizer won't be supported by browsers after 2020 so there isn't any good long-term plan for that one. Ideally we'll have the option for an html5-based visualizer down the road.


Working on Nightmare Cops!

BBS Signature

Response to Ways to improve the Audio Portal? 2018-03-28 13:53:21


The old visualizer won't be supporter by browsers after 2020 so there isn't any good long-term plan for that one. Ideally we'll have the option for an html5-based visualizer down the road.

That sounds good! If or when it comes i'll definitely be happy, but then again it's not the biggest issue ;)


in a beautiful place out in the country...

BBS Signature

Response to Ways to improve the Audio Portal? 2018-04-19 15:21:09


I feel like having ratings as well as reviews is a bit redundant. I posted a track recently which immediately got a five star review, and then a few weeks later got rated one star, and while i can't say either opinion matters more (obviously i'm biased towards the positive one) At least the positive "review" holds the reviewer accountable whereas you can rate someone's song poorly simply because you're having a bad day with no way for the artist to know why.
I believe that holding people to that degree of accountability could almost remove dishonest ratings entirely since it would at least require some extra effort on the part of the reviewers, and would also encourage more constructive criticism rather than just rating something poorly and moving on.
I doubt this will be an incredibly popular suggestion since people tend to like anonymity, but if you can't stand by your opinions then how much are your opinions really worth?

Response to Ways to improve the Audio Portal? 2018-04-24 15:18:48


This is a long topic and not sure if it has been mentioned already but it would be cool to have "album art" or "track art" on each song's page. It's cool that it takes the art at makes little cd's with them, quite charming really. But you could use that same uploader to upload art that would take the place of the Newgrounds pin ad that is displaying on each songs page right now.

Some more noticable, visual way to differentiate each track on each page.


BBS Signature

Response to Ways to improve the Audio Portal? 2018-04-28 10:04:42


Not sure if it's come up, but could the definition for SPAM in the AP flagging system be updated?

Currently it reads as "Hormone Supplements, breast implants, pirated videos, etc", most of which generally don't apply for audio. Maybe something more like "advertising/marketing, memes, Acapella of electronic music".

I've seen all three more than the current definition, and it would help clarify what is spam for other users. "Advertising/marketing" generally has been a 20-30 second commercial for x electronic product, with a link out to a shady site in the Author's Comments. "Memes" catches all the general crap which makes less burden on tracking down a source for "Stolen". "Acapella of electronic music" catches a new trend I've seen of what sounds like a 12 year old making noise to a very distant background track of EDM, which makes it hard to ID and flag for copyright content.

Currently from what I'm aware, the only recourse for the "horrible acapella of EDM" submissions is to v0te acc0rdingly to balance out the uploader's self-fifen, but doesn't remove it from the AP since there is no Under Judgement phase.


Flag stolen content, don't be a dingus.

BBS Signature

Response to Ways to improve the Audio Portal? 2018-04-28 12:03:20


At 4/28/18 10:04 AM, Peregrinus wrote: Not sure if it's come up, but could the definition for SPAM in the AP flagging system be updated?

Currently it reads as "Hormone Supplements, breast implants, pirated videos, etc", most of which generally don't apply for audio. Maybe something more like "advertising/marketing, memes, Acapella of electronic music".

I've seen all three more than the current definition, and it would help clarify what is spam for other users.

This definition always confounded me -- and it is kind of outdated. I see more futureelectronic spam and memes than anything else these days, excluding the usual GD how-to screeching, which generally falls under stolen for using the original audio.

Currently from what I'm aware, the only recourse for the "horrible acapella of EDM" submissions is to v0te acc0rdingly to balance out the uploader's self-fifen, but doesn't remove it from the AP since there is no Under Judgement phase.

If the acapella is of another artist, just flag it as stolen. If it's by the user, well, someone can sample it, maybe.

Can't remember if somewhere in this thread it was mentioned we should tag @TomFulp, or if that was another suggestion thread, but I'd be interested to see what you think about updating that spam definition.


music producer freebies // Januarylist // Februarylist // Take My Cymbals // Get ALL my big sample projects, FREE

I do professional audio critique & commissions. Catch me on YT and X! If you got music, I'll playlist you!

BBS Signature

Response to Ways to improve the Audio Portal? 2018-04-28 12:14:08


At 4/28/18 12:03 PM, ADR3-N wrote: This definition always confounded me -- and it is kind of outdated. I see more futureelectronic spam and memes than anything else these days, excluding the usual GD how-to screeching, which generally falls under stolen for using the original audio.

Futureelectronic is the one I keep seeing around, and I have been using the spam flag on it. It made for a good example of how it's spam but doesn't fit the given definition.

For "acapella", the problem I'm encountering is that since it's usually EDM music played in an open room background, I have more trouble finding the source. I generally like having the source in as substantiation when I use the Stolen or Music flags. I haven't come across any proper Acapella which is stolen (yet).

I also wouldn't mind the "improper" flag from the flash portal, but defined as "wrong genre". There are a few ones (mostly GD but the occasional legit submission) which are put under the wrong musical genre, like EDM in Jazz, or Solo Instrument on something made in FL Studio. Everything is EDM's fault always :)


Flag stolen content, don't be a dingus.

BBS Signature

Response to Ways to improve the Audio Portal? 2018-04-28 23:29:03


At 4/28/18 12:14 PM, Peregrinus wrote: Futureelectronic is the one I keep seeing around, and I have been using the spam flag on it. It made for a good example of how it's spam but doesn't fit the given definition.

Let me know how you find those. I've been relying on NG search since they slip through so quick. That and every time I find an account, they're numbered, so I scale up and down 10-20 numbers.

For "acapella", the problem I'm encountering is that since it's usually EDM music played in an open room background, I have more trouble finding the source. I generally like having the source in as substantiation when I use the Stolen or Music flags. I haven't come across any proper Acapella which is stolen (yet).

The only time I've seen people recording vocals with a crap room mic and their stereo on is covers (which we don't allow with the instrumental in the BG) and people doing those damn how-tos. If you see that stuff, I would say flag it for review. Mods review each report individually, and if you're not obviously trying to give a bs report, we generally don't penalize you whistle points. I wouldn't take the same approach to flagging icons or reviews, but the AP? You're fine.

I also wouldn't mind the "improper" flag from the flash portal, but defined as "wrong genre". There are a few ones (mostly GD but the occasional legit submission) which are put under the wrong musical genre, like EDM in Jazz, or Solo Instrument on something made in FL Studio. Everything is EDM's fault always :)

You're right. I'd like a flag for "wrong genre" and "wrong license" specifically, for covers with improper rights, etc.


music producer freebies // Januarylist // Februarylist // Take My Cymbals // Get ALL my big sample projects, FREE

I do professional audio critique & commissions. Catch me on YT and X! If you got music, I'll playlist you!

BBS Signature

Response to Ways to improve the Audio Portal? 2018-05-10 12:30:10


maybe have an option after we choose genre to have an option for subgenre. we could just type our own. Also, i think we need to be able to use more than 4 tags. not just for music, but for every type of upload on ng


Notorious internet cunt

My old username was StaticSkull

Vote Thread Of The Year 2022

BBS Signature

Response to Ways to improve the Audio Portal? 2018-05-10 15:41:55


At 5/10/18 12:30 PM, GavinPyon wrote: maybe have an option after we choose genre to have an option for subgenre. we could just type our own. Also, i think we need to be able to use more than 4 tags. not just for music, but for every type of upload on ng

I'm fine with 4 tags. I'd love genre and subgenre though. If the subgenre(s) worked similar to SC's tags, which I believe are validated by mods so as not to have millions of misspelled genre tags, I'd be fine going through those. The genre system as is is between confusing and somewhat dated, imo.

To be fair, music evolves rapidly af tho

music producer freebies // Januarylist // Februarylist // Take My Cymbals // Get ALL my big sample projects, FREE

I do professional audio critique & commissions. Catch me on YT and X! If you got music, I'll playlist you!

BBS Signature

Request to look more into Soundation for the disallowed programs listing (like MAGIX products) for the following legalese:

2. All sounds in Soundation Studio and the Soundation Sound Shop remain property of Soundation and it`s parent company Soundation AB (the licensor), and all purchased sounds are licensed, not sold to the registered user (the licensee). All rights not expressly granted to the registered user are reserved by Soundation AB.

The sounds can be used royalty free by the purchaser of the downloads in any context except:
5. To upload the individual sounds, or unaltered not mixed individual sounds put together as a continued track, to any music streaming service or digital music sales service with the intent, or unintentionally, to be used or downloaded by others.

tl;dr version: Soundation maintains ownership of all individual sound files, and all mixes thereof. Soundation has a similar desire for creative commons for legal protection as NG does, but Soundation retains it's own license on all free or purchased media provided by the program. The ability to download audio from Scouted artists can potentially cause an issue. It also gets into the grey area of "how much mixing of stock loops counts as original content".


Flag stolen content, don't be a dingus.

BBS Signature

Response to Ways to improve the Audio Portal? 2018-05-15 22:02:56


At 5/12/18 08:56 AM, Peregrinus wrote: investigation

TLDR, Soundation could technically sue you for uploading anything you create with their software to sites like NG, YT, and SC. In light of legal speak #2, treat them as you would copyrighted songs.

Thanks for the heads up.


music producer freebies // Januarylist // Februarylist // Take My Cymbals // Get ALL my big sample projects, FREE

I do professional audio critique & commissions. Catch me on YT and X! If you got music, I'll playlist you!

BBS Signature

Response to Ways to improve the Audio Portal? 2018-05-16 08:27:11


At 5/15/18 10:02 PM, ADR3-N wrote: Thanks for the heads up.

I'm expanding to include you.dj in my flags. The site pulls audio from soundcloud and youtube as a scratch/mix table. Major Lazer and a few other major artists are being used, judging by the public history.


Flag stolen content, don't be a dingus.

BBS Signature

At 5/16/18 08:27 AM, Peregrinus wrote: I'm expanding to include you.dj in my flags. The site pulls audio from soundcloud and youtube as a scratch/mix table. Major Lazer and a few other major artists are being used, judging by the public history.

Yeah, that's definitely illegal as well. Not only is none of the content going to be original; it's also going to break CC/copyright.

Maybe it would be a good idea to add a short preamble about what types of programs are not allowed for use here on NG. I'm considering programming up a Twine quiz for the AP community to help determine rights, etc.

Mentions here for sake of convenience.

@LexRodent @NekoMika @Exedor @Troisnyx @Mich @BrokenDeck @TomFulp @Rig @Jackho


music producer freebies // Januarylist // Februarylist // Take My Cymbals // Get ALL my big sample projects, FREE

I do professional audio critique & commissions. Catch me on YT and X! If you got music, I'll playlist you!

BBS Signature

Response to Ways to improve the Audio Portal? 2018-05-16 14:01:48


At 5/16/18 01:10 PM, ADR3-N wrote: Maybe it would be a good idea to add a short preamble about what types of programs are not allowed for use here on NG. I'm considering programming up a Twine quiz for the AP community to help determine rights, etc.

@LexRodent @NekoMika @Exedor @Troisnyx @Mich @BrokenDeck @TomFulp @Rig @Jackho

I updated the Audio Guidelines page, adding those two other programs to the list of programs you can't use.

https://www.newgrounds.com/wiki/help-information/terms-of-use/audio-guidelines

I also tidied up a little while I was in there, trying to make things more concise and clear.


Working on Nightmare Cops!

BBS Signature

Response to Ways to improve the Audio Portal? 2018-05-16 17:16:40


At 5/16/18 02:01 PM, TomFulp wrote: I updated the Audio Guidelines page, adding those two other programs to the list of programs you can't use.

Awesome, I'll let people know here if I find any other programs. I've been sifting through the TOS of all the new ones I learn about.


Flag stolen content, don't be a dingus.

BBS Signature

At 5/16/18 02:01 PM, TomFulp wrote: I updated the Audio Guidelines page, adding those two other programs to the list of programs you can't use.
I also tidied up a little while I was in there, trying to make things more concise and clear.

Thanks. Looks great. At some point if we compile a comprehensive list of disallowed programs, would you be game to link them within the text or create a separate wiki entry for the purposes?

If a new Spanish translation is needed, @LexRodent or I can jump on that.


music producer freebies // Januarylist // Februarylist // Take My Cymbals // Get ALL my big sample projects, FREE

I do professional audio critique & commissions. Catch me on YT and X! If you got music, I'll playlist you!

BBS Signature

At 5/16/18 02:01 PM, TomFulp wrote:
At 5/16/18 01:10 PM, ADR3-N wrote: Maybe it would be a good idea to add a short preamble about what types of programs are not allowed for use here on NG. I'm considering programming up a Twine quiz for the AP community to help determine rights, etc.
I updated the Audio Guidelines page, adding those two other programs to the list of programs you can't use.

That update to the audio portal rules looks pretty nice.
If @ADR3-N 's idea of having a concise list of programs not allowed in here gets on incorporated, I have a list of commonly used pre-made / stock loops based software.


Musicians make music , producers make products. * drops mic :D

BBS Signature

Response to Ways to improve the Audio Portal? 2018-05-17 11:21:38


At 5/17/18 02:25 AM, LexRodent wrote: That update to the audio portal rules looks pretty nice.
If @ADR3-N 's idea of having a concise list of programs not allowed in here gets on incorporated, I have a list of commonly used pre-made / stock loops based software.

You can give me the list of software, I could try popping it all in.


Working on Nightmare Cops!

BBS Signature

Response to Ways to improve the Audio Portal? 2018-05-17 14:56:13


Good a time as any to drop this here. I kicked around an idea and got some good feedback, so I'd like to formally request consideration for it.

@TomFulp, is it possible to consider changing the Audio submission page image to one like the one below? More options in the above link. Thanks to all who provided their input.

Ways to improve the Audio Portal?


Flag stolen content, don't be a dingus.

BBS Signature

Response to Ways to improve the Audio Portal? 2018-05-17 15:12:33


At 5/17/18 02:25 AM, LexRodent wrote: That update to the audio portal rules looks pretty nice.
If @ADR3-N 's idea of having a concise list of programs not allowed in here gets on incorporated, I have a list of commonly used pre-made / stock loops based software.

Off the top of my head, I had to deal with a rash of Wubmachine submissions about a year ago. It resurfaces every so often. Wubmachine is literally a pre-made chop-sample remix software that, while cool, is never going to spit out original content, just premade dubstep with random copyrighted music sources.

There's also a ton of bare bones free DJ (turntable) software but most of that should be self-explanatory given mashups are prohibited.


music producer freebies // Januarylist // Februarylist // Take My Cymbals // Get ALL my big sample projects, FREE

I do professional audio critique & commissions. Catch me on YT and X! If you got music, I'll playlist you!

BBS Signature

Response to Ways to improve the Audio Portal? 2018-05-25 01:57:55


At 5/24/18 10:39 PM, IoTheEternal wrote: If you form incentive around people writing reviews, you will have this part of the site EXPLODE, and people will be very very happy. Perhaps implement a minimum text limit so people can't just write a couple words - like in the forums.

Yeah. I get tired of seeing 20 characters or less. Although occasionally I'm stumped for much beyond a sentence or two with a song that is either so good or so terrible that I can't offer much critique. I would agree with this stipulation if your next idea were implemented.

Also what the reviews USED to have was pretty nice - a title, 4 criteria for clarity etc and then the review.

I loved this but apparently some people had ADD and thought it was too confusing.

There was a site called mixposure, where, while it still exists, its system has drastically changed. However it had incentives for reviewing. One I believed was that you were not allowed to submit NEW music until you reviewed existing peoples music, and it had to be good. Those reviews had to pass quality approval before you got your stats.

I tried this site out and it wasn't half-bad. I may have actually stayed had I been more into music back in '09 or so.

Imagine if you did that on here. Sure you might kill the portal if people decide it's not worth it - but you would also cut out 99% of the crap submitted to the portal. Imagine if you cannot even POST music until you say review 5 peoples songs that already exist on the portal.

Not only would this allow for people to get exposed to peoples music, but it would give them a sense of what the portal is all about, and possibly cut off the flow of stolen audio submissions for geometry dash that this site appears to be plagued with.

Kill GD theft by requiring people to write a set number of reviews, to be approved by mods, before they can upload, while stimulating the one thing everyone here craves, feedback? That doesn't sound half bad. For active members of the community, 5 reviews per submission wouldn't even be a big issue, but for drop and dash GD thieves, getting reviews approved would take real effort, not to mention force them to interact with the community in a positive manner.

Now the question is what other incentives could you be given for reviewing lots of people with GOOD advice? And not super condescending novels of advice, but good overall reviews? What about added voting WEIGHT to songs?

I'm more on the side of EXP for reviews, since EXP counts toward weight, and review score/vote score are being merged, although I wouldn't be opposed to this idea. It just seems a little hard to manage without a hardcap on additional vote-weight percentage. Who knows, maybe add badges or something to reviews, for simplicity's sake. I always miss seeing that extra percentage next to my vote power when I vote in the AP, as opposed to the game/movie portal.

Where if they have a good review, and people mark it as helpful, each of those helpfuls counts as a point towards review weight? Or unhelpfuls count against, or , since this would very much likely be abused, have a review mod award those points?

That sounds like a lot of hard work for review mods, but is not in itself a bad idea. Perhaps a large percentage of helpful marks over certain milestones in review count would count toward bonus percentage, and similarly, a lot of unhelpfuls would decrease percentage? Though then people could just ask to have their reviews deleted.

I've been in the audio portal for 15 years. I have seen all the changes, what has worked and what has not. What I suggest is you do NOT cater to the instant gratification culture that has swept this generation, and instead make people WORK for things.

Work is good. Within reason, it makes things feel worth having -- and thus worth sticking around for.

One of those things is an overall top chart, or a weekly top 5 like used to happen.

I missed this but I feel like this is how people look at the top categories for the week/month/etc. It does feel quaint by comparison though.

When people have something to strive for that they believe they can get on score, or merit, or weight of reviews (and not just randomly determined), they are going to be competitive about it and this helps raise quality and help clean out the portal - as a lot of weaker songs get swept away under the desire of those who wish to get ahead, and have the followings to do it. You should have to EARN that following.

Are you suggesting a top 5 by score or by merit? The FP typically serves the latter purpose and is hand picked between once and twice a week, but perhaps that could be better emphasized. Some people confuse it with the features at the bottom of a few pages, which are chosen I believe by algorithm.

Also hate that those are usually GD related. Damn GD kiddos.

Also maybe this exists, but I currently don't see how many people have favourited one of my songs - shouldn't that be a stat?

Those are on the individual song pages, if they've been faved, last I checked. I don't think there's a stat across the board for the number of faves your acc has received, just follows, which were previously acc faves.


music producer freebies // Januarylist // Februarylist // Take My Cymbals // Get ALL my big sample projects, FREE

I do professional audio critique & commissions. Catch me on YT and X! If you got music, I'll playlist you!

BBS Signature