Re: Yamaha Freestyle Performance Contest

I'm not publicly endorsing any one contestant as each is uniquely talented , but I've been following the results of the voting each day and notice that the 'percentage totals' change, sometimes greatly, each day, and by the hour as well, so I'm curious just how they're tabulated. I'm also aware that everybody qualified to vote (USA residents who register on Yamaha Easy Pass) can vote up to 5 times daily.

Are the percentages displayed 'up to the minute' totals of each 24 hour period (12am-11:59pm), or the up to the minute cumulative total of the entire 7 day round (currently semi final)?

Because the percentages are swinging so wildly between all contestants with one contestant substantially ahead in the lead one minute and then trailing behind all the others a few hours later, it appears the winner may be more determined on how many friends and people contestants can garner to vote for them, than the merits of the actual performance.

I also notice that semi final contestant (finalist 9), Steven Gail, never competed in the 'quarter-final round' along with the other 7 quarter final contestants, but only appeared later to compete & beat out one contestant only, of who didn't make it to this semi-final round.

Can someone help clear up my confusion. Thanks.

Maybe only 9 people entered the contest or only 9 finalists were chosen by Yamaha.

The swinging percentages isn't that surprising when anyone can vote 5 times. It seems like whoever has more family and friends can win.

I think the idea of the contest is excellent, and I commend Yamaha. I was planning on entering, and I was very excited about it - until life threw me some unexpected boomerangs.

The implementation might need some improvement if they have it again in the future which I hope they do.

hard to believe only 9pp entered the contest...Hmmmmm?

Whether only 9 people or 100 people entered is insignificant here. The fact is that the contest rules state that 8 quarter finalists would be initially picked by Yamaha's judges and that the 'four best' from these 8 people would be voted on by the public and the 4 top vote getter's would then proceed to the semi-finalist round. What makes NO SENSE is that only after the quarter final voting was over, Yamaha then added a 'brand new' contestant (Steven Gail) to compete in the current semi-final round, yet he never had to compete with the original 8 quarter finalists. I have no personal stake or interest in who wins as I didn't even enter the contest, but what's the explanation for that?

After the quarter final round, one of the contestants was removed due to a technicality. They replaced #2 with #9 (the next guy in line) and did another quarter round runoff with #7 vs #9. #9 won that week and moved on to compete in the current round vs #1. The whole contest was moved back by a week.

It is just a popularity contest at this point... and how connected are you on the internet. Friends on facebook... articles written in music blogs... links posted on different sites to get as many votes as you can. It's a great way for Yamaha to get more e-mails for marketing.

Johnathan, I couldn't help but notice that you have the VP-770 in your KB collection. I've been trying for a while now to extol it's virtues but without much success . I upgraded from it's predecessor, the VP-550, which I also loved. I didn't see an arranger listed among your instruments but was curious as to how you utilize the VP-770 in your act (or in the studio). Love the way it is able to split up and perfectly sync up parts of a .WAV or MP3 file. A very useful feature if you use audio files in your performances. Thanks.

chas

Which one was contestant # 2? What song did he play, and what exactly was the 'technicality' that brought on his removal, and only "after" the 8 contestant Quarter Final Round voting was completed?

I had hoped the contest would be a lot more than simply a popularity contest, and that the winner would be based on the actual merit of their performance. To be honest, I'm glad I didn't enter the contest now. Congratulations in advance to the contestant who has the most internet connected friends. Jonathan, almost forgot, welcome to Synthzone.

This contest seems a bit fishy?.....I could be wrong ....
Just Sayin'

yup ... sounds just as fishy as that "other" so called talent show on TV. Just sayin' ...

Yea your just mad that your too old to be on AI..!!!
Just sayin' ...

Breakfast soon

I went through a lot of harmonizers through the years. I started with the Digitech VHM5 back in 1992 to my current Roland VP-770 and TC Helicon Harmony M pedal.

I used the VP-550 for a few years and loved it. The 770 came out and I upgraded because of the extra sounds and audio playing option. I use it in my duo "The Shueys" as a vocal back up to some 50's 60's songs to make a more "acapella" and "doo-wap" moment in our act. A song example is... "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow." Plus, I take a few moments to explain what a vocoder is to the crowd. It's also fun to use the vocoder for some solos and I will also use the brass on it for a solo instrument.

In the studio, I use it to create choir parts for some projects. I'll record a midi track of each part and then sing the each part on it's own to record 4 part harmony. I faked out a composer friend of mine. He has me record his new work so he can hear it. He asked me where I got the choir from?? Made my investment well worth it!!

I thought the audio playing would be like my sonic cell... insert a USB with .aiff files on it, and play it directly from it. It's not what I thought it would be... cool feature, but I don't use it much. In my act, I run tracks from older synths until I redo them with the new board. Songs from my O1/wfd and Triton Studio got converted to audio and I play the tracks from one of the following... iPod Touch - Sonar VS-100 - Roland Sonic Cell - CD - or from my newly acquired Yamaha Motif XF's audio player.

Thanks for Asking!!

He played the Asian arrangement and was ranked #2 in the contest by the two judges. It was just announced as a 'technicality'... only Yamaha knows. He looked a little bit young, he may have been under the age of 18... just a guess.



Scott - Thanks for the "welcome" to Synth Zone. I feel like I already know everybody here! If they just gave the prize away to the best, Yamaha wouldn't get anyone signed up for e-mail addresses for free. When it's your family a friends voting, they will give their info just to help you, not Yamaha. The company wins in the end... lot's of talk and exposure to a product is a "Win!"

A note on the AI... I liked Pia and Casey... both were great in their own way but both are gone!

Hi Jonathan, thanks for your help in filling in 'some' of the blanks.
It's too bad the guy who was ranked #2 by the Yamaha Judges was eliminated, because I thought his arranger presentation innovative & creative and one of my 'top 2' picks.
I thought he looked at least 18, but would have expected Yamaha to verify this even before the contestant selection began, so hope Yamaha will eventually disclose the actual reason for his removal from the contest.
That said, it's on with the show . . . as the deadline for this round is midnight tonight !
It'll be interesting to learn which two contestants make it into the final round.

Nope no racial slur in what I said, well none was intended...if you took it that way, well then that's your issue not mine..

And it was NO reprieve well certainly NOT in the manner in which you intended in your post, as if I am grateful for an morsels dropped from the SZ table!! Although I DID appreciate Nigel changing the status back to active

I did not really worry one way or the other as far as posting again, in fact I have been able to post for over a week now...and I had NO plans to make any posts until I read your hypocritical post re using mp3 files and audio tracks on your keyboard.

But I had to make some comment as it was these very things that you bag out other people for using and declaring anyone who uses them as being fakers.

I really don't care one way or the other about your personal issues with whatever race you are (I don't know and don't care).


PS: Nigel- This will be the last time I respond to this guy (as long as he stops criticising people for doing what they love/are very good at doing and then doing the very same thing he denigrates others for), so if you can leave this post up it will be appreciated, as at least it allows people to read both sides.

Anyone that is critical of using audio files or midi files is simply crazy. There are genres of music that are based upon machine performed songs that aren't humanly playable. These are the perfect candidates for using audio or midi files and performing over the top of them. It is NOT faking at all ... it is simply being REAL. My band plays some Pink and Lady Gaga and uses midifiles as a base. The band and vocalists then build up these tracks. There is no fakery, its simply so those multiple mechanical sequenced parts sit there in the mix in perfect time. Anyone that has a problem doing that is simply kidding themselves and I would totally question their ability to perform this type of electronica live.

If you think the original artists don't use audio and midi sequences on their tours you are completely out of touch.

Here's a guy who thinks outside of the box. This is hardly "faking it".

Wow, that is a very interesting clip. What an elaborate instrument triggering setup. I really enjoyed that, Pat Metheny is always a pleasure to hear but this showed a whole new dimension of experimentation.

Thanks for sharing the clip! Very cool concept. Now, let's see him load his gear into a Min Van... then set up in the smallest corner of the room... perform for the Women's Club for 30 to 45 min... get paid $150... tear down. Ha!

Ha! I don't think Pat needs the $150...but, man, what a great mind (and wallet) he has, to be able to get into stuff like that...he's literally got a huge full size arranger.

Lyle Mays, his keyboardist, is also an awesome musician who thinks outside the box.

Nice to see where the imagination can take us.

Ian

Just checked the results of the Yamaha Freestyle Arranger Keyboard Performance Contest "Semi Final" Round and it looks like the 2 top vote getters going to the Final Round are:

Dimitriv Greenberg:


Johnathan Shuey:

After viewing today's Monday morning final(?) voting results of the latest semi final voting round, showing Dimitriv Greenberg and Jonathan Shuey, each receiving 58% of the total vote,, and Chony Milencki and Steven Gail, each receiving 42% of the total vote, I checked later today to discover that the contest has been "delayed" yet again. I'm totally confused what these precentages represent as summing these together yields a 200% total, not 100% as one would expect the total number of votes to add up to. As this contest has progressed, it''s brought on more questions than answers as well as more unexpected delays. In addition, we still don't really know why contestant #2 was suddenly disqualified, and for what technically, yet only 'after' the voting round he participated in was completed. If it was for an age or US residency violation, I would have expected Yamaha to have cleared that up even before the initial Yamaha judges contestant selection round. With this latest Final Round Delay now, and seeing the Semi Final Round percentages totaling 200% and not 100% as one would expect, appears at least strange, if not suspicious. Can anyone figure out what might account for that discrepancy? As Donny Pesce suggested earlier, is it just us, or does something seem fishy? I'm sure there's an explanation, so what are we missing?

They set up but didn't explain the bracket play. The first round was...
1 vs 8 - 2 vs 7 - 3 vs 6 - 4 vs 5
The rankings were determined by 2 judges from Nashville who are studio guys... they judged on a list of criteria Yamaha gave them.

Here's where things go wrong...
Then they had an issue... took an additional week to replace #2 and rerun #7 vs #9 (the next in line.)

Semi-Final Round Bracket was #1 vs #9 and #4 vs #6. In true bracket play... the #1 seed always has the advantage and should be verses the lower rank available, unless the underdog wins. If all of the favorites win... the top 4 should move on to the next round. #1 vs #8 should play the winner of #4 vs #5 and #2 vs #7 should play the winner of #3 vs #6. You would think the finals should be #1 vs #2 to have your best match up. Yamaha, in the first round did 1/8 vs 2/7 - 3/6 - 4/5. The next round, if #2 stayed in, would have been a #1 vs the #2 in the second round. Then they replaced #2 with #9 and took the week to run #7 vs #9 and #9 won. The next round was 1/9 - 4/6. Didn't make sense to me.

Within the first hour or so of the 2nd round, it started as #1 vs #6 and #4 vs #9. A few hours later, it flipped to #1 vs #9 and #4 vs #6... it was explained as a mistake and it was always meant to be how they fixed it... not true bracket play.

The percentage is 100% out of the 2 videos against each other. 1 vs 9 ended up 58% to 42% = 100% and 4 vs 6 ended up 42% to 58% = 100%. The higher percentage moves onto the next round. After this week it should be 1 vs 6.

Hope this explains some things...

Though I noticed the brackets I thought they had no bearing how one was supposed to vote. In addition, I thought the finalist numbers were arbitrarily assigned without regard to rank and that the contestant out of numerical order of appearance was merely done to eliminate any favoritism by their finalist number. I honestly had no idea we were supposed to only vote between the two contestants appearing in each bracket. I'm betting many other voters as well were unaware of the bracketed voting setup or its rules either. I merely applied the same rules given to the Yamaha judges in their initial selection process, and gave all my votes to who I felt the top 2 arranger kb players of everyone appearing in each round. A bit late in the contest to discover only now, but thank you Jonathan for taking the time to explain in detail the "bracket play" voting rules. Yamaha should have really included these voting rules on the page where people actually vote.

I think that's why they gave each person 5 votes. You can only vote 5 times per day... not per bracket. So, you could give 3 votes to #1 and 2 votes to #2 to see them move on.

They should have spelled out how to vote to make the bracket play fair. I'm sure they have learned a lot about how to run a contest after the issues with this one.

Here's the latest...

"The Final voting round will commence on Monday, May 9, 2011 and will end Sunday, May 15 at 11:59 PM PDT."

The finalists aren't even announced... what's going on???

Yep. I've been wondering the same thing for nearly a week now too.

With the now seemingly endless contest starts, stops, and delays, and because contestant #2 was eliminated on a so called technicality (but never explained), and then the subsequent run off between contestant #7 and #9 (what happened to contestant #8?), plus the only now realized public's awareness of and or confusion over the way the bracketed voting system works, and of which I'd expect to have certainly affected the voting results, I think Yamaha USA may need to consider cutting their losses, and simply award "All 4 Semi Finalists" a Tyros 4.

Newsflash: May 9th, 2011

From Yamaha USA:

Yamaha Corporation of America has reason to believe that the integrity of the voting process in the Freestyle Contest has been compromised. Yamaha regrets this and, in the interest of fairness to the entrants, has decided to award the announced prize based on the professional judging scores from the pre-voting phase of the Contest. Based on those scores, the winner is Dmitry Greenberg. Congratulations, Dmitry, on winning the YAMAHA Tyros4 Arranger Workstation Keyboard, TRS-MS04 speakers, L-7S stand and available manufacturer's warranty.

In addition to the originally announced prize, Yamaha has decided to also award each of the seven remaining finalists in the Freestyle Contest a YAMAHA Piaggero NP-V60.

Once again, Yamaha regrets the disruption that has occurred to the Contest. Thank you to everyone for your interest and participation.

-------------------------------------------------------------

In light of the above statement made by Yamaha USA , and the observations I made in my last posting reply,
I believe Yamaha did the 'honorable thing' to make Dimitry Greenberg the grand prize winner of the Tyros 4 keyboard,
and in addition , award the other 7 finalists a Yamaha Piaggero NP-V60 keyboard.
Congratulations (esp sz members Chony Milecki & Jonathan Shuey.
I didn't enter this contest, but hope to participate next time, if there's ever another arranger contest in the future. - Scott