What is a OHC?
OHC it's an acronym that stands for a One Hour Competition. This means a competition lasting an hour only (exceptions to this further down) OHC's have variants and these depend on three things, which are "the sample pack", "the extra rules" and "the format" to be used for each competition (formats include ALLGEAR, SAP, NSF, S3XMODIT, MOD, Mario Paint and MIDI) and these three things are planned before each OHC is started by their participants. OHC's are planed on the IRC channel when "players" are willing to do them and a minimum of three players are participating.
OHC's have 3 stages:
1. The Countdown
2. Competition time; composing and uploading entry time
3. Voting time
1. The Countdown:
During this time a Countdown timer is set while the particular sample pack for the competition is prepared by one of the players. This guarantees (hopefully) that no one can be ahead of others time-wise nor that players use a previous work done on their own time (we trust either participant or player doing the pack not to cheat on us :D) Also during this time players should ideally finish up whatever they are doing at the moment (work, food, games, and a long etc) in order to get ready to participate and set up their own tools. The Countdown timer usually is set to thirty minutes at most and once it reaches zero minutes the sample pack is released to the public.
2. Competition time:
During this time the sample pack is provided to the users for their tunes. It officially last sixty minutes only. There might be times in which the page or the players have problems or the users need some *little* extra time to finish up their songs and upload them to the BOTB server, time in which a brief lapsus of 2-4 minutes is added.
During this time you're allowed to chat on the IRC channel (of course) but please be aware not to hint people on your songs in order to simply "win".
3. Voting time:
Voting should not take a long while since OHC is such a small competition. Also there is no time to listen to each tune 2-4 times or even compare between them all much. Because of this decisions should be taken fast on a scale that goes from 1 (bad) to 7 (Excellent). It's usually agreed that 4 is neither excellent nor bad but just "so-so".
High scores are bound to how much a player adhered to the rules set for that particular OHC (format, theme, usage of the sample packs, and any other extra rules set) in order to get high votes besides "just" great and amazing melodies of course. A great melody can get you far, but if you didn't follow the theme nor used the sample pack enough or simply didn't follow any extra rules expect 1:s and 2:s votes from other participants and players.
Rules:
The following things should be considered as well for OHC:s
* Have fun!...
* You *may not* include *any* others samples on your songs. Only use what is on the the sample pack provided and the features of the tool used (if the special rules allow so).
* If you have no sample pack, but you have a theme, that mean you can use *any* extras sound or any extra format. For Example: You can use your voice, guitar, bass or any extra sample.
* Do not include information about you on your song (your name, nickname or other info about yourself) This is done so that players remain anonymous and no votes are given based purely on a name|reputation.
* One hour compos last an hour. When time reaches zero minutes, Voting Time begins.
* Covers or Remixes are not allowed.
Extra Rules:
These are defined right before the competition and the players|participants must all agree to them in order to participate. This are usually "limitations" on notes, tones, samples, for a particular system|tracking application and they are very tight and specific.
Who can vote?
Players (people registered at the site who happen to submit an entry for that particular OHC) and participants (people registered at the site who didn't submit a song for the OHC but happened to be around on the IRC channel during the Voting Time)
Also, a player is not allowed to vote his|her own song on any competition.
The so called *Sample pack*:
Means that a pack of sounds and samples will be used for that particular competition. If a sample pack is provided, it *must* be used. They are provided when the Countdown timer has reached zero minutes on the OHC page in either *.ZIP or *.RAR format for each player to use into the song.
Themes:
Means that if there is a theme set, each player should make a track (a song) that has something to do with the theme, that relates somehow to the theme set.
Formats
OHC's have various format:
* NSF (Nintendo Sound Format).
* SAP (Atari POKEY sound chip).
* MOD (Module file format), S3XMODIT (can be either of *.XM, *.IT, *.S3M, *.MOD).
* SNES' Mario paints (zsnes + mario paint rom as a tracker).
* MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface).
* ALLGEAR: that include ANY software, also include your voice, you playing a bass/guitar or drums, or any sound coming from you, but the result must be *.mp3 or *.ogg.
Voter Strength:
Voter Strength is a "level" system among players and participants. This means that if an experienced user on the community gets involved a lot on competitions he|she will have a high Voter Strength and his|her votes will have more "weight" (decision power if you will) on any competition than those of a player with a lower Voter Strength. No, votes are not equal among players. If a players has a voting Strength of x20 and another player has a Voting Strength of x10 the vote of the player with the highest Voting Strength will "weight" more than the vote of a player with a lower voting Strength value.
This system is implemented to stop any given user from having multiple accounts and his|her own songs with high scores and at the same time from voting low scores on other players' songs. The "Voter Strength" is a simple measurement to control that a new comer (a n00b if you will) to the community vote against every other player negatively in order to make his|her track "win"
FAQ
Can i record a voice/drums/guitar or sound for an OHC?
Well, depend of the type and rules of the OHC, that mean, you can use just ANY EXTRA SOUND, when the rules allowed to you to use any extra sound, almost always is in an ALLGEAR OHC, without SAMPLE PACK
Can i submit a Cover or a REMIX song?
No, it's not allowed to upload a cover song, you must make your own song in ONE HOUR (1).
When is the next OHC?
We don't have any set time for the next OHC. Just the NSF every Thursday. We made OHC all the time, just stay around in the IRC BATTLE OF THE BITS channel to know when is the next OHC.
I need to vote for all the track of the others PLAYAS in the OHC?
Yes/Not, it's not compulsory for you to vote for all the tracks.
How many time i have to vote for the tracks?
Well, depend of the length of the songs and how many times you listen every track. But remember, you are not the onlyone voting.
Can i upload an NSF in an S3XMODIT?
Obviously you can't, if is an OHC of S3XMODIT you must upload S3M, XM, IT or MOD. The specific formats for the specific OHC.
What's the length of the song?
What ever you want!... just sometimes we have strange rules which include an specific "time length", but if this rule it's not included you can make your song with any length.
What i win?
In our point view... NOTHING!... XD... well you maybe win experience with the time of doing many ohc's. But don't take care much about this, nobody around here ( in BOTB ) cares about if you win or lose. We just want to have fun and playing with other Botbers...
