DV battle feedback thread - constructive criticism and ideas for the future

[Steve]

If you've got any comments to make on the battle, drop them in this thread. What I'm really looking for is constructive criticism and potential ways to improve things for future battles.

 

Next year I think we'll change the round structure, so we won't go from a ton of contestants straight to 8. That worked OK when we had 30 entries, but I think we could add in an extra round and go to 16 in round 2 next time.

 

Also, I'm going to run a Kickstarter for the battle next year. It will be a totally optional thing, so you won't be required to donate any money in order to enter, nor will donating give you any kind of advantage in the competition. The cash will cover shipping costs for the smaller prizes (the main sponsors would still cover their own costs of course), then we'd split any remaining cash up as prizes for the top 2, top 3 or whatever. I'll look into ways to give people who donate something in return too.

 

So, yeah, feel free to post your thoughts as the battle progresses!

[Frost]

Using the Kickstarter fund to promote/advertise/market the battle could be useful. Not sure how you'd go about actually advertising it though?

[Steve]

^^Social media mainly, but also on forums and via mass emails sent through DV.

 

Another thing I'm going to do is create a proper YouTube channel for the battle, then I'll copy the playlists over to it, rather than having them attached to my personal account.

[Guest rasteri]

Ban chinmachine from next years competition, like they did for q-bert in the DMC.

[Blak Randy]

Ring girls.

[HiipFire]

Ban chinmachine from next years competition, like they did for q-bert in the DMC.

except that didnt happen

[itchi]

Next year a top 16. U could even make a 32 if the numbers keep growing lol. A DV world cup.

Have numbers set out before hand. 50- = Top 8 60-70+ = 16 etc

And maybe keep the voting private till its judgement day

Edited September 17, 2014 by itchi

[JHouse]

The only thing I can think of is requiring, or highly suggesting, that contestants record directly, so you can hear all the details (the fader bangin' often clouds the cuts). Sadly, I always skip the videos that don't record directly to their computer...it just doesn't sound right. Other than that, everything seems to be looking and running smooth.

[jeljms]

Maybe change up the criteria a bit - 70% for technicality/flow v 20% originality seems a bit uneven. I'm not even sure technicality and flow should be together either. I ended up choosing the ones that stood out as being a bit different as a lot of the more technical entries (often performed to slower beats) sounded too similar to each other. I'm hoping that there are a good mixture of styles that make it through to the next round.

Edited September 17, 2014 by jeljms

[Steve]

Thanks gents! Plenty to mull over already.

 

@itchi - Regarding the judging, the 5 judges' scores will be held back until the very last day. As all of the competitors' scores combined only count for the same amount as 3 judges, who the 5 judges put in their top 8s can change everything. Having the competitors scores go up like that builds a bit of anticipation I think.

[kut_class]

i think i said this in another post.. i'm happy with top 8 , it stops the battle from dragging on and people loosing interest, extra round = extra long battle. BUTin the first round voting i think we should vote for top 10 or 15 (but just 8 go through) so that at laest in just the competitor votes we get an idea of who the outsiders were, as overall the lists for the top 8 should mostley contain a fraction of the competitors.

[Vet]

Not so much an organizational thing but as a note to competitors....I ended up skipping over quite a few just due to bad/quiet/room audio. I can understand poor video quality but there's no excuse for a *DJ* to not know how to at least record something passable.

Perhaps a 'how to record and submit your video' thread is necessary as its a shame that some may miss out on doing well/better cause the quality of they're recording is bunk..

 

Just a thought!

 

Otherwise, great entries...had fun watching them!

 

- B

[Guest broke]

Definitely try to make people record directly rather than via room mic. There were a couple of entries that had next level cuts but it was almost impossible to hear them. Also, a top sixteen would be good, depending on the number of entries of course.

 

Also - and I hate to be the one to have to point this out - look at the style of what will most likely be the top eight this year and keep that in mind when selecting the beats for the coming rounds. You're not going to get the best out of these DJs if you give them some 92 bpm boom bap track.

[Vet]

I agree with Broke....I was going to say the 2nd round beat was....not very inspiring to be honest...I get it when beats are 'challenging' or out of left field but they should at least urge people to cut....I'd be hard pressed to really go off on the next beat.

 

Perhaps that was the idea?

[Guest broke]

I agree with Broke....I was going to say the 2nd round beat was....not very inspiring to be honest...I get it when beats are 'challenging' or out of left field but they should at least urge people to cut....I'd be hard pressed to really go off on the next beat.

 

Perhaps that was the idea?

 

The same thing happened last year. When the beats aren't strong, it just doesn't do justice to the DJs or to all the hard work Steve's done putting the battle together.

[Dopez]

Only suggestion I have are beats, I think cutting over some 82ish Toadstyle ish would be fun for the competition.

[Guest broke]

Only suggestion I have are beats, I think cutting over some 82ish Toadstyle ish would be fun for the competition.

 

For sure... I would suggest something with a double time feel that's anywhere between 60 and 85 (or an uptempo beat between 120 and 170)

Or - like I suggested last year - test people with something 3/4, 6/8 etc. D-Styles, Craze and Slyce all had some great examples on their records.

[JHouse]

I concur.

[jeljms]

Is the idea to get djs through that have similar cutting styles, though? I think mixing it up makes the competition more interesting so I'd like to see a faster beat rather than the ultra slow ones that a lot of djs seem to prefer to scratch on.

[Steve]

Is the idea to get djs through that have similar cutting styles, though? I think mixing it up makes the competition more interesting so I'd like to see a faster beat rather than the ultra slow ones that a lot of djs seem to prefer to scratch on.

Yeah. That element of the battle isn't going to change. It's not about giving certain DJs exactly what they want in every round. They'll get that in some rounds, then in others they won't.

 

Does this scratching suck cos it's not double-time over a slow beat or single-time over a fast beat?.....

 

 

That beat is only a few BPM faster than the one in round 2 of the battle.

[jeljms]

 

Is the idea to get djs through that have similar cutting styles, though? I think mixing it up makes the competition more interesting so I'd like to see a faster beat rather than the ultra slow ones that a lot of djs seem to prefer to scratch on.

Yeah. That element of the battle isn't going to change. It's not about giving certain DJs exactly what they want in every round. They'll get that in some rounds, then in others they won't.

 

Does this scratching suck cos it's not double-time over a slow beat or single-time over a fast beat?.....

 

That beat is only a few BPM faster than the one in round 2 of the battle.

 

I didn't think there was anything wrong with the round 2 beat - it was just a comment about a preference for slower beats (60 - 80 bpm) that a lot of djs have. I personally prefer something uptempo to listen to but mixing up the tempos from round to round in a battle makes perfect sense.

Edited September 18, 2014 by jeljms

[Steve]

I was agreeing with you mate. The first part of my reply was aimed at you. The second part was just a general comment.

[Guest broke]

It's not just about the tempo. The general consensus last year and so far this year is that not a single one of the beats that's been given to competitors had been particularly inspiring.

[Steve]

It's not just about the tempo. The general consensus last year and so far this year is that not a single one of the beats that's been given to competitors had been particularly inspiring.

Last year, the beats were all different styles. There was even one that you picked, as I asked you what to use for a classic scratch beat. Perhaps you should have picked one that was a bit more inspiring, then at least that would have been 1 success, eh?

 

This year, Silk Kuts made all of the beats and you've only heard 1 of them so far.

[Dubba Dutchdj]

Personally what I loved and found most interesting about last years battle's later rounds was seeing how dj's take on beats that you wouldn't normally associate those dj's with, to be fair the first round give's everyone a chance to strut there stuff in there preferred comfort zone anyway.

 

The current format means the more versatile dj's progress, IMO that means only the very best cutters will be in the final rounds

 

 

i think i said this in another post.. i'm happy with top 8 , it stops the battle from dragging on and people loosing interest, extra round = extra long battle. BUTin the first round voting i think we should vote for top 10 or 15 (but just 8 go through) so that at laest in just the competitor votes we get an idea of who the outsiders were, as overall the lists for the top 8 should mostley contain a fraction of the competitors.

 

 

I kinda of agree with ya mate, but I'd only argue that people are more likely to loose interest because the chance of getting in to the top 8 is gonna be slim when theres 17-20ish guys who deserve to go through. Plus I think it would be a shame if peoples interest wained jus because there was another round