CURRENT ROUND - ROUND OF 16 until SEPTEMBER 13 11:59 PM EST

Discussion Thread: https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1536053

NG Audio Pub Discord: https://discord.gg/XkTwQJXrN8

HOW DO I ENTER?

To enter NGADM, simply make a post on the Auditions submission thread, and provide a link to a track of yours which you believe represents your best performance. After the auditions have ended, a two-week-long judging period takes place, during which the judges score each entry.

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER AUDITIONS?

The top 64 highest scoring auditionees are divided into 16 brackets of four. For this and the following rounds the entrants have two weeks to produce a completely new track, which will go against the other members of the bracket. The entrant who got the highest score will proceed further; the other(s) are eliminated. After round 1 the brackets become one-on-one battles, culminating into grand finals, where the top four contestants battle for 1st and 3rd place.

You can also view the state of the competition visually here:

RULES

1 - GENERAL

1. You must be a scouted user on the Audio Portal or be eligible to be scouted.
2. You must follow all the Newgrounds Audio Guidelines in all your submissions. Take time to familiarize yourself with them, no explicit rules will be written prohibiting that which is already prohibited by the guidelines.
3. You must submit your own work from the Audio Portal. Another user may not submit an entry on your behalf, and linking to Bandcamp, SoundCloud, YouTube etc. will be ignored.
4. You must have published your track on Newgrounds and posted it on the current round’s submission thread before the end of the round’s submission period.
5. You may edit or change your submission for a round before the end of the round’s submission period. You may not do so after the submission period has ended.
6. Only one submission is accepted for a round.
7. You may submit a track which was also submitted to another competition, provided it follows the rules for both competitions.

2 - TEAMING UP

1. You may enter as a team of any size. Every member must actively take part in the creative/technical production of the entry for each round, including the auditions, and no members can join the team halfway during the competition. Tag teaming is not allowed.
2. If a member of the team chooses to drop out of the competition, the rest of the members may continue, but that member may not join the team later.
3. Another user may provide vocals or play an instrument (essentially being in a “featuring” role) for your submission even while not teaming up, but you must still perform all creative and technical (composing, writing, mixing etc.) work outside of singing / playing and recording.

3 - AUDITIONS

1. The track may have been made previously, or for the auditions specifically.
2. The track may be either an original composition or a cover / remix / VIP etc.
3. The track must be a single cohesive piece of music. Albums, DJ sets etc. will be ignored.
4. Machine learning / AI may be used in any fashion the Newgrounds Audio Guidelines permit.

4 - ELIMINATION ROUNDS

1. The track must be a completely new production, with no work having been performed on it before the round for which the track is to be submitted to has begun.
2. The track must be a completely new original composition. No covers / remixes / VIPs etc. are accepted.
3. If a contestant drops out, the highest scoring individual from the last round will take their place, provided that have produced a track which follows all the rules.
4. Machine learning / AI may be utilized, provided that you only use it to render melodies & lyrics that you have written, but you may not use it to generate new melodic and/or lyrical content. Essentially, follow the limitations specified in section 2.3 when using AI. Refer to section 5 for a more encompassing list of allowed use cases for vocals.

5 - AI VOCALS

1. Software like Vocaloid and SynthV (that now integrate AI in their workflows) are allowed.
2. Voice changers provided by online services such as MusicFy and Audimee are allowed as long as the voices used are not based on a public personalities (for example, Drake and Lil Nas X would be declined, while original voices provided by those services such as "Aaron" and "Nate" are allowed).
3. RVC is also allowed as long as it's trained on your own voice, or it is trained on material you have the permission to use.
4. The use of Suno, Udio, and similar services is allowed EXCLUSIVELY for the Audition round.

JUDGING

This year’s entries will be scored by a panel of six judges who are:

@ADR3-N - @Benji-G - @Everratic - @Spadezer - @Tangerine - @X3LL3N

Each judge will score the entries based on a set of criteria of their own choosing, encompassing a range of technical and creative aspects such as mixing, mastering, sound design, arrangement, atmosphere and originality.

SCHEDULE

Unless otherwise mentioned, all timeframes begin at 12:00 AM EST, and end at 11:59 PM EST. Please do note that the dates may be changed due to any possible delays.

• JUL 01 - JUL 21 - Round 0: Auditions
• JUL 22 - AUG 06* - Round 0 Judging Period
• AUG 07* - AUG 20* - Round 1: Group Stage
• AUG 21* - AUG 25 - Round 1 Judging Period
• AUG 26 - SEP 08 - Round 2: Round of 16
• SEP 09 - SEP 15 - Round 2 Judging Period
• SEP 16 - SEP 29 - Round 3: Quarterfinals
• SEP 30 - OCT 06 - Round 3 Judging Period
• OCT 07 - OCT 20 - Round 4: Semifinals
• OCT 21 - OCT 27 - Round 4 Judging Period
• OCT 28 - NOV 10 - Round 5: Finals
• NOV 11 - NOV 17 - Round 5 Judging Period
• NOV 18 - Final Results Announced

*Adjusted forwards by 2 days from the original schedule

PRIZES

Prizes will be awarded to all contestants who reached the final round and submitted an entry.

1st Place:

• FL Studio All Plugins Edition by Image-Line
• Versilian Studios Chamber Orchestra 2 Professional Edition (VSCO2 Pro)
• Panbox Effect Plugin by JD Factory
• ARVerb Effect Plugin
• An Interview with @TheInterviewer
• 50% of the Prize Pot

2nd Place:

• FL Studio Producer Edition by Image-Line
• $100 Gift Card for Versilian Studios Products
• RoomWidener Effect Plugin by JD Factory
• Mixing Modern Orchestral Music by Joël Dollié
• ARVerb Effect Plugin
• 25% of the Prize Pot

3rd Place:

• FL Studio Producer Edition by Image-Line
• $60 Gift Card for Versilian Studios Products
• Mixing Modern Orchestral Music by Joël Dollié
• ARVerb Effect Plugin
• 12.5% of the Prize Pot

4th Place:

• FL Studio Producer Edition by Image-Line
• Mixing Modern Orchestral Music by Joël Dollié
• ARVerb Effect Plugin
• 12.5% of the Prize Pot

If you would like to contribute to the prize pot, simply make a donation on the supporter page and send @TomFulp a private message mentioning that you’d like it to go towards NGADM. If you would like to sponsor prizes other than contributing to the pool, please contact me (@AED-4) via a private message.

There is no age-limit for prizes, but in the case of underage contestants making it to the finals, an equivalently priced alternative will be arranged for them in place of a cash prize.

ADDITIONAL INFO

If you have any questions, feel free to ask them below in the comments, or message me (@AED-4) here on Newgrounds or over on Discord in the NG Audio Pub!

The rules for this year are heavily based on previous rules made by @LD-W (host of 2022 NGADM) and @TaintedLogic (host of 2023 NGADM), who have also helped me with the technical preparation this year, big thank you to both of you! Thanks to @MukkyWaffle as well for the banner image!