SOUND ON SOUND

[dazzi-b]

I see so many fantastic competitions in SOS and have even entered a few myself but what I struggle with is finding out who has won what. After a competition closing date nothing is heard of the outcome.....well, I can't remember seeing results. It's starting to make me wonder how genuine these competitions are. I've been waiting to see who won the Arturia one early this year but so far draw a blank. Can the readers please have some sort of feedback?

[The Korff]

Hi Dazzi!

We make competition winner announcements in the news pages of the print magazine when space allows — most recently in the Jan 2019 issue, where we announced the winner of the Focusrite RedNet 4Pre and X2P giveaway. I've just had a look in our database and the three Arturia winners have been drawn, we're just waiting to hear back from the winners about whether they're happy to be included in an announcement. The competition after that, for the AMS Neve 1073 SPX, is still open for another 7 days (closing 12th April).

Cheers!

Chris

[Wonks]

I've just had a look in our database and the three Arturia winners have been drawn, we're just waiting to hear back from the winners about whether they're happy to be included in an announcement.

A Mr H R, a Mr P W and a Mr C K? :D

[The Elf]

I didn't get my email. Happy to respond here! ;) :lol:

[Mike Stranks]

I'm sure the SOS staff-team are above reproach... seriously actually...

... A few years ago an American start-up produced an innovative product which was just what I was looking for, so I was an early adopter for an instal I was doing at the time. Subsequently I answered a lot of techy questions on their forum and demo'd the product to a couple of UK potential buyers...

After about three years other bigger companies had caught up and Chinese plagiarism was a huge issue taking up a lot of time and money as they tried to fight it. In the end they decided to pull the plug in an orderly manner. Each month they'd held a prize-draw and I'd entered. I had no connection at all to the company and had no qualms about doing so. But 36 months of zip. Not surprising really. So the last prize-draw was announced. Guess who won? Could have been a coincidence of course, but I've often wondered.... :)

[dazzi-b]

The confusing thing is "the three competition winners that have been drawn" when the competition clearly states......This month, we’re excited to be giving away not one but two Arturia instrument bundles, each worth over £1000. So there was only 2 prizes to split between the 3, no wonder I have my doubts about these competitions.

[ConcertinaChap]

I've long been asking for the tie breakers to be published, ideally online. You say things like "Entertain us with your witty and thoughtful replies" and I find myself thinking, you know I could do with reading a bit of wit and thought right now. But we never get to see them. Seems a shame, really. All that with and thought disappearing never to be heard again.

CC

[Forum Admin]

Hi,

I think Chris K's reference to 3 winners was a genuine mistake; as the Competition mailshot we sent out in December clearly states, there are to be 2 winners for Arturia and 2 for Yamaha comps.

Example of December 2018 Competitions mailshot with winner info for Focusrite.

Note: if you are not yet subscribed in your MY ACCOUNT to the Competitions email list, I suggest you sign up, as that will be our main way going forward of announcing the winner (and when we can we'll try to post an online News item and/or social media post too - depends how much info/pic we receive from the winner to justify the latter).

FYI, our May 2019 magazine and online issue will feature a competition to win a fab set of 5 Audix drum microphones.

Note: we have recently reassigned staff duties, so now we have a dedicated person looking after everything to do with Competitions, and she's highly efficient, so we should be getting more regular, faster prize winner announcements.

As for publishing winning tie-breakers... I'll pose the question to the Editorial Director.

[Kwackman]

As for publishing winning tie-breakers... I'll pose the question to the Editorial Director.

If you do publish, I suspect there'll be many rants from angry people complaining that their tie-breaker was better and it's all a conspiracy.....

[Forum Admin]

If you do publish, I suspect there'll be many rants from angry people complaining that their tie-breaker was better and it's all a conspiracy.....

That's possibly why we haven't thus far published the winning tie-breaker. :headbang:

[blinddrew]

Yeah, i think there's a time and place for transparency!

[ManFromGlass]

I don’t think my tie-breakers would be publishable.

I assume A) I won’t win, and B) the judges are tired of reading the "gushy and predictable " so the occasional crude humour might make their task a bit less tedious.

Although it might be nice to see pictures of the ecstatic winners wearing an SOS duvet
(Oh god he’s bringing that up again........)

[Wonks]

This month's (like last month's) winning caption was "The money's in an envelope left in the usual place".

[Forum Admin]

Although it might be nice to see pictures of the ecstatic winners wearing an SOS duvet ...

We'd love to publish photos of the winner in their studio/bedroom space, but (understandably) lots of them decline citing the "I don't want to be burgled" response, even though we don't publish actual winner's addresses, preferring to print something anonymous like "Julie London from Berkshire" etc.

[ManFromGlass]

I can understand that concern, but these could be the same young ‘uns who later post on TwitFaceGram how they are on holiday in Spain for a week and the front door lock hasn’t been fixed yet!
:headbang:

[Forum Admin]

I can understand that concern, but these could be the same young ‘uns who later post on TwitFaceGram how they are on holiday in Spain for a week and the front door lock hasn’t been fixed yet!
:headbang:

Ahem... [coughs] no comment.

[Watchmaker]

hmm,

I have the box for competitions checked but I have never received a winners announcement. Is that a new approach?

Also, I only use the website for SOS content and never, not once, have I perused either the .pdf or print versions. I would be very supportive of knowing whom in our community benefited from the generosity of the sponsors. My 2p is if you're unwilling to have your mug published, the prize should go the next person who is.

[blinddrew]

I'm going to take an opposing view from a commercial point of view:
Companies offer prizes to harvest the email information of interested potential future customers.
If fewer people enter the competition because they are required to give up their privacy, then there is less incentive for manufacturers to offer prizes.
So whilst I might fancy the increased chances in the short term, in the longer term it's probably not good for the state of competitions in the magazine.

[Watchmaker]

logic has no place in my beedy-eyed desire for that Neve pre-amp I didn't win! :headbang:

[ManFromGlass]

That Neve was supposed to be mine!

The cynic in me always assumes free internet stuff is just a means of harvesting email addresses that later get sold to spam merchants. But without them I would not now have 3 Russian brides due to my new enlarged favourite organ. (Don’t tell my wife) :mrgreen: