2024-MAR-01 Info: Check out Songwriting Competition 079 if you're into "Synthwave" music making.

SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC036 August 2020 - Winners announced

Thematic Songwriting Competition - recurrence: monthly
Olli H
Posts: 207
Joined: Fri Dec 29, 2017 16:08 CET
Location: Finland

Re: SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC036 August 2020 - Submissions until 24-08-2020 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

#71

Post by Olli H »

Mister Fox wrote:
Thu Aug 27, 2020 01:38 CEST
Olli H wrote:
Mon Aug 24, 2020 21:04 CEST
Here's my unfinished version that I managed to do before the original deadline.

”Gatekeeper”, Olli H
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aUkch0 ... sp=sharing


Very hard for me to do anything without a melody line and "real" instruments. After having listened some of the submissions, I realized I'm doomed to be the last in this months game. But at least I tried.
I say this off-hand... I really hope you revisit this production before the deadline has been reached. Very interesting ideas here that can be expanded upon. Drastically even.

Like the main bass melody... use more distortion (example: distortion > flanger). You already started to go that route, but maybe try a different waveshaper (like a parallel setup, Izotope Trash, SoundSpot Ravage, you name it), go to town. I guess this is also RealGuitar here... if so, one hint form my side: Guitar -> LPF -> Distortion -> some Filter movements > slight flanging. Check out the Venus Theory tutorials on Post #3 again on "bass creation".

Then the drums... Oh boy... the beat is there, but please replace the sounds. Check the third post again with some free stuff from Loopmasters, ErbNDubs or even Black Octopus Audio (the "teaser" pack has some outstanding aggressive drums from "Leviathan"). This is your weakest point here. Then maybe add some highly compressed and band-passed (LC maybe at 600Hz and a HC at maybe 12kHz) drum loops in the background ever so often, to "dirty up" the production.

One clearly hears that this genre is new to you - but you bring a lot of ideas from pop rock. It just feels like you need a little... push.
Thanks for the comments. I just posted a new version with different drum samples. Also I added some Izotope Trash and Flanger to some parts of the bass, as you suggested. The bass line was manually edited, but the simple soft melody lines were first played with guitar, and then transformed into midi.
wishoff

Re: SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC036 August 2020 - Submissions until 28-08-2020 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

#72

Post by wishoff »

Wishoff - Ready Set Glow

I made it in 3 hours, just saw the competition and thought it would be fun, and it was :)

Download it here



DAW:
Cubase 10.5

Instruments:
Omnisphere2
Serum
Phase Plant
Serum
Massive X
Groove Agent SE


FX:
LVC Audio Toned-MAX
LVC Audio Clipped-MAX
MeldaProductions MTurboReverb
Polyverse GateKeeper
Steinberg Multitab Delay
JST SideWidener
AirWindows DitherBox


Samples:
Various drum samples

Lufs:
-14.0 Integrated - Metric AB

References:
A few of the examples
Last edited by wishoff on Sat Aug 29, 2020 00:11 CEST, edited 3 times in total.
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canese
Posts: 94
Joined: Mon May 20, 2019 15:51 CEST
Location: <3 of SouthAmerica

Re: SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC036 August 2020 - Submissions until 28-08-2020 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

#73

Post by canese »

Hello dudes,

Last minute submission.Mainly because I wasn't sure about it. I've love the genre but only recently have been making DnB beats. Try many attempts and got different results. Here's one I achieved a more liquid chill DnB but definetly not in the theme of the month competition.

During this past week, I've been hearing all the entries and they nailed the theme, while mine was only mediocre for my ears but, anyways, this is my final submission to this month competition: https://www.dropbox.com/s/36wecype8ezno ... r.wav?dl=0

Track was made in FL Studio, with mainly FL stock plugins and samples.
Lead sound in the chorus is from Massive
SFX are from a samples pack "Sound of Tenalach" and some high tech found in my library
For mastering I use Izotope Ozone
Last edited by canese on Thu Sep 03, 2020 23:15 CEST, edited 1 time in total.
functionform

Re: SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC036 August 2020 - Submissions until 28-08-2020 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

#74

Post by functionform »

Here's my submission



Submitting details after, just making sure I made the deadline!

Drums:Some Bitwig default and mix of various.
Synths, Icarus, MassiveX, Falcon
Effects: ReplikaXT, Saturn, HeadCrusherFree, Pro-Q, Wider, DDLY, Eternity Delay, Trash2, V-clip
Verbs: RC24, epicVerb, Pro-R
Compressors:NI 2A, Pro-L
Gatekeeper by Polyverse seemingly everywhere

This was my learning track for Bitwig which I am partly very impressed and frustrated by. I find modulators work best when uses subtlely but for msegs and sidechains it's all Gatekeeper. Learning some of the howtos of DnB at the same time proved interesting! I tried to give it a classic sci-fi sound with some more modern wubs. I had to spend some time learning wubs too.

Despite my optimism I ran out of time. You'll notice my transitions are mostly missing, I tried to make it "intentional" to compensate, but I would've liked some proper build ups and I didn't want to do the usual washes/risers. I'm trying to take my skills to a new level and not just rely on my standbys.

Last thing - I've always loved the music of anti-grav racers and I've wanted to make a tribute album of sorts to it. Maybe just a dream I'll never follow through on but I like to thing something like this would be a start!

One last note, I didn't have enough time to properly mix it to -14 lufs. It ended up around -9.5/10 I think. My process for lufs is usually take care of it at the end.

Enjoy!
Last edited by functionform on Sat Aug 29, 2020 05:25 CEST, edited 1 time in total.
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Mister Fox
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Posts: 3111
Joined: Fri Mar 31, 2017 16:15 CEST
Location: Berlin, Germany

Re: SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC036 August 2020 - preparation phase

#75

Post by Mister Fox »

It is the 29th August 2020, 4:50 UTC+2/CEST - this month's Songwriting Competition has official ended

Once more a very warm "hello and welcome" to all new participants. I hope you enjoy your stay. We had 13 participants overall, which is 9 entries more compared to last month (4 entries), and 3 more compared to last year (10 entries). It is great to see that a lot of you like the new concept. Looking forward to see what happens in September. Please keep in mind, revert back to the known 24-days for the SWC.


The "staff balancing vote" add-on rule does not apply
"Sole Winners Podium" rule (equal or less than seven participants results in a single winner) does not apply. (3-position Winners Podium)

There was no (number: 0) production submitted after the deadline
No (number: 0) entry has been disqualified
No (number: 0) entry has been redacted



:arrow: How do we go from there?

Over the course of the next (hopefully) 24-48 hours, I'll gather all links into one post and hot-link to that from the first post of the thread. Please, no more changes to your entries, but please do check your links that they're downloadable. We then perform with the "public vote" system.


We have 13 participants. That means that each participant can vote for 12 tracks, the staff will will not cast a balance vote.

Keep in mind of the overhaul of the Rules and Guidelines. As long as we're not exceeding 20 participants, let's give feedback to all participants and(!) cast your vote for all of them.

The Top 20 list can look something like this:
01 (12 pts) - Mr Moon
02 (11 pts) - Mr Sun
03 (10 pts) - Mrs Venus
04 (9 pts) - Mr Mars and his companions
05 (8 pts) - ...
06 (7 pts) - ...

How your voting could look like, please take a look at these posts (sans the super technical information):
viewtopic.php?p=2311#p2311
viewtopic.php?p=2478#p2478
viewtopic.php?p=2819#p2819
viewtopic.php?p=3522#p3522

Please cast your vote in collective form through the "spoiler text" bbcode:

Code: Select all

[spoil]01 participant
02 participant
03 participant[/spoil]
Please use the forum username of the participant to make it easier during the score collection to address what vote belongs to whom.



Please also take note of the Rules and Guidelines on giving feedback (mandatory for all participants, failing to do so results in a disqualification). Even if you already gave feedback prior to the deadline, please offer some final encouraging words, and maybe give some additional tips for improvements on the way.

Feedback from non-participants is highly encouraged (voting not needed!). The same goes for entries after the deadline, or those that do sadly not count for the current running game. Musicians and Engineers are always after constructive criticism. This is what this forum is about.



Have some general feedback? Please voice your feedback/opinion/concerns here:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=97



Please have an eye on this thread! :tu:
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Mister Fox
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Location: Berlin, Germany

Re: SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC036 August 2020 - Voting until 03-SEP-2020 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

#76

Post by Mister Fox »

Let us kick off the VOTING PROCESS, which will end on Thursday, 03-SEP-2020 23:59 UTC+2/CEST latest
(the deadline is shifted to 03rd September due to the extension of SWC036)


There is a GLOBAL COUNTDOWN to check for deadlines.
Just follow this link: Global Countdown (on homepage)



Here is the collection of productions from all participants (in hope that I didn't forget anyone). As usual, if you click on the small upwards-arrow right beside the quoted name, you can jump to the original post and read up on the documentation for this production.


.
J I L L I A M wrote:
Thu Aug 20, 2020 10:04 CEST
"Ok Kill Me"

WAV: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gLEsbF ... sp=sharing
Doc Jon wrote:
Sun Aug 23, 2020 00:49 CEST
"Gridlock"

Jorgeelalto wrote:
Sun Aug 23, 2020 17:37 CEST
"Afterburner"



WAV: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing
TrojakEW wrote:
Sun Aug 23, 2020 20:16 CEST
"Not fast enough"

becsei_gyorgy wrote:
Sun Aug 23, 2020 20:55 CEST
"Midnight Run"

J.Ruegg wrote:
Sun Aug 23, 2020 22:19 CEST
"HyperBoost"

Olli H wrote:
Mon Aug 24, 2020 21:04 CEST
”Gatekeeper”

WAV: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1m1fYsw ... sp=sharing
Double Tap wrote:
Wed Aug 26, 2020 19:29 CEST
"Amen, Brake"

Clueless wrote:
Fri Aug 28, 2020 19:00 CEST
"Insideout Upsidedown"



MP3 https://mega.nz/file/fxFxzAwJ#u4C3r342Y ... 1PMnBpOuWM
The Exponent wrote:
Fri Aug 28, 2020 23:01 CEST
"Hyperdrive"

wishoff wrote:
Fri Aug 28, 2020 23:54 CEST
"Ready Set Glow"



Download it here
canese wrote:
Fri Aug 28, 2020 23:56 CEST
"Deutner"

WAV: https://www.dropbox.com/s/36wecype8ezno ... r.wav?dl=0
functionform wrote:
Fri Aug 28, 2020 23:56 CEST
"Arrival"

.



BONUS ENTRIES (submitted after the deadline - you can not vote for it, but feel free to give feedback)

<no bonus entries available>
.


Please consult the last post of how your vote could look like (which links to more sources). And to make it simple for me for counting the votes - please use the forum usernames in your listing. Thank you!

SWC036 participants giving feedback to each other (to every participant) and casting your vote is mandatory, else you will be disqualified. Please also keep the bonus point game mechanic in mind.


Good luck to all participants! :tu:
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Mister Fox
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Re: SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC036 August 2020 - Voting until 03-SEP-2020 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

#77

Post by Mister Fox »

Quick update:
Apologies for sending out the reminder email twice. There has been a server glitch.
TrojakEW

Re: SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC036 August 2020 - Voting until 03-SEP-2020 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

#78

Post by TrojakEW »

Double Tap wrote:
Wed Aug 26, 2020 19:29 CEST
No download for track. Please enable it on soundcloud.
wishoff

Re: SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC036 August 2020 - Voting until 03-SEP-2020 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

#79

Post by wishoff »

First of all, please don't feel offended, and don't compare my comments with my own track, as i didn't read the specifications close enough myself, and i don't feel my own track is the best :) anyways, here's my votes, hope it's done right.

I've made up some sections for me to better judge the tracks according to the job.

Theme: In this case, is it futuristic? Do i see a racing game when i close my eyes? is it rather dark and dystopia?
Mix: How is it mixed, is it in balance, is the frequency weight in balance, is it good engineering?
Style: Is this a Drum and Bass track with possible minor drifts, and better towards HardStep, Darkstep and Neurofunk.
Creativity: Does it sound good, is it entertaining, do i want to keep listening to it?
Rules: Is it as loud as demanded, is it in the time frame as demanded.

Each section is rated from 0-10
► Show Spoiler
Last edited by wishoff on Sun Aug 30, 2020 15:54 CEST, edited 5 times in total.
Clueless
Posts: 125
Joined: Tue Feb 05, 2019 12:54 CET

Re: SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC036 August 2020 - Voting until 03-SEP-2020 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

#80

Post by Clueless »

wishoff wrote:
Sat Aug 29, 2020 14:58 CEST

Clueless - Insideout Upsidedown
Theme: (9) Fits very well, futuristic with a good flow.
Mix: (5) no download (it didn't start), but i think it would sound great if not played on soundcloud
Style: (8) could be a bit more aggressive in sound
Creativity: (9) im entertaint all the way
Rules: (4) time is right
Total: 35
Points: 7]


Sorry abOut dl
Didn’t realise
There is an MP3 available

Have enabled now SC dl :tu:
:)
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