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

SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC056 April 2022 - Winners announced

Thematic Songwriting Competition - recurrence: monthly
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patrlord
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Re: SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC056 April 2022 - Submissions until 24-04-2022 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

#21

Post by patrlord »

Arelem wrote:
Tue Apr 05, 2022 18:54 CEST
(Edit) I made some changes. I'll leave both versions up so they can be compared. (I left the v2 private for now so the link is kind of broken but it seems to work more or less)
Hi @Arelem! I like your track, the analog-y synths sit together very well, the sounds are complementary, melodic and create atmosphere. I like the deep bass that gives the track some oomf !

Some thoughts / ideas
- What if you upped the tempo a bit overall, would it create a bit more drive ?
- The drums sound quite up front and bright I'm wondering if taming the top frequencies and adding a ducked large space reverb would push them back slightly into the mix (note, could be personal taste, I tend to do heavily filtered drums, and I tend to use synth drums a lot)
- For the transition at 2:40, maybe add a drum intro into the main drum rhythm, or alternatively, create a more marked 'drop' to create anticipation

Great stuff !
Indielectronica @ http://digitalgenes.com
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patrlord
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Re: SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC056 April 2022 - Submissions until 24-04-2022 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

#22

Post by patrlord »

alavault wrote:
Tue Apr 19, 2022 18:13 CEST
Hello there !
Submission (Atar 8K50) : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_rkY2m ... sp=sharing
***
This is a draft from last year where I experimented with SuperWave P8, to get that JP8000 sound I love so much.
Underlays with Spire. Basses too.
The drums are from Superior Drummer, with an underlay from DR660 samples.
Usual Ibanez into Soldano-like amp emulation.
This is basically the same setup as M1 (from SWC051), minus the Korg M1.
It needs a remix though...
Hopefully it will not be off-topic.
That's original, love the perfect marriage between trance and hard rock !
This track has tons of energy from start to finish.
Some ideas :
- transitions from one section to next sometimes seem quite abrupt ? Could use volume changes, 'pre-echoes' or lead-ins of incoming instruments, drops ?
- sometimes less is more, I would maybe do a shorter track with shorter sections, which reduces repetition, or alternatively add more variety within the longer sections.

Looking forward to your remix !
Indielectronica @ http://digitalgenes.com
alavault
Posts: 78
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Location: Dijon, France

Re: SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC056 April 2022 - Submissions until 24-04-2022 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

#23

Post by alavault »

patrlord wrote:
Thu Apr 21, 2022 00:17 CEST
alavault wrote:
Tue Apr 19, 2022 18:13 CEST
Hello there !
Submission (Atar 8K50) : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_rkY2m ... sp=sharing
***
This is a draft from last year where I experimented with SuperWave P8, to get that JP8000 sound I love so much.
Underlays with Spire. Basses too.
The drums are from Superior Drummer, with an underlay from DR660 samples.
Usual Ibanez into Soldano-like amp emulation.
This is basically the same setup as M1 (from SWC051), minus the Korg M1.
It needs a remix though...
Hopefully it will not be off-topic.
That's original, love the perfect marriage between trance and hard rock !
This track has tons of energy from start to finish.
Some ideas :
- transitions from one section to next sometimes seem quite abrupt ? Could use volume changes, 'pre-echoes' or lead-ins of incoming instruments, drops ?
- sometimes less is more, I would maybe do a shorter track with shorter sections, which reduces repetition, or alternatively add more variety within the longer sections.

Looking forward to your remix !
Thank you @patrlord for the feedback ! Stay tuned for the next (shorter) version !
Olli H
Posts: 207
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Location: Finland

Re: SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC056 April 2022 - Submissions until 24-04-2022 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

#24

Post by Olli H »

patrlord wrote:
Sun Apr 17, 2022 17:04 CEST
Here is my submission to the contest. My artist name is Digital Genes, but I put my forum username in the track title.
This starts with an excellent groove. Also, the sound of drums is very much to my taste.

Drumless part works nicely. Synths nicely give both the rhythm and melodic content.

Nice transition back to drum groove.

I'm not an expert in this genre, but although not too much happening, I have a feeling that there's just good dose of variations for this style. I like the fact that it's not overcrowded. Now it gives room to small tasty nuances, and they are more important this way. That is to say: less well thought instruments give more interesting sound than lots of half thought instruments. I like it!

I was short of waiting more clear ending theme. Now the song just stopped.

Sorry that I couldn't give any development idea. Shortly: very well done.
Olli H
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Location: Finland

Re: SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC056 April 2022 - Submissions until 24-04-2022 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

#25

Post by Olli H »

alavault wrote:
Tue Apr 19, 2022 18:13 CEST
Hello there !
Submission (Atar 8K50) : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_rkY2m ... sp=sharing
Very nice opening. Promising start.

Synths come in nicely. Drums come back nicely.

Drumless synth part starting around 1:05 maybe too long. At the end of synth part around 1:50-2.05 there's some clumsy rhythms in chord changes as synths and their delays interact.

The guitar comes in nicely 2:05. How about simplifying the synth part around that area to give more variations to whole structure. And then bring back the whole synth arsenal a bit later.

Nice drum-groove change around 3:05. The final could maybe develop a bit more.

Cool outro.
alavault
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Location: Dijon, France

Re: SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC056 April 2022 - Submissions until 24-04-2022 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

#26

Post by alavault »

Updated submission for Atar 8K50
  • Added jet engine sounds for clearer transitions (Atar 8K50 is not deep sky object)
  • Added autopanned sampled eGTR for added variation
Further update might occur later. Thanks to all who gave me early feedback.
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A Future in Noise
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Re: SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC056 April 2022 - Submissions until 24-04-2022 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

#27

Post by A Future in Noise »


Composer, lyricist, musician and singer: A Future in Noise
Title: The Destruction and Rebirth of the Universe




EDIT: Since my entry begins with the destruction of the universe, the gateway to another (or new/the same old one) world in fact is the return to the 1960s. I don't know where I got the lyrics-idea from, but anyway, if you look a bit closer to the first (or two first) lines in the chorus, you might discover a certain similarity between a 60s hit and my track:

60s hit: “If you're going to San Francisco”
mine: “We will never dance the disco”

and

60s hit: “be sure to wear some flowers in your hair”
mine: “we only care 'bout flowers in the hair”


Real instrument: Cort AD 810 acoustic guitar

Plugins: ZynAddSubFx Classic version, MODO BASS, MODO DRUMS, Velvet (e-piano) from Air Music Tech, StringsOne from SoundMagic, Blue3 organ, audio samples from Sgossner/VSCO-2-CE (trumpets, gong, bass drum and timpanis)

FX: Reverberate LE + IR files from Samplicity, Independence Free FX (delay, limiter, high pass filter, chorus), ReaEQ, EQ81 (IK Multimedia)
Last edited by A Future in Noise on Fri Apr 29, 2022 17:28 CEST, edited 4 times in total.
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A Future in Noise
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Re: SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC056 April 2022 - Submissions until 24-04-2022 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

#28

Post by A Future in Noise »

Five minutes before I wrote this comment, I updated my track.
Last edited by A Future in Noise on Sun Apr 24, 2022 08:15 CEST, edited 1 time in total.
EsteveCorbera
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Location: Catalunya

Re: SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC056 April 2022 - Submissions until 24-04-2022 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

#29

Post by EsteveCorbera »

Mister Fox and fellow challengers,
I present my topic for this month's challenge. I’ve done a quiet piece, which goes up in intensity as it progresses. It does not have a typical song structure, but is a soundtrack that describes the journey to a gateway to another world.
The theme has a bassline that varies little over time. With the Alligator Triple Filter Gate effect, I brought it to life.
It also has double layer pads. I applied the new Arturia’s plugin, Efx FRAGMENTS, to each layer to give the pads some movement.
At first the subject had to be very quiet, but I made it too boring. Applying these two effects I think has a little more grace.
I’ve also added some rises and impacts to make it more modern.

I hope you like it more this time

Thanks mates.
Happy St. Jordi's Day to everyone !!! (St. Jordi's Day is an important day in Catalonia, where books and roses are given away)

(translated with google)



Equipment:
DAW:
Reason 12

Instruments:
Subtractor Polyphonic Synthesizer
Grain Sample Manipulator
NN-XT Advanced Sampler
Thor Polysonic Synthesizer


Other instruments outside of Reason:
NI KONTAKT
Waverley Instruments Synthetic Materials
Arturia Piano V2

Effects:
CF-101 Chorus/Flanger
Pulveriser Demolition Unit
Audiomatic
Alligator Triple Filter Gate
RV7000 MkII Advanced Reverb
The Echo
Channel EQ
ECF-42 Envelope Controlled Filter

Other instruments outside of Reason:
Arturia Efx FRAGMENTS

Utilities:
Combinator
MicroMix
Spider Audio Merger & Splitter
Dual LFO

Players:
PolyStep Sequencer
Scales & Chords

Other effects outside of Reason:
Arturia Comp TUBE-STA
Waves Brauer Motion

Other tools:
iZotope Ozone 9
Plugin Alliance SPL HawEye
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Mister Fox
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Re: SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC056 April 2022 - Submissions until 24-04-2022 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

#30

Post by Mister Fox »

A friendly reminder:
We're in the final 24 hours to submit your production.



Please get your production ready and submitted (through the forum) today. :phones:
And to make it easier for me to create the collection post, please update your initial post with the appropriate links. Thank you.
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