It is always nice to have a selection of different styles/genres to listen to, but it does make comparing and voting much harder!
My main learning point from doing my track this month was learning how to program Synthesizer V and realising that I no longer have to inflict my own mediocre singing voice on the public. Program in the melody/harmonies with MIDI notes, type the lyrics, add in some expression, and you are good to go! It takes quite a bit of work to get it perfect but it is very, very convincing. I wanted to learn how to use this software and the Songwriting Challenge has been the ideal opportunity.
I also learned that even after a long break from making music it just takes a small bit of inspiration like this to pull you back in so I hope I’m here to stay for a while again
A Future In Noise
What’s Expected From Me
I liked the raw feel to this track and the chorus was particularly strong, nice guitar solo at the end. You have managed to achieve a very clean recording of the guitars and vocal tracks and it all hangs together well. Some of the timing is perhaps a little too loose and could do with tightening up a bit. I would also have liked some variation in the processing of the vocals in the verse and chorus to create a ‘lift’ in the chorus sections, maybe some doubling or stereo spread. The ending was rather sudden
Arelem
Gasoline
Great guitar and vocal, the drums have a lot of punch which I like a lot. Some great choices of guitar tones and noises, Guitar track is very impressive and I was amazed when I read your track description to realise that this was all achieved with plugins. The reverse reverb effect in the middle eight is highly effective. Overall a very accomplished and aggressive track, the loud mix really suits this style - however for the purposes of this competition I fear you have poured gasoline on the -14 LUFS loudness limit and set it on fire! If you had more time I suspect you would have been able to lover the overall mix volume but still keep the punchy feel and aggressive tone
JeroenZuiderwijk
All Night Together
Great track, well recorded with some good drum programming. The vinyl sounds at the start and finish can risk sounding a little cliché but they really fit in well here. The vocal section was very good, with a great vocal performance, but I would have liked more vocals in the rest of the track please! The first half of the track is excellent but feels like it would be even better with a vocal line on top. The bass guitar needed to cut through the mix a bit more (I’m not familiar with the bass simulator sound system that you used but I suspect this may be the reason) and some additional processing of the bass line would have helped to achieve this
KukoBass
Postcards
A nice laid back track. I liked the raw drums and the fairly dry sound of the drums in the mix suited the feel of the track well. The electric piano was too loud for my liking and did muffle some of the other sounds as a result although you did drop the volume right down during the vocal sections. The vocal was too ‘up front’ for my liking and would have been better a little lower and farther back in the mix, with maybe not quite so much of a hard panned L/R effect – if I’m being very fussy I would also cut out the tiny vocal ‘click’ right at the very very end of the track!
Mellow Browne
Vacation
I like this a lot. Grabs the attention right from the start with some well-chosen lo-fi sounds. The whole track has a feel good travel/holiday vibe which I thought fitted the theme well. I thought the instrumentation was very good, it did not sound cheap or fake to me at all as I felt it fitted with the general lo-fi feel of the track. You are right – this track needs vocals! As I was listening to it I was singing to myself over the top and it just felt right to have a vocal line with it, that is certainly what I would recommend if you were to spend more time reworking the track – however, as it is, I still love it!
EsteveCorbera
Postal De Les Vacances Dels 80
Some really lovely 80s synth sounds and nice drum machine beats although the same drum break did get a bit repetitive after a while. I certainly got the 80s feel from this track, it would be very suitable for the closing credits of an 80s movie
Becsei_György
Postcards From Around The World
A very good track, well constructed and very well mixed. I like your idea of different motifs using different ethnic instruments from around the world which fits very well with this month’s theme of postcards. Very difficult to find anything wrong here, my only suggestion for change would be to use the ethnic instruments even more prominently in the melody and mix to make them even more the star of the show – and I’m still looking for the didgeridoo! I would also remove the ‘Welcome to Mix Challenge’ vocal as it sounded like an anti-piracy watermark to prevent illegal home copying!
The Exponent
Reverie
An excellent track with a great mix and production. Very impressive with all the different sounds you have produced from the one synth, I particularly liked the bird and animal noises! It fits very well with this month’s theme of postcards and I could tell that a lot of skill had gone into the programming and arrangement for which you deserve a lot of credit. Any improvements? Well, my only suggestion would be to have used some drum samples (I know this was OSC track so you are limited to using the synth, but maybe a separate Songwriting Challenge mix would be possible!)
bedlamward
Green
Some very retro sounds which I like although it would be nice to have some variation in the sounds as the track progresses with the introduction of some ‘softer’ textures mixed in for contrast. I particularly liked the delay and pitch effects on the vocal and the vocoder section was great. The vocal is too low in the mix however and needs to be louder, although the volume in the vocoder section was fine. Overall a good track but just needs a bit more attention to the mix
Canese
Journey To The Top
An atmospheric start with some beautiful pads which develop into a nice ambient track which would be well suited to chill out background music, I can imagine listening to this after a log hard day at work. I liked the transition to the change at 3:08 and the introduction of percussion at this point works well. The track fits the title perfectly and succeeds in portraying a journey, ascending upwards to the final destination, maybe the ending could have been more dramatic building a crescendo with a massive gong to finish!
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