Mix Challenge

Well I believe everyone did outstanding! not much between the bottom and the top places. NOBODY , IMO, failed to be an interpretation of Electronic. My judgements are based on how the piece moves me , physically as well as temporally. A bit less on the scientific analogies. Congratulations to those who rose , and to those at the bottom, just remember all the GREATS that were poo-poo'd at first, like Led Zeppelin, Tom Brady, and the Love Boat.

SoundBeing--Game Over > I could not help but giggle through the whole experience. very enjoyable. Fresh and infused with momentum. Great work
alavault--Scenes > The intro is fantastic, super secret agent! the drum tracks lacked luster, i.e. the cymbals are what brought you down for me . but sweet creation.
EsteveCorbera--ElectroGuai > Pleasant, nice movement though out the sections. what kept you from the top was that i found it a little too Mid rangy. knit picking, yes. but I Had to find some reason to put you somewhere.
gruskada-- WhereAre you > I loved this sound and feeling. Just the drum trx that dont do it for me. they seem too far away. beautiful tonal balance.
becsei gyorgy-- Eternity > Well produced, sounds clean. some weird tempo moments , kind of like stutters. good work. the female vocals are a great part. just missed the emotional target for me. the last half minute starts to work for me.

Mellow Browne --WipeOut > i recognize that you have submitted a collection of sounds and tones organized in a complex stream of repeating pulses and sonic energy. smiley face

emeraldarcana-- The Fight for all Who Live > nice mix. I listened to it before i read the title, and i felt that this was a pursuit, a battle drive, that glorious reasons are afoot. so the title fits well. Your tone, I like it alot.
VCA_089-- Storm Warning > this an example of a great production, that is not my cup of tea. The '80s vibe ( high school) has left its mark on my little life , for good and for bad, at the time, i was among those who felt that, in the hands of ALOMOST everyone, the synthesizer was sans soul, plastic, asembly line . it took me many years to appreciate KC and his "Sunshine" band.
JackPisso-- Electronic Glitters > all that glitters is not gold- but on occasion it is. nice work. goovy. it took me away peacefully, except there is a percussive 64th note that ping pongs right in my eye. but over all it didnt wear out its welcome and felt comfortable( except for the eye poker)
canese--- Nothing But Grass > The low Intro beat really grabbed me , then it all started to happen bit by bit. really nice vibe . good emotional balance though the piece. mindcrafted, good effort. some of the themes , perhaps, played out a hair too long . super smiley face
functionform-- Simple Creatures > Soo much energy and funk , great interpretation of electronic music A-typical .









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SoundBeing - Game Over
I really like the upbeat feeling and playful lead sound and effects. It's also interesting how the lead comes and goes. This could easily be a legit old-school game soundtrack. My only criticim is I start to get slightly bored near the end.

Alavault - Scenes
Awesome intro. Very Tangerine Dream / Jan Hammer sounding. Perfect 80's drums and great bass sound as well. And then it gets even better when the guitar comes in. The emergency siren effect is cool, too. And then a proper guitar solo - it just keeps getting better! The only thing I don't like is the vocal effects. They really take me away from the feeling. Nice pads at the end with another great guitar solo. My kind of song. Nice work!

EsteveCorbera - ElectroGuai
I like the intro, but the lead is too disjointed for me. It's not like it's just random notes, but it feels disconnected somehow. Great sounds at 1:36! Not enough of a change at 2:25 to keep my interest. I like how the drums build, but I still got bored with it about half way through.

becsei_gyorgy - Eternity
The song defintiely keeps your interest throughout. Cool effect at 1:12. I'm just not a huge fan of the vocals, especially how much they are used throughout - more of a personal preference. Interesting video - extra points for that.

Mellow Browne - WipeOut
This gets a lot more interesting at 1:22. Really cool effect. Before this it seemed like good background music. But then I was hoping it would build from there, but it reverts. Good sounds, but not enough going on to keep my interest. A good lead line over this might help.

emeraldarcana - The Fight For All Who Live
Nice dramatic drums in the intro. I like what the song is trying to say, but I feel it's not impactful enough somehow. Maybe it's just instrument choices. But there is a lot of build up, and the payoff doesn't seem enough for me. Maybe the intro set too high of a bar.

AskAndy - lotta cream in your butter pie
Really weird start, but I'm digging it. But it kind of devolves from there. Some interesting experimental sounds, but not much to latch onto as a song, unfortunately. I was looking forward to what was coming next after the cool intro.

VCA-089 - Storm Warning
Pure 80's synths and drums - I like it. Good development at 1:05. I like the call and response lead. The change at 2:08 is well-executed. I think it would have sounded really cool if you repeated the theme you started at 2:40, but with the changes you bring at 2:56. Great solo at the end. Really cool song.

JackPisso - Electronic Glitters
Interesting lead line sound, and good sounds throughout. The theme gets a little repetitive, though. I do like the change at 1:40. Maybe it would work better if you faded out the lead line and made more of an abrupt change here.

canese - Nothing But Grass
Great lead sound. I really like the building synths underneath in the intro as well. Overall, though, I'm let down by the lack of development here, though. You've got all these great sounds, and hints of a great song, but it's almost like a great tv show that's gone on for one season too long, where there's all these great characters, but they are stuck in a plot that's not as engaging as it once was.

functionform - Simple Creatures
Wow, this is cool and catchy. Not sure how "electronic" it is, but I really like it. This could easily be my favorite song in another contest.

So we were asked to make the music that we like, a kinda "freestyle" competition. As a result, we have a wide spread of genres, and each entry could fit perfectly within the right context. So, if you may find your track on a lower positions of my chart, it doesn't mean that it is bad.

1. Sound Being - Game Over

Cool drum patterns and percussive elements, very catchy. Overall mix is quite good. There are many different lead instruments, but they are playing almost the same sequence. Composition feels too long and repetitive. There could be some B sections, key changes or melody variations. The guitar has a nice tone, but there could be more elaborate soloing.

2. alavault - scenes

Great intro, building tension and atmosphere. The drum sound is autstanding. Well played guitar and great tone. To me it shifts from electronic music to rock with heavy use of keyboards. It has some anime references I think, but it actually could fit into contex of a sci-fi strategy videogame (Emperor: Battle for Dune for example). Overall, very good production and mix. The sub bass could be not so overwhelming though.

3. EsteveCorbera - ElectroGuai

Very cool melodic techno'ish tune. It's nicely evolving over time. Good sense of harmy and melody, aswell as drum programming. The low end feels almost non-existant, but may be it is done on propuse. Overall, good mix and production.

4. gruskada - WhereAreYou

So many different parts with wide selection of insruments, it is hard to describe what is it stylisticly. There is also some inconsistency in playing. The middle section is very promising, building up tension and energy. This entry overall has a great potential, but feels more like a sketch after all.

5. becsei_gyorgy - Eternity

Great atmosphere in the track. The techno side is good, but there could be more variations/layers of percussion. The shimmer reverb and other spatial effects works well creating atmosphere. The vocals fits very nice and doesn't feel as mechanical as it often happens with Kontakt libraries. Great production and mix overall.

6. MellowBrowne - WipeOut

Drum'n'bass tracks are usually faster nowdays, but there actually sub-genres with slower tempos. The track itself is very mellow and relaxing in it's nature, but the drums are too loud and upfront, or may be it's just my taste. It feels a bit minimal overall, with some nice variations in sound though.

7. EmeraldArcana - The Fight For All Who Live

This enry has a strong 90's and early 2000's cyberpunk videogames/movies, think of Deus Ex and The Matrix. The atmosphere and epic vibe is spot on. A nice techno beat with classic sounds, downsamplinng live is a cool idea. The mix is good in general, but the bass could be more present.

8. Askandy - lotta cream in your butter pie

A musical bad trip I would call it. Cool and wierd sounds. It may be would work as a part of Pink Floyd or Nine Inch Nails album. After all, I'm not sure it is what we asked to do, there could be dedicated round for such kind of music.

9. JackPisso - Electronic Glitters

A nice electro sketch. I like the varitions with main sequence/bassline. It has some melodic and harmonic structure, but the composition feels kinda undeveloped. The also could be more percussion elements and rhythm variations. It has a good potential overall.

10. canese - nothing but grass

This track has some really nice dark atmosphere, which is quite unusual for this genre and very cool. I like the mian bass timbre, very creative. Kick and snare combo - spot on. There is some interesting variations in melodic parts and sequences, but it gets kinda repetitive in the final section. Good production, mix and sound design though.

11. functionform - Simple Creatures

Well, this is not EDM, but certainly electronic music. It has a strong Fatboy Slim vibe to it. Some really cool funk and rock influences. Good energy througout the track. I wish it could be a bit longer. Good production overall and very loud mastering.

SoundBeing - Game Over
Very retro early new wave style combined with a more modern production angle. The speak n spell-ish voice samples and the 480 help cement that 80s feel. The resemblance to the Knight Rider theme is slghtly distracting but not overtly so. I could use a tiny bit more low end, but thought the mid and highs were clear. This piece is brimming with personality which always ranks high in my book.

alavault - Scènes
Sounds like a late 80s/early 90s action movie sequence. The hero is sneaking into the office building in the cover of night. The guitar seals the deal. I like the solo, it's constrained and increases the tension instead of releasing it like solos usually do. vocals a cute touch. Nailed the 80s guitar in this production. This piece speaks to me more as an 80s band that used synths, for example Journey or Phil Collins.

EsteveCorbera - ElectroGuai
I think this sort of is going for an electronic indie pop angle. I'm not sure the snare sound selection quite works, or maybe it's the kick which either has too much presence or not enough. Either way I think there's some congestion in the mid/high freq. My suggestion here is to ask yourself what instrument/part do you want to the be dominant in a section? Without a dominant, it takes on an ambient rhythmic quality, but there wasn't quite enough precision in the rhythm section to highlight that (for example, a tighter/shorter tail snare, or alternate drum machine esque instruments).
Overall, a happy vibe.

gruskada - Where are you?
I like the harmonic development and the motifs sprinkled through out. The low end is meaty without being too heavy. I could be mistaken but it seems to call back to late 70s drama soundtracks a la something like TD.
I personally could use some reverb to create some distance between the instruments. I think the drama works though, I certainly feel some tension. Were those drums unquantized? I thought I heard a few beats out of place.

becsei_gyorgy - Eternity
Great start towards a Nick Devon feel. I would have focused more on the low end and less in the mid range to get even closer. The beat is steady. Overall nice piece, definitely evokes the style you are going for.

Mellow Browne - WipeOut
Simple and clear two step. The mood is effective, no need to overcomplicate things. It becomes slightly repetitive towards the end, but not unpleasantly so. I would queue up some Alix Perez if you want to explore something similar but with a more aggressive undertone.

emeraldarcana - The Fight For All Who Live
I think this works precisely in the space you've set for it. It's not an edm track, nor is it a simple video game theme, it sits in the middle.
The drums sound somewhat untreated, maybe consider saturators or limiters on them in the future to give them more presence, or mood.

AskAndy - lotta cream in your butter pie
I needed the kick to be more prominent and I think this track could've shined a lot brighter. Fun, and absurd, I think the vision is clear, but realization is incomplete. Big points for raw personality, but really needed to see more doneness to this track, without sacrificing its chaotic character.

VCA-089 - Storm Warning
Great synthwave stuff, this track must have been a walk in the park for a veteran oscer, but the energy is crisp. Love the prechorus/chorus harmonic progression. Not enough of that this swc.
Great sound selection as well. Key change is great as well as the drum fills and pitch bends, all of it contributes to that classic synthwave vibe. Strong mix as well.

JackPisso - Electronic Glitters
Great space at start and strong balance between sub and high end. The production is more mature on this composition compared to the others, but individual lines quite as developed as other compositions were.
Still hard, to argue against a successful bass end, which is surprisingly missing from submissions this month in the electronic genre.
Could have used more change up towards mid and end.

canese - Nothing But Grass
Nice deep kick. Good drum fills. The keyboard soloing might be a little distracting to the overall which tries to establish itself as a club friendly sort of thing. Mix is strong, and the mood is consistent.

It's the 02nd June 2021, 02:25 (UTC+2/CEST) - the Voting Period has officially ended.

Sadly not all participants have submitted some final feedback, we therefore have (at least) 1 disqualifications.


I will post the results within the next 24-48 hours, please have an eye on this thread.
(this is not an automated process)

Ladies and Gentlemen, here are the results of Songwriting Competition 45

The winners podium consists of:

1. @becsei_gyorgy (108 pts)
2. @canese (104 pts)
3. @SoundBeing (96 pts)

Apologies for the waiting time, this is not an automated process, and this took me 2 days longer than planned.

<4 participant rule is not in use (staff comments and votes)
We have 1 disqualifications (due to lack of feedback, see overhauled game mechanics)
We have 0 withdrawn entries
We have 1 votes after the deadline - since the user in question still participated, I've withdrawn -5pts as penalty
We have 2 users that tied

• emeraldarcana has 1x10pts, 1x9pts, 2x8pts -- Mellow Browne has 0x10pts, 1x9pts, 1x8pts -- emeraldarcana therefore scores higher

"Sole (License) Winner" rule does not apply - 3-position Winners Podium


STATISTICS SHEET:
Overview of Submissions (PDF - updated: 05-JUN-2021, full sheet)

Notice that I've analyzed all files submitted this month, not just one entry per user. In the future I might consider WAV files the highest priority, then next up FLAC, then MP3 - whatever is available. But please check that all of your formats are within spec, else you might lose out on valuable points.

If you enjoy this piece of information, I can continue doing this for future Songwriting Competitions as well. I create this Microsoft Excel/Open Office Calc sheet regardless (to find out LUFS and dBTP offsets). It is usually just not as nicely arranged.



Here are the results as chart in image form:



Thank you so much for your participation.



License selection:

We'll now perform with the usual. Selecting licenses is handled in public. Please select one license/company out of the pool (in order of the winners podium) and mention it in this thread, then (important) please get in touch with me (via PM) with your full name, email address and your license selection.

As usual - you're not forced to pick up anything. You can pass and therefore offer more to select for the next person in line (if there is a spot existing / not available for "sole winner" mechanic). Just let all participants/winners/the staff know in a timely manner. Once one company has been selected, it's out of the pool for the next person on the podium.



Feedback about the "Songwriting Competition" is welcome (please do so here).



See you in in the next challenge!


Songwriting Competition 046 (June 2021) is still in full swing.
Please help spread the word to get the Songwriting Competition to 15-20 participants on average during 2021.

Some final words on SWC045, if I may, also in hindsight that SWC046 is another "free month":


Aside from the fact, that the known maximum thresholds for LUFS and dBTP were a bit ignored (which was reflected in the available bonus points), I've noticed two main things:

1) In some cases, the documentation was existing... but I kind of missed the listed tools. In case of functionform, I'd have loved to know what was used for the loops (tools and sample content actually). Unless I've over-read that. canese is a regular as well, and things also felt a bit short. Remember, the rules are a bit different here for the Songwriting Competition compared to the Mix(ing) Challenge.

2) The given feedback is still scarce in places. And while I do understand that music is highly subjective, it is still possible to write constructive criticism, give different ideas how to improve something.



Let me give an example:

Instead of writing "All I can hear is noise. No offense, but I can´t take this serious. I can´t really give you feedback, sorry.", which is highly destructive criticism by the way. Why not write "I am sorry, this not the type of music I listen to or usually enjoy, however I gave it a fair chance, listened to it, tried to understand the concept, this is what I'd change"

Yes, the entry by AskAndy is quite heavy on the noise side of things. it's hard to put into words. But technically it's "Industrial", and that is an Electronic music genre. I think the biggest point of discontent here is, that it sounds quite harsh and chaotic on small speakers/earbuds. That certain sounds are definitely imbalanced (like the pulses around the 45minute mark), and other sounds completely running out of tempo (see 1:35min mark). This is what I I would address, since there are way too many frequencies clashing. The first thing I'd do, is try to get things synced up, then find frequency balances for the instruments, then be creative with panning to present some motion.

Then let us look at gruskada's entry. The biggest problem I'm seeing here, is that nothing seems to be on the same wavelength. There is a concept, and I understand it. But things drift apart. Since not only do instruments heavily clash, but they're also beat offset, resulting in listening chaos. So technically that entry is even worse than AskAndy's because of the multiple offset rhythms ... but it's more musical, which apparently resulted in more points overall. The things I'd change: first up - quantizing and beat aligning, then I'd delve into the mix, set proper signal strengths, then clean up the clashing instruments through clever EQ, panning and automation.


I think at this point you can see seeing where this is going. Even if you don't like an entry, or can't comment on it since it's not the genre you usually work in or listen to, you can still take a look at it from a neutral and technical standpoint. You could have an outstanding production melody and harmony wise, it might fit with the given premise even. But what if the instrumentation (volume and panning) is all over the place and frequencies clash?

This is what we're here for... to learn how to give and receive feedback, how to get better with making music. This is what this game is all about. Not just post something, then move on. So please, for the future... constructive criticism, and possible tips how to improve things.

We can be better than that!



On the topic of "what tracks are electronic":

I saw the debate on functionforms entry. While I would have loved to see more electronic instruments (as in: synthesizers) rather than just sliced up loops and funk brass, with an e-bass as bonus... well, it is still Big Beat. And that is definitely seated in the Electronic area. Although it's definitely the outlier this month. Is alavault's entry also Electronic music? Instrumentation wise, definitely. It is Synth Rock.

People have different expectations and musical tastes, myself included. It is hard to set up a game with a short premise, then hope for people to basically do "ABC". You can be sure that things definitely go a different direction. Which isn't bad, just unexpected.

But let's face it, those of you that participated in this case, stepped out of ones comfort zone, experimented, and created something in the first place. I would love to see this amount of participation (and then some) every month! So please, keep at it.



Thanks for reading, see you in the next game

Thanks for the clarification MFox. I tried not to take it personally after initially taking it very personally.

I think for me, it's not about the winning. I'm here to have a forum for feedback and to also provide feedback. What slightly riles me was I felt people were ignoring the linked resources which clearly put my track into one of the genre categories. However, Mellow Browne had clearly done some deep thinking on it and he explained it in his response post to me, so I have no issue with his opinion.

I will make a better effort to explain my tracks next time, but I also hope along MFox's wishes, that we do make more of an effort to provide stronger feedback. I know my responses were on the shorter side this month, so I have to improve this as well. This is absolutely the most valuable part of this group. I can't even get my own mom to listen to my music, lol! I don't about you guys, but it's really hard to grow without knowing how other people are perceiving your music.

Anyways, no hard feelings, looking forward to seeing all of you in future SWCs.

Finally ftr, Loopmasters was the source of most my samples, with the key horn samples coming from the Rennie Pilgrim Future Funk set. I loved it because it sounded so clean and classic afro funk to me. The vocals were a hodge podge of "hip hop" searched vocals once of which included some dj scratch samples which I sliced up. The initial bassline came from the Funk This Up pack and was a slightly sleepy 84 bpm, sounded great once sped up though.

Congratulations to the winners, you´ve all done a great job here.

And thanks for all the feedback, it´s very interesting to see others perspective.

@ Mister Fox and AskAndy: I apologize if my feedback wasn´t fair enough. You´re absolutely right, it was destructive, I´m still in the learning process for the right mindset

Cheers!

Hello, and congratulations to the winners !

It was a great experience for me, especially in terms of feedback : thank you all !

While I totally agree my submission was borderline, I would like to add a few bits of information here and there.

I didn't originally did this for the songwriting challenge but for a friend, who gave me the idea of doing a "soundtrack". And the inspiration was a video game called "Katana Zero" (at least for scene 1 and 2, scene 3 being some kind of... digression). Since the game aesthetics is 100% 80's/synthwave, you know why it ended up sounding like this...

And if it's called "Scènes", it's for a reason xD (there are 3 scenes by the way).

:::Scene 1:::

I started with a bass line, and some inverted chords for scene 1. To add variety, the first drums to enter are from a DR660. And since I HATE the sounds of electronics drums, I layered Superior Drummer behind, with some samples I recorded for my work (Mapex Saturn V 22x20 :: Coles 4038, Mapex Hydro 13x7 :: M130/160 pair + Coles 4038).
Sending these samples to several reverbs is one of my favourite snare sound !

Then enters the lead guitar... This was a "risk" given the topic of this month, but it seemed to have paid off ! I don't have a MIDI keyboard with pitch bend/modulation wheel, making it quite hard to write interesting and "musical" parts (oh, and it does not have velocity either ). I am more "fluent" with a guitar anyway...
For all scenes, the melodic lines were improvised, until something interesting came out. In terms of workflow, I used a simple method : record 5 different takes, comp (or drop) and iterate until ready.
Even if I have a very solid melody at one point, I would record another take just to be sure I cannot improve on it. 5 is an arbitrary number to avoid making 798 takes.
If you listen (not so) closely, you can hear glitches in Scene 3 : the computer was overloaded during recording but I was happy with the vibe of the take so... I kept it...

By the way, if someone wants to have a guest solo on their track, you can send a PM

The harmony for Scene 1 is very simple ! On repeated bass line (which is basically A,C & G ~ A minor), pads are added, with the following progression : A-, Csus4, C/E, A- (at least, that's the way I think of it). It gives an certain ambiguity while being very simple.

For the transition to scene 1 to scene 2... I wanted to have the siren sound as a transitional sound between the parts, but I couldn't find any samples. Then it came to my mind I could use a scene where there is such sound ! And here it is : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFjsgvUuEUY (from 0:30 to 1:25, quite dark when you think of it). The siren was extended with copy/pasting.
The other samples are from the Dannasko anime pack, and were meant as private jokes (I have said it at the beginning of the post, this wasn't meant to be a SWC candidate at first).

Fun fact : I tried to used these samples as chopped vocals (S3RL-style). It didn't really turn out well, so it got scrapped. But that explains anime ad-lib here and there.

::: Scene 2 :::

Scene 2 has a small modulation from A minor to D minor (trying to make a clear transition) but it doesn't mean I knew where I was going. Until I listened to Invisible Touch and In the Air Tonight (I like this era of Genesis (and Phil Collins solo albums too)) so what ? ). The idea to have some kind of tom hook made it's way, to complement the a slightly syncopated bassline.

The harmony here is D-|%|Bb|%|A-|%|G-|C#o . The diminished chord at the end is the "key" of the key change between scene 2 and 3. The transition here is D minor to Bmajor

::: Scene 3 :::

Scene 3 is just based on the "introduction" sample ("Daisuki desu"...). Following the implied theme (rather than the one built by scene 1&2), I ended up with a more mellow and "cute" (I love sparkly synths and arps for this) scene, while trying to keep some kind of consistency with the sonics of the earlier scenes.

Harmony wise, it's a cliché : B|%|E|%|G#-|C#-|F#sus4|F#. But it sounds good, and cute. Cuteness is good. For added cheesiness, add strings and piano to taste.

Ending with the beach noises is actually a cheap way to mask the fact I was completely lost.

::: Overall :::

Why I agree the structure is odd (at best), it was a conscious choice. In terms of sonics, I did not stray very far from what I know (i.e. heavy rock...) in order to keep some kind of control of the production. For me, going with lead synth was too risky : not enough benefits with my current knowledge.

I don't write with "emotions" in mind in general. Which means I need to start somewhere. As I wrote at the beginning, the main bassline inspiration came from [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P196hEuA_Xc] : it's close to plagiarism too... Then I would build on this by adding parts : pad here, an arp there, just like legos... Add a beat at some point for punch. You are done.

When I write with an "emotion" in mind, it can get cliché very fast like scene 3. Actually, the process stays almost the same but rather than using an existing song, I would rather follow what my brain finds appealing. Since it was trained on a mix of Phil Collins, Steve Hackett and Arch Enemy, it went.... sideways ?

::: Conclusion ::

Thanks for the feedback ! Maybe you will find something useful in this post !
I especially liked the interpretation you guys had on this song ! It's funny to see how the same thing can bring such different interpretations !
Congratulations to the winner for some outstanding productions !