SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC02 October 2017 - Winners announced

[Mister Fox]

Let us kick off the VOTING PROCESS, which will end on Wednesday, 01-NOV-2017 11:59pm GMT+1/CET latest


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:

"Nightmare"

WARNING: CONTAINS EXPLICIT LANGUAGE

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pvef0jssyuol5 ... 3.mp3?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/s9wuq254mzkra ... v.wav?dl=0

"Spooky Level"

Mp3: https://www.dropbox.com/s/k0xq4bvxen86r ... l.mp3?dl=0

WAV: https://www.dropbox.com/s/nk0y04epy6e73 ... l.wav?dl=0

"Killer Trucker"

WAV:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/eb2ud1sdg4gvp ... r.wav?dl=0

MP3:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rht0r37wnb14z ... r.mp3?dl=0

"Mecha SpiderQueen Skillfully Spins Her Web"

WAV: https://mega.nz/#!kCAm3TTY!rZKv7pRMsU1P ... 0X_TYAFoLY

MP3: https://mega.nz/#!wf5WAaja!8NaXLVv3IpGR ... 4VP9UoPgXM

"Devils and Angels"

mp3: https://www.dropbox.com/s/bge0ett2k9mag ... s.mp3?dl=0
wav: https://www.dropbox.com/s/a4acycn1hc1uy ... s.wav?dl=0

And even though he technically disqualified himself with removing his entry, here is Tbase2000's song (I made a backup right after he posted). If you would like to give him feedback, please do so.

"Halloween"

mp3: http://mix-challenge.com/media/previews ... loween.mp3

In fairness to all participants however, I (sadly) have to draw a line regarding votes for this production. Though if you are all for a "let's add him regardless" - I'm inclined to close one eye over what happened in recent days and hope that this will never(!) happen again.

It's your choice




Please consult this post of how your vote could look like.

Good luck to all participants!

[Tbase2000]

I don't care if you listen to the song but don't vote for it. I pulled my song for 2 reasons. 1...I wasn't happy with my beef with Fox...and 2. My crew got mad because I pulled the plug on the project and submitted "before everyone was finished". This is behind the scenes private information that your not supposed to know...That's not your business. Anyway...for me its called deadlines and time management. I've got other things to do than work on a song for a full month. If it's your song and your in control then you ultimately have the say in how it is mixed and how and when it will be submitted. Nige still had to work on his song but Beeble continued on...complained...and took that complaint on here in public. Check this out... You don't do that. I'm not gonna say any more at Nige because he's going through some serious stuff right now. But you don't sell out your crew...Period. Anyway...I knew everyone would wait until the very last day to submit just like they did on the last contest. That was my whole argument...now you get it hopefully Fox. My whole stunt was to say come and get me...here's the bar...beat it. Did you? I don't know...let me go listen. But don't vote for my mix. Now you know the rest of the story. Judge everyone else but not me.

EDIT: Forgot to say that I did give them the green light to finish whatever they wanted and submit it on their own. This was a true collaboration and I said I was done with it...washed my dirty hands of it. Beeble's spin on the song is definitely different and not just a different mix.

[Mister Fox]

Fair enough - thanks for the clarification.

I'm just trying to find a middle ground for everyone while waving a white flag. That's all...

[Tbase2000]

I don't know about you...but I just felt a hug right there....
I'll back way off the next time I promise. Strictly business for SWC03. I think we finally got some rivalries don't you? What's the theme Fox? Give me some Salsa. Mariachi. Tango baby! Let's GO! And not to be rude but I don't address anyone as Mr. What do I call you? Is Fox ok? Smart Fox? Foxxy? Big Nasty Fox? Let me go with BNF...

[Tbase2000]

Ive been jumping all over this thread since day one so here's my picks...
Don't listen to them if you don't want to but you know your curious:

1) Eric: What are those chords? So dissonant. I like the vocals a lot. You compromised the bass and that always angers me because that's my instrument. "Hey there" is nice. I don't think you needed the other vocal haromonies until this point. They felt to me forced. I really liked it and thought you could have let the lead vocal go a little more.

2) Octo: I'm a closeted Octo fan because he's from the other camp and all but he produces good shit. I like the fact that he can mix and his delivery is always on point. I expected more...but that's only because I've heard what he can do. This is a marketable piece of "halloween theme track" music. That felt like the focus to me and I'd buy it. I also like spiders.

3) Nige: This was to big of a challenge in my opinion and I'm very sorry you got in an accident and couldn't really prove what your ambition was. He went big. That's noble. He's a fighter though...watch out for him next round cuz I guarantee he's gonna have all our backs on target. Nige don't play.

4) Fix: That intro was so authentic. Great lead organ and clean production. I don't know why your at 4 because when I started writing things down I had you at 2. I really enjoyed it. I love the accordion. So many cultures use it differently. You went for it on that blow pipe solo and it works. Who else would have done that? Nobody. Solid arrangement and sorry about the 4. I liked it.

5) My boy Beeble with the heart of Gold. I messed him up because I did promise to turn over the reigns of the project with some pre-mixed sub tracks just so he could continue working. I got the final drum track in from Nige at 2am and it didn't fit with my project timing. The mixed drums didn't work because they never do. Once I finally dragged everything into place and thought I had a finished song...I said <beep> it and drank another beer. Creating music isn't easy...so we joke about it alot...but you guys are doing solo projects. Try working with 4 other people from all over the world and different time zones. It's fun until your tired of it and ready to pull the plug. I mixed your German Devil tracks the way I wanted with automation...etc. You turned around and ran them 3 db above the whole song. That's why I didn't release the project to you. You get so focused that your blinded. This is learning. We have had a bad month in our camp.

6) Me. I thought my song was good enough as is to win or be a challenge for someone else. If you don't like to compete...then create 3 minute blips that might get picked up by a game company or something. That is competing but that's obviously not how I roll. I was at my deadline point. I got a drum mix that didn't match the file...kick was low...mix didn't match the song. I could have, if I wanted and had the time...asked the drummer to provide me with all of the individual files of the drum mix....dragged them where they belonged...mixed them the way I wanted to and felt better about it. But at what cost? This was a fun theme song for Halloween. Who gives a *&*+ if the snare doesn't cut? After all of the file sharing bullshit we went through to make these last two months of songs work...I was over it and I just thought it was good enough to get the ball rolling. Just put it out and quit this bs about winning and waiting until the very last possible second of the competition to submit. You think Fox feels good wondering for a full month if anybody is going to show. Get it done and put it out next month at whatever pace your at but don't make it a strategic plan to wait until the very last day. Let that idea go. Peace

[Mister Fox]

What's the theme Fox?

The SWC03 Theme and Genre(s) will be announced on 1st November.

Just "Fox" is fine with me

[Beeble]

Someone has to start. I was the last and should be the first to give his votings.

Let me first say some words about my submission: It is not what it should be. As the first music ideas came in from Tbase2000 and Nige I had in mind to tell a story with the music underneath. This finaly turns to the music on top with some samples. After the pull back of that version I had only 4 hours till submission due, and an already mixed stereotrack with most of the samples inside. The only thing I could do was to ad some kick and some additional overdubs. I could not edit the allready mixed ones. So I do not agree with my own mix. But I hope the intension could be seen.
This song is a colaboration with Tbase and Nige doing all the music. A lot of Angels, Demons and a Priest where killed by me.

Ok lets go to work
For this is a songcontest, I dont care much about the mix and think they are all(exept mine) fine. The mix will not have any influence on my decisions.

The theme was halloween, some scary music, maybe a story.
Let´s see what we got.

Nightmare by Nige
I like the storyteller in the beginning and at the end. Some creepy samples give a picture of a swamp, fits perfect with the lyrics. I love the varied vocals and the 2 parts. The metal/hardrock music isn´t that scary but the vocals dominate. You can hear lots of work and thoughts on this composition. Respect!

Spooky Level by FixInTheMix
Very nice round arrangement, no vocals needed. I like your choice of instruments and sound, this sound is scarry. I see a merry-go-round at night in the park with an evil clown grining to some fearful teens. Maybe the soundtrack for the next Stephan King film.

Killer Trucker by erictracks
I like the song but feel no shiver by the choice of instruments, harmonies and sounds. This song could be a great intro to a road movie. Maybe the focus is on the lyrics, but I hardly understand all of your text. I feel the voice of your vocal is friendly and I would take a ride with a trucker who sounds that nice, not knowing that he is a psycho.

Mecha SpiderQueen Skillfully Spins Her Web by OctopusOnFire
very interesting sounds, nice atmosphere and fun to listen to all the details. I see kind of cyborg spider mutant on a Borg cube somewhere in outer space. At 2:20 I thougt that you give us some backround sounds besides the music to build up some pictures like you did in the end of the song. I would love more ambient samples for some brain cinema. Nice work.

10 Points for Nige for building pictures with samples and lyrics and besides that he did some great music and vocals.
9 Points for FixInTheMix for some less complex but scary arangement with shivering sounds to let the listener build his own pictures.
8 Points for Octopus to let us listen to some scary and interesting industrial sound with to few ambient picture building sounds imo.
7 Points to erictracks for a nice song but to few halloween in there for my taste.

done

[OctopusOnFire]

Lots of nice stuff as it seems to be the rule in this challenge!!

Here is my ranking and some brief feedback:

1.- Nige - A Devonian Nightmare (10 poins)
I think it's the best balance between sound fx, ambience and music. Also it manages to use chords to create a mood, and the work with the voices is simply outstanding.

2.- Beeble - Devils and Angels (9 points)
A little too much narrative that takes the spot of the music sometimes, but the work there is really good. Still, I think it's mostly a matter of presentation (meaning that it can be fixed in the mix xD) and it fits the spirit of halloween perfectly.

3.- Erictracks - Killertrucker (8 points)
I liked that you tried to create the mood with the music itself, and there's a lot of interesting work with the different guitars, playing odd, dissonant notes. The voice also creates a very nice atmosphere. Why is it not upper on the list? I think there's a point of melancholy and seriousness, it lacks the "campyness" of the other songs, so to speak.

4.- FixInTheMix - Spooky Level (7 points)
I liked the track, and it fits the Halloween theme, but it's... how to say it... a little too conventional and generic, compared to the other entries.


Good job everyone, I think the scariest thing here is seeing how the level of composition, arranging and actual playing is quite hard to top

[erictracks]

1. OctopusOnFire Mecha SpiderQueen
To me, this sounds like a boss encounter in space. I can see dying over and over again, and clenching my fist and being like, shit! not this song again haha. This is consistently excellent, and I can’t get over how good the mix sounds even on my laptop speakers. Maybe for a piece like this having a completely unexpected change would help over the long term? Still, this is my favorite of the bunch.

2. FixInTheMix Spooky Level
Such a clean soundtrack essence to this. The progression is tight, and damn those transitions and accents sound so professional. That said, from my own perspective (which is admittedly limited and old and out of touch) I feel like it's missing something. I get that it’s ultimately a background thing (assuming level refers to video games), but I just wish there was something more, maybe a voice? Still, it sounds great so please take that with the old grain of salt.

3. Nige A Devonian Nightmare
Lots of atmosphere, and evoking Alice in Chains. I love the extremely clean guitar layers, I wish I could make mine sound like this. Overall it sounds incredible, but I wish it had a bit more, internal cohesion I guess. Like, I kind of lose the plot in places (this is probably my fault). The clean vocals are very good, these could be on the radio for sure. I like the transition at 2:25, but honestly lost interest a bit in the lyrics.

4. Beeble Devils and Angels
This is a really dramatic intro. The verse is very aggressive, and the guitars and vocals remind me a lot of old Anthrax. But the sound effects after the chorus are jarring and loud as hell. Just as I’m nodding my head to the song it goes icepicks. I didn’t enjoy the middle section as much, maybe because the mix got a little wonky. More lead vocal, less demonic voice maybe? I did like the pre-chorus coming back in strong. Overall this is insane and creative.

Tbase 2000 Halloween
Definitely a more controlled mix than Devils and Angels, but it lacks the off-the-rails-lunacy of Beeble’s track (which has a weird appeal). It gets kind of one note, staying in that very thrashy vein. But it’s got that punch, and the vocals are so pro sounding. Bow down to your new master is catchy as hell too.
Your review — I def hear you with the bass. I’m a guitar player, so to avoid putting down extremely shitty guitar-player-bass-lines, I keep it simple and never use a pick (too tempting to start doing dumb guitar stuff). I just try to keep it as smooth and understated as I can. On those chords I used a lot of open strings with odd chords to create the dissonance- I’m glad you noticed. I’m a hack so I don’t know their names, but I looked them up and they’re very impressive looking lol

[FixInTheMix]

Hi, sorry for being late I had some issues with my pc but I finally managed to listen to all of the tracks, here it´s my ranking.

1- Mecha SpiderQueen Skillfully Spins Her Web - OctopusOnFire (10 points)
PROS: I don´t know how but you made that intro sound organic, like a living creature and it sounds great. The other thing I noticed right away is how deep the bass line feels, I think good use of lower frecuencies is key to make something sound creepy/halloweeny. The melody creates a perfect balance between tension and release and the instrumentation works great, the use of harpsichord and theremin sounds always works in this type of music. I liked the suspense on the bridge.
CONS: I don´t like the use of that melody on the outro, I think repeating the percusive intro would have worked better, just a small detail tho.

2- A Devonian Nightmare - Nige (9 points)
PROS: I like how you used the birds/nature sound effects during the intro, enough to be heard but not so much to become dominant. I like the riff at around 1:40. Loved the outro and how it connects with the intro and I specially like that vocal line processed with long reverb.
CONS: I did not took this in consideration for my ranking but my main critisism is that the main vocals sounds a little out of plain, like they are not glued enough, maybe compress them a little harder next time.

3- Devils and Angels - Beeble (8 points)
PROS:I like the organ sound at the beginning and at the start of the second section. The abrupt change at 2:48 is an interesting idea, also the low pitched voices sounds really scary, pretty much how I imagine the devils voice to sound like.
CONS: It don´t know what happened but at around 3:17 there´s a loud low frequency resonance that repeats a few beats later, that doesn´t affect my ranking though but just wanted to mention it in case you didn´t hear it.
The most important critiscm to this song is the samples used and the overall story created, although I think it´s great you guys (you, Tbase and Nige) decided to go that way It becomes obnoxious specially at the ending part when all of the demons start to come out, I think you overused the resource and it makes it loose it´s meaning.

4- KillerTrucker - erictrakcs (7 points)
PROS: I think your stronger parts are when the guitar harmony comes in, that ascending guitar harmonized melody is awesome, it breaks the stability of the whole song and it seems as if something big is going to happen but unfortunately to me that is not the case.
CONS: If I had to summarize I´ll say it just doesn´t fit the challenge´s theme, the guitar chords definetly go from tonal center to unstable tension but it´s not enough and the rest of the structure makes the song sound like a melancholic songwriter´s story type of track, specially during the chorus. One of the most important factors to this is the orquestation, the clean guitars and clean vocals just don´t work for this kind of challenge.

Oh and Tbase, first of all thanks for taking the time to listen and critique each track even though you didn´t had to. And second of all I want to say I´m sorry for calling you an egomaniac, I was really pissed at you for some of the things that you said and even though I still don´t agree on most of them that doesn´t make it right for me to insult you.