SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC016 December 2018 - Winners announced

[Mister Fox]

Hello and welcome to the Songwriting Competition 16 - December 2018


This is the introduction post, where we directly link to the challenge corresponding files (theme, submission information, sponsors) and start of the voting process. There will be no Round 2



Please take note of the following

• IMPORTANT: please use the following naming convention for your productions: SWC000_-_ArtistName_-_TrackName.wav/mp3

Also please take note of the following

• If you have an idea for future Songwriting Competition themes and/or genres, please post them here.
• Social Media accounts can be found via the handles @MixChallenge (Twitter) and MixChallenge (Facebook). Please spread the word!
• if you like what the Mix Challenge (community) has been doing in recent months, please consider supporting us.

This post will be updated with the corresponding links as we progress, and of course the suitable thread headlines. So please watch this spot:


Submission Period: General Information and Sponsors
Cheat Sheet: A couple of examples / audio demos for this month's challenge (not available if genre is "Free to Select")
Voting: Summarized entries and start of voting process
Results of the Songwriting Competition: Results of the Songwriting Competition

[Mister Fox]

CURRENT CHALLENGE - GENERAL INFORMATION

Time Frame: Saturday, 01st December 2018 to Monday, 24th December 2018 (24 days)

Challenge submission will end on 24-12-2018, 11:59pm CET/GMT+1 (Germany) - until further notice.

Want to find out if you're still within the deadline, please consult the following options:
The Global Countdown on it's dedicated page or the countdown on the home page. You can also consult the World Clock at the top of the forum or alternatively the following tool - in this case please select "Berlin (Germany)" as location 1, and your location as location 2: Time and Date - World Clock Meeting Planner. We do post reminders via our Twitter account and Facebook page.



SONGWRITING THEME: Winter Solstice

GENRE: free to select


Image Source: Pixabay (via Pexels), released under Creative Commons CC0


A few word about this month's theme:

I'm being honest with you - I didn't know what theme to tackle this month. Initially I was thinking of "Winter Holidays", but that felt a bit generic and maybe a bit too close to "Autumn Winds" that we had in October. "Winter Solstice" on the other hand, sounds a bit more interesting.

Let's dive a bit further back into the past, to times where the modern "Christmas Holiday" weren't a thing yet, but old traditions still ruled. The winter solstice (astronomically usually around 21st December) on the northern hemisphere is known under several names:

For pagan Scandinavian (old Norse Religion) and old Germanic people, it was/is known as "midwinter" (a 12-day celebration), or even "Yule". Germany knew these days as "Rauhnächte " (the original "Twelfth Night" holiday). Iranian people celebrate the night of the Northern Hemisphere's winter solstice as, "Yalda night". The old Romans called this Sol Invictus ("The Unconquered Sun"). indian tribes celebrate these days with the "Soyal Fest", East Asia celebrates "Dong Zhi", and Japan (mainly Shintoism) celebrates "Tohji-Taisai" (to celebrate sun-goddess Amaterasu and also have the "Hiwatari Matsuri" or the "Fire-run Festival"). And that is just scratching the surface - there are also traditional festivals around the Alps region, most notably "Perchta" around New Years Eve, where demons roam villages, only to be scared away with drumming and other loud noises.


The twist of the current Songwriting Competition:
Create a music production that "connects" you to traditions around that time. The genre doesn't matter. You can even create a radio play if you want (but please do provide transcripts / translations). This is an unusual "challenge", it's not clean cut in any way.

I'm curious about your creativity, and maybe we hear some non-contemporary music

Songwriting Add-On Rules:

• You can use whatever is at your disposal (samples, virtual instruments and/or real instruments)
• creating your own sounds is highly encouraged, but not mandatory
• It is recommended to not go higher than -14LUFS SLk (avg) or K-12v1 (avg) in terms of perceived loudness
• for newcomers: no cover version or remixes

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please take note of the official rules - they can be found at the following thread:
Songwriting Competition - Official Rules and Guidelines

Please address any OT question in the official Gossip thread:
Songwriting Competition - Gossip and Discussion

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


SPONSORS (Prizes):

Prizes for Songwriting Challenge participants:

Note: All licenses are NFR (Not-For-Resale), except where noted.
Changes to available prices on short notice may be possible and will be announced separately.



IK Multimedia is kind enough give away one license of MODO BASS to the winner (until January 2019)
License will turn into NFR
More info on IK Multimedia: https://www.ikmultimedia.com



kv331 audio is kind enough give away a bundle of either SynthMaster 1+2 Bundle, or a freely selectable set of 3 SynthMaster Expansions (donations until Spring 2018)
License will not turn into NFR, you need to have a kv311 audio user account in order to pick up Expansions
More info on kv331 audio: https://www.kv331audio.com



Luftrum is kind enough give away either a license of Lunaris, or any 2 sound sets of winner's choice (exception: Bundles and Nano Electronics)
License will turn into NFR
More info on Luftrum: http://www.luftrum.com



Rekkerd Sounds is kind enough give away 1 sound set of winners choice (exception: Krezie EDM and Neurofunk Vol. 1)
License will turn into NFR
More info on Rekkerd Sounds: http://sounds.rekkerd.org/



Bjulin Waves is kind enough to donate 1 sound set of winners choice and one "Inspire Me" sound set of choice for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place
License will turn into NFR
More info on Bjulin Waves: http://bjulin.de/



Ghostwave Audio (Vincent Bastiat) is kind enough to donate any 2 sound sets to the winner
License will turn into NFR
More info on Ghostwave Audio: http://ghostwaveaudio.com



Hollow Sun is kind to donate one license of "Music Laboratory Machines - The Suite I" to the winner
License will turn into NFR
More info on Hollow Sun: http://www.hollowsun.com



Hornet Plugins is kind enough give away one license from the depicted tools (see image) to the winner
License will turn into NFR
More info on Hornet Plugins: http://www.hornetplugins.com



Sound / Graphic Designer, and honorary Mix Challenge staff satYatunes is donating one commercial product of winner's choice (until further notice)
More info on satYatune's page: http://www.satyatunes.com/





THANKS FOR THE DONATIONS!
And also a thank you to all former contributors as well.

If you want to sponsor content (please have a focus on instruments, samples and sound sets), please get in touch with the Mix Challenge staff.

Please spread the word of the challenge on social media.
For example with our dedicated Twitter Account or Facebook Page

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good luck to all participants.
And most importantly, have fun!

[Mister Fox]

<reserved for possible audio examples>

[TrojakEW]

Looks like I'm first this time. I want to finish it as soon as possible so I can move to other track for other competition. This is no music to be played in radio and I'm sure that this is not something for everyone . I always trying to make more underscore music so here is my version for winter solstice theme.

Maybe this is last track from me for this competition. I saw news about upcoming challenges and new rules. While I think it is nice idea I think I'll pass. I have take break from KVR OSC in order to get break from sound design and to concentrate on other part of track more. Using limited samples lead again to sound design in order to have unique sounding track.



FLStudio 20.0.5

Instruments:
Project Sam Symphobia 2
Project Sam Symphobia Lumina
NI The Giant
NI Symphony Series Percussion
Versilian Studio Chamber Orchestra 2 Pro
8Dio Adagio Basses
Eduardo Tarilonte Mystica
Heavyocity Natural Forces GP01
Heavyocity Damage
Spitfire Evo Grid 3

DAW effects:
Fruity Parametric EQ2
Maximus

Other Effects:
VSTzOne QUO
Izotope Ozone 8 Advanced
Izotope Ozone 8 Imager
Izotope Neutron Elements
OrilRiver

[Mister Fox]

Thanks for breaking the ice with your entry.

Maybe this is last track from me for this competition. I saw news about upcoming challenges and new rules. While I think it is nice idea I think I'll pass. I have take break from KVR OSC in order to get break from sound design and to concentrate on other part of track more. Using limited samples lead again to sound design in order to have unique sounding track.

No need for concerns. The "Community Scramble" is a once-a-year thing, the rest of the year will be regular songwriting games. Although you're right, January's competition will heavily focus on sound design to change up the pace.

I'm sorry that you're already overwhelmed by this through the KVR Audio One Synth Challenge. Although in case of the "Songwriting Competition" (here), you can use any(!) tool at your disposal to get the job done. You are not(!) limited to one specific synth, and you can use as many modulation and filtering tools as you like.

Depending on how well the game performed, we can talk about logical changes/add-ons for the future.




But for the time being, back to "Winter Solstice" with SWC016

[donkey tugger]

Whilst I was messing with a nice open tuning (did some loops for the community scramble...come on peeps..) I wrote some proper full on English folk music type tune (finger in the ear, Arran sweater stuff...). Naturally couldn't leave it at just that....had to go for the full on mini-epic - you buggers are always complaining about short songs..
.
As with any folk song worth its salt it's political, and about the land and the season..The imagery is that of children playing in winter on the common land,which is now being again taken by developers (our parks, playing fields etc), much like the enclosure movement of the 16th century (I know far too much about this stuff.. ).

http://www.bennyleeds7.myfreeola.uk/swc ... closed.mp3

The stuff...

Epiphone 6 string acoustic - some dubious playing, but <beep> it!
TC Aeon sustainer on said acoustic
Vasriax 6 string electric (for the faux twin lead axe bit..)
Sonixinema Hybrid Strings for Kontakt
GForce Minmonsta for bass and beeping
Addictive Drums
Some percussion samples
Crooning in the folk stylee (except where I obviously forget and go into rock bastardry at the end..)

[JonasLasse]

This is one very nice.

Whilst I was messing with a nice open tuning (did some loops for the community scramble...come on peeps..) I wrote some proper full on English folk music type tune (finger in the ear, Arran sweater stuff...). Naturally couldn't leave it at just that....had to go for the full on mini-epic - you buggers are always complaining about short songs..
.
As with any folk song worth its salt it's political, and about the land and the season..The imagery is that of children playing in winter on the common land,which is now being again taken by developers (our parks, playing fields etc), much like the enclosure movement of the 16th century (I know far too much about this stuff.. ).

http://www.bennyleeds7.myfreeola.uk/swc ... closed.mp3

The stuff...

Epiphone 6 string acoustic - some dubious playing, but <beep> it!
TC Aeon sustainer on said acoustic
Vasriax 6 string electric (for the faux twin lead axe bit..)
Sonixinema Hybrid Strings for Kontakt
GForce Minmonsta for bass and beeping
Addictive Drums
Some percussion samples
Crooning in the folk stylee (except where I obviously forget and go into rock bastardry at the end..)

[Mister Fox]

A friendly reminder:
Including today, 7 days left to submit your production

[RichardClarke]

Hi,

This is my first submission into this competition, it was really fun to try to make something to a theme!

I used some waves plug ins and just used the stock synths in Cubase as I don't own anything fancy. Also the main percussion loop is a stock one from Cubase (not sure if that breaks rules or not?).

Here is a screenshot of desk as it were https://drive.google.com/open?id=1fIsZm ... 8mN_y-HGp8

Its an instrumental as I can't sing! The idea is it starts cold and winter night like, then gets warm and picks up in the middle to represent the daylight and warming sun, the drops into cold and winter night again. I hope that fits the theme enough.

If you look at the desk you can see how I got my inspirations for which sounds to choose!

Either way I had a lot of fun making it, its a little rushed but its the first thing I have made in a long long time and so it was nice just to bang something out.

[A Future in Noise]

Hello, I understand everything except for this: -14LUFS SLk (avg) or K-12v1 (avg) What on earth does it mean? Best regards, A Future In Noise