SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC059 July 2022 - Winners announced

[Mister Fox]

Thanks for participating, @VCA-089 !

Hi @VCA-089,

thank you for your proposal. An interesting concept, but to be honest we're not super happy with the guitar sound, and things feel a bit ghostly and thin. Surprise us with a bit more "oomph" from your production, if possible. The second half of the song definitely works for an "in-game" section - but please do convince us to use this as an "Image theme".

- dev team

Technical Feedback (by Mister Fox)

I like that you're experimenting this month. Although I must admit that things are quite "bright" sound wise, which is only emphasized on small speakers (where the bass is basically lost), while the sound feels more balanced on studio headphones. I'd definitely use HF roll-offs to make your instruments less harsh. In fact, I'd even pull back on reverb for the hats and the snare is once more the "weaker" part of the production (maybe use one with less snare rattling, and slightly pitched down -- the drum kit sets the tone, and it feels very "General MIDI").

I also see that you've taken Musiclab RealLPC for a spin. As user of these instruments myself, I could give you a plethora of hints how to make this instrument sound a bit more realistic. But I think the biggest hints I can give you are: Hammer On (active, which are triggered with overlapping notes if Legato Mode is off), use the Humanize Mode (activate the following modes and settings: Pick position at +-1 steps, Stroke Time at 10ms, Strum time at 15ms, All Strokes +-15vel or to taste below 10-15, All Sounds and Mute/Bridge Mute turned on). This should already add to the realism. Dial back the master strength to 75% if things are too much. Then you basically only have to play with bending strings and vibrato. Oh and... for strums and palm mutes, play more with the velocity layers. The second half of the song works quite well, the first half sounds super-bright (LPF after RealLPC might tame things), and you can improve the chords a bit, if you add mini-gaps (32th note).

I really like the soundscape ideas. And while the track loops quite nicely, I am not a fan of the "Harsh Cuts" - but this is up for debate and personal taste. One of the tasks is to create a production that can stand alone but also loop. Yet stand-alone, the production feels cutting in too suddenly. Maybe experiment a bit more to find a middle-ground.


Please keep it up!

[Mister Fox]

The following post will mark the second and final "client feedback" per entry.

Hi @EsteveCorbera ,

thank you for your re-submission. Sound balance wise, this is an improvement, but now things sound more dull? We can't really put a finger on it. But your creation is sounding amazing. We'll discuss your proposal internally and stay in touch.


- dev team

Technical Feedback (by Mister Fox)

The "vapor-wave" type wobbling and saturation is gone now, which is good. Your production sounds more balanced (instrument volume wise), but also now sadly more dull.

For example, the tom grooves feel to soft now, and the lead synth maybe also a bit too tame. While mastering, things can be added on with high frequency treatment. But you can handle that during the mix already. Example: if you used a LPF with 6dB/Oct on your lead synth and toms, and then you pulled that down to 12khz, maybe that was a bit too much, maybe back that up again to 14kHz, or even 16kHz. The idea here is to "tame" the harsh frequencies, not completely dull your instruments. And as things are currently, the subtle background bass arpeggio blends too much with the lead

One more thing that sticks out, is the piano part at the beginning. I get the idea of an impactful opener to set the stage, but it is a bit loud (maybe pull it down 1dB to 1,5dB - just to let it sit better in the production). The sound effects (reversed piano and swells) are okay - and that volume is a matter of taste (It grows on me while listening on loop).

Else, I am definitely getting 1980s soundtrack vibes here, and I'm enjoying your song.

[Olli H]

In the rules it is said "You can revisit an old production of yours, or remake/renew a several week-old work-in-progress. Including something you started during another songwriting game, but you were limited on time and/or allowed equipment."

So I guess it's ok to revisit my old submission. Some years ago (SWC027) I had made a background music for one mechanical lady who was reciting some hand picked lines from 50's hits. Well, it didn't go so well then, but I think there were some musical ideas that could fit this months competition perfectly.

So, I refined some ideas, added some new instruments, and most of all, turn it from background track to an instrumental.

I run out of time, but anyway, here's my submission:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MDiEok ... sp=sharing


SONG STRUCTURE
The structure of song:
Intro - A - A - B - A - B - Outro.

A-part in Dm (dorian mode)
B-part in Cm (aolian mode)


LOOPS
Tempo is 137. With one bar grid my intended looping points should be easy to find.
First verse: bars 11-27.
First chorus: bars 29-45.
Miniverse: bars 47-55
Second chorus: bars 55-75.

Those loop areas were actually quite difficult to make, for I have some key modulation happening there.



DAW: Reaper
Cello, violin, double bass: Kontakt NI
Timpani: Kontakt NI
VSTi-guitars: REALLPC
Guitars: my cheap and lousy Kramer
Pedal Steel: Impact Soundworks
Amp-plugins: bx_rockrack and bx_megasingle
Percussion: in first verse I'm playing cards

[canese]

Hello boys and girls,

I've been waiting for this kind of swc for so long. I love the game and role play as a customer.
Taking that as a premise, what I would do in a situation where the client is unsure what he wants is to provide 3 different examples and let him choose which ones he prefers.

So, here are my 3 takes on this theme. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

I hope I'm not breaking any rule by letting "the client" guide me to where he wants his song.


Cheers

[Koekepan]

Dear Fictional Game Company

Please find a link to my initial draft for this commission at:

https://files.catbox.moe/k27g0h.zip

This is not a full-length draft, but is intended to serve as a demonstration of where I am taking the style for this commission. As my guidelines, I took the following:

- In keeping with the example of the minigame score from Final Fantasy 8, I use a fairly light-hearted but relaxed rhythmic style and tempo.
- I use near-realistic instruments, in keeping with the tradition of JRPG-style games.
- I did make the fragment loopable in case you want to use it as a temp score for purposes of QA and developer testing.
- To reduce the annoyance of the loop repeating during long playing sessions, I broke up the melodic and harmonic pattern.
- I took advantage of the cliche of elevator music so that it could contrast with the rest of the game without sounding too out of place (again, Final Fantasy 8 does the same).

Please let me know what your reactions are; there is a lot of room at this stage to make changes, so your honest feedback would be welcome

Jan Koekepan

[EsteveCorbera]

Challenge mates and Mister Fox, Good afternoon !!
I present my topic for this month’s challenge.
Mine is a tribute to the video games of the 80s but with a more current sound. I didn’t want to make 8-bit music, but a hybrid piece between orchestra and synthesizers.
I took advantage of Ghosthack samples and the melody of the MSX Zanac game. I've always liked the music of this game, so I wanted to pay a little tribute to using two of its melodies.

Thanks mates



Equipment:
DAW:
Reason 12

Instruments:
Mimic Creative Sampler
NN-XT Advanced Sampler

Other instruments outside of Reason:
Arturia Augmented VOICES

Effects:
RV7000 MkII Advanced Reverb
The Echo
Alligator Triple Filter Gate
MClass Maximizer
DDL-1 Digital Delay Line
Mixer 14:2

Players:
Scales & Chords

Samples:
Ghosthack - Tesseract Universal Cinematic Sounds
MIDI: MSX Zanac


Other effects outside of Reason:
Plugin-alliance Unfiltered Audio Tails
Waves Vitamin Sonic Enhancer
Waves Brauer Motion

Other tools:
iZotope Ozone 9
Plugin Alliance SPL HawEye

[Mister Fox]

Thanks for participating, @Olli H !

Hi @Olli H ,

thank you for your song proposal. An interesting approach, and we quite like the back and forth between quiet and mysterious, then pushing into rock, and then back again. But it also clearly shows that this is a demo that might need a lot of work. We need to hear a finished product first before we can further comment.

- dev team

Technical Feedback (by Mister Fox)

...

So I guess it's ok to revisit my old submission. Some years ago (SWC027) I had made a background music for one mechanical lady who was reciting some hand picked lines from 50's hits. Well, for some obvious reasons it didn't go so well then, but I think there were some musical ideas that could fit this months competition perfectly.

Blessed be thy HDD archives - I heard what you did there. )

I'm being honest with you, that is quite close to your original entry for SWC027 / December 2019 "Symphony of Guitars", but you are also trying to incorporate fresh ideas, new instrumentation, etc. Unfortunately, this really feels like a demo to test the waters. I think you're on to something really good here, also considering that it's been over 2,5 years at this point. So I'll give this one a pass.

First and foremost, I have to ask you to please finish this production. At the current stage, it's hard to really give commentary. Other than maybe have an ear on your guitars - if these are real, they sound really... well... "faked". As if you've used a VSTi... although I have a sneaking suspicion that this actually is a mix of real guitars and a Musiclab guitar(?). This is where you should put in the most work if you ask me. In the rhythm heavy parts, maybe even drive the amps a bit more (go for more hi-gain rather than slight crunch - give us that "oomph").

Then the next part is balancing the instrumentation. As in: strings section and drums. Maybe try some compression and saturation on them even, but definitely a proper "room sound". It doesn't need to sound like the first games coming to CD-ROM and using synths instead of real instrumentation.

So yeah... I really like what you have here, this might indeed work amazingly well for this month. But as mentioned, it isn't finished "yet". So if you want to work on it more, add another section even, go ahead. But please do invest more time.

Looking forward to the next version.

[Mister Fox]

A friendly reminder:
Including today, are 7 days left to submit your entry.

I will catch up on open feedback during the course of Monday, 18th July -- this will also mark the final day for "initial feedback by the clients" (although I might extend that by 1 day). So please keep that in mind.

[EsteveCorbera]

Sorry yesterday I didn't say anything, but thank you very much Mr Fox and dev team (Indie Developer Game Company) for your comments

[Mister Fox]

Thanks for participating, @canese.

I've been waiting for this kind of swc for so long. I love the game and role play as a customer.
Taking that as a premise, what I would do in a situation where the client is unsure what he wants is to provide 3 different examples and let him choose which ones he prefers.

So, here are my 3 takes on this theme. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

I hope I'm not breaking any rule by letting "the client" guide me to where he wants his song.

Hm, indeed... let's see what happens.

Hi @canese,

thank you for your offerings, and your enthusiasm towards our job offering. However, please keep in mind that we have hundreds of entries to dig through, and we kind of hoped for your one go-to entry, and then go from there.

Apologies, but we really had to keep things short, and just jump through your material. All three entries have something to offer, but we can't really decide on uplifting yet "ringtone"-catchy( OPT1), mystical fantasy (OPT2) or ethnic inspired (OPT3).

We are now aware of your creative output, and we might or might not already experiment with certain ideas in our backend. However, we would like to ask you to finish at least one production, and then reach out again. We'll definitely stay in touch.

- dev team

Technical Feedback (by Mister Fox)

Well, looks like somebody has been busy the recent weeks. But you also brought up something that is not too uncommon (as in: asking for multiple proposals, then go from there). Yet you technically went against the premise of the game: create one(!) production as your main proposal. So I don't know, should I really make you finish all three tracks?

Now here is the thing... all three tracks do have an own interesting spin on the premise:

• Option 1 is really, really catchy and modern, maybe a bit too modern. But it could work well (just like it did for "Tetra Master" for Final Fantasy)
• Option 2 is fitting the given "fantasy yet turning more mysterious the longer you play" setting as well. It reminds me of "Hands of Fate" for sure
• Option 3 it the most "neutral", yet still quite upbeat version. It feels like "Gwent meets a card game in an MMO".

All three of these entries cover the basic ground. But they're also feeling like they miss a certain final touch. Two of these tracks also barely make it over 2:32min. And while all three productions loop, the only track that feels like having a suitable intro/outro, is "Option 1".

Technically, the most work could be put into Option 3. This one sounds a bit dull and lifeless in places. So maybe a bit more reverb on the strings, more "punch" and focus on the percussion work. Lift the veil, so to speak. Option 2 could see a bit more work on the guitars, and the weakest part once more is the snare (pulling you a bit out of the immersion). I can't comment much on Option 1 to be honest. It works on small speakers (but here the bass gets a bit lost, as usual), and it sounds definitely "rounded out" on headphones with large drivers, not many tweaks needed - so good job here.


So which version to go for? Honestly, i don't know. I'd love to hear all three finished, but you can only be "commented on" for one entry (else, that would be a bit unfair to all other participants). Go for the "catchy thing that nobody else did" so far (OPT1), the "be safe" route (OPT2), or the "let's go more MMO" varian (OPT3). Hard to decide.

Let's keep up the conversation what song you would like to properly finish. Then we go from there.

But hey, interesting shake up of the game. Thanks for that.