SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC061 September 2022 - Winners announced

[Mister Fox]

Hello and welcome to the Songwriting Competition 061 - September 2022


This is the introduction post, where we directly link to the challenge corresponding basics (theme and premise, submission information, sponsors) and start of the voting process.

Before you get started, please consult the official and very simple "Rules and Guidelines" (TL;DR version) for the Songwriting Competition regarding principles of the game, it's engaging game mechanics (allowed editing/re-submission of your entry until the deadline has been reached) and upload/submission guidelines.

Read more about this month's competition further down below.




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 (limited 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: Thursday, 01st September 2022 to Saturday, 24th September 2022 (24 days)

Challenge submission will end on 24-09-2022, 23:59 UTC+2/CEST (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. There will also be short reminders on Social Media and on Discord.

Does the game time frame feel too long? Why not set a personal shorter one of 5-7 days absolute max to push yourself to focus on the essentials, then use the rest of the time to ask for feedback and possible refinements.



SONGWRITING THEME: "Devoid (of..)" (Mental Health Awareness Month)
GENRE: free to select



Image Source: Pexels, photo by Adrien Olichon, released under Creative Commons CC0



A few word about this month's theme:

I don't want to write a lot of text thing month.

We're in a world of conflicts, we are stumbling from crisis to crisis (energy, food and supplies, workforce, education, we're still in the middle of a pandemic, etc). There is only so much you can do and take at this point. Our world is exhausting currently, coping with things is not easy, ones mental batteries are starting to drain faster and faster, time management is far from ideal, etc.

This is where making music has such a high value - especially if it comes to mental health. Art and music making is a way to help us cope, understand, and heal. It also offers another form of communication, to channel emotions. This is why I'm running a Songwriting Competition with the topic "Mental Health Awareness" every year. To provide a platform to channel this.

This month is not as "refined" as usual, including providing audio examples. I can merely provide you with a broad theme. Maybe you want to tell us a story, maybe you want to process something that has been chipping at you for months now. Maybe you just want to "create" something in the first place. The rest is up to you.



The genre doesn't matter.

It can be anything. A piano tune, it can be an ambient soundtrack, it can be an electronic track, it can be EBM with distorted vocals, it can be a hard rock production, it can be chaotic Drum and Bass, it can be a Hip Hop tune. Just... make music. Tell us a story if you want to. One about yourself, about somebody you know, or maybe nothing at all (just whatever comes to mind). Process your emotions, channel it into art, and let it speak for itself.




The month (September) is about spreading awareness of Mental Health on the Mix Challenge audio community.

Not only on our audio community - I do want to spread awareness in general, maybe even some positivity in the process. We do need to get rid of the stigma that you shouldn't speak up and ask for help. That you should rather "man up", stick to yourself, pretend that everything is all right, even if it isn't. This is considered "a weakness" in our society - and we need to stop treating it as such.

A lot of people simply cope with art. May it be artwork of any kind, writing poems, humor, or in our case... creating music. Everything of that, is telling a bigger tale. And this is exactly what I'd like to evoke (again) this month: reach out, tell a story.

Feel free to share the word via social media with the following hashtags, to get more people involved:
#MentalHealth and #PositiveMentalAttitude




Important Footnote:

If you know of somebody that is suffering from depression, showing signs of self harm or having suicidal thoughts - don't look away, do not lock this person out. Reach out, offer help - and may it only be an ear that listens to a story. If you know of somebody that is suffering anxiety or is showing signs of severe introversion, don't pressure this person, give him/her space, be mindful and understanding.

Never ever treat this person with disrespect or shrug away a subliminal cry for help. It is hard to judge how a person's mind works, sometimes the person you try to help is locking you out or will brush you away. The walls could be thick, they could be paper thin. Every single word can be measured in gold without you knowing. Be patient, be kind, just... be there.

If in doubt, contact local aid agencies that are specialized in this field.

Songwriting Rule Summary / Add-On Rules:

• create a production fitting to the given theme, genre and general premise
• you can use any tool that is at your disposal (samples, virtual instruments and/or real instruments)
• IMPORTANT: if you use non-licensed material (as in: non royalty free material from sample CDs, etc), give full credit to the source material
• for newcomers: no finished productions that have already been released outside of the time frame of the current Songwriting Competition (Spotify, iTunes, Bandcamp, etc), no cover versions or remixes, no ripped acapella's -- please only showcase your own content
• do not go higher than -14,0 LUFS ILk/-1,00 dBTP in terms of perceived loudness (mastering). Music doesn't have to be squashed to bits in order to be impactful
• name your files properly prior to uploading and make the production downloadable. If you opt to present your entry through SoundCloud, the forum can also convert your links into a Soundcloud player through the [soundcloud] BBCode from the text editor (orange square with a white cloud in it)
• ADD-ON RULES:
  • Filename Template: SWC000_ArtistName_TrackName.wav and/or .mp3 (please use it!)
  • <no (additional) add-on rules specified>

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Please take note of the official rules - they can be found at the following thread:
Songwriting Competition - Official Rules and Guidelines (most notably Rule Book - post #6)

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

If you like what the Mix Challenge (community) has been doing in recent months:
Please consider supporting the project

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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.


RECURRING LICENSE SPONSORSHIP:


Cherry Audio is kind enough to give away one license of Voltage Modular Ignite, plus either a license of "Year One Collection" or "Year Two Collection"
License will turn into NFR
More info on Cherry Audio: https://cherryaudio.com



IK Multimedia is kind enough to give away one license of MODO BASS 2 to the winner
License will turn into NFR
More info on IK Multimedia: https://www.ikmultimedia.com



Musiclab is kind enough to donate any 1 guitar of your choice to the winner
License will turn into NFR
More info on Musiclab: https://www.musiclab.com



Tone2 is kind enough to donate a license of Saurus3 to the winner (until further notice)
License will turn into NFR
More info on Tone2: https://tone2.com



kv331 audio is kind enough to give away a bundle of either SynthMaster 1+2 Bundle, or a freely selectable set of 3 SynthMaster Expansions
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



JRR Sounds is kind enough to give away any-1 sound sets or sample set of winner's choice (exception: Bundles)
More info on JRR Sounds: https://www.jrrshop.com/jrr-sounds



Luftrum is kind enough to give away either a license of Lunaris, a license of Bioscape, or any two 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 to 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/



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 to 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

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

[Mister Fox]

AUDIO EXAMPLES:
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Articles and Info Pages:

A great starting point is the "Addendum"/Supplementary thread for the Songwriting Competition
Songwriting Competition - Addendum: Music Maps and BPM Charts

Since the genre this month is "free to select", there are no clear/additional pointers.




Music examples (selection for inspiration, 00 videos):

No music examples available this month. But I can always recommend to enter random genre search words either into Youtube, Spotify or whatever music streaming services you prefer using.
.



Please also check in with the following threads in the the Gear Talk sub-forum, if you're on the look-out for new tools:
Places to fuel your GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) (the starting point if you're in need of audio tools -- from free to affordable)

Also recommended to check out the following tools, if you're new to/need help with songwriting:
Plugin Boutique - Scaler 2
Xfer Records - Cthulhu
CodeFN42 - Chordz (Transition is also recommended, if you want more experimental/generative MIDI, Free, Windows only)
W.A. Production - InstaChord and InstaScale
Fabrizio Poce / J74 - Progressive ("Max4Life" is needed, Ableton Live bound)


More tools of the trade

► Show Spoiler

Need a good starter kit of free instruments?

AKAI - MPC Beats (limited to 8 MIDI + 2 Audio tracks, but can be used as VSTi in any other DAW)
IK Multimedia - MODO DRUM CS (one drum kit)
Rayzoon - Jamstix (an amazing drummer brain)
IK Multimedia - MODO BASS 2 CS (one e-bass)
Spitfire Audio - LABS
Spitfire Audio - BBC Symphonic Orchestra Discover
kv331 audio - Synthmaster Player (the free version comes with over 600 presets!)
VSTBuzz - Freebie Collection page, plenty of good material to find there (often Native Instrument Kontakt bound)
CWItech - TX16Wx Software Sampler (If you want a highly powerful Soundfont2 loader / sampler)

UPDATED: 31-AUG-2022 23:50 UTC+2, updated 01-SEP-2022 00:00 UTC+2

[Arelem]

Hello Everyone,

This prompt is something I can relate to. Not due to my own struggles, but because of my wife. I wanted to write something in honor and support of her. Some of the lyrics are a bit on the nose but I didn't want to dance around the subject and address it head-on. There are still some metaphors and whatnot, but I wanted the song's subject matter to be clear. It took a lot of work, but I finally got my vocals to a place that I don't completely hate (I know I'm not a very good singer). Anyway, I hope you all like it!

Edit: I have updated the entry to a newer version. I processed the vocals in a way that lets them stand a bit more on their own. I feel that this version sounds much better and I'm hoping you all agree.



Lyrics:

► Show Spoiler

I wish she could see
herself the way I see her
but it's only a dream
a veil her demons have put up
She's got a disease
her depression tells her she's not good enough
but she's perfect to me
She's like a pillar yeah she holds me up

Chorus:
feel like giving up
feel you've had enough
feel you're being crushed
just know that I love you
when you're feeling down
feels like you might drown
your world is upside down
just know that I love you

I know it ain't easy
and I don't always understand
I'm here with you baby
We'll go through it hand in hand
You might feel like you're crazy
but I'm thankful to be your man
though this ocean is wavy
I'll support you the best I can

DAW FL Studio

Drums are two instances of addictive drums 2. The first is all the sounds except the snare and the second is the snare. This is because the snare is processed differently. The main drums are processed with Neutron 4. The snare is processed with Fruity EQ2, SSL 9000J and an SSL Naative Bus Comp.
The guitars are multiple instances of Shreddage 3. The distorted guitars are a Shreddage preset processed with Slice EQ and neutron 4. The 'clean' guitar is processed with Guitar Rig 6, Slice EQ, Trackspacer, and Fruity Delay 3
The bass is ModoBass with Guitar Rig 6.
The vocals were cleaned up a bit with Edison's scrub tool, and pitched corrected with Newtone. The verses use Little Alter Boy, SSL 9000J, SSL Native Bus Comp, Nectar 3 (for de-ess), Saturation Knob, Fruity Limiter, Black Rooster's RO-140 reverb, and Fruity Delay 3. The Chorus vocals are much the same with the addition of Fruity Fast Dist and some slight use of Phasis.
The master chain uses Limiter by Kilohearts, Fruity EQ2, a custom patch I made to cut the low-sides, True Iron, Fruity Stereo Enhancer, Ozone 9 for more EQ and dynamic EQ, and hard limiting. Levels were monitored with Youlean Loudness Meter.

[Arelem]

Hello Everyone,

This prompt is something I can relate to. Not due to my own struggles, but because of my wife. I wanted to write something in honor and support of her. Some of the lyrics are a bit on the nose but I didn't want to dance around the subject and address it head-on. There are still some metaphors and whatnot, but I wanted the song's subject matter to be clear. It took a lot of work, but I finally got my vocals to a place that I don't completely hate (I know I'm not a very good singer). Anyway, I hope you all like it!

I'll post details later in case anything changes.

I do feel like I need to make some changes. My monitors were really over emphasizing the bass and I think it's too quiet now. I'm also not liking the snare. It could definitely use more impact.

[Olli H]

It took a lot of work, but I finally got my vocals to a place that I don't completely hate (I know I'm not a very good singer). Anyway, I hope you all like it!

This will become absolutely a great song.

As your problem sounds so familiar to me, here's some tips from another music enthusiast, who probably has hated his own voice longer than you have.

I feel that that the main thing in this song is to convey the message. The verses are more spoken style and in choruses you let your singing flow. That's a good idea, and I think you might try to enhance that difference and see what happens.

In verses you almost speak all the time except some syllables: seee, dreeeam, meeee. They feel unnaturally long in the midst of the spoken style. And for that reason those moments take the focus away from your message. How about doing also those parts in the spoken style. So, in a spoken style melody-singing, try to keep the length of the syllables natural.

You have a great resonating voice, but you feel a bit insecure with singing. Singing is not the problem. As this is your own song, I think you should concentrate more on how to say those words, and not so much think about the "correct" melody line. Find first the natural way to speak the lyrics rhythmically. Also speaking has a melody in it. Listen to the spoken version. And then start adding suitable melody to flow naturally with the spoken version.

For that style Leonard Cohen's last recodings are good to check out. Listen for example "You want it darker", "Treaty", or "I'm leaving the table". He's speaking with melody, and melody follows naturally the way he reads the lyrics. There maybe some lengthened and enhanced syllables, but they flow nicely with the text.

If you don't have Melodyne yet, try it some day. I have big problems with pitch, but Melodyne can help me hugely to sing better, as it shows me those parts I perform sluggishly. And after that I can hear the problem I didn't first hear. I just felt that something is wrong. So, I use Melodyne more to pinpoint the problem spots, than to do the actual pitch correction for me. (Of course, I'll also do some correction to the last version, when I know I've reached my skill limit..)

[Arelem]

@Olli H
Thanks for the feedback, definitely things to consider. I am trying to be more open to my own voice and more accepting of the fact it doesn't have to be 'perfect'. In that same vein trying to keep myself from over producing it. I will see if I can get some additional vocal takes.

I think I've made some good changes. The distorted guitar is a lot better IMO. I also decluttered the vocals and scaled back some of the effects to let them stand a bit more on their own. It's hard to get in time to record vocals with my busy house and not having my own space for recording but hopefully I can get to it.

Edit: I've updated my initial post so I pulled the version that was here. I tried following the suggestions Olli H made but I wasn't as satisfied with the result. It's definitely something to keep in mind for future songs, but I just didn't feel that my ability/implementation of it fit this particular song.

[KukoBass]

@arleem

I am trying to be more open to my own voice and more accepting of the fact it doesn't have to be 'perfect'.

I'm struggling with the same doubts about my voice; I'm the only one in my band that doesn't sing at all.
But in my opinion this is a songwriting competition, so the entries should not be judged based on the performance but on how the song gets it's (musical) message across. Advice regarding the performance and the mixing just help us to make it easier for our listeners to get the message of the song without being distracted.

I love the lyrics. I've been in a similar situation and your lyrics represent the feelings I had at the time very well, especially the "I wish she could see
herself the way I see her" part.

[Rich_Rath]

Hi, here is my first entry in a contest, this one struck home for me. Title: "All Empty." I have had mental health issues since I was a kid, depression, then complex PTSD, up through the present with a dozen-year interlude of self-medication by drug addiction that ended in 1984. Clean since then.

This song is part of my 16/61 project, freshly recorded for the first time for this contest. Thanks for motivating me! The project is my sixty-one-year-old self-interpreting songs that I wrote at least part of, words or music, when I was sixteen or so in 1976 (I'm slow...I'm 62 now!). I wrote the first two verses and the bridge way back then. The third verse is the 61-yr-old's update.

The setting of the first two verses was a comedown after a rough drug-accompanied psychotic break, when everything was a brittle or broken and I felt all empty, in line with the "devoid of... " theme. The bridge is from a little more hopeful time some time from the verses but still back then, basically daring to hope despite having a pretty serious set of mental illness challenges. The third verse is looking back at what I still got going on. The whole thing is done with a little self-conscious humor that belies the seriousness of what was going on, a pretty common defense tactic that serves well most of the time.

The throwaway line before the lead is "Alright Grady, turn that thing on" Kudos to anyone who can guess the reference.

► Show Spoiler

In a session for country great Marty Robbins in 1960, session guitarist Grady Martin accidentally became the first guitarist to play through a fuzz. They recorded the eminently forgettable "Don't Worry" as usual, but when they played it back they discovered that a tube or a preamp circuit or a transformer (there are different accounts) went bad but no one knew anything until they played it back. Right when the instrumental break kicked in, the Baritone guitar was transformed into a monster fuzz. Eventually, Martin capitalized on it with an instrumental called the Fuzz, and the engineer, Glen Snoddy, worked with the Maestro company to bottle up the sound and put it in the first fuzz box, the maestro which graces Keith Richard's guitar on "Satisfaction." Hence the raucous fuzz lead.

Thanks for listening. I've redone it to address comments below and welcome any more. I hope you enjoy. I still have mental illness issues, but nonetheless, I am thriving for the most part.

Oh yes, genre is Cowpunk or Americana or alt something and a little tongue in cheek.

phpBB [media]

Final:9/24. If you listened to it before this date, plz give it another listen! I worked on the timing some more. Had to swap out the original fuzz because it is old and kept crashing ableton., worked on getting the drums to swing a little more using attack and release times on a compressor. Changed the tone on the twelve-string a little to glue it to the mix better, remastered.
Edit: 9/21b: squished tmore timing bugs, I hope. Rerecorded some of the twelve string and changed 12-string amp from S-Gear to Neural Tone King
Edit: 9/21a few minor tweaks
Edit 9/20. Tightened up some timing issues, cut the pedal steel back a little more, changed "damaged" to "savaged" in 1st verse.
Edit 9/19. Recorded new guitars and vocals. Lead still needs some trimming, but big improvement. Thanks for comments Olli H.
Edit: 9/13, audio updated, improved vocals, scaled back fake pedal steel

All Empty
Lyrics:

► Show Spoiler

Well and my head it is all empty
My consc(ious|ience) disappear
my brain it is quite savaged
though my thoughts, they are still clear

My dreams they've all been broken
My plans all left behind
and I think that if I had one
I'd probably lose my mind

Dreams are fragile
to be floated with care
down rock sown streams
to dream is to dare

(Alright Grady, turn that thing on)
lead

Though my head it was all emptied
and my mind was barely there
my heart is fairly battered
but my dreams, I still hold near

I hold them near
I hold them near

edit 9/16/22 Documentation:

► Show Spoiler

* Drums: various loops from loop loft bundle of brushes, "212_train" set, accents from Ben Burnes Brush sample pack.
* Bass: Rough Rider Compressor, Brainworx V4B bass amp VST
* Main Guitar. '62 Fender Jaguar, lower controls, neck pickup, bright off. S-gear set to 59 Tweed, with touch sensitive distortion, so I can play crunch clean most places, but dig in for a more up front distortion where it needs, such as the space between the bridge and the lead. Also put Waves Aphex exciter on the guitar everywhere but the very end to add some drama to the outro. No reverb or delay to put the guitar right up front in the mix. Just a little room ambience from s-gear to seat it in a space. Six Db notch EQ at about 1.1khz (Ableton built-in eq8) to tame a note in the intro whose pluckiness stuck out too much when there are no vocals.
* "pad" guitar: choruses, bridge, and during fuzz lead: 59x12 Danelectro 12-string, both pickups, coil tap on bridge.Neutron 4 transient shaper to smooth out the attack. Analog Obsession fetish compressor with short attack to squash the transients a bit, S-gear set to Jackal Neural Tone King amp played clean, going through a light chorusand some reverb.
* Fake pedal steel: a pile of stuff to delete the transients and increase sustain without distortion. Jag, lead pickup, bright off. A utility gain drives the input a little for the envelope follower which is next. The envelope follower passes through the slightly louder input note unchanged. It does nothing with the sound but sends a mod signal down the line. I'll say when below. TS1 transient shaper with the attack set to squish the heck out of the first quarter second and then boost the sustain. Then RoughRider 3 set 5:1 with a short attack and a long release, reinforcing what the TS-1just did. Autoswell light, which should lop off the attack by itself but has trouble catching the initial transients, hence the previous stuff. A second gain util, this one driven by the envelope follower to finish off the attack, then another gain to bring the signal back up after it gets totally squished, next is Neural Archetype Nolly on clean amp, followed by Arturia rev-140 plate reverb long decay, 50%mix, TB_barricade limiter with a few milliseconds of lookahead (which doesn't matter because without the attack, the note comes after you play it anyway) because if a transient gets through it will be super loud and needs to be controlled. Finally, after the limiter is Baby Audio Smooth operator to smooth out any mid and high-frequency resonances which built up from the other effects. Smooth Operator is set pretty drastic in stomping things out so that it really smooths over the playing to make it slide-like. Then it is sent to two send busses with a reverb and a dotted 8th anda quarter note stereo delay. When the watery hi end arpeggio comes on during the bridge, I added Waves BrauerMotion to let it dance round the stereo field a bit.
* The fuzz lead is played on pedal steel channel. I wanted a really old germanium fuzz (see the note on Grady, above, for why), so everything else gets turned off except the compressor which gets fed to analog obsession Pedalz set to overdrive followed by free fuzz stone GE (GE for germanium) VST into a low mid-boost with a high cut on EQ8 as per Olli's excellent suggestion. This makes the original kazoo sounding fuzz into something much heavier. Thanks Olli! Then on to the Archetype Nolly, still set clean to be a nice pedal platform, reverb off, both plate and send. The delay send is off for the lead until the penultimate note, then off for the last "surprise" note before returning to the pedal steel sound for the last verse and outro.
* Putting the fuzz way out front is the only way to roll here. Anything else, the fuzz just fades into the background. I tried Olli's suggestion to make the lead verse sparer by playing quarter notes and also tried tic-tacking the main rhythm guitar to mimic the bass. Either way, the fuzz guitar lost all coherence without the wall of sound to paint over. Completing the wall of sound, the lead has the only verse chords with the twelve-string playing. The chords are a "high and lonesome" version of the verse with a droning, banjo-like high note. I really like the interplay of the two rhythm guitars behind the lead.
* Vocals: Ozone Neutron 3, slapback echo, lowpassed offset stereo 1/4 note echo way down in the mix on a send bus to seat vocals. Usually, I would accent a few places with backing vocals, but I wanted to keep the voice spare and lonely for this song.
* Mastered with Ozone 10 advanced.

All guitars and vocals, as well as composition, both music and lyrics, Rich Rath, drums as noted, programmed by me. Collaborator: My 16-year-old self, who has veto power over everything.

[Olli H]

The throwaway line before the lead is "Alright Grady, turn that thing on" Kudos to anyone who can guess the reference.

In my small world there's only one Grady, and that's Grady Martin, one of the most influential session guitarist there ever has been, and still nobody knows him. When I was young, I spent hours to try to figure out how he plays those riffs...

And wellcome to the forum! I try to comment your song a bit later with more time.