SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC061 September 2022 - Winners announced

[A Future in Noise]

.
New version uploaded, entire song (3:25). But it's still work in progess. viewtopic.php?p=13419#p13419

[KukoBass]

Hello everybody,

this is my entry for this month. A very slow and very minimal song, only 4 Instruments and my distorted voice, talking about my depression. Very bare and repetitive by purpose, because that how life feels to me.

!	Bonus Info
	If you're living with depression, do not try to cope with it alone. Reach out for help: https://www.befrienders.org/ https://www.metanoia.org/suicide/ In German: Falls du unter Depression leidest, versuche nicht, allein damit fertig zu werden. Hol' dir Hilfe: https://depressionsliga.de/

https://drive.google.com/file/d/130NAY1 ... sp=sharing


Instruments:

Organ: Air DB-33 (plays the same 3 notes ad nauseam)
Unfiltered Audio Dent 2 for subtle distortion

Synth: Air Vacuum Pro, preset "Chatter" (plays one or two notes on top of the organ)
A part of the signal is sent to Audio Assault Sigma EX Amplifier for distortion. The amount is automated and changing during the song.

Trumpet: Native Instruments Kontakt Session Horns Pro Mute trumpet (plays improvised notes through the whole song)
Ableton Live Reverb as send-effect

Drums: Modo Drums 1.0 Rock Custom Kit, "Anti Everything" preset
Ableton Live EQ-8 to dampen the high frequencies
Hornet MultiCompPlus MK2, "VCA"-setting
Ableton Live Reverb as send-effect

Voice: Recorded in stereo with the mics of my ZOOM H4n Pro
United Plugins Trap Tune, preset "LoFi System" as voice effect (still on intro sale for 19 € until end of September)
Ableton Live Gate for filtering out the background noise of the effect
Arturia Rev Plate-140 for additional reverb
Ableton Live Reverb as send-effect

Master Chanel:
Hornet ThirtyOne MK2
Hornet Tape
Softube Saturation Knob
bx_masterdeck true peak
Ableton Live limiter
Mastering the Mix Levels to check for problems

Spoken lyrics

► Show Spoiler

Depression makes you feel worthless.
Depression.
Depression. It sucks every light and every colour out of your life.
Depression is the little voice in your head that tells you "you're unworthy of love".
Depression.
Depression makes you struggle to stand up in the morning.
You ask yourself "What for?".
Depression.

[GamaGama]

and here is the MP3_320 version
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NB3aN1 ... sp=sharing

There could be a simple solution to that problem. That transition to guitar part bring into my mind Buddy Holly’s ”Blue Days, Black Nights”. It’s extremely simple song, but it just works. And there’s something for you to take. It’s based on just two short ideas, let’s call them A and B.

”Blue Days, Black Nights” repeats this pattern all through the song
1. idea A (starts with I, ends to V)
2. idea A (starts with I, ends to I)
3. idea B (starts with IV, ends to V)
4. idea A (starts with I, ends to I)

That idea B comes just in perfect place to give the needed movement.

Now you go like this (hopefully I heard correctly)
1. idea A (starts with I, ends to V)
2. idea A (starts with I, ends to I)
3. idea A (starts with I, ends to V)
4. idea A (starts with I, ends to I)
5. idea B (starts with IV, ends to V, the guitar part)

So, we have to wait for the row 5 for the change to come. How about trying similar approach with Buddy Holly. Put the guitar part to the third row and then end the circle with line 4. So, shorter circle with more movement. (It might work, or not. But it's very quick to test with that rendered stereo file. Just cut it to couple of parts and move them around and see what happens.)

@Holli_H
Thank you very much for the thorough analysis.
I know the song "Blue Days, Black Nights" that I went to listen to again: it has a classic structure that we find in many beat, pop, rock songs etc. It is always valid and functional.
Surely in my song there is a problem of distinction of the parts: in addition to the intro and the ending, there are verses, chorus and bridge. To better identify them, below is the description and timing:

X 0:00 Song Intro (Accordeon, Oboe, Tom)
A1 0:10 Verse Intro (Brass, Tom)
A2 0:20 Verse (Accordeon, Drums "light", without snare)
B 0:41 Bridge (Drums "light")
C 0:51 Chorus (Drums "full")
A1 1:11 Verse Intro (Brass, Drums "light")
A2 1:22 Verse (Accordeon, Drums "light")
B 1:42 Bridge (Drums "light")
C 1:52 Chorus (Drums "full")
D 2:12 Special (starts without drums, accordeon "pseudo-solo", special melody, special brass)
C 2:43 Chorus (uptone, full drums)
Y 3:04 Ending (Brass repeating verse intro, full drums)

It seems to me a fairly traditional and usual structure. It is now very difficult for me to imagine how to rearrange it to obtain a better organization. And maybe that's why I find it hard to understand what you meant.
Surely there is something wrong, if it was not received at the first listening. I would be very happy to intervene with an improvement of the structure: can you help me better, now that you have seen how I meant it?

Thanks again for the analysis.

GamaGama

[Dear David John]

After knowing about this Competition forum and chatting to other participants for months, I have now decided to dive in, thanks to a very pertinent theme. A lot has already been said by some great creators in this forum so I will not go into to much detail.
I am David John. A broken yet always mending man. I've lived a life which for me has felt like three of four lived already with their not being much I have not done in this life, good or bad. I use these experience in my music and lyrics and it serves as my own form of therapy. There's an old saying, "What you see is what you get", but with me its just, What you hear is all I got left. This use of emotion often leads to a more melancholy style of music which has also led to the now known nickname of , 'Sadboy Sunday'.

"Love Takes" confronts the pain and lasting effects of losing a loved one and the effects it has on us. Whether it be separation anxiety or dealing with depression that has filled the void left by the loved ones parting, the effects are real and tangible.
The main out-take of the lyrics are " Love makes us care, then love takes from there" . For me, this is very real and true story and singing this was not an easy task.
I do hope it will feed your soul or, like what it does for me, enables you and gives you a space to just be you, let go of some emotion and understand that pain. Because we cant mend the cracks if we do not know where they are.

Stay Creative. Stay Aware
Sincerely
David John

Artist info:
Musician/Artist/Singer/Songwriter/Producer: David John
Country: South Africa
Primary Instrument: Vocals
Secondary Instruments: Piano, Acoustic Guitar


https://soundcloud.com/user-655396019/l ... al_sharing


Musical Content:
Track Name: Love Takes
Bpm: 117
Key: D major

Structure:
0:00 Intro
0:16 Verse
0:32 Pre-Chorus
0:49 Chorus
1:22 Verse
1:38 Pre-Chorus
1:54 Chorus
2:30 Outro

Instruments used: Piano *Upright*, Synth Analog Lab.

Lyrics:
It's never a good bye
Only farewell to good times

Never would leave
If I had the chance
I'd stay forever you and I

Love makes us care
Then takes from there
Love don't play fair
Ooh what a Bittersweet fare

I dont regret it no
I'd rather be in love than be alone
It's better to love all
Than to burn

But I have to miss you
That's a part of the plan
Part of the issue
Your not where I am

Love makes us care
Then takes from there
Love don't play fair
Ooh what a Bittersweet fare

[A Future in Noise]

@KukoBass What a thoughtful mutet trumpet!

[A Future in Noise]

@Arelem Heavy man!

[EsteveCorbera]

Challenge companions and Mister Fox, Good night!!

Introducing my theme for this month's challenge.
As always, the challenge allows me to look for new things and keep experimenting.
I wanted to make a fairly calm theme, which does not have a conventional structure. Combine background textures with voices. I'm not used to working with voices (samples) but this time I wanted to use them and apply note changes and an effect to change the sound of the vowels.
I spent a lot of time on it, first composing it and then mixing and mastering it.

I hope you find it interesting.

Thank you colleagues.

(translated with google)




Equipment:
DAW:
Reason 12

Instruments:
Scenic Hybrid Instrument
Redrum Drum Computer
Grain Sample Manipulator
Thor Polysonic Synthesizer
NN-19 Sampler
Europa Shapeshifting Synthesizer

Utilities:
Combinator
MicroMix

Effects:
Pulveriser Demolition Unit
The Echo
RV7000 MkII Advanced Reverb
Scream 4 Sound Destruction Unit
UN-16 Unison

Players:
Scales & Chords

Other instruments outside of Reason:
HoRNet Plugins HoRNet Total EQ
AlexHilton A1StereoControl
AudioThing The Orb
Eventide Quadravox
Eventide Blackhole
Analog Obsession ReLife
Waves Vitamin Sonic Enhancer

Other tools:
iZotope Ozone 9
Plugin Alliance SPL HawEye

Samples:
Ghosthack - Tesseract Universal Cinematic Sounds

[Arelem]

I just wanted to post a quick link here for anyone who might use FL Studio. These are some of the more useful patcher patches that I've made. There's a 1 knob side low cut, a multi-effects rack, an auto-ducking (sidechain) reverb and delay, and a SLAM2 inspired one named SLUM2 (because I'm slumming it with this knock-off).

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

Feel free to use them as you see fit =)

-Arelem

[Rich_Rath]

Hi Rich,
I don't have much experience on the "Cowpunk or Americana or alt something and a little tongue in cheek" genre.

Thanks for listening. I don't have much experience in these genres either...this really aone-off for me. It was great fun to make though.

I really liked the guitar parts especially the "Fake pedal steel" which is very effective. It seems to me that there are synchronization problems between the various instruments, and in particular the voice, as if perhaps the delays of the plug-ins have not been compensated.
I recommend you to work on the vocals and check the sync, if you fix-it it is definitely a very nice song!

Totally on point...I posted my first draft to commit me to entering. The timing problems were a function of my recording process. I recorded guitar first than tried unsuccessfully to match the timing up once I got the drums sorted using ableton's warp feature, but then I could get a bass track from the drums and put down a scratch vocal to see where I needed to work since vocals are my weak point. So since you listened, I retracked the main guitar, then got a good vocal track timed nicely, and retracked the pedal steel/fuzz track. Posted the newest one today, 9/20. I hope you will give it another listen...a few more details and I think I've got it close.

That reminds me, is till need to put the latency compensation back on n. I can't track with it and I always forget to turn it back on later. It especially affects the pedal steel because of the ten foot long effects chain, The timing is much improved I thinkbut I'll do another round to tighten it the last yard.

[Olli H]

Hello everybody,

this is my entry for this month. A very slow and very minimal song, only 4 Instruments and my distorted voice, talking about my depression. Very bare and repetitive by purpose, because that how life feels to me.

I think this your strongest submission so far. It works very well. This time you didn't stop in the half way!

I might try to add some automation to trumpet. For example it could work if it were not so close but in 5 meters distance. The distance might alter from far distance to little closer here and there. And it might suit to add a heavy dose of tape saturation to it in some places. And also you might check those places where the trumpet and speak are simultaneous. Especially in those places trumpet could be somewhere in the background.

Well, it might also happen that the automation is not a good idea at all. Hard to say by just imagining it in my head.