SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC065 January 2023 - Winners announced

[Mister Fox]

Hello and welcome to the Songwriting Competition 065 - January 2023



BEFORE WE 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.
• The general idea of this game is to "...just make music", to also challenge yourself by stepping a bit out of your comfort zone, and take a dip at realms you've never worked in before. Instrumentals are just as welcome as productions with vocals.
• The Genre and "Premise" of this months challenge can be found in in post #002
• Filename Template: SWC000_ArtistName_TrackName.wav and/or .mp3

Read more about this month's competition further down below. And if you got any question, please also reach out on Discord.



.
SONGWRITING COMPETITION THREAD INDEX

Post #001 -- Introduction post and index for the various stages of the Songwriting Competition. Will be updated as we progress
Post #002 -- Submission Period: General Information, Source Material, Sponsors
Post #003 -- Cheat Sheet: A couple of examples / audio demos for this month's challenge (limited if genre is "free to select")
Post #044 -- Voting: Summarized entries and start of voting process
Post #063 -- Results: Results of the Songwriting Competition

[Mister Fox]

CURRENT CHALLENGE - GENERAL INFORMATION

Time Frame: Saturday, 01st January 2023 to Tuesday, 24th January 2022 (24 days)

Challenge submission will end on 24-JAN-2022, 23:59 UTC+1/CET (Germany) - until further notice.

Want to find out if you're still within the deadline, please either consult the Global Countdown (dedicated page), or the countdown on the landing site. 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: "Community Scramble" (Special Sound Design Challenge / limited sound set challenge)
GENRE: free to select



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



A few word about this month's theme:

Hello and welcome to or fifth special challenge on the Mix Challenge audio community - called "Community Scramble".



The twist of the current Songwriting Competition:
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Create a music production in any genre that you feel like. However, you are only allowed to use the sounds and samples that have been sourced and provided by the Mix Challenge audio community. You can read more about the "Community Scramble" concept in the news post from September 2018.


This year, you get access to 47 new "community sourced" samples, with additional content off of the web for more variety, and once more some "recycled" material from previous years (to balance things out).

You can find the source material for "SWC065 / January 2023 - Community Scramble" here, and again further down below:
SWC065 Source Sound Package - on the Mix Challenge server (236,79 MB, LZMA compressed, zip)



Your task for this Songwriting Competition:
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This month, you can create a production in any music genre you feel like. Due to the community sourced content, this might be more electronic based. However, since this game's focus is creative sound design, there is zero limitation of which route this could go.


Some Ground Rules:

• you are only allowed to use the sounds and samples that have been provided for this particular challenge (exceptions apply)
• you are free to mangle the content as much as you like, in fact, this is highly encouraged
• you are allowed to use re-sampling, wavetable / sample-based synthesis, granular synthesis, modulation, or whatever else is at your disposal in terms of tools, to this counts:
  • time stretching, pitch shifting, layering, slicing into chunks, reversing, re-sampling, etc - then further treating the material with whatever is at your your disposal, and maybe redo everything again (e.g.: common technique for very stylized Reese Basses)
  • you can use your synths and samplers to their full potential (layering of more samples and/or build in signal generators, spectral editing, granulation, built-in modulation like LFOs and/or ring-modulation, etc), as long as one/the main oscillator/"wavetable" is from the the provided content (please also see "Audio Examples" follow up post, especially Andrew Huang's videos on "make a wavetable out of everything")
• you are not allowed to add any additional sounds or instruments that have not been created from the available source material in any shape or form (e.g. synthesizer stock lead, pads or drum sounds, acoustic drum kits, pianos, choirs and/or strings from Kontakt samples, etc).
• you can add vocals and ad-libs (your own voice or a collaborating singer), or sound effects created from your voice (think: breathing, shouts, grunts, robot voice, etc). This material can be as clean or as processed as you want, be creative!
• if you feel the need that your production really can't do without, you are allowed to record an electric guitar or electric bass. As long as you twist, bend, glitch, warp and/or morph (blend with other sound sources) it in some form or another (the focus is sound design! not just guitar > DI > amp suite preset, see "Audio Examples" follow up post, especially Mick Gordon, Geoffrey Day and David Levy's videos)

Your creativity will be pushed to the limits this month. This is your chance to try something completely new out of your comfort zone, experiment with synthesis and sound shaping, to get a different perspective on sound design.

I am more than curious about the results.

Songwriting Rule Summary / Add-On Rules:

► Show Spoiler

• create a production fitting to the given theme, genre and general premise
• you are only allowed to use the sounds provided in the package above (exceptions do apply)
• you can use any tools that are at your disposal to mangle the provided audio content (samplers, wavetable synths, modulation tools, etc)
• 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 new and original 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
  • see "Ground Rules" above
  • <no (additional) add-on rules specified>

For a full set of rules, please consult the Official Rules and Guidelines (most notably Rule Book - post #6). If you got any questions regarding the game mechanics or similar, please either utilize the SWC - Gossip and Discussion thread, or reach out through Discord.

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Source Files:

SWC065 Source Sound Package - on the Mix Challenge server (236,79 MB, LZMA compressed, zip)


The provided files were packed as ZIP with LZMA compression (specs from 2015).
File size extracted: 418,08 MB, packed 236,79 MB (ZIP, LZMA)


In order to extract the files, we can recommend these programs / apps:

Macintosh:
The Unarchiver - get it here
Keka (open source) - get it here (please take note of the file extraction guide)

Windows:
7zip - Installation / Portable


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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 2, a license of Bioscape, or any two sound sets of winner's choice
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.

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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 pointers



Difference: Wavetable Synthesis to Sample-based Synthesis (articles on Wikipedia):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wavetable_synthesis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sample-based_synthesis

► Show Spoiler

"Wavetable Synthesis" has been turned into a common term, albeit technically wrong. Wavetables can be "single cycle" samples, while one "cycle" that declares a sound can be more than just the length a basic waveform like a sine/saw/square, as in "a couple of milliseconds or longer". The majority of tutorials, comments and posts all over the internet talk about "wavetables", but it can mean either forms of of this specific synthesis. To my understanding, the difference that declares the correct form, is the sample length and whether or not it can be morphed into another "wavetable" (then it would probably be declared "Wavetable Synthesis") or just long samples, "layered" without any morphing (then it would probably be declared "Sample-based Synthesis")

Disclaimer: the CEO of the Mix Challenge audio community is not an expert of synthesis. Things could be interpreted wrong. It is highly recommended to cross-reference with additional articles/books/sources.

Creative Sound design examples (selection, Youtube, 12 videos):

► Show Spoiler

Depeche Mode - People Are People (1984)
Kutiman - I'm New (2009, from the "Thru-You" project)
Mick Gordon - Voices of Devs (2012)
Andrew Huang - ROCK PAPER SCISSORS (2013)
Jackson Tyler - Song I Made Using Random Sounds (2014)
Andrew Huang - Guitar Power (ft. Rob Scallon) (2015)
Karagamii - Paper Music with Andrew Huang (2020)
Gourski - Turning Random Sounds Into Music (2020)
harvo - made a beat with cat noises (2020, the beat was not created from the source sounds)
Meredith Bull - Sick of this Empty Cup (2021, some instruments were not created from the source sounds)
TerraBlade feat. Udge - Stickersus Symphony (FULL VERSION) (2021, every sound was made from the "Stop posting about Among Us" meme)
Jeff Nang - Making Beats with random objects (2022)
Venjent - Unmask Your Emotions (2022, some instruments might not have been created from the showcased sounds)

Sound Design Making of, Basics and Tricks: (assorted, multiple series and individual videos)

► Show Spoiler

Mick Gordon - DOOM: Behind the Music (2017, worth watching these 60 minutes, Mick Gordon also unveils his sound design chain for DOOM 2016, starting at the 17:02min mark and going until about 27:51min)
Draeden - The Ultimate Doom Instrument (2020, an attempt to get close to Mick Gordon's sound from DOOM and DOOM ETERNAL)
David Levy - DOOM Eternal - The Ancient Gods BTS (2021-2022, playlist)
GeoffPlaysGuitar - "What if XYZ sounded like DOOM Eternal" series (2021-2022, series -- I can recommend watching Hades, Dancing Mad, One Winged Angel and Mass Effect, also the making of on "Fall of Davoth", which is a "proof of concept" song)

dilliot2k - How To Make Michael Jackson's Scream (2016, layering samples to create a rich and interesting drum beat)
Andrew Huang - I spent a year recording radiators to make music (2017, a song made out of radiator clicks and hums)
Joshua Milo - I made a song out of random objects (2018, a song made out of random items)
Levi Niha - Making Music With Windows XP Sounds (2018, the beat was not created from the source sounds)
Andrew Huang - Making music with actual sounds from Mars (2018, sounds from Mars winds vibrating NASA equipment, added custom beats)
Andrew Huang - Made my greatest beat ever with this weird device! (2020, creating a track from a recording with a "Baby Doppler"/Fetal Doppler, also explaining his "make a wavetable out of everything" tricks)
4 PRODUCERS 1 SAMPLE - Series by Andrew Huang (2018 to 2022, series -- hours of content, plenty inspiration for sound design)
Venjent - How to make a beat out of anything... (2022, was used in the remix of "Butterfly")

Synthesis Basics (9 videos)

► Show Spoiler

SynthSchool - Overtones, harmonics and Additive synthesis (2010, how to create any wave form out of a basic sine wave)
TruncatedTriangle - Basic Waveforms (2015, an overview of basic waveforms, and how they're created)
Dash Glitch - Four Most Common Synthesis Methods - How Do Synthesizers Generate Sound? (2018, short video)
White Noises - Granular Synthesis EXPLAINED (2018)
Justin DeLay - Wavetable Synthesis Explained (2018, released through Reverb)
In The Mix - Sound Design and Synth Fundamentals (2019, there is also a follow-up called "Advanced Sound Design and Synths Tutorial)
Mattias Holmgren - Top 4 Granular VST Plugins & Granular Synthesis Explained (2019)
Andrew Huang - Modular synthesis EXPLAINED (2020)
Introduction to Cherry Audio Sines Synthesizer with Tim Shoebridge (2022, explaining creating other waveforms from just sine waves)

Tool Showcases (more synthesis basics, and looking at various sound design plugins, 11 videos)

► Show Spoiler

Seamless - FL Studio Basics 29: The Granulizer (2013, short Granular Synthesis tutorial)
Savant In The Studio With Future Music (2014, showing how he re-synthesizes his recorded sounds)
iZotope - Iris 2 (2015, Spectral Synthesizer Pad Sound Demo by SYNTH ANATOMY)
Andrew Huang - 12 sound design tricks I use! (2018)
Andrew Huang - It turns any sound INTO A WAY COOLER SOUND (2018, showing off a wavetable synthesizer)
Spectrasonics - Omnisphere 2's User Audio Import Feature (2019, Sound Designer team shows off "everyday sounds" turned into bell pads)
Spectrasonics - Omnisphere 2's User Audio Import Feature (2019, Quay presents synthesis with a Fishing Reel as sound source)
Spectrasonics - Omnisphere 2's User Audio Import Feature (2019, Quay presents synthesis with striking a Water Jug as sound source)
Venus Theory - Meet Vital: The INCREDIBLE New Free Synth Plugin (2020, Venus Theory showing off this free "sound design beast" of a synthesizer)
Venus Theory - 10 Of The BEST Free Plugins You Should Know for Sound Design (2020, showing off a handful of synth and FX plugins for sound design)
Venus Theory - 9 Excellent FREE Plugins (That Shouldn't Be Free) (2022, showing off a handful of synth and FX plugins for sound design)

A shout out to Andew Huang, Mick Gordon, David Levy, Geoffrey Day (GeoffPlaysGuitar), Cameron Gorham (Venus Theory), Ventjent, Draeden, Michael Wynne (In The Mix), Gregory White (White Noises), Mattias Holmgren, Dillio (DillioT2K), Levi Niha, Seamless (Stephen O’Leary), Savant (Aleksander Vinter), Tom from SYNTH ANATOMY, and the Sound Designer team from Spectrasonics
.



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

Tools worth a look for this month's special task...

MuTools - MuLab Plugin
Matt Tytel - Vital (Matt Tytel also created the highly praised "Helm" synthesizer)
GlitchMachines - Quadrant, Cataract, Fracture XT, etc
TAL Software - TAL-Sampler and TAL-Drum
Apisonic Labs - Speedrum (a "spiritual successor" to One Small Clue POISE, Lite version available)
AKAI - MPC Beats (limited to 8 MIDI + 2 Audio tracks, but can be used as VSTi in any other DAW)
Sonic Charge - Typhoon (Yamaha TX16W sampler)
CWItech - TX16Wx Software Sampler (If you want a highly powerful Soundfont2 loader / sampler)
Renoise - Redux (sampler that works like old Impulse Tracker software)
imaginando - FRMS (Granular Synthesizer)
FKFX - Influx (Distortion Plugin)
Unfiltered Audio - various distortion and modulation tools (through Plugin Alliance)
Kilohearts - MultiPass and SnapHeap incl. all available SnapIns (multi-FX)
Bedroom Producers Blog - BPB Plugins like BPB Dirty Filter and Saturator

Anything that can load WAV files as "wavetables" (e.g.: kv311 Audio SynthMaster, Waves Codex, Spectrasonics Omnisphere 2, the now discontinued iZotope Iris 2, etc) or one-shots (Decomposer Sitala, Apisonic Labs Speedrum Lite, AKAI MPC Beats, etc). Not to mention a nigh endless pool of available sound design tools (like Kilohearts, tek'it Audio, Sonosaurus, Minimal Audio, illformed/dblue, AudioThing, ValhallaDSP, United Plugins, just to name a few).

More recommendation for free/affordable tools can be found at the #audio-tech-deals section on our Discord server.

UPDATED: 30-DEC-2022 10:00 UTC+1, updated 01-JAN-2023 07:15 UTC+1

[cotmm68030]

Being asked to provide samples was finally the push I needed to come check out the SWC. Plus free reign with a focus on sound design was hard to pass up.

This is "matrioshka brain neural desynchronization", a pulsing and throbbing dark ambient soundscape lovingly hewn from a small selection of the samplebase provided. In this track, I imagine the sound of a solar system sized neural network stumbling into its final aeons, finally succumbing to the endless pull of entropy. What does dementia sound like when your consciousness eclipses the combined intellect of the entire history of humanity? What are the last thoughts of mind impossible to comprehend?

phpBB [media]

http://rustedmachines.com/SWC065-CotMM- ... zation.mp3

The song is composed exclusively from:
adlibs-90bpm-bm
bass-guitar-94bpm-gm
detunedHit
somaEther soundscapes
Scraping
Blubb
05_Pitchshifter_Feedback

Manipulation Methodology:

► Show Spoiler

Pitchshifter was first run through an aggressive noise reduction plugin in RX8. This left a shell of primarily clean tones. That shell was then processed through an auto tuner, set to Eb Minor, with a very fast retune speed. This added some harmonic coherence to the noise. That resulting sequence was this resampled down two octaves.

Blubb was given a similar treatment, but using the 'deconstruction' plugin of RX8, keeping only the tonal aspects, and lowering the transients. This produced bell-like tones which were then passed through stacked copies of Valhalla Supermassive reverb for droning harmonics.

Scraping received nearly the opposite. The swirling upper frequencies of this scratchy sound became small blips when almost everything but the nearly non-existent transients were kept. This produced a series of blips, cracks, and snaps. Those small sounds were then expanded into glitchy textures by re-sampling the length of the recording out to 400%, but by treating the transients as points to be extended, small sounds became a wellspring of interesting noises. Finally the imperceivable remnants of the first reduction were given an equal spotlight by running a over eager dynamics expander, raising the once silent noise floor into the spotlight, accentuating the delicate textures hiding at the lowest amplitudes of the bit depth.

The alien landscape created by that step was then sampled into a variety of small hits and sweeps and loaded into Native Instruments Battery to create a biomechanical drumkit. This kit was then played across several simple drum patterns and fills, and run through a panning spacializer to add some movement and rhythm to the final section of the overall composition.

AdLibs were stripped of their harmonic elements with the 'deconstruction' plugin in RX8 again, and then the upper formants shifted down an octave during another length resampling. This resulted in a harsh, breathy texture, which was then further dropped in pitch and given some temporal smoothing with more Valhalla Supermassive.

Bass-Guitar was cut into 4 small loops and run through a several bar long delay and long spaced reverb echo to create a pulsing tone floor.

detunedHit and somaEther soundscapes were combined into a patch in Omnisphere. Both layers were run through the granulizer with random positioning of the start grains along the length of the sample. Some further reverb and compression tied these spectrally divergent sounds together into a pad-like instrument sprinkled throughout the track.

My initial cut of this track ran over 13 minutes long and was less dense. I recut the entire track down to 6 minutes to try and make it a little more accessible for people that might not listen to ambient as their go-to genre. Enjoy!

For the curious, here is a folder with all of the raw tracks:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... share_link

[Arelem]

Hello All,

Here is my entry so far. I've been listening to it to try and see where I can make changes and I am not seeing anything at this point. Any feedback would be appreciated. I've updated the song. I tried to make the vocals a little clearer. (2nd Edit) I made some minor tweaks to the vocals and have uploaded the final version to the Soundcloud link below.



Lyrics

► Show Spoiler

Saying goodbye
It's hard to let go
You seemed to change
into someone I don't know
I played the part
didn't wanna be alone
came apart
at the thought of the unknown

Chorus
(I'm still in love
but that person is gone
it was so right
but it all went so wrong
take how I feel inside
and I put it in a song
did you change
or was this you all along
You call this love
but how can it be
I thought that we
were truely meant to be
oh, how I feel inside
so twisted and empty
did I change
tell me what is happening)

moving on aint easy
but it's something that I need
I'm at the end
and I need to break free
you cut me deep
got me feeling like I can't breath
how can I cope when
your the one who puts the air in me

The main components of the track as far as how they were created here.

► Show Spoiler

The ambient piano is just colorado weeks' sample upbeat piano chopped and stretched with some reverb and delay added.
The verse drums are the main bit of the ShaneTSCBreak with some filtering.
The vocals/lyrics are me singing falsetto and formant shifted up a bit.
The riser is pink noise modulating a 440hz sine wave and some pitch automation.
The bass in the chorus is a 55hz sine wave loaded into Harmor. The image time was adjusted over to avoid clicking during sustained notes and playback speed was decreased, and the pitch was corrected to a root of C. Then some saturation thrown on top.
The lead plucky sound is the oven door lock loaded into Harmor, sample start time shifted forward, speed lowered, unison added, pitch corrected, chorus, delay, and reverb added. Then was EQd to cut the lows and tame the highs.
The drums in the chorus were created individually. The kick was made by layering a kick removed from the ShaneTSCbreak sample and some modulated white noise. That is then adjusted with some transient shaping, compression, and EQ.
The snare is a layer of a snare pulled from my drum loop sample and the iceShatter sample. That is then put through some reverb, transient, EQ, and compression.
The hat is just some modulated white noise with more EQ, transient, and compression.
There is some background foley going on that is pink noise being pitch-shifted as well as gain and filter automated.
The second chorus foley that's a bit more bubbly/chirpy is the Glockenspiel loaded into Harmor with the speed slowed down. Then it is being automated for pitch, formant, gain, delay, and reverb.

[A Future in Noise]

Any feedback would be appreciated.

The mix seems to be OK. I wouldn't want to raise or lower the volume on anything. But the sound reminiscent of somebody whistling (2:46 and forwards) is way to sharp, IMO. Especially the high notes. I don't know what to do about it, but it almost feels like a razor blade against the eardrums. I didn't even care to try to listen to the lyrics. It sounds OK, from an audio point of view, but since English isn't my native language, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to perceive more that every second word, or so (falsetto, dealys and all that).

[Arelem]

Any feedback would be appreciated.

The mix seems to be OK. I wouldn't want to raise or lower the volume on anything. But the sound reminiscent of somebody whistling (2:46 and forwards) is way to sharp, IMO. Especially the high notes. I don't know what to do about it, but it almost feels like a razor blade against the eardrums. I didn't even care to try to listen to the lyrics. It sounds OK, from an audio point of view, but since English isn't my native language, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to perceive more that every second word, or so (falsetto, dealys and all that).

Thanks for the feedback. I tamed the sound you were complaining about a bit. Hopefully, that is enough. I also added some white noise in the chorus that is heavily side-chained for a pulsing effect. I just wanted to add a little bit more interest in there as it felt a little boring to me. Maybe that's just because I've been listening to the same song for so long now

[Arelem]

Being asked to provide samples was finally the push I needed to come check out the SWC. Plus free reign with a focus on sound design was hard to pass up.

This is "matrioshka brain neural desynchronization", a pulsing and throbbing dark ambient soundscape lovingly hewn from a small selection of the samplebase provided. In this track, I imagine the sound of a solar system sized neural network stumbling into its final aeons, finally succumbing to the endless pull of entropy. What does dementia sound like when your consciousness eclipses the combined intellect of the entire history of humanity? What are the last thoughts of mind impossible to comprehend?

I can see what you are going for here and it does have a good ambient, background, sound to it. I don't know how well it will be received in a songwriting contest though. I would maybe go for like some lo-fi EDM something and add some drums to it. Maybe arrange it into more of a song with the drums coming in and out, IDK. That's just my opinion though, maybe others will feel differently.

[A Future in Noise]

NP = Not participating

For the most part I have relied on the Surge Synth, and used wavetables made from the material provided. At the moment I don't know exactly which wavetables come from where, but a large number, which I have saved in a bank, are made from the graph of the electric drill. The drum sounds are the plastic tub, the staples in the plastic box and the real hi-hat sounds that someone contributed.

If I am asked to prove, or show, how I created my wavetables, it will be difficult. But of course it can be done. It's only a question of how much time must be spent.

[alavault]

Hello !
Submission for this month : Rubber Banding - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1J3IByH ... share_link
(WIP)
Basses : Sine and Cat Rubber Bass. Clean and distorted. Added 808-style kick with bucket-punch and sin55
Guitar: Guitar E
"Piano" : Electric Sparks (trimmer)
Kicks: Same 808 as above, another made with bucket punch and a last one sine 55-Ultrafold Stab
Snare : Bouncing bottle, Hit Metal Barrel, Thumb stack pour
Shaker: Marching Drum thing + thumbstack
FX : hand chimes reversed + electric drill reversed