SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC070 June 2023 - Winners announced

[JeroenZuiderwijk]

Hello everybody,

this is my WIP for this month. Any ideas how to improve this? Instrumentation?

(Edit: Version 2)

I like the vibe. It already sounds very good. The trompet stays very mellow in the whole song. Maybe you could try to give it a more energetic solo somewhere? Gives the song a climax..that is what I am missing.

Cheers!

[KukoBass]

Thank you for your feedback. I wrote a trumpet solo for the middle of the song, made it louder, and doubled the trumpet on some notes with a second trumpet. I hope it makes the song a little more interesting to listen to.

[Doc Jon]

I was aiming for a cheesy library style track but wanted to give it a bit of an industrial edge with the percussion.
I started with the drums and found some suitable bangs and crashes in the Twisted Kit EZX and built the rhythm track from there. I enhanced the cheesiness by keeping it at 120bpm and using C/F/G major as my chord progression, using Halion Sonic General Midi type sounds. I kept it basic and used very little processing on any of the tracks, mainly just EQ.
I threw in some tick/tock sounds from my home clock thinking that would fit with some short bursts of timelapse footage in the video where they speed past the boring parts of the crafting to get to the next interesting bit!

Host
Cubase 12 Pro

VSTs
Superior Drummer 3 (Twisted Kit EZX) -> Soundtoys Decapitator
Halion Sonic SE (Bass, flute, sax, strings)
Kontakt (Session Brass)
Steinberg Virtual Guitar 2
Tone2 Saurus (Arps)
Clock tick/tock from the clock in my hallway sampled on a Tascam DR07 Mk2
Reverb send -> Steinberg REVerence
Ozone 10 and TRackS Stealth Limiter on the master bus
TRackS metering and Voxengo Span keeping an eye on things

Loudness
Integrated -14.25 LUFS
Peak -1.18 dBTP
https://lufs.org/

[lxm.labxmusic]

Hello, everyone. It's my first time here. This is my entry for SWC070. (UPDATED)

Final Version ( .wav ) Download Link > https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/19tl85s6 ... v36nj6wsri

I just decided to go with a super chill lofi type track, as this is the type of music I'd use in my DIY videos.
This song was made with FREE PLUGINS and FREE SAMPLES (and maybe a few stock plugins from the DAW).

Here's the breakdown:
DAW - FL Studio 21

Drumkit & SFX - Lofi essentials free pack from Cymatics
Piano - Upright Piano from Numa Player
Bass - IK Multimedia Modo Bass 2
Harp - Native Instruments Irish Harp free library
Guitar - ImpactSoundWorks Shreddage 3 free version
Keys layer - Love-fi vst lite version

Fx plugins used for mixing:
01. Cymatics Origins (tape emulation)
02. LALA by Analog Obsession
03. FL Studio stock reverb/delay/EQ

Masterbus chain
01. Maximus (FL Studio stock multiband processor)
02. TDR Nova for dynamic EQing
03. TDR Kotelnikov for a mild mastering compression
04. RareSE EQ by Analog Obsession for additive EQing
05. Vastaus by Wavegrove to clean up some harsh resonances
06. Clamp by Outobugi - Clipper
07. LoudMax by Thomas Mundt, for final limiting
07. Youlean Loudness meter for checking the levels

Integrated LUFS: -14.5

[VCA-089]

phpBB [media]

WAV: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rgz5Qt ... sp=sharing
FLAC: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VKHRCX ... sp=sharing
MP3: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dXKV1J ... sp=sharing

"The anti-gravity conversion kit has arrived just in time. I have twenty four days to make my granddaddy's old beauty fly and I think it's time for another series on my VR channel. Maybe I should also make a timelapse video."

I decided to choose the most unfamiliar type of craft to me - car repairs. It literally feels to me like someone disassembling a UFO. As the music genre is "free to select'' I decided to make retro-inspired beats (but not strictly a synthwave) with the shift towards lo-fi hiphop and downtempo.

Instruments & techniques:

1. The main drum beat is a FL Studio stock loop loaded into "Slicex" and played wia MIDI. Processed with bitcrusher, limiter and cassette tape effect. The aux track is filled with bandpass filters and delays that create rhythmic patterns. This effect appears from time to time.
2. The toms and percussion are samples from TR-707.
3. The bass is Ample Sound's "BASS P Lite". An old free plugin that I remember using in my early days of music making several years ago. It may not sound the most realistic but it still sounds good to me.
4. The guitars are MusicLab's "RealLPC". The rhythm on the left playing 5ths, the lead is a clean sound that plays melodic lines. Processed with lots of modulation and delay/reverb effects.
5. Full Bucket's "Fury-800" is used for synth chords and melody.
6. Audiolatry's "MEL-Lofi" is used for strings.
7. The background sounds are from free "99Sounds - Atmospherik Mekanisms" pack, featuring lots of processed mechanical and household sounds that helped to create a "garage" feeling.
8. Speaking of "garage" feeling, the special effect used for this production is U-He's "Twangstrom" spring reverb. All sounds are sent to this effect and it creates an ambience of a small garage. A pretty unusable effect otherwise.

Technical details:

► Show Spoiler

Produced in FL Studio 21

Used plugins:

Generators:

x1 Slicex
x1 FPC
x1 Ample Sound "Bass P Lite II"
x2 MusicLab "RealLPC"
x2 Full Bucket "Fury-800"
x1 Audiolatry "MEL-Lofi"

Native effects:

x15 Parametric EQ 2
x11 Reeverb 2
x1 Stereo
x7 Delay 3
x1 Stereo Enhancer
x3 Love Philter
x1 Wave Candy
x1 dB Meter

VST effects:

x7 TDR & VoS "SlickEQ GE"
x10 AdHd "Leveling Tool"
x8 Thomas Mundt "LoudMax"
x1 D16 "Decimort 2"
x1 D16 "Frontier"
x1 TAL-Chorus LX
x3 ToneLib "GFX"
x1 U-He "ColourCopy"
x1 U-He "Twangstrom"
x3 Audiority "XenoVerb"
x4 Wavesfactory "Cassette"

Master chain:

TDR "Nova"
TDR "Kotelnikov"

Total:

x8 Generators
x83 Effects
x21 MIDI Patterns
x23 Mixer Tracks
x19 Audio Clips
x14 Automation Clips

[JeroenZuiderwijk]

This is my final entry. I added some guitar parts. I used a SansAmp style plugin with lots of delay and reverb. I removed the distorded kick sound. It was too distracting I think.

The beat and synth melody was created in Renoise. I didn't use a synthesizer but sampled synthesizer sounds triggered in Renoise.

Here is the link to the song 'multiverse':

https://1drv.ms/u/s!Ahp8xH6KRIfbghRAvar ... a?e=f5xxxU


Cheers,

Jeroen

[EsteveCorbera]

Challenge companions and Mister Fox, Good night!!

We're halfway through the month and it's time to present the new topic.
This time I wanted to experiment with Reason's new synthesizer, Objekt. A physically modeling synthesizer for new and unique acoustic sounds. It is truly amazing what can be achieved. I only used these synths (17 instances), no other instruments or samples.
In terms of composition, I wanted to do something very calm, thinking that the music should accompany the images and that it should not stand out above a possible narrator.
Melodies are improvisations made with the MIDI keyboard.
The pads are made with many layers of Objekt.
And the effects are experiments.

I hope you like it.

Thank you colleagues.

(translated with google)



Equipment:
DAW:
Reason 12.6

Instruments:
Objekt Modeling Synthesizer (17 instances)

Effects:
RV7000 MkII Advanced Reverb
The Echo
Quartet Chorus Ensemble
Alligator Triple Filter Gate
MClass Maximizer
Sweeper Modulation Effect
Channel EQ
Master Bus Compressor
Synchronous Effect Modulator

Players:
Scales & Chords
Tonicmint AB Transpose

Utilities:
Combinator
Mixer 14:2
Line Mixer 6:2

Reason Packs (Presets):
Objekt - Melodic Techno Grooves


Other effects outside of Reason:
Rob Papen RP-Pan
Plugin-alliance TBTECH Kirchhoff-EQ

Other tools:
iZotope Ozone 9
Plugin Alliance SPL HawEye
HoRNet Plugins HoRNet VHS

Thanks!!!

[FallenAngel]

Made this day before submissions as i didn't want to get distracted by stuff like this while revising for a levels so hope it is alright.

FINAL VERSION:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/14gVS8Z ... sp=sharing
(i think the link should work now)

I wanted to create a good vibe, so i hope i did for you all.
I also gave it the ability to be seamlessly looped if the video was longer than the song.

DAW: studio one 5

all instruments were presets

eq and distortion added to a few tracks

most tracks had room reverb and strings had room and plate reverb

no busses and no fx on main bus

[Doc Jon]

My final version is now up, track updated with new bassline and a bit of brass at the end, have updated original post with new stats etc

[Mister Fox]

A friendly reminder:
We're in the final 24 hours to submit your production.



Please get your production ready and submitted (through the forum) today.

And to make it easier for me to create the collection post, please update your initial post with the appropriate links (final version), or explicitly mark your entry as "final entry". Thank you.

We have 8 entries so far.

⚠	Moderation Message from Mister Fox
	Please make sure, that your material is accessible and downloadable! This is especially directed at @FallenAngel and @lxm.labxmusic. Please also update your posts with documentation, everyone. Thank you.