SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC076 December 2023 - Winners announced

[1ktone]

I've been going over the voting/feedback process and I can honestly say I'm a little confused. So, I'll wait for a few votes to see how this all works. I've listened to all the tracks and they are all great. I even took notes on each of them, but that appears to be more than what is asked for if I'm reading the rules correctly. I didn't feel I needed to be too critical of anyone's work actually as I really do think that all the tracks stand up well as songs in their won right.

[Arelem]

I would be a little difficult to explain the voting but you could also look at past battles to see how those went down.

[Mister Fox]

Excellent point made my Arelem.


The concept is pretty much the same.

• Reflect on your experience with the game this month (what did you learn, what would you do better with future productions, etc)
• this month: give feedback to 7 (or even all - if you want more bonus points) participants
• cast your vote for your personal top 7 (first position gets highest points, down to last position getting the least)

Use this code to "hide your votes"

Code: Select all

[spoil]
01 Participant A
02 Participant B
03 Participant C
04 Participant D
etc
[/spoil]

You could take a closer look at my feedback for SWC075 / November as starting point
viewtopic.php?p=16082#p16082

Or look at all the interaction from SWC071 / July 2023 (the Video Game Soundtrack related challenge)
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=675

If you're not good with technical feedback, you can always give general feedback. As long as it's more than "great song, like it" and then you move on. The idea here is to interact, give people an idea where there could be possible improvements in the future. Keep it constructive, not destructive.



Oh and... if you want to add more documentation to your entry, please edit your initial post.



That should cover everything

[APi_ZZ]

My learning curve:
I have a probably unusual approach to challenges.
First part of my approach is to avoid any listening to eventually already published entries.
Part two is to spend not more than one or two days on the idea and my possible interpretations.
Part three then is: Do it, publish, done ... OK, if substancial tips or suggestions occur, or corrections are needed, and changes are possible, I am eager to incorporate.This was the case this time with the comment from @Lady Incognita (THX for that!).
Part four is: Lean back and enjoy incoming entries from others. [ That is, if it's not SKIO & Co with hundreds of entries per challenge ... ]

Learning effect: I could/should/must be more polite in my comments ...

My comments:

► Show Spoiler

@1iktone
Nice pulsating basics with ethereal chiming bells and mallets, distant pads and soundpatches, well balanced against each other ... all that certainly make up a brightly lit situation for me.

@A Future in Noise
Clear production, well separated instruments, vocals upfront; the lyrics seem to tell a dramatic story that isn't supported much by the accompaniment (a tad too generic pop/rock), at least that is my impression.

@Arelem
I admit: Not my fav music and style. For me, as a non native english speaker, the lyrics are near to non·understandable (without reading the lyrics sheet), eventually due to the fuzzy processing. But I admire the choice to pick the limelight/spotlight theme.

@becsei_gyorgy
So very typical/seasonal that I could think to have heard it already a thousand times ... well done.

@Brandon740
Sounds like 'real' guitars (and bass) to me [that always adds virtual +point to me]; sadly I hearly a lot of repetitions [virtual -point];
the main lead from the break/fresh start at the middle of the track sounds 'wrong'/whacky to me, to repeat it doesn't really help.

@colorado weeks
Uh, a slick '80s sounding heartbreak tune with all the proper parts and stops and refrains and steel drums ... that is sooo Eighties. -Eh- and sooo well made.

@Doc Jon
"to bring a tear to the eye" + ... uh. This time of the year seems to induce increased emotional turmoils. But Solaria renders those bitter lyrics in sweet and innocent vocals ... in a well designed track.

@EsteveCorbera
Very seasonal instrumentation with all those bells and mallets and strings and orchestral drums. I would've loved more memorable melodies, as·is it seems a tad too generic (sorry, my taste).

@JeroenZuiderwijk
Interesting swirly plucks, overlying bell sounds, all nice & shiny ... merely the drums (when used) are too cheap·drumbox·y for my taste.

@KukoBass
Well done, well produced ... but [ and now comes my cruel, super-subjective opinion: ] a bit too cheesy / too generic in sounds and theme;
to formulate it positively: Would work perfectly as seasonal shopping mall background muzac.

@Lady Incognita
Another non·seasonal approach, reminiscing me of '90s lounge sounds with a tropical feel (well, even featuring ocean waves!).
Well produced, the vocals could be a bit more upfront for my taste.
Off-topic: For my taste the visuals are way too cheesy, Barbie & Ken style -- but that doesn't count here ...

@Mellow Browne
Intricate rhythm construction with jazzy chord sequence; nice arrangement with appropriate breaks and 'hick-ups'.
Could it be that the drums are hardly varied (= the same over periods of time)? If that is essential to this genre of music, then -please- excuse my complaint.

@merci ferdi
Pleasent, modern approach -- though I don't understand a word ... well, lumière means light, but that's it.

@msgsaltsweet
Refreshingly different from all those efforts that are busy to meet 'seasonal requirements' -- clearly produced, but a tad too long (or repetitive) for my perception.

@VCA-089
Plenty of illuminating arpeggios, (probably a bit too) bright drums, wide open swashes, lotsa reverb ... only those glitchy first 30 secs irritate my listening pleasure.

Top seven entries:

► Show Spoiler

01 @colorado weeks
02 @1iktone
03 @becsei_gyorgy
04 @Doc Jon
05 @Lady Incognita
06 @merci ferdi
07 @msgsaltsweet

[1ktone]

OK. Thank you for all the clarification. I edited my initial post to document the creation process. I'll have the votes and comments in shortly.

[A Future in Noise]

Hello guys! I just discovered that my submission sounds utterly strange (bad) if I connect my headphones directly to my laptop's output, instead of using the external soundcard the way I usually do. The strange thing is that I listened to four or five of your entries just before, and they sounded perfect.

I know there is nothing wrong with the file I uploaded the 24th. Could it be that my file is 48.000 / 24? In that case some of you, if you listen the way I did a short while ago, may experience the same issue as I did. Only you may think that the weird sound from the guitar was what I wanted.

Please let me know if there is a kind of distortion, and very much of it, that shouldn't be there.

[colorado weeks]

Hello guys! I just discovered that my submission sounds utterly strange (bad) if I connect my headphones directly to my laptop's output, instead of using the external soundcard the way I usually do. The strange thing is that I listened to four or five of your entries just before, and they sounded perfect.

I know there is nothing wrong with the file I uploaded the 24th. Could it be that my file is 48.000 / 24? In that case some of you, if you listen the way I did a short while ago, may experience the same issue as I did. Only you may think that the weird sound from the guitar was what I wanted.

Please let me know if there is a kind of distortion, and very much of it, that shouldn't be there.

listened to your entry on headphones (using my laptop's sound card) and through laptop speakers and it sounds fine to me!

[A Future in Noise]

listened to your entry on headphones (using my laptop's sound card) and through laptop speakers and it sounds fine to me!

Thanks! (But I still wonder about this, I have a quite expensive laptop. But I won't call for admin during Christmas.)

[msgsaltsweet]

.

[A Future in Noise]

I'm sorry to call your attention like this, @Mister Fox, over the weekend, but this is one thing I'm having a hard time trying to push aside:

My own song sounds worthless if I plug my headphones directly into the computer's output. Everything else sounds like it should! However, if I use my external sound card, my entry sounds as it should. And if I import back the wav file (which I've downloaded - back - from Soundcloud) into REAPER, and use ASIO4All (buffer size 512) - then it also sounds as it should, with the same headphones in the same computer's headphone output.

For a while I speculated if this might have something to do with sample rate and bit depth. But now I've checked, and there are at least two more entries that are 48000 / 24, and they sound normal.

What happens when I listen to my own song, with one of the more common apps on the computer (~VLC MediaPlayer, Microsoft's built in etc.) is i.a. that the treble from the electric guitar disappears every now and then.

So now I don't know how it sounds when the other 15 participants listen, except for the person who previously answered.

May I ask what you think about this?