SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC078 February 2024 - Winners announced

[APi_ZZ]

I take a leap into my samples box, and arrange well a dozen score samples for some cinematic track.
80 bpm and Emin are the (simple) basics; the leaps & steps are (hopefully) achieved by dynamic breaks, as well as by instrumental changes.



Update: Reuploaded file with proper naming ...

[JeroenZuiderwijk]

Hi everybody,

This is my contribution to the SWC this month. It is called "leap into the unknown". The music expresses the joy of the moment you let go of your fears and just take the leap. It starts with a build up towards that moment when you are still in doubt.

I wrote this song using Renoise with the help of Tal Noisemaker, Spitfire Audio Labs and a lot of samples (the brass is a sample....not my favorite but couldn't find another).

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/mv70rjx9 ... i1rus&dl=0

Cheers,

Jeroen

[JeroenZuiderwijk]

Hi guys, as soon as I saw the picture it reminded me when you are running under heavy rain and jumping puddles so I decided to do some kinda acustic jazz on a fast tempo (130 bpm).

So the idea was to give a sense of urgency like when u are under the rain and u are running to your car but also like the title says like dancing in the rain.

the sense of urgency could be related also to the "take a leap" concept, when instead of keep waiting and thinking we just have to take a leap and make a jump into the unknow.

I used the free mt-powerdrumkit for the drums than FL studio FLEX for all the instruments (bass guitar, grand piano, electric piano, organ, sustain trumpets, staccato trumpets, accordion, staccato brass, staccato clarinet, staccato flute, sustain strings).

for mixing I'm lately going basically only with analog obsession plugins (at least on compressors) they just sound great, look and feel great and they are also very CPU friendly, it's crazy they are free (and I have spent thousands on plugins in these years).

especially I love SPECOMP great on drums but also instruments and busses, OSS great for instruments and COMPER very clean precise and good on anything but I love to use it on the mix buss with the first compressor on opto mode and second one on vca mod (like the shadow hills but this one imo sounds better and u have precise control on attack and release)
Also I reccomend SST imo one of the best colour EQ out there, it's the classiq SSL eq but it just sound great (I have SSL channel strip 2 and analog obsession one sounds better - I mean curves are more musical and nailed ).

For precision EQ to me DMG AUDIO EQUILIBRIUM is the king check out also DMG TRACKMETER, best metering plugin ever.

Mister Fox can I do a question? why there has to be this rule of the -14 lufs? it's just a competition, every time I have to make 2 versions, one for the official competition and one for my soundcloud upload and for listening to it on the car, it's so annoying, also because I can't make the -14 lufs version private cuz if private I can't share it here on the forum, so i have to make public the same track 2 times.

Pls can we change this? you can just turn down the volume

Anyway guys, I hope you enjoy the track

Hi Crispy,
that is a very cool jazzy track. The instruments also sound great. When I was listening to your track I was wondering what drumsound you used. I didn't know about the MT perdrumkit, So now I have downloaded the VST and happy that you mentioned it in your post. Very usable drumsound!
cheers,
Jeroen

[Mister Fox]

A friendly reminder:
Including today, 7 days left to submit your production.

So far, we have 3 entries, and some interaction. Please keep it up!



If you want to access the extended game mechanics of the Songwriting Competition (asking for feedback during production), please try to release your first edits within the next 3 days to have enough time to get possible feedback (if needed/wanted) and continue to work on your song. Please also remember, vocals are not mandatory -- instrumentals are just as welcome.

And to those sitting on the fence - please don't feel scared off and think "the bar is set too high, I will never make it" - set yourself a shorter private deadline. Just make music, submit your entry, join the conversation. See where this goes.

By joining, you're already a winner. The rest is bonus.

[EsteveCorbera]

Dear fellow challengers and Mister Fox.

I present to you the track I made for this month's challenge. Following Mister Fox's instructions and taking the main image, I have been inspired by leaps, by moving forward, by growing...
That's why I wanted to make a cheerful theme, overflowing with optimism. And to help the feeling of 'jumping and moving' I wanted to incorporate a lot of arpeggios (up to 10).
The main melody is played on piano and has a string accompaniment.
Below are two groups of chords of 8 measures each, which are repeated interspersed except at the end where they are repeated twice each.
The piano melody with the strings is also repeated in the final part.

Taking advantage of this jumping argument, I also want to dedicate this topic to my youngest son who has turned 10 (he has jumped a decade). I have also used this music as the background of a video I made with photos from recent years.

I hope you like it or at least can appreciate the work I have done.


Thank you colleagues.

(translated with google)




Equipment:
DAW:
Reason 12.7.3d18

Instruments:
ID8 Songwriter's Toolbox
Processed Pianos
Europa Shapeshifting Synthesizer
Thor Polysonic Synthesizer
NN-XT Advanced Sampler
Monotone Bass Synthesizer
Grain Sample Manipulator
Subtractor Polyphonic Synthesizer

Effects:
RV7000 MkII Advanced Reverb
The Echo
Audiomatic Retro Transformer
Channel EQ
Master Bus Compressor
Quartet Chorus Ensemble

Players:
Scales & Chords
Dual Arpeggio

Utilities:
Combinator
Mixer 14:2

Reason Packs (like Presets):
Vintage Arps

Reason Rack Extension:
Kilohearts AB kHs Gain (Effect)
ProjectSAM Orchestral Sampler Filmscore Instrument (Instrument)
Lectric Panda Aggregate Music System (Player)

Other instruments outside of Reason:
Native Instruments KONTAKT
KONTAKT Luftrum Bioscape
KONTAKT Luftrum Lunaris v1.5
AIR Music Tech Mini Grand
Arturia CS-80 V3

Other effects outside of Reason:
Rob Papen RP-Pan

Samples:
-

Other tools:
Plugin Boutique Scaler2
iZotope Ozone 9
Plugin Alliance SPL HawkEye
HoRNet Plugins HoRNet VHS

[JeroenZuiderwijk]

Dear fellow challengers and Mister Fox.

I present to you the track I made for this month's challenge. Following Mister Fox's instructions and taking the main image, I have been inspired by leaps, by moving forward, by growing...
That's why I wanted to make a cheerful theme, overflowing with optimism. And to help the feeling of 'jumping and moving' I wanted to incorporate a lot of arpeggios (up to 10).
The main melody is played on piano and has a string accompaniment.
Below are two groups of chords of 8 measures each, which are repeated interspersed except at the end where they are repeated twice each.
The piano melody with the strings is also repeated in the final part.

Taking advantage of this jumping argument, I also want to dedicate this topic to my youngest son who has turned 10 (he has jumped a decade). I have also used this music as the background of a video I made with photos from recent years.

I hope you like it or at least can appreciate the work I have done.


Thank you colleagues.

(translated with google)

Hi Esteve Corbera; Congratulations with your son!!! And a nice track you've composed this month .Lots of arpeggios indeed. Another moment I take a closer listhen to it and I'll see if I can give you some more constructive feedback other then 'nice track' ;-)

Cheers,

Jeroen

[TrojakEW]

It is long time since I posted something here and this is reason I have bring some issue for Mister Fox with my account. Sorry for that. I was and I'm still busy with other more important things in my life and music is just hobby. Hope I will be able to do some tracks more often because I miss the challenge.

Music same as picture should be able to tell story. My approach to "Take a leap" theme is I take it as metaphor for challenge, that must be completed in order to achieve some goal. No matter what the goal is, there is always something to do which is more important then the goal itself. This path to reach goal requires all your effort and attention. Your goal is end of your progress evolution unless you already have another one that will push your skills even further. There should be always another goal after current one in order to move forward otherwise you will fail. This is story of the track.

So I tried to paint image to the music. Split it to to few parts with bit different mood but still go with Rumba rhythm whole time. So track should be rumba but with my different, kind of cinematic style approach. This was real challenge for me since it is first time I tried to do music like this, I mean dance like rumba. This was my personal Take a leap challenge. Track is trying to tell story of woman who is trying to achieve their goal using her appearance (body language) as advantage to to seduce a man in order to gain something that she want and this man is way to achieve it. Even she was successful the real end of the story is failure. Because o her success she stop's and forget how to become better. This is reason I used dance music but mixed with some orchestral instruments to bring more feeling to it and paint this women body language. Not sure if it is really possible to dance to this track, but I hope it should be possible.

Made using FL Studio 20.6
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Instruments used:
1x NI Symphony Series Percussion (Toms)
1x NI Symphony Series Strings (Pizzicato)
2x Ethera Gold 2 (Epic Legato + few phrases)
1x ProjectSam Swing (Nylon Guitar)
2x Heavyocity Vento (Staccato Woodwinds, Fluttering Sustains)
1x Heavyocity Forzo (Staccato Brass)
3x 8Dio Bible of Salsa V3 (Drums, Congas, Small Percussions)
1x 8Dio Bible of Salsa V3 (Trumpet+Trombone+Sax Legato)
1x 8Dio Adachi Strings (Legato) + 1x 8Dio 8W Strings (Legato) layered
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Used Effects:
8x Izotope Neutron 3 Equalizer
1x Izotope Ozone 10
2x Fruity Convolver
8x zOne.sk Arx One
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Statistics (Izotope RX 10):
Max momentary loudness -7.9 LUFS
Max short-tem loudness -10.5 LUFS
Integrated loudness -14.0 LUFS
Loudness range 4.8 LU
True peak L -1.01dB
True peak R -1.01dB
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is first time I used Kontakt 7 and I must say a have a lot of issues with it. I was not able render track directly from FL. I needed to to real time playback a recording because it was only way to avoid huge rhythm problem with export. No matter what I did in audio buffer setting, export was out of sync. For Kontakt 5 and 6 certain settings work to fix but nothing for K7.

[shroom feverish]

Shroom Feverish - Sapiens Dominabitur Astris
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ycslsm ... drive_link

C#m
123BPM

Loops from different sample libraries, main melodies Slate Digital sample packs.
VST synths: Massive X, Serum, Strobe 2
All tracks have Acustica Audio EQs/preamps, compressor and saturation.
VSTfx: ValhallaSupermassive/UVI DualDelayX, SparkVer, Thorus, Relayer/D16 Group Toraverb2

Woman voice from movie “Enola Holmes (2020)”
“...be tough... be tough! Live the life. But don't do it because you're looking for someone. Do it because you're looking for yourself.”

[TrojakEW]

To give you some feedback for your entry (and breaking the ice):

Just wanted to say you give fantastic feedback and detailed analysis for the track. Even it is not related to my track there is a lot of to learn from your post and also detailed analysis.

man I really appreciate the time u put to text the long reply but I really struggle to follow u

You already win by having such awesome response from Mr. Fox. So I will not going to repeat the same but there is one point that he already mention I want to refer because this should be improved. It is not just about what processing you add to instrument yourself. Many instruments are already processed and this will affect the sound no matter what you will do afterwards. So yes piano sound processed because it was already processed. Also since I'm not able to see midi data in wav it sound that there is no much velocity difference between each hit. Velocity and also not quantizing can add more human touch to play. If you have not forget about velocity and use it then again problem is instrument itself because it does not contain many velocity layers or possible there is only one. I'm FL studio user but instruments in Flex, as far what I tried are not suited for this type of music and sound quite sterile. I also agree with drum kit choice that does not fit in your track and the snare is worst part and not just doesn't fit but also stick too much out. Rhythm is important and drums define rhythm often but here the snare break it. I will say that you should read carefully feedback you have from Mr. Fox because there are a lot of important pointers for you. You do not need to apply them if you do not agree but you can get very good information's that will for sure help you in future. Track is cool and more feedback about it and composition will be during voting.

[becsei_gyorgy]

Hi all,

Here is my entry for February, apologies in advance for the slightly cheesy Eurovision style song and mostly lyrics

The phrases "take a step, move forward" are at the heart of the song, only in a duet (SynthV Kevin and Solaria) and the theme is - of course - love.
Simple chord progression running through the song, no key changes, lemonade duet to the beat of the 4/4 kick.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1t7a4Hl ... sp=sharing

VST, FX:

► Show Spoiler

VST:
Algonaut Atlas
Korg M1
U-he Diva
U-he Hive2
SynthesizerV (Solaria, Kevin)
Spitfire Epic Choir
Kontakt (Ilya Efimov Acoustic Guitar, Shimmer Shake Strike, Sesion Horns Pro)

FX:
Pro-Q3
Pro-MB
Pro-C2
UAD Api250
UAD 176
UAD LA-2
UAD LA-3A
UAD Waterfall
Vertigo VSC-2
Decapitator
FilterFreak2

U-he ColourCopy
Eventide Blackhole
Seventh Heaven Pro

Oxford EQ
TDR Kotelnikov GE
Ozone 11
SPAN
Correlometer
Tonal Balance Control 2
Youlean LM

Lyrics:

► Show Spoiler

Just a dream, I thought it was a dream,
Turns out, reality's not as it seems.
Lost in the night, where our souls gleam.

Caught in your gaze, lost in your eyes,
Heart skips a beat, amidst the sighs.
Yearning to know, what lies beneath,
In your world, I find my belief.

Captured by your smile, drawn to your light,
Every moment with you, feels just right.
Whispers of fate, in the air we breathe,
Take my hand, let's venture, let's weave.

Take the step, don't wait in vain,
In love's embrace, we'll rise again.
Moving forward, hand in hand we'll go,
Together we'll conquer, love will show.