SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC072 August 2023 - Winners announced

[Koekepan]

Some vocal effects units will add formant shifting as well as pitch shifting. This can offset the ostensible masculinity/femininity of the singer's voice too. An example is the Boss VE500.

[Mister Fox]

Ladies and Gentlemen, here are the results of Songwriting Competition 072

The winners podium consists of:

1. @VCA-089 (43 pts)
2. @The Exponent (43 pts)
3. @satyatunes (32 pts)

Apologies for the waiting time, this is not an automated process.

<4 participant rule is not in use (staff comments and votes, my vote would count as bonus)
We have 0 disqualifications (due to lack of feedback / a final vote)
We have 0 withdrawn entries (but counts as submission within the deadline, yet couldn't be voted for)
We have several users still in the game that tied

• The following tie happened due to the offsets with the bonus point mechanic
  • VCA-089 acquired 33pts with the participation vote -- the tie results due to loosing out on 2pts bonus (resulting in 43pts, else 45pts)
  • The Exponent acquired 31pts with the participation vote -- but has no loss in bonus points (resulting in 43pts)
  • Arelem acquired 17pts with the participation vote -- the tie results due to loosing out on 2pts bonus (resulting in 27pts, else 29pts)
  • Doc Jon acquired 15pts with the participation vote -- but has no loss in bonus points (resulting in 27pts)
• no (more) users that tied

"Sole (License) Winner" rule does not apply - 3-position Winners Podium (>= 9 participants prior to the deadline)


STATISTICS SHEET:
Overview of Submissions (PDF - updated: 03-SEP-2023, full sheet)

!

Bonus Info

Short info: I am using Wavelab 10 for batch analysis, then I manually port the CSV export to a Microsoft Excel/Open Office Calc sheet with custom layout (this is not an automated process). As pointed out in this post from SWC047 / July 2021, Wavelab has different tolerances for dBTP max analysis compared to tools like iZotope RX, Youlean Loudness Meter, NUGEN Audio VisLM, etc. To find a common ground, I've implemented "allowed tolerances" (just like with the Mix Challenge). These are based upon allowed offsets mentioned in the white papers for EBU R128 and ITU-R BS.1770-4. Since no measurement tool is the same, to be on the save side, please export at -14,1 LUFS ILk max, and -1,1 dBTP max. As usual, I did list/analyze alternative releases (MP3s and FLAC). If you've submitted your entry in multiple file formats, the statistic sheet will focus on the uncompressed material first (WAV), then FLAC, then MP3. The higher the quality, the less possible loss on bonus points for "Loudness Specs" due to offsets introduced by a used CODEC. In this case, FLAC and MP3 are merely for information purposes.

Here are the results as chart in image form:



Thank you so much for your participation.

⚠	Moderation Message from Mister Fox
	INFORMATION: As of January 2023, I am adapting the same voting mechanic as most other International Songwriting Competitions utilize. Nearly all of these games use(d) a 01 to 05 points system (top 5 entries) in some shape or form. The main difference to our game: these ones don't offer bonus points or penalty points, neither are they tiered (depending on the participant amount). I hope to get that properly sorted out in form of an extensive Rule Book update in the foreseeable future (serious apologies for the waiting time). An explanation on the bonus points and penalty points: As mentioned plenty of times, I'm strict on the filename template and therefore withdraw -1pt on the score sheet. Please see post #001. Affected users are @A Future in Noise and @Koekepan. It's a small detail, but with a lot of impact. I've withdrawn 2pts for exceeding either the loudness or maximum signal strength. Affected users are @Arelem (-9,1 LUFS), @VCA-089 (-13,0 LUFS) and @Havol (signal peaking to -0,84 dBTP). See commentary above regarding "safety measures" to prevent overshots. I understand that not everyone is comfortable with writing feedback. However, I could not address full 2pts bonus points for given feedback. @A Future in Noise decided to only do the absolute minimum, while @Crosshatched only gave feedback to 8 out of 10 fellow participants. You have all done a great job, please continue to spread the word. It would be amazing to see more than 15 participants per month this year still. See you folks in the next game.

License selection:

We will now perform with the usual. Selecting of licenses is handled in public. Please select one license/company out of the pool (in order of the winners podium) and mention it in this thread, then (important) please get in touch with me (via PM) with your full name, email address and your license selection.

As usual - you're not forced to pick up anything. You can pass and therefore offer more to select for the next person in line (if there is a spot existing / not available for "sole winner" mechanic). Just let all participants/winners/the staff know in a timely manner (within 5 days). Once one company has been selected, it's out of the pool for the next person on the podium.



I re-open the field for talking some more about each others' productions. If things drift a bit too off-topic, please use the General Gossip thread, or Discord.



See you in in the next challenge!


Songwriting Competition 073 (September 2023) is still in full swing.
There is currently no entry.

[The Exponent]

Congratulations to VCA-89 and satYatunes and everyone else who participated Well done guys

[Mister Fox]

As a bonus offering to those of you that made it to the top spots:

Instead of picking "what is depicted" for Hornet Plugins, you are allowed to pick any-1 plugin from the whole plugin range.


This is "early access" to a new deal for the Mix Challenge audio community.

[Doc Jon]

Congratulations to all of the winners
Thanks to everyone for your valuable feedback which is always useful and usually correct!!

Out of curiosity: What preset of Lounge Lizard did you use?

I am away from my computer for all of this week but I will check when I get back home and let you know

[EsteveCorbera]

Congratulations to the winners!!!!
Thanks for your feedback!!!

[VCA-089]

Congrats to @The Exponent and @satyatunes!

I'll skip my prize selection to give a better choice for newcomers...

[The Exponent]

As a newcomer, I choose the MusicLab RealLPC.

[satyatunes]

Congratulations to @VCA-089 and @The Exponent.

Thank you all for your valuable feedback. Appreciate it.

I choose Luftrum Bioscape.

[A Future in Noise]

Hello everyone!

I suggest that those of you who are busy composing your 2024-songs ignore this post completely. You should probably stop reading right here!

But those of you who have a few minutes to spare:

It's happened a few times in the last ~five years that I've been encouraged and urged to try to improve my submissions - to finish them, simply. Right now I'm working with a very talented singer and a professional (semi-professional?) sound engineer with the aim of giving my SWC033 submission and my SWC072 submission from last August (Get a Grip) = >>> [url]https://mix-challenge. com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=15376#p15376[/url] a final and complete form.

As for the 033 song, that work has barely begun. But there is a new version of the 072 song (link to previous version as above). The vocals are brand new – obviously. Previously it was me who sang, now it's a woman. Other than that, nothing has changed, except that someone other than me has been handling the mixer. (Which means the same recorded audio, and midi tracks, as in August 2023.)

Does anyone have any comments? Is this new mix the perfect one? (mixed last week)

Cheers, A Future in Noise P.S. One single line in the lyrics has been changed: "Socioeconomic factors" has been changed to "thy will be done".