SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC085 September 2024 - Winners announced

[Mister Fox]

It's the 02nd October 2024, 00:15 (UTC+2/CEST) - the Voting Period has officially ended.

Sadly, not all participants have submitted final feedback, we would therefore have 1 disqualification.


This would mean @TrojakEW.

While reading along with the Feedback and Vote, I also noticed some possible loss of points, and I can't interpret the votes for one user. For example: @APi_ZZ didn't add a reflection to this months game, neither did @burakxmusic. in fact, @burakxmusic's vote mentions a participant twice in the voting - I'm not sure if this is correct.


I will send out another newsletter/message to those particular participants, give you until the end of Wednesday, 02-OCT-2024 (23:59 UTC+2/CEST to be precise) as per the rule book on the voting process ("overtime mechanic"). If there is a feedback and a vote by the one missing participant in question, only -5 points will be deducted from the scoresheet. Else, sadly a disqualification. The other feedback posts will be handled via the known bonus point mechanic.

Once I have this feedback as well, I will post the results within 2-3 days and take "late feedback" into consideration.
(this is not an automated process)


The only disqualification criteria is by "not participating" with feedback at the end of the game.
Time constraints can happen -- but I do not consider entries to be "withdrawn" at this point. You unfortunately just didn't have the time.


Everyone else, please no more changes to your vote. Thank you.

Please don't just gather feedback, and don't give anything back. This is not what the Songwriting Competition is about. To those that kept their feedback brief, please consider at least adding just "a tad more".


Please have an eye on this thread

[burakxmusic]

I made a typo. I didn't edit it because you wrote not to correct the votes, but my number 4 would be TrojakEW. @Mister Fox

[burakxmusic]

Good night,

As always thank you all for participating and thank you Mister Fox for organizing this competition.
Thank you all for the comments and votes you have given me so far.
This month I learned that order when composing is very important. You will say that this is obvious, and I have always done everything in order, but I had not been fully aware of it until now.
Let me explain: when I started making this track, the first versions were a series of improvisations on some chords. But the layers I had improvised were of different lengths and things started and ended without meaning, without being connected or related to each other. After several unsuccessful versions, I redid the entire structure, lengthening or shortening things, until they matched. Once everything was sorted and lined up, the theme got a lot better.

Thank you

I leave you comments about your works:

burakxmusic "Echoes In The Night"
great sound Lots of stereo range. good mix Good vocal part, sounds great with those reverbs and is very well executed.
On a compositional level, you expect something that never quite arrives. Comrade OlliH expressed it very well.
But I like the structure of the song, it's really very different from what we're used to and it expresses your intentions very well.

TrojakEW "Mind Prison"
Wow, what a great start!! I was absolutely hooked. I really like this ethnic and melancholic tone. But it ends too soon, less than 2 minutes is too little for this wonder that seems to have been your theme. I want to hear more. It's a shame that in the end it just seems like an introduction to a song that has to come and doesn't end up coming. Between minute 1:00 and 1:20 it fascinates me.
It would be perfect as an accompaniment to a film.
One day I will have to try the 'Ethera Gold Sahara Voices' bookstore because I already like it when becsei_gyorgy used it.

APi_ZZ "Reconciliation"
An infinite heart!! Very suggestive topic. I listened to it by closing my eyes and letting myself be transported to a distant place. I like the flutes they play but they don't mark a specific melody, as if they were carried by the wind that goes well. I also like the distant bells.
Things I would change: Some low frequency sounds are too present in some parts of your theme. The endless chorus takes your breath away, it would need some pause, otherwise, as the song progresses, my heart was oppressed by suffering.
But I like your proposal.

Dasein "Black Sunset" (updated)
Very emotional topic. Divided into several parts that can musically describe what you discuss in the initial comments of your topic presentation. There is desperation in the matter of music. I like your proposal.
Just as a comment, around the 3:00 mark there is something strange, but possibly intentional, that distracts me.
The mix seems right to me.

Elcubano "Distress"
Good job with the guitars, if we consider that you also play them.
It's hard for me to comment on your topic because I'm not used to studying music of this type.
My opinion: Maybe I would give more power to the drums and maybe shorten the final part a little or lower the power of the guitars, because at the end I have a feeling of tiredness.

PonySho wrote "Little Blue Ships"
Interesting sound experiments with voices. You play with the panorama and with the depth placement that varies all the time. It's a risky experiment, because at times it works really well and at others it's distracting and takes you out of the song (this is just a personal impression, not a negative criticism).

Koekepan "Misguided Meditations"
Very original theme. The voice is really part of the instrumentation of the song. I'm sorry but I can't comment on the lyrics of what this voice is saying, due to the distortion (very accurate) and my poor knowledge of the language (you know, I use the translator to talk to you).
I find the musical part interesting. Great bass work and ambient effects, very well mixed.

OlliH "Tämmönen"
It's been a while since we've seen or heard from you.
Personal and very recognizable style. It immediately reminded me of your other presentations.
It's a shame that this month's theme doesn't allow it, but I've missed your humorous songs. Luckily, with the comments you make to the other colleagues, you made me laugh (which would make my heart faint from stretching my voice so much).
Structure your topic right. I like the guitar a little deep. wow The drums sound pretty good too. And the voice, yours...
You show that with few things you can make music. Funny that it's your first and only version. I had to do 11. There is a level here. Very well

(translated with google, sorry for the imperfections that the translation may contain)

► Show Spoiler

01 TrojakEW "Mind Prison"
02 Koekepan "Misguided Meditations"
03 Dasein "Black Sunset" (updated)
04 APi_ZZ "Reconciliation"
05 burakxmusic "Echoes In The Night"

Thanks a lot. Especially what you said about the mix made me happy.

[burakxmusic]

During this competition i noticed that previously learned skills perish quite quickly during longer breaks. I found it difficult to solve some issues into which i wouldn’t have fallen before the break. Also it was more difficult to find creative ideas, as mind started to resort too easily to older obvious solutions. So, if you want to become better in music, just keep on doing it.


About comments: I didn’t read explanations or other comments so that comments were based on only music that I hear.

burakxmusic, Echoes Of The Night
Nice and promising intro, it gives me a great expectations of what is about to come. You have everything needed for the great song there, even a great singer.
But to my surprise despite the fact that you had all the ingredients for a great song present in the intro, the main song never starts. Somehow it stays in the reduced mode telling the listener: ”just wait, it’s about to start”.
One solution could have been if you introduced a stronger and fuller bass after the 47 seconds long intro. Maybe also some melodic development would have been nice. Now it consists only of A-part and it’s variation. There’s no B-part let alone C-part
On the other hand: maybe echoes of the night are like this. They are luring you to think that something is about to happen.


Dasein, Black Sunset
Cool hypnotic theme, interesting chord progression. Nice sounding guitar-like instrument. But I was waiting all the time the main melody to start with words like: ”hello darkness my old friend…” Or it could have been some kind of flute take the focus. My main point being: you have a very nice track that could be a perfect support to some melody line or singing. But alone it just seems to be saying ”I’m ready to support you, please join me”

Elcubano, Distres
Great guitar lines in the intro. Nice surprise when those heavy guitars come in. I wasn’t expecting that.
Main melody line could be a bit more bold. Now it feels that vocal track is muted and we are hearing some sort of supportive melody that would create a nice contrapunkt for the vocals.
But as this is already so good, my mind starts to think how to mix it. I guess the main issue to be solved is the sonic interaction between bass and guitars. I might try for example use the bass in mono so that attack frequencies (700-900?) were in the center, and then cut off that area from the guitars on the sides. And vice versa: cut from the bass those areas where guitars needs to blossom (150-300?)

EsteveCorbera, Al Tornar De La Feina
Very Nice instrument sounds that you have woven together. You surely have developed a strong skills and vision in that area. As you have not added any melody line that would try to grab the attention, this would be a perfect track for some science documentary where some davidattenborough’s speak would take the prominent role. Or maybe this could be music to some meditation stuff. Why not try to hit the big time by selling your sonic services to Joe Dispenza’s meditation sessions.
In short this feels to me to be one cohesive track on its own.

Koekepan
I like that arpeggio theme and sonic landscape that you have created with only a couple of instruments. Well done. I had problems to hear what the man in the middle is saying. So quite quickly the speech turned to be some sort of instrument with preset name ”alanwattsian comeback”.
But to my surprise the main instrument to me in this track is the bass. It nicely gives room to other instruments to say their thing but still it has the command position in the track. The bass feels to be some sort of moderator who keeps everything strongly in its place.

PonySho, Little Blue Ships
Very nice. I like the fact that you use very sparse instrumentation. Then each instrument has an important role and must be thought more carefully. Sometimes i try to follow a rule I invented for myself ”add only those instruments that are absolutely needed, and then take a one away.” Well, i seldom succeed in doing that, but you surely have a mastery on that area.
As if I’m hearing strong Beatles influence especially in the background melody lines. II like the way the background melody first fills the holes and then grabs the main focus. And also, it feels to me that you have listened and studied Eels. At least the mood and attitude feels the same.
You very nicely guide the listener where to direct the focus. The focus place changes smoothly from one place to another and I never feel lost. But is the focus point jumping too quickly? Is the mastery of arrangement hiding the message of the song? For, when the song has ended i don’t remember what you were saying. I was listening the music part. I remember only how skillfully those musical changes were made. (But it may be that the whole problem lies in my diminishing memory capacities, not in your song)

TrojakEW, MindPrison
As i know some of your submissions from previous contests, you have huge talent for music. So it created big expectations for me. Your track starts with phenomenal sounds, and I find myself thinking: ”ok, here’s the winner”. But quite soon after that the track starts to feel as a quick demo for a client to show the direction to which you would go if you were chosen for the project. (And it fulfils that task perfectly.) So the intro is absolutely great, but the moment the actual song is about to start you just fade out. From that point of view it’s difficult to evaluate this correctly. Sorry if I’m using harder criteria for you than to others.

APi_ZZ, Consiliation
Nice harmonies in those choir parts. I like the way one note at a time changes chord smoothly to another, while the rest of notes remains the same. The flute has a nice place to be the carrier of focus point. But id love to hear more memorable melody lines. Now those flute lines feel like rudimentary riffs, like melody placeholders that are to be developed later to finished melody lines.
Also, you should probably give some resting moments for the choir before they start to faint. Now they are doing constantly very long notes without possibility to breath in. And to hold better the attention of the listener it would be nice to have some different moments.


VOTES

► Show Spoiler

1 PonySho, LittleBlueShips
2 EsteveCorbera, AlTornarDeLaFeina
3 Elcubano, Distress
4 Koekepan
5 Dasein, Black Sunset Updated

First of all, thank you for your comments. While I was telling the story of a woman who lost herself in the echoes of the night, I did not want to have sections within the music. This simplicity and use of reverb actually describes a mental association. This is not an ordinary song, it was made entirely for the competition. Frankly, I'm sorry you didn't give any points. Thank you anyway.

[Mister Fox]

I made a typo. I didn't edit it because you wrote not to correct the votes, but my number 4 would be TrojakEW. @Mister Fox

Since you are one of the participants that I am unsure what is going on, please do edit the post. And please don't forget to reflect on your experience with this month's game (as in: talk about your personal growth, what you would do different with your future songwriting, etc).

[burakxmusic]

I made an edit. Thank you @Mister Fox

[Mister Fox]

It's the 03rd October 2024, 06:15 (UTC+1/CET) - the Voting Period extension has officially ended.

Unfortunately, not everyone has sent in feedback and cast a vote (still). We therefore have 1 disqualification.


Please no more changes to your feedback from this point forward.
I will post the results within 2-3 workdays. (this is not an automated process)


Please have an eye on this thread

[TrojakEW]

Sorry guys but I have really busy schedule, still. Looks like I will not able spend time this year on this hobby. Maybe next year. I hope.

[PonySho]

Sorry guys but I have really busy schedule, still. Looks like I will not able spend time this year on this hobby. Maybe next year. I hope.

That's a shame, TrojakEW. Your songwriting is great and adds a level of professionalism to the competitions. Hope you find some time in the future to submit again. I'm the same...too busy as well, but I see it as part of the challenge, i.e. how could I create a simple track that takes less time?
Looking forward to your next submission!

[Mister Fox]

Ladies and Gentlemen, here are the results of Songwriting Competition 085

The winners podium consists of:

1. @PonySho (30 pts)
2. @Elcubano (29 pts)
3. @Dasein (28 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 1 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

• 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: 04-OCT-2024, 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). Breaking up a tie: There was no unbreakable tie that needed to be addressed. The fall-back mechanics were used. An explanation on the bonus points and penalty points: Due to exceeding the loudness specs, the following users could not acquire all 4pts bonus -- @Koekepan and @burakxmusic exceeded the maximum signal strength of -1,00 dBTP. I sadly had to withdraw 1pts bonus from @APi_ZZ, @Dasein and @TrojakEW for not using the filename template properly. Please check your white spaces and double-underscores in the future. For two users, the download had a different filename than the SoundCloud title (which can still use whatever you prefer), and one user had a typo (SVC085 instead of SWC085). I sadly had to withdraw 2pts bonus from @APi_ZZ for not reflecting on the experience this month. I have also withdrawn 1pts bonus from @burakxmusic, as there was an edit made with an attempt to add to the feedback post. But it didn't reflect as much on personal experience / growth. I sadly had to disqualify @TrojakEW's entry, since there was no final feedback/vote (due to time constraints). Looking forward to you returning in future games. I hope you all had fun and learned something new in the process. I hope to see more participants in future games, which only adds to the learning aspect of our small community. See you folks in the next game.

License selection:

We will now perform with the usual. Selecting of licenses is handled in public. In order of the winners podium (top spot to lowest), and only if you want to, please select one license/company out of the pool 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 of this post). Once one company has been selected, it's out of the pool for the next person on the podium.

Since SWC084 has a 3-position Winner's Podium, we can also continue to test a possible new game mechanic that offers "low placed participants" a chance to pick up a bonus license - if somebody from the Winners Podium passes on a selection. You can read more about this in SWC083 - post #067. The follow-up post will have an adjustment to that concept.

!	Bonus Info
	As part of a new collaboration with Hornet Plugins, you are allowed to select either 2 plugins at a maximum value of 20 EUR MSRP for both, or one individual plugin of choice from the whole available plugin range (bundles are exempt). Due to time constraints, I could not make a bigger announcement about this yet. Apologies for the inconvenience.

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 086 (October 2024) is still in full swing.
The theme is called "Harvest" (Picture Theme), the genre is free to select. So far there have been 0 entries.

See you there as well.