SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC088 December 2024 - Submissions until 24-DEC-2024 23:59 UTC+1/CET

[Elcubano]

Love the track, Elcubano. Quite different to what you usually do.
The breakdown at 0.57 and then the build from there is great.
Overall, a very appealing vibe.
The Sire Larry Carlton guitar is very nice looking, especially the flamed veneer top. I checked out the website.
Nice to hear you venturing into new territory.

Thanks PonyShow! I'm glad you enjoyed the track, it was fun exploring something new.
This Sire guitar is very cool, one of my best, and surprisingly affordable for the quality.

[Elcubano]

I like this one, i think it is a very original track. Lots of things happening to keep it interesting.

Thank you ! I really appreciate.

[Mister Fox]

Since nobody gave feedback to you yet, let me send you some positive words

There is heavy sidechaining going on, so different instruments giving place to others which feels to me appearing from far out space. I had found this guitar loop that inspired me to create whole track, while I was experimenting with some new instruments I purchased recently - Model 77 and great Spitfire Originals Cinematic Piano, which both are great.

Interesting concept overall - however, while this is certainly a stylistic choice, I am not a fan of the heavy side chaining effects surrounding the kick drum. You can still have a lot of impact with a faster decay rather than the current long pumping effect. After half of the song it's not as apparent anymore, however it still feels "too much" as if the mastering limiter array is broken (sagging the signal). I would definitely dial that back by at least half. I also notice that the bass is a bit clashing with each other for the same matter. Maybe some careful EQ carving should be looked into as well.

This is all I can give you from a technical viewpoint.

Songwriting wise, there is only one piano part in the middle of the song that feels a bit out of rhythm, but it still work.



Else... let me repeat what I wrote earlier.

You're not out of the game... yet.

The simplest solution is:
Ask for feedback, continue working on your song, release an updated version before the end of the deadline, submit/post it here on the forum, make the link public and the file available for download, then you'll be part of SWC088.

And next time, you know the rules better.

[Ike H-mope]

Soundcloud: Junkett / Probe

I like the sound and vibe of this tune alot. I think you need more going on to sustain this for 4+ minutes. I think the glitchy parts are great, why not go further with that? Develop the piece by slowly glitching out the different parts, as part of the dynamics and development of each track.

Oddly, I like this a bit bettter when listening in mono, it seems to "tighten up" the mix (listening on my Mackie HR824 monitors that I know very well). Even though the mix is big and wide, I feel almost like there's front to back depth I'm missing. I can't put my finger on it. Maybe you need to do the bass "mono" trick on the 2 mix? Are you using a stereo widener? Maybe that's phasing/smearing things? Maybe it's just an eq/reverb thing.

Just one person's thoughts, hope this is helpful.

[EsteveCorbera]

Dear challenge companions and Mister Fox.

This end of year theme has been very motivating. For me, space always refers to the music of Vangelis that is used in the television series Cosmos by Carl Sagan. That series left a big impression on me and the fact that Vangelis' music was also used was the best.
Therefore, this month, the influence is clearly his.
I have imagined an adventure of space discovery. The story I want to tell in my theme is: It starts with people looking through a telescope and then they are transported to a spaceship that discovered the cosmos for them. First they leave the solar system and then they enter outer space where they can see the entire Milky Way.
To express all this I have used a melodic line that is repeated twice with some variations of notes. This melodic line serves for the pads, the basses and the arpeggios. I also added a bass line that repeats 7 notes that are also used for the main melody that follows the same rhythm of the 7 notes of the bass but presents variations that give meaning to the theme.

Well, I hope you like it or at least give me ideas to improve it or highlight what you would have done differently.

I dedicate this work to Vangelis.

Thank you colleagues.

(translated with google)



Equipment:
DAW:
Reason 13.1d330

Reason Instruments:
Grain Sample Manipulator
Thor Polysonic Synthesizer
Subtractor Polyphonic Synthesizer
Processed Pianos
Europa Shapeshifting Synthesizer
Algoritm FM Synthesizer
NN-XT Advanced Sampler
Monotone Bass Synthesizer

Reason Effects:
Reason Equalizer
RV7000 MkII Advanced Reverb
The Echo
Stereo Tool
Quartet Chorus Ensemble
Channel EQ
Pulveriser Demolition Unit
Audiomatic Retro Transformer
Sweeper Modulation Effect
Ripley Space Delay
Polar Dual Pitch Shifter
MClass Maximizer
MClass Equalizer
MClass Stereo Imager
Scream 4 Sound Destruction Unit
Master Bus Compressor
Channel EQ
Channel Dynamics

Reason Players:
Scales & Chords
Dual Arpeggio

Reason Utilities:
Combinator
Mixer 14:2
Pulsar Dual LFO
Gain Tool

Reason Packs (like Presets) o Presets:
Vintage Arps
Deep Space

Reason Rack Extension:
ProjectSAM Orchestral Sampler Filmscore Instrument

Other instruments outside of Reason:
2getheraudio Cheeze Machine 2
Arturia CS-80V V3

Other effects outside of Reason:
Plugin-alliance TBTECH Kirchhoff-EQ
Bedroom Producers Blog BPB Saturator

Samples:
Reason samples

Other tools:
HoRNet Plugins HoRNet HarmoniQ
HoRNet Plugins HoRNet Sleek
iZotope Ozone 9 Standard
Plugin Alliance SPL HawkEye
HoRNet Plugins HoRNet VHS

[Paramnesia]

Hey everyone! Here is my entry for SWC088! I had some help with this one and got to collab with PonySho, highly recommend anyone else to work with him he's got a great sense of song structure and knows how to layer vocals extremely effectively! Thanks for helping to make the song something bigger than I could have on my own!

Wav - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LWXKHn ... drive_link

MP3 - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1D7yIfi ... drive_link

Before I mention anything about the instrumental here is what PonySho had to say about his contribution:

"The lyrical story is about life moving ahead too fast, creating a space or a void between where the person is and where they think they should be. This scenario could apply to an everyday job, a professional athlete, a musician, and so on. The story can also parallel with a relationship...the feeling of one of the people being left behind emotionally or socially."

And his vocal chain:
Recording chain = Neumann TLM193 > Retro Power Strip > Buzz Audio Soc1.1 compressor

I would like to add that we ended up using his song structure for the most part with the bridge/prechorus section being added just for some variety and the intro being extended a little.

As for my contribution to the song I provided all instrumentals and did the final mix.

I started out with the intro clean guitar with the delay I wanted to try and capture a feel of gazing up at the night sky, I wanted to add some classic warm sounding synth here just for some more vibe. As it goes into the next section and picks up some speed perhaps you are enjoying a meteor shower as you drift to sleep and then are taken on a journey. I enjoy Sci-Fi so I was picturing flying through space and finding some unexpected surprises. Before any vocals were added I really had a different vibe and idea of how the song was going to go but PonySho took a listen and had other ideas for the word Space which I thought was really interesting.

The mixing process was standard for me, top down style Neural DSP on guitars, Djinn bass and GGD OKW:Metal for drums. Distorted guitars are quad tracked, I am always happy to share any eqing or processing if anyone is interested. The synths were Analog Dreams, Hybrid Keys and Ethereal Earth which were 3 synths I had in Kontakt I believe part of their Play Series.

This was the first time that I had vocals to mix with one of my tracks and it took awhile to get everything to sit properly and sound balanced I used JST HBV on the vocals with JST HBV Multiplier for the harmonies just to give them a bit more vibe and set them apart the main vocal a bit more.

If anyone wants more specifics on anything just ask and I'll be more than happy to share the details! Thanks for listening and reading and goodluck to everyone!

[PonySho]

Hey everyone! Here is my entry for SWC088! I had some help with this one and got to collab with PonySho, highly recommend anyone else to work with him he's got a great sense of song structure and knows how to layer vocals extremely effectively! Thanks for helping to make the song something bigger than I could have on my own!

Nice one, Paramnesia. Thanks for posting. A fun collab, for sure.

[Mister Fox]

Just checking in on both @Dasein and @DavidB.

@Dasein had an updated version on the initial post - now it's gone. Will we still see one more update?

@DavidB still got the chance to get this entry become a regular one. Add some content, adjust some mixing, re-post again with a more recent date, make it downloadable, and it's a regular part of SWC088.



For everyone else -- we're within the final 48 hours of the game.

Please get your entries sorted out soon. Thank you.

[Dasein]

Oh, sorry. I uploaded an updated version, and I assumed that you all listened it, so I just mixed them and uploaded the updated version into the original one. So, now the original post has the updated version. Still, I polished it a little bit more, so there will be one last update

[JeroenZuiderwijk]

FINAL VERSION

Hi All,

I have updated my song 'A Journey'. The feedback I got from Ike H-mope helped me to realize it was indeed missing something. So I have added a transition to the second chorus with a drop in the beat, a more simple pianopart with cello (Sunvox instrument) and a guitarsolo build up I played myself with the amp sims provided in the Boss BR 80. To keep things from peaking over -1dB I used GClip a very easy no nonsense clipper / limiter that works really well.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/3i3ub7l6 ... 3jvrw&dl=0

Cheers,

Jeroen