SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC093 May 2025 - Submissions until 24-MAY-2025 23:59 UTC+2/CEST

[Mister Fox]

Hello and welcome to the Songwriting Competition 093 - May 2025



BEFORE WE GET STARTED:

• Please consult the official and very simple "Rules and Guidelines" (TL;DR version) for the Songwriting Competition regarding principles of the game, it's engaging game mechanics (allowed editing/re-submission of your entry until the deadline has been reached) and upload/submission guidelines.
• The general idea of this game is to "...just make music", to also challenge yourself by stepping a bit out of your comfort zone, and take a dip at realms you've never worked in before. Instrumentals are just as welcome as productions with vocals.
• The Genre, "Premise" and Rules Summary for this months challenge can always be found in in post #002

Read more about this month's competition further down below. And if you got any question, please also reach out on Discord.



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SONGWRITING COMPETITION THREAD INDEX

Post #001 -- Introduction post and index for the various stages of the Songwriting Competition. Will be updated as we progress
Post #002 -- Submission Period: General Information, Source Material, Sponsors
Post #003 -- Cheat Sheet: A couple of examples / audio demos for this month's challenge (limited if genre is "free to select")
Post #000 -- Voting: Summarized entries and start of voting process
Post #000 -- Results: Results of the Songwriting Competition

[Mister Fox]

CURRENT CHALLENGE - GENERAL INFORMATION

Time Frame: Thursday, 01st May 2025 to Saturday, 24th May 2025 (24 days)

Challenge submission will end on 24-MAY-2025, 23:59 UTC+2/CEST (Germany) - until further notice.

The current game deadlines can be found on the Global Countdown page and on the landing site. Short reminders will also be sent out via the newsletter, social media and Discord. Does the game time frame feel too long? Why not set yourself a personal shorter one of 5-7 days. Push yourself to focus on the essentials, then use the rest of the time to ask for feedback and possible refinements.



SONGWRITING THEME: "Beeps, Buzzes, Hums and Pulses"
GENRE: Electronic (any sub-genre)



Image Source: Pexels, photo by Giuseppe Di Maria, released under Creative Commons CC0



A few word about this month's theme:

May has become the month where everything revolves around synthesis and sound design. The perfect opportunity to take a look at new tools that you have recently purchased. Or maybe dust off a device that you haven't used for a long time.

There will be no extensive brief with twists and turns. Just turn on your equipment, and create some interesting music.
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YOUR TASK FOR THIS SONGWRITING COMPETITION:
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This month, you can create a production in any sub-genre of "Electronic Music".

Doesn't matter if it's Techno, Trance, Electronica, Chiptunes, Electro-Pop, Synthwave, Drum and Bass, Electro-Industrial / Electronic Body Music, Ambient Electronic, Chill-Out/Lo-Fi, etc. You can even blend orchestra instruments with electronic instruments and sound design (as in: create something hybrid). The "Electronic Music Genre" is a vast realm. Please don't feel cornered to stick to certain pockets.

As usual - vocals are optional. Don't feel pressured to provide any.

Experiment, make music, and have fun in the process!
Looking forward to your entries.

Songwriting Rule Summary:

► Show Spoiler

Summary:

• create a production fitting to the given theme, genre and general premise
• you can use any tool that is at your disposal (samples, virtual instruments and/or real instruments), exceptions apply regarding vocal sample usage and certain songwriting tools)
• IMPORTANT: if you use non-licensed material (as in: non royalty free material from sample CDs, etc), give full credit to the source material
• for newcomers: no finished productions that have already been released outside of the time frame of the current Songwriting Competition (Spotify, iTunes, Bandcamp, etc), no cover versions or remixes of other artists, no ripped acapella's -- please only showcase your own new and original content (you are allowed to "remix yourself", recreate an old project, etc)
• do not go higher than -14,0 LUFS ILk/-1,00 dBTP in terms of perceived loudness (mastering). Music doesn't have to be squashed to bits in order to be impactful
• name your files properly prior to uploading and make the production downloadable. If you opt to present your entry through SoundCloud, the forum can also convert your links into a Soundcloud player through the [soundcloud] BBCode from the text editor (orange square with a white cloud in it)

Add-On Rules:

• <no (additional) add-on rules specified>

Filename Template: SWC093__ArtistName__TrackName.wav or .mp3

• example: SWC093__MisterFox__ColorOfTheSky.wav
• example: SWC093__Mister_Fox__Color_of_the_sky.wav

Please also try to provide only one file format (ideally the highest quality possible).


For a full set of rules, please consult the Official Rules and Guidelines (see Rule Book post #6). If you got any questions regarding the game mechanics or similar, please either utilize the global Gossip and Discussion thread, or reach out through Discord.

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LICENSE SPONSORS (Bonus Prizes):

A huge thank you goes to our very generous License Sponsors for this month's game. Those being (in alphabetical order):

Cherry Audio, Ghostwave Audio, Hollow Sun, Hornet Plugins, IK Multimedia, JRR Sounds, kv331 audio, Luftrum, Musiclab, Rekkerd Sounds, satyatunes - Sound / Graphic Design, and Tone2.


A detailed list of offerings can be found in the following information block.

► Show Spoiler

Available Bonus Prizes for Songwriting Challenge participants:

Note: All licenses are NFR (Not-For-Resale), except where noted.
Changes to available prices on short notice may be possible and will be announced separately.


RECURRING LICENSE SPONSORSHIP:


Cherry Audio is kind enough to give away one license of Voltage Modular Ignite, plus either a license of "Year One Collection" or "Year Two Collection"
Licenses will turn into NFR
More info on Cherry Audio: https://cherryaudio.com



IK Multimedia is kind enough to give away one license of MODO BASS 2 to the winner
License will turn into NFR
More info on IK Multimedia: https://www.ikmultimedia.com



Musiclab is kind enough to donate any 1 guitar of your choice to the winner
License will turn into NFR
More info on Musiclab: https://www.musiclab.com



Tone2 is kind enough to donate a license of Saurus4 to the winner
License will turn into NFR
More info on Tone2: https://tone2.com



kv331 audio is kind enough to either give away a SynthMaster 1+2 Bundle, or a freely selectable set of 3 SynthMaster Expansions
Licenses will not turn into NFR, you need to have a kv311 audio user account in order to pick up Expansions
More info on kv331 audio: https://www.kv331audio.com



JRR Sounds is kind enough to give away any-1 sound sets or sample set of winner's choice (exception: Bundles)
More info on JRR Sounds: https://www.jrrshop.com/jrr-sounds



Luftrum is kind enough to give away either a license of Lunaris 2, a license of Bioscape, or any two sound sets of winner's choice
License will turn into NFR
More info on Luftrum: https://www.luftrum.com/



Rekkerd Sounds is kind enough to give away 1 sound set of winners choice (exception: Krezie EDM and Neurofunk Vol. 1)
License will turn into NFR
More info on Rekkerd Sounds: https://sounds.rekkerd.org/



Ghostwave Audio (Vincent Bastiat) is kind enough to donate any 2 sound sets to the winner
License will turn into NFR
More info on Ghostwave Audio: https://ghostwaveaudio.com



Hollow Sun is kind to donate one license of "Music Laboratory Machines - The Suite I" to the winner
License will turn into NFR
More info on Hollow Sun: http://www.hollowsun.com



Hornet Plugins is kind enough to give away any one license of winner's choice, alternatively any-2 licenses "Custom Bundle" with a total value less than 20 EUR MSRP
License will turn into NFR
More info on Hornet Plugins: https://www.hornetplugins.com



Sound / Graphic Designer, and honorary Mix Challenge staff satYatunes is donating one commercial product of winner's choice (until further notice)
More info on satYatune's page: https://satyatunes.com/



THANKS FOR THE DONATIONS!
And also a thank you to all former contributors as well.

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Good luck to all participants.
And most importantly, have fun!

[Mister Fox]

AUDIO EXAMPLES:
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Articles and Info Pages:

A great starting point is the "Addendum"/Supplementary thread for the Songwriting Competition
Songwriting Competition - Addendum: Music Maps and BPM Charts

Additional Articles on Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_music
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_e ... sic_genres




Music examples (selection for inspiration, 00 videos):

No music examples available this month. However, I can always recommend to enter random genre search words either on YouTube, Spotify or other music streaming services you prefer using.


Other Channels and videos to check out (14 videos):

► Show Spoiler

Gershon Kingsley - Popcorn | The Story Behind The Song (2011)
Steinberg Studio Sessions: S04E05 – Solar Fields: Part 1 (2017)
Alex Ball -- Daft Punk - Rollin' & Scratchin' Synth Tutorial (2019, channel is full of amazing tutorials!)
Alex Ball - Flat Beat Synth Tutorial (Korg MS-20) (2019)
Alex Ball - How to produce music that sounds like Justice (2019)
Analog Kitchen - This Is How You Make Awesome Techno Beats (tutorials with an all-hardware setup, 2021 -- this channel is a goldmine IMHO!)
Andrew Huang - Making a track with the ARP 2600 M (2021)
Behringer - Step Sequencers and how they can help with Songwriting (2021)
Composing Academy - Composing with FREE Synths (2021)
Futurephonic Education - Properly Tweaking Psytrance Kicks with Scorb and Divination (2022)
Futurephonic Education - The Key to WAIO's SUPER Tight Sound (2022)
Perry Frank - Saturday Ambient Guitar Tones (2022, with just one FX pedal)
venus Theory - Two Excellent FREE Granular Plugins You Should Know About (2022)
Roman Farov / TEC9 - Hypnotic Techno Lead Synth (in Ableton Live) (2024)

Please also check out Hainbach, Ah! Kosmos (Basak Günak), Venus Theory (Cameron Gorham), Espen Kraft, Omri Cohen (if you're curious about modular synthesis), Jakub Ciupinski (also having a focus on modular synthesis, and presenting VCV Rack modules that are not in the official library), Optoproductions (Melvin Rijlaarsdam), Alex "Hyper EZ" Banks, Mick Gordon, David Levy, Joe Ford (Sound Designer and DnB Musician), Bjulin (former license provider "Bjulin" / Bjulin Waves), Jan Koekepan, Treyt and also starlainjury (one of the admins of the ThaSauce Compoverse), just to name a couple more very talented musicians and sound wizards.
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If you're new to songwriting, or you are in need for new helper tools, instruments, samples or presets -- please check out the following:

Songwriting Competition - Addendum: Tools to help with songwriting (outsourced megathread)


The thread is updated / expanded at irregular intervals.


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UPDATED: 30-APR-2025 23:25 UTC+1, updated 00-MAY-2025 00:00 UTC+2

[JeroenZuiderwijk]

Hi all,

I had some free time and decided to start writing early for this month SWC093. I don’t have much hardware synth to ‘dust off’ so instead I used some old synths I probably have on my harddrive since 2010 and havent used for a very long time. It is a demo version of Predator from Rob Pape and Superwave P8 by Superwave. I also used the VK1 Viking Synthesizer by Blamsoft.

The DAW of choice this month was (again) LMMS.

I produced a DnB track. I used some Steven Slate Drum samples and combined those with some other samples to write a beat.

Hopefully uploading this track early in the challenge will help to get some feedback so I can improve the track next couple of weeks.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/7h99r4ny ... 43koo&dl=0

Cheers,
Jeroen

[Mister Fox]

A friendly reminder:
Including today, 14 days left to submit your production.

So far, we have 01 entry -- with the participant asking for feedback (which, so far, sadly didn't happen yet)



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 7 days to have enough time to get possible feedback (if needed/wanted) and continue to work on your song.


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.

[toadhjo]

I'm working on a track. I'm light on hardware, so I'm going to restrict myself to Reaktor instruments instead, with a particular focus on R5 and prior. The old Reaktor Factory Library has lots of fun sounds that I never fully explored.

Hopefully uploading this track early in the challenge will help to get some feedback so I can improve the track next couple of weeks.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/7h99r4ny ... 43koo&dl=0

Alright, I'll take a swing at offering feedback. To my ear, the track sounds a bit unfocused. It moves fast but I can't really feel where it's going. Certain parts repeat, yes, but when they reappear I don't feel that sense of "oh, I was waiting for that part to come back!"

My suggestion would be the reconsider the bass part. It's mostly playing long, slow notes, and it feels like it's following rather than leading. A more active bass part could help provide the track with more direction. I'm sure there's lots of different directions you could go, though, so don't take my word as gospel.

Your piece kind of remind me Dominic Ninmark's work. Maybe you can find some inspiration here? Should be free to listen to at least a few times:

https://dominicninmark.bandcamp.com/alb ... soundtrack

Hopefully someone else here will chime in, too. Good luck!

[Strange]

Hopefully uploading this track early in the challenge will help to get some feedback so I can improve the track next couple of weeks.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/7h99r4ny ... 43koo&dl=0

Cheers,
Jeroen

Hi Jeroen,
I like your track. It's harmonically on the simple side, but it surprises me rhythmically. If I try to figure out, how it works, I defenitly hear the structure and the changes of the different parts. I also like the lead sound. But this could be the key to lead through your song, why don't you change the sounds for the different parts and I will be happy when I hear the lead sound 1 again. and maybe I will hear a bridge section or something else.
I'm not the guy who don't want to hear a song fading out, but for me there has to be a reason for that. So I would prefer to hear an end.
I'm not much in that EDM scene, so I can't tell you something about sounds, hardware or plugins or current trends. So don't trust my opinion and ears that much.

Gruß
Peter

[Strange]

And now to all the listeners of the Songwriting Competition ,

This is not my topic and first I decided not to participate this competition. But, sitting on my piano and playing chords and humming phrases, this idea touched me and I thought it could be an electro-pop song or something like this.
Here it is

or just here to download:
Mix-Download
Lyrics

instruments:
Drums: Steinberg groove agent
Basses: UAD PolyMAX synth, IK MODO Bass 2, slatedigital ANA 2
E-piano-liked: bx oberhausen , Arturia CS-80 V
Synth: UAD minimoog (theme), ANA 2 (glides), izotope Iris 2 (Flute, string, glassy), some small fx
Riser: the Riser, Output free riser
BGV: cubase Sampler
LV: slatedigital ML-1 strongroom AKG 414, EQ, Comp, HoRNet HarmoniQ, Meta Tune,
FX: Magic7 reverb, UAD lexicon480 reverb, slatedigital Stella Echo, HoRNetValvola

Hope you like it
Peter

[EsteveCorbera]

Dear challenge partners and Mister Fox.

I present to you my new song that I made for this month's challenge.
This time I present to you something very different, both in terms of style and structure. Also in terms of the use of the sounds that I have made.
Let's start with the first one: I tried to make a Techno song.
I also made changes to my style and used a much more conventional or commercial structure: Intro, Break, Build, Drop, Break, Build, Drop, Break, Drop and Outro. Congratulate me for the effort I have made!!!
Regarding the sound design, I used Reason tools combined with LFOs that vary modulation parameters. Other Reason effects used Synchronous (modulations), Scream 4 and Audiomatic (distortion).
Regarding the voices, I used the ElevenLabs website (https://elevenlabs.io/) and I put effects with iZotope VocalSynth.
I also used the SideChain technique on the vocals, booms and pads, which I almost never use.

The lyrics are these:

Data, rhythm, silence. This is the cycle.
The future doesn't wait anymore. The future is you.
The future is you.
Everything is now. Everything is rhythm.
A voice in the dark... a light in the beat.
The stars dance with us.
This is the cycle.
Cycle.
Everything is rhythm.
Rhythm.
Everything is a cycle. Everything is repetition.
Feel time melting between the sounds.
Cycle.
Rhythm.

Thanks guys.

(translated with google)


Update on 05/18/2025

Equipment:
DAW:
Reason 13.2.1d1 (build 17.439)

Reason Instruments:
Dr. Octo Rex Loop Player
Europa Shapeshifting Synthesizer

Reason Effects:
Reason Equalizer
Master Compressor
RV7000 MkII Advanced Reverb
The Echo
Channel EQ
Sweeper Modulation Effect
Channel Dynamics
Audiomatic Retro Transformer
Synchronous Effect Modulator
ECF-42 Envelope Controlled Filter
Scream 4 Sound Destruction Unit
MClass Compressor

Reason Players:
Scales & Chords
Dual Arpeggio

Reason Utilities:
Combinator
Line Mixer 6:2
Spider Audio Merger & Splitter
Mixer 14:2
Gain Tool
Pulsar Dual LFO

Reason Packs (like Presets):
Techno Grooves
Melodic Techno Bass
Melodic Techno Synths

Other effects outside of Reason:
Plugin-alliance TBTECH Kirchhoff-EQ
iZotope VocalSynth v2

Samples:
ElevenLabs Text_to_Speech

Other tools:
HoRNet Plugins HoRNet HarmoniQ
HoRNet Plugins HoRNet Sleek
iZotope Ozone 9 Standard
Plugin Alliance SPL HawkEye
HoRNet Plugins HoRNet VHS
Mastering The Mix Expose2

[Strange]

Dear challenge partners and Mister Fox.

I present to you my new song that I made for this month's challenge.
This time I present to you something very different, both in terms of style and structure. Also in terms of the use of the sounds that I have made.
Let's start with the first one: I tried to make a Techno song.
I also made changes to my style and used a much more conventional or commercial structure: Intro, Break, Build, Drop, Break, Build, Drop, Break, Drop and Outro. Congratulate me for the effort I have made!!!
Regarding the sound design, I used Reason tools combined with LFOs that vary modulation parameters. Other Reason effects used Synchronous (modulations), Scream 4 and Audiomatic (distortion).
Regarding the voices, I used the ElevenLabs website (https://elevenlabs.io/) and I put effects with iZotope VocalSynth.
I also used the SideChain technique on the vocals, booms and pads, which I almost never use.

The lyrics are these:

Data, rhythm, silence. This is the cycle.
The future doesn't wait anymore. The future is you.
The future is you.
Everything is now. Everything is rhythm.
A voice in the dark... a light in the beat.
The stars dance with us.
This is the cycle.
Cycle.
Everything is rhythm.
Rhythm.
Everything is a cycle. Everything is repetition.
Feel time melting between the sounds.
Cycle.
Rhythm.

Thanks guys.

(translated with google)

Hi EsteveCorbera,

cool track, cool sounds and great voices. The intro sounds big and it really catches me. But for my ears at 0:45 or so the song looses its power. I think it's because of too much busscompression, the track doesn't breathe, and too much muddyness. I would try to give it more dynamic and clarity. Maybe the voices are a little bit too loud. Just my little two cents...

Greetings
Peter