SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC08 April 2018 - Winners announced

[Mister Natural]

The Return of Spring
https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/43029 ... ACspQlXg2P

LIVE 10 environment
Alchemy 1.55
DimensionPro
Sampler
DrumRack
Parker GTR
Gurian GTR
Deliberately Rough Vocal
EFX : mucho LIVE native efx - Little uShift - EchoBode - EchoBoy - TAL ChorusLX - Ozone 5

PLZ advise if this submission/posting needs editing . . .
peace

[Mister Fox]

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


Keep in mind, you can also submit your production over on KVR Audio's "Music Cafe"

[Mister Fox]

A friendly reminder:
Including today, 2 days left to submit your production.


I'm doing this one day sooner than usual. So far we have two (number: 2) entries. Can we PLEASE have more than 5 this month?
Keep in mind, you can also submit your entry to KVR Audio's "Music Cafe Songwriting Competition", however the deadline is on 27th April.

[kc23]

Hi there

Just wanted to let you know that I won´t be able to submit this month.


Good luck guys!

[Mister Fox]

A friendly reminder
Including a bit more than 6 hours (actually, 8 at the point of this post) left to submit your production


Keep in mind, you can also submit your production over on KVR Audio's "Music Cafe"



Please let there be MORE than 2 entries (as in >5).

[Mister Fox]

It is the 25th April 2018, 2:00am GMT+2/CEST - this month's Songwriting Competition has official ended

Thank you so much for your participation. We sadly only had 2 participants, 2 less entry compared to last month (4 entries).
The "staff balancing vote" add-on rule does apply.
"Sole Winners Podium" rule (equal or less than seven participants results in a single winner) does apply.

There were no productions submitted after the deadline




How do we go from there?

Over the course of the next (hopefully) 24-48 hours, I'll gather all links into one post and hot-link to that from the first post of the thread. So please, check your links again. Mistakes and hiccups do happen on the internet. We then perform with the "public vote" system.


We have 4 participants, those being: donkey tugger and Mister Natural
That means that each participant can vote for 1 tracks, the staff will cast a balance vote

The Top 10 list (or Top 2 per participant rather) can look something like this:

01 (10 pts) - Mr Moon
02 (9 pts) - Mr Sun

Please also take note of the Rules and Guidelines on giving feedback

Feedback from non-participants is highly encouraged (voting not needed!). Musicians and Engineers are always after constructive criticism. This is what this forum is about.




If you want to start on next month's Songwriting Competition already, take a look at the Upcoming Challenges announcement thread
http://mix-challenge.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=122

I'd love to still gather feedback on why the participation of this game is so low - please join the conversation in the General Gossip Thread
http://mix-challenge.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=97



Please have an eye on this thread!

[Mister Fox]

Let us kick off the VOTING PROCESS, which will end on Tuesday, 01-MAY-2018 11:59pm GMT+2/CEST latest


There is a GLOBAL COUNTDOWN to check for deadlines.
Just follow this link: Global Countdown (on homepage)



Here is the collection of productions from all participants:

"First Day"

http://www.bennyleeds7.myfreeola.uk/swc ... st-day.mp3

"The return of Spring"
https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/43029 ... ACspQlXg2P (download)

Please consult this post of how your vote could look like.

Good luck to all participants!

[Mister Natural]

seems a little awkward to only have Tugger's entry to vote upon
. . . he gets FIRST PLACE from me (10pts)

lovely chord inversions with terrific recording technique for the GTRs - typical tasteful Benny "Oasis-like" harmony - very nice
the percussion "clicking" timbre doesn't sound quite feel like it fits for the first half of the tune but I don't know what you'd replace that with as the rhythm of this bit adds a nice tension to the piece
really love the vocal "distortion" treatment of the C: section
very tasteful GTRs throughout the piece - even the fuzz-face lead near the end fits nicely without being too too
oddly truncated ending - kinda wish it would have faded out instead

peace

[Mister Fox]

I agree with you, that the voting is more than weird this time around. It's a bit silly even, since you can only give maximum score - so a balance vote is needed. There is hope that SWC09 has more participants again. Else I have to think about a solution for less than 4 participants.

But for the time being, you both deserve feedback to your productions. As special bonus (you don't need to do that), I added some technical info (Loudness, Max Peak) as well.




donkey tugger - First Day

This one is unexpected for me, as DT usually goes with a lot of modulation effects and synthetic additions to his guitar work. This time around, it's mostly driven by acoustic guitars and sparse synthetic instruments. Definitely refreshing. The production itself sounds very... very American (instrumentation and chord progression wise), but I just can't put my finger on it what this reminds me off. Maybe some U2 influences?

Technically, a lot can still be done. My main criticism is still the "honky" midrange filtered vocals (I know, you're still working on that ) - although I like the switch between ambience-intended vocals and in-your face distortion. The overall mix could see a bit more cleanup as well (audio engineer speaking now). You used an interesting mix of deep frame drums (or toms) and some acoustic drums - but they sadly don't cut through the mix. The 12 string also sounds a bit too far in the back - as if you recorded in a not-ideal room. Pity - but the overall production counts (and it sure does).

I couldn't resist however to add some "broad mastering FX treatment" while listening to your track. I could make your track so much cleaner and more impactful this way. Want to check it out (zip file)

TECHNICAL BONUS INFO:
- production was in 44kHz ???bit
- Loudness was -14,3LUFS ILk, -9,9LUFS SLk max
- track was +0,13dBTP max (clipping - no WAV provided so I can only go by MP3 limitations)
- mixdown had a DC Offset of about -121,72dB




Mister Natural - Coming Back to Spring

First and foremost - welcome to the Mix Challenge community, please enjoy your stay. We're now going into EDM territory (minimalistic beats and garage bass), with thrown in guitars. As a whole the the production is very interesting. I understand the concept shows the winter depression that is slowly being pushed away by spring. Which is reflected in the moody vocals and the darker percussion work.

On first listening, I was a bit put off by the vocals and the slightly forced falsetto. But on second and third listen, it's starting to grow on me and do it's thing. Technically, I might have maybe done the vocals a bit different however. More "boxed" sound (think radio voice) or even whispered, a bit more delay (though you do play around with that ever so often). Another thing that kind of pulls you out of the "mood" is the offbeat playing guitar the longer the song goes on. I can only think that this was intentional - but if I'd have to mix this, I'd have asked "was there a render mistake?" - because I'd try to align it.

I'd have also added another kick in the intro (ever so often), because the initial kick feels like "okay, let's start" but then it's like "wait... what?!". Sometimes I have render issues in Cubase where I get an FX or kick at the beginning of a production. It feels like that, but I don't think this was an error though. The production overall is very bright, has a good balance (EQ work), although the acoustic guitar feels a bit falling out of place, and I already commented on the vocals. Loudness wise it feels louder than it actually is, which tells me that you worked a lot to keep the bass region clean.

For your first entry in here, great work. I hope to see your productions in the following months as well.

TECHNICAL BONUS INFO:
- production was in 44kHz ???bit
- Loudness was -17,7LUFS ILk, -14,3LUFS SLk max
- track was -2,46dBTP max
- mixdown had a DC Offset of about -117,90dB





SUMMARY:

Now the part I'm definitely not looking forward to. Sadly, we have only two (number: 2) entries this month. So voting feels not only weird, but technically my vote will determine the ultimate winner. And that alone, has a sour aftertaste for me - because I do have a favorite, and that's donkey tugger. So this will have some more repercussions in the long run as well - because everything lower than three (number: 3) participants just doesn't work with a voting engine (and outside votes on this place aren't allowed). So there need to be slight rule alterations yet again. However, this is not a topic for now, but eventually for the SWC Gossip Thread.

You're both winners to me, because despite the possible mishap in communication between KVR Audio and the Mix Challenge community, we still saw entries. You didn't let deadlines beat you, you submitted your productions regardless - because you wanted to present your work, get feedback (which you did), you were maybe even curious to see the "other place".

Though rest assured, my vote will not be the deciding vote. I thought about doing "randomly generated votes" on top of ours to create a bit more variety and continued thrill. I will reflect this in the voting results. So... keep your eyes open for that.



My votes (<4 participant rule applies)

10pts - donkey tugger
9pts - Mister Natural



See you in Songwriting Competition 09

[donkey tugger]

Well. I'm voting for meself..

I agree with a lot of what Fox said about the production of yer track Mr N..very clean sounding, although I did like the vocals at first listen, probably have heard you sing a lot more so knowing what to expect a bit more. Being what you'd call a more 'traditional' (albeit with some daft ideas and weird chords at times..) type of songwriter, I do sometimes struggle a bit with more loose, leftfield type of stuff, but this seemed to hang together quite nicely for me as a song (rather than something 'experimental' - sometimes people say it's 'experimental' when they really haven't a clue how to structure stuff.. ). Loving the acoustic guitar and would liked it to be a little bit more prominent. Not as keen overall on the drums - the 909 stylee kick sound seems a bit much for the track - mebbe something a bit more 'glitchy' might suit? Nice work!