SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC11 July 2018 - Winners announced

[Mister Fox]

A friendly reminder:
Including today, 3 days to submit your production.


Spread the word on your go-to forums and/or social media. Let's get the SWC to 7+ participants this month

[Mister Fox]

A friendly reminder:
Including today, 24 hours left to submit your production.


If you've been sitting on the fence so far, now is your time to jump into the deep end.

[Mister Fox]

It is the 26th July 2018, 0:45am GMT+2/CEST - this month's Songwriting Competition has official ended

Due to technical difficulties on my end, the game ran one day longer than planned.
Thank you so much for your participation. We sadly only had 3 participants, but 3 more entries compared to last month (0 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 3 participants, those being: ollyaudio, Nort Yakim and Peter:H
That means that each participant can vote for 2 tracks, the staff will cast a balance vote (I will once more add a randomization modifier)

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.



Please join the conversation in the General Gossip Thread
http://mix-challenge.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=97

And if you have an idea for a theme/genre or want to see a specific theme tackled in August, please voice your opinion here:
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=168



Please have an eye on this thread!

[Mister Fox]

Let us kick off the VOTING PROCESS, which will end on Wednesday, 01-AUG-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:

"Offline"



Download:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1BZdoJ ... OdKkaOFB6X

"Get the Recording Button"

Nort Yakim - Get the Recording Button

"Yesterday it will become"



Download:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/mmz4wc79v4l7l ... 9.wav?dl=0

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

Good luck to all participants!

[] Peter:H []

Hey guys,

that was an easy one in terms of effort for the casting a vote :-) Over there at OSC it's usually tens of tracks which takes a lot longer...I'm not complaining, just saying ;-) Anyway here's my vote

01 (10 pts) - SWC011- Olly Audio - Offline
02 (09 pts) - Nort Yakim - Get the Recording Button

I like both tracks and hope both do well, but I had to come up with a ranking. I think Olly Audio suites my ears a tiny bit better production wise.

Update 20180202:
It's really hard for me to give some really valuable feedback to the tracks. I'm a music amatuer and autodidact. Voting is more a thing of gut feeling for me ;-) If I for instance compare our tracks to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHmH9R7 ... freload=10 or Trillian Choice https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1OB8G1 ... freload=10 our tracks that are produced more than a decade later are pathetic, sorry to say...I mean if these master would have had our possibilities... ;-)

Thus both tracks, the track of Nort Yakim and Olly Audio are closer to the original feeling than my track is...and I have to admit, that I ran into the trap of making things louder and louder again and again, so your right about the exagerated loudness. Anyway I feel that Olly Audio's track is more balanced in terms of spectrum and a bit let's say more open in terms of width and depth. Thus I made up my mind to give those guys 1st and 2nd place. But again, it was a hard call.

] Peter:H [

[ollyaudio]

I think it's dishonest. I really liked the work of Peter: H.
01 ( 10 pts ) - SVC011 - Peter:H - Yesterday it! Will Become
02 ( 9 pts ) - Nort yakim - Get the recording Button


Amazing melody from Peter: H Reminded me of the 90's.
The soloing sound of Peter recalled 2Unlimited.

The track Nort yakim seemed to me more similar to modern styles than on Techno 90's.

I voted.

[Mister Fox]

A friendly reminder for all participants:

• giving feedback to the top 10 entries you selected for the voting process, is mandatory. Failing to do so, results in your disqualification. Please edit your posts accordingly
• voting for yourself is not allowed

You're new to this game, but I think reading the Rules and Guidelines ran a bit short it seems:
viewtopic.php?p=714#p714




Since the "sub 4 participants balance vote" system applies, and to set a good example how this could work (sans the technical bonus info), here is my feedback for every participant.


Olly Audio - Offline

This track is very oldschool IMO - in fact, I've heard synth sounds that were definitely used in soundtracks like "Wipeout" from 1995. I wouldn't be surprised if it's from the good old E-MU MoPhat or Orbital 1, which makes me kind of jealous as I only have the Extreme Lead-1 myself, but I digress. Also, many voice samples like "Kein Anschluss unter dieser Nummer" ("There is no such number.") - although they were a bit over-used during the course of the production.

And this is where some of the problem arise... certain sounds just don't fit for this 128bpm production. There is the occasional harp, then a sleight bell as a percussion element (instead of a typical 909 ride), a lazer sound FX (pitched down). At some point, I had the feeling that this went into Psytrance territory and industrial (due to the voice FX usage). But this is actually the closest to 90s minimal techno than all other entries. So everything goes, right? I'm listening to this production on 5th repeat now. I still heavily miss some more hi-hat work in the first half of the production. The second half (2:49min mark) hints at it, and it starts to get into a groove - but it's sadly short lived (see 3:50 mark). But music is a subjective topic.

Technically, right off the bat (as in: at the beginning of the track), there is a click that shouldn't be there in my opinion. So should you get back to this production, maybe take care of that. Overall sound is fine, although I would low cut the bass a bit, roll off the EQ at around 145Hz by 2dB (to make the production a bit less rumbling and muddy. And since there was no WAV accessible, I can't tell if it was properly mastered, because the maximum signal strength clearly exceeded 0dBTP (in fact, by over 2dB!). Depending on the encoding process, this can be an issue.

Overall, the production fits into this month's theme and you created something interesting which could be expanded upon. If you want to that is.

TECHNICAL BONUS INFO:
- production was in 44kHz ???bit (MP3 as source)
- Loudness was -11,4LUFS ILk, -9,9LUFS SLk max
- track was +2,29dBTP max (clipping - no WAV provided so I can only go by MP3 limitations)
- mixdown had a DC Offset of about -82,28dB




Nort Yakum - Get the Recording Button

At a mere 120bpm (roughly), this is the slowest production this month, and I'd place it in the late 2000s since it's dipping it's toes a bit into the EDM realm. But not the Anthem heavy one, more like something that "The Crystal Method" would do, with strings and synth stabs - so maybe borderline scratching "90's Symphonic Eurotrance"?. Anyway - what I really like the most here, is there is so much more movement happening beat wise, thanks to more hi-hat usage. You also don't shy away from using filter automation. A bit irritating is the growling, sidechained bass - which also affects the first beat by the way. But after a while, you drown it out since you're more focusing on the groove.

The production is fairly mono compatible, dare I even say it's a bit "too narrow". I caught myself reaching for a stereo imager tool and adding a subtle 1,5dB mode side signal starting at 1,5kHz. In fact, some frequencies to look out for (IMO and all that) are 57Hz (Kick Drum lowend, which can be boosted a bit after cutting everything below 20Hz), 1,95kHz and 7,5kHz (which can be boosted a tad with a wide Q and only the MID signal, not the sides).

Overall, I'm really enjoying this production. I do miss some movement with panning or filters however. But it's definitely something I'd enjoy while traveling, or playing a sci-fi video game. It's sadly a bit loud though.

TECHNICAL BONUS INFO:
- production was in 44kHz ???bit (MP3 as source)
- Loudness was -8,5LUFS ILk, -6,9LUFS SLk max (really "hot" in terms of signal strenght)
- track was +0,02dBTP max (clipping - no WAV provided so I can only go by MP3 limitations)
- mixdown had a DC Offset of about -76,20 dB




Peter H - Yesterday it will become

For this production, I'm focusing on the WAV file - since it's the only provided one. Although it is louder(!) than the MP3 and sounds slightly different as well (filter wise). However, both productions clip (not a big deal at 32bit float, but definitely at 44/16 MP3!). The WAV file exceeds +6dBTP, the MP3 about 1,6dBTP. Ouch.

I can not confirm that this is "Schranz" (a comment form KVR Audio), but it's actually more aiming at a mix of Hardcore (but at 144bpm, definitely slower - mainly due to the kick drum), Goa/Trance (Synths and some FX) and EBM (overall concept). This feels more like a psychedelic soundtrack, than a driving, monotone techno grove that sounds like a machine being in constant loop. Don't get me wrong, it's interesting and it has a lot of great sound design ideas (considering that this was originally a planned "One Synth Challenge" entry, where the focus is to create all sounds from one synth!), but it's off the mark of this month's theme.

I can't give much hints to overall EQing, other than maybe look at 55Hz (Kick/Sub) and 2,5kHz (the synths), and definitely take care of things not clipping. I'm also a bit puzzled about the ending of the production, which cuts off suddenly. Maybe this production was made to be listened to in a loop?

I like the production, I do appreciate you submitting your track regardless (even though it was finished before the SWC even started), but it sadly isn't what this month's game was about.

TECHNICAL BONUS INFO:
- production was in 48kHz 32bit (WAV)
- Loudness was -7,8LUFS ILk, -5,2LUFS SLk max (MP3: -9,9LUFS ILk, -7,2LUFS SLk max)
- track was +0,01dBTP max (MP3 clips at +1,6dBTP!)
- mixdown had a DC Offset of about -23,36dB





SUMMARY:

This month was definitely interesting yet again. Still a low participation, but kudos to everyone that stepped out of their comfort zone and just created "something". I wish I could have joined myself this month (sadly, time constrains), my fingers were itching to fire up old Waldorf Attack again, record some sound FX and then go to town. But oh well. Maybe I'll revisit this theme in a future Songwriting Competition.

Sadly, the goal was missed a bit. I do have a clear winner for me for this game, although it's sadly a bit sparse in terms of rhythm handling and a bit irritating with sounds that don't necessarily belong in the production. Then again, everyone interprets Techno different for sure. But hey, it's better than no entry at all, and it's a learning process for everyone.


My votes (<4 participant rule applies)

10pts - Olly Audio (closest to Minimal Techno)
9pts - Nort Yakim
8pts - Peter H



See you in Songwriting Competition 12

[ollyaudio]

I am grateful for the comments. I will take your advice in subsequent work

[Mister Fox]

A friendly reminder for all participants:
Including today, 24 hours left to submit your vote.


Also important:

• giving feedback to the top 10 entries you selected for the voting process, is mandatory. Failing to do so, results in your disqualification. Please edit your posts accordingly
• voting for yourself is not allowed

You're new to this game, but I think reading the Rules and Guidelines ran a bit short it seems:
viewtopic.php?p=714#p714

[ollyaudio]

I realized that I should choose a prize and write. If this is the correct translation ...

I chose HorNet Spaces.