SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC025 September 2019 - Winners announced

[donkey tugger]

Most of my lyrics are quite abstract, political, metaphorical, even nonsensical on occasion. This is a more direct, autobiographical song; my story if you like.. Often we forget that mental illness doesn't just affect the sufferer, but also those who care for them, and this is for my parents, who saw me through a very severe bout of depression in my late 20s, and are now not in good health themselves (getting old..), so it's my turn to repay the debt.

http://www.bennyleeds7.myfreeola.uk/swc ... he-sea.mp3

Serious bit over (see, I can do it!) ...taken me an age to get this somewhere right with the guitars finally hitting the mark. Stripped a lot out in the end, with a bit of almost rapping in my Northern monkey speaking voice in there at one point...

The shizzle;
Revelation RJT-60B Bass VI guitar
Line 6 Variax electric guitar (Les Paul mode)
Lindo Zodiac 12 string acoustic guitar
Addictive Drums
FL Studio FPC 808 kit
NI Monark sinthesiser
Kontakt factory strings
The crooning

.....and a shitload of automation and effects

[Mister Fox]

A friendly reminder:
We're in the final 24 hours to submit your production

[ryanc]

Hello everybody,

Well this month, I ran out of time, but I decided to post what I finished anyway so all the work doesn't go to waste. A few elements of the song are left out since I had no time to complete them, others are quite imperfect and the song is practically unmixed - just very minimal gain balance, compression, and reverb. I would like to remind everybody, though, that this is a SONGWRITING contest, not a mixing contest, so I'd invite you to consider the writing and arranging of this and all other songs, rather than judging them solely by their production. There's a whole other MIXING contest for that.

This song is called "Red and Gray," a song about mental health and the constant battle between the heart and the mind.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ee6uv75w2khbz ... y.wav?dl=0

Lyrics:
Dark, nothing but the sound of breathing
Without any rhyme or reason
Trying just to get a spark
But the fire ain't igniting
and no darkness is worth fighting
When you feel you're all alone

Home, But where is home when you're abandoned?
Without partner or companion
Only granted life to roam
In pursuit of some grand meaning
Signs of help or intervening
Some celestial kind of mark

Chorus:
Hey, I've been searching for a sign of life
On this planet we call home
On this planet we call-
Hey, I've been in orbit like a satellite
Round this planet we call home
Round this planet we call home, ooh

Far from discovering my birthplace
Down below or out in deep space
Age of man or dying star?
Are we citizens of this place?
Born of dust or fallen from grace?
Either way to dust return

But where to turn to find the answers?
Doubt advances like a cancer,
Killing all I thought I'd learned
From books of man or prayer and offering
Mother Earth's or God's own offspring,
In the mind or in the heart?

(Chorus)

Red and Gray never speak the same
And I need someone to negotiate
'Cause I believe in things that I can't see
Though I try to find gray in everything
But there's a place, I know, where even gray won't glow
So I count on red to pick up the show

Gray and Red, I listened to my head
When I should have heard my heart instead.

[DoctorBob]

To me a voice is simply another instrument and words are simply the articulations of that instrument. It is an instrument that can be very expressive in the right hands and contexts, just in the same way a violin or sax can be! If you think an instrumental track does not qualify as "song", should I and others, withdraw our tracks? Composition, arranging, mixing and mastering are all important elements to a finished production in my eyes (or ears!). How much emphasis is placed on each of those elements is a personal matter, I suggest. It's always important to separate objective and subjective views and to weight those appropriately in their contexts in order to arrive at a final placing for any "song". Different people will weight in different ways.

dB

[A Future in Noise]

Mr. Fox : Would it be alright if I upload only the first verse of a tune I haven't been able to finnish? That is - without taking part in the contest (since this part of the song is only 45 seconds). I have edited the baseline in the chorus one million times, and it has become obvious that that chorus is a cul de sac. But it would be interesting to hear if somebody has an opionion about my ZynAddSubFX-accordion and the way I have used a vocoder.

[Olli H]

My submmission for this competition: ”Evil Eye”
This is a song about ”ongoing inner turmoil” and pain which is caused by an evil eye.

Genre: I don’t know, maybe it’s something between americana and pop.

The words are from a poem written by my wife. Unfortunately it’s in Finnish, so here’s a short description of content:
Verse describes the state of mind: you’re are in a bottom of a well, nobody hears you, nobody sees you, nobody believes you etc
Chorus describes the cause of misery, an evil eye that can destroy close people’s lives, just by gazing.

Drums: ssd5
Bass: Trilian
Other virtual instruments: kontakt or xpand!2
Plenty of guitars

Sorry for my annoying voice. There’s a saying that goes something like: ”even a crow sings despite it’s voice”. Inside of me there’s many songs haunting me, and after all these silent years I’ve noticed that they just won’t come out unless I try to sing them out all by myself. So, it's now or never, it’s time to sing them out before I loose my voice altogether.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1yyE9s ... iEbvigKiQI

[canese]

Hello! This is my entry for this month competition,


Wav: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9m6wc28s0ipsd ... e.wav?dl=0
Mp3: https://www.dropbox.com/s/qvexups9m2z7n ... e.mp3?dl=0

I wanted to create a piece that was calm but deep and has meaning and something to say. I've been producing since 2015 and I've never found "my style", so I wanted to be this piece to represent something about me and how I relate to the world and everyone in it. Song has mainly 3 parts, very different from one another. First one represents achieving nirvana and reincarnation. 2nd one it's your reincarnated life begining and the final part is as you grow it up. But hey, that's only my interpretation, you may find something very different.

Process:

It started 4 years ago, when I returned home from a long trip and I decided I wanted to make music. So I build my own instrument from the trash. I digged my university dump and found a rusty engine from an old air conditioner. With the help of saw I cut "tongues" in the surface and tune them in a pentatonic scale. Here is a picture of how it looks: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jbamxlkssvalz ... .jpeg?dl=0. I think it's called hang or rav drum.

So, for this track I recorded this instrument and added some others like a e-piano from Korg, a Massive and Modo bass, analogues strings and saw pads from Kontakt, bells, guitars and voice chops from the internet.

I like the melodies and energy that the song has but I do not like the overall mix and master, I think it sounds too muddy sometimes and a little bit quiet (I don't know what happened, I put a V-meter and it said that the louddest pick whas -0.1dB, but when I exported it sounds like 5 dB less)


Thanks for listening and reading and good luck

[MarkS]

So i made this entry about these periods of time when we struggle to pass something that leaves deep marks. Maybe the song is not as calm as i wanted from the start.I had begin from an ambient theme and ended in a more housy rhythm. But i hope someone will get the message i wanted to share.

the software used:

magix independence;
magix independence fx;
araldfx stormgate1;
beatbox2 from magix music maker;
effects from magix music maker;
synapse audio dune;
a tts voice for vocals;

the link to audio:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/brakcw5sk8bx5 ... o.wav?dl=0

[Mister Fox]

Mr. Fox : Would it be alright if I upload only the first verse of a tune I haven't been able to finnish? That is - without taking part in the contest (since this part of the song is only 45 seconds). I have edited the baseline in the chorus one million times, and it has become obvious that that chorus is a cul de sac. But it would be interesting to hear if somebody has an opionion about my ZynAddSubFX-accordion and the way I have used a vocoder.

If you want general feedback - then either use the WIP thread, or please wait until after the initial game round. Else - no objection.

[Mister Fox]

It is the 25th September 2019, 0:20am GMT+2/CEST - this month's Songwriting Competition has official ended

Hello and welcome to all new contestants.

We had 10 participants overall, which is 0 entries more compared to last month (10 entries), 4 more compared to last year (7 entries).
The "staff balancing vote" add-on rule does not apply
"Sole Winners Podium" rule (equal or less than seven participants results in a single winner) does not apply. (3-position Winners Podium)

There were no productions submitted after the deadline.
Sadly two (number: 2) entries have been disqualified (one due to an unsanctioned resubmission - entry not downloadable, therefore no count to the overall statistics, one being released in early 2018 already)
No (number: 0) entry has been redacted.



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 10 participants, but only 9 official entries. That means that each participant can vote for 8 tracks, the staff will notcast a balance vote.

Keep in mind of the overhaul of the Rules and Guidelines. As long as we're not exceeding 20 participants, let's give feedback to all participants and(!) cast your vote for all of them.

The Top 20 list (or in this case, your top 8) can look something like this:

01 (10 pts) - Mr Moon
02 (9 pts) - Mr Sun
03 (8 pts) - Mrs Venus
04 (7 pts) - Mr Mars and his companions
05 (6 pts) - Mr Hale-Bopp
06 (5 pts) - The Rings of Saturn
07 (4 pts) - ...

How your voting could look like, please take a look at these posts (sans the technical information):
viewtopic.php?p=2311#p2311
viewtopic.php?p=2478#p2478
viewtopic.php?p=2819#p2819
viewtopic.php?p=3522#p3522

It is also recommended to cast your vote in collective form through the "Spoiler" tag:

Code: Select all

[spoil]01 participant
02 participant
03 participant[/spoil]

Please use the forum username of the participant to make it easier during the score collection to address what vote belongs to whom.



Please also take note of the Rules and Guidelines (on giving feedback (mandatory for all participants, failing to do so results in a disqualification).

Feedback from non-participants is highly encouraged (voting not needed!). The same goes for entries after the deadline, or those that do sadly not count for the current running game. Musicians and Engineers are always after constructive criticism. This is what this forum is about.



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

Have some general feedback? Please voice your feedback/opinion/concerns here:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=97



Please have an eye on this thread!