SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC031 March 2020 - Winners announced

[Tj Shredder]

Thanks for all the comments,

I have to reply to two of them specifically:

I wasn't exactly expecting that type of metal haha:D .This is literally metal music, i was able to listen it once for almost 12 minutes without interruption while
i was drawing with my Wacom tablet. I removed some nasty resonances that starts around 4:20 and all was fine after that. Cool ambients.

I did download your "treatement", but I must say, you probably never heard a real huge Tibetan bowl. Your removing of the resonances simply removed the sound of the bowls. They just sound like that! I am never sure if that sort of music really works as a recording. I usually play this completely live. Regarding to your analysis of Levels LUFS and such, my mix was exactly what now should be the norm according to the SWC032 announcement, your mix was on -22 LUFS and no, I did not like it. I wonder if others listened to your version as well and what they think about it. Its removed now which is fine...

There is one thing I need to say regarding one track. Track that I really like but my vote doesn't prove it. Holy Metal Music by Tj Shredder. It is unpolished diamond. Great but not finished especially regarding that unpleasant resonations that ruin otherwise interesting and inspiring work.

I agree its unpolished, not sure if I am capable of polishing anything, maybe I prefer it as such. I am an improvisor, either you get into the flow, then there is nothing to polish, or you don't, then its not worth it, as it belongs to the past...; - )
I know this was not one of my best performances, it was missing the audience, as I did it @home and needed to record it into my DAW for the mixdown... Very different mindset...
The resonances are simply the sound of the bowls. I love even some of the harsh sounds I created with wine glasses. They need to be soft in the mix, more a subtle add-on to get some variation into the basic sound. My Ondes Memoriélles is basically a tap delay with up to fourty taps, each capable of transposing and some live recorded loops. All the transpositions are octaves and fifths in this case. Usually I distribute the taps to 8 speakers. In the stereo mix I just panned the 8 outputs across the stereo field...
Though the real sound of my bowls can get pretty loud, I would always recommend to listen to this on a fairly low level. If you think the resonances are unpleasant, turn down the volume... (Its different if the bowl sound fills a real space when this is played live...)

But thanks a lot for taking the time to listen and commenting. I really appreciate it...

[canese]

I'm next in the line... so I'll take Lunaris, please.

Thank you very much for the opportunity and your feedback and appreciation. I love this competition, and hope to hear and read more of you next months!

[SimaGT]

I did download your "treatement", but I must say, you probably never heard a real huge Tibetan bowl. Your removing of the resonances simply removed the sound of the bowls. They just sound like that! I am never sure if that sort of music really works as a recording. I usually play this completely live. Regarding to your analysis of Levels LUFS and such, my mix was exactly what now should be the norm according to the SWC032 announcement, your mix was on -22 LUFS and no, I did not like it. I wonder if others listened to your version as well and what they think about it. Its removed now which is fine...

I think you mistook me for someone else here. I never reuploaded and "treated" your track, also I never analyze LUFS here in SWC.
I never heard real Tibetain bowl, maybe i did in some plugins or documentaries, all i know is that resonances in one part were so unpleasant that
had to reduce the volume,that's all. The rest of the track was easy to listen to .

[YuriyKolosov]

What are your thoughts? Could you share your approach to dealing with phase or maybe a good source of information on the topic?

Hi again. I have make some test with your track and analyze it more. Have done some changes to fix phase issues without affecting stage.

Wow Now that was very informative! Thanks!

[VCA-089]

Congrats to the winners! Great round! I did't even thought that we would reach 15 participants. Perhaps we should do more rounds like this, where the subject of our interest can cover up wide range of genres and styles of music, which resulst in participation of people with different setups and approaches.

[Tj Shredder]

I did download your "treatement", but I must say, you probably never heard a real huge Tibetan bowl. Your removing of the resonances simply removed the sound of the bowls. They just sound like that! I am never sure if that sort of music really works as a recording. I usually play this completely live. Regarding to your analysis of Levels LUFS and such, my mix was exactly what now should be the norm according to the SWC032 announcement, your mix was on -22 LUFS and no, I did not like it. I wonder if others listened to your version as well and what they think about it. Its removed now which is fine...

I think you mistook me for someone else here. I never reuploaded and "treated" your track, also I never analyze LUFS here in SWC.
I never heard real Tibetain bowl, maybe i did in some plugins or documentaries, all i know is that resonances in one part were so unpleasant that
had to reduce the volume,that's all. The rest of the track was easy to listen to .

Sorry, TrojakEW did the treatment. Don't know how it happened that I thought the treatment was from you. It seems TrojakEWs version is still up (page 5), I wonder, as you tamed it as well, how it compares to his...

[Tj Shredder]

Tj-Shredder - Holy Metal Music
This is unique track. It have really chill out mood but it is more kind of evolving ambient texture. I do really like it but ... For this competition you should make it shorter and choose the best and interesting parts, also ....

Mix is muddy and same time muffled. Some parts have really bad resonation that makes it really hard to listen. It is almost ear damaging. What is worst that you hide some beauty behind bad mix. I have played with dynamic EQ and some spectral stuff to remove that bad resonances and it reveal really really really beautiful texture. It is really incredible sound and regarding this it is my favorite sound in this round. Too bad I have to play with it to hear that. Do not have your permission to edit your track so let me know if there is problem and I will remove the link immediately otherwise I remove it when competition ends.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LB9t9 ... wcQo8oS9kw

Statistics:
Max momentary loudness -5,1 LUFS
Max short-tem loudness -8,4 LUFS
Integrated loudness -14,0 LUFS
Loudness range 11,6 LU
True peak L -0.92dB
True peak R -1.41dB
DC offset L 0% (-115.9dB)
DC offset R 0% (-124.2dB)

I did write this before but quoted the wrong person:

I did download your "treatement", but I must say, you probably never heard a real huge Tibetan bowl. Your removing of the resonances simply removed the sound of the bowls. They just sound like that! I am never sure if that sort of music really works as a recording. I usually play this completely live. Regarding to your analysis of Levels LUFS and such, my mix was exactly what now should be the norm according to the SWC032 announcement, your mix was on -22 LUFS and no, I did not like it. I wonder if others listened to your version as well and what they think about it.

[TrojakEW]

I did download your "treatement", but I must say, you probably never heard a real huge Tibetan bowl. Your removing of the resonances simply removed the sound of the bowls. They just sound like that! I am never sure if that sort of music really works as a recording. I usually play this completely live. Regarding to your analysis of Levels LUFS and such, my mix was exactly what now should be the norm according to the SWC032 announcement, your mix was on -22 LUFS and no, I did not like it. I wonder if others listened to your version as well and what they think about it.

I do not removed anything. I just suppress some frequencies with dynamic EQ and boost some high and mid-high frequencies to put some more air.

No I never hear real Tibetan bowl. But it doesn't matter. Simply that resonance is too much for my ears. Very unpleasant resonance, same as scraping a fork on a plate. Just by looking at spectrum in problematic part of track shows peak around 260Hz that cause most of problems. This peak was there on whole track and it dominate whole mix. Every other sound just hide behind. That is why I said that taming it reveal beautiful texture that was inaudible before.


I'm not saying that my edit was good. It was quick EQ-ing otherwise I was not able to listen to it. Sorry but it really hurts my ears no matter the volume I listened.