SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC033 May 2020 - Winners announced

[gruskada]

Thanks, everyone! I thought I was going to get buried this month, especially since the song deals with politics, and I'm not a singer/rapper.

I appreciate all the feedback - I really do try to use this to improve. I'm glad my timing mistakes seemed to play into the theme this month, but this is something I'm really working on. I think some of it is my sound card latency, but I'm also not hearing the mistakes sometimes as well. It's not for lack of trying - I must have done ~30 vocal takes (no clue if this is a normal amount or not), and spent almost a week just fixing the timing issues that I did hear (probably not normal at all). If anyone has any suggestions on how to get better at this, I'd love to hear them. I never had a problem years ago when I was in a prog rock band. Though what might have saved me there was that I practiced constantly, because playing in odd time sigs was so unnatural to me.

Thanks, Mister Fox, for all your efforts with these contests as well. I love listening to the audio examples, and have added a few of these songs to my "favorites" playlist (Lodoss War, Atomic Hooligan - Safeguard). Great bonus song feedback as well.

I'll go for Tone2 Saurus2. Thanks!

[becsei_gyorgy]

congrats gruskada

thank you for all, it was a pleasure contest and thanks for the feedbacks.

[TrojakEW]

Anyway... I'd love to chime in with some feedback as well. Mostly technical in nature for some productions. I just can't help it - if I hear a sample package that I know/use myself, I just want to reach out and help you improve. That is what the Mix Challenge community is all about.

Great feedback. Thank you.

[Doc Jon]

Many congratulations to gruskada, a clear and well deserved win, well done!

Thanks as always for the useful feedback from everyone, all valid and very helpful

Doc Jon

Right off the bat, a very highly polished production. I really like the vintage vibe here - and "Steinberg Virtual Guitarist 2" - now that is a name I haven't read in a while (does it still work for you bridged?! The new UJAM versions are just not the same IMHO). I think I also know which guitars were "RealStrat" (the chords at around 1:43min and solo guitar around 2:00min). One hint from a fellow Musiclab user. If this is still Engine 4 (not the most recent one / RealStrat Elite), definitely turn on the Humanize mode and plug a LPF right behind the guitar VSTi before hitting the first pedal/amp. This takes off the edge quite a bit.

Thanks for the additional feedback Mister Fox, you are right on all those points!
Steinberg Virtual Guitarist 2 is the only 32 bit plugin left in my collection, works great in Cubase 10.5 with jBridge
Thanks for the RealGuitar hints, I will definitely try those when I next use that plugin

Hope to see you all next month!

Jon

[A Future in Noise]

When I rate the entries, I pay more attention to what I like, personally, than the grade of fulfillment of the mission. I think that the composers making stuff pleasant listening to, should know this.

There is no problem with that but most of your comments doesn't tell anything only that if you like somthing or not. I always read all comments from all to all in order to understand different view of different peoples but your comments are mostly synonym for words nice or meh. Best example is your comment for Oli H track: "Sorry, no metal, no progressive rock, no funk." After a while you decide add another sentence to it but it doesn't change anything.

I have been aware of this problem for a long time. I’m simply no good at giving criticism. I don’t think in terms of genres when I write my own songs. This makes it very difficult to giving detailed criticism.

[A Future in Noise]

A Future In Noise - Dr Andrew:

On first listening, I was highly reminded of Michael Stipe (R.E.M.) while listening to the vocals. A very similar tone, which fit the lyrics quite well. Although they are a bit off-beat in places. Technically, the production has a bit too much reverb for my taste. If you would get back to the production, I'd definitely dial it back a notch, maybe introduce some "pre-delay" for the reverb (to create some different space), cut it off the snare drum even (gated). The bass definitely has too much "room sound". But I get the overall concept - the soundscape is pushed back, to somewhat simulate "emptiness" and let this whole song feel more like "a background noise".

What I really like, is the switch from Pop Rock to "Funk" around 1:29min. I would have slightly changed the overall sound of the instruments here. Some less reverb here and there, maybe a different EQ or drive for the bass, then switch back to the more pop oriented mix.

Overall - you understood the concept. Please keep at it.

Thanks Mr Fox.

The comparison with R.E.M. is rather flattering. I have heard it a number of times the last 10 years. Although I can hear no similarity whatsoever, I realize that the fact I listened to the rem album Lifes rich pageant maybe 100 times during the years 1986-1990 must have left some fingerprints in my brain. The only album I've listened to more frequently than that (in my youth) is Dreamtime by Tom Verlaine (released 1981).