SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC036 August 2020 - Winners announced

[Olli H]

Here's my participation, it's called Afterburner

You clearly know your stuff. This has everything that I was expecting from submissions to this month’s competition. My favorite part is those bass glide ups around 1:10.



That said, somehow the song feels like you're not showing what you really can. As if it’s a relaxed rehearsal or warm-up before the main show. For example there’s a build up round 0:40 and 2:10. Everything goes nicely and cleverly, but for some reason the energy doesn’t explode, so it feels like a placeholder for the real thing that we are about to hear later in the late night show.

[Double Tap]

"Hello and welcome" to all new faces to the Songwriting Competition.


Just a quick heads up:
I will try to give feedback to all entries later tonight. But please don't understand this as "only the host is giving feedback".

The overhauled game mechanics allow for everyone giving feedback to each other during the submission period, so that the person in question can address this (or not, totally up to you). I am trying to be a positive example of how this could go, just to spark more interaction. Maybe I'll be the only one this month - but I hope to see more back-and-forth with the next game in September.


I also hope to see @J.Ruegg and @Olli H overhaul their mixes until the end of the week. Interesting approaches so far. This is why you've got the extra days. Same goes for @functionform - hope to see you join again by the end of the week.

More from me later!

Great stuff - thank you very much for the extension... that's given me time to rework and strip out the bits I was most unhappy with and had a better go at mixing although it's still not quite done yet so I'll probably repost tomorrow - and also do the feedback thing.

[Double Tap]

Not sure how to measure Lufs yet!

You can use free version of Youlean Loudness Meter

Perfect - thank you very much. Downloaded and ready to use...

[gruskada]

”Gatekeeper”, Olli H
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aUkch0 ... sp=sharing

Wow, Olli, this is one of your best efforts as far as matching the music to the contest. It's really good as well. My only comment would be that the drums sound very fake in parts (though they are played very well). I'm pretty sure Battery has round robin, so that's probably not it. I can't put my finger on it, but it jumped out at me a few times.

I'll try and submit something next month. I had way too much going on this month. I'm enjoying listening to all the entries, though.

[Double Tap]

Okay, so thanks to the extension I've tidied up a few things.



Amen, brake
174 bpm

DAW: Tracktion Waveform 11

Instruments:

Kontakt session strings
Spitfire BBC SO Discovery
Spitfire Labs
Serum
XO by XLN
Waveform's Multi Sampler and Drum Sampler

FX
Shaperbox
Saturn 2
Pro MB
OTT
Valhalla Supermassive
Valhalla Vintage Verb
d16 Frontier limiter
Tracktion DAW Essentials: Autofilter, Compressor

Samples:
Chaotic signal from Glitchmachines' Exophoria - sliced up and turned into the initial rhythm and a couple of the risers
The Amen break sample - also sliced up and re-done in various ways

Lufs: -16.2 overall - Youlean
(Thank you very much @TrojakEW)

References:
The Amen break is a bit old school, but to me it's such a hallmark of drum n bass that it does a lot of work to point you in that direction before you've even started chopping things up.

!	Bonus Info
	Shy FX - Gangsta II - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCjO1qRWrzQ Renegade - Terrorist - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8YzPBvyjCE Omni Trio - Renegade Snares - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKPlj4PkQZw and more here https://mixmag.net/feature/the-20-best- ... amen-break

The big pad is basically some chords run through BBC SO Discover, but it wasn't quite doing it for me so I used Kontakt Session stings. I do love the mixed Choir in labs though, so that is pretty much in there untouched.

The bass sounds and the risers come from the lowest note on the BBC SO tuba that I could get, which was then stretched and mangled and reesed with Saturn 2, OTT and Vintage Verb. First time round it all sounded a bit thin but I had another go thanks to Mister Fox's extension. Not sure if my very poor mixing skills added anything or not.

This is all still a bit new to me since I downloaded my first daw in May, so I'm sure there are some obvious problems with it.

[Double Tap]

SWC036_Richard Watashi_Ok Kill Me

DAW: FL Studio

Effects: Mostly stock distortions, reverbs, delays, compressors, eq's and some other. SOme freebies like CMD Bitrusher.

Plugins:
Stock Ibanez
Slayer
Minisynth
3 OSC
Beemap
FPC

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gLEsbF ... sp=sharing >>> googledrive

enjoy, if you can.

Okay, here's my take:

What I like - the bleepy melody that starts around 00:47 feels like it's slightly on the edge of control - I think one of the effects, possibly a distortion effect, is slightly sharpening some of the high notes, but not enough to take it out of tune. I really like the edge that gives the tune and it makes me want to listen on.

What I don't like - the kick distorts and I'm not sure if the bassline distortion is intentional. And I agree that it's too slow to be a modern drum n bass track - it feels like it's at the tempo of happy hardcore. I also don't think the dynamic element of the tune works well enough at the beginning. There's nothing to announce the melody. It doesn't have to be a classic drop, but since dance music is all about anticipation and predictability, even if this is for people dancing in their gaming chairs, it's good to have those risers, sweeps, build-ups of some sort.

[Double Tap]

Gridlock
174bpm
LUFS -14.1 (TrackS metering)
-14.06 (Youlean online loudness metering)

Host
Cubase Pro 10.5

VSTs
u-he HIVE x13
AudioThing miniBit x4

Fx
SoundToys Decapitator, DevilLoc Deluxe, Microshift, FilterFreak
CamelPhat3
FabFilter Timeless2, Saturn
ValhallaRoom
Tone2 Akustix, Warmverb
iZotope Ozone8
IK TrackS Stealth Limiter, Metering

Includes a drum loop from Noiiz DnB Horizon, sliced diced and mangled in several ways
Additional drum sounds from Steinberg Groove Agent SE
Car sounds from Steinberg's Engine Roar soundpack

What I like: Lots of things - the melodies feel like they have a hint of Jean Michel Jarre on a good day and they really take the tune forward. Loads of little details and tuneful FX at different points, and they are all part of the track, not just lumped in. Nice dynamics overall - maybe a bit abrupt sometimes - I didn't hear many obvious builds except melodically and with drum fills.

What I like less: the bass line is good but in my headphones it sounds a bit thin at the subby end, in the sub-100hz range. It also felt like the car noises were a missed opportunity since they just faded in and weren't integral to the song. Maybe you could use some of it musically in the track, like during a breakdown or perhaps during a drop - a couple of beats of silence then the engine kicks in, then we're back in it, or something. Maybe that's too cliched, dunno. Also some of the levels seem a bit off at the start - the first synth line gets swamped by the lead melody at 00:18. But great stuff overall imo.

[Double Tap]

Here's my participation, it's called Afterburner (thanks Fox for extending the deadline, it allowed me to get a better sound overall):

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing



(Last edit: 25/08 11:04: more pumping, compressed drums and tops, increased glue)

A bit about the track:
- I don't really know what it is. I guess it goes more to the Neuro side, especially with the drums. The second "drop" would be halfstep neuro. I guess Fox knows the exact name of the genre. The thing is, the "low" melodic parts with the pads sound more like Total Science/Breakage tracks, which is what I'm more used to make nowadays, and maybe they don't really fit the main sounds (?). Anyways, I really like the result.

- It has a club oriented structure (simple, with easy to mix breakdowns), but is short enough so that in a videogame it wouldn't get too boring. There are some things I did to keep it a bit interesting, including varying the percussions (changing between shakers, hi hats, and cymbals), adding section breaks with toms, and varying the main drum pattern (not too much, though, because then you lose the rhythmical repetition).

- I got up to -11.3 LUFS, as reported by TDR Limiter No6. Without any limiting, it was already hitting -13 LUFS, and I needed to control some peaks here and there, so it got a bit loud, but that's really something to expect from these genres. I don't like -5 LUFS neuro, but I always go a bit over -8 LUFS, I think it's part of the genre aesthetic.

- I have used Surge for the basses (with Trash, to get the distorted sound - you can't make DnB without Trash, apparently) and Wavestation for the pads. For mixing, I have only used Neutron and Reaplugs, Valhalla Delay and Vintage Verb, and a few other utilities. Nothing special apart from Trash. My DAW of choice is Reaper. The first bass sound are two saw waves, ring modulating, with ones pitch going up with time (which results in the pitch up effect, and the vocal/growl sound too), distorted until I got a more aggresive tone. It also has some multiband pitch shifting to get a bit wider. The second is just saw waves unison with several oscillators tuned in different octaves, where I play with the Sync parameter in one of them. In this case, mixing the pitch up with the pitch wheel alongside the sync modulation results in that "lift" sound.

- As for samples, I've got a Neuro sample pack from Loopmasters, from where I have gotten the main drum hits (sorry, I'm not the kind of person to synthesize my drums) and other DnB and breaks packs for the percussions and hats. Some samples are chopped and reordered (perc loops), whereas others are taken as-is (risers, noises...).

- The overall mix is a bit meh, This time the problem is not with the bass but with the high frequencies. I used Limiter No6's high frequency limiter in the master but it's still fairly bright. Not much more on the master, I think some stereo control with Ozone and a bit of limiting with it, too. Also, there is heavy sidechain from the kick to the bass bus, and also from the snare to the melodic parts (much softer).

What I like: pretty much everything. It sounds really professional. The percussion, the pads, the FX, the variations on each of them. The screaming synth lead particularly. The breakdown into the half step (although I was waiting for it to come back up to full speed a bit).

What I like less: the drums feel slightly jerky in the first section. They pick up when you go half time at about 2:45 because then there's context for the second syncopated kick. The problem is that in the first half, even though my head tells me it's syncopated, my feet tell me they're not sure what they're supposed to do. I haven't dragged the track into my DAW but is it on a sixteenth beat after the snare rather than an eighth? Or three sixteenths? It creates the impression that the kick isn't joined enough to the snare and the hats, even though the bongos add some of that glue. A live drummer might add some grace notes on the snare to bring it all together a bit more. Round about 1:28 there's a fill that does the same sort of thing - there's a tom or something that plays a note before the kick and that makes it feel more like a whole rhythm. But everything I've written here feels like a nitpick though - it's a great track.

[Double Tap]

Why not do it this way - and to test out the updated SWC game mechanics:
Post two versions... one with your original idea (140bpm) and one that you bumped up to 160bpm. Ask for feedback, start a conversation, edit your entry as needed/desired until the deadline has been reached.

It is not just about changing tempo. There are some parts that I made with this tempo in mind (orchestral parts) and they will sound weird in high tempo so I will post only original 140bpm track without changing anything.
*********************************************************************************
So here is my weird hybrid track. Idea was since the theme is Video Game Soundtrack, to add some "epicness" to track. I have chosen proper name for track that have two meaning now. One of them is that I do not have enough bpm for genre.

Listened to some examples posted to get idea about patterns for beat and made something similar. I used 4 different instruments not just for layering but to use different sounds from those kits (Drum Lab, Klusterkitt Konstruktor, Action Strikes and DM-307) to create few patterns. It was nightmare to edit it since every instrument have different midi mapping. Since I do like percussion I added some more rumble at the end with Damage Armageddon kit.Then added some other electronic stuff, designed some sounds in intro and made few different parts in track to make it more "evolving". I used Metropolis Ark to add some soundtrack style noise in there.

Made using FL Studio 20.6
Instruments used:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1x NI Drum Lab
1x Klusterkitt Konstruktor
1x NI Action Strikes
1x Output Substance
1x Heavyocity Damage
1x Heavyocity DM-307
2x Heavyocity Aeon
1x Heavyocity Evolve Mutation 2
3x Samplelogic Arpology
1x Samplelogic Thundersprings
1x 8Dio Hybrid Tools 1
1x 8Dio Hybrid Tools Neo
1x 8Dio Blendstrumnet Strange Pulses
3x Orchestral Tools - Metropolis Ark 1
1x Red Room Audio Symphonic Sketchapd
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Used Effects:
1x Pro Audio DSM V3
2x Izotope Neutron 3 Equalizer
1x Izotope Ozone 9 Advanced
1x Unfiltered Audio Triad
10x VSTzOne Arx One
1x VSTzOne Stratum
4x Fruity Parametric EQ 2
1x Fruity Balance
1x Fruity Peak Controller
1x Noveltech Character
2x Noveltech Vocal Enhancer
1x Izotope Neutron 3
1x NI Guitar Rig 5
1x NI Replika XT
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Statistics:
Max momentary loudness -10.1 LUFS
Max short-tem loudness -12.1 LUFS
Integrated loudness -14.1 LUFS
Loudness range 4.8 LU
True peak L -1.10dB
True peak R -1.13dB
DC offset L 0% (-173.8dB)
DC offset R 0% (-164.7dB)

So, on the issue of tempo, I don't think there's a lot that you'd need to change to bring it up to the sort of speed that I'd expect to see for drum n bass. Right up to 45 seconds, I'd be perfectly happy to whack up the bpm. Then the 8 bit melody comes in and yes that would probably suffer a bit. Maybe also the choir would struggle slightly. But I suspect that wouldn't be too hard to solve, and I think it is a problem with a drum n bass track. I think the reason the genre got picked up by racing game designers is because of the tempo.

What I like: the choir and the feel of the track. There's definitely a bit of menace in there and there should be in something like this. It develops nicely, some great risers and rhythmic variations that come in regularly so there's never any danger of getting bored. That feel of something new coming into your ears is really good. And it's so clean. I can hear everything.

What I like less: maybe it doesn't quite ever go full throttle, if you'll forgive the pun, and that's not just about the tempo - neither the bass nor the choir ever let rip - it's all a bit too controlled. I don't play games much any more but I think the point about a racing game is that you're trying to balance between pushing it as hard as it will go, and being able to stay in control. I'd have liked to hear the choir just going for it at some point. Also there's not enough low end for my taste - the bass is solid but it's not threatening to disembowel me, which I think is what the bass part of drum n bass is all about.

[Double Tap]

My SWC036 Submission:



DAW: Reaper
BPM: 175

VST:
Steven Slate Drums 5.5
Serum
DS Thorn
Arturia Pigments
Arturia Analog Lab 4
D16 LuSH-101
Kontakt
OrganicSamples Organic Voices Vol.1
Kinetic Toys
Output Movement

FX:
PA bx_bassdude
PA Vertigo VSC-2
PA Vertigo VSM-3
PA bx_cleansweep Pro
PA bx_console SSL 4000E
PA bx_console SSL 4000G
PA Schoeps Mono Upmix
PA SPL TwinTube
PA BlackBox HG-2
PA bx_control V2
Soundtoys Decapitator
Soundtoys FilterFreak2
Soundtoys Echoboy
Kilohearts Compressor
Kilohearts Pitch Shifter
AIR Talkbox
MCDSP Futzbox
TDR Vos SlickEQ GE
Fabfilter Pro-Q3
Waves L1
Waves RBass
Waves RVox
Waves Ovox
Waves RCompressor
Valhalla Vintage Verb
Izotope Neutron 3

PA bx_Townhouse
Izotope Ozone 9
Youlean LoudnessMeter
Voxengo SPAN

Samples from Splice:
Vocal Chops, Sweeper, Riser
2 drum sample (drum layering)

I wasn't sure for a moment then the bass kicked in at 00:45 and I was sold. It's got the right sounds, a great set of melodies, some nice effects. The 8 bit video game sound in the initial breakdown is a great touch. I love the operatic vocal - I'm a sucker for that kind of thing.

What I like less: Maybe it's my headphones, since this has come up a few times, but I think the low end needs a little bit of attention. More stomach flipping please. Maybe some bigger crescendos to create more light and shade.