SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC040 December 2020 - Winners announced

[Mister Fox]

A friendly reminder:
Including today, 14 days left to submit your production

[Doc Jon]

Kicking things off early this month as work is likely to prevent me doing much from this week onwards
I may make some minor changes before the deadline
I started with an Imogen Heap style multitracked processed vocal section which ended up being the closing section of the track, and the rest just built forwards from there



Host
Cubase Pro 10.5

VST
Izotope BreakTweaker
Boscomac Air Piano
Steinberg Halion Sonic SE
Steinberg Virtual Guitarist 2
Synapse Audio DUNE 2
u-he DIVA

Fx
Cubase EQ, Bitcrusher, Stereo Enhancer, DeEsser, Delay, Dual Filter
FabFilter Saturn, Timeless 2, Volcano, Pro Q3
Soundtoys Decapitator, Little AlterBoy, Microshift, Little Radiator, PanMan, SieQ
Izotope Vinyl, Nectar 3, Ozone 8
Tone2 AkustiX, Warmverb
Image Line Vocodex
D16 Syntorus 2, Fazortan 2
Valhalla VintageVerb
Voxengo Span
Various IK TRackS 5 modules and metering

Samples
Various ethnic vocal and instrument (erhu, pipa) samples from Noiiz

LUFS -14.1

[Mister Fox]

A friendly reminder:
Including today, 7 days left to submit your production

[EsteveCorbera]

Hello guys,
How about everything?
Are you in good health?
I present to you my work this month. This is the second time I have participated.
The truth is that at first I was not very successful, but I learned a lot from the comments made by the other participants.
When I saw what the contest was about this month, I really wanted to take part.
I've always liked New Age music, especially the more electronic and not so much ethnic.
That’s why I wanted to do a song that I would have liked to hear a few years ago, when we only had CDs and still didn’t dream of having my own music equipment.
I hope you like it and that you can give me advice before the 24th, so that I can improve the subject with your observations.


I leave you with the list of what I used to produce this theme.

DAW:
Reason

Instruments:
AIR Music Tech Mini Grand
Sonivox Eighty Eight
Vital
Reason Europa
Cherry Audio DCO-106
Quietmusic.eu Serenity
AIR Music Tech Loom 2
Reason Scales & Chords
Retouch Control Phrase Key Triggeed Sequencer

Effects:
Effects of Reason:
Stereo effects
Line mixer 6:2
MClass Stereo Imager
Equalizer
Filters HP-LP
Compressor
Reveb
Delay
Sweeper Modulation Effect - Phaser
Scream 4 Sound Destruction Unit
MClass Maximizer

Other effects:
AIR Music Tech Frequency Shifter
WA Production Orchid

Thank you so much mates !!

[TheVodouQueen]

Hi guys, hope you're ready for the New Year.
I'm very new to this, and so, this is my first submission to the songwriting competition--testing the waters and seeing what shakes loose.
My submission is here:


When voting comes, any feedback would be grateful. I'm really looking forward to the results and getting to listen to everyone's hard work!

DAW:
BandLab Online

Documentation of Work:

Signature: 4/4
BPM: 90
Key: C sharp

Tracks (16) & [SFX]:

Vocals 1 - New Day by Eshar (acapella / speech) [Spring Reverb]
Vocals 2 - Eastern Sun by FutureAnalysis (waveform autotuned) [Studio Reverb; ST Chorus; manual reverb 15%]
Lead / Chords / Melody - Midday Drama Lead & Adrenalin Chords 03 [EQ3-M Equalizer]
Acoustic / Atmospheric Instruments - Midday Drama Wooden Lead [EQ3-M]
Keys / Rhodes / Piano - Mojo E-Piano [EQ3-M]
Strings / Plucks / Violin - Pylons Pluck 02 [EQ3-M]
Sax / Horns - Bakhiti Alto & Tenor Sax solo and combined, Part A [EQ3-M]
Harp / Flute - Corral Harp 01 [EQ3-M]
Bells / Chimes - Mojo Chimes [EQ3-M]
Arps - Candy Wrap Twinkle Arpeggiator 02 [EQ3-M]
Synths - Ascension (loop) & Dunesurf Synth Harps [EQ3-M]
Percs / Hi-Hats / Shakers / Claps - Midday Drama Perc, Badder Tambourine & Afrobeat Perc [EQ3-M]
Drums / Kicks / Fills - Ambient Electronica Drums [EQ3-M & DeEsser Compressor]
Ambience / Pads - Pro, Midday & Filtered Pads [EQ3-M]
Bass / Texture / SFX - Noir Street Noise, Midday Drama Bass, Trip Hop Upright Bass, Ambient Seaside Sounds [EQ3-M & Filter Echo]
Beat - Commander Beat 01 [EQ3-M & BL Driver Distortion]

*Some manual volume modulation and pan modulation was used.

Sound I was going for: New Jazz / Meditative Music

What the waveform / arrangement structure symbolizes: the rising and setting of the sun, (daybreak -> midday -> dusk -> dawn)

It is a fully original song, except for the acapella work of two individuals from: https://www.looperman.com/

Influences:

The Glitch Mob
'Moments in Love' - Art of Noise
Jerome "Najee" Rasheed

Hope you enjoy and have a Merry Christmas! ♥

[Olli H]

New Age music: almost completely unknown area to me. Luckily there was Kitaro on the list of New Age artists. I didn’t know that his music is called New Age, but I had heard it before, some 30 years ago. So, I decided to study his music more carefully, and the sonically the result is heavily influenced by him, mainly the choice of instruments and arrangement style. But the melody lines and chord progression are completely mine.

This is my hasty first version. Probably I don’t have time to do any adjustments to it any more. But just for sure, I send it now. Otherwise, I might forget to do it.

I played the instrument lines with my guitar and converted them to midi. Some parts I played with midi keyboard.

DAW: Reaper
Flute style melody synth: Massive
Cellos: Kontakt + Massive
Timpani: Kontakt
Nylon string guitar: Kontakt
Pads: Massive
Violin: Redroom Bluegrass Fiddle
Double Bass: Trilian
Tambourines and Woodblock: DrumCore


Olli H: I Guess It’s Time To Go Now.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LB4Ol6 ... sp=sharing

[becsei_gyorgy]

Hi guys! Merry Christmas!

The genre was completely unknown to me this month. I’ve researched a lot, but I still can’t find a common ground.
So I approached more from the theme: Beginning of a New Age.
Some synthesizers (with ethnic instrument sounds), little orchestral background, vocal and more pronounced drums. That's all.
It's not ready but i upload now because Santa Claus is coming soon.



DAW: Reaper
BPM: 80

Instruments:
4x KORG Wavestation
3x KORG M1
1x Zebra 2
Kontakt Factory Library
Performance Samples Solo Violin
Damage
Shimmer Shake
Albion One
Metropolis Ark1
EW Stormdrum3
EW Voices of Passion

FX:
Fabfilter Pro-Q3
Maag EQ4
Vertigo VSC-2
ACME Opticom XLA-3
IK VC-670
IK White 2A
IK Black 76
Waves RCompressor
Waves RVox
Waves NLS Channel
Eventide Quadravox
Waves Doubler
Trackspacer
AMBEO Orbit
BOZ Pan Knob
Liquidsonics Seventh Heaven

Ozone9
bx_controlV2
SPAN
Youlean Loudness Meter

Sample
2x Freesound.org: (Faux Native American Chant, Waves and seagulls)

[Mister Fox]

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

[Blang]

Hi everyone,

Here is the link to my composition:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YAgRA9 ... sp=sharing

I started by listening to the New Age references and making a list of elements did and did not want to include in my piece.
Something meditative / contemplative seemed like a good way to go, so no dramatic changes and try to steer clear from AB / pop song structure. Something with this structure can easily get boring, so I spiced up the harmonic rhythm to give you some sense of direction and be slightly less predictable. Luckily I just noticed a song (“All I want for Christmas” I believe) that used the following harmonic rhythm:

chord-1: 2-bars, chord-2: 1-bar, chord-3: 1/2-bar, chord-4: 1/2-bar

So still 4 bars, 4 chords, but with a sense of speeding up. I basically stole this idea and multiplied each bar length by two.

Using a 90’s drumloop didn’t seem fitting (and not my cup o’ tea), so I decided to get my groove from a (70’s style) arpeggiated synth. I did add some subtle ‘tribal’ drum by tapping my bassdrum with a improvised sock mallet. Once I decided on a chord sequence and added a pad, I got out my ‘ethnic’ sounding instruments (kalimba, tenor ukelele, spanish guitar) and jammed hoping that something sticks. From there on out it was more a process of weeding than composing; which phrases go where and adding (automated) FX along the way.

I found it pretty difficult working on music that is not intended to be actively listened to. Taking lots of breaks and listening in another room whilst doing something else seemed to help.

Cheerio!

[Marius L]

Hello and nice to be here for this competition.
It is my second time participating and now I was tempted by the theme of this songwriting competition.

So here is my track:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/14vex9Z ... =sharing
It is not so much 90's but with a little more modern flavor. Kind of dreamy, evocative and melancholic.

DAW:
Reaper

Instruments:
Sequence by Podolski
Textural pads by LABS
Choir by Expand!2
Arpeggio by Synth1
Plucks by Zebralette
Sequenced strings by AAS Player
Strings by Cheeze Machine 2
Duduk by UVI Workstation
Vocals by Ethera Soundscapes

Effects:
ReaEQ
Supermassive by Valhalla
bx console Focusrite
Black Box HG 2
HoRNetVUMeterMK4
HoRNetAutoGainPro
Balancer by Sonible Focusrite
Voxbox by Soundspot
Stochas
MCharmVerb
Max1
AirShelf
RVox by Waves
Quadravox
SmartComp
Irid by Tritik
bx hybrid V2
bx masterdesk
Limiter no6
DoublePaul


Merry Christmas to everyone!