Mix Challenge

Hi everyone, this is my first time joining, I did my absolute best.

Here's my song, "Wicked Stimulation":
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DSV6PR ... sp=sharing

This track is kinda experimental, I personally love it. As there's no genre limitation, I blend multiple genres together. The first drop is a old school boom bap groove with unusual sound selection, and then the track progresses to the second drop. The second drop is a Dubstep Drum Groove but feels a bit like trap. The Outro is just insane sound design, it took my hours!

When I first see the topic "Wicked Party". I know I need a creepy/dark melody, but also with energy so that people can "party". The whole track is guided toward this direction.

First I made a lead patch from scratch using a synth called Dune 3, you can clearly hear that in the intro, first and second drop. The patch is just wavetable synthesis with a little bit of FM synthesis layered in the background, with distortion of course. Then I came up with the first drop melody, just keep it simple and catchy. Then a old school groove, added some harmonic layers (Trombone and Trumpet) with FL's stock Flex VST, not realistic at all, but that's what make it cool.

After that I made a Arp from scratch using Dune 3 again, just trial & error, again wavetable synthesis and fm synthesis layered, with some ring modulation, the sequencer is moving at a fast rate 1/32 bar. Use it to fill in the high frequency gaps. Some of the notes aren't in key but I don't care, this is what make this song fit the theme! This song's key is constantly changing lol.

After the first drop is done. I found out that the low notes on FL's stock grand piano is kinda creepy, with some weird harmonics or notes overlapped. So I put it in the intro, also as a important element to bridge to the second drop. At this time FL studio keep on crashing I don't know why, I use a M1 Macbook Air and the new FL version just doesn't work pretty well, so I bounce out the stems, save the patches and move to Logic.

After that the second drop, I thought it would be cool if I implement dubstep in to this. I love melodic dubstep btw. Of course I won't do a traditional one, I hate generic stuff.So I build it block by block. You can hear I'm still using the two patches (lead, arp) but changed up the melody. Also the lead patch is a bit different, I reduced the layers, reduced the unison, changed the ADSR and mod matrix a bit, the most obvious change is there's less detune and I modulate the cutoff with a LFO.

At last, I made a bass sound from scratch using Dune 3 again (it's a amazing synth!). Because I know it need to work in both drops, so I keep it very simple, not too experimental but it doesn't appear much in pop so it may sound new to some people. Just Saw waves and a Sine Wave layered. With two different notch filters.

Outro is unusually long, you can hear me enjoying myself, it's a combination of the first & second drop. You can hear me enjoying myself. Automating, modulating, flangers, phasers, filters, saturation, panning, bit-crush and more! To my ears it's an amazing way to conclude the whole track. Hope yall will like it too.

When I first work on this, I don't expect to make something this good. This is a banger. One of my best works till this day no doubt.

Daw Used:
FL Studio
Logic Pro X

Instruments Used:
Dune 3 (Synapse Audio)
Flex (FL Studio Stock)
Grand Piano (FL Studio Stock)

Samples Used:
Royalty Free Sample Packs
Apple Loops

Effects + Processors:
Gliss EQ (Voxengo)
Saturn 2 (Fab Filter)
Flanger (Arturia)
Infiltrator (Devious Machine)
Vertigo VSC2 (Plugin Alliance)
RC-20 (XLN Audio)
Multiplcity (DMG Audio)
StandardClip
NewFlanged Elevate

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That's it! Voting process seems a bit complicated for a newbie like me, hopefully everything goes smooth

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

Spooky Good Time - MP3

Spooky Good Time - WAV

Artist name is "EmeraldArcana", which is my Twitch/YouTube alias.

I leaned into the theme of "party" and produced a trance-like dance song. Tools used:

• DAW: Bitwig
• Instrument VSTs: Bitwig instruments, Vital, Kontakt (Nucleus Lite strings), random drum samples, and more
• Effects VSTs: A bunch of Bitwig effects, SoundToys (Decapitator, EchoBoy, Crystallizer), and iZotope (Neutron 3, Nectar Plus, Neoverb), and more
• Vocals: EmeraldArcana

This song (technically) started life as a Two Hour Track Sunday song from last week, but even though some of the instruments and chords are the same, I tore out the old vocals, the old processing, and more to the point where you probably wouldn't recognize the songs if you put them next to each other. I went for the "party theme" obviously as a dance party with ghosts and stuff. It's meant to be a little saccharine and bouncy without being too extreme, and I intentionally went for a hook that was pretty up-front. Enjoy.

Hi to you all and specially to newbies!
Here’s my proposal for this month's challenge. The piece talks about autumn, its warm colors and the melancholic atmosphere it evokes. I had composed the melody and other ideas shortly before the start of the pandemic; the title was just “AUTUMN”! I had created a file together with the cellist Paolo Grandi which consisted solely of a MIDI piano track and some melodies played by him and subsequently doubled by pizzicato and other underlinings. The piece was left unfinished and forgotten during the covid period. So… this month I picked up the track and decided to make an electronic orchestration mostly by directing some parts of the midi track towards other timbres. I chose vintage sounds, and I've even inserted the strings of the mellotron via the M-tron plugin. Even the color of the mix as a whole wants to create a 70s atmosphere with rather narrow spaces and warm colors. The short time available did not allow me to completely refine this idea but I think I have basically succeeded.

Instruments
Roland Fantom 8
Cello and Electric cello (played by Paolo Grandi)
Audio Interface Focusrite Clarett 8 Thunderbolt
M-Tron plugin
DAW: Reaper & its native FX
Voxengo SPAN plugin
Apple 32 band graphic EQ

Peak: -1,2
LUFS-I: -18,4 (both referred to the WAV file)

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

SoundCloud (for quick listening purpose only):

It is the 25th October 2021, 0:35 UTC+2/CEST - this month's Songwriting Competition has official ended

A very warm welcome to those "dipping a toe" into songwriting this month.


If I didn't miscount, we had 8 participants this month, which are 0 entries more/less compared to last month (8 entries), and 4 less compared to last year (12 entries). Please scroll further down below to read up on the game mechanics and the voting process.



The "staff balancing vote" add-on rule does not apply (I might add final words regardless / step in if there are ties)
"Sole Winners Podium" rule (equal or less than eight participants results in a single winner) does apply. (1-position Winners Podium)

There was no (number: 0) production submitted after the deadline
No (number: 0) entry has been disqualified (productions released outside of the game's timeframe)
No (number: 0) entry has been redacted



How do we go from there?

Over the course of the next (hopefully) 24-48 hours (usually up to 6-12 hours maximum after the game has ended), I'll gather all links into one post and hot-link to that from the first post of the thread. Please, no more changes to your entries, but please do check your links that these entries are downloadable. We then perform with the final feedback and "public vote" system.


We have 8 participants. That means that each participant can vote for 7 tracks, the staff will will not cast a balance vote, unless there is a tie that can't be broken (or if it would add a bit more spin to the game).

Keep the Rules and Guidelines in mind. 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 7 list can look something like this:

01 (10 pts) - Mr Moon
02 (09 pts) - Mr Sun
03 (08 pts) - Mrs Venus
04 (07 pts) - Mr Mars and his companions
05 (06 pts) - ...

Please take a look at the last two Songwriting Competition for how your feedback and vote could look like (sans the super technical information):
SWC049 - Song Collection and follow-up
SWC048 - Song Collection and follow-up

Please cast your vote in collective form through the "spoiler text" bbcode, in this form (for me to read more easily): 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 (see post #7) on giving feedback (mandatory for all participants, the only main criteria to get disqualified if you do not participate). Even if you already gave feedback prior to the deadline, please offer some final encouraging words, and maybe give some additional tips for possible improvements on the way.

Feedback from non-participants is highly encouraged (voting not needed!). The same goes for entries after the deadline, or those that sadly do not count for the current running game (even if you've exceeded the deadline, why not post your entry regardless?). Musicians and Engineers are always after constructive criticism. This is what this forum is about.




Have some general feedback? Please voice your feedback/opinion/concerns here:
Songwriting Competition - General Gossip Thread



Please have an eye on this thread!

Let us kick off the VOTING PROCESS, which will end on Monday, 01-NOV-2021 23:59 UTC+1/CET latest


There is a GLOBAL COUNTDOWN to check for deadlines.
Just follow this link: Global Countdown (on homepage)



Here is the collection of productions from all participants (in hope that I didn't forget anyone). As usual, if you click on the small upwards-arrow right beside the quoted name, you can jump to the original post and read up on the documentation for this production.


.

EsteveCorbera wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 17, 2021 01:05 CEST

"Autumn Parade"

Arelem wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 19, 2021 18:51 CEST

"To The Top"

fjansenson wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 21, 2021 14:52 CEST

"Out of Control"

gruskada wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 22, 2021 00:19 CEST

"Eerie Day"

becsei_gyorgy wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 23, 2021 23:49 CEST

"Madrugada"



Bonus Video:

phpBB [media]

Zavier Night wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 24, 2021 01:14 CEST

"Wicked Stimulation":

WAV: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DSV6PR ... sp=sharing

emeraldarcana wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 24, 2021 05:06 CEST

"Spooky Good Time"

Spooky Good Time - WAV
Spooky Good Time - MP3

celiodie wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 24, 2021 19:55 CEST

"Autumn"



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

Bonus Video:

phpBB [media]

.



BONUS ENTRIES (submitted after the deadline - feel free to give feedback, but you sadly can not vote for these entries)

A Future in Noise wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 27, 2021 22:03 CEST

"Smash the Pumpkins" ( not finnished)

.


Please consult the last post on how your vote could look like (which links to more sources). And to make it simple for me for counting the votes - please use the forum usernames in your listing. Thank you!

SWC050 participants giving feedback to each other (to every participant) is mandatory. Ideally, please focus on the "overall experience", and what you think could be improved in a future release of this production (technical or even instrumentation), maybe even provide the occasional tip for mixing. Please be open minded, objective and constructive.


INFORMATION: If you've submitted your entry in multiple file formats, the statistic sheet (posted alongside the results) will focus on the uncompressed material first (WAV), then FLAC, then MP3. The higher the quality, the less possible loss on bonus points for "Loudness Specs" due to offsets introduced by a used CODEC.


Good luck to all participants!




If you have an idea for a future Songwriting Competition, please post about this in the theme/genre request page.

fjansenson "Out of Control" is already activated in Soundcloud for downloading.

Upper post edited.

Let's see how long the download will last (I have a feeling, SoundCloud has a limit). But as usual, I already downloaded all entries for the Statistics Sheet at the end of the voting period. Looking forward to read each others' feedback and find out who made it to top spot this month.

Great submissions, good work everyone!

My feedback:
EsteveCorbera Autumn Parade: I really like the drums and sound selection. The guitar and brass sound really good, but after the brass comes in it might be best to drop the guitar part because it gets a little crowded.

fjansenson Out of Control: Sounds nice but maybe a little too ambient for a competition. It just doesn't have the same energy as some of the other entries. The siren coming in during the drop makes it feel like it's building to something but just ends up fading out. Overall though good job.

gruskada Eerie Day: The drums felt repetitive to me. I had to listen to see if they were the same throughout, and even though they aren't, I think maybe they are just a little too busy with everything else going on. It definitely had a good eerie marching band-type feeling to it and all the different sections went together well.

becsei gyorgy Madrugada: great use of panning, really kept things interesting. The singing is also really good. My only critique would be that apart from the intro and outro, there really isn't much of melody anywhere because the instruments are pushed into the background (except the trumpet? but that doesn't seem to be playing any specific melody). That is being pretty nit-picky though, it's a really good song overall!

Zavier Night Wicked Stimulation: I really liked the experimental feel to it, very interesting to listen to. I didn't care for the piercing kick carrying on through the whole song though, I would have changed it after the intro to something more standard but still punchy. The song also is missing out on the low end. There just isn't much going on in the lower register.

emeraldarcana Spooky Good Time: I like the idea here but it's pretty basic and the pads were a bit thin. A song can be basic but it still needs something to grab on to. I think some different sound selections could really make this song have more of an impact.

celiodie Autumn: I really like the piano throughout the song; it sounds great. Really all the instruments sound good. I like that you kept changing things out but kept the main melody to keep things familiar. At around the 4:40 mark the arp-ey keys feel out of time with the rest of the song. Overall though it is a very nice song, good work!

My votes:

*
Smash the Pumpkins (inspired by Lionel Richie and the Clash, among others).

Bonus track, not finnished

Because of the wickedness I didn't want to withhold this from you. (ZynAddSubFx used several times, as usual.)