Mix Challenge

Posted: **Tue Oct 29, 2024 17:05 CET**

ThomC wrote: ↑
Sun Oct 27, 2024 12:46 CET
7. Ryanc : I like the way the drums and vocals remind me of 90s music, there's an "Extreme - More Than Words" feel to your song / the way you sing. I really like the progression of the song, the chorus has a hit song quality to it and it leads perfectly to the climax at the end. The lyrics are perfectly in tune with the theme and there's a great double meaning in the lines :
"And they say you reap what you sow
But no one ever warned me it would take so long to grow"

Very well written, sung, performed and composed, great job!

Improvements - Suggestions :

- At 1:53 that last chorus screams for a vocal harmony haha, it's not mandatory obviously, but it does call for that kind of thing
- Some strummed left & right acoustic guitars in the choruses could add more contrast to your track (or something similar. It feels to me like the elements of your mix are very often centered (the guitars) when they could be panned left and right to give more depth to the arrangement.
- This song, again, feels like a hit song to me. It reminds me of some great producers showing the cassette recording of a yet-to-be-superfamous track in their studio to tell the story of how the song became a supermega hit. What I'm saying is, that this is defnitely one to improve and take further, it sounds great!

Thank you so much for this detailed feedback and very kind words of encouragement. You're totally right about vocal harmonies in the second chorus - I'll get working on it!

Posted: **Tue Oct 29, 2024 17:12 CET**

PonySho wrote: ↑
Mon Oct 28, 2024 19:21 CET
ryanc Law of the harvest
I like this song. A clear and catchy vocal melody with instrumentation that builds the energy and interest as the song progresses. The song has a very listenable radio structure. I love the energy build at the middle 8 at 2.29s then the big drop after this. Somehow the song seemed too short in duration. I feel that some effort went into this...to write a song from scratch and play most of the instrumentation can be a lot more effort than knocking out midi notes on a keyboard. Certainly, it's more difficult to get a balanced mix when working with raw recordings vs making electronic music.
Likes: Songwriting, arrangement, structure, melody, lyrics.
Dislikes: the stop at 0.34s lost momentum. The snare choice seemed wrong and was distracting for me. The clicking of your hand against the body of the guitar was a bit out of time with the drums, giving quite a jarring feeling to the rhythm.

Thank you for your compliments and for this feedback. Very helpful input.

Posted: **Tue Oct 29, 2024 17:54 CET**

OlliH wrote: ↑
Sun Oct 27, 2024 17:48 CET
I'm happy to answer all the questions. My guitar is made by a small one man company called HMS guitars (HMS = hand made stuff, hms-guitars.fi). Each guitar is different, but the main body is the same. My guitar happens to have tremolo bar and two mics: "Seymour Duncan Hot Tele Bridge STL-2 Guitar Pickup (single coil) and "Seymour Duncan Jazz Neck Black SH-2N Guitar Pickup (Humbucker"). These microphones, of course, are essential for the sound. With one switch I can get 5 different combinations. Just perfect for my preferences (50's and 60's rockabilly and country sounds) and good enough for other purposes.

I have also other guitars but they are normally too far (3 m behind my back) to use them, so I'm happy to use this one which I can reach without getting up. As I'm just testing ideas, I want to work quickly.

Open chords 0.40-
GUITAR directly in => EQ (bx_digital) => AMP (bx_rockrack with Clean Jazz amp) => REVERB (Tsar-1R) => Tremolo => DONE
It was late night when I played in those chords, so not to wake anyone, I played them very softly just with my thumb. Had it been a daytime I would have automatically used plectrum, and I would never had reach that same melancholy that's now in those chords.

First electric solo 0.50-
GUITAR directly in => CRUNCH (Devil-loc) => EQ (Nova GE) => AMP (bx_rockrack with Clean English 530 amp) => Vocal enhancer => REVERB (Tsar-1R) => DONE

Within those chains essential are only bx_rockrack and Devil-Loc

Thanks for the nice comments! I wasn't expecting any votes, as this month I chose to trod somewhat weirdo way.

Thank you for all the info, I really like your clean tones and I often forget to use Plugin Alliance's amp sims, their chandler amp sim sounds great too. I like that you used the Vocal Enhancer on the saturated guitars, it's great at pushing some of those higher frequencies with a different colour than what can be achieved with EQ.

I didn't know the HMS guitars, but it sounds like they fit perfectly with your playing style. Do you think that a custom made guitar is a big advantage over commercially made guitars?

Thanks again for all the info, great thought process and sounds!

Posted: **Tue Oct 29, 2024 17:59 CET**

I really enjoyed participating in this month's competition. I used to be pretty active in this community a few years back but, of course, life gets busy and I stopped participating - apparently long enough for my account to be deactivated and I had to re-register.
I've continued writing songs over the years, though, and quite serendipitously something happened to remind me of this community earlier this month so I thought I'd come back and see if this site is still up and running. I was delighted to see that it still is and took a look at this forum to see if October's theme spoke to me and if I had time to make anything.
Despite my late start, after reviewing the theme of Harvest, inspiration began to flow pretty freely and I had the song completely written within two days, which is very fast for me - I usually have to let song ideas marinate for quite a while. So that's been a very fulfilling experience for me. I'm really happy with the song, too. There are a few things I intend to change with it - much of which has been brought to my attention by the generous and constructive feedback I've received from you, my fellow competitors, for which I am grateful.
And that's the other big takeaway from my return to the forum: I'm very appreciative of the opportunity to rub virtual shoulders with others who are passionate about songwriting and music who have strengths, talents, and perspectives different from my own. From you I have already learned much and have become better aware of the areas in which I can improve, and received specific but encouraging suggestions on where to start. Thank you, my new friends, and thank you to Mister Fox for creating and facilitating this environment!

Great work, everybody, on your song entries! Here is my specific feedback:

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My votes:

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Posted: **Tue Oct 29, 2024 20:36 CET**

ThomC wrote: ↑
Tue Oct 29, 2024 17:54 CET
Do you think that a custom made guitar is a big advantage over commercially made guitars?

No, I don't. Unless the guitar is tailor made for you with big money according to your own exact wishlist. And to be successful in defining exactly what you want, you have to know what you want. I.e. you have to be well-established pro guitar player. I would never buy a guitar without first trying it. And there's so many tested commercially models available, so it shouldn't be difficult process to find a suitable for one's hands. So, in normal situation I would certainly go that route.

The guitar I happen to have, was not made for me. It is probably some sort of prototype because it had cracks in the body and scratches in its surface. And that was a good thing! It gave me a permission to modify it. Instead of learning how to polish a wooden perfect beauty, I've learned how to mold it to be a tool for my purposes. I have taken it to pieces, studied every part, tried to learn how to paint a guitar, etc. I even reshaped the neck from some D-profile to modern thin C-profile. I split the front plastic sheet into two parts, so that I can access electronics easily without removing strings, and in future do some experiments.

Posted: **Wed Oct 30, 2024 19:52 CET**

hi guys, sorry if I posted single reviews for every song, I didn't nderstand you have to make a single post, so for this time as I already reviewed every entry I hope you will understand and in this post I will just put my top 5, now I know how to do for the next time, sorry again.

So my top 5 are:

1-Ollih
2-Rianc
3-MellowBrowne
4-ThomC
5-PonYsho

This was a funny one with few entries but everyone was original and interesting.

I just want to take a moment to also thank MrFox, for his dedication to mantain alive this community, and above all for how he manages this site and these competitions in an honest and dedicated manner.

I come from big competions sites like Metapop, which has closed some time ago and Skio, which now is more scammish than ever.
Nowadays almost evey music competition site is a scam, a way to make money from wannabes and from artist that want use musicians just to have a little bit more of visibility.
Out of 1000 remix they will listen maybe to 40, it's just a system to make money and there is near to 0 value to the community.
As you use them just to have some HQ samples to have fun making some remix it's ok, but now that companies like Skio are gone subscription only, I can appreciate even more the genuinity of small community like this one.

Yes on the other side MrFox is very meticulous when it comes to the many many rules but that shows how he cares about his community and music.

So thanks again MrFox and everyone, hope to have the time to keep partecipating in the next ones!

Posted: **Wed Oct 30, 2024 20:54 CET**

My objective this month was to compose a track using only the acoustic guitar, and I felt that the use of this instrument fitted in well with the theme.
Not easy to record something like that. I had to proceed in several stages and to save time, I took the easy way out and recorded the acoustic guitar using the piezzo mic...
It seemed like a good idea at the time, easier to record, but then much harder to mix.
Impossible to achieve the expected result
The result is OK, but could have been much better with a microphone recording, especially as I have a good NTK rode mic that was sleeping in its case...
What I've learned is that it's better to spend a little more time recording well, and thus get a better result and save time at the mixing stage.
That's the lesson I've learned this month... Otherwise, it allowed me to experiment with IR and multiband compressors on acoustic electro.

My feedback:

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My top 5:

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Posted: **Wed Oct 30, 2024 23:19 CET**

Good night,

As always thank you all for participating and thank you Mister Fox for organizing this competition. Thank you all for the comments and votes you have given me so far. This month it's funny that we all opted for specific styles of music and to a similar extent. There is nothing out of place. This time I wanted to try new instruments (Crow Hill Vaults, UVI Workstation, KONTAKT Heavyocity Foundations Nylon Guitar, Rob Papen PredatorRE Instrument ) mostly free. I wanted to do something more orchestral and give the track some feeling, so I wanted to add the cello. The UVI Virharmonic Bohemian Cello Bookcase is very expressive and has turned out great. The gong at the end was a little joke and I've seen some colleagues point it out.

Reflection: There is a fellow who has confessed that he only has two synthesizers in his tools. This makes me think that accumulating purchased and/or free plugins leads nowhere. When with few plugins you can do very decent things. I still have to detox.

Thank you

I leave you comments about your works:

Elcubano - Cycle of Seasons
Nice guitar work. He reminds me a lot of Mike Oldfield. But the sounds you put below, as background, seem terrifying with some dissonances, but I guess they are related to the changes of season you want to describe. Curious choice.
I like the sound of the acoustic guitar. It has always seemed to me a very beautiful sound. I would like to know how to play it like that. bravo

PonySho – Growing Pains
good work good mix Good ideas, well worked and original mix of pop/disco/funk. Funny that you only have two synthesizers, I have too many (maybe more than 100) so you know how to get the most out of yours and I always rely on presets.
I don't have too much more to tell you, maybe to add some more variation at the end.

Chasey24 – Harvest Sunset
Topic off to a good start. And very appropriate to the theme of the month, with that country taste.
At minute 1:31 something happens and the sound loses a bit of intensity, luckily when you introduce the orchestra, it helps fill it out. I like the melody and the orchestral touches. Very good work.

Crispy – Flexing The Harvest
I like the disco/funky atmosphere (I don't know how to define it). It's a very sticky topic. I imagine Johnny dancing in the car. The effects you put here and there are very well done.
As a criticism I would say that there are sounds that are in too different planes, as a colleague says maybe a little more work is needed in the reverberations. But that's a matter of taste.

OlliH – My Life From Seed To Vegetable
Amazing start and argument of your topic (the life of a plant or you) also amazing. The comparison you make between you and the vegetables also makes me think.
Oddly enough, I've told you this before: you have certain traits that are recognizable in your music. I wouldn't know how to say it in musical terms, but there are certain notes or transitions that I've already heard in other songs of yours, and therefore, it makes you have your own style.
Regarding your current theme, I must say that it is difficult for me to follow the musical thread with so many different parts.

Ryanc - Law of the Harvest
Nice song with good vocal performance. good work
I like the description you make of the effort in the introductory text of your theme and in the lyrics of the song.
Things you can work on more: The spatiality of the instruments. It all sounds too dry. Add some reverb here and there and the track will be nicer.

IkeHmope – Harvest Morning
The voice you used is amazing. It reminds me of the voice of a peasant singing while he works. Certainly, I too have imagined an old movie with a protagonist dressed in a checkered shirt working in the field with the morning sun warming his face and his wife calling him from the house to go get food.
Sound with mono, what a nice detail to give consistency to your song and place it temporarily away.

MellowBrowne – Neo Funk
Good decision regarding the style of music you have chosen. It is very charming to imagine how this funky seed grows. Your music accompanies an imaginary scene where you are watching this plant grow.
Good job with the instruments and with the details you put in each place. Everything is in its place and there is nothing to disturb.

KukoBass - Hope Will Grow
I like the mixture quite moist. The battery isn't right here in front of my face, it's a bit further away. Give it warmth and reality.
I wish I could have heard your voice, but the piano that replaces it is very good. I like the feeling that the melody gives me, especially around 2:25. Nostalgia...

ThomC - Stories of The Sky
I really like the beginning of your topic. The trumpet looks great. Very well the final orchestra, great this ending. Congratulations because you managed to make a great song in a very short time. You may be new to this forum but you are not new to the world of music. There is a great level here.

(translated with google, sorry for the imperfections that the translation may contain)

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Posted: **Thu Oct 31, 2024 02:55 CET**

Reflection and Lessons Learned:
Well...where do I start? Lots of lessons learned this go-around.
1. Probably should change my melody-writing method

. In all honesty, I didn't try to plagiarize Sting's "Fields of Gold". After listening to his track after several of you commented on it, the melody does sound eerily similar. What I did in this instance of composing the melody was to play what "sounded good" over my chord progressions. Perhaps not the best way that I should write melodies going forward.

2. My string arrangement and writing needs attention. I haven't done a lot of this in the past, so I believe I'll do a deep dive on techniques and strategies for more realistic-sounding mock-ups.
3. I learned to move the phrases around in NI's session guitarist series to match what I was looking for. When I first started using these libraries, I had no idea. It isn't terribly difficult, but I had never taken the time or put in the effort to learn how. Mystery solved!
4. I recently picked up Ozone 11. I took the time to study the manual and watch the tutorials; I think it was time well spent. While far from a perfect mix/master, it turned out better than most of my previous work(at least the final product sounded mostly how I had envisioned it).
5. I suck as a music producer. But that's one of the reasons I'm here. I want to improve. Michael Jordan once said, "I've missed more than 9,000 shots...lost 300 games. Twenty-six times I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." My interpretation of his words: with success comes many failures.

Feedback:

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Elcubano - Cycle of Seasons: There's quite a lot of technically sophisticated guitar playing going on here. Bravo! I like the structure of your composition as it fits this month's theme well. To my ears, the mix is well done. Listened to this in the car, monitors, headphones. It translates with all.

PonySho - Growing Pains: A good meshing of electronica with analog flavors. Interesting chord progression and harmonies. A mix of upbeat bassline with a hint of melancholy elsewhere. The mix is good on my monitors, but sounds better on headphones, IMO.
crispy - Flexing The Harvest: I like the variety of instrumentation in this one. The background story is entertaining. I like the transition at around the 3 minute mark and the ending where it sounds like you're going "lo-fi" or "flexing" the highpass filter. Well done overall mix. Not my favorite genre, but fitting for the theme.

crispy - Flexing The Harvest: I like the variety of instrumentation in this one. The background story is entertaining. I like the transition at around the 3 minute mark and the ending where it sounds like you're going "lo-fi" or "flexing" the highpass filter. Well done overall mix. Not my favorite genre, but fitting for the theme.

EsteveCorbera - Els Fruit De La Tardor: Very beautiful piece of music. Nice variety of instrumentation. It does, as you say, sound like a soundtrack, and could very well be music in a film. I like the ebb and flow of the song. It gave me feelings of joy and anticipation. The mix sounded great to me. I didn't really feel the gong at the end was a good fit, but otherwise fantastic job!

OlliH - My life from seed to vegetable: Very imaginative and creative piece; fitting for the theme. Really hard to pin down a genre for this one...maybe multi-genre is the best descriptive. Excellent musicianship with guitar, keyboards, etc. Interesting use of Pedal Steel. An enjoyable concept track. No complaints on the mix.

ryanc - Law of the Harvest: Very enjoyable listen. Kudos and extra points for guitar playing and singing. This recording reminds me of songs that a friend of mine writes, and also comes to mind when I hear the term "singer-songwriter". Given that we don't have much time to put these songs together, you went over and above in my opinion. The song structure is excellent. The lyrics are good, and you made them musical with the vocal slurs, etc.The drum part and mixing could be improved, but otherwise excellent song.

Ike H-mope - Harvest Morning: Personally, not a fan of musicals...except maybe "The Blues Brothers"(if you can consider it a musical). Regardless, this is very well done, in my opinion. Your vision of a 1960s musical has come to life in glorious monophonic sound. It really does sound like something from a movie with Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland.

Mellow Browne - Neo Funk: Cool funking track! Creative use of samples, I must say. It fits the theme very well. An enjoyable listen, for sure. The mix sounded really good to me.

KukoBass - Hope Will Grow: I really like this song. It certainly doesn't sound rushed(you had called it an abandoned WIP). The field recording at the beginning and the end was a nice touch, and gives it more of an organic feel. I thought the melody was catchy. Good job on the string parts. I own "Power Strings" and it sounds great on your mix. I don't think the snare sounds out of place; on the contrary- it fits well into this song. Overall: Excellent song and mix!

ThomC - Stories of the Sky: Wow! If you can put something like this together in less than a day, I'd shudder to think what you could do with 24 days! Excellent song. Very good lyrics. Fantastic composition. Vocals are very well mixed with the background harmonies pleasing to the ear. 30 minutes of my mixing wouldn't be more than an EQ or two on a track. Great, efficient piece of music.

ROboooo - Sunrise Fields: This song made me feel as if I was in a field at sunrise, which I assume is what you were aiming for. It kind of has a jazzy, new-age feel to it. A beautiful piece of composing, in my opinion. Obviously, you are musically talented. Looking forward to more of your compositions in upcoming competitions.

Top Five:(very difficult to rank, as the submissions were all SO good this month)

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Posted: **Fri Nov 01, 2024 00:18 CET**

A friendly reminder:
We're in the final 24 hours to submit your feedback and cast your vote.

As of this moment, 1 participant is missing (@KukoBass), @Chasey24 misses feedback for one user (for crispy, actually), and I took note of @crispy's commentary regarding having given feedback already.

@R0boooo is not part of this feedback round, but feedback did arrive. I would love to see some additional interaction here.

Please check post #071 regarding the feedback and voting mechanic. Giving feedback is mandatory (the only criteria to become disqualified). Please don't let yourself be put at a disadvantage by not participating (fully). The Songwriting Competition lives from the given feedback towards each other. Don't just "collect" and then move on - this is unfair to all other participants.

Outside feedback is welcome, of course.

Mix Challenge

SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC086 October 2024 - Winners announced

Re: SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC086 October 2024 - Voting until 01-NOV-2024 23:59 UTC+1/CET

Re: SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC086 October 2024 - Voting until 01-NOV-2024 23:59 UTC+1/CET

Re: SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC086 October 2024 - Voting until 01-NOV-2024 23:59 UTC+1/CET

Re: SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC086 October 2024 - Voting until 01-NOV-2024 23:59 UTC+1/CET

Re: SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC086 October 2024 - Voting until 01-NOV-2024 23:59 UTC+1/CET

Re: SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC086 October 2024 - Voting until 01-NOV-2024 23:59 UTC+1/CET

Re: SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC086 October 2024 - Voting until 01-NOV-2024 23:59 UTC+1/CET

Re: SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC086 October 2024 - Voting until 01-NOV-2024 23:59 UTC+1/CET

Re: SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC086 October 2024 - Voting until 01-NOV-2024 23:59 UTC+1/CET

SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC086 October 2024 - Voting until 01-NOV-2024 23:59 UTC+1/CET