SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC037 September 2020 - Winners announced

[Olli H]

EDIT: new version added

This time I tried NOT to be creative, so that my submission matches the genre better. So, I guess this is some sort of pastiche.



I mimiced a kick pattern that was in quite many lo-fi songs. Not perhaps exactly but the way I afterwards remembered them.



The chord progression is stolen from my last months d&b-submission. It’s been haunting me for some time, so why not study its potential and use it several times?



I listened quite much to those lo-fi samples given to us. Some of them had no melody line, some of the had full melodies. So, I decided to go the middle way: my submission has a half melody. It mainly follows notes from the chords.



On the music channel I used kick as a side-chaining source. In the examples given to us, some songs used that trick very strongly, some didn’t use it at all. Again, middle way: it’s there but not overly loud.



Vinyl sounds were - I guess - compulsory for this genre. I automated many vinyl effects: scratches, dust, warping…



On the master channel plenty of automation on low-pass filter.

DAW: Reaper
Piano: Kontakt
Electric Piano: Kontakt
Drums: Battery + samples
Juno Bass: Trilian

Lo-Fi Feeling:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/19xUYgb ... sp=sharing

Momentary Max = -7.73 LUFS
Short Term Max = -11.18 LUFS
Integrated = -14.61 LUFS

[becsei_gyorgy]

Faces Of Love

DAW: Reaper
BPM: 84



VST:
Arturia Spark 2
Spitfire LABS
IK Modo Bass
Sublab
Korg M1
Kontakt:
Ilya Efimov Acoustic Guitar
Session Horns
Celestial Voices Ceres
PS Solo Violin Legato

FX:
Waves EMO-Generator
Audiothing Reels
Fabfilter Pro Q3
bx_cleansweep Pro
bx_control V2
bx_console SSL 4000 G
Soundtoys Decapitator
Soundtoys Echoboy
ReaComp
IK TR5 VC-670
IK TR5 Black 76
Cableguys Shaperbox 2
Kickstart
PA Vertigo VSC-2
Waves RVox
Ambeo Orbit
Eventide Blackhole
Valhalla Vintage Verb

bx_digitalV3
Ozone 9
Waves SSL Compressor
Tonal Balance Control
Voxengo SPAN
Voxengo Correlometer
Youlean Loudness Meter

2 Samples:
1 One-shot vinyl crackle from Splice
1 Bible verses (1 Corinthians 13 (Love)) by envirOmaniac2 from Freesound

phpBB [media]

[Mellow Browne]

Ayo,

the idea was to go to the r&b/neo soul side of lofi hip hop: rusty drums, a smooth bassline and a mellow sine wave chord progression with vocals on top to create a "real hook" like in r&b songs. The autotune effect (I'm a bad singer ) is just for the style factor to make it a more modern production, the rest is tuned with flex pitch (A LOT). The lyrics are pretty much freestyle and because of the lofi genre very minimalistic
I used side chain compression on most instruments to get the ducking effect and to create that "bounce" for the drums.
Some volume automation is going on and other stuff like filter sweeps, delay, wow/flutter etc.

DAW: Logic Pro X
Interface: UAD Apollo Twin mkII(I recorded through the Unison Neve Preamp)
Mic: Rode NT-2000
Speakers: Focal Shape 65
Headphones: Beyerdynamics DT 770 Pro
Bluetooth Speaker: JBL Flip 3 SE

VST:
Analog Lab Lite
Alchemy
Waves Element
Omnisphere
Drum Machine Designer

FX:
Instachord
Echoboy Sr. + Jr.
Arturia Rev Plate
Valhalla Supermassive
Valhalla Spacemodulator
Waves Tune Real Time
Caelum Audio Tape Cassette
Cableguys Pancake 2
Soundtoys Tremolator
and more

OTHERS:
Neutron 3 Elements
Waves C6
Waves F6
UAD Little VOG
UAD Pultec EQ
UAD Fairchild 670
NI Supercharger
and more

MASTERING:
UAD Oxide Tape
PA SPL Iron
IKM TR5 Classic Clipper
bx_digital v3
Ozone 9 Elements

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

Peace.

[TrojakEW]

Hi all,

I had a chance to lay down some keys and do a first draft of a mix, at the moment from a mix perspective, its over compressed and some of the clicks and pops come through too much bc of this, and the bass is unbalanced, im trying to find a good lo-fi feeling, without losing all clarity. But for now, its where it stands.

Interesting track. Like that "weird" experiment. It really makes this track different especially that part starting at1:33. Watch for true peaks and loudness suggestion in rules. Mix is bit muffled. Stage is very narrow almost kind of missing. Aldo do not forget about correct name of track.

I'm not sure about the bird squawk at the start - actually, I am sure: I'll get rid of it - and I'm also not sure about the snare, the kick, the mix, the tune and the guitars.

Bird squawk is not problem. Track is good. Nice vibe. Mix sound nice with good stage. Pinao could get more dynamics in performance since it kind of feel it is played on same velocity or with minimal changes in velocity. Another suggestion is to watch for true peaks (L = +0.50, R= +1.82) and loudness (-11.9 LUFS Integrated) and you forgot add your name to name track.

This is my first version. I might make some adjustments to it later, but just for sure, I add production notes now. Otherwise, I might forget it.



This time I tried NOT to be creative, so that my submission matches the genre better. So, I guess this is some sort of pastiche.



Track and composition are interesting. Mix is muffled and you have phasing problems on piano. Also that piano have kind of bad sounding resonance. I miss stage here. Looks like you made some width and depth by using reverb and that is all. No positioning and placing of instruments on virtual stage.

Faces Of Love

I love that detuned piano with combination of trumpet. That noise and vinyl crackling in background is too loud for me. Mix sounds bit cluttered and glued too much together but it may be possible because it sound muffled and only sound with air is that noise in background. SO it have kind of layered feel. Music in background and that noise that should be in background is in foreground.

the idea was to go to the r&b/neo soul side of lofi hip hop: rusty drums, a smooth bassline and a mellow sine wave chord progression with vocals on top to create a "real hook" like in r&b songs. The autotune effect (I'm a bad singer ) is just for the style factor to make it a more modern production, the rest is tuned with flex pitch (A LOT). The lyrics are pretty much freestyle and because of the lofi genre very minimalistic
I used side chain compression on most instruments to get the ducking effect and to create that "bounce" for the drums.
Some volume automation is going on and other stuff like filter sweeps, delay, wow/flutter etc.

What a hypnotizing tune. It work quite nicely. What I do not like is mix. Drums with bass are totally mono and also in some part kick is loosing power because of bass. Yes pure mono for drums can enhance some depth in some occasions but here it stick too much. Voice panning movement becomes bit annoying after while. Change in 1:40 is interesting and quite modern. I think you should improve mostly mix here.

[Square]

Thanks @TrojakEW that is good and specific feedback that helps, thanks for taking the time to do that.

I had my true peak limiter capping at -.3, perhaps I should limit that further to make sure no peaks are getting through. May I ask what people generally use as their true peak limit? To be honest I read somewhere years ago to limit peaks at -.2 so since then I just put it to -.3 for a bit of a net and haven't thought about it since... it's quite possible I've been mistaken for a while.

And ya, stereo width is something of a struggle for me, I always seem to destroy my mixes in mono by spreading too much in stereo, which creates phase issues and makes me think I have more space in the mid frequency range than i actually do, so, when played back mono, it is muddy with parts missing. And as i find it quite frustrating to mix in mono, i usually don't until I get to a point in the mix where I want to consider the stereo image then I just alternate between the two, however I'm trying to learn more about stereo spread, especially as I'm incorporating an outboard multi band tube compressor in my setup now, this really changes the stereo image of things, and usually for the best, but it can create little quirks in the mix with phasing etc

That and my other issue is (like many) the big bad bass. It just sounds so inconsistent on my monitors, headphones and different playback devices. This has led me to pair my setup with waves NX, but this can both be revealing and helpful , and simultaneously play tricks on your brain and be confusing. So I've tried to get a good starting point by the numbers, which although there is no one setting that could ever fit, I find it difficult to even know what general dynamic range I should be looking at for my lowest frequencies as there are so many opinions and artistic and genre differences, if anyone knows of any good resources they would reccomend for this, I'm all ears!

Anyways, thanks again mate, you also gave me a good reason to rant about my mix ^^

[becsei_gyorgy]

I love that detuned piano with combination of trumpet. That noise and vinyl crackling in background is too loud for me. Mix sounds bit cluttered and glued too much together but it may be possible because it sound muffled and only sound with air is that noise in background. SO it have kind of layered feel. Music in background and that noise that should be in background is in foreground.

Thanks for listening and thanks for your words.
And your observations are as accurate as usual.

When the song was pretty much put together, the background noise was much quieter. But I didn’t really like the overly clean - high - trumpet and clean guitar, plus due to the nature of the genre I tried to push everything in the middle and there really was no air sound. That's right.
And that’s when I decided to intentionally push the music back for a more melancholic sound (and to give it a little high with the noise).
As if you would hear music from the background e.g. through a rain cloud.

The truth is, I liked it better (in terms of the lo-fi genre) that way, with a veiled, noisy sound in foreground.
So you are absolutely right, but it is the result of a conscious choice, even if it is not necessarily a good choice.

[Double Tap]

I'm not sure about the bird squawk at the start - actually, I am sure: I'll get rid of it - and I'm also not sure about the snare, the kick, the mix, the tune and the guitars.

Bird squawk is not problem. Track is good. Nice vibe. Mix sound nice with good stage. Pinao could get more dynamics in performance since it kind of feel it is played on same velocity or with minimal changes in velocity. Another suggestion is to watch for true peaks (L = +0.50, R= +1.82) and loudness (-11.9 LUFS Integrated) and you forgot add your name to name track.

Thank you - I'll dig into Ozone to see how to fix those issues.

[Olli H]

Faces Of Love

I enjoyed the main melody line very much, both piano + horns. Well done. Especially the drumless and baseless part is very soulful and good (2.22-2.50).

Drum-snare-bass background riff is good, but as it is quite strong, it may be slightly too monotones.

Maybe the lo-fi effect is too dominant.

[Olli H]

Hello everybody, another SWC,

I enjoyed all the instruments and small details that you’ve created. And those small reversed effects and tremolos were nice.

Overall feeling is very relaxed. Especially when the bass comes in and ties everything together. Basic riff repeats maybe too much but 1.45 comes a very nice change. Well done!

But the brushed snare effect doesn’t convince me. It doesn’t have a real feeling. Those parts are much better, when it’s not there. If you can find somewhere a more delicate circling brushes sample, strech it and try to match it to the tempo of your song. It could make a big change to the groove.

[Olli H]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1l4kY9z ... sp=sharing

This has very nice melodic ideas, with well thought arrangement. It would be perfect for some cartoon movie.

As this one was so good, I listened it a bit more carefully.

0.15-1.27 drums are a bit unrelaxed. It’s almost there but some small nuances maybe with hi-hat that makes me think that it doesn’t fit perfectly yet to the melody line. It maybe some velocity change here and there that could fix the issue. Or it could be that there’s a too strict grid in the melody line. Hard to pinpoint what’s bothering me a bit. But the melodic idea and basic idea as such is superb. I would try to fix it by singing the melody line and tapping the hi-hat freely with pen, and then converting those to midi. After that kind of trick you might have natural groove, timing and velocity changes in both the melody and hi-hats,

1.35 starts totally new song in a new tempo. I was surprised of the change, for the whole song is only 2.23 long. You had just introduced the theme, and then you throw it away. But this later part is also very expressive, it produces a lot of images with in me. It would suit perfectly to some old Disney style cartoon movie. Someone is sneaking in with some bad intentions…

So you have two excellent themes in one short song. Wow!