Mix Challenge

DAW: FL Studio 20.1.1
Author/composer/producer: VCA-089
Title: Xenoscapes
Genre: Techno (Minimal)
BPM: 115
Key: E Minor (F# Minor)

WAV file: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1APG-M ... -nrUhilufb
Soundcloud FLAC:

So this is my first submission for this contest and I hope everything is done right. The mix could be off in some ways, I haven't trained my ears perfectly and there is also my current illnes that affecting my hearing. Still, hope you enjoy it.

Most of the sounds are created with One Small Clue "Grace" freeware sampler and it's built-in features, such as: looping, stretching, tempo sync, pitch shiting, filters, built-in ring modulators and lo-fi. The things like resampling, resynthesis, wavetables and granular synths are not used. When sample or a group of samples are loaded into Grace they not leaving it. External distortion, bitcrushing, sample rate reduction, granular effects and pitch/frequency shifters are not used.

Used plugins:

Generators:

x1 FL Studio sampler
x24 One Small Clue "Grace"

Native effects:

x4 Balance
x3 Parametric EQ 2
x10 Delay 3
x9 Reeverb 2
x3 Limiter
x3 Stereo Enhancer
x3 Flangus
x1 Wave Candy

VST effects:

x1 Sonimus "SonEQ"
x9 VoS "DensitymkIII"
x2 VoS "FerricTDS"
x1 VoS "NastyDLAmkII"
x5 TDR & VoS "SlickEQ"
x6 Thomas Mundt "LoudMax"
x4 Audiority "XenoVerb"
x1 Audio Thing "Outer Space"
x2 TAL "Filter 1"
x9 eaReckon "MIDI Polysher"

77 effects used in total.

Drums:

Kick drum -- General WAV tones "sin 400gz" with pitch modulation for body + "rect -6dBFS" for click.
Snare drum -- MarkS "chill out drums" with the snare hit extracted and layered with General WAV "Burst 1000gz" with pitch modulation to create a drum tone.
Toms -- Olly Audio "mix samples 042" with pitch modulation as a body and General WAV tones "white -6dBFS" as a snap. The result is very close to 909 toms.
Closed and open hitats -- FixInTheMix "metalhit" sample with strong amount of ring modulation and amp. envelope variations.
Noise hihat -- General WAV tones "white -6dBFS" with fast amp. envelope. Some of the hihat hits were sent to the channel with several delay units to create wierd rhythmic elements.
Cymbal -- FixInTheMix "metalhit" layered and looped several times to create cymbal hit and texture. Also sent to the delays.

Instruments:

Sub bass -- General WAV tones "sin 400gz" looped and pitch shifted. Very simple.
Metallic rumbling bass -- a segment of FixInTheMix "metalhit" sample looped to create a single cycle waveform, something closer to a classic FM bass. Than, passed through lowpass filter and aoutomated.
Bass guitar -- a note with a clear pitch extracted from evk "bass" loop, than passed through a compressor and BIAS FX Lite unit with a FX chain of: Booster>77 Silvertone low gain amp>EQ>Digital reverb with plate reverb setting. The result sounds quite keyboard'ish to me, so I think it will fit the genre.
Plucks arpeggio -- General WAV tones "rect -6dBFS" looped to create a pulse with sound, than passed through lowpass filter with envelope modulation. An undying classic.
Sweeping pad -- a segment of FixInTheMix "sustainedflute" sample looped to create mellow pad sound, than it passed through series of bandpass and lo-fi filters and than through tape flanger effect to create wide and wierd texture.
Etherial shimmer/choir pad -- donkeyt "accguitarloop1" stretched to the tempo and passed through extreme amounts of flanger and reverb.

Effects:

Spacecraft/UFO engine -- KyleJCrb "CarStartIdleVocalFoley" looped and pitchshifted, than passed through Grace's comb filter modulated by LFO. Than it processed through a chain of delay, flanger and reverb with extreme settings.
Processed loop -- MarkS "chill out drums" synced to tempo and processed through ring modulator, controlled by LFO. It has created some wierd chirpy sounds which works as a groove element.
Water heater noise -- a segment of noise from Mister Fox "Water Heater (Heatup)" sample looped, pitchshifted and passed through lowpass filter controlled by automation to create a classic noise sweep (with a touch of water heater warmth).
Water flow/rain soundscape -- a segment of flowing water from Mister Fox "Think Tank Flush" sample looped and passed through highpass filter. It is played several notes to create a dynamic water soundscape.
Lo-fi radio speech -- General WAV "Burst 1000gz" modulated by random LFO and passed through Grace's lo-fi filter. The keyboard controlling the amount of sample rate reduction to create different timbres on different octaves.
Feedback noises -- a segments of Mister Fox "Fun_with_Feedback_02" sample looped and pitch shifted (very high). It creates some wierd alien animal sounds.
Chirpies -- MarkS "synth keys" pitchshifted very high and passed throu a chain of effect, similar to spacectaft engine. It creates a passing birds sound (sounds more like bats tough).
Flanged Raiser -- Mister Fox "Fan Fast" sample with looping and pitch modulation, passed through comb filter which frequency controlled by an envelope. Than it passed through reverb and flanger with extreme settings. This sound is something like a distant spacecraft going into stratosphere.

I feel like almost every sound I made evolved into a guitar.

Benjamin Davis (Leonard Bowman) presents: Nutritious

BPM: 132 throughout
Key: d->g->c->f

FLAC: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bv88J2 ... sp=sharing
WAV: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Lo0mpS ... sp=sharing

Wavetable Synthesis feels like cheating in some ways, but I wanted to try it.

Sounds were made using the following samples in ReaSampl-O-Matic5000:
Xylophone: FixInTheMix metalhit, KyleJCrb Pa-TingVocalFoley (just the "ting," filtered), FixInTheMix sustainedflute, evk guitar (Paulstretched)
Flute: Pa-TingVocalFoley
Chord & Lead Guitar: metalhit
Kick Drum: metalhit (I used this as an articulation for most sounds), Pa-TingVocalFoley (just the 'P'), sustainedflute (I used sustainedflute for all of my drum heads)
Toms: metalhit, sustainedflute, guitar (Paulstretched)
Snare: metalhit (filtered), metalhit, Mister Fox Electric Toothbrush
Open & Closed Hats: Electric Toothbrush
Crash Cymbal 1: metalhit, Electric Toothbrush, Mister Fox Water Heater (Heatup), sustainedflute
Crash Cymbal 2: metalhit, metalhit (Paulstretched), sustainedflute

The following sounds also used Quilcom Harvester for granular synthesis:
Choral Bass (using guitar (Paulstretched))
Flute (using sustainedflute)

The following sounds used FullBucket Modulair 0.8.0 for wavetable synthesis:
Strings (using Swoosh Higher)
Chord Guitar (using OllyAudio mix-samples-036 and metalhit (Paulstretched))
Chord Guitar (using mix-samples-036, guitar (Paulstretched) and metalhit (Paulstretched))
Sax (using mix-samples-036)
Bass 2 (using mix-samples-036 and metalhit (Paulstretched))

Effects-wise, I used some distortion, EQ, compression, reverb, and a little bit of a granular effect named Argotlunar. I can prepare a full list if y'all want it.

Composed in MuseScore, Produced in REAPER, some sounds edited in Audacity.

Enjoy!

-- small note for when y'all do this again --
My favorite samples were the vocal foleys and the sustained flute, because they immediately presented several different sound design options.

It is the 28th January 2019, 4:50am GMT+1/CET - this month's Songwriting Competition has official ended

Hello and welcome to the new participants. Thank you so much for your participation and entries during the deadline extension. Please keep in mind, future Songwriting Competitions go back to the 24th of the month as end-date.

We had 7 participants, which is 1 entry more compared to last month (6 entries). We're sadly one participant short for a full winners podium.
The "staff balancing vote" add-on rule does not apply
"Sole Winners Podium" rule (equal or less than seven participants results in a single winner) does apply.

There were no productions submitted after the deadline



How do we go from there?

Over the course of the next (hopefully) 24-48 hours, I'll gather all links into one post and hot-link to that from the first post of the thread. So please, check your links again. Mistakes and hiccups do happen on the internet. We then perform with the "public vote" system.


We have 7 participants, those being: FixInTheMix, MarkS, TheNeverScene, TrojakEW, johnnyhoff, VCA-089, Leonard Bowman
That means that each participant can vote for 6 tracks, the staff will not cast a balance vote

The Top 10 list (or Top 4 per participant rather) can look something like this:

01 (10 pts) - Mr Moon
02 (9 pts) - Mr Sun
03 (8 pts) - Mrs Venus
04 (7 pts) - Mr Mars and his companions
05 (6 pts) - Mr Hale-Bopp
06 (5 pts) - The Rings of Saturn
...

How your voting could look like, please take a look at these posts (sans the technical information):
viewtopic.php?p=2311#p2311
viewtopic.php?p=2478#p2478
viewtopic.php?p=2819#p2819
viewtopic.php?p=3522#p3522



Please also take note of the Rules and Guidelines on giving feedback (mandatory for participants, failing to do so results in a disqualification)

Feedback from non-participants is highly encouraged (voting not needed!). Musicians and Engineers are always after constructive criticism. This is what this forum is about.



If you have an idea for a theme/genre or want to see a specific theme tackled in the future, please voice your opinion here:
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=168



Please have an eye on this thread!

Let us kick off the VOTING PROCESS, which will end on Friday, 01-FEB-2019 11:59pm GMT+1/CET latest
IMPORTANT: Due to the deadline extension, that is only 5 days!


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:

FixInTheMix wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 16, 2019 20:58 CET

"Adaptation"

WAV: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1uTLsO ... vB-cUNXzeX
MP3: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1MsVbv ... r1jHKV_BwA

MarkS wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 24, 2019 11:33 CET

"Someday"

WAV: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1u58jl85a2jx1 ... y.WAV?dl=0

TheNeverScene wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 26, 2019 01:49 CET

"Crowded Thoughts"

wav file at: https://www.dropbox.com/s/yse29oagh6m4p ... s.wav?dl=0
mp3 file at: https://www.dropbox.com/s/qbf167glrv1zl ... s.mp3?dl=0

TrojakEW wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 26, 2019 15:55 CET

"Journey"

jonnyhoff wrote: ↑

Sat Jan 26, 2019 20:05 CET

"Scramble"

WAV: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1iOxDH ... RNCMeJFZnY
MP3: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1xZ6U1 ... YhpEqQ27bI

VCA-089 wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 27, 2019 14:58 CET

"Xenoscapes"

WAV file: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1APG-M ... -nrUhilufb
Soundcloud FLAC: https://soundcloud.com/vca089/swc017-vc ... le/s-PLuy7

Leonard Bowman wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 27, 2019 22:53 CET

Benjamin Davis (Leonard Bowman) presents: "Nutritious"

FLAC: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bv88J2 ... sp=sharing
WAV: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Lo0mpS ... sp=sharing

.


Please consult the last post of how your vote could look like (which links to more sources).

To make it easier on yourself, and more helpful for each participant, maybe focus on the overall production value. What you really liked with the song, what you'd like to see improved, etc.

SWC017 participants giving feedback to each other and casting a vote is mandatory, else you will be disqualified


Good luck to all participants!

So looks like I'm first. I listened tracks before voting carefully and made some notes about them so it is easier now. First three positions were hard to choose for me. Very hard. BTW Good too see some more faces from KVR OSC here.

TheNeverScene - Crowded Thoughts 10pts
This is quite unexpected track from you. I was waiting for same crazy aggressive stuff with crazy drum patterns. Still the track is nice. Good mood with some nice sounds. I like the break at 2:38 when lead/trumpet is introduced. Mix is nice there with nice stage. What I think that this stage you set can be used even better with some interesting instruments positioning. Now it feels more like some sounds (bass kick) are pure mono in mid and the rest is just on side with gentle panning modulation/ping pong delay.

FixInTheMix - Adaptation 9pts
Interesting track with some very nice melodic parts.Sound design is also very nice. Some very cool sounds here. Nice clean mix with nice stage. There is same "issue" for me like TheNeverScene have in his track and that's positioning of instruments. The same you have mono instruments and stereo that is not positioned anywhere and space/stage is created with modulation of panning or delay with pan mod. It makes me feels like the instrument players walk through the stage whole time from left to right of right to left. Sometime it is good but not when almost all players walks through the stage.

VCA-089 - Xenoscapes 8pts
Ahh finally more realistic stage in track. Best sounding mix for me in this round. Very good sound design. There is a lot of stuff going on but it feels more like jus triggering certain sound in time. As composition it doesn't feels it evolve or going somewhere. It just plays without gradation or without any goal. It have some soul but does not using it to full potential. Maybe this is how it should be in this music style but for me it doesn't matter how somebody define certain style. Music should be like a book. Book that doesn't go anywhere will not go anywhere and become forgotten. It really really sounds great but it is like book with just a nice cover.

Leonard_Bowman - Nutritious 7pts
I will same almost same things as I said in KVR OSC. Composition is excellent. But track suffer from weak mix and instrument/sound design. It sounds like midi files playback through OPL synthesizer. Your composition really needs different instruments. Expression from playing different part with different dynamics. It is not just about volume but about instruments itself that behave differently based how hard you hit them. Sound design for body of the instruments is there but that's all. You didn't finished your work on them. I like the theme and it is nice track but it is really hard to enjoy your cool composition with those sounds. Even I really like you style and this awesome composition this competition is not just about composition but about overall quality in every part.

JHO - scramble 6pts
There is something unique in this simple track that makes it very atmospheric. I have been making beats very long time ago so I know what are you wanting to do but still most of beats feels too simple. Same pattern over and over. You are no expception in that. This makes track feel too repetitive. Regarding mix, you went too far with the bass. I do enjoy boomy stuff but I think this is too much and my woofer just demolished my room. Everything from my shelf fall down and windows almost fall apart.

MarkS - Someday 5pts
Mix is not bad. There is also good stage. It lack some lows/boom and maybe little air. What I really miss is arrangement of the elements. It feels really artificial without human touch. Rather try to make shorter track but do concentrate on track structure. Define introduction, core and the end/conclusion.

TrojakEW wrote: ↑

Mon Jan 28, 2019 18:25 CET

VCA-089 - Xenoscapes 8pts
Ahh finally more realistic stage in track. Best sounding mix for me in this round. Very good sound design. There is a lot of stuff going on but it feels more like jus triggering certain sound in time. As composition it doesn't feels it evolve or going somewhere. It just plays without gradation or without any goal. It have some soul but does not using it to full potential. Maybe this is how it should be in this music style but for me it doesn't matter how somebody define certain style. Music should be like a book. Book that doesn't go anywhere will not go anywhere and become forgotten. It really really sounds great but it is like book with just a nice cover.

Thanks man! Well, that was a flow of random ideas that I tried to put into context. A funny experiment with the idea of what I can do having only one week of time. This track feels to me like some sort of attraction, perhaps same to you and everyone else. Thanks for your words about the sound design and mix, but it seems that composition is a hardest thing to me right now.

VCA-089 wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 29, 2019 08:42 CET

Thanks man! Well, that was a flow of random ideas that I tried to put into context. A funny experiment with the idea of what I can do having only one week of time. This track feels to me like some sort of attraction, perhaps same to you and everyone else. Thanks for your words about the sound design and mix, but it seems that composition is a hardest thing to me right now.

As I said choosing first three position was hard and I'm still not sure if it was done right. It is kind of like all three are at first place but I simply have to decide because of rules. I think one of those three will be winner. If Leonard Bowman track have sound design and mix from any of those three it will be winner for me. But I simply can't push track with my prefered style to top because it is my prefered style.

Groovy Music, y'all. Really hard to arrive at an ordered list of these tracks.
But I have to, so I guess this is the one.

10 Pts - VCA-089 - Xenoscapes
The sound design and mixing really blows me away. It shows some really excellent creativity. Also, your sounds have a lot of depth and motion to them. The one thing I might like to see is a better match between your composition and sounds: for example, if your drum set rhythm would grow more intense as the sounds built up, the overall effect would be even greater.
Something about you and alien soundscapes- in my first OSC you did "Escape from Planet Xenos." I think you pull it off well.

9 Pts - TheNeverScene - Crowded Thoughts
Musical movement is good, sounds are fairly simple on their own, but they combine into a solid overall work. Some of your sounds seem to exist a little outside the main mix, but that fits the "Crowded" title. Not sure I can really suggest much in the way of improving, well done.
Plus you fit my sweet spot with the time signature.

8 Pts - TrojakEW - Journey
From the very beginning there is some really excellent expression in the instruments, good development musically. Personal opinion, the "vocals" don't really seem to advance the story, and the track would be just as solid, maybe better, without them. Also, it's a little short, more of a "trip" than a "journey" in magnitude. But those are small things, and what you've presented still stands as a really well executed piece.
Enjoyed the meter changes here too.

7 Pts - FixInTheMix - Adaptation
Grooviest. Solid work, the sounds individually are somewhat stagnant, but across the piece you do a good job of maintaining interest and continuously devloping the texture.
I have a slight bias towards more complex tracks, because it's easier to show off technical skill... But this is an excellent track, plenty i can learn from it. well done.

6 Pts - johnnyhoff - Scramble
I enjoyed the track, for the first couple minutes. It's good, but it doesn't develop. Small changes might help to keep interest while still maintaining the understated feel- perhaps occaisionally changing the bass note/altering the chord progression, or tweaking the rhythm, or the sounds used.

5 pts - MarkS - Someday
Some good stuff here, but technical issues get in the way. There are a lot of interesting sounds, but they don't quite fit together in a cohesive way. I'm not entirely sure of what story you are trying to tell. Also, you drop the volume way down for the guitar, so it was almost inaudible when I listened to the whole track at constant volume. That, and it doesn't seem to be synchronized with the track as a whole.
Again, as a whole you still had a groove, there was some good work put in, but I think there is some room to improve.


Re: my sounds and mix
My sounds all came together in the last week, even down to the last day. Mixing was still happening in the next-to-last hour. It's an area I struggle with. Most of the fun I have comes from the composition stage, so that's where I like to spend my time.
Realism is hard.

Well first of all I´m gladly surprised by the over all quality of the productions and the different approaches on sound desing all of you had I thought I had a secured win for me but I was clearly wrong lol, rating the tracks was pretty difficult, specially for the first 2 positions but I have to choose so here it is.

TheNeverScene - Crowded Thoughts 10pts

PROS: interesting rhythm, time signature is 7/4 right?, I like how the sounds you ended up with sound oddly familiar, like 80s/90s pcm based synths, reminds me of old coputer game soundchips, I specially enjoyed the "trumpet", the articulation sounds very smooth.

CONS: the reverb settings work for the most part but I think a more subtle approach would´ve been better for the drums in general and especially the snare during the last chorus.

Highlights: that fast melodic phrase at around 1:25 that transitions into the next section of the track and the "indian like" percusion groove that follows is wonderful, very well done.

VCA-089 - Xenoscapes 9pts

PROS: nice intro, the bitcrushed sounds are really fitting for the general menacing tone I got out of the track, nice clear transitions, sound desing works great with the genre, great use of delay and spatialization tools.

CONS: I think the reverb could be less for some elements (high hats and high frequency elements in general)

Highlights: I particulary enjoyed the tom sounds you pulled off, could pass as a TR808. I also was impressed with the alarm tone during the outro.

TrojakEW - Journey 8pts

PROS: sound desing, spatial positioning overall compositionI like how the composition sounds like it belongs in a medieval game/film while also having that modern/digital timbre that to me feels reminiscent of vintage digital synths, the different arpeggios compliment each other quite well too

CONS: the vocoder It´s a little abrupt and kind of throws you off and takes time to get used to, mainly because of how loud it´s mixed and also because of how bright it sounds, still very interesting processing, I think it would´ve worked prfectly as a background layer drowned in reverb.

Highlights: I love the synth at 0:33 and how the tail of it transforms into a chaotic granular like delay.

Leonard Bowman 7pts

PROS: Interesting chord progression during 3:00 min section, Im impressed by the density of sounds and how many different instruments you were able to create, nice effective key modulation, the last "chorus" repetition in a different key is a nice callback and makes a lot of sence structure wise. I liked how the ending of the section at 4:00 min blends with the next one.

CONS: instruments sound like old midi soundfonts, lacking in expression (particularly during intro), the panning is a little bit too extreme imo. I think the track would work better if it were shorter, I would cut out the first 40 seconds of the intro, although I appreciate that you tried something new by switching time signatures it feels like it goes to nothing, maybe re-structure the whole track so that the last chorus comes earlier.

Highlights: I really liked the section with the different repetitions of the same musical phrase with different instruments sarting at 3:30, very interesting idea.

johnnyhoff - Scramble 6pts

PROS: I think you made solid base for a fully developed track, seems like you´ve got the general song structure done it just needs more layers and a more clear melody line, also some extra processing or FX to add interest during transitions could work.

CONS:too boomy, while I was listening I added a -6dB low shelf filter and the mix improved a lot, I´m guessing you mixed this with very small monitors/headphones, vocal hits could use reverb/delay.
PD: as a piece of advice regarding the boominess; I think you tried to fit a very low end heavy kick drum with also low end heavy bass, that´s never going to work out, you alwats have to make compromises, first you decide which of these elements is going to be the main low frequency focus and
then eq/process the other one accordingly. Hope that helps!

MarkS - Someday 5pts

PROS: I think you got your sounds to a good point to make a solid track

CONS: everything is dry, no reverb at all, the sounds fade out really abruptly, instruments are out of tune and off key with each other, there is no cohesion between elements. Last section is unnecessary and adds nothing new. In general the track sounds like a primitive example of musique concrète from the 50´s basic processing of tape loops without any clear musical structure. I would love to know what was the intention behind it and which one (if any) of these things I mentioned were done on purpose to better understand what you were going for.

The comments:
VCA-089, this is definitely a techno sound as from old days.The progressive synth from first part of your song should do a
good work at the second part too.When i listen it feels like it needs to be repeated again.
JHO, your song seems like a mix of hip hop and dub techno.I think you can add an extra instrument something similar
to a piano sound. This will add at the second part of your song a little interest in it.
TrojakEW,the robotic voice it sounds to me more interesting used as a chorus, not as bridge part of your song.
The drums are pretty good as usual.
TheNeverScene, your song reminds me an ost to an old detective movie.i dont remember well its name but it is similar.
I have nothing to add.
FixInTheMix, your sounds seem a bit like my first tunes.The song as a whole is pretty good.
Leonard Bowman, this is sound from an old console game or something like that.Maybe this was your idea after
all to bring past times. Its sounds to me like is played from a casio chip synth or something of this type.

The top:
1.VCA-089-10 points
2.JHO-9 points
3.TrojakEW-8 points
4.TheNeverScene-7 points
5.FixInTheMix-6 points
6.Leonard Bowman-5 points