Mix Challenge

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


Please don't let yourself be disqualified by not participating. The Songwriting Competition lives from the given feedback towards each other.

I have to point out in the foreword: very good songs were born this month. Each one is so good that when I listened to them (before I uploaded my own) I had a very strong feeling that maybe I’m skipping this month, I felt so good about those songs compared to my own song without vocals. I tried to evaluate the songs with the theme of the month and its requirements in mind. I don’t know how successful it was, as this genre was very new to me.

A Future In Noise - It
Nice intro, I look forward to the explosion of the brass, but... starts a fashionable guitar parts.
Well composed, pleasant music but I expected something completely different after the grueling start.
I like the bass part, but the rhythm guitar is a bit weak.
Good vocal, catchy melody.
Overall nice song, vell instrumented pop music but missing the ska feel.

Gruskada - Everythings Just Great
Great, aggressive tone. The only song that took steps in the direction of punk/indie territory. I really appreciate it
Dynamic rhythmical intro and very good vocal start in the verse but the chorus vocal could be even more distorted, aggressive (and less delay). (Now the vocal is more distorted in the verse parts.)
Nice guitar play, I like the solo part too.
The drums are interesting and telling the truth those hats are not my favourites.
Overall good vibe, good song, I like this punk, aggressive version of ska music.

OlliH - My Heart Gathers Dust
Well-made reggae intro, personally a little less like it, but then it will be really great:
0:50 - The best part. Great brass, instrumentation, vocal, nice melody. Fast, danceable rhythm. Great overall.
After this the organ solo is also good. Maybe I wouldn’t miss the opportunity for a brass solo either.
The second chorus part with voice modulation is also great. Nice variation and exactly as many as needed.
The chorus part is very good, plenty enough to sell the song (and i bought it right away).
From a competition standpoint I would add a little more brass, but that's the way it's great.

DocJon - Great British Holiday
The song is more of a time travel
Nice, simple but catchy melody. The text is strong, which makes it really exciting.
However, the presentation is very interesting: the face of young Eric Idle immediately appears in front of me as he "sings" the lyrics with a poker face, without a smile. This kind of vocal presentation may fit the text, but it is also a little critique: a bit of a robotic feeling. The elements could be made a little less perfect quantization.
I really like the break at 1:34.
Nice instrumentation, arranging.
Very good mix, great overall, nice job.

Blang - Dancin' in our Pyjamas
Nice intro, I like the room sound of the drums.
Cool background vocals (gives a bit african feel).
The mix is clean, good.
Missing brass parts and I miss something - maybe a more definite organ sound the background?. But probably that's only my taste. A little different than what would be a ska genre, but great song.

Shea - Get Lost
If we didn’t look at the theme of the month, that would be my favorite song.
Sadly it's too short, I'd love to have listened to its development.
Good intro, immediately arouses interest. Nice melody.
Nice vocal but the deepest points of the vocals should be adjusted .
The song is a bit sad for ska, the lyrics confirm that.
It has a bit of underground feeling, I really like it.
In addition to the vocal adjust, I wouldn’t change anything in the song just to finish it. It would be worth.
This song is closest to me, I love it, it’s a shame I have to evaluate it in terms of the monthly genre.

Slickster716 - Let's Have a Party
You have good voice it fits the instrumentation very well.
Nice melody.
The brass part is weak, ther are parts where are almost inaudible.
Like how the bass play.
Although you have a good voice, the way the vocals are performed doesn’t always fit the lyrics. e.g. 1:24- Sing ‘Let’s have a party’, but the vocals are so restrained, almost shy. Expresses something other than what he sings about.
In general, a little more aggressive sound (vocal, brass, guitar) could be better for the genre.
Overall great song, just needs a bit adjustment.

Olli H: In terms of sound quality / mix (EQ), I like this. And it never gets monotonous. From 2:43 to maybe 3:00 I suddenly got the feeling that Tom Waits somehow has inspired to this. (Could that be so?) I can't really decide if this is 110 BPM throughout the whole track, or if the fast parts should be considered 220 BPM? If it's 110, the snare hits are off beat, which I guess is rather rare (???) But it works. Otherwise (220 BPM, very fast) I guess it's one of the guitar you hear between the quarter notes, which makes this ska (although maybe it's closer to rockabilly?) To me, the organ sounds almost like one-third organ, one-third electric piano and one-third steel drum. But I noticed that one of the other competitors has used the same kind of organ. So it's probably just me being not fully educated, yet.

bescei gyorgy: The track begins with some kind of bass guitar (double bass?) It's kind of thin and sounds very artificial to me. Now, that doesn't matter too much, because as soon as the brass (very vivid) makes its entrance, you hardly notice the bass. (There, should however (IMO) be more bottom (if it's the right word) through the whole track. More low frequencies – deeper bass!) But the first time I heard SkAll In I liked it very much, anyway, because of the unpredictability, variety and cleverness you show in your composition. I guess you could dance to this, but in that case I would like to see and listen to it in a theatre, with dancers performing a choreographed dance. The guiro is a little bit to loud (maybe it doesn't fit in). Between 1:13 and 1:35 the kick (kick pattern) does not appeal to me very much (almost like noise). But we certainly have a walking bass here! 1:18 two brass instruments playing a duet. They sound rather similar and could be more separated (panned L-R).

Doc Jon: Danceability very high. The overall impression of the the music is that it sounds rather naive (IMO) which is perfectly alright when you're supposed to dance. In the chorus one of the brass instruments plays the same notes, most of the time, as you sing. You could make more use of that instrument there. And yes, me too thinks maybe you should try to omit the last syllable in holiday-hey, and that you maybe should try more legato singing in the chorus. The lyrics is probably well thought out, but since English isn't my first language, I haven't even tried to read it (probably many idiomatic expressions). Well balanced mix/EQ.

Blang: Danceability high. There is, however a limit, when it comes to repeating the word pyjamas (IMO). Six times maybe could be bearable, but not ten (IMO). I like the sound of the guitars but the organ sounds a bit plastic. I have a feeling you sing and pronounce and phrase the words “dancing in your pyjamas” (this isn't about your voice) exactly the same way every time. Maybe try more variation? Hardly no brass.

Gruskada: 1:39 – 1:57 bridge: I find the sound here very pleasant to listen to. I didn't discover the bass guitar until here, but it sounds very good. The electric guitar isn't loud at all but yet fully audible. Sounds very good. Now of course this is about ska. I don't know if I have listened to too much ska this evening, but I find Everything's Just Great kind of straggly (if it's the right word). There is a lot of energy in your way of singing, though, which is good. But the brass sounds a bit plastic, I'm afraid. 0:37 toms a little bit too untight.

Slickster716: The laid back vocals sounds great at first. But maybe towards the end one begins to think there would have been a need for some kind of break, somewhere, where the singer does something completely different. “Everyone's invited” (0:40) is sung / pronounced in a way you would never do when you invite somebody. The brass instrument in the chorus sounds rather timid, and when the distorted guitar appears at 1:33 the contrast gets to big. Drums sound good.

Shea: That deep bass guitar in the beginning sounds great (but I'm not sure if it has got anything to do with ska?). Everything is fine until 0:27: I kind of lose my grip on everything here, the hi hat doesn't really work (IMO). Definitely no walking bass and I get the impression you exceed the LUFS recommendations quite a lot? Trumpets 1:21 sounding great.

It's the 02nd December 2020, 05:25 (UTC+1/CET) - the Voting Period has officially ended.

Sadly, not all participants have submitted some final feedback, we therefore have 2 disqualifications due to lack of participation (@Shea and @Slickster716) - which is the only disqualification factor now. A real pity - especially considering that I have sent out reminders.


I will post the results shortly (as in - within the next 72 hours), please have an eye on this thread.
(this is not an automated process)

Ladies and Gentlemen, here are the results of Songwriting Competition 39

The winners podium consists of:

1. @becsei_gyorgy (62 pts)
2. @Blang (58 pts)
3. @Doc Jon (57 pts)

Apologies for the waiting time, this is not an automated process. (although, again, I managed to get this out the door within mere hours)

<4 participant rule is not in use (staff comments and votes)
We have 2 disqualifications (due to lack of feedback, see overhauled game mechanics)
We have 0 votes after the deadline
We have 2 users that tied

• Doc Jon has 2x10pts, 1x9pts, 1x8pts -- Olli H has 2x10pts, 1x9pts, 0x8pts -- Doc Jon therefore scores higher
• the ties could have been solved, if the participants in question would not have run their tracks too hot (LUFS and/or higher -1dBTP), and all entrants would have participated in the feedback / voting process

"Sole (License) Winner" rule does not apply - 3-position Winners Podium



Here are the results as chart in image form:


Please note the following:
We are in the middle of testing the overhauled "Voting Process" and Bonus Point Mechanic. The only disqualifications I had to issue, were due to lack of final constructive feedback - not because there was a minor issue. I think we're trying this game mechanic for another month (December) and then shift it into the official Rule Book by January.

A short information for @Blang, @Slickster716 and @A Future in Noise - you didn't get the bonus point for the "file consistency", because you either didn't properly name your files and attached your username to it. Or you wrote SW039 instead of SWC039, or even SWC09 instead of SWC039. A minor mistake, but this can result in a different position on the score sheet.


Thank you so much for your participation.



License selection:

We'll now perform with the usual. Selecting licenses is handled in public. Please select one license/company out of the pool (in order of the winners podium) and mention it in this thread, then (important) please get in touch with me (via PM) with your full name, email address and your license selection.

As usual - you're not forced to pick up anything. You can pass and therefore offer more to select for the next person in line (if there is a spot existing / not available for "sole winner" mechanic). Just let all participants/winners/the staff know in a timely manner. Once one company has been selected, it's out of the pool for the next person on the podium.



Feedback about the "Songwriting Competition" is welcome (please do so here).



See you in in the next challenge!


Please help spread the word to get the Songwriting Competition to 15-20 participants on average.

Please also take note of the Sample Collection thread for SWC041 "Community Scramble" / January 2021. Remember, you can help shape the sound for this particular game.

Gongrats to winners!

A Future in Noise wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 01, 2020 21:57 CET

Olli H: In terms of sound quality / mix (EQ), I like this. And it never gets monotonous. From 2:43 to maybe 3:00 I suddenly got the feeling that Tom Waits somehow has inspired to this. (Could that be so?) I can't really decide if this is 110 BPM throughout the whole track, or if the fast parts should be considered 220 BPM? If it's 110, the snare hits are off beat, which I guess is rather rare (???) But it works. Otherwise (220 BPM, very fast) I guess it's one of the guitar you hear between the quarter notes, which makes this ska (although maybe it's closer to rockabilly?) To me, the organ sounds almost like one-third organ, one-third electric piano and one-third steel drum. But I noticed that one of the other competitors has used the same kind of organ. So it's probably just me being not fully educated, yet.

I used Hammond b3 organ (plugin).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammond_organ
”The B-3 and C-3 models introduced the concept of "Harmonic Percussion", which was designed to emulate the percussive sounds of the harp, xylophone, and marimba.”

A Future in Noise wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 01, 2020 21:57 CET

From 2:43 to maybe 3:00 I suddenly got the feeling that Tom Waits somehow has inspired to this. (Could that be so?)

Tom Waits belongs to my big favorites but I haven't listened him for a year. Now that you mentioned him, maybe I'll have a long walk with him today.
At that distorted part my vocal was too much out of tune, and I was too lazy to sing it again, so I tried to find something to mask the problem.

A Future in Noise wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 01, 2020 21:57 CET

I can't really decide if this is 110 BPM throughout the whole track, or if the fast parts should be considered 220 BPM? If it's 110, the snare hits are off beat, which I guess is rather rare (???) But it works. Otherwise (220 BPM, very fast) I guess it's one of the guitar you hear between the quarter notes, which makes this ska (although maybe it's closer to rockabilly?)

”One Drop” Reggae 200 bpm
1: nothing
2: guitar downstroke/organ hit
3: kick + snare side stick
4: guitar/organ hit

Ska 200 bpm
1: kick
and: hi-hat + guitar upstroke
2: snare
and: hi-hat+ guitar upstroke
3: kick
and: hi-hat+ guitar upstroke
4: snare

Thank you, it's a really big surprise.
I didn’t even want to upload my song 10 days ago.
Thanks for the feedbacks, more has become a real hit.
I had similar dilemmas while making the song. They were very helpful.

My choice is the Musiclab bundle.

Would've been nice to have extra time for voting during holidays. Not like I did that great anyways but maybe in future give an extra bit of time allowing people to have holiday plans.

I need to think about that for December. I'm being lenient and accommodating as is. But honestly... the time-frames for all games are known, and I did send out several reminders.