Mix Challenge

I'm sorry, I'm still not sure exactly how to vote - should I write the post here with the list of songs/users I vote for? And can I give the feedback in the same post?

Yes, simply post the list - in spoiler tags - in this thread and give your feedback in the same post.

You can look at last month's competition if you're unsure how it should look like:
https://mix-challenge.com/forum/viewtop ... 8&start=30

Don't forget to write a short part about your experience, what you learned or would change the next time.

I entered the contest really short notice so I only had a few days of work to reflect on. I enjoyed learning slide guitar and plan on continuing to refine my skills with it since it's something I've never tried before. Looking forward to the next one so I can experiment for a whole month next time! It was amazing to hear what everyone came up with!

Arelem : This is probably the cleanest and best representation of a slide in the whole competition in my opinion. The song has a really good pace for literally any action sequence. I don't mind the repetition at all as it is intended to be a score/soundtrack rather than overpower the forefront with frequent and drastic changes.

Canese - I think 'No Name' is the perfect name for this project! The way the ambiance is slowly built up is great, and the layers and percussions blend in beautifully. Some of the more menacing minor tones are great to mix up the mood. The only singular gripe I have in an otherwise masterful composition is the bends in the guitar vst, just the bends, the rest is great, so my gripe is really with the vst

Esteve Corbera - This puts the Space in 'space cowboy' and could work great as a main theme! the textures are easy on the ears. The song is like the phrase and transitions from space in the first half to more of a cowboy feel in the second half. Good job!

Doc Jon - This one had a strong mississippi/bluegrass feel on account of the banjo in there. A good ole' time! I also like the horns, was great to hear the space mariachi are alive and well haha. Very upbeat and lots of fun

LXM Lab Music - I felt like I was watching the trailer for the game in real time as i listened to it. The track slowly builds and crescendos yet there is nothing overpowering about the track. Everything's been mastered very cleanly and I like the slow fills as tension builders. Superb!

VCA-089 - Man i could feel the wild wasteland world for sure. That was dark and amazing. It was like Tim burton did a western. The song sounds like the struggle for survival that accompanies being in a wasteland. Amazing!

Kuko Bass - I liked the theme overall, it was a really good effort but the main synth was really tough to get around. Just my humble opinion, but the composition might have been better without it. Cheers!

Blang - I was initially unsure if the drums were gonna work and you made them work beautifully. Liked the bell tolling as a transition. This sounds like a triumphant ride into the sunset. Top notch!

DSF - This song sounds like the theme for the main Bar/Saloon in the game, if it were full of really hot girls haha, if that makes sense. It's got some pizzaz, and i was honestly pleasantly surprised. High Five!

kathimaru wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 26, 2023 04:31 CEST

Don't Look Back - DSF - This song sounds like the theme for the main Bar/Saloon in the game, if it were full of really hot girls haha, if that makes sense. It's got some pizzaz, and i was honestly pleasantly surprised. High Five!

It was not intended but you are perfectly right with the interpretation my song:
The camera slowly pans across the saloon revealing grim faces of the card players. The girls slowly descend the stairs. It's late evening, the air is heavy, full of the thick cigarette smoke...

Nice going all! I was making notes when listening, so might as well share them with you as feedback. I try to be as nuanced and honest as possible. It’s intended to be helpful. That can of course still mean that you don’t agree on all points, and that’s completely fine. Because it’s just my opinion, but I genuinely hope it will be helpful to you!

@Arelem

Nice slide riffs! Would have liked to hear more development. The two riffs are solid, but the arrangement (and FX) could vary more throughout. Now they do become a bit repetitive after a while.

I like the rhythm of the acoustic rhythm guitar. I sounds as though there is a duplicate of that guitar delayed a few milliseconds, creating some comb filtering. If that’s the case you could pan them hard L and R to reduce the comb filtering and add width.

With the kick and claps louder, snappier it might become even more powerful and groovy.

Quite an abrupt ending, but that might be for the loop. hmm it has space after it.

I have to say I’m a bit torn at rating this composition, since the main themes are (mostly unaltered?) samples. Well chosen ones though.


@canese

Confident, calmly building intro. Setting the mood. The sound of this fake acoustic guitar. takes me a bit out of it unfortunately (I’m a guitar player). The bends around 2:30 give it away more - prob because they bends down and not up. A lush, dark plate reverb would help make the guitar feel more connected to the rest.

Love the dramatic, heroic chords - from around 3:50 on - that reminds us of Western but also some other exotic (Phrygian?) notes, that are not typical, but work in this futuristic context. You could try putting the guitar more in the background there and lifting the other elements.

Would probably work well as background for the non-action parts of the game.

It feels like a natural jam / improv. No clear recognisable theme, but this way it probably won’t get stale while listening to it over and over again.

huh? ah ending is loopable


@EsteveCorbera

Pleasant, warm bass sound. Definitely leaning towards the futuristic side with these pads and ambient vibes. Sounds a bit 80’s futuristic to me

The opening note of whistle at 1:10 clashes a bit with the bass (think the bass should be unisono there, so down 1 semi-tone), which is a bit startling. I like that it’s very gentle and somewhat fragile.

Maybe a bit to calm and sweet for a Western game set in: "harsh environments that change between sandstorms and scorching heat, to the cold depths of space." And

"looking for a blend of atmosphere, and a sense of (upbeat) adventure. "


@Doc Jon

Tubular bells, yes.
Iconic trumpet line, yes.
Gunshot, hell yes!

The upbeat country guitar and groove that follows the intro, kinda surprised me. Was expecting something darker, more serious than this carefree violin melody. Doesn’t seem to be very in line with the brief unfortunately: The tone should be semi-serious.  Maybe something you expect with a 2D RPG.

The second theme with the banjo and slide duel, strikes a better middle ground to me, between quirky and serious.

The sound of software instruments also steer it more towards the cute side to me. Although the trumpet is actually quite convincing.

The whole composition, arrangement and mix feel smooth and balanced to me.


@lxm.labxmusic

Cool, moody desolate intro. The classic Western electric guitar blends well with the pads. Nice that classic Western whistle ‘quote’ in the background.

1:13 nice to have a acoustic guitar riff, accompanied by orchestra.

1:45 triplets, and a modern cinematic fill/transition.

Seems like you adhered to the brief perfectly, while making an interesting piece at the same time!

From around 2:10 I feel like a clear theme would lift it even more. It does have enough energy and excitement though.


@VCA-089

Spooky intro... cool serious tension. Def has futuristic elements combined with traditional instruments (the drum), making the title a very apt one!

The electric guitar surprised me because of the major chords runs up. The rest suggested something darker. Cool and fitting sound though!

Some interesting harmonic experiments. Almost sounds like jazz fusion at some points (minus the sounds). I do find them a bit distracting at times (2:30) in their uniqueness; it asks a lot of attention.

Nice that it has several distinct ‘chapters’ and moods, 3:00 for example, while not feeling ‘all over the place’.

From 4:15 on, with the fast arp synth; that then works really well imo, with it’s blend of modern and old sounds. Excellent demonstration of the brief imo!


@KukoBass

A clear blend between classic country sounds and a synth melo. Maybe adding one more futuristic element would make it feels more cohesive. The electric guitar does that in some way, but it’s not always present ofcourse.

The drums suggest that it should feel energetic. The other instruments don’t seem to share that same energy. A few mix things that might help, if that’s what you’re going for:

- Drums louder
- Bass notes shorter (max 1 beat) and perhaps more notes.
- Acoustic guitar - which has a big percussive function in this track - more brightness (6k for example) and less bass (200Hz and lower).

The abrupt cut 2:25 out and in, feels a bit jarring like this.

I noticed the melody often starts on the 1. Pulling it back an 8th or postponing can do a lot in making it feel more fluid.


@kathimaru

Cool, ominous, heavy chords. Feels like the world of the brief. Might be cool to time those chords a bit later (after the bass drum), so it feels even more heavy (30-40ms or so).

Slide feels a bit naked without tons of (spring) reverb; Especially when a few notes don’t really hit their target completely or have fret noise.

The choir feels really cool. Especially those bends give it a mysterious vibe. It sounds natural and unnatural at the same time, which I think works for this brief.

Would have like to hear a bit more development harmonically or at least dynamically, but it has the right vibe!

Electric picking guitar is a big part of the mood. Would be nice to have that a bit louder and wider; perhaps doubled and panned LR (with a different but similar sound/instrument). A long, wide and dark reverb and the guitar could also help tie it all together.


@-dsf-

The “Black Velvet” groove, hehe This groove and drum sound don’t feel classic Western or futuristic to me, though.

Beautiful horns, flute and strings; in sound and parts! Very cinematic. This feels like quite a contrast between more the software sounding acoustic guitar and drums. The guitar and drums are in a more smaller space than the orchestra, making them blend less. Long reverbs can be your friend here.
Nice runs on the acoustic though.

I’m actually curious how it would sound without the drums and bass. Perhaps with some orchestral percussion, or more modern synthetic drums.

@Blang i think your critique and feedback are dead on! I will be sure to take your valuable insight into account, as I can tell you're someone who knows their music! Thanks!

Things I have learned during this month’s competition:
If you have been given a brief, pay attention to it and don’t just go ahead with the type of track you want to make for yourself, hence I ended up removing all the sound effects which I had initially added into my track. I thought they sounded brilliant but then realized they would not be wanted by the client!
Having said that I did learn that https://freesound.org/ is a great place to find obscure sound effects for just about anything and I will be using it again for sure
I also learned to beware the sampled solo instrument and the need to use variation and modulation to avoid it sounding too GM MIDI

It was a bunch of strong tracks this month for sure

Arelem: Sunday Morning
This track is very well suited to accompany a game, easy to loop and great importance given to the slide guitar in the arrangement. Nice trainbeat groove, it would have been nice to add just a little bit of variation here and there, perhaps with some extra snare hits. Catchy tune, the guitar was a little too loud in the overall mix for my liking but other than that nothing to change. Excellent track, this month’s pick of the bunch

Canese: <no name>
A nice atmospheric track that would work very well in a game. I liked the arrangement with some authentic Western sounding soundtrack components in the background. Some excellent MusicLab guitar with realistic phrasings and I loved the recurring guitar theme which helped to glue the whole track together but I did find myself wanting more slide phrasing. Great track

EsteveCorbera: WesternEspacial
Another atmospheric piece that would work well as a game accompaniment and definitely went for the ‘space’ element of the space cowboy theme. The whistling worked well and I loved the pad sounds you have used. The vocal stabs also fitted well with the overall feel of the track. I would have liked a little more variation throughout the track with different themes to fit with different game scenarios and I think the huge reverb was somewhat overpowering in the mix in places, but overall a great track

lxm.labxmusic: Fly With Me
Grabs the attention right from the start, nice guitar, great slide phrasing and some wonderfully authentic Western sounds. Well done for including some whistling! Some great cinematic drums which gave a good feel of the epic nature of a Western. Would be easy to loop in a game context. I did find myself wanting some more variation throughout the track with perhaps some stripped back sections for contrast but overall an excellent track

VCA-089: The Wild Wasteland World
Cool intro, again we are definitely going down the space route which fits with the space cowboy brief. Good to have some different sections with variation. Some authentic Western sounds together with a good choice of synth sounds which fitted well alongside your guitar playing - the slides were there but there seemed to be some crackly distortion, you can hear it clearly in the section at 2:02 and recurs at other points in the track which sounded intrusive. I loved the section from 4:05 and would have liked a lot more of this!

KukoBass: New Frontier In The West
Nice trainbeat and a good mix of guitar, drums and bass. Easy to loop and well suited for game soundtrack use. I did like the synth but I felt that the sound used could do with a bit of variation with different patches in some of the sections to add more interest. A quieter more stripped back section would have fitted in nicely after the break at 2:28

Blang: A Fistful Of Spaghetti
Ticks all the boxes. All the elements are here for an authentic Western theme. Easy to loop and ideally suited for game soundtrack accompaniment. I did like the arrangement and the way it built throughout the track. Really great guitar sounds and the whistling and vocal stabs all fitted perfectly. I would like the strings to have sounded more orchestral and less synthy and they did sound a little too dry in the mix for my taste but, hey, this was an excellent track

Kathimaru: Deadlands
I can see this working well as a game soundtrack and it would be easy to loop the various sections. Some nice slide guitar and the vocal accompaniment fitted in well. I think the slide guitar was too dry in the mix although I appreciate this was probably a conscious decision to separate it from the other guitars. I think the arrangement needed to develop more with some variation as the track progressed. It ends suddenly although I appreciate this may simply have been a loop point

-dsf- : Don’t Look Back
A lot of different elements in the composition which all worked well together. I could see this working well as a soundtrack to a game but I think it would work even better as a film soundtrack! I loved the orchestral arrangement but I was having to listen very hard to find any slide guitar. The track was too short. I was really enjoying it, wondering where it was going to go next and was looking forward to it developing into a new section when it suddenly ended at 2:36. This made it very difficult for me as I love the overall track but the lack of slide guitar and being too short just kept it out of the top 5


Voting

Things I have learned during this month’s competition:
Getting feedback is useful and enriching, giving the feedback is hard. I found this forum thanks to my friend's recommendation but quite late regarding this competition, so I was not very well prepared for it.
Anyway, here it is:

Arelem - "Sunday Morning"
Simple but working. Sounds to me as the most natural and professional. I like it very much, but it is more like a basis for a jam session. Since 1:00 I was waiting for the other band members to join.

lxm.labxmusic - "Fly With Me"
I loved it from the first chord. It is very epic. I loved the breaks and tension buildups. When I heard it loud from speakers, I liked it even more than on headphones.

EsteveCorbera - "WesternEspacial"
Dark Lynchian western that perfectly mixes moods from sad to hope and bad and good memories. Like a cowboy with glass of whiskey just before he goes to sleep. Behind the red curtain...

canese - "<no name>"
Very atmospheric. I think this piece sounds most of all like a game soundtrack. I almost felt that it could be directly used, without changes, for Diablo II

VCA-089 - "The Wild Wasteland World"
Very epic, the song emerges after one minute, so it feels like the introduction to the world, to the landscape. Like the opening titles. In the second half I felt some Blade Runner vibes. Which is in fact quite enriching - have you tried to consider Blade Runner to be a variation of a western story?

KukoBass - "New Frontier In The West"
Catchy groove. This piece got me hooked since the first moment. However, I would choose different synth sound. Not the melody but sound preset. But I like the composition as a whole.

kathimaru - "Deadlands"
I think I would not pick this up for listening during family evening, but it works as a soundtrack describing a voyage through the dark corners of dead/undead lands. Except of the sudden ending that surprised me.

Doc Jon - "A Fistful Of Space Dollars"
I love it. It is well made, interesting, upbeat, and funny. I have no idea what to add, it sounds professional.

Blang - "A Fistful of Spaghetti"
This reference to the Fistful of dollars is more faithful to the original. However, the selected samples sound too much midi for me. But the composition itself is great.

Top 5

Good night,

I liked this month. I rescued Morricone CDs that I had in my collection of Soundtracks. But in the end I have done something far from the Italian Master.

This month's challenge was good. As I told you last time, I'm personally a fan of movie soundtracks, and being able to learn your soundtracks has been really cool.

As always very good level. Good job everyone.


I will give you some brief comments.


Arelem__Sunday_Morning
Good rhythm, good guitars. Your subject matter is catchy.
A small detail: different guitars sound in different spaces. You may have already done it on purpose, but the acoustic guitar seems closer than the electric guitar, more distant. I DON'T know if it's a matter of the rev or the level.
Good topic, conveys joy.


Canese__ No name__WhatsApp Audio 2023-07-09 at 9.13.17 Pm
good mix I like the spatial feeling (the placement of the sound in space) that you have put.
The tranquility of music. And I like the progression of the music, it increases in intensity as the music progresses.


DocJon__AfistfulOfSpaceDollars
good start promising Happy. marxós
I like the rhythm, werstern-country type.
I miss the sound of the trumpet. I find it unreal.
The melody is very good.
It reminds me of some Jerry Goldsmith movies. Good job.


LXM_FlyWithMe
I really like orchestral chords.
Very good cinematic percussion. Strong, forceful... Cool
The second part of the song is spectacular. Very cool!!!
good mix


VCA-089__TheWildWastelandWorld
More futuristic initial sound than other peers' presentations. The central part of the guitar is perhaps the least interesting in terms of sound design. When the synthesizers enter the scene, things change and become more interesting.
The melody part is perhaps the loosest part.
Great sound effect.
Very good work.


KukoBass__NewFrontierInTheWest
Interesting contrast between guitars and vintage synths. I like the bass, simple but effective at the same time.
The music breaks you have set are too abrupt. You should leave more instruments because such an empty break is too distracting.
Maybe you could play around a bit with putting more reverb on the synth and lead guitars. They sound too close (I'm listening with headphones).
Good job.


Blang__A_Fistful_of_Spaghetti
Good instrumentation of the spaghetti western genre. The distant electric guitar, bells, rhythmic percussion...
Some parts sound too artificial, maybe a good part of orchestral string samples would be missing.
Good track, maybe a little repetitive, but it's fine as a loop.


kathimaru__deadlands
Too little happens in your theme. But it would still look good as a video game background.
For my taste the guitar sounds too distant. The voices you have put have a strange vibrato, they seem to me out of tune that you might expect from a western.
The ending is very abrupt, but ties with a loop.
You should review the levels.


JanNovak(dsf)_Dont_look_back
The guitar sounds too artificial, but the orchestra sounds great on the other hand. Is Spitfire BBC SO the free one? I've never gotten it to sound this good.
The rest good composition. Very cinematic. Spectacular!!


(translated with google)

This month is very difficult to choose. All the subjects are very good.

EsteveCorbera wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 30, 2023 00:14 CEST

JanNovak(dsf)_Dont_look_back
The guitar sounds too artificial, but the orchestra sounds great on the other hand. Is Spitfire BBC SO the free one? I've never gotten it to sound this good.

Thanks. It is the basic paid BBC SO Core. The advantage is that you can remove the reverb (however not totally, these samples are not absolutely dry) and select more articulations. In this case it was "long couvre" for the horn and trumpet. The strings are the first violins and celli, playing simply "long".
However the good sound of the orchestra was made by TomFrensby (member of this forum) employing u-he satin, soundpaint, valhalla and other mix-fu tools.