SONGWRITING COMPETITION - SWC019 March 2019 - Winners announced

[The Exponent]

Having been part of different competitions in the past (haven’t tried the OSC yet) I search for a place that is equitable, not based on popularity of the contestant nor based on favor but rather is based on the music and nothing else

OSC fulfills all the criteria you've mentioned above. Come join us there too This month's synth is Surge https://surge-synthesizer.github.io/

[Los_ady]

[quote="Dr Dendrite" post_id=4441 time=1554148575 user_id=659]

Whoa… Mr. boombastic, the ride cybal to the bass at :45 was a nice break, syncopation of the knock sound- cool, is that a dulcimer?

Hey Dr Dr, thx for the feedback man, no that's not a dulcimer honestly I just checked now and it's called "Flange HARP" - I use the songwriting challenge to make something abstract and improvise a lot - this time rather inspired by Joan Miro the painter and bring this into music haha and I'm more than happy about every reaction, if it is confusion, surprise, disguise, feed tapping, and hit the floor on 4 even when it's far away from the topic gives me a chance to jump out of the "standard" job's - have a good one !

[mountaine]

Aghhh, ruddy Nora
I'm now wondering whether I should read more the ideas behind the pieces, I guess I'm learning lessons in this

No worries!

Yeah, there are many interesting aspects to the competition. These were my ideas, but if my music didn't speak to *you* in the same way as a listener, it might as well be down to my failure to communicate as a composer!

More to the point, though, there is no right or wrong way to be a listener. It is simply amazing to me to see how differently this small gang of people will listen to and interpret music.

And I have often found myself reacting to these feedback posts, desperately aching to put on my time-tested cloak of experience and expertise and go "hey, these statements are ludicrous!", both in terms of what people consider to work and what they might have a problem with (not really in regards to my own track, though - I've been mercifully spared from bile and/or ecstatic overreach!)

But I'd be wrong, because the objective standards I try to adhere to as a composer and a mixer don't apply when I subject my music to the world. Once I do, the listener is in full command of its destiny - my feelings as a composer/mixer/producer/middle-aged-know-it-all guy be damned.

Which is fine. And endlessly frustrating! :-D

[mountaine]

montaine
What can I say, the perfect soundtrack to a blackout related movie. I love the soundscape you create, I can totally imagine the scene in my mind and it's very well executed. The transitions are well done and I love the creativity you've shown with the sounds (that you recorded yourself). Even though this track doesn't feel epic in the traditional/common way, it does evoke strong emotions, enough to be epic for me. A very fine job overall.

Thanks so much, my friend! You get it, haha

[mountaine]

I've just updated my Excel/Calc score sheet, and only ANTHEMIC seems to be missing from the votes. There is still 1,5 hours left for feedback and the final top 12.



The topic "voting/feedback" has been addressed several times at this point, most notably here:
viewtopic.php?p=4146#p4146

As for "why do you do this? What do you gain?": I don't have an answer to that. I guess I just wanted to keep an idea alive.


See you folks in a couple of hours

Yup, thanks for excellent work guiding us through this fun experience, Mister Fox. I appreciate your style and your kind thoroughness!

[The Exponent]

Thanks so much, my friend! You get it, haha

Ofcourse I get it! BTW, I was praising your musical genius the other day in our OSC Slack Channel. Your Any Synth track is amazing! All the best with that

[Mister Fox]

It is the 02nd April 2019, 0:30am GMT+2/CEST - the voting and feedback period has officially ended

Sadly, not everyone has given feedback and cast their vote. Therefore we have 1 disqualification, and that is ANTHEMIC,
I will be posting the official results later tonight (not an automated process!), I also want to double check the votes.


In the meantime, SWC020 is in full swing - please spread the word:
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=210




[moderate=Mister Fox]A final warning for SWC020 and following

I once more saw entries that did not have proper file names. Those participants were J I L L I A M, Anthemic, Los_Rospjierdolonos (Los_ady), and Leonard Bowman (although: submission was after the deadline). I'll post this one final time - failing to adhere to the rules will result in your disqualification as of SWC20. Please, if you only want to upload to SoundCloud, then take note of what is written in the Rules and Guidelines

• If you're uploading to SoundCloud, and the file is only downloadable through this platform, name the file properly
• if your artist name differs from your forum user name, note down your forum username in the filename
• cast your personal Top <nr> with the forum user names

We have rules for a reason. Please don't make it unnecessarily difficult for both your fellow participants to evaluate your entries, and neither the staff that does count your votes. Thank you.[/moderate]

[Leonard Bowman]

I didn't bother to name my track properly because it wasn't a valid entry, but I will keep that in mind if I can dig up the time to enter SWC 020. Thanks again for giving my track some attention, feedback is always nice.
Well done, all.

And I'm telling some friends about SWC, maybe we'll have even more entries!

[TrojakEW]

First I want to thank you all for all your opinions and now some responses. Don't worry to put critics on my track. No problem here no matter what words you use. Go on I can take it.

From the list of software used I expected great things as those pretty much play themselves and is hard not to produce something that sounds fantastic (8dio and Heavyocity put a lot of hard work in those).

You don't need to tell me something that I already know. I'm not a musician and don't know anything about music. I'm just bashing the my keyboard - this I do not mean as a joke.

But I found the melodies lacked creativity and some of the vocal parts were disjointed (1:20 and 2:29 for example).

Yup it is. No way to set sample offset for individual phrase in EVI. So there is no way to properly control legato in the way I wanted. Ethera need better scripting.

You really depended on Clara’s vocal phrases almost entirely to carry this track but they clashed (sonically) with the cello at times (2:15 as one example).

No I don't. Track was prieviously pure instrumental. I added Ethera in the end last hour. Kind of cherry on the bad cake

It did not speak “blackout” theme to me as was described in the thread intro: “Something that represents a more darker/brooding feeling”. It sounds like pretend Hollywood and It felt like an overreach into something wanabe grandiose.

Everybody have personal taste for balckout theme. I choose sad but calming feeling for after blackout but for "normal" state I choode more agrsessive almost indrustrial feel (intro). This is how I see it. No problem with your opinion.

I thought you made a good mix but missed the high mark you set for yourself.

I already know I have long road ahead you don't need to tell me that. I didn't said that what I suggesting I can already make.

So now where is feeback and critics you mention

Yours stays gloomy and then somehow, the sounds of nature signify the positive aspect of a blackout? I don't hear that positivity in your track overall I'm afraid.

How is the sound of nature not positive sound_ I don't want to go completely for positive track because I know that people do not like much the way how I'm thinking about it. So instead I was going for "positive" aspect with sad but calming feel. But nothing wrong with your opinion.

But an excellent mix otherwise, my ears/headphones can hear nothing bad about your mix.

Excellent no way. My mix in certain parts are average but in some parts are very very bad especially as I said before in middle part where vocal interfere with other instruments creating bad dissonance or rather said harsh resonance.

[The Exponent]

First I want to thank you all for all your opinions and now some responses. Don't worry to put critics on my track. No problem here no matter what words you use. Go on I can take it.

So you can take it you say.

You don't need to tell me something that I already know...

I already know I have long road ahead you don't need to tell me that. I didn't said that what I suggesting I can already make...

Yours stays gloomy and then somehow, the sounds of nature signify the positive aspect of a blackout? I don't hear that positivity in your track overall I'm afraid.

How is the sound of nature not positive sound_ I don't want to go completely for positive track because I know that people do not like much the way how I'm thinking about it. So instead I was going for "positive" aspect with sad but calming feel. But nothing wrong with your opinion.

Of course, the sounds of nature are very soothing and relaxing.What I meant was, the sounds of nature can't suddenly make things positive. I was talking more about the transition from a "sad" and so-called "calming feel", to something positive and optimistic. The transition itself was poorly handled, is what I wanted to indicate.

But an excellent mix otherwise, my ears/headphones can hear nothing bad about your mix.

Excellent no way. My mix in certain parts are average but in some parts are very very bad especially as I said before in middle part where vocal interfere with other instruments creating bad dissonance or rather said harsh resonance.

Well, to be honest and fair, I'm actually a noob in all of this. I've only been doing this for 6-7 months from zero, so I'm far less experienced and skilled than almost everyone here. I'm neither a musician, nor do I possess technical prowess, so I said what I said in the most genuine way. My ears always find your mixes quite good, I was NOT being sarcastic there. There is however, some dissonance/clashing of sounds, but it's not due to your "mixing", but the composition itself. To me personally, a mix doesn't include the composition aspects/choices, but rather how you blend the sounds in the composition and make them work together to create a strong emotion/last effect on the listener. That's just my opinion for what it's worth.