Mix Challenge

Hello and welcome to the Songwriting Competition 09 - May 2018


This is the introduction post, where we directly link to the challenge corresponding files (theme, submission information, sponsors) and start of the voting process. There will be no Round 2



Please take note of the following

• IMPORTANT: please use the following naming convention for your productions: SWC000_-_ArtistName_-_TrackName.wav/mp3

Also please take note of the following

• If you have an idea for future Songwriting Competition themes and/or genres, please post them in the Gossip Thread.
• Social Media accounts can be found via the handles @MixChallenge (Twitter) and MixChallenge (Facebook). Please spread the word!
• if you like what the Mix Challenge (community) has been doing in recent months, please consider supporting us.

This post will be updated with the corresponding links as we progress, and of course the suitable thread headlines. So please watch this spot:


Submission Period: General Information and Sponsors
Voting: Summarized entries and start of voting process
Results of the Songwriting Competition: Results of the Songwriting Competition

CURRENT CHALLENGE - GENERAL INFORMATION

Time Frame: Tuesday, 01st May 2018 to Thursday, 24th May 2018 (24 days)

Challenge submission will end on 24-05-2018, 11:59pm CEST/GMT+2 (Germany) - until further notice.

Want to find out if you're still within the deadline, please consult the following options:
The Global Countdown on it's dedicated page or the countdown on the home page. You can also consult the World Clock at the top of the forum or alternatively the following tool - in this case please select "Berlin (Germany)" as location 1, and your location as location 2: Time and Date - World Clock Meeting Planner. We do post reminders via our Twitter account and Facebook page.



SONGWRITING THEME: Spies among us

GENRE: free for all


Image Source: Stock Image


A few word about this month's theme:

Staff (Mister Fox) wrote:This month's theme is "Spies among us" - a still very hot topic since the more than real spy drama between the UK and Russia in March 2018.

This game will be a bit different compared to the other ones - because this time, we're not having a "Songwriting Competition" per se but a general "Production Competition". That means, you can create whatever you feel like in terms of genre and audio content.

Under one major condition: it must not be just sound effects or one single sound source.

In other words - it can be a radio play, a fake radio documentary, it can be a song production, it can be anything (though please keep the known rules for production lengths in mind). Let your imagination run wild, tell a story - be creative

Songwriting Add-On Rules:

• You can use whatever is at your disposal (samples, virtual instruments and/or real instruments)
• creating your own sounds is highly encouraged, but not mandatory
• It is recommended to not go higher than -14LUFS SLk (avg) or K-12v1 (avg) in terms of perceived loudness

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Please take note of the official rules - they can be found at the following thread:
Songwriting Competition - Official Rules and Guidelines

Please address any OT question in the official Gossip thread:
Songwriting Competition - Gossip and Discussion

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SPONSORS (Prizes):

Prizes for Songwriting Challenge participants:

Note: All licenses are NFR (Not-For-Resale), except where noted.
Changes to available prices on short notice may be possible and will be announced separately.



Rekkerd Sounds is kind enough give away 1 sound set of winners choice (exception: Krezie EDM and Neurofunk Vol. 1)
License will turn into NFR
More info on Rekkerd Sounds: http://sounds.rekkerd.org/



Bjulin Waves is kind enough to donate 1 sound set of winners choice and one "Inspire Me" sound set of choice for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place
License will turn into NFR
More info on Bjulin Waves: http://bjulin.de/



Ghostwave Audio (Vincent Bastiat) is kind enough to donate any 2 sound sets to the winner
License will turn into NFR
More info on Ghostwave Audio: http://ghostwaveaudio.com



Hollow Sun is kind to donate one license of "Music Laboratory Machines - The Suite I" to the winner
License will turn into NFR
More info on Hollow Sun: http://www.hollowsun.com



Hornet Plugins is kind enough give away one license from the depicted tools (see image) to the winner
License will turn into NFR
More info on Hornet Plugins: http://www.hornetplugins.com



kv331 audio is kind enough give away a bundle of either SynthMaster 1+2 Bundle, or a freely selectable set of 3 SynthMaster Expansions (donations until Spring 2018)
License will not turn into NFR, you need to have a kv311 audio user account in order to pick up Expansions
More info on kv331 audio: https://www.kv331audio.com



Luftrum is kind enough give away either a license of Lunaris, or any 2 sound sets of winner's choice (exception: Bundles and Nano Electronics)
License will turn into NFR
More info on Luftrum: http://www.luftrum.com



Sound / Graphic Designer, and honorary Mix Challenge staff satYatunes is donating one commercial product of winner's choice (until further notice)
More info on satYatune's page: http://www.satyatunes.com/





THANKS FOR THE DONATIONS!
And also a thank you to all former contributors as well.

If you want to sponsor content (please have a focus on instruments, samples and sound sets), please get in touch with the Mix Challenge staff.

Please spread the word of the challenge on social media.
For example with our dedicated Twitter Account or Facebook Page

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Good luck to all participants.
And most importantly, have fun!

I don´t understand the sence of that sentence.

Under one major condition: it must not be just sound effects or one single sound source.

So it can. If you have only 2 options out of 2 , where is there a major condition?

The general idea is to not just pick one sample and can it in constant loop, while it's overdubbed with a voice over part form a random source. You should at least put some effort into your production and not just layer two sounds that might work together and then call it quits.

A friendly reminder:
Including today, 14 days left to submit your production

Here's my entry for this month. It's a Vocaloid kind of song (Electronic music with synthetic voices). I used vocaloid (testing that kind of stuff right now), some VI, mostly Synthmaster and Waves Codex, and Addictive Drums 2 for the beat.

The mix is done to emulate how this kind of music is usually presented: Loud , obnoxious and compressed. Maybe the mix doesn't meet the recommendations but I think it adds to the song instead of detracting. The lyrics and some musical decisions are cheesy AF, so I hope you listen with an open mind and just enjoy the music.

Cheers!

https://mega.nz/#!ECJThSoJ!TuUP82z05RP_ ... VI8zui7Eic

Cover of the beautiful Waterboys "Whole of the Moon" circa 1985
kind of a stretch to regard it as spy-influenced but I could defend it - to say that the first-person in the song is unaware/clueless but the "you" is a much more informed source of critical information . . .
https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/44716 ... ACspQlXg2P

note : not for re-redistribution

peace

A friendly reminder:
Including today, 24 hours left to submit your production


PLEASE... let us get >4 participants

This is the idea of a radioplay or maybe a computer game cut scene, what ever.
I used hundrets of free samples from freesounds.org and looperman.com and some other.
The story is about a spy on the run. Starting at a subway station he gets help by a female radio voice and lead out to the harbour
where he gets picked up by speedboat and finally escaped.

If had knew that it takes 99% time to collect, manage and process the samples I had never started with this one

https://www.dropbox.com/s/f1toymslqzlxv ... e.mp3?dl=0

It is the 25th May 2018, 6:25am GMT+2/CEST - this month's Songwriting Competition has official ended

Thank you so much for your participation. We sadly only had 3 participants, 1 more entry compared to last month (2 entries).
The "staff balancing vote" add-on rule does 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 3 participants, those being: Octopus on Fire, Mister Natural and Beeble
That means that each participant can vote for 2 tracks, the staff will cast a balance vote (I will once more add a randomization modifier)

The Top 10 list (or Top 2 per participant rather) can look something like this:

01 (10 pts) - Mr Moon
02 (9 pts) - Mr Sun

Please also take note of the Rules and Guidelines on giving feedback

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.



I'd love to still gather feedback on why the participation of this game is so low - please join the conversation in the General Gossip Thread
http://mix-challenge.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=97



Please have an eye on this thread!