Mix Challenge

• IMPORTANT: please use the following naming convention for your productions: SWC000_ArtistName_TrackName.wav/mp3
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Staff (Mister Fox) wrote: Electronic music has always been something special since the 1950s. You've probably heard of one of these pioneers of making music in very experimental form while using electronic equipment - the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Most famous for the creation of the Doctor Who theme - Ron Grainer wrote the song, while Delia Derbyshire realized the theme in very creative ways with early signal generators, and tape machines. The 60s then really kicked off "synthesizer music", not only thanks to synthesizer pioneer Bob Moog, who really put things into high gear with the Moog Synthesizer, and ultimately the Minimoog. Since then, music has never been the same.

In the late 1970s to early 1980s, synthesizers were commonplace in the music industry. For Rock Musicians, it added another flair and was something special to using an Epiano, Hammond Organ or even a Mellotron. Due to more and more versatility with synthesizers, and way better sound creation (especially acoustic like sounds), this formed a new genre in the "popular music realm" - now known to us as "New Wave" and the more synth-oriented "Synth-Pop". Which saw a revival in the last 5 years alone under the name "Retrowave" (although this is more Electro-House in certain cases).

Suddenly we heard synth hymns like "Oxygene Part 4" by Jean Michel Jarre, a more industrial/EBM oriented music by German band Kraftwerk and Camoflage. In the Synth-Pop/Rock genre, we heard Giorgio Moroder, Wendy Carlos, Vangelis, Jam Hammer, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Hot Butter, The Human League, Propaganda, Visage, The Petshop Boys, Eurythmics, Ultravox, Thomas Dolby, A-Ha, Alphaville, Erasure, David Bowie (coming from Rock), Peter Schilling, Valerie Dore, Sweet Connection, Depeche Mode (more into EBM), Duran Duran, Tears for Fears, Howard Jones, Falco, The Buggles, Industry, Hubert Kah, etc. Japan had it's first wave of "Pop Idols", one of the most known ones are Mariya Takeuchi (80s) and Megumi Hayashibara (early 90s). And that is just scratching the surface. "New Wave" was a broad genre that was mainly aimed at "new pop rock", but music genres evolved super quick during the 80s. One of these branches was "Synth-Pop" and "Synth-Rock" (some called it "Synthwave"), which fused more and more synth sounds with traditional rock elements.

Over one decade of a lot of very, very interesting productions that are still enjoyable to listen to - to this very day. Soundtracks, TV show themes, pop music anthems, you name it. And the revival of "Synth Pop/Rock" and "Synthwave" (now called "Retrowave") resulted in interesting music projects like Carpenter Brut, Mitch Murder, Waveshaper, Pertubator, PYLOT, etc. Dialing 80s type synth sounds to the max, while using modern day synthesizers, drum machines/samples and production techniques (in case of Carpender Brut, even with an insane amount of over-compression and distortion). Not to mention on Youtube often combined with 8bit animated GIFs.

The main diference here is, that "Retrowave" is a bit more monotone and "overproduced" to sound like productions from the old days, while Synthwave (or Synth-Pop/Rock) had a lot of melody and hamonies rather than a minimalist approach.



This genre has been a very long request.

And this month can't be any better for this, because we're not only celebrating "Moogfest" (End of April, USA), but also the biggest European synthesizer event as of now: "Superbooth" (early May, Germany).



Your task for this Songwriting Competition:
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This month, I'd like to see you be creative in writing a 80s (very early 90s max) type New Wave/Synthwave or Synth-Pop/Rock production.

The focus should be on "more synthesizers and synthetic drums" than real instruments, which were the driving force of this genre. On top of the occasional thrown in over-driven guitars.

You can scratch the surface of Electropop, EBM (Electronic Body Music), Industrial and Darkwave - but I'd really like to hear you produce something more "general upbeat" this month. With or without vocals. This challenge is not(!) about highly "Modern Retrowave" (simulates synths and production techniques form the 80s, but uses modern day synths/drums and mixing), neither is it about Vaporwave (which is basically a Synthwave production that has been audio degraded on purpose to simulate a "dream type state"). I am aware that Synthwave is also a root to the "Electronic" genre - but please do not(!) create anything House/Trance/Techno (we might revisit that in the future again).

I urge you to check out the Audio Examples below. Especially "Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music".

Have fun!

• Create a New Wave/Synthwave/Retrowave or Synth-Pop/Rock production that would have been played on the radio in the 80s
• you can use any tool that is at your disposal (samples, virtual instruments and/or real instruments)
• IMPORTANT: if you use non-licensed material (no material from sample CDs, etc), give full credit to the source material
• It is recommended to not go higher than -14LUFS SLk (avg) or K-12v1 (avg) in terms of perceived loudness. Music doesn't have to be squashed to bits in order to be impactful
• for newcomers: no cover versions or remixes

• the actual hardware from that time era (in my case, I could dust off an old Kurzweil K2000)
• or an emulation in VSTi form (instruments from companies like: Korg, Roland, Yamaha, Waldord, Sequential Circuits, Full Bucket Audio, Siegfried Kullmann, Wolfgang Palm/PPG, Arturia, SonicProjects, Sonic-Cat / Romplers from companies like Roland, E-MU Ensoniq/DigitalSoundFactory, etc)
• sample players and samplers (like from UVI, AKAI, NI Kontakt with add-on sound sets, SonicCharge Cyclone/TX16W, CWItec TX16Wx as SF2 player)
• or modern synths like U-HE Zebra, kv311 SynthMaster or Spectrasonics Omnisphere, etc.

• Kenny G with Saxophone, Congas and Soul Choir,
• A-Ha with an acoustic drum set on top of their synthesized drum sounds,
• The Buggles with E-bass and synthetic drums mixed with acoustic drums
• or the "Gazebo - I Like Chopin" example from above.

A Future in Noise wrote: ↑

Thu May 02, 2019 15:34 CEST

My main question: If I was to make a crossover between the two songs mentioned above, have I then – or have I not – violated the rules (or misunderstood them)?