November Composition Competition - VOTING!

[Skol303]

Voting has now started on November's Composition Competition!

Here's the inspiration for this month's music, chosen by the previous winner Zenitram:



And here are the compositions. Please listen to each track and pick your favourite:

Dad3353 https://soundcloud.c...ot-be-long-love
paul h https://soundcloud.c...ghost-wedding-i
Spoombung https://soundcloud.c...mbung/slow-glow
EliasMooseblaster https://soundcloud.c...-headless-bride
AL-the-Bassman https://soundcloud.c...er-looking-than
lurksalot https://soundcloud.c...rksalot/no-body
the boy https://soundcloud.c...ysings/stranger
Skol303 https://soundcloud.c...nholy-matrimony [CONTAINS SWEARING]

Voting ends at midnight on Saturday 30th November.

Well done to everyone who took part this month - sterling work as always!

Paul

Edited July 11, 2020 by Dad3353

[Dad3353]

Flippin' heck, you lot do like to make life difficult, don't ya..? How the blazes is anyone supposed to choose between all that..? Yes, I know the criteria, compo, association with the pic, "Would I buy that..?" and all, but, seriously, how to differentiate there..? I've listened to all, of course. Every one that finishes, I think to myself "That's it..! That's the clincher". Then I listen again to 'em all, and the same happens. If I listen in a different order, it makes no flippin' difference whatever. Each is 'better' than its predecessor.
There's an essence of nonsense here; whichever I plump for will be doing a disservice to all the others. How am I to resolve this..? Surely not by use of suitably rolled crocodile bones (...and where will I find them before end of voting, eh..? I ask you..!).
No, I'll have to sleep on it. Maybe inspiration will strike, and a wild dream starring missing body parts and divers pieces of clothing will unconsciously guide a decision. Why, oh why did I heed those siren calls from that there Skol..? Every time I get caught. This time, however, I'm stumped.
I'll listen again tomorrow; g'night all...

Edited July 11, 2020 by Dad3353

[Skol303]

^ I couldn't agree more Douglas!

I had a very quick skip through each of the tracks last night while setting up the voting - just pressing 'play' from a random point to make sure they all work ok - and each time I ended up listening through to the end.

Really good entries from everyone this month and all very different. I'm looking forward to listening to them all properly... that is, in a darkened room with a glass of red

[RockfordStone]

sorry i've missed out on this again, my computer is being a complete twat at the moment

[BassBus]

As above, all really interesting entries. Some really imaginative stuff. Well done all of you. However, one stood out for me.

Edited November 24, 2013 by BassBus

[lurksalot]

This has to be the best set of entries in a single month so far , outstanding , I may end up doing a lucky dip to pick one to vote for

[EliasMooseblaster]

Christ on a bike...to echo all the above sentiments, I honestly don't know which one stands out above the others. They're all really impressive - and all really different!

Hopefully a few more listens will do the trick - I don't want to have to resort to closing my eyes and sticking a pin in the screen...

[Roland Rock]

Really really difficult choice this month. Well done everyone

[lowdown]

A hard choice, but in the end [size=4]one really hit the picture vibe for me, [/size]
[size=4]with thoughtful arranging, [/size][size=4]a good strong theme [/size][size=4]and avoided a lot of repetition.[/size]

[size=4]Good stuff all round, top marks to everyone.[/size]

[size=4][spoiler]Spoombung[/spoiler][/size]

Edited November 27, 2013 by lowdown

[krysh]

great work from all of you, I made my choice.

[the boy]

Very hard this month. My favourite isn't the best suited (in my mind) to the picture. There are others that really suit the picture but don't harmonise with my ying-yang. I need time on this. Don't pressure me guys.......... Please. Lol.

[the boy]

I'm down to two………….

[EliasMooseblaster]

Yep, have grudgingly narrowed it down to two. (Which is not to speak ill of any of the others, of course!)

Whether I can force myself to pick between the two will be a different matter!

[xilddx]

There are some cracking tracks this month, but one was so beautiful and sad that it had to get my vote. A truly beautiful and elegant piece.

[Skol303]

Go Spoombung! A superbly crafted piece of music and well deserving of its votes. I'm keen for you to spill the beans on how you recorded and processed the bass - it's fantastic.

I'm currently torn between this track and two others...

I'll post up some feedback on all of the entries once I'm done voting.

Great work everyone.

[Bilbo]

I voted days ago (first, IIRC) without comment and went for Spoombung. I love his stuff generally anyway but this was, for me, the one that spoke to me the most. Hope to get to rebuilding my studio next weekend (7/8th Dec) so maybe next month (not another Santa picture, purleeeese!).

[SpaceChick]

Wow! Another fabulous month of entries...... I am on my third listen of my short list and I still can't choose who I want to vote for!

I have to say that these have kept me entertained all day.

I know I have to make a decision...... Hmmmn hmmmn...... why does this have to be so hard.

OK, in reverse order, as there were 3 that stood out for me.

3rd place - [b]EliasMooseblaster[/b] - very atmospheric start and gave me all feelings of a gothic, Dracula style wedding. The fretless bass in parts was inspired. And I loved the differing styles of the guitar solos.

2nd place - [b]AL-the-Bassman[/b] - the chord sequences had an equal blend of chilled and spooky! It was a real easy listening tune, with subtle changes in moods. The bassline is beautiful.

1st place - [b]the boy[/b] - the intro grabbed me, I love a prominent bassline on an intro. Then the lyrics came in and actually made me laugh out loud. Which when you are having a real pants day at work is great. So, for brightening my day, you had to win in my head. I think my favourite line is "You bought your cake and made your list of of things to do", it just made me smile. I must have listened to it about 7 or 8 times today.

Fantastic entries, and every month I get inspired to enter.... guess I just need to get my fat butt into gear and do it! LOL!

[the boy]

[quote name='SpaceChick' timestamp='1385562915' post='2289671']
Wow! Another fabulous month of entries......


1st place - [b]the boy[/b] - the intro grabbed me, I love a prominent bassline on an intro. Then the lyrics came in and actually made me laugh out loud. Which when you are having a real pants day at work is great. So, for brightening my day, you had to win in my head. I think my favourite line is "You bought your cake and made your list of of things to do", it just made me smile. I must have listened to it about 7 or 8 times today.
[/quote]

Thanks space chick. I have to say your entry about the wolve people always sticks in my head when I think about the competition. Thanks again.

[EliasMooseblaster]

[quote name='SpaceChick' timestamp='1385562915' post='2289671']

3rd place - [b]EliasMooseblaster[/b] - very atmospheric start and gave me all feelings of a gothic, Dracula style wedding. The fretless bass in parts was inspired. And I loved the differing styles of the guitar solos.

[/quote]

Thank you very much, glad you enjoyed it! You've also forced me to go back and listen to my own piece again as I didn't realise the bass sounded like a fretless - it's actually a (fretted) T-bird, though I guess the neck pickup does have that kind of woody, not-quite-an-upright tone about it!

While I'm here, a more general thanks to everyone that's commented on the clip so far - it's very encouraging to see that it's gone down well.

[paul h]

[quote name='EliasMooseblaster' timestamp='1385565214' post='2289712']
Thank you very much, glad you enjoyed it! You've also forced me to go back and listen to my own piece again as I didn't realise the bass sounded like a fretless - it's actually a (fretted) T-bird, though I guess the neck pickup does have that kind of woody, not-quite-an-upright tone about it!

While I'm here, a more general thanks to everyone that's commented on the clip so far - it's very encouraging to see that it's gone down well.
[/quote]

Well I didn't comment...but you did get my vote Wait...am I allowed to say that?

[Dad3353]

OK, I finally came up with a decisional method which (with some difficulty still...) allowed me to plump for one, without disparaging the others. A bit 'out of the box', to be totally honest, but I found no other way that let me sleep easy. The result of my tractations..? Hidden away here; don't look if you've not already voted...
[spoiler]
I chose the entry that had not, as yet, received a vote (in fact, there were two, so I had to choose anyway..!). It was in getting to sleep, and waking up, with the voice of Lurksalittle in my head which swung it. All, without exception deserve at least a vote, imo, so I 'bumped' the Lurksalot score. Will it win..? At this level of performance, I hardly think it matters much. It would be somewhat unfair to have no votes at all, though. There are no losers in this bunch.
[/spoiler]

Edited November 27, 2013 by Dad3353

[SpaceChick]

[quote name='EliasMooseblaster' timestamp='1385565214' post='2289712']


Thank you very much, glad you enjoyed it! You've also forced me to go back and listen to my own piece again as I didn't realise the bass sounded like a fretless - it's actually a (fretted) T-bird, though I guess the neck pickup does have that kind of woody, not-quite-an-upright tone about it!

[/quote]

Gosh, I really thought it was fretless! I'm going to listen again with a new ear!

[SpaceChick]

[quote name='the boy' timestamp='1385564573' post='2289698']


Thanks space chick. I have to say your entry about the wolve people always sticks in my head when I think about the competition. Thanks again.
[/quote]

Bless you, that's a really kind thing to say x

[Skol303]

I've had a question from AL-the-Bassman on SoundCloud about how I got the tone on my bass in this month's track (during the Heavy Bit™). Thought I might as well reply here because a) the SoundCloud comment boxes are too titchy for the necessary waffle and b ) in case anyone else wants to know.

So here's how:

- It's a 5-string bass played with a pick.

- The bass was DI'd (plugged directly into) my audio interface and recorded dry with no effects - just some gentle EQ'ing: a slight boost in the mid-range.

- Once recorded, I normalised the track and fed it into an amp simulator (the Line 6 Pod that comes bundled with my DAW software: Reason). For anyone who has it, I chose the 'Fuzz Comp' preset as a starting point. For everyone else I basically added a mild 'fuzz/distortion' effect to the sound. I then dialled in a further boost in the low mids (around 300Hz) and high-mids/treble around 1kHz. The fuzz effect helps to kick up lots of new harmonics, which helps the bass cut through in a busy mix like this one.

- I then added a saturation effect (in essence warming up the previous fuzz tone and reducing its 'brittleness').

- Then I added a compressor: vital in this case for giving a nice, even signal to mix with.

- Finally, I added a second compressor - with its side chain input to linked to the kick drum, making the volume of the bassline duck a little every time the kick hits (around -2db), which just helps the kick stay punchy with all that low end going on.

Et voila!

PS: for plug-ins I highly rate [url="http://www.softube.com/"]Softube[/url]. They're fairly pricey, but if you're patient there are some real bargains to be had from time to time.

Edited November 28, 2013 by Skol303

[the boy]

[quote name='Skol303' timestamp='1385600589' post='2290264']
I've had a question from AL-the-Bassman on SoundCloud about how I got the tone on my bass in this month's track (during the Heavy Bit™). Thought I might as well reply here because a) the SoundCloud comment boxes are too titchy for the necessary waffle and b ) in case anyone else wants to know.

So here's how:

- It's a 5-string bass played with a pick.

- The bass was DI'd (plugged directly into) my audio interface and recorded dry with no effects - just some gentle EQ'ing: a slight boost in the mid-range.

- Once recorded, I normalised the track and fed it into an amp simulator (the Line 6 Pod that comes bundled with my DAW software: Reason). For anyone who has it, I chose the 'Fuzz Comp' preset as a starting point. For everyone else I basically added a mild 'fuzz/distortion' effect to the sound. I then dialled in a further boost in the low mids (around 300Hz) and high-mids/treble around 1kHz. The fuzz effect helps to kick up lots of new harmonics, which helps the bass cut through in a busy mix like this one.

- I then added a saturation effect (in essence warming up the previous fuzz tone and reducing its 'brittleness').

- Then I added a compressor: vital in this case for giving a nice, even signal to mix with.

- Finally, I added a second compressor - with its side chain input to linked to the kick drum, making the volume of the bassline duck a little every time the kick hits (around -2db), which just helps the kick stay punchy with all that low end going on.

Et voila!

PS: for plug-ins I highly rate [url="http://www.softube.com/"]Softube[/url]. They're fairly pricey, but if you're patient there are some real bargains to be had from time to time.
[/quote]
Wow, that sounds like a lot of work mate.