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January Composition Challenge - GET WRITING


Skol303
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January's Composition Challenge is now underway!

Here’s the image for your inspiration, chosen by November's winner, SH73… 

TheGreatHorseChase.png

Rules:

  1. Avoid any content that other forum users may find offensive.
  2. Make sure you have permission to use any 3rd party sounds and samples in your track.
  3. Entries should be no more than five minutes long and written/produced during the month of the competition.

The deadline for entries is midnight on Thursday 24th January.

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A splendid choice, from a pictorial point of view. At first (and second...) glance, I took this to be a painting, but a read of its 'back story' revealed its true nature as a cleverly-shot photo. What inspiration to compose does it provoke, though..? Absolutely no idea, as yet..! Each month, I use the chosen image as personalised 'wallpaper' on my PC screen, in the hope that, at some point, the daily view of it will trigger some glimmer of an idea. It's not happened yet in this case, but it's early days still. Good shot, though.
Now, then, where's that banjo... ;)

Edited by Dad3353
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2 hours ago, SH73 said:

Well, my laptop screen is broke! Ordered a replacement screen so helpfully will be able to start laying down some tracks. Banjo? are you sure it's allowed?

If your laptop screen is broken I might be able to help 

 

 

 

 

the picture is a cowboy lassoing a horse ;)

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... and there you go, cowboy, horses... What else but a banjo..? o.O

 

Oooo..! I've just had a great idea..! Two banjos, playing alternate lines, like a sort of duel..! Wow..! When inspiration strikes, it certainly strikes hard..! Now, where to find another banjo..? :/

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2 hours ago, Dad3353 said:

... and there you go, cowboy, horses... What else but a banjo..? o.O

 

Oooo..! I've just had a great idea..! Two banjos, playing alternate lines, like a sort of duel..! Wow..! When inspiration strikes, it certainly strikes hard..! Now, where to find another banjo..? :/

4 or 5 string?😁

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Here is my contribution to the January 2019 Basschat Composition Challenge, inspired by a picture chosen by the previous winner: SH73.
The thrill of the chase, for whom..? This is my interpretation of what it means for the horses involved. Please be careful with listening levels, especially with headphones; it may get loud (well, from the start, really...).
Bass and guitars played by myself, I also did the drum programming. Horses were involved, of course, to keep the rhythm and express their feelings. No animals were harmed, however, in producing this work. Below, I've added a couple of photos as a mini-'making of', with a short description of the methods involved.
Recorded 'live' at home into Reaper, and mixed with same. Fx..? Just a few, with the exception of the kitchen sink..!
Thanks for listening, if you already have; if you're about to, enjoy.

I took this opportunity to test, in brutal fashion, an amp I'd bought a few months ago now in the UK. It's a valve stereo power amp (a Kittyhawk; thanks again, HJ...), 2 x 60w, and turned up pretty loud. Plugged into my Bassman cab, a 2 x 15 upgraded with Beyma 300w speakers, modified to be switchable as two separate HP's in the same cab. Being a power amp, a pre is needed; I used our Boss GT-6B, as it has stereo O/P's. I'm (ab...)using a friend's Stagg bass, and it's recorded through an E609 mic. Here's the pictures ...

yj7YKG4.jpg
 
Zw8Ei85.jpg

W3C3YUV.jpg GsCQ4oV.jpg

sIvmREh.jpg SQCwuZj.jpg

Edited by Dad3353
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On 12/01/2019 at 10:31, Dad3353 said:

Here is my contribution to the January 2019 Basschat Composition Challenge, inspired by a picture chosen by the previous winner: SH73.
The thrill of the chase, for whom..? This is my interpretation of what it means for the horses involved. Please be careful with listening levels, especially with headphones; it may get loud (well, from the start, really...).
Bass and guitars played by myself, I also did the drum programming. Horses were involved, of course, to keep the rhythm and express their feelings. No animals were harmed, however, in producing this work. Below, I've added a couple of photos as a mini-'making of', with a short description of the methods involved.
Recorded 'live' at home into Reaper, and mixed with same. Fx..? Just a few, with the exception of the kitchen sink..!
Thanks for listening, if you already have; if you're about to, enjoy.

I took this opportunity to test, in brutal fashion, an amp I'd bought a few months ago now in the UK. It's a valve stereo power amp (a Kittyhawk; thanks again, HJ...), 2 x 60w, and turned up pretty loud. Plugged into my Bassman cab, a 2 x 15 upgraded with Beyma 300w speakers, modified to be switchable as two separate HP's in the same cab. Being a power amp, a pre is needed; I used our Boss GT-6B, as it has stereo O/P's. I'm (ab...)using a friend's Stagg bass, and it's recorded through an E609 mic. Here's the pictures ...

yj7YKG4.jpg
 
Zw8Ei85.jpg

W3C3YUV.jpg GsCQ4oV.jpg

sIvmREh.jpg SQCwuZj.jpg

Great drums. I wish I could compose  drums like you. The bass sound and style at the start reminds me of Cliff Burton. Good work.

I now replaced my broken laptop screen so will be recording next week. Got some tricks under my sleeve and bought a new instrument to utilise it in the comp.

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I've got something frantic on the go for this month. Had my workflow interrupted by a visit to hospital, but was able to get the bassline and second guitar down yesterday.

Could have done with a few more days for a tune to brew, but at least I'll have a couple of extra free evenings this week since i can't play squash for my team or practice with the band. Silver linings, eh? !!

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Well, here it is.
More excuses for shoddy work this month, but this time I have a decent excuse! I'm recovering well, thanks for asking.
I haven't been able to get into the studio or play drums, so I've nicked the drums off my band Charms Against the Evil Eye's tune called Oscar, and repurposed them. The rest was all done in the box, the box being a Zoom R24. Eggle Berlin Pro on the right, Godin Solidac left and Lead. Sei Flamboyant bass.

EDIT: I mixed this only using the Studiospares 2000 headphones (see the other thread) and didn't get time to check on my monitors, or any other reference, for that matter. I think it came out ok-ish.

 

Edited by MoonBassAlpha
extra info!
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Its been a few months since I have had the time to put anything together, but since Xmas is out the way I have finally got a bit more time. So here is this months effort. I am not sure much influence has remained from the picture beyond the title, but it did inspire me to put something together this month so I will run with that. It could really do with a bit more work but I am not going to have any more time to mess with it before the deadline so it comes as it is. Hope you enjoy.

 

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I never thought I`d start or finish this month`s comp as I faced several issues. First, I had to change my laptop screen as it broke which delayed the whole recording process. Then there were the limited 8 tracks in my DAW to lay all the instruments and sounds, but I managed to rectify the issue and recorded as follows.

First I recorded the acoustic rhythm guitars by placing two small condenser microphones in front of the guitar panning hard left , hard right. I also used SM57 to record ambience which was aligned in the centre of a track. I then recorded the intro solos on the  acoustic guitar in the left channel then harmony played in the right channel.

Next was to record rhythm sections with a mic`d amp with a little drive using TS9. I played  a telecaster and panned it hard right then another guitar rhythm riff panned hard left with less drive.

I was left with one track to record bass, direct into AI via Amplitube amp. I used Fender p bass with tone rolled back. Flat wound strings.

 

To lay drums and percussion section, I recorded these in a new live set (another 8 tracks, only used three). Drums played on keyboards via SSD5 sim. (Drum beats are not my strongest skills).

I exported both guitar tracks and drums tracks into wav. files. I reopened my DAW and pasted guitar/bass wav. into one track and drum/percussion wav. into another track. I was left with 6 tracks to work with.  I utilised these to record a jaw harp, whistling, horse galloping sound, and horse screaming sound (high output guitar with a tremolo Eddie Van Halen style, sort of, lol). The only sample I used was the wood vibraslap. 

The whistling is a tad out of tune, but it is not easy to whistle whilst on a horse back yee-haw.

The mixing and mastering was done through my headphones.

 
Edited by SH73
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