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May this be the Composition Challenge


lurksalot
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Following another quality field, @NickD led from the front to pick up a well deserved win. 

Being keen to give everyone something to do on a bank holiday Monday, he has provided the image and some background toot suite....

 

 

"Is it a drunken hallucination, a dream, graffiti,  a really expensive nightclub, an inter-dimensional portal, a doorway to the astral plane, a very arty yoga studio, or the entrance to a secret society only Bill Gates can see?"

 

image.png.89d9107afd2683dfea6562aaac948e4a.png 

 

 'Image credit - Freepik' 

 

 

Simple rules 

✔️ Entries must be <5 minutes and recorded between now and deadline.

✖️ No illegal samples, copyright infringements or other snide goings-on

✖️ Bagpipes. please no bagpipes, the Grand National truce has just expired, and the Coronation truce has been postponed till the next one .

✖️ No voting for your own entry. We'll know. And we'll shame you..

 

Deadline wise , we will go for midnight on my sisters birthday which is the 24th which means you'll probably have till tea time on the 25th ...when I'm back in from work! 

 

A line or two of blurb as well for the vote thread will be lovely. 

 

Have fun 

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  • 2 weeks later...

My Contribution to the May round of the Basschat Composition Challenge, inspired by the picture chosen by last months winner, Me.

 

I started off working towards an ambient electronic track, as that's how the image felt to me, but as I started getting lyric ideas together, they largely centred around the idea of doors, real and metaphorical, be it to another realm, or some earthly change or opportunity. From that it developed into more of a 'song' than a cinematic thing, so I ended up with a bit of both... I think!

 

Tech wise... Recorded in Cubase Elephants 10 using an NS Design EUB and a Westfield Standard Guitar, both treated with bundled effects. Drums courtesy of Monster Drums, and a sprinkling of the bundled VSTs. Vox treated with CLA Vocals. The mixing process was my usual move sliders and hope for the best technique... I really must learn something about that stuff.

 

 

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Right-O! In my occasional series of covers, here's the Motel's "Total Control".

Though it's slightly reworked as a rant against the billionaire newspaper owners who shape public opinion in order to further their own agendas....

Lyrics are on the Soundcloud link for those that like that sort of thing.

 

 

Starring me on basses (processing by Helix and/or Bias FX), guitar solos (processing Bias amp/FX)and vox (sorry!) and Mr EZ Drummer on drums (but fills programmed by His Royal Me-ness). All mixed in Ableton, mastered with Ozone 9.

Edited by Leonard Smalls
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Here is my contribution to the May 2023 Basschat Composition Challenge, illustrated with a picture chosen by NickD.
An exercise in Mind Control. Listening to this track whilst looking at the picture brings about a new state of consciousness; at the fourth listening session, her eye will wink suggestively. Guaranteed; I kid you not.
A pair of tanpura tracks, a pair of tabla tracks and a pair of desert voice tracks, carefully crafted to create this concert. Cockos light Fx and NY Bus compression, that's all.
Thanks for listening, if you already have; if you're about to, enjoy.

 

 

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I'm in, despite having a major equipment issue so it's all been done artificially in Ableton.

 

'Green door, what's that secret you're keeping?' asked Shakin' Stevens many moons ago. Now, he's baffled by the bizarre sight in front of him, so much so in fact that he is lost for words. He'll just have to make do with this relaxed, mid-tempo, gently mysterious synth groove to try and decipher the meaning of it all. Don't let it drive you crazy, Shaky!

 

 

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I'm in. It took a while to get a usable idea but one came, eventually, which required a full-on riff-fest.

 

The Technical stuff - Drums are birch Yamaha with an oak snare, captured by Thomann's cheapest mics into the cheapest Behringer preamps. Bass is a Bacchus Jazz, guitars are a Tokai 335, all lovingly smoooshed together in Protools.

 

The Song - Eyes are everywhere, everyone is watching everyone else. Especially stalkers. They're really watching hard.

 

 

Edited by Doctor J
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this one sounds OK till I open my gob on it ! so here is my entry to the May 23  Challenge, based on the picture chosen by NickD, last months winner.

 

 

EZ drummer does the main work , guitar through Waves gtr3, 2 different patches blended , Bitsa 'bassinator' low end with a bit of chorus , and of course the voice of an angel over the top of it ! 

 

lyrics for those interested 

 

Spoiler

Blue is the colour that will screw you over, unless  already, rolling in Clover
Blue is the colour without interruption,  lines its own pockets with its putrid corruption

adoRation of gold  doesn’t cut it so much.  a narrative now, centuries out of touch.

historical story banking pageant and glory , populace inertia gives a jewel encrusted crutch


When the gold wants to be seen to be green

Blue  nothing more than libertine

Red seems terrified of making a scene

More of the grist to the sordid machine


Supposedly red, is like a spread bet, wants to be all things, to all men
A Principled mess that couldn’t care less, just working the numbers to ten


Orange, meh , barely reassuring, coma inducing, massively boring.
chasing one dream up the right alley,  Every crossed box weighing in at the tally

When the gold wants to be seen to be green

Blue  nothing more than libertine

Red seems terrified of making a scene

More of the grist to the sordid machine rpt

 

Edited by lurksalot
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Here goes.

My initial thought was remembering back to when I was a child... my friend told me that his parents had told him that they could see him all the time, wherever he was, whatever he did. I told my Mum about it and (looking back) her body language showed no little disapproval at their parenting methods. So it's about the "eye in the sky watching you until you die". The music came naturally but didn't support a full set of lyrics, just the single refrain.

Technotes: Usual suspects... Studio one DAW, MT Power drums (with some tweaks by me), Vantage Avenger bass, Squire Tele guitar, a couple of keyboard settings in Studio One.

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Not going to get an entry sorted this time round.

 

Ran out of opportunities and got a busy week to finish before I can relax.

 

My playing time has been an hour over the last fortnight.

 

I will be listening and voting though x

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Ok, very last minute but I just managed to get this finished!

The photo immediately put me in mind of an Enigma album cover, and I was (and am still) a big fan, so that's where I've gone with this one - "I See You" - a dreamy flight of fantasy. I hope you enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed putting it together!

 

The tech stuff:

 

There's some actual hardware on this one! Drums were sourced from the Yamaha SY99, pads from Korg Trinity and I played the flute sound live on a Yamaha WX5 wind controller through a Yamaha VL70m physical modelling synth. Bass is a Dingwall ABII recorded through Line6 Helix.

The monks are courtesy of Eduardo Tarilonte's Cantus VST and the synthetic female vocal is generated with Synthesizer V's Solaria voice. All reverb is from Lexicon's MPX1 native.

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4 hours ago, Wolfram said:

Ok, very last minute but I just managed to get this finished!
 

 

OOH didn't you just :lol:  

 

starting to compile the vote thread right now, not sure if dinner might slow me down , but stand by your beds! 

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47 minutes ago, lurksalot said:

Do what you can Andy , I’ll edit if I can , but I’m not sure how that works without spanners in the works , but if you are quick 

It’s just uploading - if I’ve failed in my mission, no stress

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 25/05/2023 at 14:48, Wolfram said:

Ok, very last minute but I just managed to get this finished!

The photo immediately put me in mind of an Enigma album cover, and I was (and am still) a big fan, so that's where I've gone with this one - "I See You" - a dreamy flight of fantasy. I hope you enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed putting it together!

 

The tech stuff:

 

There's some actual hardware on this one! Drums were sourced from the Yamaha SY99, pads from Korg Trinity and I played the flute sound live on a Yamaha WX5 wind controller through a Yamaha VL70m physical modelling synth. Bass is a Dingwall ABII recorded through Line6 Helix.

The monks are courtesy of Eduardo Tarilonte's Cantus VST and the synthetic female vocal is generated with Synthesizer V's Solaria voice. All reverb is from Lexicon's MPX1 native.

well impressed with Solaria it sounds great, never heard of it before, i do have hollywood backing singers, word manipulation i think is not as good as this for clarity of words, ! but is still very good, so... just counting my cash in the piggy bank 🙂 thanks for that

Edited by funkgod
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