Enter ye chatter here...

Quote:

DEADLINE submissions will occur 3pm PST Wednesday 23 March and the Voting thread opened.

Dang, it ended as fast as it began...

Rawr.

Its an echelon contest; it ends before it begins.

Do the competitions always have 1 minute limits? Easy on the bandwidth, I spose, but I only really usually get into me stride after 1:30!

never had a hard time in making 1 minute stuff

then again, 1 minute is usually the point I get stuck to complete stuff.

there are still some 56k modem users out there. let's change the 1 minute rule when broadband is really there for everyone

I guess it is a nice practise to put something short up to some people anyway.

Richard Quest, haha.

I can hear his voice now...

I think it would be more flexible if there was a FILE SIZE LIMIT instead of the 1 minute song time limit.

just for fun.

Eh..? What...?

Some people haven't even seen April yet - how the hell d'ya get entries in this quick - sneaky sneakers...

H

I worked yesterday evening after 00:00 to be honest horse (and end music is my witness)
so mine is really an April entry ! no joke

Barnadine!

Exceptional entry.

Damn, that's a beautiful entry - if you did a 20 minute version of this with an orchestral accompaniment, I would fly over and buy a copy from you personally...

Thanks for the morning cheer up!!!

Fuck.... donkey.... that's a good one I like it.....

Will be hard to beat - but hey I'll try anyways

Poweruser wrote:

never had a hard time in making 1 minute stuff then again, 1 minute is usually the point I get stuck to complete stuff.

You're so damn right....

and most of the time I play the one minute part that I have again and end up with a two minute PopSong... good for the radio

WOW

The contest only just opened and listen to the great entries. Poweruser, this is a great track. I also love Bernadine's & Nick's entry. Donkey is the rest of the household's favourite at this stage!

Is there a secret complot here? out of 4 entrees, 3 are real classy classical stuff. This one's gonna be difficult.

Annode's download timed out when I tried to download it. Maybe it's so good everybody is trying to download at once I'm trying again.

Cheers Bloodhound.

Resonance wrote:

Barnadine! Exceptional entry. Damn, that's a beautiful entry - if you did a 20 minute version of this with an orchestral accompaniment, I would fly over and buy a copy from you personally... Thanks for the morning cheer up!!!

Thanks for that, Res. Much appreciated.

This piece reminds me of stuff I used to do before I got my computer (remember, when we used to have to touch actual real-life instruments ). I used the Grand from OmniSynth here. Nice warmth in the lower register.

By the way, haven't seen an entry from you in a long while. About time you re-entered the fray, no? Or are you suffering a dose of the de Waverleys?

No DeWaverly's Barnadine.

I think this month I'll throw a little something in... You're right, it's about time I started contributing again - I think the guilt is starting to wear off.

Your entry is gonna be hard to top...

Poweruser mentioned the 56k people... Well, I'm 14.4k (using my cell phone to get a free connection through school) so I really like the "less than a megabyte" song format. (The average download for me was about fifteen minutes; needlessly to say I didn't get listen to all of the March entries)
VitaminD has a good point: perhaps there should be a file size limit instead of a song length limit... Just make the file as small as possible without it sounding like utter shite?
There were many entries last month that were done a great injustice by the one-minute format. They just needed to flow as long as necessary.
But like I said, I appreciate the smaller files and enjoy making short songs. And the "free for all" thing is cool; perhaps it could be bi-monthly or quarterly?

Barnadine, that's beautiful.
Like a slightly jazzed up Gymnopedie.

yeah its kind of lame to try to stuff a 5 6 or 7 minute song into just 1 minute.... IMO


my songs dont normally get going until past 45 seconds anyway.. a good minute and a half to 2 minutes would be nice.

everyone's song writing abilities are being dumbed-down in a way.. since we're only having to write just a scant 60 seconds.. come on now, I have melodies that last longer than that!

I can see the replies though "oh vitamin, but it takes good abilities to write something in just 60 seconds too!!" well okay.. but we've been doing that for roughly a year now..

maybe sometime in the future we could have a 2 month long compo with a max file size of 1 meg and max song length of 3 minutes.

Or something of that nature..

1 month to write the song, 1 month to download/listen/vote

maybe a 'summer time' compo with some serious priZes too (note large emphasized Z for you germans )

I would suggest any length, file size should be 1.5 megs or less.

Or better yet - how about we just use .wma? We can get smaller size files with higher quality by doing that, or what about ogg? hmmmm

yeah a different file format

I'd be okay with OGG

DM another great classic thingy! Nice one. This classics complot is getting weird.

Yaguchi01, do you actually LISTEN to the songs on the cellphone?

VitaminD, I can understand the concern about one minute being too little to make a full song. I'm taking it this way (new approach by me, starting from now on): I compose the song in the normal way, but at the same time I work out a 1 minute version plus a full length version. Then I will use the 1 minute version as a demo, test the reaction and adjust the final full length mix according to comments.

New around here, but opinionated nonetheless...

I am strongly in favor of setting 1 MB size limit instead of a time limit, and also would like to use a more efficient format such as Ogg Vorbis. It's free, and there are lots of encoders and players for Mac, Windows, Linux, heck even BeOs... And recent versions of Winamp and RealOne Player should support Ogg Vorbis out of the box, and I think QuickTime can support it as well.

I don't think that KVR should be a place where we learn only to write little 60 second gems... I could probably get used to that limitation, since I write poppy/indie rock tunes, but the ambient and experimental electronica stuff people are writing needs more than a minute to get its point across...

-Garret

BloodHound: No, I don't listen to the songs on the cell phone; I just use it as a modem... BTW, that's a good idea about using the one-minute version as a demo...

who the hell uses RealPlayer?!

i would support the larger size / longer time format.

some re-organization of the rules / deadlines might be required.
that said , its best to keep it as tight as possible.

-normal

There really are some great entries, and think it will be a tough choice to pick a winner, although Richard Quest has got to be the favourite, it is excellent.

If it was like an awards ceremony I would have different winners for different categories...
Most memorable (Richard Quest)
Best use of instruments/sound (dub thang)
Most like to hear a full length version (long rhode ahead)

I would really like to see a rating system like there is for instrument reviews so that you could give scores out of 10 for different qualities.

This is my first month at kvr so I don't know what the competitions are normally like, but I like the free for all one minute limit.

I think any short time limit would be restrictive and I don't see 90secs or 2mins making much difference so it should either be 1min, 5mins or unlimited. Of those I would prefer the short version for a competition as it is ok to download and long enough to know if you like something.

It also means that it is not just about writing something, but editing to get a good feel for the music in just a minute, which is a challenge in itself - I know it was for me

DM, there was another topic in this forum about the polymeric idea for scoring. Have a look at the post about a week or 2 back. Most hated it. You can use it for your own purposes, but it is not mandatory.

Kriminal, man the title is spot-on!! Brilliant! Great track.
Last month it was sex...this month it's drugs...what kind of a debauched life do you lead ?
How about some more universal, life-affirming, family-themed tunes from you, entitled "hang-gliding", or "i love my wife and children" or something...? with samples of birds singing, waves breaking on the shore etc etc...I dare you!

Thanks, choochcat. And yeah, there is a fair whiff of Satie there, now you mention it.

As for submitting entries in ogg vorbis format, interesting idea. I've heard people sing its praises, and it's non-proprietary. K-v-R could spearhead the ogg revolution. It'd be like going metric. Stirs the blood.

OGG, MP3, monkey... doesnt matter to me; I'm setup. Only thing I am concerned with is everyone being able to encode and play on all participant's platforms.

Show me the links to encoders and player plugins, I'll forward to the RULES thread.


All 46 people on KvR will revolutionize 20 billion for OGG! [/puts pipe away]

Just got back tonight after funeral #1: will go to funeral #2 this Sunday.

Of course, I'm such a loser that I immediately log in to catch up on KvR.

However...

1) Forget Ogg Vorbis. Mp3 is still more mainstream. But I'm not interested in format wars.

2) Though I'm on a 56k modem, I don't think that file size is the most important aspect of 1 minute entries. The problem is that we can't anybody to focking VOTE for the songs because people don't even feel like listening to 45+ one minute entries in a month, let alone 45+ entries averaging 4 minutes.

Once we start getting more people VOTING than submitting, then I'll take requests for extending the time limitation seriously.

- m

the only reason i dont vote is because we dont have specific voting ideals..


everyone is voting based on different aspects.. its so unprofessional.. even if this is just a kvr backwoods contest type deal.. it would make it a lot more even and respectable if something was hammered out in the way of voting schemes..


figure out a voting scheme.. and ill vote

I dont care too much about song length.. typically I listen to much music during the day anyways.. why not throw a handful kvr entries each day to the pot as well..

Miro wrote:

Kriminal, man the title is spot-on!! Brilliant! Great track. Last month it was sex...this month it's drugs...what kind of a debauched life do you lead ? How about some more universal, life-affirming, family-themed tunes from you, entitled "hang-gliding", or "i love my wife and children" or something...? with samples of birds singing, waves breaking on the shore etc etc...I dare you!

Thanks Miro

OK, next month i'll do a love song

A new record? Jeff Harrison's 9 seconds.

Tristenza: Interesting Times, eh? Hmmm... interesting dissonances with the maj 2nd Nice one.

Jeff Harisson: man, this is incompl

tsiozos wrote:

Tristenza: Interesting Times, eh? Hmmm... interesting dissonances with the maj 2nd Nice one.

Thanks Thanasi, I think it's nice too but I liked my last month's submission better. But I'm not saying that this is crap either. It's my child and I love it!

Yeah, the good thing with these childs is that they can't be stolen, killed, bombed, etc.

Poweruser wrote:

never had a hard time in making 1 minute stuff then again, 1 minute is usually the point I get stuck to complete stuff. there are still some 56k modem users out there. let's change the 1 minute rule when broadband is really there for everyone I guess it is a nice practise to put something short up to some people anyway.

Nice Track Power!

Hey the only rason i didn't vote is because I ran out of time for it - my freetime lately has been pretty limited

Matias Monteagudo

..............you are the winner

if it`s up to me !

it`s super

i am dazzled

remco

Yep, Matias, that's tops! I totally love it. You already have my vote [one of them anyway! ]

Leaving town again tomorrow and will be gone for a few days, but I got April's contest list and radio started:

http://www.markleford.com/kvr/

I'm pondering having the list and radio output entries most-recent-first, so late-comers won't be buried at the bottom, and the freshest tracks will be first on the radio. Perhaps I'll make that change before I leave...

- m

Markleford, our thoughts are with you in trying times.

@PU and TO



Im listening to all entries now, really interesting works you got there, KvR is a goldmine

Matias ... I just listened to your tune.

Real good

Yeah, Matias. Good work!

I want to hear the full thing... hehe

get it MATIAS!!!!!!!!!


vibey as shit!

o.t. what is WoW?

Miro I love your entry!

sounds so good here, great sounds on the rhythm

Quote:

Nice Track Power!

thanks facing doubt !

i just found out someone remixed it

always great to see i don`t just make it for myself ...

this is my first instrumental one in ages

liqih wrote:

Miro I love your entry! sounds so good here, great sounds on the rhythm

Thanks liqih. Reaktor saves the day!

No sign of an entry from you yet! What are you waiting for?

Mullberry

that is very radioheadish
i love it.

BloodHound : can't download ( yesterday as well )
Result of a quick sweep : noticed and liked Matias and Miro

Preset Perverter wrote:

BloodHound : can't download ( yesterday as well ) Result of a quick sweep : noticed and liked Matias and Miro

Sorry 'bout that. My freakin' ISP is based down here in Africa

Try this one. Unfortunately, guitar.com change the file names, but at least they work.

http://www.guitar.com/artists/sounds/BloodHound-Rough_Devide.mp3

You can get all my previous stuff there as well.

http://www.guitar.com/artists/BloodHound/

That's better BloodHound !
+ it's good !!

Thanks PP

Poweruser wrote:

Mullberry that is very radioheadish i love it.

Thanks though I gotta say it again, I only know one Radiohead song but I take that as a compliment - for this one song was great.....

In fact I know two but it sounded better this way

Mighty_Hero wrote:

get it MATIAS!!!!!!!!! vibey as shit! o.t. what is WoW?

WoW is my SynthEdit made filter with peak follower, used on the guitars, had to use the Fruity peak instead due to the CPU usage.

Thanks for your comments

Thanks, Preset!

Some excellent entries already this month. It's hard to choose a top 5 already!

Jeff Harrison - nice er...start...

My proper entry -

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/alcoholicswine/04_03_Reg_BadHead.mp3


Reg

BAD HEAD

RegPheonix wrote:

My proper entry - ...

So which one will it be?

- m

I love it sounds like pet shop boys

Markleford wrote:

RegPheonix wrote: My proper entry - ... So which one will it be? - m

The song - erm - Bad head

Cheers Markleford

Reg

Couldn't we get some sort of logo designed that all the winners could have beside their avator or somewhere.

kevvvvv wrote:

Matias ... I just listened to your tune. Real good

I agree! nice work Matias!!!

Just put my entry !
Didn't listen to all yours yet...
Back soon

Great Great Track! Matias is a genius.

I Dig the Sacre de Printemps sample!

Gordon

Hey Matias, how long is that fantastic track in total?

It cruelly fades-out to allow for the 1 minute time-limit, but you must know that we're all dying to hear some more!!

Do you have a longer version somewhere?

MacNastyman wrote:

Couldn't we get some sort of logo designed that all the winners could have beside their avator or somewhere.

That would be kinda cool - a little trophy next to your name or something LOL

I'm on it, here's a quick render of the track, I'm hoping to make it 6 minutes long, but Im now around 3min.

The last part right now (2:28 ) reeds more development so you'll hear it a bit empty (no melody yet and no wicked effects)

I don't know if I should add some Vocoded voices yet, or some scratches or no vocals at all, the piece will say it at the end.

http://www.kvr-vst.com/~klanglabs/misc/SFA.mp3

no vocoded voices

real voices !

i know you can do it

btw .. this is bloody marvelous

greetings all ...

last month , choochcat was kind enought to host my contest entry.
i thought i would have my own hosting together for this month
but do not.

may i impose on someone ( else ) for april's contest ?
thank you .....

-normal

Hey normal
Email me the mp3 and i can host it on the Manytone Server. My Email addy is above.
Paul

Maybe! but I'm really bad writing stuff.

You know, the november contest I think, I did some rare dub and sang some words, they sux! sound so gay! the song was way better without a word.

Maybe you guys can share some tips in another thread.

Matias Monteagudo

No te creo was fantastic.

you have a stunning voice !

Well, what can I say, just thanks for your comments

Maybe my voice is good but my lyrics SUX, just can cure it by reading sum books

Or, maybe I'm just ashamed to show my voice to the crowds I think a lot of you had that feeling.

Matias, I know myself I really love singing but I can't sing what I love which is metal, but if I tone my voice down people think it's pretty decent... i'm not saying I have a great voice but it's not annoying... you know what I mean?!?! lol

I would do anything to trade my lyric writing for a better voice anyday!!!

facingdoubt wrote:

I would do anything to trade my lyric writing for a better voice anyday!!!

You can actually train your voice, is not that hard just play some scales with different vocals, I can share you some tips about the subject if you want.

As I have to train my mind to handle more words, must read more instead of talking here and doing music all day.

I'd be interested in learning some!

A stronger diaphragm gives you a stronger voice, I suggest you to do some breath exercises at first, breath as deep as you can, hold it by a couple seconds and release it, you can put your arms on both sides of your torso or move your arms up and down as you breath in and out.

do it by 10 /15 min (20min max)

Now do the following exercises.

First of all is better to do them stand up and straight as you diaphragm will have better movilization.

Using your keyboard play these patterns and sing

Major triad-C-D-E-F-G-F-E-D-C-Major triad- shift one semitone up(or down) and repeat.

Only sing the blue notes.

Other patterns are:

C-E-G-E-G-E-C

C-E-G-C2-E-G-C

C-E-C-E-C-E-C

C-G-C-G-C-G-C

C-D-E-D-E-D-C

Sing it with A vocal, first legatto then staccato, and switch to another vocal, you can use different vocals in one exercise, for example a-e-a-e-a-e-a-e-a, a-e-i-e-a-e-i-e-a, u-a-i-a-u-a-i-a-u

Go up as you can, but don't force your vocal cords, when you find that point you cannot go further, start the exercise again but switching down by semitones.

Your head is a resonant box, if your voice is too nasal you need to place the sound in a determined place that allows your frontal sinus to project the sound, this is certainly hard to explain by words, you'll feel the sound comes from your forehead.

There's a mental image to help singer to place the voice in the correct point, I forgot it right now but I'll ask next week on the university.

voting for my entry will make you a better singer...

smart wrote:

voting for my entry will make you a better singer...

ha ha ha... got to earn it brother!

Rrrrr. Sorry s'late fer me BUT....

... a quick nod to... dewf, Nick Cramer, vitaminD manytone, superChu-Hi, Polymerick, Frank's bastard son, Steve Newton, Barnadine and tops - mulberry *again* (Mmmm)...

Nice one!

H

thanks Horse


the last 15 seconds are a bit repetitive though.. I should have added a crash in the middle.. or a double kick (thump-thump) to break it up...



but all in all I'm really happy with my work.. and im happy you at least somewhat (im guessing) enjoyed it

No, don't guess - the ones I mentioned were the ones that I like best of the bunch at the moment!

H (How'd I end up on the wrong side of last night - uh?!)

Anyone else having trouble downloading Peel's entry.

I get this message everytime I try...

We are sorry, but the file you are trying to download is larger than the maximum length permitted under current network conditions. Please try again later when network conditions change. The file you were trying to download was 1025024 bytes.

Been trying for a couple of days and no change!

Steve Newton wrote:

Anyone else having trouble downloading Peel's entry.

For me it pops up an html page that whines about no direct linking. I was still able to download it from that page, though.

- m

Hey all... just posted my april contest submission... It's a poppy indie rock thing called Mayday.

Please give it a listen and let me know what you think! This one was a lot harder to produce, because I wrote the song a year ago with just acoustic guitar and vocals... After a year of playing it over and over, I had expecations in my head of what the song would sound like fully developed... I think I'm close to what I was hearing all this time, and I like it, but I'm curious what you all think.

Anyway, I'm new to this electronic music stuff... before a few months ago, all I had was a TASCAM 4-track analog recorder, so I never had a chance to fully develop anything.... it's really amazing to me to have tools that can create professional sounding tracks... now if I could just figure out how to use all this stuff I'd be set!

Thanks for listening, and rock on.

-Garret

Indie pop is evil!!!!!!!

I hate it!

(but thats quite good in a lloyd cole/sonic youth/pavement/yankee indie ..... kind of way tho!)


Intriguing, listening again!

Aw, crap. Thanks for the heads up about the problems with hearing my submission. I've edited my post to the submissions thread to correct the problem with direct linking, but I guess there are also bandwidth limits, so there may still be problems.
Can anyone recommend a more reliable free place to post it?

Resonance Fragile Like Us.

damnit.

that is all i can say
damnit

this is stunningly excelent

Peel wrote:

I've edited my post to the submissions thread to correct the problem with direct linking, ....

Your new geocities link worked fine for me with right-click save as.

Hey, Res can *sing*!

- m

Just downloading all the stuff right now, but one comment allready:
Res, this is freaking GREAT! I want the complete tune NOW!

Cheers

Poweruser wrote:

Resonance Fragile Like Us. damnit. that is all i can say damnit this is stunningly excelent

Thanks for all the love PU!

Sparkleford wrote:

Hey, Res can *sing*!

I'm full of surprises huh?

Hey congrats on the new drums, M... I used the kick and snare from DFH on my entry (although modified somewhat), and they sound pretty sweet. If you don't have it already you're in for a treat.

Just listening to some of the entries now... garretg's Mayday is the shit... a little too compressed (mucho squeezo), but otherwise it's very cool (reminds me of the Kings of Convenience remix album).

Sascha Franck wrote:

Res, this is freaking GREAT! I want the complete tune NOW!

Thanks Sasch...

re: peel's entry

anyone who was getting this problem:

Steve Newton wrote:

We are sorry, but the file you are trying to download is larger than the maximum length permitted under current network conditions. Please try again later when network conditions change. The file you were trying to download was 1025024 bytes.

I was getting that problem with Opera, but not with IE. Perhaps try a different browser.

cheers,
-d

Resonance,

...

...

...

Please tell me you're making a living off your music! Or will be soon! (I say this after listening to the stuff at your site, as well)

Excellent tunes. Production quality that makes me want to empty out the drawers of my music desk and go home

-d

dewf wrote:

Please tell me you're making a living off your music! Or will be soon! (I say this after listening to the stuff at your site, as well) Excellent tunes. Production quality that makes me want to empty out the drawers of my music desk and go home

Thanks Dewf!

Don't pack your drawers up and go home!!! I got my first Fostex 4-track cassette multitracker when I was a kid so I've been doing this a while... Funny you should say that, because I think production and engineering are definitely my weakest aspects. I wish I was 100 times better than I am...

And as for the money thing, I'm still working in the "(hopefully) will be soon" category... I'm the classic starving artist whose income is touch-and-go. It's frustrating most of the time, actually, because usually it's not about what you can do, but how many people you know...

Too bad I don't know how to do anything else...

dewf wrote:

re: peel's entry anyone who was getting this problem: Steve Newton wrote: blah etc. I was getting that problem with Opera, but not with IE. Perhaps try a different browser. cheers, -d

The geoshitties link works for me now.

Thanks for the kind words folks... I'm pretty happy with this one. It was hell to get there, though... it's much easier for me to write something from scratch than to "produce" an already written song. I'm a sucky drum programmer and can't play keyboards much at all, so it's tough to create stuff that fits with existing guitar rhythms and vocal melodies... much easier to come up with drum rhythm patterns and synth and build a song on top of that.

This is a bit more poppy than I probably should go.. there's too much patsy rock out there.. my next track will have big guitars, I promise ya Donkey T

And yah, it is compressed to hell... I'm really new at this mixing stuff... just started software recording a few months ago. Do you think it's the overall mix that's super squeezy or just the vocals? There's no compression on the guitars, and not much on the drums... what are you hearing in particular?

-Garret

I just listened to all the tracks this month and I'll have to say WOW!!! There's some outstanding work being created!

That's so right. That '99% of music on KVR is crap' comment just seems so laughable when you listen to the quality here...

Early 'big ups' go to
GarretG & Resonance. both fantastic.
Matias - silky smooth
Kriminal
Barnadine

And still 2 weeks to go!

ta to Markleford as always for the Radio

Miro wrote:

ta to Markleford as always for the Radio

Glad to provide. I take it the reverse-order listing is working out for everyone? No complaints yet, at least.

- m

garretg wrote:

yah, it is compressed to hell... I'm really new at this mixing stuff... just started software recording a few months ago. Do you think it's the overall mix that's super squeezy or just the vocals? There's no compression on the guitars, and not much on the drums... what are you hearing in particular?

I was referring to the overall mix Garret, but it's actually just a taste issue. Some people really love that sound - that 'radio' sound of massive compression on the whole mix. It's a great track though, and the full version is now residing on my hard drive.

Markleford wrote:

Miro wrote: ta to Markleford as always for the Radio Glad to provide. I take it the reverse-order listing is working out for everyone? No complaints yet, at least.

Yeah, I think reversing the order was a great idea. And another thanks for making the radio available to all of us...

Also gotta give some mentions to Mulberry and Matias - very nice!

Thanks Res.. though I gotta say since my Broadband-(DSL)-days are over, for I'm just a poor student... I didn't get the chance to listen to your track yet.... but I'll drive home for the easter holidays and'll check it out then.

ttfn

Mulberry

Sleek Month: brilliant song man. I love it! Just pissed myself listening to the lyrics - this and Donkey's song are the funniest I've heard in long time!

This entry really stands out - the concept is just spot on and the interpretation + production are top notch.

Also a big hand for Res, GarretG and Mulberry - really impressive work!

Damnation... there's some solid competition this month

sleek

... despite our disagreements in the off topic forums
I just wanted to let you know that I love the lyric in your song
and that I find the song very good music wise too !
(never been to fond of punk rock ... but this is a bit more sophisticated)
you are proving time after time again you are broader then Broadway
good mix ... perhaps the voice a bit down but that's a matter of taste
I love the way you manage to split channels .. I mean I know how hard
it is with ruph guitars (distorted sounds in general) to make a good mix out

nice combi of rockabillypunkrockreggae and humour.

perhaps i should forgive you for having a gun

Thanasis Siozos

This blows my mind.

heehe, sleek, you fucknut! - excellent!

Wow! Sleek does it again. Terrific song Sleek.

Thanks for the lyrics.

I love this contest.

Cheers,
Gordon

Poweruser wrote:

Thanasis Siozos This blows my mind.

Hey, thanks PU

Too much hot stuff this month!

Horse: having trouble dl'ing your entry. It either pops up as an html page for me, or gives me binary data that doesn't start with an MP3 indicator...

- m

Thanks Markleford, I'll have to see if I can find somewhere sensible to host it!

H

Horse wrote:

Thanks Markleford, I'll have to see if I can find somewhere sensible to host it! H

horse, I'll be glad to host it for ya. you can mail it to me and i'll stick it up tonight.

Don't host it! it's too good!

Better yet, tell him you're going to host it, then swap it out for something awful...

Yeah! that's it!

-S.

Hey, thanks Bluedad - sorry about the delay there, it was a bit past my bed-time so I had to go to beddy-byes [what are you lot all sniggering about?!].

Can you let me know where you want me to send the mp3 to (the email button thing doesn't do attachments). Thanks!

...and Sleek, you don't 'alf make me laugh at times - in a nice way, that is! hehe!

H

EDIT: Ok fixed all the linky things - thanks Bluedad!!

I put my sad version in.....................I have a birthday in 3 days, so daddy wants to win AMPLITUBE..............and you all can make that happen for daddy

ignore the 1:08, I faded it out to fit

whatever, my submission is entered........I already know I won't win, because I am not sir Donk's

Ah, what's this now, Mighty?
Just cos that "it's my birthday so...er...vote for me..." stuff worked for Mulberry last month, don't think that you can pull it off too!

edit...just realised there's a Crystal competition going too!
I can feel those birthday vibes a-coming!

Argh! Still can't get Horse's track, now on bluedad's site. At least this time it downloads like 2 seconds of the track that I can hear...

- m

Well, Horse, I can host the track for you, letme know then.

Random notes on some of the stuff that made my first cut so far...

Barnadine-You were saved by the one excellent chord...you know the one...normally I'm biased against single instrument performances...This'd be cool developed into a song...then again, I'll probably steal that chord change, so you'd better not...

Donks-Another terrible entry about some obscure third world bullshit.

I like it.

Krim-Good samps. I would dance to this while wearing a sarong...as opposed to Vitamin D., which I would dance to while wearing a Carmen Miranda costume...so far, my award for "Gayest Disco of the Month©"

Naked Marge(Unfortunately my grandma's name) and Yaguchi-Angry robots talking...you guys should get together and have a robot war...

Tszioszsosz-Normally I am biased against "symphonic" instrumentals, but this one actually has a hook...like Lawrence, only different. Grand.

Garretg-Horse-Res-Interesting trend...all three very "John Mayer" meets "Jack Johnson" or something. I almost went this way, too, but changed direction at the last minute...must be the weather.

All well done...but Horse's production is the big one (Res is'nt far back, though...as for the songs, they haven't really sunk in yet, so we'll see...).

It makes me want to ask him a lot of questions about his mics and preamps, and what kind of acoustic is that? It sure sounds better than mine...

In a field of talented ameteurs, this sounds pro. The other guy I can think of that has this quality around here is Svante...I hope he stays home sick this month...


-S.

Any comments on my entry?

Michael

Would someone be willing to host my track? Finally got off my duff and wrote something.

Devon

Absolutely willing and happy to host it. email me the tune and I will set you up!

my email is marmstsr2@tpg.com.au

Michael

Me so sad!

Still can't completely download any of the tracks bluedad is hosting: now only getting 3 seconds of dusted william's entry. Anyone else having this problem? Has a bandwidth limit been reached?

- m

Markleford wrote:

Me so sad! - m

yo Markleford

First off, thanks for trying to check out my tune:)

Bluedad was kind enough to host it for me, but I think I have another place to put it in the works.

I wanted to shout out an extended thanks to bluedad for the help though.


later

dw

Markleford wrote:

Argh! Still can't get Horse's track, now on bluedad's site. At least this time it downloads like 2 seconds of the track that I can hear... - m

Oh #@!%#$
this makes me so angry! Horse, you may have to ask someone else, I don't know what is going on with my provider. I'm sorry folks...
and horse, it's a great tune!

Hey Horse, If you want me to host your tune for you I would be happy to. Just email me and let me know! email address is marmstr2@tpg.com.au

Michael

horse's entry here:
www.saschafranck.de/kvr/04_03_Horse_One_More_Time.mp3

A great one, btw.

Sascha

Finally got off my lazy duff and wrote something with the new giga libraries I got. Wish the deadline for the contest wasn't tomorrow, but rather submit something than nothing. Hope someone likes classical stuff. This took about 2 hours of fiddling and being in a rush to get something done.

www.rossiterandco.com/kvr/04_03_DevonB_TheFinalFight.mp3

Devon

Hey DevonB

Nice track and some beautiful sounding instruments. Really good to hear some symphonic sounds this month. BTW, which Giga libraries did you use ?

Two hours -damn! I spent days on my little diity. It took me hours to get some balance between the piano and the orchestral sounds. -I used Sonic Synth's Symphony strings & Sonic Synth brass. And I could not resist using the Dr008 for those nice Wizlive kit cymbals splashes.

I am curious to know if my entry sounds OK on other people's systems and ears. To my ears the piano's coldness matches the melody well.

Your comments most appreciated.

Cheers,
Gordon

Hey all, sorry - I've just got in from work and picked up on this.

Ooops!

Thanks everyone for offering to host - it's been a real pain this month for some reason. And thanks Sascha for rescuing it for me. I didn't mean to cause this much aggro! hehe.

Sleek, hey -thanks! There's not anything clever about how it was put down really, I think you just have to be prepared to listen to it 50 million times to twiddle bits into place so that you're happy with it.

It's dangerous 'tho, 'cos after that many times round you get a bit tired of it and start to think you'd have been better off going for something else, and end up binning it. hehe!

H

Beardedone -

The libraries I used were Steinway D, Garritan Orchestral Strings Lite (Cello), Dan Dean Woodwinds (Flute), Dan Dean Brass(Piccolo Trumpet and Euphonium), and Vienna Symphonic Library Percussion(Field Drum).

Mixing wasn't this wasn't too terribly difficult, as I think I spent about 5-10 minutes doing so. Listening to it more, I really should have brought up my strings though. I think I spent 30+ minutes trying to figure out why Cubase SX wasn't saving out my edited waveform, finally gave up and just used SoundForge instead. Still getting used to SX over using Logic for many many years. Just have to figure out how to force an edit as perm to the wavefile instead of it being non-destructive. If anyone knows, please let me know?

As for your compo - Well, I'm not a fan of the SR sound sets you're using, which isn't a big secret on here. As for composition-wise, the piano, to me, lacked direction; no real "build". I like to be 'taken' somewhere with a song, and it did start to build at the end, but I wish there was more focus in that direction. The strings still could have come forward in the mix a little more, and they lack a 'warmth', but again, I think that's mostly the sample set. Overall the mix isn't too bad though. And being forced to write something in such a short period is a nightmare unto itself. I've had to do 8-15 second music 'bumpers', adjust the bpm to fit in 4 measures, etc. It's a major pain, but forces you to FOCUS on what you're trying to 'say' with your piece. My suggestion to you is to try some more songs that are no more than 30 seconds, and make them complete 'pieces' in their own right. It's tough, but things that are good for you usually aren't easy.

Devon

DevonB

Thanks much for your comments and your candor. I do see your point regarding melodic development. I did not take the medody from A to B to C as I would have liked.

You are so right about short comps. The z3ta+ competition was a great exercise - 21 seconds!

So those are the primo libraries - no wonder. Maybe if I get that raise....

Maybe if I spent more time thinking composition instead of computer technicalities

Cheers,
Gordon

Keep in mind, if you get the primo libraries, you need to spend time WOKRING them into something beautiful, it's not automatic. There are a LOT of articulation choices, and decisions to make. It's not 'lay your hands on the keyboard and *POOF* magically a symphony appears'. It's actually quite disappointing hearing some of these instruments in their raw form alone... but once you build your layers.... wow! Someone else on here recently was complaining about how the Garritan library was more trouble than it was worth to work it. It's not to me, at least, but I can see that perspective though.

Also keep in mind how many more machines you're going to need if you plan on doing this all realtime. My 1.7ghz 768 meg machine did that song alone, and was hitting up to 74 note polyphony, and that song is by no means complex. I believe all those instruments loaded was somewhere about 60%-80% of my memory gone. Loading in the full articluation patch for the flute alone is 30% of my memory in Giga.

Also consider how much hard drive space you're going to need. Steinway D, Dan Dean Woods and Brass, GOS, and VSL Percussion alone take up about 30 gigs of space. I still plan on getting the full Percussion library when it's done, and that's going to be another 12 gigs I think.

So please, take a LOT of time and thought into investing into this stuff, as it gets expensive REAL quick, and what you thought was a few hundred dollar investment into a library ends up becoming a thouand dollar investment in more hardware to support that library. That is the one thing I'll give Sonic Synth is that at least it's not heavy on the resources, but if you want the sheer quality, you need the sheer power to back it up.

It's only money, right?

Devon

Thanks DevonB.

I am aware of the trouble it takes to layer instruments in these libraries. The reviews I've read pinted this out. Anyway I'm sucker for good orchestral soundscapes. I would dearly love to have access to sounds of this quality. Anyway it will be quite a while before I can decide.

Cheers,
Gordon

i listened to the comp entries all in one go yesterday... here's my initial thoughts..

they are in no way definative.. and thoughts might change.. but for impressions.. you can have a read how my mind works



Nick Cramer- nick cramer .. very chilled, great rhodes. I loved it, i have a problem with it being an excerpt though.

Poweruser- b .. nice cello and piano line but i wasn't too keen on the drum mix.

Donkey- richard quest .. LOL brilliant. Donkey is a star.. it's official.

Barnardine-late .. Beautiful piano, but i had extract seeping through my brain.. is it?

annode .. no access

dewf - dubthang .. cool bass, you said it's the first time you used bass like this.. you should try it more often

choochcat-borovniceblue .. i love blippy tunes.

smart-mars explorations .. cool sounds but not enough variation soon enough..

freejazzguy-naked marge .. mad, i loved it's blippy christmas doorbell sounds

ahriakn-shadow ops .. cool intro, dark sounds. your strings work well.. the rhythmic pizz with the triangle

miro-iknowainu .. more fantastic blippynes, yes it had my head bopping in the internet shop, great sample too

Dm.. no acces

xtern.. no acces

kriminal-fuckedup .. i love krimi. cool tune cool samples, cool delays, great tempo speed ups..amen

vitamind-spell .. sorry vitamin, no 70's, i'm not a fan no!

tsiozos-firworks in bagdah .. shostakovich meets arabia. The string are great, but the wind weren't as convinving for me.The full orchestral, though, works.. nice timps

jeff harrison-sonnyou .. really cool actually , good stuff for a short piece

tristeza- intersesting times ... mmm.. tris this tune is so simplestic it's got a cult feeling to it are you sending subliminal messages

matias-not sure of title ..cool... rite of spring goes funk.. great production too.. :)VOTE

markleford-not sure of title .. not sure.. bass guitar guru crosses kung fu movie:)

beardedone- dramatic scene .. mmm.. doesn't flow enough for me... did you play the piano part in.. it sounds a bit midified.. great cymbal work though.. that was the best for me

presetperverter-horny as hell ... mmmm.. i think your idea of being horny is different to mine

bloodhound-roughdivide .. i loved it. it had soul. even if it isn't my fave style of music..VOTE

manytone-strangevents .. i love the simplcity.. !maybe VOTE

superchu hi-quiet ..yes.. another minimilast.. cool !maybe VOTE

stevenewton- let them eat fake .. producion is brill..what a cool bass too..

mulberry-terribly .. yes.. again.. it sounds real, it has soul.. VOTE....

reg..winwithough.. no access

facingdoubt-demon .. mostmetal should go to you

polymerick-skymeadow .. cool cetlic flute sounds. !maybeVOTE

tanco-cohensmarchs .. i wasn't to keen on the sounds.. the brass didn't really do it for me..

peel. noaccess

tokio-landforms .. nice scape.

distill-gentle simmer .. nice cool groove..!maybe VOTE

liqih-simplesong .. mmm.. not my fave..guitar is cool though

normal-undedrthebrige .. great intro, very dewaverlylike trainy sounding :)coolVOTE

garret-mayday .. lovely song straightaway....oh god.. it's an extract.. sorry mate..

yagucji no access..

resonance-fragile like us .. i love it. VOTE .

paradiddle.. noaccess

sleek-monumet .. LOL big smile.. donks has an adversasry

fitch-jetlag .. nowhere near this months comp level...

PA-rhythm .. cool B3 sound

tinman-slipbop .. as good as i've come to expect..VOTE

Horse-not sure of title ..brilliantly beautiful.. you could do with real strings in there though.. it's the ONLY thing that lets the track done.. in my mind

mightyhero-april .. cool and laid back... but i wasn't sure about the vocal style.. with the rest of the track?

Marmstrong-not sure of title .. toms and bass.. not my taste..sorry

dustedwilliam-drive me crazy ... mmm no..it didn't really grab me

devonB-the finalflight .. beautiful sounds.. piano is perfect..but the flute sound, no.. it sounded a little bit midified.. me prefer the flute form bonus disk




that's how i heard them... i put down who i'd vote for and who was on the edge... if i didn't pick 5 full votes..

not the most excellent of reviews.. but general views.. still valid non the less

fitch wrote:

mulberry-terribly .. yes.. again.. it sounds real, it has soul.. VOTE....

Hey fitch thanks a lot

have to say Mulberry for me as well

very pleasing, i could listen to 70 little songs like this in a row.

Hey seldom, thanks a lot... you will have the chance to do this when I finish my new record (okay you sometimes will have to wait two or more minutes before the next song starts - but hopefully this'll be okay *gg*) it should take this much time... give me 4 more month and it should be done

Best regards
Mulberry

Thanks for your comments, Fitch.

I recorded the SS piano part as midi played live using my Guitar and Lateral Solution's Guitar Synth. I then edited the midi file on the FLS piano roll playing back through SS piano and then thorugh some of those incredible z3ta+ pads. I did beef up the chords and extended the pedal notes. But the melody is mostly as I originally played it. I love being able to play guitar though Guitar Synth -it forces me to play cleanly.

So to answer your question: it's a hybrid of live played and piano roll midification. Also, the original tempo was a 5 bpm slower, I recall.

Thanks for listening,
Gordon

Quote:

Poweruser- b .. nice cello and piano line but I wasn't too keen on the drum mix.

Thank you for listening to it Fitch !
and thank you for the detailed comments on all the entry's !
I know the drum in my entry is worse.
I should have left it out. Listening back .... I'm not to keen on the entry as a whole. I will listen to all entrys soon.

Quote:

Donkey is a star.. it's official

Right on Claire!

I'll second that!

Hey, thanks for taking the time out, Claire.

Fitch wrote: "fitch-jetlag .. nowhere near this months comp level..."

I know what you mean..a bit scary this month's quality, innit?

Hey all... If any of you are listening to the comp entries with markleford's playlist and real player, I noticed that my entry is getting cut off at 57 seconds instead of finishing up nicely at 1:03 like it's supposed to. My editing skills are rough, but not that rough!

Not sure why this is happening... it seems to only be a real player problem (not surprised), and if you open up the url directly it plays fine. I'll try a few things to fix it today... maybe it's a corrupt mp3 or something..

Thanks for the kind words Fitch... For the record, is there anything in the contest rules that says you have to write a one minute composition? I'd much rather write something longer, and make a workable edit to submit to the contest. Last month I used a really bad fade -- I can understand why some folks' had a negative reaction to that -- but I think the edit is much better this month...

-Garret

Garret,

I dl your entry and it downloded completely- Its plays in Sonar and Wavelab right to the fade out. BTW I banned Real Player from my computer and don't use MS Player at all. Anyway no problems here on a dedicated wave editor.

Sweet song. I like the guitar comping

Gordon

Beardedone wrote:

Garret, I dl your entry and it downloded completely- Its plays in Sonor and Wavelab right the fade out. BTW I banned Real Player from my computer and don't use MS Player at all. Anyway no problems here on a dedicated wave editor. Sweet song. I like the guitar comping Gordon

Thanks... I'm going to head home for lunch and recompress the file... I used the latest LAME encoder, and it's a plain single rate 128kbps stereo file, so I dunno what could be incompatible with real player. But anyway what I noticed is that it detects the bit rate as 141kbps... that's why it cuts a few seconds off during playback.

I'm not a big fan of real player myself, but it's on every machine at work since we run a mondo real server for live internet-based classes... I only noticed because Markleford's radio playlist popped up in real player automatically on my work computer.

-Garret

fitch wrote:

i listened to the comp entries all in one go yesterday... here's my initial thoughts.. they are in no way definative.. and thoughts might change.. but for impressions.. you can have a read how my mind works ... tsiozos-firworks in bagdah .. shostakovich meets arabia. The string are great, but the wind weren't as convinving for me.The full orchestral, though, works.. nice timps

Fitch ,
thanks for taking the time to review each and every entry.
The opinion of a pro is very important to me.
Sorry to hear about the woodwinds. I thought it sounded ok
Interesting you mentioned Shostacovich. Although i've never
listened to an entire work of his, i read he's been a master of dissonance treatment.
FWIW, The entire week before this piece i've been listening to Scriabin and Copland

Listen,

My goal in life is to get votes from Fitch, Donkey, Bluedad, Putte and Kriminal all in the same Comp. If can do that then I' know I've done well. Not likely, but it's a goal right? And I do have life OK!

Cheers,
Gordon

Sleek Month wrote:

Tszioszsosz-Normally I am biased against "symphonic" instrumentals, but this one actually has a hook...like Lawrence, only different. Grand. -S.

Sleek thanx
And, i'm not kidding: i'm making a tune right now to be posted next month that will not use any instruments at all.

Shouldnt the voting start today

possibly - but hardy has gone hasnt he ???

as mentioned previously - im willing to admin the may contest - but if folks want i can take over now and close down the submissions thread and open up a voting one [provided ben extends my mod status to the cafe too]

???

slainte rob

april contest rules wrote:

DEADLINE submissions will occur 3pm PST Wednesday 23 April and the Voting thread opened.

so i guess thats midnight gmt yes ???

about 6-and-a-half hours to go then

slainte rob

Go for it Rob

Quote:

paradiddle.. noaccess

Thanks for mentioning it Fitch, nobody else did. I'm pulling out.

Garret wrote:

Thanks for the kind words Fitch... For the record, is there anything in the contest rules that says you have to write a one minute composition? I'd much rather write something longer, and make a workable edit to submit to the contest. Last month I used a really bad fade -- I can understand why some folks' had a negative reaction to that -- but I think the edit is much better this month... -Garret

Hi Garret... not sure of the official ruling.. but my own personal thought is that these should be pieces written especially for the competition... which i thought had a standard 1min limit?



so every track i listen to i had to decide whether to my ears they've been written fresh or swiped from someones latest project and faded to fit..

these later fade to fit models never get my vote i'm afraid, no matter how much i like the track.. the challenge is to write a 1 min wonder

Hey all... I just moved my track over to another web server... the server it was on seems to be mangling mp3s...

I edited my entry in the submissions thread, and I emailed Markleford to ask him to update the playlist...

-Garret

fitch wrote:

these later fade to fit models never get my vote i'm afraid, no matter how much i like the track..

Same here.

I've recycled stuff for the comp, but typically rework the arrangement to get it to fit with a definite ending and add new material to that end. I've only faded one track to get it to length for the comp, but somehow that one seemed to fit the mood ("And the story continues...").

Still, there was a lot of new material added to that track: quickie "edit and fade" submissions tend to be obvious.

- m

paradiddle wrote:

Quote: paradiddle.. noaccess Thanks for mentioning it Fitch, nobody else did. I'm pulling out.

paradiddle I got your track.

fitch wrote:

Hi Garret... not sure of the official ruling.. but my own personal thought is that these should be pieces written especially for the competition... which i thought had a standard 1min limit? so every track i listen to i had to decide whether to my ears they've been written fresh or swiped from someones latest project and faded to fit.. these later fade to fit models never get my vote i'm afraid, no matter how much i like the track.. the challenge is to write a 1 min wonder

Well, I'm new around here, and this is only my second contest entry, so I don't know what established practice is. I went by the contest rules, which say it's a free for all, including "original material, remixes, or hybrids in any style."

I respect your opinion on this issue, and I agree that writing a 1 minute wonder is a worthwhile challenge, but learning to do that is not my primary goal... I'm just trying to write better music every day, to express myself musically and lyrically, to create something unique and meaningful.

I suppose some folk have more time than I and multiple outlets for their musical endeavers, so they can honor boundaries that separate stuff they write "for the competition" from stuff that is "for other purposes." Right now I can't. I've only been around here for a few months, and I've found these monthly competitions to be a great way to make sure that I keep working on my songwriting and actually finish things...

You're welcome to not vote for my compositions... but I'd prefer it be because you don't like them, not because of a some arbitrary, unofficial requirement.

-Garret

okay folks -

since i now appear to be de facto compo admin [please dont start to hate me for it - although if you already hate me please carry on] it would now appear to be my duty to remind you that -

YOU HAVE 2-AND-A-HALF HOURS UNTIL THE APRIL SUBMISSIONS DEADLINE

i will set up the voting thread 1st thing in the morning

apologies for any delays / confusion but i wanted to clear it all with ben and get the relevant mod status before posting

for everyones info - ill also be setting up the may compo in due course [but dont propose anything radical like 'only atonal avant-garde leftfield noise idm entries' - so dont worry]

slainte rob

Garret wrote:

fitch wrote: Hi Garret... not sure of the official ruling.. but my own personal thought is that these should be pieces written especially for the competition... which i thought had a standard 1min limit? so every track i listen to i had to decide whether to my ears they've been written fresh or swiped from someones latest project and faded to fit.. these later fade to fit models never get my vote i'm afraid, no matter how much i like the track.. the challenge is to write a 1 min wonder Well, I'm new around here, and this is only my second contest entry, so I don't know what established practice is. I went by the contest rules, which say it's a free for all, including "original material, remixes, or hybrids in any style." I respect your opinion on this issue, and I agree that writing a 1 minute wonder is a worthwhile challenge, but learning to do that is not my primary goal... I'm just trying to write better music every day, to express myself musically and lyrically, to create something unique and meaningful. I suppose some folk have more time than I and multiple outlets for their musical endeavers, so they can honor boundaries that separate stuff they write "for the competition" from stuff that is "for other purposes." Right now I can't. I've only been around here for a few months, and I've found these monthly competitions to be a great way to make sure that I keep working on my songwriting and actually finish things... You're welcome to not vote for my compositions... but I'd prefer it be because you don't like them, not because of a some arbitrary, unofficial requirement. -Garret

I, too, usually don't vote for the song that wasn't specifically made for the contest. I just think a snippet version is a poor presentation comparing to other complete songs. But there are many people who don't care if an entry is an excerpt or not. Anyway, you shouldn't take the voting too seriously; this is a laid-back competition.

Unofficial rule or not, it still be nice if the 'one minute TOTAL song' was listed in the rules. Not everyone has been around here for years. Kinda nice to be playing on an equal playing field in that respect. If I would have known that, I would have geared my song that way.

Devon

BloodHound wrote:

paradiddle wrote: Quote: paradiddle.. noaccess Thanks for mentioning it Fitch, nobody else did. I'm pulling out. paradiddle I got your track.

I got it too, Paradiddle. Leave it in there!

Many thanks mz. Fitch, I was beginning to wonder if anyone'd listened/liked it all :

DevonB wrote:

Unofficial rule or not, it still be nice if the 'one minute TOTAL song' was listed in the rules. Not everyone has been around here for years. Kinda nice to be playing on an equal playing field in that respect. If I would have known that, I would have geared my song that way. Devon

Well, I think Fitch, Markleford, & me are a part of the minority. We had this discussion before and I got an impression that the majority don't care about the totality of the entries.

I sometimes vote for an excerpt version if it's really good. I think if an entry has a strange opening/closing, that's just not as good as other entries that have an excellent opening/ending/integrity/structure. If you submit a snippet version of a longer work, you should know that people will notice that the work is not presented in the way it should be, and your entry might be penalized for that reason.

Random thoughts on the one minute limit:

One minute song entries supposedly make sure that people are composing in the present for the contest as opposed to just pulling something off of their hard drive that they've been working on for three years, thus levelling the playing field.

They don't really do that, though, because you can just cut something down.

It is also supposed to keep the download sizes small, but there's always some joker who goes for the higher bit rate/larger file anyway...(Kajiki? Are you listening )

So, as near as I can tell, the limit doesn't work.

Themes work for keeping stuff fresh, which is probably why everyone bitches about them so much. (How many times do we have to hear"Oh, I already had something written, but now I can't use it!" That's kinda the point, innit?)

I personally hate the limit, partially because I have learned to work within it so well over the course of these comps.

I keep getting comments of:"Hey, that's great, but why is it so short?"

(I also get comments about music...wah, wah, wahhhh...)

Now I have all of these 1 minute songs that people would like to hear more of, but I made them to be 1 minute songs, which are basically useless.

By the time I post them, I am done with them and have moved on to something else...

It would be far better to do an entire "3 minute" song to start with while in the full flush of inspiration.

So far nobody has ever asked me to compose a one-minute song...quite to the contrary, I end up having to pad things out as the few commercial clients I have had need music in bulk...5 minute songs...7 minute songs...

...but that's just me.

hey let's make see if peeps want to go for a song that has to fit in between 3 - 5 minutes.

then we could all be writing real songs.

and before i hear the dial ups complain, I'm on slower that 56 K connection.

I thing sleek has a point though.


dw

Sleek Month wrote:

It is also supposed to keep the download sizes small, but there's always some joker who goes for the higher bit rate/larger file anyway...(Kajiki? Are you listening )

I've been doing that every 3 months or so. I thought no one would notice... I just couldn't encode my entry in 128k...

I'm not sure about the 3-5 minutes song idea. People are getting a DSL connection, but a 3-5 minutes times 50 songs is like 3-4 hours of listening. I listen to each entry at least 5 times, so it would be like 20 hours of listening... If we are to do the 3-5 minutes thing, I will need at least a couple of weeks for voting/feedbacking time.

[edited]
BTW, shouldn't we talk about this in the "next competition idea" thread?
Rob?
[/edited]

Thanks for the feedback, miro, horse, sleek, fitch & all.

fitch - It's not an excerpt, I'm afraid, just a little late night noodle. Look for a much improved, 90 minute, concept album version from Sleek, called "Can you really own a chord change, anyway?".

Heh, totally off topic, but right now I'm listening to a Gavin Bryars cd with an old man singing "Jesus' blood never failed me yet" over and over in a constant loop for the whole album. Then Tom Waits joins in. Bizarre.

Starting to download entries now. Comments later, hopefully.


(Sorry to hear about recent events, Markleford. )

Well - first things first - if you are having trouble accessing my entry, you might just want to right-click save it because Geocities is kinda lame. I know, I know -- I should get a real website!
(Those who have been able to get the song, thanks for listening! )
Secondly, I agree that the "1-minute excerpt" song is a bit of a cop-out compared to the true 1-minute song. Nothing personal, just my opinion. And besides, the excerpts don't do the artists any justice because they are but a mere sliver of the whole composition. Exactly which part are we hearing -- the verse, the chorus, the bridge, etc.?
My April entry is a scaled-down version of a nearly three-minute track. I just shortened the length of each part. (And rightfully so... who wants to hear more than a minute of this crap! )
And to put this in perspective a bit, just think how lame it would be if someone submitted a "full-length" track which was really just a 1-minute song repeated 3-5 times? Yeah, I realized that most pop music is basically this repetition but it's usually not as incredibly obvious as something that was copied and pasted in WaveLab!
BTW Anyone ever heard the "Commercial Album" by the Residents? It's its own Top 40!

Yaguchi01 wrote:

BTW Anyone ever heard the "Commercial Album" by the Residents? It's its own Top 40!

it is pretty intersting, I like the concept.

dw

Sleek Month wrote:

It would be far better to do an entire "3 minute" song to start with while in the full flush of inspiration. So far nobody has ever asked me to compose a one-minute song...quite to the contrary, I end up having to pad things out as the few commercial clients I have had need music in bulk...5 minute songs...7 minute songs... ...but that's just me.

I re-propose that the time limit is swapped with a file size limit.

however I think we can appease most people with a 2mb (2048 k) file size limit and a song time limit of 5 minutes. or something around this..

a complete song so be it ! imo
and a cut down version for the people on slow download !
in this way you can get a quick impression of a song
and download the complete songs of the ones you like

lets all put up a 3 minute song
and a 1 minute preview

i also agree with sleek ... the theme is a challenge

regards

remco

Poweruser wrote:

a complete song so be it ! imo and a cut down version for the people on slow download ! in this way you can get a quick impression of a song and download the complete songs of the ones you like lets all put up a 3 minute song and a 1 minute preview i also agree with sleek ... the theme is a challenge regards remco

I thought we were downloading all the songs regardless and listening to them throughout.. even if we dont really like them.. before judging

..or have you just been downloading and rating only the ones you like ?

ok folks - ive opened up a 'may contest - format discussion' thread now - can we shift this discussion over there now please ???

[just to keep things tidy-ish]

slainte rob

While I was listening to the contest entries, I made little 1-line comments; sorry I didn't write more but I wanted to say something about every entry. In no particular order:

kajiki -- year zero
- like the stereo spread on the strings

devonB -- theFinalFight
- great composition, and wow that snare drum sounds good.

polymerick -- sky meadow
- really smooth & clear, like the other tracks I've heard from you, nice job on the flute

miro -- I know Ainu
- nice sample and goodly-mangled sounds

normal -- under the bridge
- i like the skwonky pads

bloodhound -- rough devide
- like the loose groove & the western theme

beardedone -- dramatic scene
- very lush

resonance -- fragile like us
- really good performance & production

super chu-hi -- quiet
- great mix of peaceful + anxious!

fitch -- jetlag
- love the openning quackey synth

dewf -- dubthang
- the drum rhythm fits nicely with the bass rhythm

tancos -- cohen's march
- adventurous note choices!

horse -- one more time
- kicks in nicely, nice lead gtr tone

preset perverter -- horny as hell
- great combo of textures

mighty_hero -- april
- love the sampled vox

tokio -- landforms
- nice & thick but pure-sounding, I like the whispery noises too

tinman -- slipbop
- great sound on the lead synth

smart -- MarsExploration
- it does sound martian, in a good way

ahriakin -- ShadowOps
- nice smooth but dramatic feel

liqih -- simple song
- nice bluesey harmonies

markleford -- bht6
- nice tech-retro sound

Nick C -- long rhode ahead
- love the flangey background, and that little flam on the drum line

facingdoubt
- good guitar sound

dusted william -- drive me crazy
- great groove, nice production on the vox

mulberry -- terribly
- the flute & the far-away guitar on the left side are good, nice song

annode -- frank's bastard son
- love the lead synth, and sounds great when the pad fades out too

distil -- gentle simmer
- wow, great vibe on this production!

Poweruser -- b
- nice soundtracky feel, and I like the bells

TristezaOrange -- interesting times
- actually really catchy! The looseness works, too

steve newton -- let them eat fake
- I'm a sucker for throaty-sounding synths; nice modulation for the last part

VitaminD -- Spell
- nice live feel

Barnadine -- barnadine late
- very nice use of dynamics and timing, I like the minimalist bassline

choochcat -- boronice blue
- really cool interplay between the rhythms!

nakedmarge -- freejazzguylives
- maybe a bit over my head, but kind of addictive, too...

matias -- M SFA
- smooth yet punchy!

garret -- mayday
- good song, electonic diddles are nice

Sleek Month -- monuments
- nice organ & nice tune

tsiozos -- Fireworks in Baghdad
- nice composition and nice arrangement

manytone -- strange events
- nice burbley(?) deep groove

Donkey tugger -- richardquest
- awesome! and you somehow manage to fit a lot of drama into a 1-min disco track!

hypertone -- brighter times
- like the guitar harmonic sounds

MArmstrong -- Flying To Close to the Sun
- like the ac bass

peel -- april
- this is the worst song I've ever heard in my life! And I couldn't download it!

PA -- rhythm rhythm
- nice tune but too long

Jeff Harrison -- WMP couldn't play the file

yaguchi01 -- couldn't DL

DM -- couldn't DL it

xtern -- couldn't DL it

Kriminal -- couldn't DL it

regphoenix -- couldn't DL it

Quote:

Poweruser -- b - nice soundtracky feel, and I like the bells

hey .... ! thank you !
thank you for listening and liking the feel
actually I thought there wasn't a melody line init
and it was a bit too static ... but I am glad you like it !

i hope i can make such a listing as fitch and you later on ..if i can find the time

regards !

Miro,

Thank you for the vote. I am honored.

Cheers,
Gordon

Quote:

beardedone -- dramatic scene - very lush

Thanks Peel!

Wow a Vote and a positive comment. Now I don't feel so Verklimpt.
But I'm definitley have schpielchas!

Gordon

Very welcome, Gordon. Fantastic mood. Must say I'm not 100% on the MIDI piano sound, though. It was that trill combined with the strings rush at 0:19 that got me

Quote:

It was that trill combined with the strings rush at 0:19 that got me

That trill was part of my attempt at making what was originally played on guitar, through guitar synth. sound pianistic. I have to admit it thrilled me too when I threw it in. I did not expect such a good (IMO) result.

I do now see why you and Fitch find the piano midified. I am not sure how I would fix that. Funny I almost scrapped using a piano patch altogether until my wife (who is a trained pianist) heard it and loved it. So blame my wife for the midified piano

I still have to dl a bunch of entries and give a serious listen. This month it will take some time to narrow it down. All I have heard so far sound good on my headphones here at work.

Cheers,
Gordon

Peel wrote:

choochcat -- boronice blue - really cool interplay between the rhythms!

Thanks very much. Counterpoint would be my middle name, if I could only get it to stay where it belongs, and stop syncopating against my first name and surname.

wow - Peel, you made my night man. What can I say... thank you! And pass that sweet vibe on

It will be next to impossible to narrow it down to 5 tracks... I'll have to let it all setlle in a little longer

Stan

Peel, many thanks for the comment

Steve Newton - UBER thanks for the vote , wow, I really didnt think anyone would like it that much (since soundtracky stuff doesn't seem too popular).

I went through all the entries again yesterday, took down scores and notes on a text file and then accidentally deleted the damn thing ...soo, may have my own votes up later when I can get my wee brain working well enough to remember them....

Donkos wrote:

Drinking again as I listened to all the entries so....... 1.. Vitamin D - Yes! (though he wont believe it!) supercool disco/house sound, very clever use of the rhythms. I'ds dance to it! do a long version!

ah ha.. I guess you answered my question right off the bat


thanks for the vote though... I hope you arent too disappointed after the buzz wears off...

Hehe, you shold do more housey stuff Vit D, you're obviously good at it! Donkey hate trance, donkey love house!

KRIMINAL

THANK YOU

FOR

THE

VOTE

CHEERS

GORDON

no prob

good one!

Thanks for the vote donkey A real compliment comming from a pro like you.

Bloodhound,

Thanks a lot for the nice comment. I guess I should finish it then, eh?

Cheers,
Gordon

Hey guys.... a big "thank you" to Miro and Matias for voting for me and to Peel and BloodHound for putting me on their follow-up list

Mul

Beardedone wrote:

I guess I should finish it then, eh?

You sure should do that.

Peel wrote:

TristezaOrange -- interesting times - actually really catchy! The looseness works, too

Thanks Peel! The looseness is me bored of editing in the piano roll - but I always do that!! Glad you find it catchy!

wow bloodhound ! thanks for the vote !

i had no expectations on votes

oh, never mind!

Woah! Thanks for the votes. I wasnt sure if I would get any as my name wasnt mentioned in the gossip thread. You guys just made my day!

Woo! Vote from BloodHound!

Mind you, I generally don't join the voting-time love-fest of "thanks for votes", but it really surprised me to see a nod when my tune has barely made a ripple thus far. Thanks, BH!

- m

Quote:

I generally don't join the voting-time love-fest of "thanks for votes"

Markleford. It's because you have normal, healthy sense of self-worth that seems to be in short supply in some people. That's a good thing.

I am still so surprised to get any votes at all that I feel compelled to express my thanks. And I sincerely am grateful when I garner some recognition. I get psyched.

I will grow up and get an ego someday before I die.

Cheers,
Gordon

Thanks to our full reviewers : Fitch and Peel !
The title refers mostly to the use of Rhino but who knowns ??
I pay too much attention on textures, should focus now on rythmics among others things !
Stay tuned for really weird textures to come !

Ooops !! one edit : thanks Matias for the yay !

Poweruser wrote:

wow bloodhound ! thanks for the vote ! i had no expectations on votes

add another vote to your unexpectations!

BTW, thanks Donk for the vote, I honestly didn't think anyone would vote for a metal track plus I don't do metal justice vocally... oh well

LOL @ Sleek's voting coments

Haven't collab'd with anyone here but why not?!?

thanks seldom - my first 1st place this month

although I think Res deserves to win I don't mind steeling him some points by getting voted

Mul

Mulberry wrote:

1. Resonance - fragile like us (because of the lyrics, the feeling, the sound and... ah fuck it because of everything - how about a split single ) 2. no one - just to give res the place he deserves 3. Horse - One more time (I really dig it though I don't think it sounds like John Mayer.... whom I admire - is this correct english ??? ) 4. no one, again - for Horse deserves it, too. 5. donkey tugger - Richard Quest (actually the first song of this contest I listened to and the laughs I had are worth a vote - cool tune) sorry for the once that didn't get into my vote list because of my strange system

For fucks sake, the rules say five...FIVE, so pick five and put ya votes in. Everyone else seems to manage it

yay!

a vote!

thanks Mighty

Quote:

3. Horse - One more time (I really dig it though I don't think it sounds like John Mayer.... whom I admire - is this correct english ??? )

A note on my allusions.

Horse's tune reminds me of John Mayer...it's mainly the breathy-husky vocal, but A/B'ing it against "No Such Thing" by Mr. Mayer, there's also a similar production going on, most notably with the drum sounds...the two songs actually fit together quite nicely...

Resonance's tune reminds me mainly of "Iris" by the Goo Goo Dolls...mainly because they're both big sweeping 3/4 things, but the vocal range and dynamics remind me of them also, if not necessarily the vocal sound.

Donkey's tune reminds me of the sound of inhuman shit, mostly...not quite dog, perhaps marmot? It's just the overall quality

-S.

I see what you mean - but I'd say the GooGooDolls comparison seems more obvious to me - that's all... I didn't mean to offend you But I like comparing things, too..... though most people don't like it - it's a big compliment when you say it sounds like them

Sleek Month wrote:

[ Donkey's tune reminds me of the sound of inhuman shit, mostly...not quite dog, perhaps marmot? It's just the overall quality -S.

It is a more or less direct steal of 'gimme gimme gimme' by ABBA as you well know my son!

Yeah...I don't mean that either of these tracks is derivative or a rip-off or anything...

Please, anyone I have mentioned, take it as a compliment, especially Donks.

-S.

just some thinks that got into my mind when i listened to all this fabulous entry`s ! no entry that i did not like !

Kajiki - Year Zero majestic entry ... I loved the percussion sounds

Polymerick - Sky Meadow good spring feel ! also reminds me a bit of the middle ages

poweruser -b leave the drums out ... the rest is average not super

markleford -Theme From Big Hero Team Six .. I wanted the slap base louder and the lead softer ..nice action

normal.under_the_ bridge. creepy mood .... very tense ..liked it

Hypertone - Brighter Times Ahead shafty feel ! cool chords and intervals

Ahriakin - Shadow Ops catchy soundscape ..very wide

Barnadine - Late beautiful evening feeling ..lot’s of feeling

BloodHound - Rough Divide - perfect life feel ... house on a green hill in spring sphere

choochcat_borovnice_blue. Lovely dream ... I saw telletubbies and gummy bears

dewf -Dub Thang not realy dub but I loved the lead synth stuttering

DM - One Minute Symphony ...let the games begin !

donkeytugger_richardquest .... good idea ! nice singing ..fun stuff bad mix out this time donk

dustedwilliam_driveMeCrazy ...funk in essence ..i guess ..nice high voice

fitch_jetlag ... I imagined myself flying too

Kriminal_Fucked_Up .. amazing stuff ..listened to it a lot ! done smart

Manytone_Strange_Events ..not because of the voice but I heard so much better stuff from you ..nice idea but comes out on a very low volume in my homeset

MArmstrong_FlyingtoClosetothesun ... lovely contrabass ...sample based ? good sphere

Matias_M_SFA ..i hate you ..i wish i could make this perfect !

miro_IknowAinu the voices kept me fascinated

nakedmarge_freejazzguylives ..very interesting ..but also a bit static

PA_Rhythm_rhythm jamming in the studio room ...lovely organ

paradiddle_fonsequoi super overdriven base sound

Peel_April lots of space ... good mix out and I really like the melody ! good use of filter

Preset_Perverter_Horny_as_Hell ...the swiiiissshhhhh sound what is it ? sounds so cool !

resonance_fragile_like_us ..very impassioned pop song ..HITPOTENTIAL

smart - MarsExploration -- moonscape space sphere ... nice cut up drum sounds !

Steve Newton - Let Them Eat Fake your mix out is always so good ! like the change of beat at 0:31

SuperChu-Hi_quiet what a sphere ... very different but very clever .... simply beautiful

tokio_landformation ........ good pad

tsiozos_Fireworks_in_Baghdad you deserve to do a major Hollywood film score !

VitaminD_Spell - good disco nice stutter effect ..done smart

Yaguchi01-Mr. Harper very danceable .... and what a digital sounds ...super

facingdoubt_demon ..lower on the voice ! put the guitar more upfront ! like the melody ! a bit metalica like

garretg_mayday ...tell me you have a record deal ...please ? excellent !

sleekmonth-monument rockabillypoprock ... nice mix out funny lyric good singing good guitar effects

Liqih_Simple_Song nice solo at 0:52 but all over the time limit

Distill_GentleSimmer ...is this for real ! put the voice louder ! it rocks big time

Tancos_CohensMarch ...harmonically very interesting ..not to fond on the rhythm ..nice trumpet

MulberryTerribly. can I trade ..you me ..i you ! simply magnifying

beardedone_-_Dramatic_Scene ... restaurant sphere ! in the

beginning ..lovely autumn mood

Anode - Frank`s bastard son needs a better mix out and mastering but what a super lead !

InterestingTimes chinese pentatonic feel ... not to fond on the drum but I like the harmony

NickCramer_LongRhodeAhead ..morning glory ! take me to that place ! what a sphere

all meant possitive ! if i said something not to uplifting ..remember ..this is just how i hear stuff ... someone else has different ears and feelings !

remco

Wow !! now 3 full reviewers + prizes galore ! April is blessed or what ? Thanks Remco !
The swishhhhhhh sound is courtesy of a home cooked Rhino preset

Poweruser wrote:

BloodHound - Rough Divide - perfect life feel ... house on a green hill in spring sphere

Thanks for the honesty PU. Next month I'll go for the more dead feel This one did not earn me any votes

Most people who commented placed it in a country classification. Actually it was meant to be in the "folk" catagory, but I definitetly missed the boat!

My poor showing this month will make me change my strategy. From now on I'll stick to what I can do and stop experiementing with crap. This one made a great exit from my list of songs to be finished.

Donchotomy wrote:

It is a more or less direct steal of 'gimme gimme gimme' by ABBA

Poof!

All true men prefer the A-Teens version!

-S.

Hey Peel, Remco, thanks for taking time to review the entries!

Slag minge wrote:

Donchotomy wrote: It is a more or less direct steal of 'gimme gimme gimme' by ABBA Poof! All true men prefer the A-Teens version! -S.

Pffff, All real men prefer the Leather Nun version! Proper Swedish garage band shite! Superb!

Fuckingell.

I'd like to take back my first place vote for Horse, as his goddam tune was running through my head all night!!!

Inexcusable! I reserve my head for graphic images of me having sex with Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, only it's somehow Jenny McCarthy, in an abandoned squat in a dry dirty bathtub with used syringes in it.

I dunno. It's a dream I have. I don't know what it means...

But, bastard!!! You displaced this idyll!!!

Twat!!!

-S.

hehe!

Sleek! What time is it there? Are you still on last night or something?

I've been trying to put together impartial and unbiased comments on all the entries, if you keep on like this I'll be forced to write something nice about you

Sorry about Rebecca, she sends her love 'tho

H

Oh look 5 smiling face things - I must be chuffed!

H

Well, as I write this it's about 3:20 in the morning.

...I just fielded a call from these girls I went out with tonight...

"Oh, we're home now, you should come over".

What the hell is that??? They're ten miles away after we hung out all night? They could have stayed here...grumble grumble grumble...

I mean...okay, it's implicit that if I went there I wouldn't be driving home, but...christ! I don't go through hoops for anybody, or even two anybodies...

Hmmm...my argument is starting to sound really shaky...

Oh! Music! Yes! I remember! Ummm...yeah. Nice tune Horse. Better with time and all that. Buck up, camper.

-S.

Quote:

...or even two anybodies...

Rock & roll, Sleek

H

Quote:

Thanks for the honesty PU. Next month I'll go for the more dead feel This one did not earn me any votes Most people who commented placed it in a country classification. Actually it was meant to be in the "folk" catagory, but I definitetly missed the boat! My poor showing this month will make me change my strategy. From now on I'll stick to what I can do and stop experiementing with crap. This one made a great exit from my list of songs to be finished.

to be honest ... i liked it
very good you do different things
this has a nice sphere ..very cosy and friendly !
indeed very folky !

Power to annode, donkey an Poweruser. Thanks for the votes of confidence. At least I'm getting some votes

Donkey thanks for the Thin Lizzy linkage. They were a real great bunch.

No word from Sleek for a few hours...I was hoping for regular updates a blow-by-blow account, if you will...

Miro wrote:

No word from Sleek for a few hours...I was hoping for regular updates a blow-by-blow account, if you will...

Sleek is always blowing someone/thing, thats prob why u havent heard from him.

L.A. Fag

he was still up when I got up this morning!
course, there is a two hour time difference -
and he had two chicks calling him to come over!
I think he's just worn out.

bluedad wrote:

he had two chicks calling him to come over!

I think you'll find that was in his dreams

Wow! A number one vote.

Thank you so much Annode. I guess I really have to finish this piece. I'm so glad you liked it enough to bestow top marks.

You live in Philly. I lived 6 years on Pine Street and 44nd from Dec 87-Oct 92 while doing postdoctoral work at Temple and U. Penn. I really miss the place. We still have friends there we plan see this year.

All the best,
Gordon AKA beardedone

Poweruser wrote:

tsiozos_Fireworks_in_Baghdad you deserve to do a major Hollywood film score !

Thanks Remco! I hope it's not a problem that for the time being i'm teaching major scales to 12 year olds Hey, everyone has to start from somewhere.

BTW, i enjoyed your track too.

yay! another vote! this time a #1!!!!!!!!!

thanks Super Chu-Hi


and for the rest of you - keep them comming!!!!

Late thanks Don't look Down for the vote, and Kriminal for the Hm. Much appreciated

Steve, Garret, Nick, Preset, Facingdoubt, Polymerick, Res, GSauve, Paula.

Thanks for your votes really appreciated!

updated: and bluedad thanks m8

..is this the thanks thread now?


well I guess I should keep form with the rest of the thread..


thanks, annode, for the vote!!

thanks Vit

thanks bluedad

Matias wrote:

thanks Vit

but I havent voted yet.. or are you reading my mind and figuring out who I'd vote for?

Im just thanking you thanks!

A big thanks to: (in the order of the vote they gave me )
1. Polymerick
2. facingdoubt
3. Sleek Month
4. Steve Newton
5. bluedad
Especially big thanks to Polymerick! I believe I received a #1 from you last month as well! If I ever get around to putting out a CD this year, you definitely get the first copy.
If I get the chance, I'd like to do something like fitch did and comment on all of the great tracks this month... But first I must finish my oral presentation on the ethics of therapeutic cloning; final exams are right around the corner...

Poweruser wrote:

Liqih_Simple_Song nice solo at 0:52 but all over the time limit

thanks for the comment PU, just the solo at 0:52 is a just copy of the one
at 0:28 (!?)

Matias wrote:

Im just thanking you thanks!

hey thanks for thanking me thanks!

Ouf ! my first vote ! Thank you very much Tancos !
I liked your track for the composition but the sounds... oh my god !

You see ? It is not to hard to not get caught up in the thank you list
you simply wait with voting until everyone is ready with voting

o.c. don’t all wait ... because we would all be waiting for each other

btw ... is it me or are the voting’s coming in a little hesitatingly ?

i will vote tonight.

Thanks for vote Gsauve, liqih and tancos. Thought I was looking at a big fat zero there, but now with two first places I feel a respectable mid-table mediocrity beckons.

I'll try and vote tonight. Been running around the past week with no time.

btw facing doubt and bloodhound.
i was very surpriced to receive votes ! thanks !
i couldn`t believe my eyes

Yaguchi01 wrote:

If I ever get around to putting out a CD this year [...]

I'd be definitely interested in that! Great entries these past two months.

- m

Quote:

I feel a respectable mid-table mediocrity beckons

Hey man your stuff is never mediocre. I voted you number 1 because your track made me feel good .... like I was on vacation. The melody is witty and perfect for the sonic palette you chose. Well done!

Cheers,
Gordon (beardedone aka GSauve)

Tancos,

Thank you so much for the vote. I'm so glad you liked my track enough to vote it 4th. Coming from you this is very satisfying knowing your composing skill and experience. Right now I am trying demidify the piano and expand the thematic material. It is going to be an interesting process. I'm asking my wive play through Mikrocosmos tonight then hopefully she will play some Bill Evans I just bought her. Hopefully these sounds will stir up some ideas.

Cheers,
Gordon (Aka GSauve)

Thanks for the vote Gords!

You are welcome Tris. Looking forward to your new stuff.

Gordon

Hey all... there was soo much good stuff this month I couldn't vote for 5 and leave it at that... so here's some rambling feedback on everything that was entered. Cheers to all for great work this month...
-Garret

03_04_markleford_BHT6.mp3--- campy fun… nicely produced… makes me want to see the cartoon…

04.03.normal.under_the_%20bridge.mp3--- moody ambience with great metallic industrial sounds

04_02_Hypertone_BrighterTimes.mp3--- one of my favorites… see votes for comments

04_03_Ahriakin_ShadowOps.mp3--- builds up terrific energy and tension… super mix… I really want to hear this develop further!

04_03_Barnadine_Late.mp3--- sweet! High marks for this one. You have a great ear for sparse melody… I’m hearing some clipping at 0:35, not sure if it’s my player or in your mix

04_03_BloodHound_Rough_Devide.mp3--- very experimental, but holds together… has an appealing “ready to fall apart at any moment” sound.

04_03_choochcat_borovnice_blue.mp3--- the xylophone (or whatever instrument that is) builds a wonderful rhythmic and harmonic base for the track… maybe needs a more defined melody on top

04_03_DevonB_TheFinalFight.mp3--- this one’s a weeper… sounds like the anthem for a collapsed regime… love the march beat snare drums…

04_03_dewf_dubthang.mp3--- the bass in this track kicks my ass… I wish I could play or write stuff like that. The stop-start rhythm is very appealing to me… so much to like here.

04_03_DM_OneMinuteSymphony.mp3--- I’m not sure I know how to listen to modern classical music… start out pretty genuine, with great haunting themes, then at 0:23 the beat and piano kick in and it sounds campy to me… I think I’m just surprised by how it develops… very well done though.

04_03_donkeytugger_richardquest.mp3--- lol… I annoyed the hell out of my wife singing “Richard quest… he’s the best…” for three days after I heard this one. Wonderful 80s sound… great synth sounds, killer samples, and the song just works… this one just missed out on a vote, sorry DT. If you could teach me to write 80s synth pop hits, my wife would like my music more! (she’s a big duran duran fan)

04_03_dustedwilliam_drivemecrazy.mp3--- reminds me of Beck’s flirtation with funk & soul on Midnite Vultures… but this is more listenable! Great production, compressy 1970s fm radio sound

04_03_fitch_jetlag.mp3--- dangerously hooky melody in the synth lead… I was humming it for days… maybe a bit less of a buzzy, filtered sound on some of the synths… adding some clean sounds might help give some body to the track… high marks for this one.

04_03_Kajiki_Year_Zero.mp3--- the string sounds are wonderful… warm and beautiful… the bass feels a bit harsh to me… love the little touches everywhere (the loose rhythm toms and the piano notes)

04_03_Kriminal_Fucked_Up.mp3--- lol… I love your use of samples… the slicing and dicing stuff is way beyond my skills… you make so much out of just a couple of lines, like DJ Shadow. Tons of energy and thrill in this track… would make great driving music if it were about 14 minutes long… I’d get lost in this stuff and get a speeding ticket for sure.

04_03_Manytone_Strange_Events.MP3--- almost a metal sound in the low end synths, buried in darkness and moodiness… the synth voice is a bit repetitive, bordering on irritating J but it works for a track like this…

04_03_MArmstrong_FlyingtoClosetothesun.mp3--- wonderful jazzy feel… stellar bass and live sounding drums… vocals at 0:32 sound so much like velvets-era Lou Reed I wonder if we have a ringer… I could imagine him participating in the KVR forums under an alias… but the vocals for the first 30 seconds are a bit repetitive for my tastes… I get bored quick… J

04_03_Matias_M_SFA.mp3--- one of my favorites… see votes for comments

04_03_miro_IknowAinu.mp3--- I love the synth rhythm stuff… the blips and organic sounds… reminds me of Mouse on Mars. The themes don’t really go anywhere, but in 1 minute it’s hard to develop much… sounds great though… big expansive production…

04_03_nakedmarge_freejazzguylives.mp3--- terrific track, but I find it a real challenge to listen to… uptempo free jazz isn’t usually my thing… my brain doesn’t work that quickly… I need some space and a theme or two to hold it all together… great production in this track… I love the slowdown effect at the end… that’s worth the price of admission right there.

04_03_Peel_April.mp3--- very high marks… almost got a vote. (sorry!)… this track really develops as the 60 seconds tick by… not an easy thing to accomplish. I love the whiny lead synth at the start and end… the texture of all the background voices is fantastic… this track really does have it all going on…

04_03_polymerick-sky-meadow.mp3--- a real palate-cleanser compared to most stuff in the competition this month… loose as hell, swinging even… great warm production…

04_03_Preset_Perverter_Horny_as_Hell.mp3--- chock full of nuts… lots of good sounds… I love the industrial sounding synth stuff…

04_03_resonance_fragile_like_us.mp3--- very high marks for this one. Great song, well developed… either you’re a genius or you lied when you said you “cooked this up in one morning.” Damn I wish I had your voice… Production sounds a bit straight for my tastes, though… radio friendly “adult album alternative.” I’m an indie kind of guy, so if stuff sounds too straight I cringe a bit… check out Ted Leo & the Pharmacists some time… very similar vocal styles, kicks my ass to no end…

04_03_Smart_MarsExploration.mp3--- high marks for this one… almost got a vote in fact… sets up a wonderful minimal theme then pays off when rhythm stuff kicks in at 0:27. The synth leads sound a bit too buzzy for my tastes… kind of warbly tuning too… could just be my straight ears

04_03_steve_newton_let_them_eat_fake_.mp3--- love the acoustic toms… great mix, good use of samples.. fun track to listen to, but it’s a bit directionless.

04_03_SuperChu-Hi_quiet.mp3--- one of my favorites… see votes for comments

04_03_Tinman_SlipBop.mp3--- high marks… everything sounds so good… whatever gear you have, I want it. Terrific stop-and-start rhythm…

04_03_tokio_landforms.mp3--- I love this, but ambient music in 1 minute has to be a hellish challenge. Wonderfully warm haunting synth sounds… how do you do that?

04_03_tsiozos_Fireworks_in_Baghdad.mp3--- wow! This really works… has a Gil Evans (who wrote several flawless albums for Miles Davis) sound to it… I think that’s why I like it so much.

04_03_VitaminD_Spell.mp3--- impeccable production…. I could (maybe) dance to this. I love the panning slicy samples… melodically it’s a bit directionless, so I’d love to hear this develop into something longer…

04_03_y01_mrharper.mp3--- super energy… chock full of nuts, but holds together perfectly… I love the lead synth that starts it out, the rhythmic cuts, and the morphing analog synth around 0:23…

04_10_facingdoubt_demon.mp3--- metal! Props to ya for bucking the system… unfortunately I dunno how to listen to metal except Black Sabbath and Motorhead… but I think I’d head bang to this if I had enough beer in me.

04_2003_poweruser_b.mp3--- so much going on here that I like… the piano and violin parts are wonderful. The repeating single note bass seems to dull it all down for me, and the rhythm is a bit staid… could really develop into something great.

04-03-Horse-One_More_Time.mp3--- very professional production… great song… I love the minimal sound (voice, guitar, and strings) in the first half… I like it better than what it turns into… J starts out kind of low fi/experimental, then sort of fills in as standard big jangly rock… shows tremendous promise, though…

04-03-sleekmonth-monument.mp3--- super well done… the lyrics just kill me, and I adore the beer drinking anthem part… reminds me of the pogues or the replacements on a good day… you have a terrific rock voice and should sing more…

11_04_Liqih_Simple_Song.mp3--- nice upside down rhythm… made me smile

12_03_Distill_GentleSimmer.mp3--- one of my favorites… see votes for comments

4_03_april.mp3--- one of my favorites… see votes for comments

4_03_Tancos_CohensMarch.mp3--- so much potential here… the trumpet theme is doing some really great things with developing the melody… not so sure about the drums though… I don’t think they do the horns justice

AprilContest-MulberryTerribly.mp3--- very high marks for this one… super nice minimal production, melodic development… great guitar sounds and tasteful use of mellotron… I love the picked harmonics

beardedone_-_Dramatic_Scene.mp3--- oh man, this one’s big. It really does create a dramatic scene… makes me want to see how the movie ends.

Frank`s%20bastard%20son.mp3--- love the glassy lead synth… so much going on here, and the production holds it all together

guit-01.mp3--- only plays for 8 seconds… big guitars.. maybe a lost zztop tune?

InterestingTimes.mp3--- great percussion sounds, kind of an asian melody thing… I’d pull the drum kit though… seems only to clutter the mix and fight with the other parts

Nick_Cramer_-_04_03_NickCramer_LongRhodeAhead.mp3--- seriously good… fantastic mix, warm downtempo feel, I want to hear more.

vexkon_-_VeXKoN_-_hookt_on_kryonix.MP3--- high marks… stellar synth sounds and great use of vocal samples…

Hey Garret! Thanks for taking time to review the entries!

Garret wrote:

04_03_resonance_fragile_like_us.mp3--- very high marks for this one. Great song, well developed… either you’re a genius or you lied when you said you “cooked this up in one morning.” Damn I wish I had your voice… Production sounds a bit straight for my tastes, though… radio friendly “adult album alternative.” I’m an indie kind of guy, so if stuff sounds too straight I cringe a bit… check out Ted Leo & the Pharmacists some time… very similar vocal styles, kicks my ass to no end…

I cooked it up on the morning that I posted it - during my regular 9:00 - 12:00 noodling sessions. I pulled the lyrics from one of my lyric pads that I carry around, and I just started laying stuff down in Logic....

However, it HAS been a very creative two months for me, so I'm in the zone right now. I'm in the writing and demoing groove!

Thanks Garret!

Wow Garret, thanks a lot for such a lenghty " review for all " !

Glad you liked the sounds despite it was very fast done ! ( too much new toys to explore !! )

Many thanks for the votes from The Geek, Fitch, liqih and Yaguchi01
and for the HMs from Matias, Kriminal, Preset perverter, Beardedone and Markleford
and also for the big reviews from Fitch, peel, Poweruser and Garret. Really appreciated those

The voting's still coming in veeeery slowly, innit?

Quote:

beardedone_-_Dramatic_Scene.mp3--- oh man, this one’s big. It really does create a dramatic scene… makes me want to see how the movie ends.

I glad you found it so as this was the effect I was after. Music that evokes a sense of consequence with a touch of sentimental regret thrown in. Now if I can develop the themes and make it less open ended and hopefully into a more coherent musical story.

Soundwise I am satisfied with results I am getting with Sonic Synth. Symphony Strings works well for me as a comp tool. No doubt the Vienna Orchestra library or Garritan Strings for example would sound more natural and resonant, but even if had these libraries in hand I think I would still use SS as a sketching tool, making use of giga libraries only once I have near complete comp laid out.

Thanks again for your kind comments and especially your thoughtful reviews of all the entries. This IMO isa very good stimulus for those who have yet to vote.

Cheers,
Gordon

Quote:

04_2003_poweruser_b.mp3--- so much going on here that I like… the piano and violin parts are wonderful. The repeating single note bass seems to dull it all down for me, and the rhythm is a bit staid… could really develop into something great.

actually it was a how quick can I put stuff together entry. I agree ... the base sound ... a simple tau preset is very dull ! and the beat .. yeah well like Fitch said ... static. The piano and violin parts are to simple and to predictable. glad to hear there is a lot you do like .... I was a bit in my uninspired phase .. hope to be better next month ..... Thanks on all the useful comments pal !!!

Thanks for the votes and mentions. And thanks to Garret, Poweruser and others who take the time to review all the entries. Great feedback.

Big thanks to Miro, The Geek, Captain Mark, Normal and Tinman for the votes

Tinman,

Thank you for your HM. It is most valuable to me since it is the only mention of my tune. I know it was too long, I will stick closer to the rule next time.

Cheers


PA

PA wrote:

Tinman, Thank you for your HM. It is most valuable to me since it is the only mention of my tune. I know it was too long, I will stick closer to the rule next time. Cheers PA

Heya PA... I somehow missed your track.... listening to it now..... I like it! it's refreshing to hear something without heavy drums. You build up the rhythm nicely with the synth and organ and the blippy stuff, and your production is very solid too... Seems a bit thin to me, maybe bring up the bass synth in the mix... where'd you lift the vocal sample? it's great...

-Garret

Garret,

Thanks very much for your comments. I noticed you missed it in your great review of everything and I was thinking, well he did not really really like it.

To you and all contributors, apologies I am sort of overworked these days and I had not enough time to listen carefully to all the entries and comment as I try to do usually and I did not vote either. I will try to do better next time.

Cheers


PA

Okay, these are my thoughts on each track as I listened to it the first time. Very subjective, and very off-the-cuff. No offence to anyone intended...

Markelford - Inna cool Miami Vice stylee!!!
Normal - Liked it, but needed more 'creep'.
Hypertone - Hyperfunky
Ahriakin - Not quite enough punch.
Barnardine - Nice dark, rich piano
Bloodhound - Dont know where this one was meant to go. Melodic, but erratic.
Choochat - Irish folk music on thumb piano?
DevonB - Bit too sacharine on the johanna and flute.
dewf - Nice lead sound, bass too 'playschool' sounding.
DM - Started a bit like it was the new A-Team theme, then got classical
DonkeyTugger - Strange Marillionequeness on the keyboards. Curious.
Dusted William - Dont like that falsetto thang, but it all hung together the right way
Fitch - Drums a bit too weedy but liked the intro...
Horse - Not as powerful as I think it could have been.
Kajiki - Strings just -too- sweet. Distort them maybe, get summat scary
Kriminal & ManyTone - strange segway between these. Getting bored of sampled vocals, tho'.
MArmstrong - reminded me of the Associates, though the vocals would have to be stronger
Matias - laid back. Maybe too laid back, though?
Miro - Liked it, but I wanted some harder sounds on top of those little rhythms
NakedMarge - Your drum machine, she broke.
PA - Not keen on the calliope sound, sorry.
Peel - Only thing I didnt like was the slow filter sweep; didnt add to it...
Polymerick - Not -that- keen on the flute, definitely not on the vocals. Hippy backlash on my part maybe.
Preset Perverter - Nice sounds. Where da song?
Resonance - Lyrics maybe a bit too crowded. But good.
Smart - Liked it up until the drum pattern; a bit too busy for the rest of it
Steve Newton - Not sure where this went, or where it had been..
SuperChuHi - Cool, in that glitchy, Labradford sorta way
T De Groot - Probably a bit too slick for me. Think its the hats...
Tziozos - Crap track name. Bit too cliched as well.
VitaminD - Bit too mechanical. More dynamics pleez.
Yaguichi - More of the Jan Hammer lead, and toy robots. Does this work? Not sure.
FacingDoubt - Drop the vocals an octave, make the guitar louder, and market it in Sweden...
Garret Gengler - A perfect La's style 'indy pop' track. Nice.
PowerUser - Familiar building blocks, but nicely done
SleekMonth - Play it faster you fucker!
Liqih - needs more dynamics
Distill - A bit 'all over the place' at the start. Didnt seem to be going where it wound up.
Tancos - The sounds are a bit too 'GM'... someone needs to buy you Giga and some expensive libraries!
Mulberry - Like the vocal harmonies. Flute seems to be in vogue this month...
BeardedOne - Not qute dramatic enough. Build -up-
Annode - No likee the lead. Clangers on acid.
Jeff Harrison - I got 9 seconds worth. Didnt even get to ruffle my hair...
(Interesting Times) - Who the fuck did this? Anyways, drums too prominent and, sorry, a wee bit tacky...
Nick Cramer - No risks Im afraid
Vexkon - Far too long for the compo, mate! Part of a fifteen minute track? I'd be interested in hearing 'the rest'

Beardedone wrote:

Hey man your stuff is never mediocre. I voted you number 1 because your track made me feel good .... like I was on vacation. The melody is witty and perfect for the sonic palette you chose. Well done! Cheers, Gordon (beardedone aka GSauve)

Thanks very much for that. That's really appreciated.
Think I was kind of light headed when I wrote it.
Might do an extended version if I can get these other two tunes I'm working on out of the way.

'Sonic palette'- you mean the same five or six tired old sounds I end up using all the time?

Hiya – just some quick comments that I made whilst listening through the tracks (sorry Peel, I pinched your template – hope you don’t mind) – the asterisks are there to remind me of the ones up for the votes…


Kajiki -- Year Zero

I like the concept of it, and the surprise of the guitar coming in . I would have liked you to have made the chord type stabs that punctuated it bigger, like a bomb going off, but that’s only me!
Nice balance, but the drum was a little distracting.

DevonB – The Final Fight

Nice piano motif, nice space, I wish the flute melody was a bit stronger.
Personally I don’t like the military drum rolls and… FADE! Argh…

Polymerick -- Sky Meadow

Good sound! – A bit Ozrics, but better produced (hehe!) Great drums!*

Miro -- I know Ainu

Nicely produced, not really my box of hedgehogs ‘tho – very dark – sort of a menacing soundtrack type feel.

Normal -- Under the Bridge

Good soundspace – I’m personally looking for melodic development of some sort, but that’s just my taste.

Bloodhound -- Rough Divide

I like the concept of it – I don’t think it quite finds it’s feet as to which direction it wants to go in ‘tho?

Beardedone -- Dramatic Scene

It’s too dangerous for me! Hehe, I never quite got to grips with this sort of style.

Resonance -- Fragile Like Us

Well, I think this deserves the ‘pro’ award of the contest – great voice, great style, hooky chorus, all well worked into the 1 minute. Incredible!*

Super Chu-hi -- Quiet

Well produced soundscape, but I’d be happier (as ever) if there was something to take the lead a bit more.

Fitch -- Jetlag

Ah, Fitch’s alter-ego! I don’t really like the elements that make up the tune – a bit disjointed?

Dewf -- Dubthang

Mmm. Nice groove – I like the sharpness of the lead synth when it comes in, and the way the bass is driving it’s own way underneath it all. Well put together FADE aaagh. *

Tancos -- Cohen's March

Sounds a bit ‘midified’? And doesn’t really get to march – contrary to the trade descriptions act 1914. Actually, just as the bass comes in at the end, it started to sound quite interesting, but then Aghh FADE!

Preset Perverter -- Horny as Hell

Mmm. Ah. It’s me, I’m sure it is. I don’t understand. Help! I have been kidnapped by aliens and this is what they do to me.

Mighty_Hero -- April

Ahh. This is nice. I worry a bit about the ‘has it been done before’ syndrome, but, well, who knows? Very nicely produced, good chillout stuff. Agggh! FADE!!

Tokio -- Landforms

Nice build for the intro….starting to draw me in……oh? All gone?
Quick, more!

Tinman -- Slipbop

Nicely put together – well produced – I’d like to have heard it reach a conclusion (?) aggh FADE!

Smart –- Mars Exploration

I didn’t really like the synth sound, but a well put together piece – the end groove without the lead synth is great!

Ahriakin -- ShadowOps

Nice and broody – quite ‘theme like’. It might have been nice to work a lead instrument out of the pad sound, but it’s always difficult when you’re up against the 1 minute deadline. *

Liqih -- Simple Song

I like the groove that starts when the chordy instrument comes in, but I’m not too sure about the bass sound?

Markleford -- bht6

Ooh! Comes in well, I like the idea but it sounds a little bit ‘midified’ (if that makes any sense).
Well arranged!

Nick C -- Long Rhode Ahead

Ah! Sounds a bit like Moby without the vocal stuff? Nice and smoky – well put together, played and produced. *

Facingdoubt

Metal! I like the song, I think it just needs to go through the EVIL BIG BASTARD MONSTER-ME-UP plugin to make it roar a bit more. GRRR GET ANGRY!!!!!!!!!!! *

Dusted William -- Drive Me Crazy

Oooh! Like the style!! Beck-ish? Yes – Nicely done!! Well put together – does the job! Arrgh FADE!! *

Mulberry -- Terribly

Ah, Mulberry! Yes, I predict a future in music for you! – A very ‘genuine’ track. A lot of ’soul’ comes across in the tune and I think that’s always a good sign. Any Genesis fans here? What’s that flute bit from?? Hehe *

Annode -- Frank's Bastard Son

Hey – I like this sort of groove. (What happened to Fluke?). Yeah, nicely put together – crank it up and dance round the room! *


Distil -- Gentle Simmer

Nice, warms up well and ticks along nicely. Agh! FADE!!

Poweruser -- B

I thought the drums were a bit rigid against the flow of the instruments. Quite dark!

TristezaOrange -- Interesting Times

A lot of flutes about in this months compo! Quite a fresh sound to it, but too gently chaotic for me!

Steve Newton -- Let Them Eat Fake

Nicely produced track – good selection of sounds – perhaps the lead sound needed to be a bit more forcefull? Well constructed. *

VitaminD -- Spell

Cosy club tune – well put together – always difficult to get them to develop with only a minute to play with – sounds like something is going to happen after it finishes ‘tho – it’s not an extract, is it?

Barnadine -- Late

Emotive. Did someone say er, was it Satie or someone did that piece, Gymnasium – or something?!
Has got one of those ‘late’ moods about it.

Choochcat -- Boronice Blue

Cheeky little number, almost sounds like steel drums – I was waiting for something else to happen to nail the track?

Nakedmarge -- Freejazzguylives

Have you thought of getting together with Preset Perverter?

Matias -- M SFA

Chocolate loveliness mmmmsmooth!! Great groove – well produced; the little whicky-whacky guitar just hanging on a thread in the background…aargh FADE!!*

Garret -- Mayday

Very good voice, nice tune – well put together mmm. Nice! *

Sleek Month -- Monuments

Excellent! A fantastic arrangement that works perfectly within a minute. A totally rounded piece that is put together well – it sounds like you spent some time over this. And sentiment too!*

Tsiozos -- Fireworks in Baghdad

Well crafted orchestral piece that deserves more than it’s minute!

Manytone -- Strange Events

Yeah, I like this, I’m not sure about the snare drum sound, but I like the ‘menace’ factor!*

Donkey Tugger -- Richardquest

Dooooo doooooo doooooo drums! I like the break from where the dirty guitars & vocals come in – Nice arpeggios, and overall sound and instrument mix of the usual high Tugger standard. Hehe*

Hypertone -- Brighter Times

Snappy … Boom! Yeah, really like the mix – a lot of clarity and space …*

MArmstrong -- Flying To Close to the Sun

Good mix, sounds work well – I like the song, (sort of a bit Doors~ish)*

Peel -- April

Mmm tribal grooving – I like the integration of the samples in the song. I’m not sure whether the synth sounds are quite right for the overall tone of the track, but that’s probably just me.

PA -- rhythm rhythm

3:00am club feel with a jazzy twist. I’m not too sure about organs ‘tho…?

Yaguchi01 –

Hard. Like it! Well put together, great mix of sounds and great breaks! *

DM –

Quite regal sounding – oh – I think it would have been nice to leave the drums out? As an orchestral piece I’m sure there would be enough drive from the instruments especially that piano!

Kriminal –

Well mixed – good production. I don’t know whether the synths would benefit from having a bit more bite – or is it the drums? But that’s me just being picky, ‘cos it works well as a tune – smart! *

Regphoenix –

Bloody NTL, I’m sure that’s what it is. Can’t download your track??
I had the same problem this month – don’t know what to do about the bastards.
Was it good?

erm, is that it? Anyone else - if there is I can't have been able to get the track.....?

H (phew)

2 more reviews! Thanks Horse & whyterabbyt! Very much appreciated!
What's summat, anyway?

horse, are you saying don't fade?


cause I did!!!

and sorry all for not tagging my song, I KNOW better


man I think these next two months will rock too......we have some KICKING ASS TALENT here on this little board we make a home

thanks all who voted for me as well.

whyterabbyt wrote:

VitaminD - Bit too mechanical. More dynamics pleez.

but thats EXACTLY what i was trying to do.. BOOM <pause> BOOM <pause> the bassline doing that exactly the opposite (3rd note). some of the other instruments are doing the same thing as well..

so i guess you caught on.. even if you dont like mechanical

thanks for listening to it too

Horse & whyterbbyt. Thanks for the complete reviews.

whyterabbyt wrote:

Bloodhound - Dont know where this one was meant to go. Melodic, but erratic.

Horse wrote:

Bloodhound -- Rough Divide I like the concept of it – I don’t think it quite finds it’s feet as to which direction it wants to go in ‘tho?

Both came to the same conclusion. I tend to agree with you guys. Horse, thanks being kind.

Hey there, just taking a quick break at school (just muffed my Japanese exam and about to do the same in biology lab! ) so I thought I'd check in... Thanks to Markleford and Barnadine for the votes; Tancos for the HM; and Horse for the "near-vote" and comment list! (I'm such a lazy bum but I swear that next month I'll do the "comment-on-every-entry" thing because it's very helpful to get this sort of feedback. A big thumbs-up to everyone who does this! )

Quote:

What's summat, anyway?

Scottish for 'something'

H

Thanks to Horse, whyterabbyt, Garret and Poweruser for the comments! As well as to Fitch for the attempted comment Sorry to those who had troubles DLing my track, I guess I'll sign up for IUMA or something for May's comp.
And of course, thanks to those who voted for me! I don't mention names only because I feel it's against the spirit of a healthy electorate

I Just gotta say ...Wow ...again
You guys that entered are all a Bunch of Talented Folks ..
Every Song this Month I really enjoyed ...All the different styles ...I Love them all.
Voting was extremely tough and,gets tougher every month.
and whew ...I got 1 vote ) thanks Smart.
You guys all go Pat yourselves on your Backs Now !!!
KvR Stinks of Talent!!
Every Single Stinkin' One of Ya.
Paul

Continuing the tanX thread

Horse, smart, TennesseeVic, Distill (wow!), liqih, Poweruser , choochcat

Thanks a lot guys! Im really glad you liked the track.

Thanks for the HMs MArmstrong and TrisTezaOrange. What an amazing Month.

I have posted an extended version of my entry here in the Cafe.

Cheers,
Gordon

Thanks for the votes Dusted William and Tristeza, I respect what both of you do so much that these mean a lot to me!

Thanks also to Polymerick, ahriakin, choochcat, Horse, and Whyterabbyt for the HM's. You have all made my day!!!!!

Thanks also the nice comments from Peel, Poweruser, Garret (Saying it is a bit Lou Reed like is a great compliment, I love the Velvet Underground!) and Horse (even saying it a bit Doors like is pretty amazing). And Whyterabbyt, thanks for listening and since you gave an HM I assume you like the Associates but I do not know who they are!

Thanks for listening Fitch.

Michael

late shout out to resonance, ahriakin, poweruser, barnadine, horse, whyterabbyt, marmstrong, distill, manytone, kajiki, and dusted william... thanks for the votes!

christ on a bike, I must have misread things... there's no way I got that many votes... I guess I must be doing something right.

anyway, thanks for all the kind words and useful feedback, folks... I'm in the "low on musical self-esteem" category, so it's very rewarding to know that 50 people listened to my stuff and a good number actually liked it...

Cheers,
-Garret

Thanks for the votes that I received, even if I didn't really think I deserved them. There's a lot of people who invested a LOT more time into their entry than I put into it, and they certainly deserve it.

But it's feedback like you get from these things that make me smile/crack up. One person liked the field drum I used, and another did not. That always amazes me how one person will like something specific, and another one doesn't. Our own individual tastes are such a finicky thing. Always makes you wonder if you really did choose the right instrument or not.

Nice to get some acknowledgement from the few votes I did receive with such a crowded playing field. Thanks again!

Devon

thanks to

Peel, don't look down, nick c, paula jo, ligih,

I'm glad y'all like the funk. I'm stepping into singing instead of rapping, so this is uncharted territory for me. It will take me a while to find my groove.


also thanks to all the people who gave it a listen (and HO's), I can't wait for next months contest.


dw

yeah ! yeah ! yeah !

and the thank you`s keep flowing
thanks all you people ! ... at the end the voters suddenly came dropping by
I didn't expect to get any hm or votes so I am very happy with them !
they are a big stimulance to continue new stuff
we are each others mentor !

Extra big thanks to everyone who took the time to comment on all the entry's ! this is getting harder and harder because we have so much entry's ! which worries me as well ... because the entry's are getting more and more professional time for some closed door studio time I guess

cheers

yeah I've been noticing the entries getting more pro sounding as well.

next time I'll try to comment on every one, I like it when people do that so why don't I try as well.


dw

Congrats for your complete reviews, Garret, Horse, Whyterabbyt !
It's a big work, I know !
Garret : What do you mean by "palate cleanser" ?? (sorry I can't understand all your words guys... )

I didn't make it to vote till the closing time so here's my top 5 FWIW.

1. Resonance Fragile....
2. Ahriakin ShadowOps ....
3. Tokio Landforms...
4. Frank's Bastard son
5. Horse one more time

Also,
6. Poweruser B
7. Nick Cramer Long Rhode...
8. Dusted Williams Driveme...

Poly,

Maybe slightly out of context "palate cleanser" would mean "mise en bouche" ?

Cheers


PA

ok PA !
merci !

PowerUser quoth because the entry's are getting more and more professional

They certainly bloody are....

...bastards.

what shall we do with them.

Hunt them down with pointy sticks?

or remix them in the worse way

can't decide

Polymerick wrote:

Congrats for your complete reviews, Garret, Horse, Whyterabbyt ! It's a big work, I know ! Garret : What do you mean by "palate cleanser" ?? (sorry I can't understand all your words guys... )

Palate cleanser is a compliment. I'm sure there's a very elegant french word for it, but of course the english word sounds ugly...

If you've been eating or drinking the same thing for a while, and you can't tell the difference anymore... something very different can recharge your taste buds... Like a sorbet in the middle of a multi-course meal...

Okay, getting too upper class there...

Like spicy food when you've been drinking beer all night...

-Garret

Great ! then thanks for the compliment Garret !

Garret wrote:

Palate cleanser is a compliment. I'm sure there's a very elegant french word for it

Aperitif, or digestif??

Ou "Trou Normand " ? (very strong alcohol with sorbet, in the middle of the lunch)

It's going so fast I missed a page ( at least ) !
Thanks for our last 2 full reviewers : Whyterabbyt and Horse !
Stay tuned for really weird sounds !
Da song ? not yet I'am afraid ... this summer I think, will have to reach stage 2 ! meshing chaotic elements
Horse : the mothership is not arrived yet !

Great work everybody !

Glad we are back to 60 something diverse entries !!

many thanks to manytone for hosting.

thank you to all who saw fit to send me your vote.
particular thanks to the full reviewers.

thanks to hardy for getting us to this point.
thanks to exp.4 for agreeing to pick up the ball.

-normal

just an update - just got in from work - give a 2 or 3 hours to chill - grab summat to eat - and ill have the results for you all

glad to see folks like the approach to the may compo too

/me BIG SIGH of RELIEF

slainte rob

Dusted William,

When looking at the April contest results I saw I had a vote and found out it was from you !
Thank you very much I really appreciate my 1 score and my almost last rank. I assume you enjoyed the heat of Rhythm Rhythm which apparently was no so obvious.


CONGRATULATIONS to the contest winners !


Regards

PA