One Synth Challenge #93: OBXD by DiscoDSP & 2DaT (mmGhost Wins!)

[ThePresent]

... I certainly hope this wasn't a reaction to my comment! I was in no way complaining

Not at all, nothing to do with you, there's just be an ongoing sentiment by multiple people that the regulars win because they're too good or people like them or whatever (and I don't really think that's true exactly, personally I have lots of stuff that is just not at all good). I am just super happy someone won who wasn't a longstanding regular. It just goes to show there *is* some fairness in this competition, no matter what some people say to the contrary. And also that not-exactly-mainstream genres can win. I just hope this month quells those conversations and serves as a reference that those arguments are just completely invalid, that the OSC is as wonderful as I've always thought it was, regardless of the stupidness in discussions that go on sometimes.

I can't agree more! This is a really friendly community. My first submission ever, which was OSC 58, peeps of OSC were so very kind to vote me into first place.
Agreed, it was an EDM'ish track, but since then, whenever I (irregularly) participated, I submitted something that was all over the place EXCEPT "EDM", people here voted me into top 5 most of the times. So while I know that people will vote naturally for electronic sounding tracks, being it a SYNTHESIZER contest (duh!!!), I'm absolutely convinced people here have an open mind for music in general, whatever genre it may be you're submitting.

And let's not forget to applaude for one of the kindest admins to ever roam the net, our very own bj porter

[mmGhost]

Whoa! Dang, so you guys like the neurofunk? Right-on! I wasn't really sure if my track would do well at all, tbh. Thanks for the votes and congrats to all the winners. I'm especially humbled given the lot of awesome and creative tunes this time around. Some of the sound design was out of control, like bjporter's choir pad on his tune, and some of the guitar strums I heard on other tracks. I also greatly enjoyed some of the more analog-y sounding tracks that really had a great old-school synth vibe. I was excited to hear some more drum and bass entered this month too. It was a lot of fun listening this time around.

skimming through some of the previous posts... i'm happy to provide feedback/critique to anyone, just PM me here or on soundcloud. Truly, there really isn't anything I enjoy talking about more than music, so I'm happy to help if i can. you guys might think i'm mental if you knew just how much time i spend working on sound design and stuff. but it's just too much fun not to. i take notes on nearly every track i listen to and have a scoring system that i adhere to closely. honestly, there are tracks that i love but based on my scoring do not always receive a 5 b/c i try to be impartial to genre, etc. But music is art, and art is subjective, so that's just the reality of a competition involving art.

one thing i can recommend: DL some of your fav OSC tracks by z', jasinski, etc. Most people make them free DL (including me). Load that track in your DAW and study the structure, the tones, and A/B with your OSC entry and listen very intently to what is going on. How are thing sitting in the mix? What key is the track in? How does it fill the frequency spectrum (use a spectrum analyzer). How loud is the sub-bass relative to the melody, etc. I do this with tracks I like and it's helped me immensely.

if i have time in the new year i was thinking of doing a "making-of" kind of cheesy youtube video. would anyone be interested in that? maybe walk through a couple of sounds, whatever. kind of corny, but maybe helpful...?

[prize: Modelonia looks like it can make some wild sounds so i think i'll have a-go, and I'll take Ridan's Dark Prairie sounds for Serum ]

[doctorbob]

Dr Bob -- I loved your piece and while I don't buy into that OSC is weighted towards EDM necessarily, I think that a lot of the voters automatically give more points to tracks that are a little busier, rhythmic, louder and (unfortunately) repetitive.

Many thanks. I'm sure you're right about folk being more in tune with the busier tracks. Making a soft gentle track of course is quite difficult if you are to hold peoples' interest right to the end. I think I did succeed in this instance in the main. My current one is in a similar vein, but much happier!

Like you, I sort of middle it! But hey, that's OK, I like to make music for you all.

Thanks again for the nice comments, and in some cases a nice high score!!!

dB

[bjporter]

-- BJ - could you add a total column next to the 5,4,3,2,1 rows? It would be interesting to see how they're distributed (I'm no statistician so am not sure what it will mean, but just seems interesting).

Yeah i'll do that. Not sure if you noticed, i've done that for many of the past months, and it's always a very even distribution, 5's similar to 1's (counting self 1's), 4's similar to 2's, and 3's being the most common.

[photonic]

Congratulation to the winners and to every participant!

And some more words on behalf of the track that made me vote although not having entered a track:

Photonic - Memories of Tomorrow

The music you created might well be THE single best track on the contest ever AFAIC. This orchestral cinematic music does not reflect my taste of music at all. But every aspect from sound design to composition to mix to dynamics to creating the space where it all happens is perfect to the max! A truely great achievement, Manfred.

This had to be said.

Oh wow, such a comment makes me speechless. What else could I say than
I think this is the best example that many of us do respect, like and give high points for tracks, which are not their usual genre.
Thank you so much!

[WYG_E]

Congratulations to everyone! Once again some really great tunes.

[3lu5iv3]

Congratulations everyone.

mmGhost : making-of video would be great. Really like your track. Especially that bass drum & snare!

[zarf]

Wow! What an aftermath to come back to

Congratulations mmGhost, Chem57, z-prime, Photonic, ATN69, [Jasinski] : totally deserved wins.

To me the standard this month was really high.

Sad to see Z` go if I've read that right
Happy to see Wags positive posts

Sorry there is some distress over voting. I personally find it hard when I get low scores (blessedly few this month thank you kindly) when I don't know why, but it's such a time commitment to do the track and listen and vote and comment that I understand that it's just the way it is sometimes!
I have to remind myself that I don't really know what that '2' means to someone else at all and they are not necessarily voting by the same criteria that I am. Much as I would love more feedback or to at least understand people's voting criteria I realise that it is not nearly as important as just really listening to the difference between the tracks at the two ends of the spectrum and learning to hear what's going on for myself.


Thanks to all of you for making such a great community and learning opportunity each month

[chem57]

To not hold up the prizes for too long, I'll have Diversion, and from Ridan it's going to be Land of Chimera sounds for Hive. Thanks again all!

[photonic]

I think it is now my turn to take a prize, becuase Z. wrote earlier that he takes no prize this time.
And do I see right that DiscoDSP Discovery Pro ist still available? If so, I will take this!

I want to thank you for those donations!

[ATN69]

I guess that leaves me ..and I chose,

Aiyn Zahev Sounds: 2 Soundsets of choice

Aiyn Zahev is my all time favorite sound designer. Very generous of him to contribute to OSC. The 2 soundsets that I chose are Diva Transitions vol 1 and Diva Transitions vol 2.
Thanks Sami!

I am not kidding you when I say that this is one of the very few times in my life that I won something, including sports, lottery and other forms of gambling. So once again, a big thanks to all that voted in my favor.

[psmacmur]

Congrats to mmGhost and all the winners, totally well-deserved A+ efforts.

Forgot to log in to the forum all weekend and came back to so much controversy! I, for one, placed *exactly* where I expected: 34th. Happens all the time. This time, though, the comments were specifically about the timing, and after reading them and listening again, I get it; the track is unlistenable. I haven't gone back to debug it: maybe BlueArp F'd up or maybe I sequenced it that way (the classic "seemed like a good idea at the time" excuse). Doesn't matter; it was bad and scored generously considering.

Related to the drama, I'm harbouring a theory as to what it takes to succeed in OSC: authenticity. Lately, I've been thinking that's the biggest factor. A track that sounds like an accurate recreation of something familiar, yet is original enough to not be a cover. It has to be interesting, too, but "interesting" seems to mean different things to different people. So, for next year, my goal is to take advice I've seen several times (including this discussion, by mmGhost no less): use reference tracks. I've avoided it for years because a) it seems tantamount to cheating and b) it seems like a lot of work. Mostly the latter though.

[mmGhost]

So, for next year, my goal is to take advice I've seen several times (including this discussion, by mmGhost no less): use reference tracks. I've avoided it for years because a) it seems tantamount to cheating and b) it seems like a lot of work. Mostly the latter though.

ha, well, as Picasso stated "Good artists borrow, great artists steal."

I know how you feel. However, keep in mind something. To me music production kind of breaks down into two very, very rough categories: 1) Composition 2) Technical bits. The technical bits seem to get discussed a lot on the interwebs in forums and such, and I've found that i've had to really study tracks and music I like to learn about how they were composed, etc. b/c mostly people want to know "what compressor and EQ you use". Bach never worried about compressor ratios, and neither did Miles Davis. You know what I mean?

Taking a piece of music you love and learning it inside and out is one of the most educational things aspiring producers like us can do. What key(s) is/are used, chord changes, bass line, syncopation, arrangement, sound design? How do things build, fall, etc? imho studying structure and composition is not only loads of fun, but will take your productions up 10X faster than tweaking the release on a compressor for an hour.

[Mjr5house]

Well, Done "mmGhost" on your very well deserved win!!!! And to all the other winners a big congrats.
I really enjoy my occasional participation with the OSC (3 so far) it's a great exercise and I really enjoy all the encouraging things that people say to each other around here. Also I would like to say thank you to the admins who keep this thing going you are the best.

All the best,
Mike

[z.prime]

Hey, I just wanted to apologize for exploding a bit (especially to SoundGodess). Lots going on in my life unrelated to OSC and it sorta came out in ways it shouldn't have. That said, I am no longer participating. I am eternally grateful to the OSC, as it provided a medium that I could improve my sound design and production skills. Unfortunately, I've hit a plateau that the OSC can't solve.
But for all of you who may read this, I still offer a critique of you work - just PM me - aside from that I probably won't be around anymore to offer any advice...