One Synth Challenge #107: VK-1 Viking by Blamsoft (Jasinski Wins!)

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Well, possibly just too serious for the wrong reasons. Do you feel like you've learned something for your song writing and mixing here already?
If not, then you were spending too much energy on the wrong concerns, you know. I'm likely a bad example to tell you, that it must not be about winning a top 5 spot, like it was easy for me to say that, but it really mustn't be! What should motivate you is to find out how you can improve and make the best song you really want to create, whatever that might be. It may be something only few people would ever really love, but once you get your quality up there and your dedication is invested properly, people will show you there appreciation and you will inspire with your creative soul!
If you wish to know something specific, just ask for it! Somebody likely will answer, which may well be me, too. I like to give advice, whenever I have any. I still don't entirely feel entitled to do so, but I have learned quite a bit over the last 30+ years of making songs and the years I've been with the OSC probably most of all, haha.

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Voted!

For me it's tough to assign a value to music with a good balance between "mental" engagement (my head), and "emotional" engagement (my heart/soul).

Roughly, here is my system:

"1" - Participation award. Hey, you did it! Truly - not everyone could lay out a whole song using only one synth in a month.

"2" - There are at least a couple of elements in each of these songs that I really liked. Either some cool sounds, a good groove, or some emotional hook. I probably felt as if it didn't quite come together for me as a complete or coherent piece of music.

"3" - Every song in this group comes together for me as a good song. All of these had something really good going for me sonically, and many of these had an emotional pull for me too. I honestly felt like a bunch of these maybe should have been a 4, but with such a strong field it would make the vote useless to have so many 4's and 5's. The hardest voting decisions I made were leaving some of these songs in this group as a 3. :scared:

"4" - Geez. I can only hope to make music this good some day! Not only do I see these as solid songs with awesome sounds - these each have a distinct emotional flavour to me.

"5" - Just jaw dropping. Fantastic sounds, beautiful atmospheres, and a strong emotional impact.

Just love the amount of effort represented in this batch of songs.... it's really amazing to me! Thanks everyone for sharing your stuff!

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@foxAsteria, fortunately you can't punish me, because I did not participate...
But as your desire is so high to get a comment, I will do so here. On Soundcloud I have the difficulty, that I listen on my iPad and the Soundcloud app has no interface for commenting. I don't care if I just dont't find it or if its not there...
I gave you a 3. Simply, your sound design is fine, nothing to complain, overall the piece was too repetitiv for me. Repetitiveness could also be very good music, if it finds that mystical transistion into magic... But it did not (for me only, its mystical and personal, but all what music should be about). Unfortunately I can't tell you the secret how to get there...
I do like dance music especially when I am djing, though I am mainly interested in unheard experimental stuff. I participated first time in November here, and since then, and also listening to older OSCs, I did not come across my own genre at all. My criterium for a 5 would be either: I would include it in my dj set (requires that mystical magic), or it has top notch compositional qualities. Sound design which shows the diversity of the synth might push it up as well...
I hope this is enough critisism, can't get more constructive though...

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@Tj Shredder Nicely done
Just a touch of EQ and a tickle of compression

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I have to appologize, the comment I gave above was, I don't know how it happend, for a different piece. No need to tell which, because the main point for "only" giving a 3 is mostly what I described there.
FoxAsterias piece realy only got a 2... Sorry, the main reason, and it might be for others rating low as well - it was unbearably out of tune!
I do love the beauty in the beast by Wendy Carlos, which sounds detuned for a lot of well tempered ears, but in this case foxAsterias piece was out of tune by a very low frequency pitch oscilation, and I could not hear that this was the aim of the piece. I recognized that within VK-1 on some presets, and if you do not at least pull down the amount, it simply sounds bad...
There is a difference between "out of tune" and "detuning". Detune sounds only good if there is another element in tune...
Lower rating in the end, but hopefully a constructive critisism... (might have its own value)

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Thinking a lot about my vote criteria. No, categorizing would not help, but for negative (below 3 ;-)) it could be helpful for the composer to know what turned it down. For a 3 I would say, it sounds production wise ok, but simply isn't interesting, nothing to catch even for a short moment - usually nothing to comment really, I suppose I am simply on a different planet and didn't get it (its my fault).
I looked at my "2" votes, and usually there is something in it which is simply disturbing me, does not create any joy of listening. This could be very personal, out of my own history, the same the other way around. The styles I loved in my youth I can connect easily, the styles around just before a change in musical history, are often the ones the new styles where opposing, because they sounded back then already dusty/old fashioned. I long for new fresh stuff... Following any fashion/style might put it down. But to be clear as well, I don't know any style I would oppose as such, I find wonderful music in any style...
I would never give a 1 except for myself...

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Every now and then I find it fascinating to read different voting criteria. Thanks, TJ! :)
I believe, at the end, everything is shifting around for me, depending on the bulk quality of the submissions. That's likely also because of the different powers of the respective synth used. This certainly has an influence on my perception and the consequent mood.
I do give 1s, if something feels to me like a throw away track, like somebody just made something for the heck of it and forced me to listen to it, because I simply had to. This kind of carelessness I can't honor with more than that. The rest to me, 2 to 5, is really a way to provide the most amount of spectrum this offers to categorize the entry based on my judgement. Though, generally, anything done with some care, some ingenuity and decent quality in either two of the main criteria (musical composition, sound design, mix) or one of them in some outstanding enough fashion, usually ends up in 3. 4 is something I actually like, but just isn't my favorite or that is too good to be in 3, even if I didn't like it. 5 is something I find either undeniably brilliant or I just totally dig it, disregarding any and all criteria, hehe.

Every now and then I do like to boost somebody, acknowledging the accomplishment. But, to be perfectly honest, I also sometimes take a point away from somebody, who's in a different league- possibly in the "undeniably great"-realm, but didn't give me a good feeling or couldn't compete with my opinion on those, who I had to give 5 points. This can happen, too, though rather rarely.

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Gone through most of the tracks again. I notice that my opinion (and scoring) of some tracks have changed. Some tracks I need to listen to several times to fully appreciate. Curious if others have this as well :)

As a rather novice to synth programming, it's nice to see the large difference in sounds and styles that were created. Gives me a lot of new input and ideas but also makes it obvious that I can get a lot more mileage out of a synth...

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This is one of the key things that makes the OSC so brilliant. Plenty of enlightening showcases, inspiration and motivation, I find.
During the voting period and the process of going through the songs, I eventually become somewhat robotic and very technical with my judgement, but- above all else- I just get too used to the sound of the synth. Only months later, when I accidentally hear a song from older OSCs, I'm totally floored by the quality and interest of the pieces. Sometimes I write a new comment then, too. Anyway, this is just to say that the songs often are really fantastic on their own. They just sort of drop in direct comparisons, which is really a sad thing at times.
Besides, it also happens the other way around. Certain tracks are impressive, consider the synth and the rest of the tracks, but outside of that line-up they can be utterly boring, down right unpleasant. This happens, too. :shrug:
All in all, voting can be a grueling process, but I believe it is good to always listen to them in context of the others, rather than on their own. At the end we're meant to judge the competition, really.

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Taron wrote:At the end we're meant to judge the competition, really.
This is the interesting part of it, but I would avoid the word competition. There is a reason why its called OS Challenge and not OS Competition or OS Contest.
I use to participate in hitch hiking races. The best thing about it, the champion gets the least applause and the last the most, for practical reasons: No one there yet to applause vs. all there to applause...;-)
If we take it as a challenge, we will always win, no matter where it ends... The challenge is the fun part, being in it, walking the path is the fun part, the result is just a minor part of the game...
And we do get also a response for our very own critic inside. I tend to criticize myself most, it is important to hear the voices who just have no further connection, the voices who solely listened to the work. If those voices are as bad as my own, I'd better stop...;-) But that is almost never the case. Whatever I do, it seems to resonate with someone else. In November I expected 100% 1 or 2, but got even a 5... (I still would not have given a 3 to myself, as I know I could do much better...)
I am happy with just the rating. Usually I know my weak parts myself...
Last edited by Tj Shredder on Sun Feb 11, 2018 4:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Don't misunderstand what I'm saying, TJ! OSC is a challenge, something that challenges us to create the best possible song with a single synth...yadda yadda yadda. But the part where those little numbers stand before each name, neatly put in order from top to bottom, that part is a called "a competition", no matter what you want to believe. Though it may sometimes feel that we judge how challenged some of us are, this part of the process cannot be properly labeled as anything but a procedure by which achieved points result in a comparative and sequential standing. Or short: competition. Funny, again I have to think of Life of Brian:"I only said 'this bread is not even good enough for Jehova'....what's so bad about saying 'Jehova'? Jehova, Jehova,..... ". :ud: :hihi:
Relax, Snowflake! ;)

Just to clarify: You don't go to an opera or a movie to see the finale of it. You go there to see the whole thing. In our case the "finale" is the "competition". It's just a part of the whole experience. You see what I mean? The question everyone should ask themselves, is what do they come here for? It most certainly should not be the competition part, because that would really be missing the whole point and function of the OSC.
Last edited by Taron on Sun Feb 11, 2018 4:05 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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;-)

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My voting criteria:
1 -- Has to be really bad -- like Taron said, a throwaway
2 -- Either a nod towards the effort that someone went to so I don't want to give them a 1, or the piece is flawed in some way (at least to me). It could be composition, sound design or production, but the piece just isn't at what I consider OSC basic level.
3 -- Very broad score. Any piece that hits the OSC bar (which is pretty high) for composition, sound design and production. Or a piece that excels in any of those areas even if it's not good in another.
4 -- The standouts. Mostly that engage me for some reason. If it's a genre that I don't really care for I stay open minded and still give 4's because quality is quality whether it's my subjective style or not. Sometimes I have as many 4's as 3's because the OSC entries are generally all so good.
5 -- Something special. These are the pieces that really work on every level, or that I just love for some reason -- that resonates with me.

This is always an interesting conversation.

I think comments and the discussions are the most important part of OSC, and really enjoy being part of this community!

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It's art. It's totally subjective.. everything from the sound design, genre, composition.. to the final, overall production. What someone may like (or hate), in each of those elements.. will be completely different, depending on the individual.

I generally like gritty sound design, weird genre mashups, progressive composition and lo-fi meets high-end production techniques.

What I may feel is awesome, someone else may find absolutely terrible.

So, what it boils down to.. winning submissions are basically a watered down average of all the different voters, widely varied.. subjective opinions.

Learn to take criticism in stride.

I've been producing odd forms of both visual and audible art most of my life.. and developed a pretty thick skin early on, in regards to critics. You really have to do that, to stay sane in your artistic endeavours.

Regardless of even the non-constructive feedback I receive, inevitably.. some of that stuff just sticks.. and may find its way into my efforts down the road, one way or another. It's how you learn and grow as an artist.

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Taron wrote: I do give 1s, if something feels to me like a throw away track, like somebody just made something for the heck of it and forced me to listen to it, because I simply had to. This kind of carelessness I can't honor with more than that.
Let me provide some perspective from a participant on the other side coin so to speak.

I personally don't see how you can determine the amount of effort or care a person put into their work.
Just because a track lacks quality in your opinion does not mean the creator of the track did it "for the heck of it" nor does it mean they were intentionally careless.
I can tell you that I have produced tracks with significantly less time investment, struggle and frustration than a personal track you have now essentially deemed a "throwaway" and "careless" and yet those other tracks (made with less actual care) you scored higher.
Give a track a 1 because it was mixed terribly? Sure.
Give a track a 1 because you hate the composition? Fair enough.
Give a track a 1 for all assortment of quantifiable reasons? All good.
But give a track a 1 because you "feel" they (the track creator) didn't put any effort into it or you "feel" it was just done "for the heck of it"? I cannot agree. You have no way of knowing.
Just my opinion.
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