March Contest: RESULTS

[Jonny Quest]

my tactical voting failed! i was attempting to come last!

Funny, I did my best and achieved that result without obstacles ;P

Congratulations to the winners

And here's to the losers

~jonny

[ccollinsmith]

Congrats to the winners!

Thanks to the couple of people who gave me votes. This was a tough assignment. I had a job search taking up most of my time. But that ended successfully, so it's all good. If anyone's interested, the title themes for HALLOWEEN (John Carpenter) and DEEP RED (Goblin ) were the models. I didn't listen to "Tubular Bells," but Carpenter and Goblin probably did.

Oh, additional thanks to groovesys for "Top of the Izzo." That's the song I keep coming back to, even though I didn't vote it #1. Carpenters, Jay-Z, and Ludacris all rolled into one (yeah, I googled the lyrics). Impressive. And very funny.

Great month. Lots of good stuff.

[ccollinsmith]

my tactical voting failed! i was attempting to come last!

And all you did was save me from reaching the inverted pinnacle.

[Marc JX8P]

First of all - thanks to all of you for once again coming up with some great music, it's always cool listening to these tracks and I will say it again - I really don't know what to expect when seeing a title and then playing it. It's very fun. Congrats to the winners of this month.

I didn't expect so many votes... it's always cool when people like what you do. Nice one to Slartibartfast for getting my alias as John Mitchel Charred right and thanks to him, Advaya, Jplanet, You™, Groovesys, Duncanparsons, Hovmod, RichieBee, System Era, Kara, Astanine and Algodon for your votes and to Rockstar_not, 1-1-Many, Kovacs and Torhan for the hm's - all much appreciated! Also a thank you to Advaya, Former Pharaoh, System ERA, ? (still don't know who you are...), ccolinsmith and Techbot for taking the trouble to write a review.

This was a very fun contest to take part in, even though the aliases made it confusing sometimes and kind of hard to respond to feedback. And thanks to Markleford for the hard work he put into this!

[slartibartfast]

Congratulations to the well-deserved winners.

Special thanks to Markleford for the huge amount of work he completed this month, and congratulations for still managing to get an entry in as well!

[kara]

Thanks for the votes and congratulations to the winners

[You™]

Congrats to the winners and thanks for voting for my better looking and far more outgoing alter ego with the vitamin deficiency.

[Barnadine]

Congrats Scott, System Era, Groovesys & all. Cheers for the reviews and votes. And of course special thanks to Mr Shorts for all the extra work.

Any chance of a list showing who exactly people were emulating? I think I only picked the obvious ones.

As kovacs and others guessed, I was ripping off early Sigur Rós. Don't let my hack job put you off the real thing though. They're actually pretty damn good.

(My entry got translated a bit in the radio master. It was originally more about the bowed guitar rather than the crappy drums. My fault for not mixing with compression in mind.)

Good to see new faces around. And welcome back to a few veterans.

[Markleford]

I was emulating "generic indy alternative guitar band". Yuskevich got it right in the Gossip thread:

Listening to this track, I see this horrible image of someone squeezing Billy Corgan's testicles with a nutcracker while he leads the Smashing Pumpkins through a set.

This is not intended as a criticism, by the way--it's a catchy tune. But poor Billy...

- m

[rockstar_not]

Hey,

I've been away most of the day - actually, if I figure in daylight savings time, it's really tomorrow right now in a twisted sort of way.

I wanted to say thank you to all who voted for my Beck emulation.

Now, a few have mentioned about the vocals on the track. I happened to have had a sinus infection when I tracked that song and thought about putting some marbles or something in my cheeks to mask it a little better. Turns out, when I listened to it, I thought that people might just mistake it for a Knockman track, who I thought about emulating at the onset but revealed that secret too early. Actually someone out there suspected that Heck might have been Knockman, so in an unintended way, I actually accomplished that goal.

I honestly didn't think it had a chance when there was so much great original and outright funny music this month.

It was a toss-up between this song and a relatively unheard by KVR-ians song by Bo Kaspers Orkester, 'Innan Klockan Slagit Tolv'. BKO is a Swedish simple-pop-jazz outfit that I fell in love with while working in Sweden in 2000. The problem is that most folks not ever having heard of BKO would have probably thought it was original and not a cover, and that would have made me feel somewhat guilty. And I couldn't cut the song down to 2:00 without it rushing, and it's not a song to rush.

So - it really is weird to feel what it is like to win; particularly in tough competition. I guess I need to sing with a sinus infection more often!!

A couple folks asked for the trick to the guitars - it was really no trick. Two tracks attempting to play exactly the same thing, panned 50% left and right.

CAD M-177 LDC mic at 12th fret; approximately 6" out from the fretboard, capsule pointed towards sound hole. PreSonus Firebox pre-amp, a little Mackie (I use Tracktion) mono mini compressor on the ceiling limiting preset, and some Mackie reverb on the 8 bit digital preset (almost zero wet). That was it.

Pedal steel guitar was sfz loaded with a pedal steel soundfont I found online - google pedalsteel.exe and you'll find it. Of course I spent a little time trying to learn the bends, and then letting the huge reverb cover up the soundfont-ness. Reverb was Ariesverb on the "temples of doom" or something like that preset.

Markleford's processing really put some sparkle on things that my original mix didn't have. Thanks for that, Markleford.

Thanks again,

-Scott

[stephenpaulharper]

This was my 3rd month as a participant, and I'm pretty pleased to have cracked the top 20.

That said, I feel sorta bad that some people who voted for me didn't realize that it was a cover. "Fine composition", one guy said. Well, it is - but I ain't the fine composer. Just to be clear - like anyone cares - Smalltalk's(algodon) "My Young Love" is "She Moved Through The Fair", and is a traditional Irish tune, from at least as far back as the 1920's, as best I can tell. I think I did an OK and pretty original arrangement, but that's as far as it goes.

There now, all better.

Congrats to the winners and thanks to Markleford for his hard work.

Stephen

[ccollinsmith]

That said, I feel sorta bad that some people who voted for me didn't realize that it was a cover. "Fine composition", one guy said. Well, it is - but I ain't the fine composer.

Hey, you and I talked about it as a cover on the Gossip board. Not your fault that some people didn't read that it was a cover.

Congrats, by the way! I played lots and lots of Irish music gigs out in L.A., and was impressed with how authentic you got the "lace curtain Irish" feel.

[System ERA]

WOW... Thanx yah all... I'm quite stunned really, I thought maybe the top ten, but not that... Gotta say, if it wasn't for all you catz at KVR I doubt I would have had not of maid nearly as much leadway... I remember the first time stumbleing across these comps. Most yah catz are still here, some new comers... Its very cool..

A bit about the song, it was inspired believe it or not my Massave Attack, "Moving up slowly" I know you don't hear it do yah, its the beat Simular time signiture and the likes of...

Used BFD, Absynth, Imposcar, Toxic and dats about it, some nice reverbs... Oh and of course NI Voktatro thingy... I would like to dedicate my prise to mother earth... She probably won't find much use for it though, so I'l use it for her hehe... Nah this ones for the Planet...

Thanx all, BIG SHOUT OUT to da other winners and all. And of course Markleford DA MAN!

[stephenpaulharper]

Congrats, by the way! I played lots and lots of Irish music gigs out in L.A., and was impressed with how authentic you got the "lace curtain Irish" feel.

Thank you kindly - high praise indeed coming from you. I'm primarily a drummer, and although I took piano for a few years, I'm still kinda feeling my way around emulating the feel of real instruments on keys.

Goblin, eh? You know I've got Roller and the Cherry Five CD laying around here somewhere - great stuff. I have a friend in Athens (GA), that has like their entire discography.

Thanks again.

[astanine]

Congratulations to the winners and everyone who entered.
Thanks for the votes and HM's.
Also big thanks to Markleford for all the extra work.