April Contest: Gossip

[pljones]

pljones - something more needed to keep the listener with your track (me at least)

That's two for that message now... Tricky, given the aim of the track.

Oh, so people know: I won't be posting mini-reviews... I deleted the file...

[Mister Natural]

For the purposes of the contest: Octaves, yes. Other fixed intervals, no. That's why that sentence was excised from the definition given.

for the purposes of an entry of mine next month . . . I really don't see it happening :=) without at least a backing drone(which would be a harmony, of course)

I'll be delighted to hear everyone's ideas on how to accomplish this theme

respect

[slartibartfast]

I'll be delighted to hear everyone's ideas on how to accomplish this theme

respect

I have a couple of ideas in my head. But they will probably turn out like crap after I have tried to convert them to reality......

[evo2slo]

evo2slo - great as always, but volume levels too hot (again! )

I've got a fever and the only cure is more compression (and saturation... and limiting...) I am clueless how to get my stuff loud without slamming it to pieces.
Probably need to work on my gain staging... (shouldn't be too hard with next month's contest)
I wish you were the type of doctor who made house calls!

Thanks to slartibartfast, kryptonaut, robojam, forw, Daniel Pompougnac, Mister Natural, and of course Doc Jon for the helpful comments!

[slartibartfast]

I am clueless how to get my stuff loud without slamming it to pieces.
Probably need to work on my gain staging... (shouldn't be too hard with next month's contest)

I can't comment on earlier tracks, but one of the things that I noticed with your track this month was that it was particularly bass-heavy - and especially in the areas below 80-100Hz (from memory), with quite a lot of sub-bass less than 50Hz. One of the useful things that I have learned from KVR and other places is that the bass frequencies are where most of the energy is concentrated, but perceived loudness depends more on the level of higher frequencies. Having a bass heavy track (and particularly a lot of sub-bass - sub 50Hz) uses up a lot of headroom (dB), but doesn't add much to perceived volume. I suspect that what you may be doing (and I know, because I have been guilty of this in the past myself) is cranking up the levels of the whole track to make it seem louder, and using the limiter to smash the peaks, but whenever you get a spike in volume in the bass frequencies, the limiter crushes the volume of the whole track - leading to the crushing and pumping that is evident in your submission. One suggestion I would make, therefore, would be to focus on the bass areas of your tracks. Some things to consider include:

• Putting a high pass filter (cutoff at about 100-120Hz or even higher) on anything that is not supposed to be "bass" - this includes guitars, in particular, which can generate a lot of sub-50Hz noise and which can be cut without impacting on the overall tone of the sound
  
  Putting a high pass filter on bass sounds to remove any sub-20Hz frequencies (which cannot be heard, but which can gobble up headroom)
  
  Reducing the overall volume of those bass sounds in the mix to bring them more in balance with the higher frequency sounds prior to maximising and limiting - a frequency analyser across the main output bus (Span is a reasonably good free one) will help you to visualise the frequency spread - you are looking to try and achieve something that is reasonably "flat" across all frequencies - with a slightly downward linear trend as frequencies get higher. Listening on good monitors - or even a decent home stereo system - and referencing your track against other tracks of a similar genre will give you an idea of how your frequency balance sits compared with other benchmark tracks. Definitely do NOT mix on headphones, as this gives you a completely unrealistic idea of low frequency content, and underestimates that amount of sub-bass, in particular, that you have in your track. If you must mix on headphones (the kids are asleep etc), then try listening on decent speakers prior to finalising your mix (as above).
  
  Using multi-band compression to tame the bass frequencies (sub 50-80Hz) separately from compression of the other bands - prior to maximising and limiting.

Not sure how much of this you have tried already, and so not sure how much use this is to you - but I hope it helps.

[evo2slo]

Thanks so much slartibartfast, that is super helpful! I do high pass guitars, vocals, etc., but usually not the bass or kick. I also often mix on headphones as my monitors (NS-10s) have no bass to speak of. Also I never use multiband compression - so that's another thing for me to try. Great suggestions!!!

[GMoneh]

Wow, so many good entries this month, it was hard to come up with a top ten. I have mostly good things to say about most of the submissions, but I'll share my notes anyway (I hope gorgor does reviews this month so he can tell us how awful we really are).

The list is ordered in the same order as the playlist I have being using to listen to the set of songs. My top ten is at the top, and I do spend some time making sure that the ordering of those is as I want it. Outside of the top ten, though, the ranking is not as strict, although I do tend to put the pieces I like the most closer to the top.

Daniel Pompougnac - Les Papas: A lot of emotion and poignancy bottled in 30 seconds. Very beautiful.

forw - Captain Crashy's Sky Taxi: Loved the sci-fy theme going on here. An interesting point you might want to hear is that this is my 6-years-old son's favorite of the whole bunch. He comes to my office and asks me to play it all the time.

Kryptonaut - The Sound of Spandex: Another futuristic sounding electronic number. Sounds good.

Emerald Tablet - It Was Clear: What is clear here is the mix... lovely sound. Although it works as a self contained piece, I get the feeling of the intro for a longer work.

SLD Music - Excelsior: Although I know the lyrics are not religious, this one has all the feeling of being at church. You have a very good voice and the mix enhances it greatly.

Bjulin - 30 seconds to Alpha Omikron: My favorite of the piano pieces submitted this month, due to the beautiful clear piano sound as well as the composition itself. The pads in the background provide the perfect complement without being intrusive.

Irion Da Ronin - Saranghee Yo: Another incredibly well done mix. The textures of sounds you create in your songs blow my mind.

Vulcan DJ - Take Off: Awesome guitar jamming, very lively.

bzur - Snippet: Incredible textures, beautiful mix. As the name implies, though, it feels like a snippet of a larger work (which I'd love to hear).

nikp2000 - April's Fool: Delicate and subdued. Liked it.

Lowcloud - Low Clouds: Nice piano piece, with a hint of sadness. I enjoyed it.

robojam - The Fallen: More solo piano! The pad in the background sounded a bit distracting from the piano for me, but despite that I enjoyed this one as well.

SJMMusic - The Decision: Who knew Dimension LE could sound so epic… I have the full Dimension Pro and seldom use it other than for percussion… I guess I'll have to reconsider that.

Patrick9 - Crash and Burn: Well executed song, well taken to term in only 30 seconds. Very well performed on top of that.

Spirulence - Thirty Seconds Blues: Loved the feeling and groove, although unlike previous reviewers I wasn't crazy about the distortion in the harmonica, would have liked a cleaner sound. The background organ on the other hand works very well.

Gorgorgathgorgor - Shut the Funk Up: Funky! How good that bass sounds, very well played. I'd like to hear a longer version of that jam.

shrikant - Sunny Rains on the Plains: Exotic sounding, as your work usually is. Enjoyed this one as well.

Peterhud - Yeah: In this age of effects-laden productions and ever-increasing bit resolution, a low-fi retro piece like this is like a breath of fresh air. Reminds me of old 80s video games.

DocJon - Goldfish in da hood: Who would have thought to rap about a gold fish! Cracked me up, very original… Sounds very good on top of that.

Dr. Ax - Lost Cat: Best storytelling lyric of the month, and all jampacked in 30 seconds! I hadn't heard the panned chorus other reviewers spoke off until I listened on headphones. Cool touch.

Mikebenson - The Omniscient Narrator: Hard to believe this is the only dancey number in the whole batch. I enjoyed it, well produced.

Farlukar - Dumil: Got my full attention, if only trying to figure out the metric (I couldn't at the end, by the way). Definitely out of the beaten path.

D.H. Miltz - Gobbets: Weird but interesting.

1-2-many - Your Biggest Fan: A totally different vibe from anything else in the competition. Liked the lyrics.

offthewall - 30 something: Admirable being able to put together something so intricate in only 30 minutes you allocated . If anything, I could say that too much is going on, perhaps.

pljones - Sigh: Too little going on in the entire 30 seconds to "get to the point" for me...

Laguna Rising - Urban Traffic Driven: Those drums are playing like 3 parts at the same time, but the rhythm still works. Don't know how you pulled it off.

knockman - Teenage Level 4: A head banger! Frenetic pace... Simple lyrics, but they help to make the song standout in a month with so many entries.

slartibartfast - Awaken: Another frenetic rock number, but in this case, missing some extra element that would make it stand out among the sea of entries… Perhaps feels more like an intro than a full piece?

evo2slo - Live Well: Heavy metal and me don't go well together, sorry. Mix is so hot that it's hard to discern individual parts, including the vocals, although that may be on purpose given the genre.

beanpole - Every Night: Props for cramming an entire song with full lyrics in just 30 seconds. The out of tune vocals in the chorus detract from it, though.

Mister Natural - Aging in the mirror: A bit unstructured, but by your previous comments, I think that's what you were going for. Still, listenable and enjoyable.

peppy197 - Long John's: Too much dissonance for me. Don't feel it develops enough.

Liqih - Eastim: Exotic… reminds me of a belly dancing class (not that I've ever taken any ).

mellotronaut - Believe: Liked the finish better than the beginning. I must admit that the fact this one was in ogg format prevented it from having as much play as the rest.

Inbox Zero - Get To The Point, Already: A hard one to fall in love too. There's too much noise vying for attention against the melodic parts.

cheeso - Yes:

RuediRena - To the point: Silence: Silence from me too...


G.

[shrikant]

GMoneh

shrikant - Sunny Rains on the Plains: Exotic sounding, as your work usually is. Enjoyed this one as well.

Thanks for the review.

Shrikant

[mellotronaut]

mellotronaut - Believe: Liked the finish better than the beginning. I must admit that the fact this one was in ogg format prevented it from having as much play as the rest.


G.

thank you very much for the review, GMoneh.

i'm clueless about the ogg comment. did i miss something? there are two play buttons in the submissions thread. my bad, if the song gets less play, but if there is a problem, i'll submit mp3s again, next time, i participate.
with 'finish' do you mean the instrumental part?

mell

[D.H. Miltz]

i'm clueless about the ogg comment. did i miss something?

There was a bit of discussion starting here.

[D.H. Miltz]

And: Thanks, GMoneh.

[mellotronaut]

i'm clueless about the ogg comment. did i miss something?

There was a bit of discussion starting here.

thank you for the link, Dan!

so Dr. Ax won't listen to my little track this month and next month i'll post an mp3 file again.

[Daniel Pompougnac]

Hello,
Thank's to the reviewers, and thank's for the votes, GMoney, Shrikant and Offthewall

Daniel

[GMoneh]

i'm clueless about the ogg comment. did i miss something? there are two play buttons in the submissions thread. my bad, if the song gets less play, but if there is a problem, i'll submit mp3s again, next time, i participate.

D.H. Miltz pointed you to the previous discussion in this thread, but the gist is this: I listen to each month contest entries a lot of different ways: in my iPad, iPod, I even have an old Audiotron to distribute sound to different parts of my house so I can listen on any room. For all the advantages you may list of ogg as a compression format, there is one big drawback, and that is widespread device support: none of the devices I listed support it. Therefore, I could only listen to your entry when I was sitting in front of the computer. I also know I'm not the only one who listens in such variety of devices.
It is within the contest rules to submit in ogg format, of course, and it will get at least one listen from me. But I wanted to include the comment anyway to drive the point that it might be a disadvantage...

with 'finish' do you mean the instrumental part?

Right...

[SJMmusic]

SJMMusic - The Decision: Who knew Dimension LE could sound so epic… I have the full Dimension Pro and seldom use it other than for percussion… I guess I'll have to reconsider that.

I only used it for some Percussion here, too (and even then the lower parts of the percussion are mainly from this other Sample Pack, since it is a lot "cripser" and clearer, so to speak). I just can't find myself enjoying the other instruments of GPO that much - glad I have my arsenal of free soundfonts for that

And thank you all very much for your comments so far, I am happy about every word I can read - I sadly haven't yet found the time to listen to all the entries but once I do, I will try to write as much as possible for you too