One Synth Challenge #72: Eclipsis by VSTZONE (Richard Semper Wins!)

[BbluntProductions]

https://soundcloud.com/bblunt-productio ... sc-eclipse



KVR OSC Eclipse Contest

Title: Right Time

Synth: Hive (x18)

DAW: Reaper v5.0pre14b/x64

All presets obtained from KVR site tweaked. Thanks to Mojo and animehaus for drums and percussion.

Plugins:
ReaComp
ReaXcomp
ReaEQ
JS: LOSER/waveShapingDstr,
JS: Liteon/bassmanager
JS: Event Horizon Limiter/Clipper
JS: SstillWell/4x4
MCompressor
MEqualizer
MAutopan
MLimiter
MbandPass
Terry West Deharsh
FreeAmp SE
Rhythm-Lab Twin Delay
Dub Delay
Classic Reverb
WU Reverb
Voxengo OldSkoolVerb
Voxengo SPAN
Blue Cat's FreqAnalyst
Variety Of Sound TesslaSE
Terry West CS12m
Eclipse Effects

Thanks!

[wagtunes]

https://soundcloud.com/bblunt-productio ... sc-eclipse



KVR OSC Eclipse Contest

Title: Right Time

Synth: Hive (x18)

DAW: Reaper v5.0pre14b/x64

All presets obtained from KVR site tweaked. Thanks to Mojo and animehaus for drums and percussion.

Plugins:
ReaComp
ReaXcomp
ReaEQ
JS: LOSER/waveShapingDstr,
JS: Liteon/bassmanager
JS: Event Horizon Limiter/Clipper
JS: SstillWell/4x4
MCompressor
MEqualizer
MAutopan
MLimiter
MbandPass
Terry West Deharsh
FreeAmp SE
Rhythm-Lab Twin Delay
Dub Delay
Classic Reverb
WU Reverb
Voxengo OldSkoolVerb
Voxengo SPAN
Blue Cat's FreqAnalyst
Variety Of Sound TesslaSE
Terry West CS12m
Eclipse Effects

Thanks!

I don't know if you're aware of this, but this OSC is for Eclipses, not Hive.

Is that a typo or did you actually do this for last month's contest?

[mehum]

Thanks for feedback Concerning "went from basically".......

I will give you a report of my history in producing music (including electronic music) at all so that you all know at which stage I actually am:

I can see that my comment may have came off as a little backhanded, but I assure you it wasn't at all a qualitative statement regarding your song! I'm just impressed you've taken your time to learn the tools and put in the hard work and are taking the jump to release a track publicly.

I also basically came heavily into electronic music with psychill. Was member of an electronic psy band called Psyjuntan for a few years. We were pretty heavily influenced by Shpongle and the like...

But I guess this doesn`t matter much in modern music.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean but I think I beg to differ
I think performances and general musicality are still important, in some ways even more important than ever considering a lot of music today may be considered "stale". The great thing with electronic music production is that it's limitless in ways not possible before. You can experiment with anything you like, really, and easily incorporate any elements. Bass and guitar perfectly blends in and can add dynamics and organics to an electronic track. Of course learning to play (at least basic) keyboard is extremely helpful since most MIDI instruments are keyboard based... I actually have both a midi guitar and a midi saxophone so there's still options (I never use them )...

[Mojo42]

Thanks for feedback Concerning "went from basically".......

I will give you a report of my history in producing music (including electronic music) at all so that you all know at which stage I actually am:

I can see that my comment may have came off as a little backhanded, but I assure you it wasn't at all a qualitative statement regarding your song! I'm just impressed you've taken your time to learn the tools and put in the hard work and are taking the jump to release a track publicly.

I understood your comment already right. So: no problem. I just give this report as a general information. Call it smalltalk. I get great tipps here, but as you see I partially even don´t understand the tipps It seems to be useful for to explain myself so that people understand what exactly I can really understand and what not, what I`m able to do and what not. Just a trial to get to know each other better.

I also basically came heavily into electronic music with psychill. Was member of an electronic psy band called Psyjuntan for a few years. We were pretty heavily influenced by Shpongle and the like...

I will look for your songs as soon as I`m less busy with my own song problems. Have you got a link?

But I guess this doesn`t matter much in modern music.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean but I think I beg to differ

I mean that it is possible nowadays to produce music with a midi key editor where you almost can`t hear any differences to something which is played live. You just have to put the midi notes a little bit irregular.

I think performances and general musicality are still important, in some ways even more important than ever considering a lot of music today may be considered "stale". The great thing with electronic music production is that it's limitless in ways not possible before. You can experiment with anything you like, really, and easily incorporate any elements. Bass and guitar perfectly blends in and can add dynamics and organics to an electronic track. Of course learning to play (at least basic) keyboard is extremely helpful since most MIDI instruments are keyboard based... I actually have both a midi guitar and a midi saxophone so there's still options (I never use them )...

I also agree to this. The human factor is still important and the "feeling" can`t be produced with a midi key editor. But a lot of songs are produced in editors nowadays and I also like them and as long as I`m not a virtuosic keyboard player I`m afraid I have no other choice. I just meant that it is not the most important point, respectively it doesn`t hinder me to produce music. Of course I have got huge respect for people who are able to play their instrument and of course I also wish I could play keyboard, but I cannot. What shall I do? Stop making electronic music? Or using the possibilities I have got for the moment?

Cheers
Yvonne

[Mojo42]

PS: @mehun: By the way it is not that only use my midi key editor for producing songs. When I compose something I play it live on the keyboard. I play the melody I imagine, but then mostly I have to recognize that it is not strictly in time and such because I`m not a keyboard player and have got "stiff little fingers". Then I have to use the midi key editor for correcting my midi notes or I use quantizing. But the original idea of a melody is mainly played directly first, but then it needs some editing. I also wish to transport my feeling into my music, but at the moment it has to be a compromise between feeling and using the technical possibilities for to get anything finished at all.

@Spidergod: I understand now what a a ceiling between -1.5 and -3 dB is Thanks for that tipp. Unfortunately the videos I watched explained a lot, apart from how exactly one has to use the Limiter

It is amazing, they talk for hours about different kinds of Limiters, what they do and what can happen if you use it wrong but no one shows you how to do it. If they show something then it is with Limiters which work completely different from the one I have got and so on.....aaargh. I`m losing hope that I can get this this time. Time was just too short for mastering the challenge completely. But I`m anyway not here for to win something and so I decided that I have got struggled enough for the moment. It is again late night and I`m tired now. F*ck the Limiter

I thank you for your honesty feedback, I simply let my song as it is now, I`m glad that no one said:"Oh my god what is that sh*t" and so I`m satisfied and happy with the result so far. For me the sense of this contest is not to beat others, but to beat myself. Making the progress I can make with the help of the community. My actual goal is reached so far. I made a song, I uploaded it, no one said that it is horrible, my ears don`t aching if I listen it and I have met a lot of nice people here and really, really enjoyed the experiance of my first OSC also it also was very exhausting.

I would like to join it more often up from now, but for sure not each month because I`m just not well enough in producing music yet for producing a song in an acceptable amount of time and that I could use my rare offtime each month alone for making an OSC entry. But by time I will improve and then....we will see

[Touch The Universe]

Here is my entry for this month, not anything too special. A quickly made track (3 hours) with shabby mastering. I was building chords doing voice leading for music theory and ended up with a set of melodies I thought I could use for this months OSC though I wasn't planning on entering. I guess I would miss all the comments and logging in to soundcloud everyday to read them so I thought I'd add this very humble entry.

https://soundcloud.com/majestic_dawn/tj ... -bare-feet

8 Eclipsis Vst
Daw Orion
8 Melda EQ
4 Melda Compressor
Internal Daw, Compressors, Limters, Filters,
3 Karma Fx Delay
1 tal reverb 3
Mastering
1 Melda EQ
1 Melda Compressor

[z.prime]

... for music theory ...

Oh you lucky bastard... to be in school...

[Touch The Universe]

... for music theory ...

Oh you lucky bastard... to be in school...

First reply after the track is zprime Don't judge too harshly the track, its not my usual quality, maybe wait for next month for a better one. Cheers

[esteband]

A quickly made track (3 hours)

Damn, that was a productive 3 hours! I really dig this track. If I was still a techno DJ, I could see myself using this to open my sets. It's got simple, metronomic drums, but the bassline totally propels it forward with a driving energy. As a techno track (and I'm not sure if that's even what you were aiming for) the only thing I miss is bass; like the main bassline could've been an octave lower. But again, techno DJs might not have been your intended audience.

What I like most is that rhythmically and timbrally, it feels like dubby baroque (nice harpsichord, BTW), but its chord structure, rather than leading to predictable Bach-like resolutions, has more of an introspective, open sound.

Plus, I've got to mention the high-pass filtered growling cello that appears around 1:10. That might be the single best eclipsis patch I've heard so far.

Nice job.

[Touch The Universe]

A quickly made track (3 hours)

Damn, that was a productive 3 hours! I really dig this track. If I was still a techno DJ, I could see myself using this to open my sets. It's got simple, metronomic drums, but the bassline totally propels it forward with a driving energy. As a techno track (and I'm not sure if that's even what you were aiming for) the only thing I miss is bass; like the main bassline could've been an octave lower. But again, techno DJs might not have been your intended audience.

What I like most is that rhythmically and timbrally, it feels like dubby baroque (nice harpsichord, BTW), but its chord structure, rather than leading to predictable Bach-like resolutions, has more of an introspective, open sound.

Plus, I've got to mention the high-pass filtered growling cello that appears around 1:10. That might be the single best eclipsis patch I've heard so far.

Nice job.

Thanks for your comments. I wasn't expecting such positive feedback on the track, wow. I took your suggestions and am streaming to wave file right now. Will upload it here in a minute. Let me know if you think it is an improved version and if so I'll swap out the track for the new one

Edit* I updated my original post. Cheers

[spidergod]

@Spidergod: I understand now what a a ceiling between -1.5 and -3 dB is Thanks for that tipp. Unfortunately the videos I watched explained a lot, apart from how exactly one has to use the Limiter

It is amazing, they talk for hours about different kinds of Limiters, what they do and what can happen if you use it wrong but no one shows you how to do it. If they show something then it is with Limiters which work completely different from the one I have got and so on.....aaargh. I`m losing hope that I can get this this time. Time was just too short for mastering the challenge completely. But I`m anyway not here for to win something and so I decided that I have got struggled enough for the moment. It is again late night and I`m tired now. F*ck the Limiter

Hello
I must admit trying to find the right tutorials on youtube can take a lot of time as you are right they do not always give the information you exactly need at that time.
I am also impressed by your musical creation journey and am glad you have joined this competition.
If you require any more links on mastering let me know.
and good luck on your track in this competition.
cheers

darrenf

[Touch The Universe]

Sorry spider, I had to replace the song and in the process I had to delete your nice comments . I just wanted to say thanks for the words . Cheers

[wagtunes]

Yvonne:

I've been following your journey on this OSC and in your music production life in general. Please allow me to offer some words of wisdom. I think they will help you and relieve some of the stress you seem to be under in putting all this together.

I come from a very similar background. Nobody taught me any of this. In fact, when I first started out writing and producing my own songs, there was no Internet at all. My education consisted of going to the store, buying whatever equipment I wanted, bringing it home and turning dials to see what everything did. It was true trial and error.

Fast forward 34 years to 2013 and my first attempt at PC recording. Up until that point it was all hardware. I felt like a fish out of water. I didn't know a DAW from a BMW. But I learned, one painful step at a time. Some things took me close to a day just to figure out how to do, like recording vocals through my DAW. Talk about a frustrating experience. But I did it. Through a combination of going to forums, Youtube and scouring the Internet for info, I figured things out. No, it didn't happen overnight. I will have been doing PC based recording for 2 years this coming July.

Do I know every trick? No, not even close. But I've got the basics down. I can put together a track that doesn't sound like total garbage. For me, that's a major victory.

Take it easy on yourself. It will all come. If you have any questions, you're always welcome to message me personally. I love helping others because I haven't forgotten what it was like when I was pulling my hair out of my head.

There are a lot of helpful people at this forum and they're an amazing resource and well of knowledge.

Don't be afraid to tap into it. But most of all...

Have fun.

Because if music isn't fun...it isn't worth doing.

[doctorbob]

There are a lot of helpful people at this forum and they're an amazing resource and well of knowledge.

Don't be afraid to tap into it. But most of all...

Have fun.

Because if music isn't fun...it isn't worth doing.

+1 to all the above. Have fun.

Your track on your SC page is good - just don't forget to announce it here as others have been doing and also make sure it's in the OSC SoundCloud group as well.

Take the comments and run with them. I only started 6 months ago here and have come a long way - I'm sure you will too.

dB

[mehum]

I understood your comment already right. So: no problem. I just give this report as a general information. Call it smalltalk. I get great tipps here, but as you see I partially even don´t understand the tipps It seems to be useful for to explain myself so that people understand what exactly I can really understand and what not, what I`m able to do and what not. Just a trial to get to know each other better.

Yeah, I see what you're saying! My first encounter with computer based music recording was about 15 years ago so the domain specific vocabulary is second nature to me. Learning the language around music technology is really helpful. Luckily it's pretty much the same in any language since the environment is quite anglo-centric...

I will look for your songs as soon as I`m less busy with my own song problems. Have you got a link?

I think most of the stuff we released is on http://platonistmusic.com/reunion/p_psyjuntan.html
It sounds pretty dated though Don't judge too hard... At times we almost had an "open studio" type of arrangement so there are probably ten or fifteen collaborators at total. I think we once had 9 people on stage at a gig.

I mean that it is possible nowadays to produce music with a midi key editor where you almost can`t hear any differences to something which is played live. You just have to put the midi notes a little bit irregular.

Ah, I get it now... Some MIDI-tools has "humanizer"-options as well so that you don't even have to program the irregularities yourself
That's true in many cases. I usually work like that as well, and like you I play some parts on the keyboard which I then edit to account for all my mistakes. If I'm stuck I find trying out different parts, be they melodies or rythms, on a keyboard or guitar is a great way to get to the new ideas. Even if you're not using what you played just playing around with it opens up other parts of the brain, I guess...

Or using the possibilities I have got for the moment?

Exactly what I was getting at