One-Synth-Challenge: General discussion thread

[V'ger]

Melda plugins are very good, but a pain to install and will leave 100 folders all over the disk.

But what happens if they are installed in Sandboxie and the dll's copied over? Will not work? I can't try it as i installed normally before i discovered Sandboxie.

[V'ger]

But also back to the earlier question about host eq or not. No more input? I'm leaning to having either all host effects allowed or none, in order to simplify things. Are there really better host effects that what can be had in freeware?

Maybe just have a vote or what?

[IrionDaRonin]

But also back to the earlier question about host eq or not. No more input? I'm leaning to having either all host effects allowed or none, in order to simplify things. Are there really better host effects that what can be had in freeware?

Maybe just have a vote or what?

Just a nice idea. Maybe it's time to make a poll in KVR, which hurts nobody and people like to vote easily with a clic.

Anyway i'm agree of using any host EQ, but not all the host effects in it.

Have a good day

[pocvecem]

Any host eq could be a nice addition. But to me all effects from a host seems to be a bit against the freeware spirit of the challenge.
I think that most of the host effects can easily replaced by freeware, sometimes even with better quality.
Only one suggestion: allow the host internal sampler. Almost all hosts today have a more or less simple sampler to fire up drumsamples like Simpler in Ableton Live or Groove Agent One in Cubase.

[bjporter]

Maybe we can make a special OSC thread/posts for tips, like what free EQ's are suitable replacements for native - good for the OSC beginners out there.

[V'ger]

Yes but would probably like most vst threads end up with too many choices.

Any host eq could be a nice addition. But to me all effects from a host seems to be a bit against the freeware spirit of the challenge.
I think that most of the host effects can easily replaced by freeware, sometimes even with better quality.
Only one suggestion: allow the host internal sampler. Almost all hosts today have a more or less simple sampler to fire up drumsamples like Simpler in Ableton Live or Groove Agent One in Cubase.

Why separate host eq and sampler from the others? And SFZ is surely as simple as any sampler in the host?

Anyway i'm agree of using any host EQ, but not all the host effects in it.

Because of unfair advantage or contest spirit?

[pocvecem]

Let's leave the rules with host effects as they are. No host effects besides the host's channel eq and no modulation fx. Simple and effective.
There are more than enough freeware effects available to everyone. That means that everyone has the same possibilities. Channel eqs in hosts sure sound different but i don't think that will make the point.
On the other hand when i could use the mastering effects from Cubase 6 it could be an advantage since in my opinion they partly are better than freeware effects. I'm thinking of the Cubase Maximizer and Multiband Limiter. Ot the Roomworks reverb. So we should leave that out.
Once again: let's leave the rules as they are. They are alright.
These rules and limitations make it interesting for me to take part in the OSCs.
Just my 0.02.

Cheers

[V'ger]

Yea you're probably right some daws' plugin might have slight edge or character compared to freeware so let's drop the idea of all host effect.

The topic was mainly brought up as it seems there's always confusion with native eq and any of the host eqs, and again, there might be some hosts that have eq's with different character or maybe even quality so maybe it's just as well to strike from the rule as well? Would make the rules even simpler.

[V'ger]

Ok so judging from the pointers about host eq, it seems it will cause more trouble than gain, so will be dropped from next competition onward:

Rule Change from OSC 33: (text marked red will be deleted)

External effects: Allowed but must be freeware and easily available to all. This means none of the DAW's effects can be used except native EQ which is ok. Modulation effects like chorus, phaser, flanger etc or effects that transform the sounds to make them unrecognizable as being from the synth are not allowed. (ANY kind of effect already IN the synth can of course be used freely)

[gorgorgathgorgorgor]

Ok, I'm kinda torn. I'm totally psyched that our little comp has 41 great entries, that's awesome! I'm also kind of freaking out that our little comp has 41 great entries. That's a lot of listening! How the carp am I gonna narrow these down to five!?!?
I'd like to suggest a Rule Change. it's one we've discussed a little before, but I think it's time to hash it out a bit and consider it... How 'bout one entry per contestant? I know, somebody could come up with multiple logins to circumvent this, but we're all adults here right? We could include an exception for collaborations (but still only one per "team"). Thoughts? It would have meant about 8 fewer entries this month, we'd still have plenty to listen to and vote on, and it wouldn't be so overwhelming! Yes, I realize Irion would have to pick just one to share every month...

[Doc Jon]

I know what you mean - this month has truly been a success, which can surely only be a good thing - but it has taken a long time to go through them all, just had to be ruthless, listened to all of them twice and whittled down to a shortlist of 14 which still meant leaving out some good tracks, and it was still hard work after that getting down to only 5

More tracks = more prizes however

I think multiple submissions is a gamble, they may all be good, but in such a large field of entries it feels difficult to give points to more than one track from the same person (not to say I haven't in the past!), and if different people prefer different tracks then your points become 'diluted'

Mind you, it's all about the creativity and music at the end of the day not the points (who am I kidding? ) so I'd support allowing multiple submissions

Jon

[satYatunes]

@bzur: would you please share the trick around melda effects installation. I didn't install it after reformatting my HD for the exact same reason mentioned by V'ger. I think it installs some .NET thing also if I remember correctly.

I am game for multiple submissions too. Contestants know it's a gamble, lets leave it to them. I am kinda confused on "More tracks=more prizes", I know it's 25% of the total tracks. 41 tracks means 10 prizes? So, top 10 songs of last month will eventually get to win something? pretty cool actually.

One thing I noticed and would like to suggest is to close the voting thread with a final post either by V'ger or Irion with the prize list and the corresponding winners. I have seen in the past the prize distribution also done in the voting thread, by asking the winners to select their prizes but that didn't happen in the z3ta thread. I guess, zebralette took all the focus and that may be the reason behind it. Anyway, just a thought.

[IrionDaRonin]

I am game for multiple submissions too. Contestants know it's a gamble, lets leave it to them. I am kinda confused on "More tracks=more prizes", I know it's 25% of the total tracks. 41 tracks means 10 prizes? So, top 10 songs of last month will eventually get to win something? pretty cool actually.

One thing I noticed and would like to suggest is to close the voting thread with a final post either by V'ger or Irion with the prize list and the corresponding winners. I have seen in the past the prize distribution also done in the voting thread, by asking the winners to select their prizes but that didn't happen in the z3ta thread. I guess, zebralette took all the focus and that may be the reason behind it. Anyway, just a thought.

Hi, Satya.
Exactly, this month would be 10 prizes, but, it seems there are only about 6 or so. So i guess it will be only 6 prizes at all.

I like that idea, about to close a thread with final votes, the winners, and maybe what they have chosen. But V'ger and me, we are not mods, so we can't close threads, so we would bothering mods innecessarily, and also while they are closing the threads someone could writte more posts, so the winner-close-prizes post wouldn't be the last one.

Anyway, as usually, let's see what says V'ger about this.
As i said, i like the idea.

Have a good day

[satYatunes]

Ooops, I should've been more clearer.. I didn't actually mean to close the thread literally... leave the thread open for discussion to continue.. what I meant was once the prize distribution is over we can post it for example,
1. winner1 - prize 1
2. winner2 - prize 2..

personally to me, that's the actual end of the competition. no?

Here is a request for my fellow OSCers.. does anyone have a copy of Multifreek Junior? It's a free analyzer. Their site is down since yesterday and I cannot find it anywhere. Seems kinda cool for analyzing multiple tracks (max 7) or anyone know of any other free analyzer with similar feature? I am trying MultiInspector by the way and I know only these two. Thanks in advance.

[pocvecem]

The best free analyzers to me are Voxengo Span and the one from Melda. No multitrack analyzing though.
personally i put an anlyzer into the masterchannel only to see if there's not too much action beyond 60 Hz. i trust my ears more than an analyzer and i know my speakers well. The old eq sweeping trick on every track still works best. Ok, but that's just my opinion.