One-Synth-Challenge 35: Diva - Voting and Results

[JJBiener]

This contest has demonstrated two very important things. First, Diva is a hell of a plugin. It really is capable of some amazing sounds. Second, there are some very talented people hanging around this little piece of the internet.

As usual, all of the entries show a high level of musicianship and sound design/selection. A large percentage showed even more, an understanding of how to really use the strengths of Diva to create spectacular music. Then there were a few, a select few, who just blew the roof off. These are exceptional pieces of music.

Now to the scores:

1. Mawa - Dance of the Goblin 5 pts. This was actually an easy choice for me. The first time I listened to this, I could feel it deep in my chest, not just physically, but emotionally. I have listened to it again, several times in fact, and that feeling returns every time. Something in this resonates with me like none of the other entries. It is remarkable.

2. PocVecem - panta rhei - The Eternal Flow 4 pts. Choosing this one was more difficult. There were several which could have taken the #2 spot. What set this piece apart was how the piece built slowly from a simple intro to a wonderful crescendo before retreating back in gentle denouement. I also like how the different sounds came and left and interacted throughout the piece. It gave the piece a sense of completeness without being overly complex or unwieldy.

3. Doc Jon - Eleventh Dimension 3 pts. This piece manages to sound classic without sounding cliche, elemental without being elementary and derivative without it being deliterious. This song to me is an homage to the artists who first brought synth music to the masses, and it does so without being self-conscious or self-righteous. Nicely done.

4. Orville - Resonant Sea 2 pts. This piece struck me the first time I heard it. The arps are reminiscent of Isao Tomita's work in the 70's, especially his treatment of Holtz' The Planets. They set the atmosphere for the song and provide a solid foundation on which the rest of the piece is built. Very nicely done.

5. evo2slo - Then I Lost Onassis 1 pt. This one seems to be a study in contrasts. That is a risky approach, but in this case it worked out just fine. The piece holds together and is intriguing to the ear. The break in the middle is really a thing of beauty.

Honorable mentions go to Ebow, Flumba, IIRs, JoeCat, Bjulin and Mawa (for Morning Mood). A wonderful job all.

[V'ger]

Nice comments

@Joe and Irion: Maybe a wrong setting during conversion from aif to mp3? Or something with the older beta of Lame that I see you used Irion?

Here's one with the exact same version and setting as used in the previous competitions, see how it compares.

[alphuris]

Don't know if it's Diva or Soundcloud, but my tracks this time didn't have the typical 808 bleep that they've been having. Same upload of an aif rendered directly out of Ableton.

[gorgorgathgorgorgor]

Soundcloud did truly nasty things to my re-mix attempt, If I had had time I would have removed it from the group and left the original, even though there were some things I really wanted to fix in the original. I attribute these things more to my crappy listening environment (always makes me mix bass-heavy)

[JoeCat]

Nice comments

@Joe and Irion: Maybe a wrong setting during conversion from aif to mp3? Or something with the older beta of Lame that I see you used Irion?

Here's one with the exact same version and setting as used in the previous competitions, see how it compares.

Thanks @V'ger - both of them sound fine now on a reboot. Not sure if it was a CoreAudio glitch, etc., but. I tried an mp3 off Beatport and the sound was awful, so I realized the problem had to be on my end. Sorry - I should debugged the situation first before posting and giving you guys more work

The downloaded files now sound appropriately awesome.

[IrionDaRonin]

Thanks @V'ger - both of them sound fine now on a reboot. Not sure if it was a CoreAudio glitch, etc., but. I tried an mp3 off Beatport and the sound was awful, so I realized the problem had to be on my end. Sorry - I should debugged the situation first before posting and giving you guys more work

The downloaded files now sound appropriately awesome.

No problem at all, man, i was about to download everything, export everything to MP3, reupload everything to archive org. Thanks i saw your post in time.
Have a good day

[markheath]

I have to say I am astonished by the quality of entries this month. I have listened for almost three days solid to the entries and it pains me to know I will have to leave out several outstanding compositions from my votes. Well done everyone.

Mawa - dance of the goblin - 5 pts
A great composition, beautifully arranged.
Doc Jon - Eleventh Dimension - 4 pts
Another masterpiece. Great use of pitch bend in intro, lovely bass sound. Like the lead riff.
Bzur - divagation - 3 pts
This wasn't initially one of my favourites, but it just seemed to get better and better with each listen.
PocVecem - panta rhei - the Eternal Flow - 2 pts
Really nice chilled out and relaxing listen, lovely sweeps.
Aiyn - Beautiful Winter - 1 pt
A real epic, flawlessly produced. Lovely chords, nice transitions, really slick. Occasionally lingers a little too long on the same groove.

And some honourable mentions to five more that came very close to making my top five:

Nimrod7 - unconditional feeling
Bjulin - Scottish Snowfalls
Stonail - Mimosa Tree
Solidtrax - Lady from Jupiter
Irion da Ronin - Beyond the Sight

[photonic]

Hi all,

WOW, what a surprise for me! My first entry to OSC and two times 5points at the begin of voting! A big "Thanks" to JJBiener and markheath. I am curious how it will continue.

I will make my favorits soon with quite similar criterias as IrionDaRonin.

First I have to like the song. That's pure emotion and a sudden reaction when you her the song the first time.

Second is the musicality, the composition. Are there good harmonies and lead-parts? Is the song boring or does it have some changes and surprises? Here the arrangement and sounddesign is also a main criteria.

Third is the technical part. I load the favorits in Waveosaur and load the SPAN analyser. So I can look at the frequency range and I aslo listen and watch to the compression. Does the song has air to breath or is it compressed to death.

And last but not least I would like to hear the possibilities of the VST. That's what the competition is about. It is not only a competition for us musicians, it is about what can be done with the synth. So I want to hear a lot of different sounds out of the synth. That is why I did a second song to test the DIVA in classical style. For more than a year since I found OSC in the web it was a good source to hear how each VST can sound.

cheers,
mawa

[photonic]

Also for me it was not easy to choose the favorits. There are a lot of good songs in this contest. Sometimes I was realy surprised what is makeable with DIVA. When You work with a synth for weeks you think you know quite well what can be done. But when I listened to the songs I knew, I know DIVA just a little bit. So much more possible! Well, that prooves the qualitiy of a synth.

So, here comes the vote from the mawa jury!

5 points: Aiyn-beutiful winter
This song took me on a journey! I could close my eyes and took a fly over the Alps. Nice harmonies, beautifull spaces and textures and remarkable sounds. After the gliding flight in the middle of the song the engine started again and brought me over the next summits! Perfect processing BTW.

4 points: PocVecem - panta rhei-The Eternal
Very good developing of the song. It beginns quite empty and gets more live over the time. Very good sounds and balance.

3 Points:Irion Da Ronin - Beyond The Sight
Here I heard a lot of sounds I do not know how to make them. Very good composition, a lot of changes in the arrangment and perfect processing.

2 points: Doc Jon - Eleventh Dimension
For me the best beginning of all songs. Wonderfull atmospheric design.

1 point: Bumtu - Rumpus
Sounds like sound track for a chase. It keeps the movement ongoing. Good ringmodulator effects and percussion. Outstanding leadsound!

cheers,
mawa

[Aiynzahev]

I'm voting for tracks that I might buy if they were part of an album of similar quality music. They have to not only be up to standard technically, but also offer something special, even something rare to really keep my attention.

Here are some that I want to mention first but could not vote for because of the competition: Stonail Mimosa Tree and Doc's 11 Dimension are excellent and Lady from Jupiter is very enjoyable.

Here are my picks though:

Chacka - Diving with Diva. 1 Point
First thing that hits you, great style and production. Lots of variety and some kind of strange moments too! I voted for this one because it kept my interest all the way through. There are so many different sounds and all of them are interesting.
The sort of distorted lead solo is fantastic, especially as it sort of sounds like a kicked can rolling down the street to start with and slowly builds into an electric guitar solo. The break down after that is also great.
This track has a lot of elements and sounds that would work excellently in a really epic trance track. Again the production is fantastic. This is like a ride in my in-laws 60's American Muscle car. A great ride for sure and lots of fun. Not one scene for very long!


Irion Da Ronin - Beyond The Sight. 2 Points
An absolutely beautiful sounding track right from the very first second. The production level on this track is head and shoulders above the others. It is an extremely instructive track in this regard which I feel I could learn a lot from. The sounds are very "visual" and natural sounding to me. It is an enjoyable experience. The elements of music here are of great strength and grew on me whenever on my revisits. Musically though it does not push the boundaries enough to really make a deeper connection with me, although the melody is especially peaceful sounding. It is a pleasant journey, just not a very far one. Love the work though.

IIRs - Division. 3 Points
Great bass rumble gives suspense and excitement. Nice introduction of the elements. Stopped changing here and it would have been interesting
but ended up almost paint by numbers like too many tracks out there. The lead sound that comes in at 35 seconds though shows there is
more to this. There is a real melody here! The lead sound is absolutely excellent and nothing more can be asked from it. It even surpasses expectations: It is beautiful in melody and timbre, but it also morphs so well from "classic" to "modern" to "futuristic" and at
some points (at 57 seconds for example) sounds remarkably like a Viola. A sound I really wanted to attempt but simply just could not manage to get around to with the resource and time limitations. I also have no idea how you got that perfect snare but would love to know. The harpsichord was not lost on me either. I did think there was a tad too much reverb on the bass-line and it sounded a little outside of the mix. Not enough mono on the bass. I don't follow dub-step, but music of any genre that is "musical" like this appeals to me. Again the Viola-like lead sound in a real stand-out and a complete pleasure to listen to. The melody is something I can keep coming back to again and again. What a good track.

Bjulin - Scottish Snowfalls. 4 Points
I love this track. Its beautiful and very wintery. The sounds are all beautiful and natural sounding and the style is fantastic, I
love the snares and bagpipes that come in at about 2 minutes.

When I first listened to the track on laptop my speakers I felt the production let it down a little but when I listened to it closely on my headphones I Was very pleasantly surprised at how balanced this sounded. Everything had a great deal of space.

Somehow you managed to work with individually very understated sounds and did not end up with something hollow. They are all very mellow and yet work together so well as to join to each other rather than to compete for space. In the end it just makes this compelling "glue" where the mix feels like a whole rather then a sum of parts. Very full sounding. In fact it is easy in this track to forget about the individual elements because they so seamlessly glide into one another.

It evokes images of white landscapes and Ice crystals in the rustic Scottish country side. And its happy sounding! Music that makes you feel good. Has such great general appeal. Music I
would play to people to expand their musical interests. You forget it is an entirely electronic piece and it shows that synthesizers
are not only for the weird and often un-musical sort of compositions out there but can also work brilliantly for more traditional sounding music. It is also very individual and feels very personal as opposed to sounding like a paint by numbers produced song. Fantastic.


Panta Rhei - Eternal Flow. 5 Points
This track has the complete number of elements. The sounds are varied and beautifully manipulated. The melody is simple, catchy, mesmerizing and memorable. When I stop listening to this track and go about my day, I can recall it because it resonated with me. I loved the percussion on this but the pads and leads took me away. They are so emotionally involving. It could easily be a movie sound track but it also easily stands a lone and evokes its own images. This track is almost 5 minutes long but feels like 1 minute. It does this by having a great structure. It really feels like one contracted minute of song expanded and then contracted again at the end.

It seamlessly morphs into its different stages, also at all times it is one and the same song, just revealed to different extents. It does not have the popular appeal that I think makes for classic music, but it is so strong in its own style that it loses nothing because of this and would have only been held back had it been more "accessible". It is for those who enjoy the deeper more cerebral experience of music. Penetrating. It slowly descends deeper and deeper through the mind like a tree grows deeper into the earth. It "flows" beautifully and as water through layers of earth and rock it gradually sinks down and approaches the doors of inner chambers. At which point it all fades away again leaving you in an almost silent state. When it is stopped I realize it is not my ears that suddenly re-awaken to my surroundings but my eyes, since they were so completely over taken by my imagination.

When all these elements combine like this they remind me of why I take the time to listen to electronic music in the first place.

[oxebe]

At first I want to say thank you very much for a pleasant welcome to OSC as it was my first time when I participated. I much appreciate all comments, remarks and votes submitted. This really was a very nice experience.

I think that all music submitted is very interesting and required huge efforts to make it. The level of OSC is high and it is also difficult to compare and evaluate music that represents different styles and genres. But... Some selections must be done so here are my votes:

5 pts
Stonail - Mimosa Tree
For delicate sounds, delicate mood, and swaying involving rhythm. It's pleasure to my ears, a very nicely composed track in dub style. Although one can say there are no much developed melodies, the densely played epiano-style chords and many back voices create movement and beatufilu flow. I let myself dive into this calm piece of music.

4 pts
Gorgorgathgorgorgor - Krampusnacht
For unique and very individual style, fantastic mood, and music accurately matched with the track title. I much apprieciate wandering back melody that comes back and forth, and very interesting melody of the main theme. The main theme was also transposed and repeated in other voices what added an intriguing variety to the music. Very well done.

3 pts
Bzur - Divagation
For beautiful melody and arrangement. This music draws listener's attention from the beginning to the end. I found myself signing silently this melody from time to time in recent days. It is very well arranged. Very good quality of the final mix.

2 pts
Bjulin - Scottish Snowfalls
For very convincing recreation of bagpipe play, and very Scottish mood. I admire very good bagpipe emulation both in sound and melody. Combination of bagpipe melody with electronic background sounds very interesing. The drum beat makes the impression even stronger. The whole track is very well composed and arranged.

1 pt
Mawa - Dance Of The Goblin
For very good sounds created and excellent arrangement. I like how the main melody is supplemented with back instruments what makes the track arrangement sound very rich. The way the drums were used including snares and claps gives strong accents to the track and emphasizes its tempo.

That's it.
Cheers

[Fritze]

Chacka - Diving with Diva. 1 Point
First thing that hits you, great style and production. Lots of variety and some kind of strange moments too! I voted for this one because it kept my interest all the way through. There are so many different sounds and all of them are interesting.
The sort of distorted lead solo is fantastic, especially as it sort of sounds like a kicked can rolling down the street to start with and slowly builds into an electric guitar solo. The break down after that is also great.
This track has a lot of elements and sounds that would work excellently in a really epic trance track. Again the production is fantastic. This is like a ride in my in-laws 60's American Muscle car. A great ride for sure and lots of fun. Not one scene for very long!

Thanx for your nice review. I'm glad you like it.

[Fritze]

Chacka - After the War: 5

Thanx a lot! Means a lot that this is coming from you.

[gorgorgathgorgorgor]

4 pts
Gorgorgathgorgorgor - Krampusnacht
For unique and very individual style, fantastic mood, and music accurately matched with the track title. I much apprieciate wandering back melody that comes back and forth, and very interesting melody of the main theme. The main theme was also transposed and repeated in other voices what added an intriguing variety to the music. Very well done.

Gorgorgathgorgorgor - Krampusnacht mix 2 - 2 points

Woop! thanks for the nods! much appreciated! I'm having a lot of trouble narrowing the field this time...

[oxebe]

1 point: Bumtu - Rumpus
Sounds like sound track for a chase.

I didn't think about it that way. Accurate comparison! Thank you!