may contest - GOSSIP

[rsmus7]

For everyone who would like to try:

I tried to mixdown a less distorted version of my entry.

You can grab it

HERE Gitanero

any feedback is welcome.

[Tancos]

Freeztar and Sciche:

I couldn't download your tunes; Angelfire doesn't allow deep linking. I tried going to your home pages, but I couldn't find links to your songs there.

[SecondSkin]

Hey everyone,

I posted my first contest entry this morning and I just want to make sure everything is legal. Is everyone able to get the song and are the mp3 tags coming up (they don't on my machine, I have no idea why. They come up on the local files, but not off my web host. Anyone know why?) Anyway, I changed the file name so that the appropriate information comes up that way...

Thanks, Mark

[mystahr]

Hey everyone,

I posted my first contest entry this morning and I just want to make sure everything is legal. Is everyone able to get the song and are the mp3 tags coming up (they don't on my machine, I have no idea why. They come up on the local files, but not off my web host. Anyone know why?) Anyway, I changed the file name so that the appropriate information comes up that way...

Thanks, Mark

Check on both counts

[visa tapani]

So you like dark eh? I can do dark. just need a bit more time and thought.

Yeah, dark's nice, but perhaps I didn't verbalize myself in the best possible way in the feedback. It's not really the shift from dark to light that I found disappointing, but the shift from a very strong and impressive mood to something with imo less evocative power...

Particularly the diced and panned guitar(?) that comes in around 0:25. If it’s not rude to ask… how did you do that?

Not rude at all. It's Z3ta+ ran through a Buzz-native filter, an EQ, a compressor and 2 Buzz-native delays. I took these two screencaptures to illustrate a bit of the making-of, but didn't post them as my geocities page seemed to have some serious troubles. They seem to work now, though:
pic 1
pic 2
It's the z3ta+ propel in the upper-left corner of the first picture.

Nice dreamy breakdown disturbed by a stray pitch… but it could be jazz WTF do I know. The crashes seem to get a bit splashy towards the end and I think the congas could do with a bit more variation.

What do you have in mind with "stray pitch"? Or: what sound do you feel is off-tune? What do you mean by crashes being "splashy"? Yeah, I agree that the congas would need some variation. Thanks for the comments.

Big thanks also to Wopelka, Liqih and You™ for comments.

[visa tapani]

Okay, here's my feedback bunch 4/5. Yeah, I know the last one was 3/4, but apparently this is a convergent series approaching 1, where the next is 5/6 and so on ad infinitum...

Liqih - Orazione Danzante
Interesting and unusual. I have no problems with the accordion, I think it’s a nice touch. I can see that you are aiming at a fusion of traditional/acoustic and synthetic, and it does work pretty well, but I can’t help thinking that I would have liked it better with less-synthetic percussions… still, a nice song.

Miro – Dirty City
Great track. Lovely dubby bass line (and sound) and nice percussion work (esp. hi-hat). This track has a great sense of movement - it flows really well. The mood it suggests is nicely ambiguous and I like it how it doesn’t really follow a traditional dynamic structure, but builds tension very subtly. Okay, I don’t like those “springy” and “sproingy” sounds much or at least I think they should either be lower in the mix or present more seldom. Otherwise, good production and a good track.

Mr. Tunes – Dub Side of the Tune
Very authentic. Classic dub well done, differs stylistically from other entries to its advantage. I love those drum fills. I like the sawwy lead in the end, what’s the sound? Anyway, this sounds just right.

Rsmus7 – Gitanero
Very rough sound, but I find it actually rather fitting & nice. In fact I sorta like those very straightforward drums as well, they sound quite electroclash. The song is a bit too repetitive though… Oh, and it would definitely benefit of a proper ending, would make it seem less draft-y.

Tristeza Orange (or The Dumb Angels or whatever) – If I Could Find the Words
The first minute doesn’t really do nothing for me, it’s a bit too sugary. But when it gets all peculiar at 0:56, I find it much more interesting. The latter part has a rather odd atmosphere, which I find fascinating. Oh, and please try to make your song ID match the name of the file, it’s rather confusing when it doesn’t.

7zark7 – Mayfly (full of stars mix)
Uhmm… Okay, now the kick doesn’t fit in at all. Imo a fast d’n’b track cannot have a loudly thumping hollow kick like that. You would do better by having some bass filling those frequency ranges and have the kick snappier. Also, I find the sounds used here too sweet for my tastes – I prefer my dnb served either stylishly jazzy or then packed with brooding gloom.

Thomas Christensen – Odd
Captivating soundscape you’ve created here, lots of very cool sounds well mixed. Nice how different sounds slip into the mix. Still, somehow it leaves me yearning a bit different kind of development, perhaps a distinctively different section… Anyway, this track would make a great intro for a 10 min idm-epic.

Khepira – Pyramid K
I’m not sure what I think of its fractured structure; I would’ve perhaps liked something to tie the two halves together. Remarkable sounds here, for sure. The beat in the second half is pretty nice, but I’m not all convinced about that of the first half… Yeah, some of the vocal manipulation is quite interesting, but I’m not much into the gurgling at 0:24 and 0:48.

Tancos – Threnody
Interesting atmosphere well created, would fit nicely into a film as others have pointed out already. I get the mystical forest type of imagery as well. Still, it somehow feels intro-y, and as an autonomous track would perhaps require more flesh.

Armadillo – A New Arrival
Yeah, good drum programming for sure. Still, that lead is getting tiring and all the details aren’t quite enough to fill its hollowness. The first thing to do to improve the track would then imo be to get rid of that distorted synth lead and think of something more grabbing in its place. Oh, and I too like the latter half better.

[liqih]

thanks visa, I much appreciate your comment

[You™]

"Guitar Dreams" Spaceman
Choppy guitar and sycopated clicking sounds reminds me a bit of flamenco guitar. Nice rhythms evolve in the loops but the lead and the lower pitched bass (for lack of a better term) get kinda sloppy in all the delay. It would be nice to hear some more low-end too.

[You™]

"Moments Waste" The System Era (Sciche)
Uh oh... it's too long. Nice middle-eastern sounding strings and atmosphere. I think it could use some definite breaks to delineate and punch the different sections. The layers of sound build up quick but don't come and go - with all the delay it gets muddy at times.

[codacoda]

What do you have in mind with "stray pitch"? Or: what sound do you feel is off-tune? What do you mean by crashes being "splashy"? Yeah, I agree that the congas would need some variation. Thanks for the comments.

The stray tone I’m talking about occurs at 1:20 and 1:27 in the breakdown sounds like an out of tune synth cowbell(?) Just seems like a sour pitch, might not be but it hits me as wrong every time. The crashes in the last section sound very digital, low bitrate and hard on the ears which is a real shame.

I’m not trying to be harsh. Your composition is definitely one of the best, these are just the things that disturb the flow for me.

Regards, codacoda.
[/quote]

[You™]

"Dirt" SecondSkin
I'll bet you think Detroit is the birthplace of techno don't you? Well it wasn't. Nor was it Düsseldorf either. The birthplace of techno is New York City - where Raymond Scott set up Manhattan Research in the mid '40s. Scott eventually did go to Hitsville in the '70s to install one of his synths at the Motown studios for Berry Gordy.

OK Back to your song: Not to crazy about the unvarnished drum machine sounds and - is it just me - or does the bass seem like it's in a different key then the rest? It's so dark and deadly sounding maybe that's irrelevant. I like the acid seq synths and the spooky guitar a lot. The vocals are a bit anemic. I think a better mix and some more original drums might make it really spooky and haunting.

[rsmus7]

Rsmus7 – Gitanero
Very rough sound, but I find it actually rather fitting & nice. In fact I sorta like those very straightforward drums as well, they sound quite electroclash. The song is a bit too repetitive though… Oh, and it would definitely benefit of a proper ending, would make it seem less draft-y.

Thanks a lot for your review.
yes, I know, about the end. I already answered to that.
Maybe one day I will have learned enough for a really decent music peace.

[codacoda]

Not rude at all. It's Z3ta+ ran through a Buzz-native filter, an EQ, a compressor and 2 Buzz-native delays. I took these two screencaptures to illustrate a bit of the making-of, but didn't post them as my geocities page seemed to have some serious troubles. They seem to work now, though:
pic 1
pic 2
It's the z3ta+ propel in the upper-left corner of the first picture.

I just got those jpegs... makes everything perfectly clear... Great sound though.

I had a thought about those crashes, could it be the mp3 encoding? Maybe you could compare your original wav with the mp3

[mystahr]

The final bunch.... And I must say there are some amazing ones there

Emil-a-Man – Dang, how at times your voice just reminds me of the Donksters. I guess not only in tonation, but also in how you processed the vox. This is a great dirty track with mudiness in the right places and a great arrangement. The only real nit I have is that its a shame there is no real ending here, just a fade out. I like that interesting almost breakbeat kind of percussion together with those strings much to give it an oriental feel as well.

Rsmus7 – Aiks, this is recorded a tad too close to the overmodulating point or so it seems to my ears. It feels to be clipping too much, but then again theres also such sounds in the rhythm that make me wonder if I’m right here. You freaked out with the guitar bringing it close to the borders, and I like that experimenting. Still I think you went a tad overboard with the compressors. On closer inspection and listening behind all this I hear a great layered guitar piece which sounds pretty solid.

Vurt – And as always a great bunch of sounds wrapped together in a vurtish style. Where more and more rhythm is playing an important role. Strangely though I got the feeling as if the bell sequence and the plinky sound were compressed more then the other sounds. Especially the bell sequence at 0.18 and 1.26 got a tad too loud and distorted the sound a lil bit. Then also as usual your tunes come alive after the second and third listen. I dont really care if you use the same drumkit; as this one has your trademark written all over it.

Jax – A good example that the freebies are ones not to be overlooked. You have some great sounds assembled here and they swayed wonderfully through the arrangement. Especially that motion drone is cool. I’ve been using mainly freebies myself for a long time, but you really learn the vallue of great synthesis. Ugo and E-phonic most certainly rock. The tune: my kinda music. I am reading on your site a little of your background; I sure hope you will get that long desired mini-moog. I have a feeling you’ll know exactly what to do with it. Keep checking the second hand markets

JumpingJackFlash – wow! These are quite the convincing sounds, even though still they have their digital flair, you sure got quite a natural feel out of them. The arrangement is most beautiful and the build is just tops. That trumpet-play is so unexpected and yet so inviting, giving it that smokey back door jazz club feel. And then when the big leads come in together with the drums it lifts high, and regretably because of the 2 min restriction the climax is only short; it’s a matter of compromising isn’t it. Hope to hear an extended of this one day. Perfect title btw.

pHz – so enormously cool to hear tuna from you in the contest.... This is cool; great percussion programming and use of samples. Like you said, what vurt is to melody you are to rhythm most certainly. I surely wish you’d crawl out and shared more of this stuff. I very much like this. That lil bass sequence just ties it all together so greatly and the dynamics are tops. Great build and climax

Bonteburg – Whoa! Those first 10 seconds I thought my puter had gone berserk and tuned into a rather cult German Radiostation. A really weird but most fun tune you layed out here with some weird samples used, as if giving a representation of German music-culture. Killer bass that could have been upped with a better guitar, but that’s somehow just my ears I think. Now as for that little snippet................. Bring it on soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sounds like a killer dance track.

Mo Verdigast – Haunting and hypnotic vibes on top of a cool sounding thinned out lead. I wanna hear a ten minute version of this. I so regretted to hear this end so soon.

Spaceman – Guitars from space. Cool and heavy sounding machines producing some mighty in yer face groove that just dies for some Rozzer or Bonte-beats and a little cleaning up of the guitar as it feels to be too wetly FX loosing the feel of the original key, I know its fitting as it is but as I was listening I was just pretending in my head a spanish guitarist playing this live on top. Hats off to you sir.

Sciche – We are always nice here Sciche Just strange most of the time :p Welcome to KvR where I think you’ll land nicely. I love what I am hearing lately and I hear it in this one too, asian influenced music. [rant]Sorry for this lil bout, but I think it shows of love for all by combining not only genre’s but also cultures in music. And I’ve always felt music to be the stronger communication and universal language[/rant]. That said I must compliment you on this great piece of music, a treat to my ears and a track that excites me much. It’s not easy cramming in a song in only two minutes, and that is the best thing about this contest as it challenges the creative mind. I usually shout out Demi or Duddley right now, but I’ll just say; more please)

Second skin – Also Welcome to KvR. There is something deeply alluring about this one. A couple of things, the electric guitars in the second part of the single sequence the feedback of the FX tends to overmodulate there. Perhaps Camel Phat Free would be a good one to dirty up the sounds while cutting a few of the lower frequencies. I do love that FX though, wide and chorussed. Then the more resonating lead later in my ears should more be playing a counter-melody to the bassline. A bit more resonance there and it would make a perfect match here. Drums sound nice and clean, but need more variation. Vox sounds okay, but I have too little experience working with that. Hmmmmm, perhaps a remix? Hope I didn’t offend you here, just sharing what my ears are listening and they are biased a bit to my personal taste.

[pHz]

pHz – so enormously cool to hear tuna from you in the contest....

hear tuna ??? i know hollands relaxed about this stuff but WTF drugs are you on mate ?!?

This is cool; great percussion programming and use of samples. Like you said, what vurt is to melody you are to rhythm most certainly.

heehee - that MIGHT just be a compliment so ill take it as such

I surely wish you’d crawl out and shared more of this stuff.

well - slowly but surely im getting little things NEAR completion - youre not that new here anymore but historically i seem to have developed a rep for not actually producing anything (heehee)

I very much like this. That lil bass sequence just ties it all together so greatly and the dynamics are tops. Great build and climax

thanks mate !!!

slainte rob