One Synth Challenge #68: Synth1 by Ichiro Toda

[mostlyjustj]

Ah well I meant in the OSC threads and the linked Soundcloud tracks.

I'm sure there's still a lot of hot air blown in other parts if the board...

I definitely agree on both points. I think of KVR as a sort of sprawling Metropolis - and these OSC threads are like a really nice neighbourhood, haha! Again, this was my first OSC, and I've been totally energized by how much effort people put into their tracks and on the voting process giving feedback to others. I'm so glad I stumbled upon this whole thing!! Almost finished work on my entry for OSC 69 and I'm excited to hear what everybody else has been up to... Woot! Woot!

[mostlyjustj]

I'm afraid my extremely limited sound design skills are going to defeat any attempt by me to enter this month though. After an hour of messing around with Flexoid, I haven't even managed to find the volume button!

Haha, I really know what you mean - after using Synth1, Flexoid is quite a bit more challenging!! I've expressed some of my difficulties with it over in the OSC 69 threads, and have gotten help from both the developer himself and other people working at entries in the competition. EXTREMELY helpful, especially one post from the developer which gives basic suggestions for a more 'songwriter' approach or a more 'sound design' approach.

In the end, my entry this month is just going to be quite a bit more stripped down than last months, with the focus being way more on the song itself vs. the sounds, because I'm just finding it way harder to get the sounds that I want. I bet there will be quite a few others doing the same

PS. Using your DAW for volume, EQ, and basic effects are allowed - and I'm definitely doing more 'in the DAW' this time compared to 'in the Synth' like I was in OSC 68... maybe that approach would be easier for you too?

[pedalsteeldrummer]

Voted.

Agree with all the earlier comments - this was one of the hardest OSCs to score. Looking forward to Flexoid!

[Doc Jon]

Voted!
That was hard work!
Jon

[Yeager]

VOTED
Yes it was hard, but fun !

[Wyrrdbryyngr]

still think we should be doing ANONYMOUS VOTING on anonymous entries for this.

we don't listen as critically to our friends and it's harder to vote honestly when you know anyone can see what you voted. recognition and familiarity have no place here, imo and the drama after it's over is totally unnecessary. not to mention all the lazy people who don't even listen to the tracks before voting and just give some points to their friends...

why do we do it this way? emphasis should be purely on the audio.

[bibz1st]

I would just like to thank all those that have commented on my track

[mostlyjustj]

still think we should be doing ANONYMOUS VOTING on anonymous entries for this.

we don't listen as critically to our friends and it's harder to vote honestly when you know anyone can see what you voted. recognition and familiarity have no place here, imo and the drama after it's over is totally unnecessary. not to mention all the lazy people who don't even listen to the tracks before voting and just give some points to their friends...

why do we do it this way? emphasis should be purely on the audio.

I'm new to the OSC this month so I'm no authority on the subject by any stretch - but I know that since my vote is public I can't really just 'Phone it in'. There's actually a lot more incentive to actually put in the effort to listen to each track and give it a score based on merit. Otherwise I know I'll look like a douche in front of everybody.

I'm guessing that once I've been around a little longer and become more familiar with everybody and how the voting goes I might understand more about where you're coming from. But for me, for now, I think the public vote is a big part of what makes this competition so appealing, because it encourages everybody to really listen to every track and make a decision about it, and leave a comment about what you liked if you're going to give it a 2 so the person gets some encouragement - or maybe a comment about what you thought could be improved when you're giving somebody a 3 or 4.

Anyway, I have never seen so much energy and interaction happening in a music competition, so I'd personally say: don't change a thing!

In fact I'm just polishing up my entry for OSC 69 as we speak!!

[APZX]

Well I have voted.

Most of my votes lie in the 4 & 3 range, 14 in each actually. This is really because some of these entries were so good that I could not give less than that to some of them. I really wanted to be more harsh with my votes, but I really just could not given the sheer level of awesomeness that this OSC has bestowed upon my ears.

Though I had no real scoring criteria as I listened, the 4 & 3 to me represent a track that was overall fairly enjoyable to listen to. From overall mixing, overall sound design, flow, and creativity of the track. A 5 represented a track that was just brilliant in its own right. I could just sit down and listen to it again and not even question how it was made or what it was made with. Now, for some folks I sadly had to put their entries into the bottom two categories, which were songs that mainly did not interest me in the least or their sound design lacked a certain something which made me go, "Hmmm, that is kind of neat." It is not to say they were bad.

Having said that I feel I should offer some comments on the tracks I binned at the bottom.

H-Man - Tink: Some interesting drum sounds and overall pretty good sound design. However, what really killed it for me with this track was the mixing. It overall sounded too "smiley" curved to me. Not enough focus on the midrange elements and there really wasn't anything that just came out and said this track is awesome and here is WHY.

Hwangman - Fringe Kick: Kind of a chiptuney vibe to me, not a bad thing necessarily. The drum sounds were palatable, but what got me was that distorted synth. It just did not do it for me and plus I did not feel the composition had enough movement.

Bibz1st - March As A Mad Hare: Okay this is just an off the wall track in general. Good sound design, pretty darn good mixing, but it the composition was just too off the wall for me. Sorry

Jlanthier - Thanks Ichiro!: Okay, I'm going to be the first to admit that the opening for this track is straight up awesome. I mean you did a lot of things right, sound design is more utilitarian with a few really interesting bits, but the thing really for me was movement in the composition. It just stayed too close to the original feeling and never really developed much IMO.

Excessional - Bladerunners: Now, what is interesting about this was really the simplicity of the sounds themselves. Something I am a huge fan of. But the kicker was actually the mixing. There is so much room in the left & right channels to use still. Also, the low end just isn't there and I love me ample low end. But seriously those bells, A+.

Carl_Saved - God in the Desert: Again the composition just did not do it for me. Overall an interesting piece, but compared to some of the other tracks I just could not rate it higher. Good fake guitar though.

Loris DS - Midnight Affair: Now, this is a track that mainly hit on all the right cylinders. Pretty good mixing, good sound design, darn good kick, and seriously how did you get that clap? But the real big tanker for me was two fold, low end and oddly enough the sidechaining. It was a little too much. It just kind of drove the track up and down too much.

IrregularDan - To the Beta Lyrae!: I'm sorry that guitar-esque sound should not exist. Your breakdowns are actually excellent, but the parts with that guitar just don't do it for me at all.

Particle Ray - Colony Alpha: You fell into the category of me just being able to appreciate the track. I tried and tried, you've got good ideas, good mixing, decent sound design, etc . . .. But I just could not for the life of me get into the track at all.

I'm subject to taste just like anyone else. If there were fewer tracks that got me grooving or really appreciating what was going on or even just fewer tracks, I would have most certainly rated these higher without any question because seriously most of those tracks are really good. It is just that compared to the competition I could not justify a higher rating.

[Jared Juntunen]

Voted.

[Saukar30]

Voted! Good luck everybody!!

[ImNotDedYet]

This is only my second time entering, and I didn't know people just voted high points for their friends or whatever - if indeed people do that. So maybe anonymous entries would be a good idea, but somehow I doubt that the majority are voting "unfairly" for their friends.

As for my votes...lots of 3's and 4's with actually a good number of 5's and just a couple 2's. I think I was the only one I gave a 1 to. My criteria is: overall mix, sound design and complexity of sounds used, (I docked for too few sounds) and arrangement. If you scored high in my book in multiple of those areas, you scored well with me. If you were severely lacking in one or two of those areas, you didn't score as well/so well. I'm not a big fan of people saying, "that's not really my style of music, so...it gets a lower score." There are a number of songs that aren't really "my style of music," but I can still objectively rate a song based on sound design, mixing and arrangement, and appreciate it for what it is. So, I tried to do that when voting.

Anyways, best of luck to everyone. I had a blast, as always, learned a ton and really enjoyed listening to everyone's songs and creativity. And truthfully, I don't enter these to win, moreso to learn more about synthesis, learn my DAW and it's plugs, and practice mixing. If I get some recognition from fellow musicians, that's a bonus. There's some hella musicians and producers around here. Hopefully I'll see you next time a 64-bit Windows synth comes around...

[bzur]

Voted!

[z.prime]

still think we should be doing ANONYMOUS VOTING on anonymous entries for this.

I'm not really sure if people really vote high for their "friends". I don't think I've seen it, at least not much. Certainly not enough to sway the results significantly. Voting on personal preference? Absolutely. That is rampant. And perfectly allowed. So, you *will* find people making tracks they think will cater to the desires of the OSC crowd... and that is also allowed. So if people don't necessarily like the same thing you like, you can always go more mainstream OSC.

I think you'll find the majority of contestants would much rather have their tracks on SoundCloud, though, in order to get feedback and let people other than just the OSC listen to it. Sure you could wait until after the contest is over... but I don't think many people want to do that. Sure you could give a voting list anonymously from the SoundCloud group or some other source... but people could figure some of it out based on what they see on SoundCloud... the other aspect is actually just the amount of effort involved for this. Someone would have to implement a system to manage the uploads or do it manually every month and make a system to do the voting... and to do the commenting/feedback. Or that aspect would go away. And that's the best part of the OSC for a lot of us, I'm sure.

I'm sorry to say, though, that I think if you're overly concerned with the voting, you're participating for the wrong reasons.

But, I definitely agree that music competitions like this (and others, moreso, e.g. Indaba) would be a panacea if there was a way to retain all the social feedback of plays/comments/etc. while remaining anonymous. None of the systems are set up that way, though... and you'd theoretically be able to track down posts from people you know, unless they were somehow otherwise private... hmm, maybe I'll write an app for that.

[SKYZONE]

V O T E D Amazing work