One Synth Challenge #77: Charlatan (Taron wins!)

[Taron]

Maybe I'm just too old, but I don't even see those prizes whatsoever. I can recommend this perspective to absolutely every single one here and make this attitude transcend OSC and make it into their lives! Focus on what you want to master, how you can get yourself to function in the best possible way and not at all with the eye on the price or any silly reward. Use every chance you get to keep growing and exploring, maybe just perfecting, but use it, especially when it is "free"!
If you think you need to gain respect, you will do many mistakes that will only give you one set-back after the other. Free yourself, celebrate your true powers and enjoy exercising them!
It really, really takes time to recognize when you lie to yourself or when you begin to actually recognize the truth of yourself. At this moment you can start to pick apart what's cool and what's stupid. It's always fair to laugh about stupid, it really is, by the way!
Then realize the awesomeness of that which is cool and go make it your path, let it show you the way!
OSC is playground for coolness to grow.

[wagtunes]

Maybe I'm just too old, but I don't even see those prizes whatsoever. I can recommend this perspective to absolutely every single one here and make this attitude transcend OSC and make it into their lives! Focus on what you want to master, how you can get yourself to function in the best possible way and not at all with the eye on the price or any silly reward. Use every chance you get to keep growing and exploring, maybe just perfecting, but use it, especially when it is "free"!
If you think you need to gain respect, you will do many mistakes that will only give you one set-back after the other. Free yourself, celebrate your true powers and enjoy exercising them!
It really, really takes time to recognize when you lie to yourself or when you begin to actually recognize the truth of yourself. At this moment you can start to pick apart what's cool and what's stupid. It's always fair to laugh about stupid, it really is, by the way!
Then realize the awesomeness of that which is cool and go make it your path, let it show you the way!
OSC is playground for coolness to grow.

I agree. And that's what I've done every month. But you can't change human nature. And there are two things at work here that are going to keep people from going outside their comfort zone. Prizes are one thing but there's something else.

Pride.

Nobody wants to take a chance on doing something that they're not comfortable doing if it's going to possibly end up giving them low scores. Low scores do not make people feel good. I don't care who you are. Everybody has a sense of pride. So if you know that you can do a certain style of music reasonably well, you're going to do that style of music, even without the prizes if for no other reason than you don't want to feel bad because nobody liked your music.

I honestly don't really care about the prizes. I own just about every soft synth in existence. There is very little I need or want. None of the current prizes interest me. But I do care about what people think of my work. And to be constantly near the bottom each month is not a good feeling. I'm human. I have some pride.

And still, with all that, I experiment month after month with new things. OSC 78 is going to be yet another style of music that's outside my comfort zone.

By the way, my comfort zone, for anybody interested, is EWQL Orchestral libraries and writing symphonies.

Talk about being a million miles from home.

But I take this as a challenge. And for me it is a true challenge. Still, it would be nice to finish even in the middle of the pack one month.

Point is, human nature being what it is, most people are going to go with what they know. You're not going to get a lot of experimentation.

To expect anything different is being overly optimistic to the extreme.

And that's putting it mildly.

[TheBellows]

Just the rules by itself should be out of most people's comfort zone, you would never limit yourself to rules like this on other projects. If on top of that you had to also make music you don't even like, then why would you even consider joining the contest? It wouldn't have been fun anymore. And how much time are you really gong to invest in a contest like this? Maybe some of you with little else to do spend a month, but i'm pretty shure most guys here don't have time for that and has done their tracks in a few hours/couple of days.
Rantings about people not experimenting enough and not going out of their comfort zone seems to me like a desperate attempt to black paint other contestants work just because you're insecure about your own stuff.

People are trying their best and the ones that win are the ones that was liked the most. Suck it up and stop whining.

[ecset]

guys! please give me some help.

I know, it is maybe lame, but where can I vote? this is my first time here... I would love a link here. Thanx.

and I don't wanna complain, but there is some tracks made with bitcrusher. I had to get rid of bitcrusher in my track and my Focusrite (very basic) compressor here. that was three different versions, and three mixing of my track because of that. I think it would be fair not to use bitcrusher by anyone if it is not allowed.

[TheBellows]

guys! please give me some help.

I know, it is maybe lame, but where can I vote? this is my first time here... I would love a link here. Thanx.

and I don't wanna complain, but there is some tracks made with bitcrusher. I had to get rid of bitcrusher in my track and my Focusrite (very basic) compressor here. that was three different versions, and three mixing of my track because of that. I think it would be fair not to use bitcrusher by anyone if it is not allowed.

You have to register here: https://www.onesynthchallenge.org/

Honestly i think it would be more fair to make the rules so that no fx are allowed whatsoever, not even a gainer. That would be a real synthesis challenge.
When i first came here i got the impression that fx were no no, but judging by the entries i see that is not the case. So the way i see it now i feel a bit like cheating when adding a huge reverb or whatever, but everyone does it, so it wouldn't be fair if i couldn't do it too. One effect might not alter the sound that much, but when you have 20 effects that don't alter much, then the sum will be a different story.

[ecset]

voted!

[Taron]

Honestly i think it would be more fair to make the rules so that no fx are allowed whatsoever, not even a gainer. That would be a real synthesis challenge.
When i first came here i got the impression that fx were no no, but judging by the entries i see that is not the case. So the way i see it now i feel a bit like cheating when adding a huge reverb or whatever, but everyone does it, so it wouldn't be fair if i couldn't do it too. One effect might not alter the sound that much, but when you have 20 effects that don't alter much, then the sum will be a different story.

Naturally, that is exactly, precisely the same thing I thought, too, when I first joined for OSC#75. I realized that EQ was ok, but the whole "As long as it doesn't alter the nature of the synth's sound too much" kept me from deviating too much from it and I kept the sounds as "untouched" as possible right up until I heard the first submissions. Those featured heavy saturation, massive EQing and mastering which blew my mind.

However, at that point I also realized the personal growing potential to learn more about this sort of mastering power. No regrets on that front!

At the end, I don't care so much about what people do to get the sound they want, regardless of how far the rules can be stretched to get there. I mostly care about the excitement of experiencing the musical visions of people. If the submissions end up being a more or less agenda driven insincerity to simply nourish some pride with nearly nothing in return, it's a little sad.

As for wag and the sadness to receive too few points, I totally understand. It's utterly discouraging to find oneself in the bottom of a pack just once, let alone frequently. Consoling may only be a few things such as:
- Any list has a top and a bottom, but it's hard to tell how low the bottom really is. Somebody always enjoys it unless your score is equal to the amount of people who have voted, I guess, haha...argh....but even then.
- The more steps are left to the top of the ladder, the higher you get to climb. In all stories about success, the most exciting part is how the protagonist starts to get there. Once they're there, it often gets kind of boring.

The most important thing is to become aware of what you're really after, beyond the present situation. "Know thyself...!" Also, consider what you would get, if everybody was acting with your agenda and then imagine, if you could like what you'd witness. If it's good and you like it: Ride on! If you'd rather dislike it: Reconsider your own motivation!

Ok, I'm getting on my own nerves now...time to move on!

[Astralp]

Just the rules by itself should be out of most people's comfort zone, you would never limit yourself to rules like this on other projects. If on top of that you had to also make music you don't even like, then why would you even consider joining the contest? It wouldn't have been fun anymore. And how much time are you really gong to invest in a contest like this? Maybe some of you with little else to do spend a month, but I'm pretty shure most guys here don't have time for that and has done their tracks in a few hours/couple of days.
Rantings about people not experimenting enough and not going out of their comfort zone seems to me like a desperate attempt to black paint other contestants work just because you're insecure about your own stuff.

People are trying their best and the ones that win are the ones that was liked the most. Suck it up and stop whining.

I agree that OSC is already out of the comfort zone, I'd love to be putting some guitar or violin scrapes and found sound on these tracks not to mention using my preferred pay plugins. I don't really aim for a style, just see what happens. Even though a lot of the music people create is not to my taste, I find it fascinating what people do with the restrictions and try to vote with that in mind. The time thing is very relevant too, but to be honest I wouldn't want to spend too much time on it either. There are always a few entries that have spent the time time and show a lot of skill that stand above the rest whether it's with composition/sound design of mixing, and clearly deserve to win IMO.

It's maybe an idea to just announce the top 4/5 or maybe 10, so that nobody below that knows where they ranked and then nobody has to be at the bottom, which I agree isn't a nice place to be for anyone.

[Astralp]

The most important thing is to become aware of what you're really after, beyond the present situation. "Know thyself...!" Also, consider what you would get, if everybody was acting with your agenda and then imagine, if you could like what you'd witness. If it's good and you like it: Ride on! If you'd rather dislike it: Reconsider your own motivation!

The thing is that everyone in OSC is a different skill level, age, has a different amount of time and different reasons for taking part. You're assuming everyone is seeing it the same way as you. You obviously care a lot and it shows, you're track is great (and in my 5 box), but I think more people are more in it for the fun I like your passion.

[TheBellows]

I think it's useful to know how bad i did it though. If you landed a 11th place or 47th place it tells me a little bit about what i'm doing right and what i'm doing wrong which develops me as a musician.

[TheBellows]

And please stop quoting things in my name tat i haven't said!! That is a very rude thing to do!

[Taron]

LOL, I was just wondering the same!
Anyway, thanks, Astralp, that's super sweet!

Yeah, there are a number of totally legit motivations that could be misconstrued as pride. I can see it as interesting to try and hit the sweet spot in "mass appeal", exploring the mainstream, so to say. It's a challenge in itself. It can also be interesting to just experiment with mainstream styles for the sake of the style, for example. For example, I really, really would want to try dub step at some point, or general d&b. It's something I have never really explored. A really nice dream trance could be fun for me, too. Often I don't have the patience to create long, winding ramp ups, though, or don't feel the whole "dance 'till you drop" concept (anymore).

The only thing I- hands down- dislike, is the whole ear-assault stuff at the expense of the musical experience. It just sends the wrong message for the whole "me, too" crowd. Because everybody could to better than that in my opinion.

[Astralp]

And please stop quoting things in my name tat i haven't said!! That is a very rude thing to do!

me? I didn't realise I had, certainly not intentional

[Astralp]

sorry, corrected, not sure how that happened.. (well ok I have had a few beers..)

[Oberheim 8000]

This is my first voting, must I vote my track? Or how it is going? I read rules but not mentioned about voting own track.