One Synth Challenge #93: OBXD by DiscoDSP & 2DaT (mmGhost Wins!)

[Mechanought]

Yep, congrats to mmGhost!!!! Although you weren't my #1, you were very close, so nice job and a deserved win, for sure.

And not to take anything away from your win, but almost equally as important, this shows that coming with a bomb track wins, regardless of the 'regulars' and even regardless of the genre. So people complaining about it, just stop and do better. Learn sound design. Learn composition. Learn mixing and mastering. And stop frikkin' complaining about 'woe is me, people who win always win omg something should be done about it to prevent them from winning'. But for you, I'm going to stop participating soon, so don't worry.

Just remember that. OSC is about doing amazing stuff with the synth, anyone can do it in many ways. I had buttloads (read: lots, for you non english speakers) of tracks I scored with 5 points this time around from people who did just that. I'm really surprised my completely experimental track scored so well. I just hope you got the vision in my head about the story there, I could have been last, as long as the story got through, I would have been happy.

An aside: when it comes to my turn, no prize is desired.

Cheers!

I certainly hope this wasn't a reaction to my comment! I was in no way complaining, or at least that was not my intention. I absolutely recognize the faults of my track, and absolutely feel like the winners deserve it. I would be shocked if my track had been top 5, because there are many tracks more deserving. I'm actually rather surprised I broke top 10, I'm seriously stoked about that.

Furthurmore I certainly hope you don't stop competing, unless of course you're just not having fun with it. I friggin' love your tracks, and love the way you make music in general. You're a very polished musician with lots of originality and skill. I very much hold you up as one of the artists I use as a baseline for how well a track is made. Even if you quit the comp, certainly keep making music!

[z.prime]

... I certainly hope this wasn't a reaction to my comment! I was in no way complaining

Not at all, nothing to do with you, there's just be an ongoing sentiment by multiple people that the regulars win because they're too good or people like them or whatever (and I don't really think that's true exactly, personally I have lots of stuff that is just not at all good). I am just super happy someone won who wasn't a longstanding regular. It just goes to show there *is* some fairness in this competition, no matter what some people say to the contrary. And also that not-exactly-mainstream genres can win. I just hope this month quells those conversations and serves as a reference that those arguments are just completely invalid, that the OSC is as wonderful as I've always thought it was, regardless of the stupidness in discussions that go on sometimes.

[SoundGoddess]

And not to take anything away from your win, but almost equally as important, this shows that coming with a bomb track wins, regardless of the 'regulars' and even regardless of the genre. So people complaining about it, just stop and do better. Learn sound design. Learn composition. Learn mixing and mastering. And stop frikkin' complaining about 'woe is me, people who win always win omg something should be done about it to prevent them from winning'. But for you, I'm going to stop participating soon, so don't worry.

IDK if you were directing this at me or not but I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that my skills have greatly improved over the past year, yet my song this month scored worse than my song a year ago, even though it was an objectively better song. So yeah, I don't trust this popularity contest to be an accurate representation of skill. I have spent tons of time in the past year with syntorial, reading magazines/articles, milking my ask.audio and lynda subscriptions and writing tons of music.

I have leveled up quite a bit on my music skills and my work is objectively better as a result.

Apparently a lot of the participants here just don't like my taste in music or dislike me for whatever reason so that is affecting the scoring. Overall, I think that the contest needs an overhaul to be more fair, like making the tracks anonymous and having a judging panel that isn't your direct competitor. Because IME this contest is far more political than you are willing to admit.

The funny thing about privilege is that the people who have it tend to not be consciously aware that they are getting ahead in life because of it and they have this tendency to gloss over legitimate issues that aren't directly affecting them or in some way giving them an advantage. Then they tend to spit out unhelpful platitudes rather than admitting that people are being treated unfairly and working to make things more accessible for everyone.

[wagtunes]

And not to take anything away from your win, but almost equally as important, this shows that coming with a bomb track wins, regardless of the 'regulars' and even regardless of the genre. So people complaining about it, just stop and do better. Learn sound design. Learn composition. Learn mixing and mastering. And stop frikkin' complaining about 'woe is me, people who win always win omg something should be done about it to prevent them from winning'. But for you, I'm going to stop participating soon, so don't worry.

IDK if you were directing this at me or not but I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that my skills have greatly improved over the past year, yet my song this month scored worse than my song a year ago, even though it was an objectively better song. So yeah, I don't trust this popularity contest to be an accurate representation of skill. I have spent tons of time in the past year with syntorial, reading magazines/articles, milking my ask.audio and lynda subscriptions and writing tons of music.

I have leveled up quite a bit on my music skills and my work is objectively better as a result.

Apparently a lot of the participants here just don't like my taste in music or dislike me for whatever reason so that is affecting the scoring. Overall, I think that the contest needs an overhaul to be more fair, like making the tracks anonymous and having a judging panel that isn't your direct competitor. Because IME this contest is far more political than you are willing to admit.

The funny thing about privilege is that the people who have it tend to not be consciously aware that they are getting ahead in life because of it and they have this tendency to gloss over legitimate issues that aren't directly affecting them or in some way giving them an advantage. Then they tend to spit out unhelpful platitudes rather than admitting that people are being treated unfairly and working to make things more accessible for everyone.

I'm going to give it to you straight, as one of the ones who never does well at these things. Your skills have improved. No question. But your track was still a 3. It was not a 4 or 5. It was a 3. You still have a ways to go to make it to the 4s and 5s territory as I do. I feel my track was also only a 3 and I busted my ass on it. Surprisingly, I scored decently with 150 points. Still, it wasn't my best showing in spite it being my best entry. That's okay. I just have to work harder.

I've learned a lot this past month. I'm too tired and it's too late for me to get into it now. Suffice it to say, none of us are as good as we think we are. Egos get in the way all the time. The hardest thing in the world is to be objective about your own work.

I'm finally studying mixing formally, for the first time in almost 40 years of doing this. Maybe someday I'll actually be decent at this.

Maybe you will too.

Peace.

[Mechanought]

And not to take anything away from your win, but almost equally as important, this shows that coming with a bomb track wins, regardless of the 'regulars' and even regardless of the genre. So people complaining about it, just stop and do better. Learn sound design. Learn composition. Learn mixing and mastering. And stop frikkin' complaining about 'woe is me, people who win always win omg something should be done about it to prevent them from winning'. But for you, I'm going to stop participating soon, so don't worry.

IDK if you were directing this at me or not but I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that my skills have greatly improved over the past year, yet my song this month scored worse than my song a year ago, even though it was an objectively better song. So yeah, I don't trust this popularity contest to be an accurate representation of skill. I have spent tons of time in the past year with syntorial, reading magazines/articles, milking my ask.audio and lynda subscriptions and writing tons of music.

I have leveled up quite a bit on my music skills and my work is objectively better as a result.

Apparently a lot of the participants here just don't like my taste in music or dislike me for whatever reason so that is affecting the scoring. Overall, I think that the contest needs an overhaul to be more fair, like making the tracks anonymous and having a judging panel that isn't your direct competitor. Because IME this contest is far more political than you are willing to admit.

The funny thing about privilege is that the people who have it tend to not be consciously aware that they are getting ahead in life because of it and they have this tendency to gloss over legitimate issues that aren't directly affecting them or in some way giving them an advantage. Then they tend to spit out unhelpful platitudes rather than admitting that people are being treated unfairly and working to make things more accessible for everyone.

I really have to disagree with the opinion that there's enough bias in this competition to keep undeserving tracks from doing well. Jasinski, z.Prime, and others consistently do well, and win, because they consistently make REALLY good tracks. Some of their stuff isn't in a genre that I particularly like, but it's always so well done that to score them low would be unjust. They don't have "privilege" and they certainly aren't getting ahead because of any other reason than their skill and dedication. Another factor is that some months are just really good in that lots of people make really quality tracks. This month was certainly one of those months. I lurked about this contest, watching and not competeing for quite some time before I finally jumped in a couple months back, and not once have I really seen an instance of gross bias on scale large enough to influence the winner or loser. I've seen a track i genuinely thought was top 3, only make top 5, and that's about the worst I've seen.

I do agree that judging and scoring could be made in a way to reduce bias and diversify results, but this is quite a small competition, and any overhaul to the judging system would have to be done on a volunteer basis. That means coding, UI design, and testing. The rules would also have to change, and bjproter would have a LOT more work on his hands every month. The system as it is works well enough, even though it has flaws.

About your track specifically though, there are some objective reasons that your track probably didn't do well. Your sound design left a lot to be desired. It pretty much sounded like all of your sounds were done with a single instance, which for some things works fine, but for drums and evolving sounds, you really need to stack instances and do some sound design. It's tedious, but it pays off big-time. My own track is evidence enough of this. The best I got previously was like 22nd place? This month I concentrated specifically on sound design and I'll finish in 8th place. I had 41 instances in my song, and others used many more. The genre you use is fine, and the song is nice enough, but I really think it's quite obvious that it wouldn't score well. There's not much to it melodically, it doesn't really evolve as the song proceeds, and ultimately isn't satisfying. I hate to take apart music, and would prefer to let a song stand on its own, but for a contest we HAVE to dissect the songs of other AND our own songs as well. Every time I listened to a track I was impressed with, I immediately listened to my own to see how it holds up. To see what aspects I liked about the other that my own may be missing.

Ultimately it's a competition. A friendly one, but a competition none-the-less.

[SoundGoddess]

I'm going to give it to you straight, as one of the ones who never does well at these things. Your skills have improved. No question. But your track was still a 3. It was not a 4 or 5. It was a 3. You still have a ways to go to make it to the 4s and 5s territory as I do. I feel my track was also only a 3 and I busted my ass on it. Surprisingly, I scored decently with 150 points. Still, it wasn't my best showing in spite it being my best entry. That's okay. I just have to work harder.

I've learned a lot this past month. I'm too tired and it's too late for me to get into it now. Suffice it to say, none of us are as good as we think we are. Egos get in the way all the time. The hardest thing in the world is to be objective about your own work.

I'm finally studying mixing formally, for the first time in almost 40 years of doing this. Maybe someday I'll actually be decent at this.

Maybe you will too.

Peace.

I can live with 3's but the the people who gave me 1s were undoubtedly playing politics and not actually judging my song on its own merits, if they even bothered to listen to it at all.

Ultimately it's a competition. A friendly one, but a competition none-the-less.

It's inherently unfair when the people judging the results are directly competing with you and the scoring methodology is completely arbitrary and subjective.

[z.prime]

And not to take anything away from your win, but almost equally as important, this shows that coming with a bomb track wins, regardless of the 'regulars' and even regardless of the genre. So people complaining about it, just stop and do better. Learn sound design. Learn composition. Learn mixing and mastering. And stop frikkin' complaining about 'woe is me, people who win always win omg something should be done about it to prevent them from winning'. But for you, I'm going to stop participating soon, so don't worry.

IDK if you were directing this at me or not but I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that my skills have greatly improved over the past year, yet my song this month scored worse than my song a year ago, even though it was an objectively better song. So yeah, I don't trust this popularity contest to be an accurate representation of skill. I have spent tons of time in the past year with syntorial, reading magazines/articles, milking my ask.audio and lynda subscriptions and writing tons of music.

I have leveled up quite a bit on my music skills and my work is objectively better as a result.

Apparently a lot of the participants here just don't like my taste in music or dislike me for whatever reason so that is affecting the scoring. Overall, I think that the contest needs an overhaul to be more fair, like making the tracks anonymous and having a judging panel that isn't your direct competitor. Because IME this contest is far more political than you are willing to admit.

The funny thing about privilege is that the people who have it tend to not be consciously aware that they are getting ahead in life because of it and they have this tendency to gloss over legitimate issues that aren't directly affecting them or in some way giving them an advantage. Then they tend to spit out unhelpful platitudes rather than admitting that people are being treated unfairly and working to make things more accessible for everyone.

So, I'm going to be a little harsh here, which I normally am not. But no, none of my prior comments were directed at you in the first place, to put that at rest.

You definitely leveled up you skills from the last time I recall you participating. But what does that even mean? EXACTLY how do you think you "leveled up"? Mixing? Mastering? Composition? Sound design? Do you think your track should have won? If so why? Do you think it should have done better? If so, again, why? A short time getting better at a few things doesn't put you at the level of people who have been producing music for 4 or 5 years now (or more). Does it? Do you think it does? If so, why? If not, then why not?

This competition isn't about doing anything at all, really. It's not about getting famous. It's not about making a song people will love and play forever, because, let's be honest, it's with one damn synth. No vocals. Nothing else. And normally free FX. Can you get close? Sure as hell. But no cigar.

I'll spill the beans here, I gave you a 2 because your track was incredibly boring to me. There were no special sounds and it kept with the same few bits most of the way through. There was nothing musically special about it. And there was nothing special from the mix/master perspective. I'm sorry to tell you this, but it should be apparent by your placing in this contest. Do you want to get better? I've offered critiques every month, without fail (except this month because I'm crazy busy). How many times have you taken me up on those?

So there's my harsh reality. There are always people better than you (and me, and everyone) at doing things. If you want to surpass them, you should use the avenues you have available. Mine is going away, because I have too much other stuff to do in the future. I only wish there was someone like me that I had access too and could have learned from, so keep an eye out for other people that might be as willing to take their own time to give you feedback in the future and don't be disheartened when someone tells you things you don't want to hear, just learn from it.

I've never had anyone give me a bit of advice, my entire life, so don't even try to play the card that you're alone, abandoned, or ignored. Get past it.

Now, having said that terrible rant (for which I'm sorry, but you needed to hear based on your continual profession how you've "leveled up" and seem to think rewards you somehow), you *do* have a path forward for music or anything else you want to do in life. It's kinda easy. For music, find people with even remotely like minds and get the most critical feedback you can from them. For other things, similarly, just get the most critical, worst feedback you can. And then take that and realize people are always offering you advice, even in the form of condescending criticism. Analyze those things, move forward, and stop dwelling on your own opinions...

And if you can't understand this advice, then you probably should give up.

[liqih]

Dear z.prime and Dear SoundGoddess,

how much I love this taking after the voting, with the max respect, absolutely,

z.prime, not only as joke I once called you z.sir, <grin>

I complained once, and I wrote that I didn't feel at home here,
I apologize now for that, because I see that it could have been seen
as I was talking about people. Far from me!
I learned in many years that music has little to do with the people making it,
at least that's my theory now. I like the people here, I share the love for music and learning.
My complaint was ONLY about the favourite genres of electronic music at OSC.
I like many genres but I don't always like "bombs".
So z.sir I agree with you when you say "this shows that coming with a bomb track wins regardless of the 'regulars'"
But not about "...and even regardless of the genre".

You z.prime also wrote
"I am just super happy someone won who wasn't a longstanding regular. It just goes to show there *is* some fairness in this competition, no matter what some people say to the contrary. "

That's a logic fallacy, statistically one single winner doesn't show anything, it could be an exception.
And anyway it may show that a "bomb" track wins, because most of the winning tracks I saw
in the past months from you or Jasinski were indeed bombs.
But as far as words have a weight, if you need a "bomb" or "wow" track to win, that's means
to be that beside the "Learn sound design. Learn composition. Learn mixing and mastering."
there must be some aggressiveness in the style of track that win. (Taron and another one being again an exception)
So I gave a full 5 to your entry this month z.prime, I love it. I gave a full five to "more = less" too,
my favourites among other five tracks. But I got 3 from you and 2 from Pylon,
is it because my entry was weak in sound design, composition, mixing and mastering, and all that?
You may reply my by PM if you wish. I'd be very happy to keep talking without cluttering this thread with my words.

Apparently a lot of the participants here just don't like my taste in music or dislike me for whatever reason so that is affecting the scoring. Overall, I think that the contest needs an overhaul to be more fair, like making the tracks anonymous and having a judging panel that isn't your direct competitor. Because IME this contest is far more political than you are willing to admit.

"don't like my taste in music", very possibly, "or dislike me" no I don't think that happens.
(Even though I always felt a subconscious rule that synth developers are not so much welcome
to participate the OSC, but I hope that's fallacy of mine as it's yours)
But I agree that there's a political side of this OSC, even though it seems unavoidable to me.

About your entry SoundGoddess, it's the first thing I hear from you, and my impressions should not weight on you,
anyway if you care I'd say that I enjoined some raw synth sounds, that gave me a remembrance of post-punk.
The weak points in your track are maybe the evolution of the composition and the drums, sound and programming.

Same for you, if you wish keep on taking by PM please do. I'd be very happy to keep talking without cluttering this thread with my words.


Posted in reference to:

Yep, congrats to mmGhost!!!! Although you weren't my #1, you were very close, so nice job and a deserved win, for sure.

And not to take anything away from your win, but almost equally as important, this shows that coming with a bomb track wins, regardless of the 'regulars' and even regardless of the genre. So people complaining about it, just stop and do better. Learn sound design. Learn composition. Learn mixing and mastering. And stop frikkin' complaining about 'woe is me, people who win always win omg something should be done about it to prevent them from winning'. But for you, I'm going to stop participating soon, so don't worry.

Just remember that. OSC is about doing amazing stuff with the synth, anyone can do it in many ways. I had buttloads (read: lots, for you non english speakers) of tracks I scored with 5 points this time around from people who did just that. I'm really surprised my completely experimental track scored so well. I just hope you got the vision in my head about the story there, I could have been last, as long as the story got through, I would have been happy.

An aside: when it comes to my turn, no prize is desired.

Cheers!

... I certainly hope this wasn't a reaction to my comment! I was in no way complaining

Not at all, nothing to do with you, there's just be an ongoing sentiment by multiple people that the regulars win because they're too good or people like them or whatever (and I don't really think that's true exactly, personally I have lots of stuff that is just not at all good). I am just super happy someone won who wasn't a longstanding regular. It just goes to show there *is* some fairness in this competition, no matter what some people say to the contrary. And also that not-exactly-mainstream genres can win. I just hope this month quells those conversations and serves as a reference that those arguments are just completely invalid, that the OSC is as wonderful as I've always thought it was, regardless of the stupidness in discussions that go on sometimes.

And not to take anything away from your win, but almost equally as important, this shows that coming with a bomb track wins, regardless of the 'regulars' and even regardless of the genre. So people complaining about it, just stop and do better. Learn sound design. Learn composition. Learn mixing and mastering. And stop frikkin' complaining about 'woe is me, people who win always win omg something should be done about it to prevent them from winning'. But for you, I'm going to stop participating soon, so don't worry.

IDK if you were directing this at me or not but I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that my skills have greatly improved over the past year, yet my song this month scored worse than my song a year ago, even though it was an objectively better song. So yeah, I don't trust this popularity contest to be an accurate representation of skill. I have spent tons of time in the past year with syntorial, reading magazines/articles, milking my ask.audio and lynda subscriptions and writing tons of music.

I have leveled up quite a bit on my music skills and my work is objectively better as a result.

Apparently a lot of the participants here just don't like my taste in music or dislike me for whatever reason so that is affecting the scoring. Overall, I think that the contest needs an overhaul to be more fair, like making the tracks anonymous and having a judging panel that isn't your direct competitor. Because IME this contest is far more political than you are willing to admit.

The funny thing about privilege is that the people who have it tend to not be consciously aware that they are getting ahead in life because of it and they have this tendency to gloss over legitimate issues that aren't directly affecting them or in some way giving them an advantage. Then they tend to spit out unhelpful platitudes rather than admitting that people are being treated unfairly and working to make things more accessible for everyone.

[z.prime]

z.prime also wrote
"I am just super happy someone won who wasn't a longstanding regular. It just goes to show there *is* some fairness in this competition, no matter what some people say to the contrary. "

That's a logic fallacy, statistically one single winner doesn't show anything, it could be an exception.

Wrong, it is an example. Read the words. Someone who is relatively unknown CAN win. That is all I said. It's not a matter of statistics, it's a matter of fact now.

You've mentioned Taron, who I have the utmost respect for. He actually won by taking a terribly mixed track, and spending a good deal of time mixing it in a way that made sense. Again, exactly what I have said to everyone, every month. There were plenty of other good aspects to his win(s? was it more than 1?) but certainly he manages to sound design well, mix well, and obviously compose well.

When I say a "bomb" track, I just mean "very good". Not EDM, not anything else, not talking about a huge massive drop (although that is sorta what I do much of the time, so I do also appreciate and like it). I voted an assortment of tracks 5 this month, including Carl_Saved, who's sound design was less than stellar, but the composition was absolutely amazing. Maybe other people don't have the same criteria as I do, but that's life. How the absolute F did Donald Trump get elected?

Anyway, this month was literally the best set of songs I've heard in OSC to date. You ALL should be proud.

[Frostline]

I have spent tons of time in the past year with syntorial, reading magazines/articles, milking my ask.audio and lynda subscriptions and writing tons of music.

So what?

Do you think no one else has?
I spend 100+ hours a month on each of my tracks. I spend countless hours each month reading and watching instructional videos.
I felt well rewarded with my placement this month overall.

Apparently a lot of the participants here just don't like my taste in music or dislike me for whatever reason so that is affecting the scoring.

I don't know you at all.
I felt your track was a generous 3.
I felt my track was a generous 3 too.

Every month I make my track and think it is just awesome sauce because it sounds so improved from my previous track.

Then I listen to the other tracks submitted for the month.

Then I become hopeful I manage a 3.

Overall, I think that the contest needs an overhaul to be more fair, like making the tracks anonymous and having a judging panel that isn't your direct competitor.

I judge tracks by the sounds they make.
Who are you to accuse me of judging based on anything other than that?
The artist name just makes it easier for me to remember the track when I want to move it for scoring.
Where is this judging panel supposed to come from?
Did you notice the judges this month that did not enter a track scored the harshest on average?
Do you think that would improve your score if we had more of that?

The funny thing about privilege is that the people who have it tend to not be consciously aware that they are getting ahead in life because of it and they have this tendency to gloss over legitimate issues that aren't directly affecting them or in some way giving them an advantage. Then they tend to spit out unhelpful platitudes rather than admitting that people are being treated unfairly and working to make things more accessible for everyone.

That last bit is pure ironic gold right there.

We, as in those of us who regularly place in the bottom half of the contest are some of the most privileged people on the planet.
Here we are, where it does not matter your race, your gender, your income level, education level, your political leanings, what country your are in or anything else.

The only thing that matters is your ability to get the best sounds out of a single free synth.

And we at the bottom have access to the feedback of people who are clearly many levels above us in ability.
And every single time I have reached out to a few of the "regular" winners they have been quite helpful and friendly.
So we get access to some of the most skilled people (just listen to their tracks) and can get their critique and advice for free.
Do you realize how much you would have to spend to get access to that level of knowledge in a formal educational setting?
Do you think you are owed something more that that just because you showed up?

[liqih]

z.prime also wrote
"I am just super happy someone won who wasn't a longstanding regular. It just goes to show there *is* some fairness in this competition, no matter what some people say to the contrary. "

That's a logic fallacy, statistically one single winner doesn't show anything, it could be an exception.

Wrong, it is an example. Read the words. Someone who is relatively unknown CAN win. That is all I said. It's not a matter of statistics, it's a matter of fact now.

Nope, you wrote "It just goes to show", a single event doesn't *show* a trend, simply that.
And morover it's not about who won, but which track won.
Anyway that's philosphy I reckon.

You've mentioned Taron, who I have the utmost respect for. He actually won by taking a terribly mixed track, and spending a good deal of time mixing it in a way that made sense. Again, exactly what I have said to everyone, every month. There were plenty of other good aspects to his win(s? was it more than 1?) but certainly he manages to sound design well, mix well, and obviously compose well.

My friend Taron conviced me to partecipate to the OSC. <wink>

When I say a "bomb" track, I just mean "very good". Not EDM, not anything else, not talking about a huge massive drop (although that is sorta what I do much of the time, so I do also appreciate and like it). I voted an assortment of tracks 5 this month, including Carl_Saved, who's sound design was less than stellar, but the composition was absolutely amazing. Maybe other people don't have the same criteria as I do, but that's life. How the absolute F did Donald Trump get elected?

Why you don't accept that "criteriea" is mostly subjective taste, I don't understand.

Anyway, this month was literally the best set of songs I've heard in OSC to date. You ALL should be proud.

Yes, why not?! I was not taking about that. And you avoided my other questions or are you going to PM me? I'd be happy.

Again with max respect.

[Mechanought]

Uhhh mah ghad the drama.

If you didn't win, reflect and congratulate the winners. No need to go accusing the competition of being rigged, which is completely fallacious. Judging will always ALWASY be subjective. I do my best to stay as objective as possible and use tangible criteria to judge tracks by. I know many others do the same. I also know some other that simply vote for songs they like. I don't know of anyone whose voting criteria is based on who wrote the song. We're musicians. We write music because we (presumably) like (or love) to do so. Most musicians don't care who you are, because most musicians are nobodies.

I know that music gives me a lot more fulfillment than the shit job I have that works me 10-12 hours per day without overtime, and I know I don't even have it bad. We come to this competition to share music, and help each other to grow. The contest acts as a motivator and a draw for new people, it's really not the reason that OSC exists. liqhi, several people have commented on almost Identical aspect of your song that could be improved. Listen to the top tracks and compare elements of their composition like sound design, mix, song structure, melodic variation etc, to your own track. Learn something and just leave the drama out of it yes? I'm sorry some people didn't like your song and you feel they scored you unfairly. It will happen though. That's the nature of every contest that is judged by a human. It's also a part of sharing your music publicly. If you don't want people to voice their opinions about your music, be that in a comment or a score, then I suggest you not release your music publicly.

[ATN69]

First I want to thank everyone for all the points I got on my track and for participating as well. OSC is all of us and this monthly event would be nothing if there were only a hand full of people joining it. It was particular difficult to vote this month. Some times I wanted to give a 4 to those I gave a 3 and a 5 to some that got a 4, etc. It was hard to separate all these good tracks in a fair way.

A special thanks to Jasinski for using a commercial plugin or else I would end up number 6 for the third time in a row ..seriously though, I felt sad about that because I know that Valhalla vintage verb was not the reason his track was sounding good. That's why I feel it's too bad he was disqualified. I love your work bro, no matter it is music or panting. You are very talented and there is no wonder that you frequent the top 5 so often.

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you! I hope there will be many soft packages (plugins) waiting for you under the Christmas tree

[z.prime]

... you avoded my other questions or are you going to PM me? I'd be happy.

This one? I didn't see any others...

But I got 3 from you and 2 from Pylon, is it because my entry was weak in sound design, composition, mixing and mastering, and all that?

So, I actually teetered a bit on yours, if you would like to know. And I'm keeping this in the public because I believe it's something other people might benefit from. I'm not trying to knock you in any way, but I do want to explain EXACTLY why I gave you the score I did. I spend a fair amount of time judging people on various aspects. I've said before: composition/creativity, sound design/selection, and mix/mastering.

I've said this before to many people, but I'm not sure if I've never said this in public, so I'm saying it now: making a non-electronic track in the OSC is riddled with problems. The reason is simple: you MUST make realistic sounds to make it it believable. If you made a Bach Concerto using saw waves for everything, including percussion, would it sound good? Of course not. So find the sounds you can make, and then make a song (my record is broken and on repeat for this aspect of OSC).

As for your track, you got a great snare and some close other sounds, but not close enough to make it sound realistic. This doesn't have anything to do with OSC, though, really, it just has to do with humans and their perception of music. For a few parts, I was ready to believe it was an old Americana rock band, but only for a few seconds throughout. Keep that up the whole time? 5 points for sound design and creativity. But it was only a few moments... so after that, there was just monotony throughout. So the composition dragged down the creativity, and since the sounds were not stellar, the whole composition suffered. Make realistic guitars, drums, bass for a rock trio, and some semblance of melody that is appealing, I'd probably give a 5 for this type of track even though I really don't like it musically (this, I understand is a personal preference, and I try to keep that aspect out of my voting).

But really, I made a space movie soundtrack this time instead of a song and I expected nothing. The sound design probably kept me in the top 5 or something.... In a prior OSC, I made what I think was an incredibly good symphonic soundset for the synth (it was Tunefish 4) and I finished pretty low.

So the takeaway is: make awesome sounds and great music, in that order. Remember, you're doing what you can with some random freeware synth!

[Mechanought]

SoundGoddess here's an awesome example for you.

Gelinde gave me a two for my track. In fact I'm one of two people Gelinde scored at 2 and 2 is the lowest score Gelinde gave. That means that according to Gelinde, I had either the worst, or the second worst track in the competition. Do you think that's accurate? Here, take a listen: https://soundcloud.com/mechanought/mech ... ises-again


Well in my opinion I don't think it is, but I'm not really mad about it. If anything I want to know why they didn't like my song, and how they came to their score, but absolutely accept their decision and don't see it as politics. I don't really know anyone here so I doubt I've made enough of an impression to piss someone off enough to score my track low just because they don't like me.

Another interesting bit about this, they scored you at 3, which means they thought your song was better than mine.

I really doubt this will mean anything to you, but it's a small piece of evidence to try and make you feel a bit better.