One-Synth-Challenge: General discussion thread

[schiing]

A one-off, one-track challenge without effects would be really cool with the right synth, basa - although possibly a bit pointless with something as basic as a simple subtractive synth?

But I don't think it's a great idea for a permanent limitation in OSC. A soft synth is a music production tool, and for my own part I want to hear what it can do in the context of a *music production.* I don't think that's a disservice to the "core/soul/spirit/sound" of the synth at all.

Same as with drum machines, acoustic guitars or any other instrument, I suppose. They may sound lovely on their own, but you only get to know the full capabilities of the instrument by putting them in a mix - like how the Linn drum blends so well with a certain kind of instrumentation as opposed to some early-80s Korg competitors - or how *that* acoustic guitar cuts through the mix so much better than the other one.

Incidentally, I actually ditched my very first OSC attempt because it was basically just a triangle wave with a piano ADSR solo

[basa333]

I always had the idea to propose a SSC a Single Sample Challenge. In the past I made some pieces with single samples and it was successful for its artistic outcome.
https://soundcloud.com/ondes-memorielle ... -the-voice
Maybe we should start one in the sampler thread... That would be fun, I would not impose any technical restrictions on it, but evaluation should consider how much of the original sample still shines through. (If you just grab a single waveform and use it as oscillator wave, you‘d not hear a connection, it would sound like any synth sound)

ok, why not? the same sample for all participators? your track is impressing, wow! one sample or one preset, it doesn't matter.
Single Sample Challenge - sounds very good.

[basa333]

But I don't think it's a great idea for a permanent limitation in OSC.

sure, I have wrote about "challenge within challenge" or "separate category", not about a permanent limitation in OSC. I'm absolutely on your side.
If it should be a "two or three preset" challenge, why not? but please not "sixtyfive presets"! it should be a challenge for musically experiments, according defined style - styles maybe like classical instruments (guitar, piano, oboe, orchestral drums, sure in "synthvoice", whatever, maybe specially wood instrument, or brass, you know, what I mean, or string instrument generally etc., one or two presets). no flangers, no delays, no distortions, but only one (ok, maybe two) preset(s) of a concrete synth in one (ok, wenn it must be, in two) DAW-track(s).

[aciddose]

In the #trax OHC (one-hour-compo) style competition a tracker (sampler + sequencer) was used with a predefined set of samples. Since it's possible to actually synthesize various sounds; for example a kick can be roughly made from a bass guitar using a fast pitch slide; that did not impose as much of a limitation as it seems.

It really depends upon the aims of the competition. In OSC it seems the intention is to focus on a single freely available plug-in instrument. So adding additional rules or changing the aim of the competition would make it another competition, really.

It is called "One-Synth-Challenge" after all.

[Local Man]

It seems many here are suggesting further limitations for the OSC but I would like to make a somewhat counter suggestion.
I'm sure it's been suggested before but I think it would be great if the competition allowed the use of dedicated drum machines and drum samples aside from the One Synth. That is, the One Synth is used for everything but drums.

Some synths are conducive to making great drum and percussion sounds but most are not.
Making drums from scratch (with often less than stellar results) not only makes the production process tedious but it also makes it a slog to have to listen to a bunch of tracks with weak and basic drums.
Even the best synthesists in the competition often create drums that are passable at best and it is almost always the weakest part of their tracks. Everything else will be stellar and without compromise, but the drums will sound like something from a children's toy (and not necessarily in a good way).

This is the sole reason I almost never participate in this competition. And the main reason, to be honest, is that if I am going to put a lot of my time into making a great track, I am going to want to have a work that I am proud of regardless of the context in which it is created. But always having to use "synth drums" often makes for songs that sound like novelty tracks unless you are privy to the knowledge of how they were created.
If we where allowed to use actual, dedicated drums, this competition, we could create more tracks that could stand on their own as great works, without explanation.

I think trying it for at least one round would be fun.

[Tj Shredder]

I'm sure it's been suggested before but I think it would be great if the competition allowed the use of dedicated drum machines and drum samples aside from the One Synth. That is, the One Synth is used for everything but drums.

This would make the results more boring. There seems to be an idea that music needs drums. No, it doesn't. If you limit yourself to one style, you won't make interesting music even in that style!
The best music in any style is made by musicians who either invented that style or move through different styles or both...
I would love to hear more tracks without drums at all. That was the main complain from basa. If a synth is not good for drums, it will still be able to be used for good music, that is the basic idea of a challenge! Look for interesting new sounds, and do not try to recreate what you know already...

[Local Man]

I'm sure it's been suggested before but I think it would be great if the competition allowed the use of dedicated drum machines and drum samples aside from the One Synth. That is, the One Synth is used for everything but drums.

This would make the results more boring. There seems to be an idea that music needs drums. No, it doesn't. If you limit yourself to one style, you won't make interesting music even in that style!
The best music in any style is made by musicians who either invented that style or move through different styles or both...
I would love to hear more tracks without drums at all. That was the main complain from basa. If a synth is not good for drums, it will still be able to be used for good music, that is the basic idea of a challenge! Look for interesting new sounds, and do not try to recreate what you know already...

I agree with you and I would love to hear more tracks without drums as well.
And if I decide to participate again, I will definitely make a track sans drums (OBXD would be a great time to jump in now that I think about it).

That said, I still think it would be interesting to have a "use whatever drums you want" month. Because inevitably, many are going to use drums in their tracks. And in my opinion, those drums that are made by just one synth are more often than not going to bring the track down to whatever degree.

Anyway, I'm sure mine is a minority opinion and many will think that it is contrary to the spirit of the contest. Maybe so, but I'd love to see how it would turn out.

[Dirtgrain]

Well, it's a good part of learning how to sound design, making drums. While I've made some crappy ones, a few were nice, and others have excelled at it. I really dig the drums on this OSC 127 entry: https://soundcloud.com/thepresentmusic/ ... 127-zebra2

[aciddose]

One solution you could use is to create your track with no limits on how you use drums or samples, but ensure you dedicate specific tracks/channels to those parts. You can then mute those and either replace them partially with synth parts that emulate the drums/samples, or just submit the synth-soloed tracks.

You can then after the competition release the full version of the track alongside your OSC version. This way you won't feel limited during composition and arrangement, so you might feel more free and inspired to do things differently than if you were only limited to a single synthesizer.

There is no reason not to produce a guitar + vocal track for OSC... just that those parts can't be entered and only the additional synth backing or other parts limited to that one synthesizer can.

[rghvdberg]

I've made a sample slicer plugin so a One Slicer Challenge would be fun

[TrojakEW]

If it should be a "two or three preset" challenge, why not? but please not "sixtyfive presets"! it should be a challenge for musically experiments, according defined style - styles maybe like classical instruments (guitar, piano, oboe, orchestral drums, sure in "synthvoice", whatever, maybe specially wood instrument, or brass, you know, what I mean, or string instrument generally etc., one or two presets). no flangers, no delays, no distortions, but only one (ok, maybe two) preset(s) of a concrete synth in one (ok, wenn it must be, in two) DAW-track(s).

Consider yourself lucky. You can do that without changing existing OSC rules and without forcing others to do the same. I done this for #127 but I never bother others to do the same. There is no limit to how many instances you can use. You are also not forced to use any external effects. It is up to you. Surprise us.

[basa333]

well, I acknowledge, that I alone don't have much chances. I thought, my idea would be more resonant.

[reusenoise]

Maybe add a side prize for the best single synth track

[exponent1]

well, I acknowledge, that I alone don't have much chances. I thought, my idea would be more resonant.

Your idea is nice, but I think it won't be very exciting for most of the participants, at least not for me. I will very rarely, in a real world scenario, make a song using just one sound (instance or preset, whatever you want to call it), unless it's a classical composition or arrangement.

The thrill and excitement of this challenge (atleast for me) is being able to produce a full bodied track using just one synth for all the sounds. It gives us all a fair chance to learn and showcase abilities in sound synthesis, arrangement, composition and mixing among other things. All of this knowledge is very valuable to me, since I'm a beginner in all of this.

As BlitBit pointed out earlier, almost every musical style or genre comprises of more than one instrument in some way and using more than one 'instance' of the synth is just an approach to try and realistically model those instruments. For some, a kick can take more than 2 instances, while some can model a kick using just 1. The truth is that certain styles of music are extremely difficult to make using just a few sounds and forcibly trying to do that is quite counterproductive, as this challenge is hard as it is.

As I said earlier, everyone has different motivations to do this challenge and hence they focus on/prioritize different aspects of music making. If you're more interested in just 'Songwriting' than sound design as a challenge, you could try out the 'Songwriting Competition' instead https://mix-challenge.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=11

All the best and hope to hear more of your music!

[rghvdberg]

reality check : osc isn't a song writing contest, it's a display of technical ability
and that's awesome