OBLIQUE BLEAK NIGHT alt contest - SUBMISSIONS & RULES

[Markleford]

The Plot: A public ritual, a private resolution.
The Players: A wealthy family, and one man who can't buy happiness...

Bleak Night

Lyrics:

Oh bleak, bleak night...

The family gathers 'round again
And yet I'm so alone
My lot in life, I've finally found:
Just reap the seeds they've sown.

Repeat the lines they'd like to hear:
"Yes, mom, I'm doing fine."
Can't play this role another year
This is the final time

Oh bleak, bleak night...

Buy your love, deny your greed,
And sing your songs of hope.
Give me what I really need:
A place to swing, a length of rope

- m

[_niko_]

Here it is:
Featuring me in my most miserable whining voice
Kudos to my wife for the backings on the refrain and her good ideas for the arrangement. The whole thing really asked for more time than the damn 2 minute limit allows so this is a kinda compressed version.

Recorded in sonar used a couple of sonitus fx, mda roundpan, tubebaby, blockfish, sfz and dfhs.

Christmas on Acid

Niko

[gy]

"Forget Christmas" - My first ever offering on KVR, or indeed the internet. I only recently got a broadband thingy you see.
Merry Christmas.

[cold c]

2004_12-cold_c-blah_night.mp3 1.55MB 128kbps

Ingredients:

made with SX and

washy pad = z3ta+ through ohmforce mobilohm
bass = z3ta+
"sleighbell" = tambourine sample in sfz
bells (all others) + xylophone = free soundfonts in sfz+
"drums" = dr-008 + scream4 + acid pro + over-compression + fx
speech samples are synthesized Audrey and Mike from the AT&T text to speech webpage + gsuite
choirs and "ho ho ho" = Symphony of Voices sample CD converted and used in sfz+

Lyrics:

I don't think these sound effects are as good as the hardware versions
You be nice, it's christmas

Can you hear that singing?
Yes. It's just a sample, played through a plugin

[Mo Verdigast]

'Twas the night before Christmas
and all through the land,
not a creature was stirring,
not even ... wait! what the hell ... damn!

Before we knew what was happing, the Earth was devastated by robotic aliens.

We tried to fight back, but we had all taken Christmas holiday and weren't ready for a full-scale invasion. We tried to fight back but by the time we knew what was happening, the battle was over.

The story was captured by this song:

Xtreme Xmas

Sorry, guys, but the Earth was destroyed. They picked Christmas to invade. We didn't have a chance. Damn!

[softegg]

Zombies on Xmas, crowding the shopping streets searching for brains!!!!

Nightmare

GEAR:
Fabfilter One
GEQ
GCO
Classic Master Limiter
CamelPhatFree
Ambience

[pepelogu]

Picture this:

It's christmas day. You slowly open your eyes and realizes youre in a small church. It's full of people. Thing is though, you don't remeber being in this church before... and to come and think of it, you don't even remember even going here. The church orchestra starts to play...

http://www.pepelogu.com/music/12-04-Pep ... 20hill.mp3

Sorry bout the "%20"...

[windchillFactor]

Holiday

Stuff:

Cakewalk HS
Sound Forge
ST2
Anwida Reverb
Classic Limiter
Alesis SR-16
Geetar
Bass
Me

[dreibel]

I figured that I'd do something dark AND funny for this contest, but what? Doing "Jingle Bells" Metel-style in a minor key seemed just the ticket, but there had to be some appropriate lyrics to go with it. I considered the "Batman Smells" variant, but no, too obvious.

And then one night, while walking in the cold and feeling snow coming on, it occurred. "Why of course!....

The Hogfather! 1.6 MB, 128 kps

"In a fast sleigh pulled by boars, he's soaring through the skies,
Gets in your house at Hogswatchnight and eats all your pork pies!
Bad kids get bloody bones, good ones get lots of toys,
What scary gruesome winter fun for all the girls and boys!

"Oh, Hogfather, Hogfather! flying through the air,
Adults all keep a wary eye, but the kids know why you care, HEY!
Pigs in flight, Hogswatchnight, charity's your game...
You're an anthropomorphic personage but we love you just the same! (2x)"

with apologies to Terry Pratchett

host: Cubase 5 VST/32 (Mac) on Apple G4 MDD tower
guitars + harmony guitars: Peavey Falcon through POD 2
bass: Dreibelbass through POD 2
mixer: Behringer UB-1204
vocals: me through APEX 435 condenser
synths triggered by: Yamaha DX7s, Roland GM-70 guitar synth brain
VSTs used:
CM SR-202 - drums & cymbals
Sampletank LE: opening synth pads
FM7 - spooky bell + pad
Kompakt - glingle-glingle-glingle bells

[nikp2000]

not bleak, but maybe oblique


http://nikp2000.com/jangley_bells.mp3

guitar
rmIV
reaktor session

Nick

[vurt]

phew just in the nick of time

[slartibartfast]

A very last minute attempt here. Probably more offensive than bleak, but hopefully some will see the (attempted) humour.

A Cynical Christmas
http://members.iinet.net.au/~aradunn/04 ... alxmas.mp3

VSTs used include Kompakt, Groove Agent, Crystal, FM7 and a few of the usual VST effects for compression, reverb, EQ.

[Markleford]

Happy New Year!

Closing thread...