One-Synth-Challenge 27: Free Alpha - Submissions and gossip

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

He yea but then the PC plebs can't access the fx that are Mac only..

But seriously, PC users have a certain advantage in the selection no doubt. Should maybe have the cross platform synths be limited to ditto fx, tho I foresee a certain amount of confusion and wrong plugin usage with such a rule in place..

like i said, it aint a big thing...i'd be in trouble if i relied upon a few freebie effects to 'MAKE' my music

[V'ger]

Submissions closed.

Good number of entries this time.

Here's the voting thread.

[gorgorgathgorgorgor]

Not to be a noodge, but technically as per the rules your song title should be "bstageboss - The Investigation" as we are supposed to use the same username we are posting with.

Uh oh

Looks like I need to read the rules when I'm more awake...should I re-upload?
Or is there a way to change the file names on the site?
I actually registered here at KVR loong time ago before someone gave me my current moniker; but perhaps it would be better if I changed my user name here(if that's possible )

Sorry about that, everyone. What should I do?

STV

Obviously no big deal for this one, I kind of meant it as a future reference thing. nice tracks BTW!

[Sound Mechanics]

I've really enjoyed listening to the entries. This is my first attempt and it has been a great learning process having to use one synth for everything.
Where's the keyboard?
I'm curious to know how long the submitters have taken over their songs - is it a month long slog or a quick two hour job before breakfast?

[bjporter]

1 song I made a few ours a day. But always the last day, I stay up the last 7 hours, and turn it in within 10 minutes of due date .... ya not so good

I recommend (if you are more structural like me) working on it a few hours a day starting in the first week. Get the arrangement, and melodies done, and decide on the heaviness of percussion. Then work on each sound at a time.

[bstageboss]

I'm curious to know how long the submitters have taken over their songs - is it a month long slog or a quick two hour job before breakfast?

It's different for me each time. 'Shut the door' took several days of playing and programming. Of course, it didn't help getting sidetracked when I decided to write lyrics for a song that was going into an instrumental competition; idiot that I am. But it just happened to hit me, and I know better than to ignore the creative impulse, so I went with it. All in all, I'd say it was done in about a week or so, working on it off and on.
Different story with my other track. I hadn't planned on submitting anything else originally, but that night I was playing around some more with Free Alpha and came up with the 'sonar' snare, and that was it: 7 hours later I had the 'Investigation' track done and submitted it the same night, IIRC. Sometimes it's just crazy like that.

Myself, I like to have the sounds ready to go when I start writing. I'm a little different than bjporter that way in that I like to have the sound kind of push me into a direction that might be slightly unfamiliar. For me, that's when interesting stuff happens. But there's validity in both approaches; it's very much dependent on your preferences.

Finally, I have to say that for me, voting in this contest is way beyond difficult! There's something great about every track I've heard (I downloaded all of them). So I'll have to set myself some (hopefully) fair criteria to pick out the songs that best represent the possibilities of this awesome freebie. TBH, I'd thought about skipping since I'm not really in the market for any of the prizes (although I am kinda interested in some of Rob Lee's banks - the man does great work, and I'd love to check it out), but I do want to let people know when they've created something cool. So I'll keep on listening; all the work that everybody put in deserves a little effort on my part.

Thanks for the experience, everyone,

STV

[V'ger]

Varies here too, but mostly sketch done early (first or second week) and then intermittently before frantic race to make (or miss) the deadline, but sometimes all in the last week. All in all takes a good number of hours, but in part due to trying a lot of techniques and VSTs.

[gorgorgathgorgorgor]

I have very little time to devote, It's usually an hour or two once a week if I'm lucky, or sometimes a single block of a few hours at the beginning of the month, and then a quick touch up later before submission. Clearly this approach has mixed results but I do what I can with the time that I have!

[bstageboss]

Well, for what it's worth, I put up the vocal version of 'Shut the door' (in case any of you were wondering why I called it that). I'm not really a singer, so don't give me too hard a time about my voice.
But I kinda like the lyrics; they're sort of a nod to all the developers and sound designers here. Of course, because it's totally niche like that, it'll clearly never make it to the charts.

(Well, that and also because I'm not 19, a dancer and female )

http://soundcloud.com/vivolator/vivolat ... oor-vocals

STV

[Xenox.AFL]

Not bad, but, i miss the room for the vocals, synth sounds are to loud and the vocals volume is to low or vice versa!

Frank

[bstageboss]

He he, I'd probably mix them louder if I could sing better

But I'll go back and take some more time to mix it better.

STV

[V'ger]

Ha, that's brilliant actually. Fits the song very well and lyrics are funny, singing not too shabby either.

[IrionDaRonin]

I made my entry in about 8 hours in total. 4 hours one day, and another 4 in the next day.
Maybe I should waste more time making them more complex.