One Synth Challenge #177: Synful Orchestra & VSCO2 Percussion (silverpants Wins!)

[Pretentious K]

I think I will take a break from this. It's being the 5 time in a row I'm in the last placements and it's not doing me well, although I got a lot of nice and interesting feedbacks. Thanks for the organisers and also to those I had a good time exchanging with.

[silverpants]

I think I will take a break from this. It's being the 5 time in a row I'm in the last placements and it's not doing me well, although I got a lot of nice and interesting feedbacks. Thanks for the organisers and also to those I had a good time exchanging with.

Shame you are leaving Mr K. I enjoyed our conversations - and I really enjoyed your music. Keep at it.

[Pretentious K]

Me too Captain S. And congrats for this month.
I cannot say for sure I will not participate in the future - need more time for that.
- cheers

[Pretentious K]

[Taron]

I think I will take a break from this. It's being the 5 time in a row I'm in the last placements and it's not doing me well, although I got a lot of nice and interesting feedbacks. Thanks for the organisers and also to those I had a good time exchanging with.

The only thing that truly ever matters with any artistic/creative thing like making music is that the making of it brings you joy and elevates your time. The OSC is a wonderful opportunity to share this and gain an understanding about how one can improve their skills in many respects. Coming in last shouldn't be discouraging, but rather provide you with orientation. First and above all else it is about what you wish to achieve! What is it you want? What is it that you "should" want?

It could almost be therapeutic as it could give you guidance to learning more about yourself, too. But these challenges do have a bitter taunt, no matter how one wants to look at things. Once you're music is put into a hierarchy or ranking ladder, you are being given a kind of judgement and it's virtually impossible to ignore that effect.

This angers me more often than not, not for myself, but for artists among us, who I dearly love, whose music I truly enjoy, but who could get the misinformation that their gems were of lesser value. It is not! In fact, sometimes something that inspires one other artist a lot, but fails to entertain 99% of the others may have a more valuable impact on that one artist than all the songs that were ranked higher have for those, who voted for them. Eeehhhh...did that make sense?
I hope you know what I mean.

Anyway, besides the point. If inside of you is the desire to communicate with your music, to share something of yours, then you must not abandon it, but consider learning more about how you can make your music be understood better or more easily. If you have nothing you really wish to say, then you really wouldn't want to make music in the first place.

If you wish to make music not for the sake of music, then you have to do some deeper self-/soul searching to figure out why you picked music to begin with. You may discover more suitable approaches to get what you're after. But then, too, music would've served a great purpose already, having been the first step on an important journey of yours.

I love the OSC, because I love synths just as much as I love making music and it's a place where we know we listen to each other and can expect appreciation, regardless the ranking. The challenge of exploring some random synth in greater depth is an invaluable motivator to potentially discover many different benefits. Could become a new favorite synth, could be a genre of music it made you experiment with, could be a way of designing a sound or inspire you to learn aspects of music theory you may have neglected before and last but not least, mastering and its fascinating challenges. All these things. For anyone, who is serious about music, particularly digital production, the OSC is one of the most powerful tools to grow and a massive source of fun, too.

If you ever have any particular questions or the likes, never hesitate to ask them. Among the many of us, I'm always very happy to help!

[Pretentious K]

I think I will take a break from this. It's being the 5 time in a row I'm in the last placements and it's not doing me well, although I got a lot of nice and interesting feedbacks. Thanks for the organisers and also to those I had a good time exchanging with.

The only thing that truly ever matters with any artistic/creative thing like making music is that the making of it brings you joy and elevates your time. The OSC is a wonderful opportunity to share this and gain an understanding about how one can improve their skills in many respects. Coming in last shouldn't be discouraging, but rather provide you with orientation. First and above all else it is about what you wish to achieve! What is it you want? What is it that you "should" want?

It could almost be therapeutic as it could give you guidance to learning more about yourself, too. But these challenges do have a bitter taunt, no matter how one wants to look at things. Once you're music is put into a hierarchy or ranking ladder, you are being given a kind of judgement and it's virtually impossible to ignore that effect.

This angers me more often than not, not for myself, but for artists among us, who I dearly love, whose music I truly enjoy, but who could get the misinformation that their gems were of lesser value. It is not! In fact, sometimes something that inspires one other artist a lot, but fails to entertain 99% of the others may have a more valuable impact on that one artist than all the songs that were ranked higher have for those, who voted for them. Eeehhhh...did that make sense?
I hope you know what I mean.

Anyway, besides the point. If inside of you is the desire to communicate with your music, to share something of yours, then you must not abandon it, but consider learning more about how you can make your music be understood better or more easily. If you have nothing you really wish to say, then you really wouldn't want to make music in the first place.

If you wish to make music not for the sake of music, then you have to do some deeper self-/soul searching to figure out why you picked music to begin with. You may discover more suitable approaches to get what you're after. But then, too, music would've served a great purpose already, having been the first step on an important journey of yours.

I love the OSC, because I love synths just as much as I love making music and it's a place where we know we listen to each other and can expect appreciation, regardless the ranking. The challenge of exploring some random synth in greater depth is an invaluable motivator to potentially discover many different benefits. Could become a new favorite synth, could be a genre of music it made you experiment with, could be a way of designing a sound or inspire you to learn aspects of music theory you may have neglected before and last but not least, mastering and its fascinating challenges. All these things. For anyone, who is serious about music, particularly digital production, the OSC is one of the most powerful tools to grow and a massive source of fun, too.

If you ever have any particular questions or the likes, never hesitate to ask them. Among the many of us, I'm always very happy to help!

Darn. I was looking to improve my music. Turns out this place can be something else.

I was totally not expecting it but reading your message was a very soothing experience.

For me it's much more diffuclt to write than to have a proper direct conversation but I will try to express a few things.

First I do understand all what you say. It resonates (and I guess to others in the room too).

Second, I agree that understanding the needs (explicit or hidden) for making music / participating to an OSC competition is quite interesting. Recognition is probably one of the big ones. and its flipped version (could be the experience of rejection or shame, you call it).

Third, there may be a complicated intrication between needs that could be met elsewhere and real love for music making / urge to create / looking for flow state / even sublimation.

Fourth, having a competition / a challenge is soo helpful for getting it done (time limit, mean limit)!

(had one more item but it can wait)

And the other items I think I will read again and reflect on more, definitely worth taking some time to.

Thanks sir Taron.

[empphryio]

Someone could come here submitting music in a genre that let's say everyone here just happened to hate and couldn't see they were being unfairly biased against it. That person could totally be influenced to give up making that music that actually was good.

FWIW don't assume the placings mean anything. Occasionally I see tracks that get bizarre placings IMHO.

[liqih]

Someone could come here submitting music in a genre that let's say everyone here just happened to hate and couldn't see they were being unfairly biased against it. That person could totally be influenced to give up making that music that actually was good.

FWIW don't assume the placings mean anything. Occasionally I see tracks that get bizarre placings IMHO.

Totally agree

[violator_alba]

I think I will take a break from this. It's being the 5 time in a row I'm in the last placements...

As one of the guys who hang out around the bottom of the rankings, it was pointed out today that I've now had 20 consecutive entries (interestingly apparently one of the second longest unbroken runs). For me that's pretty impressive. Never mind the ranking, prior to finding the OSC I think I completed one track. I now have 20 completed tracks (plus a bunch of Music Café entries). I have to admit that I did feel a pang of regret with each low ranking but I think I'm getting used to it. I'm also still at the stage of wondering what I'm creating music for (as a software engineer I think I already have a creative outlet). I have a nagging suspicion that this is just to justify my Gear Acquisition Syndrome! Aside from that I guess I just enjoy the process.

[NeuKatalYst]

I'm hoping this doesn't come off as "pretentious" or conceited myself, but here's my perspective as someone who has won once, placed in the top 5 once, and otherwise generally places in the top 40%:

Music, like any other kind of art, finds success within intersections of a Venn diagram: one circle is what you like and are inspired by; and the other circle is what other people like and expect, based on context and their own standards.

On one hand, you could completely pander to the competition and find no joy in its creation...

...or you could completely focus exclusively on what you like, regardless of what the audience or competition.

Both have their downsides when considering the other party, which is why it's unhealthy to lean entirely one way or the other. So the challenge to the artist comes in mixing the two circles of the Venn diagram by doing what you like, while also applying research in what other people like and expect. Looking from the outside, this makes sense, because if people already have some expectation of what "good" or "standard" is, they can weigh that against what makes this new thing unique, and weigh it accordingly.

Even out of context, these principles are why genres, music theory, mixing/mastering strategies, and other tools exist: they aren't necessarily "rules," but a standard that has refined itself over time - "guidelines," if you will.

We all have a personal reason for participating: I started because I wanted to stretch my sound design skills while teaching myself how to better work within limits that breed creativity. But of course, as a competition, I still need to apply my 15 years of music theory and production knowledge that I've always practiced and refined in that time to come out the best I can. In this way, I'm applying my own art and motivations within aforementioned guidelines, and usually place pretty well as a result.

To conclude: the TLDR to take from this is to keep doing what you're doing and make unique art; but also consider how other people will feel in regard to expectation: production technique, music theory, "what generally sounds good," etc. We all judge each other based on our own unique tastes, yes; but it's all music...so what does good music sound like to us? To you? 🫡🫡🫡🫡🫡

[Pretentious K]

empphryio : makes total sense. I think there might very well be prefered genres and less prefered genres in this group. Which is what I guess more familiar participants will know better.

Violator_alba: Thanks for sharing your experience

NeuKatalYst: thanks also for sharing your vision on this. I think that your approach makes perfect sense when it comes to OSC and one I should be more inspired of.

And just to finish my part on this thread, I want to express how surprised I'm evey time at people's kindness and willingness to help. Forums are still a frightening place for me. I usually expect people will react not as nice than it turns out to be but what I found (besides low rankings :p) is also a lot of willingness to help.

Have a good time vaporizing!

PK

[MATCHER]

For what is worth, I also think that you shoudn't give up. You're often placed amongst the last... So what? That just means that you have some work to do... And? Do the work, don't stress about rankings,and just do your thing. Dont' give up, man.