One Synth Challenge #73 special: Synthmaster (Jasinski wins!)

[doctorbob]

Well done to all the winners. Pretty much as I expected from my own votes. I predicted that I would end up at spot 37 (really! I even communicated this fact to another OSC-er before the results were out!)

I see that I am still on the downward slide to the bottom - someone turn the table upside down please

I take heart in that those in the top spots also gave me 5's (and a couple of 4's) - they liked it obviously, I just need to persuade those gazillions of 3 voters to like mine a bit more ... I can live with the fact that some simply "don't like it" or "don't get it" or "just not my taste, man".

Fingers crossed for my funky OSC74 - even though the synth player from this challenge managed to escape and tinkle the ivories, slightly late into the show

dB

[Harthstein]

Congratulations to the Top 4! Great Work!
I am 5

Many thanks to everyone for listening, votes and comments!

[spidergod]

Congratulations to the winners.

It can be a bit disheartening when you come in the last 10, although I can kind of understand it as mine was ambient drone and nothing much happens in drone tracks.

I did get some very nice comments though.

I also understand people all have different tastes in music which comes into the scoring which is fair enough when it is not a themed musical style competition.

Keep up the good work everybody.

[wagtunes]

Well done to all the winners. Pretty much as I expected from my own votes. I predicted that I would end up at spot 37 (really! I even communicated this fact to another OSC-er before the results were out!)

I see that I am still on the downward slide to the bottom - someone turn the table upside down please

I take heart in that those in the top spots also gave me 5's (and a couple of 4's) - they liked it obviously, I just need to persuade those gazillions of 3 voters to like mine a bit more ... I can live with the fact that some simply "don't like it" or "don't get it" or "just not my taste, man".

Fingers crossed for my funky OSC74 - even though the synth player from this challenge managed to escape and tinkle the ivories, slightly late into the show

dB

I feel your pain man. Only 2 slots from the bottom with an entry infinitely better than last month's.

But when you're 57 years old and create music that people were comparing to Genesis and Human League, you're not going to get the votes from the EDM crowd and I get that. That's why I'm bowing out of these and focusing my attention on other matters of more importance. All these do is bring me down and i can't have that if I'm going to keep my head clear and get my work done.

I wish you better luck in your next one doc.

[bh9090]

For me, the harmony was a little odd and the kick/snare sounds didn't fit well. Now the harmony thing is completly personal taste. Someone that likes pop-harmony may not like Ornett Coleman free-jazz harmony, or 12 tone row stuff. Yours was more dissonant than traditional pop. That may have turned some people off. But that's not bad!!

thanks dude, i agree. and i mostly hate pop-harmony. blame my death metal childhood.

au contraire, isn't that diatonic major I-IV-V type stuff too? Just with tons-o-distortion and open 5ths and power chords. Maybe minor i-iv-v actually...or just open 5ths, chug. chug-a-chug.

[doctorbob]

But when you're 57 years old and create music that people were comparing to Genesis and Human League

oh, you're a youngster then I have nearly another decade on you ...

, you're not going to get the votes from the EDM crowd and I get that.

But we might surprise them all one day

That's why I'm bowing out of these and focusing my attention on other matters of more importance.

Sad to see you go ... I stick around because even though I don't hit the "right notes" with 50% of the people here, that's not a problem. I find that I am learning a lot of production/mixing techniques from interaction with people here. Just helps me hone my skills for my many other music interests/hobbies. I have a lot to learn having only had maybe 30 hours of piano lessons in 1960, which is the full extent of my music "training".

Thanks for the "good luck" note ... please do have a listen to my latest tune as all comments are really useful and helpful to me.

Maybe see you around later then

dB

[Wyrrdbryyngr]

au contraire, isn't that diatonic major I-IV-V type stuff too? Just with tons-o-distortion and open 5ths and power chords. Maybe minor i-iv-v actually...or just open 5ths, chug. chug-a-chug.

i don't really think so, but then my music theory knowledge is limited to simple intervals. so yea it's a lot of 5ths / power chords. and lots of dissonance. a lot of early metal is basically blues with distortion though.

[Anthony Newcomb]

But when you're 57 years old and create music that people were comparing to Genesis and Human League, you're not going to get the votes from the EDM crowd and I get that. That's why I'm bowing out of these and focusing my attention on other matters of more importance. All these do is bring me down and i can't have that if I'm going to keep my head clear and get my work done.

I like what you call EDM, though I don't dance to it, but my point is, I own every Genesis album plus their rare imports and all of Peter Gabriel's solo career. I also have Human League on vinyl. I'm 38 years old and my song was compared to Miami Vice. But when you think about it, that show was the stuff back then and so was genesis. It was known for its killer soundtrack songs. So if anyone wants to compare my music to songs that won Grammy awards years ago, thats fine by me

This is my first OSC and I'm at a loss for words with people feeling bummed. I get it but just have fun with it. I checked out your website and it looks really professional and your sounds on there are great. Cheer up mate! Let the site be your bread and butter and just kill some time on the OSC.

[Anthony Newcomb]

Well here is the motion video for my song synergy that I made a couple days after I submitted my song. The animations do change with the different parts of the song

https://vimeo.com/123703542

[verside]

Congrats Jasinski!

[HiEnergy]

Congratulations to the winners!

To all those who are disappointed by the outcome: I also merely got place 42 despite of higher hopes.
Hitting the right tone seems to be an arbitrary game of hit and miss here... it's all about taste, I think.

[evo2slo]

Big congrats to jasinski!!!

Slightly smaller (but still big ) congratulations to z.prime, H-Man, Lemmike and Harthstein for making the top five amongst such a great group of tracks!

And also congratulations to everyone else for finishing a track and putting it out there into the world for comparison to others... not an easy thing to do with something as personal as one's art. I've done a lot of these contests, and sometimes I finish near the top, sometimes I finish near the bottom, but I'm always the better for it!

Thanks so much to all for the encouraging comments and listens!

[fese]

Congratulations to the winners!

To all those who are disappointed by the outcome: I also merely got place 42 despite of higher hopes

Hey, that's two better than me! But then I guess I called for it with an entry that was mostly a result of a self made challenge "How many time signatures can I cram in under five minutes" (answer: 5)

Hitting the right tone seems to be an arbitrary game of hit and miss here... it's all about taste, I think.

It most definitely is and I plead guilty there, too. I try to vote as objectively as possible and be fair, but I simply find most "EDM" stuff incredibly boring (sorry, Anthony Newcomb, no hate, just my taste) and this will of course influence my voting somehow, it is unlikely that I give full five points for a dance track as I reserve those for things that really kick me (but I gave fours to some of those...)

BTW, what about those guys DFL and ballacr75, what has gotten up their a**? Voting mostly with "1", resulting in a generosity score of -63 and -137% (!!!). I find that quite petty...

[wagtunes]

Congratulations to the winners!

To all those who are disappointed by the outcome: I also merely got place 42 despite of higher hopes

Hey, that's two better than me! But then I guess I called for it with an entry that was mostly a result of a self made challenge "How many time signatures can I cram in under five minutes" (answer: 5)

Hitting the right tone seems to be an arbitrary game of hit and miss here... it's all about taste, I think.

It most definitely is and I plead guilty there, too. I try to vote as objectively as possible and be fair, but I simply find most "EDM" stuff incredibly boring (sorry, Anthony Newcomb, no hate, just my taste) and this will of course influence my voting somehow, it is unlikely that I give full five points for a dance track as I reserve those for things that really kick me (but I gave fours to some of those...)

BTW, what about those guys DFL and ballacr75, what has gotten up their a**? Voting mostly with "1", resulting in a generosity score of -63 and -137% (!!!). I find that quite petty...

Look to see who they gave high scores to, if any. You'll probably find those cliques I was talking about.

I'm going to check myself just out of curiosity.

[wagtunes]

Discovered something interesting.

Z-Prime, who I have a ton of respect for, and I voted very similarly across the board except for a few cases of very different opinions. He gave 173 points which was right at the Generosity Score and I gave out 183, which was about 5% over. Spread out over 53 contestants, that's a minuscule difference.

Why am I bringing this up?

I value him opinion as much as any of the top artists here. His work is solid. There is no debate there. His production skills are excellent and I think he uses those same skills as a producer and composer to judge the work of others.

I was almost sure, as badly as I did, that Z-Prime had given me a 1 or a 2, even though I felt my song was a solid 3.

Guess what?

He agreed with me. He gave me a 3.

For the life of me, I can't figure out the few people who gave him 1's. I'm speechless. I also can't figure out all the 1's and 2's I got as well.

So this has to come down to taste and nothing else. If somebody who has skills good enough to do this for a living (IMO) gave me a 3, and ended up getting 1's himself, this has nothing to do with skill. This is all about what the members here like or don't like. I could submit a symphony with full orchestra all synthed out and probably still come close to the bottom.

Nobody likes that stuff. Nobody wants to hear that stuff. It wouldn't matter how good it was. If Z-Prime can get a professionally done track rated a 1 by even one person, then this has nothing to do with skill.

And with that, I actually feel a lot better about my results because quite honestly, they don't reflect anything more than the tastes of the community.

Why that surprised me is something I will never understand.

Because duh! That's how the whole world works.

It's not how good you are but whether or not people like you, which is why songs like "Celluloid Heroes" don't chart and songs like "Coco" are big hits.

(Scratches head as he walks away shaking it)