Sunvox Compo #1 - Official Competition Thread

organic io
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Re: Sunvox Compo #1 - Official Competition Thread

Post by organic io »

OK, it appears the site was down for a little while today, but it's back up... So without further delay...

Bandcamp page:
http://sunvoxcompo.bandcamp.com/album/sunvox-compo-1
Here you can download all the entries in mp3 or lossless format.

Votepack:
http://www.loopproject.com/filebase/sdc ... tepack.rar
This is an archive with all of the .sunvox modules for your listening enjoyment. Ideally we can see how people did things and learn from each other.

List of entries:
ChippyMunk - "Starlit Disco and Funky Nights" - Win32
Zhuinden - "Darkness and Light" - Unknown platform
beefinator - "Backtracking" - Mac
spurkopf - "klangbild" - Win-Mobile and Linux
menthes - "America" - Unknown platform (Possibly ipod touch?)
SolarLune - "Moon's Orbit" - Win32
organic io - "Quiescent" - Win32, ARM (Pocket PC), and Linux all at different points, but mostly Linux

Zhuinden & menthes, I can update your platform in the list above if you let me know what you wrote your song on.
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Voting guidelines:
Just send me a personal message or email with your top 5 songs in the order that you like them (1 being the best, etc)... Remember you can't vote for yourself

Also, voting is only open to people who entered the compo.
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General comments:
For fairness, the songs on the Bandcamp page are placed in the order that I received them.

I was a little bit concerned about being the person to render all the files to .WAV since I am new to Sunvox, I didn't want to screw anything up... But the process was straightforward and I don't think there were any problems... But, if you hear something "wrong" with your song on bandcamp, please let me know so we can fix it!

I also did not do any kind of post-render mastering (such as normalization) on any of the tracks before uploading to bandcamp. (Including my own) So whatever volume level you had set on your track, that's what it was rendered as.

Good luck everyone!
Last edited by organic io on Wed Nov 02, 2011 1:27 am, edited 1 time in total.
organic io
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Re: Sunvox Compo #1 - Official Competition Thread

Post by organic io »

Reviews... While not required, I think it would be beneficial for us to comment on each others' songs... Praise and constructive feedback are always a positive thing and can help us become better songwriters.

Here's a quick review format I've decided to use for my comments... Of course you don't have to use this, or can add to it or modify it.. but I think it helps maintain focus by adding structure to the feedback.
Review format
General comments:
What I liked:
What could be improved:



And now for some reviews:

ChippyMunk - "Starlit Disco and Funky Nights"
General comments:
Cool to use the colors for different sets of patterns. I should probably start doing that too. Also I like how you drew the triangle for the triangle pattern.

What I liked:
The song has a solid structure -- Lots of variations, but still keeping to a theme. Nicely done. I also like the gritty part around line 1509. Very cool. And the disco ball icon for the disco strings. Funny :)

What could be improved:
* Mixing. I think the drums aren't loud enough compared to the instruments... Also think the pads (purple patterns) are a little too loud compared to other things (for example the triangle at the beginning)

*There is a part that is dischordant from about line 700 thru 1100. Almost as if some of the instruments have been detuned. I think your main culprit is the square generator (0E) as it's not in key with the rest of the instruments. Not sure if this was intentional ???
---

Zhuinden - "Darkness and Light"
General comments:
I'm listening to your "hidden patterns" first... Kind of like a hidden song on a CD. Pretty cool that you can do this.

What I liked:
Atmosphere! This song is drenched with it. Really dark and menacing. Good use of reverbs and effects for the leads.
I'm really enjoying the buildup which starts around line 1130... Nice synth sound there... Well done.

What could be improved:
I think you could have had some stronger melodies during the break around line 1000.
I also feel like the bass sound is kind of weak... Perhaps EQ to give it more "oomph".
---

beefinator - "Backtracking"
General comments:
I really like this song. Definitely my favorite of the bunch. It has a nice, gritty lofi feel. The good kind of lofi. The part about halfway through that is even more lofi caught me off guard, because I thought maybe there was something wrong with my playback. It's a nice contrast though, to where it picks back up.. it gives the song a lot of energy. Nice use of filters before the output to essentially make a "master bus". Nice "gameboy ding sound" too... I looked at the file and was surprised at how simple it was to make that. The modules screen makes my eyes explode! I couldn't work like that :)

What I liked:
Chord progression, melody, songwriting, song structure. And all the little details added in there... Such as the little rhythmic surprises in the section from about :50 thru 1:00.. Really cool

What could be improved:
Your nickname. What happens if you go professional? Do you really want people to hear "And now introducing... *ahem* ... beefinator ???" :)
As for the song itself, I don't have any suggestions.. You've done a really great job here.
---

spurkopf - "klangbild"
General comments:
You and I must think alike, because our modules arrangement is very similar. :) Gotta be organized!

What I liked:
The mixing sounds clean, everything has its own space. The percussion is also nice, very punchy. So this was all done with the drumsynth? Nice.

What could be improved:
I think you have a lot of room for thematic development. It's a fine chord progression and you had lots of places you could have played around with stronger melodies. As it is, it sounds more like background music. Maybe this is what you intended?
For example, the ethnic sound that comes in around line 650... You could have expanded that idea a lot :)
---

menthes - "America"

General comments:
You've put together some nice effects chains to get some very pleasant synthesizer sounds. This is a really likeable piece. Kind of like a "synth rock" tune, if such a thing even exists :) Your timeline view is utter simplicity.. Makes it appear lot more linear like older trackers. Which is neither good nor bad. Just observing

What I liked:
Strong melodies... Love the sound of the synths, and the note glides. Also the song structure and variation.

What could be improved:
The drums. Particularly the snare just doesn't sound right. I think routing it through the same distortion as the kick wasn't a good choice - If you give it its own effects chain you can have more flexibility to shape the snare's tone.
---

SolarLune - "Moon's Orbit"
General comments:
Nice secret patterns at the beginning! Very groovy. The song loops nicely so it easily sounds like it could be background music for a game. Dark music for an underground sewer scene or something like that. :)

What I liked:
The percussion variations are very nice. Snare sounds a little funny on the pitch down parts, but actually pretty interesting the more you hear it.

What could be improved:
I know you said you didn't have much time to work on it... So I'd like to see this filled out into a fuller song. You could still work on it ?? Regardless, I'm glad you were able to enter!
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Re: Sunvox Compo #1 - Official Competition Thread

Post by SolarLune »

Hey, thanks, organic. There's still some things to improve on. I made it on Windows XP 32-bit.
beefinator
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Re: Sunvox Compo #1 - Official Competition Thread

Post by beefinator »

What do you have against beefinator? :) Lol, just kidding, I kind of agree.

I dunno, my name is angus and so I made my youtube account like 2-3 years ago "beefinator14" (would you believe beefinator was taken?!)
My other default username on teh internets is "sciguy", like my gmail. Not much better, IMO. :no:

Edit: I thought of "pulsewidth" as a possible new name. It's got connotations with lofi music, like pulse waves on gameboys :) . And it's got the technical electronics connotation, like PWM, for example the synth I'm making has an analog output by PWM thru a lowpass filter.
I think it also sounds kinda cool.
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organic io
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Re: Sunvox Compo #1 - Official Competition Thread

Post by organic io »

beefinator wrote: Edit: I thought of "pulsewidth" as a possible new name. It's got connotations with lofi music, like pulse waves on gameboys :) . And it's got the technical electronics connotation, like PWM, for example the synth I'm making has an analog output by PWM thru a lowpass filter.
I think it also sounds kinda cool.
I like it! The only problem is it's a common term, so other people may have already used it too. My suggestion is before you commit to it, give the internet a good search and see how many (if any) other people are using it for a music alias.
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Re: Sunvox Compo #1 - Official Competition Thread

Post by beefinator »

meh, google searches resulted nothing when I checked earlier

but durrrr, I didnt check soundcloud, there's already a pulsewidth.
I guess I'll keep thinking... :oops:
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organic io
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Re: Sunvox Compo #1 - Official Competition Thread

Post by organic io »

beefinator wrote:meh, google searches resulted nothing when I checked earlier

but durrrr, I didnt check soundcloud, there's already a pulsewidth.
I guess I'll keep thinking... :oops:
One idea is to still keep pulsewidth, but add another word to it that will make it unique. That's kind of what I did with my name

"pulsewidth bandit"
"pulsewidth maniac"
... etc :)
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Re: Sunvox Compo #1 - Official Competition Thread

Post by beefinator »

No offense, but I think I'll pass on "pulsewidth maniac"... :D

And by the way, I'll probably send you my vote for the compo today, I haven't gotten a chance to look at the sunvox files yet.
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Re: Sunvox Compo #1 - Official Competition Thread

Post by menthes »

organic io wrote:Your timeline view is utter simplicity.. Makes it appear lot more linear like older trackers. Which is neither good nor bad. Just observing
that's the idea. :) every note and command is in one view, so one can see how each part interacts with the next.
organic io wrote:The drums. Particularly the snare just doesn't sound right.
you're correct. the drumsynth would have been a better choice. c'est la vie.:oops:
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Re: Sunvox Compo #1 - Official Competition Thread

Post by Zhuinden »

menthes wrote:
organic io wrote:Your timeline view is utter simplicity.. Makes it appear lot more linear like older trackers. Which is neither good nor bad. Just observing
that's the idea. :) every note and command is in one view, so one can see how each part interacts with the next.
That layout must help a lot with the actual creation of the music, I believe.

By the way.. I'm in love with the melody at 1:50 to 2:10. :)
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Re: Sunvox Compo #1 - Official Competition Thread

Post by organic io »

So far I have received votes from 3 competitors. Still need votes from ChippyMunk, spurkopf, SolarLune, and myself (I think I can do something about that one...) ...

Voting deadline is November 7!!!
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Re: Sunvox Compo #1 - Official Competition Thread

Post by organic io »

We have a problem....

Nightradio just informed me that there was one more competitor. Apparently his email to me dropped automatically to my spam folder and I didn't notice it because it didn't have anything in the title that would indicate that it was not spam.

The artist's name is "prestonsands" and the track is called "torque"... And can be downloaded here:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/xqxws0

I'm really sorry about this everyone...

I want to include everyone if possible. Is everyone OK with a re-vote? I can add time to the voting deadline and I will add his song to the bandcamp page and the votepack. Please make sure to go listen to his song!
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Re: Sunvox Compo #1 - Official Competition Thread

Post by organic io »

OK, prestonsands' track is up...

Please make sure to check it out and consider it when voting. It is on the bandcamp page:
http://sunvoxcompo.bandcamp.com/album/sunvox-compo-1

And also in the revised votepack:
http://www.loopproject.com/filebase/sdc ... evised.rar
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Re: Sunvox Compo #1 - Official Competition Thread

Post by beefinator »

Will do, it sucks when stuff gets put in spam that's not spam.

Especially important stuff like the email I got that told me that I had been issued an ATM card worth 2.8 million dollars! :D
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Re: Sunvox Compo #1 - Official Competition Thread

Post by SawZer »

beefinator wrote:Will do, it sucks when stuff gets put in spam that's not spam.

Especially important stuff like the email I got that told me that I had been issued an ATM card worth 2.8 million dollars! :D
LOL
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