Composition Challenge #7 - Voting

Antique_Guitars

Hi Everyone,

This is the combined Voting and Discussion thread.

Thanks to all that entered the competition.

Please use this thread to cast your votes for your favourite entries to Fretboard Challenge #7.
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Voting System - voters can pick their top 3 favourite entries.

First choice gets 5 points - Second choice gets 3 points - Third choice gets 1 point

Entry with the most points wins.

Simply post in this thread your top three choices for winner in order, 1st choice first etc etc.

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(Note for Entrants of the competition: Self Voting is NOT Allowed)


The winner will be announced just before midnight on the 31st March, voting will close at 11.30pm on that day.

(you can edit your vote up to the time voting closes)

A reminder of the competition Guidlines:

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Lets face it, The Blues, much like cricket gets pretty boring after a while so........................ lets try and weird it out a little bit!

Basically make the weirdest most tripped out pschedelic mess of a blues tracks that you can!

Maximum time limit is 3 mins 30 secs

Do something crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Please see all the entries uploaded on SoundCloud below.



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Antique_Guitars

If you don't see your submission uploaded please let me know.

steamabacus

I'm looking forward to listening to these.



My track features guest 'vocalists' Ralph Richardson and Fiona Fullerton, extracted (and mangled) from this clip here .......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP_QYfODjW0

Fretwired

@steamabacus - I like your track .. there are a few I think are excellent. I will listen again before voting.

I tried to record my acoustic guitar with a Zoom recorder but it ended up too lo-fi so a sample of a record needle, hitting a pad on my NI Maschine for the soapbox and the excellent free iZotope Vinyl plugin ( download here: https://www.izotope.com/vinyl ) for a real nasty 78 rpm record sound resulted in instant old vinyl mode - vocals courtesy of Computer Music samples - add some Son House and John Lee Hooker samples and a Strat, Squire bass, midi keyboard and a drum loop and away we went .. :-)

dindude

Just had a first listen and the standard is impressive, not a duffer in there. Amazed at how many ideas tie through, lots of dubby bass, hip hop drums, fuzzy guitars, and spoken word. It actually hangs together as an album pretty well!

Will need a few more listens before voting.

Fretwired

My votes are in .. I've listened to everything a few times and for me there was a clear winner but ranking the others was tough .. the standard is very high.

@dindude .. 5 points - great funky psychedelic blues track

@mrchi .. 3 points  - very inventive .. loved the mash up of styles

@steamabacus .. 1 point .. another top track that fits the bill


Special mention to @chuffola .. great track although I thought it wasn't as psychedelic as some of the others.

xmrchi

@Fretwired thanks bud, that's made my day!

dindude

Thanks @fretwired I think I got the sum total of 3 points in the 80's challenge so im ahead of that already!

Antique_Guitars

Good solid 10 entrants this time which is great

kin

My votes go to:

@mrchi....wow, I wasn't expecting to hear anything like this, excellent, should be on the radio.

@dindude....could quite easily have been first place, I could listen to this sort of thing all day long, touch of Black Grape in there, which is right up my alley

@chuffola.... lovely hypnotic, relaxed vibe

I was happy with my entry until I heard the rest, really impressed with the standard of all the entries, I find it very inspiring, makes me want to go and make more music.

Chuffola

Thanks @kin and @fretwired for the nice comments.

I'll get a good listen to these later but on first listen the standard is awfully high!

xmrchi

@kin Wow cheers bud, it still needs some polishing but nearly there, thanks for the great comment

Chuffola

Right, very difficult choices!

First place for me is @Lev - this one was the only one, I think, that totally grabbed both the psychedelic and the blues parts. Very good - enjoyed the slide too!

Second place was a coin toss and it came up heads for @dindude - brilliant track, really enjoyed it. 

Third place was @steamabacus - loved the Alice in Wonderland samples and the general vibe.

Special mention to @mrchi - your entry is superb! Just felt the others better fulfilled the brief but if this was a "submit anything you like" challenge, you'd have won hands down.  Sorry if that seems harsh!!

PolarityMan

@DulcetJones - The Ghost in my Guitar

Love the bass drum sound, the guitar dissonance gives this a really spooky feel at times. I know you have said before that you write "spooky music" and I think this kinda fits your description.

The lead part was a little buried in the mix at times and I thought as a whole there could have beens ome structural variation in the other instruments..or perhaps just leave it as it is but make the track short and sweet.

As it was I felt it went on for a little too long.

@Stewel10 - Psych Blues

Love the riff, but it gets buried almost immediately by the lead part. Would be great to tweak the levels a little and maybe EQ the parts so both bits can be heard nicely. The doubling pitchshifted bit sounds great but was less keen on the reverby lead sound.

The clean part at 2:17 is a really nice change in the track, changing the drum part up a bit and brinigng the rhythm guitar back louder would amke the impact even bigger when the full arrangement kicks in again.

@SteamAbacus - Alice Blues

Nice groovy bass lines and the vocal samples are great, funnily enough it's the kind of repeated breathy noises / moans that I like even more than the more coherent samples.

The lead guitar isnt too fussy and compleemtns the track and the whole thing has a really paranoid feel to it.

Great work.

@Dindude - Blues is my drug

The backing for this one feels pretty hippity-hoppity which fits well with the samples, solo sounds preoprly bluesy without being too self indulgent, I'm also a sucker for wah so bonus points for that as well.

@chuffola - Aint Funny

Really moody groove to this one, I found it pretty atmospheric but not necesarily that bluesy but I don't think that detracts from the track.

I could imagine this one with vocals pretty easily with the current structure but again with no vocals could maybe be cut down a little.

@Mrchi - Absolute Star

Did you do the rap? Like your last submission this is so completely different from everything else it's hard to compare.... which is a great thing. For this one I'd actually be tempted to drop the solo guitar though and let the song carry itself. Either that or drop it down to a repeated hook. The female vocal also doesn't fit the mix as nicely as the rapped vocals.

All in all sounds pretty pro though and some great non-guitar sounds in there.

@Daveww - Freak Blues

Love the low synth vox in the beginning. The lead guitar was really loud where I think you could have left a bit more room for the rest of the track to breathe. I feel like a less abrasive tone, perhaps more bassy would have fitted better into the track too.

Short and punchy to the point though, the lead guitar part itself didnt out stay it's welcome which is great.

Left you wanting more.

@Lev - Psycho Blues

This sounds like proper blues, great slide, great lead guitar. I think authentic is the best way to describe the track. The organ sounds I think jsut about elevates this into psychadelic territroy but I could see this working as a plain blues entry too. Regardless it sounds great.

@Fretwired - Blooze

Nice bass drum sound, the bass is super-low, this intially felt a little too sparse but worked better as the track preogressed and the other elements came in.

Another one with lots of sample..I guess everyone must associate being psychadelic with samples The change of feel when the pad comes in towards the end was pretty nice, the end felt a tad abrupt.

PolarityMan

The quality seems to get higher and higher each time round with these so picking was really hard but these are the ones that I liked the most. TBH depending on my mood the standings order could easily have been different but....

1st: @SteamAbacus

2nd: @Lev

3rd: @Stewel10

xmrchi

@Chuffola Thanks bud, and I totally agree!! 

@PolarityMan Brilliaint write up on all the songs, Constructive criticiym which is always welcome and I def agree it needs some more work  

My votes:  

@Chuffola     1

@Lev            2

@PolarityMan 3

PolarityMan

Not much work though, I think just the finessing.Ironically it's that parts of it are so well done that the bits that even have the slightest lack of polish stand out a little bit more if you see what I mean. All in all it sounded great though.

Fretwired

@PolarityMan .. thanks for the feedback .. :-)

xmrchi

@PolarityMan Totally saw what you mean, and tbh I agree, the female vox need to be re mixed in, and the solo; your, right does take away from the groove :-)

DulcetJones

Thanks @PolarityMan  for the comments,  and thanks to everybody else that submitted entries, as has been pointed out there 's  some  serious talent here.

kin

@PolarityMan,

 Thanks for the vote and even more so for your helpful comments, your not the first to say the lead was too far forward in the mix and I should  have let the main riff carry the piece for longer , rather than drown it with too much lead .