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. ----------------------------------------------------------
(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 secsDo something crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please see all the entries uploaded on SoundCloud below.
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Old Is Gold
Comments
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
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 .. :-)
Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
@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.
Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
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.
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.
Remember, it's easier to criticise than create!
“Theory is something that is written down after the music has been made so we can explain it to others”– Levi Clay
@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 .