Voting for Composition Challenge 25

stratman3142

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 #25

VOTING AND DATES

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)

Voting ends midnight 14th April 2019, and the top three will be announced shortly after.

REMINDER OF GUIDELINES

The theme for this one is: "Music for a superhero movie". 

PLAYLIST

Below is the playlist of entries:

Each entrant has also provided a picture, which becomes a bit bigger if you click on the individual track in the Soundcloud playlist.

https://soundcloud.com/thefretboard/sets/composition-challenge-25-2019-03

Bezzer

There's some really nice variation here, really enjoyed listening to all the tracks.

When I saw this challenge I didn't read it as "theme" but rather "music from" ... music that would fit within and be thematically appropriate ... so that's kind of how I listened to these pieces so ....

5 points @Fretwired - just perfect, took me back to the early 90s with its vibe.

3 points @stratman3142 - reminded me of the sort of thing Brad Fiedel used to create.

1 point @poopot - funky, got me dancing ... got me funny looks at my desk.

Loved all the tracks, just those ones stood out to me in the way I viewed the challenge.  Nice work all though!

flying_pie

As is customary in these threads I shall explain my working.

I had originally planned a dramatic classical meets rock piece inspired by what might be the Endgame battle for Avengers Infinity War part 2... Dark classical for Thanos with more uplifting heavy rock for the good guys. But I discovered Bezzer had already recorded something awesome in that genre while I was still composing and there was no need for a poor imitation.

So I decided instead to write something for a parody movie with a retro vibe. The type of thing Trey Parker and Matt Stone might do if it hadn't already been done in Deadpool so it had to be about yet another generic superhero . The 70s kitsch main riff wrote itself quickly along with the Destiny's Child meets Shaft intro and silly lyrics. The attempted husky soul vocals were recorded with no vocal warm up at 10pm on a Friday night for maximum natural distortion.

It was originally mastered to authentic ear bleedingly deafening cinema superhero movie sound levels™ but decided it would be kinder to tone it down so it would just be fairly loud within the playlist.


Can't wait to listen to the playlist on the way home and see what you've all come up with. 

Bezzer

Oh yes, the explanation bit!  You can tell I've not done one of these for a while!

I'd had this little piano motif I came up with about an hour before the challenge was posted, I mean convenient right?  I thought it could go somewhere suitable so tried to expand on it.  First thing that came to mind was John Williams comment "if you want something to sound heroic, use brass" so that settled how the "theme" would sit in the piece.  Theme used loosely there as I'd imagined the piece playing over section of a movie, a realisation .. a build up ... a battle ... and then remorse.

I tried to think about how Danny Elfman would stack layers and layers of instrumentation all providing counter melodies to build a whole, how John Carpenter would use space, how Tyler Bates would smash you in the face with a hammer ... then using all this to build repeated motifs that would track through the piece.   It took a while to piece together but I think I'm happy with the results.

Got to say though, mixing it was a challenge and I wish to some extent I'd used ensemble samples and hadn't programmed every bloody instrument individually ... I'm not sure the end result has benefited from it.

Oh and the name ... well, the piano motif looked like running horses on the MIDI roll ... and I am that childish so ...

Really fun challenge though, and as I said, I'm so impressed with what everyone produced and the variety it spawned.

poopot

All very cinematic chaps!!!!!

Listened a couple of times through and love all of them... votes wise.

5pts @stratman3142 - deffo the cinematic opening sequence...
3pts @flying_pie - love it... southparksuperhero all day long... 
1pt @Bezzer - can picture the end credits rolling over this!...

a tough choice to be to be honest as all are really good!.

stratman3142

Some info on my composition.

As I wanted an "Action" sound, I ran through presets in NI Action Strings and found a couple I liked, which served as inspiration and a starting point. Then I started playing around with presets in NI Action Strikes for dramatic percussive sounds.

The NI Action String preset patterns were later replaced with manually programmed parts from NI String Ensemble to create a similar effect but with more variation and customisation. These were a mixture of Spiccato and Sustain Sting Ensemble parts with Cellos and String Bass added as well.

It seems to me that the dramatic orchestral movie scores often have horns, so I wrote some parts and used NI Brass Ensemble for the horns.

I wasn't thinking of any particular superhero, but the string parts brought to mind a ticking clock, especially as I'd left Reaper at its default tempo of 120 bpm. That gave me the idea of a superhero that could manipulate time to change events.

I found a VST online called Minimal Clock and used that to create ticking clock sounds. I also added some more clock and chiming bell sounds using NI Kinetic Metal and AAS Chromaphone. Plus some whooshing noises using NI Rise & Hit.

I kept changing my mind about a title but had an idea for a picture that had spiralling time. I created the effect using Blender 3D and it looked a bit like a twister. That led to "The Time Twister" as a name for my piece (and superhero).

DeeplyDazzled

This was a really difficult musical challenge, a bit like Brexit in the interpretation.

These were the three tunes i liked the best,

5 points  - Stratman

3 points  - Flying Pie

1 point    - Fretwired

poopot

Ok then... Spose I can try to give a splanation!!!!

Superhero theme? Gotsta have strings really. Found a sample I liked (kicks in at around 42seconds) and worked out the chords sequence to give me the guitar part (that’s repeated through most of the track).

The string sample set the tempo for the track. So I enlisted “Jessie” on drums and that gave me the groove... (007 gave me the opening guitar riff)

I used a sample for the slap bass loop and then played a similar line for the other parts...

Added a bit of clav for that 70’s cop show vibe... found a disco strings midi sample that was close enough to be happy with and set about editing it to fit...

Then widdled over the top in a min pentatonic for the putto lead part... finally called the police on my neighbour and recorded the sirens... 

And yes, that is me in the picture...

Fretwired

And Fret's vote is in ... :-)

5 points to @stratman3142 ; - now that's a proper theme tune .. thought it was great

3 points to @Bezzer - very inventive - love the different parts and the way they came together

1 point to @poopot - I liked this .. more TV than cinema, but it had a great Starsky and Hutch style vibe

stratman3142

Great entries and a lot of variation. I liked them all.

5 points @Fretwired : The most like superhero music to me. Dramatic and lots of dynamics.
3 points @Bezzer : A powerful orchestral piece building to a rocking ending.
1 point @Flying_pie : A catchy clever witty piece. Perhaps more suited to a spoof cop movie

stratman3142

Voting ends midnight 14th April 2019

flying_pie

That was really tough. There's literally nothing between the entries for me and it's entirely subjective

5 points @Bezzer as superhero music should have metal guitars and drums as well as great composition

3 points @stratman3142 as it was a great composition but lacked metal. Could easily have been 5 points if it was more metal

1 point@Fretwired for another great composition but again lacking in metal or would have scored higher

stratman3142

Voting ends at midnight tonight.

stratman3142

Voting closed.