Voting For Composition Challenge 36

stratman3142 · November 2022

This is the combined Voting and Discussion thread.

Please use this thread to cast your votes for your favourite entries to Fretboard Composition Challenge

REMINDER OF THE THEME/GUIDELINES

The alliterative theme for this one is: Murder Mystery Movie Music.

Interpret the theme as you wish. To encourage entries the theme isn't mandatory, but you might get more votes if you do something that's in some way linked to the theme. That depends on how individuals choose to vote.

Compose a tune, or recycle something you've composed previously.

Picture: In addition to the music, try to create your own picture that relates to your selected theme/title. This isn't mandatory.

VOTING AND DATES

Voting System - voters can pick their favourite entries.

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

The 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 November 2022, and the results will be announced shortly after.

No prizes, it's just for fun.

THE ENTRIES

Below is a playlist containing the entries:

https://soundcloud.com/thefretboard/sets/composition-challenge-36?si=4c9082868ce644f7a2c9772cb0cce59f&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

stratman3142 · November 2022

Btw. If anyone has any good ideas for the next theme, that will hopefully encourage entries, I'd appreciate your suggestions.

monquixote · November 2022

stratman3142 said:

Btw. If anyone has any good ideas for the next theme, that will hopefully encourage entries, I'd appreciate your suggestions.

Blues noodling

I'm going to try and pull my finger out and enter next time, the entries on this one are great!

Springywheel · November 2022

Themes... How about a 'song' made up of found sounds? So no 'proper' instruments. The challenge would be to make something musical using samples of things within your environment. Not sure it'd encourage many entries though, ha.

Or a song where your voice mimics every instrument - basically acapella, with beatboxing in place of the drums

. Instead of beatboxing you can record the drum parts separately and arrange patterns in your sequencer (snare - "dsh", kick - "boom", hats - "tsh", shaker - "tss" etc. etc.)

Or a combination of the two above...

flying_pie · November 2022

Springywheel said:

Or a song where your voice mimics every instrument - basically acapella, with beatboxing in place of the drums . Instead of beatboxing you can record the drum parts separately and arrange patterns in your sequencer (snare - "dsh", kick - "boom", hats - "tsh", shaker - "tss" etc. etc.)

Or a combination of the two above...

I did that a while back in the Covers Challenge - a mashup of UB40 and Bobby McFerrin entirely acapella with beatboxing. I try not to have musical regrets but I still struggle to listen to it if it ever pops up in my SoundCloud. it's virtually impossible to tune the drums and in my case the "bass" really clashed when it came in. It appears to take a huge amount of skill to get that right and I take my hat off to the likes of Beardyman who make it sound so easy.

Another idea for a theme could be to write a National anthem for a fictional place. Another could be to write your entry for Eurovision 2023. Another could be to write a new song for a defunct act - Beatles/Skynyrd/etc

stratman3142 · November 2022

flying_pie said:

Another idea for a theme could be to write a National anthem for a fictional place...

The national anthem idea has already been done. Below is a blast from the past:

https://thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/104079/voting-composition-challenge-17-this-is-sealand#latest

Springywheel · November 2022

flying_pie said:

Springywheel said:

Or a song where your voice mimics every instrument - basically acapella, with beatboxing in place of the drums . Instead of beatboxing you can record the drum parts separately and arrange patterns in your sequencer (snare - "dsh", kick - "boom", hats - "tsh", shaker - "tss" etc. etc.)

Or a combination of the two above...

. it's virtually impossible to tune the drums and in my case the "bass" really clashed when it came in.

Theres a plugin by waves called Torque that helps with this; I try not to use anything by them but I don't think there's any other plugin like it (other than pitchmap but I can't justify the cost) It basically shows all the fundamentals and overtones in real time and you can tune those to frequencies that correspond to different keys.

Habanero · November 2022

Springywheel said:

flying_pie said:

Springywheel said:

Or a song where your voice mimics every instrument - basically acapella, with beatboxing in place of the drums . Instead of beatboxing you can record the drum parts separately and arrange patterns in your sequencer (snare - "dsh", kick - "boom", hats - "tsh", shaker - "tss" etc. etc.)

Or a combination of the two above...

. it's virtually impossible to tune the drums and in my case the "bass" really clashed when it came in.

Theres a plugin by waves called Torque that helps with this; I try not to use anything by them but I don't think there's any other plugin like it (other than pitchmap but I can't justify the cost) It basically shows all the fundamentals and overtones in real time and you can tune those to frequencies that correspond to different keys.

I’m now wondering why you try to avoid Waves?

Snap · November 2022

5 pts - @oaf loved this, all the arrangement, and I could picture this in a film like Knives Out. Ace.
3pts - @Springywheel ;
1pt - @stratman3142 ;

Entries thin on the ground this time, enjoyed them all though.

Theme for next time - Blaxploitation. I'm thinking Shaft, Superfly, something like that?

flying_pie · November 2022

stratman3142 said:

flying_pie said:

Another idea for a theme could be to write a National anthem for a fictional place...

The national anthem idea has already been done. Below is a blast from the past:

https://thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/104079/voting-composition-challenge-17-this-is-sealand#latest

There could be a slight twist - people could choose any fictional place - e.g. their own concept or take inspiration from a pre-existing place such as Asgard/Endor/Eurasia/somewhere in Game Of Thrones/whatever

Springywheel · November 2022

I like the blaxploitation idea.

@Habanero well, briefly, I'm not a fan of the update plan... I owned loads of their plugins and it got to the point where I was being charged extortionate amounts just to make the plugins functional. The installation system is a mess as well.

oaf · November 2022

I enjoyed listening to all of these, judging is tough as they're all so different.

5 points @Snap - Yes. Strong start, like the "less is more" arrangement and chords... the sense of "fighting to find the key" which works to unsettle. Middle third provides good contrast and moves nicely. Transition to final third slightly abrupt? I like the way you developed the melody in the final section. Good piece, don't know how murder-y mystery-y some of it is but I liked it!

3 points @Stratman3142 - MMMMurder. Ostinato strings well used to underscore the piece and fit well with the genre, possibly a bit "machine gun" though (hearing the same samples repeating a lot, but that can happen with even the best libraries). Guitar tone sounded very good, could have been a bit higher in the mix? Slight Bond vibe. I liked the return of the piano idea at the end, would have enjoyed hearing more of it in the middle of the piece perhaps.

1 points @Springwheel - Labyrinth. Dark, gloomy, grimy vibe. Nice transition around a minute or so in, really works. Middle section sounded like it would fit well in a horror film, creepy voices! I liked the last half/third before the outro but not sure how "on theme" it was? Enjoyed it though!

Blaxploitation theme would be interesting for the next one!

Thanks to all involved in contributing and organising

Snap · November 2022

oaf said:

I enjoyed listening to all of these, judging is tough as they're all so different.

5 points @Snap - Yes. Strong start, like the "less is more" arrangement and chords... the sense of "fighting to find the key" which works to unsettle. Middle third provides good contrast and moves nicely. Transition to final third slightly abrupt? I like the way you developed the melody in the final section. Good piece, don't know how murder-y mystery-y some of it is but I liked it!

3 points @Stratman3142 - MMMMurder. Ostinato strings well used to underscore the piece and fit well with the genre, possibly a bit "machine gun" though (hearing the same samples repeating a lot, but that can happen with even the best libraries). Guitar tone sounded very good, could have been a bit higher in the mix? Slight Bond vibe. I liked the return of the piano idea at the end, would have enjoyed hearing more of it in the middle of the piece perhaps.

1 points @Springwheel - Labyrinth. Dark, gloomy, grimy vibe. Nice transition around a minute or so in, really works. Middle section sounded like it would fit well in a horror film, creepy voices! I liked the last half/third before the outro but not sure how "on theme" it was? Enjoyed it though!

Blaxploitation theme would be interesting for the next one!

Thanks to all involved in contributing and organising

Thanks. Tbh, I just didn;t have time to arrange it properly. The third section especially. I'd planned a fourth and final resolving section, but hey....

Murder mystery - yeah, tenuous! Notice the horns in the final section - they were intended to have a nod to the Bond theme/Goldfinger theme, but, hmmm.... a bit wide of the mark, ha!

stratman3142 · November 2022

@oaf and @Springywheel, I'm curious how you generated your artwork.

This time I was lazy and just paid a very small amount for an image from CGTrader. Mostly I use Blender. Occasionally I use Inkscape and on rare occasions, if I'm editing a photo, I might use Gimp. I think I'll ask the same question over on poopot's Cover challenge thread.

oaf · November 2022

I went on some kind of free images site that I found via Google and searched for detective/mystery/murder or something similar, I'm afraid I didn't produce it myself and was very lazy! It's probably a bit scarier than the music suggests but time was limited

Springywheel · November 2022

I'll usually put something together in Photoshop but this time I just googled 'Labrynth' and went with the most striking image

stratman3142 · November 2022

Snap said: Theme for next time - Blaxploitation. I'm thinking Shaft, Superfly, something like that?

Springywheel said:

I like the blaxploitation idea.

oaf said:
Blaxploitation theme would be interesting for the next one!

This one's seems to be popular. I think I'll call it music for a remake of a Shaft or Superfly style film. I'm not sure of the political correctness of the term and I don't want to get cancelled

stratman3142 · November 2022

5 points: @oaf : Perfect music for a light murder mystery film on a Sunday afternoon after a roast dinner. Witty and jaunty.

3 points: @Springywheel : Heavy, menacing and bleak. Would fit one of those dark Scandinavian murder thrillers

1 point: @Snap : Epic music and I enjoyed listening to it. Not quite as murder mystery as the others but loved the sounds and ideas.

Snap · November 2022

stratman3142 said:

I'm not sure of the political correctness of the term and I don't want to get cancelled

Me neither, dunno if it's an outdated term, possibly not as it was coined (I believe) to highlight the intrinsic racism of the genre. I could be wrong on that though, not sure.

But I like the idea of 70s New York/San Francisco cop/gang/drug dealer vibe. All funk and sleaze, wah and flute. Or summat!

flying_pie · November 2022

Snap said:

stratman3142 said:

I'm not sure of the political correctness of the term and I don't want to get cancelled

Me neither, dunno if it's an outdated term, possibly not as it was coined (I believe) to highlight the intrinsic racism of the genre. I could be wrong on that though, not sure.

But I like the idea of 70s New York/San Francisco cop/gang/drug dealer vibe. All funk and sleaze, wah and flute. Or summat!

I also think it's not a cancellable term but we could just call it Shaftsploitation to err on the side of caution

stratman3142 · November 2022

Voting ends tomorrow (14th November 2022) at midnight.

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Voting For Composition Challenge 36

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