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March Composition Challenge


lurksalot
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Well many congrats to Douglas who has landed a double and as such has the honour.

A genuine LOL when he sent this over, so I reckon it could get the juices flowing!

So without further ado, on offer for inspiration is ...........................

 

 

 

 

 Quad.jpg

 

Usual rules apply. You know the drill:

✔️ Entries must be <5 minutes and written/recorded this month.

 No illegal samples, copyright infringements or other snide goings-on

 Bagpipes. ( Christmas truce now expired) . Also on thin ice with panpipes, to be perfectly honest.

 No voting for your own entry. We'll know. And we'll shame you.

I would like to trial an extra rule this month that might, though might not, help in the voting, I'll float it in the thread . 

 

Deadline wise , we will call midnight on the 24th  (yes, you probably have till about 19.00 on the 25th, but don't let on or we will have a deluge at 18.59)

 

 

 

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What I was thinking was a simple one or two lines describing your thinking behind the composition you have posted.

now I realise that there are often some beautiful and thorough commentaries that accompany the entries , and these are still most welcome 

what I’d like to see is a short bit of wordage that could accompany the composition link in the vote thread , it would need to be relatively concise and be obvious to me so that I could copy and paste :D

Back in  the old days the track opened up in soundcloud and the wordage linked itself to the track , but with embedding , I think it misses that touch of detail that we could include.

not so much the technicalities of the track , more the story of the inspiration so to speak.

so tack a couple of lines that I haven’t got to go looking for and we’ll see if it adds any value 

😎

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13 minutes ago, lurksalot said:

Back in  the old days the track opened up in soundcloud and the wordage linked itself to the track , but with embedding , I think it misses that touch of detail that we could include.

Indeed Lurks...I miss the comments (if you got any !), that appeared throughout the track on soundcloud .

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No point in hanging about like the bod in the picture, so...

Here is my contribution to the March 2021 Basschat Composition Challenge, inspired by a picture chosen by the previous winner: Myself..!
I wanted a sort of 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra' idea behind a Viennese waltz, to build up some suspense, without going too far overboard. I ended up with a simple enough theme, slightly developed, leading to the inevitable outcome seen in the picture. It was all going so well until...
The chord sequence was established first, then run through my 'Band In A Box' suite, to flesh it out. From that, I've used the MIDI to pilot the Ruby upright bass, a full-blown Kontakt Pearl piano, an Ample Sound Light acoustic guitar and Kontakt Orchestral Strings. The 'solo' instruments are from the same Kontakt Orchestral suite: oboe, bassoon and contra-bassoon, and were composed and played on my M-Audio Keystation Mini 32 keyboard. Drums are BFD3 (unusually, for me...), with added cymbal swells and timpani from divers samples, along with the final cheeky 'Tonton Flingueurs' touch, suggested by Our Youngest. All recorded and mixed using Reaper, as usual, with a spot of Ozone for light mastering. That's it..!
Thanks for listening, if you already have; if you're about to, enjoy.

 

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OK, I'm in for this month.  Saw the pic & figured it had to be something mechanical.  Created a bass sound on Equator2 & another on Serum.  Got some vocal samples off Splice that I felt fitted the image & put them together to form some sort of track.

The drums are a mix of heavily processed samples & then I needed to make a wee break.  Surge synth provides the organ sound.

So the quad biker is the lady singing the song.  She  jumps from the top of the hill & feels on top of the world.  Hears a clink & feels like a drop-in.

It's very much deep house & the bass doesn't work on small speakers or phones, so all you'll hear is the drums on there.  I might go back to it & add/alter if I get time.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I’m not far off with mine now , I’ve sketched it out , recorded a draft , and put lots of bits of playing together to get 3minutes .

Having done that, I then have to learn what I have just put together so that I can actually play it 😁

oh , and sing it , we have words this month 9_9

 

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2 hours ago, lurksalot said:

we have words this month

Hurrah!

You'll be pleased to hear I've made no attempts at "singing".

Though we do have a phat bass groove dribbling with Future Impact and lots of much weirder bass synth noises all rolled in my new Dub Delay vst...

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57 minutes ago, Leonard Smalls said:

Hurrah!

You'll be pleased to hear I've made no attempts at "singing".

Though we do have a phat bass groove dribbling with Future Impact and lots of much weirder bass synth noises all rolled in my new Dub Delay vst...

I was going to ask the warbler from the old band , but he's had a bad throat and hasn't got around to singing last months entry yet :D

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Here is my entry for this month.  I'm going for my Covid jab this afternoon and if I don't feel too bad after I might tweak it a bit.

The inspiration for this is fairly straightforward - live for the moment and wait for it all to go wrong.  I started with the lyrics and they more or less dictated an  80s AC/DC style song.  Unfortunately I can't sing like Brian and I can't play like Angus but in parts it's what I wanted.

As usual recorded in Cubase.  The guitars are an Epiphone ES339 chosen as it  is a close to a PAF as I have, and the bass is a Squier 70s CV PB - all through Amplitube.  The vocals are a single recording duplicated on two channels panned L and R with different EQ to see if I could fill out my dodgy voice a bit.

 

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The fact that the wheels have fallen off struck me as an exhortation to take to 2 wheels. Which for me means riding about on sweeping sunny roads on a 1000cc classic Italian Vtwin, so we have a lazy, not rushed beat, with a faint air of mild threat (as the film classification board would say) caused by the racket, the leather and the armadillo in the trousers.

Now the final layer of varnish has dried, here it is - enjoy, or not!

 

For those who are interested, the bass is a single track, and as usual, a single 1st take (can yer tell😁)  - it's my Wal with a blend of clean and Future Impact dialled mainly into the bottom frequencies. Most of the other noises are (apart from the piano and EZ Drums featuring Jabo Sparks) bass with either ridiculous Future Impact noises and my new Dub Delay VST, or bass and octaver through Bias FX. Sequence sounds are from Isotope Iris 2, and all has been lightly polished with Ozone 9.

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I don't think I can polish mine any further and I've run out of glitter as well !

This one seems fairly self explanatory with the title, but the lyric, which while describing the event pictured, can also relate to my latest apprentice who has found his wings after 5 years, and has flown the nest as it were, ah well, just gotta break in a new one I guess :D 

Technically , Ez drummer holds it down , I plonk the low end on my Gordon Smith with a bit of doubler and chorus , an Ibby 6er through a couple of Waves GTR3 presets ( I think I've found my fave now) a couple of forays with some odd delay FX and of course , by huge demand , the voice of an angel delivering the tale .*

enjoy 

 

 

* it took about 40 vocal takes to this level of perfection 

Spoiler

Take the best advice, and learn from the pros

Learn your trade from the guy that really knows .

If you’ve done it well, you can bet  it shows

You be set for what the future throws.

 

 Somethings that you do, you will have to choose

Taking your chances of getting bruised

Fly the coop and you’ll make the news

Just make sure that your nuts aren’t loose

 Leap of faith

Leap of faith

 From the frying pan into the fire

Use the hunger and feed the desire

Faster and faster , higher and higher

You’ll Sell your soul to the best paying buyer

 

Leap of faith

Leap of faith

 

Edited by lurksalot
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I'm in again this month.......

/start of wordage for the voting thread/

The phrase "two wheels better" came to mind, in my case meaning bicycle rather than motorbike. The lyrics evolved to be from a female protagonist to subvert the old trope of a woman being interested in someone with a flash car.

The Orwellian origin of the phrase led me toward the politically charged musical area of post-punk a la Gang of Four, Au Pairs etc. Not sure if I got there!

/end of wordage for the voting thread/

 

/start of boring technical details for those interested/

Studio one DAW. Drums programmed by piano roll in a bundled Studio One kit. Live bass (old Vantage P bass). Live guitars (new Squier Tele). Keys played in via Akai miniPlay with a bundled sound from studio one. Bit of live tambourine. Vocals.

/end of boring technical details for those interested/

Lyrics in spoiler

Spoiler

Don't talk about your car cos I don't want to know

Two wheels will take you where four cannot go

She Said: Four wheels are bad, Two wheels are better

 

Wind up your window, pull your elbow in

I don't need no air conditioning

 

Nought to Sixty does nothing for me

Riding through the air is the way to be free

Riding through the air come on do it with me

 

Don't talk about your car cos I don't want to know

Two wheels will get you where four cannot go

Riding through the air is the way to be free

come come come on and do it with me

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Nail Soup
add lyrics
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On 19/03/2021 at 14:26, Nicko said:

Here is my entry for this month.  I'm going for my Covid jab this afternoon and if I don't feel too bad after I might tweak it a bit.

The inspiration for this is fairly straightforward - live for the moment and wait for it all to go wrong.  I started with the lyrics and they more or less dictated an  80s AC/DC style song.  Unfortunately I can't sing like Brian and I can't play like Angus but in parts it's what I wanted.

As usual recorded in Cubase.  The guitars are an Epiphone ES339 chosen as it  is a close to a PAF as I have, and the bass is a Squier 70s CV PB - all through Amplitube.  The vocals are a single recording duplicated on two channels panned L and R with different EQ to see if I could fill out my dodgy voice a bit.

 

This track has now been modified.  I've updated some of the guitar parts where the timing was iffy and pushed the vocals up in the mix as suggested by @lurksalot, although I'm not entirely sure I haven't made the vocals worse if that's possible, and in the end messing with my vocal is polishing the proverbial turd anyway.

Edited by Nicko
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It's 1957 again.

And following Lurk's suggestion I turned the vocals up.

Lyrics ↓↓

Spoiler

I was walking along without a care
Policeman said ‘What you doing there?’
He threw me in the cruiser, gonna take me for a ride
Went about ten feet then down on one side

Because the wheels came off
the wheels came off
the wheels came off - Can’t just put ‘em back on.

The house was rockin there was a knock at my door
Man standin there carrying a .44
Went out the window down the fire escape
hopped on my scooter to make my break


But the wheels came off
the wheels came off
the wheels came off - Can’t just put ‘em back on.

Now I was running for city mayor
You know I was the front runner there
I bribed the judge stuffed every ballot box
Election night they said - Man, you lost

Because the wheels came off
the wheels came off
the wheels came off - Can’t just put ‘em back on.

No, I ain’t got AAA – I’m just gonna have to get myself a wrench.
Yeah, they come right off, all the way down to the axle

 


 


 

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10 hours ago, Nicko said:

This isn't the bad jokes thread y'know.

You haven't heard it yet!!

I have actually cobbled something together tonight. It's rather odd, and not gone where I expected. At all. 

I'll listen again tomorrow and see if it's worth posting or fettling a bit more. The good news for Dad is there's plenty of crunchy drums in there, along with Steve Hillage on Mogadon...

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