The Challenge May 2011

Renesongs

Jacquesg4j wrote: -Music Moods-

It was great to see so many entries in the last few challenges and I feel that a lot of it was because of the great topics that were chosen to keep the field open to most of the Formites... I would like to continue on the openness with the following idea...

... As I listened to the Emotional Compositions of the last challenge I could always see some picture or scenario that was triggered by the songs. I could see Dr. Gray from Grey's anatomy crying after losing a patient while some of your songs were playing in the background or Michael Scofield on Prison Break planning something while listening to our compositions. And as we all know music plays a huge role in setting the atmosphere for certain occasions...

SO for this month’s challenge, you have to first create a visual scenario for us to imagine in our heads, and then create a musical piece that would set the mood for that. Basically your entry has to be accompanied by text to create the scenario. Here are a few examples of scenarios (you can use them if you want or create your own):

1) Grant is a 25 year old bachelor that visited Vegas to get drunk and gamble out all of his money because he hardly had money left in the first place. He neither had hope or confidence left... But then things started to change. He got lucky in the Casino and won $20 mil. He is driving his beat up Dodge pickup, cruising down the highway, knowing he has a new beginning and he is ready to take the world by storm.

2) David and his wife Rebecca were trying to have a kid for 10 years and after they realised that they were getting old, they decided to apply for adoption. They became the foster parents of Caylee, a beautiful 5 year old girl with brown hair and the biggest brown eyes you have ever seen. Two weeks before Caylee's 7th birthday the couple was severely traumatised after Caylee was only given 1 month to live after being diagnosed with leukaemia. After many treatments Caylee passed away and the couple was devastated when the doctor gave them the news in the waiting area of the hospital.

Closing Date is 23:59:59 Wed 25 May 2011

guitarboy2828

Could I make a suggestion and say that we limit it to these 2 stories? The reason I say that is because otherwise it becomes very hard to judge again, because I can make up any story that fits any guitar part. But, with it being just 2 stories, it will show people's skills and interpretative abilities and it'll also aid in voting.

Just a suggestion, not even sure if it can be changed once it's been posted.

Jacquesg4j

I was going to do that but then I didn't have time to dish out more scenarios. But okay let's do that then we keep it to those 2?

Warren

Nice one Jacques, will give this a go ?

PeteM

Mmmm... I might enter both... am I allowed to?

guitarboy2828

PeteM wrote: Mmmm... I might enter both... am I allowed to?

Great idea Pete! ?

Jacquesg4j

I suppose you can enter both? I remember I have seen people enter 2 times before?

Bob-Dubery

Jacquesg4j wrote: I suppose you can enter both? I remember I have seen people enter 2 times before?

The voting allows you to vote for X-rated Bob but not "this entry by X-rated Bob"

So the only way a person could enter multiple times is to have multiple user-Ids on GFSA.

PeteM

Oh well, looks I'll have to register under another name. Things could get complicated... I might even have an argument with myself. ?

Squonk

PeteM wrote: . I might even have an argument with myself. ?

? I have seen XRB argue with himself with just one Profile!

Renesongs

I have no problem with anyone submitting more than one entry . In the voting you would become JoeSoap-1 and JoeSoap-2. The problem is that you would be competing against yourself and therefore splitting your vote which again I don't think is bad because this challenge is more about entering and putting your work out there than winning or losing.

Highway-Chile

How are the entries coming...is everyone hard at work?

I have not even begun to begin.......you may have to "Begin The Beguine" mitt out me .......LOL!

So, are some of you moving along nicely with tracks?

Squonk

I have composed a piece on Nylon, now to arrange for acoustic. I think I will be doing a one track entry this time.

Jacquesg4j

I've been trying out things but I don't even know for which one of the 2 I am going for! Will probably do it tomorrow! I only have time on Fridays for those!

Heath

haha write a tune that blends from the one to the other to tell the story of two very differents lives

deefstes

Righty-ho, mine is in. I actually really enjoyed working with the tune I eventually came up with.

One thing is for sure though, I'm gonna have to look at my setup and find something more suitable for recording. Audacity is a great piece of software but the latency issues I'm getting is just beyond belief! And the quality I get from rigging a guitar into an amp and then the amp into my laptop's line in jack is pretty poor. Any suggestions as to what I might want to look at would be most welcome.

Anyways, looking forward to next Thursday so I can hear the other entries. I love this game. ?

Jacquesg4j

Hahaha deefstes I think so far you are flying solo!!

Bob-Dubery

deefstes wrote: Righty-ho, mine is in. I actually really enjoyed working with the tune I eventually came up with.

One thing is for sure though, I'm gonna have to look at my setup and find something more suitable for recording. Audacity is a great piece of software but the latency issues I'm getting is just beyond belief! And the quality I get from rigging a guitar into an amp and then the amp into my laptop's line in jack is pretty poor. Any suggestions as to what I might want to look at would be most welcome.

The latency is not really an Audacity issue. It's do with the interaction between the operating system and the audio devices on your PC. You might try experimenting with different combinations of input and output devices in the Audacity setup.

Try to figure out exactly what the problem is so that you don't spend money on nice toys that will still leave you with a latency problem.

Try installing the latest drivers for your sound card first.

deefstes

X-rated Bob wrote: The latency is not really an Audacity issue. It's do with the interaction between the operating system and the audio devices on your PC. You might try experimenting with different combinations of input and output devices in the Audacity setup.

Try to figure out exactly what the problem is so that you don't spend money on nice toys that will still leave you with a latency problem.

Try installing the latest drivers for your sound card first.

Aha, thanks. Yes, I will continue to fiddle around until things start making better sense. I'm due for a new laptop sometime soon so hopefully that will make life easier already.

Speaking of laptops, if I'm going to shop for a laptop I'd like to take into consideration that which needs taking into consideration for home recording. What are the things that make one computer better suited for recording than another?

G-Man

Hey deefstes

I had exactly the same issues with audacity and latency, what I record with now is reaper and asio4all (you can google that for the download) my latencies are really good for what I need, 5.6/5.8 ms after a bit of tweaking (If that's no good I can't tell ?) . There are some tutorials to set it up it's very straight forward.

Then once you have reaper installed you can start messing with vst's and stuff for effects.