The Paul Bothner sponsored August Challenge - Category 3 [VOTE]

FruitarGeek

Here is the "Advanced" group[b] [Category 3][/b]. One vote each.

Try be tactful when commenting if you have submitted a track, you welcome to 'crit' your track as if you are an objective 3rd party to throw off the scent of the others Just try to the best of your ability to not give away too much.

[img width=600 height=200]http://guitarforum.co.za/gfsacomps/mp3s/GFSAAUG.jpg[/img]

[b]Healey [/b]"Film Noire" Picture A http://guitarforum.co.za/gfsacomps/mp3s/Healey.mp3

[b]Cobain[/b] "Chilli Blob Effect" Picture B http://guitarforum.co.za/gfsacomps/mp3s/Cobain.mp3

[i]Initially I picked "Metal" as the genre...but sitting down with picture B (Joan Miro) while recording some idea's, resulted in a little melody that spawned into : Chilli (Red line = tape stop & vocal warps), Blob (Black blobs = loops/repetition), Effect (Blue background = space/delays). Was really interesting to keep the pic as the guide during the process - not something I would have ever tried, but I'll definitely be doing it again - nice one JT![/i]

[b]Young [/b]"House of Lies" Picture A http://guitarforum.co.za/gfsacomps/mp3s/Young.mp3

[i]This was a song ive had in my 'drawer' for a long while, but when I saw picture A, I felt that it was time to finally take this song out. I had a rough version of it on my DAW, but I did some serious re-recording, editing and tweaking to get it to this point. This song is based more on the picture A itself more so than 'film noir'. The recording was pretty straight foward, although this is the first time I got to record the bass with my PreSonus preamp. [/i]

[b]Didley [/b]"De Minimus Opus" Picture B http://guitarforum.co.za/gfsacomps/mp3s/Didley.mp3

[i]I chose picture B. I puzzled over this image for a while, trying to find inspiration, and then I thought, 'if modern art were a musical genre, what would it be?'. Well, it would probably be some silly avant-garde metal/free form jazz hybrid. Relating modern art to my own playing and capabilities, I reckon it would definitely be prog rock.

So that's how I interpreted the image, and here's my entry, a little bit of prog rock based loosely on the style of Coheed and Cambria, The Mars Volta, Circa Survive and perhaps a smattering of Animals As Leaders. [/i]

*Not everyone told me which picture they are placing their song too, so I took an educated guess. If I am wrong, send me a PM and I'll rectify it.

(old forum) Poll Results: Please Vote

Healey: 3
Cobain: 3
Young: 0
Didley: 7

guitarboy2828

This one is SO hard to judge because each person interprets pictures differently, and plays differently.. But then to judge the person's interpretation based on their song is madness.. ??? ?

Amazing entries! These could all be put on audio jungle and sold, seriously, consider it! ?

Healey, you nailed Picture A (as I interpreted it). Loved the complexity of your entry, yet it was also super simple and easy to listen to!

Cobain, I was bobbing my head at work while listening to your track. Loved the funk vibe it had going. If I had to do a song based on Pic B, this is what I would've done, this is the vibe pic B sends me. Love it! ?

Young, beautiful emotion in your piece. Really enjoying the melodies. Loved the drums too, added to it very nicely. Bass sounded awesome, you nailed the tone on it!

Didley, I loved your song.. I listened to it on loop mode while doing work. LOVED the melody, also loved the amazingly fast shredding that took place. Seriously amazing talent!

FruitarGeek

Amazeballs. All these entries were on such a high level. Everyone who entered in this category, deserves to be in this category! There is no going back down now. I'm actually still stunned as to how good each and everyone was.

Healey - You won me with the most authentic sounding double bass sound, mixed with that record scratch sound. The background guitars were very well done as well. This is true to picture A. I don't have any crits for it, it was an excellent piece of recording. However, and this is merely personal, nothing you need to read into, I did find it lacked that bit of X-factor. That element that kept me wanting to listen more wasnt quite there, granted the lengh of this piece was perfect, but had you made it longer, you may have lost my interest. But fortunately you didn't. An excellent piece.

Cobain - This sure as hell aint close to Nirvana haha. I love funk, so this song was right up my alley. You pulled it off so well. And AWESOME idea on those vocal samples, or whatever they were, is it you singing perhaps? It took this track to a new level. One crit, which I'm only hearing now, maybe its my speakers, but the high freq appear to be super high. My ears hurt a little, but, it could be my speakers. They are rubbish. Maybe just try roll off some of the highs on the super high freq stuff (I think its the shakers). The guitar playing, and general groove was spot on. If we ever do another funk entry - you must certainly enter.

Young - Ah yes, I'm a sucker for piano and guitar combo's, its as if you wrote this song for me haha ? I can see how you'd work it for Picture A. I liked the overall quality of the samples, and the delay'd aspect of the guitar. It was well chosen. The bass sounded nice, but was there perhaps a touch of latency issue? I particularly enjoyed that guitar melody in the chorusy part? It compliments the chords very well.

Didley - DUDE!!! I agree wholeheartedly with what PaulE said. I love my prog rock, and all those bands you mentioned, and I've played in many prog rock bands myself - this was such an amazing song. I have no complaints, as a matter of fact, I think you need to make a full version of this song. You play like a demon on guitar, I thought it was samples that how good it was. I personally didn't see your interpretation for Picture B, but again, that is just a personal interpretation, it doesn't change the fact that I loved your song from start to finish! You have to enter on a more regular basis.

Mixerboy

Healey: Nice track, think it captures the vibe of pic A quite nicely, sounds a bit rushed though, like something you might have slapped together in a rush, not sure?

Cobain: I really liked this one, reminded me of those funky Moby tracks with the blues samples etc, with the fact that pic B was so abstract I think you did/made a good interpretation, I'm thinking if the mix had a more dirty "portishead" type sound it could be a real cool little track.

Young: This one fits with Pic A but it could also fit Pic C quite nicely, reminds me of U2 a bit for some reason, the only thing is the drums are a bit much, something less busy could work out better, they're also a little "spikey" sounding so they pop out in a distracting way.

Didley: Really nice mix, the track could have worked well with Pic C also.

Norman86

Wow... Wow!
Loved them all! Holy crap!

V8

Congratz to All fort these entries and take a bow Didley :applause: - if you havn't already given up the day job and focus on the tunes...maybe you should, heh.

Adrian summed it up with his usual excellent insights - I'll just add my 0.00000000002c

Healey : I also dug the dbl bass & vinyl record effects, really set the track up for the Noir vibe, so much so I didn't have to check which pic you used - for me, the strongest connection to a pic of the entries.

Young : I also a be a sucker for piano(s) & the use of guitar harmony & melody complimented everything really well - great track!

Didley : Killer track. Composition, arrangement, playing & mix all top notch. My only minor crit was I didn't feel as strongly about which pic it was as Healey's - but this was soooo open to interpretation that it's really non-crit. One question : How did you get such a fat bass sound, the bottom end was just massive (in a very good way!).

Adrian Rogowski wrote: One crit, which I'm only hearing now, maybe its my speakers, but the high freq appear to be super high. My ears hurt a little, but, it could be my speakers. They are rubbish. Maybe just try roll off some of the highs on the super high freq stuff (I think its the shakers).

It's definitely not your monitors. I tracked it down to one of the melody lead licks I recorded with a project guitar I was testing out...when coil split it's so bright it causes bleeding ears :-[. Overall was loads of fun(k), a quik 'n nasty recording & mix, trying out a few ideas & new gear.

doc-phil

I was Didley, quite chuffed with this! I'm currently unemployed after resigning from my job in JHB to move back home to Durban, so I've had quite a bit of free time on my hands.

The bass was Spectrasonics Trilian using the Fender P-Bass patch. I chose to sample because my bass is a bit of a cheapie, and I struggle to get good recorded tones out of it. Probably my playing is also not as tight as it could be. The patch sounds pretty good out the box, but I used the following effects chain to make it hit a little harder and be more prominent in the mix:

1. T.S.E BOD2 (Sansamp Bass Driver emulation) - gave it a little more grit and made it growl.
2. EQ - 4db boost at 111Hz, 4db cut at 69Hz to make room for the kick. Some other minor EQ adjustments.
3. Waves CLA 1176 compressor with about 5 - 10db gain reduction.

The clean guitar was Scuffham Amps S-Gear 2. Wow, what an amp sim, you just don't get better tube amp simulation than that.

doc-phil

Cobain got my vote, I loved the spacial effects, and I think you had the best application of your interpretation to the track.

FruitarGeek

Healey = Mixerboy
Cobain = V8
Young = Adrian Rogowski
Didley = doc-phil

Congratz doc-phil, also if you can send me the following information, or forward it to me if you have sent it already:

Name
Email
ID No
Closest PB Branch

V8, Mixerboy, you both can think of a theme. But I won't wait too long for everyone to get back to me. I need to put the new theme up soon.

Mixerboy

V8 can suggest a theme

V8

Mixerboy wrote: V8 can suggest a theme

Arrrggghhh, I was hoping you would! I do have a idea, but I fear it may be considered a bit suck-y.

Con-fusion

Take two or more of your favourite genres/styles and create your tune.

Approach could be "What if Metallica covered a Glenn Miller tune" or maybe use a EDM (electronic dance music) bass/drum line as the rhythm section for a blues progression (8/12/16 bar?) or...?

Mixerboy

I like that idea quite a lot.

V8

Mixerboy wrote: I like that idea quite a lot.

Sweet, thanks - let's go with it. Hope it encourages a few entries...(WarrenP & Chocklit, consider yourselves re-poked 8))

doc-phil wrote: I was Didley, quite chuffed with this! I'm currently unemployed after resigning from my job in JHB to move back home to Durban, so I've had quite a bit of free time on my hands.

The bass was Spectrasonics Trilian using the Fender P-Bass patch. I chose to sample because my bass is a bit of a cheapie, and I struggle to get good recorded tones out of it. Probably my playing is also not as tight as it could be. The patch sounds pretty good out the box, but I used the following effects chain to make it hit a little harder and be more prominent in the mix:

1. T.S.E BOD2 (Sansamp Bass Driver emulation) - gave it a little more grit and made it growl.
2. EQ - 4db boost at 111Hz, 4db cut at 69Hz to make room for the kick. Some other minor EQ adjustments.
3. Waves CLA 1176 compressor with about 5 - 10db gain reduction.

The clean guitar was Scuffham Amps S-Gear 2. Wow, what an amp sim, you just don't get better tube amp simulation than that.

I did suspect Didley = Doc Phil...attention to detail on your track was really something! Mixerboy's classy mix gave him away, but Adrian kept me dbl-guessing my initial thoughts with his post ?

I'm busy checking out Trilian clips - monsterous, thanks for the insight into your method - my (real) bass felt tinny despite my ham-handed attempt to phatten it up some. If I played keys, I'd flog the bass and get this.

+1 for the clean guitar tone - it also caused my ears to perk up, had a woody/stratiness to it that was real enjoyable. Did you use emissary for the distorted tone? I wanted to mess with it this challenge.

doc-phil

I used Emissary for distorted guitars on the left channel, and Lepou's Legion on the right channel. I find those amp sims have a similar character and work well together.

I'm glad you heard a strat tone on the cleans... couldn't be further from the truth though ? I used the bridge pickup on my Schecter loaded with EMGs and tuned down to B.

I'm liking the suggested theme - similar to the earlier rocked up boogie theme, but more open ended.

V8

doc-phil wrote: I'm glad you heard a strat tone on the cleans... couldn't be further from the truth though ? I used the bridge pickup on my Schecter loaded with EMGs and tuned down to B.

I'm liking the suggested theme - similar to the earlier rocked up boogie theme, but more open ended.

There was a 'string & wood' sound I typically associate with strat/tele (particualy mid on a tele) that gave me that impression...Grin, clearly one cannot trust my ears on tone - my favorite bass tone I ever got was a Ibanez Gio -> Zoom B2 (SWR Patch) -> Maya 44. Less than audiophile... :?

Hope it's open ended enough to encourage beginner's entries this month. I recall there was a challenge yonks ago "Nursery rhymes in the style of Iron Maiden" that I wanted to give a go... ???

evolucian

Very nice tracks guys - very!

I so badly wanted to enter this - had created my piece and everything based on all 3 pics (pic one in its small view displays something like a nuclear explosion happening somewhere; the timing based piece representing 5 notes 5 notes bar line, the lonely train n stuff), only to be done in by a hectic flu which I'm still recovering from. Fml

But well done guys ?

FruitarGeek

V8 wrote:
Con-fusion

Take two or more of your favourite genres/styles and create your tune.

Approach could be "What if Metallica covered a Glenn Miller tune" or maybe use a EDM (electronic dance music) bass/drum line as the rhythm section for a blues progression (8/12/16 bar?) or...?

[/quote]

Ok. So does everyone want this then? To the beginners out there, is this something you'd feel comfortable with?