The Challenge 26/06/2009 Voting

Renesongs

This weeks challenge was...

[quote author=Riaan link=action=profile;u=72 date=1245967610] "The Greatest Rock Intro" You and your band's intro at the start of your Live at Wembley show...you've just gone onto the dark stage, the crowd is restless and the rest of the band is waiting for your signal. You take a deep breath and nod at the drummer. The crowd roars as the first notes are played. One minute of awesome spectacle as the stage comes to life under blinding flashes of lasers and smoke. You can almost lean back and rest against the wall of sound coming from your amps behind you. Let's hear that intro! [/quote]

And Here are the entries...

[quote author=CDee link=action=profile;u=382 date=1246538476] Here's my feeble attempt at making a grand Intro at Wembley statium :-[ http://www.box.net/shared/ffqvnpjkpp Category: Beginner [/quote]

[quote author=mattayou link=action=profile;u=581 date=1246597957] Really had to overcome some obstacles on this one (Cubase difficulties etc-see my thread)! Used N-track in the end after much wrestling with the pc! Drum track Rhythm track Lead track All played on a Ibanez SA08ltd. http://gfsa.s3.amazonaws.com/581/wembley%20LIVE.mp3 BEGINNER Category for me again [/quote]

[quote author=Spyke link=action=profile;u=71 date=1246602614] My entry for the challenge. http://www.box.net/shared/am43v0ayro Four tracks, all on the Squier, through the 505II and recorded on Audacity. Beginner class. [/quote]

[quote author=doc-phil link=action=profile;u=323 date=1246609447] Howzit, Here's my entry for the 'Best Rock Intro' Challenge, beginner's section please :) All the guitar sections were played through Gearbox software. http://www.box.net/shared/8bgpgz7mjk [/quote]

[quote author=Squonk link=action=profile;u=298 date=1246572717] http://gfsa.s3.amazonaws.com/298/Squonk-Wembly%20Intro.mp3 Very rough recording, only loaded software tonight on Windows 7 treat as a live recording, the sound engineers were a bit vrot! Was advanced last week. [/quote]

[quote author=Guy Onraet link=action=profile;u=103 date=1246612775] here is my entry. Put me in the "A" category please. http://www.box.net/shared/lkgbiyrmbd Big boot kickin' classic rock, with cheesy vocalist and a capacity crowd. JCM800 and LP all the way. [/quote]

[quote author=Alan Ratcliffe link=action=profile;u=10 date=1246614836] Had an hour to do it, so it's rough... http://ratcliffe.co.za/music/a_alan_big_intro.mp3 OR http://www.box.net/shared/dharuacqu4 [/quote]

[quote author=WantzChas link=action=profile;u=392 date=1246621779] If I can still enter here goes, I'm very sorry I'm late. http://www.upload-mp3.com/files/59274_uhkr6/B_WantzChas_Wembley%20Intro%20Baby.mp3">B_WantzChas_Wembley Intro Baby.mp3 I recorded everything with Reaper, using my Ibanez 540S and Blackstar HT-Distx, Ibanez TS-808 pedals. I went for a more hard rock, almost metal type feel. As you will hear I ran out of ideas and time and really rushed the last part and it doesn't really sound any good, but I promised myself I WILL enter this week. There should be an infant category as I'm in that one. [/quote]

You have 2 votes 1 for each category Beginner and Advanced. Voting ends noon next Sunday 11th.

(old forum) Poll Results: The Greatest Rock Intro

CDee (B): 9
Mattayou (B): 1
Spyke (B): 2
Doc-Phil (B): 7
Squonk (A): 4
Guy Onraet (A): 7
Alan (A): 7
WantzChas (B): 0

Spyke

Nice entries!

Well done guys. Bonus points to those who threw in a little MC introduction! Loved it! 8)

WantzChas

Ahhh, is it to late to enter?

AlanRatcliffe

@ WantzChas - Sorry, yes, it's too late.

Just added a Box.net link for my entry too.

WantzChas

That should teach me to read when the deadline is.

Renesongs

@ WantzChas OK I will cut you some slack this time, I've tacked you on to the end of the poll

WantzChas

I really appreciate it, if someone feel it is unfair please remove me. I should've read the rules. Thanks a lot.

Spyke

WantzChas wrote: I really appreciate it, if someone feel it is unfair please remove me. I should've read the rules. Thanks a lot.

Na, we're all in it for the fun of it - the more the merrier! ?

doc-phil

Spyke wrote:
WantzChas wrote: I really appreciate it, if someone feel it is unfair please remove me. I should've read the rules. Thanks a lot.
Na, we're all in it for the fun of it - the more the merrier! ?

Agreed! The more entries the more we can learn from and appreciate each others take on the theme ?

AlanRatcliffe

OK. Details on my entry. Done in a rush, so each part one take, no mixing other than levels and presented to you warts and all. My idea was for one of the extended synthy swelling things (starting with a dark stage), gradually building up until it breaks into the first song.

Mostly a single guitar, bass and drums with a second guitar coming in at the end for the solo.

Guitar 1 - Sanox
I used all three outputs (mags, piezo and MIDI.):

Mags - neck humbucker except for the end, where I switch to the bridge pickup. The neck pickup sound blends in very well, I didn't want it too obvious - the mp3 version muddies it up a bit though, so I would probably mix it in a bit louder given time for a remix. Vox amp cranked to be fairly crunchy and stereo phased to get some movement. I turn off the phaser for the end bit to get it more punchy. Fairly dry apart from some of the mix reverb (Lexicon Pantheon)

Piezo - Delayed, with the repeats panning side to side. The natural dynamics of the piezo make it blend in fairly well when the guitar is played softly, but it jumps out when you play harder, so I can control the amount of delay that shows up in the mix by how hard I play. There's a reverb on it too to make it spacier.

MIDI - Native Instruments Absynth for the pad, which has a relatively slow swell. I'm using a sustain pedal to grab and hold each chord as I play, so that when the playing is a bit more hectic, the synth gets a chance to sustain each chord - otherwise it takes each strum as a new note on and the sound never gets to develop.

Guitar 2 - Sanox
Just mags. Bridge pickup for the solo, same Vox amp settings as for the rhythm, but with an overdrive to kick the amp a bit harder. If you listen carefully, you'll hear it come in two bars before the solo, playing muted chords, starting out quietly and gradually getting louder to add to the volume swell before the break.

Bass
Straightforward aside from my usual - each humbucker driving a separate Ampeg model in guitar rig. One of my stock sounds. Neck pickup is compressed, bridge is overdriven a little. Mixed with more neck pickup than bridge.

Drums
Toontrack EZDrummer. Also pretty straightforward. The main thing was getting the cymbal rolls.

Mixing
Just a quick level mix. A touch of reverb on everything except the bass. A brickwall peak limiter on the master buss to prevent any digital distortion from "overs". Export as wav, open in Sound Forge to use the autocropping tool, that gets rid of the silence at the beginning and end of a track. I also used a linear fade out to fade out the ending about five seconds sooner (still 10 seconds over time though). Then save as MP3.

Special note
I was on limited time for this comp, only having an hour to do something. What made it possible was my preset templates and saved patches.

In Sonar, I have set the default template so it loads with all the settings I commonly use - tracks for the instruments I usually use, effects, sends, groups and busses - everything in place and all set to usable default settings. It saves a lot of time not to have to do things like create a track for each instrument, or assign input and outputs on each track. I just create and name a new file, arm the tracks I want to use first, and hit record - everything else is preset. For mixing, the reverb bus is setup and there are sends in every channel - I just have to arm them. Similarly, the main output buss is setup with a multiband compressor and I just need to enable it.

I actually have templates set up for different tasks - If I'm doing more complicated guitarMIDI stuff, I have a template that has each string on a separate MIDI track and loads with a few of my favourite softsynths ready to go.

On the guitar side, I have my saved patches and like most of us, while I have hundreds, I use two or three patches 90% of the time.

CDee

Great entries all round.

Doc-phil - great stuff, loved the drums. Very well done. :applause:

doc-phil

CDee wrote: Great entries all round.

Doc-phil - great stuff, loved the drums. Very well done. :applause:

Shot man. I liked your entry, it had a real epic feeling to it, it got my vote! ?

Squonk

Awesome stuff guys.

Cdee - what a brilliant intro

Difficult to vote, will have to listen a couple of times.

@ Spyke - excellent stuff, quite alternative, very dark sounding, Are you sure you are not listening to Joy Division and Echo and the Bunnymen?

Every single entry is brilliant :applause: :applause: :applause:

[deleted]

OOh, what a tough choice. Cdee yours was brilliant, but I had to go with Spyke. It's combination of mellow and anticipation made for a good intro.

Squonk would have to be my choice for the A category, although I think you should have made your guitar say "Squonk" after the introduction. That would have been cool. Alan does a pretty iconic rock intro too.

WantzChas I couldn't get your file to open,sorry.

Spyke

Good entries all round, the standard of this challenge has increased significantly.

Squonk wrote:
@ Spyke - excellent stuff, quite alternative, very dark sounding, Are you sure you are not listening to Joy Division and Echo and the Bunnymen?

Actually no, but I feel I'll have to give them a listen now to see if I can pick on the nuances.

Thanks Viccy!

Riaan

Well done guys! Great entries all around! Really hard to choose this time. I just wish I had more time, I hardly got to my guitars this past two weeks. Life is really interfering with my guitar playing... ☹

Wizard

I'm going to stick my neck out a little here ... and possibly get into trouble for it.
60 seconds is actually quite a long time ... too long for a single, repeated theme.
I've found myself voting for compositions that break the time into 2 or 3 distinct parts ... that tell a story.
Alan is consistently particularly good at doing this. The 'release' at 00:48 was amazing.

I liked the way in which CDee's composition went through distinct developmental phases ... keeps the listener interested.
Hence my two votes.

Riaan

Looks like another nail biting finish...

Renesongs

The official winners are CDee in the B category and in the A category we have a three way tie (a tri?) Between Doc-Phil, Guy, and Alan. Well done guys. CDee would you please PM the topic for the next challenge.

doc-phil

I was in the 'B' category, so two-way tie between Guy and Alan ?