Nice entries!

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

Ahhh, is it to late to enter?

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

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

That should teach me to read when the deadline is.

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

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

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! ?

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 ?

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.

Great entries all round.

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

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! ?

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:

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.

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!

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...

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.

Looks like another nail biting finish...

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.

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