The Challenge 21/09/09 Voting

Renesongs

Last weeks challenge was Romance [quote author=PeteM link=action=profile;u=1544 date=1253460295] How about something romantic - with a [b]strong melody line [/b] - any genre from classical to jazz to R&B to rock. This number must make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck. [/quote]

And here are the entries

[quote author=Riaan link=action=profile;u=72 date=1254042592] OK, so here's my attempt at being romantic... I used my Godin for the steelstring acoustic and the electric sound, and a Yamaha nylon string, all through Guitar Rig. Acoustic bass and oboe (yes, an oboe! It says so on the dropdown menu...) was done with Dimension Pro. The whole thing went in a direction of it's own once I started, and somehow didn't end up as romantic as I had in mind, but anyway... That's about as close to romantic as I get these days! Link: http://www.box.net/shared/euh7lbezty [/quote]

[quote author=Rudolf link=action=profile;u=756 date=1254070098] My 'entry' for the challenge this week. Nother for all the noobies. :) I'm afraid the thing sounds incredibly familier now listening to it a few days later, dunno if it's just in my mind but I got a feeling that's not the case. :-[ Don't know what I did, but there's 3 guitar tracks and a drum track. Two rythm thingies with my Pacifica and the tune with the Tele. http://www.box.net/shared/0bxeya3aqm [/quote]

[quote author=evolucian link=action=profile;u=1152 date=1253639257] sorry, I accidently put the link in the forum.... someone helped me out on that... http://www.box.net/shared/u2jrq0a2q2 I'll remove the link in the forum :) [/quote]

[quote author=PeteM link=action=profile;u=1544 date=1254040582] Here's this week's entry - single nylon string guitar. http://www.box.net/shared/c2s6xbvjl0 Category A [/quote]

[quote author=Manfred Klose link=action=profile;u=144 date=1254088338] Here is this weeks entry, enjoy!!(1.3mb) : http://www.box.net/shared/beu10zj58l [/quote]

[quote author=Alan Ratcliffe link=action=profile;u=10 date=1254122752] My Melancholy Romance: http://ratcliffe.co.za/music/a_alan_melancholy_romance.mp3 OR http://www.box.net/shared/u9nvknudu3 As mentioned elsewhere this was my second attempt so I did it quickly, re-purposing a solo guitar piece I wrote a while back, just writing a huge guitar pad in Guitar Rig to fill out space. The guitar is split into four effect chains - two on the piezos and two on the magnetic pickups. Each has a conventional sound, with lows filtered out on the piezos and highs on the magnetics and then is panned a little to one side (magnetics left and piezo right). The second chain on the magnetics is forming the low pitched sweep sound in the middle and the second chain of the piezos is doing the high pitched swirly reverse thingies that move around. [/quote]

[quote author=andrewjbryson link=action=profile;u=34 date=1254124253] Romance Entry Taylor Big Baby + Boss GT8 (Reverb/ Delay) The percussive track has boosted low frequency at about 70 Hz and about 400 Hz for the "snare" http://www.box.net/shared/n80l6c5fnt [/quote]

(old forum) Poll Results: Romance

Riaan (B): 13
Rudolf (B): 1
evolucian (A): 2
PeteM (A): 6
Manfred Klose(A): 8
Alan Ratcliffe (A): 2
andrewjbryson (A): 6

Rudolf

Niiiice! Excellent work all! As usual! ?

Riaan

Well done everyone!

evolucian

Hi Rene, my entry was for category A... unless its deemed cat B cos I'm new here.

I sadly can't listen to anyone's track yet cos "vodacom's" glorious tower is out and only giving me gprs ☹

AlanRatcliffe

evolucian wrote: Hi Rene, my entry was for category A... unless its deemed cat B cos I'm new here.

OK. I've changed it and reset the votes to zero.

Squonk

What a mixed bag of good stuff.

Riaan's reminds me of an early 70's Kind of "Bread" type love song, I was expecting David Gates to start singing.
Alan's is very melancholic, the bittersweet tug of war type romantic thing
Pete is Django in disguise, brilliant jazz piece
AJB Walking in the park with flowers and brilliant colours and everyone smiling at you
Evolucian - the more sensual side of romance, dug the big fat lead thing
Manny - the end of the movie with the credits rolling and boy has found girl, could be in the 80's
Rudolf B Marvin - falling in love in the 60's

evolucian

Cool, thanks dude.

Well, I've managed to download some at a super fast pace of 39 kilobits per second... man was that an awesome wait (technology rules!). Naturally I started with the smallest downloads and progressed from there. I listened to them all with the eq on flat, and I think mine should also be on flat otherwise it may distort on yr system (maybe)...

PeteM: Nice arrangement. Nylon is a bitch to stop the odd buzz here and there... my sympathies to you ? This piece had an old quality to it, like Joe Pass style, which I think is awesome. I liked the double stop ideas you had going there, nice one ? The legato at 0:35 brought out the richness of the nylon bass strings which kick nicer than acoustic vintage bronze in warmth. Very cool arrangement ?

Manfred: I like this, old and sweet in the vein of The Shadows in a way. A nice warm overdrive... mic'd or Guitar Rig on Orange or plexi? Sweet melody... like walking on the beach hand in hand sweet. Nice one!

Alan: Nice opening mysterious chords man (the slight bend at 0:16 threw me a bit). Was your pad similar to the crystalline one? It sounded better than the preset, nicely done. In your arrangement, and don't take offense, but did u hate her at all? I only ask because of the darkness involved in the piece. Although we all have our own interpretations. Your piece was beautiful, flowed nicely with tension in the coolest of places. Me likes

Andrew: I hate Taylor's cos they always sound so awesome. Very sweet melody you have going on this. Such a cool chilled mood. Nice spaciness in the background.

Riaan: Very nice sounding acoustic you have there. Its a bit thin on the single notes (like at 0:23) But all in all this is so sweet, like it can be used in a movie bout someone going back home, prodigal son style ? Nicely done man

Rudolf: Your backing was a bit quiet and needed to be brought up more to the front of the mix. Your melody was gentle and sweet, so relaxing. Nicely done bro... ?

AlanRatcliffe

(the slight bend at 0:16 threw me a bit).

Lol! It's supposed to be behind the nut tremolo. I struggled with controlling it - too wide the first time so it becomes a bend, and to shallow the second time. Could have done better but was in a rush having spent way too long on recording a whole other piece of music.

Was your pad similar to the crystalline one? It sounded better than the preset, nicely done.

<scrabbles to look> The "Crystalline" preset? Looks like the basics are the same - reverse Psyhedelay pitch shifted 8va. I have a second delay and a phaser after that as well as a comp and a rotator in front. The piezos give it more upper frequency air too. Then there is the low (8vb) fuzz with a slight filter sweep.

In your arrangement, and don't take offense, but did u hate her at all? I only ask because of the darkness involved in the piece.

That's me. I like darkness - as evinced by minor keys and the dissonance in second and minor second intervals. Without darkness as contrast, the light stuff isn't as pretty. I suppose the low part of the pad does the same, contrasting the high pitched stuff.

Your piece was beautiful, flowed nicely with tension in the coolest of places. Me likes

Thanks!

MikeM

I don't usually comment here but PeteM, you have blown my mind. That sounded fantastic ?

Alan, Drew, great stuff as expected... I am loving your acoustic stuff man ?

[deleted]

All good entries, Well Done. I liked all of them

Rudolf

evolucian wrote: Rudolf: Your backing was a bit quiet and needed to be brought up more to the front of the mix. Your melody was gentle and sweet, so relaxing. Nicely done bro... ?

Well err see uhmm it sorta happened like this see? I am trying to learn how to play barre chords now, but it's going dreadfully slow and painstaking. Either way had to use one in my rythm piece just so I can work on practising the darn things and that didn't work too well see? I couldn't get to it fast or well enough once through all 188 times I tried to record that track. So that track went quiet. When I was done and listened to everything it sounded like a pop song maybe Britney could be involved in, so the drums had to drop into the background, just too much kick. Now the little powerchord track was meant to help the base side of thing, it didn't really help as much as I would have hoped and made the tune sound metal, so away to the back that went as well. :-[ Hahahaha

PeteM

A comprehensive crit there Evolution. I loved the richness you achieved on your recording.

Thanks for the compliments Evo, and yeah, the buzz comes from the very low action forced on me by creeping arthritus. Just have to live with it. ☹

Riaan, I enjoyed your strong melody line - an important component of the entry.

Well done to everyone for cool and varied compositions and arrangements.

Thanks MikeM and Squonk for your comments. ?

Renesongs

@ evolucian et al - Please guys tell me what category you want to enter in when you PM me. I do not listen to the entries before I post them. Besides it is not for me to decide what category you want to be ranked under. This week I decided to be nice and take a wild guess based on previous entries. Next week I may decide to put the secretive entries in to category (U) unspecified. :-\

evolucian

Cool Alan... nothing wrong with darkness. I too like the weeping clusterfk now and again. I made a fusion piece once with augmented and diminished chords going round in a m6 progression, with the odd open string now and again to add the clusters... very dark and disturbing (even more hectic to find a solo over the thing that can at least be called music and not an atonal experiment in ass flavours)

Thanks Pete... dunno which richness u mean, either the arrangement or the overall sound together?
I thought I'd add a bit of warmth to the rhythm section which i played fingerstyle. The chords had a jazz quality to them, although their names weren't that expensive, lol. I fell in love with the chord progression I used... it sorta had a Journey quality to it. For the solo I had to go for the pick for sound contrast. Drums were sponsored by EzDrummer, and the bass was a patch in amplitube that uses an octaver on the guitar (hence the dullness, which I like cos it reminds me of the double bass sound that Charlie Mingus had)

Rudolf... not a problem man... if it was metal you coulda used it, hehe. Might have had a Scorpions vibe with your melody line. And don't be shy if somethings metal either ? Cradle of Filth has some of the best instrumentals along with Dimmu Borgir's instrumentation (such a huge sound). A cool romantic feel can be found in Blind Guardian's music... and Nocturnal Rites as well as In Flames' "Evil in a closet".

But Scorpions still take the crown in ballad writing. Along with Journey and Toto... bloody hell, too many good bands out there. I'll stop now.

Sorry Rene.. I titled mine ass about face with the A at the end of the title. Apologies for not putting it in the pm ?

Riaan

@Rene: Yeah sorry man, I had a struggle to convert my .wav file to .mp3 and once I got that done, I hastily sent it off and forgot to add a category.

Thanks guys for all the kind comments and feedback, especially evolucian for the detailed crit - that is always welcome and I always learn from it. I thought all the entries were great, and it's interesting to hear everyone's take on romance! That in itself is often a learning experience, just to hear the different interpretations of each topic!

[deleted]

OOh, tough choice. So many entries and realy one minute is a bit short to cover a lot of ground, but I made my choice. AJB you got my vote based on where your song was going. Liked the percusion.
Alan, liked the melancholy. Every Spanish song I've played with the title "Romanze" has been in the minor, so there must be something to it. I liked the Spanish feel in your peice.
Evo, getting your groove on, nice.
Manfred, from what I can remember I thought you coud have developed the theme more, but it's all a bit hazy now, I could be wrong.
Pete, NICE, subtle and engaging
Riaan, nice arrangement, good blend of sounds
Rudolph, very good, and if the balance had been right some serious competition.

Manfred-Klose

Finally here is my reply.

Wow, i am really blown away.

Riaan, really good compostion,enjoyed it alot, a bit of J.S Bach there?
A really warm romantic song, in the atmosphere of the winter infront of the "kaggel"(ok, chimny)
So when can i download your instrumental album? ?

AJB, romance on the beach while the sun sets and the tide is coming in.

Alan, a mexican romantic scene, the dark side of romance.

Evolician, the kissing scene.............

PeteM, nice solo piece, also a very warm melody.

Rudolf,50's man!!! enjoyed it. got a ballad going there.
you can put some reverb that lead guitar.

Thanks for the commets

Viccy@ thanks for comment, i actually planned on making it a 5min song with piano and violin section, but didn't want to over complicate the song to much, but i will be recording the 5 min version soon, as it is really fun to play.

[deleted]

i actually planned on making it a 5min song with piano and violin section

I thought as much. Sometimes you can't rush into a song, so the oe minute rule doesn't work.

Rudolf

Thanks guys ? Maybe I should one day invest in some useable software for the music stuff. Right now I'm stuck with Acid to create drum tracks and that's purely Dance orientated so it doesn't do wonders for the stuff done here. It always sounds good when I got the track down but when I end up doing the lead part the kick is always way too much. Argh. Haha. I'll look into some proper software the day I know what playing in key actually means.

Riaan

I'll look into some proper software the day I know what playing in key actually means.

Hey Rudolph, the software will actually help you understand music theory a bit better. I'd say get some decent software sooner rather than later. Also, it enables one to create stuff way beyond one's actual understanding of theory, provided you have a good ear and sense of melody and harmony (which you clearly have!)

Speaking of which, I actually feel that I should not enter the beginner category anymore (though I ended up there inadvertantly this time, having forgotten to indicate my category to Rene). I actually intended to go for an Intermediary category. It's not that I consider my guitar playing to be anything more than beginner or at the most, intermediate, but because of the fact that I'm privileged enough to have some luxuries (a dedicated room and PC, good quality software, a couple of guitars) that most beginners don't have. I think that gives me an unfair advantage over the beginner guys who may even be better players than I am, but who don't have all the resources.

So my long term ambition from now on will be to one day beat the Alan's, Rene's, Evolucian's, Andrews, Pete's, Manny's of the world....to name but a few!