DNBFPC April 2010 - WINNER !

moriaty

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yes gentlemen, after plenty pondering we have a result. this months winner is a perfect example that you dont need brains to create great music.!

the legendary:
Logikz.!

congrats you filth merchant :D (y)
get in touch to sort out your goldbaby pack, and also for the oral sex :teeth:
goldbabybanneranamation.gif


here's who's who from the finalists, in order of scoring:

H: logikz
D: co0ke- soundcloud.com/co0ke
B: johnny sequence- soundcloud.com/jonnysequence
E: flukey (phat sam)

and everyone alphabetical:
A: Phoca (subprime)
C: fletch
F: freek
G: jimjimjim
I: neomind- www.soundcloud.com/neomindmusic
J: oria
K: redbeard (msmith222)
L: Revtech- tatilla.com

(post your myspace etc here, and i'll add them to this post)

big thanks to ben kama for helping out with the judging and comments (y)
great music once again guys. much thanks to the entrants for their submissions, and for adhering to the rules, and nice one to everyone for being part of this.
more comps will happen in the near future, but i think we should give it a breather for couple of months or so. i will be checking the waters from time to time to see if there's interest for another comp, and we will surely be doing another one soon.
peace


here's some comments for the finalists. sorry it isnt as extensive as the previous ones, but it was only me and kama. also apologies for not having any feedback for the non finalists, but like i said in the other thread, do hit me up if you want some advice on a piece, and i will endeavour to reply before the end of the month.


H
The bass is deep, and the break tweaks are brilliant. There is constant change throughout the track to keep it interesting. Still the mixdown leaves something to be desired - some of the sounds jump out a bit too much, and the interesting background effects can barely be heard. With better attention to this detail this would've made #1 with flying colours.

what a masterpiece, reminiscent of the good old days, before all the snobbery around terms such as "techstep" or "drumfunk" existed, when the music was just drum n' bass.
the whole composition feels very organic, every element is arranged loosely, and the constant switches reminds me of a group of players rather than a computer. furthermore, each sound has a pleasantly crunchy texture, which just adds to the previous point. the bass is very nice and round, and all the breaks feel crusty whilst not being too aggressive. strings, atmos and background effects are lush but subtle, and give a true sense of depth. thats probably the most understated reese i have ever heard, but very very effective within this tune's context.
the muddy mixdown could have been a dealbraker for a big techy dancefloor smasher, but i find that it works perfectly for this track, as it just adds to the organic feel, and the obvious reference to the old school sound.


D

It's a magical track with the melodic work. This one has real feeling to it, which I always appreciate. The only drawback for me was that it is really static. The mixdown is good, the melody is good, the beats are good but there is little happening in it apart from a few chord progression changes. Still it's enough to make the top of my list.

brilliant work on the harmonic variations, the whole track keeps changing moods, from welcoming and cheerf
ul, to sinister and cautionary, and back to hopeful again. great journey. but i think that it could have been such a better experience if it was for a few production issues; the mixdown is really flat and one dimensional; it really needs some sense of depth through the use of reverb and delay. theres a wicked little arpeggio playing in the background that just screamed for more room. good work on the vocal chopping and effects too, altho their arrangement feels somewhat arbitrary, and alongside some variations in the beats could have provided for a better sense of structure. finally, i would have liked to hear some further processing on the sounds, some subtle chorus and phaser combined with a tiny saturation could have made each sound more interesting; altho the whole 8-bit feel could have been the artist goal, which is fair enough


B
This is clearly the most true to the original, most 'remix' of the lot and it gets a special mark for that too. The mixdown is sweet and the bass sidechaining takes it to a more electro-house level. The breakdown in the middle is very original. Only thing I didn't quite like was the fact that the bass had little to keep interest in it throughout the track.

this is easily the most professional track in this comp, and thats ine of the reasons it didnt reach top marks. that may sound like an oddity, but the reasoning behind this thought is that the artist approached the project as a commission work for an electro/breakbeat rmx, rather than a personal piece of music.
All elements of the track are of great quality, big fat kick, tight snare, sweet real crashes, and nice cheeky little fills make for a great beat. excellent lfo synth and arps, and very intricate work on the vocals. the bass is very sweet and as big as it needs to be, altho it would have benefited by some additional movement.
i think that its the track's arrangement that lets it down the most. apart from the wicked breakdown, where a crazy bitcrushed 808 and a real drumkit give an unexpected twist, the whole piece feels very static, and not very pleasant to to hear by it self. surely it would blend brilliantly with other similar tunes in a dj mix, but as an individual piece of music it somehow lacks in interest.


E
The bare bones of this piece - drums and bass - are of really high quality. The bass hits in places I didn't know I had and the drums are very clear. At the very first listen this track was a real contestant for victory but as I listened to the participants more, this one had little to offer to capture my interest further. It was crying for some alternate melody or other edits. Also the use of the vocal wasn't very innovative.

similarly to the previous track, this is a decent club tune which would make people dance in the middle of a set, but somehow lacks personality and originality.
the bass is nice indeed, very deep and warm, and without interfering with the also excellent kick. good to see a tight little snare working so well with the rest of the percussion. strings are a bit plain, and become very repetitive throughout the song. vocal edits feel randomly placed and uncertain. mixdown is good, altho it could do with some more high frequency content, perhaps a further "splashy" break.
 
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I guess you could add my website (still working on it but it has music on the front), tatilla.com

EDIT: I'm such a dick... forgot to say BIG UP LOGIKZ
 
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well done Logikz and good on all for making the effort, feeling a bit for JonnySequence ... i thought it was a remix comp !
 
ballin.jpeg

didnt see this coming at all, thanks a million. slap me thrice and send me to my mumma. its my constant problem with the mixdown, going to have to do something about that. BALLIN YALL

---------- Post added at 08:14 ---------- Previous post was at 07:48 ----------

the production competitions are turning out to be alot of fun, last one was intense, and for this one i feel everyone really put their ankles in it. ive got lots of good things to say about all the tunes involved, having listened to all of them like a hundred times and its difficult for me to pick a fave cos theyre like my empty bags of wet under the fridge that all become my pets
 
Ok So here's my 0.02€ about the rest of the tracks.

Entry A :


The complete groove is solid, funky and the voice of edwin starr suits this kind of stuff very well. The middle part with the distorted guitar suits the track in a weird way, it really puts on a new kind of twist on the track and it comes up just at the right moment. All this makes it even more surprising that the vocal is used in such an unoriginal manner. It sounds like the entrant just thought the track was missing something and slapped an acappella on top of it all without trying to fit it in.

Entry C:

As the track starts it has much promise. In times it sounds like fusing more dubstep into the soup woul have made it more cohesive. At parts it sounds like an electro house track, but just as you get your mindset adjusted for it and get your head nodding, it goes into a more dubstep approach. This particular fusion just doesn't work for me as the different parts break up the groove too much. The dynamics engineering sounds good, but the mix is just a little muddy.

Entry F:

The track has good energy and movement, but it is shadowed by technical problems regarding mixdown. A generous boost in the bassier elements would deliver a much needed improvement. There is no sub bass to speak of, most of it resides either very high or is just too quiet to hear. It is a real shame, because I like very much the ambients & backgrounds of this track, and the groove of the simple 2 step drums as well.

Entry G:

Remixing your own track sounds very challenging. This one managed to pull it off quite good, although it bears very little resemblance to the original. There was nothing in the rules dictating it needs to sound like the original so I didn't take that into consideration when appraising these tracks. There is good change ups in this track to keep it interesting, but the parts might be a little too much apart from each other. Individually they sound very good, but put together they're too far off. The technical part of this track is very high quality and everything is very clear.

....TO BE CONTINUED.
 
I'll throw in my opinion on all these tracks aswell than, hold on while I listen to them though
 
once again, the winner of this comp. haven't been a TIGHT production (IMO IMO IMO IMHO DON'T TAKE ME WRONG DON'T GET MAD) but it is something really easy to hear, and something very satisfying to our ears.
He just went into the direction his feelings made him go I guess =)
So, congrats Logikz, are you an admin? or just a troll?! hahaha cheers from spain!

PS: my myspace www.myspace.com/neomindmusic and soundcloud www.soundcloud.com/neomindmusic
 
A: didn't like the drums being so timestreched, vocals need some changing, the whole song seems like samples slapped together, use acid by chance? :P

C: those drums are nice, the ghost snares could be more natural maybe, the intro needs change for sure I like that sharp piano thing. At parts it seems that the bass is in stereo

F: nice bass, it all seems a bit too dry, and not enough filth possibly. the bit at 1:49 or so was unexpected, in the wrong way.

G: like this one a bunch, but the bass seems to have this ringing which I don't really like and I am unsure about the structure.

I: There seems to be some low end lost in the distortion, some compression might be needed on the drums. overall heavy

J: The very intro needs to start off with more of a push. The bass seems stereo, the drums have a a nice natural feel at times, the breakdown seems to come out of nowhere. having fun with ring mod?

K: fattt, idk if its me or not but the very low end is missing, the drop doesn't seem to have too much of an impact

L: bass too loud, drums might have over compression, gets boring later on

M: That snare seems to have a weird phases quality to it, idk if it's on purpose. I want some more low end, don't like the drums in general, the drop is nice
 
A: didn't like the drums being so timestreched, vocals need some changing, the whole song seems like samples slapped together, use acid by chance? :P
True, I don't record any of my own sounds, it's all samples, in this case mainly from Battery 3 and Kontakt. The guitar was sampled from System of a Down's 'War'.

---------- Post added at 08:09 ---------- Previous post was at 08:01 ----------

Ok So here's my 0.02€ about the rest of the tracks.

Entry A :


The complete groove is solid, funky and the voice of edwin starr suits this kind of stuff very well. The middle part with the distorted guitar suits the track in a weird way, it really puts on a new kind of twist on the track and it comes up just at the right moment. All this makes it even more surprising that the vocal is used in such an unoriginal manner. It sounds like the entrant just thought the track was missing something and slapped an acappella on top of it all without trying to fit it in.

.
The funny thing is the whole concept of the track was to take the funk inherent in jimjimjim's original and marry it with a suitable vocal, and the track was built from there. The vocal has had a lot of chopping and some fx, a couple of harmonies created. So everything was placed as it is.
Quite how I accepted some of that vocal phrasing as 'ok' I have no idea. I think sometimes I get so caught up in a track that I only hear what I want to hear, which is a worry.
As for original, I still think jimjimjim vs mowtown is original, chopping the accapella to shreds is pretty much standard as opposed to original. The only thing I'd change here if it was worth it would be a few sections of vocal phrasing.
Thanks for the feedback guys.
 
Thanks RevTech :D this is exactly why i put something in the comp for some feedback.

J: The very intro needs to start off with more of a push ....
in hindsight doesn't fit the energy of the track.

J: .... The bass seems stereo ....
i will have to check but had intended to put mono on 150Hz and down highest slope. oops.

J: .... the drums have a a nice natural feel at times
i put some time into the percussion and main break to accent the phrase ends so i hope this is what you meant.

J: .... the breakdown seems to come out of nowhere.
in hindsight a breakdown for breakdown sake rather than one that is a natural progression of the track.

J: .... having fun with ring mod?
anyone one of the 'instruments' spring to mind as i can't recall a filter/tool of that name being used ? maybe Ableton label as something else ?
 
tune A is a ram jam mate, the guitar is brilliant. rock and funk are one and the same at some point i think. given the time constraints and that its such a conceptual remix (takes lots of thinking, concepts and that) and all.

i think its mad i shouldve won, my contribution was not nearly as heartfelt as last time.
it was put together first in my sampler and fruity and later in audition where i hammered it out to the 5:30 minutes. at work when i was supposed to be doing something completely different.
if i were to critique my own tune id start with the obvious bits in the mixdown, the flow break is way too loud, lots of elements lack proper definition, and some of it is left to plod along in the background to no real avail.
i think its cos i get carried away with kick/sub levels and leave the rest to take care of itself, kind of like the legs when you shower.
i try and get warmth to the sounds with different plugs (jeroen breebarts ferox, its free)/gear and im not into the super treble sound of today. which easily turns to mud in the mix. i should up the treble in my tunes generally, i think.
its moody simply because people dig moody, its a crowd pleaser. it is a remix, believe it or not. the original is just such a basic track that if you add just a little here or there, it sounds like a whole new track.
part of the challenge really. the tune itself relies on access virus sounds and break that old style break switching, with a sub i z-planed in the emu, that filter adds amazing depth to nearly anything. turn sounds inside out.

great work everyone, im looking forward to the next one.
 
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