One Synth Challenge #78: Elektrostudio OR2v (Meakaale Wins!)

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Voted.

Here is my top 5. I only gave out 1 5 and 4 4's this month.

Standing ovation goes to Meakaale for his entry this month. My pick to take it all.

Rounding out the top 5...

Taron
Mehum
Richard Semper
DoctorBob

These guys consistently churn out quality stuff.

Great job!

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Voted!

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Really? Oh come on... :oops: ...I gotta listen to my own track again! :scared:
Thank you, wag! :hug:

I'll vote tomorrow...I'm still beat from this morning's mad dash of madness.

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Taron wrote:Really? Oh come on... :oops: ...I gotta listen to my own track again! :scared:
Thank you, wag! :hug:

I'll vote tomorrow...I'm still beat from this morning's mad dash of madness.
My gut tells me you can do great stuff in a coma. No, this wasn't your best. But not your best is still damn good. That takes talent.

If you can ship some of that my way, I'd appreciate it.

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It's a weird thing that's in that shipment, wag. It's a whole lot of real and honest love, which is why it was so painful for me this time around. I felt like I betrayed this little song, born to be so much more, like it got run over by a car in it's first moments of life, you know. I had honestly that kind of feeling this morning... but this kitten was born with like..eh.. 3 legs and no eyes, uhmmm, so to say. Yet, I felt it could've grown them all back, if I gave it proper care.

Anyhow, as insane as the above may sound, this is the thing that makes me do what I do. I do want to judge the mix and I want it to sound mature and strong, but the music beneath it I do not judge. I find its nature and want to groom it, raise it, guide it and provide for it with all that I know. Its substance, though, is deeper than me, even if it turns out silly or weak, massive or glorious, it doesn't matter...I take what wants to come through, you know. :shrug: :)

So...my advice is to connect to something that may have been where you have never been, knowing things you don't and you let it come through you, teach you as you teach it how to communicate with your set of knowledge and understanding about music. This connection can be made in many different ways and I've explored a number of them already. Key is that you allow this to happen! That means, don't block yourself, don't censor yourself and don't hold back! Sometimes, though, little assholes want to come through and those you can totally kick back, hahahahaha hahaha...aah...well, you know.
So...it takes discipline to listen, understand and interpret inspiration. Often I don't feel like I have enough, but many times my passion for it kind of balances it out. The biggest mistake is to contrive a piece of music. If you do that, it has no soul or substance. That can be fun and often is, but it's extra challenging to turn some contrived opus into a enjoyable composition. People won't be able to really relate to it, because they meet a part of your thought only you can understand, they won't meet your spirit or an emotion you've tried to convey.

Yes, you can go for some pop routines, I'm sure, make use of certain formulas that pretty reliably function one way or another, but that's where all the brainless and heartless pop songs come from that have absolutely no soul either. They're smug works of calculated service people, no matter how brilliant one may consider them, they either gave up on sincerity or never knew what that really means musically. I do admire elements of them every now and then, but ultimately...meh... it's fast food. Doesn't have to mean it tastes bad, but you know...

We all still have a lot to learn, it's something that can always be said, haha, but I really mean we all have loads ahead of us to strive for and that's just beautiful! :pray:

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Taron wrote:It's a weird thing that's in that shipment, wag. It's a whole lot of real and honest love, which is why it was so painful for me this time around. I felt like I betrayed this little song, born to be so much more, like it got run over by a car in it's first moments of life, you know. I had honestly that kind of feeling this morning... but this kitten was born with like..eh.. 3 legs and no eyes, uhmmm, so to say. Yet, I felt it could've grown them all back, if I gave it proper care.

Anyhow, as insane as the above may sound, this is the thing that makes me do what I do. I do want to judge the mix and I want it to sound mature and strong, but the music beneath it I do not judge. I find its nature and want to groom it, raise it, guide it and provide for it with all that I know. Its substance, though, is deeper than me, even if it turns out silly or weak, massive or glorious, it doesn't matter...I take what wants to come through, you know. :shrug: :)

So...my advice is to connect to something that may have been where you have never been, knowing things you don't and you let it come through you, teach you as you teach it how to communicate with your set of knowledge and understanding about music. This connection can be made in many different ways and I've explored a number of them already. Key is that you allow this to happen! That means, don't block yourself, don't censor yourself and don't hold back! Sometimes, though, little assholes want to come through and those you can totally kick back, hahahahaha hahaha...aah...well, you know.
So...it takes discipline to listen, understand and interpret inspiration. Often I don't feel like I have enough, but many times my passion for it kind of balances it out. The biggest mistake is to contrive a piece of music. If you do that, it has no soul or substance. That can be fun and often is, but it's extra challenging to turn some contrived opus into a enjoyable composition. People won't be able to really relate to it, because they meet a part of your thought only you can understand, they won't meet your spirit or an emotion you've tried to convey.

Yes, you can go for some pop routines, I'm sure, make use of certain formulas that pretty reliably function one way or another, but that's where all the brainless and heartless pop songs come from that have absolutely no soul either. They're smug works of calculated service people, no matter how brilliant one may consider them, they either gave up on sincerity or never knew what that really means musically. I do admire elements of them every now and then, but ultimately...meh... it's fast food. Doesn't have to mean it tastes bad, but you know...

We all still have a lot to learn, it's something that can always be said, haha, but I really mean we all have loads ahead of us to strive for and that's just beautiful! :pray:
This is so deep I don't know how to respond to it.

You obviously love what you do.

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No need to respond to me on that...it's for you! :)

One little thing I totally forgot to mention about this "song": I tuned all instances down to 432Hz as opposed to 440Hz for A. I think we all have it so very wrong with 440. I made some experiments and it's perfectly stunning what difference it makes in terms of sensation. There is a calm power and natural strength to everything, once you tuned it to 432. I've spent a few days experimenting with various frequencies and there is stuff to be found that we've simply forgotten and that revives the actual power of music.
I will surely study this a lot more from now on!

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I hope you'll liked my song, I feel like this synth was rather challenging. It just didn't sound at all like Arturia's SEM V even though the interface was similar. I tried to use all the features of the synth, including dual voice and the sequencer. I just hope that I do better than last time when I spent weeks on it and got almost last place. I spent less time on this one because I didn't want to get my hopes up of getting acclaim, I just wanted the challenge of designing my own sounds and putting another song together.
~ good luck ~
~ re~member to do good in a spirit of love, unity, compassion, and kindness ~

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Voted.
It's very tasty, I swear!

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SoundGoddess wrote:I just hope that I do better than last time when I spent weeks on it and got almost last place.
That's OSC for me in a nutshell! 2 years of mediocrity (minus a few missed months) as of August. And over and over again, talented "real" musos walk in and ace it on their 1st or 2nd try. :dog: Ah well. :shrug: Still better to be making "music" in a supportive community than in isolated obscurity.

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VOTED!

Wow, maybe it's just me this month, but somehow I practically couldn't fault anyone?! Maybe this is also because I saw the stupid voting breakdown and I find myself no longer impartial to the fact that you'll see it, if I drop anyone too far down, hahaha. But no, I'm still being honest, but I gave up on the whole "ONE FIVER TO RULE THEM ALL"...screw it, I give 5 where 5 should be given and this month had a lot of them, relatively speaking.

Because it wasn't as many submissions, I also went into each and every soundcloud page to give comments and I hope you don't mind my honesty there either. I don't think there's a single one among us, who doesn't deserve proper encouragement, that's for sure! There's great potential everywhere and by that I mean your ability to express yourself musically. I don't mean making a smash hit or the likes... simply offering a human vision, that's what I mean. And some of you are so powerful at that already, while others show to recognize the language of music for themselves already, but still need to take in more of the vocabulary and structure to really bring out more of the gift they do have!

I don't know, who of you reads all this, but I'm thinking about all this and feel like I should write it down for you.
I noticed that this month a lot of people really let go in a great way, while others seem to have tried to jump on the mainstream train for no real reason and with no real success. If those hadn't tried it, the music on top of the silly techno beat would've had a much greater chance to display integrity.
I'd love to take you all on a musical retreat, haha, just letting go, just having pure fun with who you really are without looking at what you think is "right" or "hip" :dog: or any of this, you know. Just let go!
Even so, you all did some great tracks and some of the most memorable to me, too, hahaha...in whatever bizarre way, too. :lol: :ud:

And, psmacmur, the level of your joy doing it is what you should measure! The rest is just there to teach you more.

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Taron wrote:VOTED!

Wow, maybe it's just me this month, but somehow I practically couldn't fault anyone?! Maybe this is also because I saw the stupid voting breakdown and I find myself no longer impartial to the fact that you'll see it, if I drop anyone too far down, hahaha. But no, I'm still being honest, but I gave up on the whole "ONE FIVER TO RULE THEM ALL"...screw it, I give 5 where 5 should be given and this month had a lot of them, relatively speaking.

Because it wasn't as many submissions, I also went into each and every soundcloud page to give comments and I hope you don't mind my honesty there either. I don't think there's a single one among us, who doesn't deserve proper encouragement, that's for sure! There's great potential everywhere and by that I mean your ability to express yourself musically. I don't mean making a smash hit or the likes... simply offering a human vision, that's what I mean. And some of you are so powerful at that already, while others show to recognize the language of music for themselves already, but still need to take in more of the vocabulary and structure to really bring out more of the gift they do have!

I don't know, who of you reads all this, but I'm thinking about all this and feel like I should write it down for you.
I noticed that this month a lot of people really let go in a great way, while others seem to have tried to jump on the mainstream train for no real reason and with no real success. If those hadn't tried it, the music on top of the silly techno beat would've had a much greater chance to display integrity.
I'd love to take you all on a musical retreat, haha, just letting go, just having pure fun with who you really are without looking at what you think is "right" or "hip" :dog: or any of this, you know. Just let go!
Even so, you all did some great tracks and some of the most memorable to me, too, hahaha...in whatever bizarre way, too. :lol: :ud:

And, psmacmur, the level of your joy doing it is what you should measure! The rest is just there to teach you more.
Without overanalyzing anything, some of us...

1) Have limited talent

2) Have such diverse musical taste that whatever we do sounds half baked because we don't have any strong convictions to any one particular genre.

Yes, I am speaking for myself here.

A short list of musical genres that I am into

Rock
Pop
Classical
Progressive
Punk (Irish, British, American)
Funk
Dance/Disco/EDM
Soul
Bubble Gum
Ethnic (J-Pop, K-Pop, Indian Music, African Music)
Ska
Metal (Goth, Speed)
Easy Listening
Country (Rock, Traditional)
Blues
Broadway
Folk

I could easily name 10,000 artists and/or groups that I've been into over the 50 plus years that I've been listening to music.

For me to write anything and have it stick strictly to a particular genre is close to impossible with tens of thousands of songs going through my head when I compose. That I can write anything at all without my head exploding is a miracle in itself.

So if you want to criticize my lack of focus, guilty. It isn't easy to do when you're not an "EDM" writer or a "Classical" writer or whatever. I've written everything from symphonies to rock and my symphonies sound like pop songs and my rock songs sound like symphonies. It is what it is and at 57 years of age, I am too damn old to try to change who I am now.

In short, I write whatever comes to me and damn the consequences. If people don't like it, too bad.

And that explains my miserable showings at these OSCs.

One OSC, I am gonna write a freakin symphony for synth.

Won't that be a kick in the pants having to wade through 45 minutes of mayhem.

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Wag, man, you really don't need to jump on the defensive on what I've said, especially because I think you are in a class of your own in what ever you do. Your track this time around was quite entertaining, because it felt so much like a personal statement or maybe even a kind of tantrum in a way that I thought was pretty "real", you know. If you feel criticized, I really don't want you to feel that!
Everything I say is what I honestly feel, which means that it really is not a matter of "right or wrong". That's for those to decide, who read it (do they feel it applies to them or not, you know).

I can't even make a list of genres I'm into, because I wouldn't know what they're called, hahaha. But then I really don't listen to music much at all. It really doesn't matter.

If you were to allow me to give you something to think about, I'd tell you to consider your strong anti-quantization stance - (I'm assuming). Often I feel like this is what creates the extra awkward aspects of your tracks. Arguably one might say that that's the special charm, but I think it really weighs on them quite a bit. When you want to listen to a melody, you want it to kind of "sit in the pocket" where it should so that it portrays confidence. If it wobbles off the beat, it just seems...uhm....accidental, kind of like stumbling. And nobody really enjoys seeing someone stumble on stage unless it's a comedy. It's totally no shame to nudge things afterwards and you can deliberately offset things to keep them lively.

However, because you often refer to your classical compositions, which I did check out and could immediately recognize you in them from the OSC tracks I know, you should really consider making one of those with trying to create classical instruments with the next synth. You'd be totally in luck, because #79's Lokomotiv should give you great room to explore that! I wouldn't even be afraid to go for something "a clockwork orange" like, if you know what I mean!? I think, you could absolutely rock that! But, please, do not make it 45 minutes! :pray:

Also, it really kind of hurts me a little bit, when you retreat into a "damn the consequences" mindset, while we both know that that's not the case. You do not have to reinvent yourself at 57, but instead I think you should consider shedding the layers of thick skin you've accumulated so that you can combine your origin with all that what you've learned without those pesky peels in the way, you know.

As musicians, as artists, we have the privilege to expose our vulnerability, to give people something they often don't permit themselves to share. When they hear it or see it, it gives them tiny bits of liberation, a sense of experiencing the idea of being understood on subjects they are afraid to discuss. I'm telling you this and all of us, that we- as musicians- must not be afraid to be vulnerable, to expose ourselves (decently, I hope). That means that you really should not waste too much energy explaining yourself. It's not necessary.

Oh my god, am I still writing? Hmmm... well, just know that I'm with you, however faulty my approach to communicate may be, however wrong I may be, I just care... can't help it. :shrug:

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Taron wrote:Wag, man, you really don't need to jump on the defensive on what I've said, especially because I think you are in a class of your own in what ever you do. Your track this time around was quite entertaining, because it felt so much like a personal statement or maybe even a kind of tantrum in a way that I thought was pretty "real", you know. If you feel criticized, I really don't want you to feel that!
Everything I say is what I honestly feel, which means that it really is not a matter of "right or wrong". That's for those to decide, who read it (do they feel it applies to them or not, you know).

I can't even make a list of genres I'm into, because I wouldn't know what they're called, hahaha. But then I really don't listen to music much at all. It really doesn't matter.

If you were to allow me to give you something to think about, I'd tell you to consider your strong anti-quantization stance - (I'm assuming). Often I feel like this is what creates the extra awkward aspects of your tracks. Arguably one might say that that's the special charm, but I think it really weighs on them quite a bit. When you want to listen to a melody, you want it to kind of "sit in the pocket" where it should so that it portrays confidence. If it wobbles off the beat, it just seems...uhm....accidental, kind of like stumbling. And nobody really enjoys seeing someone stumble on stage unless it's a comedy. It's totally no shame to nudge things afterwards and you can deliberately offset things to keep them lively.

However, because you often refer to your classical compositions, which I did check out and could immediately recognize you in them from the OSC tracks I know, you should really consider making one of those with trying to create classical instruments with the next synth. You'd be totally in luck, because #79's Lokomotiv should give you great room to explore that! I wouldn't even be afraid to go for something "a clockwork orange" like, if you know what I mean!? I think, you could absolutely rock that! But, please, do not make it 45 minutes! :pray:

Also, it really kind of hurts me a little bit, when you retreat into a "damn the consequences" mindset, while we both know that that's not the case. You do not have to reinvent yourself at 57, but instead I think you should consider shedding the layers of thick skin you've accumulated so that you can combine your origin with all that what you've learned without those pesky peels in the way, you know.

As musicians, as artists, we have the privilege to expose our vulnerability, to give people something they often don't permit themselves to share. When they hear it or see it, it gives them tiny bits of liberation, a sense of experiencing the idea of being understood on subjects they are afraid to discuss. I'm telling you this and all of us, that we- as musicians- must not be afraid to be vulnerable, to expose ourselves (decently, I hope). That means that you really should not waste too much energy explaining yourself. It's not necessary.

Oh my god, am I still writing? Hmmm... well, just know that I'm with you, however faulty my approach to communicate may be, however wrong I may be, I just care... can't help it. :shrug:
It's all good. And I think you're super cool. (showing my age)

I am finishing up my Loko track. I really like it. It's different from the stuff I've done so far, at least in parts. It's definitely a "mutt" composition and doesn't really fit anywhere. But that's how I am. Would you believe me if I told you neither the classical or rock musicians take me seriously? It's a hoot. LOL.

Anyway, I'm cool and not even remotely upset. Today's the most fun I've had doing music (been doing patch libraries all year) in a very long time. So regardless of what anybody else thinks of it, I had a blast and actually like what I just did, which doesn't happen often.

Peace.

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You know, what I did in the last few challenges was to make a few tracks just for fun... little ones, just like that. You might remember the #76 set of mine, for example. The first test track, then the actual OSC track and eventually the little afterthought "Sleep well...".

So, I think, instead of just doing this quick track and submitting it right away, you might wonna consider having some more fun with the synth, if you have time. Then, later you can decide which one you want to go with and maybe do some refinements, even if only technical stuff, you know.

I just love it, when I know I can take it super easy and do some relaxed doodling, hehe, it's loads of joy.

OH, and thanks, of course... :oops: 8-)

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