[COMPO] The MODPlug Tracker Compo 2007

[apple-joe]

Ah - non-participants' votes count after all? I forgot. Ok, time to listen through.

[apple-joe]

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My submission for The MODPlug Tracker Compo 2007
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Song6 - More of an instant feel regarding the intro. Early development, nice. Great sound as well. Heavy percussion follows. A third part/change already, very good. Candidate for 1st place, no doubt. Tops my list when there is one more song to go.
Song7 - Notable drum interpretation. Pattern 9 now, interesting things going on, although becoming a little static. Long song. Good ideas, but they may disappear due to the song length. Hmm, pattern 26, I like this change. Really good parts in this track, but they are very stretched out. The longer the song, the more to include in order to eliminate emptiness. Excellent rhythmical ideas.
Song5 - In general more interesting than Song3 and 4. Groovy phrases, and nice details combined with a special atmosphere. Also, the tonality itself stood out. Pleasant listening. Short, but still enough time to let the art shine through, obviously.
Song2 - A little more development and dynamics going on early in the song. Enjoyable. Great width regarding the interpretation of samples. Creativity on top. Song1 may have a more defined sound and structure, however, I have to favourize this one due to creativity and interpretation.
Song1 - Atmospheric intro. Nice sound. A little tiring after a while, but that is probably due to the samples - no choice but using the pre-recorded phrases. Hmm, interesting development through the second half. Very impressive song.
Song3 - I like the sounds that appear after a while. Very good, but still a little too generic. Enjoyable nevertheless.
Song4 - Good and steady, but I hope for some further development before the song ends... Aggressive sounds to be heard towards the end. Somehow it worked for me - variation.





[Sam_Zen]

2 Georg
I was curious. What do you mean with 'stock "unchopped" loops' ?

[georg]

2 Georg
I was curious. What do you mean with 'stock "unchopped" loops' ?

"stock" and "unchopped" loops are loops played without modifications or reordering of loop samples (mostly applies to drum loops where samples inside the loop are more accesible). "stock" means unaltered or factory made, like a stock motorbike or in this case a "stock" loop provided by LPChip.

"chopping" or "breaking" loops is the technique of deliberatly interrupting or otherwise modifying a drumloop pattern (either with a sample editor or by using tracker commands such as play backwards/forwards, retrigger, offset, etc. or even by tracking loops "over" themselves and using volume commands and panning to create a unique beat, different from the original "stock" drumloop. This is the cornerstone of breakbeat music but can be used in any electronic music.

Nothing wrong with using "stock" loops, and crappily chopped loops can ruin a good track. A fine example is in the first few patterns of my entry where there are some really lame parts which i made in a hurry and never sorted out in time.

Chopping loops properly leads to a more original sound and would have improved my opinion of your entry, that's why i said you "loose" points.  There was some unpredictability but i thought you could have done more with the drumloops. Chopping up a loop can also be done to create glitches, fake record-scratches or rythmical effects, not just to create a different beat.

It's not much by itself but when properly integrated into tracked music it can produce excellent results. It allows a lot of versatility with minimal use of samples (the amen loop - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amen_break - was used in thousands of different songs, tracked or otherwise) and requires tracking skill. I get a kick out of anyone who skillfully uses breaks in music and an allways happy to praise it. Or point out that i wish i heard some more of it in a track. Vowthorn was a good breakbeat experimentalist, BotB, SPOZ and rewbs also come to mind.

Bit longwinded..sorry, i'm sure most of this is not new to anyone.

[Sam_Zen]

2 Georg
I see what you mean.
I think it's not a matter of ignorance in this case, but I just have a different approach.
So I interpreted the rules very strictly, just using the 'stock' material as is, no modifications, other than with the command-codes.
As you can notice, I don't have the drumsequences set in 'looping' mode. To avoid unwanted chopping or empty spaces I first tune
the tempo of the piece to have each restart-code of the sample for example with each 32 or 64 steps.
I agree about the versatility with minimal use of samples. Get the max out of it.
I did some chopping though. Sometimes I started the drumloop again halfway again, to have twice the first half instead.
Applying breakbeats is an option, but if I choose not to use it, I don't.

[LPChip]

And the results...

Pt. Artist
38 Waxhead
32 CrazyAznGamer
31 Xaimus
20 Georg
20 Sam_Zen
17 tvdude
10 LPChip

Congrats Waxhead! A deserved win I'd say.


Song Comments:

Song1-gravolution.xm (2nd place)

• Sad and unharmonic start but picks up later. Great drums!
  
• Nice variations and techniques used.
  
• Started promising, but halfway it seemed like a second song started, so it lost some cohesion.
  
• nice beats and atmos. good use of volume and filters. some parts were great. riff-samples were usually below average.
  
• Neat
  
• Excellent song.  Stylish and well writtin.
  
• FROM ARTIST: Long and crappy crap.

Song2-Sam_Zen - scattered_flow.xm (Shared 4th place)

• Supercool start!!! (nice phazing), but too boring.
  
• I'm not a big fan or experimentalism. Melodic vibe fixes enough though.
  
• Opening and ornaments nice, needs moar percussion variations.
  
• good beats, but you lose points for using stock "unchopped" loops. better use of volume cmds and filters would help too. good use of smaples throughout.
  
• alright
  
• Excellent beginning.  Great composition for the opening credits of an espionage movie.
  
• FROM ARTIST: Too simple and definetely wrong tempo.

Song3-The MODPlug Tracker Compo 2007 the ps project.it (6th place)

• Good rythm. A bit monotome tough
  
• I miss a twistpoint where the song changes in a different direction.
  
• Less predictability would be nice.
  
• Good, compact song, lacking surprise a bit.
  
• not very creative use of samples. GOOD atmos. good buildup but the mid to end part is not very good.
  
• Boring.  
  
• FROM ARTIST: Super boring.  No zxx used since the moron who wrote it read the rules wrong.  Composer should be shot on sight.

Song4-Free Run.it (7th place)

• To "simple" and monotome
  enough.
  
• Would be enjoyable sans other similar entries.
  
• Nothing much to say. A decent exposition of the available material.
  
• least creative of the lot, but solid tracking.
  
• boring
  
• Great beat!  A bit short.
  
• FROM ARTIST: Was more made to test if the samples were good

Song5-The MODPlug Tracker Compo 2007.it (1st place)

• Great use of the possibilities! I really liked it.
  
• Very nice percussion, and I love some of the lines in there.
  
• Intimate track with a nice tune, having the proper length
  
• most creative. oodles of funk. howls were too loud, and i'd like to see some panning done, but that's a minor offense. winner by a mile an 1/2
  
• awesome
  
• In a league of its own.  Amazing; very creative and stylish.  Great Knowledge of OMT.
  
• FROM ARTIST: Short, unpolished and a crappy ending.

Song6-righto.it (3rd place)

• Sounds totaly different from the other contributions! Great "transformation"
  
• I knew it was possible but still I'm amased on how well you did it. Not my style though?
  
• I'll be lookin out for ya xaimus No comment needed.
  
• Sloppy start. Great, but in potential, because it's more some sketches than a drawing.
  
• excellent "skeleton" of a track. if it wasn't hastily tracked maybe it would have some real meat. great potential. you get extra points for sounding nothing like the rest.
  
• Also Atmospheric and moody.  Great ideas in the song, a bit disjointed though.
  
• FROM ARTIST: crap

Song7-ECV.it (shared 4th place)

• Way to long and boring, Nice rythm tough!
  
• Nice atmosphere, clicks are bad though.
  
• Actually, I like the clicks, they add that surrealist experimentalist thing in there.... but meh.
  
• Too long. The last part at lower speed would have been sufficient. Rest predictable with awful ticks.
  
• cool
  
• Atmospheric and moody.  Great beat.  I love it.  A bit long.
  
• FROM ARTIST: work harder man.

[LPChip]

Lets share experiences.

For me, it was really fun making the samples, but I must admit, what you guys did with the samples were above my expectation. Good job on that.

[Sam_Zen]

Nice job with the result list, LPChip.
An interesting concept, it has an element of improvisation, making something with some already fixed instruments and sequences.
The range of a deadline could be set much shorter imo. With the time-period shifted from the date of announcement to from the day when one decides to participate.

[CrazyAznGamer]

WHOA! You guys voted me second?

Well, I did my song pretty quickly, despite its length. I wasn't exactly expecting such a high place, but hey, turns out I lucked out.

I can see why Waxhead would take the win: very sexy song. (Nevertheless, I still voted Xaimus because he REALLY messed with the samples and made something different)

Anyways, I guess I'll start off the "experience of song making" train.

At the time of making the song, I was under the heavy influence of hellven, hunz, funkymuskrat, and ESPECIALLY xerxes (which, if this was a normal song, I would put major props in for him).
I started making an intro (as opposed to jumping straight into the song and making the intro later). This was rather late into the night, so the intro was fairly sedating. It was like the song was falling to sleep. Or I was. Or something.
Anyways, that explains the fairly uncreative use of the drum loop, riffs, and whatnot at the beginning of the song.
I continued it at a time I was more awake, adding in fx like phazing and that was about the time I "improvised" the drums and added in chords (it's like I'm addicted to seventh chords o_o).
As I never like my song ending in the same direction, I added a speedup and another twist at the end. The ending didn't quite fit right with the rest of the song, but I'll pretend I didn't say that and call it artistic interpretation  ^_^.

EDIT: Actually, I think that if you count apple-joe's votes, it puts me a place or two lower.

[LPChip]

EDIT: Actually, I think that if you count apple-joe's votes, it puts me a place or two lower.

I did counted his votes and these are the results I've got, but if you think you should end up lower, I can do a recount or should I say, I can let Excell do a recount



My entry was more made to see what you can do with the samples, to see if it has enough options. I didn't chose to make a long song as it wasn't required for my purpose. The only thing it was ment to be, was a: hey look, if you say you can't do anything, then watch this example

I am very amased though by the results. Everyone doing it completelly different says enough I think. I do really like the intro I made. Really atmospheric and good buildup to the climax of the song start. I kind of miss that in the other songs, but then again, it was a hard compo

[Snu]

i want to download the songs and listen, but the one link to the votepack that i found doesnt work anymore... :(

[LPChip]

Try this one

[georg]

Good idea for a compo. Using only a few sounds forced everyone to experiment and find different way of composing those sounds. Too bad such ideas tend to scare people off though, but it's their loss.

Decent entries and a deserving winner. Good pompo, yup yup.

PS - I disagree slightly about which artist should be shot. IMO Xaimus is allways my favorite artist who should be shot, but that's my opinion.

[Waxhead]

Thanks for all of you who voted for my submission and making me win (wooohooo )  this compo!

I was rather pressed for time when I did this song. Inspiration was another problem and I was honestly not expecting to be the winner of this compo.
For those of you who have read the comments in the song you will know that the ending was done rather quickly. Also lack of variation in the main melody is another issue but it seems that it worked out alright regardless

Since I'm a old Amiga user I was using ProTracker a lot I often loaded up a module, erased all patterns and created my own music using the samples from that particular module. Perhaps all this playing around with other peoples samples finally paid off!

What really disappointed me with the other contributions was that most of them sounded a bit alike and also some of them was very long. The only exception was song 6 who really stood out by sounding nothing like the rest.
I was pretty sure that xaimus would win this compo since his song started very impressive. The only negative thing about his song is that it was a bit to commercial to my taste.

What really impresses me with this compo was the fact that so many of you seemed to have put considerable effort in creating something with rather limited samples. I'm also impressed by those of you who are able to create songs that last longer than 5 minuttes. I usually have big problems trying to reach 3:46 on almost everything I make.

I prefer instrumental music and my style is probably influenced by The Crystal Method, The Prodigy, Ed Rush (drum'n bass), Norwegian folk music, Scottish bagpipe, Propellerheads, SID (C=64), Ugress, Madonna, Jerry Lee Lewis, JunkieXL, Kraftwerk, Orbital, Fatboy slim, Fluke, The Chemical Brothers, Yellow, Ralph Myerz, Big Bang, ?ystein Sunde and the list goes on and on and on..........

While I'm at it I might as well complain about a few minor issues with the compo. Why are not the songtitle from the uploadscript used? I was assuming that the filename of the submission would be the one I wrote when I submitted the module. Why isn't the artist name included in the summary for each song? It's a great idea to avoid using the artist name under the voting process but when the compo is over I would prefer to see who made what without checking the uploadscript / modules. And why are not the summary ordered so that the winner is shown first? (calm down you bald bastard - you won isn't that enough?).

So thanks yet again for voting for my song and also a little special thanks to LPChip for clean handling of this compo Hope to see more of this kind of compos... (I would off course have said the opposite if I lost hehe!).

[LPChip]

While I'm at it I might as well complain about a few minor issues with the compo. Why are not the songtitle from the uploadscript used? I was assuming that the filename of the submission would be the one I wrote when I submitted the module. Why isn't the artist name included in the summary for each song? It's a great idea to avoid using the artist name under the voting process but when the compo is over I would prefer to see who made what without checking the uploadscript / modules. And why are not the summary ordered so that the winner is shown first? (calm down you bald bastard - you won isn't that enough?).

I have 4 words for you.

"I was being lazy!"

So thanks yet again for voting for my song and also a little special thanks to LPChip for clean handling of this compo Hope to see more of this kind of compos... (I would off course have said the opposite if I lost hehe!).

You're welcome

I might start another compo, but it will be less restrictive as this one. Eg. samples that actually allow you to make whatever you want, but limitations more in: 4 channels only or something...

I don't think that I'll be hosting another of this kind of compo where you get a loop pack instead of a samplepack Maybe in a year or so

I was indeed surprised by Xaimus's dance song. I made another example song to test out the rythm, that had indeed a small part of 4/4 just to test. When I had about 5 samples, I started with a new song which is Free Run.

Is there anyone that wants to talk about techniques they've used or discovered?