Original Tunes Contest 25: Workshop

#1

Theme: Workshop
Deadline: 2019-07-28

About the theme… Keyword being Workshop, you can consider this one to include something bigger too, if factory speaks to you more. This is a place where something is being created, manufactured, maintained and so forth. Its a location theme ranging from potentially very traditional to extreme industrial.

Every music style is welcome, you can make 8bits musics, orchestral arrangements, live recordings, electronic music… As long as it fits the theme, everything is allowed!

To enter your song must be an original creation of your own made specifically for this contest.
You can upload your songs on youtube, soundcloud or any other place that allows the listening without having to download it.

Your song must be 1 minute long MINIMUM.

At the end of the month, during 2 or 3 days people will vote to elect the best entry (voting info provided later on).

Good luck.

2 Likes
#2

Hmmm super busy with life but will see if I can set aside some time to actually write something after such a long time!

1 Like
#3

Got pretty far already, so at least something from me coming within the deadline!

#4

Boop-de-doo

I was initially thinking of some vile WH40k esque chaos workshop with bodyparts, plasteel and needles, but it didn’t end up quite sinister enough. But in that direction anyway, I guess!

3 Likes
#5

Work tomorrow but will try to get my submission before the days out sorry for late response.

#6

Done!

Man, this one was fun. Went with more or less a “devious tinkerer’s lair” direction; got to do a bunch of rhythmic sound design with brake drums, ratchets, air burst SFX and the like. Started off slightly sillier than it turned out, but a lot of orchestration decisions in this direction just felt too right as I was writing.

At any rate, glad to have finally participated in another one of these. Hoping to see a few more entries!

2 Likes
#7

Aye, waiting for at least Mr. Dragon above. Danilo as doing something too I think, not sure if he was planning on finishing :pager:.

#8

I really enjoyed working on this project ton of fun! I do regret I didn’t start sooner but none the less enjoyable. I decided to write towards a Haunted train factory. “Spiritual unrest in the haunted train factory sputters machinery to life as train horns wail tormented agony of ghostly suffering!”

2 Likes
#9

Wow some really talented musicians here. I will be sure to take notes thanks.
1st) Avaruussaha: I really enjoyed your piece. Nice intro leading into a laid back feel with a sensation of looming trouble on the horizon… Super awesome work.
2nd) EvanWardell: I felt you captured the workshop feel well, the tune flowed nicely and I could paint a picture in my mind very nice work. I had a hard time deciding between your and Avaruussaha’s.
3rd) Danilo_Ciaffi: I thought this was a pretty awesome track. The intro drew nicely into the body of the song. Good choice of instruments. I could sense the futuristic feel which you talking about.
4th) joeairguitar: Nice piece of work here. When i listened to this track, I could imagine someone conjuring up a project in a workshop…and once they discovered what exactly what it was they wanted to make…the process began and it was great.
It was tons of fun participating, good work everyone. I look forward to the next theme!
I do wonder if anyone has any suggestions for music programs through for future endevours? I have been using Guitar pro 7 and just started using soundtrap. Thanks any suggestions are great!

1 Like
#10

Still got notified of one more upcoming entry, so as per usual the deadline is a bit elastic.

#11

Here’s my (scratchy) entry. The idea I had is about this futuristic industrial complex where humans are manifactured.
Hope I can finish this someday

https://soundcloud.com/danilociaffi/factory-demo1/s-k8stJ

2 Likes
#12

“A humble place where you could craft your own stuff” was what I had in mind.
Mixed orchestral stuff with chips sounds which I rarely use, dropped the serious vibe along the way and just tried to have fun.
Not sure if I’ve grasped the idea right but here is:

https://soundcloud.com/felipe-j/do-it-yourself-1

2 Likes
#13

Alright then, lets wrap this up!

Listen to the entries, and rank them based on achieving the sound/atmosphere/feel for the given theme.

Let’s see if we got all comments in within several days. Suggest other themes that inspire you to participate moving on!

#14

Glad to be back after a million years (although not that happy with my entry this time).

  • Avaruussaha: Man I love this, the ambience is great and I like the use of the sounds. Very misterious and sort of steampunk to me.
  • Evan: Definitely pictures a lab with plenty of weird stuff, plenty of inventions and also many scrapped out projects. Very nice.
  • Obsession_Dragon: Nailed the soundscape. I tend to like more tonal stuff, but this paints the picture very well.
  • joeairguitar: Can make it sound like one of those places where you go make your candies in pokémon, I enjoyed the mixture of chiptune and other stuff.

My ranking:
4th: Obsession_Dragon
3rd: joeairguitar
2nd: Evan
1st: Avaruussaha

1 Like
#15

Some awesome entries this month, especially considering some of you have to rush it! My ranking:

4th - Obsession_Dragon: Really well-done (and fitting) ambience! The electrical sounds add a really nice touch. Does count as a tune since it’s musique concrete haha, though as a game soundtrack and not SFX, part of me was expecting it to add in something more tonal, or a more prominent percussion pattern around that cool 3/4 offbeat figure you have going on throughout.

3rd - Danilo: Already sounds fantastic, so I’m super psyched to hear it when it’s “finished” hahaha. I definitely think it has the right feeling for the setting you’re going for, and it has some nice variation in the sections. Almost feels like different variations you could use for vertical mixing in a game setup (3:00 especially gave me this feeling), where you could crossfade between sections depending on the game state. (At 3:47, I’d imagine you have enough material, too!)

2nd - joeairguitar: I actually had a super hard time deciding between yours and Danilo’s because they both do very different things very well, but I leaned toward yours because it paints the clearest picture in my head of what game scenario you’re going for. Really fun, and the electronic elements work great!

1st - Avaruussaha: This is awesome! Not familiar with WH40K, but while I agree it’s not necessarily super sinister, I still think it fits the theme really well. Great ambience like Danilo said, just a great vibe and polish all around. Has some lines that are really fun to listen to without calling too much attention to themselves. I especially love the way you mess with beat emphasis in 4/4 without actually changing meter. Well done!

1 Like
#16

Disclaimer: Not a native English speaker here, so apologies for any misspelling or grammar errors you may find. Thanks google translator and subbed GOT seasons.:wink:

Personal Rank:

  • 4th - Obsession_Dragon

This is really a different thing, it sounds like a soundscape work. Very interesting.
If the objective is to be spooky and to scare I think it did work great on me haha. I’m not a big fan of horror games but can totally imagine this track being used in a game like that.

  • 3rd - Danilo_Ciaffi

Hey this is nice solid work for just a scratch. Nice choice of synths here, the bass entrance at the very beginning was great, loved the “guitarish” tone more at the end (pehaps a combination of dist, chorus and delay maybe?) fits perfectly.
I can imagine neon lights, tech machinery, human-like androids and a whole dystopian cyberpunk vibe here.

  • 2nd - EvanWardell

The low brass staccato is my favorite element of this track, most because is just so tense and powerful.
Also liked when the strings reinforces the bass line more at the end. The emulation of steam noises adds for sure a very creative touch.
The harmonic cadence makes me feel like you’re visiting a dangerous place and should runaway but at the same time the melody with flute/woodwinds along with strings are making you stay.

  • 1st - Avaruussaha

This is really a great of example of how to do a true great BGM: guitar, bass, percussion and “ambience”, all elements fit together in their places in a fine balance without standing too much and claiming attention from “the player”. This track can fit so many situations but personally, listening to this, I can totally see a hidden grayish underground facility being stealth invaded.

Greetings & Next Theme:

Thanks everyone for the listening, the feedback time is for sure the most funny part of the contest. Obsession_Dragon hits the bull’s eye about what I was thinking while doing the track haha got really impressed.

As a suggestion for the next theme: Oriental stuff like traditional Chinese/Japanese music overall its my call. I mean you could make something from the range of an AAA game like Sekiro soundtrack to Yie-Ar Kung Fu from NES or/and just challenge people to only use an asian scale.

#17

Avaruussaha - Tainted Machinery
Kinda makes me think of Max Payne now that I think about it.

EvanWardell - The Devil’s Workshop
The rhythmic clinks and clanks instantly nail the feel. Even though the name indicates this is the ‘devil’s’ workshop, it feels a bit tongue in the cheeckish on the overall theme.

Obsession_Dragon - The Haunted Train Factory
Wow, this is so full of stress. Fits the description quite well, although it is a bit intense while (I think) being an ambient track.

Danilo_Ciaffi - Factory Demo1
In a sense this sounds quite oppressive, which I suppose is what industrial tends to be. The ending part makes it easy to imagine the action behind the scene (we are trespassing, surely!).

Joeairguitar - Do it Yourself
Quite unexpected turn after all the bleakness from us others! Considering the theme, makes me think of some game where the whole point and premise is gadgets and figuring out how to utilize them for specific purposes. Those tend to be quite lengty affairs though, so the pronounced ending stands out a bit.

4th) Obsession_Dragon like with Danilo, this makes me think of a place close to a workshop/factory, but not quite the thing itself. I was pining for a bit of melodic content too, I guess?
3rd) Danilo - Left me thinking of the surrounding environments and setting more than the factory/workshop. With refining the sounds I think you’d be pretty close to the Blade Runner’ish scenery.
2nd) Joeairguitar - for making me think of a standalone workshop-puzzle game in its entirerity. Could be a bit more loopy/peaceful for that purpose though.
1st) EvanWardell - Sounds really intriguing, and really sticks to the theme from start to end.

#18

And the breakdown (I did this with paper and pen so nothing fancy) with “points”:

Ava - 17
Evan - 14
Danilo - 9
Joe - 9
Obsession - 5

See ya in the next one, Respite.