SP-FORUMS

Much dope.
Vote runs for 5 days.
If anyone doesn't want their track on a free mix on bandcamp just let me know.

asha c - https://youtu.be/AVNl2QxcPWY
Run Of The Hind - https://soundcloud.com/user-425484251-4 ... ging-stars
lentilsoup - https://soundcloud.com/golem48/garden
TGN - https://thegreatnoire.bandcamp.com/track/give
Jaytreaze - https://soundcloud.com/jaytreaze/spbb344
kel - https://m.soundcloud.com/k-e-l/particles1

Went for run of the hind, crazy layering of samples

Run of the hind: lovw the atmosphere and tension you created! Poetry samples worked really well, dipping in and out! Absolutely loved it when it kicked in! My only criticism is that it took a long time to get there and would have loved to hear more of the beat throughout! Thats of course only my personal opinion whicx means fuck all! Had a real DJ shadow feel with the melodies, textures and drums!

Lentil soup: again, another one with great atmosphere! Nice transition type track but would loved to have heard some drums come in!

TGN: nice use of that little melody and really liked the synth in the background giving it a subtle 80’s movie feel! Liked how you worked those drums and the pitched vocal samples!

Jaytreaze! Always love that DJ loop effect on vocals! Loved that vocal ‘ahhh’ sound! Nice drums and liked that ducking effect you got going on!

Kel: acapella worked really well with how you used the samples and loved the overall lofi crunch!

Tough shout between kel and run of the hind! Going with run of the hind! Although it felt like it took a while to get to the beat it worked well giving it that build up and atmospheric feel!

was really happy for the turnout this time around.

appreciate u asha for feedback, i def thought that i couldve done more on that1
especially after hella entries flew in hahah

going for TGN, track reminds me of burial in a way and hit some chords for me. bass was dirty asf

good luck 2 all ◎[▪‿▪]◎

Had to come back to this for a second listen, was very hard to choose but nevertheless I eventually narrowed it down to two, those being Run Of The Hind and TGN.

We have TGN showing his production skills as usual but I quite liked the chords/melody of Run Of The Hind's track and I suppose ultimately I should go for what I felt was the most musical sounding of the two.

I've always been in complete agreement with what (I believe) Vangelis once said which was "If it sounds good, it is good.". Trouble is, TGN's track sounded superior in the production department but Run Of The Hind's track sounded superior in the musicality.

Was bloody hard deciding but in the end I voted for Run Of The Hind.

Again, I take my previous sample source length comments back! Loads ended up jumping on and we had a stella mix of tuneage! Very strong showing!
Asha C - Got my vote, my fave overall track. Lovely stuff! ("Not my words, Michael; the words of Shakin' Stevens")

Lots of 'close seconds'...

lentilsoup - Listening to this again, I like it more and more each time. Seems like such a simple thing initially, but the way the samples and the delay repeats work together is amazeballs. Can't help but want to remix your remix with some BREAKZ!

TGN - Ggggggggggrrrrroooooooooooovvvvyyyy!

JayTreaze - HEAVY hip hop beat. TASTY!

Kel - Loved the pitch-shifted sample bizznezz - sounded like one of them omnichord things. Funky AF drumz and killer 'riffs'.

asha c wrote:My only criticism is that it took a long time to get there and would have loved to hear more of the beat throughout!

I agree! I did try a few different drum things for that bit but nothing stuck. I was wary of using timestretch on drums too much and dismissed doing so out of hand, but should've given it more of a go.
Despite all that, I was actually quite happy to have the beginining as a drumless section (it reminded me a bit of Godspeed You Black Emperor!, perhaps weirdly). But, yeah, that bit needed to be shorter, fo'sho'. I normally listen to a track a few times over a couple of days before saying it's finished and certain sections feeling too long is usually revealed to me then, so I can go back and edit. I rushed this track out a bit tho, and now I've listened to it a few times after the fact, yep, I'd defo cut a few patterns out.

I had that snare roll loop PERFECT but then accidently touched the wrong knob (oo-er, missus!) when in Time/BPM and couldn't get it back to how it was. WELL annoying! Comes in wrong now, lolz.

SP-USER wrote:TGN's track sounded superior in the production department but Run Of The Hind's track sounded superior in the musicality.

Yep, I agree it sounds like shit! Coz it was my first real time using a 303 as anything much more than a glorified effects box for other equipment, I didn't want to get bogged down with how things sounded and resampling and effects etc too much as I thought getting to grips with sampling, editing and sequencing was going to be headache enough. Just wanted to get through it!
Also, due to the unfortunate lack of individual outputs/sample panning on SPs, I couldn't do what I'd normally do for a track, i.e. stick a fuckload of cathedral reverb and fake tape echo over everything that's not drums to make it super spacey and mix/eq/treat that stuff and the drums separately. I couldn't do that being all-in 303 as the drums would've been reverbed/delayed as much as everything else, being on the same outputs***. Everything had to be 'mixed' in the sampler as I was going along which I'm not used to as I normally have individual outputs available.

My timing is slightly off too, with lots of 'pattern swap timing farts' between sections. I've since realised that I could've put empty bars at the end of my patterns to have prevented the farts this time. Live and learn!
That's one of the reasons I'm getting the MS-1 again - one voice polyphony on banks C/D/E and a mute group too, so I won't get that in future, as I'll be sampling my resampling-method-built 303 'patterns' onto individual MS-1 pads before recording those 'live', sans sequencer, from it into the VS880EX.

Thanks for my votes thus far! *blushes*


***I think I've figured out a solution for that in future, albeit a memory hungry one - sample in stereo and use centre canceller to pan, say, the drums, to the right when sampling them and pan whatever else to the left when sampling that. Then, when played back in a pattern/resampled sample together, one thing will come out of the left and t'other out of the right output, so can be treated differently in a mixer or whatever. Might not work tho. Haven't tried it yet...

Bruh, I never said your track sounded shit

No way I would have voted for you if it had. I just meant that in comparison to TGN's track it wasn't as nicely produced, but to be fair TGN is very good at production anyway, it's often what wins me over with his tracks. This time however you won me over because of the musicality.

Plus, you remain a mystery so I thought why not, it's more musical, I've never been in a position to vote for you before, and you're as mad as a march hare with that wonky brain of yours!

OK, I'll rephrase - I agree, TGN's track did sound great and *I* think mine sounds poop. Sounds really harsh on the ear'oles to me. Didn't take it as criticism, fear not!

Pretty easy vote for me this time - ignored the acapella and just just listen (really, just listen) to the sound-design and production on Kel.

asha had nice drum sounds, Jaytreaze I loved your kick and the pump you got it doing in the mix, TGN love that you are repping the 808, hind - congrats if you take this one and lentil props for not using drums in a beat battle!

Run Of The Hind wrote:OK, I'll rephrase - I agree, TGN's track did sound great and *I* think mine sounds poop. Sounds really harsh on the ear'oles to me. Didn't take it as criticism, fear not!

It's ok, SP-USER hath forgiven thee!

BTW, just in case this helps SPBB participants by way of curiosity, I can say that over the years I have come to notice a pattern in so far as categorisation of submisions. For me personally there appears to be three distinct categories that certain participants tend to fall into, and who's names that I can remeber off-hand I will list in alphabetical order below.


Musicality:
asha c
Chopperman
LoopmantrA
Run Of The Hind
Sweat One
waywardpressman


Above Average Production Quality:
TGN
Zindan


Eclecticity:
ellaguru
IIIII
Jaytreaze
kel
l i f
selga


My apologies if I missed anyone (I'm jut thinking fast here), but basically it gets hard to decide when any member uploads a track which (for me) falls into two (or even harder three) of those categories rather than one. It happens often and sometimes in the most unsuspected of ways. It can even go the opposite way, for example TGN, who I hold in high respect for his production skills, once managed to upload a track that I thought sounded bloody aweful, lol, in fact I thought his track was the worst of the bunch on that particualr occassion which is the polar opposite to what I usually feel about his tracks. Then there's Chopperman for example, who although an old-timer here, he's completely new to me but in the space of just two submissions he's already managed to catagorise himself quite easily in the "Musicality" category which is why (for me) he narrowly missed one vote and won the other. Run Of The Hind has even managed to make the "Musicality" category and win my vote on his first upload, so maybe having a wonky brain can be beneficial!

So for me it's interesting to obvserve; I love voting on this stuff and although it's a bit of fun (and I honestly do see it as a bit of fun regardless of what people think), at the same time I think it's the duty of everyone who votes to take the voting part honestly and seriously, and for me, the above shows pretty much how certain members have categorised themselves over time.

Apart from those I may have forgotten, there's a bunch of usernames missed out of that list above, not because of any lack of ability, but because I suspect they are other members on here using a different username. There's even one on that list who I'm still unsure about, but included just in case they're genuine.



.

BTW, just wanted to add to that post above and say a quick word about selga. I've lost count the number of times I've almost voted for selga but ultimately did not. He's one of those members who (for me) often ranks fairly high in both the musicality and production quality aspect, but unfortunately he also ranks VERY high in eclecticity category and for me personally, the eclectic sounding tracks hardly ever get my vote unless they also fall strongly into one of the other categories.

I often feel like selga doesn't get the recognition he deserves and would love to give him my vote some day. Same with Jaytreaze come to think of it, he's another who often gets pushed off' my voting shortlist and usually for the same reason; because the track is just a bit too eclectic for my taste and doesn't fall into the other categories strong enough to offset it against other participating members in the current battle at the time.

I knew I forgot a regular poster on here, shame on me, just added my eclectic retro-enthusiast friend ellaguru

Was also wondering about Ill Green but unless I'm having a memory blank I don't recall him participating in a battle I voted on. Shame really cause the stuff I've heard from him on bandcamp sounds really good. Danswift is another with stuff out there that never seems to participate (at least not lately). Mind you he is having a hard time of it lately from what he's told me so that's very understandable.

PPS: I accidentally miscategorised Sweat One and have fixed it. I have also re-arranged the categories so that they now show my personal order of importance, meaning that (for me personally) "Musicality" is more important than "Production Quality", and both of those are preferable to "Eclecticity".

And before I wrap-up with this, I suppose I better point out what I don't like about "Eclecticity" in tracks. To me, "Eclecticity" in music sounds a bit too chaotic, like it's a bit too random to be musically pleasing enough to really enjoy it. With very few exceptions I personally believe there has to be some "Musicality" in "Music", and "Eclecticity" generally doesn't deliver that IMHO.

Before I go on my tangent, we’ll done Hind once this one lands your way, looking forwards to what you’ll have for us


Good to see u take the time and be honest with your preference and taste, good to stick to ur guns if it’s something ur passionate about
https://youtu.be/gljwk7qfwlk U might like this spuser, funny you use the word eclectic because really, with this forum being a big part of the scene, the whole scene this video goes into is essentially about eclecticism from the music to the musicians to the style and so on. I like this sort of stuff and what you’ll hear in the video so in many way, being recognised as eclectic had me happy to read haha

Maybe the beat battles sound overly eclectic from me because when it comes to a beat battle I go with what feels right and fun rather than my formula for what I make outside of battling but yeah it’s still early days for me and I’ve still got lots to improve and learn on

A major pro to me is eclecticism can draw in a really unique and dedicated community…but by being eclectic the con is reaching that community in the first place might be a tougher job than maybe your local music venue that plays strictly idk, punk rock music, some scenes have those set boundaries that gives a “get what’s on the tin” environment, some like to blur the lines there’s so much more I can say about communities and scenes I find this social stuff and human interaction with music stuff very interesting

I really posted it as a sort of mass feedback, and it's important to remember that the categorisation of what I personally look for in a track is exactly that, it's just my own preference, and me personally categorising someone in "Eclectic" is not meant as any form of discredit.

Indeed, there is more than one artist I categorased under "Eclectic" that I have voted for, so it's important to realise that although I have personally categorised artists, that does not mean those artists always fall under that same category. That's why I used TGN as an example, because although he nearly always pleases in production, there was one time when he well and truly left that categorisation. But for the most part he falls under the category of having good production.

It's the same with everyone on that list, they all shift around between categories, but my categorisations are meant to represent how I categorise them in general, and indeed, being eclectic in your production is something that works well for Hip-Hop, very true, so it is not meant as any form of discredit and I want to be very clear about that.

I'm just personally not a fan of it because it never seems to 'get going'. I remember wanting to vote for one of Zindan's tracks because I loved the production, but it was so broken-up through being gimmicky that it spoiled the track for me, like there was randomly placed filter cuts and stutters that would have been far better off not being there. Getting going is one of the reasons why for example asha c does well when it comes to my votes. It helps that he also has some form of musicality in his tracks, which can either come from a nice melody, a nice chord progression, or both.

And again, TGN as an example, he often does well for my votes because as well as having good production, he also strays into the musicality category as well, and I think this is why he does really well for wins, because when that happens you can bet he's covered both the production and musicality categories to pull it off.

It can be seen in the voting patterns every time. You'll notice that those who like eclectic often vote for those who produce eclectic tracks, and those who prefer mussicality will most often vote for tracks that have some sort of melody or chord progression going on.