Blamsoft Zero Hybrid Synth Song Challenge | The Announcement

[EpiGenetik]

I put mine up a couple of hours ago but it's still not showing in the list. Any ideas?


EDIT: ....and it's up now, phew

[alterEe]

Here's my track, music for an imaginary sci-fi film. Thanks for the challenge!

[Iggster]

Well only just managed to get my track uploaded... really thought I was going to run out of time!

[EpiGenetik]

I put mine up a couple of hours ago but it's still not showing in the list. Any ideas?


EDIT: ....and it's up now, phew

EDIT again Guess it wouldn't hurt to let people see it too

[CrossFireG]

Don't know if i submitted mine in time!? oops lol

Well its in my signature if you want to hear it

EDIT: Oh its EST time? might make some adjustments and resubmit!

[Eagleizer]

Desided to join. Just in time

[Reasonistas]

Please note the submission period ended last night at 11:59 pm EST. We are not accepting any further submissions. We will come back with the winner announcement in 1 week. Good luck to all 42 participants!

[TheGodOfRainbows]

Good luck everyone. Lots of great songs in this challenge. One thing that I worried about when finalizing my song was that basically every instrument patch I used came straight from the presets, which is contrary to the spirit of the "create your own sounds" that characterize Reason users, and synth-heads in general. So, I hope this doesn't hurt my chances of winning, because I want Zero badly. But, I must admit, I am a musician/composer first, and a sound/synth designer second. My skills and understanding of synthesis are in the early stages, and Zero (as well as other synths like the PX7) are pretty hard for me to get my head around. So, instead of spending time trying to learn how to create sounds with Zero for this song challenge, I decided to forgo the sound design aspect almost entirely and focus on the composition side of things, otherwise I would have pulled my hair out in frustration and given up.

But, if I were to spin this decision in my favor, I would say that using all the factory presets for this song challenge, which is also a demo for Zero, is a good thing, because it shows how good Zero sounds right out of the gate and is full of stronk, usable presets. I am one of those people who needs good presets to start off with so I can then tweak to taste (at least with FM synthesis or anything fancier than Subtractor or Maelstrom). For me, if I'm listening to a demo of a synth and I hear a bunch of sounds I like, I would be disappointed if I couldn't find those sounds in the presets. Even in this song challenge, there are several entries that I love, but when I went looking for the presets, there were many I couldn't find because all you mad-scientist-synth-geniuses built them from scratch (or at least tweaked them enough to be considered a new patch). Anyway, I need to get serious about understanding how Zero works, because it's a beast.

[CrossFireG]

Good luck everyone. Lots of great songs in this challenge. One thing that I worried about when finalizing my song was that basically every instrument patch I used came straight from the presets, which is contrary to the spirit of the "create your own sounds" that characterize Reason users, and synth-heads in general. So, I hope this doesn't hurt my chances of winning, because I want Zero badly. But, I must admit, I am a musician/composer first, and a sound/synth designer second. My skills and understanding of synthesis are in the early stages, and Zero (as well as other synths like the PX7) are pretty hard for me to get my head around. So, instead of spending time trying to learn how to create sounds with Zero for this song challenge, I decided to forgo the sound design aspect almost entirely and focus on the composition side of things, otherwise I would have pulled my hair out in frustration and given up.

But, if I were to spin this decision in my favor, I would say that using all the factory presets for this song challenge, which is also a demo for Zero, is a good thing, because it shows how good Zero sounds right out of the gate and is full of stronk, usable presets. I am one of those people who needs good presets to start off with so I can then tweak to taste (at least with FM synthesis or anything fancier than Subtractor or Maelstrom). For me, if I'm listening to a demo of a synth and I hear a bunch of sounds I like, I would be disappointed if I couldn't find those sounds in the presets. Even in this song challenge, there are several entries that I love, but when I went looking for the presets, there were many I couldn't find because all you mad-scientist-synth-geniuses built them from scratch (or at least tweaked them enough to be considered a new patch). Anyway, I need to get serious about understanding how Zero works, because it's a beast.

....sorry but why are you making excuses? Let your music speak for itself

[TheGodOfRainbows]

....sorry but why are you making excuses? Let your music speak for itself

Was I making excuses? I think my post was a bit more nuanced than that. I was just sharing my concerns and thought processes for making the choices I made for the song, as well as my opinions on stuff. Instead of such a brief response to a single facet of what I said, why not comment on any of the other points I made?

[CrossFireG]

....sorry but why are you making excuses? Let your music speak for itself

Was I making excuses? I think my post was a bit more nuanced than that. I was just sharing my concerns and thought processes for making the choices I made for the song, as well as my opinions on stuff. Instead of such a brief response to a single facet of what I said, why not comment on any of the other points I made?

To me that's all it was in summary.

The competition's criteria consists of:
Showcasing of the Zero Hybrid Synth
Arrangement and songwriting
Originality and creativity
Mixing and engineering

Not a 2 paragraph write up trying to persuade the judges & listeners to increase your chances (which actually lowers my opinion of your song as you've given it a stigma).

P.s. Your other points were lovely.

[TheGodOfRainbows]

To me that's all it was in summary.

The competition's criteria consists of:
Showcasing of the Zero Hybrid Synth
Arrangement and songwriting
Originality and creativity
Mixing and engineering

Not a 2 paragraph write up trying to persuade the judges & listeners to increase your chances (which actually lowers my opinion of your song as you've given it a stigma).

P.s. Your other points were lovely.

You thought that was a “write up”? Well here’s a dissertation.

It’s amazing that even when one tries to be as clear and unambiguous as possible in communicating one's thoughts, someone else will always perceive it differently. In your case, you saw nothing more than excuses and an attempt to persuade, when in reality, it was a benign post about what was running through my mind, with no ulterior motives. I didn’t imagine my post could be interpreted otherwise.

Let’s recap. First, I made a post about what was on my mind after I finished my song. I said I was “worried” about my chances, proceeded to elaborate, and from there, you ran with it, and said “sorry” before telling me that I’m making excuses and trying to persuade the judges & listeners to help my chances. I even self deprecatingly said "if I were to spin this decision in my favor...." So it's not like I was subconsciously or sneakily trying to do that.

Besides, so what if that was my intention? If something I say has an persuasive effect on how much someone likes my song, then maybe I made some valid points. There is music I’ve been exposed to that I disregarded at first and didn’t like at all, but later after learning more about it, such as the historical context, how it was recorded, etc, my perception shifted and it grew to become something I loved.

Then you said that it lowers your opinion of the song. So, if you hear music that you like, but later find out that the artist was a jerk, would you like the music less? I’ve struggled with this conundrum too. Yes, it would lower my opinion of the artist as a person, but I would still like the song because for me, music is like food: either it tastes good to me or it doesn’t. I can’t control whether or not I like it after having found out about the artist.

When you say it lowers your opinion of the song, to me it’s like saying “There’s a bakery with delicious cookies, but the owner is a jerk, so my opinion of the cookies are lowered. He puts up advertisements all around town, trying to persuade people to like his cookies, and I don’t like that.” What? Either the cookies taste good or they don’t, regardless of the kind of person that made them, or how pushy they are in trying to sell them to you. Furthermore, even if I am trying to excuse my choices and persuade the audience in my favor, since when is that something new, or bad? Everybody in every aspect of society wants to be understood and valued, and it is normal to want to influence or persuade others to see that value.

Here are examples of your passive aggressive comments, followed by my interpretation (keep in mind that you may think my interpretations are inaccurate, just as I think your summarization of what I originally said is inaccurate):

• The “sorry, but why are you making excuses” = Sorry to insult you, but…..
• “The competition's song criteria consists of….not a two paragraph write up trying to persuade” = This one is a humdinger. I know what the song challenge criteria consists of. You don't have to tell me that it does not consist of making excuses and trying to persuade. (btw it’s a song Challenge, not a Competition. Word choice matters)
• “two paragraph write up” = That's rude. By calling my post a “write up", it suggests that I was bloviating and speaking to excess, just as some probably think I'm doing right now. Well, I’m not a man of few words. But it is impolite to be so dismissive about someone else's comments even if they are lengthy. Just ignore it if you don't want to read a long post. But don’t choose one element of the whole to focus on while discarding everything else I said.
• “You’re other points were lovely” = Sarcastic and dismissive. It wouldn’t have been sarcastic if for example you said, “Your other points were well made” or “you made some good points”. But the word “lovely” here is tinged with sarcasm, especially when you consider that if my other points truly were "lovely", then why did you not acknowledge them in your first post, or in your second? Well, the answer is because you don't actually think they are lovely. You were just being sarcastic.

These examples are passive aggressive, sarcastic and I think you know that, especially now that I have parsed and delineated your post. In case you think I'm being overly sensitive, please consider and respect my interpretations of what you said, and I'll will do likewise.

I choose every word I say carefully, on the internet and in the flesh. But I think that often other people throw words around a little more loosely in general which sometimes results in misunderstandings. Like when communicating via text as we all know we are unable to read each other's body language and hear the tonal fluctuations in each other's voice which makes it more difficult to recognize sarcasm and humor.

For my next post, I will give you my 500 page thesis on passive aggressive behavior. But you will be able to reduce it into a single, simple, crystallized sentence, thanks to your talent at summarization of multifaceted thoughts and ideas. (That was me being passive aggressive, I admit it. I’m just responding in kind.)

[CrossFireG]

[raymondh]

Guys please stop. Put your energy into your next cool tracks!

[TheGodOfRainbows]

Guys please stop. Put your energy into your next cool tracks!

If someone insults me, I will respond. I'm done, and so is he. No need to referee. No foul language was used, and no one was called names. Everything is cool. This is a one way conversation anyway. He gets to fire off a few rounds, and I'm the Debbie Downer for ruining everyone's buzz.

Well played CrossFireG, that Futurama gif couldn't be more appropriate. Congratulations on winning!