Here's my go at it...
I tried vocoloid for the vox.

 

wow thats nice @capitan crunch i wish i had more to say but it just works. your mastering also got better, like its noticeably louder and richer than anything youve entered so far and overall clear, i definitely see growth on that side

yeah idk what else to say, its just nice to listen too; the instrumental specifically is well done, theres not a single thing that stands out or makes the piece imo, everything together as a whole makes it. nice job capitan

 

thx I'm happy you guys like it.

 

I don't like it...I love it!! I don't have the juice today, but I'll let you know why in a coupla days my heartfelt review.

 

Hey thanks a lot
Love how you described it the abyss beneath gave me chills. That tension between balance and chaos is exactly what I was aiming for.
Maybe he’s still falling... maybe he hit the ground and got back up glitching
Glad it spoke to you!

 

@macros mk2
Wow, that intro literally suspended me in zero gravity… and that little motif around 1:30 just nailed me. There’s a real sense of storytelling in your music. I love this clock sound accelerated.

 

Definitely, and thank you.

 

Hey, I really like your piece. As for you not getting it louder. Try using a clipper on the kick and snare or any other transient heavy sound to remove the loudest parts of the transients. I think in your case it is mostly the kick and the snare though. You might be able to gain quite a lot of headroom by doing that before you start loosing anything regarding the sound of your kick or snare. A click is a click basically, and you will still have that after clipping. It will be tamed though, and you gain a few dB of headroom that will enable you to gain more loudness once you drive it into the limiter.

In my experience the transients of the kick and the snare are the loudest sounds of the whole mix. At the same time they are really short. These loud bursts then trigger the limiter and everything else gets turned down significantly because of it even though only the transients would need to be turned down.
This affects the amount of limiting you can apply until it starts to sound over-compressed or over-limited. By using a clipper first, you will only reduce the highest peaks. This will mean you will need less limiting and enable you to get away with a considerably higher amount of loudness gain.

 

Last edited: Jun 28, 2025

I'm calling this one "Brave Man" concerning facing one's fears, taking the cue from Somnombulist in his wish for this iteration of our Friendly Non-Contest. As usual, I have melded the supplied image with with my process of inner reflection, and my intention of doing so as has become customary, my attempt lyrically to blur the line between the image on the page which is frozen in time and my own, which is at least for the present, fluid and transformative though in a most definite and oh so finite sense for those in the know.

Musically I'm happy with the melody which is ripe with intervals. Also, following my melody the song does some tonal aerobics by substituting certain minor chords for their major counterparts in the three distinct parts of the song. Listen for it. There's no bass this time again...arthritis and fat heavy strings and all.

My production computer has been on the fritz so I had to use a weak older laptop with a small hard to see screen which quickly into the project glitched and complained and threatened to lay down and die. Even whilst maxing out the buffer when mixing it was almost impossible to listen to what I was doing. There is a click or two in the end result from the machine complaining but it could have been worse.

Brave Man high atop the canyon
Maybe he should not look down
Lest that he imagines
His body crumpled there on the ground
The slightest breeze his heart a'flutters
In his chest he feels it pound
Takes a beat to steady
But cannot stop that crazy...
Sound that's blaring in his ears
Tries to overcome his fears
He ponders what has led him here
Balanced on this fragile thread of wire

History as mystery if blinders self imposed,
A thought malposed, my guess that's how it goes

The Brave Man's hands just like a vandal's
Snatching time, each grain of sand
Balanced high that craggled fault line
Raven calls him to the wing
Eyes now welling up in tears
Those happy, joyful, fun filled years
Sine wave's trace, the ups and downs
While balanced on this fragile thread of wire

History as mystery if blinders self imposed
A thought malposed, my guess that's how it goes

Brave Man high atop the canyon
Maybe he should not look down.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/vnub...ey=p4lvk428xhdvn6scx15boovb3&st=54ijabew&dl=0

 

Last edited: Jul 13, 2025 at 4:06 AM

delayed response here, but thank you!!! these are incredibly fun to do, im stoked you enjoyed it! ive got a little collection going of similar style beats ive made due to these contest, they make good walking music as i deliver mail haha. big ups to audioz for supplying the trailer sound effects (devastator series mostly) and of course bobdule for kontakt. couldn't of done it without them lol. i basically start pulling my hair out when i watch a movie trailer nowadays cuz they all sound the same but incorporating those sounds into a song apparently is different in my brain.

hey mino45, GRACIAS AMIGO for the advice. im still (20 years into this basically lol) trying to improve my mix and masters for my bedroom productions. i normally get my songs to around 8 lufs as a target, and normally run a clipper before the final limiter as well. tbh im not sure wtf i did on this one to not get it loud enough. some dial/knob/fader wasn't pushed up enough! ive kinda moved on from it this one but at some point will open it up to see what i didn't do correctly. i keep struggling with trying to get CLEAN and loud tracks, i think in general i'm adding too much/not cutting enough with bass and its hitting the limiter too hard there and causing distortion sometimes. i might have been trying to avoid the distortion but lost the loudness as a side effect in this one. i definitely agree there is headroom to be found by clipping the snare and kick, its something im guilty of knowing about and having done, but i forget about it a lot. generally clip the drum bus though, dont think i remembered on this track, kinda rushed through it not wanting to lose momentum or become desensitized. i should make a checklist.

if youre bored here is a beat i "finished" yesterday (I mean i'm done with it, is it finished? close enough for me to add it my phone playlist and move on), its bass heavy/trappy and was hitting around 8 lufs, but still sounds pretty clean, at least on my hd600's. or ive listened to enough it ive lost all sense of direction. wish i had monitors with a sub, it'd make things easier i think. it feels like im guessing on low end a lot of the time, but im figuring out how to hear it better and when im smart i use isol8 to really...isolate it which can help. the sennheisers lack sub info i think, better now that ive eq'd them to the harmon target but still not an actual sub woofer moving air. such is life! plus like loislane said soundcloud takes the volume down anyway so bleh.

sorry for long-winded replies, i haven't sat down to check threads in a minute besides on quick breaks at work. and now im gonna sit and listen to all the songs i haven't checked out yet. here are my stream of conscious thoughts

@Somnambulist lol oops i missed you submitted a song with the picture. great choice by the way, i keep trying to encourage my friend to join the noncontest and was showing it to him. awesome track funky ass bass, soundscapy synths can't go wrong. i would have sampled the shit out of this and chopped into a hiphop beat for sure back in the day with my mpc2000xl, this is the kinda stuff i hunted for on vinyl. cool shit.

@vuldegger ahhh i see you also bring some funky bass. cool piano! fuck this in the best way reminds of some jazzy japanese rpg videogame music or something. i downloaded dc snares but its just ended up in "the collection" still haven't used it, kick 3 is dope though. pretty sweet jamming man!

@johnmusichead oooh i listened to this already but off my phone at work a while ago, listening again at home. i missed out on the phone. really stylish man, this is great. very impressive. love the bass... damn im realizing i just like bass a lot in general lol. the broken beat shit is sick just very well done imo. the delays and filtering, mmm. a bit jealous lmao, it'd hurt my brain making this.

@Grape Ape mmmm when the drums come in. fuck now the bass, ugh. bass again. i used to have a juno 106, bought from some shady dude off craigslist. it looked like it had been attacked by a hammer but sounded good, i had to sell it to move. so it goes. got a deepmind now similar architecture but damn i miss that juno, im glad you're putting yours to good use. anyway ive been bobbing my head to your song this entire time writing and i'd say you absolutely nail the genres it is, absolutely dreamy with jungle beats. nicely done. just reading your reply to loislane about fame, if it makes you feel better- to me on the forum, you're just an EXTREMELY ATTRACTIVE WOMAN.
does suck about the downsides of success though. personally, thats uhhhhh why i was never successful, the downsides. yes. thats why! seriously though, least here you can just be another random talking about something we all love, its probably nice to be able to do that. yeah this song is a banger listened a few times.

@9ty man some of the moments in this song really move me. they're like uplifting. could totally see this as a soundtrack snippet to something, cool chord selections.

@Usr4321 oh hell yeah i started grinning when it came in after the intro. 'the universe is immovable and unconcerned.' yes this is what you captured lol.

@capitan crunch i just realized after 2 years its CAP-I-TAN crunch, not CAPTAIN crunch. so you should know im slightly illiterate. yeah this is solid song, i think grape ape said it best. i keep coming back to that guitar tone at 1:20-1:30ish.

@Lois Lane man this sounds really fucking good. this is such crazy songwriting to me who just makes shitty loop type music, like all you guys making real music blow my mind. the mix is like really good to my ears, so despite the shit laptop you were stuck with you pulled it off imo. oh i had to listen for it a couple times but i heard the click at the end. track ruined, i take everything nice i said back.


i'm dismayed none of us used wind sound effects as far as i can tell, the foley with birds though that was pretty close. good times, cheers to everyone who reads this diatribe!

 

Wype wasn't allowing me to upload the song yesterday so I'll post it there today for convenience sake of those wishing to listen.

https://whyp.it/tracks/294596/brave-man

 

yeah that was cool @Lois Lane ; nice use of imagery in the lyrics and the more stripped back arrangement to help put me into the scene, a very effective folky approach to storytelling. also despite the technical issues you were having, the recordings sound great and the mix is nice - thanks for sharing homie

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@macros mk2 : well im glad you dig it, had fun making it. also that message i sent Lois may sound complain-y but in reality nothing is really perfect, everything has downsides. i also didnt just magically get here, i worked to get here for years so. of course i couldnt predict exactly how it would be but i wouldnt trade my life, some aspects are just the best thing to ever happen to me; i can handle everything, just have to move differently and stay self aware, not complaining at all. though youre right, it is kinda nice sometimes people not knowing who i am

i do like the Juno though, i bought it from my friend who $900 which is really cheap, i just kinda wish it could do more so i dont use it too often. if i could get this sound, with like Phase Plant or Serum's sound design options, that would be amazing. i mostly keep it for like you said as an asset for money

 

great song !!