Lamp Sessions (Monthly Challenge #001) – submissions due June 20 at 11:59PM UTC

BOOM BOOM BOOM

Pumped for this, thanks Harry.

C’mon Genies, let’s get some shit rolling, and we can all give feedback.

If you’re producing in a bubble, you are doing it wrong :). Exposure to constructive criticism from invested peers, with actionable feedback on what to work on, is only going to make us better.

I’m in. Much excite.

Genies, make some wow.

Excited to hear what people come up with!
Just to confirm the winner of each month gets their membership for next month paid for..
Also we can look to link you up with one of the team for some personal feedback on another (finished) tune of yours..

for sure … we can use samplepacks from july 2017?

Link!?!

Ah dammit, sorry about that! I’m just excited to hear some of the stuff everyone is doing.

Thanks for keeping me straight.

https://soundcloud.com/tuor_music/tuor-lamp-sessions-001-demo

tune isnt showing up bud

first time using only samples

https://soundcloud.com/user-223971601/joppa-lamp-sessions-001-demo/s-HjKtD

https://soundcloud.com/tuor_music/tuor-lamp-sessions-001-demo/s-0RHLt

What a brilliant project for peeps to get involved in. Looking forward to seeing more stuff like thiss to prompt interaction in the forum.

More than a little gutted I’m only just reading this post, so won’t get time to participate. Maybe next time!

Good luck to all involved 🙂

hey adam i like the tune

https://soundcloud.com/targetaudiencednb/target-audience-lamp-sessions-001-demo/s-6rKZa

Ok I have postponed today’s work to make this :d Would need way more time to make a proper intro and some progression/transitions, but yea… it is how it is 🙂

link:
https://soundcloud.com/balron/balron-lamp-sessions-001-2/s-lfYnQ

Note: I do not now how to embed code from SC here, I am getting 403 error.

I’m loving hearing all of these tunes that are coming in. I have the samples just about memorized from making my own tune, and you guys have masked a lot of it very well, w/resampling, fx, etc.

Nice work!

I’m gonna vote that the deadline happen at our own local time, EOD, cuz I am in SoCal, my day ends last, and I’m not sure I will have it all prepped by the end of this evening.

OR I will post in a few hours. We’ll see.

Eff me, Balron, who pissed in your cornflakes!?!

Brutal.

i had fun either way its a great exercise good luck to all

1st half is a remix/cover, and then it devolves into late night fuckery just cuz.

https://soundcloud.com/the_shrike/1998a/s-Sv6Aq

So… do we start with the feedback/votes now? 🙂

Fer sure. All votes in by the 27th.

TOUGH FIELD

I want to give feedback on each tune, then do some voting. And I’ll just throw out a blanket praise, that ALL of these tracks are nice in their own ways, and I love how competitive you guys are being with this.

In order they were received.

Juan/Joppa –
Really like the quirky vibe here. Like several little skittery animals, popping in and out of sight. That lead sound is interesting & blippy. If I’m throwing down critiques, I think it might be that the mix might just need some more oomph and energy. This tune is kinda straddling the minimal vibe, and I know that sometimes gets mixed a little differently than some banger, but I think there is still some opportunity to focus and highlight the hero sounds, make the bass a bit thicker & present, etc. I know I could say the same on just about every mix I’ve ever done, so it might not even be all that helpful, but if you were to keep pushing, I’d say give each sound its own space (they are already logcially falling into their own spaces) and then see what happens if you push/drive them in their freq ranges, until it just phattens up. The lead sound is quite prominent, so that one might work just fine as is, but there are some BG bass noises that could be brought forward a little more. Maybe more freq layering with additional FX, maybe some more width.

Adam –
Nice intro, spooky bizness and all. Nice drop into a cruspity, edged out bass line. That most prominent bass sound is pretty wikked. The reese or saw or whatever that is alternating with it just seems to fade away in the presence of that other hero sound. Might be worth trying to polish up the “response” sound a little more, cuz again, that main bass sound is stealing the show. I’m actually kinda interested in how you get that top layer, almost “desaturated” kind of sound. It sounds boxy, in a good way, and the tops give it a nice harmonic energy. If it were me, I might pusht that snare just a little harder, but that is certainly a subjective thing.

Harry/R4NSOM –
Almost jazzy, clean atmospheric open, and then straight to bizness. That snare could possibly use some more top layer love, it sounds a bit muffled to my ears. The kick sounds a skosh too loud to me, but I’ll admit that I am not the best at setting kick levels. My personal opinion is that a kick should sit comfortably with the sub bass, not being too far forward or behind it, gain-wise. Maybe it’s that the sub levels need to be pushed a little more? I do like the juxtaposition of the light and dark themes, very Metalheadz-y in that sense.

Target Audience –
Mmmmmmmmmm, dancefloor destined. Dark, atmospheric opening, previewing the madness to come. Drums are poking through well. A lot going on on top, but it’s not too much for me. The arpeggios (like starting around 1min) provide a nice energy. I could see them being used for a nice build+drop. Impending doom type pads are good for keeping the dark vibe going. Nice.

Balron –
LOUD. AS. F#CK. And dark. And pissed off. I love the stylee. My critique is that it’s a bit too loud, and I don’t mean overall RMS, I mean at pain point frequencies. A smoothed out top end will make it easier to listen to on blast. Currently it’s a bit painful when cranked up. I am also struggling against this issue. But I love the arrangement, and I love the “take no prisoners” and “I ain’t apologizing for sh!t” vibe. I listened to your other tunes on SC, and there was more loud dark goodness there. Brutal. I dig it.

Shrike –
(I mean, why not, right?) It was getting way too loud, esp in high freq pain points, but I (tried to) smooth it out a bit more last night. Also, all that was asked for was a ~1:30 min piece, and you (I) threw down basically an entire track, dumbass. Old skool vibe and arrangement which might not be everyone’s thing these days. Maybe kick is a little too far back in the mix? Gets a little boring in the middle, but again that’s just kinda the difference between modern drum and bass and a tune made 20 years ago. 8 and 16 bar turnarounds could be better executed, it’s a little half-ass now. I do love when that bass drops, though. Gets me every single time, and really I am talking about the original Warhead from Mr Krust, which this track is just emulating, so I can’t take credit for that. Also, it’s too long, but I like it when the drums come back at the end. Maybe snare is a little too hot? Work on that mixing, the mixing can always improve. Doesn’t really end all that well, just sorta fizzles out, but we said ~1:30 min anyway. Dumbass.

Do I really have to pick?

Ok, I will.

It’s a tossup for me, between Target Audience and Balron, and while I think TA has a bit better technical execution, I just really dig what Balron did musically.

So I vote Mr. Balron. But it’s kinda hard to pick, a lot to like in this bunch.

RESPECT
/c

hey thanks for your critique i didn’t want to over think the tune just worked about 6 hours on it stayed up late this was a lot of fun. also wanted to leave it the way it was because of my job i work 7 days a week have my own business. i just love drum and bass and will not ever stop lol good luck to all

For me, there is only one winner and its Target Audience 🙂 i think this contest is about producion skillz and not about style.

When I found this, there were just the first two entries iirc and after hearing Adam’s one I thought “fk, do I even want to participate now?”. I really liked the mixdown and gritty bass hits. Now I am torn between Adam and Target Audience. Adam got the mixdown, but Target Audience has a more interesting arrangement. Both are tough and important aspects of each track. You two should try a collab 🙂

I’ll give my vote to Target Audience.

Here are some suggestions (disclaimer: I understand time constraints and the fact the full song would have some of this handled, but I still need to write something :d):
– The initial 24 bars of the intro are the same, some noticeable change happens only in the last 8 bars. Could use better/longer progression/buildup.
– The drop is good, but still feel like it could be bigger. Would get rid of the ‘click’ before the drop and make the buildup with even more energy.
– The arp/synth starting at 1:07 is really nice and it’s a pity you left it fade away at 1:18. It deserves progression, the last 16 bars should definitely have this as a lead. Without it, they sound the same as the first bars of a drop.
– The overall mixdown isn’t bad (better than mine for sure), but it has a space for improvement. It’s just a little bit muddy imo and lacks the clarity and presence that Adam got. This is something I am struggling with a lot, so I can’t give you specific tips on how to fix it.

btw: I liked the idea of giving feedback to all the tracks, but I must admit… I am really lazy to do that now. Sorry. If someone really wants it, let me know and I’ll try to help 🙂

Great feedback guys, I appreciate it a lot 🙂 I reckon getting feedback here is actually more important than winning this competition.

As far as my opinion goes I would vote for Adam. Reason for that is the clean and strong mixdown and all the elements in his song are just correct (both technical and musical wise). I definately have a thing or two to learn from you. Great job!

But I will give short feedback for everyone since I found something that I liked in everyone’s track.

JUAN – You seem like an experimental type of person and your track definitely was unique. My opinion is that you have quite a lot of space to fill there (be that a bass, synth or some stabs).

Adam – Well, I already explained above what I like about your track. Keep up the good work!

R4NSOM – I think your track has a lot potential but it’s the snare that I’m really not keen of (it’s really dominant for this track). I like this dark liquid kind of vibe you have but if you would change the snare to something softer (something like rimshot for example) then I think it would fit the vibe much more (Tho, that’s just my opinion).

Balron – Oh boy, what an intense drop. Mixdown wise could use some work (especially the top end could use some cutting) and in the intro I feel like you could add some more elements that would fill the space and would create more atmosphere there. I don’t know why but your track reminded me one memory from Let it Roll festival where I stumbled on to one artist who had similar style as you and I remember how people were just raving hard on the dancefloor (sadly I can’t remember the name of that artist but hey maybe it was actually you 😀 )

Shrike – Award for the longest track here definitely for you. Production wise I reckon the kick is a bit too weak in your track and would need more presence (be that a higher layer kick on top of that for example) to stand out more. I love the synth sound (or not sure if it’s synth) in the first drop you have going on in the background (mind telling which sample is that because I would sure love to play with that) but the bass could use more top end (use like a saturator for the top end for example). Interesting change you have happening starting from 2:12 I like it. Although I kind of felt like listening to 3 different tracks and that was a bit confusing in my opinion.

So thanks to everyone. I enjoyed listening to all the tracks 🙂

Target Audience wrote:

I love the synth sound (or not sure if it’s synth) in the first drop you have going on in the background (mind telling which sample is that because I would sure love to play with that)

Do you mean the cheeky little sound that sounds a bit like the lead in Jonny L’s “The Bells”…?

Yeah that is a fun sound, I will look up what I used for that when I get home.

@target

yeah guys i vote balron i like the gritty vibe , all tunes were tight though

Mine was just a straight up riff on Warhead. At least until that second half. The arrangement through that first half was just a 1:1 of Krust’s classic hit.

I dunno. I had someone suggest that maybe I do a cover (remix) of older tunes, as an exercise, and I just slipped in for this. Timing, y’know? It wasn’t gonna compete with this lot, though.

Not next time though. Next time I do me. MUST DO BETTER!!!

Man, this one is close…

By my tally:

Balron = 2 votes
TA = 2 votes
Adam = 2 votes

Genie, looks like you’re gonna get the deciding vote.

agreed with shrike

Balron: tož kurva. to abysme dali někdy pivo 😀

for non czech speaking guys…. its beer offer :))

Genie, if you don’t weigh in SG is gonna be out 1 month dues x’s 3! ahaha!

To everyone who sent in 🙂
Going through them in the order they we posted:

JOPPA

awesome very left field sounds, maybe streamling it a bit into a memorable phrase might help – but great work on going for something unusual.

Adam

Great tone and feel to it, and a slick choice of samples, good arrangement.. maybe a bit more filth , grunfge somewhere in the mix might go well
Track like this would suit a beefy mix

R4NSOM

Lovely lovely musical moments, just the snare tweaking and and more tone and low end weight in the kick it’s a great tune.

TARGET AUDIENCE

Tight mix as expected from you. Dancefloor number, definitely imagine quite a few people keen to play this when finished.
Maybe bringing that bass right up in the mixx and driving it along from there as well as the beats. *bass focused*

BALRON

playing some lovely clean audio cuts in the beginning,then moving into something else completely.. Lots of old school influences in here.
Ton of attitude. Touch more bass? maybe, but hefty tune.

SHRIKE

Nice hands in the air intro build up, dropping nicely, wrong footed a bit by the drop, maybe a bit, but that can sometimes be a good thing. Fresh sounds
in the drop, nice beat and overal differernt feel to this. The Krust appreciation is wicked, Ram trilogy meets hazard.. a cool demo in that it has lots of
different parts, perhaps again streamlining it back a bit could help.

Vote here: 2 votes for Balron 1 vote for Adam.
So Balron take it this time.
On pure zerof**ks approach and vibe..!

Drop us an email [email protected] 😉

Congrats to Balron!

And great job everyone for playing.

Looking forward to the next one. I’m gonna get more competitive this time ahahahahahahahahah

Listening to it again. Like a mufkin T-Rex running through an Antique China shop wearing nitro-glycerin trainers….

congrat balron and thx to all for great competiton 🙂

Congrats Balron 🙂

Thanks everyone. Was a good contest.

Already received a feedback (to different tune/clip) from Jade. Some great tips in there!
Definitely want to win the next contest as well 😀