Libre Music Challenge #22: General Midi

[bluebell]

Uh, the 2nd submission wins all loudness wars

Generally, nice stuff.

[SpotlightKid]

Uh, the 2nd submission wins all loudness wars

Yeah, to get chain of sausages even in the SoundCloud waveform is quite an achievement!

---

BTW, I added a link to the Ardour session archive of the project to my submission post above. I hope the external files for the IR and the amp sim plugin load correctly, they are included in the archive and at least in my tests locally they seem to load correctly. Otherwise the guitars would be silent and there'd be no reverb.

I deactivated all the MIDI tracks with the General MIDI synth plugins, since I rendered all of those to audio for mixing.

I used two LV2 plugins of my own making, which are probably not available in any Linux distro. These can be found here and should be easy to compile & install:

• https://github.com/SpotlightKid/dfzitarev1
• https://github.com/SpotlightKid/stereocrossdelay

Chris

[imMature]

Just noticed that there is an error in the description if anyone cares. https://archive.org/details/libre-music-challenge-22/

Libre Music Challenge #22 - General Midi

These are the submissions for LMC 22, the Libre Music Challenge for the month of September 2023. A friendly competition where we make music exclusively with free and open source software.

The challenge this month was to create a track with Helm synthesizer .

All tracks are available under a CC-BY-SA license.

More info about the challenge at: viewtopic.php?t=26150

[autostatic]

@imMature Can we cover your track with my punkrock band? Loved it, it's like the pinnacle of hearing way more stuff than what there really is, really got my imagination going.

[imMature]

@imMature Can we cover your track with my punkrock band? Loved it, it's like the pinnacle of hearing way more stuff than what there really is, really got my imagination going.

Dude, thank you for this comment! This made my day! I would love for you guys to do that! Have a blast and make the song even more fun! Like, that ending after the bridge is a boring mess

If you ever need more inspiration I should even have a bunch of midi versions of various four piece punk/ska/hardcore songs I wrote back in the day but never really recorded.

You and your band have my blessings and my love, dude! If you ever record this tune It would make me happy to hear one of my punk songs played with a full band for the first time in 20 years!

Keep rawking, dude!

[imMature]

@autostatic

Just hit me that I posted a skapunk song I tracked on a hardware yamaha 262 (soundblaster 16) a while back. The instruments are shit, but it's a fun song!
hope you can get the song from the link, dude!

https://chat.unfa.xyz/file-upload/AoxQH ... 3?download

and a bonus you didn't ask for.

Wrote this as a punk song... But I have adhd, so I recorded this abomination in a few hours and hid it from public. (17 years ago)

Need a laugh, I got your back, dude!

https://chat.unfa.xyz/file-upload/5qao2 ... 3?download

The Peter Pan Formula To Never Grow Old (Punk rock music, 8 bits and boobies)

I used to play this game so many years ago...(ago...ago....ago...)
But now days I can't even remember where to go (I´m a lost kid)
I need hammers, candles, boots and a glove, y0 (or maybe just get a life!?)
So hook me up with a raft and a flute to go (and a bunch of boobies!)

Punk rock music, 8 bits and boobies
Turtles with wings, castles and Yoshies
Fuck those plumbers, please pick me, Peaches
Zelda honey, show me your titties

Ganon with a canon, Coopa with his troops ya'll
Mazes amazes, so many stages
Going up, I'm climbing with my ice pick so shiny
How do we fit all these stuff in a small, small bag

Get over here, fatality
Zelda, you're the girl for me
How many coins for a lap dance baby?
How many coins for a happy ending?

Punk rock music, 8 bits and boobies
Turtles with wings, castles and Yoshies
Fuck those plumbers, please pick me, Peaches
Zelda honey, show me your titties

Punk rock music, 8 bits and boobies
Turtles with wings, castles and Yoshies
How many coins for a lap dance baby?
How many coins for a happy ending?

Punk rock music, 8 bits and boobies
Turtles with wings, castles and Yoshies
Fuck those plumbers, please pick me, Peaches
Zelda honey, show me your titties

[MetalPnkx]

I should request access as I hope to complete a song for the next one! I should at least start by voting in this one.
(Already in the discord under a different username)

[SpotlightKid]

Here's my feedback for this month's entries and my votes are in as well.

A-Lin - General Relamidity

• Smooth sound mix and the track is overall very pleasant to listen too.
• Many GM sounds are used inventively outside of their usual context.
• Extra karma points for including the "Tubular bells" sound
• I wouldn't mind if it was a bit longer.

Arkforest - Álomhajó (Instrumental)

• Clean mix like we have come to expect
• Even more of a loudness sausage than the artists previous entries. I can't listen to more than 1-2 minutes of this track at a time or my ears begin too hurt.
• I know this kind of music isn't about melody or harmonic development, but for me, personally, the variations in sound and intensity level do not suffice to keep up the listeners interest.
• I'm being very harsh on this track, because I think the artist, with the excellent grasp he obviously has on production, should focus his talents more on arrangement and music theory.
• But probably I just don't "get it".

Autostatic - C18H21NO4

• Really nice guitar riff with rotary speaker effect
• Other guitar sounds are effective too.
• Drums are too robotic.
• SFX are too muffled and dry, they do not sound like they belong in the track and its sonic space.
• This would probably be excelllent with some Robert Smith (The Cure) vocals.

Avelho - Desafio

• Don't know what to say about this, nothing here really fits well together.
• But "Dabei sein ist alles!", as the saying goes

Cieciu - Thin red stripe tipped with the line of steel

• Very evocative atmosphere
• Snare drum is too dry compared to the other instruments.
• That distorted guitar beginning at ₂:00 is very cool. A similar effect like in "In the air tonight".
• Overall the arrangement sounds a bit "ragged", for lack of a better word. The drums and the bass grate a bit against the accompaniement. Maybe that was the intended effect, given the subject matter of the painting, which inspired the track?

imMature - YourSisterIsHotButYourMommyDoesThatThingWithHerToungeThatILike

• The artist name is very programmatic, I think, given the song title
• Good arrangement (the main riff reminds me a bit of "Nur geträumt" by Nena) and drum programming
• It's a pity that that cool guitar/bass riff in the intro isn't reprised later - I think it would sound good on real instruments.
• So, good composition, but due to the "cheap" GM sounds I'm not enjoying listening to it more than 2-3 times.

MyLoFy - Probably Today

• Not sure what to make of this, it sounds a bit "ad-hoc", without much direction.
• Many good sound choices and combinations (except these brass stabs remind me too much of my Korg M1 )
• But maybe too many different sounds?
• The strings almost sound like a Mellotron, which pushes the track into progressive / art rock territory, but it isn't that either.
• Not sure what else to say, honestly doesn't leave a deep impression on me.

sg75 - Feuilles d'Anes du Midi

• My favourite entry
• It makes me think of puzzle computer games like "Riven".
• Strong theme and atmosphere
• Good arrangement, which fills out the sonic space
• Excellent sound design / selection
• The drums / percussion are played a bit too straight, they could be a lot more dynamic and a bit looser, I think.

Trumpetrespas - tick tick tick ticka ticka ticka tack tack

• I couldn't get into this, the harmonic landscape is too alien for my taste.
• But the mix is ok, the rhythm makes sense most of the time, and it has some sense of development.
• Could be just a bunch of algorithmically generated sequences playing together, who knows?

[cieciu]

• Snare drum is too dry compared to the other instruments.
  [...]
• Overall the arrangement sounds a bit "ragged", for lack of a better word. The drums and the bass grate a bit against the accompaniement. Maybe that was the intended effect, given the subject matter of the painting, which inspired the track?

It's snare that is intended to be stiff military.
Arrangement is actually a bit suchsuch It's characteristic, that concentrating on particular voice make sometimes feeling here and there kick beat comes a bit late. Jazz you know jazjambore

[bsg75]

A-Lin - General Relamidity
Took me some time to get hooked until the second part, where the vocal synth is overlayed with another instrument. The outro is strong.
While it start with classic general midi vibes, I would not be able to tell, that the latter parts have been producted with GM only. Nice twist! I like the delays, which appears every now and then.

Arkforest - Álomhajó (Instrumental)
Although it is loud, I can listen and more importantly vibe with it. The song keeps evolving, which I like a lot. I almost can not tell, that it is made from GM only. Some percussive elements still sound GM though
Snare is for my taste too long, the kick "fills" in the first third are too stuttering, but this critique on a very high level. Feels more like a mix-tape than a single song. For a song two minutes less would have been probably a better choice.

Avelho - Desafio
Musically I like this, because there are a lot of nice phrases and ideas in it. Emotionally, it puts me in a good mood. Production-wise I think some EQ-ing and compression would help to glue instruments a bit more tighter togehter. GM signature sound.

MyLoFy - Probably Today
Great syncopation on top a sparse, nicely evolving first third.
The orchestral interlude doesn't connect that well though. Getting a good guitar sound of of GM samples is so hard, you managed to produce one +1 for the vibrato!
The Glockenspiel arps rock, the Marimba solo feels a bit random.

Spotlight Kyd - Tales of Solunia: Battle Theme - Finale
Great instrumentation and I dig the musical story.
The piano figures are great, at times even enchanting.
Some instrumentation highlight: choirs and percussion (especially toms!).
The distorted quitar doesn't work for me. I bit too upfront and too ovisouly constructed from samples.

Trumpetrespas - tick tick tick ticka ticka ticka tack tack
I like it, but I cannot really verbalize why.
The scale stands out among the other submissions obvisouly.
The bass really drives this tune forward. The slowing down at the end fits nicely.
The percussion sounds too obvisouly programmed.

autostatic - C18H21NO4
Good guitar sounds! Nice, warm, indie feel.
What stands out is that the indie feel immediately kicks in the within only a couple of guitar notes
But the percussion .. far too quite and not upfront enough for my taste.

cieciu - thin red stripe tipped with the line of steel
I dig the bagpipe intro. The bass line is almost hypnotic. The overdriven (??) guitar sounds repetative, but this adds to the hypnotic feel. The strings work, but sound GMy. The snare is too loud and is masking too much of the other instruments. Kick seems also litte too loud as well.

imMature - YourSisterIsHotButYourMommyDoesThatThingWithHerToungeThatILike
Very solid punk rock vibes on 100% "dry" GM sounds.
You wrote, that it is your first MIDI tracks since the early 2000's. The vibes you created with this tune hit the nail on the head. If you want to make it sound less obivisouly MIDI, I would suggest some effects like eq and compression for each track, some velocity tweaking and for guitars tracks and to add some randomness to the guitar track notes

[asublin]

Here's my feedback.

• Álomhajó (Instrumental) - Arkforest: The song start with a loud,
  somewhat minimally melodic first part. Making again the soundscape
  increasingly noisy/messy as it progresses, even concluding with a
  bit of dissonance with the choir. The emotion is that of a
  situation getting progressively overwhelming, too much even. Then
  it goes on with a cheesy more melodic second part, expressing an
  emotion of hope and tribal unity. Finally the third part comes in,
  expressing yet another emotion, that of being the time to regroup
  and get ultra focused cause something big is coming next. And the
  song ends on that cliffhanger. Excellent production as usual. Love
  the sonic and emotional landscape.

• Desafio - Avelho: I like the lack of quantization, and the sonic
  weirdnesses here and there. The counterpart is that it is a bit of
  a mess sometimes, rythmically and harmonically. I file this one as
  a fun song.

• Probably Today - MyLoFy: Love the retro-modern-jazzy style first
  part. The bass line is very good. The lead in the third part is
  spot on. Excellent use of the GM sound palette. Excellent
  production as usual.

• Tales of Solunia: Battle Theme - Finale - Spotlight Kyd: I can't
  tell how the distorted guitar has been obtained, it sounds very
  realistic. Nice composition overall, would fit well the motion
  picture, game or book it seems to have been intented for.

• tick tick tick ticka ticka ticka tack tack - Trumpetrespas: it's a
  bit too unstiched and dissonant for my taste. But that could well
  be an artistic choice. One could find places where that music fits
  well, like a movie or game expressing an absurd situation. The
  realization is actually not bad in that particular style.

• C18H21NO4 - autostatic: Interesting title. Nice, well put together,
  little song.

• thin red stripe tipped with line of stell - cieciu: excellent piano
  arpeggio at the end of the first part. Reminiscant to Chris
  Hulsbeck musical style. Nice use of GM sound effects. Good
  production.

• YourSisterIsHotButYourMommyDoesThatThingWithHerTongThatILike -
  imMature: Hilarious title. There's no cheating here, this is just
  pure GM goodness. Well done!

• Feuilles d'Anes du Midi - sg75: Good occasional +1 semitone harmony
  modulation. The outro might be a bit too loaded on the low-end,
  thought it could also be an artistic choice. I regret that not more
  is happening, but it's still nice little melancholic song overall.

[imMature]

Since people seem to write stuff, I'll do the same and share some non scientific opinionated stuff from a dude who thinks a vacuum cleaner is a perfectly legit instrument while also getting most of his drum samples from banging on his desk.

A-Lin - General Relamidity: I loved the slow reverbed Enya-ish 'du's', I didn't like the fast 'dudududu'... Overall I just generally like it but wouldn't put it on repeat for too long.

Arkforest - Álomhajó (Instrumental): I liked the tiny dynamics here and there, the snare was sweepingly cool, the bass that came along with the 1:00 melody was sweet... Yeah I mean, it's a good one!

Avelho - Desafio: This might sound weird, but the song started out bad then got better and better... Hard to grade for me, I didn't like the first part, but everything past 1:20 I loved! Those 40 sec at the end sound like something that would be in the background when you enter some important dudes house in some old psx jrpg. I just didn't understand the first part II guess... Those 40 sec are my favorite 40 seconds of this LMC!

MyLoFy - Probably Today: This one sounds great in quality, but it's also a bit boring to me until I hit 1:24 and really enjoy the feel and the drums on this part!

Spotlight Dude - Tales of Solunia: Battle Theme: I feel like stabbing dragons and chugging potions together with some tomboy girl who's secretly also a princess!

Trumpetrespas - tick tick tick ticka ticka ticka tack tack: Sorry but I don't really get this one. I like dynamic stuff, which you totally got here, but I guess it's too out of my comfort zone to really enjoy more than once.

autostatic - C18H21NO4: So lovely... As Spotlight Wonderchild made me want to go mess up some dragons life, followed by the confusion from Trumpetdude.... THIS is the song I needed to put down my blade, take a seat by the window in my urban skyskraper appartment and look down on all the neon lit streets to really wonder where I went wrong and why I hate dragons so much..... They're really not that different from us now that I think about it.... Your song really was the sonic opiate I needed to calm down

cieciu - thin red stripe tipped with the line of steel: Dammit, dude! Are Scottish dragons a thing? Because now I kinda want to calmy and meticulously stab at least one William Wallace looking dragon before I move on with my new dragon friendly life! Great job dude, I like all the instruments and the metallic distored guitarish thingy! And those drums are sweet but a bit too stale, but I like them!

imMature - YourSisterIsHotButYourMommyDoesThatThingWithHerToungeThatILike: If I was you I'd hate me too!

sg75 - Feuilles d'Anes du Midi: This is so weird, because I've pretty much loved everything I've heard from you.. This one was actually pretty boring to me. No ill intentions dude, I know what you can do! It's almost like I saw your name and waited the whole time for a moment where the song would go BOOM and I would love the song, but just like all my girlfriends, it didn't come.

[Arkforest]

A-Lin

Starting off, I didn't like the rhythm of this entry. The usage of the choir patch in this entry also reminded me too much of using Musescore for school/university assignments for music. The guiro feels out of place rhythmically to me. However, it does get better as the orchestration gets layered on more thickly. I do like the use of longer reverb and echoier delay throughout the song. Harmonically, I think this entry is pretty good. It sounds better at the end than it does at the start. My biggest pet peeve would be overall rhythm. I do think a few sound selections could have been changed to fit the music better as well. Otherwise orchestration and sound design would be the best aspects of this entry.

Arkforest

Yeah I was bored making this techno lol subscribe to Trancwolve

Avelho

This one is interesting. The modwheeled piano at the start initially felt off to me but as the track progressed on, it fleshed itself out. I think the track could have definitely used some reverb to make it feel more pleasant to the ears, as it has the Musescore feel to it. I think there is a musical idea behind this, possibly a combination of bossa nova and tecnobrega (I'm not too familiar with Brazilian music styles), but I do think it doesn't shine through that well because the composition and performance of it can be rather chaotic at times. Especially the timing of some parts at certain time points, if executed better, would really shine and make this much more groovy.

MyLoFy

High expectations for the king! I love the reverb on the piano chords. I like the choice of orchestral instruments here, especially the strings, brass and orchestral drums and cymbals. There's a very wide tonal range on show here. The woodwind instruments here are used pretty well as well. I even hear some distorted guitars and oscillator leads! Nice! I do think the massive choice of electronic drum sounds is somewhat cheesy to my ears, because to me they don't really gel well with itself and the rest of the instrumentation. It could be limited to a lesser selection of sounds for more tonal and therefore rhythmic consistency. I also think some expression modulation could have been used to overcome the articulation limitations of the string patches in the middle section, or even just more reverb. I do think this comes across like more of a sound production showcase than it does as music at times.

Spotlight Kyd

This one has a very good theme to it. I think it has the best musical composition for all the entries here. There is very good use of the orchestral patches here, and very good use of many musical elements to keep it interesting. I like the panning of different instruments and also the tasteful reverb applied. I like the solos! Unfortunately, that guitar tone feels too mid-scooped, tinny and out of place in the overall sound of the track. If it had more mid range meat and less of a harsh treble edge, it would mesh better with all the other instruments. The rhythm also feels a bit awkward to groove to at times, as it feels a bit on the slow side and I can feel in the performance of each instrument a desire to rush, as many notes arrive early. I do think it seems a little too formulaic too, as the music doesn't have enough of a captivating energy to keep me hooked. How would I describe it... the music just sounds too orthodox, too Hans Zimmer-like. Otherwise, this is a great entry!

Trumpetrespas

This one is weird. Quite weird. Yet somehow I like it despite being weird. It weirdly reminds me of Shostakovich. Purely because of the style of the entry, I wouldn't really have any way to offer constructive criticism other than do it based on instinct according to what sounds good to your ears. Maybe EQ the instruments so they don't clash sonically as much? Yeah, I don't have too much to say.

Autostatic

Oh yeah, the ambience is really creepy in a way that sends shivers down my spine. I love it! Reminds me of Starlight Express, which has somewhat similar vibes to my ears. It's an interesting conflict of an otherwise happy musical idea combined with incredibly melancholic sound design, which gets me going, particularly the choir at the end. I don't know how you created the low pitched noisy ambience, but that was incredibly ominous. The rhythm of this is very consistent, which I like, with tasteful syncopation in the drums to make it not completely monotonous. This really carries a captivating energy with it.

Cieciu

Interesting bagpipe idea. The drums go hard, and the bass goes deep, which are pluses in my book. I really like the contrast between the super deep bass at A0 and the rather high pitched strings in the middle section. The ambience is quite ominous, especially with the delayed fuzzy sound. The piano arpeggios also add a really nice aesthetic to it too. Overall I think this is a nice entry. I think it does suffer with rhythm, though, as it's not really groovable. The ambience is really nice, but I usually prefer to groove to background music rather than stand still to it.

Immature

Yeah foath what a title, I don't like it! Title aside, I like punk, so this really gets me going. As a result, I don't really have any criticisms about the music underlying this entry. Unfortunately, the choice to directly use the distorted guitar patches instead of distorting the clean guitar patches with distortion and EQ and cab-sim plugins means the sound design of this entry really destroys how good it sounds. Guitarix ones do the job well, though others would recommend other ones without the annoying side effect of background distortion when no notes are sounding. Otherwise, this could have been much, much better.

sg75

This is my favourite entry (aside from my own). It has good instrumentation, good composition, a good theme, and the captivating factor that keeps me hooked. I even like how spacious the mix is and how loud the master is (I even hear possible tube or tape distortion!). I wonder if it's louder than my entry. The bass is really strong here. For your particular music style, I think the choice of General MIDI sounds really brings that out in you, and it really shows in this. One big area of improvement I could offer is probably EQing the treble edge off some instruments (particularly the plucked string melody instrument) and slightly increasing the 2-3khz range on the melody instruments. I also think the bass drum can have a better rhythm to it, possibly with some ghost notes. This goes hard.

[MyLoFy]

Hey there, many great entries! Here a few thoughts on the tracks:

A-Lin - General Ralmidity
Fabulous delay work, really love the "vocals", all new sounds are introduced to support the composition (e.g. the tubular bells at the end). My favourite this round.

Arkforest - Álomhajó
Excellent mix, perfectly balanced, love the wide sound stage. The composition is a bit too long and repetitive, just how a proper trance track should be (always bothered me in that genre). I would fire the mastering engineer though.

Avelho - Desafio
Sounds like an old, dusty record, which I think is great. Rich composition, the end is a bit random

Spotlight Kyd - Tales of Solunia: Battle Theme
ooooh, symphonic metal, such a cool idea! Superb composition and arrangement, I can tell that a lot of thought went into this. Only thing that bothers me is the 3k resonance of the distorted guitars.

Trumpetrespass - tick tick tick ticka ticka ticka tack tack
The clear mix makes the disharmonic composition very enjoyable. This one grows on me with every listen.

autostatic - C18H21NO4
Cool alternative rock feel, this could use some real vocals. The bass is very convincing, I love the dialogue between guitar and flute/synth.

Cieciu - thin red stripe tipped with the line of steel
It starts slow, but then the big snare and the piano arpeggio let this track come to life. I like the dramatic and suspenseful atmosphere in the second half.

imMature - YourSisterIsHotButYourMommyDoesThatThingWithHerToungeThatILike
Username checks out lol! Powerful punk rock composition, hard to translate to general midi, but I admire the effort!

sg75 - Feuilles d'Anes du Midi
Good sound choices, many layers played by hand which always adds extra realism.

[avelhomusic]

General Relamidity – A-Lin - A soft theme, good to hear, where the clarity of the elements in the mix caught my attention.

Álomhajó – Arkforest - He started by showing the full strength of the song and remains so, even in the parts, where the piece is less dynamic, he manages to keep the listener interested. Really fantastic.

Desafio – Avelho – @SpotlightKid somethimes i think equal you... nothing take a place. @cieciu – promisse more eq and comp in next time... @asublin - funny... i like this definiction. @ImMature - thanks. at least it's a good 40s.… @Arkforest - perfect observation... I don't play the piano, I wrote it on Musescore.... noted more reverb. @MyLoFy - old and dusty record, is the best definition. The style is something called samba-jazz (between Brazilian samba and hard bop), dating back to the late 50s and early 60s.

Probably Today – MyLoFy - through creativity, musical consistency and the variation presented (diversity of instrument and timbres), he manages to present a work that deserves to be highlighted. My sincere congratulations.

Tales of Solunia: Battle Theme Finale - Spotlight Kyd - it fulfills what is promised in the description, it manages to send the listener into fantasy. It's well balanced.

Tick tick tick ticka ticka ticka tack tack – Trumpetrespas - The information contained in the composition presents the use of patterns and scales that in the music of my country are little used. That fact alone made me like it. The context is well presented.

C18H21NO4 – Autosatic - If the intention is to have fun, the mission is accomplished, just as the author reported this element in the production process.

Thin red line" episode of battle of Balaclava - Cieciu – Nice introduction. Nice introduction growing And bringing information, capturing attention. The way the snare was used was interesting, but veri present almost all the time.

YourSisterIsHotButYourMommyDoesThatThingWithHerToungeThatILike – imMature – Yeahh. An interesting Punk-Rock, fulfilling the proposal in an extremely fair and very cool way.

Feuilles d’Anes du Midi – sg75 – When the initial arpeggios start, you already have an expectation of where it's going. In the next step it presents the necessary synergy as a whole. Very well presented