Libre Music Challenge #25: Christmas Windows

[bsg75]

Here are some comments:

Amberdrake - Metal Of The Bells
Welcome, solid first sumbission There is some promission catchyness in there. Timing and production could be improved.

Avelho - Canela Christmas City
Slightly too busy to elict xmas vibes. In some parts it does, but dude you are switching sections so fast, I can hardly keep up

MyLoFy - MyDesire
Rock solid production as always. Feels more like a rock song, than a xmas song though.

Spotlight Kyd - Christmas Lights
I like everything about this: vocals, lyrics, the folky, winterly mood (a bit cheesy, thus perfectly fitting the topic), the instrumentation and the production.

Trumpetrespas - Phrygian Dances
Hypnotic bass line. I like the trumpet improvision a lot.
The piano chords feel a litte too static. I get winterly vibes, but not so much xmas vibes.
Mixing could be more balanced with perhaps some compression here and there.

autostatic - it is christmas all around
You got me with this one. I didn't know, that punk can be xmas-y. Now I know.
+1 for the key change
+1 for the backing vocals

[SpotlightKid]

Heyall,

late feedback for the December submissions:

Amberdrake - Metal of the Bells

• Has a cool early-Metallica thing going.
• I like the intro with the cymbals and the bass.
• But as soon as guitars come in the bass should provide the low end, which is totally missing here.
• Very solid composition but ultimately falls through because the playing is not tight enough (tip: record the instruments in very short sections (e.g. 8 bars), until you get them right.
• The connection to the theme is limited to the title and the pronounced ride bell playing. That is not enough to sell the Chrismas-i-ness, IMHO.

Avelho - Canela Christmas City

• While listening I had the impression of going through a music shop or an amusement park with
  different instruments blaring from every direction, sometimes fitting well to the song, sometimes a
  bit off.
• That some sounds are very muddy and rumbly and some very piercing contributes to that impression.
• I like the different sections. You're never sure in which direction the song is going.
• Thatswhy maybe the sudden end is somehow fitting.

MyLoFy - My Desire

• Great mix, instrumentation and tasteful guitar playing as always.
• The vocals have a somewhat nasal sound, I would try to use more chest voice.
• The overall style and instrumentation feels very old-fashioned, which is maybe an appropriate choice for a song for a traditional feast.
• But the flip side is that there aren't any real surprises, the song plods along nicely but without any wake-up moments.

Spotlight Kyd - Christmas Lights

I composed this in around one and a half days. Figuring out the rhymes in the intricate rhyme scheme was a nice challenge. I notice that I find it easier to write lyrics when they're not really personal and tongue-in-cheek.

Trumpetrespas - Phrygian Dances

• Great atmosphere and overall sound, the instruments are all very well defined and sit well in the mix. Maybe the drums could be mixed a little lower.
• Nice nod to "Last Christmas" with the 9th (?) chords. Otherwise, I don't feel a lot of Christmas vibes here, man.
• The trumpet solo has a few notes, which are "interesting" choices, but overall I like it.
• After around 2:50 the song drags on a bit, I would have put the piano solo there in the middle and left out the one there and ended the song earlier.

autostatic - It is Christmas All Around

• Nice vocal tonality but a bit, err, microtonal , e.g. always slightly too low on first syllable of "Christmas" in the chorus.
• You should really hit the unconventional scale notes and intervals of the vocal line in the verse with conviction.
• Overall good production and mix.
• Drums a bit too dry for my taste.
• Guitar very well played and sounding good, though I would have probably chosen a more dirty overall sound and done more doubling.
• Chorus should have main vocals doubled or quadrupled.
• Solo guitar too low.
• Hard to hear the voice over in the beginning after the guitars come in.
• Key shift excellent.

sg75 - Beneath the Tree a Gift of Silence Unfolds

• Sounds like an entertainer keyboard backing track, which is fitting for the theme, I think.
• That kind of made me expect a cheap rhythm machine drum track, too bad it isn't there.
• Acoustic guitars much too loud in the mix.
• The second part is cool but stays too tame, IMHO. I would have explored the creepy vibes more.
• But overall solid, smooth production and definitely hits the mark for the theme.

Well done, everyone!

[avelhomusic]

Amberdrake - Metal of the Bells - I liked it. After 2 minutes the ambience caught my attention. I don't know if it was excessive or it just caught my attention.

Avelho - Canela Christmas City - it's worth noting that here in the southern hemisphere it's summer, plus it's the time of year when we receive tourists from all over the country in high numbers, take a look at Santa Claus coming down from the Church https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=9wopwzKBDME from 2'30. So I think I created the theme really thinking about a large amusement park.

MyLoFy - MyDesire - Solid theme, very well executed.

Spotlight Kyd - Christmas Lights (X-Mas Mix) - Really really cool. The voices especially... beautiful theme.

Trumpetrespas - Phrygian Dances - Trumpet and bass sound really good, I think that the piano in the more static parts could be further back, as well as the drums in general too.

autostatic - It is Christmas all around - I thought it was great. Something bothered me around 2'38-2'42, but I don't know how to define it. Sometimes it seemed to me that it was a little different.

sg75 - Beneath the tree, a gift of silence unfolds session - very cool. But the guitars, I think, take up a lot of space. at 0'21 something bothered me.

[nyxeles]

The event concludes.
And the winner is... @autostatic !

1. [27] autostatic
2. [26] Spotlight Kyd
3. [24] sg75
4. [24] MyLoFy
5. [18] Avelho
6. [18] Trumpetrespas
7. [16] Amberdrake

The scoreboard can also be found on this webpage: https://lmc.nyxkn.org/results/25

For a breakdown of all the votes, see the attached spreadsheet. You can also find the spreadsheet on github

Thanks to everyone for participating! And see you all in the next one :)

[autostatic]

Woohoo! Thanks everyone! I'm stoked with winning this edition, didn't expect it! Also many thanks for the feedback!

autostatic - It is Christmas all around - I thought it was great. Something bothered me around 2'38-2'42, but I don't know how to define it. Sometimes it seemed to me that it was a little different.

Maybe it's the solo, I kinda missed a note there which resulted in a sort of a pinched harmonic.

Nice vocal tonality but a bit, err, microtonal , e.g. always slightly too low on first syllable of "Christmas" in the chorus.
You should really hit the unconventional scale notes and intervals of the vocal line in the verse with conviction.

I can only agree, I really need to work on improving my vocals. Maybe it's really getting time to get some singing lessons, maybe a good resolution for 2024

Overall good production and mix.

Thanks! Never worked with Airwindows plugins before and they are rather unconventional so it took some adjusting and some trial and error.

Drums a bit too dry for my taste.

Agreed! But I just couldn't find a suitable reverb.

Guitar very well played and sounding good, though I would have probably chosen a more dirty overall sound and done more doubling.

I did try this but since the Airwindows amps all have a similar base sound they tend to get in each other's way. I should've tried some other guitars maybe.

Chorus should have main vocals doubled or quadrupled.

Also agreed. But I simply had a hard time getting the current vocals recorded. Did it at home, next time I'll do them in my rehearsal space, that's more relaxed. And I chose for a melody structure that is just about the limit of what my vocal skills allow.

Solo guitar too low.

Agreed too. This is just me being too cautious, I could've ramped up that solo guitar a bit more yeah.

Hard to hear the voice over in the beginning after the guitars come in.

The original was really like Herbert from Family Guy so had to muffle it, de-essing simply didn't work. This resulted in what you describe. On the other hand, I added it for some extra flavor and not that it should be completely intelligible.

Key shift excellent.

Thanks! Just going up a note fitted well, also with the first two notes of the chorus.

You got me with this one. I didn't know, that punk can be xmas-y. Now I know.

Well, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas ... gion_EP%29 is a staple here around Christmas

+1 for the key change
+1 for the backing vocals

Thanks! I wanted more backing vocals but I couldn't persuade the rest of the family to join in unfortunately

[MyLoFy]

Contrats @autostatic! Well deserved win! This was probably one of the most fun round to listen to.
A bit late, but here's my feedback:

Amberdrake
Much respect for recording everything from scratch! Miking the drumkit alone is admirable.
The mix could be improved and the song is a bit repetitive, but hey! You played everything yourself, which is great!

Avelho
Sounds a bit like pushing the demo button on my broken keyboard from the 90s. Fun track nonetheless, I like how the dissonances break the cliché MIDI track

Spotlight kyd
great vocals, great song! For me the instrumentation is too thin and makes me wait for widening up the frequency spectrum in the course of the track

Trumpetrespas
Sticking to Radium, that's cool! This makes me want to unpack my old, rusty trumpet, it's been a while! Very open interpretation of the musical key lol

autostatic
powerful track, cool lyrics, great performance! Some mixing issues already discussed here.

sg75
This is so peaceful and so very well mixed / balanced, my favorite this round.