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@ klank and alien: thanks for the compliments!! It's all worth it just to have someone twist their head and think, "What was that?"!!

I had such different ideas for this song. But once I started experimenting it went in a totally different direction! Once I used the Ring Modulator, I just liked the sound that had and just went with it. I put the string section in and was going to mangle that too, but upon listening to it with the violin, it was like, "I like this!" So I worked on it till I was happy and settled for what you hear.

Then the mix engineer in me came out and that took a while to get it like I wanted!!

Again I thoroughly enjoyed this!!

I have listen to all the entries and think they are all outstanding productions. Just waiting to hear yours AlienXXX! Will put up my reviews when the Dare is over!

Hello all, i stumbled across this challenge a few days ago and thought it sounded like fun. I really enjoyed listening to all the entries. i thought they were all very well put together and i'm excited to see the final outcome.

Props for a job well done.

Carrik_Caser wrote:
Hello all, i stumbled across this challenge a few days ago and thought it sounded like fun. I really enjoyed listening to all the entries. i thought they were all very well put together and i'm excited to see the final outcome.

Props for a job well done.

whatever the rules are, I enjoyed your mix. Welcome abourd..

Dear All,

Just a warning that I will be closing the entries tonight between 11pm and 12pm GMT.

Dear participants,

I think we still have few entries for a proper vote.
OF course, I can be persuaded otherwise... So if people want a vote, we will have one. You guys just have to say so.

In the meantime... lets please have reviews of all entries - that is the nicest bit, as far as I am concerned!

The reviews....
...... in no particular order......

Carrik_Caser
This is a music that brings me back to my young years. Reminds me of the kind of music you would get on games on the Commodore Amiga
IF you never owned one... this is what I am talking about:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_500
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amiga_1200

I think it is the combination of the drums, the simple but effective mellody which really has the groove of those game theme songs. The point where the song 'stops' and and the snare repeats several times is also the sort of thing you woud find on those game songs.

Anyway... I can see this music as the theme for a nice platform game.
I sit on my chair, pop in the floppy disk and wait a few seconds for the game to load. I am greeted by a colorfull screen and the theme music.
I want to play the game, but the music is soo cool that I sit there for a bit, my fingers resting nervously on the joystick while the music cycles just one more time.
Those were the days!

klankbeeld

So... what does this music make me imagine??

This the music track for the horror/sci-fi film "The mines of Klankbeeld"

Planet Klankbeeld is the third from its sun. Like Earth, it once harbored a flourishing ecossystem and an intelligent species... but that was long ago, before its sun began to die and turned into a red giant.
The planet was roasted, all water boiled away and life vanished long ago.

Earth colonists discovered it over 50 years ago and found that 2 miles beneath its crust lie valuable metal deposits. These resources are rare in this part of the galaxy and underground colonies were established exploring deep mines.
Life is very hard in this tortured world. During the day the huge sun covers a quarter of the sky, temperatures reach 800ºC. The wind constantly blows at 400mph or more, enveloping the world in constant dust storms. Even with a thermic suit, radiation on the surface would kill a man in less than an hour.

To make matters worse, Klankbeeld's sun is an angry one... in its death agony it has frequent solar storms. Enourmous solar flares then erupt raising the radiation levels in Klankbeeld even more. Charged particles in the high atmosphere and the constant blowing dust of the lower atmosphere then create thunderstorms that seem to rip the sky apart.
During these periods, that can last for weeks, it is impossible to land or take off from the surface. Even radio communications are impossible due to the electric interference.
At these times, the colonists have to remain underground. Truly and completely isolated from the outside world.
They are used to it.
But this time, something else happened...
The colonists have found somethign buried deep in Klankbeeld... Something ancient...
... something Evil...
and the colonists trapped underground begin to die victims of an unknown alien force...

more reviews to come tomorrow...

My reviews (and or comments)

Klankbeeld - "Dark Prayer" - Klankbeeld has described himself to me as an "unbeliever" but that's okay, even unbelievers pray. I like this music. And I think that God hears these dark prayers too. Thanks, Klankbeeld.

Kyster - "Ghana DARE7" - I'll have to say that this one didn't grab me at first. But with repeated listening I have come to appreciate it - the melding of traditional and contemporary is nicely done.

Gremsongs - "Thick of IT" - Grem... I just wish the synth parts and the violin track could have come together better.

Carrik_Caser - "?" That melody is infectious. What a lot of fun.

AlienXXX - I liked the second half, with the drones. I like that part quite a bit.

If we were voting (IF) my vote would go to Klankbeeld.

This dare has been a thrill, i think. It very much shows how different we all think, regarding music and audio. Just amazing.

Klankbeeld:
As soon as i hit the play button, i felt like entering an old forgotten monestary with the ghosts of the past still roaming. After a while this just sticks, and quite frankly i wanted more, when the track ended.

Thatjeffcarter:
What a great sound you've found. And your composition is really calm and relaxing. I could easily become an addic to this track. Kick back and relax, start the track and just go for the ride. If voting, this would have my vote!

Gremsongs:
I really like how you've made several layers in this composition. Especially starting from 2/3 into the track, this bass like arpeggio fades in and out while the strings takes me in another direction. It creates some sort of tension between the two, and it gives a great effect. Well done.

Carrik_Caser:
As Alienxxx was talking about, this really takes me back to the days of c-amiga and amstrad 464. The sound is modern but with this oldschool gaming twist. Thank you so much for taking me down memory lane!!

Alienxxx:
Your work is the only true dare. The first half hits me and brings impatience. Before i reach half way through, i start to listen more carefully, and suddenly it brings me expectation instead. When the strings are let loose it makes sense. One thing's for sure, it's brilliant!

First I want to thank Alienxxx for al his work, getting the dare alive again.

Than I will thank all of you for the comments that make me - oldy of the group - bashful. What a great comments.

I gave my comment of all the various contributions before. All have there own speciality. There own caracter. And that is nice to see. One I have to commet and that is the dare from our great leader Alienxxx.

°°°°°°°°°°°°
Man, what a great work. You have to know that, exept af all my crazy things, I am a dislexian. So I opend the link to his song. Startet to swear because the I couldn't get my headphone working propper!!!! @$#$&47378$%&*^*!!!!! And that was it, I missed the title......... What a great Idea, what a fun, what a choice af a naughty sound, and a great way of sampling that... Very funnny
°°°°°°°°°°°

And than my vote. I have listend to all the songs over and over again. and there are two who I like the most. That is the song of Kyster and the one of riligius brother jeff (thatjeffcarter) with his creative sun. And now I have a problem, because Kyster used a song of mine...... Can I vote for that. AND YES I CAN AND YES I DO, not because of the original ghana song, but because of the beatiful use of it. Its made old and new together, and the end, man I love the end of your compositio soooooo mutch..

Thank you all and hope that more freesounders will join us. Realy it is fun to do..... Welcome

Kyster and didn´t make a disition to post exactly at the same second, but it happend HAHAHA..

klankbeeld wrote:
Kyster and didn´t make a disition to post exactly at the same second, but it happend HAHAHA..

Hi Kyster and Klankbeeld

Thank you for your review of my work.
As for hard work... 'running' the dare, if one can call it that, is not that much work. You guys do all the work!

It is certainly true that all compositions have their own merits. That is one reason I personally always find it difficult and sterile to "vote" and prefer to "review" instead.

I will post some more reviews today, and possibly finish with all the reviews tomorrow...
... in the meantime I am going to start the new dare too.

Next on the reviews...

"In the Thick of it" by Gremsongs

Byt the way, Grem is the winner of the "special mention" for the naughtiest sample.
This because Grem used 2 naughty samples rather than just one:
http://www.freesound.org/people/Robinhood76/sounds/59542/
http://www.freesound.org/people/FreqMan/sounds/42953/

On the technical side, the violin sample sometimes does not play in tune with the background sounds (i.e., it is not playing harmonious notes). Of course, these are samples that were not designed to play toghether and were not re-pitched to match.
Having said that, Grem still made a great job out of it and the piece flows well despite some less than harmonious parts. In a way, it can be said it even helps to the mood of the piece.

So, what does this piece make me thing of?...
(listen to the music while you read the story below)
...

Sci-fi movie "Last battle for Teluria"

The piece starts with the sound of the Teliruan ships going into hyperwarp.
Having just suffered a smashing defeat at the hands of the Ankarians, the Telurians under General Bumar hastedly repaired their remaining ships. Using their remarkeable engineering capability, they converted 2 of the 4 fusion engines on each cruiser into massive fusion missiles. Each capable of taking out an Ankarian battleship.

The Ankarian propulsion systems are less advanced and their ships are not capable of accelerating to hyperwarp from normal speed. They require a gravitational assist from a massive bodie so, having defeated General Bumar's fleet, they made way at warp speed to the black hole at Cigni-22. They plan to circle the black hole a few times to slingshoot and accelerate to hyperwarp. From Cigni-22 they will launch their final and fatal attack on Teluria, the home world of the Telurians.

General Bumar knows this and his fleet is using their superior speed to intercept the Ankarians at Cigni-22.
This is a desperate battle.
Having converted 2 of their engines to missiles, the Telurian ships must overstress their remaining engines to achive maximum speed, burning all their fuel in this journey.
They are outnumbered 5 to 1, and even if they manage the impossible and win the battle, they will not survive. Having burned all their fuel to get to Cigni-22 they will be stuck in decaying orbits around the black hole, where they will innescapably meet their end.

But this is the only way. The Ankarians are vampires of worlds. If they are allowed to arrive to Teluria they will deploy terraforming machinery which will turn the planet innabitable to its original life forms. No life will survive.
Then they will colonize, farm and mine the planet until they have consumed all of its resources only to then abandon it and move to the next planet.

The Telurians emerge from hyperwarp as the Ankarians circle the black and execute a perfect maneuver approaching on a tangencial course to the enemy fleet. The Ankarians are completely surprised and the first salvo is devastating.
The Ankarian ships cannot maintain hyperdrive acceleration and raise shileds - no ship can generate enough energy to maintain both systems online at the same time. At such close quarters, having not yet achieved hyperwarp, the Ankarians cannot possible outrun the attacking fleet and must commit to battle. As they switch off their hyperdrives and charge weapons and shields the Telurians release yet another smashing salvo. Entire battlehips are obliterated as the fusion missles penetrate their unshielded hulls and detonate.

As the Ankarians finally bring up their shields, the Telurians are still outnumbered 3 to 1.
But both fleets are now decelerating as they spiral around the black hole, locked in a mutual anihilation battle.
....
The whole battle lasted only a few minutes...
....
The solo violin plays as the last two ships, still exchanging fire, are sucked in and disapear into the black hole.
The scene changes to the peacefull world of Teluria where the children of those who died in battle dance and sing in a circle in the annual crop festivities...

Review: Kyster - Ghana

The beat really marks the pace here. But it is laid back, innobtrusive and it is just there supporting the whole track without getting in the way. The repetitive sequence is not boring, instead it is almost hypnotic. This was a great choice of sample.

Although Kyster clamis little editting was done to many of the samples, it is incredible how different the composite work is from the individual samples used.

So.... what does this song make thing of?

....

Backing track for the documentary "A man in Africa"

French journalist Jean-Pierre Le Mont takes a 6 month sabatic leave, in which time he travels East to West in Africa starting in Somalia and cutting accross the african continent before finishing in Ghana, nearly 6 months later.
Armed with only his back-pack and his motorcycle, the solo produced six episode documentary is not only a narration of his travels accross Africa,, but also an introspective journey into the reasons for taking his sabatical and how he emerges of his adventure having changed in many ways.

Mostly filmed on a hand-held camera, the documentary contains many interviews with the local people, Jean-Pierre's own camera monologues and, surprisingly, plenty of high quality breathtaking scenes of the beautiful african landscape.

Review: Thatjeffcarter - Once more and again

It would be difficult to imagine a more relaxing music. This is a piece with almost healing properties.

Similar to other of Jeff's pieces ther eis a beautiful waving motion to it.
You can't get tired of listenning to this.

I am listenning from my stereo now, rather than on headphones. The music seems to just be there, to be all around you, without emanating from a particular source.

So.... what does this piece making me thing of?

This one is at the same time very easy and very difficult.
This does not fit a movie or documentary.
I just get these images od a man on a little raft, slowly rowing in a flat mirror river. On both banks of the wide and calm river there is a luxurious forest, purple mountains peek far away above the tree tops, contrasting with a late afternoon sky featuring some disperse clouds and hints of pink and orange colours.
It is a scene of solitude, but also absolute peace.

By the way, guys... feel free to say some words about your own piece too.
I would be very interested to know how each piece came to be. Also, if other's comments/views/ feelings about your piece match your own

For example, as I was reviewing all entries just now, I was particularly impressed to read klankbeeld's short description of his own piece: "Dark horror prayer deep under the ground in a large cave."
I copied all pieces to my mp3 player long ago and have been listenning to them ever since. I did not remember klankbeeld's description. BUT the piece evoqued in me the scenery of a dark sci-fi horror movie, taking place in huge mines (caves !!), deep underground an alien world. Which is very similar to the feeling klankbeeld was trying to transmit!

I will post some comments on my own piece in a couple of days.

Hope you all enjoyed the dare!
Looking forward for your entries to Dare 8.

Guys,

Everything has gone really quiet around here.
Anyway, i said i would write some words about my own piece... So here goes:

I picked my naughty sample very early on. Took much longer to decide what i wanted to do with it!
I made my mind up that i was going to cut up the sample. I wanted to avoid techniques i had used before, sucha as sample stretching, reverb and echo.
I decided i would use the pure sample and also some distorted versions and them mix up the slices.
For the slicing i used a simple plugin which is a gate controlled by an lfo. I employed 2 intances of the plugin in series, running at different (and often odd) tempos/rates so the slice points were somewhat unpredictable.

I planned to complement this with a sound-to-midi conversion of some of the slices, which woul trigger samples taken from the same naughty sound. But the sound-to-midi conversion was not working well and i ended up scrapping it completely.
I ended up with only half a piece and in the end decided the piece would morph to a secound section containing 'drones' made up from stretched sections.
These drones ended up sounding very much like string sections in their own right.
Had that been my idea to begin with, i would probably have exploered further the interaction and overlapping between the cut-up sounds and the long drones.

So... What does this piece make me think of?

Initially i thought it would not make me think of anything... With its two very different sectuons. But after listening to the whole piece a couple of times...
... A mysterious radio transmission is picked up by radiotelescopes. First on Australia, but soon after accross the whole globe. Scientists start working on the signal and discover to their amazement that it sounds like a jumbled up classical music piece.
The source of the signal is clearly outside the solar system. More amazingly: the source is moving!
Scientist finally pinpoint it to a spaceship a third the size of France. Moving towards Earth, with arrival in about a year's time.
This alien civilization had picked up one of our early radio transmissions, degraded and distorted as it passed through or bounced off clouds of interstelar dust, and they were now playing it back to us as a means of announcing their impending arrival.
Nothing else is know about this inimaginable large spaceship, travelling to us at an equaly innimaginable speed. Their builders, possible occupants and intentions totally unknown...