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Dear All

Please use this thread for any discussions on Dare 15, including reviews/critique/comments on the pieces submitted.

Please spell the title of the Dare properly, it's starting to irritate! And it may be taken more seriously if it was!

Zotlerg wrote:
Please spell the title of the Dare properly, it's starting to irritate! And it may be taken more seriously if it was!

Besides, I think this was the only time there was a misspelling. Having been part of the dares for a while, statistically speaking, the spelling of almost anything has no bearing on how seriously a dare is taken.

Welcome to the dares, however!

afleetingspeck wrote:

Zotlerg wrote:
Please spell the title of the Dare properly, it's starting to irritate! And it may be taken more seriously if it was!

I on the other hand thought the dare was rather interesting because of the typo. Since the central theme was celebrating diversity, why not accept the diversity of spellings and mistakes out there, too?

Besides, I think this was the only time there was a misspelling. Having been part of the dares for a while, statistically speaking, the spelling of almost anything has no bearing on how seriously a dare is taken.

Welcome to the dares, however!

My point was enjoy your life. Don't get worked over a typo for a thread on a forum, which in turn has no bearing on anything whatsoever (except for it, apparently, irritating you).

I think you missed reading the "s" at the end - dare"s" (now what do we call the kind of typos that are not written but read incorrectly?). I was welcoming you to this place in general.

I think I meant dare. *shrugs*
Who's the winner anyhow?

Hey guys - I know this is the DISCUSSION thread, but lets not allow a discussion to become an ARGUMENT.

All comments are welcome. I take no offense at the comment. Lets leave it at that.

@ afleetingspec and Zotlerg
On the diversity of spellings. i am not a native English speaker. I am not aware of a typo, 'diversity' seems to be the correct English (UK) spelling. Am I missing something here? Maybe the USA spelling is different?

@ Zotlerg
on the subject of missing the keyboard and lazyness to correct typos.
Please note that if you make a typo on a thread tittle this is not possible to amend it after it is posted. Or I am not aware of a way to amend it.
Text in the body of your message can be edited to remove typos, and I often do this.
Also, please note that it IS very easy to miss the 'keyboard' on an iphone - check my other posts and you will find out I have had to rebuild my PC due to a problem... most of my recent posts have been via iphone
And yes, welcome to the Dares. Too late to join on this one BUT you CAN vote. And you are welcome to join the next one, opening in a few days...

Thank-you all, I may enter one soon, I presume I can upload my own sounds and use them as well as other freesounders?

Zotlerg wrote:
Thank-you all, I may enter one soon, I presume I can upload my own sounds and use them as well as other freesounders?

Also, if using one's own sounds is something that many Freesounders would like to do, I will take that into account for future dares. As I have with previous feedback and suggestions.

Sometimes I will put out a request for sounds and then you have to make a dare entry using the sounds that were specificaly uploaded for that purpose.
...All dares are different !
...Maybe it is time to use the the reverse concept and have a dare where you cannot use any Freesound sounds (you must use your own) and then you must upload the sounds you have used into Freesound...

By the way: The next dare is already decided... But is a well kept secret...

Hi everyone,

Here is the discripton of my entry.
I didnt read the rules properly(I thought I did but I know better now) so maybe I will get disqualified, but thats oke I had fun anyway.
So let me explain what I did.

I searched for samples with the tag LONG and samples with the tag SHORT.
I chose a total of 18 from each, so 18 LONG and 18 SHORT samples.
Thats what I had to work with.
I had chosen the samples randomly without any pre thinking of what to do with them.
So I ended up with 18 LONG and 18 SHORT samples in my DAW browser.
I didnt have a lot of time, so I chose to go and let the samples do the talking.
I tried to make a piece that really shows the difference between long and short, somewhat like a school example.

In the end I used the following samples:
71064(long)
71062(long)
8000(short)
14263(short)
27257(short)
57299(short)
16709(short)
31652(short)
28917(short)
27882(short)
58765(short)
33942(long)
58764(short)
44428(short)

It was really fun to see that there are samples tagged short that are actually long and vice versa.

The overal theme of my piece is how long or short (considering how you see it) life can be.

Thanx for another great dare!!!!!!

Voting for these entries was difficult; I was able to place them based on what I imagined diversity might sound like.
I was looking for contrast namely, and an overall sense of continuity between parts that expressed an idea or feeling.
The element of surprise was taken into consideration and many of the pieces captured my interest in unexpected ways.

My vote from highest to lowest ( * = 1pt):

***** "Peace in Prayer" by joannageralyn

This piece pulled me in immediately with monk prayer and MC crowd-hyping.
When George Bush began accompanied by chanting, it set my brain into middle east war scene footage.
With sounds of protest and wedding bells, this composition paints clear visuals that bring about the age-old concept of war and peace; scenes of life and death; vignettes of madness and serenity.
Although the samples at times seem disjointed and sporadic, these qualities serve to heighten the sense of urgency and mania.
Well done joannageralyn.

**** "The Shining Athlete" by afleetingspeck

This is an inspiring piece meant to enliven and exhilarate the listener; it says it all in the title.
"The Shining Athlete" displays clear characteristics of competition with sounds of cheering and horns.
This composition would be welcome in sports settings where some pumping up is needed.
The only shortcoming of this piece lies in its lack of surprise.
It is driving, but could benefit from more unexpected transitions between parts.
All in all, it is apparent that the creator put many hours into this work.
Great job!

*** "Melancholy lane" by Kyster

A haunting soundscape, "Melancholy lane" evokes dark images that affect the listener empathetically.
The title is appropriate in that it makes one feel truly saddened and lonely.
The use of glass tones and eerie cello are beautifully paired to create a moody environment.
The subtle trickle of water drops establishes a tactile wetness that is well suited for cave dwelling scenes.
Although I thoroughly enjoyed this piece, it didn't accomplish the overall goal of diversity.
Sure, the samples differ in that they are short and long, but they do not contrast enough to make a case for diversity.
This is a masterful work on its own, but falls short of the Dare's main theme.

** "Blue Orange" by thatjeffcarter

"Blue Orange" is a cerebral trek over the surface of Mars.
A sense of solitude overwhelms and hypnotizes the listener into feeling lost on an alien planet;
the sounds of wind and distant radio interference help accomplish this.
I like the mood this piece presents, but again, It does not put forth any evidence of diversity.
Although diversity is hard to demonstrate, it is less hard than trying to describe a color.
It is brilliant but leaves the listener wanting more.

* "I hope your time is longer" by escortmarius

This is a strange one to say the least.
Sounds fly in and out in dissonant fashion.
It is startling and exciting but lacks solidity.
This is absolutely the most diverse piece, technically speaking, but the meat of it lies in random spikes of audio that make the listener reach for the volume.
For these reasons, I was tempted to give this five stars, but I can't tell if this is genius or insane!

___

I enjoyed all of the entries and being a part of this dare.
I hope no one takes my opinion harshly as I mean no harm.
It is all in the name of creating something new and interesting and I'm happy to be involved.

Thanks for all the kind words everyone!

- Jordan Mills

so, I'm slightly back from the dead, but an iPad does not have a daw that A, has effects, and B cannot import samples... I could do without the first, but obviously the latter prevents me from participation. but it's cool the dares have started up again, and in the next couple months when I can buy a Mac, without selling organs on the black market... I'll join in the madness!
but good work to everyone with what did seem like a challenging dare, objectively speaking.

Hello Cannonrayj

Nice to see you again!

Do a bit of search and ask around. I am sure you can find a half-decent DAW that runs on the ipad and its free.
These days you have mini-DAWs that run on iphones

@cannonrayj

How does this one look?
http://www.kvraudio.com/product/beatmaker-2-by-intua

And this one?
http://www.kvraudio.com/product/energyxt-for-ios-by-xt-software

This should be pretty good...
http://www.kvraudio.com/product/fl-studio-mobile-by-image-line

As should this one:
http://www.kvraudio.com/product/garageband-by-apple

So... most of the ones I could find are not free, but they are not going to break the bank either

@ cannonrayj

I dont know about Ipad, but on android there is a DAW called Audio Evolution Mobile.
Maybe also available on Iphone/pad??
And of course like AlienXXX says FL Studio Mobile!!!!!(I like Fl!!)
Nice to see you back!!

@cannonrayj

Good to see you again. Hope you manage to get that mac without selling something vital

In the meantime, hope to hear something made on your ipad. I think there should be some pretty decent apps among those links already posted.

Just remembered, that i might need to post an explanation to my dare.

So i thought i'd make a long / short kind of theme. I found this really great sound from a bowl, while searching for long samples. A wonderful and clear sample, that i couldn't resist to use. The other two long samples, was a beautiful cello stroke and a very nice drone with some things going on every now and then.

For short samples i wanted some thing that wasn't proper percussion, but would make it out as the same. So i found a beep, a tik and the sound of nail against a glass.

I didn't really have a plan, but decided just to let the long samples go up against each other. I quickly discovered that the cello stroke would have to be manipulated in some way, more than just by adding some reverb. I decided to try out a midicontroller i recently bought. So i simply used the bend button, and made this long bend, while using a little long delay and some reverb. I got a fairly nice effect out of it, but not quite enough to my satisfaction, so the last thing i used on the cello stroke, was a little eq.

The drone also had to fill out a little more, so i stretched it a little, just a couple of extra seconds. Added a little delay too, and i was ok with it. The bowl is just put through an eq, and added reverb.

For the short samples i decided to use the systematically, so programming in hydrogen was the preferred choice once again, when it comes to drum tracks. Nothing special i thought, but it took way more time than i expected. For some reason i couldn't get the glass sample to play ball, so to speak. I ended up not using it more than a handful of times. the tik and beep was giving me a hard time, because of the very short length. Either they were too loud or too quiet. Either too much or too little, so the drum track had to be very "fragile" but still fill out the track in a non dominating way. I decided to add some reverb, to make the sound more wet, and just a little delay too I shortened the drum track a couple of times, made it longer again, but in the end i think it ended up just about as it was when i started out.

I think i spent about a couple of hours just getting the volume right, on every track befor i was satisfied with the mix.

I'm still using ardour 3 (beta 5) as my daw, and as i wrote before, hydrogen for the drum track. The cello stroke was played through specimen (a software sampler), connected with a midicontroller (oxygen 8 v2, from m-audio).

So, that was that

Dear participants,

As always, each dare is full of surprises! The only thing that is no longer a surprise is the great quality of all entries.

Below are my comments on all of them, after careful listening.

I hope I have captured the essence of your pieces, and I hope most of all to highlight the great elements that each of them contains.
I still need to go through the forum and read all other comments that were posted (I like to post my own before reading others' as much as possible so I am not influenced by them).
I would also like to hear your comments back. If you think I missed the point in your piece or if you want to make a self-critique please go ahead.

------

Afleetingspec - The shinning athlete
With an unnassuming start this piece quickly surprises with the amount of energy and spirit it soon delivers.
I love pieces that create an image in your head, and this certainly is one of them. When I mentioned the Olympic and Paralympic games it was not with the intention of making these a direct source of inspiration for the diversity piece, but simply as what I thought was a great example of positive non-clashing diversity. I could not have imagined that I would be taken literaly and that Afleetingspec would produce such an amazing piece. Well done!

Escortmarius - I hope yout time is longer
I have a real problem with Escortmarius piece
There are some parts of it that I really like and others that I do not! But then, isn't that what opposites / diversity / contrast is all about?
Hmmmmmm... Tough one!
Love the initial part. Absolutely love the alarm clock and the 'dream' popping like in a cartoon at 56s into the piece.
The honking sound is STRANGE. I think the first time it sounds is alright, but I really don't like it when it repeats - sounds forced.
Like the castagnets as they make a great contrast with the initial part of the song. But I can't understand the 'laser' kind of sound that apears again and again. It's an ugly sound (sorry), at least in this context, and really clashes. Does not seem to have a place or purpose there.
Now. Believe it or not, I gave this particular passage of this piece the most thought of all pieces in the dare.
Is this just something I do not like OR is it a stroke of genius of 'DIVERSITY'?... (in which the contrasts are proving too strong for me and causing a strong reaction of rejection? The fact that I don't like it does not mean it is not spot on for the concept of the dare...)
In the end I decided that the concept of the dare was not just 'DIVERSITY' but 'OPPOSITES'. I do not see the laser sound as a direct opposite to any other sounds in this piece. - So, good try, doesn't really really hit the spot but came very close. And it really made me think - Love it when a piece does that!
At 1min33s there is another genius passage - I listen to the first vocal pads and I expect more of the same as on the first section of the song. But suddenly there is a strong bassdrum beat and over-the-top side compression together with the castagnet rhythm... Very surprising. Well done.
The laser sound and the dying arrgh vocal sound a bit forced here too. I like the beeping and the 'flat line" beep and hum at the end. I can see the meaning of it. - I wonder if the whole thing is just some sort of crazy dream by a guy connected a machine in hospital as he hovers between life and death ?
A piece not to be taken lightly!...

jgeralyn - Peace in Prayer
Spot on on the concept of the dare! (as often from jgeralyn).
jgeralyn says that she "spent more time looking for the sounds than actually putting the piece together and it shows". Yes it does. But not necessaritly in a bad way.
There is not a lot of musical content as such to the piece. But this piece is all about contents rather than form. Isn't it strange/amazing/sad that religion is simultaneously something beautiful that is the core of human civilization, that creates great values of compassion/forgiveness/gratitute and at the same time faith/religion is the single cause of the largest number of wars mankind has experienced - some of these wars have effectively been going on for millenia...
This piece is not about what you hear. It is about making you think about what religion means and what it means, after all, to be human and part of humankind.
What would an alien civilization make of us? - I don't know the answer either!...
I do not think we know what to make of ourselves either! Being human is a mix of contrasting/opposing feelings/emotions/values. That obviously being the case, it is amazing, actually, how we manage to live together and how our society has managed to exist for so long.
Thank you for reminding us of what it is to be human jgeralin!

Kyster - Melancoly lane
An amazing ambient piece. Cinematic.
I listen to it and I am immersed by it! - Rather keep the lights on... just in case!
What freaks you out with this piece is not the drones. The drones are great, but it is the drip drop sound (like water drops in a cave) that makes you think there is something there... something hidden... something watching you.
All in all, it is beautifull minimalist: 6 sounds only, 3 long, 3 short. And the contrast between the long and short sounds is quite evident in the piece. It does not take central stage, it does not distract you from what the piece is trying to do. A tryumph of brilliant simplicity!

mojomills - Celebrating Diversity 3
A brilliant piece by our new entrant. This is the most ellaborate and sophisticated piece musically speaking.
The samples are not paired by opposites, but the contrasting/opposing ideas are well evident throughout the piece. More amazing are the contrasting genres that are brought piecefully to coexist inthis piece. This is nothing short of amazing and grants this piece top points from me (no contest).
I would add that within each section the execution is flawless and the selected samples are put to absolutely great use. Everything falls just into the right place. The work of a great musician!

Thatjeffcarter - Blue/Orange
Jeff brings a completely different approach and picked samples based on opposite colours. I really like this concept!
I also absolutely love the strangeness of his piece!
The speech "For Now Orange is Ready and as Planned"
As ALWAYS, Jeff's piece creates a stron mental image in my mind. A mini-story, of sorts.
It all sounds like the soundtrack to some obscure 70s sci-fi movie.
There are enormous unbelievalbe spaceships with rooms filled with light and plastic furniture. 'Astronauts' dressed in what appear to be tracksuits (with bell shapped trousers) fiddle with consoles with large buttons.

Kyster wrote:

Good to see you again. Hope you manage to get that mac without selling something vital

In the meantime, hope to hear something made on your ipad. I think there should be some pretty decent apps among those links already posted.