Welcome to Earth

Battle of the Bits had a small handful of battles in the past few days, not the least of which was the seemingly pleading “Submit Anything II”. As a result the combatants upload highly varied product: Jangler sent out a MIDI while LittleTheremin submitted a text file, gyms put up an MP3, and so on. Sonic Zone Remix Competition entered the final countdown as it got to the last to remixers standing: Amphibious, who unwittingly got in a minor controversy regarding the previous round, and Gario, whose vocoder vocals apparently put his entry over the top. 

Dwelling of Duels called up its denizens for a Free Month, which promises to bring in a variety of remixes because of its lack of restrictions regarding source material. SDCompo concurrently allows a wide swatch of VSTs for entrants to use in addition to the sample pack; in particular SQL8 offers emulation of a 1980s synthesizer. This is in aide of the optional theme for the round, which is to generate a nostalgic sound. Elsewhere at OLRmageddon the theme of the month was settled: for “Password” the participants could arrange any video game tune that originally appeared alongside a password screen. For bonus points the arranger would have to use unusual time signatures. 

JHCompo on Tuesday celebrated independence by way of its “Break Away” theme. Starting things off was my vocal narration accompanied by a recording of “Stars and Stripes Forever”, which thankfully did not last forever. Immediately following was dusthillguy taking a break from his pastiche of zany clips to provide some elegant guitar twanging. Duosis appeared with another of his sample-based dance track, this time infusing his drum and bass with New Orleans brass. Rob appeared from hiatus to deliver a brief foray intro pounding trance filled with pitched vocals. Finally nikola threw together an assortment of instruments for the sake of liberty and freedom. 

Thursday’s OHC fell into an unexpected area as the “Out of Their Element” theme provided two images: a fish out of water and flower growing from the pavement. With that in mind Aru Azumaya introduced the round with a narration of his own, included the foreward “See attached materials.” The first musical entry of the night came from Draconiator, who neglected to look at the theme before submitting his dance track. Zovi followed that up by making one of the biggest taboos in music production: using FL Slayer for guitar work. Blastron seemed to lean toward the fish by naming his track “Shallow Water”, expounding on a riff for the duration of his song. 

Duosis also referenced water his entry, although the composition itself consists of a chopped-up sample of a lullaby cover of a Metallica song. IXI came out of compo remission and wasted no time working out lots and lots of bells. At the end of the listening party, munchi made multiple uses of his song description: he announced that he intends to remix various entries from OHC past to celebrate the upcoming 200th round; he also made a point of mentioning that he is now in a dubstep/electrofunk group, and that a new single would be out soon. If one thing is certain, it’s that compo pages can be prime real estate.

In a Sensual Way

Doubles Dash Compo 17 ignored the summer sentiment by having participants go back to “School” as its theme. A storm rolled in through the area where the compo organizer resided, further taking the fun out of the season. Level 99 and Wildfire prevailed by making a song with explicit lyrics and an unintentional vocal resemblance to “Weird Al” Yankovic. At the other side of the classroom, blastron and I composed a somber dance pop song making use of several Minimoog V presets. Earlier in the week ThaSauce also had a round of People’s Remix Competition dedicated to the game The Lost Vikings. sggod89 stepped up to arrange the source material by turning it on its head; he infused the tune with jazzy groove and reconstructed the piece in the process.

Dwelling of Duels saw June end as the results of “Town Month” flooded in. As expected considering the theme, a large number of RPGs had been remixed including a pair of Final Fantasy tracks, Dragon Quest and Skies of Arcadia. DoD's distant cousin OLRmageddon finished up its round based on a “Racial Stereotypes” scenario. Captain Hypocrite mentioned he would possibly join, and kept his word thereby becoming the only entrant that month. His Super Punch-Out arrangement stayed within realm of chiptune and asked the question: “Do You Want Some Pizza-Cake?”

Sonic Zone Remix Competition hit a snag of controversy regarding the voting of the previous week; in the end Rexy and Phonetic Hero lost by a hair, spurring a mixture of reactions. Round four of the Robotnik Bracket picked up thereafter, pitting Brandon Strader against Gario. This also caused some commotion due to the implementation of vocoderized vocals; at best they fill up the soundscape, albeit unintelligibly. Brandon played to his strengths, putting to use his live instrumentation and singing to convey a sense of loss and confusion.

SDCompo reached the end of round 67 with nine entries in a variety of styles. This was perhaps because of the wider selection of VSTs allowed for competition: FreeAlpha, TAL-Elek7ro, MrTramp2, and Delay Lama. Meanwhile LLCompo: Battle 23 chose a theme for the week that was unusual given the framework of the compo: participants were asked to make original songs about video games. Leading the listening party was an introduction by Captain Barbatar, whose voice undulated from left to right as he murmured without aim. 

JHCompo on Tuesday marched off into the sun by way of its theme of “The Parade”. I started off the proceedings with my usual narration, this time mixed on top of the keyboard instrumental of “Robot Parade” by They Might Be Giants. chunter bopped his way in with a ragtime-tinged piece composed of lo-fi synth sounds. SonicThHedgog settled on a two-shot of old works since his workstation crashed: the first bangs along in the style of dubstep heavy in reverb; the second is more in line with electro house drenched in piano. irrelevnt pleased the crowd working out layers of sharply juxtaposed instruments and clips, mostly in a salsa style. Finally Duosis forwent any attempt to compose, and merely uploaded a song from an episode of Reading Rainbow.  

Thursday’s OHC brought the past week full circle on the subject of birth, life and “a new beginning”. On that note, or perhaps a dissonant note clashing against it, sci worked out some detuned chords and sliced up some breakbeats. Resonantwaves suffered a crash and seemed to continue sci’s precedent of pads and an ethereal mood. Several contestants referenced birth in their song titles: “(BIRTH)” by A-zu-ra warmed over some chips for adequate ambience; “Time Reborn” by OMGitslewis held a vaguely marchable flair; and “rebirth red” by SupaSpeedStrut ran delay over everything. Near the end of the listening party Roseweave put together a seemingly straightforward piece of electronica, although the elements seemed to jostle at the finish.

Aging Schoolhouse

This week the Sonic Zone Remix Competition saw the siege of the Robotnik Bracket, round 1. For the round, entrants had to remix their previous selected source material, as well as the material of the opponent. As for the storyline, cutscenes explaining the current plot points of the tournament are not available as of this writing. OLRmageddon offered a tantalizing premise for this month’s theme: with “Non-Famous Composers” participants are urged to remix tunes from the unsung heroes of video game music. For a bonus, people could also include the Wilhelm scream so long as they actually do a remix to include it in.

SDCompo further invested in its revisal of it rules by allowing other VSTs that contestants could use. Specifically FreeAlpha, TAL-Elek7ro, MrTramp2, and Delay Lama are available as weapons of choice. Battle of the Bits held a number of compos of its own, including one noting the seventh anniversary of the site. Other competitions held had a variety of colorful titles, including “Pixelz in teh morning coffee” in which pixel art variations of a cup of Joe were created, and the “haven’t tracked in a week, so this week has tracking”, which expectedly features tracker files. 

LLCompo: Battle 18 came across a vast “Wealth”, and according to the ASCII in the description was passed along from one Kirby to another. The round’s introduction narrated by WVI also contained background music by WVI consisting of he own voice. As noted by the intro, the turnout was smaller than usual but nevertheless filled with regulars. Some entrants chose to enumerate their wealth, like liquidwind’s epic lo-fi “75 trillion dollars” and the introduction’s more modest “$18”. Sear on the other hand simply claimed “All of It” before laying down frantic electronics. On the other side of the coin, Delphinus encountered a beggar asking “Spare Some Change” amidst piano, strings, record scratches and a sample of Pink Floyd’s “Money”.

JHCompo on Tuesday hit a milestone with its 100th round, and thus started off with a composite of previous intro narrations before establishing the “Space Station” theme. chunter entered the “Moog Space Century” both honoring the compo and Robert Moog’s birthday. Tomapella’s track brings to mind the brass-heavy electronica of Blast Corps. Kay Faraday brought out a frenetic dance pulse reminiscent of a Mortal Kombat session. Cooling things off was jmr, who offered some of his guitar stylings for an “Abandoned Colony”. Finally swordofdestiny seemed to bring in elements of dubstep, and asked the other entrants to name the song his chord progression came from. 

Thursday’s OHC got a bit old fashioned when it revealed its “Old-School” theme for the night. A-zu-ra apologized for the track he cobbled together whilst waiting in line for Fanime, and promised to make it up later. dusthillguy promptly followed this up with his own “Nads” adequately fitting the theme by using an old sample of my voice. Draconiator spun out a pun by stating that the schoolhouse is crumbling due to its age, and created a brief groove. A number of entrants went the way of hip hop for the night; Obtuse rapped over a funky backing track and live bass; A2Z settled on a kickdrum for rather long time and dropped chordal stabs; and Acuity spat rhymes into what sounded like a paper cup. At the end of the listening party Evdog took a left turn with rapid-fire 12-bar blues, asking “…so this is old school… right?”

Spell It Out

The Sonic Zone Remix Competition began its first mixing stage following an extensive recruitment period. The introduction for the compo is much like the plots of the Sonic games themselves: something has gone wrong in the universe, causing the Sonic Bracket and Robotnik Bracket to form through some contrivances. The tournament promises some exciting bouts, particularly considering the large amount of veterans of previous tourneys such as the Wily Castle Remix Gauntlet. Worlds away over at SDCompo, its 66th round had quite a large turnout with thirteen entries. This was no doubt a result of the revised rules, which extended the usual deadline to six weeks, as well as the newly permitted use of four selected VSTs: Synth1, daHornet, Crystal, and TAL NoiseMaker.

LLCompo: Battle 16 settled on a location as its theme; along with the usual description, “Egypt” also had a pair of ASCII figures walking like an Egyptian. The intro narration by WVI and s1rnight started off with a mic check proceeded by an official decree of the royal pharaoh, and un-tiss. MKC made use of exotic scales before dropping the 8-bit beats and reaching the “Mummy Boss”. blink and the 364s took advantage of SolidComposer’s markdown by incorporating a line break, font resizing and boldness to display their metallic lyrics. The centerpiece of the night was a three-part odyssey conceived by Tilde, Sear and Paratroopa1 as separate tracks: “The Exploration of Harbinger’s Tomb” began with breakbeats combined with chips; it continued with a moodier journey into lo-fi material; and it ended with a lighter tone noted as being “No relation to parts 1 or 2.”

JHCompo on Tuesday threw everyone involved into a dancing game show complete with “Dancing with the Stars” as the intro backing music. AkogareZephyr appeared unexpectedly and offered a breezy scat entry. SonicThHedgog put up a consolation entry sampling James Brown and cranked to the utmost electrohouse volume. Duosis apparently recorded his funk tune with a blanket on the microphone before removing it partway through. skyndileg’s trip hop composition features arpeggios that would be more at home in a 50s doo-wop ballad, combined with trance lead. chunter laid down the funky jams, going back and forth between a clavinet, Rhodes and an airy synth melody. Finally Chickenwarlord contributed to the compo with a quickly-made ambient beat due to his late start.

Thursday’s OHC almost seemed to go meta with its “public forum” theme, as the compo itself has served as an open mic of sorts for various musical talent over the years. DucksUnlimited set the tone with much trumpeted fanfare, and a distorted vocal recording at “The Funeral Pyre”. Further speeches followed: seventhelement delivered his through a vocoder; sci went for a wah-wah effect; blastron full-out sang his words to the assembled throng. The round also had its share of instrumentals including darthpolly’s layered guitar and piano work, though he later felt that a rap would have been a good fit for the theme. The showstopper of the night came from DDRKirby(ISQ) who put together an eight minute piece setting off a flurry of comments in the listening party.

Some further rousing music came from TheMisterCat, who utilized his vocal and flautist talents to evoke a mournful yet driving mood. IXI’s slightly detuned keys supported several glitch effects before the boom-pat entered the fray. The round was not without overly quirky music though: CJthemusicdude made repeated references to DucksUnlimited, and fowl lamentation in general. My own entry “Raise Your Voice” seemed to raise eyebrows as the party wondered what the time signature of the song was. Finally munchi wrapped things up by twisting a mundane-sounding speech into an electronic session punctuated by guitar stabs.

Old and New

For the past week we’ve seen the continuation of established compos, and the launch of new ones. The World Warrior Remix Royale reached the voting stage for round 3 of the Hadouken Bracket. Both combatants pitted a Ryu theme against a Chun-Li one, but each resulting arrangement had its own distinct flavor: Ghetto Lee Lewis expressed a mellow piano groove backed by a beat, while Gario shook up the dancefloor and led this track with searing synths. People’s Remixing Competition 216 found a rescue in the form of a lone remix of the game Monkey Hero put up by Chickenwarlord, who admittedly created it due to the lack of turnout. 

The Sonic Zone Remix Competition began its recruitment period and planned to keep it open for two weeks, but interest was such that it locked at 32 participants in no time at all. SDCompo round 66 saw some revisions in its rules: the submission stage was extended to six weeks, and now allows the use of four VSTs – Synth1, daHornet, Crystal, and TAL NoiseMaker. At SolidComposer a new 3-hour compo cropped up by the name of “do what you do” stating its rules as not much more than that: "play music-you got three hours to do what you do".

LLCompo: Battle 13 spoke of the Illuminati, coupled with a description that effectively collapsed under the weight of its own conspiracy theories. The introduction for the night was narrated by WVI and s1rnight, who traded off top secret info about [REDACTED] only to be partially cut off by The Price Is Right. The regulars each had their own take on the theme, including MaxVdub’s “spooky” falling fifths progressions on guitar, PowerFail’s blues rock track “The Blueminatti”, and incorporator’s industrial track uniquely titled “illuminati”. Some new LLCompo entrants also appeared such as liquidwind putting on a chiptune spin while Clunkst made an intriguing suggestion to “Google illuminati backwards”.

JHCompo on Tuesday tried out some extended functionality by embedding a photo into the theme description; “Ancient Temple” was accompanied by a Mayan pyramid. skyndileg went to work sending his drones to do his bidding by way of a “Working Song”. At “Furg’s Temple" Clunkst put together quirky sonorities propelled by contant arpeggios. Maraki layered a soundscape out of various strumming takes, culminating in fast paced electronic frenzy. Clockwerk took some “Mayan Acid” and slid into a foray of ambience and hand percussion. Finally liquidwind directly referenced the assets of the photo for the round, thereby hinting at the fact that he had suggested the picture in the first place.

Thursday’s OHC lost its mind when it described the moment when one has lost perspective: a “Mental Breakdown”. On that note dusthillguy immediately uploaded his signature-style off-the-wall composition spanning 15 seconds. The listening party only became more random from that point as BrandonS talked about Final Fantasy II being amazing, and TheMisterCat formatted his lyrical text as a cumbersome scroll. The OHC organizer starla sent along a song of her own, backing her vocals with arpeggios and a glitch groove that would not be out of place in Tron 3. Trancient introduced a “NOHC” concept involving taking one’s own previous entry, polishing it and sending it along for a new listen. At the end of the night Jakesnke17 snuck in late with an ethereal soundbed and thick drums that was well worth the delay.

The Nyan Games

Double’s Dash Compo 14 continued with its new rule of adhering to a theme for participants to follow: In addition to collaborating with a songwriting partner that night, entrants had to write a song about intimacy and closeness. The two teams each tackled the challenge from contrasting perspectives: “Wishy Washy Relationships” is sexually explicit while “Hugging Time” dealt with brotherly affection. SDCompo also completed its 65th round with a handful of submissions adhering to the samplepack and tracker requirements established on the site’s rules. Battle of the Bits had a fair amount of competition activity over the last week as well, including a “KLINK” battle based on a pack, and a “Spring Tracks” compo forbidding cover versions of any kind. 

People’s ReMixing Competition 215 fared well in terms of remixes submitted, with three entries. For the round two Phoenix Wright source tracks were selected, and contestants were encouraged to rearrange both. JerryTerry intended to remix only one, but settled on an amalgam of both by starting off on mellow piano and building to a degraded electro beat. For his first remix Darren Schwinghamer tacked the material with an orchestral spin, which proved to be more difficult for him with software than using the acoustic instruments. A wild Chickenwarlord appeared and worked out a quick entry due to time constraints, introducing a new set of lyrics. 

OLRmageddon LIX featured “Batman” as its theme and had the additional stipulation that entries include a self-made drawing of a villain conceived by the entrant. Thus the music and the drawing would be voted upon separately. Dwelling of Duels had its jingle month that focused on the shorter video game tunes of the world, and perhaps as a result the turnout was smaller than usual. The Street Fighter compo World Warrior Remix Royale began the voting stage for round two of the Hadouken Bracket, which had remixes from Ghetto Lee Lewis and OA leading to a close vote. On Sunday LLCompo Battle 11 fell upon April Fool’s Day, which was acknowledged in the description but was otherwise not a part of the round’s “Anime” theme.

JHCompo on Tuesday took participants on a perilous journey as “The Messenger” to deliver a package on time. SonicThHedgog preceded the festivities with a JHC advertisement of his own creation on his SoundCloud page. With a bed of synthesizers, MandraSigma sent his bad news successfully and ended on a tempo slowdown. Shadix made his “Interstellar Distress Call” braving a bevy of asteroids, cosmic strings, and other things that are probably in space. SonicThHedgog made a 911 call by way of ambient electronics and some familiar video game sounds, followed by some electronic. Finally Duosis delivered late and pitched some sample-loops to set a mellow mood lasting a little over a minute. 

Thursday’s OHC brought back the ghosts of days gone by with its “Haunting Past” theme. Unlike the last few rounds, the night was without an introduction by The Stuff of Legends. Instead the listening party started off with “The Haunting White Boy Rap” by LOLitslewis putting together sub-bass, a drum machine, self-deprecating lyrics and a Nyan Cat exit. A number of newcomers joined OHC, including Gottvich with gritty ambience and blastron using copious amounts of reverb. The round was also home to longtime veterans: Arcana's submission made use of strings and oboe; sci bounced along the dancefloor with vocal samples; and DDRKirby(ISQ) fittingly sent along a re-imagined Kirby’s Adventure tune. At the end of the party the_lulzorz disqualified himself when he indulged in a “Nyan Hop” bathed in breakbeats, thereby creating a bookending effect.

Most Dangerous Game

The past week marked the start of Street Fighter: The World Warrior Remix Royale. For the tournament, each entrant selected a character theme from the Street Fighter series and will battle by way of a “vs remix” merging the theme with that of an opponent. Unlike previous competitions held on OverClocked ReMix, the royale will feature involvement with Capcom for potential inclusion of music in its promotional releases. SDCompo ended round 65 with a handful of entries, and its first place entry agargara gathered much approval despite its unorthodox structure and inexplicable snail-themed lyrics. LLCompo: Battle 8 similarly was home to some unusual verses due in part to its “Robot” theme. Saif in particular teamed up with a friend to create a speed metal song about the rise of the machines. 

JHCompo on Tuesday invited everyone to a “Game Show” where the big prize was perpetually hidden in a question-marked box. My introduction track featured my usual narration, this time set to the Match Game theme song. Duosis chose to make a theme song for a reality show, cutting a sampled rock riff to a pounding house beat and funky bassline. SonicThHedgog in his typical fashion put out a pair of Sonic arrangements and asked listeners to identify the source material. Finally rwarman007 worked out an electronic piece that served to propel his spoken-word instructions about the game show and its progression. 

Thursday’s OHC was preceded by the hype built up at Compo Stadium, detailing the “Battle of the Heroes” theme amongst the flaring of NFL on Fox horns. A-zu-ra demonstrated that overthinking is a mixed blessing, thus leaving his entry untitled and creating a brief chip entry. CSWorks worked out a bouncy, off-kilter battle theme in the style of Final Fantasy. Acuity’s track “Summoner’s Rift” asked participants to select the protagonist and go off on an adventure of lo-fi synths. Miru’s post-piece requiem focuses on playful fights between friends, set to rhythmic orchestral music. DijiTwitch said simply “Kill’em Dead” and ventured to the dance floor with his stabbing piano. BrandonS decided to forgo actually composing a song for the round and instead offered an infomercial for his new EP. DDRKirby(ISQ) similarly promoted his compilation album, but made a new song containing church bells, strings and many blips.

Flik made a rare appearance and submitted a short but effective mixture of industrial and ambiance. Arcana felt that his tune was too upbeat to be about war, so his orchestral jaunt summarizes the joy of victory. CJthemusicdude whipped out his keyboard to rollick among the ivories in a somber composition. Trancient noted that his electronic track sounds better with headphones, which is not a problem considering the listening party’s large percent of producers. Shadix’s entry is possibly shorter than the time it takes to read the track description, but what is heard fits the context. General Mumble arrived an hour late due to a Daylight Savings Time snafu, but shook the dancefloor with arps and a lumbering beast of some sort. sci uploaded another mashup of his that manages to sound cohesive despite the wild mixture of sources. 

munchi made a sly nod to DDRKirby in his entry title and presents the glitched blurbs he worked on as practice. OMGitslewis also sent out a chippy electro tune complete with a chilled middle section and some wubs. Forty-Two soaks his reflective “No Man’s Land” in reverb and subtly played off of his harmonies in a soft manner. Roseweave sang a bit for her submission, seemingly falling onto her microphone in the process. I wrote an original song in OHC for once, with the help of a rhythm guitar recording that I chopped to create chord progressions. At the end of the listening party MandraSigma submitted his “hero theory” for approval, combining keyboard jabs with vocal samples and a patchwork of other elements.

The Long Year

This past Monday marked the one-year anniversary of My Compo Life. What began as a journal of my activity in music competitions went on to become a general wrap up of the compo communities. Also dealing with a milestone was OLRmageddon LVII, with its “over 18” theme: participants could remix music from games that were released eighteen years ago or more. Brunzolaitis became the default winner of that round and recorded a monologue in an Austrian accent about Super Metroid. Dwelling of Duels seemed to bring in a smaller-than-usual turnout, as suggested in Paragon’s comment: “Gonna be a small month.” DoD’s theme that month invited entrants to arrange music from the Kunio franchise of games; titles such as River City Ransom, Nintendo World Cup and Downtown Smash Dodgeball could be covered. SDCompo reached its 64th round with six entries, one of which was disqualified for using sounds not included in the provided sample pack. Perhaps most significant in compo news, OCRE won the cookie compo on IRC by creating circular “Catch-Me-If-You-Can” gingerbread cookies. 

LLCompo: Battle 6 dealt with the impending disaster of a “Volcanoes” theme. The night’s introduction came from Kay Faraday narrated by WVI, who greeted the Luelinks community and damned it one swoop. Smooth Suck made use of a deepened voice pointing out the existence of a volcano under glass before getting into some funk. Delphinus’s melancholy piano set the mood for a series of eruptions and a bit of hip hop. MKC reasoned that the volcano is a final boss and thus set his chip music to the appropriate tension level. Ananth Ram sent the listening party to the next level with his pounding filter house, declaring “Angels are born from Volcanos”. Saif sent along his signature metal stylings, this time with lyrics about a sacrificial offering to the lava chasm. sonicmax’s track consists of a soft growl and tinkling on the ivories thereby solving the equation “Piano + DSP = ?” 

Maxximum called General Pepper, who alert Fox McCloud on the dangers of the volcano planet. Run DMZ peered at “Vesuvius” with the aid of trip hop material that led to a brick wall of compression. Raj Flow let the horns roar and spit his rhymes to extinguish the magma. Bipolarbear hired Microsoft Sam to read a soliloquy regarding the night’s theme, backed with irregular rhythms. Chase Irwin woke up late for the compo, but nevertheless cooked up a song and some guitar strumming. PowerFail’s entry begins with a guttural “I AM POMPEII” and chants verses over a distorted rock backing. Jerkwater used a heavy dose of low end to symbolize the volcanic eruption via disco. Rounding out the entries was incorporator who worked his drum machine while LD bared his soul with voice and acoustic guitar. 

JHCompo on Tuesday was under siege from aliens who ordered Earth to “Evacuate the Planet”.  Following my reading of the theme, dusthillguy put one up of his own as a result of 200000000 hours in MS Paint. skyndileg chronicled the “Fall of the Empire” with a wide swatch of synths and dramatic voice acting. will90 wondered “What the hell we're going to do” in the midst of bouncy brass, strings and rolling timpani. Shadix started with a bang and cooled off until shreddage resumed. Beigh’s usual composition confused even him, and perhaps this was fitting considering the chaos of leaving the globe. SonicThHedgog grinded his axe to his namesake, noodling a Sonic the Hedgehog tune with a dramatic pause halfway through. irrelevnt made his plea to have the Earth spared and murmured a stirring set of lines to that effect with bass guitar. Finally mu marveled at the “two suns” and pushed his electro to the limits, then took a breather with a downtempo electronic piece. 

Thursday’s OHC began its theme with a response: "No, in fact, you can't", and the participants were free to interpret the "Stand Your Ground" theme however they wished. Brandon Strader pulled two entries out of his hat for the night: as Oinkness he uploaded a vocal narration, and as BrandonS he recorded his own parody of the song “Honolulu Baby” based on the Duosis version. Afterward dusthillguy sampled my voice once more for his tribute to Deven Gallo. Roseweave created an intro narration from scratch, ending with the cry of a thousand nightmares. Fusion2004 rode on tupleted bass with sprinkles of Billy Mays to make his blue notes white. Garian revealed his lack of imagination and unfurled a monologue over a serviceable beat. Hapi-San Again stood his ground against a wall of Nyan Cat doo-wop for a "brief interlude". Acuity took the opportunity to test out some electronics and glitch, thus excusing the listening party for it. Forty-Two's arpeggio meshed with the pads and sweeps making up the soundscape. CJthemusicdude settled on a waltz ping-ponging between its various harmonic elements. Trancient melded solo piano into a trip hop number and urged the audience to "Bring It".  

MandraSigma pitched a sample to create a chord progression, and then slammed down on it with accompaniment and hints of theremin. sci similar achieved a staccato effect with its sample and included an 808 drum machine. DDRKirby(ISQ) elected to chill for his compo session and delivered his usual dense composition in a slow tempo. Misael.K provided inspiring words for his entry featuring strings, guitar and rock percussion. A-zu-ra fired up his chips and found "The Will to Persist" among the lo-bit harmonies. Bren defied his claim of not being a Bren song by sending along distant chugs that support searing leads and ear-catching chords. OMGitslewis made his first entry and held his ground from those more experienced. Torzelan fitted his motivating quotes into a cartridge for 8-bit action. Arcana went through his orchestral collection and called the troops to maintain the "Steel Lines". In a burst of speed IXI made his best shot as a newcomer to the compo with frantic dance music. Destroid rocked the drum machines and boasted of a longtime commitment to techno beats. At the end of the round Hapi-San checked his watch whilst tilting to a laid-back tune, followed by munchi who waded in and out of low-pass filters.

No Hagalo

Despite predictions of a delayed spring season in the United States, compo circles continued to ride a hot streak. LLCompo on Sunday in particular resulted in a turnout of 28 entries, perhaps a reflection of the “Rainbows” theme and its wide spectrum. Famicompo mini vol.8 wrapped up with a total of 120 tracks split up into 72 covers and 48 originals, all submitted in the NSF format. SDCompo bounced back slightly having a total of six entries based on a samplepack: the compositions ranged from chunter’s mellow electronic “You Remembered” to iddy’s groove-centric “pixels at light speed” that carries an Amiga-influenced sound. 

OLRmageddon LVI portended the supposed doom of the year 2012 by announcing a “Prophecies” theme. Any game music was open for remixing, so long as it had a “strong piece of lore”. As a bonus entrants could also include maniacal laughter. One such track came from ProjectSpam, whose Skyrim remix contains lyrics about drinking and getting into a funk for the purpose of getting out of a funk. The round also contained three Final Fantasy entries: OneUp dabbled in wubstep occasionally broken up with dry cackles and whistling; In Torzlelan’s “Hero Be Gone” he raps over layered arpeggios; and OneUp’s “Schiminal Schmantasy” again delves into wubwubwub ending with a gurgly laugh. Rounding out the entries was Brunzolaitis with “The Doomsday Medley” covering seven games and spanning nearly six minutes.

JHCompo on Tuesday followed Ferris Bueller and took “The Day Off” as its theme. irrelevnt appeared with graphic use of female moaning backed by a drum machine and bass. MandraSigma made use of sequenced piano, but then launched cuts of “go! go!” and a staccato beat. coda was able to fit his dog-title fascination reasonably into the theme: his “walk the dog” offers a bouncy session complete with trumpet riffs. liquid wind made the most of things by sitting at home with his synth patches on a “snow day”. housethegrate again found a perfect place for his signature funk rock and took a rollicking trip as a result. mu brings to mind the Genesis chipset right from the opening chords, leading to a halfbeat building off of the harmonies. Newcomer FrankieChains served up some doo wop vocal samples while Shadix used a mixture of strumming, pads and woodwinds for a lush soundscape. At the end of the listening party SonicThHedgog wowed the audience with a series of noodled covers followed by a wall of guitar, flute and sax polyrhythm.

Thursday’s OHC was dedicated to Triforce Mike, who tragically died earlier in the week as the result of an accident. "Courage, wisdom and power" conjured up a wide variety of styles. Zovi went for a timestretched series of high gain sounds simulating an unspeakable act involving a triforce. In a stunning move BrandonS hopped onto a bicycle whilst playing with a Game Boy and heeding verbal instructions. MandraSigma reworked my vocal narration and scat singing to create a quirky soundbed. CJthemusicdude exclusively used tb_triforce, a VST approximation of the NES soundchip to make his entry. JackShine continued the lo-fi aesthetic for a Chopin-influenced piece ending on piano. PsychedelicBrony sent the listening party into a nostalgic frenzy with his Tetris-meets-Zelda dubstep composition. Obtuse rolled on with the chip style by way of a brief-but-affecting track. AnimusVox was even shorter with "The Worst Bass Ever" of six seconds. Serisium grabbed hold of my vocals and went off on a quest of tuplets.

ProjectSpam melded pizzicato strings and metallic percussion along with his own vocals. isidor3 put up a somber take on Ganon's theme ending with rolling thunder. Forty-Two similarly submitted a mellow, woodwind-filled tune causing one listener to "want to ride Epona". HarryNilsson'sGhost rolled his toms into a spaced out industrial beat made using milkytracker. DDRKirby(ISQ) also put tb_triforce to use alongside drums and effects for a pulsing six-minute dance session. With much trepidation, Trancient followed DDR's track with one he admittedly made in 20 minutes; it works its groove despite the shadow cast by the previous entry. Fusion2004 rose to the challenge and used spectacularly mechanical guitar chords, which were masked partially by the drums and synthesized rendition of the Song of Storms. sci's track may not have qualified as unts, but it did get bodies shaking and included a vocoderized John Lennon line.

elsalluz brought some hip-hop into the party with occasion burst of wah effects. Arcana moved the audience with his organ, pads and melodic stabs, but lamented his song-titling ability. munchi worked on wriklefree's DAW and intended to do vocals, but settled on a heavily affected instrumental. DJ_SOMBRERO came by and provided incessant hospitality along with my scats. Finally bLiNd paid a rare visit to OHC to display his orchestral elements and chips with acoustic drumming, bringing the night to a fulfilling close.

Being Duosis

People’s Remixing Competition 209 benefitted from a rebound of attendance following the holiday season. This was perhaps due to the dual source selections; entrants could choose to remix either Sonic the Hedgehog 2 or Bahamut Lagoon for the round. sggod89 went for the latter game, infusing the material with hard rock sounds and flourishes of orchestral toward the end. DjMokram also trudged along the Desert Land Daphira displaying his arrangement skill with a rare electronic take on the tune. The only Sonic 2 remix came from evktalo, who mostly worked with the MIDI file to create his entry. The Soundevotion Competition had a smaller-than-usual turnout of two entries; Shadowbane put together his industrial track between Christmas festivities and his own birthday, while chunter composed a light affair with guitar treatment. 

JHCompo on Tuesday offered a chance for a “Clean” start in its theme, or the option to get dirty. DJ Sombrero made his return to with his signature blend of latin riffs and electro, wondering in Spanish why he had to wash up the place. liquid wind debated the value of “shampoo vs conditioner” by way of frantic piano ending on a 3-4-5-1-8. MandraSigma made sure his chip music had been thoroughly cleaned before applying breakbeats and choir. Kay Faraday settled on family-friendly television programming intercut with snow static between channels. Finally SonicThHedgog broke out the keyboard-and-guitar style reminiscent of the Sonic Adventure games, but not before attempting to game the system by facetiously asking for more time.

Thursday’s OHC had a slight mishap as the organizer starla inadvertently left up “fzfzfz” as a theme. This was shortly changed to “Hit the ground running”, but not before a group of entrants had settled on the former. After my "Running Introduction", dusthillguy made an intro of his own taking my vocal and taking it in a different direction. CJthemusicdude cranked up the jungle beats and ended by reiterating DHG's direction, albeit more intensely. LuketheXjesse's metal offering had a description that broke the compo page due to a unending line of "fzfzfz..." Acuity took the theme to mean a noise channel, which he incorporated into a pounding chip tune. frkygp picked up the torch immediately after with an 8-bit dance session of his own. JackShine apparently caught word of the previous JHCompo theme, and showered partway though the OHC round to create some electronic.

Forty-Two clarified that he was indeed following "fzfzfz" and submitted a sequel to his "Lonely Technology" using lush arpeggios and ambiance. Fusion2004 applied gymnastics to his composition with swelling strings that lead to blips and a steady snare. BrandonS improvised a meta-song about composing a song for the compo, gradually altering the intonation and tone of his singing as he went along. Suzumebachi made his first submission since upgrading to broadband Internet; he surprised himself as his electro track sampling my vocal had uploaded within seconds. Bartekko presented a slightly detuned treblestep piece that could be categorized as both fzical and runny. Duosis sampled the "plop plop fizz fizz" Alka Seltzer jingle to create a brief interlude. Flaedr similar sampled vocal clips, but with a manic amount of pitch shifting via Melodyne.

 

General Mumble was one of the people thrown off by the changing theme, and thus settled on a remix of Queenstons and Casey Lalonde. Shadix discovered a seabed of music narrated by a genteel accent that gives way to lo-bit upfront harmonies. Arcana interpreted fzfzfz as a lost radio signal for an onset of bloops and bassy thuds. sci's opening field recording lends itself to heavily reverberated harmonic elements. Foozogz presumably felt obligated to participate for his fz-like namesake and thus served up a rushing sweep and frantic beats. A pair of  DDRKirbyISQ entries followed: one based on the theme, and the other a demo reel accompanied by a newsletter. The night ended with Destroid modifying the formant of my voice, and MandraSigma going "Free for All" with a breezy synth excursion.

For a while I had been secretly composing for compos under the name Duosis. The reason for this was to see if feedback for my work would differ than that of music submitted under my usual name. It also allowed me to explore methods of production that I normally would not have tried. After a creating few entries, I focused on polishing the existing material as well as creating new tracks specifically for an album. That album is The Duosis Sessions, available now at my music page.

The Saddest Key

Soundevotion Competition reached the end of round 61 on Monday and brought in six entries. The rules suggested punk rock, instrumental or industrial, but the style was open from entrants to explore. aged made a point of stating that his track was unfinished, repeatedly using the word “bad” to describe every aspect of the production; the track does however make effective use of bells, piano and mechanical rhythms topped with desolate vocal stylings. chunter wasn’t sure whether to title his entry in English or Spanish, and settled on a subtitle as he strummed along a series of delayed guitar chords with synthesized speaking. JustinCredible dropped acid bass alongside a solid snare, disported lead and floating synth lines propelled by a sampled speech. Knetter brought out the titular “Musicbox” for a dance session made exclusively from the elements included in the samplepack. Church tolls sound at the start of Shadowbane’s piece, joined by gloomy pads and fitted into an industrial shell with poetic monologue. 

JHCompo on Tuesday featured “Banquet” as its theme, much to the delight of entrants who coincidentally wished to have a heartburn-themed round. The listening party had a couple of inconveniences, as the first entry by FLD was put up as a test while the second by RAMPKORV served as an exercise in unlistenablilty. Afterward the banquet started off proper: Obtuse went to the land of funk and jammed around deft bass playing. chunter created a tune based on a clavinet riff building up to an electro rhythm. nikola exclaimed “LOL not enough time” and put together electronic loops with key and chord changes.

bjkmenu won the “chicken award” once again delivering his distinctive humor and by way of pitch-affected vocals. mu appeared and submitted “you”, a mellow groove culminating in a recitation of the alphabet. irrelevnt ventured into the studio to record himself on guitar whilst emitting various bodily sounds and applying synthesizers. StatusD uploaded a multipart track spanning nearly eight minutes of colliding e-harmonies. Bringing up the rear was Evil Shrubbery who slid in a keyboard session thickening out to a wide swatch of synths totaling a little over a minute. 

Thursday’s OHC had "The Game" as its theme, opening the door to jokes about the losing thereof. Following my vocal introduction, RAMPKORV decided that the theme was something else entirely. CJthemusicdude's choir pad and militaristic percussion pervade his story of "That Ninja Game", a tale of love and glory. Hapi-San encouraged others to relax in the early stages of The Game, offering ambiance as a way of cooling down via crashing waves. Serisium made his first OHC entry, consisting of a handful of lo-bit harmonic elements ending with the crackle of a noise channel. frkygp continued the 8-bit incursion with a sparse beat grooving through a circuit. More chiptunage appeared courtesy of  Jimmy, whose entry is reminiscent of Mega Man. Obtuse in an unusual change of form created chip music of his own, which by his description is tinged with medieval and tango elements. 

sci's scenario implies that he is more adept at composing than at game design, submitting a slung synth-filled beat. mv went off the beaten path by referencing chess, and his tune reflects this game using strings graced with dense trip-hop. Forty-Two wrote about the video game trope of "That Snow Level", melding piano and pads with headbobbing bass and chimes. Arcana's entry was uploaded by DDRKirby(ISO) as he had to leave; since the tune was created with an iPhone, it is entirely possible that Siri the digital assistant had a hand in it. jarski as part of the r00t3d collective presented an 8-bit arp that met other harmonic elements and eventually laid down the unts. Sadsic inserted quarters into the "Jungle Game" (unrelated to Jumanji) and brought upon a disjointed ascent into madness. Destroid saw fit to reestablish the theme with a game that is probably not produced by Milton Bradley.  

Hapi-San Again put up an entry, disqualifying it due to being a revised version of a a track from last week. DDRKirby(ISQ)'s track also recalls Mega Man before slamming into an extended disco-bit session. Shadix brought the house down and the lighters up by showing off a R&B song complete with vocal harmonies. Zovi went the abrasive chip route, at one point filling the soundscape with a wall of crushed noise. munchi blew on his cartridge and made his way though the levels to the eventual e-guitar solo. SupaSpeedStrut put sidechains to use, accentuating the kick drum to reach the phased-out end of "lvl 1". natsukashi stood in the "Castleyard" at the end of the listening party delivering a Baroque approach to chip, punctuated by thuds.

Taco Tornado

Sunday became the submission deadline of the Grand Robot Master Remix Battle’s climactic face-off following a 24-hour extension. The final battle pitted Mega Man against Proto Man; both remixers covered the Spring Man and Elec Man themes in their attempt to claim the tourney top spot. Despite the competitive nature of GRMRB, DarkeSword playfully admitted that “This is not actually a competition. I just made this thread to trick all of you into making Mega Man mixes.” In total, the tournament brought about 57 arrangements. prophetik’s track made use of tribal drums offset with glitched synths, carried by Spring Man and then cooled down with Elec Man in a minor mode. WillRock also took Elec Man into minor territory, putting in a bass growl as the arps continue to the left of the stereo field; the melding of both themes is aided by this panning separation, particularly as the beat drops and the remix goes for an extended solo.

Monday Night Madness took off after a false start, since the previous round jumped forward one week due to lack of entrants. The theme for the night was “Amnesia” providing an excuse for my spoken-word “Intro Reminder”. zorg’s track involves a man who “forgot how to use his DAW” along with a drummer who suffered brain trauma; the result is expectedly disjointed digital tunage. Xarnax42’s “Wisps of Remembrance” starts with a flourish of piano and follows up sparsely on the keys for its duration. Akogare Zephyr made another rare appearance, serving up arpeggio and filtered drum loops under her echoed pop vocal. coda experienced “GameNesia”, which apparently involves a four-note vibraphone motif, continuous buzzing bass, strings and crushed percussion. MisfitBYTE raced across varying and frenetic riffs, the effect of inputting "Amnesia: Lost My Mind" as notes in binary. swordofdestiny submitted possibly the thinnest waveform ever seen in SolidComposer, consisting of sporadic hand drum strikes.

Soundevotion Competition round 59 reached its deadline for entries on Monday. A samplepack served as the basis for the tracking compo, including a wide palette of instruments. Despite SDCompo being a month-long competition, andyray decided to restrict himself to a few hours; his entry carries gated chords with an industrial sound that gives way to funky drums. Chotoro’s pads swoop in for an atmospheric jaunt supported by a repeated melody line and several stylistic change-ups. chunter used the singing speech synthesizer UTAU for his electro pop tune garnished with guitar licks and a diverse collection of textures. cralias’s “Reaching for Stars” begins with gentle, rhythmic ambience and assembles layers of harmonic elements, peaking in density halfway through. fladd’s flattened synth riff bows under sustained bass notes, clearing the way for trip-hop.

hseiken preceded his entry with a spoken notice protesting the option to record voice in a samplepack-based compo; he goes on to sample his own speech, creating a quirky groove without the pack to help bolster his point. CAG strummed a heartfelt song on guitar, strings and percussion before dropping everything in favor of a more active mood and unrestrained yelling. juolac discovered a effect when using synchronization on sample drum loops, and went on to layer multiple loops across the stereo spectrum. OneTrackMind did “Indeed” submit a dance entry nailed down by unrelenting kick drum. At the end of the artist name alphabet, waterhead served up electronic minimalism, human beatbox and elements of “Rapper's Delight” complemented by narration spoken by his younger brother.

JHCompo on Tuesday had its largest turnout yet, and with it a large set of site bugs. The “Deal with the Devil” theme was met with a positive response and an eclectic set of entries. After my emphatic “go to hell” intro, americanwarewolf guitared a track in five minutes; he put out his blues rock quickly because he was preoccupied with real-life duties. OverCoat agreed to a deal, but insisted that he see “the cake egg-man” and uploaded the ebb and fade of a string section. Brandon Strader had acquired a saxophone and practiced it over the course of a day, then used the compo to riff on the values for a minute. MisfitBYTE attempted to blend blues with glitch-drums, but ultimately felt that “I need a new deal.” Tomapella managed his time wisely during the round, having time to compose a Rhodes-centric jazz section, a segment of country music, and a thorough description.

zorg posited his thoughts on religion and showed off anthemic pads at the same time; he set down drums to keep the vibe going and took a left turn to moody bass at the end. Xarnax42 tossed in an incomplete work of keyboard synths, apparently deciding to go lounging with the devil. mv once again failed to disappoint, bringing along his mixture of violins and trip-hop filled with e-soloing and filtered vocals. chunter chose to be the master of his own destiny by layering piano, bells and glockenspiel for a dense lead melody backed by drum funk. coda advertised a crash course in slap bass, piano-pads and organ provided by the devil himself. MandraSigma seemingly found the escape clause by signing his contract in ketchup rather than blood; his entry similarly reverses its way through the situation with a fair amount of glitch.

Newcomer shojin sang his Adele-inspired entry with bass accompaniment, gradually adding guitar chords, wordless harmony and a rolling beat. americanwarewolf’s brother trenthian suffered technical issues, but worked out some jangly strumming backed with percussion and a horn section. Rexy made her first JHCompo appearance, inspired by a scene in The Little Mermaid; the initial harp and orchestral elements step to the side as drums and harpsichord move in, trading turns as the tune progresses. Jarski seemed to be going through a rebellious phase for the title of his dance entry containing a count up among other quirky aspects. MVM offered an affecting musical cue while irrelevnt rounded out the entries with his electric and acoustic guitars.

OHC on Thursday featured a "Distant and foreign" theme, and so I recorded my vocal intro with an app I had scarcely used before. Acuity was unable to make it to the round, but created a trippy piano-and-strings-centric entry ahead of time that was submitted by DDRKirby(ISO). Making his return from two weeks ago, Trollgate produced in a similar guitar style than before with the addition of sampling. siebensus4 professed to being "rusty" and submitted high-gain bass and pads with an undercurrent of choir. B-Type appeared after a long compo hiatus, delivering effect-laden flows with such rhymes as "poop chute" with "does not compute!" RAMPKORV met the "Benis Brothers" playing swiftly on the keys and swooping in and out of discordance.

Tomapella also performed on piano, in his case bluesy riffing inspired by his recent travels. Usabell's spacey chords and industrial percussion meet a prominent bassline and a go around the ivories with bongos. MandraSigma chose his forthcoming gaming convention trip as his foreign experience, submitting a "tone poem" that ultimately implodes. Arcana's lo-bit lead is accompanied a pulsing pad at first, then by high strings and a set of dance patterns. CJthemusicdude made use of the half hour he had available to work the pentatonic scale and a laid-back beat. mv put up his usual thought-provoking entry description for his lush ambient bed of sound. DDRKirby(ISQ) uploaded his actual entry for the night, a noise-filled build up that leads to a bevy of chips and glitch.

sci showed his offbeat approach to voice sampling using a start-and-stop electro backing. Forty-Two was surprised his song came together as effectively as it did, harmonizing chimes and woodwinds with pizzicato strings. Bren admitted to having a lack of time, but pulled through using his signature synth lead and chord structure. Appearing in the chatroom in the guise of ThomasTryst, ProjektZero made his compo comeback mixing together acoustic rhythms, electronic bass and his lyrical stylings. jarski appeared to be "lost in sewers" and found his way along with noise filter sweeps and funky snare. Suzumebachi may have to mail his tunes via the postal service to send them in on time, but he nevertheless submitted a densely layered production ending with a gentle 3-4-5-1-8.

I guess I’ve gained some visibility as a result of participating in so many competitions. Gradually I went from being an unknown member of the community to being "that guy who does compos a lot." It makes me well suited to chronicle the gatherings that happen every week from such varied communities.

*Title of blog post selected by LuketheXjesse.