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Renoise 2 Beta Music Competition
Introduction
“Hey, did you write that song? Sounds like a Nintendo”.
If you've been in the tracker scene for a while, I'm betting outsiders have been telling you that a couple of times.
The highlight of Renoise 2 is the new timing engine. To capture the tiny imperfections that defines the difference between a drum computer and a living person, it's necessary to have a high enough resolution. The goal of the Renoise 2 Beta Music Compo is to get demo songs that make outsiders say:
“Hey, did you write that song? Sounds like a real band!”
In that perspective it may be ironic that the first round's winning song Ghost Debts is a small experimental miracle. In my review I'll explain why we have chosen it. Unfortunately none of the entries take advantage of the high resolution grid, nor use the delay column to its full potential. Still, the second's round winner Please let me be was pretty much what we envisioned. It's not yet indistinguishable from a rock band, but it kicks ass with an attitude.
On a sidenote, I was surprised by the amount of experimental songs. Perhaps after the success of Ghost Debts many thought experimental was the way to go, despite the reconfirmation of the guidelines. Guys, come one, we really have enough of that kind of demo songs. The Italian duo Neurotix and It-Alien will make sure we'll never run out of those. So, can we have more normal music next time please?
Songs
Andy Ray DemoBand - Track You Down
Ashkan Asgary - Interstellar Parlance
Sin Chistorra No Hay Luz - Ratiyang y El Capitan Chistorra
Song Reviews by Renoise Team member Bantai
Dear participants, your songs are about to be reviewed by me. Have a paper bag ready in case you feel you're going to vomit. You're allowed to throw darts at a printed version of my avatar.
Round 1
Sin chistorra no hay luz - Ratiyang y El Capitan Chistorra
This is the first song I received. It's very colorful too. When you open it in Renoise you'll see there's no shortage of pattern commands. The build-up is pretty bland. When we reach the climax of the song we've also reached the end. I think we are seeing a good example of the tracker disease called 'Breakdown after the Climax'. The author probably started writing Pattern 17 and beyond, then ran out of inspiration. The patterns in the build-up are what I'd like to call “Muted Tracks Filler”, which are basically copies of the climax patterns minus a couple of tracks. Breakcore is focused around frantic beats, so let's have a look. Yeah, the break track is pretty cool, and although the reversed amen doesn't always flow right, this track connects well with the chip track. All in all this song just doesn't cut it and could have worked out a lot better.
Ashkan Asgary – Interstellar Parlance
In the song comments Ashkan explains us about the exotic combination of two different rhythms for an asymmetric effect. The percussion track is a standard 4/4 and lies on top of the rest on the song, which is in 7/8. Apparently this is a Persian tribal style called Lang. To be honest, it doesn't sound like authentic tribal drumming to me. This could be accounted to too little humanization or the lack of authentic sounding samples. When you solo the percussion track, you'll notice the retrigger is too rigid for the correct flow. The whole track is mixed in too loud, making it stand out from the rest of the song. I'm no expert on oriental rhythms, but I'm not convinced it turned out alright in Interstellar Parlance. Another Persian influence is the bassline melody. By using pitch-slide commands Ashkan achieves microtonality. That's a nice touch. However, when we leave out all the ethnic elements, what remains is a hybrid between chiptune and convenience store music. Fortunately there are some redeeming qualities. First, the sound quality and mixing is excellent. As Ashkan assures us in the song comments, the flute and strings indeed sound polished. Bottomline: I am intrigued, yet not impressed by the Persian influences. The drumming is particularly weak. Most importantly, the song itself is too mellow for what we envisioned as a demo song. From an educational and technical point of view, you can probably learn a thing or two from this song.
Mick Rippon – Sunrise
Mick Rippon is a scene legend, once part of the Fairlight demo group. Through his vast experience he has build up a recognizable style, combining old-school tracking with high production values and acoustic guitar. This particular song makes me think of Vincent Voois' BeatBattle4 entry Pinguin Shuffle. First thing you'll notice is how warm and balanced the mix is, which is not exclusively accountable to EQs and Compressors, but also to the selection of instruments. The stereo image is impressive as well. To preserve space or perhaps as a deliberate effect, on some pattern Mick actually tracks the acoustic guitar samples into a melody rather than playing back a fully recorded riff. Once again, although everything is possible these days, Mick embraces tracking by blending chiptune with um... porn background music? And that's where this entry falls flat as a potential demo song: we prefer our demos with a bite. Make no mistake, one of the best songs of the compo, but a bit too mellow to be in the Renoise package.
Mr Mark Dollin - Ghost Debts
For this song, Mark Dollin has chosen to restrict himself to a single hand drawn sine. That limitation leads to inspiration and creativity. It also demonstrates how Renoise's built-in effects can be used to shape and transform a sample to effectively generate new sounds. Check out the massive DSP chains! Mark's studio experience is clearly reflected in the top-notch mixdown, I expected nothing less here. The song starts with rather obvious sine blips, but soon enough unfolds into a more interesting palette of sounds. When the deep bass comes in I start to get goosebumps. The end-result is surprisingly enjoyable, at moments stretching towards Trent Reznor's apocalyptic wasteland.
Mick Rippon's Sunrise in the first round is excellent, but Ghost Debts is too extraordinary to not be the winning song. This song is exactly what I have been trying to say. It's an experiment that makes you forget it is one, allowing you to appreciate the music. That's what it's all about.
Round 2
Carlo Beccaria - oxcaFFe 6
Hm,did I forget to shut down my 9600 Baud modem? Oh wait, it's a compo entry. I think. Watching the patterns scroll by with visually arranged notes, I have a feeling I'm missing a secret message. Maybe something about monkeys. If everything was done on purpose, we could have an It-Alien type genius. On the other hand, this could be just semi-random noodling. To be sure of that would take a lot analysis. Unfortunately oxcaFFe 6 does not particularly invite prolonged listening, so my verdict stands. Not my cup of tea.
Magowl – Hearty Headsman
Another experiment with hand drawn samples. Maybe it wasn't so smart to let Mr Mark Dollin - Ghost Debts win the first round. Almost all the track labels are gone, which makes it difficult to navigate through the song. I'm almost thinking it's just to annoy us. The experiment focuses on fairly unusual DSP automation, such as Delay and EQ. Anyway, I could continue analyzing, but it's not exactly a pleasant listen so I won't. This song was written as an experiment but makes little effort to transcend beyond it.
JRRS - nnn
I could do you a favor and tell you to skip to Pattern 70. But I won't, we'll start right at the beginning. The first thing I noticed is the use of the delay column. The valid range of values for the delay column is 00 to FF, that is, a line divided by 256 parts. I think JRRS has mistaken this range to be in ticks. Doesn't matter really, because it's used on noise. After what seems to be a year long worth of electronic vomit gurgling we get to a section with a remote resemblance to Industrial or EBM. Which then degenerates into electro-farting. Alright, hardware constipation gone, time for more EBM, electropunk, whatever. Finally we get to the best part, Pattern 70 and beyond. It would have been a better idea to build further on this for a proper darkwave song. Anyway, this is by far the most enjoyable of the 3 experimental songs in this round.
!Plova - Orion
After hearing the entries above, Orion's intro made fear I'd be stuck with an endless barrage of experimental 'not my cup of tea' entries. But hey, a pleasant surprise, this is 1996's style atmospheric drum 'n bass down to a T. The jungle breaks, pitched 7th chords, jazz guitar licks, deep sine basses, the almost constant droning, it's all there. Before listening on, I'd recommend muting the 'Height' track, which otherwise gets up your nerves very quickly. !Plova's tracking technique is... interesting. Most people have 4 bars on each pattern, but in this case every single bar has its own pattern. The song doesn't go anywhere though, as most of this kind of music didn't go anywhere. I guess it's a faithful to its peers, but then there's stuff like Infrared – Expansions. Orion was a runner-up to become a demo song, because we don't have this style in the package. We eventually decided against it because ultimately it's not a very exciting song, doesn't have any educational value and uses Speed instead of LPB.
Andy Ray DemoBand – Track You Down
Fucking hell, this one kicks ass. I'm so happy about finally a song that follows at least some of the compo guidelines. And have you noticed the lyrics? It's a Renoise love song! If you're a Renoise fanboy, Track You Down has to play on your PC, car stereo and iPod all day. Hell, they should play this in your local mall. Okay, it's not as good as the top tracks from BeatBattle5 and Remixta's top tracks. In fact, most of the tracked metal mods from the late 90s are technically better. Even though it's surprisingly suitable, the timing is ridiculously off, the drums can't possible sound more out of place, and the vocals are like a drunken, raspy Batman with a fake accent. But it's all made up for that by being so much fun and catchy. So why didn't it make it as a demo song? First, we can have 3 other songs for the same file size. Second, only few can stand its campiness, even though that's exactly what I love about it. Verdict: too much Chuck Norris.
Benefit of the Boomerang - Jong Belegen
Jong Belegen is personally a surprise. It's so unlike the BotB I know. His older works are consistently fast and furious jungle / breakcore crossovers with amens all over, occasionally decorated with very pissed-off vocals. This new style, BotB's self-proclaimed Polder Dub is balanced, organized and effective. As if his inner demon has been exorcised. This gradual change from unguided missile to potential dance floor filler can be seen by comparing BotB's entry in BeatBattle4 Under Ice Fluence to BeatBattle5's Synthezuiper. Jong Belegen is a cultivation of talent, years of experience and controlled anarchy. And big fat wobbles. But what's more important, with some wacky Dutch vocals on top (think De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig or Huilende Rappers, the Noisia guys), I could actually see Jong Belegen becoming *gasp* a mainstream hit. And knowing BotB's grudge against commercialism, that hit me like a bombshell. A well-deserved demo song.
Keith303 – The Masquerade
Keith303 is like King Midas. Everything he touches turns into awesomesauce. Did you see his winning spree at the SoundEvotion Compo? Once again Keith303 delivers an impeccable song. I like it even more than his previous demo song, Ride The Lightning, because I can't stand that ones cheesy vocals. We didn't yet have this kind of mysterious techno style in the demo pack, which is surprising considering this kind of music fits Renoise perfectly. The way the tension in this one is build up is magnificent. There is no denying the quality/filesize ratio. In less than 1 MB we are taken through an intruiging sonic experience that spans over 10 minutes. The only gripe with this song, it's heavy on the CPU. Take a look in the Mixer, it's absolutely crowded with DSPs. What made us seal the deal to include The Masquerade as a demo song is, like a burn-in test, it pushes both Renoise and your computer to their limits, showing you their respective capabilities.
nt - Please let me be
Rock on! When I got my hands on this song, I thought nt had read my thoughts. Despite that the delay column is very sparsely used, this song is what I had hoped to get into Renoise's demo package. Also boasting recorded guitar without being afraid to throw in some old-school tracking techniques, it's like a Mick Rippon track with an attitude. At less than 2:30 it's a bit short, but that may actually be a good thing. It's in your face and doesn't get boring. What's so impressive, with so many recorded instruments you wouldn't expect this song to fit in less than a megabyte. Nt has managed that by cleverly recycling instruments and mangling chip samples to sound like a distorted guitar. Returning to tracking techniques, I'm seeing a very innovative use of triggering in the 'overdrive' track. While tracker musicians have historically tried not sounding like a tracker, for example using NNA, in Please let me be the characteristic tracker sound has been magnified and transformed into an intentional special effect. It's not the first time an initially unwanted side-effect has been turned into a gimmick. Remember the TB-303, supposed to be a bass guitar simulator, or Antares 'Cher' Autotune. I'm not sure nt's technique in Please let me is original, maybe it's also in Daft Punk – Aerodynamic, but it's enough to invoke inspiration. The mixing is also quite good, thanks to Mr Mark Dollin, but also because the rhodes and bass fill the spectrum quite nicely. I really like the flute and hammond organ in the 'calm bridge', but to nitpick, the clean guitar tracks sound like the ill side-effects of a ping-pong delayed chorus. But any such minor complaint can be waived away. This song is far too enjoyable and it's an excellent showcase of Renoise's capabilities. That's why the Renoise team has unanimously chosen Please let me be as the number 1 song of the Renoise 2 Beta Music Compo.
The Renoise Team would like thank all participants. With your help the demo song package has been substantially improved. Thanks!