I was really in the zone with the whole mix. Although does it seem like a few “extra notes” fell in to the batter on some of them 
@unflattered - thanks for the kind words, sir.
also, fwiw, i have made a habit of doing a factory reset before proceeding into battle, to accomplish two things…
1. clear out any setting on any sampler or mixer that could muck up my new project
2. avoid the urge and ease of leakage of previously refined samples or sounds into a new project
(of course this doesn’t change the ability to use any built-ins, or do little cheats).
so far all of my entries have not bent any rules, which is part of the challenge and part of the fun…and has also led me to understand the device better each time i finish. and is why i quite enjoy them.
I am way too late, but I will post it here anyway.
https://soundcloud.com/sjgambler/city-unspoken
As a picture I chose a book illustration by Stephan Martiniere. The song ended up too mellow to fit the theme, I’m afraid.
The sample is the annoying blip in the beginning. (It’s my favorite pad from Juno Gi with no filter.)
Hey @Gambler, I saw your post on the tracks thread asking for pointers on your battle track. Hope you don’t mind me replying here.
You mentioned you felt there was something “out” about your track. To me, it sounded great… the levels were good, you managed to get some drama with the layers of melody and I think I noticed some subtle use of spring to give your patch a nice element of space.
I think it was a tricky battle… it’s hard to make a track really stand out when everything has to come from one sound! And for what it’s worth, I had a few attempts with different choices of sample before settling on the one I chose… and after all that, I’m not that keen on my entry either! Anyways, re pointers, with such a restrictive battle, I like to remind myself about all the basic tricks that might help the track sound interesting:
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Stereo. (You might know, I’m a big fan of getting stereo into my tracks). Did I hear some subtle movement around the stereo field in your track? Or it might have been my ears deceiving me… anyways, one option is to make it more obvious. Whether it’s just manual panning during the final take or stereo built in during the composition phase with hard panned tracks, stereo is an available tool in the box and can really help to provide something interesting for the ears to grab onto.
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Different frequencies. This is especially tricky with the one sample restriction, unless you start out with something really bassy like a boomy 808 kick, but some of the effects (nitro, punch) can help in that department. I love turning the blue knob down on punch to get it outputting that crazy sub bass, recording that to tape and dropping into a synth sampler.
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Variety of envelopes. A contrast of slow evolving pads against lead sounds with a sharper attack can help add a different dimension to the track.
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Reverse sounds. A few reverse sounds here and there, or a melody line done in reverse with an effect like spring or delay can be fun to add.
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Some “lead ins” to new sections. Not sure what the right term is, but some mechanism that suggests a new section is coming a couple of bars before it comes in. Eg, kill the bass with one of the memory buttons; do a reverse sound that leads into the new section; remix the couple of bars before the new section by dropping it into drum sampler, slicing and rearranging; a filter sweep of some sort; a tape trick; even half a bar of total silence.
Anyways, just a few ideas that I try to remind myself about.
yoof, thank you for such in-depth feedback! Lots of great points to look into there, and I definitely try them. Really appreciate it.
…
As far as rewerb - I actually started using super-short Delay on master FX for that. Blue all the way up, speed around 80-99, input less than 50, plus some reasonable feedback. It’s a bit flanger-y, but when you turn it up it has none of that metallic after-taste you get from Spring. Moreover, you can use subtle differences in speed to get a different kind of feel to it. And you can use M1/M2 to decrease blue value and get a real delay all of a sudden.
(I got this idea from Coursera class on audio production.)
It’s all about just having fun but if you get stuck in process… think of this: “What would John Cage do?”
I mean… the guy made a song of 4.33 with silence.
I actually remixed that John Cage track. If you want to hear it, you can download it easily, instantly and for free; simply place your hands over your ears and enjoy. You’re welcome 
@Ceefax you did a fine remix, my friend… especially the ocean orientated breeze was a nice touch.