overjoyed at the great turnout and also to hear so many great debuts - very sad however that i can only choose one but here goes: @servando great mellow glitchy dubby vibe that perfectly captures the character of the op-1 @poubelly i would want to put my feet up and listen to this during an interstellar voyage @marijn uilenbroek loads of ambiance and tension loved it @muhr ah those bongos got my feet tappin @overseas territory lush and eerie another very op-1-esque track @moedars great tribute to one of my favorite musical genres very lee perry @eren celik lush bass great track @hellooperator eerie and moody love your sound design and interplay between the parts @dj kln i can only imagine the work and thought that you put into this track you’re a class act i could listen to this over and over @sj gambler reminds me of music for stowaways edgy and atmospheric @zakguy nice syncopation @yoof amazing track great bassline beats and everything in between another one i’ll listen to over and over @wi_ngo loved the way that you kept this teetering on the edge very creative track loved it @borden like the way that the tune spontaneously rises from the static and then disappears like tuning into an interesting broadcast from another country or planet @jethro bagust very thought provoking and creative track enjoyed it immensely @ape$robot another one for my playlist great track you clearly have a sense of humor loved the 50s sci-fi references @kites very creative use of the effect nice to hear a track with vocals which are underrepresented here @made up monster enjoyed the retro yet modern vibe @aeoner bags of atmosphere liked how the alien wind chimes in the beginning gave way to a melody as the track developed difficult choice as i said but i’m voting for @borden
Massive battle! All divers good stuff in own stylesss, was listening to the one-and-a-half delayed goodness when I was drawing and for me still… my personal favorite was @Ceefax… I really loved the Arabian styled melody in combination with the dark-atmosferic ambience, something you don’t hear quite often in present electronic times.
@Ceefax the Dune movie is full of nice stuff to sample. Still impressed by your great track!
@kln forgot to confirm: yeah, you´re right, it´s “God Made Me Funky” Next time I will sample something from here. I´m digging a lot of brazillian beat-based religious records with great drums.
@yoof I think that what some people call “noisy” about the OP-1 is, in fact, a tendency to emphasize higher frequencies; the “Mid” frequencies of the OP-1 are high enough to me. So I use a “template” EQ where I increased the “Low”, let the “Mid” in the middle and decreased the “High” a lot, which in my opinion mades the sound of the owpeeon more warm in a oldschool way. However, in this beat in particular, the high frequencies are specially absent because of the resamplings. If I had more time,I would degrade even more the beat loop on the first part, hoping to introduce some artifacts and transform that rhythmic element in just a a texture - maybe programming a native drum beat above it.
@plasticdub thanks, man. The beat wasn´t really planned, it just happened that way. However, I do think that the OP-1 introduces sequencing tools - I love the Tombola! - and sampling tools that help morphing/remorphing/deconstructing/reconstructing sounds. It can easily made the music very plastic in a way that it´s tougher to do on a DAW, even a “sandbox” one like Ableton Live. After one year and a half with the OP-1, I think that I finally started to understand it´s full potential.
@johnl thanks for the suport, man! I should also thank @Kites which gave me my first vote on the battles of the forum
@aeoner - thanks for answering that. It’s a nice tip actually… I was listening to some Portishead on the tube and remarked to myself how much of the high end was taken out of the drums… sounds lovely in contrast with other parts. I was literally just about to put together a “dusty old” drum loop with that sound… when my op-1 ran out of batteries - d’oh
@yoof I´m really into Portishead, and you´re right, they cut a lot of the high end of the drums, creating that wonderful contrast with Beth Gibbons voice Indeed, I´m reading right now the Portishead´s “Dummy” book of the 33 1/3 and they talk a lot about the production techniques of the record. On the drum n´ bass realm, I love the sound of Photek´s Modus Operandi - I think it also cuts a lot of frequencies (like DJ Shadow did on Endtroducing, but I think more because of the MPC 60 DAC). When your beat is finished, please send to me!
@servando - nice build up in your track. i am curious how you achieved sounds that come across very effected, some that sound bit-crushed and others like they have Grid/Spring effects applied to them. sounds a bit like an OTO Biscuit is at work here on a lot of the samples…were you sampling through an FX box of some kind? very curious about your sound source…internal/external and the processing on it.
@duncmc - kind of an angelic feel, with the harpy tones/melodies. nice work!
@plasticdub - really liking the vocal samples and weird sounds throughout…great use of Delay and composition is cool
@marijn - textures in there give this track a super spooky vibe to me. i think i hear a maniacal laughing underneath the devilish tones. and ghostly screaming. Delay fully felt.
@Muhr - sweet groove. great lead sound…clavinet thing. is that an internal sound or sample? reminds me of a cop TV show theme, or something. really like the drums too, the congas and all. cool breakdown around 1:10, and like how the lead creeps back in, rewinds and keeps moving. and then it gets all crazy Delayed at around 3:40ish…sweet style.
@Overseas_Territory - this is nice. i feel like it’s telling a story. and gets all warbly. like a drunk story, i guess. ha! anyways really cool and digging it.
@moedars - dub! awesome track. someone had to do it on this challenge, and you did it very well. drums sounds great. piano is perfectly dubby. and the howl comes from the wolf, but also the whistling.
@Erhenius - really cool build up. the end gives feels Pink Floyd like, trippy and emotive.
@Ceefax - really good. love the production and drama of this track. it feels cinematic and mysterious. futuristic, and nostalgia at the same time. excellent.
@Gambler - gritty as heck. this sounds like it was heavily driven and bit-crushed. was this a sample, or due to EQ and Drive on the Main mix? same really insane and cool layering at the end. cool as heck!
@zakguy - nice layering and build ups in your track. and then the nice break in the middle, to leave it open to build up again. nice composition.
@yoof - always dope. excellent drum work, as usual. worked the Delay into your tune perfectly. love that drum sequence coming out of the little dip at 2:38. nice kick sound. is that your machinedrum? the drum solo from 3:20 or so, sounds crazy with the subtle Delays…and then the synth at 3:46 is quite nice…is that internal?
@wingo - trippy stuff. comes in hard with the scratch sample and then gets all spacey and weird, in an excellent way. from 2:27 on, is that just crazy reverb from the Delay? sounds sick.
@borden - cool tune. enjoyed it throughout. nicely composed and smooth in transition all the way through the end.
@throw - whoa. sounds so hallucinogenic. i started having a flashback. ha! jk. cool stuff though.
@ape$robot - nice!
@Kites - engaging track. so detailed and captures you when you least expect it. layering and textures are really well done. overall terrific.
@MadeUpMonster - dang! this is a big track from the little device. nice work. love the build up bleeps and bloops, and what sounds like texture vocal samples in the background. is the main lead/bass sound internal or sampled?
@aeoner - love the break! (being a break fanatic, and i was right ha!) i love this kind of track. sounds vintage and stylish. the cadence and vibe of the groove and overall track is on point. nice work!
going with Ceefax this time around for my vote, after much internal debate. yoof, MUM, and aeoner all with top tracks as well…but seriously…great tracks from everyone!
and thanks for hosting overseas! nice rules and from what i can tell after amassing the Battle History thread…one of the greatest battle turnouts to date!
@kln thank you so much for the nice feedback. My goal is always to try and push the boundery for what the OP-1 is able to do. Or at least are thought to be able to. You can really do some full scale productions on this little sucker
Everything is internaly made except the vocals(duh) and the chopped up sample in the intro/outro.
Seriously?! When you look at the voting breakdown it’s fairly clear what the actual numbers of votes are – I make it 26 in total. So if it makes you feel better @apeSrobot you were only beaten by three votes.
I know it’s a cliché but surely it’s not about the winning but the taking part. Although I did hear a rumour that EMI, Sony and BMG all lurk here in the hope of picking up The Next Big Thing.
Oh shoot! I forgot to vote! Was busy waiting for the mailman to arrive. @ape$robot you quite not understand what battles are. Did you think you where no.1? Quite disappointing that had to be for you. I hope you will be in for the next and win it. I will vote for your track next time.
Well, although I don´t feel that it was rigged - and the @servando track is a nice, experimental dance beat, fully capable of winning the Battle - I do think that´s weird that no one expressed a vote on it.
However, I think that the problem - if I can call it that way - is the automatic voting poll system, which IMO potentially reduces the number of comments, as you don´t need anymore to express your choice.
Although I love the relaxed atmosphere of the forum, where I can stay away from some days, come back and there isn´t ten new pages of talk, I do think it´s a little sad that we got 26 votes but just half of that number commenting the tracks.
It´s sad not because of a “big up me” mindset (if we want to hear kudos or see Soundcloud plays we can just send our beats to friends!), but the most interesting aspect of the forum battle for me is the possibility of sharing experiences and asking about the techniques used on the beatmaking, and I think that information-sharing ambient is enhanced (indeed, made possible!) by the comments. And the vote-per-comment system reduces the possibility of rigging.
Because of this, I want to share two ideas with the community:
1) Ban the automatic voting poll system, returning to the vote-per-comment system or;
2) A rule that an entry on the voting poll need to be validated by a comment.
Next time I will sample something from here. I´m digging a lot of brazillian beat-based religious records with great drums.
