Battle 40 - Voting

OP-1 Battles
#21

@curdledgurled - wow, totally hardcore! First time I’ve heard that kind of thing produced on the Op-1. Love the distorted sound and scary voice samples. Reminds me a lot of mid 90’s hardcore.


@josker - There’s a really nice lofi quality to the track. I loved the melodies and the drum programming. There’s lots of attention to detail and good stereo work - a real treat for the ears, packed full of goodness. Top stuff.

@SammyJams - Awesome, right from the start. Love how you love to push the drive :slight_smile: It’s playful, layered and groovy! Hehe, love that mental ending too.

@vehka - ooo lovely guitars. Love that short snappy snare too. Really like how the focus is on the acoustic stuff with the more sample based and synthy sounds complimenting that nicely.

@Edzilla - Loved the drums and the wacky stuff you were doing with vocal snippets and the main theme bouncing all over the place. You had me neck flexing at the half way mark with all that h-h-h-h-haaa and then the change of pace slightly after that.

@borden - Really like the dramatic intro and the contrast between that distorted bass sound and the nice synth and pads that come in later. I really like this! Good work!

@mixrasta - Cool! Love the style of this one. Nice and laid back with a generous nod towards sample based hip hop. If I didn’t know better I would have sworn that was real scratching! Awesome work.

@kln - I know I’m gonna get a stereo treat when I listen to a kln track :slight_smile: Nice work, as always, on the drum programming. Too good! Too good!

Oh man I’m confused. And I don’t know who to vote for either!

Very close, but I’ll vote for @vehka - just loved that coming together of the acoustic and electronic worlds. Very nice!

#22

Big ups to @SammyJams and @borden who had killer tracks, but @mixrasta takes the taco on this one (i.e. gets my vote). In fact all the songs were Big Up worthy. I think it’s great that at least 3 of the 7 songs in this battle have samples sourced from a cannibal movie from 35 years ago…


Special toast to KLN, who created an awesome battle that forced me to make new patches and change out most of my sounds that were getting stale in my OP-1. Cheers to the next winner who has a great contest on the way!




#23

voting pool update.


mixrasta = 6

josker = 4

edzilla = 2

vehka = 2

@mixrasta - looks like the next battle is yours to host!

not sure what type of special treatment you might want to afford @Edzilla as your collaboration source - totally up to you of course - i was hoping whomever was partnered would get some privilege in the next set of rules, however small or large you might make that privilege.

mostly…thanks to all who entered source files and entries. and for all of the voting participants. i’m sure everyone can appreciate the feedback, discussion, fun and learning that the battles generate.
#24

@aeoner - hope you can participate in the next battle! your tracks always make an impact. feel free to cast a vote, but even with one more for someone else, mixrasta would still be up at least 1 (since he is up 2 as of now).


(i’m also too eager for a new set of rules).
#25

@LyingDalai - your comments on my track made me laugh. thanks for your interpretation, perfect. (my b-day’s in November though…and unfortunately unlike my “groove”, i’m growing older by the minute). ha!

#26

Maybe us others can, like, yield :smiley:

#27
@curdledgurled industrial/trance madness, very different from the usual sounds that we usually hear associated with the OP-1. The lo-fi texture remembers the first raves that I went when I was a teenager, good memories. And what to say about Sarah Palin? Haha

@josker dreamy sound, really liked the "note repeat" effect, the modern hi-hat triplets which puts your beat into the zeitgeist BUT with a 90s Boards of Canada/downtempo texture. Liked the ending a lot, strong OP-1 signature. You should made more beats like this one, would surely grab a tape!

@SammyJams Loved the Middle East vibe, made me want see Omar Souleyman again! Always a powerful beat, with lots of technique. This one is full of little but interesting details, with great variation - what effects I´m hearing? CWO? Spring Reverb? Everytime I´m impressed with your OP-1 mastery.

@vehka Amazing. I love the contrast of textures between analog, very acoustic chords and dry, digital drum (which the programming is very good). One of my favorite beat of this battle, really beautiful one.

@edzilla a solid beat, with grat atmosphere. Liked a lot the beat repeats and the spring reverb variations. Also lots of respect for the not-so lo-fi texture that you achieved in this one - although I love the full of artifacts characteristic of the OP-1, this one sounded really cleaner that the usual OP beat, which shows control of the gear.

@borden Powerful equilibrium of a agressive bassline, with an analog vibe, with the gentle, atmospheric, lovely digital pads. The introduction of noise (it´s the bassline?) worked very well and remembers Autechre. Should also mention the good use of the hi-hats, making the beat tight all the time.

@mixrasta a well deserved winner! Begins as a retrofuture rocksteady tune then become something absolutely different and comes back, It´s true that isn´t as cohesive as other entries, but love the beat college vibe, remembering Prefuse 73 and some of Madlib stuff. Amazing work, you get my vote :)

@kln first of all, congratulations and thanks for the great ruleset: this one will stay among one of the most interesting battle of the community. Really dig this one! A cool breakbeat with the OP-1 spirit. As always, your drum programming is amazing, maybe the best one here, with a lot of variations and dope technique. Will try the hard pan thing that you explained!

Congratulations everyone, I hope to be back in the next one!




#28

Congrats @mixrasta! Thanks to everyone for taking part. And a huge thank you to everyone who commented - I feel a bit guilty for being so brief with my comments, I’ll make sure to take more time for it the next time around, as it’s really interesting to hear any thoughts others have on your own tunes - I’m sure we’ve all been there :slight_smile:

All in all - it’s been an absolute blast, once again :slight_smile: thanks everyone. I hope mixrasta sets up a new one quick :slight_smile:

#29

Thanks for the votes, mentions and thoughtful comments @josker, @Spheric_El, @LyingDalai, @yoof & @aeoner. Congrats @mixrasta for the win and thanks @kln for organizing a great battle!

Sorry for not commenting more on your tracks, I’ll step up next time. =)

#30

Congrats @mixrasta maximum respect :slight_smile:

#31

Thanks everybody! Exciting! I’ll let you all know about the new rules as soon as possible!
I don’t have internet at home and just came back to work reading the good news…

#32

Congrats @mixrasta - excellent track, well deserved! Thanks for hosting @kln.

#33

Yep, bravo @mixrasta for the track and @kln for such a nice brief !!!

:smiley:

#34

Okay, totally forgot to write my recensions ; )

@curdlegurled Your soundcloud picture totally matches the track! Got it, that’s what’s going on in her brain and the texture of your song has the same hypnotising feel like Sarah’s bathrobe!

@josker, well I’m listening to your track almost everyday, even tho it’s not automatically playing in a playlist. But, one last thing to say is that the bellpianosounds in the beginning totally remind me of the piano skits on Drukqs by Aphex Twin!

@SammyJams I like how your song evolves out of the short loop into an indian palace-dance-environment. The Bassline is incredibly cool and kind of holds all parts together!

@vehka One gets in a deeper mood with your guitar play and it feels like I’m watching out of window to a skandinavian lake.

@edzilla Crazy, how people play the same melody up and down, anywhere and all the time! Your track is a cool boogiefunk journey thru many diffrent stages. Funky! and thx for the patches. Is that your laughter or from the cannibal movie? ; )

@borden This is a solid production. Maybe the fact you had not enough time left was good for it! Very clear and not to complicated, makes it an interesting 80’s wave on a moody tip!

@kln Hit it! … and yes you hit it with this battle.