Libre Music Challenge #24: Real Instruments

nyxeles · Post by **nyxeles** » Fri Nov 03, 2023 2:24 pm

Welcome to the Libre Music Challenge #24, for the month of November 2023.

The deadline for this month extends to the end of the weekend, Sunday 3rd December.

This is a friendly contest where we make music with free (libre) software exclusively. Everyone is welcome to join, at any skill level.
This is a place for learning and sharing knowledge, and an opportunity to explore creativity through limitation.
But most importantly, we just hope it inspires you to make some music!

The challenge for this month is to make a track with "real" instruments. This is in the broad sense of pretty much anything that is not a software synthesizer.

For example: electric/acoustic instruments, hardware synths, voice, or any sound you record with a microphone. You are also allowed to use samples of recorded instruments or sounds. This means things like pianos or percussions, but not loops or anything that originated from a software synth. Sample-based virtual instrument are okay to use (e.g. Sfizz, AVLDrums). Samples must be available under free licenses (e.g. public domain, CC0, CC-BY with appropriate attribution).

You are allowed to use any DAW and any effect plugin, as long as everything is free software. You are also allowed to use any hardware device to enhance your workflow, e.g. midi keyboards or other controllers.

Happy music making!

Rules

Rules are the same as the previous challenges.

You can find them here for convenience: https://lmc.nyxkn.org/rules
Or here under version control: https://github.com/nyxkn/libre-music-ch ... a/rules.md

Links

I and many of us hang out on unfa's Rocket.Chat / Discord server. Come join us on #libre-music-challenge at https://chat.unfa.xyz

For more info on past events: https://lmc.nyxkn.org/events

And if you'd like to stay up to date with future announcements, there's an RSS feed you can subscribe to: https://lmc.nyxkn.org/rss

Voting

Once the voting period starts, head on over to https://lmc.nyxkn.org/vote to enter your votes.

If you are a participant of this or any previous challenge, you can simply log in with your linuxmusicians username.

If you're not a participant but still want to vote, make your interest known and I'll enable an account for you.

Submissions

Playlist on archive.org

Results

Scoresheet

1. [27] sg75
2. [24] autostatic
3. [20] A-Lin
4. [20] Avelho
5. [18] NickTheSic
6. [17] Trumpetrespas
7. [17] Folderol

imMature · Post by **imMature** » Fri Nov 03, 2023 3:08 pm

YES, YES AND YES! I used to love sampling real instruments and go nuts in trackers! Took me 30 seconds to decide what to write this month!

Now I'm really wishing for a healthy November so I can spend some time on this one to make it sound decent!

Keep rawking, everyone! Looking forward to some awesome and unique submissions this month!

folderol · Post by **folderol** » Sat Nov 18, 2023 10:45 am

Where are we supposed to post links to our tracks?

SpotlightKid · Post by **SpotlightKid** » Sat Nov 18, 2023 2:08 pm

From the rules page linke above:

You must announce your submission in this forum thread, providing a link to your song. You must also include a short description of how it was made. Specifically, list all of the software and plugins that you have used.

You can upload your track anywhere you like. However, you must provide access to the audio file to your song. This is so that we can store the tracks into our archive.

folderol · Post by **folderol** » Sat Nov 18, 2023 7:40 pm

{Note to self - read the fine instructions}

folderol · Post by **folderol** » Tue Nov 21, 2023 9:25 pm

Well I've managed it
The track is:
http://www.musically.me.uk/Misc/folderol_Retro_Rock.ogg

It uses the original mk1 Roland Sound Canvas with no external effects. So a retro song for an extremely retro synth
The Sequencer was Rosegarden
The final recording was made in one pass with Tenacity (forked from Audacity)
SC sound patches used in order of appearance were:
Percussion (Standard)
Acoustic Bs.
Steel-str Gt.
Overdrive Gt.
Organ 1
Reed Organ
Trombone
Brass 1

I started with the basic drum track then played in the bass line and quantised it.
The guitar strums used both 'Gt' patches to thicken the sound, partially quantised.
All the rest was played in against the backing.
The organ was seriously hard work. I've not played that sort of thing since the early 1970s!
Finally the drums were filled out, and all levels balanced.

nyxeles · Post by **nyxeles** » Wed Nov 22, 2023 8:35 am

Welcome to the challenge @folderol !
Submission looks good, but please rename the audio file to follow the format "Artist name - Track name".

Here's the submission checklist for everyone else as well:

Submission Checklist

Use a libre audio file format (flac, ogg...)
Name your audio file correctly: "Artist Name - Track Name", any capitalization
Upload your submission, anywhere publicly accessible
Ensure the file is downloadable, particularly if you are uploading to a streaming service like Soundcloud
[Bonus] Upload your project files! This is not mandatory but encouraged, in the spirit of learning and sharing knowledge with each other

folderol · Post by **folderol** » Wed Nov 22, 2023 10:14 am

Sorry - missed that bit.
Now renamed, and the link edited

avelhomusic · Post by **avelhomusic** » Thu Nov 30, 2023 6:47 pm

My submission for this month:

https://soundcloud.com/artur-velho-6902 ... al_sharing

I'll post the details soon...

MetalPnkx · Post by **MetalPnkx** » Fri Dec 01, 2023 3:23 am

My Real Instrument Submission for LMC 24

Calling it 'Nominal Apparatus'

Soundcloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/rEw1F
Youtube: https://youtu.be/eXB2jJV_zbY

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

Tools Used
Schecter Blackjack
Yamaha Bass
Red Zeppling AVL drums plugin.
Aida-X
NAM
Ardour
Calf Plugins

trumpetrespas · Post by **trumpetrespas** » Sat Dec 02, 2023 12:04 am

Here's my submission: https://on.soundcloud.com/hRCBv
Here are my project files: https://www.mediafire.com/file/5i8gdlj5 ... s.rad/file

This song was something I threw together in a few hours so I could submit something for this LMC. I tried to go with the keep it simple philosophy as much as possible.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.

Code: Select all

Plugins:
 - Zita Reverb (included in Radium)
 - Calf Chorus (included in Radium)
 - Sample Player (included in Radium)
 - FluidSynth (included in Radium)
Samples: 
 - kiarchive/CATEGORY/BRSWWIND/CLARINET/clar01.xi
 - kiarchive/CATEGORY/GUITAR/DIST/DIST01/dgtr01.xi
 - kiarchive/CATEGORY/BASS/ACOUSTIC/UPRIGHT/uprbs01.xi
 - kiarchive/CATEGORY/GUITAR/ACOUSTIC/12sgtr1f.xi
 - kiarchive/CATEGORY/KEYBOARD/PIANO/ACOUSTIC/STANDARD/STD01/pno05.xi
 - FluidR3_GM.sf2 (for drum set and funk guitar)

asublin · Post by **asublin** » Sun Dec 03, 2023 6:05 pm

Here's my submission as promised, just me jamming. Beware, this is unprepared (one take), unprocessed (I just cut out the warming part), and probably somewhat unlistenable too (I actually haven't listened to it yet).

Title: Brain Damage
Render: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/asubl ... 12-03.flac
Session: https://github.com/asublin/asublin-comp ... n%20Damage
Instrument: liquidsfz + Upright Piano KW from FreePats
Effect: DragonFly Reverb
Trivia: I'm closing my eyes the whole time

Enjoy (or try to)!

autostatic · Post by **autostatic** » Sun Dec 03, 2023 7:53 pm

Yeah, made it! Thanks @nyxeles for extending the deadline! So here's my submission, a complete song, written, composed and arranged from scratch. It's not flawless but I did have a lot of fun again jotting this one together. Nothing beats banging on your Tele with a Fuzz Factory on it. Even got my wife to do some backings. Threw in an organ only to find out I couldn't use setBfree so I replaced it with samples from a Philicorda. Also had to replace the NAM and IR files I used initially with open source counterparts. Played the acoustic guitar and did the vocals in one take.

Black Snow City - Million Pieces

Instruments used:

Vocals
Acoustic guitar (Sigma DR-41 from the 90's, this is basically a Martin assembled in Taiwan)
Electric Guitar (Fender '77 Telecaster) with DIY Fuzz Factory oscillating in C# (yeah, I actually tuned it but since it has germanium diodes it drifts off quickly)

Guitars have capo on 4 but only on the upper 5 strings, high E is open, so tuning is G#/C#/F#/B/D#/E.

Mics used:

Röde NT1 (Vocals)
AKG AT2020 (Acoustic guitar)

Plugins used:
1 * LV2 x42-Autotune (by Robin Gareus) - It wasn't me
5 * LV2 x42-eq - Parametric Equalizer Mono (by Robin Gareus)
4 * LV2 Dragonfly Room Reverb (by Michael Willis)
1 * LV2 LSP Compressor Stereo (by LSP LV2)
3 * LV2 Neural Amp Modeler (by Mike Oliphant) - Vox AC15 GPLv3
1 * LV2 x42-eq - Parametric Equalizer Stereo (by Robin Gareus)
3 * LV2 GxCabinet
4 * LV2 x42-comp - Dynamic Compressor Mono (by Robin Gareus)
1 * LV2 Calf Fluidsynth (by Calf Studio Gear) - Philicorda CC-BY-SA 4.0
1 * LV2 x42-dpl - Digital Peak Limiter Stereo (by Robin Gareus)

Recorded, mixed and mastered with Ardour 8.1, I'll upload a session archive later on.

Every step you take
Feels like it’s the wrong direction
Every word you say
Just evokes the wrong reaction

Carefully explain
Before you release the tension
Too little, too late
Shaking off your apprehension

Break it into a million pieces
Shatter it all on the ground
Please make sure the tantrum ceases
Try to dodge it without a sound
(Stop throwing curses all around)

Everything you hide
Doesn’t bode well for the future
Everything just cuts
Not deep enough for you to suture

Willfully refrain
From all the gory details
Slip out of your role
Couldn’t care less now if it fails

Edit: new upload with open source licensed NAM and IR files. The ToneHunt ones were problematic.
Edit: session archive can be downloaded here: https://downloads.autostatic.com/music/ ... on-archive

bsg75 · Post by **bsg75** » Sun Dec 03, 2023 10:19 pm

Made, it too

Thanks @nyxeles! As you said in unfa's community: months with 30 days are to short for this challenge

So here is my humble attempt to rip off a Deftones song
sg75 - Noradrenalin

Instruments used:

Epiphone Les Paul
Fender Precision Bass
Blonde Bop Drumkit Multi (AVL drumkit as compliant with the rules)

My timing and the drum sounds are underwhelming, but I've learned a lot e.g. that neural amp sim + impluse response = .
Also I didn't know that I had some "metal" muscle memory left in my hands

https://sonnengesicht.de/sg75_-_Noradre ... on-archive

Code: Select all

Made with Ardour and I use Arch Linux btw.
CNT | TYPE | NAME
  2 * LV2    LSP Sidechain Gate Stereo (by LSP LV2)
  2 * LV2    LSP Sidechain Compressor Stereo (by LSP LV2)
  4 * LV2    x42-dpl - Digital Peak Limiter Stereo (by Robin Gareus)
  1 * LV2    LSP Multiband Compressor Stereo x8 (by LSP LV2)
  1 * VST2   Galactic (by airwindows)
  1 * LV2    Blonde Bop Drumkit Multi (by Robin Gareus)
  4 * LV2    LSP Parametric Equalizer x16 Mono (by LSP LV2)
  1 * LV2    ReFine (by Lkjb)
  5 * VST3   Guitarix (by brummer)
  1 * LADSPA GLAME Butterworth Highpass (by Alexander Ehlert)
  4 * LV2    LSP Compressor Mono (by LSP LV2)
  1 * LV2    LUFS Meter (by Klangfreund)
  8 * LV2    LSP Parametric Equalizer x16 Stereo (by LSP LV2)
  1 * VST2   Wider (by airwindows)
  1 * VST2   Gate Stereo (by LSP VST)
  1 * LV2    Calf Analyzer (by Calf Studio Gear)
  1 * LV2    Luftikus (by Lkjb)
  1 * LV2    DR-14 - Crest Factor Loudness Range Meter (Stereo) (by Robin Gareus)
  2 * LV2    LSP Compressor Stereo (by LSP LV2)
  1 * VST2   Crystal (by airwindows)
  2 * LV2    Noise repellent (by Luciano Dato)
  3 * LV2    x42 - IR Convolver Mono => Stereo (by Robin Gareus)
  1 * LV2    ACE Reverb (by Ardour Community)
  3 * LV2    Neural Amp Modeler (by Mike Oliphant)
  4 * VST2   Gate Mono (by LSP VST)

folderol · Post by **folderol** » Wed Dec 06, 2023 12:51 pm

Has voting started for this?
I tried to log in but got a server error

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