battle 36 - voting

OP-1 Battles
#1
time for votes!

a lot of great tracks produced for this battle. i’m so glad the results are nothing less than stellar.

no poll for this vote, so please leave a comment on the thread, nominating your favorite track. since i intend to provide a prize to the winner, capturing the votes needs to be as transparent as possible. and of course, i know folks tend to like to hear feedback…so if you have the time to write a bit more when voting, feel free!

voting will extend to the 15th of sept, when i will tally them up.

here are the entries to choose from:

@Kosmonaut_Bill
https://soundcloud.com/kosmonaut-bill-1/bayate-free-angela-kosmonaut-bill-edit

@Metske
https://soundcloud.com/metaphimetske/op-soul

@Servando
https://soundcloud.com/the-grateful-nerd/s3l4s0u7

@quarantequatre
https://soundcloud.com/quarantequatre/rocknwall

@spacetravelmadeeasy
https://soundcloud.com/spacetravelmadeeasy/nothing

@ghostly606
https://soundcloud.com/ghostly606/touch-melody

@Samuraiv_v7Black
https://soundcloud.com/le_samurai_black/maseo-gets-the-girls

@aeoner
https://soundcloud.com/aeoner/still

so here’s the deal with the prize:

beyond the normally awarded hosting of the next battle rules....

i will purchase/ship the TE PO trio (12, 14, 16), (or any FX or Synth related gear, currently available, at equal or lesser value), to the winner. (up to US $180)

if for some reason the winner lives in a country that makes a purchase from abroad untenable, or there is some other shit that prevents me from awarding the battle 36 winner, i will donate the proceedings (US $180) to the winner’s global charity of choice. or if the winner wants to just do this instead of get the gear, that’s cool too.

i really love these battles (both entering and listening to others creations), and thru them, as well as learning tricks and techniques from fellows on this forum, i've found much joy in my own creative musical endeavors. i am providing this prize as a “thank you” to the entirety of the operator-1.com forum community. as i intend to continue submitting my work to battles, please don’t vote for my tracks in the future just because you want a chance at a possible prize i might offer. this prize is a one time deal. thanks to ALL for the support over the past year, since i first submitted a track for Battle 25 last Sept, i feel like i have come quite a long way.

and feel free to provide feedback on the song i made with the same rule set, (although not eligible for votes).

https://soundcloud.com/dj_kln/soul-abstraction

peace and good luck fellas!
#2

Very generous of @kln to offer a prize! I caveat the following by

saying that I am reviewing each track on it’s own merits, without
reviewing the method or samples used.

@Kosmonaut_Bill
Really nice laid back feel, sounds like a French 70s movie soundtrack.
The dialogue sits really nicely. Only thing that sounds out of place
are the drums which kick in about half way through, I think you could
have done without these.

@Metske
I like how this starts out as a hip hop track then descends (ascends?)
into a more electronica flavoured tune. Drums sound great, plenty of
interest in the background noises, I liked this a lot, especially when
the vocals at the climax kick in.

@servando
Catchy title! :wink: Another nice laid back beat, love the synth brassy
bass sound which I am assuming is from an OP1 synth, but may be wrong.

@quarantequatre
I see you squeezed almost every last second out of the album! :smiley: Lots
of tape tricks in there, some of which work, but some don’t. Great 70s
disco vibe at the start, can imagine this in some kind of OP1 fuelled
dance off. After the first break down, love the laid back chatter and
laughter in the background and love the 8 bit type synth. In my
opinion the track should have finished at about 4 mins, more a
criticism of my crap attention span…

@spacetravelmadeeasy
Like the intro leading into a driving bluesy beat. Not sure how many
samples are in here but everything gels together really nicely, only
the lead guitar sounds a little too loud to my ears, might by be my
crappy tablet speakers though. Drums are terrific, leading to a great
climax.

@Samuraiv_v7Black
Another album filling track! Like the fact this is in a number of
movements, they shouldn’t, and I can’t explain why, but they go
together brilliantly, a bit like the B-Boy Boullibaise from Paul’s
Boutique. Really dig the laid back closing movement, great end to a
great track. Love the Soundcloud image btw, good work! :smiley:

@aeoner
A total different vibe here, hip hop beat but a more instrumental
summery vibe, the sax cuts through the reverb nicely.

I love how we have so many different tracks from the one Battle. Great
work all round.

However, I have to pick one, and my vote goes to…

@Samuraiv_v7Black !

#3

Sure ! You’re right @ghostly606, thank you for your feedback. I appreciate your frankness and I agree. As I said in the original thread, I haven’t managed to get what I wanted to get ^^, I had one album version of 4 minutes and some which was better, but I’ve mistakenly deleted it :/.

And yes I should have cut it @ 4:14, but the op-1 is bewitching and it’s hard to stop it :stuck_out_tongue: … and not to mention the fact that the sample of Michael Jackson totally haunted me :D, Off the wall is funking groovy !

Anyway, let’s make some reviews :slight_smile: (with headphones)

@Kosmonaut_Bill This reminds me something but I don’t remeber what exactly…Nice sensation by the way ! I really like your drums work. I find that the whole track is very homogeneous, in the sense that it is very well built.

@Metske I love DnB for so many years :smiley: I was very happy (and surprised) when I heard your track ! Awesome work, especially drums, bass and “wooble” and the very good progression. How did you manage to pull this sub bass of the OP-1 ??

@Servando Once again, very very nice drum work ! Really love it ! Old School Hip-hop :slight_smile:
For my part, I would have attempted 1 or 2 more breaks (drums for example) after the first one @ 0:51. Maybe just before the 2nd or the third part, but that’s just my point of view, your track is really good, I think it just needs a small raise :slight_smile:

@spacetravelmadeeasy Your introduction is simply gorgeous, and I agree with @ghostly606, about the guitar which seems just a bit loud when it goes in treeble. In the second part, in my opinion, maybe you should pump up the drums, the global volume and add distortion to the guitar. I think the outcome would be really huge ! Very good job anyway

@ghostly606 I like the crappy vinyl scratch sound. The destructured / destruction effect is very very welldone. But I think compression isn’t enough compressed (^^ i donno exactly how to say it lol). Serge Gainsbourg really seems like its voice has directly been recorded by the op-1 hehe. I didn’t know that De la soul sampled him ! Great work

@Samuraiv_v7Black Really love the construction of your track, the mixing quality is really nice. The second part @ 2:06 is simply awesome. Very nice work dude ! The way you used the sample of James Brown is more than great !

@aeoner I love the vibe of your track. The stereo effect on the saxophone is perfect. The sampled voice reminds me some Moby tunes. Maybe the voice is just a bit low. Anyway, that’s a great track ! Awesome work as always :wink:

--------------------------

@kln Haunting track, breakbeat managed very well. I appreciate the fat long kick, which agrees well with the track, it seems to be between 2 worlds,
outside and underground. A superbly led exercise !
What did you used for this track ?

--------------------------

Well it is time to vote, but it is very difficult, all the tracks are very good !
My vote goes to @Metske :slight_smile:

#4

I vote for @aeoner, matched my mood in the evening !
I’m a little bit lazy, so… very good tracks by all !!!

disco, drum n bass (reminded me of T-Power), Hip Hop, Chillout coolio. Also liked the hosts BDPish beat with the Vadim flair in the end.

I should participate soon again ; )

#5

I´m having a hard time choosing my favorite beat. Will listen them a couple of times the next days and write my analysis. Once again, we got a really right level battle!


@ghostly606 and @quarentequatre thanks a lot for the comments about the sax. Although I made the track as an space to layer that particular samples, it was pretty hard to achieve a reasonable level (not too hidden not excessive) a correctly place it on the sound spectrum without clashing the frequencies or being too prominent on the beat. Indeed, I did a kind of old school gain mixing, controlling that track gain in each part of the beat that I used the sax.

@quarentequatre, talking about this, you are absolutely right about the chopped vocals: they´re lower than the ideal. However, the r n´b original song have a low but constant drum groove that I could not eliminate with the filters (I think it shares some frequencies with the vocals, notably on the mid range). After a lot of testing I found that setting the Drive to 40/1 and that track level to 6, with a stereo pan not completely on the L/R sides, made the vocals audible but low enough to hide the drums :slight_smile: And yes, I can identify a Moby-esque thing on that beat…I don´t know if it´s vocal samples vibes or the “laid back” position of that chops, with very frontal synths and drums, but there´s something there.

@mixrasta really happy that you liked the beat and it fit your evening vibe. Isn´t a very technically accurate tune and I did a lot of mistakes, but after all, I´m happy that I managed to finish that beat. And you should definitively come back to the battles. You always do very singular and experimental stuff, which spices the battles and takes the OP-1 to other sonic frontiers.

#6
@kln
Thank you for hosting this battle and raising the stakes! I really like the multitude of the samples in your track. They are placed in very interesting layers. One thing I would've liked is if they were more in tune with one another. This could just be a genre bias though. Other than that super great!

@Kosmonaut_Bill
Sick name. Sick samples. This is a tight relaxing groove. If I smoked I would definitely do it to this song. One thing though, I just wanted those drums to be punchier. The sounds were very on point just the mixing didn't hook me. It's a solid flip though.

@Metske
First off I want to say that I was adverse to DnB. But, after hearing your track it changed my mind. I could never get over the erratically fast pace and the repetitive (to me), undancable (to me) rhythms that I've experienced with the genre. But your track... Man, it turned me on. The samples are on point and the bass is singing a heavy melody. There's so much variety in the sequencing. The drums sound awesome. There's just so much that's great about this track.

@servando
Getting down to Bizness right of the bat. The drums are very funky and on point. Very cool slowwwww tapeee stopppppp.

@quarantequartre
This track is a monster! Love the tape tricks and the flip. Really messed my head up. Mixing is outta sight. Made me go "Woooooooo!" quite a few times. Keep killin' it playa. Also the "DOO DOO BROWN" made me laugh so hard. Great transitions within a crazy tempo movement. Just all around, way to not give a hoot!

@spacetravelmadeeasy
Jamtastic brutha. Dope intro and fantastic outro. The guitar solo and the variation near the end is mixed so well. It's big and fast and adds so much love to the track. I would have liked to hear more of that throughout. Great tune.

@ghostly 606
Thanks for the vote! A groovy stripped down beat with heavy hitting drums. Reminiscent of Bobby Digital's Lab Drunk. Very clever sample manipulation.

@aeoner
La música es de trata fácil. La canción es muy bonita y tranquilla. Me gusta mucho. La oreja derecha es llena de amor pero la oreja izquierda se siente muy solo. Me gusta mucho el saxofón al fin. ¡Totalmente es muy divertido!

Translation: You got a dope beat. Good work!
------------------------------------------------------------------

Voting time
Every upped submission comes with
some other submission's fall...

@Metske gets my vote because I like DnB now.

Peace!

1v_v7
SB
#7

@quarantequatre - took a bit of back tracking… to figure this out, but…


i recreated my own drums from several different sources including:

Lee Dorsey “Get Out My Life Woman” used in “Eye Know"
James Brown “Funky President (People It’s Bad)” used in "Ghetto Thang"
Harrell & Sharon Lucky “Pease Porridge Hot” used in “Pease Porridge”
Bo Diddley “Hit or Miss” used in "Buddy"

i also used the internal drum kits to enhance the sampled bits of these breaks.

here are the main tracks that i sampled for other sounds in my track, although there may have been 1 or 2 other little tidbits:

Detroit Emeralds “Baby Let Me Take You (In My Arms)” used in "Say No Go"
Sly Stone “Crossword Puzzle” used in "Say No Go"
The Emotions “Best Of My Love” used in "Say No Go"
Eric Burdon & War “Magic Mountain” used in "Potholes in My Lawn"
The Mohawks “The Champ” used in “Keepin’ the Faith”
Alvin Cash & The Crawlers “Twine Time” used in “Let, Let Me In”
#8

Maximum respect for such a generous prize @kln ,really cool rules.I so want to enter these battles but until then(when I’m more organised) just great to hear what you guys do.Will have to listen back on better monitors before final vote…But all great and so nice to hear each submission.
'Will mention @Samurai1v_v7Black for such ease with the genre and cute synth at the end.Also well done @aeoner for fat beat and lovely synth noise-it sounded like a layer of synths and would love to have that patch.
I look forward to my re listens…

#9

all were really good but @kosmonaut_bill 's joint hit me just right

#10

My vote goes to @quarantequatre because of the crazy & awesome twists ‘n’ turns in his track.


Big up all contributors especially @Metske for an awesome drum’n’bass track and @aeoner for excellent production technique.
#11

My vote goes to @spacetravelmadeeasy, because of the funky beats and great guitarsamples, which made my hippie-heart feeling glad :slight_smile:
but man, it was a tuff decision, ´cause:
@Metske produced such a fine, summerish d´n´b-track, wow!
@Servando made a nice and laidback hip-hop track with a very groovy bass and fx.
@quarantequatre took a lot of interesting turns around a very dope disco-beat, not to forget the creepy part at about 4:30min, crazy man!
@ghostly606 created an experimental-frenchhop-daydream.
@Samuraiv_v7Black has done great, elaborate work in making the different parts going/fitting together so well, especially the funky synth-line at the end, yes!
@aeoner made a beautiful, dreamy track with gorgeous strings, beats and saxofone.

#12

These are all great. Love of the different flavours that have come from this battle, inspiring stuff to listen too and makes me think even more about how to up my OP-1 game. My vote goes to @kosmonaut_bill really like the vibe with this one.


Big thanks to @kln for setting this up and very generously upping the stakes!
#13

Ahah I think I like some tracks better than the originals :wink:


Congratulations to everyone !!
I’m still listening to them but I must admit it would be easier, as always, if everyone had made them downloadable…

I’m very sad I couldn’t compete, but I lack of time nowadays.
Very cool project with Tamaris eats all the time I’ve left !

#14

@Kosmonaut_Bill

This sample has been used by Captain Murphy aka Flying Lotus in the track “The Ritual” (produced by JustBlake/Jeremiah Jae).
It’s funny what you make it do. Yet I listened to FlyLo’s track so many time that I cannot avoid to think you should have taken a higher bpm, jsut to compete with his track.

@Metske
D’n’B was a good choice, it makes me want to dance, without feeling hit like I do with usual D’n’B tracks. Kind of calm D’n’B. I like it :slight_smile:

@Servando
You definitely nailed it to find the characteristic groove from De La Soul :slight_smile:
I would have liked more variations maybe, but this track is really cool.

@quarantequatre
Powerful groove, crazy breaks yet coherence, and definitely De La Soul spirit.
I got my winner : you have my vote !!!

@spacetravelmadeeasy
Why, as a guitarist, cannot find any interest in a guitar solo ? Weird. I mean, I still love Jimi’s, don’t get me wrong.
And this is a fine work, the solo actually feels like a real one, reminding me a bit of Krush deconstructing Miles Davis to recreate a solo of his own with knobs and pads.
But I just don’t dig this 70’s sound too much nowadays, even if I did 20 years ago…

@ghostly606
It feels like the track is very strangely mixed. It could have been original but I don’t know why I think it deserves the track, in fact.
Like it remove some sense of it. I’m not an expert and mean no harm, but it feels weird, especially heard after the previous tracks that are presented here.

@Samuraiv_v7Black
There are so many influences mixed in this track, I really like this. Yet it’s a bit long, I would have liked something more “efficient”, in a way.

@aeoner
You make the OP-1 shine, I really like how you treat the synth on this one.
Love the trip-hop spirit, I would have loved it with more voice on this. I think it would have been really great.
You’re my second pick :slight_smile:

@kln
Your track is really good, I like how everything seems to have a logic, and I love the retrigs, it’s really well done !

So : for me @quarantequatre deserves some gear !!
:smiley:

#15
First of all, as noted before, I should praise @kln for his generosity and community spirit. In a moment when the battles quorum lowered a little bit, he helped raise the bar again.

The battle idea also was great; I was introduced to american hip hop by groups like Jurassic 5, De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest, so It was really special to study in this month or so with deepness the original sources of DLS. Although I knew about some of the most emblematic stuff that they sampled (because of the uncommon sampling approach in that time, like the psych pop tunes), I was amazed by a lot of sounds and artists that I never heard before.
Personally I didn´t liked my beat that much (and this is not a kind of faux humble shit); I think it lacks more complex variation and the drums are a little "vanilla/obvious sampling" for fellow break heads, although respecting the battle rules. But after all, I´m happy with the final result. Thanks for the encouragement and kind words about that tune that I received here. @Spheric_El thanks a lot! Well, I´m a little vanilla with the OP-1 patches: it´s basically the X patch with a high delay, CWO and some reverb overdubs (there´s a point when you´re tweaking the stereo - after "3 hours" - that it raises a high tone that sounds like another synth), and the "Oboe" patch played over with, with a very low track volume :)

@Kosmonaut_Bill Liked a lot your tune, or, as you said, an edit. I´m absolutely into those disco/discofunk edits that are being made and cut the last years and the OP-1 shows a enormous potential for that kind of remix - specially with a space/cosmic vibe :) I think is something that you did in your tune in a special way, although I agree with @LyingDalai that after the Captain Murphy´s beat, is hard or to hear that particular sample without thinking about it faster.

@Metske well, I´m enchanted every time someone does a drum n´ bass/jungle beat with the OP-1, and this one isn´t an exception. Great beat, I even shared it on the Facebook! I love the Bob Dorough´s melody and it fits really well in a dnb track (indeed, although it shows your mastery of the DLS samples the variety of sources that you used in that one, I should confess that will be perfect for me if you just sticked with the "The Magic Number" sample and worked it until the end :)

@Servando liked a lot your drum programming! This beat definitely shows a De La Soul vibe on it, golden era spirit (indeed, I think it specially remembers me Jurassic 5).

@Quarantequatre Liked this one a lot. The lo-fi intro, the uplifting and energetic vibe (a lot of cool tape tricks on it), the drums - specially the crash with reverb (is it a sampled one?), and the chiptune influences (well, can't say it´s exactly a chiptune influence, maybe a kind of OP-1 digital spirit?). It remembers me a videogame OST, like Sonic: the Hedgehog on acid :)

@spacetravelmadeeasy Wow! Good work, very creative one (and what an intro - it´s from an interview?!). It got a 90s vibe, maybe a Beck thing, that really touched my heart. Also the guitar sample chopping technique worked very well. You used the drum sampler and make some variable lengths keys?

@ghostly606 the use of the Serge Gainsbourg sample was very clever. I´m absolutely into Gainsbourg discography, he´s was one of the most genial artist of the XX century for me - a man always ahead of his time, and, IMHO, a precursor of hip hop ("Histoire de Melody Nelson" is the Golden Era 40 years before!). Good work here, and I´m sure that Serge would like it :) However, as pointed before, it lacks some punch that you can achieve with a more incisive Drive.

@Samuraiv_v7Black like noted by @ghostly606, this beat is sick and got exactly this Dust Brothers/Mario Caldato Jr. vibe of Paul´s Boutique! liked specially the "Walk on the Wild Side"/Can I Kick It? sample, this ATCQ x DLS amazing encounter :) Lots of OP-1 and sampling techniques here. Big up.

@kln another impressive work from you, with all those samples - I´m specially fascinated by the drums meticulously sampled. Precise as always.




#16

My vote goes to @spacetravelmadeeasy - FUNKY TUNE!

#17

@Kosmonaut_Bill has dropped a big and massive one here! I got hit with huge Dilla Donuts vibes and think it is a very complete piece especially the heart tugging sample at the end that sees a De La Soul member say “We are all friends and that is what’s most important”. Awww just like all of us! I want to play this at the bar I DJ at. It would go down a treat, a real treat! There is nothing I didn’t like about it. The mix, the composition exceeds expectations.


@Metske what a delight. I am astounded! Very carefully constructed with enough rolling breakdowns that would give my hometown of Gloucester and it’s famous Cheeseroll a run for its money. I do wonder about the baseline as it sounds very familiar; even though I can’t put my finger on its doppleganger I love it. The build up to when the actual baseline kicks in is incredible and before I knew it, the tracks subtleties had me vibesin! BIGTIME!

@ghostly606 it’s an effort on goal! Please try and get even more weirder. If you like more commercial aspects then sway towards that way. I would have liked to have heard more of your personality in the message of your music.

@Samuraiv_v7Black this sent me reeling. It explores many aspects and sounds like a promotion for a short EP instead of sounding like just one rhythm track. It happily took me back to Madlib’s Loop Digga album. Great work! I can hear our beloved Op-1 a lot and I love that. What an incredible entry. This one overtook my first love aka Metske’s work and I just can’t decide between the both of yours. Thank you so much for sharing this. the last tune really gets my swing.
The hats caress the beat as nice as Moodyman caresses his MPC’s.

@aeoner this truly sounds like the Op-1, thoroughly and wholeheartedly. I love this beat. It rocks me back to the first entry from @Kosmonaut_Bill thoroughly and brings an epic close to this great battle. It cries for another pressing of the play button and I am going to do exactly that right now! Thank you!

Thoroughly enjoyed all of these entries. Unfortunately I had to delete my comments for each track as I was hundreds of characters over the specified amount.

I am still not sure who gets my final vote. I’ll be back :wink:

#18
Finally got some time to do some writing up on these tracks.
Really enjoyed listening to them and hearing what kind of music it was possible to be spawned out of these rules. Can't wait to start working on another battle as I rated having to only work with one set of rules along with the restrictions of the OP. Really gets you thinking about the different ways to do stuff. Thank you for the votes and awesome feedback everyone. @quarentequatre I will dig out the subby bass patch I made with the FM synth for you if you like?


@Kosmonaut_Bill - I love the really 70s chilled vibe on this one. Feels so dreamy with the string melody.

@servando - Thought this one was really good with the filtered chords and the sawtooth bass parts. Also liked the fact it had a kind of wonky feel to it with the percusion/drums used.

@quarentequartre - This track was just so fun! :) Reminded me a bit of Mr Oizo with the cuts and tempo switches. Like the way it didn't stick to the norm at all.

@Spacetravelmadeeasy - Thought you cut together the parts from the Grand Funk Railroad track really well, it flowed good and had a really cool vibe.

@ghostly606 - Liked the slow feel to this and the experimentation with fx, guessing you were using the M1 and M2 buttons a lot?

@Samuraiv_v7Black - Think I have my favourite here. Like it how there are a few styles on this. Thought it was really well laid out and produced, everything mixed nicely.

@aeoner Thought your hypnotic use of the string engine was really nice and loved the distant vocals and saxaphone you sampled a long with the panning. I agree with what @quarentequartre said about it being a bit Moby-esk liking it :)

My vote goes to @Samuraiv_v7Black
#19

Having listened back…
All tracks had head noddin,foot tappin.Lovely stuff.
@Kosmonaut_Bill short- and simply beautiful.
@quarentquartre I so wanted to vote this as winner but competition was high.I really loved your use of the OP-1 and would love to watch a video of you recording this.You use the OP-1 like a turntable giving me visions of a grandmaster ripping up a down town NY punk club.very fun and unique.
I loved the way the rules worked to give a cohesive whole ,seeing what you all done with them.Including how they worked for you too @kln.An excellent battle and I loved yours-especially that synth/sample noise hybrid sound and that cheeky reverse effect that hits only one note.
I had to vote @Metske 1st place,simply for the beat science - Like an original 1995 breakbeat classic.It had me skipping along ,even though I was in my central library.Seriously well done.

#20
@HisMostDarxxxellent - hope you didn’t have to remove too much detail. enjoying reading your write ups, (as well as the other contributors). next time you could break out your feedback into multiple posts maybe.

since you committed so much to your comments, i will leave the vote open for a tiny bit longer so you can return and provide your input…but please do so soon.

so far it’s very close after doing a cursory tally, which is a tribute to how great the entries are.

maybe i’ll leave voting open for roughly another 12 hours?