The Instrumental Soloing Contest II

[ChromaticChaosPony]

If I take my time, it might be on Sunday evening. I think that is late.

[MixolydianPony]

If you're only late by a few hours, we can wait for you.

i'm too lazy to submit another entry. I have ambient stuff to program anyways.
Should we start judging the pieces that are already turned in and then grade the rest as they come, or are we just gonna wait?

I was just gonna wait and do it all at once... since it's a contest, they should be compared to each other.

You can do whichever you prefer, as long as you're confident in your ability to score them all fairly.

[Jimmy]

Totally working on something for this.

[Jimmy]

Aaaaand here it be:

http://soundcloud.com/james-paddock/solo-contest-entry

[ChromaticChaosPony]

It reminds me of Dream Theater. This is now my favorite.

[HumbleEarthBrony]

So, it turns out my multi-tracker doesn't provide phantom power, meaning my mic is currently useless. Nuts. I'm currently trying to work out something as a stand-in until I can get an external power supplier.

[HumbleEarthBrony]

it ends really soon. so heads up.

I know, I've been keeping an eye on the date. Good looking out, though. I just took the MCAT yesterday, so I've been quite busy. I'll have a track posted tomorrow evening. Sorry to wait until the last minute.

[Jimmy]

:3 yo jimmy.
You need to follow the rules for a proper submission.

You have to actually play the song. Which means: No Midi solos. :3

Eep. You sure? This rule sorta suggested it was okay.

Compose, don't improvise. Unless you're some incredible improviser who can make an improvised solo sound just as good as a carefully composed one, of course.

All of it was initally improvised by me on my keyboard, although the notes were quantized once recorded.

Ack. Sorry everypony if I've done gone made a boo-boo and broken the rules.

[Gnarrkhaz]

@Jimmy:

[...] but please do not alter your solo in a way that you can not reproduce live (don't speed it up).

I think quantizising falls under that as well.

[Jimmy]

Heh, alrighty.

JIMMY

Y U NO READ RULEZ PROPERLY

[ChromaticChaosPony]

This is going badly. I made a backing track, but it sucks and I cannot download any others for some reason. I also can't upload it anywhere because my computer apparently has security issues with souncloud, dropbox, and youtube. I'll try to finish later today, but I might not be able to upload it.

[ChromaticChaosPony]

I still can't upload. I'm using the backing track as a 30 min track and uploading it next week (if I can fix it by then).

[HumbleEarthBrony]

Alright, got this finished. I appreciate the extra day.

This is really raw, and I'm not happy with the finished product, but it's all good, I guess. No more time to work on it, anyway.

I went through on top of the backing track a couple of times, then recoded a single take, which is below. As such, it's sort of lacking in direction and is "noodley", though I know that wasn't what was wanted. Expect a more refined product from me in round three.

Also, I don't care much for solos with a whole bunch of reverb, but I put a little behind this to mask the fact that I used a crappy, internal mic. If that offends you, I apologize.

http://soundcloud.com/humbleearthbrony/ ... al-soloing

Let me know if there are any problems with your listening experience, and I will work to fix them. My comments on the other solos in this thread will be around in a few days. Thanks for listening!

[Applejinx]

Cool... I don't even care if everybody hated my jazzy solo. _I_ liked it and I'm keepin' it, gonna do that sort of thing again in some way. Maybe with better excuse for going 'out'

[ChromaticChaosPony]

Chromatic: "WTF? Y U NO MAKE SOLO?"

OVERALL for Chromatic: 0.0

Yay!

[MixolydianPony]

Holy crud, I'm in tears just reading what you critiqued on other peoples' entries.

Not really, but wow... tough love.

This was in love right? RIGHT? :'(


EDIT: You know, one thing I just noticed... All of these solos are over 1 minute long. All of my favorite solos by some of my favorite bands are more in the 20-40 second range. Perhaps we were attempting too long of a solo, resulting in a lot of fizzled out dynamics, etc.?

The longer backing tracks are great for jazzy improvised solos, but I think the shorter times are better for carefully composed things.

[Gnarrkhaz]

Congratulations to Warbalist and Kyoga.

3rd Place:
Gnarrkhaz

Ooooookay. If you say so.

no risk was taken here whatsoever (try harder stuff. ).

Yeah, i know, i know. : P

Use of different scale structure was apparent.

*raises hoof* What is a scale structure?

Other scales were not used as an appropriate route to transverse to other scales.

I would do it if i knew how. : P

Precision: 8

Seriously, i think you made a mistake there.


Thanks for the feeback.

[Gnarrkhaz]

Scale structure is basically the builds you used of the same scale.
(how you fit your scales together)

Okay.

Oh and i think his name is HumbleEarthBrony not HumbleEarthPony.

[Rainbow_Rage]

woo, not last. I'll take that after two years of not playing. I actually would have scored myself much worse. I was not happy at all with what I had.

[ChromaticChaosPony]

I'm last!

[ChromaticChaosPony]

Oh. Lol. But I thought it sounded good...

[Warbalist]

GRAND CHAMPION:
Warbalist
Congrats, dude!

WTF?! Awesome! Hopefully next time I'll have more time than a lunch break!

GRAND CHAMPION: Sounds like I was in a Street Fighter tournament.

Warbalist
Comp/Musicality: 8
Song was well moved throughout and ended in a satisfying climax. Transitions between stages of the song were awkward to listen to. The electric guitar seems to be improvised at points and guided at others, which is usually fine, but it lead to some awkwardness and “solo lag” which had you playing catch up against your ideas, so at times it felt like you were just randomly playing notes from a scale instead of structuring them. (I advise practicing phrases)

Gotta love playing outside. Improvised at points? Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmebe.

Creativity: 8
There were a lot of abnormal scales and phrases implemented that challenged the song structure, but stayed within their limits. My prime example is the very beginning of the guitar solo. The slow bend from the 6th to 7th scale note was an impressively unique way of beginning the song. I’m kind of upset that that didn’t uphold throughout the song.

Thanks. Bends and vibrato are what more guitarists need to work on. I'll hear these shredfests that are totally wicked and then the vibrato comes along and sounds like a laughing granny, ha! As far as creativity not being upheld? Time constraints. That's all I'mma say.

Technique: 8
Very fast, and very well programmed throughout. Good job including bends pull offs and arpeggios into your piece.

8? I dunno. I was pretty sloppy...

Complexity: 9
great job implementing different scale structures and good job implementing other scales to transverse. I would advise practicing the Mixolydian, Dorian, Locrian, and Ionian scale structures again, because this is where the most mistakes were made.

Modes, bah! Who needs 'em?! ... Oh yeah, I guess everybody. I don't think it was the modes, per se, but more like my inability to play that particular day, heheh.

Precision: 7
There was A LOT of slop in this solo, and while there are appropriate places to kind of “drag off” it became most apparent in your fast sections where your playing became, instead of a line of notes and arpeggios, a jumbled cloud of squeaks and a few well-hit notes within. Your solo had moments where you hit almost all the notes in the correct manner, but there equally as many moments where I had no idea what occurred. Your clean and well-picked arpeggio at the end of the song is what brought your score up to 7. Good job, nonetheless.

Heck yeah, it was slop! Wooooo!!! \m/ Too much distortion, too. Woooooo! \m/

There was an arpeggio at the end? You mean that ostinato scale climb or the tremolo picking part?

OVERALL for Warbalist = 8/10

Warbalist = 8

Next time we do one of these shindigs, I'll put more "umph" and "meedley" and "sha-pow" into it. Seriously, it deserves more care from me.

I think everybody did a fantabulous job and, if you refuse to accept that, then accept this: you're hardcore enough to put your playing online for any random person to judge. That's freaking INSANELY BAMF. Be proud of yourself and keep entering these things.

Steel sharpens steel.

-W.

[Jimmy]

Oh. Lol. But I thought it sounded good...

XD doesn't matter. Cheated.

[Applejinx]

;_;

..sorries...