Mine was scene 7
Edit: i didnt mean to write so much!
This was my track (link below, not sure if it will unfurl or how to do that here). Ive not been on soundcloud in maybe a decade so hopefully this link works. Soundcloud app seems to be more geared towards consumption than managing your own content
I had previously used the pilot episode of Streethawk (an 80s tv show) for some samples in a track I made. When the challenge was set, that was the first thing that stuck in my mind. A lot of the episode is set at night, the main character is a cop and I could draw some parallels between the show and classic film noir. It was a bit of a stretch so that made me want to use it even more.
As i scanned through the pilot to look for samples i saw that tangerine dream were responsible for the music so I figured I should get some snippets of the synths and atmosphere.
From the episode i took some voice samples that I felt had sinister connotations when taken out of context, some foley for the breakdowns and a snippet of the synths.
And then I bought an Octatrack. When it arrived i felt obliged to use it for the track, so most of what I used in the track are the first sounds that came from playing with that.
The breaks were made from one shots on the octatrack then resampled to the mpc where they were chopped and arranged. The arrangement of one shots was based on the amen break. I also sent a kick, share and hi hat one shots to the mpc as they can be handy when you dont want break chops running when you want to bring the energy down.
The lofi lead sound in the intro was made from a bit of synth from streethawk, chopped at random (equal 16ths without regard to the sample content) in the octatrack and then pitched on the trigs.
The acidy sort of line was done the same way but with use of the octatrack filter.
There was a bit of resampling of the loops i made on the octa going through analog heats filter on the drums and acid which was somewhat clumsily used as the last 8 bars of every 32 throughout the track
For my lead sound i chose 3 notes, i think one of the synakt machines, but i forget which. I played these notes through the AH heat affecting it by hand to make vowel kind of intonations to an otherwise very lazily designed sound.
Sub bass the same three notes.
I then created some short loops that i increased in size to 32 bars. These ended up being the (v1) build ups to the main drops. The main drops in the submitted track were really version 2 of the main part, as I had gone back to the octatrack and compressor and made a break that had quite pumpy splashy rides and i quite liked the energy it had.
I didnt want to waste the v1s as they kind of fitted and had less energy, so it was a matter of just removing some bits to help them work as transitionary parts.
I then spent a while adding and removing sounds, tinkering and not knowing what to do with the second drop. I also realised in had recorded some wrong notes for the lead sounds and had to pitch them down a semitone.
All arranging done in the mpc one.
I had big regrets as i went through the process, but the end goal was to finish a tracks, and do this by practicing transitions, handling tension.
I regretted a lot of sound design choices as i commited to sample very quickly rather than developing the sounds as much as i should. I ALSO wasnt thinking about levels/mixing early enough.
I had a bit of analysis paralysis and left some pretty significant changes to the very end.
I regret committing to the voice samples i used as they have significant background fx in them, and i chalked it down as "ill drown them out or surround them with similar noises later, but i didnt.
I also probably would have made the second drop the first drop (as it was a bit cleaner) and made a new second drop that had a bit more than the first. The two drops I have are too similar and I feel not interesting enough a payoff.
All in all though, it was a great experience to work with outside influences, but now the deadline is up, i dont feel at all motivated to finish, when in my mind i know theres a lot more i would change before it got to the point where im tinkering for the sake of it