Update « Velcro City Records

Feb 9

Producer Challenge Winner

Velcro City Records would like to thank everyone who took the time and submitted their music for review. It was a nice turnout of submissions and we are grateful to have such a bubbling city of creativity in our hometown. Regretfully we cannot elect all of the submissions for release but we did find quite a few impressive compositions.

The Grand Prize Winner is:….

Skyler Sefic – “Digital Funk”

Musically this song is brilliant. There are elements of new wave, disco, breakbeats, house, and many other genres in between. Thus, allowing this track to be taken in a variety of directions for potential remixes. The mixdown was clean and the sounds were crisp. The individual elements were given enough room to breath and play well off each other. All around this was a very nice tune with a lot of potential.

Be sure to stay tuned for the full remix EP coming out soon on Velcro City Records

The Runner Ups
Second Place
Arsonela – “Keep Fighting”

A personal feeling song, the guitar and bassline worked well together and this track could be turned into some impressive remixes.

Third Place
Erik Mitchell – “Point Blank (Original Mix)”
The artist has done well to define a sound of his or her own. The use of the samples and stereo play within the song worked well.

Fourth Place
Adam Arete – “Imagination”
Nice creativity, good use of original vocals, and a pleasant ride of a tune.

Fifth Place
Steel Skhi – “F Niner”
The artist has done well to use the sounds of the genre and make them his or her own while at the same time holding a solid electro feel

Honorable Mentions

John Sullivan – “BassMint” Disciple13 – “The Field Mouse’s Final Moments”

Cognition & Bassic – “Sound Control”

Judging was based off the following criteria….
1.Quality of Production (Mixdown & Mastering)
2.Artistic Creativity
3.Marketability
4.Remix Potential
5.Originality

Some Constructive Criticism and Helpful Ideas

01. Under produced percussive elements: Velcro City Records’ judges recommend examining the genres you wish to produce music for and focus on how to better match the genre’s consistencies and percussive themes. It may be as simple as purchasing a new drum hits sample CD.

02. Flat or mono production: Another theme that the judges found was the lack of stereo depth. All sounds were being placed dead center with no use of slight panning or stereo width. Some helpful information can be found here: http://velcrocityrecords.com/blog/?p=18….

03. Poor mixdown/mastering: Finally our judges ran into some reoccurring themes in the mixdown and mastering stages of the releases. Many of the submissions could have been more efficiently EQ’d to allow the individual pieces to fit together better. As well, the judges found that some effects were used in over abundance which caused a few tracks to sound muddy. Many submissions could have had a few mixdown issues corrected with simple EQ’ing, compression, stereo placement, and more efficient use of effects. For more information on correcting some of this please refer to: http://velcrocityrecords.com/blog/?p=36

Please don’t get down on yourself if your track was not selected and just keep up with the plethora of educational information out there. In time it will all “click“ and remember our doors are always open for submissions. submissions@velcrocityrecords.com

Thanks again