# Soundiron Creator Challenge: Halloween Edition



## Soundiron Team (Oct 18, 2022)

Learn More: https://soundiron.com/blogs/news/soundiron-creator-challenge-halloween-edition

*Announcing the Soundiron Creator Challenge: Halloween Edition.*

During our Halloween Sale we're launching our first creator challenge! Here are the rules to enter:

*Download the video here: *https://bit.ly/3gajHpJ
*Create a new original score for it *
*Upload your video to YouTube and use the hashtag #soundironcreatorchallenge in the description.*

All entries must be submitted before Midnight October 31st PST. We will announce the winners November 7th, 2022. 1st place will win $250 in store credit and two runners-up will receive $50 in store credit. We will be judging the entries based on creativity, originality, sound-design, and overall production value.

*WATCH THE VIDEO
*​


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## davidson (Oct 18, 2022)

Quick question regarding the sick titles - will the others in the range be getting the makeover 2 has had?


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## Bee_Abney (Oct 19, 2022)

Cool beans.


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## Soundiron Team (Oct 19, 2022)

davidson said:


> Quick question regarding the sick titles - will the others in the range be getting the makeover 2 has had?


We plan to update all of them over time as well as other older products.


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## Bee_Abney (Oct 19, 2022)

The only problem with the competition is that - as it seems to me, anyway - any sound added to that video is very likely going to make it less creepy, disturbing and thought provoking. So the real art will be how to avoid making it more comforting with familiar audio tropes. That's not going to be easy. I hope I get a chance to take a stab at it, and I look forward to hearing what others come up with.


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## Sebastián collao (Oct 19, 2022)

¿I can use this video whit my music to promote my work?


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## Soundiron Team (Oct 19, 2022)

Sebastián collao said:


> ¿I can use this video whit my music to promote my work?


Yes you can!


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## kgdrum (Oct 19, 2022)

Bee_Abney said:


> The only problem with the competition is that - as it seems to me, anyway - any sound added to that video is very likely going to make it less creepy, disturbing and thought provoking. So the real art will be how to avoid making it more comforting with familiar audio tropes. That's not going to be easy. I hope I get a chance to take a stab at it, and I look forward to hearing what others come up with.


Come on Bee it’s Halloween “ take a stab at it”.


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## VTX Rudy (Oct 19, 2022)




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## Bee_Abney (Oct 19, 2022)

VTX Rudy said:


>



That's wonderful. Beautiful, with a sense of obscure profundity - a fine match for the visuals!


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## The Retroblueman (Oct 19, 2022)

Bee_Abney said:


> The only problem with the competition is that - as it seems to me, anyway - any sound added to that video is very likely going to make it less creepy, disturbing and thought provoking. So the real art will be how to avoid making it more comforting with familiar audio tropes. That's not going to be easy. I hope I get a chance to take a stab at it, and I look forward to hearing what others come up with.


Polka!


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## Bee_Abney (Oct 19, 2022)

The Retroblueman said:


> Polka!


Yes! Do it!


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## The Retroblueman (Oct 19, 2022)

Bee_Abney said:


> Yes! Do it!


The piece is already taking shape in my head - thinking starting with an oompah celeste solo in waltz time, getting more accordion-y with some brass as the hands get "doubly" then slowly bringing in Zebra, Edna, HZP and then a phat kick as things get a bit more cosmic, with maybe some SCS to finish. Sadly, I may not have the time to realise that given "life" and its pesky asks at the moment but I would maintain it would be easier than dubstep Bridgerton😉


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## Bee_Abney (Oct 19, 2022)

The Retroblueman said:


> The piece is already taking shape in my head - thinking starting with an oompah celeste solo in waltz time, getting more accordion-y with some brass as the hands get "doubly" then slowly bringing in Zebra, Edna, HZP and then a phat kick as things get a bit more cosmic, with maybe some SCS to finish. Sadly, I may not have the time to realise that given "life" and its pesky asks at the moment but I would maintain it would be easier than dubstep Bridgerton😉


Well, my dubstep Bridgerton turned into one scene with a touch of Theremin; so I'll cast no stones in the glass house of not-following-through with a brilliant idea!


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## The Retroblueman (Oct 19, 2022)

Incidentally, if I did find a moment or two (because now I have posted the above I am going to be waking up at 3am with "ideas"), does anyone know if there are any rules? i.e. do we need to use any specific Soundiron libraries etc?


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## Bee_Abney (Oct 19, 2022)

The Retroblueman said:


> Incidentally, if I did find a moment or two (because now I have posted the above I am going to be waking up at 3am with "ideas"), does anyone know if there are any rules? i.e. do we need to use any specific Soundiron libraries etc?


There are no such requirements listed in the instructions.









Soundiron Creator Challenge: Halloween Edition


Announcing the Soundiron Creator Challenge: Halloween Edition. During our Halloween Sale we're launching our first creator challenge! Here are the rules to enter: Download the video here: https://bit.ly/3gajHpJ Create a new original score for it Upload your video to YouTube and use the hashtag...




soundiron.com


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## Sebastián collao (Oct 19, 2022)

Soundiron Team said:


> Yes you can!


¡Great!


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## The Retroblueman (Oct 25, 2022)

Here we go - found a few hours spare on Friday night and Sunday morning. Instrumentation more or less as per post above. It's a bit "trope-ier" than planned but possibly the closest representation yet of what it sounds like in my head when I am on my own and not listening to, playing or writing music😀

Thanks Soundiron team (this was great fun) and best of luck to anyone who has a go!


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## Bee_Abney (Oct 25, 2022)

The Retroblueman said:


> Here we go - found a few hours spare on Friday night and Sunday morning. Instrumentation more or less as per post above. It's a bit "trope-ier" than planned but possibly the closest representation yet of what it sounds like in my head when I am on my own and not listening to, playing or writing music😀
> 
> Thanks Soundiron team (this was great fun) and best of luck to anyone who has a go!



I love it. You are altogether more disturbed than I had imagined...

It started surprising, and then had a big surprise switch into trancey, dancey music. I haven't tried magic mushrooms, but this felt like I imagined it would be like to take a bad batch when you think you are heading to a rave but you end up lost in a dark woods. Which is a good thing.


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## The Retroblueman (Oct 25, 2022)

Bee_Abney said:


> I love it. You are altogether more disturbed than I had imagined...
> 
> It started surprising, and then had a big surprise switch into trancey, dancey music. I haven't tried magic mushrooms, but this felt like I imagined it would be like to take a bad batch when you think you are heading to a rave but you end up lost in a dark woods. Which is a good thing.


Well, one does what one can to keep the wolves from the door - that can often create the false impression of being in control😃 Thanks Bee (I think)! - I hoped you would like this and it's an honour and privilege that you did!


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## nathantboler (Oct 28, 2022)

Craig composed his own cue for the challenge here (don't worry, he's disqualified )


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## markd (Oct 28, 2022)

Here's my entry. I felt like the video was quite the "mind f**k", so I went for more of a "sound design/horror" style!


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## kleotessard (Oct 28, 2022)

Hi!
Here is my entry. It was really cool to score this strange video 😅 thank you Soundiron team.
Good luck to all competitors. And Happy Halloween 🎃👻!


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## Emanuel Fróes (Oct 29, 2022)

here is


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## Emanuel Fróes (Oct 29, 2022)

I have to say the video is challeging. You will be triggered to either go kitsch or totally original. It is also a good video to create a song, but then has to be a very good song or theme. Because it looks a like a music clip.

I tried to hear a voice over in my head, in order to help. Because it looks like a intro of something, needing some voice telling some poetic words.

There are many cool possibilities, but all of them have to deal with these abstract impressions of people that come from nowhere and go to nowhere, what gives a very important limitation. Good that is short ; ) Imagine this for 10 minutes evolving...

Cool move by Soundiron!


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## angeruroth (Oct 30, 2022)

Here is mine  
Good luck everyone!


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## YaniDee (Oct 30, 2022)

One more...


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## mgaewsj (Oct 30, 2022)

here is my first take (yes I plan to submit another one 😜)
doodling with just Ascend and Novum


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## bnsrowe (Oct 30, 2022)

There are some great entries here for this one! Here's my psychopathic kitchen sink of blood attempt.


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## pranic (Oct 30, 2022)

Wow, these visuals were challenging to work with. My first two attempts seemed to fit the visuals but were maybe a bit too atmospheric. I swung the pendulum pretty far in the opposite direction with french horns, oboes, bassoons, flutes and string ostinatos yesterday. Today, I threw it all away and wrote this during the afternoon, and I think I'm happy to call it complete. 

Looking forward to listening to others' interpretations of these visuals. Congrats to everyone who worked on their own entry, and best of luck!

Here's mine... not perfect by any means, but I had a lot of fun writing this on a dark and stormy night here in Seattle. The biggest challenge was to figure out which pianos I wanted to use, but settled on a combination of the @Nami Audio Hammer and Felt alongside the Spitfire Originals Firewood Felt (I love the Firewood piano because of how flawed it can sound with the hammer and pedal noises). Knifonium for the bass pulse, Hans Zimmer Strings, a couple patches from Speculative Memories, and some @Noon Instruments Toska to round it out.


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## Bee_Abney (Oct 31, 2022)

Here's my entry. I look forward to listening to more of the others posted here! It would be interesting to discuss how we approached it, our thought processes and such and I'd welcome any criticisms; but if you are like me, just after submitting, you just want to step away from it for a good while!

Good luck to everyone here who is entering or has entered, whether you choose to post your video here or not!


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## mgaewsj (Oct 31, 2022)

mgaewsj said:


> here is my first take (yes I plan to submit another one 😜)
> doodling with just Ascend and Novum



and here is my second submission, completely different mood.
I initially wanted to use just Symphonic Motions (sort of a challenge/exercise), but then I added Speculative Memories' voices, could not resist...


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## mgaewsj (Nov 1, 2022)

I have listened to a few entries now.
I have found a lot of great ideas.

I guess the challenge in this kind of video (well that's probably always the case) is to find a balance between being too obvious and too far out, between being too repetitive and too erratic or disconnected, between being too sparse and too abundant.

Some entries for instance have a really great intro, sparse and unsettling, but somewhat fail to evolve, others are too dense or are evolving too much, adding too many ideas, and so on.
Tough challenge indeed.

I hope this does not feel too negative, there's a lot of craft and inspiration in these entries.
This is of course a big self critique as I am really far from such craftsmanship.

But in the end these are really fun endeavors. There's always so much to learn.
Sharing and discussing the entries is an invaluable asset of this forum.


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## pranic (Nov 1, 2022)

mgaewsj said:


> and here is my second submission, completely different mood.
> I initially wanted to use just Symphonic Motions (sort of a challenge/exercise), but then I added Speculative Memories' voices, could not resist...



Nice use of Speculative Memories voice patches, and the modulation both in chords and pace at 1:07. In one of my attempts, I pulled out the Symphonic Motions library to get some Col Legnos going. You're right about this being a nice challenge, both from the evolution of music over time, and potentially going overboard with the obvious horror instruments. I haven't been able to listen to as many as I had hoped tonight, but in the coming days should be able to carve out some time to listen to more. As with all these scoring opportunities, it's really entertaining and educational to see how others' approach the scenes!


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## pranic (Nov 1, 2022)

Bee_Abney said:


>



Between the absolute sheer madness of your cue, I couldn't help but think of bubbling blood near the beginning with the bubble sounds.. Discordant and unsettling takeaway as a viewer! Best of luck!


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## The Retroblueman (Nov 1, 2022)

Bee_Abney said:


> Here's my entry. I look forward to listening to more of the others posted here! It would be interesting to discuss how we approached it, our thought processes and such and I'd welcome any criticisms; but if you are like me, just after submitting, you just want to step away from it for a good while!
> 
> Good luck to everyone here who is entering or has entered, whether you choose to post your video here or not!



Superb work Bee - we should have a thread dedicated to trying to "out-disturb" the other members (with music of course, a fine job of doing that with words is already being done in the politics thread🎃).

If interesting, my process is usually to watch the video repeatedly last thing at night and try and work out the broad "emotional journey" (and spot any things I definitely want to hit) then keep going I hear some noises or motifs or chords in my head, trying a few things out on the keyboard. I never write anything down at this point on the possibly idiotic premise that, if it's not memorable enough to survive a nights sleep, then it's not memorable enough. 

I then (literally) go and lie down in a dark room (i.e. go to bed) and let everything dance around as I drift off. Hopefully by the morning I have enough to start transcribing the piece (sometimes gestation can take a few days). Most of my better things (if I do say so myself😉) are the ones that wake me up at 4am and won't let me go back to sleep until they are in the DAW.

Harmonically, for this sort of endeavour, I have always though the tritone is a bit obvious and that the augmented chord is the real diabolus in musica - it is stacked major thirds, so it should be pretty, but it isn't (Lucifer was thought the most beautiful angel in heaven before the fall). I think that is also the case when it shows up embedded in another chord, e.g. the 3rd 5th and 7th in a min(maj 7). Also playing on an ambiguous major/minor tonality seems to be creepier to me than going for straight minor (but by no means do I think that is a universal rule).


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## Gian Luca Zucchelli (Nov 1, 2022)

Hi!
Here is my entry. It it was really exciting to score this nice video!
Good luck to all competitors!


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## m4ciekw (Nov 1, 2022)

Here is my entry! Do you know why youtube doesn't show all videos under the hashtag? At the top there is information that there are 116 videos, and at the bottom about 70 are visible. Of course, mine is not there, as always...


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## Emanuel Fróes (Nov 1, 2022)

mgaewsj said:


> I have listened to a few entries now.
> I have found a lot of great ideas.
> 
> I guess the challenge in this kind of video (well that's probably always the case) is to find a balance between being too obvious and too far out, between being too repetitive and too erratic or disconnected, between being too sparse and too abundant.
> ...


It is more or less as i think. Since there is no context, and no sounds, and no story/event evolving , it is a challeging set of impressions that relies a lot on the music to be made, like a clip. But since it is very short, the music needs a really great idea from the start , and that still ends well soon, with that kind of eclipse (in order to win, or make this clip something autonomously interessant, without further explanation).

I can´t see as something else than a Halloween "intro": hallo, it starts the Halloween! But visually, it misses a funny component of halloween, otherwise it looks like satanic.

For all these reasons it is truly a challenge


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## jontom (Nov 7, 2022)

I won! ❤️


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## pranic (Nov 8, 2022)

jontom said:


> I won! ❤️



Congrats @jontom - You had a lot of great sound design in your entry! Congrats to you, and the other winners on your success!


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## The Retroblueman (Nov 8, 2022)

Many congrats - Nice work @jontom !!😈🎃😀


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## kleotessard (Nov 8, 2022)

jontom said:


> I won! ❤️



I looooost 😭
😂😂 Just kidding!

I really like your entry. Nice job! Congrats!


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## Bee_Abney (Nov 8, 2022)

jontom said:


> I won! ❤️



Brilliant! Congratulations on such a worthy win!

Congratulations to the runners up too! There were so many terrific entries, but three really terrific winners!


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## angeruroth (Nov 8, 2022)

Yup, that was a great entry @jontom  Congrats!


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## markd (Nov 8, 2022)

Congrats @jontom ! Your entry is awesome!


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## Emanuel Fróes (Nov 9, 2022)

jontom said:


> I won! ❤️



Gratulations!


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