ES400 Song Challenge

Great fun, great prizes! Good luck!
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joeyluck
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26 Oct 2020

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ReasonTalk and Ekssperimental Sounds are proud to announce the ES400 Song Challenge!

Rules
  • Only one entry per participant.
  • No remixes or cover songs. Your work must be 100% original.
  • Songs should be submitted before November 23, 2020, 12AM CET.
  • Instruments allowed:
    • ES400 must be the only synth used in your song.
    • You are allowed one, non-synth source (such as vocals or drums). Since ES400 comes with drum patches, we encourage you to use them.
    • Do not use copyrighted samples or material that hasn’t been cleared.
  • Effects allowed:
    • Any built-in Reason effect.
    • Any Rack Extension effect by Ekssperimental Sounds.
    • The ES400 has built-in effects and we encourage you to use them.
  • Be aware that we will ask you to provide the Reason project file to check for compliance to these rules. If you bounce to track, leave the original lane/device intact!
Submitting
  • To submit, a link to your song must be posted to this thread.
  • Do not change the link to your song once you have submitted. That includes changing the visibility setting from public to private, or vice-versa!
  • You agree to allow non-exclusive rights to Ekssperimental Sounds to use your song (only for the promotion of the device): for instance, adding the song to the sound demos on the Shop page. If you do not agree with this rule, please do not participate.
  • Staff members of Ekssperimental Sounds Studio and ReasonTalk aren’t allowed to participate in this competition.
  • Winners will be announced a few days after the competition ends.
Prizes
  • First prize: Three Ekssperimental Sounds Rack Extensions of your choice
  • Second prize: Two Ekssperimental Sounds Rack Extensions of your choice
  • Third prize: One Ekssperimental Sounds Rack Extension of your choice
The Judges
  • Ekssperimental Sounds
  • ReasonTalk Team
Additional info
  • Download the ES400 trial from the shop here!
  • Learn more about Ekssperimental Sounds here!

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diminished
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26 Oct 2020

Cool.
Quick question, what about mastering plugins and Reason's SSL - are they allowed?
:reason: Most recent track: resentment (synthwave) || Others: on my YouTube channel •ᴗ•

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ekss
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26 Oct 2020

diminished wrote:
26 Oct 2020
Cool.
Quick question, what about mastering plugins and Reason's SSL - are they allowed?
Yes, reasons own effects are considered "internal" :-)

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joeyluck
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26 Oct 2020

ekss wrote:
26 Oct 2020
diminished wrote:
26 Oct 2020
Cool.
Quick question, what about mastering plugins and Reason's SSL - are they allowed?
Yes, reasons own effects are considered "internal" :-)
Updated for clarity. Thank you! :)

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diminished
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26 Oct 2020

Okay so no Ozone or anything, but anything from the following category (screenshot) including the SSL and its functionality is allowed? :)
eks.JPG
eks.JPG (37.87 KiB) Viewed 66421 times
:reason: Most recent track: resentment (synthwave) || Others: on my YouTube channel •ᴗ•

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joeyluck
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26 Oct 2020

diminished wrote:
26 Oct 2020
Okay so no Ozone or anything, but anything from the following category (screenshot) including the SSL and its functionality is allowed? :)
eks.JPG
Yes, only built-in effects and Rack Extensions by Ekssperimental Sounds.

Feel free to share what effects you've used when you post your submission, especially if you use Ekssperimental Sounds REs! But do keep in mind that the main focus of the contest is in on the ES400. It also has built-in effects.

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Loque
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26 Oct 2020

Cool. Sounds great, also the synth 😂
500+ patches to choose from. I think i will find something i can use 😝
Reason12, Win10

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diminished
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Posts: 1880
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26 Oct 2020

Okay gotcha, thanks for the clarification. Don't wanna go all-in with these, just wanted to make sure that I won't be disqualified for using parallel compression or a limiter at the end of my chain :)
:reason: Most recent track: resentment (synthwave) || Others: on my YouTube channel •ᴗ•

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TritoneAddiction
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26 Oct 2020

Yay! A song challenge.

I'm gonna give this synth a try and see what happens.
I just wish Reason had a somewhat decent stock limiter. MClass is garbage. Oh well, I guess it will just have to do for this one.

Bes
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26 Oct 2020

no word on players in the rules. probably stock players only?
- Certified Reason expert

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Boombastix
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26 Oct 2020

Bes wrote:
26 Oct 2020
no word on players in the rules. probably stock players only?
I don't see any restriction on midi or midi-tools, and if you print to track you can remove the Players.
10% off at Waves with link: https://www.waves.com/r/6gh2b0
Disclaimer - I get 10% as well.

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Adabler
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26 Oct 2020

Congrats on the new synth, ekss! Will try to submit something for the contest. I am really liking the presets, they sound great!

@joeyluck Are there any restrictions on track length?
:reason: 12, Win10

avasopht
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26 Oct 2020

Might give this a shot ...
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Electric-Metal
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26 Oct 2020

Assuming EQs count as FX also, it's gonna be a rough time without my beloved GQ7 :shock: :lol:
:?: The question is - Who cares :?:

VariableX
Posts: 564
Joined: 02 Apr 2018

26 Oct 2020

wow that ES400 sounds ace!
Im a huge fan of the digitone - did it inspire this RE? both 4 operator FM, both fun and easy to use...

this is just what i need to get me back onto Reason cos ive been on digitone n opz for months without touching reason....

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joeyluck
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26 Oct 2020

Adabler wrote:
26 Oct 2020
Congrats on the new synth, ekss! Will try to submit something for the contest. I am really liking the presets, they sound great!

@joeyluck Are there any restrictions on track length?
No restrictions on track length. In the past, some competitions have had a minimum length requirement such as 2 minutes. That's a good guideline.

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ekss
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27 Oct 2020

Adabler wrote:
26 Oct 2020
Congrats on the new synth, ekss! Will try to submit something for the contest. I am really liking the presets, they sound great!

@joeyluck Are there any restrictions on track length?
Thanks mate, hope you cook up a song with it!

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ekss
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27 Oct 2020

fretshot7 wrote:
26 Oct 2020
wow that ES400 sounds ace!
Im a huge fan of the digitone - did it inspire this RE? both 4 operator FM, both fun and easy to use...

this is just what i need to get me back onto Reason cos ive been on digitone n opz for months without touching reason....
Thanks, very happy to hear - I love Digitone so it's very flattering to be compared to it! 🥰
I initially started to build ES400 inspired by old synths like DX100 and FS01. I had Digitakt since before and really love it and as my fascination of FM synthesis grew while working on the ES400 I decided to get the Digitone too. Much of the synth was already done but I decided to add the "pre fx" based on my usage of Digitone. Some additional FX really helps making nice sounds quicker.
So yes, there is a bit of Digitone inspiration in there!

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macon
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27 Oct 2020

What about Refills?
I have the "EKSSBOX MKII Dub Siren" and plan on using it ... :)

Thanks!

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ekss
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27 Oct 2020

macon wrote:
27 Oct 2020
What about Refills?
I have the "EKSSBOX MKII Dub Siren" and plan on using it ... :)

Thanks!
Tricky question! In a way it can be considered a simple synthesizer (it is in fact using Thor to generate it's sound)
On the other hand it isn't really a synth, more a sound effect – I mean you won't be playing leads and basslines with it right?

What do JoeyLuck say?

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macon
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27 Oct 2020

ekss wrote:
27 Oct 2020
macon wrote:
27 Oct 2020
What about Refills?
I have the "EKSSBOX MKII Dub Siren" and plan on using it ... :)

Thanks!
Tricky question! In a way it can be considered a simple synthesizer (it is in fact using Thor to generate it's sound)
On the other hand it isn't really a synth, more a sound effect – I mean you won't be playing leads and basslines with it right?

What do JoeyLuck say?
You know what: i'll try to switch the Thor for an ES400 to generate the siren sound :thumbs_up:

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ekss
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27 Oct 2020

macon wrote:
27 Oct 2020
ekss wrote:
27 Oct 2020


Tricky question! In a way it can be considered a simple synthesizer (it is in fact using Thor to generate it's sound)
On the other hand it isn't really a synth, more a sound effect – I mean you won't be playing leads and basslines with it right?

What do JoeyLuck say?
You know what: i'll try to switch the Thor for an ES400 to generate the siren sound :thumbs_up:
The routing will probably break in the combinator – but you should be able to generate some siren like sounds with ES400 anyway. Tip; use LFO to modulate OP1 (P.Mod on the LFO page) play with Wave and adding operators to adjust the timbre. =)

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joeyluck
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27 Oct 2020

macon wrote:
27 Oct 2020
ekss wrote:
27 Oct 2020


Tricky question! In a way it can be considered a simple synthesizer (it is in fact using Thor to generate it's sound)
On the other hand it isn't really a synth, more a sound effect – I mean you won't be playing leads and basslines with it right?

What do JoeyLuck say?
You know what: i'll try to switch the Thor for an ES400 to generate the siren sound :thumbs_up:
You could probably do something similar with ES400. Not sure if it would work replacing the Thor in that Combi though.

We try to keep the rules simple and concise and understand some things may not be as clear.

We thought about having it be nothing but ES400, but figured people would want to add something. So we thought it would keep things interesting and challenging by saying only one non-synth sound source. So if someone wants to add vocals, then drums will have to be done with the ES400. If someone uses drum samples, then they can't have vocals, live guitar, etc. But there's over 90 drum patches in ES400, so I personally would try that first :)

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Manoosh
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27 Oct 2020

Well, can I use only one drum sound, for example a kick drum beside only ES 400's or can I use one drum instrument like Reason Club Drums or Kong with multiple drum sounds at the same time?
Last edited by Manoosh on 01 Nov 2020, edited 1 time in total.

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MrFigg
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Joined: 20 Apr 2018

27 Oct 2020

Can we have a "Clarify the Rules of the ES400 Song Challenge" Challenge? :)
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