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**CHALLENGE CLOSED** Maxsta Beat Challenge - MCs & VOCALISTS - Win £500 Studio Credit

@Brighty fair play on your first attempt at recording vocals yourself but I’m afraid I’d have to echo @atalenoire comments about your PLosives…they are pretty extreme.

You can reduce and even remove plosives with some clever eq and wave editing but it’s time consuming and not really what you should be spending your time on after recording a good take.

Some attention to mic placement and distance from the source is essential.

If you don’t have a pop shield, definitely purchase one as they’re cheap enough. If you’re in a hurry to record and can’t wait for the delivery man you could try constructing one from a clothes hanger and a pair of tights, if someone you live with is prepared to donate them of course!.

If you’re using a condenser mic you can try singing off axis (i.e. singing past the side of the mic not aiming at the center of the capsule). Since condensers are so sensitive it will pick up your vocal just fine.

Similarly you can try tilting the mic at about 30-45 degrees backwards so the air pressure from the plossive sounds aren’t hitting the capsule directly.

Singing away from the mic is great and will also reduce unwanted proximity effect (which is an increase of bass frequency the closer the source is to the microphone).

I know it might be a tough pill to swallow but the vocal recording you have here would take a hell of a lot of editing and manipulating to get rid of the popping sounds and you’d already be compromising on the fidelity of the recording making it more difficult to get to sit in the mix, so unfortunately my one recommendation here is a re-record. :frowning:

If you do a couple of test runs with different variations of what I mentioned above hopefully you can find a good sweet spot to record your vocals without the dreaded P’snB’s interrupting your flow!

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LOL @Pirate_Gareth don’t worry about tough pills, I’ve swallowed a fair few in my time, I’m pretty good at it :wink: :crazy_face:

No seriously this is awesome thank you. I have zero issue with re-recording. In all honesty my reasons for entering this comp are two-fold. One I love writing new lyrics to beats, just enjoy the challenge as a writer, but two, I was hoping to get some feedback on vocal recording from all you lovely people. Quite frankly the only way I learn is to do something shite and then for someone who knows what they’re talking about to tell me where I’m going wrong!

I have a pop shield on order as I’m aware from @atalenoire’s advice the popping is too much, I haven’t yet invested in a condenser but that search is very active right now. I thought I’d see how far I can get with the performance mic I have (which is a bit like an SM58) and experiment firstly with distances and positioning as you suggest, get a feel for those parameters, then when I get the condenser I can really get a tangible measure on what difference the actual mic is making

So again thank you so much for the very valuable advice, will re-record. I’ll leave this up as my competition entry for now as the deadline is approaching

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Hey everyone, we’ve had some brilliant entries on this so far - keep them coming! I know some of you have been unable to download Maxsta’s beat in the past few days but the link has now been updated.

Remember, competition closes end of January!

Lovely, i’m seeing many entries as soundcloud links but are there any other forms of media in which we can upload our entries?

Pretty sure you can just upload a track to google drive or what ever it’s called if it’s a quality thing. If it’s a privacy thing you can upload it to soundcloud as a private link and no one can find it without that link that you post here.

SoundCloud tends to embed on the forum the best (you can share a private link too). But if you’d rather not share to SC, that’s absolutely fine! You can share a link to a platform of your choice. Good luck with it!

Hi everyone, hope you’re well and keeping sane in lockdown III.

My submission for the beat challenge, more of a freestyle as i couldn’t do layerings and things easily where I am at the minute. Was fun to do something a bit different though , thanks Pirate :slight_smile: .

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Hey everyone,

Here’s my entry. Really enjoyed having a go at this one, not usually the type of beat I would write to but it’s always fun to try something new and Maxsta is dopeeeeee so great to have the opportunity to work with his production. Hope you enjoy :upside_down_face:

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Really enjoyed this take on the beat- you have found melodies in the track i didn’t even know ere there aha.

Hey! here’s my entry, uploaded to my private soundcloud but my professional account is @karnagekills for anyone interested! x
I typically go for darker beats, my genre is mainly drill/ grime… but this was definitely fun!

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I can’t rap lmao. I did my best to write to this beat.

Its inspired by Sophia Chang’s Memoir [“Baddest B**** in the Room”]

I recently got to speak with her about imposter syndrome and not feeling good enough and she told me to write a list of things that I am good at, a list of things that makes me, me. A list of things I can repeat to myself of what makes me great. And after I’m done writing the list, that I should write “I’m the Baddest B in the Room”

I wrote all that… right into this song lol.

Its funny, because when I first started writing, the song was about The exact opposite subject. I was going to write about how I wasn’t deserving or good enough and put that to the beat, but after talking to Sophia one night, I felt that this would be better to write about!

I hope you all enjoy!

Baddest B in the Room
By Sam Champagne

I, am a badass writer
I, Can sing beautifully yeah
I am a great producer
I can really engineer

I
I spent so many many
many years now
Sharpening my craft, cut records like shears now
Produce a beat that they all wanna hear now
Sing Melodies that get stuck in their head’s wow.

Remember days when they made me feel small
Won’t Let them do it no more

Won’t let them gaslight me
Just gas me up
I always saw what I want
What I mean’s enough
and now I know who I am, I am valuable
And if they say otherwise I am moving on

Cause I
Walk to my own tune
Run this midnight till noon
Was shy but now in bloom
I’m the Baddest B, In the room

Don’t need a damn costume
Great since I left the womb
Walk in head high assume
I’m the Baddest B, in the room

You, Dont ever let them make you feel like you’re incapable
Yeah you, got the skill and the drive that’ll let you change the world

Don’t let them gaslight you
Just gas you up
Always say what you mean
and yes you are enough
And now you know who you are
You are valuable
Look in the mirror go ahead and tell yourself right now

That I
Walk to my own tune
Run this midnight till noon
Was shy but now in bloom
I’m the Baddest B, In the room

Don’t need a damn costume
Great since I left the womb
Walk in head high assume
I’m the Baddest B, in the room

Yup lol

I didn’t know that B**** was a banned word here. I hope that doesn’t disqualify me, I wrote this all out of positivity. I can make a clean version if needed.

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https://soundcloud.com/jon-online/mix-and-blend-prod-maxsta/s-B338qCvKBni wave

Coldddd

Here’s my entry with lyrics below. I’m sorry the sound quality is poor, I recorded off a faulty mic and unfortunately this was the only take I could get before the deadline. I will re record this if I can later on.

Lyrics:

I grew up on the corner,
Young black boys like a broken lift we were out of order
Till I came in the game like Sword Art, still tryna open them doors like Sora
I wanna see kids stabbing up vocals, know a lot of kids getting stabby with borers
Back then would have hit man with the right hook, now I’m tryna find the right hook for the chorus
Need Champagne for the pain till the pain that’s in the champagne turns silent
It’s been everyday all black clothing, but I roll with a gold ting that’s vibrant
Is she gonna be bae, can’t say cos the last one got me excited
These tings love Bonny and Clyde but they ain’t gonna rides just hella one-sided

There’s a lot of mad things in the world right now,
I stay sick like covid cos I want hovis, Yhh I want the bread right now
Heard man are still racist, are they shameless, give a man a break like recess
I looked numerous places, could’ve turned aethist, all the time I couldn’t find Jesus

But I’m still gonna pray cos the world ain’t over
Tell the team that I’ve got them, if they’ve got a problem they can put the weight on my shoulder
Mo needs a habibti, I bet my east ting got a bestie, I’ll call them over
Yeah my girl came looking tangfastic, but her best friend came looking like clover

ay ay, and how we still broke and boujiee?
Santans and Monzos, with John Doe, jigga got cards like Yugi
Tryna ball like Melo and Lonzo, if you’re on bro then call me Dikembe
Ain’t none of this fufu business round here, man’ll get wrapped like Kenkey
and the girls send essays so true say ain’t opened the snap since Wednesday
Still young like MA, no wife so life gets chopped, i’m Sensei
Gotta stick to the cause, MK, now the pengs say I’m their MCM
But I’m still in my bag like birkin cos I’m certain imma break these ends like
I can’t just be anyone else,
Life is a gamble, I’ll bet on myself
Last year probably would’ve bought her a handbag
This year she can go geddit herself

I’m just tryna have fun
In my teen age yh man are still young
but it don’t mean that man’ll get spun are you dumb? ain’t seen what man have just done
my new song gets love in the ends
your ting couldn’t get love from your friends
I’m on the grind for my mum and her benz
And the ice for my wrist I’m the new Ben 10
showerman, bring out the coats and dat
i’m a powerman, i’m like ghost and dat
sour man talking the most and dat
I’mma tower man, big up and the growth and dat
6 paths of my pain I’m nagato out here tryna be the next hokage,
Bare man throwing shade, like shadow clones
all jokes till I strike, coming like Sasuke

And i’m still on the corner
One day man’ll turn to a baller
Tell Nike hit me with the sponsor
I need the free kicks like kevin de bruyne
I’ve been out of the box like Joe Hart
Can’t tell me bout art, I’m Mozart
Been bad to the bone like a boner now Latinas tryna throw the Aloha

D, U to the S to the K
Man I’ve been who gyally wanna text in the rave
These yutes really wanna test what I say?
That’s cool, tell a brudda get to the stage
I can’t say I’m the best my age
But my heart still comes out my chest when I spray
Grind from the dawn to the rest of my name
And I’ll still die tryna be the best in the game

Do it for my home that’s HA3
Big up all the bros from the HA streets
They don’t even know bout the HA heat
And my ex doesn’t know what she HA D but
I’ve been tryna make the young boys rise,
I see the future like hinata’s eyes
Due to move out of the Gaza sides
I’ve got the whole crew till the afterlife

I heard the moneys still calling
Real talk heard the money’s still calling

I’m on airplane mode like nines, so I can’t lie, mummy imma text in the morning


Here’s my latest release as well btw

6 Likes

yes bro that’s hard!

‘Tell Nike hit me with the sponsor
I need the free kicks like kevin de bruyne’

jokesssss! :sweat_smile:

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Can’t get a better version of this due to work and stuff so I guess what I already put in will have to be my entry entered this 17 days ago originally but just so it doesn’t get forgotten. https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/5rFcePX2CMjMjQjM6

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For someone who says they can’t do something you did an excellent job at doing it. Lol. Love this.

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This was the best one I’ve heard so far in my opinion. Great Job man keep it up. :grinning: :fire:

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Keep coming back to this one - effortless flows

Yoooo hope everyone’s good! Anyone know if the winner/runners up have been anounced yet??