We're pleased to announce the final winners of our Summer song contest! The rules were to create a short song highlighting at least one Orange Tree Samples library in the most cliched sound of a genre imaginable. Incidentally, this compositional approach is a useful trick to combat writers' block and find inspiration rather than waiting for it to find you.

The prizes include winning up to 500 Orange Slices, and even a chance at getting our upcoming Evolution guitar library prior to its release to the public.

In the end, we received dozens of fantastic tracks in a wide variety of styles of music. When reviewing them all, a couple stood out as clear winners. We also have a special announcement after this, so stick around for that, too.

Without further ado, here are your Summer song contest champions:

1st Place:

Pierluigi Furzi - "OTS Song Contest"

This heavy metal piece features our Evolution Dracus 8-string electric guitar library, highlighting it's distorted sound as well as clean tones. The mysterious-sounding clean guitar in the bridge utilizes a reverse reverb and tasteful slides between chords, offering a fantastic contrast to the high-adrenaline distorted guitar chugs and piercing pinch harmonics in the other sections of the song. While there are definitely a lot of stereotypical metal elements in this song, there are still some cool original elements that shine through.

Well done, Pierluigi--you've won a copy of our upcoming Evolution Rick 12 electric guitar sample library right now!


2nd Place: (tie)

Jonas Wikstrand - "Jittery"

Old-timey swing tune, featuring our CoreBass Pear upright bass library. This song definitely calls back to the days of monocled, top-hatted singers. Although there probably isn't any cane twirling involved in this piece, Jonas did a brilliant job of juxtaposing an upbeat swing accompaniment and melancholy vocals, all run through a believable emulation of a battered vintage radio (or perhaps the horn of a dusty gramophone).

Great job, Jonas, you're the winner of 500 Orange Slices, redeemable for a 50% off discount.


2nd Place: (tie)

1SSS Studios - "Jesus Clip"

While this song takes a little while to get started, things really kick in once the drums and muted double-tracked guitars enter. This song's production is fantastic, and it's evident that the composer has a good understanding of how the instrumentation/arranging works in contemporary Christian music.

Our Evolution Strawberry, Evolution Steel Strings, Evolution Dracus, and Evolution Stratosphere sample libraries were all used in this composition.

Congratulations, Sal, you've won 500 Orange Slices!


3rd Place: (tie)

Clayton Richards - "Us Against The World"

This is a soothing 80's dream pop tune featuring our Evolution Strawberry electric guitar library. The stereotypical echoey drums are embellished with some fantastic subtle synth effects, making it an easy listen without being overly simplistic. There's also a ton of gorgeous ambient guitars in the background, layered together to form a cushiony support for the more prominent instruments.

Congratulations, Clayton--you've won 250 Orange Slices, redeemable for 25% off.


3rd Place: (tie)

Edsel McCrea - "Orange Tree Mix"

This piece features Cherry Electric Bass, Evolution Stratosphere, Evolution Strawberry, Evolution Dracus, and Evolution Nylon. The composition has hints of electronica and RnB,

Great job Edsel, you've won 250 Orange Slices!


3rd Place: (tie)

Dane Post - "Ricochet"

Our SLIDE Lap Steel, Evolution Dracus, Evolution Steel Strings, and Evolution Rick libraries are all featured in this wonderfully Western-sounding tune. Dane did a fantastic job with those lap steel slides--you can really visualize the slide moving across the strings as it transitions between single notes and chords. The composition is also well done, and evoking images of a victorious hero riding their horse into the sunset. But it isn't overly cliched--the chord movement and melody are excellently crafted.

Congratulations, Dane, you've won 250 Orange Slices!


We have another surprise for all six winners.

See, we haven't been entirely truthful with you. We made out that there was only a single new Evolution guitar library to be released. There isn't. There are TWO new Evolution guitar libraries--and we're excited to present all six of you with a copy of the second even-more-mysterious upcoming library, so check out your downloads page to find out what it is.

In appreciation for all the other fantastic submissions we received--there were a TON of great songs that made our job difficult (hence all the ties)--we're also awarding everybody else 100 Orange Slices, redeemable for an extra 10% discount.

Thank you all for participating in the 2016 Summer Song Contest!

Posted on July 11, 2016

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