My Favorite SunVox Compo Entries That Didn’t Win

SunVox Compo, this annual event has begun once again at the start of the years where all the SunVox users has attempted their best on writing the potential demo track in the future, using all the skills they have learn, introducing their secret weapons that define the new era of synthesis for the software, and telling their unique stories with their pieces.

There are many great tracks on the list, but there are only three spots for the next demo tracks, meaning that there are always great SunVox entries didn’t win as a result. Hence, I decided to share some of our tracks can’t be covered at the top 3 positions, yet they are my favorite which I have been listening them from time to time, and I hope many people would know winning the contest or not, there are always people liking your tracks, and even have meaning for them. The following list doesn’t have a particular order besides the year of the contest, but let’s start with the entries since I first join the compo!

menthes – hell needle (2019)

The composition of this track was spectacular since the melody and chord progression doesn’t follow the standard pop or EDM song, but a jazz like improvised style which brings a little chaos and unpredictability which is exciting to listen. This piece has a lot of charms which it sounds like Saga Mega Drive scrolling shooting games, especially the Lead2 instantly reminding me of the Ranger X guitar which is my favorite instrument in the track. Despite such a complex arrangement, this project only consists a minimal of 27 modules, fitting everything under 8 track within a single pattern, which is an early awesome example where simplicity can also happened in great entries. (While PhilipBergwerf has further proved this with his winning We want Peace and Amsterdam 1907)

SawZer – FTL (2019)

This was probably the first time I have ever heard a sync lead without using sampler in SunVox, and before that, I didn’t know that was possible since neither I knew the phase modulation trick nor resetting LFO or metamodule playback. This definitely was a refreshing sound in SunVox at the time. This slow synthwave track really makes me think of a hi-tech spaceship travel around the enormous space in breakneak speed, rattling and throttling through the fabric of space and time. The bass is badass, showing the toughness of the spaceship, doubled as the melody, perfectly supporting the whole track as the core element.

Stlmos – Candles (2020)

This calm little Lofi(?) track really captures the flickering candle flame really well, just with a simple soft chord sound with a bit of volume bounce. The structure of the track is also well written since it gives me the scene starting with the soft flame glow, slowly zooming out with showing the candle, on the writing desk in the little comfy room, and it turned out the room had other candles lights as well, gently illuminating the room with their weak, warm light of flame, contributing their lights into their room with different shapes and sizes.

sk0 – submergence (2020)

This is still my favorite track from sk0 although the mix was a bit too loud and bright for the genre and for my taste. Its refreshing atmosphere actually made me reminded of sitting at in the warm sunny beach in the vacation, feeling and hearing the cool, slow, gentle wave billowing on the coastal, and slowly see the sun setting at the horizon, which is refreshing.

STOICSOUND – Street Lights (2020)

Another inspiring entry I like with a story about lights and power grids. Once upon at time, in a quiet and darkening suburb because of the sunset, a power generator had kick started, generating power through the power lines and through the humming transformers to the streets. A set of street lights blinked, warming the inner filaments that heats the filament for ignite the sodium in the lamp. Out of sudden, Ding! The first set of streets light has lit, bringing their iconic, warm and golden light across the street, leading drivers and workers back to their home, traveling along the golden carpet that gradually laid from the close East to the far West. As the chimes comes in, people had gone to the home with switching their lights on, slowly lighting their houses, and skyscrapers, create a beautiful skyline of the night, on top of the networks of the golden carpets, which is an image we never forget.

GreenPix & fuzion_mixer – Misty funk (2021)

Welcome to the Epic Sax Guy of the SunVox Compo Entries! Well, at least that sawtooth lead have the similar groove and vibe every time I listen to it, which is highly catchy. Beyond that epic sax guy moment, the intro was also beautifully done, slowly introducing the muffled filtered supersaw key with subtle chips and chirps, up to a point where the pads had introduced, a sudden silence came in for building the up tensions before the Lead sound.

MonoBen – PoppinRumba (2021)

I think MonoBen has won my “Most Unexpectedly Addictive Award” with this track.

SawZer & Trackerbound – Satellite (2021)

Now we have the most powerful collaboration duo combination! I have been enjoying this track in terms of the composition and the song structure which it started from the uplifting electro house along with the jumpy melody, smoothly launching into the drum and bass with a more serious tone by gradually accelerating the tempo. Even though there are the wobbly pudding, epic saw guy and many other exciting tracks in the collection, for me, besides the winning entries, this track always comes in mind at first when I think of the 2021 Compo, as the icon of the event.

Worldsday – Mastermind (2022)

During the submission period of the 2022 compo, we were sharing the hints of our entries, and at one point, we were joking about someone is going to submit a baroque piece, and combining with some harder genre like EDM or Hardstyle, thus the “Hard Baroque”. Once a joke has coincidentally became the reality since there was a mysterious composer popped up by releasing this gold. Despite the simplicity of the sound design, consisting a triangle as a piano and some dual saw waves as strings and the melody, this composer has a solid foundation of baroque and classical music theories which the track consists a string like arrangement for the supersaw chord stack while the main melodies has interesting use of broken chord and arpeggios with panning and accents which are well articulated and concise yet not mechanical, similar to some of the iconic fugue pieces back in the Baroque period.

Although it didn’t win the compo, I really wish to know who is the mysterious composer behind this Hard Baroque piece because I can’t find anything related this track on the internet besides as a compo entry.

PhilipBergwerf – What if Bach was a DJ (2025)

From one Baroque to another, and this one even has the famous name Bach on the track name. Similar to mastermind, its instrument designs are simple, consisting a set of choir synths, a soft bass and his iconic Harmonix Synth as arpeggios, but the charms of the track is from the composition with the moody and brooding atmosphere. This piece means a lot since this resonated me very much in the darkest time of my Master degree, and it gave me a hard to describe feeling which I am going to explain it abstractly: during listening the piece, my inner robotic hawk had desperately screeched due to the lost sense of purpose in all the meaningless hustle of my master degree, remembering how I have shared happiness for my communities through my music and crafts, how I slay bugs and build the enterprise, guarding and fighting for the domain of collection procedure process in the world of a utility system. This brooding piece helped me to deeply reflect who I am and what my purpose suppose to be, helping me to finish the track Skri.De-araakskra, and many things after that.

It didn’t win the compo, but it wins the Most Memorable And Meaningful Entries of 2025 deep in my core.

So?ing Machine – Bubble Blinders and Surgeon’s Kintsugi (2019, 2024)

Wait… Did you missed out… someone’s track? like… So?ing Machine?

Yes! I have purposely held the two So?ing Machine’s tracks till the end of the collection because these tracks has made me rethink about music, and these entries bring out some really good messages for the grand final of the post, but this is a long one, taking half of the post.

In the earlier days of my music writing and my preference of my music, even though I have learnt piano, the music I made and I listened tended to a bit more empowering or just listening the overall melody, such as uplifting trance or epic, bombastic orchestral trailer music. Even when I listen to classical music, my taste of my music still staying at exciting melody and epic moments, aka the “wow” factor. My earlier entries such as Soar Beyond and Superposition had such traits, just to hype the event with a refreshing supersaw or track switch, but… story wise, what are they? Soar Beyond, but I soar with my wings for what? There aren’t enough context or substance in the track, and this is the reason why I haven’t uploaded these tracks onto Newgrounds because I want to give them a story to make it meaningful instead of just hyping the dance floor.

Seemsingly, everything is out of topic, but this is where Bubble Blinders comes in. Bubble Blinders is different since besides being to exciting to listen, this is an inspiring track which it has a high degree of freedom to imagine a your own scenes and stories, yet it is not aimless since it has perfectly expressed and articulated instruments and a well themed and framed atmosphere, set the framework for the users to interpreted such that we all might have different story and understanding, yet their direction stay aligned just like some of the well written novels. There are a few perspectives to see the same tracks, starting from a moody and quiet percussive bell or gong, alone with some glitchy and chripy noise here and there, deepening with the soft and dark sub bass, which you could imagine where you get lost in a dark cave, feel lost in your life, or get lost something that means a lot for you, but a realization, or a reflection, or letting go the meaningless stubbornness or struggle, letting them fading and fragmenting into the void, you will always found your light. No matter it is the exit of the maze like cave, your new opportunity for your future, or the lessons you have learnt to improve yourselves, you have finally resolved your hardship although it was a bit heavy during the process. At the end of the track, the same beginning motif and instrument appeared once again, but now you have a whole new understanding to the same subject, a sense of growth. This is just the surface since I haven’t even talking about the tension, sound designs and dynamics. This is purely art.

Unfortunately, when I was new into the Compo event, I had a disagreement to his post in the past since when I was looking into the project… “Ah… why is that so messy…” and I have even deducted a mark for that, but it was clearly my ignorance since I didn’t really understand the artistic choice and logic behind the pattern layout until I have figured it out in his later winning entry Some of our tracks can’t be covered, and I also didn’t have the taste of music as detailed and as deep as now by understanding tiny timbre and articulation change of instruments, and the atmosphere shift of the piece that reflects the changing moments of the story, considering how I made and feel music back in the days. (You may listen how flat my melodies in soar beyond and superposition in terms of expressions and textures, comparing to my recent tracks like the trumpet of the Spaghetti Express Train)

Nevertheless, as time pasted with developed a better sense to listen music, the more I listened to Bubble Blinders, the more I have found its charms and merits which is similar to wine that it tastes good, but better when it ages since for every iteration of the track, it makes me get inspired a new yet relevant story, and this is some of the rare tracks I can play it infinitely long and still get inspired. This track helps me learn how to understand whoy (what, how and why) an artist do a specific expression and texture for their instruments and passages, and understand and connect with the artists behind the stories.

Sounds familiar? It ends up becoming my opinions to AI generated contents. Many people thought music is only about making money, getting popular, and maximize the number of songs per time frame, which is their goal, their result and their fame, but as someone who have been making music and joining SunVox Compo for many years, what I want are the stories behind the artists and how I can connect and feel related with them through their arts and the use of particular details and ideas without cheating with AI, showing their passions and mastery with their bare claws and talons onto their software or hardware of choice, which are something I have described as the “Soul” in arts that is slowly decaying in this highly automated world, talking about efficiency, productivity, and wow factors only.

These days, when I read the same post, this makes me a little smile since I just found it relatable to what I now think about the music, and how I evaluate the entries and music in general, just like the entry where the reappearance of the same instrument and melody from the beginning feels differently, ended with a perfect circle.

In fact, I have played the SunVox project during some of my tough coding assignments, and this inspiring track helped me a lot on focusing my works and brainstorming the ideas.

In conclusion, not only these are highly inspiring tracks, but they are also some of the tracks that make me rethink about the meaning of music, putting some deep thoughts about arts; otherwise, I would probably still only writing Trance or other EDM tracks these days with similar instruments without thinking much of the expressions and textures, and have my AI viewpoint differently.

The Epilogue

Alright, EOF flag has risen, so it is the time for the points.

The first point about this post is how your Entries are admired or changes others even it is not winning. In the past compos, I rate high for these tracks, and even some of them are so inspiring and life changing which they deserve to be the demo track. I even have put some of the entries above into the sunvox compo example folder because they win my vote in many aspects; however, not everyone has the same experience through life resulting in a different perception to the same piece, rating them differently. As a result, my definition of a masterpiece could be different for you, and vice versa. There are always tracks you find underrated.

Hence, to reveal entries that are hidden gems for you, I wanna ask the following questions:
– What is your favorite entries that didn’t won? Or any entries you didn’t like but it is now your favorite?
– What is the favorite part to the entries of your choice?
– Does it mean something for you that others don’t understand or experienced?

Moving onto my second point, there is a reason why the So?ing Machine part is exceptionally long because it is also about the value of the Compos and Arts. It is true that I enjoy some of the EDM entries that is empowering and uplifting, or something complex and cool in the entries, but for me, the most important thing about the Compo and music in general are about connecting and understanding artists through their arts, seeing how users trying their best to tell their stories, seeing how passionate users has refine their tracks down to the smallest details, and seeing how they have learnt all the music stuff with their tools, something not AI can replicate and replace.

Thus, it is the time for giving your past and upcoming entries a shine, once again, through the darkness of the irrational AI hype, with the SunVox Compo 2026.

Details:
– Offical Warmplace Forum Announcement (Might not be accessible due to DDoS Attack to the forum)
– Renoise Forum Mirror
– Newgound Mirror