The Challenge May 2011

Renesongs · 2011-05-02T17:24:14+00:00

Jacquesg4j wrote -Music Moods- It was great to see so many entries in the last few challenges and I feel that a lot of it was because of the great topics that were chosen to keep the field open to most of the Formites... I would like to continue on the openness with the following idea... ... As I listened to the Emotional Compositions of the last challenge I could always see some picture or scenario that was triggered by the songs. I could see Dr. Gray from Grey's anatomy crying after losing a patient while some of your songs were playing in the background or Michael Scofield on Prison Break planning something while listening to our compositions. And as we all know music plays a huge role in setting the atmosphere for certain occasions... SO for this month’s challenge, you have to first create a visual scenario for us to imagine in our heads, and then create a musical piece that would set the mood for that. Basically your entry has to be accompanied by text to create the scenario. Here are a few examples of scenarios (you can use them if you want or create your own): 1) Grant is a 25 year old bachelor that visited Vegas to get drunk and gamble out all of his money because he hardly had money left in the first place. He neither had hope or confidence left... But then things started to change. He got lucky in the Casino and won $20 mil. He is driving his beat up Dodge pickup, cruising down the highway, knowing he has a new beginning and he is ready to take the world by storm. 2) David and his wife Rebecca were trying to have a kid for 10 years and after they realised that they were getting old, they decided to apply for adoption. They became the foster parents of Caylee, a beautiful 5 year old girl with brown hair and the biggest brown eyes you have ever seen. Two weeks before Caylee's 7th birthday the couple was severely traumatised after Caylee was only given 1 month to live after being diagnosed with leukaemia. After many treatments Caylee passed away and the couple was devastated when the doctor gave them the news in the waiting area of the hospital. Closing Date is 23:59:59 Wed 25 May 2011

Jacquesg4j

How do I add another file to my BOX account? Every time I want to log in it takes me to my previous file that I shared??

[EDIT] No worries I got it right!

Highway-Chile

The clock is ticking down and alas I have had not enough time to prepare an offering my Lords.

Sorry, I have been watching Game Of Thrones.....but I do have a question.

I asked about the 4 instrument limitation before and the answers were unclear to me as I should have maybe asked more. It was suggested to think of it as a four piece band, what can be done live. That makes sense but what about in the event of keys, synths to be exact that play multiple parts?

A synth can layer multiple parts and trigger loops...either as splits on the keyboard or just with multiple controllers and some sort of sequencer-all controlled by a single keyboard player. When recording however it is much easier and faster to just record separate tracks for each layer and you have more control that way also.

So consider a submission containing: 1 electric guitar, 1 acoustic guitar, one bass guitar and one keyboard triggering two distinct pad layers and a rhythmic loop.......... is this acceptable? Or is it 4 instrument voices only...no doubling or layering, triggering a sequenced loop etc.... period?

And if it turned out it took more than 4 stereo tracks and also several MIDI tracks to record, a master, additional session for mastering etc....... is that acceptable? Or is it 4 tracks and a Master track, period?

I hope it does not appear nit picky......in the event I post I just want to be sure I stay within the boundaries........ and I sometimes use some synth pad layering and loops, especially in cinematic type stuff which to me is what this months challenge suggests.

Renesongs

Put simply thing of your composition as something that could be played by a quartet (without backtracks, loopers, samplers and the ilk)

Hammeron

deefstes wrote
Renesongs wrote
May one enter oneself in multiple categories?
I given this some thought and I don't see the harm so long as each entry is significantly different.
I'm not sure I understand this. Does this refer to the categories A, I and B? If so, how can someone be advanced and at the same time a beginner?

I think when they refer to entering multiple catagories, it's not the A, I and B they refer to but the two song type scenarios put up by jacques ie. 1 or 2. {The moods} ???

Warren

Highway Chile wrote The clock is ticking down and alas I have had not enough time to prepare an offering my Lords.
.
.
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The spirit of the instrument limit is (I believe) designed to constrain those entrants who might have the ability to build an entire orchestra all by themselves ? That is, it's to limit the playing field just a bit.

That said, I've double-tracked guitars on many of my entries and it's still considered one instrument. However, both tracks always have the same dry recorded signal modded in different ways. If you actually play a different melody/riff on another track it's a separate instrument.

PS: Voice track is free!

Bob-Dubery

Hammeron wrote
deefstes wrote
Renesongs wrote
May one enter oneself in multiple categories?
I given this some thought and I don't see the harm so long as each entry is significantly different.
I'm not sure I understand this. Does this refer to the categories A, I and B? If so, how can someone be advanced and at the same time a beginner?
I think when they refer to entering multiple catagories, it's not the A, I and B they refer to but the two song type scenarios put up by jacques ie. 1 or 2. {The moods} ???

No. The categories as in "advanced", "intermediate" and "beginner"

It was established a while back that for the purposes of this challenge (not necessarily any other) you could submit entries for both "moods". However that opened up another door for people to put entries in different categories. Rene has clarified that that's OK as long as your entries are significantly different from each other. So you can't just take the same clip, or a clip with one note changed, and enter it into multiple categories.

Hammeron

X-rated Bob wrote
Hammeron wrote
deefstes wrote
Renesongs wrote
May one enter oneself in multiple categories?
I given this some thought and I don't see the harm so long as each entry is significantly different.
I'm not sure I understand this. Does this refer to the categories A, I and B? If so, how can someone be advanced and at the same time a beginner?
I think when they refer to entering multiple catagories, it's not the A, I and B they refer to but the two song type scenarios put up by jacques ie. 1 or 2. {The moods} ???
No. The categories as in "advanced", "intermediate" and "beginner"

It was established a while back that for the purposes of this challenge (not necessarily any other) you could submit entries for both "moods". However that opened up another door for people to put entries in different categories. Rene has clarified that that's OK as long as your entries are significantly different from each other. So you can't just take the same clip, or a clip with one note changed, and enter it into multiple categories.

OK, so each member could potentially have 6 entries.
A, I and B for mood 1...and A, I and B for mood 2,,,,Yea?

Hammeron

Well, whatever.

I have entered 1 track into mood 2.
It's just me on the Epi Explorer playing thru my Zoom 30w moddeling amp. There's an echo effect added to the final cut.

Renesongs

OK, so each member could potentially have 6 entries.
A, I and B for mood 1...and A, I and B for mood 2,,,,Yea?

Yes you could but why would you want to do that to yourself?

Bob-Dubery

Hammeron wrote OK, so each member could potentially have 6 entries.
A, I and B for mood 1...and A, I and B for mood 2,,,,Yea?

Potentially, yes. But they would have to be 6 separate entries, significantly different from each other.

Hammeron

Renesongs wrote
OK, so each member could potentially have 6 entries.
A, I and B for mood 1...and A, I and B for mood 2,,,,Yea?
Yes you could but why would you want to do that to yourself?

Yip, especially when tomorrow's the deadline! ?

Jacquesg4j

Who have already submitted their entries?

Hammeron

Jacquesg4j wrote Who have already submitted their entries?

I submitted one.
But I have just realised that it is actually longer than the rules recommend by quite a bit.
I recorded it as a beginner some 3 years ago and thought that it would go nicely with mood 2.
I can hear where it could be clipped, it's pretty obvious, but I dont have access to the original to be able to do that.
So be it. :-[

Bob-Dubery

Hammeron wrote
Jacquesg4j wrote Who have already submitted their entries?

I submitted one.
But I have just realised that it is actually longer than the rules recommend by quite a bit.
I recorded it as a beginner some 3 years ago and thought that it would go nicely with mood 2.
I can hear where it could be clipped, it's pretty obvious, but I dont have access to the original to be able to do that.
So be it. :-[

You don't need the original - as long as your entry is in something like mp3 or wav IE not tied to a specific application.

All you need is whatever you've uploaded and a freeware sound wave editor such as Audacity.

Squonk

I know we dont have this in the rules, but shouldn't competition entries be newly recorded pieces.

When Norio first suggested this long years ago it was an idea he got from a photographic forum, where someone would suggest a topic and they all had a day or so to submit their results.

I feel IMO this is how we should run these challenges, The topic is given and then we are forced to come up with something on the spot, this to me is the best part of the challenge, and added pressure to be creative in a short space of time.

I am not having a go at Hammeron at all, it's not in the rules so her piece should be submitted ?

In this months case, we had two scenarios, we were supposed understand the scenario and then write a piece about the scenario, not try and fit an already written piece to the scenario.

Just my thoughts, use them or lose them

Hammeron

Squonk wrote I know we dont have this in the rules, but shouldn't competition entries be newly recorded pieces.

When Norio first suggested this long years ago it was an idea he got from a photographic forum, where someone would suggest a topic and they all had a day or so to submit their results.

I feel IMO this is how we should run these challenges, The topic is given and then we are forced to come up with something on the spot, this to me is the best part of the challenge, and added pressure to be creative in a short space of time.

I am not having a go at Hammeron at all, it's not in the rules so her piece should be submitted ?

In this months case, we had two scenarios, we were supposed understand the scenario and then write a piece about the scenario, not try and fit an already written piece to the scenario.

Just my thoughts, use them or lose them

I thought about that to. I mean, I could have said it was recorded 3 days ago and no-one {except myself} would have been the wiser, but the truth is it wasn't.

Squonk

Hammeron wrote
I thought about that to. I mean, I could have said it was recorded 3 days ago and no-one {except myself} would have been the wiser, but the truth is it wasn't.

But dont let this stop you entering the piece(as the rules allow it) , would love to hear it ?

Jacquesg4j

It might make it a challenge for the folks coming up with the topics to get a topic that force the guys to write new stuff... But then maybe less people would enter... And we don't want that!

My topic was gonna be : "Incorporate the famous Nokia Tune into a musical piece" ... That would force people to write new stuff!

deefstes

You make a good point Squonk but I'm not sure how enforcable it is (and no, enforcable is not a dictionaried word and neither is dictionaried). Apart from the fact that we'd have to rely on entrants' word, which I have no problem with, I believe that sometimes it is difficult even for an entrant to ascertain how old his tune is.

On two of the past three challenges I've used themes which I've explored long ago already but never actually used in a song. So to say that those themes came to me as I pondered the challenge of the month would be false. What I could say is that, as I pondered the challenge, those themes resurfaced as appropriate to the challenge, which in essence is similar to Hammeron's piece, the only difference is that she has actually made the effort of recording it while I couldn't be bothered and only did so for the challenge.

What I'm saying, through all that babble, is that I like your interpretation and I would also like to see entrants coming up with a tune specifically for the challenge, but I wouldn't discourage participation simply because the tune happens to be an old one. Not sure how to word that into challenge rules.

Bob-Dubery

Squonk wrote I know we dont have this in the rules, but shouldn't competition entries be newly recorded pieces.

Apart from that being absolutely unenforcable, I don't believe it should be an issue as long as the work is original.

Music doesn't always get written to order or quickly. Some famous songwriters have little ideas, riffs or odd lines, that they carry around in their head or a notebook for years before they find something to do with them.

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