Hello, I'd be willing to do sound effects and music for you if you haven't found anybody yet 

Pretty much, here's hoping this turns into something. I'll get some samples up soon...

[THE QUASI-SEMI-BIWEEKLY TIGSOURCE MUSICALICIOUS JAM: Part 5]

THE QUASI-SEMI-BIWEEKLY TIGSOURCE MUSICALICIOUS JAM: Part 5

Our new theme is:

ASSEMBLEE MUZAK MASH-UP

You are tasked to record, sample, compose and synthesize a pool of user-uploaded resources to be employed by all participants in the composition of muzak: more specifically, aural-wallpaper-looping-game-music. These pieces will then (hopefully) be submitted to Assemblee in a shared thread.

Actual bland and indistinct elevator-sounding pieces very welcome. Have fun with it!

Here's a quick run-down of the rules:

-I will Provide a theme for the challenge
-You will be given THREE WEEKS
-You will be given to compose a song with said theme (consistent with the last compo)
-You will post your samples HERE, preferably in WAV format
-You will post your song HERE, in the official challenge thread
-People will listen to your song
-They will say good things or bad things about it
-People will cry
-A winner will be chosen.
-The winner will choose the theme for and be the MC of the next challenge.

Compo ends November 27, 2009!

So we're looking at a Self-Recorded Muzak Mash-Up? I like it. Anything self-composed, self-synthesized, self-sampled, or self-recorded goes. What would be the time-limit? Same deadline as Assemblee Part One? This sounds good to everybody?

Muzak is a great idea, I can say that would be challenging and interesting for me. Real life recordings is not bad, either. I'd be up for giving that one a go.

Any lurkers/participants out there care to give your thoughts? Mash-up/Assemblee, Muzak, Real Life Recordings? They all sound like solid themes to me.

That's not a bad idea, maybe I can work something like that in... or maybe just modify the flow of the composition...

Big update, I've added Checkpoint, Sweet Spot, Starman, Funky World, and Dog Eat Dog. This new stuff was written to loop seamlessly without release tails or echos getting in the way.

Thanks for listening. That track kind of had a Fatboy Slim feel to me... you know, you've got to walk without rhythm. That way it won't attract the worm.

I think I'll do that, and slap the tails on at the beginning of the track. Kind of ugly, but it does seem like a practical solution. Cheers

Anyone got any other ideas they'd like to pitch? This is kind of scary thing.

Think we should just do this? Not sure what the rules/criteria could be... There are lot of different ways to go about doing this. I like the idea of one-shot multisamples allowed for any tonal/musical/melodic notes and rhythmic material like drums and percussion must be in a loop, and you could create these loops with any sounds you wanted.

Well, that's where the challenge part comes in. A challenge to make good samples, a challenge to make a good composition

But this is completely theoretical at the moment. There's lots of other stuff that could be done. I think.

[About me:]

Thanks for visiting. Newest stuff is at the bottom.

I've got my "studio" back in order, going to tweak the mixdowns on the first 4 tunes as they sound a little bit 'boxy' on my monitors...

About me:

I'm... a lazy perfectionist.

Music:

    Fizz
    Walk Without Rhythm
    You Might Be Missing Some of the Benefits That Stereo Can Provide
    Checkpoint
    Sweet Spot
    Starman
    Funky World
    Dog Eat Dog
    Life Underwater

SFX:

    Working on it

Cheers guys, appreciate the thoughts. And thanks Craig Stern for running a nice challenge 

Boo is a bit of a Elfman/Williams hybrid, a really stripped down and hokey parody, sorta. Just watched Hook recently after not having seen it in a very long time, hence the title 'Boo Box.' Shit was bangerang. Also, the cheeky Halloween-themed vinyl LP influence is pretty apparent. I miss those days...

Anybody got any ideas for what the next challenge should be? I'm thinking maybe ripping the Assemblee compo and doing the same thing, where we all make samples and are restricted to use only those samples in our compositions and nothing else. One of those mash-up deals, but while it's trendy. And then maybe you could submit your tune(s) to Assemblee.

Heres meh tune "The Pumpkins Gone Bad" First half is a spooky build up to a groovin Ghosteastra :D

http://senduit.com/cacb97

its only up for a week, casue Ive nowhere to host it

This tune is great. I also like the atmosphere in 0rel's sketch #2... Completely forgot about the last challenge, barely caught this one. Good idea for a compo

Compound - Boo Box

Interesting... Might give Kraftwerk's Pocket Calculator a stab...

[SUPER Mega Battle Racer X - Stage 1-1]

Ah sorry, I got a little bit distracted, tend to do that sometimes...

better like that i think. ...it's a bit like in "story" i thought. the intro stands for the evil forces, and the conflict... then "fight" -> victory. -- that concept could be also helpful to capture other kinds of scenarios, i thought. just because i'm having difficulties to think in larger structures... like, how to arrange small pattern loops in a full song. and to make it work on a larger scale...

That was a sort of fortune manifesting itself there as I didn't plan in advance, wrote a handful of different melodies/riffs isolated from each other then mashed 'em all together. You probably need some sort narrative, though, for things to be interesting, even if it can only be identified in hindsight.

actually, i was surprised as well. it seems that these extracted bass samples are just perfect to get clear sounding bass timbres, what i always liked about the SNES sound. - exported with OpenSPC i'm getting always odd sample frequencies (like 32 khz, 68576 Hz, 34288 Hz...), for all samples a different one. rougher samples give even clearer sound sometimes, because of the aliasing, probably... i've never really played with such basic sampling before, but it's oddly productive and fun, it seems (at the cost of some high-end quality of course).

That's interesting, I noticed this too, SNES samples are quite punchy. The musicians that wrote SNES tunes picked/designed very good sounds, they've got bite. The artifacts and aliasing that accompany them add a pleasant sheen, which seem to produce a surprisingly full character. Ton of fun to play with...

I think sample-rate reduction could probably be considered a fundamental production trick...

@power sound:
something interesting here: each track dropped into Audacity gives the following diagrams:
* energy spectrum
* musical pitch
* waveform

Now this was some interesting data, spurred me to do a little investigating.... Turned up this nice VST here: sonogram sg-1. It's been a while since I touched these things, but there are some patterns in there... Seem to paint a very accurate picture of the sub & bass regions which don't show up in other forms of analysis. Very cool, definitely going to continue experimenting with this 



The pitch descent present in kick drums shows up pretty well, I'd say that's something that would come in handy when assembling bottom-heavy tunes...

But, anyways, sorry for the delay. I think my pick will be, with its memorable fanfare and gravity-defying bassline, SUPER Mega Battle Racer X - Stage 1-1! Battle Racer's charming aesthetic and powerful sound make for an awesome and appropriate composition. Great job, pgil, I think you may have to make a thread now.

I hope everybody noticed something they found interesting at some point. See you all in Round 3, I hope!

Hey 0rel, thanks for listening and for the feedback. I changed some bits around based on your feelings, went full filt on that weird dissonance. The first phrase was actually a boss battle thing intended for the end, but ended up as an intro somehow...

Your little sketches are sounding funky, I'm fond of 'peaceful evening,' nice vibes there, bass has sounds full. Did you use a SNES sample for it? You seem to consistently get a solid bass timbres... And hats, too, you do nice work with your shuffly shakers/hats... More than a few of things would probably be worth your time to expand into full tunes. 'connect&cut' would be one of those, that one is very cool, great sound. I dig the hard tones and manic licks.

I've now realized if I was smart, I would've had the thought to make this a SNES compo... Oops

Trickgief.

It's a simple thing, first you gotta grab this tool and once you've got your ROM loaded in it, pick the save separately option.

One last thing, I'm thinking about making the 27th a hard deadline, no more tunes allowed after that. Does that sound reasonable to you all? Too long, too short?

[@pgil:]

Eh, a little feedback can't hurt... the 'winner' should probably be chosen by the entrants, anyway.

@pgil: Wow, Battle Racer is an impressive work. Highly dynamic, catchy and colorful melody, great attention to detail. That bassline is a stroke of genius, sits well underneath the brass, mind if I ask how you came up with it?

@Rynen10K: Sorry about the deadline thing . You've got a sweet tune, though. I'm fond mostly of the 1st one. I agree that the orchestra hits could be interesting but they need some refinement. Needs some trimming... I think you might be mixing the drums a little too low in comparison to other things, maybe. Also might be hearing some overcompression, which never a good thing and could be doing some funny things to the drums.

But overall, the track sounds great to me. That 2nd melody that comes in with that harmonic shift is awesome, the out-of-time sort of feeling one. Great effect, pretty clever. The whole piece sounds period-accurate.

@0rel: I really dig the standout 'holidays in space' thing you've got. Solid textures on everything, bouncy feel, thick sound and the bass comes through particularly deep. The authentic funky beats and smooth harmonies give it a feel similar to Earthbound. Good stuff, I'm curious to hear what your anthem might sound like...

Hmm, I think it would be cool maybe if you guys gave some sort of post-mortem on your submissions, what you like and how you made certain things. I'm definitely curious to know the decision making process that occurs with stuff like this... If you want to, of course.

Anyways, I think I'm done with this thing for the moment:

Sky Brigade - Act 1 - A Treacherous Betrayal on The Peaceful Aircity Bliss

It's about half-finished... I also did the SNES ROM sample ripping trick, used Earthbound and Breath of Fire with good results. It was pretty grueling and fun to do

[so it's not too late]

Consider the deadline 'officially' extended, for a few days at the least. Sorry to have kept you all waiting, I blame music for being more engrossing than responsibility and obligations. You are all free to post as many tracks as you like. I'd like to see some more tracks posted, so it's not too late!

I'll review each track when they are all in, I promise Am I free to listen to submissions now? Would that be bad?

Almostdonealmostdone

Almostdonealmostdonenotoveryetnotoveryetpostmoretuneseverybodypostthem

No worries, I was kinda taking a risk here. You might be right that this is not the time or place for "serious" compositions

Well, 1st stage music it is then

Oh shit. I hate such anthems

Any compositional rules or just straight technical limitations/inspirations?

I think how this works is that you can pick whatever restrictions you might want to adhere to, whatever seems interesting. Generally, entrants are free to use their own discretion. Making something cool you wouldn't have achieved normally remains the objective.

Yeah the Fear Factory theme is hardly the 1st stage...

Just highlighting more specifically what I mean by the cloudy term "anthem" as Mute City & Jungle Groove are more focused on atmosphere... I just wanted a nifty theme title, really. Beat-heavy atmospheric tunes like MC & JG are always nice.