Mix Challenge

Hello and welcome to the Special Songwriting Competition - Community Scramble (2024)


This thread covers the first part of our yearly recurring challenge - collecting samples - which are then used in the actual Songwriting Competition in January 2024 (SWC077) as basis for every participant. And that also marks the biggest twist of this game - you are only allowed to use the provided samples to create music out of it.

How, is completely up to you. You can use sampling/re-sampling techniques, granular synthesis, wavetable synthesis, you can mangle the sounds through time stretching, distortion, modulation, etc. As long as you only use what has been provided by the community in form of sound snippets and/or samples.

As of SWC053 / January 2022, you are allowed to add a guitar or bass, as long as your recording is mangled in some shape or form. The focus is on sound design! Not just guitar > DI > amp suite preset. You can also add vocals and ad-libs (your own voice or a collaborating singer), or sound effects created from your voice (think: breathing, shouts, grunts, robot voice, etc).



You can read up more about this idea, and find the last "Community Scramble(s)" here:

Image Source: Pixabay, photo by Nachrichten_muc, released under Creative Commons CC0




GENERAL INFORMATION

Time Frames:
Sample Collection: Saturday, 14th October 2023 to Sunday, 24th December 2023 (72 days)
Songwriting Competition: Monday, 01st January 2024 to Wednesday, 24th January 2024 (24 days)

Sample submission will end on Sunday, 24-DEC-2023, 23:59 UTC+1/CET (Germany) - until further notice.


The deadline is the same as for SWC076 / December 2023. Please check in with the Global Countdown on it's dedicated page or the countdown on the home page. There will be reminders via the Newsletter, Social Media accounts, and Discord.

Overall rules: The rules of the Songwriting Competition apply, with the main difference that you're (currently) not allowed to use any other sound source than the ones provided from this sample collection thread. Exceptions might apply.

Staff (Mister Fox) wrote:How to submit sample content:

• each community member shall ideally provide no less than three (number: 3), but also no more than seven (number: 7) self-created sounds
• the provided samples must not be from free sample packages, but created by yourself. The content can be synthetic in nature or a Foley type recording (please keep things appropriate!), anything from single hits and stabs, to loops
• the material must be in 44/24 WAV bar minimum, and 96/24 WAV absolute maximum
• the material shall ideally not peak higher than -1.00 dBFS to prevent clipping
• IMPORTANT: bundle the following filled out TXT, which adds full credits to your work (download TXT)
• the samples and TXT must be packed in a ZIP or RAR, then uploaded to any file storage to your liking (recommended systems that store longer than 7 days, like Google Drive, DropBox, etc)
• Link to the file in this thread, with some short info what you recorded (basically mirroring what has been written in the TXT)
• you can also utilize Discord - please use the #questions-gossip-answers section for that

From all entries, around 30 samples (maybe more) will be selected to be a "starter bundle" for the SWC in question. In order for this endeavor to be successful, we need about 6 entries with five samples per participant each. If there is not enough material, or not of enough variety, the challenge can not happen as designed. If there is too much or overlapping content, things might be trimmed down or used for future games of similar nature.

Once the material has been prepared, the game starts on time on 01st January 2024. It is highly recommended to provide audio content early on, which makes it easier for me to set things up. Thanks in advance.



AN IMPORTANT NOTE:

If you only want to provide content, please feel free to do so. If you rather only join the game and not have the pressure to be asked to "create source material" as well, that's just as fine.

You do not need to join both the Sample Collection thread and the follow-up Songwriting Competition.




Let's get creative!

PRO TIPS:


TIP 01:

You can influence the overall "tone" of SWC077 by providing source material for a genre you would like to hear/work in yourself. For example: if you provide a self-created acoustic drum loop, this can be used for Hip Hop, Drum and Bass, Lounge, etc. With clever sound design however, it can also work for Electronic or Industrial.

You set the initial stage, what you make out of it, is up to your personal creativity.


TIP 02:

As example: let's assume there has been an abundance of "Industrial based samples". Depending on your creativity, you can still turn this material into a more pop oriented electronic production, or any other genre you feel like. "Out of the box" thinking will help you in this game. Who says you need to use a full sample and not just a snippet? Ever turned a noise snippet or a click into Cymbals and Snare-like sounds? Why not use a sound snippet to create a new wavetable oscillator? Why not use a Granular Synthesizer to create pads?

All this will be your challenge for January 2024.

A friendly reminder:
Including today, 20 days left for submitting your samples. So far, we have 0 entries.


Remember:
You set the stage for Songwriting Competition 077 "Community Scramble" / January 2024!

In order for the "Community Scramble" Songwriting Competition to work, we need at least 5-10 mini-sample packages. If you have been sitting on the fence so far, now is the time to get involved.


AN IMPORTANT NOTE:

If you only want to provide content, please feel free to do so. If you rather only join the game and not have the pressure to be asked to "create source material" as well, that's just as fine.

You do not need to join both the Sample Collection thread and the follow-up Songwriting Competition. (this is not a participation criteria!)



Please spread the word!

Here's my contribution:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LThHX7 ... sp=sharing

Samples (6):

EXP_Arp_Loop_Plucky.wav, 44/24
EXP_Bass_Loop_Reese.wav, 44/24
EXP_Drum_Loop_Closed HH.wav, 44/24
EXP_FX_Swoosh.wav, 44/24
EXP_Loop_Mangled.wav, 44/24
EXP_Pad_Loop_F Minor.wav, 44/24

All samples were synthesized by me using Vaporizer 2.

Thank you for the participation.

As of this moment, I have two (number 02) mini sample packs for this endeavor.


A friendly reminder:
There are still 14 days left to submit content.


Get involved, shape the general tone of SWC077 / January 2024 .

I can add more, if that helps?

What kind of sounds would you prefer, and how many?

I'm preparing a sample pack that will be hopefully ready after the weekend.

Edit:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ACo5IW ... drive_link

Cardboard.wav, 7 sec, 48/24
ClothPulled.wav, 7 sec, 48/24
GiftWrapPaper.wav, 15 sec, 48/24
ImbusKeys.wav, 1 sec, 48/24
Shoehorn.wav, 2 sec, 48/24
Wurli-Cs.wav, 60 sec, 48/24
Wurli-VibraCs.wav, 68 sec, 48/24

For the last two samples, I recorded the C-notes of an old Wurlitzer e-piano, once without and once with vibrato. I hope the samples are enough to build an useable instrument.

The rest are Foley recordings. All samples were recorded with my Zoom H4NPro-handheld-recorder.

Hi. Here is my offering for the community scramble sample pack.


https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ghjkh4pf ... ns86k&dl=0

Samples:
boing.wav 6secs, 44/24
atmos1.wav, 16secs, 44/24
alfred.wav, length, 44/24
bringonthefrogs.wav, 7.7secs, 44/24
atmos2.wav, 10secs, 44/24
shuffle.wav, 8.3secs, 44/24
waterTank.wav, 34.5secs, 44/24

Info:

All the samples were created using either Hilda or Spacecraft in Logic Pro for iPad except for the waterTank.wav which was a field recording made on an iPhone.

The descriptions will hopefully provide some idea as to what the sound is. I had fun making these.

My submission:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sD_ecC ... sp=sharing

Samples:
SWC-077_VCA-089_01_Bottle_Blowing, 00:12, 44/24
SWC-077_VCA-089_02_Singing_Wok, 00:25, 44/24
SWC-077_VCA-089_03_String_Bending, 00:11, 44/24
SWC-077_VCA-089_04_Drum_Hits, 00:09, 44/24
SWC-077_VCA-089_05_Guitar_Noodling, 00:54, 44/24

As always, I've recorded these sounds on my phone mic. It is all single file recording, trimmed and edited to bring out more useful sounds as well as material for soundscapes:

1. Blowing into a glass bottle that makes it a very primitive wind instrument.
2. Hitting a wok with a fork. It's made of copper I think, very resonant, almost like a singing bowl.
3. Bending a synthetic string attached to the wall used to hang clothes. It has a quality of eastern plucked instruments at some point.
4. Hitting a drum of a broken washing machine.
5. Noodling with an old acoustic guitar. It's a very poor quality instrument that is almost impossible to tune and play. The strings are set so high that you can slide on them with a whiskey shot or whatever rounded item you have.

Hello,

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1N7_aC5 ... sp=sharing

Samples:
01 Noise.wav, length, 0:11 44KHz 16bit
02 Percussion with a stick.wav, 0:18 44KHz 16bit
03 Metallic Bell.wav, 0:06 44KHz 16bit
04 Pad Cm.wav, 0:14 44KHz 16bit
05 Piano Scale Cm.wav, 0:28 44KHz 16bit

Thank you so much