Let's Improve Sample Pack Competitions

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by DAN JUNK on February 17, 2009 at 1:27am

Listen I really don't want to miss out on the next I need to see how I can make things work with my setup.

This really is a cool thing a goin!!

DJ.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Bryn on February 21, 2009 at 3:10pm

I think you should have a closing date & then allot a certain time for voting. It was good fun doing it & I look forward to more of this stuff. Good work all round. Until the next time...

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Bryn on February 22, 2009 at 11:10am

Hi
I can understand why you want to make things fairer but in the end, it is down to subjectivity no matter what reason and therefore I feel you are over complicating things.
If something goes over the time limit then it should be disqualified for that very reason. Giving points for how many samples are used doesn't work for me because in my book, less is more.
I'm from the old school. Is it a hit or is it a miss?

Cheers
Bryn

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Alex - DVD Editor on February 22, 2009 at 1:29pm

Hey folks.
Astral - I can see where you're coming from and this is a well thought out and fair system... However... we hope to get a load more entries for the next competition. If we get twice as many (about 25) then anyone that votes would have to fill in details for all 25 to make it fair... and potentially 25 x 25 means 625 results to work out averages for!!! Um... I don't think me or TC have got time to work that out ;)

What we were thinking for the 2nd competition is to maybe have the 1st place decided by an MTM panel (based on skill, production, manipulation of samples and general musicality) and have the 2nd place decided as a 'People's Choice'...

If this doesn't work then we'll re-assess for competition 3. And we'll try and be a bit more obvious with deadlines.
Any thoughts?
Alex

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Clinton Lobley on February 23, 2009 at 12:11am

How about simplifying the actual comp format - there were too many samples in the comp to start with (imo), leading to a situation whereby it was hard to make any real judgements becuase the entries were TOO varied (for a comp of this kind) becuase there was too much raw material to work with.

If there was ONLY 1 drum loop + I melodic loop + 1 vox it would force the entrants to really 'get their sample on' if they wish to stand out. It would also make judging much easier (I simply couldn't make any clear decision because the entries were all sooooooo different - it was hard to tell what actual sample manipulation was going on for more than a track or two - infromation overload or summat!)

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Dwoogie on February 23, 2009 at 8:58am

I think the two-comps-in-one idea is a winner. I realise this is a music *tech* magazine, and so the way people use the technology must be a part of the process, but even in these days of 24-bit 96k sound quality there is still something to be said for keeping the energy of something quick and dirty, I think. The public's votes will help us all to keep an eye on that. We don't really want a return to the snobbery of prog rock where the technique and the production was more important than whether the music was any good or not as music.

Anyone can bang out three chords on the guitar, but that didn't stop punk sweeping the nation. Keep it real.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Alex - DVD Editor on February 23, 2009 at 10:08am

I think a limited sample palette is a great idea for pushing people and also for comparing tracks. I would suggest 1 beat, 1 bass, and maybe 1 short and one long melodic sample (eg. one brass stab and one pad sound or something) and all samples have to be used at least once. We could get loads of submissions and vote on which samples people want to use, but that might take ages before we get to actually start ...and I'd rather not turn this into a pre-competition competition! ;)

I think we should put a deadline for the end of feb to start the next one - so samples need to be submitted in the next week. If needs be I'll knock up a few corkers for people to mash up (Just to stop major confusion and people getting upset cos their samples aren't being used!)

Let's see if any come in this week.
Cheers all. Alex

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by TCwebtime on February 23, 2009 at 10:17am

sounds good, less samples will probably end up being more productive anyway, less raw material to choose from/mess about with.

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jace on February 23, 2009 at 11:24am

So More about soundshaping i agree is good, but my doubt is that maybe it will exclude the More Novice learners, after all it is about the participation, as suppose to the win, and through getting more Intermediate entries, i think again a good outlet for then helping with comments, learners need to be made to feel that they can be open, so again this is more about the sharing as a community, so i think a little more thought is needed.

The choice is what matters, as long as we dont go overboard, i myself think it was was okay with the number of samples we had, i did not use half of these, but their will come a time, when maybe all is needed is that one little tone otherwise not present, the individuality, should be allowed, and the novice should bee made to feel comortable having a go.

I did agree with the point astral suggested for most parts less the points on the amount of samples, and if more poeple where to entered, this long winded Process, could be reviewed, if the competition is to carry on as it means tio go on, then this is an important criteria.
I think if the time is put into this in the first instance by the organiser's and then by us with our entry, then the time is also deserved to be put in with the point marking, we owe that much to ourselfs for the efforts,
makes sense to me.

I thing by time this post has reached a slowdown we will have some good ideas to chuck around, allthough it does seem like the obviouse is already staring us in the face.

One last point on what Aex mentiones:
we dont want so many similar sounds like last time, so Alex is right with what he say their, one off each, allthough they must have a varied amount of tonel qualities or some complexity to the patten etc, so i dont think their should be restriction on sample length, anything from 4-16bars, all depending on what tonal qualities each sample contains

Cheers

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Alex - DVD Editor on February 23, 2009 at 1:11pm

It's an interesting one and I'd like to hear people's thoughts... I personally would love the challenge of manipulating a small piece of audio into a whole tune, but I don't know if we'd be totally cutting out all the beginners.
But then out of the 900 odd members -
How many are beginners?
How many are likely to enter?
If it's just going to be the more experienced samplists then why not raise the game?

All interesting questions! I'd probably be inclined to try competition 2 as a smaller number of samples, but to still include loops for now. Depending on how things develop you could have an expert competition and a beginner one... (but it's too early in the game for that kind of complication right now).

Over on the Roland SP forums they run a great remix competition where the previous winner selects a whole track from somewhere on the internet, then the entries must be made by slicing and manipulating that one audio file (using only the SP sampler). Unfortunately we couldn't do anything like that here as we'd get in trouble for copyright infringement!

I also had an idea for a competition a while ago which involved having to write a 16-bar drum loop by manipulating a short rap phrase (using sibilance for hi-hats etc.) which might be cool down the line...

Anyway, I think for the 2nd competition we should keep things simple and fairly similar to the first one, but see if we can get more entries now that more people are aware of it. If, over time, it turns out to be the same group of producers entering, then we can make some changes to keep it interesting and keep people on their toes.

Cheers,
Alex

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Jace on February 23, 2009 at 2:08pm

It is true what you say, i was just thinking about getting more poeple involved, that is not to patronise i am sure their are many beginners up for the challenge also, so if it is about sound Proscessing as suppose to the actual song,, then fine, Not to say a few exclusive poeple could get great songs also.

The last, votes seemed a little confused, what poeple say or think and then actually voted on, their where quite a few contradiction on what determined their choices in contrast to what we have mentioned here, presumably oversights in getting cuaght up in the whole voting proscess last time round, so hopefully we will get diffinative opinnions That stand up to All the above Criteria in voting.

The sample pack i am happy to go with whatever myself, just playing devils advocate with the Beginner scenario, i suppose we can rule that problem out for all us who entered last time.

Thanks

▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Kashif Ejaz on February 24, 2009 at 7:48pm

Yes Alex, you are right!

Song from a sample thing might not work too early. I think 3rd or 4th competition should be kidda remix competition to make things more interesting. There's a song on my page "Living This Lie", if you allow I can talk to the producer and get the tracks. It is a very simple track with one guitar, tabla and vocal. What do you say?


Thanks,

▶ Reply to This

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page