CURRENT CHALLENGE - GENERAL INFORMATION
Time Frame: Monday, 01st July 2019 to Monday, 24th July 2019 (24 days)
Challenge submission will end on 24-07-2019, 11:59pm CEST/GMT+2 (Germany) - until further notice.
Want to find out if you're still within the deadline, please consult the following options:
The
Global Countdown on it's dedicated page or the countdown on the
home page. You can also consult the World Clock at the top of the forum or alternatively the following tool - in this case please select "Berlin (Germany)" as location 1, and your location as location 2:
Time and Date - World Clock Meeting Planner. We do post reminders via our
Twitter account and
Facebook page.
SONGWRITING THEME:
Sun-filled Fiesta
GENRE: (Mainstream) Progressive House
Image Source: Pexels (via Pixabay), released under Creative Commons CC0/Public Domain
A few word about this month's theme:
Staff (Mister Fox) wrote:
"Please do an EDM songwriting competition" - request granted, but easier said than done. Because "EDM" is an umbrella term. EDM is short for "
Electronic Dance Music", which is then categorized into a lot of sub-genres. With it's main pillars being House, Trance, Techno, Breakbeat, Downtempo, etc. And
that in turn splits into even more sub-genres. To make things worse, each person interprets a certain genre complete different (e.g. Techno is not the same as Techno). So it's not easy to find a good spot for a Songwriting Competition that everyone can compete in, while not being like
"am I even doing it right?".
So as I usually do with anything EDM, I scour the Internet, I fine-comb through old
"Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music" (yes, you'll see that in the cheat-sheet post again!), and try to find something that might work. After skipping through the 30th "Best EDM charts <month/year>" not to mention "Top 50 EDM tracks <month/year>" playlist, and finding the one or another track of interest, I decided on
"let's go (Mainstream) Progressive House this month".
As of this moment, the northern hemisphere is experiencing Summer. Or rather, some very strong heatwaves. This is also the "outdoor party season". Which let me think of
"Summer Festivals" ("Sun-filled Fiesta") as this month's theme.
Your task for this Songwriting Competition:
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This month, you can create anything in the
"(Mainstream) Progressive House" genre, something that might work as a hymn for summer.
I'd love to see/hear productions in the 120-130bpm range (+-5 bpm), that use warm tones in terms of the beat section (this is House after all), some interesting melodies and/or chord progression. (Virtual) Bonus points if you're getting a vocalist involved that elevates your production even further. If you drift into "Progressive Trance" ever so often (more harder percussion, good old trance pads), I'm not mad - the lines are blurry.
What I do not want to see, are square-wave productions. Please keep
the recommendation of -14LUFS ILk as loudness target in mind. -12LUFS ILk as absolute maximum. I always hear
"EDM only sounds good if it uses strong compression and is mastered loud". I do not agree to that. You can still create something with "punch" while not going the deepend with a -5dB RMS master. I also don't want to hear/see glitched beats and vocals.
For all newcomers - I do stress that you should take a dive into the
follow up post, where I invested the time to dig out some examples (again - since everyone interprets EDM completely different, this wasn't an easy task). Just to give you a certain idea how this can go. But please do find your own groove, and add your own spin to it.
As usual - please have fun, and create some outstanding music!
Songwriting Add-On Rules:
- Create a production in the "(Mainstream) Progressive House" genre (ideally!)
- you can use any tool that is at your disposal (samples, virtual instruments and/or real instruments)
- IMPORTANT: if you use non-licensed material (no material from sample CDs, etc), give full credit to the source material
- It is recommended to not go higher than -14LUFS SLk (avg) or K-12v1 (avg) in terms of perceived loudness. Music doesn't have to be squashed to bits in order to be impactful - and yes, EDM can be "impactful" at this loudness
- for newcomers: no cover versions or remixes
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Please
take note of the official rules - they can be found at the following thread:
Songwriting Competition - Official Rules and Guidelines
Please address any OT question in the official Gossip thread:
Songwriting Competition - Gossip and Discussion
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SPONSORS (Prizes):
Prizes for Songwriting Challenge participants:
Note: All licenses are NFR (Not-For-Resale), except where noted.
Changes to available prices on short notice may be possible and will be announced separately.
RECURRING LICENSE SPONSORSHIP:
IK Multimedia is kind enough give away one license of MODO BASS to the winner
License will turn into NFR
More info on IK Multimedia:
https://www.ikmultimedia.com
Tone2 is kind enough to donate a license of
Saurus2 to the winner (until further notice)
License will turn into NFR
More info on Tone2:
https://tone2.com
kv331 audio is kind enough give away a bundle of either SynthMaster 1+2 Bundle, or a freely selectable set of 3 SynthMaster Expansions
License will not turn into NFR, you need to have a kv311 audio user account in order to pick up Expansions
More info on kv331 audio:
https://www.kv331audio.com
JRR Sounds is kind enough give away any-1 sound sets or sample set of winner's choice (
exception: Bundles)
More info on JRR Sounds:
https://www.jrrshop.com/jrr-sounds
Luftrum is kind enough give away either a license of Lunaris, or any 2 sound sets of winner's choice (
exception: Bundles and Nano Electronics)
License will turn into NFR
More info on Luftrum:
http://www.luftrum.com
Rekkerd Sounds is kind enough give away 1 sound set of winners choice (
exception: Krezie EDM and Neurofunk Vol. 1)
License will turn into NFR
More info on Rekkerd Sounds:
http://sounds.rekkerd.org/
Ghostwave Audio (Vincent Bastiat) is kind enough to donate any 2 sound sets to the winner
License will turn into NFR
More info on Ghostwave Audio:
http://ghostwaveaudio.com
Hollow Sun is kind to donate one license of "Music Laboratory Machines - The Suite I" to the winner
License will turn into NFR
More info on Hollow Sun:
http://www.hollowsun.com
Hornet Plugins is kind enough give away one license from the depicted tools (see image) to the winner
License will turn into NFR
More info on Hornet Plugins:
http://www.hornetplugins.com
Sound / Graphic Designer, and honorary Mix Challenge staff
satYatunes is donating one commercial product of winner's choice (until further notice)
More info on satYatune's page:
http://www.satyatunes.com/
THANKS FOR THE DONATIONS!
And also a thank you to all former contributors as well.
If you want to sponsor content (please have a focus on instruments, samples and sound sets), please get in touch with the Mix Challenge staff.
Please spread the word of the challenge on social media.
For example with our dedicated
Twitter Account or
Facebook Page
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Good luck to all participants.
And most importantly, have fun!
