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:
► Show Spoiler
Image Source: Pixabay, photo by Nachrichten_muc, released under Creative Commons CC0
GENERAL INFORMATIONTime 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!
