Do Something Challenge Discussion Thread

[Boudoir Guitar]

This might overcomplicate things, but to balance the "uh, every week is...a lot" with the "the point is to give you a kick in the butt to be consistent, to be willing to share stuff that isn't necessarily complete or polished, etc.", perhaps it could be a multi-stage thing:

"Noise of the week" competition where the expectation is that you are sharing nuggets of ideas rather than fully fleshed out tracks

"Track of the month/quarter/whatever" competition where to be eligible, you must have (1) been a part of at least one of the weekly competitions for that cycle and (2) your long submission includes in some for or another the idea that was presented in one of your weekly submissions.

 

[Bruce]

Just saying here if this happens I have way more recording gear than my mixing capabilities deserve, so I’m always looking for constructive criticism.

 

[DrewJD82]

That was me. I misunderstood; I thought points were amassed by votes.

Well then you get to start off with -5 points, get workin' son!

 

[la szum]

Well then you get to start off with -5 points, get workin' son!

Yeah, some of us are gonna need an handicapped start like in Golf.

I do wonder if it would be harder than an Ola Challenge since his entire audience is based on the
Chug lifestyle, and I bet we are at least a little more diverse here in our tastes.

Can you do something in 9/8 with some swing to it?

 

[TSJMajesty]

Can you do something in 9/8 with some swing to it?

 

[Gearzilla]

Can I use the secret techniques of DENNIS?

If so, count me in.

 

[Piing]

I vote for removing the concept of "competition"

 

[Whizzinby]

I suppose I could break the Focusrite and the Mac back out of the closet. I threw in the towel trying to record once I realized I didn’t know how to mix and was dicking around in the DAW (that’s what she said) more than actually playing. (It might have been the drum programming more than anything ) I suppose I could give it another shot and just keep it simple using plugins, brought to you by Neural DSPTM

 

[JT]

I suppose I could break the Focusrite and the Mac back out of the closet. I threw in the towel trying to record once I realized I didn’t know how to mix and was dicking around in the DAW (that’s what she said) more than actually playing. (It might have been the drum programming more than anything ) I suppose I could give it another shot and just keep it simple using plugins, brought to you by Neural DSPTM

#disqualified

 

[Steinmetzify]

I’d be down, but my work schedule isn’t a weekly type thing.

If I can I will.

 

[Gearzilla]

So when do we start? Is it going to be in this thread or a new one?

 

[Steinmetzify]

For those who are concerned about not contributing weekly, that's perfectly fine. Remember, the award is just the knowledge you applied yourself to playing/writing music along with the benefits that come along with actually playing regularly.

Something I noticed when I was taking part in this is that I started making time for it to happen. One less hour of TV a day, maybe skipping the after-work nap, etc. I think I had a good 3-4 week run where I didn't want to lose the momentum, I remember mixing a song in my truck while on 95 headed from Florida to Mass while my ex drove because I didn't want to miss a week! The healthy competition really comes into play when you don't wanna be the first one to fall off the contributions!

I'm thinking to start things off, since we have some people who don't do leads, what if I put together a drum track and posted either the MIDI or the Wav? This would allow people to play rhythm/lead/both, or an entirely different instrument. This is basically what Ola does with his SWOLA intro songs; he posts the drum track and viewers can submit their own tracks using those drums. I dig this route because it's really cool seeing the different ways people can take something.

I can bounce out a couple different sounding drum tracks using the same MIDI, not all of us play the same genre so shotgun blast snare drums might not work for everyone. I could also supply the MIDI itself and people with a drum VST can tweak it however they want.

Here's Ola listening to submissions, all the same drum track but entirely different songs (albeit, all metal, but it's Ola's channel)


And since the rules are quite flexible, just because I post a drum track doesn't mean we all have to use it; if you just pulled a riff out of yer ass, go ahead and do something with that! The only important thing is submitting something you worked on that week.

Totally down for this. We do drumjams on my other main forum and they’re always a blast.

 

[Iron1]

For anyone wanting to do this who doesn't have a viable drum option, I've been using Beta Monkey drum loops for nearly a decade. They're sampled from actual pro drummers, so - for me at least - they sound better than a lot of other options.

Here are some examples:

Battlesmoke - 2x4:


Alone in the Wilderness - Red VVinter


Red Winter - Red VVinter


Very easy to use either the pre-played loops or build your own from scratch with individual hits.

 

[DrewJD82]

I vote for removing the concept of "competition"

Not sure who said “competition”, but the thread title says “Challenge”

 

[DrewJD82]

So when do we start? Is it going to be in this thread or a new one?

I still have some details to iron out-

Is everyone cool with starting these on a Friday? So Friday is when the challenge starts and the final submissions are to be submitted by 11:59PM Thursday. I figure that gives everyone a weekend to get a good start on something while having some weekdays in there to finish things up.

My bigger concern right now is ensuring everyone has something they can work with; IE- drum tracks. If someone wants to do something without drums, that’s totally fine, but I wouldn’t want someone who isn’t into programming drums to be left out. There are TONS of drum tracks available on YouTube and I’d be more than happy to submit some basic drum WAVs or MIDI files for anyone to use. Getting them from YouTube might be easier for people to pick out their preferred genre. (Thinking out loud here)

For those of you who want to take part in this, what would be stopping you from doing so? (I can’t buy interfaces for everyone, I mean as far as backing/drum tracks go)

 

[SeeD]

I still have some details to iron out-

Is everyone cool with starting these on a Friday? So Friday is when the challenge starts and the final submissions are to be submitted by 11:59PM Thursday. I figure that gives everyone a weekend to get a good start on something while having some weekdays in there to finish things up.

My bigger concern right now is ensuring everyone has something they can work with; IE- drum tracks. If someone wants to do something without drums, that’s totally fine, but I wouldn’t want someone who isn’t into programming drums to be left out. There are TONS of drum tracks available on YouTube and I’d be more than happy to submit some basic drum WAVs or MIDI files for anyone to use. Getting them from YouTube might be easier for people to pick out their preferred genre. (Thinking out loud here)

For those of you who want to take part in this, what would be stopping you from doing so? (I can’t buy interfaces for everyone, I mean as far as backing/drum tracks go)

You could do it as easy as take 1 midi file in Toontrack Superior Drummer and load that into song creator choose to export it as MIDI and WAV

 

[Fireproof]

You could do it as easy as take 1 midi file in Toontrack Superior Drummer and load that into song creator choose to export it as MIDI and WAV

I don’t own Toontrack or drum creation software. :/ Wouldn’t even know how to start with creating a drumbeat. Just sayin’. But as I mentioned before, I’m probably one of the few recording/music creation newbies here, so you don’t need to build or optimize the challenge around me. If/when I get time (starting in Feb) I will try to figure things out the best I can…

 

[Iron1]

@DrewJD82 : Maybe post a poll in a separate thread just asking who would want to participate, and maybe give options for "starting week XX or week YY" or whatever time suits you.

 

[SeeD]

I don’t own Toontrack or drum creation software. :/ Wouldn’t even know how to start with creating a drumbeat. Just sayin’. But as I mentioned before, I’m probably one of the few recording/music creation newbies here, so you don’t need to build or optimize the challenge around me. If/when I get time (starting in Feb) I will try to figure things out the best I can…

Yes, you would not need to make drum sounds if Drew came up with the sounds, this way you could get a Wav file ( that is the drum sound ) or folks that know how to mess with MIDI ( can get that file )
I will not be using others files, as I can make my own

Yeah all you can do is do your best.

I love to make music, but it was much to learn when it came to learning how to use a DAW/ drums/EQ/ plugins ( but just think of how fun it would be to make any music you like, anytime you like.

It`s not for all, that is for sure

 

[TheTrueZoltan!]

C‘mon guys, we are a (or the) Gear Forum! We should do our job and encourage people to buy everything they need - and more! - for the upcoming challenge.