Anyone up for a challenge?

What's Hot
(Please accept my apologies if this had been tried and failed before)

A recent thread about recording by @TTony had me thinking...

What about a production challenge? 

It could work along the lines of one person makes a short track. Their processed track would be posted and the stems (either fully  dry or as unprocessed as possible recordings) are made available to all for editing. We can discuss what we did from a technical point of view. There could be a vote if the admins wanted to organise it. 

After that anything goes. It could be an option for people to use their own tones, have different instruments more or less prominent in the mix, or even remix things by altering the existing structure.

We could keep it to only the existing tracks. Or we could allow additional tracks (E.g. different drums... or vocals to an instrumental)

It could be an interesting opportunity for us to see what people do with our work, whether it's tweak the EQ to vastly improve the clarity or turn it into some awesome bastard that bears little resemblance to what we originally had in mind. 

What are people's thoughts? Could it be a worthwhile exercise? Or is it a step too far? 
0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
«13

Comments

  • TTonyTTony Frets: 27346
    I like the idea of that.

    Probably not a recurring challenge along the lines of the "otm" competitions, but as a one-off.

    I certainly be interested in the *how* explanations - ie how those taking part did whatever they did to achieve the sound they achieved.


    Having trouble posting images here?  This might help.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 1reaction image Wisdom
  • IMC1980IMC1980 Frets: 141
    I would be up for this! Sound like fun.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • spark240spark240 Frets: 2073
    Ive just submitted a multi track piece for the composition challenge, Id be happy to post the individual wav files for you to play with !


    Mac Mini M1
    Presonus Studio One V5
     https://www.studiowear.co.uk/ -
     https://twitter.com/spark240
     Facebook - m.me/studiowear.co.uk
    Reddit r/newmusicreview 
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • poopotpoopot Frets: 9098
    I’d be up for this... also have raw tracks from the old line up available. Individual drums, bass, two guitar tracks and vocals...

    let me know if anyone’s interested and I’ll find a way to get the individual tracks over!.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • IMC1980IMC1980 Frets: 141
    Maybe post the contenders and participants can vote on which one to use?
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • BezzerBezzer Frets: 581
    spark240 said:
    Ive just submitted a multi track piece for the composition challenge, Id be happy to post the individual wav files for you to play with !

    Likewise ... or I have many other weird ass tracks too ... be interesting to see if someone could make them sound good :)
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • spark240spark240 Frets: 2073
    IMC1980 said:
    Maybe post the contenders and participants can vote on which one to use?
    You want instrumental pieces or full blown songs?


    Mac Mini M1
    Presonus Studio One V5
     https://www.studiowear.co.uk/ -
     https://twitter.com/spark240
     Facebook - m.me/studiowear.co.uk
    Reddit r/newmusicreview 
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • IMC1980IMC1980 Frets: 141
    I am happy with full songs or instrumentals, I like to try out stuff I wouldn't necessarily record myself so either would be cool!
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • Glad to see people are up for it. I guess we can try it once and see how we get on. If it works then we could do more with people volunteering. Probably best to allow loads of time. 

    Should we restrict it to a tiny bit of editing or allowing anything from a bit of EQ to full on Fatboy Slim/Utah Saints treatment with all manner of overdubs being fair game? The latter would definitely be more interesting. Or we could do a mixing/mastering challenge and a remix challenge separately. 
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • spark240spark240 Frets: 2073
    Well I do this a bit with Produce Like a Pro, they post the tracks and you just remix to however you feel, adding whatever you like, you can stick to the base mix using your own FX Plugins etc, or you can completely remix .


    Mac Mini M1
    Presonus Studio One V5
     https://www.studiowear.co.uk/ -
     https://twitter.com/spark240
     Facebook - m.me/studiowear.co.uk
    Reddit r/newmusicreview 
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • IMC1980IMC1980 Frets: 141
    spark240 said:
    Well I do this a bit with Produce Like a Pro, they post the tracks and you just remix to however you feel, adding whatever you like, you can stick to the base mix using your own FX Plugins etc, or you can completely remix .
    No limits on what you use to achieve the finished product sounds like a good starting point; specific challenges like only using a certain amount/type of plugs for a mix or turning thrash metal stems into a funky disco house banger could feature in later challenges.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • poopotpoopot Frets: 9098
    Seeing as Snowmageddon has ruined my working day today... Ive been with laptop, headphones and coffee.
    If anyone fancies a start on this I have dug out an old cover we did a few years back of "let me entertain you".
    There are 9 individual drum tracks, a bass track, main guitar, solo guitar, a few filler guitar parts and a "guide" vocal track (never went back to do the proper vocs). all as WAV Files, all straight up the middle, levels are all over the place and are "as recorded".

    Dont want to step on @flying_pie's toes as it was his excellent idea. But if anyone is interested, send me a dm and ill provide the link to the files.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • poopot said:

    Dont want to step on @flying_pie's toes as it was his excellent idea. But if anyone is interested, send me a dm and ill provide the link to the files 
    Not toe trading at all @poopot ;

    There's nothing stopping any of us submitting tracks at any point if there's an appetite for it.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • poopotpoopot Frets: 9098
    edited February 2018
    flying_pie said:

    Not toe trading at all @poopot ;;;

    There's nothing stopping any of us submitting tracks at any point if there's an appetite for it.
    Cool,

    A couple of folk have got the files now...
    Just as a rough example, a short cut of the drums... "drums raw" is as recorded-no eq, everything up the middle... "drums basic" has a small amount of eq on each track, has been panned so each drum sits in its own space...
    Big difference from such a basic edit!...


    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • IMC1980IMC1980 Frets: 141
    poopot said:
    flying_pie said:

    Not toe trading at all @poopot ;;;

    There's nothing stopping any of us submitting tracks at any point if there's an appetite for it.
    Cool,

    A couple of folk have got the files now...
    Just as a rough example, a short cut of the drums... "drums raw" is as recorded-no eq, everything up the middle... "drums basic" has a small amount of eq on each track, has been panned so each drum sits in its own space...
    Big difference from such a basic edit!...


    Nice and punchy!
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • spark240spark240 Frets: 2073
    Ok, so Ive loaded it all into Studio One and done a first mix....work in progress


    Mac Mini M1
    Presonus Studio One V5
     https://www.studiowear.co.uk/ -
     https://twitter.com/spark240
     Facebook - m.me/studiowear.co.uk
    Reddit r/newmusicreview 
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • I like the idea but I won't be able to take part because I'm moving house next week, so I can only (just about) keep up with organising the other challenges. I'll try to listen and comment if I get time.

    It's not a competition.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • poopotpoopot Frets: 9098
    Ok... first rough mix done... playlist below has the raw tracks as recorded up first then a rough mix second.
    https://soundcloud.com/user-296617142/sets/lmey-test-mixes

    Nothing fancy for the mix, just panned so everything sits in its own space, basic eq on each track... the vocal track has been duplicated and placed slightly behind the original to give it a short delay.

    sounds best either with headphones or with Robbie Williams singing :)
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • IMC1980IMC1980 Frets: 141
    Got the files on my PC, did the drums and bass and i'll work on the guitars/vox over the weekend, here a small clip of the drums and bass followed by 4 minutes of silence for some reason....


    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • ijontyijonty Frets: 32
    I think this idea sounds fascinating. I'm totally new to producing tracks, so even the basics are a mystery to me. I'd love to hear comparisons of raw and produced tracks, but most importantly, find out what was done to change the sound. I think that bit would be essential, rather than just a vote on who's was best.

    Perhaps I should talk about this in a different thread for beginners, but I really need to find out about the absolute basics. For example, I've no idea how to use a high pass filter effectively. Nor what @poopot means by 'panned so everything sits in its own space, basic eq'...


    ________________________________________________

    Telecaster American Deluxe, Cornell Romany amp, without the talent to use them properly
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 1reaction image Wisdom
Sign In or Register to comment.