NEW PULSARIAN CONTEST! PLEASE JOIN!

dbmac · Post by **dbmac** » Mon Oct 27, 2003 11:01 am

Ken, the samples sound fine to me. I could work with these.

/dave

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Mon Oct 27, 2003 11:51 am

Ken, what I mean is that they sound like abrupt-fast, perhaps it’s my QuickTime player… I don’t know. The hit duration for the chords is sort of a couple of milliseconds or something like that… you can here them but they are extremely short. I’m sure it’s a download thing cos others are able to listen them well, don’t worry.

Now, 4 bars is truly short, yes indeed… perhaps we should go to 8 bars so we can come up with some more articulated musical phrases… what do you think?

kensuguro · Post by **kensuguro** » Mon Oct 27, 2003 2:41 pm

it must be a playback thing cuz the samples sure aren't only a few milliseconds long.

anyhow, you're quite right about 4 measures being too short. On the other hand tho, maybe it's good to keep it short so the loops are more managable. A good compromise might be to make 2 variations. Like piano A and B with different chord/harmonic structure so that they can be looped back and forth.

Dunno, it seems to make things complicated and may produce loops that don't really connect to each other. (especially between different people's samples) Perhaps there should be a general rule of starting with a Dmin and finishing off the 8 measure loop with a lead back to Dmin. That way, everyone's sample can lead into each other.

[ This Message was edited by: kensuguro on 2003-10-27 14:43 ]

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Mon Oct 27, 2003 2:47 pm

Would you like to suggest a progresion c hord Ken?

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Mon Oct 27, 2003 11:33 pm

LAST UPDATE AND FINAL RULES:

Dear Z friends, here we are! Ready?

I hope most of you are happy now with this, it is too difficult to please everybody cos there are different conceptions to the contest, so please, try to adapt a bit to what other Pulsarians had asked for it to be too.

I think we have reached a quite nice agreement now. I really hope to start soon.
*** *** ***

Based on all the Z posts in this thread, and trying hard to please all of you, these are the final rules for the Wav Contest:

Mode:
Both XTC and SFP, whichever suits you best.

How many files?
You have to create and upload 5 Wav files.

Order:
The files ordered as: Base – Drum – Percussion – Chords – Lead –
Use any chord progression you think relates nicely to “D minor”, at 130 BPM, in 4 or 8 bars each, as you prefer.

More than 5 files:
To this you can add any files you want, just keep in mind the 130 BPM.

The final song:
The final song would have 160 bars in all.

Original files:
The original files should be dry with no reverb.

Processing:
Process them freely, chop them, cut and past little bits of it, as you like, using Pulsar Plug-ins.

Upload:
You can compress files with WaveZip so they are smaller. Please download the WaveZip here:

http://www.5star-shareware.com/Music/WA ... vezip.html

FTP space:
Dbmac is the most suitable web space offered. He could give us some instructions for us to upload our files and start downloading other participant files.

The process:
The process can be done in any sequencer or wave editor as you like.

File and folder name:
The folder would be: “z_contest”. Call every file as: bass_kensuguro, drum_paulmarting, etc. This way they will all get ordered automatically.

Folder for more files:
If you want to add more files than the 5 requested, create a second folder called “others”, and again specify them as clearly as possible.

Notes:
Add a little text file explaining anything you thing it is relevant about your files, and the way you intended us to use them.

How many tracks?
Use as many tracks as you need to develop your project.

Tempo bars:
Use 4/4, 3/4, or anything you like as long as you keep the amount of quarter notes, equivalent to a 4 or 8 bars at 4/4, 130 BPM.

Prizes:
The most musical, the most original and the best sounding.

Death line:
You can upload your song to Planet Z until the 12 of January 2004.

The prize day:
The 14th of January 2004, just one day before our Fifth Z Anniversary.

Enjoy!

[ This Message was edited by: Nestor on 2003-10-27 23:33 ]

[ This Message was edited by: Nestor on 2003-10-27 23:36 ]

dbmac · Post by **dbmac** » Tue Oct 28, 2003 12:21 am

Nestor - nice bit of organizing. You've got this thing off the ground in 8 days. Great!

I'll set up a PlanetZ directory for file transfers, and provide the log on info on request. (The ftp address I posted earlier is no longer valid).

Like I said, I'll keep a backup of all the files on my HD in case of any FTP accidents. Any other organizing suggestions are welcome.

For handling ftp I prefer to use a dedicated FTP client. There's a free one - WS_FTPLE (I've used it for years, it's good, very easy to use):

http://www.ipswitch.com/downloads/index.html

If you use a web browser, Counterparts has some pointers on p.3 of this thread. Every browser has different behaviours for uploading files.

One point: Where Nestor is suggesting "File and folder names", I take it to mean the path structure within the Wavezip files. It would be best not to create new folders at the upload destination - this would confuse things. So you would be uploading a single zip file - "dbmac.zip", "nestor.zip" - containing your wav files organized as he describes. All these zip files would be visible in the "PlanetZ" folder at my ftp site.

This sound ok to you Nestor?

/dave

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Tue Oct 28, 2003 12:57 am

It sounds perfect! Many thanks to you for this help dbmac, truly... It is only joining that something like this can be done.

It makes sense to put all the files into one WaveZip file per person, of course.

Till end of September.

Do you need for us to have a death like for uploading-donwloading files from your FTP? If yes, please, specify when so everybody knows.

Thanks very much for your colaboration in this

kensuguro · Post by **kensuguro** » Tue Oct 28, 2003 1:26 am

k, now I see what's going on. Nestor, it's "dead line", not "death line". I was wondering what the whole "death" thing was about..

also, I still wonder about combining the drums into 1 track. If they were separate, then we can re use them in the future. If it's all comibined, it's a completed loop with low chance of re-use. What do you think?

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Tue Oct 28, 2003 3:53 am

[ This Message was edited by: Counterparts on 2003-10-28 11:38 ]

bosone · Post by **bosone** » Tue Oct 28, 2003 4:16 am

i think you should start another topic for the final contest rules!

however, they're OK!

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Tue Oct 28, 2003 5:14 am

dbmac wrote:

If you use a web browser, Counterparts has some pointers on p.3 of this thread. Every browser has different behaviours for uploading files.

Command line interpreter, not web browser

Royston

[ This Message was edited by: Counterparts on 2003-10-28 11:38 ]

dbmac · Post by **dbmac** » Tue Oct 28, 2003 9:43 am

On 2003-10-28 01:26, kensuguro wrote:
...also, I still wonder about combining the drums into 1 track. If they were separate, then we can re use them in the future. If it's all comibined, it's a completed loop with low chance of re-use. What do you think?

I'm all for single instrument drum tracks - it should definitely be an option.

On 2003-10-28 00:57, Nestor wrote:
Do you need for us to have a death like for uploading-donwloading files from your FTP? If yes, please, specify when so everybody knows.

I'll keep all the files on the site till Dec 31. Is that enough time?

/dave

[ This Message was edited by: dbmac on 2003-10-28 09:47 ]

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Tue Oct 28, 2003 10:41 am

On 2003-10-28 01:26, kensuguro wrote:
k, now I see what's going on. Nestor, it's "dead line", not "death line". I was wondering what the whole "death" thing was about..

also, I still wonder about combining the drums into 1 track. If they were separate, then we can re use them in the future. If it's all comibined, it's a completed loop with low chance of re-use. What do you think?

To the first

it's always funny to me, hilarious... to mistake this way... What I was saying so?

To the second: I think being only 5 files only, we should do full loops, and into the "others" folder, we can add all thos separate sounds that we can easily reuse later...

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Mon Nov 03, 2003 3:45 pm

Hello again!

Dbmac, you said: "I'll keep all the files on the site till Dec 31. Is that enough time?" I think this is long enough for everybody to finish those files... Anyway, they are so small that I don't thnink we need much time to do them.

Is everybody ready to go now? I am

dbmac · Post by **dbmac** » Mon Nov 03, 2003 4:39 pm

Hi Nestor. So far I've heard from three participants, and no files yet. I'll put a list up here when some activity starts.
I've also put (not authorised) copies of WS_FTP and Wavezip installers on the ftp site.

/dave

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Thu Nov 27, 2003 6:46 pm

I'm up in a while, with all my 24bit files.

I have not used the WaveZip, cos we are so very little people, that it doesn't matter really. If we were about 20 or 30, that would easy things, but downloading just a coumple of guys, it doesn't matter really.

See you later...

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Sun Nov 30, 2003 4:36 pm

Can I use the STS and samples made outside the SFP?

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Sun Nov 30, 2003 5:38 pm

Of course Brain, go on... You know? We are very, very few in this contest, we have all broken some of the rules in a way or other, so I don't think anybody will desagree for you to get into the bout with us...

On the contrary, you are very welcome!

Neutron · Post by **Neutron** » Thu Dec 04, 2003 12:20 am

although it says "only use creamware plugins"
i am assuming it is ok to cut and chop the sounds that you downloaded in your sequencer as audio files, just not use the sequencers built in plugins or vst/dx. what about when you change the pitch of a sound in ACID and it keeps its timing. I would rather do it that way than use STS5000 if it is allowed.

also the sounds can come from any source including a vsti or anything you like right.

just to be clear and not have to re do anything. the thread is quite long and i just decided to join in

[ This Message was edited by: Neutron on 2003-12-04 00:25 ]

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Thu Dec 04, 2003 5:28 am

Hi Neutron...

Before all, welcome onboard

Well, the basic idea was to keep everything into Dminor, this is relatively important ao all files matches to each other, if you think you can chop them up, but not changing their pitch.

As you could probably see, we all have been into some exceptions cos the number of participants is rather small, but this rule is hard to brake, cos it would do the contest to point to a completely different scope.

The idea is to work with "timing" and "pitch" as given by the participants, Dminor 130BPM. Your work and talent should be put into how you mangle them together.

Why is this? Well, because this is the very point in itself, to share something we all are working with, in the same way. If you were to use different pitches, files would probably become unrecognisable and so, the entire process of doing something with your neighbour Pulsarian friends here will be vanished.

The source of the sounds I guess can be anything coming from Pulsar or from recorded sounds through a microphone through Pulsar, but not VST or other virtual Synths out of those we can use in Pulsar. Nevertheless, if you want to use VST or anything else, you’ll have to record them through a microphone.

It his ok for you Neutron? Perhaps you would like to change the rules a bit? If so, pleas post and lets see what others have to say. These are just my own suggestions, and the contest pertains to everybody else participating too, of course…