Hi! I'm Sifty the Spider, and my challenge to you this week falls under the Shoe Swapping category.

This week we're going to get down and funky by putting ourself in the position of an "Educational Video" sound track composer from the 1970s.

All you need to do is create a 4 bar loop that can fit snugly behind the brilliant acting and plot lines that are currently happening on screen. We haven't seen any of the viewable content yet, but we have a pretty good idea of how the story is going to go.

Here's a few tips to help you out

• Bow chika wow wow Gats are going to be a huge help here! If you can't synthesize them, get some samples and get wokka wokka-ing
• As tempting as it is, try to get the music screaming porno rather than using any sort of human samples
• If it helps, there are plenty of places online I am sure you can find inspiration
• Check out Sampleswap if you need some funky drum loops or sexy bass lines

Good luck!

p.s. Here's a video of Tom's submission

Click here to enter your submission

View / Download the submissions here (including Tom's)

Weekly Challenges

Hey Producers! I'm Derp the Dinosaur and my challenge to you this week falls under the Practical category!

Often when you load up your program to start righting, jumping in and creating blips and bleeps is the most instantly rewarding thing to do, but this week I want you to spend 10 minutes or so creating a blank production template, so when you get future sparks of inspiration, you've got framework right in front of you to help speed up the creative process.

This can be completely different depending on your preferred genre, and can be as basic as setting up tracks for the most basic of instruments, or getting right down to adding in blank clips ready to populate with information.

And of course, if you felt like sharing it, then everyone can have access to a bunch of different templates!

Here's some tips

• If you're not too hot on creating progression throughout a tune, take a track you really like, warp it in a new audio track so it's in time, then put Location Points on the timeline of when things happen, then all you need to do is remove the original and BAM a whole tune template ready for the filling.
• Things like kick drums and snare drums are easy to put down, ie: a generic 4/4 kick midi clip on a blank track with an empty sampler can save time.
• You could load all your favorite types of one sample (kick, snare, hat etc) into one giant drum rack read to go, so when you start producing you can just whiz through them with the chain selector
• Try to color things how you like, and see if you can remember what is what. It really really helps when your tune starts getting complicated and you need to find something fast.
• You can save your template as default in the preferences section

Have fun!

p.s. Here's a video of Tom's submission, plus about 4 hours of just production

Click here to enter your submission

View / Download the submissions here (including Tom's)

Weekly Challenges

Hey, I'm Sarah the Snake, and my challenge to you falls under the BIZAARE category!

Over here at the 8bit zoo, we've had a bit of a discussion and decided to change a few things.

Firstly, challenges are no longer just for Pro Members... anyone can enter. Anyone at all. The positive feedback from people learning was so overwhelming that we thought it's time for everyone to be able to participate - so now you have no excuse.

Secondly, we're not going to set time limits. This is so people who missed out or didn't have time can complete previous challenges in their own time. You are encouraged to try and get each done within a week so you are ready for the next one, but it's not necessary.

The final thing we talked about was how some people have not been getting involved as they feel their skill level isn't good enough, so that's how we came up with the concept for this weeks challenge.

Write a short tune, but make it the worst thing you possible can.

It can be distorted white noise, it can be a pop song about teenage love, it can be bad rapping... anything and everything is accepted. It doesn't matter what it is, as long as it makes people cringe when they listen to it!

Here are some tips to help you out

• Rather than just make as much noise as you can, try using space to make the noise even more annoying, contrast can really help make things sound like shit (and sound awesome, but that's not for this challenge)
• Clipping is great!
• Badly timed samples are awesome welcomed!
• Can you sing? try singing out of tune, so how far you can sing out of tune, or see how far you can sing out of tune so it sounds in tune, but just a little off.
• 999bpm is fun. So is 20.

So you have absolutely no excuse not to submit this week! Everything is public, you have no time limit and no matter how bad your submission is, it will be valid.

Have fun! Any questions, head over to the forums.

p.s. Here's Tom's submission.

Write the Worst Tune you Can by TomCosm

Click here to enter your submission

View / Download the submissions here (including Tom's)

Weekly Challenges

Gidday Bro! I'm Ken the Kiwi, and my challenge to you falls under the "Shoe Swapping" category; challenges that are made to put you in a position your not usually used to.

For this challenge, we're going to get you to do a remix. Tom's put up an Ableton Live project file of an entire tune he created for the COSMIC-CORE album (a collaboration of music from members of the forums on this very site).

The catch is you need to remix this in a genre that your not used to producing! Usually write dubstep? write a trance tune... like trance? write a chill out tune! Any genre is accepted but you super encouraged to tackle something new.

Here's a few pointers/guidelines to help you out:

• Don't like a particular genre? Do it! See if you can make a tune you like out of a genre you despise.
• Absolutely any style of music is accepted.
• Push yourself! Try to do something you've never done before, that is the whole purpose of these challenges.
• Make sure you don't use any copyrighted material, as each remix will be featured on this website and Tom doesn't like lawyers.
• If you're up for it, make a video and upload it to youtube so people can see how you approached it.
• Remember this isn't a competition, there's absolutely no winners, well there is, everyone wins.

So there we have it, if you're new to this whole challenge thing I highly suggest you have a try, it's amazing how fast you learn when you push yourself to try new things.

Have fun! And remember to head over to the Forums if you have any questions.

P.s. Here's a video that Tom made of the tune

Download the project file here

Click here to enter your submission

View the submissions here

News

Holla!, I'm Bramwell the Blue Whale, and my challenge falls under the Practical topic. These challenges are to not only help you experiment with new ideas, but also help you build your own personal catalogue of presets and sounds.

My challenge goes like this... Create your own unique drum rack, with sounds you have created only using synthesis. In one MIDI track, create a Drum Rack. In 16 of the pads, add Operators (or any other form of synthesizers, NOT SAMPLERS!) and try and tweak them to sound how you want.

Here are some tips to help you out

• If you're not sure where to start, name your pads first (Kick 1, Snare 1) etc... then try to shape them into that sound.
• You're not restricted at all to creating natural sounding things, you can go totally IDM, or super 8bit - It's up to you.
• Pitch Envelopes and White Noise are going to be very helpful with this one.
• Feel free to use any Synthesizers, Audio Effects and MIDI effects
• Tom found the easiest way was to create a MIDI loop with a beat, then shape things as he went along. Sounds shit at the start, but it's a fast way to sculpt.
• Any genre or BPM is good
• If you find 16 is a bit too much, do as many as you can, just try not to stop until you've learnt something!

Have fun! And remember to head over to the Forums if you have any questions.

P.s. Here's a video that Tom made of his submission.

Download the project file here

Click here to enter your submission

View the submissions here

Weekly Challenges