http://www.no-future.com/erutufon/showt ... hp?t=28443
It's kinda like those drawings you do as a kid where you fold the paper, draw the legs, then someone has to draw the body without seeing the legs and so on. I think it's called eqsquisite corpse.
The results were pretty good, and it was a most enjoyable project, very simple and everyone got stuck in and handed in their parts in time.
Another similar project is currently ongoing.
This has inspired me to a plan which might suit some of the people here....
Personally I think the music I'm into is probably aligned more with people here - dub techno, minimal, detroit vibes etc, so I thought perhaps it would be nice to throw down a challenge here.
I've been pretty busy for a while doing a web design course and I'm finished now so would like to get back involved with the comunity
So , my idea is this....
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1. We decide on an overall theme :
Say : dubby, clicky, experimental house/techno, the theme is wide and only a guideline. it would however work better if we didn't have people taking that sort of guideline to then produce something more : screaming acid techno or gabber. I'm sure people can be trusted to be sensible but if not - that's partly the point of this excercise
2. We each produce 4 Loops, an intro, a fill, a breakdown and the 'moneyshot' eg: a loop which has all of the main hook/percussion/whatever working together. The idea being that the loops are to be 4 to 8 bars long and represent different stages of a simple track.
3. We all upload the files to a 'stickied' page with strict rules on page submission - eg: we only post on that page for submitting a zip with the proposed files. We must agree a format - eg: wav 16bit 44/48K and a maximum length (I'd say 8/16 bars max to keep filesizes down and to ensure we actually FINISH those loops and don't spend too much time tweaking up a masterpiece - the aim is to err on the side of DJ tools not to promote one-upmanship in terms of compositional skill (I'll come back to this later).
4. Once we reach an agreed deadline - we collect all of the files into a single zip with a simple to use structure labelled by mnml user name.
5. We then host the finished zip (you can immediately see why we need to keep loops small where possible.) and put another stickied page here so that people can grab the loops.
6. The idea is that we then get the DJs or people who like to play live with loops to download the loops and record a mix with them that are then posted a single link to the stickied page. It wouldn't need to be a full mix, it cold be a quick mix, a mixdown of a basic track, anything , as long as it credits the loops used so we can see what's working well together and what might not be (so If you really must create a bavarian horn sonnet mixed with japanese girls singing - you might find it's not working well with that deepchord styled cut)
7. The end result is that everyone who downloads the loops will be able to make new material or a full mix from the loops, hopefully this will encourage direct collaboration between some of our artists here that might be too shy to make the first move or unaware of people with similar styles. The goal is not so much to see who can make the best track, or the best mix necceserilly, it's to see who's styles are compatible and what might be possible by mashing up other peoples loops in a slightly less faceless way. This is not so much a project to produce a product as such or to judge people's skills, it is more to see how our styles work together, wether there are synergies and to promote further collaboration on a more focused level (eg: little groups of people getting together based on what they've liked or...not - the project would be treated as an experiment and nothing more, no reason for people to get all excited and start taking it all too seriously at the initial stages.)
8. Of course the byproduct will be a shared mnml loop bank and possibly some nice livesets and mixes based on the work, I'm really hoping that perhaps we might find that some of these mixes and sets could even be edited down into individual tracks - everything is possible.
9. In order to get things done we need to realise that : the loops are to be dj tools - no need to spend months mastering and tweaking - try to be quick and spontaneous. The loops need to be shared and co-alated, therefore, a small window must be used to gather material or the person sorting it out will be overwhelmed - there's no reason it couldn't be done again if sucessful with everyone taking turns at co-alating the material. We would also need to agree on some basic standards to ensure the loops are useable for all of us - eg: file format as above and also that we don't end up trying to host a file which might be several gigs in size. For that reason MP3s might be better.
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Would anyone be interested ? I think it's a low rent operation - for any producer here it shouldn't be too much of a chalenge or take much time, I realise people put loop packs abotu all the time and archipel for example - have had a similar thing going on for years, but this is not geared towards a product or result, as I say , it's more of an experiment with compatibility of ideas and sounds to help producers here work more colaboratively and work out where potential new projects could come from and it's not set to a label mandate, which means it's far more open to interpretation - there's no reason ambient or experimental loops couldn't be included, I personally would love to mix that sort of thing with my own tech-dub/ambient loops and I'm sure that in turn, to someone else - this combination of BOTH might be useful - see where I'm going ?
The one thing I don't want to do is kick of some massive monster, Ideally the process will be quick and hassle free sticking to the guidelines and not getting too crazy with the format...being too ambitious or being desperate for a product or a 'winning' entry would not work in this case - it needs to be simple, organic and spontaneous but within a basic shell of a framework.
I'd be happy to attempt to co-ordinate such a mission initially, based on my suggestions above, if it became to complex or people started throwing too many conditions into the mix - I'd probably abandon it though but the offer stands if people are interested.
I think even for the most time-pressed or guarded musicians here that it could be a worthwhile and practial experiment, I don't think we need worry about people ripping off the loops or whatnot - anyone who needs to do that will simply loose out on the material that might be subsequently forged from this excercise so it would be pointless for anyone to blow their load and assume they've scored big with a heap of fresh loops, it's for this reason I'd also reccomend keeping it simple, we won't need fully mastered or polished material here - this is more an excercise in ideas and making mistakes or using slightly rougher material is more desireable to me personally - I wanna see the raw side of what people might be doing !
Final point if it helps convince anyone - your input doesn't need to be time consuming, fire over four basic, rough loops and the person co-alating and the peopl playing with the material will do the rest , all you'd need to do is keep a lookout to see if any of the submitted mixes twitch your ear.
Let me know what you think, I'm not too fussed if folk aren't up for it as I have plenty to keep me occupied, but I thought I'd try and instigate some fun after being couped up for so long studying
. It sounds cool