Right, then.
Last edited by D.H. Miltz on Sat Dec 01, 2012 3:05 am; edited 1 time in total

I didn't forget this, I just haven't had a chance to watch it. I might go somewhere later this morning where streaming is less problematic than it is here at home.

just to clarify it a bit,
only percussive sounds are allowed,
but can they be done by synthesizers?
and can any fx be used to modulate them?

so that maybe a resonator can make a melody out of a
percussive beat?
or not in any way melodies?

No melodies, ideally, but you can certainly make percussion with synths if you like, and there are no restrictions on effects.

Hi!
Let's talk about the limits of the challenge.
Well, the idea is to make a track only with percussive sounds. You can use synths, samples, or even your voice again if you want. Whatever.
In my case, i will try to do only Taiko Drums things, if i have time... A war theme in the meiji epoque or maybe something strange, just for fun.

Of course noise and atonal sounds would be allowed in the tracks, that's why i said, "if you punch your guitar", the sound won't sound melodic itself, it won't sound a precious chord, but it will bring harmonic content, atonal or not.

What i'm thinking now, what if we use a long tail reverb? It could sound like a pad, and a pad is not a percussive sound, but the original sound was... In that case the reverb wouldn't be allowed, right?
What do you think guys?

Have a good day

Well ...
for only the second time since 2006 I'm out as the theme just is not in my remit. It holds no attraction whatsoever, I'm sorry to say
Looking forward to something better for December.


James

Looking forward this this contest, should be fun.


I'm really confused by what is meant by "no melodies." As the video from farlukar shows many percussive instruments are tuned or shaped to particular pitches. I think it will be impossible to avoid making melodies.

Also, "no textures." I was thinking of percussively strumming the strings of a muted guitar (perhaps while using a wah wah ). Is that a texture?

I hadn't given much thought to "no pads" but what Irion mentioned about long reverbs having a pad like sound (particularly a pitch shifting reverb like Valhalla Shimmer) is a good point.

I have no idea how the rules could be re-worded to take all of the grey areas between what is pitched and what is unpitched percussion into account, but I think perhaps removing "no melodies," "no textures," and "no pads" from the rules could help avoid confusion. I guess in the end the voters will just have to decide for themselves what is percussive and what isn't.

Having returned to this contest after almost three years (man time passes so quickly), besides realizing that this thing tends to draw an interesting bunch no matter how many of us come and go, I see pretty much the same dilemma regarding the theme.

1. Make an interesting piece of music.

2. Follow the month's theme.

3. Try to hit the "sweet spot" which might get the entry enough votes to maybe win the whole thing.

Since voting is usually the most difficult part it tends to be the case that some folks have a special talent for satisfying the requirements yet doing well at #3, and thus the contest tends to have some repeat winners.

It must be said however that some of us just don't seem to enjoy making things easy on ourselves and might regard excessive approbation as something almost as uncomfortable as not getting any votes at all.

So it really mostly comes down to the first two considerations. YMMV.

do what thou will and let the voters decide.
just have fun with the idea.

This may have been addressed at some other time, so forgive me for possibly asking again. How do I put up an image to go along with the music? There always seems to be a lot of images (and I admit that I look forward to seeing what Evo2slo has submitted for artwork). Like I stated....if this has a previous thread, sorry for asking about it again.

Walt (Vulcandj)

upload the image somewhere, copy and paste the link wuth img tags

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/faq.php?mode=bbcode
Vulcandj, all is explained here.

Thanks for the info. I hope to be able to come up with some artwork for the next piece that I enter. (Not sure if it will be this month, but we'll see).

I don't understand 'no melodies'.

Percussion includes things like Bells, Xylophones, glasses, chimes, etc. (ie - instruments played by striking).

Couldn't someone do a xylophone piece and submit it?

As regards melodies/no melodies: No one's claiming melodies can't in general be made with percussion or that tuned percussion doesn't exist. The idea is to eschew them. That's part of the challenge, part of the point.

This is my general answer, too.

The wah wah might be problematic; hard to say. See vurt's quote.

As for long tails on reverbs--if they're making a pad sound, and the challenge/theme specifically says "no pads," couldn't you just use shorter tails?