The Great Tracktion Drum Challenge

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Okay folks, here's the deal, who's up for it?

The challenge is you've got to create a rack filter, using just the bundled filters that come with T2, and the free sfz soundfont player.

Using just these, and the free NsKit soundfonts, you've gotta create the loudest, greatest, funkiest, dirtiest, grooviest, glitchy-est, im-making-up-words-now-iest sounding drums you can manage.

The idea then being that you create a little tracktion project with maybe a little example beat (or a long 'un if you like), and we upload these to for people to check out.

The trick is, because we're only using the bundled Tracktion plugins, and the same soundfont player, and same soundfont, the file sizes can be tiny. Effectively you just need to upload the edit, don't even need to archive it (i think, i've not tested this!)

What this will prove is just how much variety you can get from just Tracktion and the bundled tools, and how your imagination and ingenuity can create something maybe a little leftfield, maybe something huge, maybe a real classic drum sound you love off a record, and also (hopefully) we'll all learn a little bit from each other about what can be done with a little bit of effort on these lil' old computers of ours. Some production techniques and tricks you might never have tried yourself.

At this point i should really upload the first edit, right? Ah, but unfortunately, i'm just back from work, with the seeds of the idea in my head, but nothing to show for it yet :oops: :help:

And to be honest, i'm betting there's people out there who can do a better job than me ...

I'm suggesting using sfz and the nskit soundfont because they're free, and everyone can get hold of them. And just the bundled effects for the same reason. Obviously if anyone's got a better idea, let's hear it. But i think these give you a bit of scope for doing real "live" drum sounds, and with some mangling, some really glitchy out-there stuff too.

Anyway, here's the links:

sfz - http://www.rgcaudio.com/sfz.htm
NsKit soundfonts (either free, or freelite versions)- http://www.naturalstudio.co.uk/ns_kit7freedownload.html

So, what d'you think people?

Up for it? It could be good ....

cheers

chico

ps Uh, we'll need somewhere to host the edits too, i guess ... anyone got some spare webspace? Shouldn't take up much
"my gosh it's a friggin hardware"
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Love the idea, suck at drum programming. ;)
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do we have to use the soundfont, or can we use the sfz format to mangle the sound?
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I think the point was that there needs to be SOME sort of audible sound-- and the NSkits are the best-quality and most ubiquitous free drum kit out there. Of course, once you find a beat that someone's made that you like (by opening their edit), you could always swap another instrument in there. ;)

Greg
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I can host it, pm me if interested
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Hey lunch, i think you've maybe taken my idea a wee bit sideways, although there's nothing wrong with that ;)

The idea was to create edits of different drum sounds rather than different beats.

So someone might create a rack filter with a drum kit that sounds like John Bonham playing in the 70s, really heavy rock sound, someone else might create one that sounds a public enemy drumkit, or a drum and bass kit, or whatever.

It's not what's being played that's the point (just download a midi drum loop if necessary, or don't have any midi in there at all even), it's the SOUNDS you can make. What you can make the drum kit sound like.

jtx0000, not sure i get what you mean, but i guess it's up to you mate. Whatever you want to do, if it can be done with those basic free tools, go for it man :D

I'm suggesting sticking to one soundfont, so people can get ideas for production techniques using the same basic building blocks. It would kinda defeat the point for someone to use a different soundfont than the nskit, for instance, because they will obviously already sound different ... it would be impossible to compare ideas
Last edited by chico.co.uk on Thu Jun 16, 2005 8:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"my gosh it's a friggin hardware"
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kara wrote:I can host it, pm me if interested
Hey, nice one :D

Now all we need is someone to set the ball rolling ....
"my gosh it's a friggin hardware"
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chico.co.uk wrote:Hey, nice one :D
Now all we need is someone to set the ball rolling ....
ok ... ill bite ...

... a simple little rack for adding some grit and wierdness and spaceyness to your dub / d-n-b beats ... ive used sfz+ with nskit 7 running through a load of MDA plugins (use the vol / pan filters to fine tune the sounds) but you can just sub in sfz and it should work fine i guess ...

speed dub manglecrusher

... enjoy and show me something that took a little bit more thought than my feeble effort ...

slainte :phones: rob
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Shit is dope Rob :cool: . When you turn the MDA tracker to "square" mode it really gets funky.
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Phz, did you mean to set the tempo to 160?

There are some crazy sounds you've got going there :ud:

[N.B. I had to replace the sfz+ with sfz, did this make a difference?]
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Very nice idea chico. In fact as you may saw in the Cafe I did a blues track and I used stepbeater to program the sounds, five sfz's (I split NSkit to 5 sfz files kick, snare, hihats, toms and cymbals), rack filters to drive 5 Tracktion tracks from stepbeater and a few freebies or almost freebies (PSP spinEq). My goal was to create a simple but realistic acoustic drum sound so I used only some eq and compression thus it's not something groundbreaking AFAIK the sound itself. However if someone is interrested I can upload (most probably tomorrow because ATM I am on dial-up) the archive and the sfz files (not wavs of course)
@Lunch : I remember I promised the fxp's for stepbeater.
Can wait to try what Rob made (but I must switch to my "music-no internet partition")
If I go insane, please don't put your wires in my brain
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Ah, sorry chico! My bad. Your idea is roXorz anyhow. :D
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pHz wrote:
chico.co.uk wrote:Hey, nice one :D
Now all we need is someone to set the ball rolling ....
ok ... ill bite ...

... a simple little rack for adding some grit and wierdness and spaceyness to your dub / d-n-b beats ... ive used sfz+ with nskit 7 running through a load of MDA plugins (use the vol / pan filters to fine tune the sounds) but you can just sub in sfz and it should work fine i guess ...

speed dub manglecrusher

... enjoy and show me something that took a little bit more thought than my feeble effort ...

slainte :phones: rob

Hey, schweeeet :D

Flying visit to the forum before i hit the sack, but I never get the nskit to sound like that, gonna have fun picking that rack apart when i get a bit more time.

Nice entree Rob, who's up next?

Glad to see the "upload just the edit" thing works too, the compressed file is 3k, uncompressed about 20k ;)

Could end up with a nice little library here people, if we all chip in ...
"my gosh it's a friggin hardware"
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Let's give this thread another chance. In other words this is a ... bump :D

PS I'll try to come up with something during the weekend
If I go insane, please don't put your wires in my brain
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Tingle wrote:Phz, did you mean to set the tempo to 160?
doesnt need to be 160 ... that just happens to be the tempo of the MIDI loop i used to test the rack ... should work fine at other tempos ...
Tingle wrote:There are some crazy sounds you've got going there :ud:
that was the aim ... just played around till i had something that was a fair way removed from the sound of a dry NSkit ...
Tingle wrote:[N.B. I had to replace the sfz+ with sfz, did this make a difference?]
should be totally fine i think (dont have sfz installed here to check) ... i cant see how it would affect anything ...

oh yeah ... BUMP !!!

slainte :phones: rob
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