Patch Contest #4

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Mr Bit has very kindly offered a copy of his Z-Drums percussion sound bank as a prize for the next contest - take a look over at:

http://www.sinthetic.biz/



So the task for this contest is simply to design a percussive rhythm patch.

It need not be, say, a multi part drum kit rhythm, it could equally something like a conga rhythm, or a just sequence of percussive hits of some kind - the two elements that must be present are percussion and rhythm (i.e. the patch must contain it's own rhythmic sequence). It need not necessarily be a 'one finger rhythm' - a drum kit patch might, say, map the kick, snare and hihat rhythms to different parts of the keyboard.

You can, if you like, suggest a BPM in your patchname - do this in the form: "Patchname xxx BPM". A suggested BPM is neither mandatory, or even particularly recommended (for my money a good rhythmic patch will work through a range of tempi). Further patch information can, of course, also be included under the "Info" tab and in the XY view.

In the factory bank "Lupins" (HS) Drippy Drums, Handpots, Kitchen Space, Percolator and Titanium Hits are all good examples of the kind of thing being asked after here (and good patches to look at for inspiration too :wink: ).

For now I think it is best to make sure that patches are Zebra 2.3 compatible - it would be nice to use the extra features of 2.5, but it's still only a public beta, so some people will not yet be using it.


Now for some RULES! and stuff.

1. You must take part in voting, but....
2. No voting for your own patch!
3. You may submit two patches.
4. Patches should be Zebra 2.3 compatible - please check that your patches sound okay in the latest official 2.3 build Zebra (some patches built in the 2.5 beta using 2.3 mode are not backwards compatible with the 2.3 build.)

The NEW* deadline for submissions is midnight - 24:00 GMT - Sunday 11th October (AKA 00:00 GMT Mon 12th).

PM a link to your patches to bmrzycki.

*The deadline has been put back a week because of compatibility issues between patches built with the 2.5beta and 2.3. See the end of this thread - page 7 onwards.


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This post has been edited. To read the original post expand the tiny text below.
Mr Bit has very kindly offered a copy of his Z-Drums percussion sound bank as a prize for the next contest - take a look over at:

http://www.sinthetic.biz/

He suggested something like a single patch rhythm or drum machine task would fit nicely with the prize and I think it's an excellent idea.

That's the good news, however I have a couple of reservations:

1. The numbers were down for the last contest and I kind of think that with such small numbers taking part it's almost not worth bothering - not to say that it does not do justice to the fantastic prizes that have been offered (Bazille!).

2. I'm sure that some people will find the idea of making a single patch drum machine quite daunting (tbh, that was my first reaction too) and this might lead to even less people taking part than last time - and then it really wouldn't be worth bothering.

So, this is what I propose:

The contest will only run if eleven people, other than myself, commit to making at least one patch (why eleven? well it's one more than ten, it just sounds like a nice number and with me it brings it up to a dirty dozen).

If we can make up the numbers, I'll put up some easy percussion tutorials with example patches that people can modify or adapt into their own patches (this bit was bmrzycki's suggestion, not mine).

And I'm not making myself out to be any kind of an expert here, rather I've been looking at percussion patches in Zebra (Howard's, Michael K's and the free Mr Bit ones) and the good news is that making basic electronic percussion sounds is really, really easy.

In fact I've now come around to thinking that it makes for a very nice task, one that is potentially a good learning experience for anyone new to patching in Zebra and one that is lot of fun too! (I've just made my first drum machine type patch - kick, hats, and a clap with an arp/mseg rhythm - in half an hour.)

So, that's the score. If you're up for it, or if you think that these contests are worthwhile and you'd like them to continue, please show your support by taking part.

If there isn't enough interest, well, we'll leave it for a month and then it's over to Urs and Wonshu - hopefully their new website will inspire more people to participate.
Last edited by hakey on Fri Oct 09, 2009 3:17 pm, edited 11 times in total.

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sorry about not making a patch for the last one after I said I would. Frosh week happened and my studio is still in shambles...

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I'm in on this one. 8)

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MitchK1989 wrote:sorry about not making a patch for the last one after I said I would. Frosh week happened and my studio is still in shambles...
:smack:

Hehe...Actually, no worries, I mean I wouldn't want to force anyone to take part! It's funny though, I've had plenty of people who have expressed a good deal of enthusiasm for the idea in the forum and in PMs, but then that just hasn't been reflected in numbers taking part. Oh well, if it's not a runner, it's not runner - I really can't see that there's a great deal more that I can do.

(Maybe you could cast your vote in the voting thread for the current contest - even that seems to be very slow this time :( )

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BradP wrote:I'm in on this one. 8)
:tu:

One down ten to go :)

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I'm in too... I actually submitted a patch for the current contest, which I whipped up in about 20 minutes. The sad thing is that I think it sounds like I made it in 20 minutes. Oh, well. I mostly just wanted to make sure that there is continued participation in these contests.

Tutorials would be great for the drum patch creation. The funny part about you (hakey) feeling put off by the contest, is that I was actually excited about it.

I think there can be quite a bit of variety coming out of this contest and I would think that more would join this new one just because technically, a drum patch can be put together just by adjusting the ADSR levels to create a "hit" so maybe it will alleviate some pressure for designing the perfect moving/evolving sound.

I'm also a bit surprised that fewer joined in the current contest, compared to the last one. Regardless of prizes, there should be a certain degree of competitiveness we have with ourselves as a way of bettering our skills and knowledge. There is no better way than joining a competition with others that really know Zebra well. I've already learned a lot more than I would have without these contests and find I'm understanding even more thanks to all of MCnoones, Hakey's and Michael Kastrup's recent posts.

Anyway... Just count me in for this and all future contests too. 8)

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elxicano wrote:The funny part about you (hakey) feeling put off by the contest, is that I was actually excited about it.
Me too :) (now that I've had a go) and I wasn't put off as such, I was just a bit worried that creating a single patch drum/rhythm machine might be fairly complicated - a single drum hit is one thing, but a patch that can produce more than one percussive sound and/or sequence them into a passable rhythm, might be entirely another.

But, having had a go, the basic building blocks are really very simple (as you say, most of it is using envelopes) and from there you can make it is a simple or complex as you like. I'm sure it's something that pretty much anyone can have a go at and get something interesting - and I quite agree, this task could produce some of the best and most varied patches yet :)

Anyway, good to have you on board.


Two down nine to go :wink:

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And here's a very nice little example-cum-tutorial that Michael Kastrup posted a while back:

Making Retro Drumkits on Zebra

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I'm actually quite interested in this one, so I plan to take part.

I can see that tutorials may be helpful here, but it's a mixed blessing. We learn so much from examining and tweaking the patches made by the experienced patch designers. But since this is a competition I've felt compelled to start from a blank slate (using the initialisation template from the Transmission set). But I was sorely tempted last time around by something I was building up using another one of the Transmission templates, but I ended up thinking that would be cheating, so I didn't manage to get the sound I was after.

With the percussion tutorial, how big will the temptation be?

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blurk wrote:I'm actually quite interested in this one, so I plan to take part.

I can see that tutorials may be helpful here, but it's a mixed blessing. We learn so much from examining and tweaking the patches made by the experienced patch designers. But since this is a competition I've felt compelled to start from a blank slate (using the initialisation template from the Transmission set). But I was sorely tempted last time around by something I was building up using another one of the Transmission templates, but I ended up thinking that would be cheating, so I didn't manage to get the sound I was after.

With the percussion tutorial, how big will the temptation be?
Well, the idea with the tutorials would be to illustrate some basic techniques - getting a kick drum for a pitch mod'd sine wave, hi-hats from filtered noise, use of the comb module, and how to use an MSEG to trigger a simple rhythm etc. It would really be for those who might not otherwise know where to start - after all, part of the aim of these contests was as a learning experience.

I certainly don't think that there's a problem with taking inspiration (even stealing the odd bit :wink: ) from other people's patches - quite the reverse - I think it's one of the best ways to learn new stuff. The really important thing is to then adapt any ideas and make them your own. I'd say that using an oscillator template as a jumping off point would be fine, provided you then took it in an interesting direction of your own, rather than just using it wholesale.

Anyway, thanks for taking part :)


Eight to go.
Last edited by hakey on Tue Sep 08, 2009 11:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Just to clarify, are we supposed to make a sequenced rhythm or just the individual drum hits?

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I'll take part this time. Sounds like fun. :)

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BradP wrote:Just to clarify, are we supposed to make a sequenced rhythm or just the individual drum hits?
Hmmm... well I haven't quite worked it out for myself. I'm kind of thinking that it could be either - So you could choose to produce either a percussion rhythm patch, or a percussion/drum kit style patch with different hits mapped across the keyboard.

But perhaps that's too complicated? If I had to choose I'd go for the rhythm patch, because it's more fun and it requires a little bit more technique. Well, I'll think it over. Any suggestions/preferences?

And I think that Mr Bit should have the final say, after all he's providing the prize (and he knows a bit about percussion in Zebra :wink: ).

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justin3am wrote:I'll take part this time. Sounds like fun. :)
Great :tu:

Seven to go....

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BradP wrote:Just to clarify, are we supposed to make a sequenced rhythm or just the individual drum hits?
Personally, I think we should be allowed to do either of those (plus the third alternative of a complete kit). Since we can submit two patches, I'd be looking at doing two different types of patch.

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