Beat Battle Discussion

#41

Hey so, before the site crashed we were talking about doing something special for BB100, which is kinda sorta soon-ish somewhat, with a potential small prize or something for the winner, up to even having a larger battle with an extended deadline to make some serious tracks.

I’m open to whatever, doing something, I like the idea of it, even if it’s just a small pocket synth operator or something to the winner (of course, we’d need to find some people to pitch for it, I’d be willing to throw in for a small prize).

What say ye?

#42

Sounds like a great idea to me. I wish i could chip in :frowning:
The idea is great though, even though i likely will not find time to get involved

#43

VIVA LA BEAT BATTLE! So confused right now… had to make a new accunt and everything. So shiny I am… SQUIRREL! Yeah… what happened? I missed alot…

#44

The server on which the old site was on went kaput, and there was no backup in place.

They set up this site, which is now IDMf v2.0, starting completely from scratch.

#45

So…I finally crawled back out from under my rock…I uploaded the samples here:
BB54 Stems
They are 100% Creepr-made and therefore no copyright problems. Anyone and everyone who wants to use them for BBs or personal projects, go right ahead.

#46

Sweet! I’ll post them in the archive.

#48

Big ups to everyone and shout out to @IO_Madness for keeping a mass archive for this.

I still vote for BB100 we utilize the archives… :smiling_imp: :wink:

#49

We should get on that…being that 100 is coming up in a few weeks…

I think “all the archives” is maybe a bit much…but then again that is one guys opinion. Another option would be to have everyone who wants to contribute 1 stem, which we collect for a week, and that is the pack. Perhaps we should also discuss the rules, since we should probably look at making something that, for example, could actually be put out and heard as an album. “Noise art of the 14th century torture chambers” or “orchestral body noises” are probably bad ideas in that case. Let us save those for 101…:stuck_out_tongue:

#50

Hey hey guys, I am reviving this thread to bring you some news. The netlabel team has been tossing around a few ideas behind the scenes and we are interested in marking the occasion of the 100th Beat Battle with a netlabel release!
As this is a community effort, and has been since BB1, the label team has no interest in dictating anything here…but if a release of BB100 is of interest to the BB crew, there are a few points we would need you to consider/be aware of:

  1. we need a solid number of entries to make something out of. like, more that 4. a BB100 EP sounds kinda weak ya know?
  2. We have a full schedule this summer already but can shuffle a few things around, but in the end we would not be able to do anything with the tracks until the beginning of August. Assuming we get the raw material by then we would like to turn it around and push it out the door within a month.

These two points brought us to a few ideas, but these are only ideas from 4 IDMfers here…in the end the community needs to decide how to proceed with BB100, not us:

  1. Since we can’t work the tracks until August, there is no push to have the BB finished until then. Why not open this sucker up for like 4-6 weeks? It would give everyone interested loads of time to work on something, even if they are working on something else too, have a day job, vacations, whatever.
  2. For reasons which I cannot go into in detail, it would be awesome for us if this did not kick off around the first of June. Personally here, I thought the 15th sounded like a pretty number. just one guy’s opinion.

TL:DR, All of us in the label team think it is freaking awesome that we are reaching the 100th BB. We want to support this community project milestone with a release.

What say you all?

#51

I Nominate

@FMB because he started the bbs
@IO_Madness because he has been involved with it for a long time

That is If they are willing to spearhead it,
I also suggest people utilizing the vast sample archive of previous bbs that @IO_Madness has thoughtfully organized

@FMB, @FMB, @IO_Madness,

Sorry guys I’m hoping the beetlejuice thing summons you lol,

I’m not volunteering because I already tried and failed with the breakcore beat tape which turned to shit…but in the end it became sounds for skeleton so silver lining

#52

It’s super cool to see how much traction the beat battles are getting, and the quality of releases on them.

Speaking only for myself, I always felt like a “beat battle royale” as BB100 would be really sweet. Even if there was no rules other than anyone can dig into the 99 previous sample packs (which IIRC @IO_Madness has maintained with the help of others). Big thanks to everyone else involved in the BBs, and maintaining archives. I was really fucking impressed to see all of them on a list. haha.

sounds like a fun creative delve to slam a ton of packs together and dish something out open genre-wise.

What do you guys think should happen for BB100? Anything goes, no rules, just only using the archive for samples?

does anyone have any thoughts on voted/non-voted (art/songs), collabs, anything? I’m really interested in hearing what you guys want to do for the 100th :stuck_out_tongue:

#53

I have looked into doing the beat battles before, but with only an SU200 to work with, it kind of makes it difficult to attempt in the 2 week time limit. That might sound strange to those in the box or with modern samplers. I was planning to have a go at this one whatever the samples or rules were. Not because it’s the 100th BB, but that I’d really like to do the samples for BB101, mainly due to the number 101’s link to a certain sci fi movie, which would make for a pretty cool BB for you guys. I guess I’ll have to see what happens.

#54

I dunno about spearheading it, ive not been involved for 99% of what has gone on so its not for me to do. Im definitely down for participation though. I might be able to contribute some samples too if that’s required.

#55

Offering to make #100 a net-label release is a nice gesture :heart:

The idea of using the entire catalogue of samples from previous BBs is interesting in a mind-boggly “into the rabbit hole” sort of way , - but personally I’d probably prefer the challenge of being limited to a very few samples.

Limiting the samples would also (potentially) result in entries that work better together as a release, - because of their similarities.

#56

My thoughts exactly. Sorting through 100 sample packs would just be overwhelming. But I still like the idea of reusing previous samples. So how about something like this. We use a random number generator and pick 3 previous battles. Then depending on what those end up being, we’ll either require to observe rules from all 3 or mix and match them, if they are kind of contradictory (maybe have a quick vote or just have whoever is leading this decide).

Very cool of the netlabel/team to get involved. I think the best thing the team can do is actually advertise the fact it’s happening. Maybe even do one of those forum-wide stickies for a week or something. As long as a bunch of new people get involved, the rest should take care of itself.

#57

I like the idea of having access to them all. At the end of the day, we’re still all going to make our own version of whatever, so I don’t see cohesion an issue, that wouldn’t be otherwise.

I usually find myself making unfinished stuff with certain packs, when there might be a neat percussive bit somewhere else or whatever I may find.

I also think the quality of tracks would potentially be better with a multitude of samples from various BBs.

Just my two cents.

#58

This is good news!!

One thing I might add with the netlabel release that has been discussed in the past is that we need samples that are free to use, and not under copyright (unless we can clear them for our use).

One issue with previous beat battles (1-100) were that we weren’t able to definitely say all the samples were properly cleared. Also, some previous beat battle sample libraries varied in quality at times… lol. So, as far as reusing previous battles, I’d be open to it, but I know there were definitely some battles where the samples were just kinda… meh… and it’d be nice for the 100th battle to have some decently workable samples.

@aSSerbik, as for previous beat battle rules, those have mostly been lost. I try to record the rules for current beat battles and add them to the archive with the samples, but unfortunately that information didn’t get recorded from the old site prior to its crash (unless someone happens to have that info somewhere). The oldest beat battle archives I got copies from @MFXxx.

Some time back we were considering trying to source the samples as submissions from members, collect them, and then run the beat battle with the resulting samples. I think it might be cool if we tried sourcing the samples from the community, had a sample submission period and then a time to work on the actual track. This would also help with copyright concerns, as they’d all be original samples. Especially if we opened it up for longer, 4-6 weeks, say 6, we could do two weeks for samples, and 4 weeks for entries.

There was also talk of a prize for the winning track for the 100th battle. Nothing huge, we were talking one of those pocket operators, or something like those Korg à la carte synths (like the Monotron). Something small and not terribly expensive, say $30-50, $60 tops. and we also could accept funds from anyone who could pitch. We’d need to figure out something like a paypal to allocate the funds properly and make sure they are used for the prize. I’d be willing to put up some funds towards that.

But yeah, extended submission period, we could maybe figure out some baseline rules, but I think it’d be nice to lean on the side of being more open. I’d personally like it to be samples + other, with a requirement to use a certain number of samples. Maybe establish a theme, but nothing too restrictive, I think BB100 should be fairly easy-going.

#59

Good point about cleared samples. I like the idea of collecting fresh samples from different members. And I like the idea of some kind of a pool to finance a prize. I can contribute to both as well. Though I think it should still have specific rules. In my opinion, it’s the rules that make this thing fun even more so than the samples themselves.

#60

These are all definitely some good ideas to be discussed. A prize pool of sorts with an extended submission window could really encourage people to make some really cool stuff. I’m all about it!

Interesting point about clearing the samples. I could see it being neat for people to ante up sample packs and combining them, but that might lead to a smaller pool with potentially opposing diversity/tones/textures. I’m not sure, totally depends.

What about bringing in a couple of volunteers to be part of this specific project to go through and pull certain parts of the sample library archive out and build a custom hodgepodge pack + include any new sample packs people want to ante up? Best of both worlds maybe :slight_smile:

Just a thought :slight_smile:

Edit- I, also, would be part of this volunteer group :slight_smile:

#61

Maybe we could make a sample pack that can be downloaded with the release or something. I dunno.

I personally like the idea of us using some of our synths to synthesize drum hits, bass sounds, effects, pads, chords. Maybe layer recordings into them. Rather then a folder full of long recordings we could create and process neatly trimmed sounds, one shots i guess.

I dunno i stopped doing the BB becaude i wanted to shred 8 minute 70s japanese jazz tracks only :grin:

im sure we will have guys with DFAMs, MS20s etc. Pick 1 synth and do your best