BB118 - Beat the Clock
Background:
A while back I stumbled across FACT magazine’s “Against the Clock” video series - where producers are given 10 minutes to create a track from scratch. It’s a cool series, worth checking out if you haven’t seen it.
https://www.factmag.com/tag/against-the-clock/
This beat battle is a shameless ripoff of that idea, with just a few minor changes. I’ve increased the time limit to one hour - seems like an hour is short enough to do in one sitting, but maybe enough time to develop an idea or two rather than just making a throw-away sketch. I’ve also added some rules on sample choices and format to hopefully help everyone get started.
Samples:
Rule 1: Beat the clock
You have 1 hour to complete your track. Sample prep, sound design, composition, mixing, mastering … all of that in 1 hour.
Rule 2: Pick your sounds
The sample pack has bunch of sounds to work with…but you are not allowed to use all of them. Your first task is to pick which of the samples you want to use.
- You may use up to three of the samples from the “Drums” folder.
- You may use up to three of the samples from the “Melodic” folder.
** If you want, you can use a single instance of a mono synth instead of one of your melodic sample choices. Provide you own hardware synth or plug-in. - You can add a vocal sample of your own choice, but if you intend to use a vocal sample, you must post that sample for others to use in this BB as well.
If you are really worried about the time limit, you can listen to all the samples and pick the ones you want to use before you start the clock.
Rule #3: Format
- Style: Drum and Bass, or something loosely in that ballpark
- Track Length: Your track should be exactly 32-bars long.
- Key: Some flavor of the key of A
- BPM: 165
Perfection impossible. Post your track anyway.