Battles

The Lounge General Discussion
#1

Feb '15 Science Lab Challenge is over, and everyone that tried to do something decent starting with a little sample [url=“http://www.elektronauts.com/t/ot-what-have-you-learned-during-the-scilab-challenge/10824”]learned new aspects of their own gear.

Now as Baddcr suggested, I think it would be a nice idea to have periodic battles to keep discovering new tricks or mastering nice techniques…

On Operator-1 forum (and I guess in lots of different places), there are battles like this where a set of rules and a dat is set, then a due time everyone votes for a participant. The best ones explain their choice and even comment every entry, there are techniques discussed, etc. like we had here right after SL Challenge was over.
And the winner gets the right to set the rules and the date for next battle.

What do you think of this ?
There must be people interested ,since some gave their track even when the contest was over :slight_smile:

One point on the gear involved : I really liked that in the Sci Lab Challenge they were 3 different Elektron machines.
I’ve even been GASing a bit more for the Rytm because I could measure what the participant came from to achieve his nice sound.
Maybe the set of machines invoved could be a rule.
But I see such battles as a way to gather a community rather than dividing it, so having such battles only in the OT part of the forum isn’t cool.

OK, shoot ladies and gentlemen !

Science Lab Challenge, February 2015
Science Lab Challenge, February 2015
Science Lab Challenge, February 2015
#3

Give a second breath to the community by the challenge is a really good thing we do not practice enough.

Here, with the great lab of February, the rules were quality ones. They provide the use of three different gear in the elektron produces. This is one of the important element of the lab success. So this point must be a basic rule necessity.
Another point wich must be used is the restriction rules. They must be thought in two directions : IMHO :

  • first, the lab must permit a large scope of production style. I mean that rules mustn’t lead to an unique experimental production genre. I really like experimental music and glitch, but my taste musn’t be the taste of the rule. In the recent exemple of February, you can ear so different musical style that you can understand one of the success of the rules, of the participation and of the quality of production. COUNTER EXAMPLE : the two step lab.

-second, the restrictions or rule must be very precise in their application (i don’t think that it can be relative to personal interpretation of phenomenon like rain, sun, summer, or of mind estate, like melancholy) because the challenge must be hable to be judged by all of us whether on personal musical taste or technical performance in the way the gear have been exploited to be really push in its limits.

What ever I’m in, so much to learn, so much motivating into production.

Edit : I hope that the winner price was not the main key of this lab success. … :wink:

#4

Projects that get us helping each other and sharing knowledge are always a good idea imho. These instruments are so vast that there’s always something new to learn, and insight into others’ approaches can be both practical and inspiring. You guys have some great thoughts about how they might work and I hope we can keep the momentum going.

A couple of suggestions based on my past experience with this sort of thing:

…As long as the winner has a good sense of what a reasonable and appealing set of rules would be. I only bring it up because we have so many different goals for what we want to accomplish with our instruments. A given challenge would need to be sufficiently broad to attract lots of participants, but constraining enough to demand that we work on a specific aspect of our musicianship.

Perhaps we could keep a running thread of proposed contest ideas and comments upon them, and at the end of each round the winner could pick his/her choice from the list.

Abstraction can prove inspiring, but – and this is not to cast aspersions on the idea – I think we should stick to objective criteria. If we leave too much room for interpretation of a rule, in might lead to arguments and annoyance rather than constructive criticism and mutual support.

Edit: hadn’t seen elenacortes’s post, which i think better expresses my concerns.

#5

Great idea. Some of us, including myself, will probably never release a track or album. So having something that motivates us to finish our half baked ideas is a good idea! Plus, learning something new is super cool!

I like the emotive or seasonal ideas, by the way. I personally need to stop making music that sounds like dated late 90’s techno. It’s 2015

#7

Maybe we should see who wins the lab and see if they’d like the honors of setting up the first community battle.

There are lots of ideas from operator battles. I think a nice way to kick these off would be mangling one of the preset drum kits in the OP-1 as a sort of nod to that battle tradition.

#8

I just noticed there is a new sub forum just for science labs, so I’m guessing this is an idea that Elektron is intending to keep alive via official channels and possibly even with future prizes etc to be won… ( http://test.elektronauts.com/forums/view/49 )

Otherwise, for those not in the loop, science labs have been a part of the Elektron forum culture for quite some time, usually posted in the sandbox section, but with not nearly as much participation as when there is a free Elektron machine dangled at the end of the proverbial stick :slight_smile:

Regardless of prizes or not, the challenges are usually quite fun and very educational, and I look forward to the next challenge…

#9

http://www.elektronauts.com/forums/view/49

http://www.elektron-users.com/index.php?option=com_fireboard&Itemid=28&func=showcat&catid=15

No golf threads tho plz

#10

I like the idea, and I think all that stuff brings people together in some way, as well as making everyone to look deeper into the machines. I am in, even though making music is just my hobby and I do other things as my day job

#11

‘Battles’ conjures up more bad than good imagery in my noggin fwiw …

Bad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh9LGytJOHk :-1:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTbCLYFF2eg :-1:

Good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpGp-22t0lU :+1:

Maybe ‘Missions’ is more appropriate for the Elektronauts ?!

#12

Yeh, this Science Lab Challenge was a very good idea to get me dig deeper. I’m up for more such challenges.

K.

#13

I’m up for battles. Which I think is more of “let’s make music”

But one question. What about those who have only one machine?
We would have to divide battles per machine type based battles.

#14

I’m very fond of this idea of exploration, let’s go on “Missions” :smiley:
@Lymtronics Get the SLC winner to give the first mission, that is definitely a good thought : this would kind of give some legitimacy to the thing :slight_smile:
@bluewolfse7en What do you mean with “golf thread” ?
@lokers Same here, plus I’m in electronic music for less than a year :slight_smile:
Finishing a song is hard work and I seldom finished one.
But even then I learned a lot !
As for the rules, those are what I’ve thought of so far

Rule #1 : the Spirit

Gentleman behavior mandatory. I hadn’t mentioned it as it seemed implicit, but I think this should be written. :kiss:

Rule #2 : the Base
The winner of a Mission is decided through a vote among the submissions.
(S)he becomes the Base for next Mission and sets as precisely as possible the different aspects of the new Mission, as well as the deadline for submission.
(S)he is also the arbitrator, should any pb occur.

Rule #3 : the Deadline
Any submission should respect the deadline. At least “enough” to be admitted by the Base.

Rule #3 : the Gear
The Base has to establish precisely which machines should be used.
Other gear + software could be OK it the constraint says so (there was an “analog battle” at Operator-1, really good), as long as an Elektron machine is the center of the piece, of course.

Rule #4 : the Constraints
Constraints should be objective, precise, maybe a little bit different for each piece of gear selected (e.g. an specific effect may have different name from an Elektron machine to another)
I think that before a mission we could have a preparation time to help the Base to come up with ideas : I don’t think everybody here knows every Elektron machine. I personally don’t. So discussing like this could be a good way to smooth things. Plus give some inspiration, if needed.

Rule #5 : the Theme
I think as well that the Constraints should be as precise as possible : this is creative limitation. Now a Theme is also a source of inspiration, I think it is something totally complementary.
Some are more attracted by the technical aspects while other are dreamers : I don’t see any reason to not make a Theme mandatory :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Rule #6 : the Track
Any submission should of course respect the rules set by the Base.
Submitted material should be brand new.
Now about the shape of the submission :

  • downloadable mp3 : I listen to music at work, and cannot really stream without being hit by the networks grandmaster. I may not be the only one… So I would suggest to make all songs downloadable (on Soundcloud for instance, so that we can make playlists easily), as mp3 format to avoid enormous files…
  • sysex : maybe let the sysex thing be available would be good as well, so that we can focus on a specific trick of a track…

That’s it for now :slight_smile:
Any review on this ?

#15

I wanted to have a go at the last one but time was not on my side. Would be up for future challenges though.

#16

Why? Its pretty much what everyone seems to be releasing at the moment :wink:

#17

Count me in!

#18

Check out the link to EU where there are some wicked examples of Sciencelabs on the old forum.
Back then people didn’t have Overbridge to moan about so the spammers of the time very generously donated loads of threads about Golfing bats, Tennis wickets & Kitchens, oh Lord they loved their bloody Kitchens!!!
Anyway, I digress, ‘Battles’, ‘Missions’, ‘Science-labs’, call 'em what you want, I’m in :slight_smile:

#19

Great idea guys! Missions sounds way more community, and exploration-based than ‘battles’. I think it reflects the atmosphere that was created in the recent contest, where people really dove deep into their machines and marvelled at each other’s creations.

I like the current rules, they look like they’ll promote creativity and community values.

Thanks for nominating me to set the first community mission. I had an idea to go in the opposite direction from the previous mission. How about restricting it to synthesis only. But as that’s still pretty broad, I think you should be restricted to using a single pattern for your whole song. This means you’ll need to create variation in other ways, with performance macros and tweaking. So how about this for a rule set:

  • Restricted to Analog Four/Keys, Analog Rytm, Machinedrum, Monomachine, SID Station (am I right in thinking OT does not have internal synthesis? Pardon my ignorance)
  • One box only (as to keep things fair)
  • Synthesis only, no samples
  • One pattern only (variation must be achieved through other methods)
  • Song length 1-3 minutes (I quite liked this length, as it makes the songs dense with ideas and ‘to the point’)
  • No post-processing, apart from normalisation to keep playlists uniform
  • Post SoundCloud with download enabled (or similar service), and download link for sysex file. Description of interesting techniques or tricks you used would be great as well!
  • Mission deadline: ??? (not sure, what do you guys think?)
  • Once deadline is reached, people listen to the tracks, and vote. How long should voting be? 1 week?
  • Vote should be based on general “quality” of the track (whatever sounds good to you), but also on how much variation can be achieved from one pattern.
  • Winner basks in the warm glow of congratulatory posts.
  • Winner assigns the next mission.

Feel free to add anything I’ve missed, or disregard my idea completely and pick something better :slight_smile:

#20

Zillamatic
Yes! I love the only using one pattern and only internal synthesis idea!
Also, gotta ask… What box did you choose? :wink:
Congrats on the win!

#22

Should winners and hosts of current battles be excluded from voting that round?

#23

Good plan!! I like it…

The only idea that comes to mind is that the pattern is predefined somehow so we’re all working with the same starting point like the other challenge :slight_smile:

EDIT: The pattern should be identifiable in the track somewhere but any truncation/repetition is ok!

Likewise feel free to disregard this idea too :+1:[/quote]
Although I like the idea of a predefined pattern, how would this work, especially across multiple Elektron boxes with different track counts?