Freesound Forums

Hi there!

Every week or so, I have my musician group do weird challenges. The challenges are designed to get us to make music in unconventional ways, think about things differently, etc.

So far, we have had these among others:
- a challenge where you have to make a song with your DAW muted, and can't hear it until the final render
- a challenge to make the soundtrack to an image
- a challenge to make a sound with only cymbals
- a challenge in which everything had to be in E pentatonic minor
- a challenge in which random words were put together to make new genres, and then we made music in those new genres

Would anyone here be interested in doing challenges like that? I've found them pretty fun and rewarding.

Sounds fun! I wouldn't mind doing that.

When we did the musical dares here in the past, the aim was always to use at least some sounds from Freesound.
If we can keep that, maybe would make ot more interesting for the Freesound community.
To be fair, we haven'y done one in ages.
I will give it a try...

Hmm... a lot of my challenges so far have been open-ended in nature, so people *could* use Freesound (and I often did), but I'm not sure how many sample-based challenges I can come up with. Anyone can suggest ideas for a challenge, of course!

I'll try to integrate Freesound into the challenges whenever I can!

Anyway, we can talk more about our method, refine it for our needs and so on. But for the time being, I will go ahead and write a prompt. These challenges are noncompetitive, and meant to encourage creativity, not oneupmanship. Therefore it's up to each person how to interpret the rules of the challenge. I tend to be a purist and never break a challenge's rules, but if breaking the rules helps you make a better song that you love more, then go for it!

I also don't do deadlines. Once a challenge prompt is issued, it's open indefinitely. Latecomers can dig through the thread, find challenges they like, and then do them if they so desire.

* * *

Freesound Music Challenge (FMC) 001 - "What's Poppin'?"

Make a track of at least 30 seconds in any style you like, so long as that style includes a beat. Beat sounds must be made by playing or modifying this sample: https://freesound.org/people/strangehorizon/sounds/612977/

EXTRA CREDIT: Use the sample for every part of the song!

Upload your composition (ideally to SoundCloud) and link it here to show us!

If you want to help keep things organized, add the prefix "FMC001" to your track's name. This also helps us with making compilations and playlists, if we get to that point.

* * *

Some inspiration (playlist of past challenges I have done): https://soundcloud.com/sonic_kitchen/sets/avantgarde-music-challenges
(Go to an individual song's page to read the challenge prompt.)

EDIT: Sorry, didn't realize big images would break the thread. I guess it'll only ever matter on page 1 though!

SoundCloud cover image (for when we don't have any other suitable image to go with a submission):

Welp, there's my submission!

https://soundcloud.com/sonic_kitchen/fmc001-march-of-the-blooming-onions

I only used the wine cork pop. I'm surprised at how guitar-like it sounded when sent through an amp sim.

I'd be interested for sure. So far, I understand the rules to be,
use some sounds from the Freesound Community and then just free form it?
Is there a theme or just free form it?

I did a little.

https://soundcloud.com/user-678701554/pop-sound-challenge-1?si=65400aa6716742b4b391a9a1aa1c01ea&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

audiomirage: I posted the first challenge prompt above as "What's Poppin'?". Music with wine cork pops!

Migfus: Nice work! Gave you a follow

i put zero effort into this but here
https://freesound.org/s/614936/

Right on. Hope you had fun with it!

I sure do like a good challenge. I'm interested.

Well, did you guys have fun? Should I write the second prompt or does someone else wanna?

AlienXXX wrote:
I will give it a try...

Did we? I would be down for another round'a dares

Want to write the next prompt?

I like using the prompt format because it's nice and specific about things, while still leaving room for creativity. I sort of borrowed my particular prompt format from the TV show "Taskmaster", which is hilarious (and on YouTube).

Finally, accompanying each prompt with an image might be a good idea, to make them stand out when people are scrolling through these pages, and because images can have a way of inspiring some people musically.

Well anyway, I'll come up with a new prompt, just in case no one else has any ideas. But I'll wait until my current sampling job is done to post it. I have about 70-100 samples to process, upload, and describe.

These challenges look fun. I would definitely take part in one of these once the war is over and I'll have some spare time and mood.

strangehorizon wrote:
Want to write the next prompt?

I like using the prompt format because it's nice and specific about things, while still leaving room for creativity. I sort of borrowed my particular prompt format from the TV show "Taskmaster", which is hilarious (and on YouTube).

Finally, accompanying each prompt with an image might be a good idea, to make them stand out when people are scrolling through these pages, and because images can have a way of inspiring some people musically.

Well anyway, I'll come up with a new prompt, just in case no one else has any ideas. But I'll wait until my current sampling job is done to post it. I have about 70-100 samples to process, upload, and describe.

Sounds good. I'll be on the lookout for a prompt.

Freesound Music Challenge (FMC) 002 - "Canvas of Sound"

Make a soundtrack for the accompanying image.

There is no rule for the length of this soundtrack. It can be a short sound, a longer piece with multiple tracks, or whatever you think works for the image. This way, the musically inclined can make compositions, and fans of sampling and sound design can do their thing too.

The image was created by combining several free images from Pexels with different blending modes. It contains layers of clockwork gears, colored smoke, blurry city lights, broken glass, and an aerial view of a city in daytime. I flipped the image upside-down to make the final version because I thought that made it look kind of like an alien mothership in the sky, or like flying upside-down.

* * *

Upload your composition and link it here to show us!

If you want to help keep things organized, add the prefix "FMC002" to your track's name. This also helps us with making compilations and playlists, if we get to that point.

Here's my submission! I stuck with the spooky, alien, sci-fi feeling the image initially gave me, even though I later perceived the image as being fairly cheery. I consider it an ambient texture, though it can certainly be treated as a finished piece.

Hear it on Freesound: https://freesound.org/people/strangehorizon/sounds/625198/

Hear it on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/sonic_kitchen/fmc002-slow-motion-exploding-robot-brains

Pack of samples made during this exercise: https://freesound.org/people/strangehorizon/packs/34590/

That was fun. Well, it's hard to manage the Super Locrian scale and this is all I can do.

https://soundcloud.com/user-678701554/fmc002_canvas-of-sound