Freesound Forums

Hello Freesounders

Welcome to 2026! - Wishing you a happy, healthy and creative year!

This time, I bring you an external Dare, with a Freesound twist.

You may have heard of the RPM Challenge...
The basic idea is to 'record' music during the month of February. The meaning of 'record' has evolved through the various generations of the RPM challenge and now should be interpreted as 'create'. - All genres of music are welcome, and all means of generating music are welcome too (acoustic guitars, drums, vocals, piano, monster modular synths, virtual instruments inside your DAW, kitchen pots and pans, anything else you can thing of or a mixture of any and all of the above are all welcome). - So, all music is welcome, even if there is no actual 'recording' involved.

The first point of this post is to make you aware of the RPM Challenge, with the hope that some of you may want to participate.
There are various levels for the challenge (from a single music track to a full album). So, even if you only intend to make 1 track, you can participate.

No prizes. The music you make is a prize in itself!

Read more about it and register to participate here:
https://rpmchallenge.com/en

The RPM Challenge this year completes 21 years - which is a very long time on the internet timescale.

The second point of this post is to add a little Freesound twist, our own local challenge...

Me and a few others will be posting some stems starting in January and into February.
- Maybe you will want to use some of those stems and create your own song for the RPM?
- Maybe you want to upload some of your own stems? (What about some of those old never-finished projects in a corner of your hard-drive... Or maybe you want to create something now for this purpose?... Or even share stems of a song you are working on for others to remix?... Does not even need to be the full song, could be just stems from a section of your song)
- Please remember: DO NOT UPLOAD FULL MUSIC PIECES TO FREESOUND. Only stems, please.
- Please tag your uploads with "Dare2026-1" and "RPM2026" and do a post here with a link to your sounds. Preferably, group stems of the same song in a pack.
- Of course, please only upload material that you have created yourself. No covers, re-makes or re-mixes of someone else's music, etc.

Hopefully these stems might give you some ideas and entice you to participate. Even if you end up not using these stems.

For those participating in the RPM 2026 remember:
To stay true to the spirit of the challenge, you should only start working on your track(s) in February.

The official RPM Challenge period starts on February 1st. Traditionally, this means:

“No early” material: you shouldn’t start actual songs or recordings before February if you want it to be part of the official challenge.

It’s not really “cheating” — it’s more about community tradition, so everyone starts at the same time.

However, there are two important possibilities:

Ideas and preparation are fine — you can already:

plan your concept,

choose microphones and recording locations,

test (Altiverb) settings or field recording setups.
– But the actual final recordings and tracks should happen in February.

Technical experiments and practice — if you want to try things out:

make test recordings, mixes, experiments,

but don’t yet count them as “finished RPM tracks.”
– This is totally allowed and will give you a head start in February.

So: you can start preparing now, but wait until February to create the official challenge material.

I also want to experiment with it there!

Hello Inspire153

That is correct. - your creative work should start from February, if you are planning to participate.
However, in previous discussions with ROM organisers and participants, I it the feedback theatre-visiting or re-cycling old unfinished projects was ok. In that spirit, I think there is no harm if we post here some stems from old unused or unfinished projects during January.

People can listen and have a think if those would be something they could use.
Especially for those trying to make a lot of tracks, having some pre-planned ideas before you actually start can be quite helpful, so to make best use of time during Feb.

But, to your point, I will edit my initial post to make it clear people should only start working on their tracks from February.

Edit : I refrain ✌︎︎

RPM Challenge material should be original.
Covers or playing well-known pieces from sheet music are not considered valid for RPM.

The music does not need to follow a traditional song structure — improvisation, ambient, soundscapes, and experimental works are all welcome.

Field recordings are allowed, including pure environmental recordings, as long as they are your own and created during February.
Field recordings can also be used as part of a musical composition.

The main idea is to create your own original work during the RPM period, regardless of genre or format.

--

As a personal idea, I’m considering recording an original solo saxophone improvisation under the large arch of the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds, using the space itself as part of the sound.

Later, I would record drums separately and experiment with how they might work together with the saxophone recording — not recording drums under the arch itself.

I’m planning to do a test recording in January to explore the acoustics and workflow, and then create the actual RPM material during February.