# RPM Challenge 2008



## Guest (Feb 9, 2008)

Anyone else having a stab at this? It's actually my second year attempting it. Didn't finish last year  But I'm just over 10 minutes in this year so there's hope plus: we get an extra day.

You can check out the challenge here: http://www.rpmchallenge.com/

And my completed tracks are here: http://www.rpmchallenge.com/component/option,com_comprofiler/Itemid,296/


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## Guest (Feb 19, 2008)

Past the half way mark. No other GC forumites doing the challenge? I put the finishing touches on track four today, Blossom. My wife took the baby out for the afternoon so I'd have a little time to record without using headphones. Very nice change. I think the last link I posted to my tracks may have been wrong, so here they are on my own site:

http://ian.coastpedalboards.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=26&Itemid=35


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## Vincent (Nov 24, 2007)

Looks interesting...does it matter what type of music people play...just wondering...I also like that site you have your tunes on...did you do that yourself and if so how do you get themp3's to play on your site...Im building my own site however Ive searched around for players to put on site however I like how yours is done...nice recordings as well.

Im using mp3.com to post my stuff however I find that site a bit slow.

Ive written 3 or 4 songs so far this month however "Way It Goes" Is my latest and probably my best so far...kind of new to recording and have a lot to learn.

My Tunes
http://www.mp3.com/artist/travelers-tale/summary/?tag=login;myartists;1


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## Guest (Feb 19, 2008)

Vincent said:


> Looks interesting...does it matter what type of music people play


Doesn't matter one bit at all. You want to write a one note sonata: go right ahead. A old tyme rag: it's on. A ten penny opera: go for it! An entire album of surf times: ride the wave of creation. It's not a competition. There's no judging at the end. No prizes given out. Nada. It's just about creating an album. Your album. All that matters is the songs are previously unreleased (as in not covers of other people's tunes or previously released works you've recorded for labels).

You can use old stuff if you like. The contest encourages you to use stuff you've written in the month, but whatever. No one is judging you. (I actually polished off that disaster fuzz clip and am leading off my album with it)



> I also like that site you have your tunes on...did you do that yourself and if so how do you get themp3's to play on your site


Thanks. Yes, I run my own site. The main Coast Pedal Boards site is all hand written (Dreamweaver templates actually) PHP I maintain, but my personal side to the site is run with Joomla! -- a very nice CMS. The MP3s are streamed using the excellent Mini MP3 Mambot for Joomla. I just noticed v2.2 is out...I'll have to upgrade. I'm still running 1.somethingorother!



> Im building my own site however Ive searched around for players to put on site however I like how yours is done


Thanks. I can't remember where I got the Joomla template from. I didn't create it from scratch. It was a prefab I tweaked. I actually don't much like it. It's about to be replaced. The nice thing about Joomla (or any CRM really) is it separate the content from the template very cleanly. So you can update the look and feel of the site without a lot of effort. I used http://ian.coastpedalboards.com/ as a learning site. I needed to figure out a way to get the guys from The Apollo Effect off of my hand-maintained HTML and PHP and on to something they could keep up-to-date without me being involved. Joomla has worked out really well for them and me.



> ...nice recordings as well.


Thanks. I'm using this month as an opportunity to explore music I wouldn't normally sit down and write/record.



> Ive written 3 or 4 songs so far this month however "Way It Goes" Is my latest and probably my best so far


You're almost 1/2 way there already! You could do it.



> kind of new to recording and have a lot to learn.


I learn something new every time I sit down to record. It's a wonderful way to spend an afternoon.



> My Tunes
> http://www.mp3.com/artist/travelers-tale/summary/?tag=login;myartists;1


Those are great tracks. I really dig the swirly phase stuff you did on "Love is Risky". And "Half Your Life" is quite awesome. Very 80's-ish pop-rock feel to it. I'm a big 80's music fan. You've inspired me to get something 80's-ish on to my RPM 2008 disc...maybe something Echo & The Bunneymen'esque or Big Country like? evilGuitar:

On a slight tangent: I'm originally from Halifax (aren't we all Maritimers at heart?). Relocated to Ontario a while ago, but a little piece of you never leaves Nova Scotia right? In my case all my extended family is still out East. The Martimer in my crops up from time to time. Like when I say "house". Or "milk". (My wife finds my pronunciation of "milk" particularly hilarious) And of course, when I name my companies. The lighthouse in our logo is actually the lighthouse at Peggy's Cove. My dad took the picture a few years back while visiting his sister who lives a few cove's down St. Margarets Bay.


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## Vincent (Nov 24, 2007)

Thanks for the info on how you created your website.

Im influenced by music form the 50's,60's,70's and 80's so I guess my style is more retro...I dont like modern music much at all and the 90's decade didnt bring one band I liked either so I guess im still stuck in a time warp somehwere...lol

You were originally from N.S eh!...small world.


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## Guest (Feb 26, 2008)

No sign of the hammond track for Blossom yet but the guy did say he recorded it. He's trying to figure to get it from his multi-track unit to me. I'm okay with the tune the way it is but it'd be really nice to hear it with a good hammond player in the back ground.

I spent way too much time on the next track but I am really digging it. Check it out. It's called The Ride (for no reason in particular):

http://ian.coastpedalboards.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=26&Itemid=35

Still 8 more minute to go. I booked some time off work later this week and I have sketches down for the last 8 minutes so I'm pretty darn confident this year I'll make it. No artwork planned. This is about the music, not the visuals.


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## bagpipe (Sep 19, 2006)

Ian, I'm really enjoying the tracks you posted - great stuff. Very professional sounding. How do you generate the drum/percussion stuff - especially on the track "Shake Shake"? Thats the part that I find is especially lacking on my stuff - I can only go so far with the drum machine on my crappy Casio keyboard (actually, my *kids* crappy Casio keyboard ! :frown


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## Guest (Feb 26, 2008)

bagpipe said:


> Ian, I'm really enjoying the tracks you posted - great stuff. Very professional sounding. How do you generate the drum/percussion stuff - especially on the track "Shake Shake"? Thats the part that I find is especially lacking on my stuff - I can only go so far with the drum machine on my crappy Casio keyboard (actually, my *kids* crappy Casio keyboard ! :frown


Thanks so much. Percussion and drums usually come from two sources in my tracks:

If it's a rock track like The Ride or Blossom and it's a standard kit you hear it's most likely ToonTrack's ezDrummer. Fantastic way to create some decent sounding drum lines. Awful interface though. Maybe it'd work better on a 2 monitor setup. But on my 1 monitor setup I get RSI ctrl-tab'ing between their interface and the Cubase piano roll. Still, it sounds good enough for government work so I put up with it.

On the tracks with more synths and weird percussion it's all done in Propellerhead's Reason 3.0. Reason is one the single greatest pieces of music software ever created. It's basically a pile of "hardware" that you string together in a rack. It has it's built-in sequencer but I tend to slave it to Cubase because it's got a better sequencer. Reason 4.0 is out and it looks spectacular. I wish I had the $$$ to buy the upgrade. I used ReDrum and NN-19 samples to do the beats in "Shake Shake". I mangled them by running them through delays and the Scream digital distortion unit in Reason. It's really hard to explain how insanely cool Reason is. Worth every penny. And it runs great on older hardware. My old Athlon DAW barely breaks a sweat running a huge Reason session.

I control it all (Cubase, Reason, etc.) with an M-Audio Axion controller. Not a great controller, not a bad controller. If I had a little more $$$ I'd splurge on a Korg. They have a nicer fit and finish and their pads are way nicer than the M-Audios.


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## Guest (Feb 28, 2008)

The end is in sight. Latest track is up. This is the 2nd slow tune for the album. It's called In The Stars. It can be found here:

http://ian.coastpedalboards.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=26&Itemid=35

Only 6 more minutes to go!


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

Hey iaresee, I haven't really spent too much time sifting through the site, but it definitely seems interesting. I plan on trying it next year, since I don't think I can pull it together in 2 days. 

One question: are there copyright restrictions, or any kind of concern that people might steal your music? 

couldn't really find any legal stuff on the site, but then again, I didn't look very hard. But yeah, definitely an interesting idea.


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## Guest (Feb 29, 2008)

hollowbody said:


> One question: are there copyright restrictions, or any kind of concern that people might steal your music?


From here:


> Who owns the rights? You do. Your music is your own, to do with as you please. Artists retain all rights to their music, we ask only to be able to put the finished music up in the RPM Jukebox to stream so that everyone can enjoy it.


You, obviously, have to turn over a free copy of your CD to the organizers, but they keep it to themselves. You can opt out of the jukebox if you like. No one can download from the jukebox. But you can put tracks up for download on your profile if you wish.


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

iaresee said:


> From here:
> 
> 
> You, obviously, have to turn over a free copy of your CD to the organizers, but they keep it to themselves. You can opt out of the jukebox if you like. No one can download from the jukebox. But you can put tracks up for download on your profile if you wish.


Brilliant...thanks for doing the leg work for my lazy ass :bow:


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## Guest (Feb 29, 2008)

hollowbody said:


> Brilliant...thanks for doing the leg work for my lazy ass :bow:


Any time. I worked through the night last night. Went to bed at 5:00 am. Up at 10:00 am. Worked most of the afternoon. A little break around 8:00 pm to eat dinner with ma wife, give my little kid a bath, and now I'm back at it. Just mixed my last track. I'm exporting stereo mixes now for mastering. Another late night but I can't wait to hit that beer in my fridge, kick back, and listen to a months worth of work on CD. Very satisfying.:food-smiley-004:

And for anyone near a radio on Saturday I was interviewed by the CBC: I'll be on Alan Neal's Bandwidth. Radio 1. Show starts at 5:00 and runs until 6:00 pm. I think the RPM Challenge segment is going to be the last 15 minutes. Interview, plus they're playing one of my tracks. Not sure which one.


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## Guest (Mar 1, 2008)

Done! Mailed! Yea for me. That was a hard month, but rewarding. The end result is _Seven Songs_. You can find it for streaming and download (currently free) here: http://amiestreet.com/artist/31421


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## Guest (Mar 3, 2008)

Here's a link to the album that doesn't cost anything. I was under the impression that Amie Street stayed free for way longer than it did. The tracks are at $0.09/each there already. Many thanks to people who paid for them. I do appreciate it. If you want to pay for the track you can use:

http://amiestreet.com/artist/31421

But if you want them for free, and that's cool with me hombres, grab them from:

http://ian.coastpedalboards.com/sounds/rpm2008/seven-songs.zip


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