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Global Collaborative Music Experiment
hephaist0s writes "Last year, 165 bands completed the RPM Challenge: to record an original album (10 songs or 35 minutes) during the 28 days of February. The idea is to get musicians to set aside the barriers that stop them from working on their music and simply devote a month to getting it done. This year, more than 300 bands from around the world — including two groups from McMurdo station in Antarctica — have already signed up at www.rpmchallenge.com, and this time the organizers of the challenge have built into the site the ability for bands to share samples with each other. If a band chooses to upload a sample into the Sample Engine, then any other participating group can use it however they like. The possibilities for global collaboration are vast!"
Where's my copy of Audition.... Even if it sucks, it's incentive for me to produce the songs I've written, and have never, ever recorded....
I like to place meaningful quotes in my sig, so people will know that I know what meaningful quotes are.
Yep...speeding up that process is without a doubt the best way to improve what bands few have ever heard of produce.
-1 Cynical
What, were they too lazy to make .debs? Some of us use frickin' Ubuntu, you insensitive clods!
What? Oh, never mind...
You should consider the idea that it's less about improving the quality of music or producing hits and more about breaking down cultural barriers and sharing diversity.
Kindof like National Novel Writing Month (november). http://www.nanowrimo.org/ And Channel 101 (5 minute videos monthly) http://www.channel-101.com/ The internet's becoming a seasonal support group for artists lacking impetus. Now if only there was a way for these independent producers to make money off their labor...
February Album Writing Month > RPM. RPM is about recording, whereas FAWM is about actually writing quality material, much like NaNoWriMo.org. Since FAWM encourages their participants to record and upload their songs at the same time, I don't really see the point of RPM.
My pals did this album for my girl and me in 10 days .. so its going to be exciting to see what they do for the RPM challenge (which they're entering..)
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Did anyone else read the headline "Global Collaborative Music Experiment" and immediately think "Worldwide Recorder Concert" ?
"The brown noise! Kenny and me found the brown noise! Here, look! Look. [places some earmuffs on Stan's head] There, okay. Let's see here. [places some earmuffs on Kyle and rushes back to his side of the room] Right there. Okay. Okay. Ready, Kenny?"
I submitted this a looong time ago....
Justin Frankel, you know, wrote winamp? Sold Winamp? Well, he wrote this program called Ninjam that allows folks to collaborate music in psuedo real time.
http://www.ninjam.com/
He also wrote a DAW (digital audio workstation) called reaper.
http://www.reaper.fm/
as well as a programable software DSP called Jesusonic
http://www.jesusonic.com/
This all started circa 2004 or so. Justin has set up some public Ninjam servers, and everything played on these servers is released under the Creative Commons License...
http://autosong.ninjam.com/
Point being, I probably submitted this quite a few times over the years. Don't understand why slashdot would ignore a story about someone who pretty much revolutionized how we listen to music. Time for slash to get new editors again.
IMHO a larger problem than making the music is getting it to the public. What with the music-industry not liking non-mass-produced originally-sounding material, they just keep that kind of music OFF the air, and pushing the next boys-band or the next Britney Spears.
Yes, I'm left. You have a problem with that?
When you get your MIDI keyboard (E-mu Xboard is pretty nice for what it costs), don't forget a soundcard that supports ASIO, otherwise you'll hit a key and wait a second for the softsynth to kick in with sound.
In case you were wondering (like me) what RPM stands for in this context, it's "Record Production Month" (says so in the last paragraph on the linked page).
Ah, arrogance and stupidity, all in the same package. How efficient of you. -- Londo Mollari
lets skip those, they probably only did Iced Earth covers anyway.
The M-audio Axiom is very nice if you prefer a semi-weighted keyboard. It's loaded with data sliders, knobs, buttons and pads, all of which have a nice feel. Big display. It's more sturdily built than the usual M-audio plastique.
The AC upstairs isn't kidding about ASIO, either. But really? Unless you're really serious about keeping a clean OS installation and not be running lots of goodies, you're going to have problems with the USB sound modules, unless you don't mind clicks and crackles in your music (I happen to like them, but that's the kind of hairpin I am). That means no running Google Toolbar Notifier when you're recording.
This RPM Challenge is a terrific idea. Nothing kills more creativity than procrastination and fear. Not even heroin or a job.
You are welcome on my lawn.
This reminds me of the "14 Days of Art" sponsored by the alt.design.graphics newsgroup for the last five or six years. During January of each year, participants would have to make one work of art per day, in any medium, and post it online for viewing by the rest of the group. Some of the results are schlock, but others are just breathtaking. There have been photographers, painters, printmakers, oragami artists, multimedia designers, etc... Google it, there's some good stuff to be seen.
$nice = $webHosting + $domainNames + $sslCerts
Since when is 35 minutes a complete album? That won't even fill up an LP!
Nothing makes good music like artificial deadlines and random user-submitted samples of irrelevant chord progressions.
Can't wait to hear all the craptastic whiny love songs and pseudo-rebellious angst-rock.
I gotta stop reading and posting at slashdot within 10 minutes of waking up. Cuz i'm a crabby bastard.
The time needed to record an album depends a lot on the style of music you make. It takes me an hour to make ten seconds of electronic music. (If you must, search for Rene Kita on Archive.org.)
Time spent by Derek Bailey, the great master of free improvisation, in recording a one hour record:
One hour and one minute, if you count setting up and turning the recorder on and off.
A friend and I recorded some 18 tracks in one night. Each song got one take, a lot of improv, and was fueled by at least one pre-song beer. And for something that sounded like less-than-literate version of the Mountain Goats, it wasn't bad. I still listen to it from time to time to remember days when I could stay up all night and drink and play guitar.
So 28 days should be nothing, even for a full band, to record 10 tracks.
I did this last year and it was really a lot of fun (and pressure). The point isn't for the best of the best to write the best, but for all of us to get off our ass and have a good challenge and do something we wouldn't otherwise do. I learned from it, had fun and am doing it again this year. I will probably NEVER put out a CD that someone will buy, but many people like myself don't really care about that. Just having an outside reason to create the album is enough to get me moving.
Also check out the profiles of many of the bands listed. They are often doing that [fun|alternative|solo|instrumental|etc] CD they would have never done otherwise.
I encourage others to sign up and give it a shot. Talk to others that are signed up and give each other some support. Share your thoughts and why your intimidated. Become a better musician for it.
Isn't sharing original work with others(with no fee or record contract or w/e) illegal under the DMCA?
Then it's ONE song or 35 minutes. :)
Hey, I tease. I'm a long time prog rock fan.
This probably goes way back before the time of most Slashdotters, but in 1977, David Lee Roth, Eddie and Alex van Halen, and Mark Anthony walked into a studio, played 11 tracks with minimal re-takes, and walked out the same day. The result was one of the most influential albums in hard rock history.
Many people will dispute which of the band's many albums was its "magnum opus", but no one would discard Van Halen as a shaky, half-assed first attempt. Then again, I have no idea how much time they spent polishing their tracks in the garage beforehand.
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35 minutes per band, more than 300 bands. More details please.
If you want to collaborate with musicians from different genres from the entire globe, you can do that any month at MusMakers. But I'll make sure we get onto the spanking-musicians-in-February-train too ;)
This is a pretty cool idea...lots of bands collaborate over great distances to get their music out.
I happen to know of an easy (and free) solution that has become very popular with musicians these days. GigaTribe http://www.gigatribe.com/ lets users exchange huge music files (and entire folders of music files). And it's all done within a small private network (like a band), so no one can intercept the encrypted exchanges. There's also a chat window in there, so musicians can explain stuff to each other in real-time.
This, and cheap new recording techniques are making it easier for musicians to collaborate and get their music heard!
Wonderful collaboration technology used for dubious purpose.
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
Great tracks ;)
That's what Jonathan Coulton did, and he did it right. A Thing a Week puts stress on you, but you are forced to get it done. Then again, you can hear that he has lots of experience and did his homework. Oh - and has talent.
Yeah, check it out, we're the Naughty-Five... http://www.rpmchallenge.com/rpm_player.html?band=T heNaughtyFive/