The Freesound Challenge!
The Freesound Challenge is about making a work of audio creativity using a random selection of samples from the wonderful Freesound Project like a sort of musical "Scrapyard Challenge" but with audio samples rather than actual junk[1]. To this end I've created the group on Soundcloud - the following is from its description:
The Freesound Challenge is an experiment to see how creative people can be in creating music with constrained raw materials using the wonderful resources found at The Freesound Project.
It's quite simple: create yourself an account at http://www.freesound.org/, then using the "Random Sample" link on the left hand of the page download the first fifteen (15) random samples you are presented with (I'm expected you to be honest to yourself about this part because I've no way of checking.) If you get fifteen cracking techno loops or orchestral hits then great, if you get fifteen samples of various flatulent animals then equally good, infact better because it means you'll have to be more creative how you use them.
Once you've got the samples you can use them however you see fit, Crush them, bend them, stretch then, stick them in your wavetable synth or loop them but first and foremost make a creative piece of audio art with them. but ONLY with these samples - no other sound sources allowed. Of course you don't have to use all fifteen samples if you don't want to. There is no restriction on the form of what you make, of course I am anticipating that most will be beat oriented electronic music, but if you can see your way clear to reworking Handel's Messiah with the samples you've got all the better. This is about being as creative as you can within the imposed restrictions on the materials.
Then when you're happy with what you've made upload them to this group including the list of the samples that you have used in the description - you can find this in the "Attribution List" in the left hand of the freesound homepage when you are logged in, just copy and past the appropriate parts: this part is important as it is part of the terms of use of the resources on Freesound and also it means that we can see that the group isn't being spammed with unrelated material (not that I don't want to hear your other tracks, you can send those to my dropbox:) : anything that doesn't have this will get removed. You also should be free to license the created work under a Creative Commons license as this seems only reasonable given the source of the input material, but if you've signed some strange contract that prevents you from doing this and are still keen to participate please get in touch anyway.
I've got a vague notion that if we get enough good works then I'd like to make a free compilation of the best, but we'll see how it goes :) But primarily this is all about fun, there are no prizes, just a warm glow of satisfaction and hopefully the appreciation of your peers :)
This is not in anyway associated with or supported by The Freesound Project and all marks remain the property of their respective owners etc etc ...
Clearly you also need to have an account at Soundcloud but I'm guessing that it's as ubiquitous among people who like to make noise and share it as Flickr is with those with a camera :)
I'm really looking forward to hearing some really exciting works and I'm sure there are plenty of other people who will be excited by it too.
As alluded to above I'd be interested in making a Net Label release of the best examples, but let's see how it goes first.
This has got to be more fun than some "remix competition" if only because we don't have the faintest idea of what kind of stuff we are going to get :)
Tell your friends, tell the press. Let's have some fun with noise :)
[1] I'd like to do a real musical "Scrapyard Challenge" too but this requires some physical organisation, a venue and a "scrapyard" of musical (or potentially musical) junk. If you've got any ideas how this can be achieved get in touch :)
