Good morning, everyone! It is time for Week 3 of the TPF Weekly Beat Cypher. Just post in the thread below that you're joining the Cypher and download the samples, follow the simple rules posted below, and spend the next 7 days working on a 1 minute beat. Private message me with a download link to your beat by Saturday, June 25th at midnight Pacific Time (UTC -8:00), and come check out the thread Sunday morning around this time for the results and next week's Beat Cypher!

THE BORING PART - THE RULES (there's only two)

• You must use both samples provided, and you must compose in the BPM provided. One sample will be a transition sound you place at the start and end of your track, and the other is the featured sample for your beat.
• You have to both post in this thread that you are joining AND private message me with your track in 32 or 24 bit, 44.1 kHz WAV or AIFF file format before 11:59 PM PST on Saturday for your submission to count.

WARNING: If you do not follow the rules, your submission will not be accepted! That means if you send an mp3 file, if you send a file after the deadline, if you send a soundcloud link without downloads enabled or behind a private link, if you forget to use the featured sample or if you don't place the transition sample at the beginning and end of your beat, I can't accept it! I know this is new so I've been allowing exceptions, but please read the rules and don't hesitate to let me know if you have any questions.

If you're unsure of how the beat cypher works, here's an article describing it, a video that touches on it, and lastly here are all the Team Supreme cyphers, so you can hear how they did it:


Here’s last week’s cypher:

Here’s the Beat Cypher playlist:
Now, onto the fun part: This Week's Challenge!

Our first sample is a loop from the Bojack Horseman intro theme.

Our transitional sample is also from the intro theme - The saxophone solo at the end. - Place this at the start and end of your 1 minute beat so I can blend them all together at the end!

Our tempo is 90 Beats Per Minute, so to keep an even count we'll add four seconds onto this beat - that gives us about 24 bars of music to write.

Challenge starts now, so get to beatmaking!

REGISTERED CYPHERS:

• Mussar - SUBMITTED
• Babasmas
• ScottCampbell - SUBMITTED
• turf
• eidolon - SUBMITTED
• Pzychosis
• Mike Conn - SUBMITTED
• lydian

Investing in quality samples or a multisampler instrument like Superior Drummer will help a lot. Layering is another key point, especially in electronic genres.

Good morning, everyone! It's the final day for submissions, so if you haven't submitted your cypher already or you want to make any changes, you have until 11:59 PM, Pacific Time (UTC -8:00). For reference, it is currently 7:10 AM. So you have just under 17 hours to go! I think I have most everyone if not everyone, so I'll start marking down received submissions in the OP.

Note: If you do not follow the rules listed in the OP, I cannot accept your submission. PLEASE make sure your submission is a 32 or 24 bit .WAV file, exported at 44100 Hz, and please make sure you have the transition sample at the beginning and end of your cypher so I can more easily transition between your songs when creating the mixtape. Also, make sure that your cypher is downloadable, or else obviously I won't be able to include it.

No discussion of Saturation or Distortion can be complete without the best coloration plugin ever:

The Sausage Fattener. I've used this on everything at least once. I've even used it on my master bus when i just wanted my stuff to sound nice and loud while i'm working instead of just turning up my speakers. I would say this and OTT are the two biggest EDM producer secret weapons - they add a surprising amount of the "professional dance music" sound to your production. Obviously you can't just put them on a shitty lead synth and make it good, but those two effects are workhorses.

Another cheap one that I just picked up is the Fielding DSP Reviver. It specifically creates second and third order harmonics, and can add either add that "warm" distortion that's commonly associated with tube distortion, or add to the clarity and punch that is common in overdrive amps and tape.

I decided to start a podcast to help teach myself and others ear training. I'll be doing 2 episodes a week - one that introduces a new concept and drills you on it, and the other is straight ear training drills, start to finish. I'll be going over intervals, scales, chords, modes, harmonic progressions, and eventually other stuff too as I learn it!

The first episode was just posted, where I go over Minor Seconds and Major Seconds.


Here's the iTunes link, if you'd like to subscribe.

Take a listen and let me know what you think! I've never done a podcast before, so any feedback would be super appreciated! :)

1. Reference! There are tons of people who have thought up tons of ideas that you can use for inspiration. Pick one or two songs that you love that fit within the genre of the song you're trying to make. Pull them into your project and use them as guidelines for anything you feel unsure about. Arrangement, FX, orchestration, even mixing (ESPECIALLY mixing).

2. Get as close to a finished song arrangement as possible. Take everything you have and duplicate it out to your desired song length. Mark off the different sections of your song, and ask yourself what sounds would not be in the various sections. Delete whatever's unneeded, and you'll start to see how the track is supposed to flow.

3. Render the song out as a WAV file and load it on your phone. Get out of your studio or away from your computer or just out of the house in general. Change your location, and bring a pencil and notepad with you. Go sit down and listen to your track. Write down three ideas that come to mind for you to try, and estimate how long it will take to complete those ideas. They don't all have to work, you're just trying them out. Set a deadline for the song to be completed, and a deadline for the next session - using the time frame from your ideas as a reference. Shut out ALL distractions, and get to work.

I don't think it's that any of us have fallen off the idea, but that the moderators have kinda abandoned the forum.

EDIT: Now that I'm a moderator, I don't actually have the power to make subforums. Looks like that's an Administrator thing.