Two samples (one to use in the production and one to use as a transition sound at the beginning and end of the track), one minute of time to fill at a given BPM, and one week to finish the track. At the end of the week, all the songs are spliced into one giant mixtape and released to show the accomplishments.

That's the main concept behind the Team Supreme Beat Cypher. I think we should start one on here. Knowledge is only useful when it's put into practice, and the best way to practice is to engage in friendly competition. Just look at how Team Supreme did it.

The rules would be simple:

Every Sunday, two samples are posted along with a specific tempo. Post in the thread to say you're joining the cypher, then download the samples. Commit to a minimum of 1 hour per day where all you are doing is trying to finish the track.

You can make whatever kind of song you want, and bring in whatever extras you want, but you are required to 1. Use the transition sample at the start and end of your project, 2. feature the second sample in your track in some way (don't just slap it in before the drop and call it a day), and 3. stick to the BPM provided.

Use the transition On Saturday, everyone submits their track and one person curates them into one long project, and posts the finished product so we can see who did the best. Then two new samples and a new BPM are chosen, and the cycle starts anew.

So, who's in? We can start on the 5th.

Yes, it would end on the 11th and the next Cypher would start on the 12th.

And if you look at the Team Supreme's Beat Cypher Tumblr, they're doing a new one weekly.

No reason we can't do the same.

How about a little optimism, huh? Let's assume we can accomplish one minute worth of music a week, instead of trying to negotiate down to something we might think is easier. The point is to challenge ourselves. No need to be so negative about the outcome before we even started!

It's one hour of music a day, for seven days.

EDIT: I understand that this seems like a daunting task with all the stuff going on in our lives and how relatively inexperienced many people on here tend to be. However, if you don't think you can do the rules as listed... don't join. No one is forcing you to participate, so the only person you really have to answer to is yourself. If people are concerned about getting it curated, I will personally devote my weekends to organizing these so that there is no worry about whether or not the mixtape will be released or the samples and BPM will be chosen. Once it has a good momentum, other people can volunteer.

and thank you!

Sounds fun, count me in

Just so I can keep a running tally of interest, I'm gonna start listing all the names of people who have explicitly said they're interested. Even if it's just a handful of us, that's enough to start so I'll start looking for samples this week and post another thread on Sunday.

Interested Parties:
- Mussar
- myda
- Tympest
- MikeConn
- AnnieTP
- FarleyCZ (Maybe)
- Arktopolis (Later)
- Eidolon

Definitely interested. Can't guarantee taking part though. Too unpredictable job for that (at the moment). But it sounds really cool.

How about a little optimism, huh? Let's assume we can accomplish one minute worth of music a week, instead of trying to negotiate down to something we might think is easier. The point is to challenge ourselves. No need to be so negative about the outcome before we even started!

It's one hour of music a day, for seven days.

I was trying to be realistic. What I was suggesting was it's very ambitious and may not take off. I was not saying "don't do it" I was suggesting doing it less often.
I did say I had no problem doing it weekly, but only slowing it down if you can't keep up doing it on a weekly basis.

and thank you!

No problem. By the way, you may add my name to the list.

-Annie

Other wise it's just a fun little thing that you can set aside some time for, over a week or as many times as you want to do it.

Exactly! Besides, how is anyone going to know how much time you put into a track? You could spend thirty minutes or thirty hours on it throughout the week, and the only person who would know that you didn't do an hour a day is you. To be honest, you don't need to even commit to an hour a day. I'm just setting that bar because an hour a day is what I feel is just enough time to get solid work in, without being so long that you feel trapped in your DAW. Spend two days on sound design and composition, two days on arrangement and orchestration, and two days on mixing and mastering. Wake up Saturday morning, put in an hour of finalizing, and send it off to the curator. Or take your own route, however you feel is most conducive to your creative process. To be honest, as long as you're creating music I'm happy.

And I think we have a good start. I'll keep adding names to the list as this week goes, and I'll start curating samples. See y'all on Sunday!