News - Playlists

How it works:
For each challenge we provide two short music samples for our members to include any way they choose in a music production by a set date. The submitted tracks can be any length but we prefer them to be around 3 - 5 minutes.

The challenge period generally runs for a few weeks from start to finish.

Other members of the community will listen, comment and often provide valuable feedback. It's alway great to hear the variety of approaches with the same samples.

Below you'll find some recent challenges and each post includes a playlist on Soundcloud.

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gairaigo logo

Gairaigo

Long time contributor and electronic wizard @GaryFranks aka Gairaigo has provided some cool samples for the next round. Check out the Gairaigo Soundcloud page Sample 1 – robot voices Sample 2 – cyclic blips

Harmonica Tone

Harmonica Tone

Our friend “Harmonica Tone” travels the world as a sound recordist for TV shows and plays a mean blues harp.

We did an impromptu recording session to create some samples for the community to work with:

  • Sample 1 – blues harmonica
  • Sample 2 – coffee jar shaker

Two Wheels

Two Wheels

Our friends in the UK the experimental duo known as Two Wheels provided a trio of interesting samples this round.

  • Sample 1 – An electric handheld mixer
  • Sample 2 – A synth bass mutation
  • Sample 3 – Sounds from a Lift

Rose Wintergreen

Rose Wintergreen

In December 2022 talented artist and Beat Collective regular Rose Wintergreen provided 3 samples for a challenge: her vocal singing wordlessly (processed with Magic Dice) a beat made using recordings of a tram, my front door and house keys vocal spoken – no processing   Click the image to listen

Not Gary Franks

Stu Smy is Not Gary Franks

One of our long time and valued guitar wielding regulars is Stu Smy from Gisborne in Victoria. Stu cheekily goes under the pseudonym “Not Gary Franks” amongst other names. He offered us a diverse selection of samples for our October – November creative challenge. Some relaxed nylon acoustic strumming, a covertly recorded drum practice of his son and a bit Sunshine Hospital ward noises.  

KUYA JAMES STUDIO

Kuya James

This round we were delighted to have some samples from award winning Darwin producer Kuya James (aka James Mangohig).

They come an unreleased track “Drinking and Cards” from a planned album titled “Jeepney Rock”. James says “It’s my tribute to my love of Asian Psych rock.” James’ heritage is part Filipino, part Dutch – Australian.

James is an ARIA nominated producer and artist and multiple award winning songwriting and producer both locally and on a national level. From starting out as a bass player for numerous bands in his hometown, he went on to produce pulsating beats with a strong love of synths and sub bass that challenge even the most well built PA systems. He is also the producer of Darwin Festival’s CLUB AWI which he started in 2016 and is a co-founder of the Asian creative collective – TANGAN which is based on Larrakia land in the NT. Kuya James is also a sought after DJ who has a reputation of rocking crowds whether it be in his hometown of Darwin or festivals across the country.

 

Guitars guitars in August 2022

Guitars Guitars Guitars!

We asked our community to bring forth their inner guitar hero / heroine.

We had two guitar based samples that started out as simple riffs on an old black Ibanez – Les Paul copy.

The first sample was the opening of a “Snarky Puppy” song then reversed.

The second was a fuzzy noisy power chord riff.

The challenge was to use these samples or any other guitar samples acquired or play your own axe. We wanted to hear some guitar included within the track whether it’s the samples supplied or a simple strum, chord or solo.

Listen to our Playlist to hear some submissions for the creative challenge this round…

Juniper 9

Juniper 9

This month’s challenge was all about Tuvan throat singing.

If you’re not familiar with that unearthly yet beautiful vocal technique, check it out on Youtube. A unique contribution came from musician and producer Juniper9. Taylor lists his skills as Musician/band, Songwriter, Lyricist, Guitarist, Keys, Drums, Vocals and Sound Designer.

Spectoral said “I got chatting to Taylor the other day about… Tuvan throat singing of course. And he is such a sound engineering geek he did a couple of experiments and worked out it’s some form of Ring Modulation (?!?!!?) applied onto a drone, and so of course, in true Juniper 9 fashion he went and created a full SYTRUS synth patch to simulate Tuvan Throat Singing on his own vocal.”

In his own words “the synth patch is a single cycle of me singing clean, and then that is Frequency modulated and Ring Modulated to try and mimic how throat singing works.”

Listen to our Playlist to hear just a few of the submissions for the creative challenge this round…