RPM Challenge 2013?

Danny G · January 31, 2013, 12:55:58 PM

Anyone participating this year?

This will be my 5th year as a participant, such a great creative/musical exercise. This year will be tight for me, out of town three weekends this month. Will see what happens!

www.rpmchallenge.com

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neighbor664 · January 31, 2013, 03:47:10 PM

I wish it didn't have to be in the month of February. February is always a very busy month for me and much of the A/V industry.
I wont even be in the US for part of the month. The only year I was able to be involved was 2010 because I was unemployed.
Shit, I've been trying to find the time to work on the same batch of tunes for the last two years.

Anyway, Danny, I am looking forward to hearing your results.

Danny G · January 31, 2013, 10:53:56 PM

Thanks Eric!

One really good piece of musical advice I received last year from an amazing player/producer whom I have the utmost level of respect for, when I was talking to him about the RPM challenge:

"Why wait til February every year to write music? Write and record as if EVERY month is February."

Dude. So yeah. Eric if you can't do this during February, do it when you have time \m/,

And I don't know what I'm going to do. 4 years of instrumental music has left me feeling like I've done about all I can do with the style I've been doing. So either I'll give it a go and go with any ideas that come to me (like last 4 years) or I may spend time re-recording some things I've done in the past to really do those ideas justice.

See what happens!

eyeprod · February 01, 2013, 01:12:42 PM

i've got a project already in the works, so it would be cheating to use that material for the rpm challenge. Maybe I'll do something else for it. I've got all my stuff set up in my living room and recording is super easy.

Danny G · February 01, 2013, 02:46:33 PM

Another obstacle I will be running into is my 8 track is almost full, and it hasn't been very cooperative in allowing me to back up stuff on an external drive to free up space...

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jibberish · February 02, 2013, 07:28:18 AM

as per usual, I wish I had my shit together enough to go after this. it has been a lot of years already.

can you go after the 35min/10 songs and if you make it in time THEN sign up? might be worth a try. oh sht this is day 2 already.

the real win here is that SOMEONE is going to listen to your music.

fuck maybe I will write some tunes and just have fun and send it in. people around here are the only real limitation to full creativity.

Danny G · February 03, 2013, 02:39:05 PM

Just go for it and who cares about signing up. It's mainly about proving to yourself anyway \m/,

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jibberish · February 05, 2013, 01:53:38 PM

well, I meditated on the whole idea for a couple days to see if I could get a spark of a concept and a bunch of song ideas to flesh it out.
i think i can do the song ideas. we'll see if i can arrange the other parts, learn the shit and then record it.

jibberish · February 08, 2013, 06:39:55 AM

feb 8 dun dun DUNNN.
I have 5 song ideas and an album concept.
maybe ill just use 5 ac-dc songs backwards for the rest lol

wait, disco, I need your help, ya lose the hussy,and do my drum tracks instead.
we call the projrct "disco death" and u can do all the booking.

Danny G · February 08, 2013, 07:31:04 PM

Feb 8 and I haven't even had time to start, much less make room on my 8 track...

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everdrone · February 09, 2013, 12:19:24 AM

Ill record at least 3 songs in Feb, not sure if it will be 10 tho

definitely 10 if I dont master and mix em much

jibberish · February 12, 2013, 08:08:24 AM

are collaborations allowed? like could a band enter?

I have song ideas coming together left and right. I have fleshed out a couple completely. I am going to eat it on the arrange and perform part.

I wish could hand off song outlines to the person with the knack for deranging and recording them like a boss machine. we would be done inside of a week from now.

I have put together a lot of songs in the past with a lot of cut and paste , midi sequencing and massive retaking to get arrangements assembled. like a week long project per song. I am still going to start working on the rhythm section for one of them just to see how fast I can get it done.

Danny G · February 12, 2013, 12:34:32 PM

Totally doable re: signing up as a band and/or collaborating.

Dug out my trusty ole 8-track yesterday finally. It's full and the export/backup process is very confusing. Would rather do it slow and right rather than fast and wrong. Have lots of stuff I'd rather not lose going back to 2005/06.

Looking into getting a USB interface and learning garage band on my lady's iMac instead.

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Danny G · February 12, 2013, 12:36:13 PM

The sign-up deadline has long since passed (jan 31), but don't let that stop you from being creative.

I'll put together what I can put together for the remainder of this month but not sweating the deadline at this point.

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chamberpain · February 12, 2013, 01:38:45 PM

Looking over the site I found this:
"It's [some date in February]! Is it too late to sign up?
No, no, of course it isn't! So you've lost a couple of minutes, a handful of hours, a few days, that's no reason not to come on board. There's still the better part of February in front of you, plenty of time to write and record one album. In fact, just think of it as a slightly tougher challenge and you'll have that much more to be proud of when you've got 10 new songs under your belt at the end of the month.

Remember, there's only one deadline for the RPM Challenge, that's March 1 - the day your album must be postmarked and mailed to the RPM Headquarters."

So looking at that, I'd say it's definitely not too late to sign up. As a matter of fact, I believe I'll be trying to string something together to get in the mail before March 1st.

Danny G · February 13, 2013, 01:27:10 PM

Nice!

I went shopping for USB interfaces and wound up putting this on my credit card:

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everdrone · February 13, 2013, 11:42:02 PM

ok, 9 more to go, but at least I have made a dent:

I recorded a new song called "Backmasked": https://soundcloud.com/earthalliance/backmasked
Lemme know what ya'll think! :beerchug:

usin' my trusty SG standard, Rick 4003, and my tech 21 pedals for ampz

oh, and SEYMOUR DUNCAN, ON THE PICKUPS! ***round of applause***

any comments at all, or constructive criticism is appreciated, thanks

Danny G · February 14, 2013, 12:53:30 PM

Dude. That was pretty bad ass!

Well done

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jibberish · February 14, 2013, 03:12:47 PM

that was very nice. sounds great, interesting song. good inspiration to continue on my part

Danny G · February 14, 2013, 04:05:35 PM

That you playing all the instruments as well everdrone?

Edit: you are in North Austin? We need to meet.

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everdrone · February 14, 2013, 09:48:44 PM

Quote from: jibberish on February 14, 2013, 03:12:47 PM
that was very nice. sounds great, interesting song. good inspiration to continue on my part

Thanks Brutha!! Glad you are getting inspiration on your part, I look forward to hearing your February stuff

Rock on!!!

Quote from: Danny G on February 14, 2013, 04:05:35 PM
That you playing all the instruments as well everdrone?

Edit: you are in North Austin? We need to meet.

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Thanks for the props!! I play all guitar and bass, and do the drum programming through toontrack Metal Foundry. Ya, lets meet, I would be stoked on that. I dug your live performances that I saw with the Eric Tessmer band, about the best bass player in Austin like your award says; yall really draw a big crowd!

You and Eric were improv jamming on the guitar solo part of a song, on your wireless bass at the opposite end from the stage at the Blind Pig Pub, Ripping it up!

jibberish · February 15, 2013, 03:19:45 AM

ok just remember "Asia" and "Damn Yankees" have been used already.
and so has the "The Travelling Wilburys"
8D

edit: how is the pro-tools package looking? now you can endlessly fill external harddrives.
is it easy to use? the ad pictures always look real sexy with 20 Technicolor windows of stuff open.
is it quiet, like no extra clicks ticks bleed-thru's?

I have to reformat that sd card in my tracker. the demo song is wasting precious space as I approach the storage wall also. obviously I have to get more memory cards when I get down to best buy next time too. I need to get a good sized one so an entire involved project will fit without playing around recovering storage whilst trying to be making a song.

Danny G · February 15, 2013, 01:36:24 PM

Pro tools will have to wait. Need to upgrade operating system and memory as well as clear a few gigs on the iMac before it can even be installed.

And thanks for the props everdrone, did we meet at those ETB shows? My memory is foggy as fuck. We're at the Saxon pub tonight.

Will be doing some rpm-ish recording this weekend. Have been talking to a friend working with music for an indie film. They possibly want to use a track I've been wanting to re-record anyway (original is very primitive in production and execution). Will use my 8 track to save time learning garage band.

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everdrone · February 15, 2013, 01:45:56 PM

my girlfriend and I saw yall jammin, we did not meet though

I am busy with my new career but I hope to make it downtown once things slow up a bit. Awesome music with ETB, so cool how ETB is super prolific in live performances on 6th street, cheers!

Danny G · February 23, 2013, 01:25:22 PM

Thanks man \m/,

Finally have been demo-ing out some new songs. Have access to a place to record (my lady n I checking on a friend's cat while she's out of town, in trade I can record at her place).

May take the drums over there today or wait til tomorrow, lotta shit going on.

Yeah finishing an album by Thursday will be a stretch. But I can at least crank out an EP!

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