May/June 2012 festivals - TributeFest II and DIY Fest

[64Guitars]

Voting is closed for the May/June polls. The May/June festivals will be TributeFest II and DIY Fest. Here are the descriptions and rules for each festival:

TributeFest II - Same idea as the original TributeFest which we had in 2010. Covers of songs written by members of Songcrafters. Most members will be glad to have their song covered, but there may be a few exceptions so it's best to ask first unless the member has "Okay to Cover" or something similar in their signature.

DIY Fest - Do it Yourself. The challenge for this festival is to do everything yourself instead of relying on automated, programmed, or pre-made accompaniment.

• No drum machines. Since many of our members already record most of their songs themselves, this may be the biggest challenge for many of us. We're used to using the BR's built-in drum machine, the BR Rhythm Editor, Hydrogen, or an external drum machine such as the popular Boss DR-880. But, for this festival, those are not allowed. Instead, you must either play the drums yourself or record without drums. Here are some suggestions:
  
  • You can use an acoustic or electronic drum kit if you have one. But you must play it. No sequencers or midi files controlling your electronic drum kit.
  • You can use electronic percussion pads such as the Alesis Performance Pad, Roland SPD-SX, OctaPad, or HandSonic, Korg WaveDrum or nanoPad, etc. But, again, you can't control the device with a sequencer or midi file. You must record yourself actually playing the pads live.
  • Some keyboard instruments and keyboard controllers have percussion pads built-in which you can play by tapping them with your fingers. Failing that, most keyboard instruments have a variety of drum and percussion sounds available which you can play by pressing the corresponding key on the keyboard. In this way, you can record yourself playing the drums live. It may be difficult to record elaborate drum beats and fills this way, but you can simplify it by using several tracks. For example, record just kick drum and snare on one track. Record hi-hats on another track. Tom-tom fills on another. And so on.
  • Use traditional percussion instruments such as tambourine, bongos, cowbell, wood block, triangle, djembe, etc. You can also use samples of these instruments instead, as long as you actually play them (no loops, midi files, etc.) Many keyboard instruments include good samples of percussion instruments.
  • Play a found object. This can be any common household item that isn't designed for making music. For example, kitchen utensils, garbage bins, cardboard boxes, tin foil plates, metal pipes, etc. Use your imagination!
  • Use your body. Pound your chest for a kick drum sound. Slap your thigh for a snare. Hit a pocketful of change for a jangly sound. Use your imagination!
  You can use a drum machine to help with your time-keeping (metronome pattern, for example), but don't include it in your final mix.
  
• No collaborations. We love collaborations here at Songcrafters, but they're not allowed for this festival since the idea is to do it yourself.
• No loops, backing tracks, midi files, sequencers, or any other kind of automation. Each individual note in your song must be played by you in real time.
• No covers or songwriting collaborations. You must write the song yourself.

[Ted]

For the DIY Fest, can you use a click track as long as it's not audible in the finished recording, or do you have to keep time all by yourself too?

[64Guitars]

For the DIY Fest, can you use a click track as long as it's not audible in the finished recording, or do you have to keep time all by yourself too?

Yes, you can use a click track, metronome, etc. to keep time. I mentioned that above, but it's down at the bottom of the drum section, below all of the drumming suggestions, so you must have missed it.

You can use a drum machine to help with your time-keeping (metronome pattern, for example), but don't include it in your final mix.

[Ted]

I mentioned that above, but it's down at the bottom of the drum section, below all of the drumming suggestions, so you must have missed it.

Damn me and my skimming.

[64Guitars]

I've created a new [okaytocover] tag which you can put in your signature to indicate that you want other members to cover your original songs. It will display an "Okay to Cover" icon in your signature. If you use this tag, then members don't need to ask you for permission to cover one of your songs for TributeFest II. That way, they can give you a nice surprise.

I'd recommend that you place the tag as the very first thing in your signature. That will display the icon at the far left as the first item in your signature. If we all place it in the same location, it will be easier to spot when browsing messages. Don't put any carriage returns after the tag. If you do, any other items in your signature will be displayed below the "Okay to Cover" icon, which is probably not what you want.

For example, do this...

[okaytocover][rec][Boss Micro BR][/rec]

... rather than this ...

[okaytocover]
[rec][Boss Micro BR][/rec]

The icon is also a link. Clicking it will load the Member Jukebox page with 12 random songs. However, it will only list songs from the Original Songs board by members who have the [okaytocover] tag in their signature. This should be very handy for TributeFest II since it lets you listen only to original songs that you can cover. Also, the list of members displayed to the right of the jukebox only contains members with the [okaytocover] tag in their signature. Clicking any of those names will load up all of the songs by that member which have been posted in the Original Songs board.

One caveat: You still need to check out the song post and find out who wrote the song since it can't be guaranteed that every song listed was written solely by the member who posted it. Some are collaborations, in which case you should ask permission from all of the writers. And a few songs may be in the Original Songs board by mistake, so make sure that the song is a member-written original before you cover it.

Click on the following link and scroll down the page to edit your signature:

https://songcrafters.org/community/index.php?action=profile;sa=forumProfile

If you'd rather that I did it for you, just send me a PM telling me how you want your signature layed out and I'll make the changes. If you don't already have any recorder icons in your signature, let me know which recorders you use and I'll add those while I'm at it.

[Gnasty]

Another Great idea from the main cat 64! I`m ok to cover although damn i don`t have to many originals on here.

You know i`m almost finished a tribute up and the person i wanna do isn`t around so what should i do?
i wasn`t thinking of the ok to cover thing at the time. I`m thinking they wouldn`t mind if i did cuz they did tributes too from the first Tributefest.

[64Guitars]

You know i`m almost finished a tribute up and the person i wanna do isn`t around so what should i do?

I'm not sure. The admin team has been discussing the issue of permission for covers the past two days and it can be a bit tricky. I hadn't even thought of the problem of members who are no longer active. I'll have to discuss it with the admin team and see if we can decide how these situations should be handled.

In the meantime, did you check this member's profile to see if they have an email address or website through which you might contact them?

[Gnasty]

Oh damn! I just noticed they have ok to cover!! Thanks!!

[64Guitars]

We decided to treat covers of songs written by absent members or former members the same way we treat covers of commercial music. That is, you can go ahead and post your cover and if the absent/former member contacts us and complains, we'll remove your cover. I think the chances of that happening are pretty low. In most cases, the absent/former member won't even know that their song has been covered. And even if they do notice it, they might not mind. They might even be happy to see that their song has been covered.

[Hook]

Yea, I kinda thought since I don't seem to care what Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, The Bangles, etc think about me covering their music.... I guess they might care, I don't care, I hope they don't mind, hey Costello, do you care?



No reply .

I didn't even think about asking anyone, sorry guys. I dig the icon though.
Cover on!