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New Year's Beat Battle - Sample the record, win the record!


DJ Rock Well

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Ok, so just for a bit of fun I thought I'd organise a little beat battle to kick off the new year.


Ever since I first got into looking at records as potential sample sources as well as just to listen to, I've always loved an album called "Movements" by Johnny Harris. It was one of the first records I ever sampled and also has a lot of bits I wanted to sample but never got round to or didn't know what to do with.


So, my (not particularly original) idea is that we have a beat battle here where entrants all have to sample something from the album in some way (.WAV rip provided below) to feature in a beat they make and in a month's time, I'd like everybody to then post their beats up for a member's vote (I will sort out a new voting thread for this nearer the time). I will then send the winner of this vote my own personal copy of the album as their prize - a proper original UK 1st pressing in decent shape.

It's a pretty hard LP to find these days and worth a little bit, maybe £40-50 for a stone cold minter, although mine's got some sleeve damage and some light paper scuffs on the vinyl so £30 would probably be more realistic for this copy. Hopefully this will be incentive enough to get people to join in - it's a pretty nice LP to have in any digger's collection and if you've already got it or just don't like this kind of thing, feel free to slap it on ebay and call it a cash prize you had to work for.




As for how you want to go about sampling this record and what you want to make from it, it's up to you.

Could be just a re-edit of a track, a chopped sample beat, or you could just take individual notes and re-pitch them or process the hell out of them so they're barely recognisable. I don't even mind if someone wants to replay melodies from the record with different samples/instruments. I guess when it comes down to the voting, voters can decide for themselves if a certain beat was a genius interpretation of the rules or pushing it's luck a bit too far. But if the end result's dope, I don't really care how you get there.

Again, I don't want to place any limitations on the final beat either. Obviously, unlike the usual beat battles on here, this one's not specifically for scratching over. So any style, tempo or genre's fine - it could just be a straight beat or it could be a fuller instrumental track. Equally, if anyone wants to augment it further by laying an accapella over the top, or featuring some cuts or even make a full on turntablist track, then good luck to you. All I want really is for some new music to be made with the album I've chosen as the genesis.


There aren't any rules as such, just that I'd like everyone to hold off uploading their beats until around the deadline so the first time they're heard is on here in the seperate voting thread (I'll check with Steve as to the best way to go about this).


EDIT - for anyone interested in doing this, please PM me and I will guide you to a WAV to sample from.

If anyone's got any questions or has noticed any glaring mistakes/omissions on my part, let me know.

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Some of the tracks download OK.

 

To be honest, posting up the entire album like that is probably not a good idea. Either get people to PM you so you can provide them with a link to legally buy it (definitely don't just PM them a link to download it! Nope! Definitely don't do that! /Comic Sans), or provide a zip of some choice snippets that they have to use.

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It's alright mate.

 

The songs that wouldn't download were picked up by Mediafire's anti-copyright system (almost certainly because of the name), which is why you get a link to buy them on Amazon instead of a download link.

 

I'll send out a mass email about this later, as it'll be a good comp if a bunch of folks get involved!

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OK I'm gonna do a 12-minute noise track. All my gear will feature: decks, 303 sampler, Korg MS2000, acoustic guitar and beatbox if I can get a mic and keyboard if I can get it back from my dad's.

 

When were you thinking of for a deadline?

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OK I'm gonna do a 12-minute noise track. All my gear will feature: decks, 303 sampler, Korg MS2000, acoustic guitar and beatbox if I can get a mic and keyboard if I can get it back from my dad's.

 

When were you thinking of for a deadline?

 

A month's time. It could be stretched by a few days if people need it, but I doubt there will be time for you raise funds to hire a stadium for your performance

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Cool, I've got a big house move coming up so hope I can make it.

 

I say "big" house move. It's just a normal house move, and we are moving from a small flat to slightly bigger one, so I should say:

 

"I've got a smallish flat move coming up"

 

But it's just not got the same oomph.

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All welcome mate, feel free post it up anywhere you like. Seems like a good opportunity to attract a few new members.

 

Obviously it'll only be an occasional thing, but I hope to come up with other similar battles in the future too. As and when it fits into whatever else is happening round here and when I can come up with an idea and a prize.

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Guest petesasqwax

I'm up, down and all other directions you could name for this bad boy. Also, if you want to put a comma between "this" and "bad boy" so that "bad boy" refers to yourself and not just to the competition, I'm cool with that too. I'm adaptable. That's how I roll.

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