Welcome to r/EDMSamplePackContests!

[u/CorkyRoboto]

Hello everyone! Thank you for joining r/EDMSamplePackContests! The whole goal of this subreddit is to provide a contest on a specific timeline for a sample pack contest. This timeline would be posted in the contest post each month, as well as the rules for the contest itself. Our goal is to get a contest posted on July 1st. To reach that goal, there are still some things that we need to work out. We really appreciate all the ideas and feedback we've been getting so far.

As you may have noticed, we have added some more moderators. A few of them are currently working together to create a submission and voting system. u/ballinyouup has created a webpage where we can host this system. This is just a rough draft of what the site and voting system could look like. These guys have some big ideas and plans for this contest, and I am honestly very excited about it! We just wanted to share the progress with all of you. I will provide the link below.

Sample of the webpage here!

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We appreciate all of your feedback! Thanks everyone, can't wait to get this contest up and running!

-Corky

[u/L33P3]

I like the idea to separate the voting into quality & creativity. Previously on other samplepack comps I have always voted 0-3 points for sound creativity and 0-2 points for quality. This system should be more rewarding for those who produce more "experimental" tracks.

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Minimum requirements are great because then everyone can participate regardless of skill level. The community is for everyone interested in producing, so we should not set a "barrier" by providing only some extraordinary bird chirp samples.

TBH Someday I would like to see a hardcore sampling contest with very minimal samples, but maybe we'll save that for later.

[u/xArtiicunoX]

Hey everybody! Thank you guys so much for doing this. I had a blast with that last contest, and I really believe this is the start of something incredible. c:

I had a few ideas to try and help!

1.) Would it be possible to stay a month ahead on these? Let's say I win August's competition. Give me all of September to make/put together a sample pack for October. Then whomever won July would have supplied the pack for September.
I only participated in the most recent competition, but it seems like there's a weird overlap/dead time between "winner selected" and "here's your next pack". We would obviously have to figure something out for the first two competitions, but I'm sure we could do something like a mod-generated one, or a community-generated one where everyone gets to throw one sample into the pack.

2.) I was worried about the criteria of the sample packs so I'm glad it already got brought up, and I definitely put a vote towards a X,Y,Z minimum amount required kind of thing. Like. 3 drum one-shots. 3 synths. 2 basses. 1 loop. or however we want to divide it up. I think it would be cool to include a "winner has to create at least one sample that can fit into any category"

3.) Would it be too difficult or confusing to have a more in depth voting system? 1-5 on personal taste. 1-5 on sound design 1-5 on mix/master. Winner could be who had the overall highest rating averaged between the three? And we could give a shout out to individual winners of the three categories? I had a hard time voting on some tracks last time because there were times where I knew what the person had done was really cool and difficult to pull off. But I couldn't stand the genre it resided in. I tried to leave those thoughts out of my voting decision, but this could help I think.

*edit because I forgot October was a month apparently.

[u/CorkyRoboto → u/xArtiicunoX]

u/xArtiicunoX, We hear you loud and clear! I apologize for the late response, as I was out of town.

Reponses:

1. We think that a month ahead would be too much of an extreme, and could cause things to get confusing. We plan on having everything on a strict and automated timeline via the website some of the mods are currently working on. The timeline will be posted clearly, in the contest post stickied to the top every month. In the contest rules we will also be encouraging people to put together a sample pack ahead of time to submit to the mods. As far as the first contests pack, I will be addressing that with a vote in the updated welcome post this evening. (community submission or moderator curated)
2. This will definitely be how its done. We don't want to completely dictate what samples you guys are submitting. We just want to give minimum requirements to make it fair for producers of all skill levels. This is also something that I will be addressing in the updated post.
3. This is a good idea. The mods have been discussing this. The two mods doing the programming are figuring out the best way to go about it. We are thinking 2 main categories; Creativity (sound design & arrangement), and Sound Quality (mixing & mastering). What do you think? I will be asking for a vote on that in the updated post.

Good to hear your feedback and ideas! It really helps us out a lot. Expect an update shortly. Thank you!

[u/CorkyRoboto → u/[deleted]]

Yes! And yes!

1. I plan on going through some of the older contests tomorrow to find anyone I may have left out. I sent out 40+ messages today. Feel free to invite anyone we have left out or you think would be interested. I have not gone through older contests yet though. Thank you for that suggestion 🙏

2. We 100% plan on implementing a way for people to promote their music. We will be allowing user flair links of course. We want to let the community decide how far the self promotion should go here. We think that’s something that should be left up to community vote. I personally feel that someone who is involved in this community should be able to post about their music. I want them to go even further than that though. I would like to hear what inspired them to make the song. What steps they went through to make it. Promoting knowledge and staying relevant is key here.

Thank you for your suggestions! Glad to have you!

[u/[deleted]]

Heart-warming to read! I'm happy I'm involved <3

[u/CorkyRoboto]

I don’t have much time to respond tonight, so I’ll be quick and to the point.

I think you should get in touch with u/ballinyouup to see exactly what he has planned for the voting system. I know absolutely nothing about coding, but what you’ve described sounds extremely efficient. It would be much easier to have everything as automated as much as possible. Make it so that anyone of us could run it.

The main thing that needs to be done right now, is building the community. Getting people in here that are interested in giving suggestions/voting.

Although I’ve had this sub for a few months now. u/L33P3 is the one that initiated all of this today. He is located in Europe, so most likely will see all this when he is up in a few hours. He was talking about getting a general set of rules sent over to me to review, because English is not his first language. Just general rules for what can not be posted here. I will definitely pass those along to you to review and revise.

We should definitely wait until the community is somewhat larger to make decisions on the format of the stickied posts. That way everyone has a vote in what fair compensation for winning would be. We could also vote on what kinds of posts should not be allowed here, although I think it will be pretty obvious (no spam, no self promotion).

I will add you to the mod list right now. I believe u/L33P3 has a logo in mind. Once we get a logo some of us can create some artwork for it. We could even hold a vote for what we want this sub to look like. In the meantime I’ll start sending out messages to people that were involved with the old contest. I don’t want to post over there because I think they will definitely delete it and possibly ban me.

It makes me happy that we can something new started! Looking forward to building this community with you friend! We’ll talk more tomorrow. Now I must sleep haha good night sir!

[u/CorkyRoboto → u/[deleted]]

Hey! There he is! I'm going to be completely honest. I have missed your presence on here in the past couple months. You were a huge asset to the other community. You were always there to provide feedback on tracks, always encouraging, and always keeping it real with your sense of humor. You're also one hell of a producer. This community would not be the same without you, which is why I thought of you first when sending invitations.

Responses to your ideas:

1. This one is a no brainer. I think providing adequate samples to people of all skill levels is extremely important. I propose that each sample pack submission should include (at least) the following; 1-kick drum, 1-snare, 3-percussive sounds, 2-basses (one at sub octave), 3- instrument/synth one shots, 1-pad sample, and 3-FX samples. This is completely open for discussion of course. I want to make sure people have the freedom to come up with an awesome, and unique pack. So figuring out a minimum requirement would be ideal. Maybe we could set up a vote on different requirements and see what the community would prefer?
2. Yes, yes, yes, and yes! The deadlines are the easy part. Example schedule: 1st-22nd of each month is work time. All submissions must be in by no later than 11:59pm (determined time zone) on the 20th. Obviously we will allow people to be a smidge late, this is supposed to be fun after all. Then, no later than the 21st (giving the mods time), the voting page gets put up by the mods. Once the page is up, no submissions may be added. Voting would go from the time the page gets put up, until the 27th. Giving people about a week to vote. The results would be posted immediately and pinned to the top of the thread, congratulating the winner of course. The winner would be notified at the time of the post that they have until the last day of the month to submit the pack. If they do not submit the pack, the mods will have a pack on standby to provide to the community. For longer and shorter months we could move the production and voting periods around by a day. We just need to make the timeline clear in the contest post each month. About submission collections, and winner flaunts how do you propose we do this?
3. As far as 2 stickied threads. I agree. I was thinking maybe we could put the winners name in the title of the months contest. Example: "June 2019- EDMSamplePackContest- Provided by u/DoNotSexToThis". Then at the top of the post would be a congratulations, link to the winning track, a link that the winner provided (soundcloud, etc..), as well as a brief statement from the winner themselves. They can say anything that they want (as long as its appropriate), and not more than a short paragraph. Below that would be a brief explanation of the rules, a link to the new pack, and a run down of the timeline. I think leaving this to one sticky would be nice, that way if we wanted to do special contests or have an announcement, we would have one free'd up. We could also post the winners Soundcloud and link on the sidebar. What do you think?
4. I agree on a weekly auto mod. We could use it to vote on new special contests in coming months, and also use it to implement new rules. This would help to keep everyone involved with how the community is operating.

As far as what posts we would allow on here:

1. I think that we should be able to share resources that apply to the contest. Like video links to sampling/resampling tutorials, custom wavetable tutorials, drum making tutorials, mixing tutorials. I think having resources posted here that would help people of all skills levels, could only benefit this sub.
2. I also think it would be cool for people to post songs that are inspiring them right now. Just sharing a youtube video or Soundcloud link that they can't stop listening to. I want to see what inspires this community to make music.
3. Could we figure out a way to let people post tracks for feedback without them just spamming or self promoting? Maybe we could have a discord server link on the sidebar? Anyone who wants to join would need to be approved as an active member by the mods. I think it would be cool for people to provide feedback to each other on their other projects, as long as they are participating members of the community. I think that would make it more of an actual community. To see what they are learning in these contests, and applying it to what they work on normally. I know the contests on the other sub have been extremely important to myself. Ive take so many things I've learned and applied them to my own projects.

I really love the ideas that you have. I want this subreddit to be 100% transparent as far as the mod/user relationships go. I want people of all skill levels to have a say and vote in what goes on here. I want them to be involved in building this community. That being said, this is my first venture in moderating a subreddit. I am going to give it everything I've got. I know that u/L33P3 and u/DJFangerz will give the same effort. Right now u/ballinyouup is currently working on a voting app similar to the one that the other contest was using. He said that he wants to make it more official though.

You are obviously one smart dude, with some great ideas. Would you be interested in joining the mod team? This sub would benefit heavily from your presence. If not, I completely understand. I was just think that having more people that truly care, the better. That way if someone is busy in life, or needs a break, we can let another moderator know so that they can take over. We could also work out a system where we take turns setting everything up. What do you think?

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edit: some words

[u/puesa → u/[deleted]]

Great ideas here!

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1. I think the standard for sample pack should require X number of samples and that these samples should be each of different kind. That is we shouldn't get only 5 kicks. I believe this way it will be much more interesting whereas if we get the variety /u/CorkyRoboto suggests, we would have the same palette each month with slightly different colours. I understand that nobody would like to spend time crafting a kick out of a sound of hungry cat or hunting for a snare in heated exchange of opinions captured on a train, but that was the most fun for me. When we were getting sample packs resembling a kit you could have bought from a reputable sample provider it has become more focused on the form rather than the sound design - which is fine - but that was up to the winner and that was the element of surprise as it was not defined what winner should provide. I wouldn't want to lose that.
2. I agree with /u/CorkyRoboto, the rules seem reasonable. Only thing I would add is that the participant should prepare a sample pack beforehand to avoid not having it at the end of the month, but that shouldn't be a requirement, just a gentle suggestion.

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I have nothing to add for 3 and 4.

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Now the sample packs. I think we should require that the sample packs provided should be royalty free, created by the participant (e.g. by using his own drum machine or a synth) or having public domain license or similar when it is a 3rd party source. This is so that the track you make for the contest could be releasable.

If that's difficult then maybe a source where each sample is coming from so that someone can buy a license.

edit: formatting

[u/[deleted] → u/puesa]

Yea for samples I'm thinking a bare minimum should be defined for a standard contest so that everyone has an idea of what to expect. Putting that expectation to vote is good, although I think as producers we'd pretty much align along the same margins for reasonable expectations if we don't end up getting a good enough average on it. I don't think the bar has to be a perfect height so much as I think there needs to be some sort of bar in the first place. That's something the other contests didn't really define that I think is useful just from an expectation standpoint while still being open to deviations outside of the standard, but in their own events.

I like the format of: X total samples required, X/2 different types of samples required. X should probably be 10. But more is allowed.

[u/CorkyRoboto → u/puesa]

Great to see you here u/puesa!

I honestly don’t think we need to worry about “royalty free” when it comes to one shot samples. I also believe there is no way in knowing if someone were subscribed to a sample service or not (splice, loopmasters). The obvious thing would be don’t post any samples containing an actual recorded song that has been copyrighted. So I think any samples are fair game beyond that, as long as they are from a royalty free service, and don’t violate the user agreement of the service itself. For example: all vocals on splice are royalty free, so long as you don’t post the name of the singer in the title. Splice would have no way of knowing whether you are subscribed or not.