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[Marathon mix] Theme Challenge 4 (COMPLETE)

Hello everyone, and welcome to the TA DJ Challenge Series!

Challenges
Original threads
March 2009 - Genre Challenge Round 1
May 2009 - Genre Challenge Round 2
July 2009 - Genre Challenge Round 3
July 2010 - Genre Challenge Round 4
February 2011 - Genre Challenge Round 5
April 2012 - Genre Challenge Round 6

New Challenge series
January 2014 - Theme challenge
September 2014 - Genre challenge
September 2016 - Theme challenge 2
June 2017 - Theme challenge 3

The Rules

The rules for this year's Theme Challenge will be much more relaxed than previous years. Traditionally there was a signup period, a mixing/posting period, and a deadline. Additionally there was a relatively severe penalty of permanently banning participants who did not submit a mix. Those rules will be dissolved this year, as well as the "bans" of any of those previous participants. Whoever wants to sign up may do so at their leisure. Life is challenging enough by itself, there is no need to attach penalties while this forum struggles to attract and retain members.

If you are going to participate, please comment in this thread so I know you are signing up and I can attach your name below.

Theme Mix schedule
Competition begins: July 16th, 2018
Competition ends: whenever everyone submits a mix!

Theme suggestions
Top 40 remixes
Video Game soundtrack
3-6 hour marathon set

The Participants
Ziptnf - Relative Eternity
refuge
Sand Leaper - Dancing on MIR
SYSTEM-J - All Night Long
mphreak - Autumn Living Room Session
the-sixth
Mr Game+Watch - 2019 Extended Mix
wotyzoid - YEEEET
djdk - Lost in ShangriLa
Singularity55
chris1011 - Timeless

Good luck and happy mixing!

You can sign me up for a chiptune / game set. I've done a bunch of Mega Man mixes in the past, been exactly 2 years since my last chiptune set, and I have been itching to do a new mix... bought a ton of game music on vinyl within that timeframe and this'll finally give me the push I need to do it.

Well, if the Video Game category doesn't win the straw poll, you have to do whatever does win.

Or not, it doesn't matter really.

Sign me up.

quote:

Originally posted by refuge You can sign me up for a chiptune / game set. I've done a bunch of Mega Man mixes in the past, been exactly 2 years since my last chiptune set, and I have been itching to do a new mix... bought a ton of game music on vinyl within that timeframe and this'll finally give me the push I need to do it.

That wasn't the idea, though, was it? The idea was to make a mix with music that wasn't made for a video game but still sounds like it would be a good fit for a video game soundtrack.

quote:

Originally posted by Sand Leaper That wasn't the idea, though, was it? The idea was to make a mix with music that wasn't made for a video game but still sounds like it would be a good fit for a video game soundtrack.

I guess it was open to interpretation. My original idea mentioned making a soundtrack that would fit the game that you designed, of any game or music genre. As long as it was cohesive enough to believe it was all from one video game, I don't see why a chiptune mix wouldn't meet the challenge requirements.

Im up for a marathon vinyl only set of some unknown prog classics ive been buying up.

I've voted for my own idea. Obviously. I'll be in if it comes out on top. I feel video game soundtrack is too close to past mixes I've done, and Top 40 remixes is far too limited.

Refuge could easily make a 6 hour chiptune mix. I bet Luke and I would be the only listeners

I'm in.

@ziptnf

add me

I'm in! Can I do a 6 hour mix of old videogame music?

I'll actually be hosting a "Videogame Name That Tune" panel at a local (and rapidly growing) retro game expo this August so I have a lot of that...

quote:

Originally posted by Mr Game+Watch Can I do a 6 hour mix of old videogame music?

Seriously though, I don't see why not. I think Jack's original intention was that you are headlining some sort of show or event and playing all (or most of the) night, so I'm sure you could easily justify that. I don't think it's specific to a prog-only rooftop party or something. Jack, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

The idea was to imagine yourself playing in a club from the moment the doors open to the last tune of the night, and how you would programme the whole night of music. For me the idea is not just to imagine yourself as the DJ, but think of yourself as a dancer - what do you like to hear when you're just getting there, handing your jacket in, buying a drink, exploring the club right at the start? And what do you like to hear in the home stretch of the night when the crowd's thinned out and it's the dedicated nutters still on the floor.

I've recorded one in the past and never shared it. I'll do another one for this challenge so the tunes are more fresh, of course, but it's the opportunity to make a real signature set that sums up your whole ethos of a great night out. I've only played the one I made a handful of times all the way through, when I've had a very long journey or when I was cleaning my flat top-to-bottom, but it's a nice thing to have made. Also, with longer mixes, you don't have to worry so much about the flow and structure being 100% perfect. Equally, the listener doesn't have to pay attention to every single thing that happens. In a real club night you will inevitably go to the toilet and the bar, chat nonsense to people, ask them to repeat themselves three times, go outside for a smoke. You don't pay attention to every second of music.

Anyone can play whatever they want, of course, but I personally would struggle to imagine a set of purely videogame music forming a satisfying all-night club set. Better to attack the concept head-on rather than crowbar some other idea into it.

Okay, so your idea was specific to club music? Forgive me if I feel like we might end up with 80 hours worth of prog music for this challenge then. To me I think it would be better for the scope of this idea to be broadened slightly. I'm sure an all-night club set would be brilliant when done by someone like you, but if Luke wants to do a dry run of a video game expo music night I think that would be fair to the core of the challenge.

I'd be glad to hear others thoughts on this too. Club only, or should we expand the setting?

Why do you keep talking about prog? I didn't say anything about it having to be prog. Luke has an 8 hour mix in his sig, so he's certainly capable of fulfilling the challenge, and it isn't a prog set.

Just an example of everyone's mixes sounding similar, which I was looking to avoid.

quote:

Originally posted by ziptnf Refuge could easily make a 6 hour chiptune mix. I bet Luke and I would be the only listeners

Haha and that would take 6 months to make, 40 tracks in the chiptune genre would fill an hour easily. My goal is to focus on Sega sounds specifically, from the Data Discs catalog, as it was my earliest exposure to Electronic music before I had any conceptual understanding of what a DJ/Electronic Music is and had a heavy hand in my involvement in music today, specifically the Yamaha YM2612 sound chip. If this doesn't adhere to the contest rules let me know I will probably just work on it on my own time. Most of my mixes are already House/Techno/Acid/Electro/other 4/4 styles so I'd like to stray away from that is already too close to home, Top 40 remixes doesn't interest me, only other theme I'm interested in is G-Funk / Electrofunk mix but that wasn't a suggested theme.

Not big fan of recording marathon club set at home. However, if that is the challenge theme, we should spice it up a bit with some kind of restrictions like type of club/environment/event (outdoor, pool, art gallery, you name it)..

I would honestly love to hear what everyone would do for an essential mix if pete tong asked you to do one

The key here though is to not be given a tracklist and just have to listen to it.

quote:

Originally posted by refuge Haha and that would take 6 months to make, 40 tracks in the chiptune genre would fill an hour easily. My goal is to focus on Sega sounds specifically, from the Data Discs catalog, as it was my earliest exposure to Electronic music before I had any conceptual understanding of what a DJ/Electronic Music is and had a heavy hand in my involvement in music today, specifically the Yamaha YM2612 sound chip. If this doesn't adhere to the contest rules let me know I will probably just work on it on my own time.

I could put together a 4 hour chiptune mix just based off the tracks in my catalog alone. But with a hyper-specific requirement on the sounds and hardware used to create the tunes, I would probably agree that it would take months to create something that long with music that specific. Luckily this challenge has no time limit.

quote:

Originally posted by mphreak Not big fan of recording marathon club set at home. However, if that is the challenge theme, we should spice it up a bit with some kind of restrictions like type of club/environment/event (outdoor, pool, art gallery, you name it)..

I'm not so sure. Restrictions like this limit the ability for the DJ to design a set around something they could excel in. Some of the participants may not be much for the club.

I think this was my point earlier, that the core of the challenge really should be that you are in charge of playing a marathon set to any group of people, whether that be a dark night club, hippie forest music festival, video game convention, or wherever a crowd of people will be listening to you play all night. And the additional caveat that it is in fact you who is responsible for the music the entire night. The interpretation of the setting of the marathon mix is up to the challenger. In this case, a marathon mix designed for a long car ride would probably not be valid (unless you drive the party bus or something).

At this point since the votes are clearly in favor of the marathon set, I think it would be wise for us all to start planning towards that, even though the challenge hasn't officially started yet.

quote:

Originally posted by the-sixth I would honestly love to hear what everyone would do for an essential mix if pete tong asked you to do one

I believe Jack led the way with something like this a few years ago, although they were more personal classics than industry classics:

http://www.tranceaddict.com/forums/...threadid=598563

To be clear, it doesn't have to be a club. I suppose it could be any appropriate venue for the kind of music you want to play, with the caveat that it has to be an environment where a DJ would really play. So an outdoor rave is fine if you're psy-inclined, or a bar or terrace is fine if you fancy jazzy house or Balearic Afro-beat. But some engagement with the venue is important.

The Essential Mix idea is a really good one actually. It's totally different to my old personal classics thing. Imagine you're going out on Radio One with the full Tongy intro, and you've got two hours to show the world your sound.

I'll play

quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J To be clear, it doesn't have to be a club. I suppose it could be any appropriate venue for the kind of music you want to play, with the caveat that it has to be an environment where a DJ would really play. So an outdoor rave is fine if you're psy-inclined, or a bar or terrace is fine if you fancy jazzy house or Balearic Afro-beat. But some engagement with the venue is important.

This. Summer terrace bar fits the mood these days

Excellent. We still have 3-4 more from the other thread who haven't officially signed up but showed interest.

I'm glad that the specificity of the environment the mix was to be played in isn't a point of contention anymore. Part of me expected this thread to devolve into unnecessary arguments about how many sugars the bouncer takes in his coffee, which direction the water sprays in the club bathroom's leaky pipe, and precisely how much cocaine the drug-addled party-goers have been consuming.

The Essential Mix idea is indeed a great one but I feel like it would be difficult for it to gather 9 votes quickly and unseat the marathon mix idea. Perhaps it would be best for us to just put that on next year's docket.

quote:

Originally posted by mphreak Not big fan of recording marathon club set at home. However, if that is the challenge theme, we should spice it up a bit with some kind of restrictions like type of club/environment/event (outdoor, pool, art gallery, you name it)..

I'm actually in love with this concept... what if, instead of genres/themes, we each nominated a 'venue' and then had to do a set befitting of that venue?

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