Why is no one interested in Song Challenges anymore?

[selig]

My favorite challenges were on the old PUF, started by Nisse IIRC. Someone starts a challenge, and the winner of that challenge gets to set the terms for the next one. Some that I recall were limited by device, or by source (can only use sine waves, or noise, etc), or found sounds, etc.

These attracted a decent amount of participation and went on for quite a while in some cases. it’s really about the rules of the challenge, the ‘talent’ pool available (who is actually able to participate for whatever reasons), and the theme. It’s not easy to come up with interesting challenges, as I found when I won a challenge and then had to come up with the rules for the next one (I chose ‘sine waves’ since it was the best I could come up with).

It can be difficult to judge the level of interest and with what specifically would attract the most participants. But I’d say ANYONE can suggest a challenge, and if it resonates with enough folks it will take off (and if it doesn’t, it won’t). It all depends on what creates interest and action/involvement of enough folks to sustain it and keep it fun!

[TritoneAddiction]

From what I can see, there's been more Song challenges recently than when I created this thread. That's very nice to see. We've seen challenges/competitions for Dice Analog Synthesizer Effect Rack Extension, RX1200 and now one for Objekt.
Just thought it was worth highlighting. It's good to see more creative engagement here at RT.

[ChulaCoola]

Who issues song challenges? Can anyone, or does it come from the moderators/forum owner?

Ones with prizes usually are ran by devs in conjunction with mods as far as I can tell.

If it has no prizes and just for fun anyone can start one. I think if it has prizes attached it should go through the mods on here.

Thanks!

[artmessiah]

I used to like the way Reason Station did music participation - not everyone liked the rating system but there was always new music to be listened to and there were some gems often. If you don't know what reasonstation is than I might just be showing my age and I'll see my way out

[Mataya]

I used to like the way Reason Station did music participation - not everyone liked the rating system but there was always new music to be listened to and there were some gems often. If you don't know what reasonstation is than I might just be showing my age and I'll see my way out

When I saw your "other " talent on instagram, I forgot what what you were saying. Insane art man.
I loved reasonstation.

M

[raymondh]

The song challenges were great. I never won any, but I did make some tracks I am still pretty happy with, and usually I learned a lot about the target synthesizer where they were one-synth challenges. Also found them great from a community perspective, learning the talents and styles of other folks on the forum, learning from some, and supporting others.

Having also organised a song challenge, I appreciate how much work it is! Coordinating with a synth supplier for the prizes etc was pretty straightforward but being actively involved to keep the competition alive, encourage people, promote, and create a buzz is time consuming, and then the assessment/scoring of the tracks is really tricky!!

It needs a lot of energy to really make the competition an experience that people want to participate in.

After a while it became a bit less common to have cool synth prizes and so there was less incentive to compete. Free publicity is a good incentive, but again it requires the person organising the competition to do extra work to promote the winner.

For me today I'm unfortunately time poor. To make the song challenges effective, it needs to be snappy with a time limit (eg 1 month).

Here's an old thread on same topic: viewtopic.php?t=7493472

[artmessiah]

When I saw your "other " talent on instagram, I forgot what what you were saying. Insane art man.
I loved reasonstation.

M

Haha Thank you

[jfrichards]

There are currently 52 songs posted on the objektchallenge website on soundcloud. The quality is extremely good, and there are still 10 days left to submit. I'm not sure, but I think most of the songs are by people on this ReasonTalk website. The "prizes" are pretty meager, so I don't think prizes are the reason for submissions, simply the exploration of the great Objekt synth.

https://soundcloud.com/search?q=%23ObjektChallenge

[jfrichards]

There are now 119 songs posted on the Objekt Challenge website, and the few recent ones are very serious and wonderful. Only two days left to post. Some of the heavyweights have yet to submit. The top 30 are like an amazing double album from 1969, or more precisely, from 2043.

https://reasonstudios.com/blog/objekt-song-challenge/

Click on the "Listen to submitted songs here!" halfway down their page.

[Terryfic]

Hi

I'm fairly new to Reason 12 and SoundCloud. What format do I use to upload a song for the Objekt Challenge? Is MP3 ok or does it have to be a Reason Song File?

[Quarmat]

Hi

I'm fairly new to Reason 12 and SoundCloud. What format do I use to upload a song for the Objekt Challenge? Is MP3 ok or does it have to be a Reason Song File?

Hi, mp3 is ok but I prefer to upload my tracks in wav format.

[Terryfic]

Thanks Quarmat. I just wondered how they can check that the whole song is done in Objekt if submissions are in a non-reason format.

[Quarmat]

Thanks Quarmat. I just wondered how they can check that the whole song is done in Objekt if submissions are in a non-reason format.

They did a similar contest a couple years ago with Algoritm, that time they asked for the reason file to the producers whose tracks were in the final roster for evaluation. Dunno this time, since they collected no emails, just soundcloud links, but who knows, maybe via souncloud direct message?

We are drifting off-topic, though, Dm me if you need more info.

[jfrichards]

The number of songs in the ObjektChallenge is now 150 !! And there's still one day left.

Incidentally, the song quality is off the charts. Listening to the depth of the past 24 hours of submissions is hard to describe. It's like a new band was formed. When these Reason composers hook up with the new generation of singers, it will be like a new mountain range or new ocean has been formed.

[joeyluck]

Thanks Quarmat. I just wondered how they can check that the whole song is done in Objekt if submissions are in a non-reason format.

They did a similar contest a couple years ago with Algoritm, that time they asked for the reason file to the producers whose tracks were in the final roster for evaluation. Dunno this time, since they collected no emails, just soundcloud links, but who knows, maybe via souncloud direct message?

We are drifting off-topic, though, Dm me if you need more info.

We hosted the Algoritm challenge managed the collection of Reason files. The Objekt challenge is solely Reason Studios, so not sure what they plan to do.

[EnochLight]

When these Reason composers hook up with the new generation of singers, it will be like a new mountain range or new ocean has been formed.

Off topic: curious - did you update to Ableton Live 11.3.3? It's a hot mess right now.