RPM Challenge

http://www.rpmchallenge.com

Write an album during the month of Feb. This is my third year doing it.

Nut up guys.

you did it last year??! i had no idea, what name did you do it under? i did one too

So what's the difference between this and NaSoAlMo?

I'm feeling quite pleased with myself cause I did NaNoWriMo last year and WON!!! so doing an album in a month might be more of a challenge. Or less, if it doesn't actually have to have vocals or lyrics or anything.

It dont got to be teh IDMz does it?

  On 1/30/2010 at 10:49 PM, Masonic Boom said:

So what's the difference between this and NaSoAlMo?

i don't know, maybe fill us in on what that is exactly. we aren't as smart as you

is there any judging? i don't get it.. is it just to encourage people to start and finish something?the 2009 samplers sound awful..

  On 1/31/2010 at 12:41 AM, elliot said:

is there any judging? i don't get it.. is it just to encourage people to start and finish something?the 2009 samplers sound awful..

No judging.

The original guy who started the challenge made it so that he could complete all the WIPs he created throughout the year and never finished. Its supposed to be an excuse for finishing music.

That doesn't mean you can't write everything during the month of Feb. The first two years I composed/recorded everything during Feb, this is the RPM purist method.

Either way all it equates to is bragging rights but also knowing you finished an album this year is a nice touch. You can then send demos out to rephlex and not have to worry about not having a finished album for when RDJ wants to sign you. Lets face it, sometimes we spend more time talking about music then actually making the shit.

Bonus shit for RPM includes the community features, jukebox, forums blogs etc etc etc... often times its more IDM to chat it up with some guy about reverb at 2am then coming to WATMM and hearing smartasses like me spout bullshit at nice people on the internet.

FYI - starting in a few hours!

NaSoAlMo is the musical equivalent of NaNoWirMo. NaNoWriMo = National Novel Writing Month. You sit down and try to write an entire novel (or at least 50,000 words of one) in a month. No editing, just writing.

So the musical equivalent is National Solo Album Month. You just try to record an album in a month. I forget if there was a time length or number of songs requirement. But the idea was you just try to write as many songs as you can in a month, without worrying about producing/mixing/finishing them.

I did it ages and ages ago, and I didn't win (I kept getting stuck in trying to make the songs perfect rather than moving on to writing the next one) but several of the songs I created during that period ended up going on my band's next proper release, so it was still a good experience.

I guess RPM sounds like it's more about finishing WIP you've already started rather than just churning out new tunes. THat might be a good idea - I know my record company would be pretty pleased if I finally finished that album I promised them last year...

wait, you can do this rpm thing with uncompleted works? that's like 95% of all my shit.

i'd love to do this and now that i'm out of school (but working full time) i do have more time but i'm soooooo lazy it probably won't happen.

there's always 2011.

Actually, my mistake. It is inspired by NaNoWriMo and it's the same criteria of recording the stuff during February, not prerecorded stuff.

  Quote

Record an album in February 2009 that's 10 songs or 35 minutes long

 

* Recording can only be done in the month of February – no prerecorded songs.

* All material must be previously unreleased, and we encourage you to write the material during February too.

ah

I'm not sure where they draw the line regarding "prerecorded" WRT electronic music, though.

Thing is, when you're songwriting on a guitar or a piano, you can write a song without recording it.

When you're working with electronic music that's created almost 100% within a DAW, where do you draw the line between writing and recording? None of it is technically "recorded" until you hit export. But so much of the production process is happening at the same stage as the writing process when you're working with a sequencer that I'm not sure how unfinished a track needs to be to count as "written" but not "recorded."

Hrrrrmmmmmm.

i don't think the intention of the RPM organizers was for you to over analyze the rules, i think they are purposefully written in a vague way to keep it open to many different forms of unfinished works

Sounds interesting. Perhaps I should carry on with the Ableton files I uploaded for that collab thread.

* Recording can only be done in the month of February – no prerecorded songs.

* All material must be previously unreleased, and we encourage you to write the material during February too.

that sounds pretty clear cut to me? anyway im gonna do it, its a good way to get the ideas(conceptual type) i've been stuck on so i can move onto something else.might start today actually! does anyone else agree that ALL of the samplers were god awful though?

where are you hearing the samplers?

i went to an RPM 2009 listening party last year and i heard a handful of pretty awesome electronic/experimental stuff, most of it was indie rock though

just down the side of the webiste,like some guy did a 35 minute ambient thing that has no movement and crap textures to begin with..and loads of half ass acoustic shit.it dosnt matter its just..unusual lol.thats pretty cool you went to a listening party i would love to but i live in the middle of nowhere

Why'd they pick the shortest damn month? At least November has 30 days for NaNoWriMo. I need more weekends.

I suppose I'll try to do it on mine own and if it works out, I'll register and do it properly next year.

I might try do this. Having a deadline always makes you work better/at all.

Well I'm still on track number 1, but it might be one of the best tunes I've ever done... even if I don't finish I can at least be happy about this one.

Well I've already started on mine. I'm still on track 1, but it's looking good so far. I'm not bothering with the registration and whatnot though.

This shit is coming to a close.

Did anyone finish?