Ok, since it's been a while, can I get a holla from all those interested in some type of challenge?

yea I'd be able to start on something in bout 2 weeks. so I'm willing and able.

I would be interested in participating this time around. SLK's suggestion of about 2 weeks from now sounds good to me.

for me as well.

i guess we can put out word and decide on what the challenge will be

i don't remember what was discussed. I'll go back and look later.

I recently though of a possible idea for the next challenge.

I remember one of the past challenges was a black metal challenge, so what would people think of doing a doom metal challenge. I choose doom because it can be a very diverse genre, and would produce (hopefully) a lot of interesting songs for a challenge.

What do you guys think?

Sure why not, but you have to see how many people are willing to participate. You can go ahead and start the November 2011 challenge thread if you like.

I would rather not be the one to host the challenge, because I will be pretty busy with school stuff. I definitely want to participate in a challenge, but I don't have the time to organize it.

That being said, is there anyone who wants to host this one?

I suppose I could host. I but we have to pretty much decide if that's going to be challenge, cause I have probably have six usable days to write, record, and mix my song... which is actually about all I would need anyway. just sucks it'll be split between the entire month of Nov.

Alright, what'll it be? Doom metal challenge or the theme leftovers one? I'll make the thread.

doesn't matter to me.

Doom challenge, for sure.

Done. Let's see how it goes.

i hope decently enough.

do I have to sign up to participate? is the deadline at the end of november?

Just say in the thread that you want to participate and I'll put your username on the list. Your song must be submitted before the end of November.

I want to participate

(in the other thread) Nevermind, you're in.

*face palms eyes out the back of my head*

Wow awesome idea.

For the next challenge, something cool to do -I think-, would be to be slightly more restrictive to make us think outside of the box, force us to find a way to do something out of the norm for example: writing in 5/4, forcing an unsual theme into a genre, using a type of folk other than european, you know what I mean.

I advocate the idea of neofolk, european or otherwise. It'll probably happen in February.

Meanwhile, here's something to discuss: what was everyone's favourite songwriting challenge of 2011?

Definitely the random lyric challenge. It produced some interesting collaboration, and the best results I think.

Could be a mix of both, neofolk with randomized lyrics.

Hmm I'd rather keep the theme-based/randomized lyrics challenge as a separate one for March/April, but that's just me.

I'll just see what's up around that time if I participate or not. have no clue on how to do neofolk and it really doesn't interest all that much.

i like theme based better.

What the fuck is neofolk?

Something to do with ambient folk and acoustic instrumentation. If you're familiar with The Mantle by Agalloch then you know what it sounds like more or less. Other notable artists.

Maybe Ilwhyan can explain it further.

I could do neofolk then, I wasn't aware it was called that, if that's what Agalloch is.

Two basic examples of what neofolk is

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARkulLUJzbI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeG9x_2jSvg

Basically, simple acoustics, clean vocals and industriall-y keyboards/effects, all wrapped up with the folk theme

Yep. Not a lot of people seem to be interested though, but I'd definitely like to try my hand at it.

In fact, I think I'll set up a pre-challenge thread soon to gather around all potential participants before we start the challenge. If it fails, at least we'll know beforehand, and then we can surely do something else.

OHHhhhh so that's neofolk... yea I'm not doing that at all. I find that shit garbage.

Hmmm interesting. I don't have or play any acoustic instruments, but I could maybe do all the synths and effects for someone. Or maybe even get one of my bandmates to do some shit for me, he can play a mandolin pretty well. Eh, we'll see, might just depend on how busy I am when it goes ahead.

Piano is acoustic. You can use a piano patch on your keyboard.

Not really fancying the idea of neofolk myself. Just seems too specific, I guess. It's the kinda thing that generally calls for acoustic instruments (harder to record) and clean vocals (difficult for people to do). Personally, I can do clean vocals just fine, but I can't play guitar or piano well enough I don't think.

If it does happen I'm up for doing vocals I suppose.

Neofolk does not require acoustic instruments; imitations of aforementioned will do fine, such as synth piano or acoustic guitar sim (heck, even just clean electric guitar, neofolk does not necessitate a nylon stringed guitar tone or anything). I advocate neofolk, since it's a style that gives the composer considerable freedom of expression. If everyone wants metuhl riffz though, I will fully accept that aswell and most likely participate in the next challenge.

Spoken word is common in neofolk, and doubtless the single easiest form of vocals.

Lil Whyan would you like to organize the next challenge? I'll be pretty busy next month, so chances are that I won't be able to organize/participate.

I have no means of uploading the songs, and I'd hate to use services like Rapidshare from where the files would eventually be removed. Other than that I could, I suppose.

You can use mediafire to upload the songs, then after we download them I can repackage and upload to dropbox just in case shit somehow gets deleted.

Or, if you can't upload at all, just pass the user links to me or anyone else to do that for you.

4share doesn't seem to delete files, I've had stuff in there for years and it's still there, so it might be a better option than rapidshare.

On the other hand, be it neofolk or whatever, I'm really looking forward to the next challenge, so let's decide a genre people!