SECTIONZ ELECTRONIC MUSIC COMMUNITY

SEMG Inaugural Track WINNERS!

eman8ions — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 11:03:19 CST

Dear SectionZ members, guests and SEMG.2009 Sponsors,

Here are the winners of the Inaugural Track Contest #1 of the 2009 Summer Electronic Music Games as selected by sectionz.com administrators based on criteria including appropriateness as a SEMG anthem and/or demonstrating a variety of flavours as is representative of the sectionz.com community:

mum_and_dad - Anthem of the Zeroes (Featuring Jake Niemi) Inaugural Track

Sonalksis - Essential Bundle

Image-Line Deckadance CE

FabFilter - Twin-2

FXPansion - Synthsquad Pack(to be released late summer)

Melda Productions - Mdrummer

plug - An Anthem For Us All

Sugar Bytes - pick any 1 Sugar Bytes Product

OhmForce - Delay

Melda Productions - MSpectralDynamics

AcousticsampleS LIbrary - pick any 1 Library

brainworks - Variety Society

Sugar Bytes - pick any 1 Sugar Bytes Product

OhmForce - Delay

AcousticsampleS LIbrary - pick any 1 Library

There were many EXCELLENT compositions entered and I'd like to thank all participants for their efforts to make this first contest exciting and full of fresh sounds!

*** Winners, please email MYSELF & COPY RONAK (eman8ions@ and ronak@ this domain) to confirm the email address you would like sponsors to contact you at. i.e. "Please contact me about Inaugural Track prizes at this email address" ***

Links to the prizes on the sponsors sites will be added shortly.

One Note Marathon - READ ME

eman8ions — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 16:21:19 CST

Hi SectionZ members, guests and SEMG.2009 sponsors!

This posting is to clarify and make explicit the rules for the One Note Marathon as it can be hard to get for many (according to the talk & evidence we've seen so far!)

You may ONLY trigger ONE NOTE... ever, in the entire track.

** This means if you exported a midi file of the track... it would only show 1 note, obviously at the very beginning.

** It means you may not add beats if they require any more triggers than the 1 note

** It means the entire 2.5 to 6 minutes must be knob twiddling or... anything other than triggering any other note, or playing any samples...

"Well how the hell am I supposed to make a song out of that?" you ask?

Well that is the challenge!!!

If your track sounds like more than 1 midi note was triggered or 1 note was played, you will be required to explain how you did it, and possibly to submit the original project file, in order for judges to be sure that it fits the rules.

May the best one note win ;)

Shannon

SEMG Inaugural Track Deadline Extended by 1 week

eman8ions — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 10:17:44 CST

Hi Sectionz members, guests and SEMG sponsors!

Considering the very limited time frame posted for entering the Inaugural Track event, and in response to member suggestions the deadline for entries is being extended to July 6,2009.

As in all the events, you are able and allowed to update your uploaded tracks until the closing date for entries.

Thanks and best of luck!

PS.
Please join the sectionz.com facebook group if you have not already. There will be some exclusive communications to members through that group on occasion.

Facebook group - http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=14016236667
Join the SEMG event page - http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=103263437596

Over $50,000 in Prizes to be Awarded During the SEMG

eman8ions — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:04:23 CST

Hi Sectionz members, guests and SEMG.2009 sponsors.

The 2009 Summer Electronic Music Games begin this weekend with the announcement of full contest rules for 3 events including the Inaugural Track (obviously) which will become the SEMG.2009 theme song.

After the first round of contests there will be a live streamed web radio show with entries played and results and winners announced. I also hope to reveal the next set of contests and rules in those live shows before publishing that information here on the site.

Due to the generous and exciting volume of prizes donated to these competitions you can expect to see prize packages in the thousands of dollars awarded for first and many hundreds for second & third place.

Stay tuned for more details and don't end up at sectionz instead of with your dad on fathers day if you can help it.

For a list of sponsors & prizes check the forums: http://forums.sectionz.com/index.php?board=18.0

Flux:: Releases Recording Pack Bundle

eman8ions — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:07:45 CST

Flux:: sound and picture development today release the Recording Pack bundle.

French plug-in producer, Flux:: is today announcing the release of the Recording Pack bundle
offering a time limited introduction special providing 25% off from the bundle retail price.

Recording Pack provides the most versatile and comprehensive set of precision tools for your
everyday recording and mixing session work giving you the best processor for each task within the
range of dynamics and equalization processing.

The following plug-ins are included in the bundle:
Flux:: Pure series Compressor, Dcompressor, Expander, Dexpander, Limiter and the Epure II EQ.
Recording Pack is available in all major native formats for both Windows (VST/RTAS) and OS X
(VST/AU/RTAS).

For further information about the Recording Pack bundle
http://www.fluxhome.com/products/Packs/recordingpack

For information about the individual plug-ins
http://www.fluxhome.com/products

Trial versions
All Flux:: plug-ins are available as trial versions for download at the Flux:: website.
https://www.fluxhome.com/download

http://www.fluxhome.com
http://twitter.com/FluxPlugins

SEMG $27000USD in Prizes Confirmed So Far

eman8ions — Wed, 3 Jun 2009 09:00:48 CST

Good day sectionz members and guests!
And it IS a good day because with only about 3 weeks until we officially launch the 2009 Summer Electronic Music Games, we have over $27,000 USD in prizes donated from our sponsors to award as prizes, with more to come!

So tell your friends and neighbours (that's canadian/brit for neighbors), and social networks and everybody you can tell about this massive event that we hope will put sectionz on the 'musician community' map for good, even as we grow and re-build the site for you over the next while.

For the full list of sponsors so far and prizes announced so far check out the forum thread: http://forums.sectionz.com/index.php?topic=155.0

20 different contests have been posted on the SEMG info page [ http://www.sectionz.com/semg2009.asp ]. I hope they prove interesting, challenging and fun for everybody. Full Rules will be posted at the official launch on June 21, 2009.

Your friend in sound,
eman8ions

Reviews - Surest way to Get is to Give

eman8ions — Sat, 30 May 2009 16:08:04 CST

Howdy sectionz members & guests! Lately I've seen a couple fairly new members wondering out loud about getting their uploads reviewed. It's pretty simple at sectionz.com to get reviews once you know how simple it is!

When you review fellow members, you get to not only either help influence their musical evolution or bash them on the creative head with a club, but you can also link your own music at the last step of the review after rating a track. This gets the ball rolling with hits & listens of your music.

A page with drop down menu's at the last step in the review process will give you the chance to link any 1 of all the kinds of files you have available. So you can link many items there.For example if you have FL project file uploads and mp3's, at the end of a review, you can link 1 of each of those for the other member to check out.

Once sz vets and others see your artist name on the home page in the recent reviews list a few times, some of them (us!) are sure to check out your music and drop reviews as well.

For the vets and noobs here on sz looking to review some tracks, you can't go wrong picking from the Recent Uploads listing as those artists are obviously active and often, but not always, more likely to return reviews that less active artists.

It's great to see you all here during this exciting time leading up to the second Summer Electronic Music Games at sectionz.com.

http://www.sectionz.com/semg2009.asp - SEMG page
http://www.sectionz.com/home_mp3.asp - Recent Uploads

SectionZ Is Moving Today

eman8ions — Fri, 29 May 2009 11:50:42 CST

G'day sz members, guests & SEMG sponsors, today we will be moving to the new server (amazon EC2 + S3) and this may result in some downtime.
We'll post a moving page during the transition and if you find it, we'll be back shortly

The forums will remain online at http://forums.sectionz.com

Thanks,
Shannon

Ohmforce Cohmpetion - Deadline June 6

eman8ions — Thu, 14 May 2009 22:08:33 CST

Heya zedderz, a bit late announcing but I got this message from the ohmboyz & there is still lots of time to enter.
**************************
We're launching maybe the biggest contest in computer music production these last times, big winner gets approximately U$1,600 in plugins and goodies !
(not only from Ohm Force, but also from some kind ohmfriends)

Big winner's prize kit is:

Ohm Force ALL-ALL Bundle
+ PureMagnetik Producer Package
+ FXpansion Guru
+ MusicTech Focus magazine collection
+ Mutekki Media Drum Codes Vol.1

Ohm Force announces the second edition of its �already traditional� annual video contest, this time called �Ohm Studio Video Cohmpetition� and offering huge prize kits made of Ohm Force plugins and additional products kindly offered by PureMagnetik, FXpansion, Anthem Publishing and Mutteki Media. Five winners will be rewarded and big winner�s prize kit is U$1,600 value ! The cohmpetition starts April 27th 2009 and submissions must be sent until June 6th 2009. The winners will be announced a few days later. Contest�s participants are challenged to produce a video showing how they use the Ohm Force plug-ins in their music creation/production process,
focusing on real use cases, tips and tricks, etc. The full prize list and additional info can be found at the attached PDF and all details about the challenge/rules can be found at:

http://www.ohmforce.com/cohmpetition

SEMG 2009 Update & Your Suggestions Wanted

eman8ions — Mon, 11 May 2009 13:21:26 CST

Hello friends & neighbors of SectionZ.com!I've been dropping some crumbs about the upcoming SEMG.2009 (Summer Electronic Music Games) and this week we'll announce 5 of the competitions, with more announcements & details coming in the following weeks.
I'd like to open the floor to anybody with suggestions for contests & contest names.
If you suggest a contest please indicate what you think the rules should be.We'd like to have most top level genre's represented but it's not easy to come up with puntastic & cool names so please speak up if you come up with any!One example is that for the SEMG.2004 we had the "Trance-cathalon" which sort of works... but we'd like a new & better name for the trance genre contest.
Some generous pro-audio gear vendors have already agreed to donate prizes and we're still contacting more, so feel free to either suggest contacts or, if you are a vendor, contact me (eman8ions@ this domain).
Stay tuned and thank you all for supporting SectionZ with your presence, uploads and reviews.
Shannon

BW's Sample Manipulation Competition (THERE'S A PRIZE INVOLVED!)

brb — Tue, 7 Apr 2009 08:17:19 CST

Proud SectionZ member, Brainworks has started a competition over at the sectionz forums! It features an honest-to-goodness REAL prize! I thought it would be nice to post it here as well.

RULES AND SHIT, YO:

- You may use only ONE .wav sample of your own choice
- You may have as many instances of that ONE sample as you like
- Sample must not be longer than 2 seconds (and if it's just a breakbeat you probably won't win)
- You may only use built in samplers (so no expensive plugins like halion and shit plzzzzz)
- Entries can be any length.
- Upload them wherever you want and post here.
- Don't mind me wanting to see source files if you're the best but I think you used more than the one sample
- The winner gets 10 Australian dollars paypal'd to them

Starts now. You have until the end of April my time (+10 GMT). gogogo

Go to http://forums.sectionz.com/index.php?topic=121 to read more.

How to use the Creative Commons Licencing when Uploading

eman8ions — Wed, 8 Oct 2008 10:13:10 CST

Hello SectionZ members!

This is a bit about using SectionZ's Creative Commons licensing options which are part of the upload form. I wrote this post in the forums that I'd like to make more visible with this home page posting, so here's a bit of it and a link to the forums where it can be discussed.
(FORUMS POST: http://forums.sectionz.com/index.php?topic=13.0)

Hidden down in a list of links on sectionz is one to the Creative Commons page with definitions of each license type and lists of sectionz tracks associated with them. Here's the page http://www.sectionz.com/cc.asp. When you upload a file to sectionz the form includes a CC license drop down menu.

The next version of sectionz.com will have CC licensing fully integrated and easy to search on. For example if I was making a high school project film that might make money one day (be commercial) I would start by searching on Attribution Only tracks as it only costs me crediting the artist... which artists love to do because it appears to add to their peer network and thus their reputation (& self image).
The next SZ will be marketed strongly to people who "need original music" for one reason or another. So figure out how you want to license your tracks to get them 'out there' while retaining any rights you feel you should.

(continued in the FORUMS: http://forums.sectionz.com/index.php?topic=13.0)

Turn me up!

mattt — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 11:39:32 CST

"Turn Me Up!� is a non-profit music industry organisation campaigning to give artists back the choice to release more dynamic records. To be clear, it's not our goal to discourage loud records; they are, of course, a valid choice for many artists. We simply want to make the choice for a more dynamic record an option for artists"

Join Them And/Or Apply For Certification Today!

I am personally getting increasingly miffed with being SHOUTED AT BY NEARLY ALL OF THE NEW MUSIC BEING RELEASED THESE DAYS.

If you enjoy music that has subsequently been re-released as a 'remastered' version, I would generally advise you look for an original release version . That is all. Thank you.

For Those of You Waiting For Umm... Forum!

djprobe — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 14:02:20 CST

Hello beautiful members.

Thanks to the amazing Lucas and his crack team of 15 monkey-coders, it is my esteemed honour to present to you:

THE SECTIONZ FORUMS!

All members have automatically been imported so just use the login you use here! The forum sections are very tentative and we are open to suggestions on what to include and exclude. Having said that: Go post!

djprobe — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 06:38:07 CST

Freeware Spotlight, September Edition

djprobe — Wed, 3 Sep 2008 11:17:39 CST

Dear members, welcome to the monthly Freeware Spotlight feature!

Why? Because we all love free stuff.

Where? SZ.

When? Monthly.

Who? I don't know.

The idea is to feature one synth and one FX plugin per month. Please post your suggestions for future listings here!

So! Having already posted about a great, free sequencer recently, why not grab some free synths and FX to go along with it? Both of these features are available for PC and Mac!

Freeware VSTi of the Month:

Audjoo Helix

Helix is a freeware soft synth which is currently in beta stage but extremely stable.

To quote Audjoo, its developer: "Thanks to the "super"-nature of its oscillators, Helix is capable of huge and wide unison pads and leads. Great care has been taken to ensure no aliasing in the oscillators, so the sound is free from many artifacts traditionally associated with software synthesizers. This becomes very clear when playing high notes."

Make sure to check out the sound examples on the Audjoo site. This is one smooth sounding synth! Get it HERE!

And with our first synth of the month out of the way, we move on to...

Freeware VST of the Month:

TAL Chorus-60

TAL Chorus-60 is a chorus effect modelled after the Juno chorus on the old Roland units, in particular the Juno 60.

Features:

Characteristics of the Juno-60 chorus

2 modes

Dry/wet adjustable

Volume knob

Low CPU

Get it HERE!, along with many other great freeware plugins which will be discussed in more depth later on in the year!

That's all for this month! Remember to suggest your... uhh... suggestions in the comments section! Naturally, DX/DXi and AU, etc. are also welcome for suggestion!

Peace!

LMMS Now Available for Windows

djprobe — Mon, 1 Sep 2008 14:22:49 CST

Thanks to Changwufei for informing me that LMMS is, ironically, now available for Windows.

Why is that ironic, you ask? Because LMMS stands for Linux MultiMedia Studio. In their own words:

"LMMS aims to be a free alternative to popular (but commercial and closed- source) programs like FruityLoops/FL Studio, Cubase and Logic allowing you to produce music with your computer. This includes creation of loops, synthesizing and mixing sounds, arranging samples, having fun with your MIDI-keyboard and much more...

LMMS combines the features of a tracker-/sequencer-program and those of powerful synthesizers, samplers, effects etc. in a modern, user-friendly and easy to use graphical user-interface."

In my words: LMMS is very much based around FL Studio, featuring a similar piano roll and even a 3xOsc clone called Triple Oscillator. Creative! Naturally, there is a lot more to it than that. However, I won't go into too much detail. Simply, I'll say: Check it out! There's nothing to lose; it's free, baby!

Click here for LMMS!

A wee bit o' Tweakin'

eman8ions — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:06:41 CST

Dear SectionZ Members,

Anybody who has signed up for sectionz lately or uploaded a track knows just how strange, convoluted and basically not user friendly those 2 forms are.... so prior to the first newsletter in ages going out... and just prior to the already being configured new permanent temporary forums (ha)... the Sign Up and Upload forms will get a bit o' tweakin. Not a rebuild, just an ease of use, more intuitive makeover.

So yeah, after that or as early as next week (don't hold your breath... but you don't do you...) sectionz will have a community forums hosted by lucas. Don't worry about integration. It's forums now and through the rebuild - or not at all until the rebuild which could be a stupidly long time - hence my calling them the permanent temporary interim (insert more similar terms here) forums. So that's that.

Look for a newsletter posted here and in your mailbox shortly.

oh yeah... and check it out... even the 20th place track on the top20 has 3 votes!!!!!!! Which isn't much, but awesome considering 3 weeks ago there was only a top 12 with most tracks at 1 vote.

Good News & Thanks from Sean

eman8ions — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 06:46:02 CST

Heya zedders. I got a note from fellow member Sean - http://www.sectionz.com/artist.asp?SZID=25858 - today and I'm happy to share it with y'all at his request.

************************
"Those of you who don't know me, my name is Sean. All the rest of you know me as...ummm....Sean.

I have recently had 6 tracks of mine signed with a music library, Pen has gone to paper and now I'm just waiting on placement. But this is not the reason for the post, I'm not here to boast about it. I just wanted to thank pretty much everybody for all their help and advice through my time here at SZ.

Especially for the harsh reviews, the ones that look behind the curtain to realise there ain't no wizard, the ones that picked up on everything from EQ'ing issues, structuring, transitions, melody, to clippings, overall production and so forth. I took on board every criticism and tried my best to firstly understand the issue and improve on the area of concern. Everyone wants a 10, but without these reviews from people that pick, and pick, (and you know who you are) then there would have been no way to get to the position i am in now, and that's why i need to thank you. I also wanna thank all those that supported my music and those who inspired me to be better... to want to be better! ( cue the hurry up music!!)

To all those starting out, I have to say this, If i can do it, anyone can! No seriously!! ANYONE CAN! My only advice would be to firstly join SZ, because in all honesty SZ is the ONLY reason for my situation. Second i would take on board everything, and i mean everything! Try and understand the reviewers point of view and never think you know it all. In closing i just want to say that in no way do i think i have "MADE IT" nor do i think my music is flawless, far from it. I have so much room for improvement and still don't know jack! It will continue that way until the curtain falls!

Anyway if your still reading this, could you pass on to the rest of Section Z that i said Thanks.

Cheers,
Sean.
P.S. Support the music that supports you!"

************************

(sean also mentioned he hopes to upload more music soon... so it's not like he's leaving or anything)

eman8ions note: djprobe pointed something out when I mentioned this to him. ... and brainworks added that Sean returned every review he ever game him.... Check out Sean's review ratio - now not everyone has the time or ability to keep such a high ratio... and in no way at all is this a slight to others.... but it speaks to those of us who want to continue progressing and improving our skills as well as generating industry interest and (financially) rewarding outlets for our creations.

The lifeblood of sectionz is the community reviewing, peer reviewing, even it it's just 1 out of 5 or 10 downloads it helps, and I gotta say back to you Sean: Thank you for your music and reviewing efforts and for being such a generous zitizen. You deserve this!

Thingz Are Looking Up

eman8ions — Sat, 2 Aug 2008 16:32:06 CST

For the first time in what must be over half a year, possibly almost a year, new member sign up is working properly! Last night I fixed it up and tested it and at the time of writing this I can see that 2 others have created new accounts so yippeekaiyaymofo!

** Note: artist page is now working again - sign up again if you did in the last 2 days but your artist page didn't work or you didn't get the validation link in the email **

So this will get some new life, new music, new reviewers etc into our community.

Next I will add the long lost and oft desired FORUMS. Though it's my next task I won't offer a timeline (how bush) right yet, but suffice to say it'll be in the near future.

There are a few other features that I'm noodling around with and will post about later when our foundational features (including streaming, forums and szradio) are back and solid.

As always, your feedback & bug reports (!emailed please) are desired.

Oh yeah, I'm also gonna get a noobs list on the home page somewhere so members can welcome & review new members.

eman8