CHALLENGE: The Collaboration Station

Put your name down for the much-requested collaboration challenge!

First of all, before I forget, please check out the first MeFiMusic Podcast in ages!

Now down to business. I think we did this before years ago but it's been requested so much since then that we're doing it again.

HERE'S HOW IT WORKS

If you want to collaborate, sign up in this thread or MeMail me direct. Please include the following as appropriate:

- I want to:
- I'm looking for someone to:
- I've got an idea:

FOR EXAMPLE:

I want to: share something I've written and see if someone can make something out of it/ sing over something/ share some lyrics I've written and see if someone can write a melody with them

I'm looking for someone to: sing on my piece/play a slappin guitar solo on my thing/write me some words for this melody

etc etc.

Submit your requests anytime over the next fortnight. I'll start matching people up as soon as there are enough to do so!

Once you've created your collaborative piece, post it here, and remember to tag it mefimusicchallenge and collaborationstation

I absolutely can't wait for this one. Last time was so good. Lets hear what you gorgeous couples can come up with. Ohhhh my goodness I feel like Cilla Black it's the best

This one is going to run for a few months to give everyone time to get together virtually.

posted by greenish (5 comments total)

I want to sing on someone’s track. I have a bag o’ lyrics I can adapt or can use yours if I reckon I can sell ‘em. (I’ll also post stuff in a few weeks requesting instrumental additions for tracks). For examples I have a few tracks in metafilter music or you can look for “Microvague” on streaming services/YouTube
posted by aesop at 4:39 AM on May 19, 2021 [2 favorites]

I feel a bit like my request could have been one of the instigators here, so hopefully I'm not being a jerk by repeating it -- if anyone wants to set the following to music and record it, I'd be forever grateful... any style, any instruments, any anything...

I am not your lawyer and this is not legal advice.
I am not your lawyer and this is not legal advice.
I've said it once,
I've said it twice,
Now I'm singing it so it sounds real nice.
I am not your lawyer and this is not legal advice.


I feel like this is kind of fundamentally unbalanced -- I'm not giving anything except some dumb lyrics -- but I would be happy to rely on the kindness of MetaStrangers here.
posted by Shepherd at 10:53 AM on May 19, 2021 [1 favorite]

I want to: play a few rounds of Musical Exquisite Corpse with one or two other people, resulting in one (1) Song. Further attempts TBD.

FOR EXAMPLE, with three people participating, and each person contributing two 45-second pieces of the puzzle:

- Person A (I'll take this role as the instigator) starts the game by writing a 45-second piece—a segment of a song— could be any style, a chorus and a verse, radio static, ghostly choir, whatever—solo, band, or multi-tracked—and ending this piece in an open, "to-be-continued" unfinished way that can lead toward something, but not "the end." Let's call this Segment 1.

- Person A then sends a small but comprehensible fraction of the end of Segment 1 to Person B—a piece that gives just enough context for Person B to pick the ball up from the end of Segment 1 and run with it, but not so much context that Person B "knows where Person A was going with this." I.e., Person A does not send the entirety of Segment 1 to Person B—only the last [n] seconds/bars of Segment 1. Person A then places aside their full Segment 1 for later re-assemblage.

- Person B, not knowing how the majority of Segment 1 sounded, begins to write their Segment 2 by including and using that piece of Segment 1 as the jumping-off point. Person B has to transition the tail of Segment 1 into Segment 2 without silence between the two segments—as long as the transition between Segment 1 & 2 is not sounding like someone flipping through radio stations. E.g., Person B may want to record more tracks over the ending of Segment 1 in order to transition smoothly into their own Segment 2; or, they could start Segment 2 off by steering Segment 1's sounds into new areas.

- When Segment 2 is completed (again, ~45s seconds) Person B sends a small portion of the end of Segment 2 to Person C, who repeats the process: creating Segment 3 from the end of Segment 2, then sending a clip from the end of Segment 3 back to Person A, who starts another cycle with Segment 4. This goes on until Person C writes Segment 6, and there they can create "the end of the piece."

- Once Person C's Segment 6 is complete, Person B and Person C each send their two segments back to Person A for assemblage. (i.e. Person B will send Segments 2&5 to Person A; Person C would send Segments 3&6 to Person A.)

- Person A (hi, me again) will then stitch together their own Segments 1&4 with the others' four Segments—in the correct order!—to create a unified, flowing piece of sound/music/rubbish consisting of six movements, the entirety lasting approximately four-and-a-half minutes long.

The mechanism: Each 45-second segment would be passed along from one person to the next using a standardized lossless format (e.g. WAV, AIFF, PCM) so each person can load whatever the previous person gives them onto their own preferred music-station software. Let's also say the hand-offs should be conducted via a file-sharing platform, but not via email, as the resultant segments' file sizes could be relatively large. You can compose your string via Complicated Music Workstation™ or by Handheld Digital Dictation Recorder®, as long as the resultant product is the last [n] seconds of a 45-second piece, in one file.

I know it's not an original idea per se, but it would result in something different every time. Does this make sense? Does it seem like it would be fun? Any questions? Can you crank out a 45-second piece within a matter of a day or two? (I wouldn't want this to be a months-long project.) Wanna do this up? Hey, what's that sound?

IF SO, JOIN THE DADA REVOLUTION! 33⅓ OR FIGHT!
[send me a MeFiMail, and once I get one or two people, I'll start a string. If more people beyond one or two, I'll ask if you'd like to wait here or at the bar until there's a table ready.]
posted by not_on_display at 11:29 PM on May 30, 2021 [2 favorites]

The great endadaing has begun.
Stay tuned for results.
That is all.
posted by not_on_display at 10:35 PM on June 3, 2021 [1 favorite]

I want: somebody to help turn my instrumentals into actual songs with structure/lyrics and/or singing.
posted by signal at 9:51 AM on July 19, 2021