This is the music-related blog for Jonathan (Scooter) Clark, also known in the electronica world as DJ Bolivia, a producer and DJ from Atlantic Canada. I listen to (and produce) a lot of folk, indie, rock, and hip hop music too!
I also run a company (Replant.ca Environmental) through which you can sponsor the planting of trees to build forest reserves and community forests, which are protected from commercial logging. Please visit: www.replant.ca/environmental
Here's another one of my tracks for you to check out. I'm still working on my website rebuild, every day, but I'm getting very close to finished. I'll almost certainly be able to sit back and catch my breath by this weekend.
In the meantime, let's focus on this track, "Foundation." I'll have a free download link below.
Here's a link to the track on SoundCloud. You can also click on the down-arrow in the top right to download the mp3 directly from SoundCloud:
"Foundation" is a techno track characterized by a consistent beat and solid rhythm. From the start, the kick establishes a foundation upon which the rest of the track builds. The percussion maintains a consistent tempo throughout, providing a sense of reliability and stability. As the track progresses, subtle variations and layers are introduced, but the underlying foundation remains unwavering. It serves as a musical anchor, ensuring a cohesive and predictable listening experience.
The track's structure is built upon repetition and continuity, mirroring the reliability of a strong foundation. Each element integrates with the next, creating a mix that listeners can rely on. There are no sudden shifts or surprises; instead, the track unfolds methodically, reinforcing its steadfast nature. Like a well-built structure, "Foundation" stands firm, providing a sense of security and consistency in its sound.
As the track evolves, it maintains its solid base, never wavering from its established rhythm. This sense of reliability extends beyond the music itself, embodying a broader concept of dependability and trustworthiness. Whether on the dancefloor or in everyday life, "Foundation" serves as a reminder of the importance of consistency and stability. You're only as good as your word. Speak the truth to others.
In essence, "Foundation" is more than just a techno track; it's a testament to the power of consistency and reliability.
I also put up a version of this track on YouTube. The visuals accompanying the track were done by an AI, although the music is my own of course. These AI visuals are very rudimentary. But thanks to OpenAI's Sora, my future music videos may look a LOT more professional:
To check out and/or download any of my other tracks, visit:
Here's another one of my tracks for you to check out. I've been super busy for the past three weeks, rebuilding my main website from scratch for the first time since 2017, to make it mobile-friendly. Not surprisingly, it's taken me about four times as long as I had initially expected. But perhaps that's why it's taken me seven years to find time to start that project.
In the meantime, let's focus on this track, "Catharsis." I'll have a download link below.
Here's a link to the track on SoundCloud. You can also click on the down-arrow in the top right to download the mp3 directly from SoundCloud:
"Catharsis," as a concept, embodies the release and purification of emotions through a transformative experience. In the context of this techno track, it symbolizes the power of music to serve as a conduit for emotional expression and healing. The relentless beats and subtle melodies encapsulate the journey of catharsis, guiding listeners through a process of introspection, release, and ultimately, renewal.
Within the confines of the track, each element works in harmony to create an immersive landscape, everything from the constant basslines to the repetitive stabs. This complexity mirrors the multifaceted nature of human emotions, offering listeners a canvas upon which to project their innermost feelings. As you lose themselves in the music, you'll be encouraged to confront your emotions head-on, allowing those emotions to surface and be acknowledged.
Moreover, "Catharsis" underscores the importance of emotional release and self-discovery. In a world where we all struggle with mental health, where we're overwhelmed by stress, anxiety, and societal pressures, it's crucial for us to find healthy outlets for processing our emotions. Whether it be through music, art, movement, or introspection, engaging in cathartic experiences can lead to a sense of clarity, empowerment, and inner peace. Inner peace.
Ultimately, the significance of "Catharsis" lies in its ability to remind us of the transformative power of music and the importance of tending to our emotional well-being. By embracing the cathartic journey offered by the track, I invite you to delve deep within yourself, confront your inner demons, and emerge stronger, more resilient, and more attuned to the healing power of self-expression.
I also put up a version of this track on YouTube. The visuals accompanying the track were done by an AI, although the music is my own of course. These AI visuals are very rudimentary. But thanks to OpenAI's Sora, my future music videos may look a LOT more professional:
To check out and/or download any of my other tracks, visit:
I'm posting this page to share one of my techno tracks, which is called OCD. I'll have download links below.
Here's a link to the track on SoundCloud. You can also click on the down-arrow in the top right to download this track directly from SoundCloud:
In the realm of techno, where each track is itself a voyage into the unknown, "OCD" is a mystical odyssey, etched with vibrant hues of eastern oriental landscapes. It isn't just a song, it's a trip through the sonic landscapes of the mind, where the familiar repetition of techno beats meets the mystical allure of the East. The track unfolds as an amalgamation of digital and traditional, where the beats blend seamlessly with the melodic hints of eastern instrumentation. This fusion isn't just music - it's a journey. Think of it as a meditative loop that lures the listener into a state of relaxed tranquility, akin to those repetitive rituals that provide comfort to those with OCD. And I know about those rituals.
At the heart of this musical tapestry is a line that, at first glance, seems misplaced in the context of a techno track: "You broke my heart, my dreams are broken too. So why am I still thinking of you?" You may search for a deeper meaning to this lyric, and wonder what dissatisfied bewilderment is rooted deep in my soul. Well, the truth is, there's no meaning to it at all. It's just a sample that I found, and I certainly wasn't thinking about anyone that this could allude to.
Regardless, in the grand scheme of "OCD," this lyric transcends its apparent simplicity, perhaps becoming a metaphor for the relationship between the artist, the music, and the intricate dance of creation and obsession. It's not referring to a lost love - it's about the frequent frustration of the creative process, the relentless pursuit of perfection that terrorizes producers. I often advise other producers that, "You've got to draw a line somewhere. The track will never be perfect. At some point, you have to acknowledge that it's good enough and then move on to the next track." Just as a person with OCD can fixate on specific thoughts or actions, a producer can be drawn to a search for perfection that may never be reconciled. Nor should it be. We're human, and our tracks shouldn't be mathematically and sonically perfect. So basically, this lyric recognizes the paradoxical bond between creation and obsession, where the very act that creates can also destroy. In "OCD," I present to you not just a simple little track, but a reflection on the nature of art, the dark power of obsession, and the never-ending quest for creative acceptance.
I also put up a version of this track on YouTube. The visuals accompanying the track were done by an AI, although the music is my own of course:
To check out and/or download any of my other tracks, visit:
I'm posting this to share a track that I just shared publicly, called "Hacks" (techno):
A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, there was a DJ code-named Bolivia who decided to mix up some beats for his coder friends to listen to. A whole series of "Music To Code By" DJ mixes resulted. One day, a fine gentleman by the name of Dan Fernandez (at MicroSoft) shared a link to the mixes to his significant following of fellow coders, and the rest is history.
What is a hack? A hack, by itself, is neither good nor bad. It just is. But when it is freed by its creator to run in the wild, it may in fact cause problems. Hacks in general have a bad reputation due to this niche.
But there are a lot of hacks that are used for good. A hack can be a creative way of accomplishing something. It can be a physical manifestation. Sure, something can be "crudely hacked together," perhaps with baling wire and duct tape (or Perl). But a hack can also be a neat trick, a creative way of accomplishing something more efficiently.
I'll leave it to the listener to form their own opinion on what type of hacks I was thinking about when this song was being created. But in the meantime, hopefully my rambling here triggers the search engines to bring a few more hits to this post.
I just sent the following letter out to all of my production liaisons at the various terrestrial and internet-based radio stations that host Subterranean Homesick Grooves:
Hi everyone,
I've just returned from a period of several months with extremely limited internet access. As you're aware, during this time I found it impossible to keep up with regular production of Subterranean Homesick Grooves.
I regret to inform everyone that I will probably be dealing with similar problems over the next fifteen months or more. I can't guarantee that I'll be able to do a proper job of producing the show on a timely basis, and I don't like to do a poor job if I'm working on a project that I really enjoy (or on any task, for that matter).
Therefore, effective immediately, I am unfortunately going to have to change the show to a monthly production schedule, rather than a weekly one.
I realize that most of the broadcasting entities that carry the show expect programming on a weekly basis, and that you'll probably have to drop the show from the lineup. This is not my preference, but I understand that it will be inevitable. This is an especially hard decision when I reflect upon entities such as CHMA FM in Sackville (the first station that carried the show), who have shown such strong support over the past seven years.
I know that the audience for the show in the upcoming months will now be reduced to mostly just my iTunes podcast audience, and my internet shares of the show through direct links and through SoundCloud.
I hope that starting probably in 2019, I might be able to commit to moving the show back to a weekly format. If/when that happens, I'll let each of you know, in the event that you might consider reinstating the show into a regularly weekly slot.
Thanks so much for all of your support over the past several years. I've truly appreciated everything that you do for the listening public.
Sincerely, - Jonathan Clark (DJ Bolivia) Executive Producer, Subterranean Homesick Grooves
The radio stations have already released broadcasts up to episode 360, which is about seven episodes ahead of what internet listeners have been able to see so far. So even into September, any internet listeners will once again be getting new episodes frequently (every five or six days) until I catch up to the radio schedule. After that point, the internet shows will go online monthly, to accompany radio release.
This contest ended on November 15th, 2017. We've picked an entry by Ozsone (United States) as the winner of the contest, and a remix by Dark Matter (United Kingdom) as the runner-up. Here are SoundCloud links so you can listen to and download these two remixes:
These two remixes on SoundCloud are 320kbps MP3 versions. You can also find uncompressed full-quality WAV versions in my public Dropbox folder. Here are the original details from the contest. The complete original Ableton project files are still available online for anyone to download. Urban Francis and I recently produced another techno track
together, which we've called "Skyscraper." We're sponsoring a Remix Contest for this track (it can be any style, not necessarily techno), and you'll be able to see the details further down this page. Most importantly, for the producers, we've shared our entire Ableton Live project files. Producers can download the full project, see how we put the track together, do your own remixes (which we highly encourage), or even use the project as a template for your own future projects. All that we ask in return is that you spread the word about our track and video! Here's our most recent version of the track:
The files that you'll need for remixing (either the Ableton project or the audio Stems collection) are now available from my public Dropbox account. Just look in the "Bolivia's Remix Projects" folder. My Dropbox also includes a lot of other stuff that people might be interested in. Here's the link:
The RAR and ZIP versions are different compression types, but the same archives. ZIP files are universally compatible but larger than RAR. RAR will be a smaller and faster download, but are only native to Windows. If you're using a Mac, download a free app such as "The Unarchiver" or "UnRarX" to unpack them.
If you're interested in the stems, you'll be able to use them in pretty much any DAW or audio editor. They're in WAV format, at 48000/24-bit. If you're going for the Ableton project, you must have Ableton Live Suite version 9.7 in order to be able to open the project. The only plug-in used in the project that isn't native to Ableton Live is Dadalife's Sausage Fattener. Videos: Here's an eight-minute video for the remixers, which covers an overview of how we have the project set up:
I'll be producing a music video for this track at some point in the next few weeks, and I'll post it here once it's online.
Remix Contest Details: We're currently hosting a remix contest for this track. I'm personally sponsoring the contest with a prize of $300 (in Canadian dollars) for the winning track. That amount can be paid to the winner (in Canadian funds) as long as you have paypal. If the winner is a Canadian resident, I'm also willing to mail a cheque if you don't use paypal.
In addition, a number of other randomly selected entries will be showcased on my website, in this blog post, on our SoundCloud accounts, and through other internet media, along with the contact info and/or a promo website for the producers of those remixes (if you want to share such info). We also intend to publish the winning entry and perhaps a couple of other entries with a professional label release on Beatport and other sites. 1. You may share your remixes freely on any internet sites, in any file type(s), both before and after the closing date of the contest, as long as you name your remix according to the following convention: Urban Francis & Bolivia - Skyscraper (YOUR NAME Remix).
2. You should not attempt to register your remix with a professional label or publisher (due to potential copyright content clashes, which I'll explain at the end of this post). So if you share your remix with the world, you'll have to do it through your own personal publishing efforts.
3. Your remix can be any genre at all, of your choosing. Obviously, it will be easier to produce your remix in a style similar to the existing original, ie. some sort of techno derivative. But feel free to be creative.
4. You may submit up to two separate entries.
5. There is no restriction on the length of your submission(s), although we expect that the majority of submissions will probably be between 4 and 8 minutes in length. Having a submission that is shorter or longer than that range will not handicap you when it comes to judging.
6. The deadline for entries is 11:59pm (Atlantic Standard Time Zone) on Wednesday night, November 15th, 2017. All judging will take place and winners will be announced within this post by December 10th, 2017.
7. This contest is open worldwide where permitted, to entrants who have reached the age of majority in their country of residence. Persons under the age of majority who create a remix may submit their entry through a parent or legal guardian as proxy.
8. Notwithstanding the above, this contest is void in jurisdictions where prohibited by law.
9. The prize for the contest winner will be $300 in Canadian dollars. The Canadian dollar is currently weak, and is worth less than the US dollar. This amount can be paid to the winner as long as you have Paypal or Interac Email Transfer capabilities. If the winner is a Canadian resident, I'm also willing to mail a cheque if you don't use Paypal or Interac Email Banking. I will not send a cheque or use any other type of money transfer service to non-Canadian residents. The recipient of the winning prize is solely responsible for reporting and submitting any relevant income taxes that might apply to your prize money in your country of residence. Canadian residents will not enjoy any preference in judging. We want this to be a global contest. Having said this, we do expect a number of Canadian entrants, so it's possible that the winner could be a Canadian. Just rest assured that we definitely won't discriminate against non-Canadians! The majority of the winners of our past remix contests have been non-Canadians.
10. Judging will be done by a panel of judges including Urban Francis and other associate producer friends. The judges' decision will be based upon the quality of music, production values used in making the remix, and possibly also on how innovative the remix is. The judges' decision will be final, and the judges will not provide feedback on why they chose the specific winning track above any other specific track.
11. You may share your remix publicly before the contest is over. However, the popularity of any shared remixes will not influence the judges' decision. The winner will be decided based upon the judges' perception of the quality of the submissions, not based upon a popularity contest.
12. Your remix is permitted to include any additional vocal/sample material that you generate, although don't take this as a suggestion that we'd prefer that. In other words, you may produce an instrumental version if you want, or you can add new vocal/sample material of your own. You may also include new sounds/instrumentation of your own. However, please do not include ANY samples or vocals that have been copyrighted elsewhere by another artist. Any entries containing someone else's copyrighted content will be disqualified. Any new samples, loops, or other audio materials incorporated into your remix must be royalty-free or exclusively designed by the remixer.
13. Musicians or producers who are under an exclusive contract with a record label are ineligible.
14. No purchase is necessary to enter or win this contest. In fact, there is nothing that you can buy. However, by entering this promotion contest, you agree that any costs that you incur in creating your remix are solely your own responsibility.
15. Any potential copyright or other intellectual property rights that may potentially vest in your remix will be granted to Bolivia (Jonathan Clark) and Urban Francis (Francis Cormier).
16. It is expressly agreed that no payment is due to the participants for the production of your remixes, even if any remixes are released professionally for resale or redistribution on any third-party labels. Only one winner will receive a monetary prize.
17. By providing your entry details to us, you confirm that you would like to enter the promotion contest and that you agree to be bound by these rules, terms, and conditions, ethics rules applicable on the internet, applicable laws and regulations, and all legislation applicable in your jurisdiction of residence.
18. Your remix must not contain any illegal, obscene, racist, defamatory, or sexual material, or any material likely to offend any person or any material likely to infringe upon any person's rights of privacy. The judges reserve the right to disqualify any entries based upon these or any other criteria. Entrants represent and warrant that their comments or public publishing do not contain any harmful, offensive, or inappropriate content, or any other communications which might defame, disparage or reflect adversely upon the promoters or our goods/services.
19. We reserve the right to disqualify any submissions that we believe to be the work of other producers.
20. The winning prize is non-transferable.
21. We accept no responsibility for entries lost, damaged or delayed, or for any inability to submit entries as a result of computer services, systems, software and/or server failure, error, interruption, defect or delay or any other technical malfunction, including problems with internet connectivity and/or filtering or content by any social media platform. Entries which are late, incomplete, corrupt, garbled, inaccessible/blocked, bulk, automated, ineligible, suspected as fraudulent, do not comply with the rules & terms & conditions, or which in our sole discretion affect the validity or operation of this promotion contest will not be accepted and are void.
22. Except to the extent that they may not be excluded by law, no representations, warranties, terms or conditions that are not expressly stated in these rules & terms & conditions apply to this promotion contest. We share no liability for any injuries, loss, or damage of any kind arising from or in connection with participation in this promotion (including any damage to entrants' or to any other persons' computer relating to or resulting from participation in, or downloading of any materials or software in connection with this promotion contest), or acceptance, use, misuse, or non-use of any prizes.
23. We reserve the right to edit and/or augment the rules & terms & conditions at any point throughout the duration of this contest, in case we think of something that we forgot to mention.
24. Your remix must not include any unauthorized samples or audio which have a copyright belonging to any other artist or entity. Phew. That was exhausting. To Enter: 1. Send a link to your track via email to Urban Francis in an uncompressed audio format, ie. WAV or AIFF format. The best way to do this is probably to put it into a Dropbox account (you can get one for free if you don't already have one) and share the link to the file with Urban Francis. If this isn't possible, you can find other services that would allow you to host and share your file. But to be honest, Dropbox is probably the best and easiest by far. An alternative would be to get a free Soundcloud account (if you don't already have one) and upload the file there, and enable downloads, then send that link to Urban Francis.
2. You should not send your project/session files.
3. You can produce your remix in the DAW or Audio Editor of your choice. We'd like to know which DAW you used, but that's mostly just out of curiousity. Also, although we haven't decided this yet, we might pick a couple of especially good entries to feature in our public dropbox (your entire project files) IF you're willing to do that. But you don't have to, and that won't affect how we judge the entries. Again, don't send us your full project/session files. For now, just tell us which editor you used.
4. We must have the following information: - Your full name. - Your producer alias, if you have one. - What country you're from. - Your email address (if unspecified, we'll assume that it's the one that you use to enter).
5. You can optionally include a photo with your entry. This is not mandatory, and won't affect your chances of winning. We'll only use this if you're the winner and if you happen to want a photo published.
6. In the event that your submission is randomly selected to be shared by us to a wider distribution, it would be helpful for you to tell us (when you enter) whether or not you want to share any promotional details with your remix. Details must be limited to one email address and/or up to four website links (soundcloud, facebook, etc.).
7. Urban Francis will reply to all submissions to confirm that they have been received. If you don't get a submission confirmation email, please send a second email which is TEXT ONLY to specify that you sent a submission. That way, if your original email (with links and/or attachments) got redirected to spam/trash, we can look for it.
8. The email address to send entries to is: fcormier27@gmail.com Good luck with your remixing. And if you can think of any remix or production-oriented message boards where you could share the link to this post, I'd appreciate it. Thanks!
Note: We have copyrighted and registered the original work with SOCAN, the Canadian music licensing agency. Although we are not pursuing copyright claims if the content is posted online, you should be careful if you do a remix and give it to a label that tries to enforce copyright claims on your own remix. Since we've already registered the work, we'd be able to prove that we hold the original copyright. In other words, make sure you don't get into a situation where you sell your remix to a label who then tries to use content-matching algorithms at services such as YouTube and Soundcloud to monetize remixes of your remix. If such a content-match occurred with our original track (which is on both of those services, and other services) then you'd have a lot of hassle trying to remove your track from the system. However, this shouldn't be an issue if you share your own mixes freely on YouTube, Soundcloud, and other platforms. It would only be if you tried to share through a label that was trying to collect publishing royalties that you'd run into an issue.
Don't forget to follow Francis on his SoundCloud account, because he posts free tracks a lot more frequently than I do! Here's the link:
Also, if any labels out there are interested in additional tracks similar in style to this one, let us know. We have a few unreleased tracks that we might be willing to place with labels, although we would not be willing to sign an exclusive or long-term contract with any one label. We'll do track-by-track one-off placements only.
Previous Contests
Here are links to pages with information about previous remix contests that we've hosted. You might find some of the video tutorials on these pages to be useful, because they go into some of our recurring production techniques in a lot of extensive detail:
Thanks for stopping by. Don't forget to bookmark this post, and come back shortly for more updates! We'll be posting a number of the remix contest entries here throughout September.
I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia. Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production? If so, visit:
Are you looking for sounds to put into music that you're producing? If so, I have a video that I think will help you out a bit.
This video is about a service called Splice Sounds, from splice.com. It's a great place to find samples and loops and sounds for your own productions.
If you're creating a song or producing a track, and let's assume that you're working on electronic-based production rather than traditional instrumental music, then you're probably looking for sounds for your track. One source of these sounds is any instruments that might be within your DAW (Digital Audio Workstation, or audio editing/production software). Most DAW's come with various built-in instruments, which are sometimes called VSTi's. This stands for Virtual Studio Technology Instrument. Examples of DAW's that come with built-in VSTi's include Ableton, Pro Tools, Cubase, Sonar, Reason, FL Studio, Logic, and several others. The VSTi's in these various programs can produce sounds ranging from the various pieces of a drum kit (kick, snare, hi-hats, tom, crash, ride) to miscellaneous percussion instruments (shakers, sticks, tambourines, etc.) to traditional instruments like basses, guitars, pianos, and synths.
I should point out that a VSTi is a bit different than a VST (virtual studio technology plug-in). VST's are more likely to be apps or plug-ins that affect that sound, rather than create a sounds. For example, VST's might add things like reverb or delay or chorus or equalization or filtering to your sounds.
The only drawback with these VSTi's is that they're limited in what they can produce. Some are pretty versatile and can produce thousands of different sounds, but more frequently, you're limited to only a few dozen sounds from a single VSTi. Some VSTi's can only produce a single sound! Eventually, you're going to start getting bored with the sounds from your existing VSTi's, and you'll start looking externally for additional sounds.
When you get to this point, the common practice is to go online and to start looking for things called Sample Packs. A sample pack can contain several sounds or several dozen sounds. These are called samples. They're short audio clips that contain things like a note or a drum hit or a spoken word, or several of any of those things. I've seen samples that were as simple as a single hit of a stick on a block of wood, or as complex as three or four lines of a singer's vocals.
Some samples are designed as one-shot samples. These are intended to be played once, without repeating. Even though it's called a one-shot, there may be more than one sound in the sample. For example, I've seen one-shots that were a single hit on a hi-hat, and I've seen other one-shots that were sixteen consecutive hits on a hi-hat. The main defining characteristic of a one-shot is that it's made to be played one time, rather than repeated constantly.
The other common type of a sample is designed as a loop. Again, a loop sample can be as simple as a single sounds, but more frequently, it's a series of related sounds, such as four hits on a kick drum. But the key thing with a loop is that it is designed to be played over and over and over again, constantly, in a repetitive motion. And the way that it's designed, quite often, the intent is that it sounds "continuous" so that you can't really tell where the loop is starting or stopping.
Traditionally, there have been a lot of websites designed to supply loops to producers. Some well-known examples are:
These sites all offer sample packs that producers can buy and use in their own music.
An important definition here is "royalty free." You're probably going to want to make sure that all the samples you buy are designated as royalty-free. This means that you can use them in your own music that you re-distribute, either for free or for sale, without having to pay further expenses based upon the frequency of use of the samples. In other words, a royalty-free sample is a one-time purchase that legally lets you share the sample in your song forever, with no extra expenses owed in the future if your song becomes popular.
If you buy a sample pack, you may be paying anywhere between perhaps ten and thirty dollars. Or less, or more. That sample pack will contain a handful or maybe a few dozen samples, which are sometimes all fairly related, and intended to work together in the same key. But your sample pack may also contain some diversity, such as some bass notes, some drum hits, some keyboard notes, etc. The problem though is that you may not end up using all of those sounds. You may end up buying a sample pack just because you like two or three specific sounds in the pack, and you ignore the rest. In that case, those samples that you liked will be pretty expensive for you, several dollars apiece. That doesn't sound like much, but if you do a lot of production work, you can easily go through hundreds or even thousands of samples in a busy month.
That's where Splice comes in. Splice has several different sections. Although we're going to focus on Splice Sounds, here's what else it includes:
Splice Studio - Collaborate remotely with other producers, using the Cloud. Sort of like a real-time collaboration over Dropbox or Google Drive, if you can envision that.
Splice Community - Share your productions with the Splice community, which has hundreds of thousands of other producers. Sort of like a SoundCloud meets a PHPbb message board concept.
Splice Sounds - Your source for Samples, as we'll discuss shortly.
Splice Plug-Ins - Buy or rent professional VST's and VSTi's, or download a number of free plug-ins too.
Splice Blog - Information about various topics associated with audio, music, production, etc.
If you want a full run-down of each of those sections, you can find info in the video. But let's talk specifically about some features of the Splice Sounds section:
- Cost effective: A subscription is either $8 or $13 USD per month, but allows you to download either 100 or 300 samples per month. If you don't use up all your credits, they roll over into the future, so you don't lose them. This works out to pennies per sample.
- Wide selection: They have literally millions of samples to chose from, royalty-free.
- Easy filtering: Sort samples by key, tempo, type, instrument, and other criteria, before you start browsing, to be able to find what you're looking for very quickly.
- Audio previews: High quality audio preview to see if you like the sample.
- And lots more, as the video will show.
The best thing is that you can get a free test account that lets you download about a hundred samples, which lets you go through the service and realize exactly how useful it is. And you will DEFINITELY realize that if you produce music even on a very casual basis, Splice is well worth the subscription.
If you want to skip the preamble in the video (all the stuff that I just described here), skip ahead to the 9minute 12second mark of the video, and begin playing it there. From that point on, you'll see the screen shots as I'm describing everything.
Congratulations to Dom3n, from Slovenia, who was the winner of our Hijack remix contest! Here's his winning entry:
Here are a few of the many other notable entries for the Hijack contest. We'll be slowly releasing additional remix entries over the coming months.
Here is the Original Post that we made about this remix contest: Urban Francis and I just did another track
together. This time, the style is techno. We've made the
mastered final track available as a free download, we've created
a music video on YouTube, and we're sponsoring a Remix Contest
(details below). Most importantly, for the producers, we've shared our entire Ableton Live project files! Producers can download the full project, see how we put the track together, do your own remixes (which we highly encourage), or even use the project as a template for your own future projects. All that we ask in return is that you spread the word about our track and video! Here's the original:
The files that you'll need for remixing (either the Ableton project or the audio Stems collection) are now available from my public Dropbox account. Just look in the "Bolivia's Remix Projects" folder. My Dropbox also includes a lot of other stuff that people might be interested in. Here's the link:
The RAR and ZIP versions are different compression types, but the same archives. ZIP files are universally compatible but larger than RAR. RAR will be a significantly smaller and faster download, but are only native to Windows. If you're using a Mac, download a free app such as "The Unarchiver" or "UnRarX" to unpack them.
If you're interested in the stems, you'll be able to use them in pretty much any DAW or audio editor. They're in WAV format, at 48000/24-bit. If you're going for the Ableton project, you must have Ableton Live Suite version 9.7 in order to be able to open the project. Only three resources external to Ableton were used, as detailed in the notes included in the folder. One external plug-in is a free download (Voxengo's Span), one is cheap (Dadalife's Sausage Fattener), and the last (Absynth 5) is more expensive, but can be replaced with a different VSTi of your choice if you don't have it. Here's the music video that we produced for this track. Thanks for sharing it around :)
Remix Contest Details: We're currently hosting a remix contest for this track. I'm personally sponsoring the contest with a prize of $300 (in Canadian dollars) for the winning track. That amount can be paid to the winner (in Canadian funds) as long as you have paypal. If the winner is a Canadian resident, I'm also willing to mail a cheque if you don't use paypal.
In addition, a number of other randomly selected entries will be showcased on my website, in this blog post, on our SoundCloud accounts, and through other internet media, along with the contact info and/or a promo website for the producers of those remixes (if you want to share such info). 1. You may share your remixes freely on any internet sites, in any file type(s), both before and after the closing date of the contest, as long as you name your remix according to the following convention: Urban Francis & Bolivia - Hijack (YOUR NAME Remix).
2. You should not attempt to register your remix with a professional label or publisher (due to potential copyright content clashes, which I'll explain at the end of this post). So if you share your remix with the world, you'll have to do it through your own personal publishing efforts.
3. Your remix can be any genre at all, of your choosing. Obviously, it will be easier to produce your remix in a style similar to the existing original, ie. some sort of techno derivative. But feel free to be creative.
4. You may submit up to two separate entries.
5. There is no restriction on the length of your submission(s), although we expect that the majority of submissions will probably be between 4 and 8 minutes in length. Having a submission that is shorter or longer than that range will not handicap you when it comes to judging.
6. The deadline for entries is 11:59pm (Atlantic Standard Time Zone) on Sunday night, February 26th, 2017. All judging will take place and winners will be announced within this post by March 15th, 2017.
7. This contest is open worldwide where permitted, to entrants who have reached the age of majority in their country of residence. Persons under the age of majority who create a remix may submit their entry through a parent or legal guardian as proxy.
8. Notwithstanding the above, this contest is void in jurisdictions where prohibited by law.
9. The prize for the contest winner will be $300 in Canadian dollars. The Canadian dollar is currently weak, and is worth less than the US dollar. This amount can be paid to the winner as long as you have Paypal or Interac Email Transfer capabilities. If the winner is a Canadian resident, I'm also willing to mail a cheque if you don't use Paypal or Interac Email Banking. I will not send a cheque or use any other type of money transfer service to non-Canadian residents. The recipient of the winning prize is solely responsible for reporting and submitting any relevant income taxes that might apply to your prize money in your country of residence. Canadian residents will not enjoy any preference in judging. We want this to be a global contest. Having said this, we do expect a number of Canadian entrants, so it's possible that the winner could be a Canadian. Just rest assured that we definitely won't discriminate against non-Canadians! The majority of the winners of our past remix contests have been non-Canadians.
10. Judging will be done by a panel of judges including Urban Francis and other associate producer friends. The judges' decision will be based upon the quality of music, production values used in making the remix, and possibly also on how innovative the remix is. The judges' decision will be final, and the judges will not provide feedback on why they chose the specific winning track above any other specific track.
11. You may share your remix publicly before the contest is over. However, the popularity of any shared remixes will not influence the judges' decision. The winner will be decided based upon the judges' perception of the quality of the submissions, not based upon a popularity contest.
12. Your remix is permitted to include any additional vocal/sample material that you generate, although don't take this as a suggestion that we'd prefer that. In other words, you may produce an instrumental version if you want, or you can add new vocal/sample material of your own. You may also include new sounds/instrumentation of your own. However, please do not include ANY samples or vocals that have been copyrighted elsewhere by another artist. Any entries containing someone else's copyrighted content will be disqualified. Any new samples, loops, or other audio materials incorporated into your remix must be royalty-free or exclusively designed by the remixer.
13. Musicians or producers who are under an exclusive contract with a record label are ineligible.
14. No purchase is necessary to enter or win this contest. In fact, there is nothing that you can buy. However, by entering this promotion contest, you agree that any costs that you incur in creating your remix are solely your own responsibility.
15. Any potential copyright or other intellectual property rights that may potentially vest in your remix will be granted to Bolivia (Jonathan Clark) and Urban Francis (Francis Cormier). Note that this is simply to avoid legal complications, and we do not intend to attempt to sell copies of your remixes.
16. It is expressly agreed that no payment is due to the participants for the production of your remixes. Only one winner will receive a monetary prize.
17. By providing your entry details to us, you confirm that you would like to enter the promotion contest and that you agree to be bound by these rules, terms, and conditions, ethics rules applicable on the internet, applicable laws and regulations, and all legislation applicable in your jurisdiction of residence.
18. Your remix must not contain any illegal, obscene, racist, defamatory, or sexual material, or any material likely to offend any person or any material likely to infringe upon any person's rights of privacy. The judges reserve the right to disqualify any entries based upon these or any other criteria. Entrants represent and warrant that their comments or public publishing do not contain any harmful, offensive, or inappropriate content, or any other communications which might defame, disparage or reflect adversely upon the promoters or our goods/services.
19. We reserve the right to disqualify any submissions that we believe to be the work of other producers.
20. The winning prize is non-transferable.
21. We accept no responsibility for entries lost, damaged or delayed, or for any inability to submit entries as a result of computer services, systems, software and/or server failure, error, interruption, defect or delay or any other technical malfunction, including problems with internet connectivity and/or filtering or content by any social media platform. Entries which are late, incomplete, corrupt, garbled, inaccessible/blocked, bulk, automated, ineligible, suspected as fraudulent, do not comply with the rules & terms & conditions, or which in our sole discretion affect the validity or operation of this promotion contest will not be accepted and are void.
22. Except to the extent that they may not be excluded by law, no representations, warranties, terms or conditions that are not expressly stated in these rules & terms & conditions apply to this promotion contest. We share no liability for any injuries, loss, or damage of any kind arising from or in connection with participation in this promotion (including any damage to entrants' or to any other persons' computer relating to or resulting from participation in, or downloading of any materials or software in connection with this promotion contest), or acceptance, use, misuse, or non-use of any prizes.
23. We reserve the right to edit and/or augment the rules & terms & conditions at any point throughout the duration of this contest, in case we think of something that we forgot to mention.
24. Your remix must not include any unauthorized samples or audio which have a copyright belonging to any other artist or entity. Phew. That was exhausting. To Enter: 1. Send a link to your track via email to Urban Francis in an uncompressed audio format, ie. WAV or AIFF format. The best way to do this is probably to put it into a Dropbox account (you can get one for free if you don't already have one) and share the link to the file with Urban Francis. If this isn't possible, you can find other services that would allow you to host and share your file. But to be honest, Dropbox is probably the best and easiest by far. An alternative would be to get a free Soundcloud account (if you don't already have one) and upload the file there, and enable downloads, then send that link to Urban Francis.
2. You should not send your project/session files.
3. You can produce your remix in the DAW or Audio Editor of your choice. We'd like to know which DAW you used, but that's mostly just out of curiousity. Also, although we haven't decided this yet, we might pick a couple of especially good entries to feature in our public dropbox (your entire project files) IF you're willing to do that. But you don't have to, and that won't affect how we judge the entries. Again, don't send us your full project/session files. For now, just tell us which editor you used.
4. We must have the following information: - Your full name. - Your producer alias, if you have one. - What country you're from. - Your email address (if unspecified, we'll assume that it's the one that you use to enter).
5. You can optionally include a photo with your entry. This is not mandatory, and won't affect your chances of winning. We'll only use this if you're the winner and if you happen to want a photo published.
6. In the event that your submission is randomly selected to be shared by us to a wider distribution, it would be helpful for you to tell us (when you enter) whether or not you want to share any promotional details with your remix. Details must be limited to one email address and/or up to four website links (soundcloud, facebook, etc.).
7. Urban Francis will reply to all submissions to confirm that they have been received. If you don't get a submission confirmation email, please send a second email which is TEXT ONLY to specify that you sent a submission. That way, if your original email (with links and/or attachments) got redirected to spam/trash, we can look for it.
8. The email address to send entries to is: fcormier27@gmail.com Good luck with your remixing. And if you can think of any remix or production-oriented message boards where you could share the link to this post, I'd appreciate it. Thanks!
Note: We have copyrighted and registered the original work with SOCAN, the Canadian music licensing agency. Although we are not pursuing copyright claims if the content is posted online, you should be careful if you do a remix and give it to a label that tries to enforce copyright claims on your own remix. Since we've already registered the work, we'd be able to prove that we hold the original copyright. In other words, make sure you don't get into a situation where you sell your remix to a label who then tries to use content-matching algorithms at services such as YouTube and Soundcloud to monetize remixes of your remix. If such a content-match occurred with our original track (which is on both of those services, and other services) then you'd have a lot of hassle trying to remove your track from the system. However, this shouldn't be an issue if you share your own mixes freely on YouTube, Soundcloud, and other platforms. It would only be if you tried to share through a label that was trying to collect publishing royalties that you'd run into an issue.
Don't forget to follow Francis on his SoundCloud account, because he posts free tracks a lot more frequently than I do! Here's the link:
Also, if any labels out there are interested in additional tracks similar in style to this one, let us know. We have a few unreleased tracks that we might be willing to place with labels, although we would not be willing to sign an exclusive or long-term contract with any one label. We'll do track-by-track one-off placements only.
We've recorded a series of seven separate YouTube videos that will help explain how we put together various parts of this project. The videos are aimed at intermediate and advanced Ableton producers. Here they are:
For results from an older 2016 remix contest of a progressive house track called "Courage" that Urban Francis and I produced together, which also has the Ableton project available in my public Dropbox, visit this link:
Thanks for stopping by. Don't forget to bookmark this post, and come back shortly for more updates! We'll be posting a number of the remix contest entries here throughout March.
I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia. Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production? If so, visit:
