"Courage" Remix Contest Entries

I recently sponsored a remix contest for a track called "Courage" that Urban Francis and I put together.  We were overwhelmed by a flood of entries for the contest!  We had more than a hundred entries, which was a LOT more than we expected.  Narrowing down a final winner was pretty difficult.  Here's what we did:

Urban Francis picked about fifty of his preferred tracks, and we shared those with eight of our friends who are music producers or DJ's.  Each of those eight friends got to pick two tracks out of the group.  One track would become a finalist, and another was a "noteworthy entry" that didn't make it as a finalist, but which our panel judge felt deserved more exposure.  We then pitted the eight finalists against each other to come up with a final winner.

 

In judging a winner, the judging panel looked at a number of factors, but mostly the following four considerations:

1. Creativity - Any genre was acceptable, and we were really pleased with the variety that we got!
2. Professional Sounding Production - Does the remix sound like it's ready for professional mastering?
3. Identifiable - Does the remix have some identifiable elements of at least one of the original mixes, either vocal samples and/or melody lines or chord progressions?
4. Playability - Is the track a suitable choice for a DJ or radio programmer to include in a set or a show?

The final winner that was picked was a mix by Lazarus, of New York.  We'll feature it first in this post.  But we also wanted to share the other tracks submitted by the other seven finalists, and the eight noteworthy entries that were picked, so we're including SoundCloud links in the this post to all of these sixteen tracks.  All of these are downloadable, so feel free to grab copies and share them with your friends.

WINNING ENTRY

Lazarus (New York)
  SoundCloud:  www.soundcloud.com/lazarus

  Twitter:  www.twitter.com/lazarusnewyork

  Facebook:  www.facebook.com/lazarusnewyork

FINALISTS

(In no particular order)

Nelson D (Sao Paulo, Brazil)
  SoundCloud:  www.soundcloud.com/nelson-d
  Facebook:  www.facebook.com/Nelson-D-423492404398619

Paul Why (United Kingdom)

Xudeus (Sweden)
  Soundcloud:  www.soundcloud.com/xudeus

Faith (Italy)

DaanDee (Ukraine)
  SoundCloud:  www.soundcloud.com/daandeemusic

Brahmox (India)
  SoundCloud:  www.soundcloud.com/thereal-brahmox

Jackson Laframboise (Canada)

NOTEWORTHY ENTRIES

XY!RO (country unknown)
  SoundCloud:  www.soundcloud.com/xyiro

Tribal Heart (Czech Republic)
  SoundCloud:  www.soundcloud.com/tribalheart

Tightrops (France)

Split Armada (Estonia)
  Facebook:  www.facebook.com/splitwert
  SoundCloud:  www.soundcloud.com/splitarmada

Splashed (Portugal)
  SoundCloud:  www.soundcloud.com/splashedmusic
  Facebook:  www.facebook.com/iamsplashed

Eduard Fawkes (Hungary)
  SoundCloud:  www.soundcloud.com/eduardfawkes

Aspasia P (Germany)
  SoundCloud:  www.soundcloud.com/aspasia-p

Karl Parker (Sweden)
  SoundCloud:  www.soundcloud.com/karlparker
  Twitter:  www.soundcloud.com/karlparker

MORE INTERESTING ENTRIES

(Here a few of the other entries that we liked)

And Here Are The Original Mixes

You can also grab copies of all of these tracks (and of our original Ableton project files for this track) from our public Dropbox folder at this link:

www.djbolivia.ca/dropbox

You can also see a number of YouTube videos explaining our production of the original project by visiting this link:

http://djbolivia.blogspot.ca/2016/01/progressive-house-music-production.html

I have to give a huge thanks, on behalf of myself and Francis, to everyone who submitted entries.  Above and beyond the sixteen tracks that we've featured above, I've already heard a number of really professional sounding other entries, and it's obvious that a lot of participants put a lot of time and effort into making their productions.  There were a lot of entries, including some that aren't featured above, that could arguably be judged winners!

I'm currently doing forestry work in the Canadian bush, so I haven't had much time to be heavily involved in this contest.  However, I have a few weeks of downtime in early August, and my first goal is to listen to every single track that was submitted, and I'll be sharing a few more of the remixes in our Dropbox folder at that time.

Thanks for your interest in this remix contest!

I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:

djbolivia.ca/training

If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:

djbolivia.ca/tracks

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia

    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia

    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com

    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca

Learn to Produce Music - "Courage" Progressive House Tutorial Series (Ableton Live)

I recently did a collaboration with Urban Francis to create a comprehensive video tutorial series about the production of a progressive house track. The track is called "Courage." We've made the entire project file available for everyone as a free download! We're encouraging producers to remix and share our track freely. To find more information about the music production in Ableton, go to this link:

djbolivia.ca/producemusic

For the "Courage" track, I'm going to start by providing an index of clickable links to all of the content in the five videos, so you can find certain sections faster if you're referring back to the videos for additional review.
 

 

Here is the clickable index. Click on the timing numbers down the left side, and it will open the relevant video at the correct starting time.


Part 1 of 5 - General Overview of the "Courage" Progressive House Track

00:00 - Introduction. What's this about?
04:13 - Overview of the scope of the project.
10:40 - Introduction to Urban Francis.
14:58 - Permission to remix and share the track.
21:59 - Technical notes: OS, DAW, plug-ins.
26:43 - Making elements stand out within your mix.
34:26 - Overview of the track in Ableton's arrangement view.


Part 2 of 5 - The Rhythm Section: Kicks, Snares/Claps, Hi Hats

00:00 - Introduction.
02:02 - Play through of full track.
09:54 - Overall overview of all drum instruments.
18:47 - The importance of variety in your track. Make it evolve.
21:25 - Overview of kick drum group.
26:00 - Effects chains and processing of kicks.
38:32 - Overview of snares/claps group.
41:32 - Effects chains and processing of snares/claps.
43:12 - Overview of hi hats group.
49:51 - Effects chains and processing of hi hats.


Part 3 of 5 - The Bass Tracks, Pianos, and Guitars

00:00 - Introduction.
01:46 - Overview of the bass lines.
08:55 - Effects chains and processing of the bass.
17:58 - How to resample a part.
32:51 - Examination of the piano/keys.
39:36 - Overview of the guitars.
43:45 - Effects chains and processing of the guitars.
46:50 - Audio effect racks and key mapping.
49:36 - Recording automation in real time.
50:55 - Editing automation by hand.


Part 4 of 5 - Chords, Melody, Pads, Vocals, and Effects

00:00 - Introduction.
01:45 - Overview of the chords/melody group.
09:14 - Effects chains and processing of the chords/melody.
12:33 - Adding a "track delay" timing offset.
17:26 - Overview of the pads and effects.
23:06 - Effects chains and processing of the chords/melody.
30:11 - Overview of the vocals.
38:55 - Automation inside a clip vs. on a track/channel.
40:16 - Slicing a sample to MIDI notes.


Part 5 of 5 - The Send/Returns, Master Track, and Tips for Producers

00:00 - Introduction.
01:35 - Details about all of the sends/returns.
17:58 - Overview of the master track.
23:22 - Exporting a final mixed-down audio track.
27:25 - Tips for producers.
32:52 - Using group folders for project volume control.
38:47 - Five subjects that upcoming producers must understand.
46:52 - Final thoughts.
49:14 - Contacting Urban Francis about collaborations.



Here are links to various versions of the track on SoundCloud. All may be downloaded and shared freely:








The full project files for this track, along with a comprehensive stems & samples folder and other material for producers/remixers, can be downloaded from my DropBox account at: djbolivia.ca/dropbox

If you remix a version of this track, we hereby give you permission to share it freely (in a non-commercial sense) on all of your social media and other websites, with no restrictions, as long as you name and share the track using the following filename format:

Bolivia & Urban Francis - Courage (YOUR NAME remix)

For commercial applications (ie. release on commercial CD compilations, placement in television/film), please contact us to arrange licensing. For release of your remixes on paid sites such as Beatport, Amazon, we'll probably allow you to earn the money off your remixes, but we'd like to be contacted about it first to confirm this, so we know which labels are distributing remixes and what the remixes sound like.



If you find these tutorials to be useful, we'd really appreciate if you could please share this post with other producers, or share my full list of tutorial and other music-related videos from djbolivia.ca/videos. Thanks for watching!

I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:

djbolivia.ca/training

If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:

djbolivia.ca/tracks

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia

    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia

    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com

    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca

Live in Los Angeles, 2014-11-07 - with DJ Bolivia

I played at a club in Los Angeles this past Friday night, a place called The Other Door in North Hollywood. The event was the launch party for an app called Cuddli, which some of my friends have created. I'll post more details here about Cuddli once it's out of beta testing. Anyway, the weather was warm, the show was fun, and I recorded it, so you can check it out.






This particular mix features two different styles of music. The first hour is mostly tech-house, which I usually play. However, I experimented with electro for the second half of the set, which is something that I don't typically play. Electro is a good match for the local music scene there. I was running through a Yamaha traditional sound console for a mixer, and it was located underneath the counter of the booth, so it was a pretty unconventional set-up. Due to the layout, I only had easy access to the bass and mid EQ knobs, and there were no effects available on board, so you won't hear a lot of creative effects in this mix. But the recording is clean and sounds good, which is what matters. We had a slight technical difficulty with recording the first minute of my set, but I fixed that with some DAW magic. The sound guy at the club, Scott Fuchs, was very competent and great to work with.

Another really cool thing about this show is that one of my friends from California (Carl Schwenk) was the opening DJ. He and I talked about DJ'ing a year ago, and he sent me a message a few months later that he was learning to DJ, but I hadn't realized how seriously he was taking it. I guess that some of the videos on my YouTube page helped inspire him and get him started. Anyway, he played well, and did a great job. It was great to see him, and I hope I get a chance to hear him again.

To download any of my studio mixes or recordings of lives shows, visit:

djbolivia.ca/mixes 

Then go into the folder called "Bolivia's DJ Mixes & Live Shows"

Thanks for your support!

Here’s a link so you can listen to the show or download it from SoundCloud:



Most of the music is pretty new, although you'll notice that I played one older Green Velvet track near the beginning, to set up the context for the "Voicemail" track half an hour later. I should also point out that if you know these tracks well, you'll notice that I bring a lot of them in and out of the mix more than once, which is probably most noticeable on things with vocal samples like "What You Think," and on tracks like "People Of The Land." Here are the track listings:

01. Michal Kosinski - Carpe Noctem (Original Mix).
02. Green Velvet - Answering Machine (Original Mix).
03. QMore - Tick Tech (Original Mix).
04. Tony Roguez - People Of The Land (Original Mix).
05. Josh DaFunk, Optimuss, & Sergio Padro - Shift (Original Mix).
06. Eddie Amador & Mindskap - So High (Original Mix).
07. Dominik Israel - What You Think (Original Mix).
08. Green Velvet & Patrick Topping - Voicemail (Original Mix).
09. Alberto Ruiz - Room (Original Mix).
10. Tony Lenz - Accidental (Original Mix).
11. Mason - Exceeder (Umek & Mike Vale Remix).
12. Chris Lawyer & Hooch - Black & White (Original Mix).
13. Francis P & Dany Rocket - Space The Sound (Original Mix).
14. Major Lazer, Dillon Francis, & Stylo G - We Make It Bounce (Original Mix).
15. Mr Gharib - JKPG City (Original Mix).
16. Get Busy & Matt Newton - Sunglasses At Night (Original Mix).
17. Don Diablo - Back To Life (Original Mix).
18. Rupstoh - Booty Bounce (Original Mix).
19. Lazy Rich & Hot Mouth - Bonk (Original Mix).
20. Dyro feat Dynamite MC - Against All Odds (Original Mix).
21. Qianta - Spawnkill (Original Mix).
22. Deadmau5 - The Reward Is Cheese (Tujamo Remix).
23. Sesa - Get Ready (Original Mix).
24. Lucky Charmes - Keep On Rockin (Original Mix).
25. Ralvero - Mayday (Original Mix).
26. Will Brennan & Twoloud - Get Down (Original Mix).
27. Eptic - Level Midnight (Original Mix).
28. Rune RK - Calabria (Firebeatz Remix).

DJ Bolivia - Live in Los Angeles, 2014-11-07 by Djbolivia on Mixcloud

I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:

djbolivia.ca/training

If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:

djbolivia.ca/tracks

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia

    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia

    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com

    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca