30 Day Production Challenge

Why did you sign up at Warp Academy?

We’re betting it’s one of these reasons, maybe all of them:

You’re deeply passionate about electronic music.
You get that being a producer takes training, inspiration and the right tools.
You’ve been producing for a bit – maybe longer than a bit – but you’re not yet getting the results you want.
It’s a struggle to work on music every day and keep enough momentum to finish tracks.
You want to share your music and get feedback from other producers with more experience.

If you answered yes to any of these, read on…

We founded Warp Academy for a few important reasons:

To support you in building the daily habit of making music.
To give you access to the training and tools you need to succeed as a producer.
To bring together a potent community of music makers to share the journey with.

We recently asked ourselves:

“How can we totally game-change how we’re serving our community with this mission?”The ideas that followed crystallized into what will undoubtedly be one of our most exhilarating opportunities we’ve ever offered you.

Are You Ready to Push Yourself as a Producer?

You and a group of other motivated, passionate, and dedicated artists will be given the opportunity to embark on a song writing journey like no other!

Warp Academy is excited to announce our first ever Production Challenge.

An Epic Partnership

Warp Academy has joined forces with the infamous Black Octopus Sound to co-host this event.

Black Octopus publishes some of the most cutting-edge, badass sample packs and synth patches in the industry.

In addition to sponsoring epic prizes they’ll also be fuelling this Production Challenge with gigabytes of fresh samples and synth patches!

How it Works

You’ll have 30 days to write a song.
Each day, you’ll get a small, hand-picked collection of samples and/or synth patches* for free.
You can only use the samples & synth patches we give you.
You won’t know what’s coming next, so you’ll push your creativity to the max using what’s available.
In addition to samples & patches, we’ll be supporting you with new production tips, tools for Ableton Live, and special discounts on courses that’ll help propel you forwards.

*Synth patches will be for XFer Serum & NI Massive. If you don’t own them you can grab the demo versions. You can also rent-to-own Serum from Splice for $9.99 per month here.

Production Challenge Dates

Mark your calendars. Block off that space in your schedules. It’s time to make music together!

We know you’ve been eager for the dates, so here they are:

Tuesday May 16th: Sign up opens
Tuesday May 30th: The Challenge begins
Tuesday May 30th – Thursday June 29th: Each day you’re given a free download of samples, synth patches, tools & tips
Thursday June 29th, 11:59pm PST: Deadline to submit your song
Friday June 30th: Judging begins
Saturday July 15th: Winners announced

The Prizes

3rd Prize

$200 gift certificate for Warp Academy
$100 gift certificate for Black Octopus Sound
Leviathan 1 (4GB) sample pack ($99 value)
$150 gift certificate for the Ableton store

2nd Prize

$500 gift certificate for Warp Academy
$200 gift certificate for Black Octopus Sound
Leviathan 1 (4GB) sample pack ($99 value)
1 hour of one-on-one personalized private music production tutoring by Steve Tantric Decks (Co-Owner of Black Octopus Sound – $60 value)
$250 gift certificate for the Ableton store
Cableguys VolumeShaper & TimeShaper plugins ($73 value)

1st Prize

Warp Academy’s Producer Pro Bundle (literally every course and pack we’ve developed – $1000 value)
$500 gift certificate to Black Octopus Sound
Leviathan 2 (6GB) sample pack (Black Octopus’ brand new flagship pack – $99 value)
$500 gift certificate to the Ableton store
Cableguys’ entire ShaperBox bundle of plugins ($99 value)
2 hours of one-on-one personalized private music production tutoring by Steve Tantric Decks (Co-Owner of Black Octopus Sound – $120 value)
Your song gets professionally mixed and mastered by Slade Templeton (Black Octopus Sound Lead Mastering Mastering Engineer – $320 value)

Rules of the Production Challenge

You must use only the samples & synth patches we provide.
Daily download sample packs are only available for 48 hours, no exceptions. We will not be providing samples beyond their expiry.
You cannot share samples with other participants of the challenge.
You can tweak the synth patches in the following ways:
1. Modulation (ex: LFOs, envelopes, steppers)
2. Effects
3. You cannot change the selected oscillator wavetables, but you can change other parameters for the oscillators (such as wavetable position, unison or warping in Serum or bending in Massive)
4. You cannot change the filter type, but you can change other filter parameters (such as cutoff, resonance, modulation etc.)
Submissions must be made on time, no exceptions or extensions under any circumstances.
You may use any software you want (DAW, audio effect plugins etc.) to write your song.
No electronic instruments like hardware drum machines or hardware synths.
Collaboration is allowed. If you wish to form a partnership or team, that is 100% okay. We allow this because it’s how the real music industry works. Forming teams is a good thing. Max team size is 3 people.
You (and/or your collaboration partners if applicable) must personally do all the production, sound design, mixing and mastering.
You may record your own voice or an acoustic instrument you personally play, or a collaboration partners if they are also in the Challenge and you’ve decided to form a collaboration.
You cannot hire our outsource other musicians, or producers, to work on the project with you.
You cannot record foley samples or field recordings and use them in your song.
The winners will submit their project files and grant Warp Academy the right to distribute the project files to other participants and members so everyone can learn from how the winning songs were made. Project files must be submitted according to these standards. Failure to submit the project file within 48 hours of being notified you are a winner will result in disqualification and selection of a new winner.
We’ll keep the vibes high. When interacting with the judges and other participants, you’ll maintain a friendly, positive, respectful, professional manner. Failure to do so will result in disqualification.

FAQs

Can I record my own vocals?
Yes.

Can I load the samples into Traktor so I can scratch in effects and then load these scratch samples back in?
Yes.

Am I allowed to use Ableton’s stock synths? (e.g. Operator, Analog, Tension, etc.)
No, unless we provide specific presets during the Challenge.

Am I allowed to use drum and fx samples of my own?
No. Drum and effects samples will be provided during the Challenge from Black Octopus Sound.

Even though the rules say you cannot tweak or change the filters for Massive and Serum in the contest on patches, are we allowed to switch them off to create our own filters through Ableton’s stock effects?
Yes. You can use any Audio Effects you want to process the synths.

In terms of mastering and mixing are we allowed to use 3rd party vsts?
Absolutely. You can use any third party or native Audio Effects or MIDI Effects.

Can I use third-party plugins to process sounds? Like reverbs or anything else?
Yes. You can use any Audio Effects you want to process the synths and samples, including any third party or native Audio Effects or MIDI Effects.

I am allowed resample the synth sounds and samples?
Yes.

How Winners Will Be Chosen

Your song will be given a score based on a few categories:

Creativity & innovation in your use of the samples, patches and tools given.
Composition & song-writing.
Sound design.
Mixdown & mastering.
Community involvement in our private Facebook group.

Your Judges

Vespers – Ableton Certified Trainer, Warp Academy Co-Founder

Vespers is an Ableton Live Certified Trainer focused on developing cutting-edge tutorials and online programs. He’s the CEO and co-founder of Warp Academy, one of three Ableton Certified Training Centers nationwide. His Youtube channel, is one of the most active Ableton-centric communities in the world. In addition to Ableton-related programs, he has also teamed up with industry heavy-weights such as Universal Audio, iZotope, FabFilter, Cableguys, FXPansion, and Sugar-Bytes to provide reviews and tutorials with their platforms.

Based out of Victoria, BC, Canada, Vespers also tours and performs, integrating live tenor sax and looping with future bass music to create a unique, jazz-influenced sound. He’s a regular at Canada’s infamous Shambhala Music Festival. His work has received support from producers such as Ill Gates, David Starfire, and Opiuo.

Steve Roland – Black Octopus Sound Chief Operating Officer and Co-Owner

A veteran musician, dj, producer, mastering engineer, and music educator, Steve carries a reputation for being a global audio sensation. His career has been ultra bright with record releases on some of dance musics most well known labels, as well as mastering duties for some of the worlds most beloved acts. With over 11 years of experience under his belt, you can expect nothing but a huge, punchy, clean, heavy hitting sound.

Merlyn Perez-Silva – Ableton Certified Trainer, Warp Academy Trainer

Merlyn Silva is a musician, educator and sound artist living in Aarhus, Denmark. Cutting his teeth as a guitarist in the early 2000’s touring with a string of rock and dub groups, Merlyn later took a left turn at the crossroads and enrolled to study theatre in 2006. Shortly after, he stumbled into Ableton Live whilst working on a production, in a search for a more elegant backing-track solution than a CD. He has been mesmerized with the software ever since.

In addition to releasing a stream of glitched-up, psychedelic bass music, producing for singers and creating installation pieces, Merlyn has undertaken extensive research and practice in the areas of motion-capture technology, interactive musical systems and contact microphones.

Slade Templeton – Black Octopus Sound Lead Mastering Mastering Engineer

Slade Templeton is a man who needs no introduction. At the age of 28 he already has over 10 years of experience as an Audio Engineer and touring musician. He has performed in over 40 countries as the headline act with his electronic dance music duo “Defunct!”. Not only is he consistently in the top 100 charts, but he has also engineered for many of dance musics globally recognized names. Slade has worked as Mixing Engineer, Mastering Engineer, or Producer for well over 1000 songs on all mediums (CD, Vinyl, Digital platforms). His music has also entered millions of ears through TV and movies. Being on both sides of the studio glass has its perks. Slade knows the studio process from front to back; from the creation of the song to the final product hitting the shelves. Slade is mixing/mastering/recording engineer and record producer at Influx Studios in Bern, Switzerland.

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