AUDIOSEXED ALBUM - UPDATED AND FINAL GUIDELINES !!


Hello fellow AudioSexers.

As most of you know we started this project some months ago to make our own album.
A brilliant idea and a great way for us all to strengthen the community by producing something really cool together,
making a collection of tracks that shows our passion for music and our spectrum as independent artists.
At first our member HK took on the role of project manager, but then he left the forum very suddenly. Since that happened at a time when the staff here was very tied up with a lot of other stuff like the launch of the new AudioZ site, this album project was left hanging in the air for a while.
But now Catalyst has taken time out of his crazy schedule to bring together a group of forum members who are willing and able to dedicate the time and effort necessary to ensure that this will be completed in a good way.

In the process we had to reorganize some things, so we're making this post with updated and final guidelines.
Please read through this post carefully if you want to be a part of this community album.

------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------

The first member of the group working to finish the album is Carl, the fine young man who also came up with the original idea for all of this. 
He's now in charge of the artwork and he will start to design a cover. More info about this will come later. 

------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------

GUIDELINES - HOW TO CREATE AND SUBMIT A TRACK:

1) DEADLINE
The DEADLINE FOR TRACK SUBMISSIONS is moved to MARCH 3, 2014.
This is the FINAL date, there will be NO more delays (unless all of the members in the group simultaneously catch a flesh-eating virus or sth)

2) CONTENT
You can submit ONE TRACK of ANY GENRE, but it must be NEW and ORIGINAL (no remixes/mashups).
In the original rules there was no limit in track length. But while compiling we're starting to see that this can be a real problem when we want to make a coherent track list. So for anybody working on a new track now, we recommend that you aim to keep your TRACK LENGTH WITHIN 5-6 MINUTES.

3) SOUNDCLOUD + FORUM POST

When your track is ready, join the AUDIOSEXED ALBUM GROUP on Soundcloud and upload your track there as a 24bit WAV or FLAC file,
and make sure to ENABLE THE DOWNLOAD OPTION.
Our member Someone is now in charge of compiling all the tracks and he has made this guide for you:

How to add your track to the Soundcloud-Group (Click here for our Group page):
First you have to join the group, you can do that by going to our group page, and click the "Join"-button on the left side of the page:

After that you go to the track you want to submit, it's necessary that you already uploaded the track.
Below the track there are a few options, in the middle you can find a button called "Add to group":

Click the button, and you'll see a list of any groups you joined. Now click on our group, and we'll see your submission and approve it.
If your artist name on Soundcloud is different from your AudioSex-Username, please write your AudioSex-Username in the description of your track.

If there should be a problem for some reason, upload the 24bit WAV or FLAC to one of these hosters - sendspace, zippyshare, dropbox -
and send a PM with the link to Someone - you will find him here: LINK

Next step is to make a new post here on the forum in this section Our Music. The title of that post should look like this:
Your Name - The Track Name - (AudioSexed Album)
In this post put a link to your track from the Soundcloud Group and add any other info that you want.
This is done so your track can be nicely reviewed by members who may recommend improvements in areas like the mix and sound quality.

IMPORTANT: Some of you guys who have already submitted tracks have not enabled download at Soundcloud.
Please make sure to do this or send a link for your WAV file to Someone before the final deadline on MARCH 3.

4) PARTICIPATION
Since this project is meant to represent the AudioSex community, only tracks from members who have been registered and active for some time will be considered for the album. It doesn't make any sense to make a community effort and include guys who only register to be part of this one thing.
Still, there may be a few exceptions to this rule, for instance if you have been a long time member at AudioZ.
So if you recently registered here but think there's some good reason why you should be part of the album, you need to write that info in the post that you make here with your track.
But for new members the general advice is to spend some time and take part in the community. Then you can join in on some future projects.

5) QUALITY
After the deadline there will be an evaluation process where a panel will put together a track list from a selection that sounds good and work well together as a representation of this great community.
Catalyst is working now to form the panel for that demanding task, and Xsze and Fuad has kindly volunteered to be a part of this process.
To make a good track list, the included submissions need to have a certain level of sound quality, so work hard to make your track as good as possible.
For some of us this project can be an excellent way to challenge ourselves and push our producing skills a bit forward.
A really well done mix with good balance is necessary and can be enough, but don't hesitate to go further and master your track if you feel that you can improve the final sound. Just remember to focus on quality rather than maximum loudness since your track will eventually be matched with all the others.

6) FINISHING
When the track list is ready, Gulliver is adding the final important piece to the puzzle.
He will do some overall mastering to bring coherence to the final result.

7) RELEASE
For the finished album we will then make a package with the artwork and the tracks in mp3 format that will be released for free both here on AudioSex and on AudioZ, which means it will reach a lot of people both inside and outside of the community.
Other release options are also being considered so more info about that may come later.

------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------

Finally, if you have any questions or thoughts regarding the album, post them in this thread or PM me or Someone.
Please don't send a bunch of PM's to Catalyst about this. He's overseeing everything, but he's also got a ton of other stuff to deal with.
One good reason for setting up this group is to complete this nice project without giving Cat a heart attack.

There you have it, everybody.
So once again we say happy writing and producing, and have fun

.

 

It's happening folks, let's make this thing a success so we can represent our amazing community!

 

Sounding good! I might just get in on this.

Expect from me... some cinematic film score piece.
Or... some really depressing piece xD

 

Both right up our alley. Actually the album is shaping up to be quite dark, no doubt indicative of 21st century living.

 

Really? Andrews track isnt dark at all, and Olsons track has an amazingly positive vibe. And I dont consider my track dark at all...

 

One of Army of Ninja's submitted track was dark and atmospheric, Boy Learns Arcane submitted track was dark, DevinEvil's submitted track is dark, Faunus's is dark and sad, Iggy's was dark, Robbie's is dark but orchestral, Rolma is dark and kick-ass, Don'tFearTheReaperv4's will be dark, etc. Clearly more dark submissions but of course that could change with new entries.

 

I've been grooving to all the tracks practically nonstop for a couple of days now. There is some super killer stuff in there! I think that there seems to be a nice balance of diversity overall; but it seems to me like there is a slightly dark vibe to the album so far (which I am totally cool with).

 

Yeah I'm in that thread all the time, really great stuff and there's still more submissions. fuad is working on a track and some others too. And I live for dark.

 

Yeah, that's right. But the track by BacklineSounds also has a really positive feeling, it sent me right back to happy young freedom time when I listened to it the other night.
I think we have a good mix going on and hopefully we'll get some more great stuff now as we move towards the finish line

 

Yes send us your dark gems. No you're not doing it right, you gotta put some dark into it.

No but really all the tracks are great and olson, SirSillySausage and Someone's tracks were really stellar. I actually can't believe I've been listening non-stop for a long time. Now frito's track, I need to get this up somewhere, I wanted him to do it from his Soundcloud but he's missing in action. Nobody but me has heard it and I'm tired of not being able to share that gem.

 

Catalyst - You could upload the file from Frito to sendspace, zippyshare or dropbox and PM that link to Someone, and he could add it to the AudioSexed Album Soundcloud Group. Then any of us could post it over here. I've really been waiting to hear that one myself.

 

Yeah let's do it, I can't imagine he'd be mad at me. I really just don't want him to miss the deadline and I'd like for other people to hear it too.

 

@ EVERYBODY - I had to add a change under Point 2 about track length.

Anybody working on a new track now, we recommend that you try to make it within a 5-6 minutes limit. This will be very helpful for the guys who's gonna work to make a coherent track list and the overall mastering

 

Do we also plan to put it on recordable media? I could do that, have some contacts in direct-to-disk printing and some experience with particular CDs and DVDs that will last nearly forever. Maybe I could order pressing service (but that's expensive)
It would be awesome to have such album in physical form, with artworks, etc.

 

Thought about it too. A commercial release would be unrealistic, I guess... But a copy for all participants would be awesome. carl is making an artwork, if you have the option of gettin everything done good, maybe all of us can throw some money together and you send us the copies later. Would defiently be pretty cool to have a CD-Release of the album *yes*

 

I never meant commercial release, just an CD or DVD-Audio of our work for all who participated and/or are loyal members.
I could handle max about 100 copies, but that should be enough

 

Andrew

We haven't made any such plans yet. I'm kinda old school myself so I agree that it would be pretty sweet to hold the AudioSexed Album in my hands.
Like you say there are some things that would need to be figured out. Since this is a truly cross-border project we have submissions from all over the world. So apart from any money issues, distributing physical copies may not be the simplest thing either.
But these are definitely things that everybody can add their thoughts about and we will see where we are after the submission deadline is reached.

 

If Andrew can make a draft on the costs, we can contact all final paricipants after the release and ask them where their from. I guess many of us are from USA/Canada and Europe, so that would make sending copies around relativly easy. Im not sure but I think we also have quiet a few members from South America? Not sure how easy it is to send stuff around there

 

The package would not be heavier than 150 grams, so the postage to any country is less than $10 USD
Price for single CD is $0.8, the booklet would cost a bit, depending on the artwork, then jewel case $0.6 OR high quality slim DVD case $1.
My estimation is $14 USD for single CD/DVD incl. shipping

 

Thats about 10€ or 11€, a compilation in a store usually would cost about 20€ in germany... So I say I would defiently buy a copy, frame it and hang it right over my screen in my home studio
Then I would make a copy and listen to the copy in my car