Our latest assignment is to rework a festive song into a recognisable, instrumental, electronic track of your own. Our favourite track wins a MASSIVE PRIZE with a runners up prize for second place as well. You have to the end of the year to do it and then winners will be chosen in a feedback session on Zoom in the first week of January 2024!
Full details of the challenge in our intro vid in the ACTIVITIES area.
Good luck! 
Interesting challenge - looking forward to getting stuck in! I liked how you vanished in the middle segment of your video introduction, Rob - I thought for a minute, with your Santa's hat on, you'd disappeared down a chimney!
Looking forward to this. Now comes the hardest choice of all. Mariah Carey or George Michael...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yStwazATT_4 this one is hilariously good!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjAFCyDQA_E not sure about this one... xD
Ding dong, bring it on!
Looking forwards to getting on that vibe and hearing everyone else's versions as well..
@SamuelClouston - maybe both?
[quote="smillington"]
Ding dong, bring it on!
Looking forwards to getting on that vibe and hearing everyone else's versions as well..
@SamuelClouston - maybe both?
[/quote]
Me too - I'm thinking of doing Last Christmas, always been my fav tune. What are you thinking?
Ah nice
Found a nice version of God Rest ye merry Gentlemen which I'll try to butcher..
See you on the other side!
[quote="smillington"]
Ah nice
Found a nice version of God Rest ye merry Gentlemen which I'll try to butcher..
See you on the other side!
[/quote] Hahaha cannot wait to hear that one! maybe I should try a Christmas carol instead. Not long now till Xmas!
Nice 
Not that I'm greedy, but I'd like both of those!
https://freemidi.org/seasonal-349-christmas
If anyone's looking for handy MIDi arrangements for Xmas songs, then this page could be useful!
Hello together,
here is my contribution to this years winter assignment. Hope you like it 
.
Good luck everybody for the challenge and merry christmas.
Kind Regards
Paddy
Silent Night is a lot louder than I remember! 
Merry Xmas Paddy 
[quote="FreethinkerInc"]
Hello together,
here is my contribution to this years winter assignment. Hope you like it .
Good luck everybody for the challenge and merry christmas.
Kind Regards
Paddy
[/quote]
That is brilliant Paddy I love that! Nice work and happy xmas. Better up my game on this one!
Loving the twist you've put on silent night Paddy - it sounds like the heavenly host it not so heavenly after all - 
I lost my mojo for ages on that assignment as I found it difficult to bring in complex chord progressions and not make it sound cheesy.
Decided to use carol of the bells as it was harmonically more straight forwards than my previous choice of God rest ye merry gentlemen.
Am pretty much over the hump now and hope to get it finished over the next week.
Hows everyone else getting on - looking forwards to building up that alternative christmas playlist!
In which case @smillington, I will demonstrate how to turn God Rest You Merry Gentlemen into a funky Breaks track next Tuesday in the Xmas stream! 
Hi everyone, hope all is going well? When's the deadline for this Christmas comp? Loving the Silent Night rendition, Paddy! How did you create the narration? Best wishes, Tone
End of the year deadline Tone. We'll do a feedback Zoom the first week of Jan...
Thanks - still time to get the Christmas vibe going then
Not an easy assignment, it all sounded too jolly, so decided to move it into a minor key.
Driving Home For Christmas (Transpire) - Transpire | Producertech
Good luck to everyone who has been working on their submissions, I look forward to listening to them.
@admin - Nice one Rob, that would be extra helpful. Looking forwards to the stream! [quote="admin"]
In which case @smillington, I will demonstrate how to turn God Rest You Merry Gentlemen into a funky Breaks track next Tuesday in the Xmas stream!
[/quote]
[quote="Transpire"]
Not an easy assignment, it all sounded too jolly, so decided to move it into a minor key.
Driving Home For Christmas (Transpire) - Transpire | Producertech
Good luck to everyone who has been working on their submissions, I look forward to listening to them.
[/quote]
Lovely job @transpire - your sound selection on that track is second to none!
No no, the Xmas stream isn't announcing any winners, you have time! Did the email say it was announcing the winners?? Sorry if so. I think this was copied over from an earlier email that was corrected.
The stream will be showing another example of a carols turned into electronic beats to give inspiration.
Just checked and saw the email. Sorry, this was confusion our end! Email sent without being checked properly 
Nice - looking forward to tonight's stream 
I think this was the toughest assignment yet! Don't think I made it easy on myself with my choice of song and was going to start again but just won't have the time. I went for a carol in 3/4 time and used some of the original MIDI track that I downloaded. Trying to convert it into a different style but keep it recognisable was really tough. I didn't transform the MIDI other than put it through an arpeggio and a lot of delay, but then it's ended up pretty unrecognisable so not sure if it will qualify for the comp
But thought I would post it up anyway and see if anyone can guess what it is!
https://community.producertech.com/simon-unsigned/uploaded_audio/395/name-that-tune
Hi everyone, hope you all had a fab Christmas!
Here's my entry to the Xmassignment, hope you like it.
https://community.producertech.com/technic-tone/uploaded_audio/396/jingle-house
Looking forward to the New Year live stream
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all members 
Here’s my attempt at the Xmasassignment, I had a lot of fun creating this tune but it did make me a bit sick of hearing one of my favourite Christmas tunes. At least I won’t have to listen to it again for another 10 months.
https://community.producertech.com/budz/uploaded_audio/397/budz-xmasassignment
Looking forward to hearing everyones tunes and watching the New Year live stream 
Hi @Rob, please can I check when the cut off time is likely to be?
I will aim to finish and submit on the evening of the 1st Jan if thats ok..
(no worries if I miss the cut off as Im only submitting to get feedback - think its a little rushed and doesnt quite have the polish that many other submissions have here..
Hello all!
I'm new here, and have decided to dare throw in my take on this challenge ... even though I feel it is not really finished yet.
You probably know the tune. Lead synth riff in the drop is derived from the second phrase of the original.
Well, here goes .... :O
https://community.producertech.com/petter/uploaded_audio/399/neon-nights
Best wishes for the New Year to everyone!
Petter
Here's my take on the carol 'We Three Kings', I'm calling it 'Church House'. Happy New Year everyone!
Hi - sorry to complete this late and totally understand if I missed the boat for the competition. Either way, I'd appreciate any associated feedback.
My track is a remix of a Ukrainian new years carol "Shchedryk" which is also better known as "Carol of the Bells":
https://community.producertech.com/smillington/uploaded_audio/401/shchedryk-carol-of-the-bells
I've listened to all the tracks above and as usual am massively impressed and inspired by the creativity! Happy new year folks - I hope 2024 is a year of success to you all!
Happy New Year everyone!
It's fine Simon don't worry. Cut off is now so you're all good!
Right, let's listen to some more Xmas music then....
Keep the Christmas tunes going all year I say....
Seems a bit strange listening to Christmas tunes in January, but there are some fab entries!
some serious xmas bangers in here!
Hey y'all.
Join us tomorrow at 6PM for some final festive cheer and Xmassy music with our review of the assignment entries and selection of the winners!
Click here to join the Zoom meet...
Yes, well, I'm still slightly shocked to win this tbh ... :O
I mean, all the other songs sounded so great, and my production is still embarrassingly lacking I'm afraid ... but seeing as everyone here has got the hang of it, I have the hope that working through the courses I will be able to improve as well!
But THANK YOU! :D
I have completed and updated to the final mix of this one:
https://community.producertech.com/petter/uploaded_audio/399/neon-nights
I feel it is better, but could still benefit from even more work ... but alas, no more xmas for a while now!
INTRO:
I have tried to work that glockenspiel into what I really had in mind, but just couldn't do it. Possibly as Rob said, it's just not fitting the mood at all. So changed that up with a version of the phrase used in the middle section instead. Works better I think, also as it's the first phrase of the original of course.
VOCALS:
I think I missed second part of that question ... the vocals are made up of some free stock ad libs I found, but they are pieced together from 5-7 bits each for drops and the bridge part. The two drops are slightly different as I tried to create some tension going into the break on the first and some resolve going into the outro. Original wav's are rather heavily processed to make them warmer, tighter and cohesive. The harmonies blended into the second part of drop is made using Antares Harmony Engine (I got a free 2 month subscription before Xmas).
The free vocal samples I used is here if anyone else wants them:
https://producerspace.com/
Well, onto the next project now!!
