SPC
Sample Pack Contest
The Video Game Edition!
What is Sample Pack Contest?
Sample Pack Contest is a series of original music-writing contests that began in 2005, originally on VGMusic's forums and now on its own dedicated Discord server.
In the regular SPCs, users are first asked to submit sound samples, which can be anything ranging from video game noises to famous music clips to sounds recorded using your own mic. Then, participants create music tracks using only the samples submitted to the pack. In the end, all music is listened to and voted on to determine placing and the eventual winner. Read all about SPC on their website and be sure to join the 20th SPC, which happens to also fall on the 20th anniversary of the contest!
The Video Game Edition of SPC is a mini-SPC round to fill the void before round 20 start. For this version the sound samples are restricted to only coming from well known video games. As such the rules are a little different to keep the scale smaller and shorter.
Rules/guidelines for creating tracks:
Use as many or as few of the samples from the pack as you wish. You are encouraged to use an audio editor to edit the samples and derive original sounds; think about looping, pitch-shifting, trimming, dynamics, baked-in effects etc.
Effects such as reverb, delay, distortion, chorus, phaser, flanger, pitch-shift, auto-tune etc. are all permitted and encouraged in your arrangements.
Effects that also generate audio for a carrier signal (i.e. vocoders) are a grey area, but we've allowed them in previous contests and they are permitted.
Avoid the cop-out of ultra-shortlooped (or "chipped") samples - generally avoid making chiptunes. This is more of a request than a hard rule, but in general it's recommended that the sample retain some of its character.
Keep your entries a secret from everyone as authors will be revealed only when results are announced.
Collaborations are permitted.
This contest is intended for original music only, not remixes or covers.
For this edition of SPC all samples must be sourced from a video game, and you must list the source when submitting the sample.
Final catch-all rule: for anything else not covered by these rules, if you feel you might be taking excessive liberties, you probably are.
Good luck and have fun!
Join!!
How does the Video Game Edition of SPC work?
First! Join the contest! Fill in this form and you will be automatically issued with a token (which acts as your password) which you can uses for all future SPC contest interactions on this site. This token is your secure mechanism for submitting and voting without having to have another login. Your login can also linked to your Discord ID to get DM notifications on Discord when you submit samples/tracks/votes. It is strongly encouraged that your do so.
To get your Discord ID, turn on Developer Mode in settings, then click on your username down the bottom and "Copy User ID". This is your public ID and safe to share.
Samples and Tracks
Phase 1: Sample submission - refer to the active round above for dates!
The community is asked to submit samples - short sound clips of video game music/sound effects. The clip must be a maximum of eight (8) seconds long or shorter. Challengers will have a week to submit their samples. You can submit only one sample per person, so find a good one! (Any more than that will be automatically excluded by the system.) Try to clean up the clip as much as possible before submitting it as a WAV file. Submitted samples will be sorted into: Voice/vocal, Music clip, Instrument sound or Sound Effect and all samples will be in the final sample pack to be used for the contest. When you submit your sample please also provide the source game title it comes from (or at least the game franchise if its a more generic sample).
Samples submitted before or after the due dates will be automatically discarded by the system.
Note: Check the Start Date and End Date for Samples in the SPC Round listing above to know the window when you can start submitting your sample.
Feedback Sought: Do you think we should show who submitted the samples at this point - as they are submitted, or keep that hidden? Answer on the SPC discord.
Phase 2: Composing.
With the newly assembled and released sample pack, participants compose music using only the samples as their sound sources - you cannot add any other source. You can use the samples as the are or apply effects and use sample manipulation to create the sounds you want, but shortlooping/chiplooping is strongly discouraged. This phase will be about one month long.
When ready, the sample pack will be available below for download....
Phase 3: Submission - refer to the active round above for dates!
All the completed tracks are submitted on this form, and posted to the Discord server for members to listen to as they are published (normally they all get released at once in a standard SPC round). Note: The creator of the track will remain anonymous until after voting in Phase 5, so don't give yourself away in the comments!!
Tracks submitted before or after the due dates will be automatically discarded by the system. You can submit multiple tracks, but only one per form submission.
Note: Check the Start Date and End Date for Submissions in the SPC Round listing above to know the window when you can start submitting your track.
Feedback Sought: We have two options...
1. The bot posts the tracks to the Discord as they are submitted, in which case its also ok to post the tracks in the above report.
2. We post all the tracks after the round closes, in which case we would not expose the tracks here to listen to, or in the Commenting system.
I like option 1 and will trial that this round, but if the community strongly wants option 2 then that is also possible. (Or the host could choose when they run the round.)
Phase 4: Listening Party - refer to the active round above for dates!
This is the fun bit where we play all the submitted tracks as a listening party!
Feedback Sought: I plan to use the system to help generate a video of the tracks for the listening party, which I'll host on the VGML YouTube channel. Other hosts could use the video, or collect a pack of the submitted tracks to host the way they prefer, such as Twitch, Discord, or whatever. We will try to run one or two streamed listening sessions for group listening.
VOTING
Phase 5: Voting - refer to the active round above for dates!
There are two parts to the voting.
You have the option to provide personalised comments on any track at any time during the submission and voting phases, and this feedback, along with the descriptions of the submitted tracks from the participants, will be posted after the winner is announced. You can also give a unofficial rating to each track if you wish. 👍 These are not used in official voting, but might be appreciated by the submitter as additional feedback. You need to join the system to submit comments, and it doesn't matter if you didn't submit a track, you can still comment.
Anyone who wishes to can officially vote by selecting your five (5) favourite tracks in ranked order, once the submissions window has closed. You must join the system to vote, but you don't have to have submitted any samples or tracks - you can still just vote, and everyone is encouraged to do so! This ranking is used to calculate the total score for each track in the round, and to select the winner. Votes submitted before or after the due dates will be automatically discarded by the system. All results will be published at the end of the round.
Log into the system to leave comments. (Optional but encouraged!)
Note: You can leave comments on any track and add a non-vote-counting rating as well if you wish. You can comment on as many or as few tracks as you wish, and the system will let you listen to tracks while you do your review. :-) You can also leave comments for each track on the Discord server in addition!
After the round closes you can cast your final votes.
Important: The voting form will be locked with a password until voting starts.
The Winner
Phase 6: Announcement of the winner!
The winner of the contest will be announced and the full list of tracks and participants will be published.
The results page will be password protected until the voting phases closes.
View the results here and read the comments left for tracks here. Thanks for participating in the round!
And then we do it all again the next round!! While you are waiting, check out the past SPC Albums for inspiration!
This system is hosted for free on the VGM Lounge site on behalf of the Sample Pack Contest. The system is developed and maintained by dataGecko.