contests

Boing Boing’s Offworld has put out a call to chiptunes composers, asking for help to score a couple of old films about Atari Computer Camp:

Boing Boing has come into possession of some wicked footage of an anonymous Atari Computer Camp excursion that has everything you could ever want from grainy stock video: namely, yellowed and over-saturated money shots of retro-tech, and a bevy of over-eager and still-innocent pre-teens banging out BASIC to make crossword crosses out of the words Van Halen (no joke!) and gawping at the awesome limitless power and future of computers.

Here’s the catch: neither of the videos — the first clocking in at about seven minutes, and the second coming in at seven and a half — have any sound at all.

And so: given Offworld/Boing Boing’s sizable audience of chiptune/junk-tech musicians, we thought we’d throw the score open to you. If you’re interested in submitting some of your music for the videos, which will be broadcast on BBtv at a later date, send an email to brandon@offworld.com with the subject line “Atari Computer Camp” and we’ll dig through and select our favorites from there. Bonus points awarded for (but certainly not limited to) composing on actual 8-bit Atari tech.

We’ll admit it – this video of the V-Accordion Festival sort of freaked us out with its frightening majesty.

The technology behind Roland’s V-Accordion line, though, is pretty interesting – combining everything you know and love about accordions (Italian restaurants) with a slice of MIDI-controlled synth action. It does orchestral sounds, physical behavior modeling and has MIDI out for controlling Live, your bent Casio or whatever freaky gear you get your synth on with.

Anyway – Roland has announced an accordion contest, with the grand prize being a trip to Rome to jam with the V-Accordion babes at the V-Accordion festival.

Note: they actually make no mention of V-Accordion babes in the contest rules, but if you play the accordion, you can dream.

Livid has announced that they will be giving away a limited edition of their Ohm DJ/VJ controller:

In celebration of the great response we have had this past year for the Ohm controller with hundreds of users now in over 35 countries, we are giving away an Special Edition Ohm package. This one-of-a-kind Ohm is made of Jelutong wood with a light blue stain and will be the only one of its kind in circulation. This Ohm is being made custom for this drawing as an appreciation to the community. The drawing will take place on March 16th.

The entire package is worth $930 USD and includes an Ohm, a copy of Union and Cell VJ softwares, a Livid T-Shirt, and shipping. All purchases made from the Livid Instruments website (refills, T-shirts, hardware, software etc…) will be automatically entered in the giveaway, additionally you can enter the giveaway by entering your information on the form here. The winner will be randomly picked on the 16th of March and we will also announce the winner on the lividinstruments website.

You can enter here.

Note: By entering, it looks like you’re signing up for the Livid email newsletter.

Puremagnetik has launched a sound design contest. The goal is to create a collection of drum racks and clips in Ableton Live using a sound set they provide:

Puremagnetik has created a custom sound set for you to download, warp, morph, mangle and destroy!

1) Login and Download the Selector Library Here.

2) The Selector Library comes packed with percussives. Use Ableton’s Sampler, Simpler or Impulse and any Audio or MIDI effect(s) from the Ableton Library to create 1-10 Drum Racks.

3) Make 4 Live Clips for each rack that you create.

4) Send your Live Pack to selector@puremagnetik.com by February 16th.

Got questions? Selector discussion is available here.

Prizes:

• 1st Place —> $100 store credit at Halcyon Online, $100 Coupon from Percussa, Free 2 year subscription to Puremagnetik, Merchandise from the Ableton Web Shop.
• 2nd & 3rd Place —> $50 store credit at Halcyon Online, $50 Coupon from Percussa, $100 QuickBuy Coupon from Puremagnetik, Merchandise from the Ableton Web Shop.
• Twelve runner-ups will have their content included in the final Selector Micropak and will be awarded a $12 QuickBuy Coupon from Puremagnetik. All names will be credited on all Live Racks and Clips.

The list of all winners will be posted on PM’s home page on February 20th.

Alesis has announced a new YouTube contest, the Show Your Rig Video Competition. 

This sounds a bit like a single entendre – but if you’ve got Alesis equipment and you show your rig on YouTube, you could win a big package and upgrade your gear. 

Here are the details:

Do you love your Alesis gear? Tell the world about it and you could win a DM5 Pro Kit with SURGE Cymbals! Just fill out the form below and upload a video of a performance (solo or group) or demonstration of you using your Alesis gear to YouTube between now and January 11, 2008 to enter the contest. Videos must cover current (not legacy) Alesis products to win, preferably from the new products page. 

The lucky winner will receive an Alesis DM5 Pro Kit with SURGE Cymbals for their entry!

You can enter as many times as you like, but please submit only one video per piece of Alesis gear you own so enter early and often! We will notify the winner via email live from the Winter NAMM Show in Anaheim, CA on January 15, 2009. 

Details here.