Welcome to the first-ever music-making contest on 99Sounds!
Since our launch in June 2014, we’ve released twelve amazing sample libraries crafted by a group of generous and extremely talented sound designers worldwide.
UPDATE #3: THE RESULTS ARE HERE!
These are the eight highest-ranked entries:
#1 Poztman – Crystalline Chant
#2 Spray – Substance
#3 Naiyaah – Repetition
#4 Lawrence Wade – Love Letters
#5 Babakov – Above Those Rains
#6 Gloss – Gloss Over Art
#7 Steal This- The Duck Call
#8 Plur’l – Rye
Congratulations to Poztman, who is the grand prize winner! :)
Read our interview with Poztman and download the Ableton Live 9 project file of the winning track Crystalline Chant which was kindly provided as a free download by Poztman!
I would also like to congratulate the two runner-ups, Spray and Naiyaah, and everyone else who made it to the Top 8!
And, of course, a huge THANK YOU to everyone who joined in!
Your entries have been great, and narrowing this entire list to just a few favorites has been incredibly hard (at least for me). So much talent and creativity in one place!
I really wish that everyone who joined in could get some prize for their effort. Perhaps the next time we organize something like this!
This has been a lovely experience for me. A dream come true.
I hope that this was just the first music contest of many more to come on 99Sounds. Stay tuned for more free sounds, more challenges like this one, and thank you for being a part of our community!
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UPDATE #2: The results will be announced in approximately one hour. We’re sorry about the delay!
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UPDATE #1: The contest is now officially CLOSED for new entries. You guys have submitted 124 tracks in total, adding up to over 8 hours of music. THANK YOU! It feels great to know that so many tracks have been made with our samples. Voting for our favorite entries will be tons of fun!
During the next 15 days, our team of judges (there are ten of us in total) will be listening to your entries and submitting the votes. During this period, we might contact you on SoundCloud if we have some questions about the samples which were used in your track. PLEASE keep your entries online during the voting period.
We have created a new SoundCloud playlist with all the entries which have been submitted for the contest.
The winners will be announced on this page on December 1st, 2014. Stay tuned!
Your response has been fantastic so far, and we’d like to thank you for that! Join our music contest to put your creativity to the test and for a chance to win some AMAZING prizes in the process!
Official Rules
- Use ONLY the loops and samples available for download on 99Sounds to create a track.
- You ARE allowed to edit and process 99Sounds samples and loops with any sampler instrument (either a hardware device or a virtual instrument) such as Kontakt, HALion, Shortcircuit, etc.
- You ARE allowed to use any DAW and any amount of internal or external effects in your project.
- Feel free to manipulate and process the sounds inside your DAW or an audio editor.
- All music genres are accepted.
Submission method: Upload your finished entry to this SoundCloud group. Only one entry per contestant is allowed. Please format the track title as Artist Name – Track Name (99Sounds Contest).
Submission deadline: The deadline is November 15th. The winners will be officially announced on December 1st on this page.
Judges: The entries will be judged by the sound designers who have previously released sample libraries on 99Sounds. Each of the ten judges will be able to vote for five of their favorite entries. After the voting phase has ended, we will announce the grand prize winner and the two runner-ups on this page.
Hints: You are working with a limited set of sounds here, so you’ll need to change your workflow and think outside of the box.
Feel free to experiment and use these samples in unusual ways. All elements of the track will be considered, including the arrangement, originality, the manner in which the samples were used, as well as the overall quality of the mix.
We are open to all music styles. It doesn’t matter if your track is a dance floor banger, a cinematic masterpiece, or a chilled-out atmospheric tune.
We are simply looking for the best and most exciting track made with 99Sounds sample libraries. Make us proud!
Good luck, and have fun making music!
Prizes: The grand prize winner gets Propellerhead Reason 8, AAS Ultra Analog VA-2, Cableguys Bundle, Sugar Bytes Effectrix, FXpansion Bloom, AudioThing Valve Filter VF-1, Plug & Mix VIP Bundle, a 1-year subscription to AskVideo and an exclusive cinematic sample pack by Joshua Crispin aka Generdyn.
Each of the two runner-ups will receive a copy of the Plug & Mix VIP Bundle and a 6-month subscription to AskVideo.
The eight highest-ranked tracks will be released on an EP and distributed as a free download via 99Sounds.
A huge THANK YOU goes out to the sponsors for providing such amazing prizes! More info about the prizes is available below.
Reason 8 ($399) is your complete music studio in the box, designed to complement your music production workflow perfectly. A legendary music-making workstation that has evolved over the years and changed the world of music production software forever. It is an ever-expandable and freely routable rack of virtual instruments and effects that puts limitless music-making possibilities right at your fingertips.
Plug & Mix VIP Bundle ($249) is the ultimate collection of mixing tools. Featuring over 50 individual audio effects, this huge plugin bundle is a complete toolbox for your daily mixing and sound design needs.
AskVideo.com 1-year Subscription ($199) grants access to over 1782 hours of high-quality video courses about popular creative applications such as Propellerhead Reason 8, Adobe CS, Logic Pro, Final Cut Studio, InDesign, and many more. Stream the available video tutorials online, or download them to your computer or portable device and watch offline.
Ultra Analog VA-2 ($199) is one of the most sought-after virtual analog synthesizers on the market. It is a versatile virtual analog synthesizer with a streamlined interface and a rich factory library with over 600 production-ready sounds. The powerful subtractive synthesis engine is enhanced with a state-of-the-art FX section and unique live performance controls.
Cableguys Bundle ($199) includes the Curve 2 hybrid synthesizer, FilterShaper 3, and VolumeShaper 3 modulation devices, as well as the MidiShaper device for advanced MIDI control. It is a unique bundle of creative tools built around the powerful custom waveform editor, which is the signature feature of all Cableguys plugins.
Effectrix ($129) is a monster multi-effect sequencer with 14 effects that can be triggered by the built-in 32-step sequencer and its 12 sub-patterns. From traditional modulation effects like chorus and phaser to sound mangling tools like time-stretching and stutter, this classic device by Sugar Bytes delivers tons of sound manipulation power in an easy-to-use package.
Bloom ($99) takes the concept of a creative delay effect to a whole new level. Capable of generating anything from lush spacey echoes to psychedelic modulation effects, this is an extremely powerful mixing device and a versatile sound design tool. Use the built-in step sequencer and LFOs to modulate various plugin parameters and add even more movement to your sounds.
Valve Filter VF-1 (€25) is a classic Moog-style ladder filter paired up with a valve circuit that is modeled after the vintage Telefunken ECC83 tubes. Each section can be switched off, so the plugin can operate as a standalone filter effect or a pure tube amp emulation for adding that essential bit of color and warmth to your audio material.
Are you IN? Let us know in the comments section below!
58 Comments
Came here to this contest via Rekkerd.org. Your contest rocks! Free samples (yeah!) and a good challenge. Teister music in progres…
Thanks Thomas, looking forward to your entry!
I think there’s a few songs on the entry list that people have used other sounds and I know there’s one with vocals which I was under the impression that was not permitted.
Hi Royce, sorry for the late reply! No need to worry about that – I am checking the entries every day and I contact the authors if I can’t recognize the sounds which have been used. The tracks which use external sound sources will be removed from the competition.
Well, there’s a couple weeks left so I think I’ll give it a shot. What about sample slicing or just using a piece of a sample, is that allowed? I hear some things in the InterSpace set that I would like to trim up and use as elements of a groove.
Hi Bryan, slicing the samples is perfectly fine. Looking forward to hearing your entry!
We can use samples from one pack or all the packs ?
Like was asked before, we can use a Reaktor instrument that is just a sampler, like Massive, which just plays the sample. I have limited knowledge of it other than just sampling, I don’t think it is graanular synth, but I’m not sure, i just use it don’t pay attention to all that it has.
You can use the samples from ALL sample packs available on 99Sounds.
You can used any basic sampler (subtractive engine).
Hello !
I just noticed nobody asked it, but this may be an interesting question : Are sample-based effects (convolution reverb, vocoders…) allowed or not ? I was thinking about this because convolution reverbs are quite common when producing a track, and since you need impulse responses for these… I guess it depends on what you’re doing with it ?
Also, what is the exact deadline ? Depending on where you live in the world, there can be a little difference, and since I found the contest today, some hours can make the difference for me. And by the way, is there any length limitation for submissions ?
Anyway, this contest is really a great idea. It invites you to tweak the sounds, to see what it’s like to create your sounds from other sounds. And the fact that there is not a lot of melodic sounds (apart from the Bass City) adds some more challenge.
Thank you for this great contest, for your great website, and for all these free samples ! :)
Hi Alexis and sorry for the late reply!
Convolution based effects are allowed.
The contest ends at 23:59 GMT on November 16th (we’ve extended the deadline by 24 hours).
Thank you very much ! I realized later that my question was a bit vague (actually, I didn’t knew how to ask it, I’m not a native english speaker), but you replied. I was indeed thinking about the time zones.
Now that the contest is closed, good luck everyone ! Since there was a lot of interesting tracks, I can’t wait to see the results !
Thanks and good luck! :)
Just uploaded my entry and listened to mostof the other tracks. That’s some amazing stuff, guys and girls! Found a ton of new soundcloud channels worth following. (: Keep it up!
Thanks for joining in!
Were there some vocal samples I missed, because some of the entries have had vocals? I found a couple vocal-like sounds in the sounddesign samples (which I’m going to be using for years, thanks!) and cleared them up as best I could with notch filters and other surgical eq-ing, but if there were straight intelligible vocals hidden in the pack somewhere, I never found them… Either way, amazing competition, and I’ll be contacting you about releasing free sample packs – YOU GUYS ARE THE FUTURE!
~Ramen-Hotep
Hey man, thanks for the kind words!
You’re right, the only sample pack which contains vocals is Sound Design Tools. Entries which contain audio material (such as vocals) which isn’t included in any of the 99Sounds sample libraries will be removed from the contest. I will contact the entrants prior to removal and ask if they’d like to fix their entry and re-submit it.
Very cool samples! Thanks for the samples and thanks for the contest.
Cheers!
What time zone does the contest finish at? How much time is left from now? (At the time of me posting this it is 2:45PM GMT on November 15)
The deadline is extended by roughly 24 hours, so that people from different time zones can submit their entries on time. We will close the SoundCloud group tomorrow (November 16th) at 23:59 GMT.
Thats great news! Gives me some extra time to polish off my track. Its going well so far but now that I have some extra time Im going to make sure to make it great!
Thanks! The samples are very inspirational btw!
Hey,
First of all, those samples you provided are really great and I had a lot of fun working with them, so thanks for that.
I already submitted my track, but it uses IRs from Max 4 Live’s Convolution Reverb Plugin. Are those still within the range of the contest?
Thanks in advance. :)
Absolutely, no need to worry about the convolution reverb. Thanks!