Jump:		Tracks Rules That Incessant 4/4 Kick Submissions CD Info Welcome		Updates
				2000 Oct 21 14:07 EDT Updated various portions of the page to reflect the terminal nature of the project, especially CD Info since the CD never happened. 1999 Nov 09 19:22 EST ICQ99b (ricky) added. 1999 Nov 02 15:25 EST Starship 69 (Ton Rückert) updated. 1999 Oct 31 11:26 EST Deadline for contributions has now been set at Friday, November 12, 1999. 1999 Oct 31 11:06 EST calling home [e t's mix] (groggy) added. 1999 Oct 12 17:03 EDT A Quicky in 4/4 (Wim Prest) added. 1999 Sept 16 19:32 EDT TI44KNightmare (function 29) added. 1999 Sept 10 13:01 EDT That Incessant 4/4 Kick (Master Zap) added. Closer (Peter Hageus) updated. 1999 Sept 09 23:43 EDT Minor graphic updates. 1999 Sept 09 20:50 EDT Starship 69 (Ton Rückert) updated. 1999 Sept 09 10:38 EDT Tourist (Bram Bos) added. 1999 Sept 08 11:45 EDT Closer (Peter Hageus) added. 1999 Sept 07 16:17 EDT Provided a link to the Caliban/Master Zap debate on the Stomper mailing list that set off this project. Thanks for pointing it out, Master Zap! 1999 Sept 07 12:13 EDT Atrophy (TI44K remix) (Malhavok) added. 1999 Sept 06 14:17 EDT A slight case of tweaking colours. 1999 Sept 06 12:06 EDT Starship 69 demo (Ton Rückert) and an alternate RCY/RB track Protection posted. 1999 Sept 05 18:29 EDT Twang (Transistor Six) posted. 1999 Sept 05 13:03 EDT Added this update section and the jump links to the left. Posted info on the CD that will hopefully eventually come out of this project. 1999 Sept 04 Page created. Charlie Don't Dance (Caliban Tiresias Darklock) and The Other Side Of Zen (R. Cliff Young/Rogue Bard) posted.

Welcome to That Incessant 4/4 Kick Project. This is a rather silly exercise in seeing just what sort of music the members of the Stomper mailing list can come up with when it must be built around "That Incessant 4/4 Kick" (Caliban's words). It all stems from a debate between Caliban and Master Zap on the Stomper mailing list that blossomed under the rather innocuous subject line of "Instrument panning".

If you'd like to participate, download That Incessant 4/4 Kick below, read the rules below, and go make music! Any music! Techno! Opera! Drum n' Bass! Country! Heavy Metal! New Age! Folk! As long as it goes boom boom boom boom!

The deadline for contributions is now set at Friday, November 12, 1999 (which has of course passed).

[top]
The object is to produce a track using whatever tools and instruments at your disposal, with four (4) conditions:

1. You must utilize That Incessant 4/4 Kick, as it appears below, throughout your entire track, at a constant, audible volume relative to the rest of your mix. A suggested volume is -5.0dB. That should give you plenty of room for the rest of your mix without drowning That Incessant 4/4 Kick.
2. That Incessant 4/4 Kick must be 120bpm within your track. That Incessant 4/4 Kick must appear immediately at the start of your track (0m0s), and the final kick must exactly 0.5 seconds before the end of your track*.
3. You must not process, filter, or otherwise mangle That Incessant 4/4 Kick beyond recognition. You are allowed to do some internal tweaking of the kick as long as the track begins and ends with the "clean" original sound of That Incessant 4/4 Kick.
4. Your track must be your track. This also means that if you wish to be eligible for eventual production of a CD, and you use samples, those samples must be cleared for your use.

[top]
That Incessant 4/4 Kick was rendered 1024% in Little Drummer Boy from a stock Stomper kick drum. Thanks to Master Zap's precision software, the rendering of the complex waveform defining That Incessant 4/4 Kick, ordinarily a process that would take months to complete, instead only took several hours.

That Incessant 4/4 Kick is available as follows:

• Little Drummer Boy sequence [1KB .zip]
• WAV file [173KB]

[top]
The following tracks have been submitted to That Incessant 4/4 Kick Project in conformance with the above rules:

		Track		Format		Artist
		ICQ99b [2:09] [posted 1999 Nov 09 19:22 EST]		MP3 [1.97MB] Play/Save		ricky WWW: GO
		calling home [e t's mix] [2:18] [posted 1999 Oct 31 11:06 EST]		MP3 [2.10MB] Play/Save		eric "groggy" aili WWW: groggy
		A Quicky in 4/4 [1:18] [posted 1999 Oct 12 17:03 EDT]		MP3 [1.19MB] Play/Save RealAudio [32kbps] Play		Wim Prest
		TI44KNightmare [4:01] [posted 1999 Sept 16 19:32 EDT]		MP3 [3.67MB] Play/Save		function 29 (Matt Walters) WWW: function 29
		That Incessant 4/4 Kick [7:41] w/ tongue in cheek [posted 1999 Sept 10 13:00 EDT]		MP3 [5.28MB] Play/Save		Master Zap WWW: Master Zap
		Tourist [4:20] [posted 1999 Sept 09 10:38 EDT]		MP3 [3.47MB] Play/Save		Bram Bos
		Closer [2:44] It's some sort of spacetechno with guitar, vocoder and distorted vocals. [updated 1999 Sept 10 12:56 EDT]		MP3 [2.5MB] Play/Save		Peter Hageus WWW: Peter Hageus
		Atrophy (TI44K remix) [3:35] It's all guitars and drums. [posted 1999 Sept 07 12:00 EDT]		MP3 [3.27MB] Play/Save RealAudio [20kbps] Play		Malhavok (Ben R Vesco) WWW: Malhavok
		Starship 69 [5:03] Space Chamber Disco [updated 1999 Nov 02 15:25 EST]		MP3 [4.04MB] Play/Save		Ton Rückert WWW: FLESH
		Twang [2:38] "one for all you Shadows and Ventures fans out there..." [posted 1999 Sept 05 18:29 EDT]		MP3 [2.41MB] Play/Save		Transistor Six (Frances Castle) WWW: Transistor Six
		Charlie Don't Dance [3:12] Song Story [updated 1999 Sept 04 17:33 EDT]		MP3 [2.93MB] Play/Save		Caliban Tiresias Darklock WWW: Darklock Communications
		The Other Side Of Zen [4:00] A mix of Native American and Eastern music. [updated 1999 Sept 04 16:11 EDT]		MP3 [3.65MB] Play/Save RealAudio [32kbps] Play		R. Cliff Young/Rogue Bard WWW: Rogue Bard
		Protection [5:00] A mix of ambient and speedmetal. Seriously. Well, kinda sorta. :) (This is an alternate RCY/RB track just for your listening [dis]pleasure.) [posted 1999 Sept 06 12:06 EDT]		MP3 [4.58MB] Play/Save RealAudio [32kbps] Play		R. Cliff Young/Rogue Bard WWW: Rogue Bard

[top]
To submit a track to That Incessant 4/4 Kick Project, simply email a working URL pointing to your track elsewhere on the web, along with the info you'd like to appear under Track and Artist (including URL links if desired), to nukenin@roguebard.com. Please try to submit your attachment in at least one of the following formats:

• MPEG Audio Layer 3 (MP3), 128kbps or less
  • [128kbps 44.1kHz 16-bit stereo MP3 file recommended for eventual mp3.com D.A.M. CD compilation]
• RealAudio 3.0/5.0, 128kbps or less

The deadline for contributions is now set at Friday, November 12, 1999 (which has of course passed).

(You can also email your track as an attachment [I do have the bandwidth to handle 3-5MB attachments], but a simple URL is preferable.)

[top]
Update 2000 Oct 21: Well, obviously the CD never happened; I just didn't have the time for it at the time, and now it seems a bit late. :) I am maintaining this web page to serve as a lasting home for the contributions that were received--just pretend it's round with a little hole in the middle and fits into your CD player. [top]

The old ambitious CD plan: Once enough submissions have been received, I'll create a CD, with artwork, HTML content, etc. This is scheduled to happen the weekend of Nov 12-14, 1999, so if you plan on contributing, I will need to have your track by Friday, November 12, 1999.

Each contributor to the project will receive one copy of the CD. Further, once the CD is available, I will announce it to the Stomper list, and ask if anyone else would like a copy. 10 lucky Stompists drawn at random from the thousands ;) who will respond will also receive the CD:

• Hand-crafted, burnt to black CD-R media (extra cool factor).
• Free.
• Mailed at my expense to wherever you are in the world.

After that, the songs will then be posted to MP3.com and made available as a D.A.M. CD for others interested in the material. Any income generated from D.A.M. sales can be put towards a charity or the like (maybe the Red Cross International Response Fund, similar to TERC), to prevent an endless debate as to how to divvy up the loot between all CD contributors. ;) [top]

*Note: Please note that your MP3 or RealAudio encoder may mangle the start beat or the ending of your song, or worse. Try to use another encoder to get around it if possible; otherwise we will just have to live with these little "glitches". For example, my track, The Other Side Of Zen, did not fare too well with Xing's MP3 encoder--XingMP3 mangled the very first kick! (Made it sound more like "bloop" than "boom"!) So I encoded straight from ACID Pro--but the .MP3 ACID produced was approximately 2 beats (one second) too short! D'oh!

Page Design/Content ©1999,2000 R. Cliff Young/Rogue Bard (all tracks listed are copyright their respective artists unless otherwise indicated) [top] -- [page last updated 2000 Oct 21 14:07 EDT]

/\/