The RPM Challenge

clique here!

(Monday, 11 February 2008) Written by clique

clique

For background on this project and the gist of how it works, read this post: And then, something cliqued!

This is a rather detailed dissertation on how clique works, and more specifically, how this first incarnation, which will result in an album for the RPM Challenge will work.

If you’d like to get involved and aren’t already on the list, get in touch!

prologue:
This project actually sort of began back in 2000 when I composed a skeletal, base composition with elements of rhythm, tonality, and hints of melody but never heavy-handed in delivering any of them. This piece has been retroactively titled “proto-clique.”

But clique was really started when I handed this over to my long-lost friend Bilian to just add something to it. He handed back a recording on an eponymous DAT tape and wrote “clique” on it for some inexplicable reason. This track has been retroactively titled “clique-clique.”

Fast forward eight years.

what’s next:
I have collected quite a handful of names of willing participants. I will very soon choose two or three daring souls and e-mail links to download either “proto-clique,” “clique-clique” or perhaps a mix of the both tracks. This will be your reference track.

what to do:
When you receive a reference track, you should then lay down a new track of your choosing. It can be anything that you think goes with the track I send you. It can be a single instrument (or voice, sounds, whatever) or a combination of many instruments—as little or as much as you like. It can be one mixed track or it can be separate tracks. It’s completely up to you. You can send it completely dry or loaded up with the effects you like. If you’ve got the savvy to split it into a dry track and a wet, effects-only track, that’d be golden.

NB: It's possible that, unless you specify otherwise, I may further manipulate the tracks you send me by adding extra effects, muting, panning, volume, etc. The only thing I won't do is chop them up and rearange the tracks relative to the other clique tracks. To me, that would break down the integrity of the experiment. But in general, due to the very short time we have left, I expect any such manipulation will be gentle.

how long:
Your track can start at the beginning, start half way through, or even start way earlier than the track I send you. It can end at any point: halfway through, at the end of, or even long after the reference track has ended. Through this process, as you can imagine, the length of the overall conglomeration of clique tracks will grow!

synchronicity:

Make your track such that when lined up with the reference track, at the very beginning, everything’s in perfect sync. If your track doesn’t start till halfway through, then that means there’ll be a lot of silence at the beginning of your track.
If your tracks starts before the reference track, then just give me some instructions on how to best line them up.
If there is a stretch of silence on your track, copy a bit of the reference track onto it. I can sync it up perfectly with that!

prepare it:
Save the file(s) as WAV (or AIFF if need be), at least 16-bit/44.1kHz

send it:
In any of the following ways:

· Upload the file your server and send me a download link.

· Send it to me with Yousendit or some service like that.

· Uploaded it via clique FTP! If you’d like to upload it to my server, just e-mail me for login information

nomenclature:
Give your track a name. Follow the naming-scheme set forth with “proto-clique.” Just take one apt word (or prefix) of your choosing and affix –clique to the end of it. Just make sure your name is unique. The names of others’ clique tracks will show up on the official list here: http://tinyurl.com/yws4uc

If you send me several, unmixed tracks, give each one a different (though possibly related) name. E.g., "slicer-clique," "dicer-clique," and "splicer clique." Or maybe "desert-wet-clique" and "desert-dry-clique."

and after that:
Choose any of the following:

· Get back to work on your own RPM album!

· Have a bowl of ice cream.

· Put your name in again to contribute another clique track, if you dare.

· Imagine me going insane trying to put this wonderful mess together!

the final product:
This first clique will be an album titled clique-i (and if all goes well there might eventually be a clique-ii, -iii, -iv, etc.) I’m not sure if this album will be just a bunch of different mixes or just one or a few long pieces (subdivided into a total of ten tracks for RPM purposes), but I’m considering naming each track by combining the prefix names of each contributing clique track and anagramming a combined title. It seems appropriate. So, for example, mixing “proto-clique” and “clique-clique” together might be called “clique: quilt or cope.”

- John, clique-master