I was contacted today by my crazy German friend TGN (pictured above). It seems his holiday plans for Italy have somehow managed to attract the attention of one of the Mafias over there and he needs our help.

He says they already tried extorting his SP-404MKII from him, but because he put-up such an impressive fight against them, they're prepared to let him live and keep it as long as he passes a series of tests.

The first test is that his next beat battle (that's this one), needs to attract at least six participants, but the second test is that he had to choose someone who had pretty much no chance whatsoever of attracting participants to host it for him, so naturally he chose me!

This battle is therefore being hosted by me at TGN's request. My apologies in advance if the track is not suitable (remembering the previous battle I hosted was a fucking disaster due to the sample I chose), but I've tried to chose wisely in order to maximise the chances of seeing TGN and his SP-404MKII return safely to Germany after his holidays.


MAIN SAMPLE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VWlGl9ldzM

OPTIONAL SECONDARY SAMPLE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pvraq3KfP6w

DRUMS:
Drums from any source are allowed as long as you sample them yourself using your own SP.

ADDITIONAL EQUIPMENT:
Additional equipment is allowed as long as it is used for bouncing purposes only.

RULES:
You are expected to use the main sample as the main source of sound for your beat, and you can (optionally) use snippets of audio from the secondary sample (clean or mangled) to change things up a bit. This could be snippets of dialogue or even sound effects, it is completely up to you.


DEADLINE TO SAVE TGN'S ASS FROM THE MAFIA:
I might as well set the deadline for Monday 8th August which gives you a bit longer than a week due to the login issues on the site.

Sorry about that, I accidentally pasted the wrong link for the Main Sample - fixed now!

I've updated the rules so that use of the secondary sample is optional.

To be honest I didn't initially plan to include a secondary sample at all, but did so last minute just to give you more to work with. That said, I cannot imagine many (if any) of you wanting to sit through a documentary to do that.

So the secondary sample is optional, and I hope TGN appreciates all these carefully considered decisions I am having to make to save him from, well, we all know the score!

Yup, that's the reaction he got when he told them SP-USER will be hosting it for him

By the way, I just wanted to point out to everyone that although you don't have two whole weeks, the battle does span two whole weekends, has a whole week inbetween and even a bit extra, so plenty of time to save TGN!

I think I chose wisely this time (seriously), because the main sample has a whole bunch of isolated and apreggiated chord segments to chop at, guitar chords, string chords and a whole other bunch of nice stuff. So while I do recognise why the previous sample I supplied was not ideal for a beat battle, I honestly reckon this one is way better. I also think it would sound pretty damn awesome with some wow and flutter, filtering etc.

Regards the secondary sample, I regret that choice now. Until last night I hadn't seen that documentary for years, but remembered it as being nicely edited with plenty of atmospheric sound effects thrown in. However, watching it last night it seems the sound effects and atmospheric audio (good as it is), is nearly always covered with dialogue and that's a bummer, so I'm sorry about that. I can't see anyone using the secondary sample even if they participate, but hats of to anyone who gives it a bash!

And so the time has reached half gone
To enter BB Three Four One
Our sample made from way back when
Could save the soul of TGN
But have our homies got the knack
To save a homie getting whacked?
We hold our breath and count on thee
For pretty soon we all shall see

Attached is a video demonstrating the danger TGN is facing unless he has an escape plan, and I do hope he has one since depending on you lot looks like a very bad idea so far!

And there was me thinking y'all beat-makers without limits (oops)

See Link For Message:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMQi0pZY_J8

I reckon Zindan would have knocked out a beat if he were still around.
He could handle something like this no sweat!

Just sayin' ...

https://m.soundcloud.com/ashaxx4/spbb-341

Only had a couple hours free this week but managed to knock this out which Is pretty crappy but best I could manage! Forgot about the exorcism vid, which Id seen already but I reckon there was good material in there to make a beat so wish Idve spent more time making something! With the main sample I found if difficult because as you said theres some nice isolated parts but the melody stays much the same. I think its good material but would work better in combination with something else as the main focus! Not many participants this week!!

Hey asha, quickie or not I thought that was pretty damn good mate, no kidding

Funny really, cause due to the way you produced previous submissions, you were the first person I thought of after deciding on that secondary sample and then later wishing I hadn't. I thought ah well, at least asha will make use of it if he produces a beat.

Even more of a twist is you just made me realise something I hadn't even thought about, and that's tempo. Listening to your track, the first thing that stands out about it as how much faster it sounds than the source material, and you know what, I reckon one reason for the lack of participation is they might be finding it difficult to find a way to (perceptively) speed-up what is a very slow, laid back sample into something along the lines of what you have produced here.

If I'm going to be critical about your track, the only critic I have personally is that I felt it ended just a bit too early. What I mean is that it felt as if you were going for that 'reversed cymbal' cut-off sort of an ending, but that you had cut it off even before the cymbal had finished reversing. Obviously I'm using "reverse cymbal" as an analogy here, but you know what I mean.

But that was bloody nice mate, cheers, and as with the previous battle (chaotic that it was), I got that same sort of pleasure hearing what another person has done with the sample. I absolutely love hearing what people do with tracks that I like, not gonna lie, I get a real kick out of it.

It's educational even, cause like I said, I hadn't even considered just how slow the source sample felt until you demonstrated this perceptive way of speeding it up!

I never set a time of day for the deadline, so this is just a heads up to tell you all it is set for 6:00pm Monday 8th August (UK TIME).

And asha, it doesn't look as if a poll will be needed this time, so if the time is reached and there's no further submisison, you can go ahead and set the next battle. Obviously I will only create a poll thread if there are any further submissions.

It's sad to see such little participation, but some good news at least is that the boys liked asha's submission so much they just released TGN, gave him a thick wad of cash, tapped him on the back and told him to enjoy the rest of his holidays!

Respect

Congrat's on your win asha, and thanks again for participating

ill b back in the arena when I’m back from vacation,,

Deadline, wat dat?

Sorry we killed you TGN.

Did manage to scrape together something as the deadline elapsed, but also broke the rules and added some synth (which probably wasn't worth it in retrospect). Looking forward to Asha's battle.

Thanks for the narrative and sample, SP-USER. Wish I'd had the time to do a bit more for you on this, but the band I'm in had our first post-pandemic gig and I spend most of last week trying to remember how the songs go.

I've said it before, but I like a nice short sample. Mostly because I'm lazy but also because it's cool to see how everyone can start from the same source and take it in all kinds of different directions.

Requiem for TGN: https://soundcloud.com/waywardpressman/the-wayward-pressman-spbb-441

Forgot the gear: 404A and 202 to pitch the sample down. Plus some minilogue. Drums are all TR-8 samples.

Don't worry about TGN, he's off the hook now, in fact the last I heard he was spending time with his fam in some fancy Italian restaurant!

Thanks for the submission, and for what it's worth I actually have no problem with you using a synth, but that's my fault the way I worded it. All I meant was that the effects, compression etc must all be done on your SP so I should have worded it differently to the way I did.

I think I would still have voted for asha on this occasion because I felt his track flowed a bit better, it seemed to fire-along in a more sturdy way if that makes sense, but I still enjoyed hearing your entry and to be honest if you had not mentioned a synthesizer, I'd have been left thinking you achieved that sound using a combination of effects.

Cheers bruh

Had problems logging in again!! Thanks spuser
For your feedback!!! Ashame about the turn out for this one! Im cool with a poll for the 2 of us! If anyone else can log in, see what they suggest!