Remix Queen

No, that's not my nickname, but rather a way of telling you that Talenthouse and Queen have announced a remix competition. Stems for the Queen track "Don't Stop Me Now" are now available for your remixing pleasure. Deadline is December 13 and prizes include a $1000 Pro Tools rig, studio time at Metropolis Mastering, and more. For more info, check out the Talenthouse website.

[via Sonicstate]

Beatport Announces Erasure Remix Contest

Ever wanted to have a crack at remixing synth-pop legends Erasure? Beatport is now offering that opportunity (for a price) and is offering prizes from Native Instruments, Novation, Elektron, iZotope, and more. You can download the stems for $3.99 and remix them to your heart's content. Submissions are accepted from October 25th to November 7th, and the public will then vote for their favorite remixes between November 8th and 22nd.

How do you all feel about paying to download stems to remix? I have kind of mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, back in the 80's and 90's, I probably would've paid many times the asking price for access to the isolated tracks from my favorite bands, but in the present climate the music industry is in, it seems a bit odd to me for some reason.

Hiss and Roar Releases Free Version of Tortured Piano Library, Announces Contest

Hiss and Roar, the sample developer arm of the excellent Music of Sound blog, has released a free version of their recently-released Tortured Piano library. The free library consists of 45 stereo 16-bit/44.1k WAV samples and is available here (where, incidentally, you'll find a number of other cool and unusual free samples).

If you find yourself feeling inspired by what you download, they're also running a contest. Impress them with what you do with the free samples and you could win a full copy of the library. Here's the rules as outlined on Music on Sound...

" 1. The only source material must be from the TORTURED PIANO FREE library. You can obviously manipulate and process them in any way you like, but no other sound sources are allowed (eg other samples, instruments, recordings etc)

2. Upload your finished entry to Soundcloud and add a comment below with a link to it

3. Submissions must be uploaded & a comment added here BEFORE Monday 8th August

There will be three winners and each winner will receive a free copy of the full 192kHz 7GB Tortured Piano library. I have no idea what criteria I’ll use when listening and choosing, because I am totally open to what might be created…. Surprise me!"

Juno Reactor Remix Contest

Metropolis Records (the label I'm signed to) has announced a remix contest for Juno Reactor's "Zwara". The winner will not only have their remix included on an upcoming Juno Reactor remix album, but will receive a hardware synth (which one is not specified from what I can tell). You can have a look at the rules here, and register to enter here. Good luck!