Oh snap. It’s another remix contest! This time, you’ll be remixing my song Frostbite from my Eye of the Storm album, released back in 2011. However, not only will you be getting the material from that original song, but you’ll also get to use material from my brand-new self-remix of Frostbite. Hopefully, this leads to a lot of variety in terms of what you can do with the song.

Here are the songs in question:

Last contest I had, PrototypeRaptor took home the gold prize, and has since gone on to charting on Beatport, becoming the top track on the Hype Machine a couple times, and remixing big name artists like Lucky Date and Camo and Krooked, as well as being signed to a major label or two! If this is the caliber of contestant I get this time, I expect some seriously killer remixes. Bring your A-game, because I can’t wait to hear what you all come up with!

Prizes:

Here’s the deal. I’m a poor college student by day, and this means that I’ve got very little money with which to purchase prizes. However, I pledge that every single bit of money I make off of sales from my albums on Bandcamp between now and the contest deadline will be put toward this cause. Additionally, for every 5 extra likes I receive in that same time fram on my Facebook page, I’ll add an extra dollar’s worth of material (starting at 317 likes, and up to $150 worth of extra money). Stay tuned to this space for more details as they come!

UPDATE on March 15, 2012: The gracious folks over at Soundcloud.com have agreed to donate a Pro account and a Lite account (one year each) to the winner and runner-up, respectively. Thanks, Soundcloud!

UPDATE on April 22, 2012: I’m stopping the prize money counter from my Bandcamp sales, as I’m in a rather tight spot in regards to my car, and I need every bit of money I can get to fix it. Definitely going to keep adding money for likes, though. Also, I’m extending the deadline of the contest! I figured people might be in the same situation as me, needing a bit of extra time to finish up final exams and such for school. If you’re not a student, well, hey, extra time for you!

Extra Prize Money Counter (as of April 22): +$50

First place:

• A spot on an upcoming Flexstyle album
• $50 to spend in the Image-Line Online Store
• 1-year Soundcloud Pro subscription, worth approximately $250 USD

Runner-up:

• $50 to spend in the Image-Line Online Store
• Placement as a bonus track on said Flexstyle album
• 1-year Soundcloud Lite subscription, worth approximately $40 USD

Rules:

• Contest deadline is May 25, 2012, at 11:59 PM Pacific Standard Time
• Winners will be announced within a week of the deadline.
• Prizes will be provided within 60 days of announcing the winners.
• Loops are provided under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial licensing.
• By entering a remix, you (the remixer) officially release me (Flexstyle) from any liability stemming from unlicensed samples. In other words, don’t sample copyrighted works without proper licensing, because it’s your butt that’s gonna get sued if something isn’t right.
• I have the right to use any remix submitted for any purpose I wish, and I do not have to notify you of that use.
• Remixes must be 320 KBPS MP3, submitted to me via my SoundCloud Dropbox. Make sure I can download anything you send!
• You may submit multiple remixes.
• Collaboration is allowed, but artists involved with this practice will need to discuss among themselves how to split the prizes.
• By submitting a remix, you signify that you’re either a legal adult in your place of residence, or that a legal guardian accepts responsibility for your submission.
• I have the right to change anything having to do with this contest at any time without giving notice.
• You can submit a dubstep remix if you like, but I’m VERY PICKY with that genre. You’ll have to REALLY impress me if you go that route, and I’m not wowed by “OMG FILTHY BASSLINE!” Just so you know. I am, however, very partial to drum’n'bass, downtempo, and super-epic trance.

Okay, got that? Good! Download the loop package:

FROSTBITE REMIX PACKAGE

I’ll have more music soon, but you can usually stay updated at my Facebook page (link in sidebar) or on my Soundcloud.

Until next time!

Weird Al – White and Nerdy (Flexstyle Dubstep Remix) by Flexstyle

Now, you may also want a download of it, and since I’m too cheap to pay for a more full-featured version of SoundCloud (for now, unless anyone cares to donate? as if….), I’ve run out of downloads on that site. Never fear! If you right-click this link right here, hit “save as” or “save link as” or something along those lines, you too can have an unholy slice of remixed Weird Al dubstep goodness!

“That’s great,” you may say, “but what about NEW music?”  Unfortunately, I haven’t had a lot of time for that lately. I’m working full-time over the summer, and any spare music-making time I have is usually devoted to remix projects and commissioned work for some independent video game stuff. That’s right, I am indeed working on some game music and sound effects these days! Living the dream, that’s me. Seriously, I’d love to make music for video games on a full-time basis someday, and I’m happy to get started even with the small amount I’m doing right now.  Don’t worry, you’ll hear some new remixes from me soon when I’m at liberty to share ‘em. I’ve got a remix I did for SGX in the pipeline, just waiting for his green light, and there’s this little project called “Double the Trouble,” aka the single biggest remix project every undertaken at OCRemix, that I’m doing all the mastering and gapless playback work for, as well as contributing something close to 10 remixes myself. Ouch.

All that to say that I’m an extremely busy fellow, but not to worry–you’ll be hearing from me as soon as I’ve got new music ready to showcase. Count on it!

Until next time!

Here are all the remixes from the Weeping Clouds contest. No downloads available, as I need to (potentially) include this stuff on my album, too. However, if you look around, a lot of these mixes are available to download on their respective artists’ SoundCloud pages or whatever. If your mix isn’t included on this page, and you think it should be, please contact me and I’ll do my best to fix it. Winners, I’ll be contacting you very shortly to get you your prizes. Thanks again to everyone!

Winner / Runners-Up:

PrototypeRaptor remix (1st place)

When PR submitted this track towards the beginning of the contest, I knew I had something special. This is the remix that delivered the most complete package to me–it’s really well arranged, the production values are very high, there’s a great dose of originality, and yet the source material is represented well. The song flows well, and–to be honest–is better than the original in many ways. Congratulations to PrototypeRaptor for winning the Flexstyle feat. Hollidayrain – Weeping Clouds remix contest! PR will get a spot on both versions of my upcoming album, “Eye of the Storm,” due for release in January 2011, as well as my entire discography in digital form. He’ll also receive Wusik Station and Wusik EVE VSTi plugins, courtesy of Wusik.com.

Moar remix (2nd place)

Honestly, I had a tough time deciding between this and the winning track. I felt that this track could have been a little more effective in “energy management,” which is to say I kept expecting a massive punch in the face the entire time. Regardless, it’s a very creative take with very high production values, and I think it would make a fantastic DnB set opener. Oh, and that bass is just TASTY. Plus, the tempo conversion was executed cleanly, which is always a good thing. I have no qualms about selecting this as the second-place finisher in this contest, and rewarding Moar with a spot on the deluxe version of “Eye of the Storm,” as well as my entire discography in digital form and the Wusik Station and Wusik Eve VSTi plugins from Wusik.com.

Loopkitchen remix (3rd place)

This is probably the single most creative remix I got, as Loopkitchen took the source and COMPLETELY flipped it around. Instead of a thumping dance number, he turned it into a solid, spacey chillout track. While I happen to be a person who believes in a God who created the world in six literal days, and therefore do not endorse the Carl Sagan quote he stuck into the mix, that doesn’t change the fact that this is a very imaginative, well-produced track, which I simply cannot let go without a reward. Loopkitchen will receive a spot on the deluxe edition of “Eye of the Storm,” as well as my entire discography in digital form.

Honorable Mentions:

(in no particular order)

Alex Maynard remix

A hard trance remix of Weeping Clouds was unexpected, but this was a good track here. I personally really dug the bassline here–raucous and full of attitude. The arrangement wasn’t terribly innovative, keeping mostly the same structure as the song, but still very enjoyable. Plus, extra bonus points for changing the key and tempo of the song. I’d play this at a rave in a heartbeat.

ConDem remix

The lone psytrance-esque entry in the contest, I dug the fact that it was in fact a good translation of prog trance/house to psy. While not the most creative arrangement, the production values were clean and the soundset used was trippy and acidic, just like a good psytrance song should have. Very enjoyable.

Beast remix

This track is just bursting at the seams with energy, and could have been an even more serious contender with some mix and mastering cleanup. I dug the bassline, as well as the arena-style breakdown. Nice effects on the pads with the stuttering and scratching–I dig! I wish this had been a cleaner mix, but it’s still very enjoyable as it stands.

Ams remix

To be honest, this mix was a little bit uninteresting for a while…until that piano hit. Oh my goodness. That piano is gorgeous. For that reason alone, I have to put this track in the honorable mentions category. Good work.

Stargame remix

This was the first entry I received in the contest, and from probably the single most enthusiastic contestant in this whole deal, too, haha. Stargame quickly came out with a very musical, very enjoyable trancey remix of Weeping Clouds. While the production values aren’t the single highest ever, it’s still a very melodic, well-arranged track, which I can still safely endorse as being highly pleasing to the ears.

Oykun remix

While this remix isn’t the single most crisp track I received, it’s got a very beautiful, melodic quality to it. A successful conversion of prog house/trance to melodic, uplifting trance is what this is, and (being a sucker for an uplifting track), I thoroughly enjoyed this entry.

Everything else:

Aaron Prime remix

Adam Tyler remix

Alpha remix

A.n3gro & Spark Lez remix

Ash remix

Churpenstein remix

Cubosity remix

Daji Screw remix

Disco Mike remix

Djalil remix

DJ EndroO remix

DJ Exception remix

DJ Garffi3 remix

DJ Mastermonkey remix

DJ Pipes remix

Durt Grizzly remix

Dynamonster remix

Ebudae remix

Giomi Casu remix

Jericho Ismael remix

Joel T remix

Joey Marcello remix

Kelby Clark remix

Kohlensaur remix

Le Penseur remix

LG remix

Liam Broad remix

Ma5haria remix

Malxist remix 1

Malxist remix 2

Manymore remix

Mattia Bruno remix

Michael Fearon remix

Moran remix

Nikos P remix

Project Leam remix

Sava Boric remix

Spellz remix

Stereopole remix

Stereo Republic remix

Techno Bears remix

The Opensky remix

I’ll be announcing the winners/runners-up soon, as well as posting every entry I received. Stay tuned! I should have ‘em up over the weekend.

Download here (right-click and save-as).

Flexstyle – Weeping Clouds feat. Hollidayrain (Original Mix) by Flexstyle

Details:

- Entries are due by December 18, 2010, at 11:59 PM MST

- Loops and MIDIs from this contest are released to you under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

- Multiple remix attempts are permitted and even encouraged!

- Remixes must be submitted as 320kbps MP3s – the winning remixers will be asked to send uncompressed versions of their respective tracks.

- Send a link to your remix(es) to me at music -at- flexstyle music -dot- com. Soundcloud.com is a great place to upload, but make sure people are allowed to download what you upload.

- Keep all remixes PG-rated. I don’t think this will be a problem, but absolutely nothing “objectionable” in the remix.

- Collaborations are permitted. I’ll let the collaborators decide how to split the prizes.

- I reserve the right to change any aspect of the contest at any time. I don’t think this will happen in any sort of dramatic fashion (maybe more prizes or something?) but I have to cover my bases.

- By submitting a remix, you are authorizing me to use it in any way I see fit.

- Have fun, doggonnit!

That’s all well and good, you say, but what about prizes? Prizes include the following:

- Inclusion on upcoming Flexstyle album “Eye of the Storm,” due for release in January 2010 (1st place)

- Inclusion as a bonus track on the deluxe edition of “Eye of the Storm” (2nd and 3rd place)

- Entire Flexstyle discography in file format of your choice (1st, 2nd, and 3rd place)

- Wusik Station and Wusik EVE VSTi plugins, donated by Wusik.com and valued at $80 USD each (1st and 2nd place)

DOWNLOAD THE REMIX PACK BY CLICKING HERE!

This week’s 8pack, “Why Question Mark,” kinda sucked, at least for a heavily electronica-focused musician like me. The drums were garbage, and there weren’t any nice long single-note stretches for me to mangle. This is what I’ve come up with, though, and I think it’s got some merit. I actually only used a few samples from the pack….and I bet nobody can guess which ones they were! (okay, the drums should be easy enough, but the melodics?)

This song is called “I Hate the Status Quo,” and you can play it here:

Download (right-click and “save as”)