Music Forums

Hey everyone,

It would be great to really start getting everyone on ProCollabs involved in a project, and this is exactly what Layers, a new project I have just started,  is meant to do.

https://www.procollabs.com/project/1326

I originally wanted to have a go at trying to beat the Guinness World Record for the most musicians on a single track, but I looked it up and this it what is currently says:

"The most instruments used in a piece of music was 315 and was achieved by Rupam Sarmah (India) and his team, performing a symphony composed and directed by Rupam Sarmah at Jorhat Sports Complex, Assam, India, on 24 February 2013. The number of different instruments used was 315, however the total number of instruments used (including duplications) was 370, plus 106 vocalists, making a grand total of 476 musicians who performed the symphony which lasted for just over half an hour."

So the way I look at it, that is just the amount of instruments, we need to try and set a record for the most amount of Collaborators - people actually contributing a creative piece towards one singular piece of music.

So I am looking for as many of you as possible to get involved.

It's really simple: I have recorded an 8 bar foundation and this will be the basis for a loop upon which we add as many layers as we can. I'm sure you all know what a loop is, but just in case, we will repeat these 8 bars and each time they repeat they will have another layer of more sounds so it gradually builds up.

So for example, we start with the basic 8 bar piece I’ve done, then we repeat it and someone adds a synth, and someone else a piano, then we repeat that and we add some chords, bagpipes, drums etc, then we repeat again and add more layers, but we may remove some parts to give it a different feel so the bagpipes might get taken out, for example, and we keep looping until we have used everyone’s contributions. If everyone just adds something that sits with the base 8 bar foundation I’ll put it all together. - just load a .wav of your contribution. We can have multiple variants of instruments because we use each one for at least 8 bars then change to another one.

What I would like is for as many of you as possible to add a layer, or layers or even just a recorded sound of some sort. This can be an instrument, a vocal, a spoken word, a recorded sound, anything as long as you create it.

This will be great to get us all working together and something a bit different..............

If you have any questions just ask below, or PM me.

Please join in and let's see if we can create a World Record......... well as least try and have some fun in the process :)

Every audition will be accepted and used.

I'll keep the project open until Oct 13th and then I will start to create the final looped track.

In order to be able to actually finish this piece, I am using a Creative Commons agreement which means if you upload a piece of music then it can be used in the final mix. It just avoids having to get everyone to sign off before we can finish the track. Of course everyone will be able to make suggestions and comment or even have a go at their own version of the final loop - then we could choose the one we want to be the final version.

This is meant to be something to get us all collaborating together, a bit social and a bit of a challenge at the same time, so please join in :)

If you are interested the chords for the loop are:

Dm add9 | Bb maj7 #9 | C7 add11 | Dm add9 | F maj7 / 6 | Bb maj7 #9 | C7 add11 | Dm add9 

But you can use the base Major and Minor chords they will work fine.

Awesome. Though, those chords exclude me from the project already. That's for the jaaaazz people haha. Why can't we use C F and G instead? Noooo, only joking, at least I can contribute a bass drum :)

Really looking forward to hearing this pile up!!  

I know, sorry I was just trying to get a bit of an atmospheric sound......... and I used open strings in places - you can just use the base major and minor chords, they’ll work absolutely fine :)

Haha. Just messing wi'cha. I have a chord book :)

I’m not completely sure Drew, as there doesn’t seem to be anyone holding that particular record, or at least I haven’t found it. There’s one for the most credits on a track which is over 1,000, but that was when a German band invited their fans to be credited, they didn’t actually write anything. I’m thinking the amount of musicians who actually ‘write’ something.

I think we should do it and then enter - they’ll soon tell us either way, but I reckon we’ll need quite a few to even think about it (100+ maybe)...........

The main point is really to try and get us all joining in and collaborating in a way that’s very easy, and everyone on ProCollabs is invited, all their parts will be used so there’s no chance of rejection and hopefully we can get a conversation going as well.

You never know we may just set a record along the way but if we don’t then hopefully we will get to meet and hear a lot of new collaborators :)

We’ve got five layers now, so we’re definitely moving in the right direction - come on all you other piano, synths, drum, bass, spoken word, vocalist, violinist, cellists, trumpets, saxaphone, guitarists, soundscape producers - I know you’re out there and it would be great if you join in - even if you just get involved in the conversation - recommend, suggest, or even just raise your hands :-)

Hey Paul,

That's great, thanks for joining in and I'm looking foward to hearing what you do.

They are really good questions, let me try and answer them:

I don't think we should limit the amount of auditions but that is mainly because I am hoping that I can just layer up multiple instruments into loops - but you are right it could end up quite long but that would be a nice problem to have. We may have to adapt the loop as we go, in that we may add and remove instruments which would enable a series of hooks, themes etc (as you mention below).

You can do as many versions as you want and they could be multiple layers or single layers, it's up to you and yes, a solo that goes over multiple loops would be good to create a point of interest - all I can say is just go for it, let's see what we get and what we can do with it all - bit of an experimental approach in that we will find out what it is like once we get all the pieces we have to work with :)

My simple intepretation of instrument is anything that can be recorded - so yes Gibson, Fender, Taylor, Martin, Spoon, Running Water etc etc - I may live to regret the "no boundaries" approach but I'd love people to get creative.

Yes that is the goal, although I would say it is more a diverse set of sounds rather than the specific instrument that is used to record it. So that way we could have 10 guitar parts as long as they all add something.

The main idea is to get everyone joining in and collaborating - hope this makes sense and let me know if it doesn't or if you have anymore thoughts :)

Thanks,

Steve