Theorically, no.
However if it helps building better tracks, I exceptionnaly allow participants to add just one personnal sample of 10 seconds max.
Noted.
Sample or recording? IE does it have to be recorded (live) during the tracking session of this song? Which makes more sense with the initial request of being able to add vocals (although the recording of any instrument accompaniment could be nice) or any sample from anywhere?
From your wording I have currently rewritten the rules in first post as it being any sample.
You can of course record your sample “live” (I thought about a good “punch line” for example), OR add a sample from anywhere, but it has to be un-copyrighted.
I realized i’m not very good with pad sounds, do you have any good tips to offer?
I’ve trashed everything i’ve got so far, but i’m not giving up. I guess i just need the right inspiration. 
So far i’ve tried to render some pad sounds and they sound ok, but i don’t really know all i’m doing or what i should aim for.
Sorry if it wasn’t clear but the round wasn’t necessarily meant to be about using pad sounds, just sounds produced with the PadSynth tool. Which, with it’s Unison and some tuning plus filters and distorion I’m sure can be just (or at least almost) as good for basses and leads as for evolving pads.
Also can’t give any tips as haven’t had time to play with the tool. The thread for it in the first post may prove useful though, no?
Hey The Bellows !
What’s interesting in this round is the notion of contrast.
A pad is a slowly evolving soundscape. In fact to obtain a pad you have to start from a synth sound, but apply some effects on it.
You can use cheesy phasers and lots of delayed stereo filters on it (maybe the multitap could help) for example.
Example.
On the top of it, imagine that you mix very centered & distorted & quick & intense break beats. I think I’ll start with something approaching the 256 BPM / 8 - 10 LPB.
This contrast bteween the softness of a pad, and the brutal breakbeats, should be a good start.
It’s up to you to add lots of effects, stustustuttering fx, granular rererepeaters, robotic plates, drops & bandpass on some rythmic parts.
Renoise is so good at it.
Exploiting this initial contrast could also be done with very different instruments.
For example : create 3 instruments : a very low sub bass, plus a more raw or acid bass (located in the mid frequencies), then a very high lead.
When you’ve finished to build your bass/lead lines, find a “vocal punch line” :
example of a punch line… heeeeee :
"people who are surgically rebuilding their faces,
forget all the time to rebuild their brains"
(Remember, 10 seconds max)
… then you slice every word of your punch line and you insert it in your breakbeat structure at key moments.
It could take you approximatively 4 hours max.
I’ve heard about this Renoise stuff, is it any good? 
In PadSynth, if you set the spread bandwidth or growth to low values, you should be able to produce non-pad sounds. Also you can play with the placement methods (with high amount) to obtain bell-like sounds, or just dissonances.
Also, you can set the various enveloppes (volume, cut-off, and so on) in instrument settings, PadSynth never overwrite them.
Atte has released a great pack of presetsfor PadSynth, maybe you could take a look at it and see how the sounds are made.
we can all thank atte for those cool presets, trying them is a good way to properly start tracking for this round
I’m starting to feel a bit stupid here, but how do i load the presets for the padsynth?
Load them like normal renoise instruments, then right-click on them in the instrument list and open with PadSynth.
Haha, i just realized the file was compressed twice, no wonder why i couldn’t get this preset thingy working. 
All i got was this noise file, which was kinda kewl, so i played around with it a bit.
Now they look like normal instruments. 
Man I wish I had time for this comp. I’ve been playing with padsynth a lot lately and found that it is just about the most pleasing digital oscillator I have ever heard.
I’m really excited about this comp. This will be the first one that I actually submit to. Even though my work will probably only be a minute and a half.
I do have a question though. What time is the comp due in pacific time?
okay I’m starting to track as fast as I can, let’s roll 
.
f… since I’ve watched a political show on my tv 
and I couldn’t finish my track before minight…
nevermind it’s finished now, I’m sending the entry to kazakore via PM
as usual, good luck to the other participants ! 
I’m sad to say that i’m off to work now and i don’t have a track ready…
noooo ! don’t say that ! 
Hmm, if i hurry up maybe i can squeeze something in without kazakore notices.
I have a track under construction, but i haven’t even gotten to the breaks yet…
Sorry guys, taken me longer to get back to reality after FrenchTek. My flat was still invaded by half a dozen recovering revellers until quite late last night so not even a chance to look on here or download people’s entries.
I am off to work in half an hour now and don’t finish until 11pm tonight. I will see if I can get the pack done while getting ready for work but that will be pushing things…