Time for another Mutant Break Competition? Why not, life is short and they are fun!
Save The Space:
Back in the day computer memory and storage space were at a premium. It has been said that limitation breeds creativity. Let’s put that to the test and make a track with limited sample memory available. In honor of the mighty floppy disk HD, that limit has been set at 1440KiloByte. Use Martblek’s free Low Resource Tool to measure your sample usage. See both the rules and instructions down below for more details.
Competition starts: Now
Competition ends: Sunday February 4th, 2024 Sunday February 11th, 2024 Hawaii Standard Time.
Voting starts: Monday February 12th, 2024 Hawaii Standard Time.
Voting ends: Monday February 26st, 2024 Hawaii Standard Time.
Prizes:
Free custom t-shirt for the winner.
I will also award a t-shirt to whoever impresses me the most when it comes to squeezing the most out of samples without relying on single cycle wave forms.
Only 1 shirt per person. Shipped wherever it can be legally shipped to, free of charge. Winner is responsible for any import duties and custom fees.
Design subject to change.
Rules:
- Use Martblek’s free Low Resource Tool to measure your sample usage.
- Select the IMB PC 3.5" HD preset or manually set your sample limit to 1440KiloBytes.
- No external effects. If you want that sound, bake into your sample.
- Samples only, no VST instruments. Yes, you are allowed sample VSTs or external gear.
- Must be between 3 and 6 minutes long.
- Your XRNS file must be shared publicly.
Your sample usages cannot exceed more than 100% of 1440 kilobytes as measured by Marblek’s Low Resource tool. That tool’s measurement is judge, jury & executioner.
Please include a SoundCloud link of your track for listening convenience.
Judging Criteria:
Your favourite track p1 +7 points.
Your favourite track p2 +5 points.
Your favourite track p3 +3 points.
Best mix +5 points (can be different from your favorite track).
Bonus points:
1 Less than 3 single cycle waveforms. +3 points.
2 Only using full samples longer than 3 seconds and no single cycle waveforms. +7 points
Single single shot samples are fine.
3 Writing a review for all submitted tracks. +10 points.
Instructions:
Download Martblek’s free Low Resource Tool here.
Install it by dragging and dropping into Renoise. It should then be available in the Tools menu.
Once opened, select the IBM PC 3.5" HD preset or manually limit it to 1440kb
Use the toggle button to display your current sample usage. Shown in the left hand corner, next to the Hide/Show Track DSP pane and Hide/Show Track automation editor pane.
Martblek’s Low Resource tool is totally free.If you can afford it and feel so inclined please consider paying Martblek a small amount for it as a way to say “thanks for making the tools”.
Special thanks:
@martblek for making the low resource tool. Without it this competition would not be possible. 
@onyme your thread sparked the idea for this competition.
@slujr for the encouragement to set up this competition.
Single Cycle Waveforms:
Adventure Kid’s Single Cycle Wave forms (free/donationware)
Hand draw in Renoise’s sampler. (free)
Martblek’s Harmonio (paid)
Martblek’s Macuilxochitl (paid)
Padsynth (Renoise tool) (free)
Ryukau’s OneCycleWaveform (free). Check out the other Ryukau generators as well (free).
