hello! this year's advent calendar draws ever nearer...! the EIGHTH ANNUAL wow

if you haven't been around for one of these before, it's a series of "24 hour battles" with their own bitpacks and formats - every day a new surprise - that runs from December 1st through 24th. it's a huge BotB event every year, and my personal favorite! I'm happy to be co-hosting again this year with kleeder. read moar on teh lyceum!

one of the things we like to do is incorporate community suggestions into the battle! we just had a format suggestion thread last month, and now it's time for bitpacks! this suggestion box will be open for the month of October! really anything goes in terms of suggestions; there's always some number of wintry-themed bitpacks but it is by no means a requirement. just post cool bitpack ideas of any kind here. additionally you can send in SAMPLES (DM me/kleeder on discord) and I will try my best to ensure they all get used in packs for whatever sample-based formats we end up doing this year.

there is no guarantee that every single suggestion makes it in, but we do our best to draw what we can from what you guys come up with! drop a liek on the ideas you'd enjoy! maybe if a lot of people like the sound of it, it'll be more likely to happen? ;)

get hype!?!? last year's battle had 712 entries!!!

it would be appreciated if bitpack ideas are format-independend. if people post bitpacks for specific formats, we usually ignore it when creating the schedule and just assign a random other format to the bitpack. ;)

Doubling down on kleeder's comment, if you submit a bitpack with a specific format in mind there's a 90% chance it will be used in a completely different format for maximum cosmic hilarity. It happened to me like 3-4 times last year and I have since learned my lesson.

yukon cornelius theme, pickaxe clinking, dogs yapping, "GOOLLLD!!," etc. Maybe some musical samples from the "Silver and Gold" song

module file incoming

@icrawfish+@kleeder vividly remember the lunar magic -> doom

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_cat

I feel like making a song or something themed around the concept of this article would be kind of interesting (for a quick summary, it's basically the idea of genetically engineering cats to change color around radiation and spreading folk tales about it so distant future generations know to avoid radioactive waste and such).

sure I'm gonna find a small selection of samples to turn in after a few days
apart from that I'll just brainstorm things out until I reach seven

⚇ friendly ghosts among a dense forest

◒ fish swimming in the sky or in space

☣ survival horror ambiance / mystery paranormal scene

☕ save room music

☁ only field recordings

◌ stanford torus (that rotating ring-shaped space habitat thingy .. or just teh SPACE DONUT)

☔ dreampunk? (I think this could be an interesting major on its own... so.. I'll have another one!!)

☄ eldritch / cosmic (horror optional) theme - when the stars are .. right?

Prompt: You've heard of Elf on the Shelf, now get ready for... (something that rhymes)

I'm a little shit and have been too lazy to participate in the advent calendars, but have we done a bitpack based on an actual advent calendar? like a drawing of a wonky little chocolate dude or a song that has TWENTY FOUR discrete sections

ALSO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atlGoXHWY3I
this video is more culturally relevant than any christmas song

--The Gardener--
The Gardener

is a painting made by the Renaissance painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo. It is a bit special as what looks like vegetables in a bowl is actually a face when you flip the painting upside down!

Like Arcimboldo, create a song that can be played both forward and backward. For the MP3 render, you will have to upload the "forward" version of your song, immediately followed by the "backward" version. If your music making tool doesn't handle samples, you can export a "forward" version and create the MP3 render using tools like Tenacity or Audacity.

[Alternative version for graphic formats]
Make a drawing, photo, pixel art, etc... that can be observed both the right way up and upside down!

Three snowmen walk into a bar…

Look at your first ever XHB score. Write a new song that is exactly that many bars/measures in length. If you scored a 15.6, write a song with exactly 15 bars.

If you have never participated in an XHB, pick a random botbr and look at their first XHB score.

Theme: noob celebration

1
Close your eyes and listen. Listen to everything you can. Try to notice every little detail, even the smallest noises. Then imagine what you could hear if you could also hear the invisible sounds.

(Based on Imaginary Ears by Motohide Taguchi: https://www.deeplistening.rpi.edu/2023/05/02/day-338-of-a-year-of-deep-listening/)

2
Write a message in morse code. Use the dots and dashes to inspire the length of your notes and rhythm of your song.

3
Your body is home to trillions of microbiota. What would they sing?

1. Write a song that is a phonetic palindrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonetic_reversal

2. The good ol one sample challenge. Make music using only 1 sample (and you have to use samples)

People putting 3-5 ideas in one post kind of makes it tricky to indicate which of the ideas one likes over the others without writing a whole post about it...

Soundtrack the act of opening a door.

Make a present for someone - could be a fellow botbr or a friend :D

For some reason, I feel compelled to suggest a Louis Wain bitpack.
Maybe writing a song that fits one of his drawings?

battle themes! either based on the enemy like Tex's "Battle Against A..." series, based on a specific vibe or situation, or even based on what you think "a game like this" would have as its default battle music

breakcore day?!

Create a catchy, short (~5 seconds) jingle.

Design an eclectic set of cozy pajamas.

Make a trading card.

make a song but every main instrument must use the same short-ish melody.
extend it, shorten it, with each instrument (so one could be 1/2 bars long, the other 4bars) (or transpose it)
chords are uh
chords are included in the main instrument treatment

What would you listen to motivate you during a grueling workout? What if this workout was in the middle of hell? And what if this hell wasn't hot, but a frozen hell?

Visual categories: what would this frozen gym of hell would look like?

I want to have something about kitschy Christmas ornaments

And afterwards, we hang the ornaments up on a tree

Compose an ice fishing themed song!

...wait, what's this under the ice??

Create a beach tune for our friends in the southern hemisphere summer.

The disastrous recipe for your great aunt's holiday "treat"...

Someone stole Frosty the Snowman's magic hat and put it on your (now sentient) retro gaming console.

Your song can only use 5 different notes of your choosing.
(ex. C, D, E, G, Ab)

Create an "I Spy" photo.


(sorry that a lot of my bitpack suggestions are visual)

lsdj, but use only the two square channels

$hopping mu$ic

Something tells me this is going to be a great battle.


Make a theme song for the elf on the shelf

make some songie for hibernation

56k powaa:
draw something that is really, really slow

variant:
make a really slow music

no two rows are the same. could make for very interesting tracking if it ends up as a tinymod bitpack

diminished chords only

1) - Celebrating the holidays like 2015 -
You hear the bells outside the window.. as the new advent calender is about to be released tommorow.

Write some nostalgic tunes about the past 24 winter holiday days and nights you've celebrated a decade ago.


2) - Poem for December -
In the winter,
on a snow covered winter's day,
bells are ringing, whistles are chilling.

In the december,
on winter's endless days,
bright blue lights never leave the nights.


3) - Waiting for Results -

loving how many suggestions have come in already - just wanted to post one more time as a reminder, there's about 8 days left to do so! and thank you!!

I'd especially love it if more people sent in samples, I only have stuff from one person so far. feel free to DM me (or kleeder) before the end of the month 8)

Don't repeat yourself!

(How strict you want to be is up to you. In the strictest sense this could mean not repeating pitches, timbres, rhythms, even note durations. In a looser sense it could just mean not repeating sections.)

You stumble upon an old dusty shop full of ornate cabinets stocked with obscure scents and oils. You pick a bottle at random, and open it...

Theme: weird-ass Christmas

We have celebrated St. Nick enough. Write something that celebrates Krampus

, the creature that travels throughout a December night, jumping down chimneys to grab naughty children, throw in his sack in order and drag them down to Hell.

Atnas (evil Santa) recieves Coal

a sample bitpack with only snare drums