Remix David Lynch Track to Win a Free Course

Continuing on with our series of remix competitions Point Blank have teamed up with Beatport and Sunday Best to give you the chance to collaborate with David Lynch!

Better known for his work in film, the artist who brought us Twin Peaks, Mulholland Dr., Blue Velvet, The Elephant Man, and Eraserhead, has turned his attention to producing a rather unexpected 2 track EP of electronic beats.

The winning remix of 'Good Day Today' will be officially released on Sunday Best Recordings but that is by no means all! The winner will also receive:

• Their choice of two different courses from Point Blank Online School: A four week course on Electronic Dance Music in Ableton or an eight week Cubase course
• $200 Beatport gift voucher
• Native Instruments Traktor Pro software
• Native Instruments Audio 2 DJ interface
• Native Instruments Traktor Kontrol X1 controller
• Native Instruments X1 bag
• Sunday Best goodie bag
  

A pretty tasty haul we’re sure you’ll agree! For full details of the completion rules and how to enter head over to the competition page on beatportal.

Win a Free Course by Subscribing to our YouTube Channel

If you follow our tweets, and blog posts you will probably have realised that we LOVE giving you FREE things and 2011 will be no different!

To kick things off, we are giving you the opportunity to win a music production course at Point Blank. To enter into the prize draw, all you have to do is subscribe to our YouTube channel here. Then email us at nick@pointblanklondon.com with your YouTube user name.

The winner will be able to choose an online 4 week Pro Producer course or attend one of our London based weekend courses - for free!

The closing date for the competition is Monday, February 28th, 2011, so get subscribing now for your chance to win!

(Don’t worry if you are already a subscriber, you can still enter. All you have to do is get a friend to subscribe and email Nick with their username as well as your own… Upon confirmation that they have recently subscribed, you will both be entered into the prize draw.)

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All YouTube subscribers are treated to our exciting series of free weekly tutorials. Taken from our acclaimed range of online music production courses, each tutorial reveals music production techniques as used by the pros. The current series is:

DJ/Performing with Ableton Live: A series of 5 in-depth tutorials with our Ableton Certified trainer, Freddy Cuin who demonstrates the fantastic creative capabilities of this ground-breaking software and some of the most popular midi-controllers.

In addition we upload the highlights from our regular VIP masterclasses including:

Tommy D (Jay Z, Kanye West, Kylie Minogue)
Ben Westbeech (Strictly Rhythm, Brownswood Recordings)
Guy Chambers (Robbie Williams, Katie Melua)
Paul Epworth (Kate Nash, Florence & The Machine, Bloc Party)
Annie Mac (BBC Radio 1)

And there are plenty more exciting videos to come so stay tuned!

Great Opportunity to Gain Experience in the Music Industry

An exciting opportunity has arisen for you to gain some experience at a growing record label, Needwant.

They release the excellent Future Disco compilation series and are home to artists such as Kaine, The Revenge, Kathy Diamond, Sean Brosnan, Massimiliano Pagliaria, The Project Club and Mario Basanov. They approached us see if there are any Point Blank students out there who would be up for the challenge.

Head to our Music Industry Jobs page to find out more about the job and how to apply.

Songwriting Competition Winner Announced

Late last year we announced a songwriting competition in association with SoundCloud - with some serious prizes on offer. We gave you an instrumental created by Sugababes and Amy Winehouse writer/producer Jony Rockstar and asked you to add your own vocals. The idea was to find a talented vocalist and/or songwriter who we could give a helping hand to in the music industry.

Choosing a winner was no easy task but after much deliberation, Jony has picked out his favourite and we can now reveal that the winner is the beautifully voiced Abimaro Suit who wrote and sang her entry, the song 'Taller'. Take a listen via this link.

Congratulations to you Abimaro! You will be receiving:

- A free Point Blank Songwriting course featuring Jony Rockstar
- A free subscription to a Pro Account at SoundCloud for 1 year
- A day in Point Blank Studios with Jony Rockstar
- Your track signed to Point Blank Music Publishing

So listen out for more from Abimaro in the near future… we expect big things lie ahead for this talented songstress!

Student Wins LOT49 Remix Competition

One of the best ways to raise your profile as a producer and get a track officially released is through one of the hundreds of remix competitions doing the rounds in cyberspace. Even if you don’t win, it is great practice and having a deadline to work towards can really help focus your mind to get a track fully completed.

Point Blank student Dirt Revolver had a go at the recent Lot49 competition to remix Odissi – 'Red Headed Devil Woman', and we were delighted to hear that his remix was slected as the winner. Having listened to the track this does not come as a surprise! His driving electro re-work is fantastically produced with some great build-ups and explosive drops… a peak-time bomb, sure to destroy any dancefloor that cares to get in its way! Take a listen yourself over on soundcloud (the embeddable widget code for blogger won't work at the moment!)

It will be featured on the Lot49 Anniversary Compilation and will be released in the single package along with the two runners up March 2011! Congratulations to him, we are always proud to hear about our students making waves in the music industry.

Having taken several courses both at the college and online, this is what Dirt Revolver had to say about how Point Blank has contributed to his production career so far.

"Point Blank sorted me out! I've been producing my own music for a number of years whilst working full time. After entering the Lot 49 Competition first time round in November 2009 and not getting anywhere in that, it inspired me to go back to college and brush up on my studio skills. I took the Mixing & Mastering Course, and two online courses – Electro house & Dubstep. The mixing course consolidated a lot of woolly knowledge that I already had, but brought me right up to date with current software, production techniques and the small class size was great also allowing more time per student. It was really enjoyable going into the college twice a week and mingling with the staff and other students in a very friendly environment.

The online courses are amazing and I cannot recommend them enough. You simply cannot get this level of industry relevant teaching anywhere else. I learned so much from both online courses in terms of the correct choice of sounds, MIDI programming, genre relevant production tips & inside industry knowledge and advice. I would like to take all the online courses if I had the time and money! Within the space of just over a year I have now improved my productions to the level that I was extremely grateful and humbled to be chosen in this year’s LOT49 competition. I cannot recommend Point Blank College enough to any aspiring producers out there!!"

Watch out for more releases from this talented producer in 2011. You can listen to his music and keep up with his news here:

www.soundcloud.com/dirtrevolver
www.myspace.com/dirtrevolver
www.twitter.com/dirtrevolver