Little Ferry, NJ (April 25, 2022)—Eventide Audio has announced the Todd Rundgren-inspired “Open My Eyes” remix contest, with a submission deadline of May 11, offering contest participants the opportunity to ply their creativity and mixing prowess in competition.
In the summer of 1968, Todd Rundgren and his band, Nazz, released “Open My Eyes,” a song awash with tape flanging. “When Nazz’s ‘Open My Eyes’ hit the AM stations in NYC, the wild flanging caught the attention of this 18-year-old college kid,” recalls Eventide’s Tony Agnello. “I couldn’t have imagined that, just a few short years later, Todd Rundgren would visit Eventide and haul off a stack of our first effects box, the Instant Phaser.”
The flanging effect played a key role in Eventide’s genesis. In its founding year, 1971, Eventide introduced audio’s first rack-mount effects box, the flanging-emulating Instant Phaser, followed in 1975 by the Eventide Instant Flanger.
For the contest’s raw mix elements, Eventide booked a session at nearby Hobo Sound to recreate the basic tracks of “Open My Eyes.” Contestants are challenged to download the stems and remix the song using any combination of plug-ins to best emulate the sounds of the original recording, improve it, or “go nuts and create something completely new” with the caveat that remixes must noticeably include Eventide’s Instant Flanger Mk II and/or Instant Phaser Mk II plug-ins (30-day free trials are available for contestants that do not own the plug-ins).
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Full contest rules, “Open My Eyes” tracks, videos of the recording session and a video of the Nazz original are available at https://www.eventideaudio.com/open-my-eyes-remix-contest/.
Winners, to be announced May 30, 2022, will be chosen by a select team of Eventide judges: Gear Club Podcast hosts Stewart Lerman (Patti Smith, David Byrne, St. Vincent) and John Agnello (Dinosaur Jr., Kurt Vile, Sonic Youth), plus Tony Agnello, James Frazee (Vinyl, Patti Smith, The Pretty Reckless), Missy Thangs (The Avett Brothers, Ian McLaganent) Neal Shaw (Chris Martin, Paul McCartney), Pablo San Martin (MOTHICA, Vincint, Sophie Chen) and Jihao Zhang (John Scofield, Joe Lovano, Tom Scott).
A voucher for the free Eventide plug-in of their choice will be awarded to 25 finalists while three runners-up will receive full licenses for permanent use of the Eventide Clockworks Bundle (a $499 value). The Grand Prize winners — one for creativity and one for traditional — will each receive $1,000 in cash, a license for the Eventide Anthology XII and Elevate plug-in bundles (a $2,198 value).
