what is sectionz.com?

SectionZ.com is an online community of electronica artists. Our members come here to learn, review, share, collaborate, and most importantly, be heard. The SZ Manifezto pretty much sums up who and what we are as a collective (at the moment so to speak), so check it out here: http://www.sectionz.com/manifeztov2.asp [ top of page ]

welcome, bedroom composer.

We are all composers here. We love the music and love to create it. It's why we're here. We're learning new things, and showing them off. We're making friends and we're making the music with them. We are a community of artists making music in all of its forms, with all of its tools. We use everything from professional sequencers like Nuendo and Pro Tools, to Speak & Spells wired to preamps that are connected to the microphone jack on our soundcards. [ top of page ]

how to join sectionz.com

Welcome to the main layout of sectionz.com. On the main page you will navigate from whenever you come by. Now you can poke around and check things out a little bit so you can get an idea of what the site's like.

We want you to have the chance to come inside and see what we're all about before you decide that you want to be a part of us. We're pretty sure that you'll want to join, but wouldn't you rather look around a little bit before you feel like your signing up for something you don't know if you want to sign up for yet or not?

Time to join? Time to get some of your music heard? Good. When you go to the sectionz.com homepage, you will see an option to login on the top left of the page. Right below this is an option to join us, so just click there and you'll be ready to rock. You'll have some questions to answer, and some info to fill out so we know who you are, and what you're all about. When you're done with this, click on the button that says [ Join Section Z ] and you're done. You are now a member of the best online community for musicians there is, and you will never want to leave. [ top of page ]

how to validate your account

After you register you account with sectionz, or you make changes to your account, you will be sent a validation email to the email address you supplied in your profile. You'll need to check this email, and click on a link that will validate your changes for them to go through. This helps prevent unauthorized activity on your account. Sometimes our validation emails might end up in a spam folder, so make sure you check those if you didn't see the validation in your regular mail. [ top of page ]

your artist page

In the dropdown activity manager is [your artist page]. This will bring you to your special place on SectionZ.com where your music, collaborations, downloads, reviews and other stuff is. The first thing you will see is the optional artist image and message space. Right underneath this are your Top 10, your Recently Reviewed, and your Recently Downloaded. When you download someone else's track, it will show up in that download section. When you review it, it will show up under the review section, and if you have liked a song enough to put it on your personal Top 10 when you downloaded it, you'll see it under your Top 10. This way when you hear music from other members on the site, all the information is right here in front of your eyes. It comes in very handy when you want to hear a song again, or if you are trying to figure out what you have listened to, but haven't reviewed, and you want to go review it.

Under this is what you have been waiting for. Your own personal area, that has your music on it. This is where other people will come to find your music and see what you're all about. You will use the Upload Manager to get all of your mp3s, as well as your project files on here, but we'll get to that in a minute. [ top of page ]

profile manager

The Profile Manager is where you will go if you ever need to change your email address, your message about yourself, or any other personal information that you might need to modify. All you need to do is select the Profile Manager from the dropdown activity manager and then you'll have the option to change the info you gave us when you signed up. Easy as Lemon Meringue Pie, just remember to check your email for a revalidation link. Also, a lot of times our validation email will end up in a spam folder, so make sure you check there for it if you don't see it. [ top of page ]

upload manager

Okay, you're ready to rock. You're ready to give us your little piece of musical bliss. Select the Upload Manager from the Activity Manager. You'll be given the option to choose between uploading an mp3, collaboration, DJ mix, or project file to be used in a sequencer. Most of the time you'll be uploading mp3s, and other sequencer files so click on the first option. Here you'll fill out a little bit of info about the track your uploading. Make sure you fill this stuff out correctly because everyone who takes a look at your tune is going to see this stuff. You have the option to tell us what plugins you used to make the song, what genre the music fits into, and some other things. This information helps other people who are looking for you find you. It also gives you the option to have the song played on SZ Live Radio, and other things. [ top of page ]

download manager

Select the Download manager from your Activity Manager to see all of your downloads. You'll be able to see each one and whether you've reviewed them or not. They'll all be marked with our Color Code too so you'll know which downloads were mp3s, Collaborations, or whatever. Everything is clearly listed, and this makes it nice and easy to see what you've been doing with yourself on sectionz.com when you're not uploading your own stuff. [ top of page ]

review manager

The Review Manager is the area where you can go to view all the reviews given to your tracks on sectionz.com and if your and @sectionz.com member you can even reply to your reviews. [ top of page ]

Premium members have a more advanced review manager that allows them to reply to reviews.

update manager

The [update manager] is where you'll go if one of those tracks of yours has gotten better, and you need to replace the old with the new. Just click on Update Manager from your Activity Manager and it will bring you to a list of all your files. From here you pick what one needs to be changed and click on it. You'll be brought to a page that will have 2 choices. The first one is for updating the actual file, and the second one will let you update the information for it. [ top of page ]

@sectionz.com mail & webmail

As part of the premium membership we give each premium account its own 20mb email box. The address is configurable via Pop3 by using your login information and mail.sectionz.com as both your pop3 server address and your smtp address. We have also provided a simple interface in which to manage your @sectionz.com email address as well available from the premium tools navigation area. [ top of page ]

image manager (premium)

The Image Manager is sectionz.com's image management system that enables you to upload and post images to your track pages as well as your artist profile page. This is a premium member benefit and gives a little more color or expression to your pages.

Gif, jpg, png and bitmap are accepted formats for these images. [ top of page ]

track sorter

The track sorter allows you to change the order in which your tracks will appear on your artist page. There are a few ways to sort, and you can see the in the Criteria drop down menu. If you want to sort your stuff on your own, use "track sorter values" and then number your tracks in the order you want them to show up. [ top of page ]

search our members

The Search Our Members feature in the Activity Manager allows you to look around for members by searching for keywords. [ top of page ]

search projects and mp3s

The Search Projects and MP3s feature in your Activity Manager is used to.. search for projects and MP3s. Here you can enter what you're looking for and then pick where to look for the information. For instance, if you were looking for the song "shrubbery", you would type it under the song query, and then pick "title" you can also search by style, artist, and mood. It's a good way to find yourself some new music to listen to. [ top of page ]

sectionz.com store

This is the place for you to spend you hard earned cash. Help support the community by buying our merch. Buy stuff here: http://www.sectionz.com/store.asp [ top of page ]

The first thing you'll see in the Location Manager to the left of the main page are the main areas of the site. These are where we can pick a section of the site to poke through. If you're interested in seeing some of the Orion files on the site, you can go into the Orion section. If you want to browse through the mp3s, you can go to the mp3 page here.

Once you've picked an area to go into, you'll have a few options. You'll go to a page where you can see a list of all the stuff we've got, or just look at the tracks with the most SZ Points. Your also going to see the most recently uploaded and updated files, as well as the most downloaded ones on this page. If your looking to dive right in, these main areas are where you want to be. [ top of page ]

[ resource manager ]

The resource manager is a gathering of community resources including news, the sectionz podcast and more.

[ artist of the day ]

Everyday, sectionz.com picks a random artist, and sticks them here. It's a good way for people to get themselves heard. This lets everyone have the chance to shine for a day right on the front page of Sectionz. Hopefully you'll check out whoever gets to have their moment of fame for a day, and check out some of their tracks. Maybe you'll be on there next! [ top of page ]

[ track of the week ]

The Track of the week works like this. You have a good song? Good enough that the Administrators of the site are noticing it? Good for you. If we like it enough just maybe you'll get picked to have your tune selected as the track of the week. Chances are we're going to check out your stuff, so get to work. The track of the week is not just a place for you to be heard, it's a place for you to scream. [ top of page ]

[ szlive radio ]

Live Radio from sectionz.com to your speakers, we broadcast whenever we can, and have a bunch of different DJs hand picking the tracks for your wirewaves. Tune in if we're on because it's live, it's loud, and it's for your listening pleasure. You might even hear one of your very own tracks played on here. Imagine that, your on the radio. [ top of page ]

[ other stuff ]

color code

This you will see right on the top of the site, and you can navigate to and from the different areas of sectionz.com using it. The Color Code is also what we use to tell what's what. In your download area for instance, all your recent downloads will be colored. Each color represents the file type of the download. It marks all the stuff on the site, it's all over the place, and it's there to help you get around easier. You can see it here: http://www.sectionz.com/colorcode.asp [ top of page ]

zhout out board

Here's a place for you to shout. You can leave a shout out about anything you want whether it's good news, bad news, and advertisement for a new track of yours, whatever. Whatever you do, just don't abuse this. Use the zhout wisely grasshopper. [ top of page ]

[ frequently asked questions ]

about

Often we have people asking questions about this or that, wondering why something is the way it is, or just getting a little confused with something. This is our spot to post the more popular ones, and give some answers to them so that you guys can take a look and hopefully have your question answered here. Now while we can't post everything everyone asks, we can try to make this faq better and better. You can be assured that we will update it and try to add more content to it to make your experience at sectionz.com better. [ top of page ]

Q. what is a bedroom composer?
A. a bedroom composer is a term that z has come up with to describe the general community. it is someone that produces electronic music from the comfort of his/her own computer. a bedroom composer can use other hardware as well but the majority of sectionz.com members are people who are just getting started with electronic music or still enjoys the underground experiment until you fall asleep at your PC scene. [ top of page ]

Q. what can get a person banned from the site?
A. There are a bunch of "unwritten rules" that might get you banned, mostly doing with lack of common sense. however some things that will get your music deleted and your account removed and a possible ip ban would be uploading or linking warez, hell even suggesting it might get you penalized.

Lack of community values will also get you in trouble. For example we all know that there are several software hosts featured on the site .. bashing and close minded comments are not welcome on that matter. state your likes and dislikes as you please .. just be considerate of others.

Using sz as personal hard drive space will get you in a heap of deletions. the community depends on participation and those that just come here to dump are not welcome. downloaders that don't review are in the same boat. go away there are hundreds of download sites out there .. go to them and leave us alone.

Uploading others peoples music or blatant rip offs will not only get you banned but reported to the original artist for possible prosecution. we take your property seriously and protect it at all costs. so please don't be retarded. one of the benefits of asking permission for a remix is the fact that you put yourself in the position to get to know someone who's music you admire. so do it, they might even stop by and give it a listen. [ top of page ]

Q. is my content protected?
A. read the legal document linked on the bottom of every page. [ top of page ]

Q. where can I see where tracks with top 20 votes go?
A. If you go the mp3 area, you can see an option to list the Top 20. You can also choose to list the top 20 mp3's by sz points, and even look at each and every one by selecting the [list all] option. [ top of page ]

Q. what can I do to support sectionz.com?
A. You can always show us your love and support by buying our compilation cds, promotional items, or even just donating. You can also take advantage of our premium membership program designed to give you a better experience as a member. Visit our store at http://www.sectionz.com/store.asp to see what we can give you in return for your hard earned cash. [ top of page ]

Q. What is premium membership?
A. The premium membership is something we've done to improve the quality of the site for our users, and generate a little bit of capital to help fund the site. With an premium membership, users gain access to more features to make sectionz.com better for you starting with a 20MB "username@sectionz.com" pop email address that can be accessed directly from the site, or with an email client like Outlook Express. Other benefits include a "username.sectionz.com" web address to link people directly to your artist page, in the future it will also include a username.sectionz.com/trackname address to give others a direct link to a specific track or goodie of yours on the sectionz.com site, an upload progress bar, artist and track avatars to represent yourself and your music, and other good stuff that we are planning to make you a happy member, at only $25 per year. so shed that old hotmail spam box, be cooler than an aolamer unify your experience with a premium account.

As we collect funds via the premium program we will be able to make the site even better and stay up to date with user needs and wants. we will also be able to publish user compilations and special recording project as well as institute vinyl share programs for those at the pro level. lots more to come. [ top of page ]

Q. what is the policy on remixing?
A . we encourage remixing of sectionz.com members to foster collaboration. however remix uploading is allowed ONLY if the remixing artist has permission from the original artist. if asked for proof you must be able to provide it. one of the benefits of asking permission for a remix is the fact that you put yourself in the position to get to know someone whose music you admire. so do it, they might even stop by and give it a listen. [ top of page ]