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Sandwich.

And one hell of one. Thank you! I'm definitely on the hunt to get working with some people out there in the real world now, guys. You've all been incredibly helpful here.

Not bad ideas there, Starise. Thanks to everyone who's contributed to the thread! Given me a lot of good stuff to think about.

Haha, no joke, I decided the other day that I need to get a drum set so I can do exactly that. I realized it'd be a much more comfortable starting point for me.

Great replies so far, all! Already you're putting me at ease a bit when it comes to jumping into this. Thanks to both of you!

Hey all. I've recently been getting the desire to start playing with people. The problem is that I've always self-taught and produced all my own music solo. This has left me in the unfortunate position of not knowing a lot of official music theory, not having the ability to read music, and not knowing entirely how things work in a band setting. Now, I'm basically afraid to try to get into something collaborative, because I worry that they'll start throwing around a bunch of lingo that won't mean anything to me. "Play [x] key with [x] scale at [etc., etc., etc.]" Then I worry I'll look like an idiot who doesn't belong there! I'm doing my best to start learning some of these things, but in the meantime, I'm curious about your experiences in group settings. Have you played with people like myself who didn't know all the technical aspects of music? Did it cause problems and if so, what were the hardest to overcome? Or is it pretty much expected that anyone joining a band can do these things? Or, contrarily, have you worked with someone like me and still had it be a positive experience where you were able to work within those limitations? Am I just being too scared, and should I try and get out there anyway? Any general advice for someone in my position?

To be fair, that's exactly what this song is. It's the theme from the movie Last of the Mohicans.

I figured it out! It truly was me just totally screwing up a few lines by a half step. No idea why I did that during recording, but whatevs. For anyone who finds this thread in the future, this was how I figured it out where I messed up: I just played the vocal melody on a piano so that I could then compare that version to my vocals, and once I had it down to just those two tracks, it suddenly became super easy to figure out which lines were off. Thanks for the help guys.

Yeah, I think that's exactly what I'm gonna do soon...is post it over on the critique board. Some of the folks here have much better ears than I for stuff like this. Thanks all.

I just went through and checked all the instruments by themselves and in various combinations without the vocals and it all seems fine there. (I know what you mean about bass being a little weird sometimes, though. I've definitely had that one happen to me.) And most the vocals seem fine, too. But every now and then I just hear one or two lines that make me go, "Wait a second...is that off?" It's weird. Gonna just give myself the rest of the day off and see if I can suss out which vocals need to be fixed after a good night's sleep. lol

I recorded some vocals last night, and for some reason this morning some of them sound off to me. Transposing some of the lines half a step makes it sound right to me, but then a little later it seems wrong again. I don't know what's happening. This ever happen to anyone? Do I just need to let my ears rest?

This has all given me some insight as to potential reasoning behind this advice. Really helps me out. Thanks guys! Edit: I'll probably still keep trying to follow this "rule" but at least now I'll feel less bad when I find something above the master bus. What Hobo said made sense, so I'll just make sure everything is sounding good and not overloading for the most part. Also, I used to have to ride the faders on an old Boss BR-8 when I was putting songs onto a CD, and can confirm that it's pretty fun. Although, I'm happy to have a digital workstation where I can do far more precise automations now!

Ok, thanks for the answer. To be completely thorough, I went through my book and found the exact quote that lead to my question. Since I'm obviously not doing a good job asking it, I'll just let the author speak for me. lol

In the few recording resources I've read, I notice that they consistently advise against having child sliders at higher levels than their parents. Or any sliders above the master slider. However, I'm curious if this advise still applies as much when it comes to digital studios? Or is that one of those things that doesn't really matter as much these days, but that we still just do out of habit? Does anyone have any links to any resources addressing this topic, because I'm apparently not doing a good job of googling myself an answer...

Haha, well fortunately I have nobody important to anger. It's just sometimes, I'd like to have so-called radio friendly versions ready in case any situation ever called for one, and wish I didn't have to guess as to exactly what to censor. lol