TCgypsy

Thanks Folks. I have two new songs in the pipeline right now with one being nearly finished. They are both in an indie rock sorta kinda genre (I hate labels). I am also revisiting some old songs and sprucing them up a bit. Cheers, TC

I've been a member for a long time, and I used to post quite a bit in here. I took a bit of a hiatis playing in another band but now I am back! Seeyas in the forums. Peace, TC

https://soundcloud.com/jingomusic/add-2 ^^ Really great song. https://soundcloud.com/atomic-shadows/roll-me-over-1 ^^ Love this tune although I think the mix could be better. Some mean guitar licks. I am also listening to some Chris Daughtry as the next song I am posting is in a similiar vein to a couple of his. I won't, however, be squashing my mix into a 1-2dB dynamic range! --TC

Interesting rap piece. Overall, you can hear everything, and the music is fairly well done. The biggest thing this needs is PUNCH. For instance, the kick jumps out a bit and pokes you in the mix but the bass sits back and drones in the background. I would add another patch with solid mid-bass content to work with the kick to provide that punch. The vocals need to sound bigger but tucked into the mix not over top of it. The best way to achieve that big in your face rap vocal sound is put a limiter on the vocal track. The vocals need a bit more meat but a limiter may be all you need; if it doesn't fatten it up enough you may have to EQ a little. For rap, it's all about the percussion and vocals; the other sounds are there as ear candy .Concentrate on those two and the rest will fall in place. Consider putting some interesting effects on the vocals in places such as gated reverbs/delays or hard tremolo type effects. Cool tune. Peace, TC

HAHA! I love it! It's awesome when he shoots it. Jed Clampett eat your heart out! ---TC

Very cool. Sounds like a tool that could be useful.

I can put together a blues tune to go with lyrics. I see a coupla lyrics posted here but I guess I am unsure how to proceed. I can play 12-bar blues in my sleep but that doesn't mean I can take any lyric and make it work. John, do we just grab any lyric posted here and give it a go? I might be able to do something with one of these but I don't see very many posted. Please advise. Thanks! TC

You pretty much nailed it! Nice job! Nice bass tone, too. Peace, TC

Before I say anything, I will admit a bias towards Reaper (I have used ProTools and Cubase, and others as well). To clarify some points I made earlier and in response to some comments I just read: 1. Reaper is every bit as DEEP as any DAW on the market. 2. If you want to do something with a keystroke, it's very easy to define one in Reaper and you don't have to be a geek. For instance, I set up pitch change to + and - keys (took me less than 5 minutes to figure this out and implement it). 3. It's 60 bucks IF you pay for the full version (please do pay if you decide to use it, and no I have nothing to do with the guys at Cockos). 4. The plugins that come with Reaper do a good job and some are outstanding. 5. NO, it doesn't come with any instrument libraries but we end buying the ones we want anyway (especially with the money saved on the DAW). 6. It is EFFICIENT (notice the capitalization). My latest song has 35 tracks + subgroups + processing + VST instruments + mastering plugin and it used ~33.5% max. CPU on a Windows 8.1 / 3GHz i5 processor / 8 GB RAM. I dare anyone to duplicate this performance in ProTools! The idea that REAPER is for geeks is amusing. I have struggled to figure out certain things on EVERY single DAW I have played with. They all have their learning curve. At the end of the day, use whichever DAW floats your boat. As others have stated, the DAW isn't going to change your sound to any significant degree. Any good DAW will work for you. This thread started out by being about Reaper so I will heap my praises upon it once more to get folks to consider it Peace, TC

LOL, sounds like some guys I grew up with. They would buy every pedal fad there was, and they still sucked! Priceless ... Peace, TC (PS: I only use a volume pedal and, rarely, an old overdrive pedal)

Probably the biggest detractor in rehearsals is excessive partying! I know, I know, "all the big rock stars did it" - at least that is the myth. If a band can't go a couple of hours without recreational chemistry gumming up the works then the prospects of the band are generally not good. While a little bit of ganja may not hurt, drinking and gravity bongs do not bode well for practice. Peace, TC

I've been in a few bands, and even toured when I was a young pup. Theory was the last thing anyone worried about. THEORY CAN BE LEARNED, TALENT CAN NOT. It's as simple as that. There are great musicians throughout history that didn't know a lick of theory just as there are those that do. Most instrumentalists know about key and chords, etc. but very few know the deep theory. And us guitar players are probably the worst sight readers in the history of any instrument, lol. If you want to learn more about this stuff, go for it, but don't let it stop you from playing in a band if that's what you want to do. Regards as always. Peace, TC

Pretty cool! That is a lot to think about while you are trying to pull it off. I see he has bare feet so he can use toes to make adjustments, lol. Some pretty solid musicianship from these guys, too. Peace, TC

I have used Cubase (although not recently), ProTools (I own PT10 and still use it from time to time), Fruity Loops (I own this one), Reason (I own this one, too), Cakewalk (long time ago), and Reaper (which I have used since May). I originally got Reaper as a demo to check it out, and as an alternative to the upgrade-aholic and CPU hog (at least on a Windows machine) ProTools. My other programs rarely get used anymore because Reaper is amazing and THE most computer efficient DAW I have ever used. It uses a fraction of the computer resources that ProTools does (I have done head to head tests with songs), it loads super fast, and it rarely crashes (unlike ProTools). There is nothing I ever did in ProTools that I can't do in Reaper, and Reaper is a lot less finicky about my old plugins than ProTools which is important to me because I can't afford re-purchasing plugins. It runs the latest VST plugins (ones I have bought within the last 6 months) perfectly as well. I used the demo for a month, and went ahead and bought it. I have never looked back, and I love it (yes, I am a 'fanboy' lol). The configurability ROCKS, and the price is incredible for such a powerful DAW. In a nutshell, it is perfect for a guy like me with a project studio who likes the flexibility and price (I can spend those dollars somewhere else now!) of Reaper. Do not confuse Reaper with some scaled-down 'affordable' DAW you settle for instead of ProTools or Cubase. It is every bit as top notch as those DAWs. It is a little intimidating at first but it doesn't take long to get a handle on it and then you just keep learning more (just like with any DAW) as you use it. I have never been more productive churning out music. Just my 0.02 Peace, TC