symphonious7

August 17, 2017

Ok, I'll take a crack at it.

I don't think you are seeing what I'm trying to convey,

Conveniently forgetting almost everything I say,

You think you have learned everything you'll ever need to know,

By putting walls around your mind, instead of letting go,

And I could really help you, it's all I want to do,

But you're so sure of everything, you'll see no other view,

You think the Word protects you from horizons that are broad,

But soon in time you'll see that you are actually a fraud,

Because the very book you use to condemn someone else,

Would tell you very plainly you have just condemned yourself,

Hmmm... is that a lyric if it has no chorus? Can we do poems? lol

August 4, 2017

Oh shoot! I left mine in my other pants, let me get back to you....

(great idea for a thread when I have pics I'll do that)

July 23, 2017

3 minutes ago, Jenn said:

I've only listened to Antics and I didn't get too much of a shoegaze sound from them... More alternative rocky kind of sound. But this is after I had finished listening to Cigarettes After Sex and Slowdive..

Well I don't really know what the EXACT definition of shoegaze is haha I just always associate it with long droney rock songs that feel spacey and atmospheric and build slowly instead of like... barreling forward head first. And I don't even know what I've listened to of them, my wife just puts it on and I've gotten to know some of the songs, that singer though... he sings the way I'd imagine a vampire would sing hahaha it's cool.

July 23, 2017

42 minutes ago, Rudi said:

I'll look 'em up next time I'm in Lyon.

Yeah they're one of the best bands I've heard that have that "shoegaze" sound. Hauntingly dramatic vocals, lots of atmospheric guitar work, they're great to space out to, had to grow on me at first cause I usually like music with more energy than that, but after I "got it" I really like em now.

July 23, 2017

@Jenn my wife got me into interpol! They're great!

July 12, 2017

On 7/9/2017 at 9:52 AM, Richard Tracey said:

I started listening to the Ultravox back catalogue again yesterday. I have done this as I feel this is the best way for me to think about my own music, as this is my favourite group and they influenced my style from a young age. You remember how good the music is, but really, until you listen again with the ears of someone hoping to create and do something with their own music, you really don't realise how good the music actually was. The arrangements, the mix, the production, all of it. If I could emulate only a fraction of that, I would be happy.

I'd never heard of them but my wife and I LOVE a good 80's pop/new wave act and I love the song I heard "Dancing With Tears in my Eyes" I'm gonna have to check them out! For me lately it's been weird brazillian music and Mamas and the Papas. Two brazillian artists I'm really getting into are Milton Nascimento and Tom Ze. Ze makes some of the most out there stuff I've ever heard from any artist anywhere, here's one I think is really cool but... just know... it's weird lol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxGbhYcoSEs

Milton Nascimento is alot more tame and chill, here's one I LOVE from him https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC9c2hle8Eg

As far as Mamas and Papas go I think they are hurt by the time they were recorded in. Their recordings are quite thin (it was the 60's what do you expect) but when I close my eyes and try to imagine "I'm hearing this live"I can tell, this would rock HARD with some modern production man.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhHMwE250zg

May 18, 2014

Yea my audio workstation packed in on me so I'm using an old laptop at the minute and can't mix

That's great to hear man, when you seemed to disappear right after getting the files I was like "He didn't like run off with my song did he??" So I'm just happy to know what's going on. I hope you get it sorted out soon man!

May 18, 2014

You probably haven't EQ'd the other tracks enough and your mid frequencies are getting clogged. As well as that, make sure some instruments are panned out. Typically your guitar should be two mono tracks (exactly the same) one panned full left and one panned full right.

If you take out the bass in your snare, take out some trebles in your bass guitar etc etc you'll create 'room' for your keyboard. Use a stereo expander on your keyboard if necessary to blend it.

Then compress your master.

That is something I will definitely try. And it is so good to see you posting, I've been wondering where you ran off too haha

May 14, 2014

Let me clarify. Accidental or not, "different" and "indifferent" is a rhyme, and with one each ending the first two lines, I know I will hear them as a rhyme - a weak one - regardless of the delivery or the music. In my opinion, that wordplay with "different" and "indifferent" is cool, but would be more effective as an internal rhyme within the same line, or last least to anchor a two-line rhyme later on. That's my opinion. Feel free to have a differing opinion. But, that's what mine is.

holy crap. I actually see EXACTLY what you're saying now, he needs to hook them first with some stronger lines and then after he's already got their attention use the weaker "different indifferent line". I totally get what you mean now.

May 14, 2014

And different and indifferent aren't rhyming on purpose. I just like the wordplay, like "this bitch is different" but then "she'll make you feel INdifferent" see what I mean?

To be fair, like I think without hearing how this rhyme would actually be delivered, it's difficult to make proper judgements. And I can kind of see what Hobo is saying but it really depends on how it's delivered I think. Written out that just looks like bad writing, but in the song it might work it's hard to tell with rap. I mean honestly even the rap songs I like if you see their lyrics typed out they can look pretty stupid lol Hear it in the track and then it's like "awwww yeaaaaa" So I dunno, it's a difficult thing to critique without music.

May 14, 2014

I listen to rap LOL HERE I COME TO SAVE THE DAAAAY. Rap has always been about wordplay in ways that demolish the english language. This is music from the streets, it was created by people who often times couldn't even get proper education, so now even when rappers are highly educated, just because of the nature of the genre you still talk like you're from the streets. Back in the day they were using ill in all kinds of ways. Run DMC "You be illin" and beasty boys "I got the ill communication" it's kind of like... grammar is thrown out and if the writer can make up new words that still have a decipherable meaning it's cool. And as far as the same rhymes at the end continuing, yea that's normal too. Here's a nicki minaj song.

I am not Jasmine, I am Aladdin
So far ahead, these bums is laggin'
See me in that new thing, bums is gaggin'
I'm startin' to feel like a dungeon dragon
Raah, raah, like a dungeon dragon
I'm startin' to feel like a dungeon dragon
Look at my show footage, how these girls be spazzin'

So yea the continuous rhyme of words that shouldn't even rhyme is quite normal. Alright now on to the OP's song.

First line I'd change is "Turned into maternity" I'd make that "traded in for maternity"

Second is "Stuck in the sickness but you ain't gonna get no remedy" I'd make that "But you don't want the remedy" it fits better with the theme.

Other than that this is pretty deep for a hip hop lyric. Lots of great points being made about the girl having layers and putting up walls and treating guys like trash only to hide the fact that she wants a loving lasting relationship. I think this was pretty dang decent man.

May 1, 2014

Noob heaven- Something I think I can feel credible while responding to!

The question is how does one feed one's 'inspiration monster', right?

Well for me, there is precisely no technique for finding cranium grain. I mean I've been making up dittys for as many years as I've been able to hold an intelligible conversation; Since I was 20 . I NEVER sit down and try to write a song from scratch. Alas, this doesn't stop me producing them (sorry!). I spend a lot of my life in benign positions such as on the bus, on the train, in a cafe ect.. where I have little choice but to watch the world and all of it's marvellous occurrences pass me by. I see a 'thing' happen to a person or another 'thing', and every now and then a subconscious 'what if' sparks a train of thought and imagination which usually lasts the entire physical vacancy. Normally a story or concept is born and even a few definite lyrics. Possibly even a tune. I might even have mentally dug back to a riff or progression I'd been playing with in the past and done a bit of match making.

If I can still remember it next time I have my guitar in my hands it's a good start. If the song isn't as easy to write as the concept was to conjure, I leave it alone. Not necessarily for good, just until something clicks at random during my chaotic goat rodeo of a life and I have ample opportunity to revisit it. All my stuff is done this way.

I guess I can concur with the John Mayer quotes. There's myself rather casually, and quite often unintentionally putting myself in touch with myself, occasionally referring to myself for guidance during and then pitching the whole idea to myself afterwards.

I find this works.

I love how you worded that last part hahaha

April 30, 2014

My inspiration hits usually when I've watched a movie, when I'm doing work of any kind, when I wake up, I mean melodies and guitar licks and such fly into my head very easily, but it's that "knowing myself" thing you speak of... I think I know myself, and what I know is there's not much to me, so there's not much to my message. I don't know if it's all in my head or real, it's just the light turmoil I have. I certainly don't lose sleep or stop writing over it, it's just always there, in the back of my mind, and never truly resolved unless just seemingly so for a short period of time.

I just wanted to make sure you actually got my point, symph. The little lyric and it's title I wrote was "inspired" by what you wrote. It really is in you. All I did was pay attention to it - hear the song in it. You're singing your songs to yourself all the time. You just have to listen and hear them.

Yeah that's pretty much what I got, that's why I said I'd heard it before but in cliches. It's usually said "Just trust your instincts" "Trust yourself" "Be confident in what you write" etc. But you put it in this way that made it hit me more like... "Just stop wrestling and love what you love about what you do, leave the third party in your head who judges it all harshly out of it and don't try to GUESS what they want to hear, make it mean something to YOU and you are GOOD" at least that's one way I thought of putting it. There was a subconscious understanding I can't really put into words as well.

April 30, 2014

Yeah symphonius, for a couple years there I think I could relate to what you're saying. Like theres not much to you, so theres not much to what you have to say. I can assure you however, that everyone is an individual and absolutely does have something to say and contribute, you just have to re-connect with that deep part of yourself ("Your inspiration IS within you" quote that HBS gave for example). Its only now that I'm beginning to get a hang of this. Before, I felt like I was just stumbling around taking whatever ended up naturally and randomly inspiring me in my day to day life, and usually those things were good for a decent song or two, but it was so few and far between. It didn't consistently have that powerful emotional connection to myself and others like you are talking about, though from a musical construction standpoint it was good.

I've really made it a point to be intentional and decisive about getting inspired, no matter what it takes. I am not picky. I'll take it anywhere I can. And honestly, in the process I have been learning a lot about myself. Another major thing that helped make the whole process a lot more simple was thinking to myself, "when I was younger, even before I started getting serious about this music stuff, what inspired me? What brought me to life and made me light up?". A few more things just popped into my head: being outdoors; painting/drawing and looking at art, cooking, reading plays and going to theatre performances and symphonies, concerts etc... also, I think a major part of your inspiration is this willingness one must have to go to those places that scare us, make us sad, etc... whether its talking to that girl you keep wanting to, or doing that thing you've always been afraid to, or rekindling that relationship with that important person in your life, working through deep issues, etc... That type of stuff absolutely gives rise to emotional opportunites to write about. THAT kind of stuff, people can absolutely relate to.

I think the key is that whenever you are doing these things, don't even think about your songs. Do them because you are trying to connect with yourself, and its that connecting with yourself that gives birth to your songs. And its about way more than the music here. Trying to reconnect with myself, and the city and the people around me has done wonders for my individuality and happiness beyond just a songwriting stand-point. And if you keep that up for a few weeks, before you know it you'll see something and be like "holy crap, I could write an awesome song about this". And you'll just start singing, and the ideas will begin to flow, and then your craft and technique will take over, and before you know it, everything will have paid off.

(Side note, if you check out my latest song "Lonely Love" on the lyrics critique section of the forum, this is the first song I have written as a result of everything I am talking about. I had been downtown about 3 nights in a row, and doing other things to catch inspiration and I noticed one thing every night: multiple beautiful women, out walking- alone... and the hook just fell into my brain "Why do you have to be such a lonely love?". I'm really pleased with it. ::selfish plug:: haha)

It sounds like you know whats going on man, and you're on your way- I'm stoked for that

This is an exciting way of looking at things. There's a sort of... "call to duty" for artists (all people but kind of specifically artists because they have the power to excite these inspirational feelings in others) to go out there and live for the sake of their art. Kind of to jump out of emotional airplanes because there's a song at the bottom of that drop. It's a really neat way of looking at things! I'm gonna go check out that song now.

April 30, 2014

Unresolved by symphonius7

even when I'm sleeping

a tinge of turmoil keeps on creeping

all of the time

there in the back of my mind

is it in my head or is it real?

how do I really feel?

so many questions I must wrestle

'to write my message for this vessel

I'm unresolved

Unresolved

Your inspiration is like The Kingdom of God, Bro - it's within you. You're just not paying attention to it.

Hobo that was... unexpectedly powerful and deep. I've... heard the same message before but in cliches that didn't really make an impact... I'm gonna put that in my phone and keep mulling it over when I feel weird. Thank you.

April 30, 2014

This is a troublesome thing for me. I wrestle with myself as a songwriter. Mainly a lyricist. Musically speaking I'm actually almost arrogant about my abilities, I believe I can compose and sing like no one else I know, not necessarily always better but it's always got this stamp that only I can really give it, and that unique sound really makes me feel like I have something. But what bothers me is that my lyrics always sound a bit too distant. They aren't... I can make chord progressions and compositions that will make most anyone go WOWWW that's COOL!!!! But I feel like I can't move someone to tears, can't get people to go "man this speaks directly into my life" or "Your music has helped me through a really rough time" And the funny thing is that this makes me flip flop between thinking I'm a great artist, to think I'm a useless one.

My inspiration hits usually when I've watched a movie, when I'm doing work of any kind, when I wake up, I mean melodies and guitar licks and such fly into my head very easily, but it's that "knowing myself" thing you speak of... I think I know myself, and what I know is there's not much to me, so there's not much to my message. I don't know if it's all in my head or real, it's just the light turmoil I have. I certainly don't lose sleep or stop writing over it, it's just always there, in the back of my mind, and never truly resolved unless just seemingly so for a short period of time.

Great post by the way, that youtube series sounds like it may be just what the doctor ordered.

April 28, 2014

Hmmm... Yeah that's the nature of the beast really. I mean half of the top 40 artists out there are posers who can't really sing, now adays most people know this and just don't give a crap. I've talked to tons of young people who are like "Yea I know they lip sync and don't play instruments, so what I like the music!" But dial back 50 years or so, and I remember hearing about how Pink Floyd's talent was in question with some people because they used electronic instruments that played themselves in some parts of some songs. Well that's what one of the band members said in live from pompeii anyway.

To me it's.. it's weird. If you've got this great show you really love, you're not gonna be like "Wait! The lead guy isn't really playing!" And not like it anymore, but at the same time if people don't do that, music just gets more fake, and more fake, and more fake. I mean, if musicality is now synonymous with showmanship and beauty, then it's something else. It's a pageant show. No thank you.

Posted April 23, 2014 · April 23, 2014

Ohhhh I see! And hey Marie! haha

Posted April 23, 2014 · April 23, 2014

Well I'm gonna sound dumb but... what's a PRO?

Posted April 19, 2014 · April 19, 2014

You should have someone write their own lyrics to his music and start posting it everywhere and then when he's like "hey that's my music" be like "Oh no sir, you posted this on a collaboration website and therefore it is public domain" But the lyrics to the song should be "Gary is a thief he's a big douchey thief and he wrote this super crapy melodyyyyyyyy" LMAO Not really of course, these are just the goofy things I think of in situations like these.

April 8, 2014

Sorry, Dan, I was thinking about this at work this morning. I think I'm getting too vested in "trying to help" in this workshop. I don't think the OP wants my help, anyway. Not really. I'm going to restrict myself to listening and commenting on tracks. Sorry for being an ass.

Oh you're fine, I haven't even been paying attention to the forums, I do the same thing sometimes. I'll feel like someone is giving incorrect advice and then I get this urge to fix the problem for the sake of the OP and can become too serious about it. But all in all I think you both have good points, I've heard alot of people echoing your point of view so I don't think you're wrong, I just don't know how to use these things right now hahaha

April 8, 2014

Hello peoples, I haven't posted in a while but I just listened to this conversation. To be honest, I got a spectrum analyzer, I read how people use them and watched a video, and I can't figure out how to even get it to help LOL But this matter seems to have no one answer that fits all situations, some people claim they are necessary, some seem to think they hurt. Like you'll mix based on what you see not hear. For me I'm just kind of trying everything possible, mixing is very difficult for me and I think that's hard for me to admit because my whole life I was impressed at how quickly I learned to use my equipment and how I am a "one man band" and this always made me feel like "of course I'll be good at mixing music, pfft, I do it all" But when it's all said and done, other people are getting much better results than I am and putting in less time and effort, I'm not sure if I just don't have good ears or overthink what I'm doing or what. Anyway, thanks for your input everyone, I want to get back to posting but I'm really busy atm, I suddenly got hired for a job that requires me to travel 2 hours every day, but it's money so that's good. Anyway, thanks for the replies.

March 9, 2014

If you're using Studio One, there's no reason to get another DAW. A DAW is just a tool. When you write that your sounds are "crap" I don't know if you mean your songs, your plug-ins, your samples, or what. Getting the two plug-ins you mention is cool but it's not going to guarantee "production-ready" sounds out of the box. You're still going to have to put in the time to learn to use them properly. If you're going in an EDM direction, then why are you getting EZ Drummer? You should get something like Breaktweaker or Geist. For the budget-minded, pickup Poise and hunt for one-shot samples. As far as guitar sound goes, you can get pretty good sound for free by downloading free (or semi-free, depending on your conscience) guitar heads at AcmeBarGig. Then you can get a cabinet simulator (such as the one by LePou called LeCab -- second link in the links below, on the right on the blog once you get there). Once you have the cabinet simulator, you'll need to track down impulse files to load in it. There are a ton of them on the Internet. If you really do have your heart set on a new DAW, then the EDM standard is pretty much FL Studio. It would be helpful to know what you have now that is crap, what it is you are really looking for, and what you want to achieve. There are really no shortcuts. Buying a ton of new stuff won't help improve your sound. It'll just be new stuff and you'll be that much lower in cash. Think about what you really want to achieve and then do some research to figure out the best way to get there.

http://www.acmebargig.com/

http://lepouplugins.blogspot.com/2014/01/new-download-links.html

I must not be explaining myself well. My apologies. Atm you can't use 3rd party VST's with my version of studio one, I don't want to get a new DAW that's why I was trying to figure out if it was Mixcraft or Ableton that was the DAW cause I want to get the one that's just a VST plugin. I'm not trying to make EDM music, that's why I am not trying to get drum software for EDM, I'm trying to combine the synth sounds and such of EDM music with my classic rock/grunge-ish sound, I think it would be unique and "modernize it". And when I say my current sounds are "crap" I should probably use better descriptive terms, they're "dated" is what they are. They sound very... early 90's/late 80's. The guitar sounds thing sounds highly promising, I will definitely look into that, and appreciate all your advice.

March 8, 2014

If you really do come to nashville let me know, I'm 15 min from bluebird

March 7, 2014

Well if you're looking for EDM stuff Ableton would be my choice...as for the learning curve its not that difficult...there are several very good tutorials at Groove3 and at Lynda.com.

It looks intimidating but once you understand the work flow it's a cinch use. Seriously!

Besides you already have a DAW in Studio One, why go for another?

Wait, did I have them backwards, is Mixcraft the DAW and ableton is the plugin?

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