symphonious7

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.

Ohhhh I see! And hey Marie! haha

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

Sounds like Mixcraft is gonna actually serve my purpose better then, I'm more wanting a plugin to add to studio one than an entire DAW to learn. Perhaps after I get familiarized with mixcraft and have better finances I'll re-look at ableton to expand.

Do you think it would be better than Mixcraft? I could sell my stuff and get the other items I want first and then see how much is left over and if it's truly that much better hope I can get it instead, but I'd only wanna do that if it was really better enough to be worth it.

Woo hoo! I hope I can get these things sold soon I'm so anxious to see what possibilities it opens up!!!

It's beeeautiful, I've always loved guitars with F holes. I had one but tried to use it for live rock shows, ever tried to distort a guitar with F holes at high volume? Yeeeah.... there's good feedback, and then there's... that...

That looks PERFECT, thanks!

I have some things I plan on selling to get better equipment, I've already picked out a cheap bass I'm going to get in place of my hellcat, and I plan on getting EZ Drummer and Guitar Rig 5. I think a big part of my problem is that my sounds are crap. And it's funny cause I felt like that was just a cop out, and maybe if I was amazingly talented at production it would be, but I don't have the skills to be tweaking everything like crazy to make it fit, I need sounds that will fit more or less upon entrance into the sound spectrum with minor tweaks necessary, not like what I have where it's just complete tinny BS until I've butchered it's original tone. I will have around 1 or 200 bucks left over after I sell two guitars and an old mixing board and some speakers of mine and get these things, and thought it would be perfect if I were to get software that allowed me to create sounds like the ones they make in EDM. Clearly I'm not techno or dubstep dude, but just having the capability to use some loops and synths that are in that style would help modernize my sound, plus it would be highly unusual since my writing is so classic rock. So does anyone know of a program that will give me some real bang for my buck? Preferably closer to $100 than $200?

I had a killer avatar but it wasn't sized right

Small really. It's like having glasses on and I see them coming out of the stereo in my minds eye. You know when you close your eyes and see splotches, and then when you open them they're still there but you can still see in spite of it? It's kinda like that. If I hear an earthquake I might see a cloud going up and down, if I hear a keyboard I might see ripples like a river. But I see it the most when anylizing a mix. To me mixes look like an atom sorta. It's like this black nucleus of bass and then it has things swirling around it and hanging off of it, the main instruments like rhythm guitar or piano usually hang right below it in a good mix, with the vocal then taking up the top of the mix and usually the center is a diamond like I already said. But in my mixes it doesn't look like that and I start trying to make it LOOK like that rather than just listening lol I talked about this a bit on another forum I was on and a guy who had heard of it said he heard that for musicians it was a curse. When you consider how much trouble I have mixing I'd have to agree... Edit: On an interesting note, it shows me just how precise professional producers can be. This doesn't happen so much on newer recordings, but on the old 70's productions like pinkfloyd and steely dan etc, they fit their sounds together so perfectly it's like placing them in a puzzle. Like in my mixes and even pretty good mixes these days, there are holes between the sounds a bit, or some sounds overlap a little, in really bad mixes you get lines zig zagging and crossing each other all over the place, but even in good mixes they overlap a little bit but still reach the correct general vicinity. But in the old mixes? It's as if someone measured the areas of each sounds core essence and then cut them up to fit together with exact precision. It's quite amazing really. I have no idea how they did that but on some records it's there.

does your hearing condition have a name? I have a hearing condition too I can't remember what it's called, but it means that I see sound more than I hear it. I just looked it up it's called "Synesthesia" But I've heard it makes it difficult to mix, as I can't just listen to the emotion in a song, instead I see the shapes of each sound. I've noticed that in popular recordings they usually have the bass and kick looking like a diamond in the center of the mix, and then the off shoot sounds make ovals and the main ones shoot out like a curvy trumpet shape. So when I mix and my sounds don't create these shapes I spend ages trying to get them to, even though I'm told I shouldn't listen in that way. I don't however hear things most people can't, so I'm curious about your condition.

Ooo thanks!

The sad thing is that my reason for doing all this is in the hopes of making money with it as I literally have no income whatsoever at all. So there is no "saving" right now, I do listen in different ways though, listening in different parts of the room, using 2 sets of headphones that sound different. I believe everything is improving but I'm just not improving at the rate and to the level I want to be. I'm not sure what I need I keep scouring the internet for more tips and tricks but it'd be nice if I could find a youtube channel with like 100s of videos that take you step by step through everything you could want to know. As of now I'm reading articles on this BAM audio school website.

It'd be a great name for a band that doesn't rehearse, and doesn't pay attention to what they're doing live. "Hi we are asleep at the wheel and we got no idea what the hell we're doing up here!!" *noise noise noise*

Never use those sites. The only sites that give you genuine youtube views use a "view for view" system, and what you get is a bunch of people clicking through a list of videos mindlessly with no intention of subscribing or giving it a real honest observation. The trick with youtube is thumbnail, SEO, and a title people can't refuse that isn't misleading. Write an awesome song called "My girlfriend is a gay nazi" And put a picture of cleavage in the thumbnail, then make every tag about sex or homosexuality or something of that nature, and you'll get hits galore. Now that is the douche bag route, and it's one many take. I never would, but my point in giving that example is that youtube is not a very prestigious place for the most part. If you want to hit that front page, you gotta think like a tabloid writer does, shock, ride coattails of other trending things/and amaze.

Just like tunesmith said, just because a song is in a certain key doesn't mean it can't be sung in falsetto or in a lower range. But there is one song in C I'd love to hear you sing, and that's Tina Turner's Proud Mary. With back up singers and dancing please. Oh and start it off niiice and eaaasy, but then make it go rough.... (Last part is Tina's words not mine)

The Smashing Pumpkins! I've always thought that was just... so freakin cool.

I will be waiting... and the moment you wake up... POW.