[IS IT A HIT????]

Sandwich.

[Question for folks who have started/been in a lot of bands.]

 

3 hours ago, HoboSage said:

Yes, that's a compliment.

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.

[Question for folks who have started/been in a lot of bands.]

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

[Question for folks who have started/been in a lot of bands.]

But my best advice is to do what I did, most of the bands I was in, I played drums. Problem solved. =) =) =)

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.

[Question for folks who have started/been in a lot of bands.]

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!

[Question for folks who have started/been in a lot of bands.]

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?

[I'm No Guitarist, But This Guy Looks Good....]

I think this would work well as incidental music in a TV show or movie.

 

It’s a bit too repetitive to be effective as a performance piece or an album track IMPO.

 

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

 

[Suddenly Feel Tone Deaf...]

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.

[Suddenly Feel Tone Deaf...]

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.

[Suddenly Feel Tone Deaf...]

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

[Suddenly Feel Tone Deaf...]

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?

[Parent Sliders Higher Than Child Sliders?]

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!  

[Parent Sliders Higher Than Child Sliders?]

I don't think a mixer's track/channel fader setting, per se, is a relevant concern.  What matters is the .db level of the signal in that channel, and the channel's fader setting is just one factor that determines that .db level, and the fader setting need not, and often doesn't, correspond to the level of the signal.

 

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

 

 

Subgroups

Many engineers like to group certain instruments together because it’s easier to control the level of one fader than many at the same time. Some engineers prefer groups (where the faders are all linked together), while others prefer subgroups (where the output of the certain individual channels are fed into a dedicated subgroup channel) or even combinations of both.

While all of these stages were slightly tweakable, one rule exists in the analog world that aptly applies to the digital as well.

The level of the channel faders should always stay below the subgroup or master fader. This means that the level of the master fader should always be placed higher than each of the channel faders (see Figures 11.18, 11.19, and 11.20). While it might be okay if one or two channels are slightly above the master (it’s almost inevitable in every mix), just a single channel with big chunks of EQ (like +10 of a frequency band) or an insert with an effects plug-in with a level that’s maxed can destroy any semblance of a good-sounding mix.

 

 

Because many large analog consoles have sufficient headroom these days, this rule hasn’t always been religiously followed, but it has been a golden rule since day one of modern consoles. Not following it is the main reason why many mixes, especially those done in the box, lose fidelity. The master buss is overloaded!

 

Owsinski (2013-04-09). The Mixing Engineer's Handbook, 3rd ed. (Kindle Locations 3425-3427). Cengage Learning PTR. Kindle Edition.

 

[Parent Sliders Higher Than Child Sliders?]

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...

[Radio Edits: What Words Are "inappropriate."]

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

[Radio Edits: What Words Are "inappropriate."]

Wow, ambiguous was definitely the correct word.  There's some fascinating information here, especially some of the charts in that .pdf, and the anecdotes about completely innocuous things being censored because they were misheard.  lol

 

I guess I'm just gonna have to use my own judgement when it comes to this kind of thing.

So very silly...

[Worst Most Cringe Worthy Album Covers]

[Radio Edits: What Words Are "inappropriate."]

I've always wondered exactly what words need to be scrubbed from a song to make it "radio-friendly."  Is there actually an official list on some FCC website somewhere, or is it just something I should figure out via common sense?

 

Seems hard to do the latter when different genres seem to be targeted by editing to widely varying degrees.  For example, I've never heard the word "gun" censored in a rock song, but in a rap song?  Plenty of times.  (Of course, I've always wondered if that was a conscious choice done to promote an image, rather than following any real hard and set rule.)

 

So, what say you, forum?  Any resources for this kind of question floating out there?

[Trying To Test Pod Farm And Running Into Issues With Reason]

Posted this on both the Line 6 and Propellerhead forums, but thought the fine folk here might have ideas, too:

 

---------------------------------------------------------

 

Hello there,

 

I recently started recording, and wanted more Line 6 tones than the small amount of amps and cabinets that come with Reason.

 

I downloaded POD Farm Free to see how it works.  My hope was that the cabinets and amps -- and even the effects -- from POD Farm Free would simply be added to my options in Reason.  Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case, though.

 

I'm uploading a picture to show my exact issue.  Here's what I've done:

 

1) I created a tone in POD Farm Free called "Cutaia Test."  I added in some models that do not come default in Reason.  As you can see in the picture, POD Farm Free allows me to use those amps/etc. and says, "You have all the model packs needed for the selected tone(s)."

 

2) I went to Reason and selected my saved test tone, but it doesn't sound like it should.  Furthermore, the picture shows that the Power Amp isn't selected, and while the Brit Celeste's name is shown, it has an asterisk, indicating it's "missing."

 

I thought that by having the licence for these models in POD Farm, I could just save a tone, and use it properly in Reason, but so far, no dice.  Is there something I'm doing wrong?  Maybe:

 

- I have saved things in an incorrect place?

- I'm misunderstanding how POD Farm works?

- My POD Farm licenses aren't loading correctly?  (I have noticed that each time I open POD Farm, it tells me that it isn't authorized and will run in trial mode.  When I click "Licence Manager" from that warning, though, it opens and tells me that it *is* indeed authorized).

 

I hope I can get this fixed.  From the little I've played with POD Farm Free tones, I'm sure I'd want to buy the full version, but not if I can't use the tones!

[(Any Other Large Communities Like This?)]

To my knowledge, there is no one else quite like Songstuff...but then I don't get out much these days.

 

Haha, well, like I said...I wasn't really seeing anywhere like it, either.  It's a good community, so if it's the only one I end up frequenting, it won't be a bad thing, I suppose.  

[(Any Other Large Communities Like This?)]

...and by "this" I guess what I mean is communities where you can find people doing so many genres of music.  I ask because I've tried posting some songs on other sites for critique and found that a lot of them seem to be comprised of nothing but people doing various styles of electronica.  I like those songs, but it's not usually what I do, which means that posting a song of mine would invariably lead to the thread getting ignored.  

 

So, it's been refreshing here to be able to critique a number of types of music and to get critiques from a wider variety of musical background.

 

I guess what I'm saying is that I'll probably be sticking around Songstuff for the foreseeable future, but would still love to expand my interactions so I'm connecting with a greater number of people.

 

Forgive me if this feels like I'm asking for links to "the competition" or something.  If I'm breaking any forum rules by posting this, certainly delete the thread, mods.  

[Challenge #28 The Bigger They Are....]

The description of this challenge makes me think of Filter's Hey Man, Nice Shot.  

[Copyrighting Music Which Includes Brand Name Sound Effects/instruments/drum Machines]

Even if you go ahead and use pre-programmed loops from said drum machine, you'll be fine, since by buying the drum machine, you've essentially also bought the license to the library of included sounds.

[Vocals Sound Better The More I Listen To Them...]

Eek.  I'll see if I can muster up the courage to post a sample later today, but for now, definitely curious to keep hearing opinions on if people have ever experienced this.

[Vocals Sound Better The More I Listen To Them...]

I find that when I record vocals, I often hate them a bit at first. But the more and more I listen to the song, the more I suddenly start liking them.

 

Is this because I'm just getting over hating my voice and finally able to hear them "for real." Because that would be good.

 

The bad possibility? Maybe they really aren't any good, but I just get used to them sucking!  

 

Any thoughts on this phenomenon? Is this normal? Something you've experienced?