chumpy

I just received some follow-up email about this, so it looks like this project is moving forward!

Hey Roberto, thanks for the kinds words, I'm really pleased you like our music! Also, welcome to Songstuff! I've read a lot of great stuff here from other aspiring music makers and have learned a lot. The song critique forums in particular are an invaluable resource, both for your music and your skills in thinking critically about folks' music. Hope to see ya around!

As is traditional, we're going to be one of the judges for SpinTunes #14 (which I think kicks off in January) which means writing a lot of song reviews. There could be upwards of 30 songs at the start of the contest, which is quite a lot of work. We're going to be producing a podcast tentatively titled Two Jerks, One Vote where we discuss the songs and ultimately rank them for our official vote. We're also going to attempt to write a few "shadow" entries for the contest, which folks who aren't officially competing can do just to get their songs heard but not voted on. I expect the first few months of 2018 are going to be super busy for us. I think we're going to take another crack at Nur Ein in April, and hopefully make a better showing. Even if we're eliminated early, we made one of our favorite songs from 2017 (which the judges hated) from a Nur Ein challenge, so winning isn't everything. How about other folks, how was your 2017?

Now that 2017 is nearly behind us, how about we take a moment to reflect on what we've accomplished this year musically? 2017 was another productive year for us. We cranked out 20 songs, in large part due to the online competitions we competed in this year. We won 4/5 of the SongFights we participated in, as well as winning SpinTunes #13, and we made it to round 4 of Nur Ein XXI. We also did three music videos this year.

Thanks man, I've been waiting to pick this up at a discount!

Heya JH, You need an audio interface that lets plug your guitar into your computer. Typically it's a a box box that on one end has a couple of quarter inch guitar jacks, and on the other end has a USB connection. You plug the guitar into the one of the jacks, plug the USB cable into your computer. Here is an example of one of these interfaces that a lot of people seem to like, you can get cheaper ones, but this one has a lot of fans. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005OZE9SA Once you've got this thing plugged into your computer, you should be able to configure Reaper to use it as an audio input. Then it's just a matter of making a new track, setting the input of that track to be whatever port your guitar is plugged into, and hitting record and rocking out. You'll want to take a look at a visualization of the waveform that you get from recording your guitar and make sure you're getting reasonably sized set of waves, and you're not clipping all over the place. You'll want to adjust the gain, or your guitar's volume knob until you get a sound that doesn't clip or distort. Now that sound you get out of your guitar is going to sound pretty boring. You'll want to download a free amp simulator to get some better sounds out of your guitar. You can get some free simulated amps from products like IK Multimedia's Amplitube 4, when you download their "custom shop" application. This will be a VST plugin that you can load onto the track that you recorded your guitar on. Other companies that sell virtual guitar amps/effects I think also have a free version that you can try out. Good luck!

This sounds fun, I'd play along. I assume you're just going to make the stems available at some point.

Sounds like a genuine rap beat to me! Maybe more bass?

I just rewatched that SM57 video again, and I noticed something interesting. A commenter asked the band what preamp/converter they used for the song and they responded: "Portico mic preamp, LA2a compressor, and Lynx II converters, mixed in a treated room using Cubase 7.5" So for those of you playing along at home, that's a $100 mic with with a $1,700 preamp, a $3,500 hardware compressor, and a $1,000 PCI audio card. I'm thinking that video as an argument for how great the SM57 sounds may have just had some of the wind knocked out of it.

I'd think twice before discounting the SM57. There are reasons it's one of the best selling microphones in the world and has been a staple of professional recording studios since its introduction in 1965. It's reliable, nearly indestructible and sounds good. It's incredibly flexible, and can be used for things that generate a lot of sound, like drums and guitar amps. It also does a pretty solid job on vocals. For $100 you can't get a better all round mic. Here is a song recorded using 2 SM57 mics on drums, guitar, vocals, and tambourine. It rocks and sounds great.

With a USB mic and Audacity you can do quite a lot, it's a good place to start. You can grab some beats in either mp3 or wav format, load them into an Audacity track, and then rap on top of them with your USB mic. Because Audacity is also a great wave editor, you can chop up beats and samples however you see fit.

That's right. Unless you buy a mic that is designed for plugging into a computer (like a Blue Snowball or a Blue Yeti) you'll need an interface. If you'd like to save some money, you can go that route. For example a Blue Snowball mic is only $50 and you can plug it right into your computer. I like the SM57 + Interface setup because it gives you a lot of options, if ever in the future you want a more complicated setup that involves a guitar or bass or something.

Hiya! I think it'd be totally worth it to buy a decent microphone. It would be a huge step up in terms of quality from the mic on your computer for not very much money. A good first microphone for folks just getting into recording is a Shure SM57. This microphone is a classic, and has been used professionally for many years both for recording instruments and voices. The microphone itself costs around $100 US, but you'll need an audio to USB interface to use it with your computer, which is another $100 that you'll need to spend. I recommend a Mackie Onyx Blackjack, because it sounds great and has a rugged metal design that I find aesthetically pleasing. This is what is known as a 2x2 interface, because it has two inputs and two outputs. The input jacks are "combo jacks" can accept either an XLR cable (like you would use with a microphone) or a 1/4 inch instrument cable like you'd use with a guitar. Good luck, and I look forward to hearing your songs!

In my case (I created this topic) I have zero desire to try to make money from music. The music industry is a monster that has historically screwed artists and ripped of their customers. I'm glad they're getting disrupted, couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch of snakes. What I would like is to have my music heard by more people. I was mostly looking at the question of making an album from that perspective. The album format was dictated by the 'Long Play' record format, it wasn't created because it was the best way for consumers to hear music. I'm starting to think that the EP length is more digestible length for listeners.