GregB

HA! I'm still waiting for my 'masterpiece' 😎 For me, it's always trying to match the visual 'feel' to the sonic 'feel'. While lyrics do have some influence, I've had to do a lot of instrumentals too. But, despite whatever you can imagine, you then have to compromise a LOT depending on what clips are available or can be shot yourself. My videos are always 'story'-based ... no arty, jaggy, experimental stuff for me. I just don't think that way. Mora Amaro La Loba is an expert in made-up visuals/effects that are perfect for her songs. PS. Would you mind also linking to this topic from the Music Video CLUB.

>> There is no songwriting viagra. ... so there's no way to stiffen my resolve? >> Our relationship with creativity is very similar to our relationships over all ... well, THAT explains a lot ... I HAVE been married for 44 years!! 😂😎 Greg

I applaud @john for trying to keep us all motivated with occasional Writing Challenges. Alas, with my own dinosaur reflexes, even if I was in the mood, it would be a long cold winter of the soul before I could generate any meaningful response that I would be willing to push into the Songstuff spotlight. Instead, I would be far happier to offer an existing song (if relevant) in response to any topic that gets raised. For example, I have songs specifically about climate change, the environment, mental health, surveillance, the daily grind, orgasm, war, childhood dreams, my home country, stalking, etc., etc.. Note - specific topics other than love/infatuation and heartbreak. [PS. I went to a songwriting feedback/critique workshop several years ago. Of the 30 or so attendees, 95% were under thirty. As the baton was passed around the circle for individuals to each play their song to the group, they ALL introduced it along the lines of "I wrote this about someone I had just met ... " or "I wrote this about breaking up with ... ". On one hand this proves the universality of a subject/emotion that touches us all but, to my mind, you have to be a genius to say anything new or interesting about it.] Any general interest in this approach? Greg

Hi Don I'm not metal-head, but this is a great song I've enjoyed for years. Nicely PLAYED by you 👍 How many mics were used? To my ears the drum SOUND (all the various kit parts but especially the snare) doesn't quite fit sonically ... too 'thick' and too far forward in the mix ... possibly requires more attention to EQ, compression and reverb? But that's only because I'm familiar with the original. Congrats on 1) a great project, 2) the video, and 3) buying half the drums ever built Cheers, Greg PS ... your post title should be Metallica and not Mettalica 😉

I'll also add to my previous post (further above), that a free stock plugin that comes with any DAW is likely to be within a whisker of being as good as any 'premium' third-party plugins worth several hundred dollars. In their article https://www.production-expert.com/production-expert-1/the-shocking-truth-about-pro-tools-stock-plugins these industry experts say: They don’t sound bad. In fact, when compared to the premium versions, it’s hard to tell the difference. When recording my first album during 2014, I used Pro Tools' free stock plugins for EQ and Compression and in 2023 released other tracks that still use them. These plugins (and 30 others) come free with the FREE of Pro Tools (called the "Intro" version) ... which is supposedly identical to the full version but limited to 24 tracks in a session (8 audio, 8 instrument, 8 MIDI) ... which is more than enough for most singer-songwriters.

To my mind: 'Poetry' can take on any form. It is prose broken down into lines which may or may not have rules of interdependence such as rhythm, syllable count, rhyme or continuance. 'Lyrics' are poetry set to music. Sometimes rhyming, sometimes not. Sometimes crammed into every spare second. Sometimes sparse. Sometimes being just one phrase repeated ad nauseam. If the above is true, why bother having two separate discussion groups in Songstuff? I have raised the subject of "Poetry vs Lyrics" with someone I know who writes poetry professionally, without getting a satisfactory answer. I've also searched this Forum for "Lyrics" without finding a full-on discussion in relation to a comparison with 'poetry'. Is a poem set to music no longer a poem? Are lyrics, not written with music in mind, really a poem? Elton John attributed credits to Tim Rice as Lyricist. But Tim never heard the music until Elton had finshed writing the music, using the words as a source of inspiration. Sheet music sometimes say 'Lyrics by', other times it is 'Words by'. All moot and probably not worth the electrons to discuss, but I'm always fascinated by such inconsistencies in language. Greg

Hey. I did MY first-ever home studio album in my mid 60s! I had been totally baboozled/daunted by the potential pitfalls and costs (and the fear of getting the WRONG stuff) but ended being convinced by Graham at The Recording Revolution that you don't need to buy lots of gear or spend big. And he was right. I've released 50+ great sounding home-recorded tracks. My 2021 setup is described from Page 14 here ... https://drive.google.com/file/d/13msJbHgSYflqawSx1z8Od88ai169AOB2/view?usp=sharing NOTE: Pro Tools has since been released with a free 'Intro' version which would have been fine for all my tracks, providing inbuilt plugins, 8 audio, 8 MIDI and 8 Instrument tracks. But I wouldn't recommend Pro Tools as it is a pig of a DAW to learn). Graham even demonstrated an impressive recording using ONLY an iPhone ... GarageBand for instruments and its mic for vocals .... Good luck with the adventure.

Hi Dave. You're driving the TV via an HDMI ... from the Mac? That's a lot of possible candidates for the problem ... YouTube, your Mac browser, the cable, the hardware ports at either end, the TV firmware/hardware. I'd try isolating the issue, keeping everything the same but changing ONE thing: play the video directly on your TV via its YouTube app play a different Tube video (with similar style and dynamic range) on the Mac access YouTube via a different browser on your Mac instead of playing in browser, user a local player app like VLC drive your TV/cable setup from another computer (borrow a Mac or WIndows laptop) while I can't imagine why the cable would cause the problem, drive the TV without a cable: casting via Apple Aircast or Chromecast put the video on a USB stick and play via the TV's native app or download one (like VLC) PS. also check the cable specs ... and the Mac/TC port specs ... for compatibility as HDMI has had several major revisions. I hope you post news of how you found/solved the issue. Greg

Possibly just echoing my 'old man' gut feel, but this is from a much younger guy who steadily covers several creative and technical aspects of music worth considering ... and this is from almost a decade ago! Greg

well, kidnapping WOULD definitely do the job, especially if the victim (one's chosen artist) understood they would never be released unless they coughed up answers to all your questions ... which would take a few days to cover all the things I'd be interested in knowing. Sorry man, I'm just too practical to consider your original premise, plus similar ones like: what would you do if you were given 1/10/100 million in cash if you could do one thing to change the world ... if you could get the PM to do one thing ... if, if, if, .... If MI5/CIA trawl websites for problematic discussions, remember it was YOU who brought up kidnapping!! 😂 PS. I didn't mean to bring down your topic of conversation. I responded with a real/considered response (as if we were having a face-to-face conversation). Greg 👍

Being practical/logical, I've never gelled with "who would you talk to?" or "who would you co-write with?" How long would we have together for a meaningful conversation? Why would they spend more than a 5-sec "hello" ... what's in it for them? Many talk-show hosts/podcasters can't get the guests they want. So WHY would anyone good want to talk to ME? If they did, I'd likely be over-awed and be unable to get anything worthwhile from the opportunity Experiences being so different, there's very little we'd have in common. What the hell would we talk ABOUT? It takes two to tango and personalities are important for enjoyable/inetresting conversation ... especially with a stranger If they are an important influence, something they may say as an offhand remark (or even a considered opinion) could really CRUSH you as a creative Many, many people have said "never meet your heroes". Greg B

I remember when I first started to 'network' at local music events, about 10 years ago, the majority or attendees described themselves as Singer-Songwriters. Yet on asking them for links to their works (or title names), only a couple of people could/would do so. Obviously anyone can identify and represent themselves as anything they want, but I simply don't understand that mindset. Perhaps it's a sign of age, but I find mere aspirations quite odd as being the basis of the Singer-Songwriter. Why is there such a lack of finished material? Money? Time? Skill? Support? Creativity? Technology? Psychology? Etc, etc.. Does having a book of 100 songs, kept in a drawer, have equal 'weight' to being vulnerable and releasing just one song for the world to hear and judge on its own merits? ["If a tree falls ...."?] So it amuses me that, in the Songstuff Community Forums, there are more than 150K posts in the main 'critique' sections yet less than 5K in the 'created' sections. And before people pile on, I'm just making a factual observation that the 'doing' is outweighed by a massive 30:1. So let's MAGA ... Make Artistry Great Again ... and let's HEAR your songs! This is a supportive community.

I watched “Maestro” last night and was particularly struck by one Leonard Bernstein’s answer to an interview question (around 00:38). Q. Lenny, what's the big difference in the life of Composer Bernstein and Conductor Bernstein? A. I suppose it's a personality difference which occurs between any creator versus any performer. Any performer ... whoever it is, leads a kind of public life. An extrovert life, if you will. It's an oversimplified word, but something like that. Whereas a creative person sits alone [in a room] and writes all by himself and communicates with the world in a very private way and lives a rather grand inner life rather than a grand outer life. And if you carry around both personalities ... I suppose that means you become a schizophrenic, and that's the end of it. I don’t know whether the above words (from the subtitle file) were in an actual recorded interview, or were simply a scripted dramatic fiction, but they encapsulated a feeling I've had for a while. I gave up performing years ago. I perform on my own recordings because that is the only way my songs will ever get off the page! But it remains stressful and I have to grit my teeth and just get it done.

Have investigated but apparently still NOT available as AAX (the only format that Pro Tools uses). The inability of ProTools to use VSTs has been a constant pain as there is so much free stuff that I'm prevented from using! "MetaPlugin" (https://ddmf.eu/metaplugin-chainer-vst-au-rtas-aax-wrapper/) is available to install as AAX and allows hosting of VST and AU plugins in Pro Tools. It is visually very clunky. Currently USD59 (71EU). I've used/tested the free demo version but you must keep its window open else your settings are lost.

Feb 2024 - wowsers - and here's the latest development in AI Video Generation ... https://openai.com/sora The example videos go DOWN the page, but also ACROSS (roughly 50 in all). They are each 8-20 secs, and INCREDIBLY GOOD. Certainly good enough for stock footage and the sorts of music videos I've done. It's a quantum leap beyond everything else so far. Yes, knowing they're AI, you'll be looking for problems ... and you'll find them. But it's still mind-blowing and the problems are minor. And this is just the first iteration too!

Alas, with MY memory, I wouldn't be able to learn/play a single one (altho' I can still churn out a few of the Delta Blues finger-picking guitar instrumentals that I learned way back as a teenager). Celtic music for me is less about specific tunes, and more about the vibe of the instruments/voices, and it's the slow laments that do me in. Anything with Uilleann pipes is guaranteed to rip my heart out.

'Celtic Starise - Emerald Sky' ... really nice vibe. I would have liked to hear the bagpipes takes the lead, at least for a section, and establish a core tune (rather than all being passing phrases buried low in the mix). On keyboard, did you use 'true' bagpipe pitch and scale? There's SOMETHING about Celtic music which always tugs hard at my core. Quite strange as, although I grew up in the UK, I have no recollection of being exposed to the music and have no Irish/Scottish family, but I think it eventually heavily influenced the old/traditional English folk music ith which I'm more familiar. There is a song of this ilk during the end credits of the small indie film "The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry" (which I happened to watch last night) that made my eyes quite misty!

Are you aware that you can turn down the complexity of the whole kit and/or any one element, or even turn off that element? Also, if still too busy, you can select to play at 1/2 time. Then, if close, you can drag the resulting block back into the "tap/search" window to narrow the list provided. Also, don't forget that the options provided depend on the MIDI libraries you have installed. Depending on your genre, then it may be worth stumping up for some extras ... e.g. there's 4 Songwriter pack (currently 20% off at 23 Euros each). There's an audio demo for each. From memory, the main hurdle was 'tapping' a beat (especially with latency on my system). I eventually found that the simplest approach was to click in the simplest of main beats ... one kick and snare on 2/3/4 as required ... then, on a supplied block, ramp up the hit hat/snare/kick to get nearer to target, then drag THAT to the Search bar. Took me a while to figure how to extract what I wanted from EZD, and my usage is sporadic at best, but happy to help if you want (and if I can). If so, perhaps message me away from this general discussion.

Perhaps send it to Ukraine ... they need more tanks. 😶

I DID upgrade. The best thing for me was a resizable window. The 'rhythm-from-a-recording' you mentioned was not a feature I needed nor have I used it other than to see what it does. No doubt, there's more features than before but the interface seems to have become a bit TOO complex ... and I can't say it's helped me to generate better drum tracks than EZD2 - which did a fine job for me.

Ooh, err!! 😄

Yes. I only have the one mic. Good sound and acceptable price. PS. I was surprised to find it was designed and made in Australia! Huzzah! Greg

Fair enough, but I'm too much a control freak 😄

I record my 12-string, my one and only guitar 😊, on two guitar tracks simultaneously, getting two perfectly synchronised tracks but with slightly different characteristics: 1) DI from the inbuilt Takamine piezo pickup (vibrations in the wooden body), hopefully tailored for the Takamine instrument and outputs a rich uniform sound. 2) Rode NT1 Condenser mic, from 6-12" away, picks up the sound projection from the guitar body, as well as other natural but indirect sounds that a listener would normally hear ... fingers striking or sliding up and down the strings, the noise of strings on frets, and the indefinable phantom sound of each string vibrating on BOTH sides of a pressed fret etc.. The two tracks are then EQ'd differently for tone as well as being individually placed on the stereo stage. This helps give more heft and spread, especially in otherwise quite sparse arrangements ... e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvbuJHLYxzk which is plain guitar + vocal.

For me, the beat/rhythm already exists in the song as it is developed acoustically at the kitchen table. My first-ever album (2002) was recorded in three days in a studio and had no drums/percussion at all ... there was just too much time/money pressure ... plus my cowriter/performer was too 'folk' to contemplate experiments with arranging. My first home-production was in 2015. My co-writer/performer had rock band experience, so drums were a natural topic of discussion. For the first two tracks, we each scoured the net for drum tracks/loops that might suit. But I found that to be a sure method for going mad ... sample names that did not that describe the beats/sounds in any meaningful way so one had to audition a 100 tracks to find ONE that was suitable. And even then, there may not be the right drum sounds, or accents, or variation and fills - things that can't be edited in a WAV file. We just made do. This time-wasting and creative frustration caused me to scour around for alternatives and I luckily found Toontrack's "EZ Drummer 2" which answered all my dreams. Tap in a basic beat and get a list of patterns listed by 'fit'. Choose a pattern and get a matrix of optional intros, verses, choruses, pre-choruses, bridges, fill and ends. The number of available parent patterns depends on how many MIDI packs you have installed. The kit sounds depend on which expansion packs. For rhythms, I have the core free ones plus I bought a few extras ... Ballas, Blues, Electronic (for just one song!), Indie Folk, Jazz (for non-standard meters), Latin, Singer-Songwriter. For sounds, on top of the kits included, and I bought Dance (for that one song), Latin and Nashville. Each parent 'pattern' and each daughter 'section' can be edited to: change the kit delete/add any element of the kit (e.g. an alternative kick, or bring in the Toms if not currently being used) change the 'room' sound change the volume of each kit element relative to the others change the playing complexity of each kit element (e.g. if you want the ride to be less 'busy') Once choices are made, the algorithm does the rest. E.g. it never exceeeds what two hand and two feet can do. There is a lot of 'feel', e.g. ghost notes. And if all this is not enough then the ultimate level of control is that any section can be dragged into the DAW where it will appear as MIDI notes ... e.g. in a section you may want a particular double-kick to be a single. EZ Drummer 2 (along with the later EZD 3) helped me complete and release over 50 tracks to my complete satisfaction. The drums have received praise from reviewers for their track-appropriateness, sound and variation. In general, drums/percussion rarely needs more than 30mins for me to build for the whole song. The main thing is that I get a professional sound that is sympathetic to the vibe of the track, and I get it quickly so I can concentrate on playing, singing, and arrangement. I've not been stymied as yet, generating quite unique but appropriate drum parts that suit each song ... including one song which has sections in 3/4, 5/4 and 6/4 (see/hear https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqCznUUFeeQ) Here's an example of the plugin in use showing the chosen kit, a simple rhythm (kick on 1, snare on 4) that gets a list of matching 'results', how one result gives a matrix of sectional options, how those options can be auditioned add dragged to the timeline.