Palmiro

It's funny, since I joined this site, I've already found two instances of people who have a problem of "excessive austerity". I used to think it only happened to me. I used to think of a guitar, my main instrument, the way one would think of a stapler, "why would I want to have two? It would be wasteful, this one gets the job done!" That's one extreme. The other one is those bastards in YouTube videos who show off their garages completely full of gear. Or something like Joe Bonamassa, which is downright pathological (I saw a documentary and his house looks like a warehouse). There's a middle ground, I'm sure each of those two instruments will have different properties and texture, and as a guy who deals in music, and has his own studio, it isn't too bad having them both around, if they give you joy and push you to pursue your music making. Maybe the better question would be "which one to purchase... first". (This is a bit of a philosophical answer, coming from a vocalist/guitarist/pianist; maybe you were rather looking for someone more brass-savy who could tell you "don't buy the pBone, my cousin has one and sucks!"... Just my 2c... )

Good tips... As I learn, I'm favoring more and more delay over reverb. It really goes a long way to solve muddiness sometimes.

Nice resource... The technique I can relate to most is stacking. I often pan center the main vocal, and then slightly to the left and to the right I have duplicates, one sung one octave below, the other one octave up (whenever I can I actually sing them instead of just changing the octave with the DAW, it's a good vocal exercise and great fun). For certain songs I sometimes add also a track whispering the lyrics. I also add often a distortion bus, sometimes it increases punch and helps with intelligibility... but it has the disadvantage that, depending on the compression, it can accentuate the esses too much and then you have to tweak the deesser, do a new round of volume automation... Another technique from the video I've used sparsely is the vocoder, only because a particular song demanded a robotic voice... Never to autotune any note, that's just slander because I always always always sing on pitch

@HoboSage, lol, I know what you mean. Depending on the day of the week, it could be me the one making that comment instead. But funny that you mention Alice Cooper... a great example of how there's no such thing as retirement for musicians, it's our blessing and our curse I guess...

@CCB, Hey CCB, thank you for the welcome... And for checking my Soundcloud (it's a bit old, as you'll see... lack of bandwith for both projects at the moment). I also enjoyed your stuff, concerts must be very fun, with the appropriate amount of beers and smokes... (I couldn't stomach the larder song, though... too graphic for my taste... Although you certainly address the subject with great enthusiasm 😛 )

Thank you for your comments. Very interesting, lots of food for thought. You're right that it will be better that I open a thread on the topic rather than using this one here... It is going to take a while, though, because I'm advancing very slowly in the songs that I want to publish... But I'll certainly will want to pick some brains here... So great being able to share this stuff and get other people's impressions... Thank you so much

Thank you for your welcome to my species, and for checking out my stuff Do you have any advice on spreading one's activity on multiple projects? I'm currently just making the music, but I'm at a bit of a loss on how will I go about it in the tube later. E.g., I don't know if publishing the new project in the same YouTube channel, to take advantage of synergies, or maybe it would confound people and it's better to create a new channel... I was going to pose that question at some point here, but given that you mention it...

I like the idea of keeping a log book. I record my YT metrics in a spreadsheet, I guess it's a start... I want to clarify my comment on the $59 course... I'm not dissing paying for good content and information. What I was implying was more that: most of YT videos are like brochures to sell you something at the end, and at least this guy doesn't do it (although he does promote in a btw manner his books, "which are studied in university", etc).

Well, I don't know if someone can "overdo" something in music, it's creativity, the way I see it there's no wrong or right if that's how you feel it... (Speaking of "Killing me softly" the Fugees version comes to mind... ) My main project is a one man hardcore punk band, Black Sheep Riot, but it's currently on hiatus, in these days I'm in the works of a more poppy thing, I'm preparing a "stash" of songs that I want to start launching regularly in the tube once I finish them...

Great information again, very enlightening, thank you. I'm going to copy these two posts and study them like a "manual". What I found in this Musformation thing is a guy who gives you a methodology you can stick to, a strategy... which doesn't involve buying his shiny new e-course for $59.95. In fact he also debunks things like buying FB ads or playlist listens, as crap. I also like this idea of staying several weeks around the same song: both as a way of "hammering" the song into people's volatile attention span... and also as an unsaid statement that your music is important. Not only for them, also for yourself; if I find one of my songs is only meh, I'll find very hard to promote it with conviction, make lyric videos, video clips, create buzz around it... I can connect this way of doing things to my craft, it's not only marketing strategy. But of course the guy will probably be partial and for sure self-serving in everything he says. To say it all, I find him and his delivery so cringy that I don't even watch the videos anymore, I just read the transcripts . But I think the content is good, at least it's plausible, he has a consistent message from one video to another. I never thought of internet marketing, when it comes to music, as "niche". To be honest, hearing it denominated like that is a relief for me, as it means there is life outside this big "computer god" who seems to have swallowed all the music creation and distribution in our days... I hope to growingly learn more about those other avenues...

Wow John, your knowledge of this stuff is impressive. Thank you for sharing! Musformation gives advice for all platforms, but I'm by now doing only the cycle of publishing in YouTube, to see how it goes, because all I aspire to is having some people listening to the music. I like having this regular schedule to stick to, to avoid falling into "endlessly perfecting one song" (and certain track within the song, and certain detail within the track...) At first I was reluctant to making video, but then I thought that all my heroes from the pre-Internet era have had to do this kind of "ancillary" stuff in some way or another too, so I try to see it as another avenue for my creativity. For example, by recording myself in chroma videos, I'm getting to experiment with my stage persona, useful for when the moment comes to play actual gigs (it's been a while, sadly). Also, looking at myself as a viewer, I sometimes wonder "what will X be up to?", and I wish they published more often. I wouldn't mind to be that kind of little "incentive" for someone else, something that pops up in their day now and then...

Welcome from another newbie. I enjoyed the cover, you have great pipes, man. Looking forward to see you around.

I discovered a YouTube channel called Musformation about music promotion, and I'm trying to use their system as a blueprint for my upcoming "band". The guy proposes a system of 6 week cycles for each song; for each, you publish in successive weeks: the song with just a background with the artwork, then a lyric video, then a video clip, then perhaps an alternate version or a collaboration... Once the cycle is over, you move on to the next song. I don't know if he is right, but he seems to be someone who cares, and his reasons make sense, so I'm going to try it as an experiment, to see if it does better than my current channel, which only gets a few scattered views here and there...

This is so great, I feel so flattered... Thank you everybody for your attention

Hey TheGarageJump, thank you for the welcome, and also for your interest in my music... For the moment, if that's alright, I'm more comfortable just getting my feet wet, checking other people's music, commenting here and there, getting the general vibe... I'm currently working on a cycle of songs that will be ready, if the gods are willing, in a couple of months, and I was thinking of start posting that. I really don't feel right now like going back to the older stuff, processing the feedback... We're all musicians here, I know you'll all be familiar with those trends and impulses one feels, and that you must obey or you end up very badly... (But if suspense is killing someone, I left links to my music in my profile; the day after I introduced myself, I got my first subscriber (number 3) in a long time. Coincidence? I don't think so... 😛 😛 😛 😛 😛 )