john

Hey Max Welcome aboard! I sent you a PM regarding posting issues we'll get it sorted out soon

Hey Kole Welcome to Songstuff! Dig in and enjoy.

It's wandered some way from the original topic... but... Your proposal sounds entirely like someone who doesn't rely upon music to keep a roof over your head or food in your family's tums. What you are describing is pretty well a hobbyist or semi-pro scenario at best, because very, very few could live on what you suggest. All the more so when many venues want small bands to play for nothing or in some cases pay to play. Certainly making a living on such a set up would be very difficult. For non-performing songwriters, even more so. As it is the industry is biased towards artists and labels, in comparison to the almost non-entity of songwriters. As a disabled writer I am very much limited to recording music. Any performance is very, very limited for a number of reasons. The thing is, streaming sites charge listeners, and charge advertisers, and then pass very very little on to the band. Songwriters get even less. you mentioned one thing... several times " I control the value of my music " That should apply to whether I want to give my music away for free or not. People can then decide if they are prepared to pay for it or not. I as the seller can adjust my price accordingly. Why should I not be paid? If you were a plumber you wouldn't come to my house and do the plumbing on the basis that it would give you exposure. You would be very unlikely to say "plumbing free to the general public i do not disagree that it is your right to give away anything that is yours (I encourage any chefs to come cook for me, and I need some building work and decorative work done. I promise to pass on your name if you do!), even though it undermines the professional industry (particularly the lower end) but it is your music, your choice. But to kill the pro industry and essentially make it all hobbyist or semi-pro is to lose a whole stack of experience. Indeed, with that scenario, there are many household names that we just wouldn't have heard of... because they needed to keep a roof over their head and put food in their family's tums! Working part time or hobbyist we then lose a lot of the dependent industries, from graphic artists to session musicians to sound engineers and producers. There are non-essential roles, but lets not forget what ASCAP and BMI etc do. They collect monies from people who make money from your music. The sources are diverse and numerous. They exist because at a certain level of success it becomes untenable to manage it all. You might think that setting a price to get paid by film and TV programme makers, or from advertisers is ok, but those costs just get passed on to film goers, TV subscriptions and product purchasers. I understand you can set the price here, because those people plan to make money from your music... how is that different from a streaming site making money from your music, even if it is based on advertising income alone? How is taht different from venue owners who attract people to buy alcohol in part based upon the music they play? Are all these people allowed to make money from music... but the musician? Even more so the case for a songwriter. One more thing. You say your music not limited to only those who can afford it. Isn't that the point of radio? they can access your music. Using free streaming they can get access to songs on deman too. Apart from that... the average album has cost thousands to make. Artist graphics, buying equipment, if you have a band, then rehearsal time too. Buying recording gear, software. Marketing and promotion... even if we do it ourselves. If you do a traditional pressing it costs about $400 for a glass master, then printing, cellophane wrap etc. Distribution too. If you don't want many people to hear your music you can do your own promotion and distribution.... isn't that limitation even MORE limiting than cutting people out who cannot afford your music? That aside... you can always do specials that are free. Free gigs. Free online gigs. TV appearances. Radio appearances. The average CD costs the price of 5 cups of coffee. Not exactly huge.

I predict that on 20th October 2020, at 8:20pm predictive text will actually predict the end of the world I predict that predictions will become predictable at some point during 2017 I predict that iPhone autocorrect will finally work connection at some timbre in 2022. Probbingly

Unless it starts getting predictions about religion lol

Awwwww... be the little songwriter that could

Hi I thought I'd solicit your predictions.... 6 months, 1 year and 3 years ahead. Feel free to use other time periods, just remember to accompany any prediction with the time period. With the aim that we can come back and see who gets close, and who gets miles away. Predictions can be serious or purely for humorous reasons. This is not a debate thread.... By that I don't mean avoid all conversation, just try not to drill down too far on a topic. If it is heading in that direction, please start a new topic. If it spawns a religious or political or similarly contentious or other grown up topic (lol) please start the topic in the mosh pit Cheers John

Hi Richard, Welcome to Songstuff! A good intro. I'm in Glasgow, where are you based?

Hey hey Eli, welcome to Songstuff

Hey Thomas, welcome to Songstuff!

Hey Daniel, welcome to Songstuff!

People say that about song writing rules all the time, that it stifles creativity. In song writing though, they are guidelines, not rules. Each guideline relates to well established lessons learned by songwriters over generations. Every single guideline can be broken, however there is a cost. Many are not hard and fast rules, they relate to aspects of listeners and how they perceive words and music. Sometimes you can break one or two and it enhances a song, others if you break it one way it enhances it, but in another way it can ruin it. Knowledge is built up by first learning the guideline, then understanding what it is and why it exists, then you might just be able to break the right rule at the right time in the right way... Instead of the wrong rule at the wrong time in the wrong way!

Welcome to Songstuff Dallas! Good to have you aboard

Not it great for lyricists then, or disabled or a multitude of others who would be very challenged to become performers. While setting up a label or publishing house may squirm around it (for now), the cost of registering a label or publishing house isn't that cheap. It makes entry that bit harder.

Just as a follow up, both ASCAP and BMI have posted responses: ASCAP http://www.ascap.com/playback/2016/07/action/paul-williams-doj-100.aspx BMI http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/mike_oneill_updates_bmi_songwriters_on_doj_issue

The polar pattern for your Rode is on page 4 of the Product Manual. The large metal Dot on the microphone body, just below the mesh (showing on your photo) should always be pointing at the source you want to record. Normally this is with the mic in a cloce to vertical position. To reduce fan hiss, place the mic such that the metal dot is furthest from the noise source. http://cdn1.rode.com/nt1-a_product_manual.pdf As for your Samson C02... the cardoid polat pattern is on page 6 of the manual: http://www.samsontech.com/site_media/legacy_docs/C02_ownman_v1s.pdf Mic position is approximately the distance of a wide spread hand, the distance from tip of the thumb to the tip of the pinkie. Any closer and you would suffer from an artificial bass boost (called the proximity effect). It is unidirectional. Point the mic at the source along the barrel, like a gun barrel pointed at the target. Ideal mics for instrument recording, while your rode is excellent for vocals and some acoustic instruments. Your Rode is much more sensitive, ie it can pic up quieter sounds. I assume you have a mixer? At least break out box to bing audio into your PC? Mixers have a "pad" button in the channel strip. This is a 26db attenuator... used to reduce the inpute of very sensitive microphones... I would expect you to have this depressed for the NT1 and not depressed for your samson. If it is depressed when using your Samson you will have a very quiet mic signal, making you use high gain to record... and that would give you extra hiss... made all the worse if you have the orientation wrong. With a break out box interface for your mic, the pad button may well be controlled via your software interface mixer for your break out box. I hope this helps

Are you suer you are orienting your RODE correctly? It should have a cardoid polar pattern... so orient it so that the low sensitivity is pointed towards the computer and the exact opposite side is pointed directly at the source you are recording. There should be a mark to indicate the orientation of the polar pattern. In case you are not aware, polar pattern is a little chart that shows the sensitivity orientation of the microphone... ie it picks up sound more easily from one direction than another. You could also place a baffle between the computer and mic to soak up some ambient fan noise. Even better, get a proper microphone baffle set up... they aren't too expensive but they can make a huge difference to the acoustic environment. What Samson model are you using? Yet again it could be orientation and / or polar pattern selection if you have a multi pattern mic

Okay a few questions.... Is this purely for recording for song writing purposes, or do you want to record fuller Demi's, or even use the solution in a live environment? What computing platforms do you have? (Including tablets) Do you have a budget?

Hey Smorgan, welcome to Songstuuff! Good to meet you!

Hi It was already difficult for songwriters to make a living writing songs You have probably seen Kevin Kadish's thoughts about his earnings from "It's all about the bass"? http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2015/09/24/my-song-was-played-178-million-times-on-spotify-i-was-paid-5679/ $5,679 total payment from Pandora (at least I believe it is Pandora specifically) for.... wait for it.... 178 MILLION plays. Eek! Only streaming services themselves and the advertisers they sell advertising to are making money from music these days. Okay, bigger bands might make money from performance and merch, but that is it. Music is largely a loss leader Still, according to the US DOJ songwriters make too much money... that is the only conclusion: http://www.forbes.com/sites/brittanyhodak/2016/07/01/u-s-dept-of-justice-deals-crushing-blow-to-songwriters/#5d25bd9a1127 Can you hear the death knell of songwriting as a career? Just as well we all love it, feel driven to do it. Otherwise we might just tell them where to stick it. Then again, they rely upon exactly that. Cheers John

Hi Hassan! Welcome to Songstuff

Welcome to Songstuff Bellsie. A little change of direction can be a fresh breath of wind. Good stuff.

Hi and welcome to Songstuff Dimitris, it's good to meet you. Do you have a favourite type of music to listen to or play?

Nice reintroduction Wolfie. Welcome back to the family!

Hey hiss is often the result of too much gain, however you need to look at the full signal chain... For example, is EQ being unintentionally applied? Are you using pad? Your Rode NT1 is capable of good SNR. I can't remember what switches it has for attenuation and signal boost... one other her common culprit is mic positioning. Especially using the mic on an unidirectional polar pattern but facing the mic the wrong way! This makes the engineer crank up the gain to get a decent level, but the ambient noise is usually through the ceiling!.... Which sounds kinda like your problem. lastly noise could come come from other sources, such as a PC audio interface, or your computer fan, or even forgetting to turn the mic off or an unintentional effects return