john

I’ve just ordered a pair of Rode NT55 microphones, mainly for recording my acoustic guitar. Otherwise I have only added two Lavelier lapel mount microphones and the Rode VideoMicro on camera microphone.

Well said Steve.

Nice to see you back on the boards Tim! You mention some good subjects in your answer. EQ carving is often overlooked, and double tracking is often a lazy copy these days. Out of interest, you get some brilliant blends on double track vocals when you pan vocal 1 to the center, make two copies of vocal 2, pan hard right and left, nudge the two vox back to create a slap back delay, in time to the music, perhaps a 1/64th and a 32nd, and apply a high pass on them somewhere between 400-800Hz (also worth experimenting up to 2k). It thickens but keeps it lively without cluttering the usually busy mid channel.

Hey Michael! Welcome to Songstuff Do you currently record demos of your songs?

Hey Charles, Good to meet you! Welcome to Songstuff I hope you are well now? Cheers John

Hey Getting your vocal sound is probably the highest impact aspect of creating quality recordings that faces anyone recording modern music. Often it is the only point where someone making new music has to bring audio from the real world into their masterpiece. Everything else is generated with loops and virtual instruments. Sure you can use vocal loops, but it isn’t the same. It’s one thing getting the basic voice recorded into your recording environment. What microphone do you use? What is your recording environment? What vocal treatments do you use (if any) when recording? It’s another to get that track to a finished standard as recorded audio that shapes the sound What effects and processors do you use? How do you use them? What are you trying to achieve? And how do you integrate it with the rest of the track? Do you sit the vocal above the music, further forwards in the mix? Do you sit the vocal within the music, further back in the mix? There’s a trend that has been pushing vocals further and further back in the mix it’s been becoming increasingly like that for years. So I am interested in what you guys do to get your sound? What effects chains do you use? Cheers John

Hey, you can release EPs and albums for fun too you know. To be honest, even an official release without all the bells and whistles can be done for less than the cost of a cafe lunch for one. Most often your time is more in question. Point is playing gigs can be just for fun. Recording can be just for fun. There are even those that consider radio, tv, even films are just for fun, building a fanbase of listeners… can all be for fun with no money or commercialism in sight. Even those who do all that commercially might still be doing it largely for the fun of it. So, I ask because you never know! Having your music played on radio is a buzz, though it’s a moment, you can’t quite believe it… usually because you often encounter it unexpected, as a listener, while you are doing everyday stuff. It stays with you a while. TV is more of a drawn out event. Filming takes anything from a couple of hours to several days depending on what you are filming. You can then take days to months before broadcast. Normally you get a heads up. If your music is being used in a 3rd party production after licensing you have zero visibility until a broadcast date months to years later depending on what. Then if you like the association you might be proud and smiling, if you don’t you might be cringing and hiding or braising it out consoling yourself with the bucks you earn. Weirdly, in both cases it takes getting used to the fact that your work is now public property and everyone and their dog will have an opinion. After TV or even newspapers getting recognised is a sure trigger for paranoia. Everywhere you go people mutter, point and weirdly smile or look at you jeeringly. It takes getting used to. Anyhoo, yay radio! Lol

I tried it with DALL-E 2 and had a well generated female with worse spelling and wrong number of letter groups (I can’t call them words), so it isn’t a new thing. It has to be said I thought regurgitating words I gave it would have been easier than generating a new person. Who knew?

Hey Tony Nice to meet you. Welstillhere… it seems a little late to say welcome! Do you have any recording goals, such as an EP or album etc? Cheers John

Hi Krystal Sorry no, but it seems like a good idea. I don’t know how easy it is to cross borders there, regarding visas, working, equipment etc. Plus there seems to be some tension between Serbia and Kosovo atm. Cheers John

Hey Ronja! A big welcome to Songstuff! I like the video. PS I would have added it to the Songstuff playlists, but your content is marked as Made For Kids and YouTube prevents us adding it

Awesome Alicatt. Communities are what we make them.

Welcome to the SVCA! Mahesh Raghunandan is a songwriter, singer, and artist. He has a well-established and well-regarded career as an independent artist, and although he might not shout his own praises, he has a cracking singing voice. More to the point, Mahesh is a well-experienced voice teacher and he just happens to be a key member of the Songstuff Site Crew. Mahesh will use this blog to publish tips and suggestions to enhance your voice and approach to singing. This includes old standards like improving consistency, extending range, extending power, and improving tone but also developing an improved understanding of vocal mechanics, introducing a highly effective level of body awareness, and importantly, discussing how that can accelerate your learning, improve your depth of understanding and your overall retention of anything you learn. Exciting, huh?! Nothing short of a vocal revolution. Time to Rewire Your Voice!

Watch this space for ongoing vocal challenges that focus on vocal development and expanding the range of songs and styles you perform.

Hi Guys Who are your top independent artists in 2023 and why? For me, my number one, has to be Ren Gill, aka Ren. Sure he is highly talented as a writer, player, singer and rapper, but I love his creativity, adventurous spirit and drive. He’s put a creative spin on rap that is shaking up hip hop at a grassroots level. More than anything he shakes up intent, language, subjects, respect, vibe and sheer density of ideas. Awesome. As an aside, I am also very pleasantly surprised that his marketing approach could easily have been built on the Songstuff marketing playbook (being fair it’s very unlikely as it’s unreleased in its current ebook form. Bits of the Songstuff approach have been spoken about on our boards, but I highly doubt Ren has seen those conversations.). The good news is his approach validates many of our strategies and techniques. We have plenty of others he doesn’t use! I’ve been going down the Ren rabbit hole since the end of last year, and it’s introduced me to a whole raft of other great artists (more on them in upcoming posts). Who do you like? Why do you like them? Cheers John

An interesting process for recording a song. Are you the singer or guitarist? Just wondering!

Hi and welcome to Songstuff Jess. Good to meet you.

Hey Hosz, welcome to Songstuff. Good job with your song. It definitely has that Euro-pop influence, but there’s more to it than that. You have a nice balanced sound. I like your voice, especially when you turn on that hint of vocal fry. Great lead guitar too! Cheers John

Hey Richard Welcome to Songstuff! Great to have you with us. If we can be of any help, just ask. We’re a friendly bunch Cheers John

Seasons, months, weeks, week days, hours etc can all have an effect on creativity but also the Color of creativity. In the fall, writers tend to be more reflective, winter more nostalgic, spring hopeful and anticipatory and summer is about the now, seize the day etc. months add nuance to that, as do weeks. Week days have their on sociological cycle with Mondays being “oh no we’re back at work day” and that Friday feeling etc. Hours have similar societal implications with “that witching hour” etc. Of course, everyone has these type of feelings at these times. Which is why, beyond writing, it also syncs with song releases. Ie, release an optimistic song in spring and so on. It makes good sense to choose album songs and singles with moods that match the release timeline and vice versa. For example, if your lead single is optimistic, your first single drops sometime in spring. A reasonable time between singles is 6 weeks. So if your second single is also optimistic, then you want it released in spring and that helps dictate when the first single should go. If your second single is more seize the day in mood, then a release in summer is more beneficial. It could pull the whole release plan forward. You might think that overkill, but you don’t release summer beach songs at Christmas and vice versa for a reason. Another category, with its own cycle is events. Christmas is the most pronounced but there are others. Halloween, for example. As a writer and as an artist and as a music marketer, timing is hugely important. Deny it at your peril. You can either work with timing or against it. The smart person works with it because it’s not a fight worth having. So inspiration and creativity is affected by timing, as is the manifestation of that creativity and how that manifestation is received by listeners/viewers. All it takes is a little thought. 😀

A great lyricist all in. Thanks for posting the link Mark.

Hey Matt Welcome to Songstuff! Good to have you with us. What are your plans for your music? Any goals for the next 12 months in particular? Cheers John

Hey Alicatt I love Fall/Autumn but my favorite season has to be spring. The season of hope and new beginnings. I love the light at that time of year. Winter is a time of reflection, past events etc. So spring comes like a breath of fresh air, like the lifting of a veil. It’s a time of firsts of new things. It’s also a time I begin to enjoy being outside in the elements. I love creating outside, sitting with a guitar. Awesome. Cheers John