john

lots to listen to and more to come….awesome

Hey all SSUK Music SSUK runs playlists on Spotify, YouTube and Soundcloud. Some playlists are genre based while others are inspired by a mood or an activity. Please follow the SSUK account on each platform and where possible the individual playlists. Choosing a playlist helps support SSUK, meanwhile playing the songs supports the artists. Besure to leave comments for SSUK staff, here or in reply to SSUK posts on their blog. Where possible, if there looks to be interest in a song or artist, we will try to interview the artist, or writer or producer. Can’t say fairer than that. Help us to help independent music makers. Like Comment Share

It’s one of several benefits of critique forums and any writer/artist/producer forums, and for that matter any other place where you can air your music to fellow artists but end listeners won’t hear it (step back Twitter). Ears listen and people point out things it reminds them of. Your only other option with melodies is to wander around singing to yourself in the hope that if it has been accidentally lifted someone will say! Lol

hi and welcome to Songstuff eskojramo! Looking forward to hearing your songs!

There are live stream appearances, live stream performances, and there are live stream gigs. Ok, yes, some streams are actual gigs being streamed, but I was more thinking of the approach of the artist. Some are “pick up guitar, start streaming, plays songs, stop streaming” but others there is a real performance, others still are your own seat at a venue. I think they can be very useful, but just like any gig, you have to be able to perform at a level where people are happy to pay. You have to be able to leave them wanting more, being willing, hungry. To charge there must be demand. That means building that demand. Most artists haven’t built anything and haven’t sat down to think about how. They make sweeping decisions without thinking about consequences. Most still think they play and fans just happen automatically. They then stand perplexed when fans don’t just automatically happen and do the whole thing again. And again. And again.

Like many musical ideas, there is creative worth, skills development worth and marketing worth. For each of these areas there are experiments to be had to see how worthwhile they are, and different writers/artists/marketers will get very different results. Just looking at a couple of ideas for each (each idea really spans all 3 areas. It’s down to your focus at any time.): Creative As “shorts” it gives you the ability to try loads of new styles and directions, quickly, and get some kind of reaction. You can also get creative with image, branding and your overall presentation and to really see what works, what doesn’t and even then adjust, tweak etc to see how that changes. Skills As shorts they give you the opportunity to learn how to effectively record and produce at speed. They also give you, as writer/artist, the opportunity to experiment directly with engagement with your songs and see how creative expression impacts that engagement. Marketing You can quickly try ideas with specific end goals. Can you maximise the number of challenge participation. Can you drive something to go viral? Can you push specific outcomes? Can you drive increasing direct income? That means a registered song being played by many uptake performers and listened to by many more consumers. To do this effectively you need to understand and be able to trigger the mechanisms that turn consumers into performers. From doing many experiments you might be able to give a meaningful answer, but otherwise the level of speculation means thought experiments a bit like answering “How long is a piece of string?” Impossible to answer meaningfully without additional information.

I think anything that makes singing engaging and fun is generally a good idea. I haven’t resorted to trying one yet, but I am not against them by any means. Less relevant for artists, maybe, than isolated musicians or people just wanting to relate or enjoy something both light hearted and musical.

Hi Michael, welcome to Songstuff! Do you record and release your songs?

Hey gang When you drop a new song on the internet, what do you hope happens? Everyone has different expectations, good and bad, so what do you really hope for? Similarly, what do you dread happening? Weirdly, I imagine what some people hope for, others will dread, and vice versa. So, spill…. Cheers John

I realise I didn’t expand on my concerns adequately. As a background… Just now, your image can be owned by you or a company who you have sold those rights to. If I draw a picture of David Bowie based on a photograph, the photographer possibly owns the rights to that image. They may or may not have had permission from those who own the rights to David Bowie’s image. Exactly how that image can be used and who ultimately controls it, depends on if the image was taken an exploited as part of a news story, or if it was taken to be exploited in a commercial way (put on a tee shirt, a poster, a mug, a book cover etc). My point is, someone owns and controls that image and how it is used. Almost certainly I don’t have rights to commercially exploit my drawing. Now extend that ownership. It isn’t how you look. It isn’t specific songs you wrote. It isn’t specific performances you made or recordings you made. Instead, like the image, they find a way to quantify you, a way of legally describing you, how you sound, the way you write. Then the label can own how you sound. The publisher can own how you write, the kind of language you write, the melodies you write the chord sequences you would choose. Now add AI. If you weren’t pumping out enough songs, your label might use AI to re-perform older songs in new ways and release them AS YOU. Your publisher could write new songs or re-write your old songs and release them AS YOU. Add them together and the label and publisher could churn out song after song, AS YOU. You can guarantee you would not be paid as if you wrote them. You wouldn’t have the rights as if you wrote them. Sure you might get a “consideration”. Labels and publishers are already looking into doing this, trying to quantify you and build in ownership of the essence of “you” within contract in preparation for this. We need to resist this, not comply. Those that do may well become the organ grinder’s monkey.

Great questions Peggy. I see three main strands of AI development relating to music making: those designed to augment musicians and songwriters those designed to replace the entire skill base as tools for non-musicians enabling them to create a finished musical product very similar to 2, those designed to entirely replace the songwriter and performer, either in mimicking existing writers/artists or in creating entirely virtual artists. There is a mix of fear and excitement. This is not new. Technology almost always enables new heights for musicians and those who previously found music creation and performance too time consuming, and required too much effort. Samplers for example, combined with MIDI sequencing. That tech enabled a whole load of people who couldn’t play a musical instrument to get on board with music making. However the stakes are higher now, because for the very first time, we might find ourselves replaced. Labels are now interested in ownership of what makes up the artist. Publishers are interested in ownership of what constitutes the writer. If they can own them, then could they possibly take away the last vestiges of power that the artist and writer possess? While I am excited about the possibilities of 1, the possibilities of 2 is mildly concerning because previously the predominant approach is of the hybrid… those with skill wielding tech in a way convenient to them in a way that augments what they do. 3 on the other hand is worrying. Not so much because of the AI itself, so much as how some big players will seek to abuse artists and writers, trying to force them into essentially hostile contracts with promises of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Forget egg cartons and foam panels. For a really low amount of cash you can build some very effective room treatment: There are other tutorials out there, but many use rock wool and other less ideal insulation. This tutorial covers all you need for the walls. Note, this covers in-room treatment to reduce your room reverb. It does nothing to address sound proofing. You may also consider a printed fabric facia to make the panels more aesthetically pleasing. It can be a good place to hang old tour tee shirts. Pin them to the fabric facia. It makes them decorative, reflect your personality and doesn’t compromise the panels acoustically. You might also consider building removable window baffles. Very similar to these panels except in two layers, and the size of the windows. Ceiling wise there are various tutorials on building a “cloud” (ceiling sound absorber). This would be last on your list. That looks like a tile floor, so buying a rug of decent density and thickness would be a good idea. Mike wise, it isn’t going to sound pro with an sm57. Put that on your list of upgrades, near the beginning. Buy yourself one of the Röde capacitor microphones, or similar. Buy or make a pop blast screen. Invest in a mic stand. They ain’t expensive.

Hey Rachel! Good to meet you Welcome to Songstuff

Hey When you are getting ready to release a new song/EP/album, what exactly, if anything, do you do to leverage past releases? Cheers John

Hi Ria Welcome back, even if it is just for a fleeting visit!

Hi Gary! Welcome to Songstuff! Sometimes it’s just good to mingle and chat with other creatives, yes share your music, but sharing their music too.

Hey I thought it would be useful to look at what you did with your last release, what lessons you have learned and and what issues remain outstanding, ie you are still looking for a solution. Please reply in the format below: Release Title: Release Date: Promotion Strategy: Aims and Goals: Chart Pos, Plays, Streams, Music Platform Followers, Socials, Email Subs Promotion Tools: Post Drippers, Manual Social Engagement, Email Autoresponder, Chat bot, Reviews, Back Catalog Plays, Interviews, Performances + Livestreams, Promo Vids Problems Encountered: Non-integrated tools, lack of data, Social rules, poor engagement Key Performance Indicators (KPI): Visitors, Link Clicks, Plays, Streams, Likes, Comments, Shares Lessons Learned: Solutions Identified: Outstanding Issues:

Hey I am putting together an article about EQ. Please fill in my poll about EQ types and where and when you use them. For reference, a dynamic EQ is like a hybrid EQ that also uses compressor-like functionality, applying EQ based on passing a threshold. Cheers John

Hi With so many developments in AI recently, I wondered how many of you were using AI? Please fill out my poll I’d love to hear your feelings on AI in music in general. Cheers John

Hey all, I wanted to start a discussion about the essentials for building a home studio. As music producers, having a home studio is crucial for creating, recording, and mixing our music. But, it can be overwhelming and expensive to get started. So, what are some essential pieces of equipment that you believe every home studio should have? How did you go about budgeting for your home studio setup? Are there any tips or advice you have for those just starting out? To set the ball rolling, I think a good pair of studio monitors, a reasonable computer with a reasonable sound card, a MIDI keyboard, and a quality microphone are must-haves. Feel free to name specifics and fill in the blanks. As for budgeting, I suggest setting a realistic budget and prioritizing what you need versus what you want. And, don't forget to check out the used market for deals on equipment! Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and advice on building a home studio. Cheers John

I like it

“Well, you can just rebuild your recording studio later, I have friends coming over”

Simple solution, use reference recordings to calibrate the bass boost on your Tannoys. Early days my mixes sounded like too much bass. I used Tannoy M1s. They are not active, so I added a little bass boost on my power amp so that I naturally mixed with less bass. I used to do that boost trick when I used Yamaha NS10s. It works with Yama HS series too. You would think after so many years with the treble bias of the NS range, Yamaha would have addressed that in their HS range? But no. I tried treble cut instead of bass boost, but found bass adjustment got better, more reliable results. Anyway, a simple, more-or-less one-off solution.

Oh a few to choose from! There was a gig at a university, a big audience and the audio mixer wasted almost 2 hours pre-gig before we realised he had no idea what he was doing, we then wasted more time with an audio engineer from our entourage who didn’t know the gear. We hobbled through the gig with crap sound with both of them at the front of house desk trying to sort it out. At one point I left the front of the stage to go to the desk, make some changes while played and then told them to leave the gear alone or there’d be trouble. At the end of the gig half the gear and half the band were in a trailer being towed behind a land rover 4x4 (ah those were the days). As we pulled onto the motorway (highway), the trailer became unhitched. So there we were drifting across the 3 lanes with no power, steering or brakes in a trailer full of gear. Good night! Then there was the time we were playing in a packed bar. No stage. Just the band in a corner. We had played about half of our second set and had gone down a storm. I had no more guitar to play in the song I was currently singing. For some reason I unhitched my guitar (still plugged in) and hand on mic, still singing, I leant to place the guitar down and… was electrocuted. Someone had spilled their beer and it had run under some of the gear. All was fine until I completed the circuit! We had an unscheduled longer break between songs, they got the power back on (oh yes we didn’t do things by halves) and finished our set without me playing guitar (my hands were still thrumming). We played a large indoor venue, about 3,000 people when there was a power cut for about 40 mins. In emergency lighting we played about 10 acoustic songs. In truth it could have been terrible, but in reality it was a good save. However, the one that goes down as the worst was, at the time, a gig that could have opened many doors for us. We were getting label interest, our manager had booked us at two venues up and downstairs from each other, maybe a month apart. Both were big gigs in nightclubs. Both were large-ish for us, The Garage to about 1,800 people and at about 850 for ‘The Venue” (must have spent ages picking that name). We had played the Garage and had stirred interest. So here we were playing the venue. There was a crate of beer in the Green room for the band and it promised to be a good night. Press were coming. A&R too. It was at this point it turns out the lead guitar player had snorted a gram of speed. Awesome. I went away to cool off and came back and half the band had thought the gig was screwed anyway, so had drank 3/4 of the beers and were drunk as skunks. As the main singer I didn’t drink until after I had performed (alcohol dries the vocal cords and wets the brain lol). It was a disaster. I remember looking over at the guitarist playing gibberish and rocking back and forth at double speed nit long before iirc that was the gig he fell off stage. The bass player was also backing vox and was one of the drunken wrecks, was staring intensely until the guitarist fell off stage, at which point he couldn’t stop laughing but did stop playing. The band didn’t last long after that. Lol

Why do you think you have drifted from Kontakt libraries? They are quite broad ranging. I can understand getting something else where you don’t have Kontakt libraries, or not updating libraries, but the various synths are generally pretty versatile and whether you like lofi or lush audio scapes or real instrument synthesis, there’s something there. Not that I am an NI pusher, I just wondered if it was a drift or an intentional step? Was it sound/result lead, or more working practice etc? One more question… have you tried building your own library?