john

Exciting stuff!

Hey River Welcome to Songstuff!

I’m enjoying this right now: An interesting lay up with the pre-song story lasting a few minutes!

Hey James, Welcome to Songstuff.

Yep, it’s a cracker.

Ooft…

Awesome. Does he sound similar doing originals? I ask because while a natural singing voice like that will do brilliantly as a tribute band singer, they can have real problems doing originals because they sound too like a known singer. What vocal tuner are you using? I've listened to a few of your songs now, and kept in mind your original complaint about your own voice. I think your own voice deserves more credit than you give it... but you have yet to learn how to mix and produce your voice effectively. Many singer/producers are in the same boat. The good news for you is that if you specifically work on learning about vocal production your songs will hugely benefit. There's a few things mix wise that you could really work on too that this song does highlight. At points you really do get it right. At other points... less so. The energy of your drums is lacking and the clarity of your low end is also lacking. The vocals however are generally placed very well. Clear and cutting through. That said I really enjoyed the listen. So much I listened 3 times! lol

Hey Mike Perhaps we could tweak it and add the info to a new member article? Maybe. If so, perhaps you would be interested in selling said course via Songstuff? Just saying... we have been working hard on infrastructure and Songstuff would be an ideal platform. It has a load of features to use, including an are soon to be launched that includes video courses. If you did a course and it was text and image based we can still accommodate that. If interested, just hit me up and we can at least discuss it as a possibility. Cheers John

I think people are just a bit tired, of pretty well everything. That said... we do have some plans. Truth be told the staff have had plans for a while, but it takes time to put some plans in place. We are getting there! We have plans to develop some site income to help support the community financially, so that it doesn't depend on the size (or lack of it) of my pocket, and is instead financially independent. What has this to do with many parts of the internet being a bit quieter? I'll explain briefly the essentials and try not to come across as an advert lol It's difficult considering the subject. Anyway... To answer the question, well we might not be able to inspire the internet, but we can really try to brighten our little corner. To support the site we plan to launch a range of products covering singing, song writing, recording and production, music marketing and music career. We will be starting with courses on singing, music marketing and developing a music career as an independent artist. Our activities around these should bring in much more people, and hopefully inspire several current members. Our very first product will be advertising. Initially we will be offering ads to businesses at a heavily discounted rate, when compared to the average cost of ads on the internet, and members advertising their own music will get to get a rate that is 50% below that again. Indeed the lowest cost is less than 35 cents for 1000 ad impressions... which is just 10% of the average of $3.50 for 1000 ad impressions. Ads will run on our community, more or less where we have ads just now. They will also run on www.songstuff.com, our newsletter and emails (yet again where we have ads just now), and with our better packages we throw in ads on SSUK and IMS sites, both of which are fan facing sites (ie, sites for music fans). That's very affordable ads. Cheap enough that I hope it attracts artists to Songstuff. We have a whole bunch of engagement boosting activities planned... all of which we hope will improve our site and our social media portals by making the site much more relevant to active musicians, and encouraging towards interested musician. It's not so much the products that will build activity, so much as our activities around our products. Staff have had some health issues for the last 4 weeks or so, but we are getting back into it... and that in itself will encourage activity on our boards and around the site. Newsletters will be restarting ( @Mahesh) and that will boost activity too. My point is, if things were quiet and we didn't know why and we didn't know what to do about it, I might be a little concerned. Fortunately we know why it has become quieter, and we know exactly how to fix it :). It won't even take that long to bring about change. One key thing on communities of any kind is activity. Activity breeds activity. If you want the forums to be more active, then being more active yourself will help. A little patiece is always key. The amount of times I see someone start something ( a club, a blog, a topic, even a youtube channel... in the world outside our boards ), just expecting people to participate immediately... it doesn't work like that. When you start something (club, topic, blog, channel etc) you need to: be consistent be active promote it (here and elsewhere) encourage engagement be patient be more patient If you do all of these, it will get busy. If you get staff and other members on board it will help big time. Site staff have been very busy... but it has almost entirely been behind the scenes, improving site infrastructure, product development preparing for promotion, adding tools, writing new articles in advance... and we are literally days away from launching ads, a few weeks away from launching courses. In preparation that also means we are at the point of spending much more time on building membership and engagement. Anything you guys can do to help build activity on our community boards is greatly appreciated. In fact, look out for a new engagement initiative being launched along with the site ads I'll shut up now lol I look forward to hearing your thoughts. As ever, ideas are very welcome Cheers John

Hey Gang I'm soon to be starting shooting for some videos for my songs. I expect to use a bit of green screen. Do you have any tips you can give me for green screen productions? Tips for shooting, editing & post production are very welcome. Cheers John

Hi Guilty pleasures can be with you for a long time, or change with the weather. So, who in music are your guilty pleasures? For me just now, it's Billie Eilish... More accurately it's the production of her brother, Finneas that I love... He manages to create a great feel of space in his mixes. He has a lot going on in the tracks but the core is generally pretty simple. Cheers John

Yep. They're not always well received.

I know. Weird. Not to worry. It will soon busy up! Even bars have quiet days and quiet times of days

I do. I started learning right out of school in recording studios. I was just excited about creating music, end to end. That includes mixing and mastering... though I only really mastered my own relatively recently, and still I prefer to have a good mastering engineer master my tracks. Someone who specialises in mastering can really work wonders on a track! It doesn't matter about the process, as long as it is predictable, it's about the beauty of the result. When I arrange a song I hear it in my head, using my imagination, with absolute clarity. I want the sound everyone hears to match the sound I imagine. Including me! To be honest, often when there isn't clarity it's just me fooling myself (again) into thinking small errors during recording (be they performance or recording process or equipment based) might not be "too bad" and hopefully won't be noticed. It took a while before I realised I am just short changing myself because the truth is, you never get away with it not being noticed. If the "quirk" benefits the song, keep it, if not, suck it up and re-do the recording of that part, or the whole song... you either believe your songs are worth it, or you don't.

Hey I posted up a new article on Social Media Comment Pods. Please read and take part in any discussion here. The article link is in that post too. Cheers John

Hey Gang I’ve just post a meaty new article discussing the way artists use social media. Specifically I look at “comment pods”. What are they? Why should I care? Well, you might even be in one…. and they are a bad idea, so… read on Social Media Comment Pods I’d love to hear your thoughts after you read the article, so please post some feedback here. Cheers John

Hi Gang I'm working on building playlists for Songstuff and our sister sites. I am looking to feature the best music I can find... so I don't promise to playlist every song.... but I do want to highlight as many as I can. We are looking for songs for: YouTube Spotify SoundCloud Add to that, I would like to select some of you to be featured, to be interviewed and perhaps even to perform. To help me decide, in addition to your song link, please give a little back story, to you, the writer/artist/producer, and to your song. This is not a one off thing. Come back with future releases. Even if your song is not selected, at least it will be added to our community. Cheers John

As good a reason as any Steve

Hey Steve Welcome to Songstuff! Look forward to hearing your music. Even as a hobby, do you have any aims/goals for your music? Chees John

Now this made me laugh. A mash up of Hank Williams and Van Halen, as Vank Walen…

Put together an Ad. If you look for a video collaborator you might even get it for free, and it can be just as good as a pro studio if you get the right person. Look especially to colleges and universities that have large media departments and courses in animation. You can then place the Ad on campus noticeboards. Going the route of contacting dept lecturers to be a part of a final year project will mean that it gets significant devoted time, but it can come with restrictions, so you might be better seeking the students directly first. If you have plans for the song and a history in music, mention it. It stands to reason that students want exposure too. The more exposure, the more seriously they will take it. Build in something like "We plan to do X with it, but if I am really, really happy with the results then we will do Y as well". that way they know they get max exposure by making you happy ( and you are much less likely to have the student(s) shutting you out of the creative input. Remember to mention previous releases, upcoming and future releases, the possibility of an ongoing relationship etc. All of these make it more appealing and will get them more willing to put in more work. We could (if song and video are of good quality) add your vid to playlists on Songstuff, Independent Music Stage, and SSUK and/or feature you on the same. So, for example, being included in our newsletter sees your video being put in front of up to 21,000 people. Even the possibility of these might help you?

Hey Saisei Welcome to Songstuff! Good to have you with us. What are your goals as a band? Cheers John

So much depends on the number of still images used to make up your animation, and the number of moving parts. A number of manga styles use low numbers of stills and rely upon zooming on on the still and movement of the still within the frame to give the feeling of movement. Similarly, the majority of the frame could be still but one arm articulates at the elbow. The number of points of articulation, the detail of the scene backdrop and other scene components make a huge difference in cost… so price for set times and number of frames is too simplistic for pricing. A good idea is to contact local art schools and colleges and see if you can get a working relationship with someone actively pursuing professional animation, looking to expand their portfolio.

I love the original track. The big issue to me is the beat emphasis by the dominant keyboard on Beats 1 & 3, while reggae is all about 2 & 4. It takes it away from the aimed for reggae feel. At points it just wandered too. I like the accompanying animation.

Done