john

I should say, I said all that, not as a sales pitch… it would pretty much suck as a sales pitch. It’s kinda hard to explain what we’ve been up to and why without it sounding like a pitch, but it honestly wasn’t meant as such. I was genuinely responding to the nature and evolution of forums and your comments about thinking about them being communities. What forums were and their formats has changed. Where they fit in the spectrum of modern social platforms has changed. Where they are thriving still. It’s a narrower focus than it used to be. Fingers crossed we’ve been making the right changes. I think making no changes would have been a really bad idea.

Nice interviews to have done! Just like there are different cars, there are different forums. Songstuff has been around for coming on 24 years. How forums fit in socially has changed. Online groups of any kind are at once similar and very different to groups of old. Take any grouping of people on any platform and the group members will play a major role in shaping the group itself. Group leaders, official or unofficial, play a huge role too. The exact balance point depends on the group and the platform. I learned a lot over the process. Things go in cycles, but some axioms hold true at any point. I also learned some painful truths. For example, I took people at face value. I try to be fair, giving people second and third chances. I also tended to give more chances than they really deserved, and often the result was at the expense of the community and myself. The change 2 years ago was to increasingly move towards, “You knew the rules. You knew the consequences. For the greater good it is better that we firmly apply the rules and are not drawn into this ‘multiple chances’ approach. You are the weakest link, goodbye.”. Perhaps a bit more leniently than that, but we have increasingly made this choice with members making up their own rules as fits them. For years I paid for the community. I largely still do. That meant it was free to everyone else. I got to the point of thinking “why am I paying for something that I get little thanks from a small group while the majority show little loyalty and no thanks, and give little respect to the site or me and ultimately I am paying for the whip to hit my own back. Crazy. The painful lesson I learned was that while some people really people recognised the work done to provide this place and truly appreciate that it is free, a lot of people completely take free for granted. It doesn’t cost them anything and so it has no real value to them. I think it’s kind of sad, but I’ve seen it again and again. That manifests in a few ways. While for a small group of forum members they get on with using a community, many others think something along the lines of “It was free before i came along, I don’t need to do anything, this place will still be free if I come back.” What I learned from a bunch of forums that charge, is that charging triggers the “I want to get my money’s worth”. Paying members invest more time into communities. The more that is paid, the more people tend to invest their time. However, the psychology of even paying $1 a month still holds true. If you look at many of the surviving and thriving forums, they are product oriented forums, like the fruity loops boards, or as you mentioned the previous cakewalk forums. Instead of a subscription fee, many such forums had entry fees in the form of the product cost. Now of course the software as a service model has brought that back to subscriptions. The change for Songstuff is that while on one level we are retaining the essence of free boards, free articles etc, we are introducing a base subscription tier and we are introducing a support forum model for our courses etc. Yes the money helps offset against running costs, but a part of the motivation is to help foster increased loyalty and increased activity… and with forums and any social platforms, activity breeds activity. Songstuff has always relied upon the outreach of staff and members for helping to draw in future members. Often that has been people reading our free articles or our music showcasing. That continues, but we will be supplementing that with people drawn through our course promotion and through info spread around about our courses. There is also a subtle difference in the profile of the people being attracted. Some people are attracted to free info because it is free, others because it is just useful info. The point is, demonstrably the audience hasn’t had to make any commitment to progressing their art other than clicking a link. For a product based forum, the members have invested in themselves and their interest in music. That speaks volumes towards their psychological outlook. Sure, not everyone will be that typical member, but by investing in themselves they are making a statement to themselves and those around them… and that is important when it comes to behaviour. At the same time, money raised will improve Songstuff. Staff wise, we hope that frees up existing staff. Instead of being bogged down in server updates, I get to spend more time making music and participating in the forums. I could go on. The changes we have been making have many motivations, they address many issues. I think we started with the best of intentions, and we are pivoting for the best and most positive of reasons to move in a positive direction, to make a better site and a better forum that supports our members in a better way. Things are not set in stone. As it is we are not putting all of our eggs in one basket. I am hopeful for the future. We’ve built Songstuff up several times over the years. What we do not in part addresses the choke hold my personal funds caused regarding site growth. I know why our boards are quieter. I know how to build them to be busier by a number of routes. The reality is that with a firm set of goals we can adapt and grow in a healthy way. Onwards and upwards!

I’ve been so busy with preparing for Change and preparing the first marketing course for Songstuff I haven’t done much. Should spend about half of Thursday on it. :)

So, I’ve been using my studio to work on a track for Mahesh. It’s a track I love, called “Sleep”. Truly beautiful. Re-arranging and producing a track for someone else is not something I often do these days. I do hope it sees the light of day as a release. Not that I have any expectation that it might not be released. Far from it. I fully expect it will be released, but you never be too sure. A song can seem to be working well and developing in a positive direction. But appeal can be an elusive thing. As ever, with any track I am working on, I can’t wait for it to be heard. Drifting piano, finger style guitar, emotive strings, layers of harmony, all capped off by Mahesh’s voice, weaving a magical melody. It hangs on the air, emotions painted with the voice acting as a paintbrush. Soon, soon… The early mixes are done, a few tweaks here and there and it should be there. It’s just not across the finishing line… yet. Exciting! Meanwhile I’ve been pulling together my own songs I think have a pool of about 30 songs to draw on. There are of course many more songs. These are the ones I think are ready or will be ready. Exciting times. I’m even planning on some videos! Onwards and upwards!

I think because home tv/cinema set ups run at higher rates and resolutions, although the trend for ever-higher quality audio has slightly reversed for 8k, largely due to the increase in processing bandwidth for visuals and a perceived lack of need for higher quality audio. There’s an ongoing need for higher visual bit-depth to accommodate perceived visual contrast. The amount of film shot in low light conditions in particular is only appreciated in high contrast televisions. The similar fashion for “realistic” low level audio, especially around speech, was largely already served by the existing higher quality audio, at least to the point that general viewers had got to a point where they could not really appreciate the difference. To a lesser degree, on computers, I think few can afford the expensive processing power required for 8k at least to render in a reasonable time scale especially with the lack of drive for ever-higher quality audio in audiences. Video creators want to spend their processing power at render time on quality visual effects and surround sound audio. Audio processing has dropped back to 48kHz albeit in multichannel surround sound formats… and that is where audio processing has gone. 7 channels @48kHz as opposed to 2 channels at 96kHz or higher.

That’s a good tip and it’s something I’ve done very similar to… I like to use one track, and use a high shelf panned L with a stereo slap back delay of that panned R. I use a low shelf on the same original track and pan that right down the centre. This does as you suggest, but I use the centre low frequencies because low frequencies don’t place so well in the stereo spectrum and gives the side bands more clarity and more of a feeling of space. It works great with backing vox too.

As a bagpiper I feel I should respond to the jokes about bagpipes: What's the difference between a bagpipe and an onion? No one cries when you chop up a bagpipe. What's the difference between a bagpipe and a trampoline? You take off your shoes when you jump on a trampoline. What's the difference between a lawn mower and a bagpipe? You can tune a lawn mower. How do you make a chain saw sound like a bagpipe? Add vibrato. What's the difference between a dead snake in the road and a dead bagpiper in the road? Skid marks in front of the snake. What's the difference between a dead bagpiper in the road and a dead country singer in the road? The country singer may have been on the way to a recording session. What's the definition of "optimism"? A bagpiper with a beeper. Did you hear the one about the bagpiper who parked his car with the windows open, forgetting that he had left his bagpipes in the back seat? He rushed back as soon as he realized it, but it was too late--someone had already put another set of bagpipes in the car. Why do bagpipers always walk when the play? Moving targets are harder to hit. What's one thing you never hear people say? Oh, that's the bagpiper's Porsche. How can you tell if a bagpipe is out of tune? Someone is blowing into it. What's the range of a set of bagpipe? Twenty yards if you have a good arm. How do you get two bagpipes to play in perfect unison? Shoot one. And just to prove I have other jokes:

Hi Gang I thought I would ask you to outline two viewpoints as a thought experiment. Feel free to explore your thinking, discuss the topic. I’m interested in both personal and general attitudes. Even if you now have what you always wanted, I’m interested in your views Thought Experiment 1: Ideal World Suspending the reality of personal situations and the restrictions of the universe at large… in an IDEAL world, what would you want for your music? Where would you like to go with your music, or where would you like to have gone? What about others? A PERSONAL POSITIVE DISPOSITION TOWARDS Have you held, or do you hold, dreams of being a celebrity or being famous for your music or having commercial success for your music or having a fan base for your music or having critical acclaim or even just having a regular listener base for your music? Would you like, or have ever wanted, to be a full time music pro, earning your living from your music? Would you like, or have you ever wanted, to have had a fanbase of listeners, fans of your music? Would you like, or have you ever wanted, to have been famous for your music? Would you like, or have you ever wanted, to be a celebrity in association with your music? Would you like, or have you ever wanted, to have critical acclaim for your music (with or without the commercial gains)? A GENERAL POSITIVE DISPOSITION TOWARDS In a more general case, are you supportive of any of the above for others? Are they deserving of the above? Should anyone have these aspirations? A PERSONAL NEGATIVE DISPOSITION TOWARDS Alternatively, have you NEVER held, or do you NOT hold, dreams of being a celebrity or being famous or of having commercial success for your music or having a fan base for your music or having critical acclaim or just having a regular listener base for your music? Would you like, or have ever wanted, to be a full time music pro, earning your living from your music? Would you like, or have you ever wanted, to have had a fanbase of listeners, fans of your music? Would you like, or have you ever wanted, to have been famous for your music? Would you like, or have you ever wanted, to be a celebrity in association with your music? Would you like, or have you ever wanted, to have critical acclaim for your music (with or without the commercial gains)? Have you ever to be a full time music pro, earning your living from your music? Would you like to have had a fanbase of listeners, fans of your music? Would you like to have been famous for your music? Would you like to be a celebrity? A GENERAL NEGATIVE DISPOSITION TOWARDS In a more general case, are you AGAINST of any of the above for others? Is NO ONE deserving of the above? Are you actively against these aspirations? Thought Experiment 2: The Real World Very simply, what are your current, actual aspirations for your music (given a fair wind)? When/If you release songs, what would you actually like to happen? What are you biggest limitations? What are the roadblocks between where you are now with your music and where you would like to be? (Wherever that destination may be). Many thanks to all those who participate! Cheers John

Thanks Lisa! I’m glad to hear that you are back actively writing! How about your singing? As always your support makes a huge difference both to the site and for me personally. I am sure that is true for Mahesh and Peggy too! Jason must have been pleased that he was instantly understood! Lol

Oh please be silly. It’s a too serious story for a silly thread, but I’ll post the short form lol. The site is indeed much quieter right now, but it won’t stay that way. We know exactly why it is quiet and exactly what to do to fix it. Some may have heard it many times, but much has changed behind the scenes… the staff and I could be better at communicating our progress. I posted an update here: Songstuff 2024 I can explain some of the reasons the site is quieter, but some I would prefer to keep to PM if you are interested. On Achazia, and a number of other members, I think she is far less musically active full stop. Time passes. New interests etc.

Hi Gang It’s been a while since I posted any updates on our progress. Staff have been so busy! In order to safeguard the long term future for Songstuff and ensure it is around serving your needs for as long as possible we have decided to introduce some basic products. As mentioned the staff have been very busy (you have no idea). Some of the primary reasons have been a reshuffle of our goals, or more correctly how we need to deliver them to members. This reshuffling has meant for a prolonged period the staff have been reworking the site, and putting some products in place that will help us to cover costs for the site as is, and hopefully help fund improvements. Obviously, while re-working the site we were far less active in encouraging community activity. While we have been creating products, we still intend on offering free content to site users and extra to free members. We plan on adding a basic, affordable paid subscriber to our existing free members too. Until now the site has several times stopped growing because of the size of my wallet choking that growth. By introducing products (courses, subscribers and ads) we plan to address the funding gap. Using courses and a bunch of other free and paid offerings, we will attract new members. That increased activity will help attract back at least some of the members whose activity has fallen away. This is just one of many ways we intend to get the boards active again. So: Community Activity We have a whole bunch of things queued, ready to re-engage the forums, and reach out to new potential members. We know it’s been quiet. We know why. We know how to turn it around. You can help the site, by helping yourself. Things you can do to help: Be here, regularly. Be active, posting new topics and replies. Share songstuff with your musical friends. Help us to make this more like the resource you want it to be… mostly by behaving like it is already the way you want it to be. Do you have suggestions for how we can improve the community? The staff are always interested in what you have to say. Courses Singing We have a few vocal courses in development. These will be courses delivered mainly by video, but with a number of downloads etc. Songwriting I have a songwriting course for lyricists in development. It is part written. I plan to add another for composers. Music Marketing I have 4 large music marketing courses planned for 2024 and a few smaller courses. Much of the preparatory work on these courses is done with the first course hopefully being ready in 5 or so weeks. Subjects include growing your fanbase, release strategies, an evergreen artist approach, creating an effective marketing plan, an overall artist game plan for those wanting to move towards being a pro or semi-pro artist, social media, advertising, setting up with PROs and other professional bodies to collect monies earned, merch development, tour planning and promotion and a whole lot more. Recording and Production I hope to add some courses on recording and production, performance, plus label and publishing courses and tools. Advertising We have put Ad packages in place Community Subscription We have designed and are not far from launching a paid community subscription package (to sit alongside our current free membership) Related Activities: Record Label and Music Publisher Separately, the staff have set up a record label and music publisher for our own music. This also acts as a direct method for informing us about the music market place, what is working and what is not, in different genres and much more. It is also helping with developing industry links and engagement. The experience is also helping us to develop some unique processes and tools to help us to make these useful and viable as potential assets for independents. The label and publishing business is registered in Texas, USA New Ideas We have far too many ideas. There are so many great ones that we seriously don’t have the time to implement. However: We also have some unique ideas for both artists and writers. I know we can help both writers and artists to greatly improve what they do with their music. SSUK and IMS Developing SSUK and IMS as outlets for members music, other independent artists etc has temporarily been paused while we get our first courses and subscription launched. We plan to return to this mid 2024. Meanwhile there will be some activity on playlist building. Recruitment We hope to recruit some community staff, some interns as well as label staff. This will all help us get free and paid info, tools and services in front of you and help us to grow this community while safe guarding it’s future. We are nothing if not ambitious! Cheers John PS Please tell us your thinking! While it’s good to know about what we do wrong, and issues with the site, it’s even better to know what you think we can do to fix any problems and make Songstuff better than it already is. Just reply below and tell us what you think!

Hmmm. Can you define “silly”? We should have a clear idea in case it comes along. That said, if we are caught having a serious discussion about what silly is, and then silly comes along, it might move along by default, immediately marking this discussion as too serious. That kinda means that when asked to define what is silly, you can only offer silly answers. So, can you define silly?

So if this thread should have been silly but isn’t (aka a not silly thread), and then there’s the serious thread, which definitely isn’t silly, if in a whimsical mood I wanted to be silly I need to start a new “This is the silly thread”?

Use EQ to roll off some bass content and / or to cut EQ holes in instruments with overlapping frequencies (use side chain triggered from the bass drum) that helps the bass drum cut through the mix. I’ve seen the latter used on pads, organs etc, bass guitars, FX returns and even an entire mix minus the kick drum. Using stereo slap back delay in preference to reverb also helps reduce overall frequency soup washing out any clarity in your mix. It means you can add mild reverb too help pull the mix together while leaving more effect ambience to the slap back without paying the murky consequences!

You say open mic, but don’t mention a requirement for vocals… so just before I launch into suggestions, is there a need for vocals? More than one mic?

I knew I could rely on you! Lol

As @Glammerocity said, a good amp will see you a long way. Good guitars can be a game changer as far as playability is concerned, but a good amp trumps the guitar when it comes to the sound. Apart from that, I recommend the following equation: Gi = Gn +1 Where: Gi is the Ideal Number Of Guitars and Gn is the Number Of Guitars You Have Now

NT1’s are great microphones. Pretty versatile. I have an original NT2 which I love. Röde microphones are pretty good across the board. Do you use your NT1 for vocals too?

Me too. I’ve tried most things. I still prefer self-made beats. Mostly using midi triggers with some great samples. I’d love to get a midi drum kit, but I just don’t have the space. A real kit even less so. I do a lot of hand percussion with real drums. I’ve used midi libraries/audio loops for evaluation and rough demos of the quick and dirty kind. For beginners with beat creation virtual drummers and the kits that go with them are pretty useful beyond 4/4, with midi and audio loops being great for 4/4. The best 4/4 are audio+midi loops, because they have instrument one shots so if you like an audio loop but want to alter it, you can pretty easily, just by starting with the midi version of the loop with the one shot samples. For some music I love using environmental sounds to create my own loops. My secret pet fav is incorporating body noises. Everything from beat boxing, eating, playing parts of your body with your hands (if you do it with someone else’s body it is called assault!), moans, groans and other body noises. It’s a fun experiment!

I find pre-made loops (midi packs or audio) are pretty good for 4/4, but if you work in any other time signatures they really fall over. Virtual drummers tend to be much better here.

Hi I hate to tell you, but you’ve posted this to the wrong board. Members don’t tend to look for new music posts in this board, and when they find music, often they ignore it. This specific board is for introducing yourself. If you just want plays, feel free to drop a link in the musician’s lounge (though from experience, members tend to want more of a post and back story, not just a link). If you are wanting critique, please post it to the song critique board (though you are expected to post critiques of the music of other members. Inexperience is not an excuse and members have a very good awareness of how you interact with the critique boards. Additionally, you can expect to learn more by posting critique than getting your own work critiqued). Cheers John

Many reasons. I have a drive to create. Art. Music. Food. Dance (When I still could). Engineering (software and hardware). When I can’t create, it’s like a painful inch I can’t scratch. I start creating with whatever comes to hand… or voice. Beyond creating, my primary drives would be connection and being understood. Music allows for the possibility of a deep, meaningful connection. Being understood is part of that connection. I don’t mean people agreeing with me, or judging me. I literally mean being understood. I talk about quite a few subjects close to my heart, my personal experience (along with others that are fiction built upon seeds of fact and experience). Fictional songs are an exploration as much as anything else. Lastly, I write songs because I see something that I think needs said, and/or I have something to say.

I found my practice chanter yesterday. I think I’ll start practicing again It’s been a while. The least I can do if I get a set of pipes is to be able to play tunes well. That way my neighbours at least stand a chance of being entertained. I used to play all the time, back when I had a set of highland pipes and played in a pipe band, but that was a long time ago.

I gave up. It has some promise but it’s pretty clunky. The algorithm doesn’t automatically sync to the source track as well as say, melodyne editor. I found the working session became stuck, and the default session didn’t stick properly. It crashes quite a lot (once it starts crashing). Every time it crashed I was left with gigs of wave files and their proprietary files dumped in hidden temp folders, add to that after a 5 hour session and regular saves, it crashed to a level that crashed Studio one, only to discover it hadn’t saved my work at all. I gave up after it became obvious my work arounds to get it sort of working, took longer than the actual time it was working! Well, working-ish! If they address the core issues I’ll give it another go but not until I read about the many issues being fixed.