john

What type of microphones do you have? Everything else flows from that.

yep, sad. He had quite a body of work.

Are we talking a livestream/webcam style video or going out filming + webcam + stock footage set up? What do you have.. Mac or PC?

It is true on all platforms, however on Twitter it is so prevalent... Another common issue on social media, some more than others, the “commitment threshold” is so trivial that it can render it almost pointless. Worse, it can be deceptive. Numbers give artists false hope. They think that they are becoming popular, but dig into the stats and the number of plays and downloads and click through is almost non-existent. The issue is partly the wrong people are targeted as followers (artists as explained), partly the low commitment threshold (the commitment behind likes, shares, and 255 character comments is so small), and partly the complete lack of a plan to develop and grow the commitment level after initial interactions. Don’t get me wrong, they do develop engagement with their small clique, yet again because that is easy, but the rest are forgotten about. They are simply numbers. The thing that gets me, is that artists following this strategy delude themselves. Over a couple of years they grow their following to say 4,000 contacts. The more active maybe 10,000. Yet the effort to grow to this number is significant, and the whole time Twitter is giving them the clues that they are approaching it the wrong way. For 10,000 people, levels of interaction is very, very low. Twitter is not like Facebook. It doesn’t content filter for accounts. When you post it appears in the streams of your followers, for however short a period, but it is there. Engagement beyond your clique is usually awful. Yet again Twitter can work very well, but you have to grow a following of people who realistically could become fans or their followers could become fans. You need to immediately be growing their commitment. That way you might grow a follower base that really means something. That way they will really help you grow your list to more and more people who are interested in your music, not just a funny tweet. Growing a follower base of people unlikely to like your music, whose followers are unlikely to like your music, that is just an ego stroke initially and ultimately disappointing. Another HUGE issue.... using social media for critique. Don’t mix your activities and activity streams! Sites like Songstuff give artists a perfect place to air works in progress. It is amongst fellow artists (we discussed their general low fan value) so when they give feedback on a work in progress, their view of you is not diminished by listening to a below par recording of a half finished song. There may be some value in streaming some of a finished song to a closed group of actual fans, but that isn’t what happens. Time after time artists release their poorly presented, half written songs, to get feedback, because somewhere they read: be active and regular with posting be personable and friendly give fans a glimpse behind the curtain <—— the biggest culprit! All of those help persuade artists to give a warts-and-all presentation of themselves. They don’t realise the damage it can do. Death by a thousand strokes, each marking them as ordinary and amateur. Those are labels that are very hard to remove. Bigger artists give glimpses behind the scenes that still demonstrate awesomeness. They still control the narrative. When they don’t (paparazzi exposés etc) they work damn hard (or their PR person does) to minimise the damage. All this “listen to the new idea” that some artists posts yet again targets an audience of largely disinterested artists and damages your standing with possible fans. It forever marks you as the plucky amateur, unconfidently craving attention (as opposed to the aspirational, near professional confidently craving attention lol) Really, the changes needed can be small, but fundamental, and highly significant.

Hey Gang It's funny, I've seen quite a few musicians succumb to Twitter Cul-de-sac Syndrome. It looks like a great idea. It's easy to add followers, or so it seems! I'll be able to build a fanbase really quickly! Awesome! Only it doesn't go to plan. The reason you add folowers quickly is because they are other artists. Unfortunately artists SUCK when it comes to being followers or fans. They don't follow you because your music is awesome, because they are interested in your music... no they follow you because they want you to follow them back and then you will discover their music. It's easy to tell. When you make a post you get zero response. Mention them or their music and they are all over it for a few posts. Trouble is they never even listen to your songs. Sure, there will be exceptions to the rule, but 99% will not listen to your music and only interact when there is a possible pay off for them. Pretty soon, no matter your follower growth, you will find that you interact with the same small clique of people. Other artists you know and who regularly click like on each other's posts. The problem is, almost all of these people are NOT fans of your music. It is a distraction. An ego stroke. Approaching Twitter like that does nothing for your music career. You go nowhere fast. For artists, for Twitter to work, you have to build a follower base of people who could be possible fans, and whose friends could possibly be fans. It takes more work, but when you do build followers like this, they are more likely to become fans, they are more likely to be interested in your posts because your music is the kind of things they would like and because you tend to talk the same language as they do. There is an afinity between you. Harder work initially, but ultimately more rewarding. There's a little more to it, but hopefully you get the idea! Cheers John

Have you given up these kind of videos @Silverwolf941?

You did well. Not a biggie, but I think my only real comment is more strategic, relating to using this as a promotion opportunity. tedx can get a lot of coverage. For that reason, perhaps Sleep, your most popular single, would have beeen better as your performance song? Knowing that that song gets a good response and tedx would be reaching a new audience, you would have been reaching them with your song that makes the biggest connection and gets the biggest response. Other than that, perhaps working in a single line towards the end that said "I regularly post songs and other videos to my YouTube channel andI talk to people who leave comments all the time. Words are precious." etc. Of course it would need to be worked into the narrative, but I know you would have done it effectively. I still think you did a great job talking about your subject!

Hey Steffi, welcome to the Songstuff family! Just think of the boards a bit like different Facebook groups, where you talk about songwriting on the songwriting board and recording music in the recording and production board, and give and get feedback on songs in the appropriate critique board. It just makes it easier to find stuff when you go looking You will find your About Me page in your profile to add any details about you or your music. Any questions, just ask!

A little sore? I think I see the problem... Bud, they need to be through to the bone! lol

I hope to see you taking part Ben

Shucks, I try, I try lol

Awesome stuff! Well done. A bit of nervous pacing but very well delivered over all. Have you had much feedback?

Hey Biasme, welcome to the Songstuff family. I guess you could look for a lyricist while working on your own lyrical skills?

Hi and welcome to the Songstuff family

I'm thinking we should arrange a workshop to try it out.

Hey Matt Welcome to the Songstuff family! Good to have you with us. What sort of music are you into? I know you say rock and roll instrumentals, but that covers a multitude! Are you an instrumentalist because you don't write lyrics or sing, or because you just prefer instrumentals? I'm just wondering if you would work with a lyricist/singer if one was interested? Where are you based? Cheers John

Nowadays, for pop mixes, they don't care too much about dynamic range. They often apply a brick wall filter (inf:1) after a more gentle compression. Minimise all environmental noise where you are recording Minimise fan noise from computers (try setting them up in a different room and using another room as the control room, and keep the live room as quiet as possible. Make sure you keep audio cables apart from mains cables, digital audio cables and midi cables to avoid crosstalk noise (badly designed computers and computer interfaces can still have some crosstalk. Record at a lower volume to preserve dynamic range. Often broader dynamic range instruments need that extra headroom. For a louder mix but preserving dynamic range: Scan your audio to find the peak volume. Scrubbing your audio will also give you an idea about how often you get close to that peak. Apply gain to take the peak to about -3 db Now apply a gentle compression, say 1.5:1. If you set your threshold at the volume of your quietest played note, the compression will be applied evenly across your dynamic range (keeps the relative loudness of your notes as you played them) Apply make up gain The audio will be a bit louder without it completely trashing the feeling you put into the song. With the peak being -3 db you still have some headroom for mixing etc and for different final mix treatments for different platforms. If you don't care about about dynamic range (which would be unusual for a piano player) then you can apply a more severe compression. Brickwalls tend to only be useful for mastering engineers and even then only with certain styles, but perhaps 8:1 with a threshold of -3 db might be applied after doing the compression above. It will color the sound, and abnormally affect the louder notes, but that is the price of having a louder mix. If you used 8:1 with the threshold at the volume of the lowest note, with make up gain, relative dynamic range is preserved but the overall difference between the loudest and quietest will be pretty small, sacrificed to get overall volume.

You missed off the "makeup-gain" option. When you apply compression it reduces the volume by the ratio amount above the threshold. So, above -29db, the volume would be reduced by a ratio of 2.1:1, or roughly 29 - 13.8 db = 15.2 db reduction. Your peak volume is now only -15.2 db. If you apply make up gain, the compressor automatically applies gain to bring up the volume of the track. It makes it sound a lot louder overall, reducing the dynamic range (the range between the quietest sound and the loudest.) Solution is, assuming your threshold is correct, apply make up gain. You can of course apply gain manually post compressor. Note, by applying make up gain you will of course bring up the noise floor by 13.8 db. So any noise on the track will be much more noticeable. You are likely to need a noise gate to remove noise between sounds and/or other noise conditioning. See, no need to go to the audacity forums

Good sound Matt. Welcome to the Songstuff family!

Hi Gang We are busy building the Songstuff Music Stage and Songstuff UK as fan-facing platforms, ie with content expressly for fans... not other musicians and songwriters. Our intention is to build a natural outlet to feature the music of our members. It features playlists and artists on YouTube, Soundcloud and Spotify. It will feature interviews with artists and soon webcam performances and lyrics videos along with other commentary such as reviews and release announcements.. perhaps even a podcast. Our aim is for this to become an excellent launch and awareness platform for artists to help them reach a wider audience and get featured on a platform other than their own music. To add to it's effectiveness we will be featuring the music of non-members and even a few mainstream artists (as a way of bringing their fans to a place where they can hear some awesome indie music). Please, please please... do ALL you can to support this by supporting the various social media pages that make up this "channel" too. Songstuff UK Songstuff on Soundcloud Songstuff Music Stage (YouTube Channel) Songstuff Music Stage (Facebook Page) Songstuff Music Stage (Twitter) Songstuff Music Stage (Pinterest) Songstuff Music Stage (Instagram) Cheers John

Hey Gang Please take time to check out Songstuff Featured Artists on YouTube. the artists we feature on Soundcloud and Spotify are not the same, if only because not all artists use all 3 platforms. The SOngstuff Featured Artists playlist is made up entirely of Songstuff members: Go on. Give it a play... While you are there, please like, comment share the videos and the playlist overall, and of course subscribe to our channel! Cheers John

Hey Gang I thought it might be a good idea to use this board to pull together any great performance tutorials we find. We should do similar on the Songwriting Discussion board and the Recording and Production board for those topics The Songstuff YouTube Channel also includes pllaylists of useful videos. Gathering tutorials will help us to build those playlists: Songstuff Tutorial Playlists Guitar Tutorials Piano Tutorials Bass Tutorials Drum Tutorials

Did Mahesh contact you about your press release?

yes and no. At least you did that promo, but established bands and those with knowledgable managers would go through a release process. Even for gigs and tours they had a promo process. 99% of bands added a song to their set, maybe got included in a free gig guide, mostly relied upon the venue promoters to do a shout out. Most had no press kit, no photo shoots, no marketing assets to speak of... but that stuff all existed. Locally, there was a thin layer of bands who had that stuff together... most did minimal. Now corresponding stuff as well as some extras are available. So the means have changed, the principles are the same..... jsut back in the day you probably had less awareness. As did we all.