Mahesh

I've seen older Youtubers like Rick Beato on many occasions sh*t on the modern music era and its quality or fidelity. Although I agree with him during most times, it irks me during some others. Not because there aren't enough examples that may suit his point, but because there are SO MANY young bands out there who make really good music that aren't taken into consideration when making such judgements. (On an allegedly unrelated note, one of the songs I posted last week on the Musician's Lounge comes to mind) I've also seen this topic come up constantly around here in these forums. I think Mary does a good job creating a balanced discussion about these things. Also given the fact that the label of 'musician' or anything else can be easily hijacked due to the advent of internet and technology, it's important to separate that from the lineage of music, musical art form and its culture that is still alive in many of the young musicians out there who are taking it forward; whose importance will be surely acknowledged in a larger context in the future. Just like we have with people like Jeff Buckley, Kurt Cobain and Nick Drake in the past; and those like Amy Winehouse and Mac Miller more recently. Thoughts?

It has been a whole week since I heard it and I just can't get it out of my head. The arrangements and performances on this are so damn tight!

Nor do I care much for their artistically unfulfilling ways of pursuing art - so I guess we don't have much of an overlap. I'm all for toys, don't get me wrong. I'm also for using new technology to further the idea of music or creative art. I'm just not for creative servants is all. It takes the fun out of things.

Though AI may have certain impact on the music recording industry, I'm happy to see the topic on AI bring some much needed attention to the live music side of things. Too many artists out there who've got millions of streams on their Spotify or whatever and yet can't hold a tune properly on stage. Call me old fashioned, but a large part of my personal music journey is bound to having an everyday discipline to my craft and instrument, and the motivation to get better at it.

+1 Voxengo SPAN still remains a favourite and most used despite being free. I find it very useful while mixing as well, particularly for tone shaping/EQing my individual instruments to reflect some of the elements on the reference track I'd be using. I totally resonate with that. Over the years, this very sense of curiosity has also helped me gain at least enough experience to have a real conversation with the mixing/mastering engineer with regards to what I'd want instead of using vague terms that could mean anything and just leaving things to interpretation.

I was a devoted Cakewalk by Bandlab user! But when I switched from MacOS to Windows as my old device finally gave in, I was forced to switch to Reaper. Don't get me wrong, the windows version of Cakewalk work absolutely great and somethings about the software UI and workflow. But the CPU management issue with more plugins and virtual instruments became quite the hassle at one point. So.. I guess we are on a break right now. EDIT: Just signed up for both Next and Sonar on Cakewalk.

THIS! 100%

I appreciate that Ryan. Wanting to become better at my own instrument and my understanding of music, it's very important to me. I find myself wanting more of it because I feel like I'm at a constant lack in someway. It makes me want to practice. It makes me feel guilty when I'm not lol Despite being a full time musician for so many years now, wanting to make better music still haunts me every day in a strange way, and it keeps me going. Cheers to that!

Let's talk about Youtube specifically in relation to musicians. I started using YouTube very early on - for lessons, discovering music and more; and then it became more of sharing your my content on the platform. Having been on the platform for a while now, I think a lot of musicians have an unspoken relationship with consuming and creating for YouTube and how it influences their music journey. So let's try and change that. How has having a YouTube channel benefited your music career? Do you think a YouTube channel is essential for all musicians, or are there exceptions? Any examples of musicians who have successfully utilized YouTube to boost their careers that you resonate with? What types of content do you find most effective in engaging your audience on Youtube and what engages you the most? Excited to hear your thoughts.

There were quite a few online open mics organised on Zoom and other platforms during the pandemic. I remember performing at one which was fun and interactive. It should be fun!

This came up as I was commenting on another topic so thought I'd create a new one to let the conversation take its own direction. Do you think branding can impact a musician's career, from attracting new fans to securing partnerships and sponsorships? How do you approach branding in your music career? Have you found it helpful in attracting new fans and opportunities? Share your experiences with us.

I'm game for it! We can maybe decide on a time, set up a zoom/meet call or something. We can go around performing a song or two based on how many people show up. I'd love to hear some of y'all live! That sounds absolutely delightful!

So very true. Because of the sheer volume of musicians and artists out there, it is foolish to think good music alone will do the job. But creating something that people can come back to over and over again, to discover something new with each year and willing to do so, that takes a lot more time and effort. Building yourself as a brand is what comes to mind. The term might feel gimmicky but all great artists have spent time on figuring out what they want to identify themselves & present themselves as. Coming back to the point of virtual concerts, yeah, I'm sure that would help a great deal.

Hello there Neil, Welcome to the board! Appreciate your interest here. Just thought I'd let you know I've hidden your contact details. It's not safe to share contact details on a public forum but moreover, removing it reduces the value our site poses to data scrapers, which helps keep all our members safer. This means we can easily comply with GDPR and other personal data legislation. It also stops issues with number reallocation and encourages in-community communication!

I’ve been on Spotify discovery mode lately listening to some new music based on my tastes. Recently found this beautiful track after which I’m hoping to check out an album by this wonderful artist.

They can surely be very entertaining, sometimes addictive hehe. Where do you see these challenges and trends from an artist’s perspective though? Do you think there’s any benefit or use for an indie musician to pay attention to some of these ideas and maybe implement them in someway? Would you instead believe that it may hinder the artist in someway by creating and focusing on micro content?

Virtual concerts on Zoom and other online platforms went up a considerable amount during the pandemic for obvious reasons. I did a few of those but not as much as my local counterparts chose to then. The reason I was treading lightly was because going live and performing a bunch of songs is soo simple and easy to do with your phone that you may overdo it. It reduces a sense of exclusivity if you’re always doing these things. Now that the pandemic drama is coming down, I wonder what you think of these online concerts. Would you attend one? Would you play in one? Would you charge your audiences? Would love to hear your thoughts! I’d love to have Songstuff Open Mic nights/days where I’d be able to listen to some of y’all.

I’m not sure how creativity and AI can work hand in hand at this point. I’m not saying they can’t but at this point in time, all of this technology seems like it’s trying to replace the creative human task. There have been some interesting ones though. I think it was Nvidia (or maybe it was Adobe) that released their tech that could take a noisy recording from your room to sound like a quiet studio booth. That sounds helpful. There’s been plugins like Gullfoss that has allowed for EQing and tone shaping audio signals without necessarily knowing how to mix. Does it make the musician less lazy? Sure! Can it help in situations where an indie artist has to do everything on his/her own to produce one’s own music? Yup. And this is what makes me think a little about where ll of this is going. With Rick’s new video showing these incredible examples of Kurt Cobain and Paul Mccartney’s AI voices singing all kinds of stuff, it is scary too. It kinda blurs what copyright could mean..

I'm actually a big fan of sticking to the stock EQ plugins, especially ReaEQ by Reaper which is the DAW I use now. I find that relying on my ears rather than constantly fiddling with knobs and settings helps me learn and understand the production and the process of EQing better. That being said, when it comes to treating live recordings, a basic EQ may not always cut it. So, I turn to Dynamic EQ, which helps control things in a much cleaner way instead of scooping out a whole part of the frequency spectrum all through the track. My all-time favourite plugin for this purpose is Nova by TDR, and the best part? It's completely free! TDR has some other cool free plugins that work amazingly. Definitely worth checking out. Sticking to the basics has really helped me hone my production skills, and now I feel a lot more confident using any plugin since I know better what it's doing to my sound.

Nice to have you back on the boards Ria.

Fair enough! I agree, it isn't for everybody. Tiktok is banned here anyways but some of these catch my eye on Youtube Shorts or Reels and I admit, I do curiously pause. Although, once I do that, I am FLOODED with other people doing the same trend and it can get annoying sometimes hearing the same sh**t. lol You got that right bud lmao

I know Tiktok as a platform has security and privacy concerns that have been widely reported. But I guess this topic is about micro-content in general. There are a lot of cool “singing challenges” that have popped up on these platforms that I find interesting. Have you ever come across any? What do you think of them?

I spend a considerable number of hours listening to music although I'm not sure I have an estimate of it since it is such an integral part of my life and I'm always going in and out of my music apps constantly thru the day. My preferred way of listening to music Spotify: It has got most of the catalog, old & new. It has a solid algorithm to help me further explore my taste in music while discovering new artists. A good way I like to take advantage of this is the "Enhance" button. You can put a bunch of your favorite songs in a new Spotify playlist and then hit the Enhance button for that playlist which will add similar music and artists that you may have not heard before. I do also enjoy the Discover Weekly playlist generated every week. Youtube: Invaluable in my music journey. Live performances and very old or underground records that you may not find on Spotify makes itself easily visible. I cannot start my daily chores without listening to my favorite Tiny Desk concert or that memorable John Mayer performance.

As much as I see the objective truth in some of the things Rick says in the video, I agree with @HoboSage, @VoiceEx and @Steve Mueske. It felt like the video was done in bad taste or at least with a whole lotta bias; sorta like "I'm gonna listen to these songs just to find the first bunch of things I can pick on to make my point and justify the title of the video" That is anything but critique. He's already made up his mind about the songs before he even heard the song in its entirety with some of them. Surely there's a better way to do this especially for someone like Rick whose musical knowledge and experience I do respect and enjoy.

What a beautiful example. Yes! And that goes for the great Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, too.