what is going on in your musical life

Boxedjoy I checked this out when you posted it on FB. Really liked it. Not sure what kind of singer you're after but I need to take my voice back out of its box after a little break. Would be interesting to give it a go if you wanted to work on a distance project with a male singer

Funnily, I'm in a similar boat, i.e. interested in collaborating with singers, vocalists, MCs, rappers etc.

I've been teaching myself how to use Serato and been invited to play a few DJ slots around town. I've always DJ'd but this is a new method for me and I felt like I needed an alias and a rough style to anchor it.

I've been very interested in the concept of 'riddim', and its function within genres such as dancehall and soca, which are big scenes in Bristol. But equally I've been fascinated that this has potential to become a genre in itself, rather than a backdrop for vocalists. You get whole EPs and albums dedicated to a single riddim production, with different vocalists on each track. Although I enjoy the vocal work, as a producer and DJ I really like hearing these productions as instrumentals - the fact a lot of them work really well as standalones but still afford enough space for the vocalist to work within.
Similarly, I've become obsessed with trap producers like Metro Boomin and Zaytoven who we've these complex musical ideas into simple-sounding 808-driven beats.

So my aim now is to work on my own riddim-based productions - ones that can equally work as standalones or as backdrops for vocalists. I can weave these into my sets when I DJ and best of all, if I have an accompanying singer or MC, I can get them to work with me.

I also like the idea of doing an open call for vocalists who'd like to lend their skills to the tracks I'm making.

In practice this is all a bit new to me, but I've been thinking about this for a long time. It was only til the other day that my partner asked if we could make a track together, and asked if we could do it in a soca style. We laid down a beat, she messed around on the keyboard for a bit and we chopped it up until it sounded feasible and within a few days we'd sculpted it into a pretty fun-sounding tune.

I've adopted the name Chok Ice, since she's phobic of untreated wood and will choose a choc ice rather than a Magnum or an ice lolly since they don't come on sticks. Also the name sounds chunky and crunchy and kinda fun, so that's the name.

The track we made together is called, surprisingly, 'Chok Ice Riddim' and it's the first track here, along with a few other things I've made in the past which I hope to top eventually:- http://www.soundcloud.com/chokice

Great track, and I support these endeavors. I don't think you'll have a problem finding vocalists to work with if you make the effort.

(I've been going the opposite way, toward instrumental dance music after a period of actively trying to work with a lot of vocalists, although through some serendipity I've ended up with a vocal on a club track recently that I'm very excited about)

best of luck to dog latin and Jordan

Meanwhile I am feeling severe temptation to take up 5-string banjo, & am not sure I want to be talked down. My current voice/guitar/mandolin trio sounds fine for 5 songs, but I think it might start to get samey after 6.

I can arrange for two guitars (and I have!) but that feels like work and I hate work. I can't afford a good mandola or bouzouki, but my friend has a banjo that he can probably be persuaded to trade for my "extra" hollow Epi.

sorry if i've asked this before, but how do you all go about mixing for decent headphones vs speakers vs earbuds vs laptop speakers? when you do the final mix, which one are you listening on? do you try to optimize for one of those listening devices, or instead go for something that will sound acceptable on all of them? it seems like i should be doing the latter, but i always run into problems with the lower frequencies. on headphones, they sound nice and warm and cozy, and then i'll switch to earbuds or laptop speakers and they're not just quiet, they're practically inaudible! maybe i should be completely ignoring the way things sound out of laptop speakers? the thing is, even though i deeply prefer headphones, i often find myself listening to things off tinny laptop speakers as i do work around the house or cook or clean or whatever it is. i don't know if there are reliable stats but i'd wager that maybe 1/3, if not much more, of all music is played out of computer/phone speakers? so it also seems wrong to ignore the way that music is so commonly listened to? i don't know. sorry if this is a tired old topic.

i ran into this problem again on a new song (which i uploaded today despite never solving the problem described above, because fuck it) - it has a motorik synthbass thing that enters halfway through and is supposed to kind of carry the song the rest of the way home. on my headphones i think it sort of comes close to accomplishing that, but then the effect is completely lost when it's played on a laptop. i spent a long time adjusting the mix, trying to fix it, but whenever the bass was passably audible on laptop speakers, i'd put my headphones back on and it would sound like track 3 on Ultimate Subwoofer Test Compilation 5 or whatever, just completely unlistenable. eventually i just came to a compromise somewhere in the middle and moved on because it was driving me nuts.

anyway, curious how you all deal with the situation

Are you using any flat response studio monitors or just stereo speakers?

If just home stereo equipment, getting accurate mixes are real difficult especially in the low end.

Sometimes doubling it with a sound that has more harmonics (piano, higher synth?), sometimes trying to saturate it to bring out what's already there. Sometimes accepting that laptop speakers just aren't going to reproduce everything (although, I usually play some 808-based rap music on the same system to see what's coming through).

Also it makes me feel better when I'm in, say, a loud bar and there is some expensively-produced pop hit playing and I can only make out the bassline and kick drum, maybe some snare. Or the reverse when people are playing music on Youtube from their phone speakers, and the low end is just gone. You just can't account for everything (but it's still good to listen on a bunch of different formats, because it can reveal a lot and you can account for some things).

earlnash, nah, i have a really crappy home setup, cheap stereo speakers, torn up headphones.

jordan those are good tips! and you're right about the impossibility of accounting for everything. i just want to achieve barely viable minimum quality status

So think I finally more or less have got the melody and changes of “Ornithology” memorized. Getting bebop tunes under one’s fingers surprisingly or unsurprisingly challenging. Especially that one, since it has different versions, one apparently with new section endings due to Bus Powell. Wonder if any of you are actively playing jazz in any capacity at this point.

That's a great track, Karl Malone! And I get why you're so hung up on having that bassline heard - it's brilliant when it comes in.

thank you!

Don't have to go crazy, but there are affordable decent home studio monitors out there. The thing with monitors is that they don't really add or subtract anything to the sound they are reproducing at least not the same way regular stereo speakers do. Stereo speakers are tweaked to have a pleasing sound, so the speakers can emphasize bass or some other frequency to tweak the sound. It's like having an EQ on it. Play it someplace and the speakers will have a different natural eq and whatever the original speakers boosts or cut is gone. That is why the bass can completely disappear from differing playback sources.

It was explained to me as it is like a carpenter measuring with a tape measure that is always wrong.

I played with a friend of a friend's Ampeg V4 last week and now I want one. If only it was in any way reasonable to buy one and an attenuator just to get high and play stoner riffs over and over and over.

The Tech 21 VT Bass sansamp thingy gets pretty close. I know emulation doesn't necessarily scratch itches like that - if it did, I would own a lot less gear - but just sayin'. More reasonable than V4 + 410 + attenuator.

nowhere near as bad as what jordan's dealing with, but the drummer in the band i've been playing with gets into a LOT of drama on facebook. he's always on there at like 2 a.m. accusing people of stealing $5000 in gear from him eight years ago, his wife got into an argument with his former bandmate on there, etc. etc. nothing terrible but just makes me nervous about his ... stability i guess.

― na (NA), Tuesday, October 24, 2017 2:23 PM (three months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

still playing with these dudes. no interpersonal problems/drama. we have our second show (with me in the band) in a couple of weeks and we're recording in april. i have mixed feelings about the project - we have some newer songs that came out of jams and the other guys seem to think they're done but they still feel half-baked and jammy to me, and while i like most of our songs they aren't really in my preferred style/wheelhouse. i think a lot of that comes from playing with people with different musical backgrounds/tastes than me, which can be good, but i'm used to playing pretty structured songs, not these looser jam-based things. on the plus side, i'm enjoying just playing guitar and being able to work on improving my guitar sounds, and they're all old with responsibilities like me so they aren't trying to play a show every other week or anything. i joined to help with their goal of recording their new songs, so i feel committed to it at least through that process, then i guess i'll see what happens after that.

My band have finally released our first mini album online: https://discozhivago.bandcamp.com/album/spatulon

dog latin, that is fun music! Frenetic and mannered and fun. I listened to Handle and the last, more atmospheric track. Getting a little Falco-ish vibe maybe? Sorry if that's reductive, but I say it with genuine affection.

me, I continue to have an acoustic 80s-cover trio, which has played a couple shows and a couple parties. Pretty much Blondie but with mandolin and banjo. Also working on some home recordings of mostly folkier stuff, I am playing all the instruments and hoping to find guest vocalists. Expecting to do more space-rock drumming in the near future.

thanks YMP, yes each track is quite different from the last. Most of the songs were written and recorded at home by ourselves over the course of quite a few years. It was slow and arduous and I'm already getting moaned at by the other members about this bit not being quite right and that bit needing changed. We have loads more stuff but I felt 8 tracks was enough :-)

Listening. It's sounding fun so far.

I'll have a new chamber piece performed by Hub New Music this weekend. Also, I got a preliminary recording of my 10-string guitar composition from the performer, which is sounding promising. I'm still struggling to get new electric guitar/laptop stuff ready for gigs in March.

Cheers Sund4r

lol just remembered that track 2 ends with the line 'I'm on the money yeah'

Good stuff DL! I enjoyed that. Will you hate me if I say the first song sounds like a Libertines tribute? Nothing wrong with that though, and on a whole I'd say you've really got your own sound down. Bookmarked!

oh man I'm not a fan of them. I was going mire for a punky Pere Ubu vibe but it's weird what you pick up from the sounds around you and the Libertines were a huge huge band for people in the town where I lived and their music was played in every pub I'd go in. I take it as a compliment :-) thanks LBI

You totally should! It beats 95% of Libertines own songs any way :) It's not a signature song by any means, but it's a great opener imo. Especially because the album really opens up into different directions after that. I'm really enjoying it.

i made this 4-track cassette tape collage over six months in 2017. i'm more proud & satisfied of it than anything else i've ever made. i got totally immersed in it and near the end of my self-imposed deadline, i almost didn't want to let it go, because it was the most fun i've ever had making something. there's around 800+ distinct edits & sound sources. i hope some of you listen & like it...
THE STREETS ARE HOT TONIGHT

^^^ nice man!

i put a bunch of 'beats' i've made over the last cpl years onto one of these online beat stores tonite, i don't even know if it's a good website in any manner, i just didn't want them collecting any more dust. some of them were songs i produced with vocalists that never got released so i reclaimed the music from them, and a cpl are just plain old beats of various genres.

http://www.firstdub.com/producer/autologico.html

i dunno. anyone have any experience selling music online in one of these kind of things? wonder if there's something better i could be doing.

i dig those beats! i don't have any experience selling beats, but i know a lot of people do it thru soundcloud & twitter via people they already know and building a following online. but i only have a peripheral awareness of all that

glad you liked STREETS... working on the b-side now, SIPPER OF TEA. gonna put out a tape in a few months

Made a bunch of cassettes with different covers and pretty pleased with how they look

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/0012236483_10.jpghttps://f4.bcbits.com/img/0012236488_10.jpg

Sounds okay too, abstract field recording stuff if anyone wants to listen to that sort of thing https://automating.bandcamp.com/album/einstellung-zwei

they look great! I bet they sound good too. I'll take a listen.

ya i listened to that last night, sounds great!

i'm thinking about becoming one of those guys who, instead of hitting the distortion pedal in the loud parts, has the distortion/overdrive on all the time and uses the guitar volume knob to change level of distortion. feels classier. but i wonder how hard it'll be to train myself to do it.

What if you want a sound that is both loud and clean though?

Personally I want to be able to have a consistent level of loudness but with varying levels of dirt. Especially for fingerstyle bits, where I'm quieter and need more volume (but don't want distortion).

I always play with my volume knob at 10 and uses pedals (if any) to control volume. I understand it though, unlike ever putting your tone knobs anywhere but 10. why would you do that? Always sounds like shit.

If you need loud and clean to match your loud and distorted by a boost. Handy little buggers.

I tend to get all the toanz the same apparent volume (clean, dirty, weird), and use a boost for solos. So there are eight options:

- clean
- dirty
- weird
- clean + loud
- dirty + loud
- weird + loud
- weird + dirty
- weird + dirty + loud

Not sure how I would get to that array of options with the "everything dimed and control it from the guitar" approach, but I wish NA the best in the quest for tonal bliss.

A limiter?

EZ, we might just be talking past each other - NA was talking about not stomping on anything at all, right? Just cranking everything and controlling it with a pinky from the guitar.

Yeah, I was mixing your comments with his and trying to answer a non-existent question. Story of my life.

Agreed to do a dj set in Chicago that starts at 3:30 am, because as crazy as that sounds to me now, I'm sure with each passing year it will sound crazier and less appealing.

Also finally taking the plunge and using CDJs.

ha ha there is maybe a 1.4% chance i'll go out at 3:30 a.m. but let me know the details anyway

I started an instagram for posting short clips of me doing (so far) covers. It's a really easy and immediate way to put music out there without it having to be perfect, and it's helping me sort of break through the ice on singing/playing for people who don't already know my musical side, since it means friends from other parts of my life wind up seeing my clips. Just trying to learn to give less of a fuck at this point.

Plus I don't even have to even have an entire really good take, just a good 45 seconds or so.

I have a sort of slow funk song I'm working on that I'm proud of but it's being let down by some very dry, stiff-sounding programmed drums. Does anyone here have a way of recording drums that sound halfway realistic and would be interested in hearing it?

my musical life is stunted
i had been working so hard for so long and then things just kind of fell apart
i still have active long distance recording thing, but the IRL playing opportunities have all sort of vaporized -- one person i had a couple shows with has been very busy with other priorities in her life, and that's about all i had going on. i would like to revive my musical life, so that is my goal for this spring/summer. i have been working hard and playing for 5 years in june; can't stop now.

on the upside, i am getting my musical fix by teaching a class about music at work, which is both gratifying and educational. i've learned a lot too!

dog latin: I sometimes start with a drum machine as a guide track, record all the other stuff, and then overdub real drums as a last step. (And delete the original drum machine bit.)

The result sounds pretty bandlike to me, but it is kludgey and time-consuming. Happy to help if you like.

Wish I could DL...I did a drum session for some guys last weekend, and we got a pretty good sound in their living room (also one of them went in the basement with his iphone to get some trashy room sound through the vents). It was a pleasure to be able to record drums that someone else was going to edit/mix, and it was pretty much in my wheelhouse (focusing on sound & feel, nothing too technical, just replacing programmed beats & breaks to a click).

LL I think it always comes in waves, but I guess putting yourself out there and talking to people always helps. 5 years already!

yeah 5 years already! in june technically.
now for the real problem: i have real difficulty with the concept of "putting myself out there" for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the stigma against self-promotion. i don't need to go on about the shame and stigma of self-promotion among music-making people. however, if i don't do it, no one will come to me; unfortunately every time i try to do it, i recoil internally and stop before i even start. then there is the feeling of begging for attention, which has been trained out of me over many years. i'm not really sure how to reach out without feeling this way, like i have no idea how to do it. i feel like i need advice from someone who knows me & gets my perspective and situation, but ???

you're right though, it does come in waves. i am not having one atm but like i said, i am getting a decent fix elsewhere in my musical life.