The Musician's Gig Room Chat V1 - Songwriting and Sound Design for all! - Creationism Corner

[QUOTE=Skeeter;52939152]And It's up! [url]https://fpcollab.bandcamp.com/releases[/url][/QUOTE] Literally forgot to submit music to this, but fantastic work guys. All of the tracks sound great. My favorite has to be the Ottworks track, so chill.

[QUOTE=OmTheory;52939163]Literally forgot to submit music to this, but fantastic work guys. All of the tracks sound great. My favorite has to be the Ottworks track, so chill.[/QUOTE] I wasn't able to download your track and iirc when I asked about it in this thread, I never got a reply :< hit me up with a downloadable link and I'll pop it in at spot #10

[QUOTE=Skeeter;52939180]I wasn't able to download your track and iirc when I asked about it in this thread, I never got a reply :< hit me up with a downloadable link and I'll pop it in at spot #10[/QUOTE] Oh damn, I must of missed that post haha. I'll hit you up with a download link in the PM's to a track which I think will fit.

[QUOTE=OmTheory;52939195]Oh damn, I must of missed that post haha. I'll hit you up with a download link in the PM's to a track which I think will fit.[/QUOTE] Awesome bud <3 [editline]2nd December 2017[/editline] Also ; Got permission to post in GD, so we'll get some well-deserved recognition~ PS All the songs so far? So fucking awesome, this is the kind of shit I want to hear on radio.

You guys didn't dissapoint. Dive sets the mood perfectly, and Voltage is groovy as hell. Lost in the Dark has some really stellar percussion that really captures the "skull snaps" vibe while also being punchy and synthesized. In The Stars, Our Future adds a hard edge to the album, while Sea Of Thoughts, Waves Of Memories softens it up before slamming it back. Stay Vibin' brings things back to chilltown again, but The System adds an industrial flavor. And stonesong sounds like if C418 (the Minecraft composer) made dub.

[QUOTE=Skeeter;52939210]Awesome bud <3 [editline]2nd December 2017[/editline] Also ; Got permission to post in GD, so we'll get some well-deserved recognition~ PS All the songs so far? So fucking awesome, this is the kind of shit I want to hear on radio.[/QUOTE] I Pm'd you my contribution, not sure if you got it though ( since the site did a 503 on me ), if not. Here it is in the thread! [url]https://drive.google.com/open?id=147bgMFN52eiqAhtDWI0_t1AtIf-OCmbj[/url] I originally made this in at the beginning of 2016 and late 2015. It has gone unheard until now mostly, I think nows the right time to let it shine.

Guys I play a bit of guitar but don't do much other music stuff, but now I'm looking to get something that will allow me to create more backing stuff, drum tracks etc. Tbh I have no idea what the best way to do this is but I think what I need is a midi controller and some software? I just want something that will give me a good variety of sounds to play with and can create some half decent backing noise for me to play guitar over. Is a midi controller what I want? A friend has some fancy keyboard that can do pretty good stuff but it was like £600 and I'm not looking to spend that kinda money. Can I achieve this somehow for more like <£100? I really don't know much about music except how to play a bit of guitar so any advice is appreciated.

[QUOTE=tom1029;52939390]Guys I play a bit of guitar but don't do much other music stuff, but now I'm looking to get something that will allow me to create more backing stuff, drum tracks etc. Tbh I have no idea what the best way to do this is but I think what I need is a midi controller and some software? I just want something that will give me a good variety of sounds to play with and can create some half decent backing noise for me to play guitar over. Is a midi controller what I want? A friend has some fancy keyboard that can do pretty good stuff but it was like £600 and I'm not looking to spend that kinda money. Can I achieve this somehow for more like <£100? I really don't know much about music except how to play a bit of guitar so any advice is appreciated.[/QUOTE] You don't really need a midi controller to produce music. You can just draw the notes in with your mouse.

A post has been made in GD (with approval from moderator Pascall) [url]https://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1587558&p=52939452#post52939452[/url] [editline]2nd December 2017[/editline] [QUOTE=tom1029;52939390]Guys I play a bit of guitar but don't do much other music stuff, but now I'm looking to get something that will allow me to create more backing stuff, drum tracks etc. Tbh I have no idea what the best way to do this is but I think what I need is a midi controller and some software? I just want something that will give me a good variety of sounds to play with and can create some half decent backing noise for me to play guitar over. Is a midi controller what I want? A friend has some fancy keyboard that can do pretty good stuff but it was like £600 and I'm not looking to spend that kinda money. Can I achieve this somehow for more like <£100? I really don't know much about music except how to play a bit of guitar so any advice is appreciated.[/QUOTE] OH you can for sure :) All you need to get that sweet guitar singing on the computer is an usb audio card. Something along the lines of ; Focusrite Scarlett Solo (2nd Gen) M-audio Fast Track MK2 (I started my career with this one) You can then find some great free (and legal) synths by either asking here or using your favourite internet search engine. For a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation, the recording software) there's plenty. I would recommend Reaper, it has a 60day free trial (which can be extended, if you're OK with waiting a bit before going at it) which gives you all the stuff you need to make music.

[QUOTE=Ott;52939419]You don't really need a midi controller to produce music. You can just draw the notes in with your mouse.[/QUOTE] Using what software? [QUOTE=Skeeter;52939455]I would recommend Reaper, it has a 60day free trial (which can be extended, if you're OK with waiting a bit before going at it) which gives you all the stuff you need to make music.[/QUOTE] Will give Reaper a try, thanks

[QUOTE=Ott;52939419]You don't really need a midi controller to produce music. You can just draw the notes in with your mouse.[/QUOTE] I mean technically yea, but having a good midi keyboard is kinda invaluable if you wanna be able to jam some stuff up quickly and generally toy around. Dragging notes on a screen doesn't quite come close to that imo. You can get some decent one for affordable prices too.

[QUOTE=Skeeter;52939152]And It's up! [url]https://fpcollab.bandcamp.com/releases[/url][/QUOTE] where the fudge is my track dude I waited a fucking year for this and it's not in there

[QUOTE=SebiWarrior;52939712]where the fudge is my track dude I waited a fucking year for this and it's not in there[/QUOTE] Your track didn't have download enabled and iirc I asked you too about it but never recieved an answer, hook me up again and I'll get you down for track #11

yo can someone tell me how to come up with melodies and guitar solos that aren't just walking around on a aeolian or minor pentatonic scale

[QUOTE=ScarehGhoost;52939876]yo can someone tell me how to come up with melodies and guitar solos that aren't just walking around on a aeolian or minor pentatonic scale[/QUOTE] Except forcing yourself to play some other scales? Hmm. Listen to music where you know melodic instruments are playing in major scale or something like that. :)

[QUOTE=Skeeter;52939889]Except forcing yourself to play some other scales? Hmm. Listen to music where you know melodic instruments are playing in major scale or something like that. :)[/QUOTE] i can play in a major scale, i just mean doing something other than just randomly going up and down the scale

Why did this become so popular? It has nearly 500,000 plays. [media]https://soundcloud.com/lewislancastermusic/succ[/media] Also, I'll do a full review of the collab album soon. I'm still writing it up.

[QUOTE=ScarehGhoost;52940046]i can play in a major scale, i just mean doing something other than just randomly going up and down the scale[/QUOTE] you can also skip notes if the interval is a third or a fifth and it'll usually still sound pleasant. for example, if you're playing in C major and your melody starts from C, you can then go to E or G. you can also look at the notes in your melody as relative to the root notes played in your chord progression. then, you can play notes in the melody that are from the current chord (chord tone or CT) which usually sound pleasant, or play notes outside the chord (non-chord tone or NCT) which doesn't sound as pleasant but is sometimes useful for creating tension or something.

[QUOTE=Skeeter;52939730]Your track didn't have download enabled and iirc I asked you too about it but never recieved an answer, hook me up again and I'll get you down for track #11[/QUOTE] [t]https://i.imgur.com/RccQXzM.png[/t] So when you sent this, you didn't actually get the track?

[QUOTE=SebiWarrior;52940646] So when you sent this, you didn't actually get the track?[/QUOTE] Is your phones display literally just a 4k monitor or something, that image is huge.

[QUOTE=OmTheory;52940683]Is your phones display literally just a 4k monitor or something, that image is huge.[/QUOTE] I wouldn't be surprised, my phone's display is almost 2k [editline]2nd December 2017[/editline] For an actual problem that I've had for awhile that I haven't quite pinned down the reason for yet: a lot of my tracks sound quiet compared to other people's tracks, especially on soundcloud. I don't know if it's just because I don't know enough about mastering, but I've searched around for solutions and I feel like I tried everything I could think of but with no improvement. If you look through my tracks on soundcloud you could probably notice too. Of course I don't want to just overdrive the gain since I'm trying to watch out for the dynamics at the same time. any suggestions?

[QUOTE=Octopod;52940685]I wouldn't be surprised, my phone's display is almost 2k [editline]2nd December 2017[/editline] For an actual problem that I've had for awhile that I haven't quite pinned down the reason for yet: a lot of my tracks sound quiet compared to other people's tracks, especially on soundcloud. I don't know if it's just because I don't know enough about mastering, but I've searched around for solutions and I feel like I tried everything I could think of but with no improvement. If you look through my tracks on soundcloud you could probably notice too. Of course I don't want to just overdrive the gain since I'm trying to watch out for the dynamics at the same time. any suggestions?[/QUOTE] Don't worry about that at all, (digital) loudness is overrated. Just make sure your track sound good and dynamic the way you want it to and use ReplayGain or just the volume knob to adjust the levels when listening. When compressing for loudness you will inevitably sacrifice dynamics, and unfortunately the music industry at large did opt for that, which is why when you actually mix a dynamic track it will sound very noticable quieter than others. But digital loudness really is a bit of a phallacy, because how loud your track is ACTUALLY gonna be is determined by how much the listener turns up the volume. And dynamic tracks at loud volumes DO sound generally better, because they don't artificially gimp themselves in some misguided pursuit of competitive loudness. Some general reading on the topic: [url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war[/url]

[QUOTE=OmTheory;52940683]Is your phones display literally just a 4k monitor or something, that image is huge.[/QUOTE] Woops sorry Resized

[QUOTE=Mezzokoko;52940718]Don't worry about that at all, loudness is overrated. Just make sure your track sounds good and dynamic the way you want it to and use ReplayGain or just the volume knob to adjust the levels. When compressing for loudness you will inevitably sacrifice dynamics, and unfortunately the music industry at large did opt for that, which is when you actually mix a dynamic track it will sound very noticable quieter than others. But digital loudness really is a bit of a phallacy, because how loud your track is ACTUALLY gonna be is determined by how much the listener turns up the volume.[/QUOTE] That's what I figured, but I'm just worried I've been making tracks quieter than normal. I can't really explain it, but I can max out my own tracks comfortably but I can't max out other tracks because they're too loud. And the waveforms suggest they're not really sacrificing dynamics as far as I know, since they're not flat, unless they're using some kind of compression technique that I haven't heard of. Maybe i'm just imagining things

[QUOTE=Octopod;52940738]That's what I figured, but I'm just worried I've been making tracks quieter than normal. I can't really explain it, but I can max out my own tracks comfortably but I can't max out other tracks because they're too loud. And the waveforms suggest they're not really sacrificing dynamics as far as I know, since they're not flat, unless they're using some kind of compression technique that I haven't heard of. Maybe i'm just imagining things[/QUOTE] The dynamics vs. loudness thing is a bit of a spectrum of course, a little bit of compression won't instantly ruin your mix, but it is a bit of a slippery slope and can be different for every individual track. All I personally do is normalize the track to peak at 0 dbFS and slap some ReplayGain on it, that will adjust the relative volume to other, louder tracks without compression.

[QUOTE=Octopod;52940738]That's what I figured, but I'm just worried I've been making tracks quieter than normal. I can't really explain it, but I can max out my own tracks comfortably but I can't max out other tracks because they're too loud. And the waveforms suggest they're not really sacrificing dynamics as far as I know, since they're not flat, unless they're using some kind of compression technique that I haven't heard of. Maybe i'm just imagining things[/QUOTE] I actually went through exactly the same thing you are going through now and went through multiple mastering techniques of making my tracks louder, softer, -3db, -6db and a straight 0db level. I found that the problem lies when you try and make things louder than they were actually intended to be. I basically found that by finding a balance with my EQ, Compression gain and general mixer volume control. I could find a sweet spot where basically all of my channels and buses where going to the master channel and adding up to at least -3db, which I find is a nice position to do any sort of post production elements. Its really down to kind of how you want your music to feel at the end of the day, chill stuff normally is much more quieter at -3db as to be easier for the listener. I even find that pushing it to 0db is risky sometimes and more often or not still make sure that my master is at -3db. For anything dance, loudness is a factor on what makes the track jump. So people often or not hard limit it at 0db and have everything much louder so those bass frequencies slap a little more, but I've never been into this production technique.

[QUOTE=Shirky;52933429]Was playing around with my guitar and a pad today, and ended up with this. I havent really touched the second half of the song, but it turned out better than I thought it would have. [URL]https://www.dropbox.com/s/din01ru7hbbukro/telecom_1-main.wav?dl=0[/URL][/QUOTE] This actually sounds pretty damn good. It almost reminds me of U2 in a way. That could be a good chrous with the pads and voice in everything. I can already hear melodies with that. Here's a thing, I improv'd the rhythm guitar over the drum track just to have fun. The guitar solo was improv'd in one take. It's mostly in G minor, although I go atonal for a bit. [media][URL]https://soundcloud.com/blazing234/guitar-stuff[/URL][/media]

Thought I would post some of my stuff here to see what people think. I will try and show a diverse range of stuff. First, an instrumental, minimalist piece called Change: [media]https://www.soundcloud.com/mikehawkbiscuit/change-wav[/media] Here is a song with words I wrote - I got an excellent jazz singer to sing it for me, although I am doing harmonies in some bits. [media]https://www.soundcloud.com/mikehawkbiscuit/bad-by-design [/media] I wrote the following to test my ability to write something for an advert. As you can see, I enjoy syncopation. [media]https://www.soundcloud.com/mikehawkbiscuit/first-light-wav[/media] These last two are things I wrote many years ago, so go easy. First one is me performing a song I wrote to a crowd. I can't sing well, as you will see: [media]https://youtu.be/zx1cmaz1OMA[/media] Finally, here is another minimalist piece I wrote when I was about 16: [media]https://youtu.be/vKFnWf040vI [/media] I hope people don't think they are too bad. I have written much better stuff recently, but have not been able to record. :c

[img]http://i.imgur.com/PkIcdAf.png[/img]

[QUOTE=Speedhax;52941202]This actually sounds pretty damn good. It almost reminds me of U2 in a way. That could be a good chrous with the pads and voice in everything. I can already hear melodies with that. Here's a thing, I improv'd the rhythm guitar over the drum track just to have fun. The guitar solo was improv'd in one take. It's mostly in G minor, although I go atonal for a bit. [media][URL]https://soundcloud.com/blazing234/guitar-stuff[/URL][/media][/QUOTE] Sounds pretty cool in general, however there's a few technical things I'd personally do different. The guitar being exclusively left for the first fifty seconds isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it does feel like there's a "gap" for that duration and it's kinda distracting. You could pan one of the drum elements to the right (or put something entirely new there) to mitigate that effect a bit. I would also not crank the pans all too extreme, having a little bit more overlap could make the separation of the guitars sound some more natural (and would also help with the intro). I also think the guitars being generally louder and sharper in the mix would be cool as hell too. ---------- Here's a track of MrJazzy, that he allowed me to mess with and try to improve it a bit. Would love some feedback on the mixing side of things: [url]https://my.mixtape.moe/jlofxu.flac[/url]