• Musicians Off-topic Discussion Thread
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I've found I'm completely out of inspiration recently and as a result my learning has slowed down, I don't feel like I'm improving at the moment. Are there any good tutorials or learning resources anyone can suggest? Possibly about mixing drums or something.
[QUOTE=chaz13;32627712]I've found I'm completely out of inspiration recently and as a result my learning has slowed down, I don't feel like I'm improving at the moment. Are there any good tutorials or learning resources anyone can suggest? Possibly about mixing drums or something.[/QUOTE] Are you talking about producing or what? Just keep at it though, it'll pass.
[QUOTE=chaz13;32627712]I've found I'm completely out of inspiration recently and as a result my learning has slowed down, I don't feel like I'm improving at the moment. Are there any good tutorials or learning resources anyone can suggest? Possibly about mixing drums or something.[/QUOTE] Write a song with the following plot. Verse 1 - Can't find the mutt, went to go look for her Chorus - Where did she did go, why did she did go Verse 2 - Fed her well, took good care of her, she wouldn't just run away Chorus - Where did she did go, why did she did go Verse 3 - Tracked through the mud for countless hours and still can't find her Verse 4 - Gave up the search, she'll probably return in the morning Bridge - I see her on the pavement motionless Chorus - Where did she did go, why did she did go All of the choruses have different implications and reasons, especially the last, and creating music that recreates this is quite a thing to do. You don't need vocals or lyrics at all, just a plot that makes sense. What may help is that once you get the plot to imagine you're writing the music for a little movie that already exists, and that the goal of your music is to accentuate all the points of this imaginary movie.
Thanks, that's actually really, really helpful. Good practice for my music tech coursework, too! I was talking about production, by the way. I just decided to grab some new drum samples and have some fun with interesting drum programming and practice some mixing, ended up with this (on youtube because soundcloud is down..?): [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWOH8a_tGzI&feature=youtube_gdata[/media] Will make the bass 1000x more awesome tomorrow or sometime, might make this into a new neuro song.
[QUOTE=Pepin;32624130]From a mixing book I have. [IMG]http://i54.tinypic.com/6s9my0.png[/IMG] It is best to think in terms of the simplified frequency in the second box down. There is of course going to be cross over, and your goal shouldn't at all be to eliminate frequency cross over, but rather to give certain instruments space where they need it. It's like you have 0-20k, how are you going to divide it up between the different instruments? You want to give everything it's own unique frequency, and of course have that frequency be one that it is still recognizable at. When EQing strings for example, if you have a lot of other stuff going on you might just keep some of the top of it. It allows it to add without taking anything away. It's good to realize that some instruments have to take up the same space, like guitars and vocals, and bass guitars and kick drums, and you just have to determine what is more important. With guitars and vocals, it is very common for the vocals to compress the guitars through side chaining. This isn't EQ, but sometimes EQ isn't always the best solution, especially for already recorded guitars.[/QUOTE] lol if only I cared enough to understand this JUST MAKE EVERYTHING LOUD
[QUOTE=chaz13;32629364]Thanks, that's actually really, really helpful. Good practice for my music tech coursework, too! I was talking about production, by the way. I just decided to grab some new drum samples and have some fun with interesting drum programming and practice some mixing, ended up with this (on youtube because soundcloud is down..?)[/QUOTE] What do you mean when you say production? If by producing new music this method helps a lot. If there is another meaning of production inform me.
[QUOTE=Pepin;32629569]What do you mean when you say production? If by producing new music this method helps a lot. If there is another meaning of production inform me.[/QUOTE] Ah sorry I'm being ambiguous, yeah I'm talking about new music. Although at the moment I'm working on getting my production quality higher, so learning to mix better and make better synth patches is my main focus.
[QUOTE=HazeFyer23;32615964]I really need to get started on learning music theory. It sucks not being able to recognize keys/chords; every wrong key I press when making a melody wipes my thought of it.[/QUOTE] Most of the people here who claim the can "write" music with no music theory knowledge are silly. I highly recommend studying it if you're into writing real music.
[QUOTE=redBadger;32630238]Most of the people here who claim the can "write" music with no music theory knowledge are silly. I highly recommend studying it if you're into writing real music.[/QUOTE] red, while I agree with you that theory is invaluable for a composer all I've ever seen you do in MGR is ask if people know theory and if they write "real music" using a notation program. While you may not mean to do so, you usually come across as asking these questions in a patronizing manner. If someone doesn't understand music theory or if they don't write their pieces on sheet music that doesn't make them any less musicians or their music any less musical.
[QUOTE=Schmoe222;32630858]red, while I agree with you that theory is invaluable for a composer all I've ever seen you do in MGR is ask if people know theory and if they write "real music" using a notation program. While you may not mean to do so, you usually come across as asking these questions in a patronizing manner. If someone doesn't understand music theory or if they don't write their pieces on sheet music that doesn't make them any less musicians or their music any less musical.[/QUOTE] I agree. With the advent of the personal computer, came very new ways of doing things. If it is generally liked, it really does not matter how it was written. IE: Dubstep. In my opinion usually dubstep is absolute garbage, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have a large following. I also highly doubt it was written in notation!
[QUOTE=xiohexia;32632903]I agree. With the advent of the personal computer, came very new ways of doing things. If it is generally liked, it really does not matter how it was written. IE: Dubstep. In my opinion usually dubstep is absolute garbage, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have a large following. I also highly doubt it was written in notation![/QUOTE] [url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XonAPueJ6Vs[/url] shhh
[QUOTE=Croix;32633061][url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XonAPueJ6Vs[/url] shhh[/QUOTE] FAIR NUFF!
How can I become a vocalist? What are some good vocal techniques? What are some good ways to build my confidence?
[QUOTE=T.F.W.O.;32634938]How can I become a vocalist? What are some good vocal techniques? What are some good ways to build my confidence?[/QUOTE] 1. By singing 2. Depends on the genre 3. Go to the gym.
[QUOTE=T.F.W.O.;32634938]How can I become a vocalist? What are some good vocal techniques? What are some good ways to build my confidence?[/QUOTE] Just sing, record yourself and you'll find out you're actually really awesome at singing or the opposite in which case you just have to practice more. Recording yourself is such a good thing to do because you hear yourself as if it was someone else singing and you can find out what you're doing wrong. You'll most likely be very surprised when you hear yourself.
[QUOTE=T.F.W.O.;32634938]How can I become a vocalist? What are some good vocal techniques? What are some good ways to build my confidence?[/QUOTE] You're already a vocalist! The first thing you should do is to learn how to breathe. Yes, you might think I'm an idiot/fool for saying that, but it's true. Your breathing is far from ultimate efficency. What you want to do, is to breathe with your stomach. First, start inhaling air so that the lower regions of your lungs are filled (stomach will go up and down), and then inhale air so that the upper regions of your lungs are filled (chest will go up and down). First, do this. There are plenty of good vocal techniques, something that holds true for all genres however is to never, ever stress your vocal cords. At least not when you're new, when you learn more on how to sing (and when the vocal cords are used to singing, they are after all muscles in your body that needs to be strengthened) you can start 'messing' more with them. A good way of knowing what kind of notes you can sing is to shut your mouth, and hum. You want to get a good, nice "buzzing" humming that you can feel. It has to be clean, no raspy shit. You'll know when you hum with a soothing buzz, and whenever it becomes raspy. The notes you can hum comfortably are usually notes that your voice can handle without putting unnecessary stress on it, the notes with raspy sound, not so much. At first, your voice is going to be pretty restricted, but with time you can build up (or rather, unlock it) your vocal range. Another thing you want to do is to get fit. A good posture is of utmost importance, stand tall and proud and keep your head straight. The air has to flow your upper chest and lower neck, and if they are croooked, you'll have a harder time singing since the muscles will have to work extra hard. The most important thing however, is condition. You want to be able to sing for longer than 15 minutes to get tired, so stop smoking and gaming every night. Go out and run! You should check in with the fitness section of this thread, because they have far more knowledge on the matter than I do. [editline]5th October 2011[/editline] Complete these first steps, and then you can worry about your vocal range and what to sing. Another thing : Never sing things where you have to strain your voice. You're a rookie, you'll probably kill your voice by singing things way out of your league! Please sing a lot, just don't overdo it. If your voice feels raspy or in any way stressed, stop singing immediatly! Take some rest of singing, you have your whole life to sing ; Your voice doesn't if you ruin it now. [editline]5th October 2011[/editline] I'll also second recording everything you sing. For once, you can hear what you do better, you'll get a track record of your progress, well you have to get used to hearing your singing voice so that you know what the fuck you are doing. And sing with confidence, people have been getting by with singing out of tune and generally just shitty singing voice because they had confidence, they believed in themselves and that shines through more than any technique ever does.
Soundcloud sure has been down lately :(
That post is very helpful for me Dick Tracy, great!
Thanks for the tips guys!
Man I forgot how much I love Sir Duke by Stevie Wonder. So I covered it: [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgdfrIcumpc[/media] It's by ear so it is guaranteed not to be very accurate, meh. Also, I got too into it and look like a wally :v:
You're pushing some nice tone there
You don't look like a wally
No man, you look like a total boss :v:
[QUOTE=Yur|ko;32641157]No man, you look like a total boss :v:[/QUOTE] More like A TOTAL BASS! [sp]im terribly sorry[/sp]
meriahvenet ei tänne kuulu saatana [B]perkele[/B] [editline]5th October 2011[/editline] [img]http://i.cubeupload.com/dJSvZJ.jpg[/img] Made some album art for my 80s electro EP~ [editline]6th October 2011[/editline] soundcloud you bitch why won't you transcode my shit
[QUOTE=xiohexia;32632903]I agree. With the advent of the personal computer, came very new ways of doing things. If it is generally liked, it really does not matter how it was written. IE: Dubstep. In my opinion usually dubstep is absolute garbage, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have a large following. I also highly doubt it was written in notation![/QUOTE] I didn't mean to imply that they had to write it in notation. If you're using FL Studio, you can still apply some theory. Also, I'm patronizing because I've been thinking on starting a Music Theory megathread of some sort with mostly the basics, and to help people who have questions on the sort of stuff. I believe it'll benefit both myself as well as others. [editline]5th October 2011[/editline] Sorry though, I'll stop.
[QUOTE=redBadger;32643441]I didn't mean to imply that they had to write it in notation. If you're using FL Studio, you can still apply some theory. Also, I'm patronizing because I've been thinking on starting a Music Theory megathread of some sort with mostly the basics, and to help people who have questions on the sort of stuff. I believe it'll benefit both myself as well as others. [editline]5th October 2011[/editline] Sorry though, I'll stop.[/QUOTE] I agree though. You can apply theory to most anything. And usually it is helpful. I can imagine that there are only a few examples of stuff that works against music theory. Personally I see it as a shortcut to gettnig better at music, instead of the scenic route. I never really studied music theory, but years later when I learned what it was, I realized I had technically been using parts of it all along.
[QUOTE=Yur|ko;32641242]meriahvenet ei tänne kuulu saatana [B]perkele[/B] [editline]5th October 2011[/editline] [img]http://i.cubeupload.com/dJSvZJ.jpg[/img] Made some album art for my 80s electro EP~ [editline]6th October 2011[/editline] soundcloud you bitch why won't you transcode my shit[/QUOTE] 80s Electro? I am intrigued!
[QUOTE=T.F.W.O.;32646033]80s Electro? I am intrigued![/QUOTE] It's not very good though. :v: [media]http://soundcloud.com/rayven/columbia[/media] a little something i'm working on
[QUOTE=Yur|ko;32651272]It's not very good though. :v: [media]http://soundcloud.com/rayven/columbia[/media] a little something i'm working on[/QUOTE] the mix feels off... and several other things feel off... the tune itself sounds good... just needs tweaking i think.
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