Musician Forum - Band Discussion Board - BandMix

I am a bass player from NJ that has been a member of Bandmix for one year. I have met some great folks and have had some memorable jam sessions. However, nothing that has clicked on a deeper level. The influx of new musicians is too slow for my taste and there is rarely a new member with the same likes as myself. I feel as if I have exhausted my locale.

Most musicians on the site have recording means and post their jams. I have been very interested in the 'remote recording' situation. There are so many musicians in other states that I wished lived close to me in NJ. With today's technology, why not work via the internet?

I know there are many musicians like myself who are very busy with a lot of responsibilities. This offers the ability to work on the music in your own time without having to coordinate with the other members directly. Sure - not being able to jam live is a negative, but with the musical landscape on bandmix changing at a glacial pace, it does have merit. No?

Merit ? Perhaps.
But the whole virtual thing puts me off. Kinda like the virtual sex machine in the old Woody Allen movie SLEEPER.

I want to rock ... and I want to get dirty doing it.

I never discount the human interaction ...But I have thought of some cool ideas , which If I live long enough and if I still subscribe to band mix, I shall post.

Technology means one thing and one thing only...Transference of human labor, to deliver mundane things by extraordinary means

There simply is no replacing a guitarist being in the same room with ourselves... However, if anybody here ever picked out a melody whilst the radio was on, you have effectively done what LowEndz has described.

So what would be the difference if collaboration occurs through you and a radio or you and an MP3 player or you and a virtual room that hosts a participant. In all three scenarios, the participants were always active players, some live, some historically (recorded).

I really see both sides of this.

Virtual band(s) / online collaborations really are a great thing for those of us who don't have the ability / time to be able to devote to regular band commitments. I'm a father of 3 and work a 10 hour grind, then come home to help with homework and house chores. That doesn't leave much time for self. My time starts at 10:00 p.m., and ends at around 2:00 a.m.

Working on music projects both for myself (home recording) and online collaborating on others' songs is, for me, very rewarding. So if you're asking "does online collaboration have merit?", then I'd say "well, yeah!...". It works - people like myself enjoy it, therefore it has merit. It's not for everyone though. Some people don't like sugar substitute. If I have to make a choice between drinking my coffee black or adding *anything* even if it's fake, to sweeten it a bit, I go with the substitute Online collaboration for me is a great substitute.

If you want to give online collaboration a try, then create an account at Kompoz.com or Indaba or a myriad of other sites. I've dabbled in a few and prefer Kompoz as it's a little more rock/pop centric - some other sites are a little more soul / hip hop mix centric.

My profile is here if you wanna add some bass lines to a project I'm working on here:
kompoz.com/member/SirJamsalot

anyhoo - rambling session is now over.

LowEndz wrote:I am a bass player from NJ that has been a member of Bandmix for one year. I have met some great folks and have had some memorable jam sessions. However, nothing that has clicked on a deeper level. The influx of new musicians is too slow for my taste and there is rarely a new member with the same likes as myself. I feel as if I have exhausted my locale.

Most musicians on the site have recording means and post their jams. I have been very interested in the 'remote recording' situation. There are so many musicians in other states that I wished lived close to me in NJ. With today's technology, why not work via the internet?

I know there are many musicians like myself who are very busy with a lot of responsibilities. This offers the ability to work on the music in your own time without having to coordinate with the other members directly. Sure - not being able to jam live is a negative, but with the musical landscape on bandmix changing at a glacial pace, it does have merit. No?

everyone has a studio at the corner of internet & cyberspace...
adding a new,, great,,!hot!,, blues track is just a click away........

cyberbluz

I think its great idea , just not sure I have the computer savvy to participate on a project like this....yet.

blues edge wrote:I think its great idea , just not sure I have the computer savvy to participate on a project like this....yet.

If you can record a track on AUDACITY ... you can leave the savvy part to someone else.

Hey Lowendz, I'd be interested but it would depend on the genre of the music. Thrash Speed Metal or even Really Heavy Metal, Rap or old old style country I wouldn't be up for. Let me know. Will Check Back

from what i've heard, Audacity would be correct software to use...

you would need, if using windows, to download & install Lame for windows, after the Audacity install...

you could then use Audacity to import a mp3 file that has been sent to you.. & export the file to your Daw Software in wav format......

make your recorded track & import it back into Audacity.
convert the recorded track into mp3 format & email...

when track is received at other end, it is opened with Audacity & exported to Daw Software in wav format,,,

i have not tried this, buy have been told that this really works,,,
i, did, verify that the import/export procedures were present in Audacity..

if you do not have Daw Software, check out "REAPER AUDIO"...
the evaluation is free and is a full install,,
there is a free pfd, complete, manual online...
the reaper forum is chunked full of pro's, just waiting to give you a hand..

I DO NOT WORK FOR REAPER....
just love the software....

ted

Audacity is nice - but it's pretty limited. A better setup would be to get REAPER.

http://www.reaper.fm/

I believe it's free based on this thread:
Is REAPER FREE? - yes, but after 30 day trial, you have to watch a 5 second splash screen when opening it - but it remains fully functional.
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/forum/ar ... 14997.html

it is a more modern DAW that allows you to record actual tracks for mixing, and use 3rd party VST plugins (and there are lots of great free ones). It will expoert your mix to almost all of the main formats - it also has limited video integration so you can replace the audio in your video with your project's audio.

sir jam,

i have had reaper installed for over 2 years...
got over 300 vst's...
it is indeed as you stated, a very modern piece of software.

i've never had a problem that was not solved in the reaper forum...
i can't say enough good things 'bout them folks.....

ted

cyberspace wrote:sir jam,

i have had reaper installed for over 2 years...
got over 300 vst's...
it is indeed as you stated, a very modern piece of software.

i've never had a problem that was not solved in the reaper forum...
i can't say enough good things 'bout them folks.....

ted

I use Cubase myself - but I've worked on a few projects with others who use REAPER and they're sold on it too. I've heard nothing but good comments about it. I considered installing it myself, but my computer's a bit crammed at the moment - waiting for my next computer for the install!

sir jam,

there is another Lame program that i have loaded into Reaper, that displays the option to render projects as mp3's....

i have not found a way you convert a mp3 to wav in Reaper..

Audacity can handle that...

anyway, i'm not to try to hijack this post,,

its just important to note, that with today's technology a keyboardist, like myself, writing & singing, original blues tunes in North Carolina can work with a guitarist in Alabama and a drummer in the UK....

cyberspace studio's..........

i love the concept !!!

ted

i did not mean to infer that i have been working with musicians over the internet.... used guitarist & drummer as examples of what is possible...

on my cyberspace, bandmix homepage are 3 of my original blues tunes...

thanks,
ted

haha - I can't think of a thread on this forum that hasn't been hijacked!
Well, if you (or anyone) want's to work on a project - I'm set up to do so. I'm not the best person to do the final mix, but I have all the basics of home recording set in place and have worked on several private projects with friends.

I have a kompoz account here:
http://www.kompoz.com/compose-collabora ... ile.member

you can sign up for a free account. Just msg me with a project invite or PM me on the site.

Cheers!