General Music Chat

Find your niche and capitalize. Surround yourself
with support musicians. Let them know from the start
that this is your project. Travel up to 50 miles and find
them. They ARE there. Make a plan, write it down.
Plan on performing for free in public at first to sell yourself.
Become a salesman. Listen to everyone's originals and
make them unique. You make final decision and get input
from every member. Remember, your singer HAS to be able
to sing the sh**t out of every song no matter who likes it.
If he sucks, the band sucks. Jealousy, Inflated egos, Thin skin
and Grudges have no place in a successful band. Solicit
opinions about all phases of the band from the members but
you make the final decision.

Just had to blurt this out, sry.

Hey bub, I got it! I got it! I can sell ya a house to go with this doorknob!
~ Daffy Duck

Good stuff KLUGMO

Find your niche and capitalize. Surround yourself
with support musicians. Let them know from the start
that this is your project. Travel up to 50 miles and find
them. They ARE there. Make a plan, write it down.
Plan on performing for free in public at first to sell yourself.
Become a salesman. Listen to everyone's originals and
make them unique. You make final decision and get input
from every member. Remember, your singer HAS to be able
to sing the sh**t out of every song no matter who likes it.
If he sucks, the band sucks. Jealousy, Inflated egos, Thin skin
and Grudges have no place in a successful band. Solicit
opinions about all phases of the band from the members but
you make the final decision.

Just had to blurt this out, sry.

Just one note about Mp3........................IT SUCKS ASS!
I prefer to go back to wax cylinders or wire recorders, anyone for a cassette demo? We worked our way out of the cave only to head back thanks to Fraunhofer-Gesellshaft. His intentions were good but Sony took the ball and has never stopped running. Great way to store and share lots of music. Horrible way to hear music as it was recorded.

Ogg-Vorbis

Just one note about Mp3........................IT SUCKS ASS!
I prefer to go back to wax cylinders or wire recorders, anyone for a cassette demo? We worked our way out of the cave only to head back thanks to Fraunhofer-Gesellshaft. His intentions were good but Sony took the ball and has never stopped running. Great way to store and share lots of music. Horrible way to hear music as it was recorded.

Ogg-Vorbis

but does it sound better than MP3?

I checked out their site and they said the following. I wish I had this problem

Vorbis files can compress to a smaller file size and still sound fine; Vorbis' better compression will cut down on bandwidth costs and keep you from being a victim of your own popularity.

A victim of popularity? Hmmm.

Find your niche and capitalize. Surround yourself
with support musicians. Let them know from the start
that this is your project. Travel up to 50 miles and find
them. They ARE there. Make a plan, write it down.
Plan on performing for free in public at first to sell yourself.
Become a salesman. Listen to everyone's originals and
make them unique. You make final decision and get input
from every member. Remember, your singer HAS to be able
to sing the sh**t out of every song no matter who likes it.
If he sucks, the band sucks. Jealousy, Inflated egos, Thin skin
and Grudges have no place in a successful band. Solicit
opinions about all phases of the band from the members but
you make the final decision.

Just had to blurt this out, sry.

I could tape a printout of that to the fridge.

Find your niche and capitalize. Surround yourself
with support musicians. Let them know from the start
that this is your project. Travel up to 50 miles and find
them. They ARE there. Make a plan, write it down.
Plan on performing for free in public at first to sell yourself.
Become a salesman. Listen to everyone's originals and
make them unique. You make final decision and get input
from every member. Remember, your singer HAS to be able
to sing the sh**t out of every song no matter who likes it.
If he sucks, the band sucks. Jealousy, Inflated egos, Thin skin
and Grudges have no place in a successful band. Solicit
opinions about all phases of the band from the members but
you make the final decision.

Just had to blurt this out, sry.

That is definitely a good recipe. Very hard to do in real life. And that's why I have respect for the people on this site that are currently in bands and playing out (that includes Joseph6 and RG), in spite of the fact that we butt heads on personal issues.

That quote needs to be carved in stone.

Sorry TVI, mine is not under a minute, or anything I just came up with. In fact it’s the next song we’ll be recording. It sounds a bit sparse with just the piano. It’s kind of hard to imagine how it sounds with drums, rhythm guitars and vocals.

So here's mine, it's called "Rolling in Clover".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWBDAV8BZfM

Obviously there is little understanding out here by some.

"Posers" was used in the context of people who can't cut it presenting themselves as good musicians through editing magic on cd's.
I hear CD's made in home studios all the time that have vocal correction on every song, playing done by someone else. And then they present it as their CD, as if they had much to do with it. that is the proper context. But is a touchy feely politically correct society, I would expect no less of a reaction. But it is what it is. Does phony sound better to you? Or is that also PC taboo?

I knew a guy that went into a studio to make an album. The studio owner called me almost every day out of frustration. He had to have this guy sing every few lines over and over as he punched them into his Atari 8 track.
When the demo came back from the vinyl pressing, he called the guy and asked him to come to the studio to see if it met his satisfaction. As he listened to it he exclaimed. "Wow, I didn't realize I was that good." He was a keyboard player, yet the hottest keyboard player around here did all of it. He didn't play a note on his album himself.

Now if you still don't get it, then never mind.

Sorry TVI, mine is not under a minute, or anything I just came up with. In fact it’s the next song we’ll be recording. It sounds a bit sparse with just the piano. It’s kind of hard to imagine how it sounds with drums, rhythm guitars and vocals. The point I would like to stress most is just because a tool is available doesn’t mean it’s always used. Those saying that anyone doing anything other than just live performance are posers, well that’s plain ignorance.

So here's mine, it's called "Rolling in Clover".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWBDAV8BZfM

Lalong! Excellent video / playing. thanks for sharing your "first and last??" video with us I think you should record more vids. I think your personality is well suited for it - er, you have a charisma about you.

If you can't do it live, then do something that you can do live. There's something to be said for choosing material that you can do well as opposed to material you want to do but can't.

My interpretation was that when you said “live” you meant towards live performance not ability and that was further enforced by if you’re not playing live, it’s just because you lack the musical ability to do so. Given that context, I don’t think my response was overly sensitive, just massively incorrect. Clearly I did misunderstand and I apologize.

But the assumption that anything done in the studio can and will be faked, isn’t an entirely unfounded. I don’t play live, I don’t have videos of scheduled gigs, so who would know if I were just faking it all along? Combine it with the contrary side I’m taking on this subject and the assumption wouldn’t be far fetched.

I belonged to a song writing forum and there was one player who was absolutely amazing. I remember posting a tune I had done and it wasn’t the best it certainly had some flawed playing, but the chastisement I got wasn’t for not playing it well, it was for not editing it enough. The guy who I though was amazing asked me why I didn’t quantize it. He said he edited and quantized everything he did. Now had he not of said that I would have never of known, but it did sound really great. How do you know? There is nothing that can be played on keys, that can’t be generated on a DAW. Drummers have it much worse for studio demand. Unless I’m mistaken and no one here has ever used automated rhythm, or a drum machine on a recording?

In my area playing original music live means playing at an “open mike” for a crowd of six people. “Open Mike” being the code phrase for auditioning cover bands and selling beer while doing it. For independent original music, the internet is the only real avenue left available. The competition is going to be edited, quantized, heavily compressed and processed. Any effort spent in “keeping it real”, will just amount to keeping it really unnoticed. Do you think listeners today care if there is a reason that honest music is flawed? Go to any music site and pick the top ten off of their charts and what will you hear? Bob Dylan wouldn’t stand a snowball chance in hell today. It doesn’t make it right, it’s just the way it is. The perspective of just about everyone here is from that of a musician. The common listener today doesn’t contemplate the source of their music, just if it’s good/bad. Why should they? How much thought did they put into each and everyone of their downloads, for their three thousand song library?

Mike and I are trying to put something together but you can’t attract good talent if it sounds like garbage. So once again I will need a really good vocalists, to get a really good vocalists. I’ll need great drums, to get a good drummer. Because it’s an instant turn off, if the instrument you play isn’t represented well. No one listens to something off a profile and then says “Well I can do it better, so I should help them out”. If it’s not up to their standards, on to the next. It’s the opposite scenario, where eventually the crutch will be needed less, not more. Do I like the idea of fudging it to eventually achieve legitimacy? Absolutely not. The strangest part is as I play the devil’s advocate, I have yet to try the software. I guess it’s a line in the sand I’m not ready to cross yet. I’m still really undecided on how far I’m willing to go, to make it all work.

SirJamsaLot, lol No man, thanks for the compliment, but I’m goofy looking. Did you see that friggin ear? It’s a good thing there is a helmet law in New Jersey, or I’d be riding my bike in circles with the wind resistance.

hah Wind resistance, that's funny.

Ah but sadly true, if I ever do another I think I’ll scotch tape it to my head. Now just imagine how fun it would be if in mid play it sprung free? I’d have to be careful though wouldn’t want to get whiplash, or to damage the camcorder with the resulting percussion.

If you can't do it live, then do something that you can do live. There's something to be said for choosing material that you can do well as opposed to material you want to do but can't.

Mike and I are trying to put something together but you can’t attract good talent if it sounds like garbage. So once again I will need a really good vocalists, to get a really good vocalists. I’ll need great drums, to get a good drummer. Because it’s an instant turn off, if the instrument you play isn’t represented well.

I think vocals are often the weak link in the chain, which is why successful bands who replace their vocalist often go downhill into the crapper. For this reason I insist on being lead singer in my project. But, I am also very self-conscious about my singing. I've never been a "great" singer. But, I took consolation that far worse got farther than me. Jimi Hendrix, at first, refused to sing. But, hearing Bob Dylan changed his mind. He would also shyly hide behind a baffle doing his vocals in the studio.

I would create and choose material that would suit my voice and abilities, not destroy my vocal chords doing something I shouldn't be doing anyway. I am thinking on getting some professional voice lessons. I've been doing this, untrained, for decades now and don't believe I've made significant improvement since I started.

My guitar and bass playing are OK. But, I'm a little rusty and need to work on the more complex stuff.

My drumming is pretty terrible, especially foot coordination. Considering getting EZDrummer to work out drum parts.

As far as doing the harsh noisy far-out noise stuff, just about anybody can do it. That's one of the things I like about noise music. It is very populist, like punk rock or sampling or rap.

"Hell, if I wanted to be serious, I'd have joined the Boston Symphony." ~ David Lee Roth