United States

lol I am only a simpleton that writes music.

I detest the tech end.
I detest the sales end.
The people are scary and weird.
Producers from small shops are like fleas on a dog, they all want some of your blood.

License? Contractual obligations? non-exclusive licensing?

Naw, I just write and play.
More than this, I don't really comprehend.
I am not crooked enough to be a lawyer or politician. (thank god)

And I get what you mean about that show "where are they now..."?
Reminds me of that guy who was holding up the post card and talking about how he was robbed. (gulp) (here at bmix)

Remember that guy Vinny? Was that before your time here?
I haven't seen him in a while.

I wonder wtf it actually sounds like for them to be trying to get that away from me>? Everyone is playing "bump and run".

It takes a certain kind of scumbag to take my tracks and then try to get me to sell without hearing the final. I got a bad feeling about this one.

I was talking to another friend of mine at his place and he tossed me a tube of KY as i was talking, said I'd probably need this.

I didn't laugh at all. I think I actually winced.

I don't recall the postcard guy.

You did mention that you where thinking of selling your song outright because you needed the money. That is certainly understandable, but that will most likely involve a contract (probably written by a lawyer) that would legality bind you to it's terms of transferring ownership rights from you to the other party.

From what I have seen, the vast majority of those who sell the rights to their music end up regretting it later. You do not need to be a lawyer to be aware of your options so that you are not taken advantage of so easily.

I know of people who have no desire to be soldier and they detest the military lifestyle, but they do own a gun, and know how to use it to protect themselves. They had to educate themselves a little about the available options and spend a little time on a range to achieve that level of self sufficiency.

So if you were to cross paths with some big rough fellow in a dark alley and he commands you to drop your pants and bend over ... would you be rather be holding a gun .... or a tube of KY?

I'm already there.. lol

Playing for free. ecch. (head in hands)

And now people holding my limited sh*t hostage. What's next>?

I can't wait for Monday. I bet I'm going to get screwed royally.

At least I learned early though to keep notes on everything.
My one buddy wants me to go take my notebook to be notarized.
(I don't think that would do any good.)

My only blessing is that as usual; it's my vocals, backing vocals, guitar and bass. Good luck duplicating that, everyone sounds different and that tune either fits like a glove or will wear like a bad wig in the rain.

(Bring your umbrella, the forecast is for wet weather.)

lol I am only a simpleton that writes music.

I detest the tech end.
I detest the sales end.
The people are scary and weird.
Producers from small shops are like fleas on a dog, they all want some of your blood.

License? Contractual obligations? non-exclusive licensing?

Naw, I just write and play.
More than this, I don't really comprehend.
I am not crooked enough to be a lawyer or politician. (thank god)

And I get what you mean about that show "where are they now..."?
Reminds me of that guy who was holding up the post card and talking about how he was robbed. (gulp) (here at bmix)

Remember that guy Vinny? Was that before your time here?
I haven't seen him in a while.

I wonder wtf it actually sounds like for them to be trying to get that away from me>? Everyone is playing "bump and run".

It takes a certain kind of scumbag to take my tracks and then try to get me to sell without hearing the final. I got a bad feeling about this one.

I was talking to another friend of mine at his place and he tossed me a tube of KY as i was talking, said I'd probably need this.

I didn't laugh at all. I think I actually winced.

I don't recall the postcard guy.

You did mention that you where thinking of selling your song outright because you needed the money. That is certainly understandable, but that will most likely involve a contract (probably written by a lawyer) that would legality bind you to it's terms of transferring ownership rights from you to the other party.

From what I have seen, the vast majority of those who sell the rights to their music end up regretting it later. You do not need to be a lawyer to be aware of your options so that you are not taken advantage of so easily.

I know of people who have no desire to be soldier and they detest the military lifestyle, but they do own a gun, and know how to use it to protect themselves. They had to educate themselves a little about the available options and spend a little time on a range to achieve that level of self sufficiency.

So if you were to cross paths with some big rough fellow in a dark alley and he commands you to drop your pants and bend over ... would you be rather be holding a gun .... or a tube of KY?

I just searched for the posterboard guy. He had it on his avatar.
I can't find it. I'll try again later..

Contract? lol You give these people either too much credit or not enough.

I haven't heard word 1 about a contract, just 2 lousy offers, the second one being x +$250. (not giving me a "warm fuzzy")(still not more than or equal to $1K)

I regret it already. All I ever wanted to do was drop this tune and flush/finish. Instead I am looking at losing it and/or having to pay for it. (spits)

If I met some dude like that in an alley, he better be a giant.
And then he better be ready for an ass whup of legendary proportions, cause one of us would be limping home and the other will be "other side of the dirt".

No gun necessary.

lol I am only a simpleton that writes music.

I detest the tech end.
I detest the sales end.
The people are scary and weird.
Producers from small shops are like fleas on a dog, they all want some of your blood.

License? Contractual obligations? non-exclusive licensing?

Naw, I just write and play.
More than this, I don't really comprehend.
I am not crooked enough to be a lawyer or politician. (thank god)

And I get what you mean about that show "where are they now..."?
Reminds me of that guy who was holding up the post card and talking about how he was robbed. (gulp) (here at bmix)

Remember that guy Vinny? Was that before your time here?
I haven't seen him in a while.

I wonder wtf it actually sounds like for them to be trying to get that away from me>? Everyone is playing "bump and run".

It takes a certain kind of scumbag to take my tracks and then try to get me to sell without hearing the final. I got a bad feeling about this one.

I was talking to another friend of mine at his place and he tossed me a tube of KY as i was talking, said I'd probably need this.

I didn't laugh at all. I think I actually winced.

I don't recall the postcard guy.

You did mention that you where thinking of selling your song outright because you needed the money. That is certainly understandable, but that will most likely involve a contract (probably written by a lawyer) that would legality bind you to it's terms of transferring ownership rights from you to the other party.

From what I have seen, the vast majority of those who sell the rights to their music end up regretting it later. You do not need to be a lawyer to be aware of your options so that you are not taken advantage of so easily.

I know of people who have no desire to be soldier and they detest the military lifestyle, but they do own a gun, and know how to use it to protect themselves. They had to educate themselves a little about the available options and spend a little time on a range to achieve that level of self sufficiency.

So if you were to cross paths with some big rough fellow in a dark alley and he commands you to drop your pants and bend over ... would you be rather be holding a gun .... or a tube of KY?

I just searched for the posterboard guy. He had it on his avatar.
I can't find it. I'll try again later..

Contract? lol You give these people either too much credit or not enough.

I haven't heard word 1 about a contract, just 2 lousy offers, the second one being x +$250. (not giving me a "warm fuzzy")(still not more than or equal to $1K)

I regret it already. All I ever wanted to do was drop this tune and flush/finish. Instead I am looking at losing it and/or having to pay for it. (spits)

If I met some dude like that in an alley, he better be a giant.
And then he better be ready for an ass whup of legendary proportions, cause one of us would be limping home and the other will be "other side of the dirt".

No gun necessary.

... like the hippies used to say "make love not war"

Everything in life is "war" these days.

You wade through the bile and hope you do well enough to be recognized for "playing well".

Where is the love?

It's not in the bar owners eyes.
It's not in the eyes of the crowd, they just want another tune.
It's not in the eyes of the people you play with, they just expect you to keep pumping it out like there is no end.

It's not in the bottom of a shot glass, although some think it is OR WORSE.

Where is that love? When you find it, let me know..else it's all war.

War to play
War to record
War to get paid to play (they all love the sound of FREE)
War about what to play
War about how to play it
War about who to play it with..
War to get there, war to get home safely.
War to live.
War to do what you want to do.
War to be happy, right?

Where is the love again? I only know of one place. They are only open on Sundays and you generally don't get to play music there unless it's secular.

So other than that 1 place, where is the love again?
It's all war around here.. Guard up, armor on, weapon checks are the order of the day.

It's all war and very little love. The 60's are dead, even though the music may not be.

yeah Scott...

When you sign your name on God's application as 'musician' you might as well just put a bullet in your head. Or have a great sense of humor.

I've been screwed so often it's like throwing a Vienna sausage down Hollywood Blvd.

But I keep coming back for more. Jamming again this Saturday - a bass thing. Sure - keep it coming. You can screw me later - or if we get lucky - we can all get screwed by the guys a level up!

What the hell eh? It beats the sh*t out of not being a musician!

Talbot

"Gotta keep playing or doing whatever it is that you do"...

I just play because I do. I don't expect anything and I really could care less about that in the long run as well. Yeah you get flashes of this or that, but pragmatism keeps one firmly grounded, that and bad luck will wake you up quick.

I don't even really want to say how bad it went today.

In a nutshell...

I went there with a friend of mine and it got ugly.
The one guy shoved my friend who was only along to keep me from "talking with my hands". I ended up having to break him up off of the other clown. That wasn't the worst of it though.

The climax was when I told "my industry friend" that I wasn't going to pay for sh*t and that the tune wasn't for sale before I even get to listen to it, f**k no jackhat. "Just what kind of moron do you take me for"?

He then made some offhanded remark and then "deleted" the file.
Reminds me of a few heavy handed people I know.
My eyes bulged and I almost passed out. Then I about lost it and started yelling loudly.

When I started to come to, my buddy was holding me back. I was considering going for a table leg when another guy walked in. He pointed his finger at me and was going to say something when I interrupted him and abruptly told him that I was going to break that off and stick it where the sun don't shine. He left as quickly as he came in.

When the dust settled, they made an overture at the conclusion about allowing me to use their setup for free if I would let them use the tune.

I told "my pal" that I would consider it as I jump up and down on his broken, battered and lifeless body.

I asked him what his wife is going to say when I tell her what he did amd how he lied. I think that hit the spot. I left afterwards and when I got back to home, I called her. We had a nice chat. She's actually very intelligent, a quality I didn't really give her credit for.

So about 30 minutes ago, I get an email. yadda yadda yadda
My tune is attached. I go to listen to it and it's unmastered and unmixed.
No harmony anymore, more missing than complete.

Do I think the other copy is still around, why I know it is.
Do I think I'll get a copy and actually be able to hear it, "not on your life".
Another dickhead that thinks "he turned my lead into gold".

But don't think for a moment you can actually live near me, be friendly with the family and attempt to screw me..you'll be waking up in traction or worse yet, not at all.

I haven't played too much in church lately. I haven't prayed that much lately. I've been generally upset of late. I think I may just go back and play in Church once in a while and I'll pray that I don't sleepwalk on over to his place and choke that guy into a corpse.

I'd be so upset, I might chuckle while I was supposed to be snoring. lol

Scottie - if you can send the track files to me (WAV or AICC or FLAC) I'll try mixing them for you. Put them in a dropbox folder and I'll have first mix to you by the end of the week!

Thanks Mike you make me smile.

The fact it takes you a week to mix is impressive.
Many others are triple the time or more. I really appreciate your offer of help, genuinely.

Otherwise I am feeling shot-out.
I think I am going to bury this one for the moment.

I am just trying to resist the urge to grab my pal and force him through a very small drinking straw. Even his wife is pissed.
(I respect her integrity, what happened to his?)
(I told her to stick her knees in his back while he's sleeping. lol)

I'm going to go play that cruddy little stinker of a bar again (for free), but this time I'll have a better game plan since I know what to expect. (even worse than "Bob's Country Bunkhouse" and no chicken wire..doh)

Plus we're going to experiment and rotate a little more.
One pus thinks he's got some vocals, the other thinks he's a great guitarist yet to be discovered. And I don't mind playing some bass and keys, if only to illustrate what is possible vs what isn't.
("Put up or shut up" time for them.)

Plus I am still chasing "Crystal" and her recording.
I heard she showed up and they were playing it in the bar since, except she doesn't answer her phone and everyone has seen her since then. (moan)

I hope she's not going to attempt to charge me next.
I am going to call the bar owner and moan loudly, see if he can get her stay in the bar long enough for me to show up with my laptop to get a copy. (She did say it was going to be free)

Do I need a 5th of whiskey to keep her there long enough?
Maybe I do..at least I'd be sure she was there by the time I actually got there.
"DRUNK" wouldn't stop me from copying the file and I can get the bartender and owner to apply some pressure as well.
(I hate being the heavy.)
But I'll pay for that bottle if that's what it takes to get a copy. wtf.

I am just worried it's going to be shitty and clipping all over the place.
No recording engineers/DAW operators out here, lemme tell ya. lol

I can do a 'first mix' in an evening, but always give myself a few days for my ears to readjust and for relistening/mixing.
Be glad to do it for you. Send me a link to the files: mikebirchmusic AT yahoo DOT com.
Got 12-step tonight, practice with Art tomorrow night, open mic Thursday night, hopefully a beach day with the wife on Saturday, playing at a Farmers Market on Sunday, otherwise I'd promise the mix in 3 days!

3 days?

WOW you must be fun to write with..no hold ups at all. (whoa nellie)
Write as fast as you can, no delays in sight??!!??!?!.. (umm drool, sluurrrp)(wipes mouth)



But seriously that last thing bothered me big time. I even considered quitting and selling the crap I currently possess between bouts of homicidal rage. lol

But the bad radio station, as my one buddy is referring to it, has got me playing this weekend as well, depending. I'll know tomorrow for sure, as I have to call/check in with Drew.

Otherwise that piece is better than anything I've done thus far and to get treated like that means I am more naive than I thought.

I still never actually heard the finalized version of that tune.
(And it doesn't have a name either officially, although we were calling it "The End is Near".) (Literally from a big part of the chorus...)

Later on when and if I calm down, I'll solicit your help, thank you very much for your kindness.

I have to laugh in that you confuse me with a mixing process that only involves 1 set of ears. Anytime I get involved in that type of process, I generally use at least 2 sets of ears because somethings aren't heard by everyone.

The 2nd person usually hears what the 1st did not.
If I have a 3rd, I really feel comfortable as well.

I'm guessing that the little bit of time you take off is akin to the little dish of orange sherbert they give you to clean your palate between courses.

That's enviable considering orange sherbert or not, I still end up tasting the same thing in the same way. (yikes)

The other secret in self-mixing is to burn a CD, and listen on different systems. I've just got a factory CD player in my truck, but the sound in it gives me a very good judgement on the overall mix - I know what godo mixes (commercial CDs) sound like on it. Same thing in my mixing place, I know what commercial CDs sound like in it ,s o strive to hit the same balance, only problem being the low end (bass) where I dont' have good sound production or treatment.

Ok so the final disposition on Saturday is/was a surprise to me.

I spent some time talking to Drew and we agreed that our little thing would start playing at 10pm and play till 2am, with a break in the middle.
For this we would make 400$ or 100$ per person.

So I went back to the folks I am playing with and there is dissension in the ranks.
The one guy thinks himself a vocalist. The other is a great guitarist, just undiscovered as of yet.

So trying to be legitimate, it's turned into a "put up or shut up" situation.
They think that they can do it better, well we're going to see.

I am playing bass on Sat. night and some keys and that's it.
Sink or swim, boys. Get your floaties on.

Problem is I had to go back and talk to Drew. He said he doesn't want to pay for a trial run of something new. I told him that I didn't blame him.
Thus now we are playing for free on Sat. night. (again)(yuck)

And I went back and told them. They seem to think that everything will be better. They don't even want to use the bad radio station theme.

I think they are getting ready to f**k it up, but somethings need to be experienced to be realized so we made a pact.

If we play on Sat night and it's horrible, we go back to my way of doing things.

If we play on Sat and it's good and Drew likes it, we continue their way and we'll even continue playing his bar and hopefully get paid this time.

I'll let you know Sunday am what the story is.. lol

Ok, so I am probably inviting a disaster but I'll finish this.

Yesterday was not good, but def eye opening.

I spent time early by going to the Quakertown Farmer's Market and that was a bit of a debacle.

Things are getting tough around here again.
Where as one can usually get some good deals on things at the farmer's market, this is changing as well. Prices went up.

The back part has a flea market and I need some parts for some cell phones I am fixing for $. There were none at all. There weren't even any expensive ones to look at and laugh about. It was fairly desolate.

So I left early and stopped over at the one guy's place, looking to rehearse a little bit just to make sure these dingdongs weren't planning to make a bad smell in a place I have an in with the bar owner.

It was pathetic. They were already attempting to rehearse before I walked in the door. I knew it was bad, but I didn't want to pull the plug on them or it because someone else was getting the chance to front this shin dig and I didn't want them to think I was trying anything unfunny.

So we played 4 tunes in quick succession and it was bad. They didn't realize it evidently and the culmination was when Barb, the one guy's girlfriend, came out and stopped us in midtune. She told her BF quickly and forcefully that "it sounded bad" and that we were better off the way were playing before (meaning on the bad radio station outing).

He immediately got mad and threw a beer bottle against the wall.

Final disposition was that they had me call Drew and basically call it off some 4 hours before we were supposed to do our thing.

I repeated that this is like shooting yourself in the head if you ever want to play there again, but they didn't listen. Worse yet, the pact went out the window. They feel like the reason they didn't do well was not enough preparation. (I mentioned this a week ago and still no one wanted to rehearse. They gave me the "if you can do it, than so can I" thing.)

So they are bitter. They don't want to play for $. Heck they may not want to play at all, but I figure that I'll just let it cool down for a couple of weeks and see what happens afterwards.

In retrospect all I can say is that it must be nice to be as spoiled as to be able to walk away from a show, with no good reason and very little notice for a small venue that we all liked and was going to actually pay us if we had done it the same way as the last time we played there.

The only thing more shocking is that they didn't want to rehearse to hone what they wanted to do...

I'm guessing the moral of this is that music itself isn't too bad but sometimes the people make it impossible.

If you have a group that works well together, sometimes that's worth more than a whole gaggle of highly skilled musicians.

Time to "move on", Scott! Maybe if they (or some of them) get their sh*t together in the future, you can try it again. An unreserved opinion like the GF gave was exactly what was needed for them, maybe they'll think about it and change, but if they just smoke more weed, then they'll forget the 'sounde bad' comment in a day or two.