what is going on in your musical life

xpost Crackle - that's so great!

Just made a huge milestone in learning how to mix and arrange guitars.

What was it?

Well I doubt it's anything revelatory for the majority of people here but I had 2 layers of guitar that were fairly complicated, moving from rhythm to lead on an arbitrary basis. Had them panned hard left and right and it sounded really confusing. Ended up creating 4 channels in the end, two hard panned in which the more rhythmy bits went and two slightly more central as I had twin lead lines playing together. Worked really well and I'm amazed at how much more focused it all sounds after a couple of overdubs to fill out the gaps.

Also trying to get my head around output bussing and parallel processing. Using Reason 7 atm.

Ah yeah, it definitely makes a difference when you start thinking about arrangement and mixing as part of the same process like that.

a key is stuck on my new synth and it's driving me batshit and i have no idea how to fix it

now another key just doesn't play at all

this is the greatest thing i've ever owned and it's falling apart :(

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=1398724597036562&set=vb.100006971045550&type=2&theater lol writing vs improv/sounds stunted

recorded some dudes today and got the best kick sound i've ever gotten

boundary mics rule

a key is stuck on my new synth and it's driving me batshit and i have no idea how to fix it

― Tip from Tae Kwon Do: (crüt), Friday, November 29, 2013 7:39 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

now another key just doesn't play at all

this is the greatest thing i've ever owned and it's falling apart :(

― Tip from Tae Kwon Do: (crüt), Friday, November 29, 2013 11:14 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Analogue synthesizers.

that's why i'm loving this microbrute, it's analog but not falling apart yet. i've been recording it all over the place for bass and leads...haven't experimented with midi in yet, just playing it with my actual fingers.

some dude came into the synth shop where i was working

I play with a 'chamber pop' band called How to Swim and we've completed our new album 'Niagarama'.  Doing vinyl, CD, cake and guitar formats available, as well as many more... Might as well go all-out on it..

http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/howtoswim2013

audio: 'Long Division':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XiL-0h4tEM

video: 'It Doesn't Even Have To Be You':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5lLHqwq3yM

audio: 'Animals':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKFmpRM9CU4

https://i2.sndcdn.com/artworks-000064018511-yqrkp0-t500x500.jpg?d53bf9f

I'm stressing myself out.
We've got this track we started making round my house - basic programmed drums, guitar and bass based around a jam. It was very loose but we were pleased with the overall groove. I've spent the last couple of weeks very carefully re-composing and re-recording the guitars so that they're coherent, coming up with vocal lines and lyrics based on nonsense singing I did on the day, and I asked the bassist to rerecord his parts too. It's maybe the most ambitious thing we've done to date but now I'm having problems.

It's about 80% done - just needs a couple more things added/changed and the vocals need recorded properly, the drums interestinged-up etc - but I'm in a real knot. Sometimes I listen to what I've got and it sounds like a mess - the guitars slip off the drum track, the bass doesn't scan at points - it was sounding great and now I'm not sure if I need to do it all over again. The mix has become so big and confusing, I'm worried if I alter anything it'll just start unraveling.

What isn't helping is my bandmates. I've been updating them with progress on what I've done and their helpful feedback isn't helping. The bassist is saying he thinks we should add middle eighths or random instruments here and there but not actually coming up with concrete ideas to support these. The drummer is breathing down my neck pleading with me to let him tinker with the mix, but I know for a fact he's most likely to turn the drums up to 11 and drown everything else out (it's a pretty floaty track, I don't want this). I know if I had a day to myself to go through it, redo a few parts, layer over a few bits and run through some vocal takes as well as unravel a few complicated mixing decisions, I could get it sounding really nice and then hand it over to him to do his worst with the drums, but I feel like I'm under unnecessary pressure now and the limited time I have in the evenings is stifling.

I realise I'm being a bit of a control freak about this - it's everyone's track, but when you put a lot of effort into something and then someone else comes in and randomly changes everything you've done to keep things in the balance it's very frustrating. On one side I'm keen to try and get this thing close-to-finished and on the other I'm being hindered by time and other people.

Anyone find this when working with others?

These are the problems with a democratic band. You need to decide if you want to be truly democratic, in which case you need to let go of the reins a little bit (are you mixing this on a computer? if so, everyone could do their own mix and then you could compare and contrast). Or you need to decide you're taking over and live with the consequences.

others are the worst

xp

Though I guess the other way to be democratic is to divide up responsibilities, in which case you need to position yourself as the one who's in charge of final mixes.

OR you all need to agree on an outside mixer/producer.

yeah we're using the computer - i'm the only one with the program that'll make it work. we've been very democratic so far and managed to avoid pitfalls. i think my main issue is our drummer has it in his head that kick drums need to be really smackingly loud in the mix for a track to work and no amount of reasoning and playing him example songs (songs he LIKES) will convince him of that. he's a real 'if there's an effect available i have to use it' kind of person but his confidence in mixing and producing outweighs his actual knowledge. he's a young dude with a bucaneering spirit and won't be told or listen to things like 'if a sound's too quiet, turn the other sounds down' etc. i don't claim to be an expert by any means - in fact i'm a total amateur/novice - but i've been doing things for a bit longer and watching him work just seems like he's randomly turning gate and compressor setting up and down, washing things in distortion and echo and many of his mixes sound really over-the-top. it worries me when he says he can't hear the kick drum (it's there! you can hear it!) or that the track doesn't make him want to dance (it's not a dance track!). I wanna get him involved but last time i did he ended up undoing nights of careful tweaking.

he sounds like a dickcheese

can someone tell me what "cake format" is, because it sounds delicious

btw I was sort of half-listening to "Long Division" until the outro, which is fantastic all the way around

Paul, that stuff sounds good!

dog latin - he ended up undoing nights of careful tweaking - can you not make a duplicate track for him to dick around with? That way you won't lose anything when he messes it up. But also, BEWARE. Being in a band that has taken 5 years and then 8 (maybe 9, it's not out yet) years to release their albums, I am very well aware that you can fall into a massive hole of mixing. Things don't need to be perfect. New band has just released a four-track demo tape into the world, it's super lo-fi and messy, and honestly I'm pretty happy with just having it out there, we can work on perfect mixing later.

yeah it's really good advice emil.y. i'm a big believer in letting songs speak for themselves and that's why i'm keen to concentrate on, not so much "mixing", as getting the structures and performances right. I kind of don't care whether the kick drum's loud enough or not, but being told that such-and-such an instrument's too thin or a drum's too quiet isn't helpful at this stage - all that can be changed. i guess this is a symptom of showing people a work in progress. if you paint a wall you can take all day on it, make sure you get the underlay right, do three coats, get it looking really nice, but you shouldn't complain if the first thing people do when they see it is point out the few inches you missed in the lower left corner.
lo-fi is a cool aesthetic and i'm down with it. not sure it's quite the aesthetic we're after, but the other extreme is super-clean, super-flat, super bland mixing which is what we got when we recorded our first couple of songs at a local studio. none of us were that happy - the character didn't show through and since then we've decided to go the hard way and try and teach ourselves. part of this is a challenge to our selves and it gives us creative flexibility. again, i'm not an expert but i'm taking a lot of time to watch youtube videos, ask for advice where i can get it etc.

i am way behind on this thread but i just wanted to say i actual loled @ "someone in our spiritual ensemble stole my wife's pitch pipe"

You know what sucks is writing a song you can't sing. I've never had much vocal range but since I stopped playing shows I've lost some of that little range I had. I wrote a nice little song with a real melody but it sounds dumb when I try and record it because it starts out very low (I used a capo to bring it up into the bottom of my range) but then in the chorus does these little jumps into falsetto that I can't really pull off.

Also I recorded it as a straightforward guitar and vocals song and it's SO HARD for me to avoid the temptation to add a bunch of other stuff. I have no problem listening to other people's minimal arrangements but I can't listen to my own. Even on this one I doubled the guitar (subtly) and parts of the vocals. Some of it is I can hear every little mistake I make and adding more stuff helps smooth the mistakes over. But I need to make myself work harder to actually get a good performance instead of getting a passable one and then trying to make it sound good by adding a ton of shit.

^ this is the worst

big news, found out my rehearsal space appeared on the showtime drama brotherhood back in 2006

http://scontent-b-dfw.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/1488119_10152229285903268_2027922070_n.jpg

writing a song you can't sing

SO HARD for me to avoid the temptation to add a bunch of other stuff

I think these two go hand in hand and also are most of my songs.

Some guy put me on a "Worst Music of 2013" list which only had 2 entries:

https://twitter.com/ResistorSings/status/413396850138292224

Congratulations.

that's dope, especially since demdike stare is awesome.

2013 has given us some fantastic music – Arctic Monkeys, Arcade Fire, Nine Inch Nails, and Lorde, to name a few

HAHAHAHAHAHA

which ilxor runs that blog

wait, is that really demdike stare? it sounds like millie and andrea and the picture there would say so too.

congrats steve! i really liked that song.

oh it is demdike. weird, quite different for them.

Congratulations Steve!

Haha thanks dudes I guess I'll keep on living after all

Just finished subbing for a caroling gig, which may lead to other pickup gigs in the future. YAY NETOWRKING

i made a couple recordings of versions of holiday songs for my mom. maybe ill make a christmas album next year?

you should put pics of yr non-plussed pets in santa hats on the cover

"non plussed" is being v generous imo lol

there are certainly plenty pics to choose from. my pets have more santa hats than dan perry does

Juat signed up to Weeklybeats. Imagine I'll last about 1-2 months before I run out of steam, but hey.

The barbershop quartet I impulsively agreed to sing with is meeting on Wednesday. Here's hoping I still have low notes!

an insight into what super cool dudes are doing with themselves at 4:30am

http://oi41.tinypic.com/qo8sgz.jpg

looks like fun!

great delay pedal there.

That's a Behringer IINM? Don't knock it, I have one of those. Although it does tend to overload and go wrong a lot.

"it does tend to overload and go wrong a lot"

^^^ possible new Behringer company slogan there

My band is playing it's first gig in Knoxville on Saturday.

You guys, barbershop is massively fun

I'd love to get involved with barbershop.