what is going on in your musical life

The electric mandolin is probably my favourite instrument to listen to in Carnatic music. (Alice Glass statement is horrifying. Sounds like you're making the right call, Jordan.)

NA that sounds like a dude I would not want to be around.

Fyi the way it went down yesterday is that I emailed the promoter to say I wasn't doing the show, and they were sympathetic. A couple hours later the venue cancelled the whole show, and a couple hours after that the whole CC tour was cancelled (reported in some places that the band cancelled the tour, but obviously it was because venues were dropping out).

yes!
blacklisted
even though you clearly did 100% the right thing, i'm sorry you had to get caught up in it jordan

my mission to play with the Vuh-est band in town has been accomplished. Really glad I remembered to bring my recorder too. I love recording things!!! it's like having a wee memento.

I echo La Lechera; I'm sorry someone else's extreme shittiness fucked up an opportunity for you. I hope this leads to another, better opportunity.

I borrowed a mandolin for about a year and got familiar with it, I'm not a virtuoso or anything but I figured out how to do certain things well enough for my purposes, basically using it as an embellishment on country-ish tunes

(xps)

Really glad I remembered to bring my recorder too.

Read this as recorder-the-instrument and was hyped to hear a drums'n'recorder jam.

Recorder-the-instrument with mandolin-the-slicer duet.

http://https%3A//cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1301/7143/products/8_grande.jpg%3Fv%3D1489609686

^^ would listen

would go to great lengths to play with a recorder player!!!
laura cannell is a dream collab

Resurrect d munrow imo

if only!!
idk if i would want to play with his reanimated corpse but he was the best so...maybe?

I've been playing a lot of acoustic guitar lately and just recording ideas into voice memos on my phone. A lot of times I'll come up with a general kind of scheme, like a fingerpicking pattern and a harmonic or melodic idea or something like that, and just improvise around it for a while. I thought this one came out nicely in spite of a bunch of fuckups so I uploaded it:

https://soundcloud.com/leonardhand/proof-of-concept-1

I've been finding it productive to record these late at night, put them away for a couple weeks or more, and then go through them again when I've forgotten them to see what I like with a little distance. There have been a couple that I initially thought of as throwaways that I've revisted and started to work on further. Also, the car is great for coming up with vocals, just play the instrumental over the stereo on repeat and fuck around until something sounds good.

omg i love car time for singing as well as studying. i also drive a lot to get to the various sites of my job, so it makes the time i spend going across a giant city in a car by myself feel more productive. speaking of productive usage of time. i need to make a new car mix. i got kind of sidetracked on my studying for a while there!

i listened to a little of your track! not the whole thing tbh but it sounds like you are having a good time. that is an important part of improvisation imo. when the ideas just kinda pour/tumble out and it's enjoyable.
i am psyched because the recordings from my workshops this summer are supposed to go on the camp bandcamp and i am so excited to put them out into the world.

reminds me to remind them to put it on there. there is a lot of reminding/correspondence required in the pursuit of making music.

Yeah that one is definitely on the looser end at this point, and also kind of on the outer limits of my musical taste in terms of that bright, sunny sound, but I think there's the makings of a tighter idea in there, something I might use as an intro for a song I have.

we got everything set up and plugged in last night, and even recorded 3 minutes or so of elec gtr/melodica jamz

my strategy is to set up the PA speakers firing down the long side of the basement, with us set up on the other side of the speakers (like a stage w/no monitors)

I want to set up the Korg recorder at the far end of the basement on the speaker side, if we run 25-foot cords we should be able to wear headphones as monitors and get some nice room sound with two mics hung from the ceiling (or maybe even one)

In the spirit of the Ford Timelord, my car has a release out. I had nothing to do with it.

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1801419952_10.jpg

https://iceageproductions.bandcamp.com/album/chrysler-on-the-lawn

i recorded (via zoom) and posted (via bandcamp) an unedited version of our set tuesday -- think it sounds pretty good? http://bit.ly/2igPKmh
full minute of crowd noise before it starts cooking

My current project was originally going to be stripped-down acoustic covers of 80s New Wave / synthpop. Smiths, Cure, etc. Pure goofy amateur fun in a voice/guitar/mandolin trio.

The portfolio has broadened into incoherence, though, because all three of us really like a lot of music. We get to drinking gin and throwing out ever-more-random suggestions. And that's fine! No one has the heart to veto anything just to satisfy a narrow mission statement. As a result, country, folk, punk, and classic rock songs keep nosing their way into the repertoire.

Anyway we did an open mic the other night, just to kind of shake us out of the "rehearse in a basement forever" mindset.

Set was:

Lovesong
Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want
Tear-Stained Eye (Son Volt)
Embers to Ashes (Bonnie Whitmore)
I'm on Fire (Springsteen)

They asked us to keep playing, and so we did some less-well-rehearsed material, some of which was a mistake.

Where They Never Say Your Name (Eilen Jewell)
Dreams (F. Mac)
Atlantic City
Cemetry Gates
16 Days (Whiskeytown)

Sloppy but fun. I did get credible recordings of some of this. (Bashful about sharing too openly, but let me know if you're curious.)

Saved for next time:

Straight Up (P. Abdul)
Things Can Only Get Better
Watching the Detectives
One More Time (J. Jackson)
Someday, Someway

I made some music and shared it online. My boyfriend is properly talented, he can do all kinds of things with Ableton and his hardware, and he's been teaching me how to make the sounds I want to make for roughly two years. He makes dark ambient music, all our friends are in rock bands and come from a noise/metal background, so if nothing else I'm really happy that my stuff feels more like my own identity, ie I want to make ambient dance pop. I really want to find a singer to work with (because I am a terrible, pitchless mess with my own voice). Some people have made nice comparisons to Peaking Lights and some people have brought in comparisons to RPG soundtracks, ymmv.

Boxedjoy I checked this out when you posted it on FB. Really liked it. Not sure what kind of singer you're after but I need to take my voice back out of its box after a little break. Would be interesting to give it a go if you wanted to work on a distance project with a male singer

Funnily, I'm in a similar boat, i.e. interested in collaborating with singers, vocalists, MCs, rappers etc.

I've been teaching myself how to use Serato and been invited to play a few DJ slots around town. I've always DJ'd but this is a new method for me and I felt like I needed an alias and a rough style to anchor it.

I've been very interested in the concept of 'riddim', and its function within genres such as dancehall and soca, which are big scenes in Bristol. But equally I've been fascinated that this has potential to become a genre in itself, rather than a backdrop for vocalists. You get whole EPs and albums dedicated to a single riddim production, with different vocalists on each track. Although I enjoy the vocal work, as a producer and DJ I really like hearing these productions as instrumentals - the fact a lot of them work really well as standalones but still afford enough space for the vocalist to work within.
Similarly, I've become obsessed with trap producers like Metro Boomin and Zaytoven who we've these complex musical ideas into simple-sounding 808-driven beats.

So my aim now is to work on my own riddim-based productions - ones that can equally work as standalones or as backdrops for vocalists. I can weave these into my sets when I DJ and best of all, if I have an accompanying singer or MC, I can get them to work with me.

I also like the idea of doing an open call for vocalists who'd like to lend their skills to the tracks I'm making.

In practice this is all a bit new to me, but I've been thinking about this for a long time. It was only til the other day that my partner asked if we could make a track together, and asked if we could do it in a soca style. We laid down a beat, she messed around on the keyboard for a bit and we chopped it up until it sounded feasible and within a few days we'd sculpted it into a pretty fun-sounding tune.

I've adopted the name Chok Ice, since she's phobic of untreated wood and will choose a choc ice rather than a Magnum or an ice lolly since they don't come on sticks. Also the name sounds chunky and crunchy and kinda fun, so that's the name.

The track we made together is called, surprisingly, 'Chok Ice Riddim' and it's the first track here, along with a few other things I've made in the past which I hope to top eventually:- http://www.soundcloud.com/chokice

Great track, and I support these endeavors. I don't think you'll have a problem finding vocalists to work with if you make the effort.

(I've been going the opposite way, toward instrumental dance music after a period of actively trying to work with a lot of vocalists, although through some serendipity I've ended up with a vocal on a club track recently that I'm very excited about)

best of luck to dog latin and Jordan

Meanwhile I am feeling severe temptation to take up 5-string banjo, & am not sure I want to be talked down. My current voice/guitar/mandolin trio sounds fine for 5 songs, but I think it might start to get samey after 6.

I can arrange for two guitars (and I have!) but that feels like work and I hate work. I can't afford a good mandola or bouzouki, but my friend has a banjo that he can probably be persuaded to trade for my "extra" hollow Epi.

sorry if i've asked this before, but how do you all go about mixing for decent headphones vs speakers vs earbuds vs laptop speakers? when you do the final mix, which one are you listening on? do you try to optimize for one of those listening devices, or instead go for something that will sound acceptable on all of them? it seems like i should be doing the latter, but i always run into problems with the lower frequencies. on headphones, they sound nice and warm and cozy, and then i'll switch to earbuds or laptop speakers and they're not just quiet, they're practically inaudible! maybe i should be completely ignoring the way things sound out of laptop speakers? the thing is, even though i deeply prefer headphones, i often find myself listening to things off tinny laptop speakers as i do work around the house or cook or clean or whatever it is. i don't know if there are reliable stats but i'd wager that maybe 1/3, if not much more, of all music is played out of computer/phone speakers? so it also seems wrong to ignore the way that music is so commonly listened to? i don't know. sorry if this is a tired old topic.

i ran into this problem again on a new song (which i uploaded today despite never solving the problem described above, because fuck it) - it has a motorik synthbass thing that enters halfway through and is supposed to kind of carry the song the rest of the way home. on my headphones i think it sort of comes close to accomplishing that, but then the effect is completely lost when it's played on a laptop. i spent a long time adjusting the mix, trying to fix it, but whenever the bass was passably audible on laptop speakers, i'd put my headphones back on and it would sound like track 3 on Ultimate Subwoofer Test Compilation 5 or whatever, just completely unlistenable. eventually i just came to a compromise somewhere in the middle and moved on because it was driving me nuts.

anyway, curious how you all deal with the situation

Are you using any flat response studio monitors or just stereo speakers?

If just home stereo equipment, getting accurate mixes are real difficult especially in the low end.

Sometimes doubling it with a sound that has more harmonics (piano, higher synth?), sometimes trying to saturate it to bring out what's already there. Sometimes accepting that laptop speakers just aren't going to reproduce everything (although, I usually play some 808-based rap music on the same system to see what's coming through).

Also it makes me feel better when I'm in, say, a loud bar and there is some expensively-produced pop hit playing and I can only make out the bassline and kick drum, maybe some snare. Or the reverse when people are playing music on Youtube from their phone speakers, and the low end is just gone. You just can't account for everything (but it's still good to listen on a bunch of different formats, because it can reveal a lot and you can account for some things).

earlnash, nah, i have a really crappy home setup, cheap stereo speakers, torn up headphones.

jordan those are good tips! and you're right about the impossibility of accounting for everything. i just want to achieve barely viable minimum quality status

So think I finally more or less have got the melody and changes of “Ornithology” memorized. Getting bebop tunes under one’s fingers surprisingly or unsurprisingly challenging. Especially that one, since it has different versions, one apparently with new section endings due to Bus Powell. Wonder if any of you are actively playing jazz in any capacity at this point.

That's a great track, Karl Malone! And I get why you're so hung up on having that bassline heard - it's brilliant when it comes in.

thank you!

Don't have to go crazy, but there are affordable decent home studio monitors out there. The thing with monitors is that they don't really add or subtract anything to the sound they are reproducing at least not the same way regular stereo speakers do. Stereo speakers are tweaked to have a pleasing sound, so the speakers can emphasize bass or some other frequency to tweak the sound. It's like having an EQ on it. Play it someplace and the speakers will have a different natural eq and whatever the original speakers boosts or cut is gone. That is why the bass can completely disappear from differing playback sources.

It was explained to me as it is like a carpenter measuring with a tape measure that is always wrong.

I played with a friend of a friend's Ampeg V4 last week and now I want one. If only it was in any way reasonable to buy one and an attenuator just to get high and play stoner riffs over and over and over.

The Tech 21 VT Bass sansamp thingy gets pretty close. I know emulation doesn't necessarily scratch itches like that - if it did, I would own a lot less gear - but just sayin'. More reasonable than V4 + 410 + attenuator.

nowhere near as bad as what jordan's dealing with, but the drummer in the band i've been playing with gets into a LOT of drama on facebook. he's always on there at like 2 a.m. accusing people of stealing $5000 in gear from him eight years ago, his wife got into an argument with his former bandmate on there, etc. etc. nothing terrible but just makes me nervous about his ... stability i guess.

― na (NA), Tuesday, October 24, 2017 2:23 PM (three months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

still playing with these dudes. no interpersonal problems/drama. we have our second show (with me in the band) in a couple of weeks and we're recording in april. i have mixed feelings about the project - we have some newer songs that came out of jams and the other guys seem to think they're done but they still feel half-baked and jammy to me, and while i like most of our songs they aren't really in my preferred style/wheelhouse. i think a lot of that comes from playing with people with different musical backgrounds/tastes than me, which can be good, but i'm used to playing pretty structured songs, not these looser jam-based things. on the plus side, i'm enjoying just playing guitar and being able to work on improving my guitar sounds, and they're all old with responsibilities like me so they aren't trying to play a show every other week or anything. i joined to help with their goal of recording their new songs, so i feel committed to it at least through that process, then i guess i'll see what happens after that.

My band have finally released our first mini album online: https://discozhivago.bandcamp.com/album/spatulon

dog latin, that is fun music! Frenetic and mannered and fun. I listened to Handle and the last, more atmospheric track. Getting a little Falco-ish vibe maybe? Sorry if that's reductive, but I say it with genuine affection.

me, I continue to have an acoustic 80s-cover trio, which has played a couple shows and a couple parties. Pretty much Blondie but with mandolin and banjo. Also working on some home recordings of mostly folkier stuff, I am playing all the instruments and hoping to find guest vocalists. Expecting to do more space-rock drumming in the near future.

thanks YMP, yes each track is quite different from the last. Most of the songs were written and recorded at home by ourselves over the course of quite a few years. It was slow and arduous and I'm already getting moaned at by the other members about this bit not being quite right and that bit needing changed. We have loads more stuff but I felt 8 tracks was enough :-)

Listening. It's sounding fun so far.

I'll have a new chamber piece performed by Hub New Music this weekend. Also, I got a preliminary recording of my 10-string guitar composition from the performer, which is sounding promising. I'm still struggling to get new electric guitar/laptop stuff ready for gigs in March.

Cheers Sund4r

lol just remembered that track 2 ends with the line 'I'm on the money yeah'

Good stuff DL! I enjoyed that. Will you hate me if I say the first song sounds like a Libertines tribute? Nothing wrong with that though, and on a whole I'd say you've really got your own sound down. Bookmarked!

oh man I'm not a fan of them. I was going mire for a punky Pere Ubu vibe but it's weird what you pick up from the sounds around you and the Libertines were a huge huge band for people in the town where I lived and their music was played in every pub I'd go in. I take it as a compliment :-) thanks LBI

You totally should! It beats 95% of Libertines own songs any way :) It's not a signature song by any means, but it's a great opener imo. Especially because the album really opens up into different directions after that. I'm really enjoying it.

i made this 4-track cassette tape collage over six months in 2017. i'm more proud & satisfied of it than anything else i've ever made. i got totally immersed in it and near the end of my self-imposed deadline, i almost didn't want to let it go, because it was the most fun i've ever had making something. there's around 800+ distinct edits & sound sources. i hope some of you listen & like it...
THE STREETS ARE HOT TONIGHT

^^^ nice man!

i put a bunch of 'beats' i've made over the last cpl years onto one of these online beat stores tonite, i don't even know if it's a good website in any manner, i just didn't want them collecting any more dust. some of them were songs i produced with vocalists that never got released so i reclaimed the music from them, and a cpl are just plain old beats of various genres.

http://www.firstdub.com/producer/autologico.html

i dunno. anyone have any experience selling music online in one of these kind of things? wonder if there's something better i could be doing.

i dig those beats! i don't have any experience selling beats, but i know a lot of people do it thru soundcloud & twitter via people they already know and building a following online. but i only have a peripheral awareness of all that