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Share Your Music (it probably sucks but that’s not why we do it)


NoRagrets

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4 minutes ago, G650 said:

f883b984-c5d1-4c2c-9c72-a2949de633e3_tex

Production is crude, and this was before I had acquired keyboards, so its a bunch of guitars and a bass competing with each other for your attention.  If I revisit it, I would probably swap out some of the guitar tracks for keyboards.

 

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17 minutes ago, Goredho said:

Production is crude, and this was before I had acquired keyboards, so its a bunch of guitars and a bass competing with each other for your attention.  If I revisit it, I would probably swap out some of the guitar tracks for keyboards.

 

I'll give a listen later once I'm through family time, but I have to say the title alone has me onboard

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I've been using SoundCloud for awhile now, and while its great for quickly sharing a song online, and it will embed a player widget on all the things, it doesn't offer much else.  I'm starting to look at other platforms that might offer more to an independent music creator.  Some I know about:

  • ReverbNation:  Allows song direct sales, streaming distribution to platforms like apple music & spotify, discovery tools, artist website, widgets for sharing/playback, social media outreach (connect your accounts), song reviewing (with songs receiving an 8.0 being featured on their home page) and so on.  It looks like its good for building a following, and mostly targets the artists for revenue.  Like, the freemium plan gets you very little, and the more you want, the more you have to spend.  Its probably bad for the starving artist, but that's not really me.
  • BandCamp:  Seems to be the one that's most trying to help artists.  Artist accounts are free, and they don't have all the add on charges.  They make their money skimming off the top of music and merchandise sales you make through their platform.  They provide similar tools as ReverbNation, but the goal is to get people to buy your shit.  They take 10% from merch sales and 15% from music sales, the remainder goes to the artist, which is a lot better cut than you get elsewhere.  This seems to really suit gigging bands that are building their following through live performances, and are looking for the platform to handle sales & generate money.
  • Patreon: Not music specific, but a way for creators to humbly (or not) ask for patronage and financial support.  I see it used a lot by podcasters and the like, who give access to bonus episodes for your monthly patronage subscription.  Basically onlyfans without the ass and titties.  I don't see it as a way of attracting listeners, and since its not music focused, there are less music-specific tools.  If you have built an audience elsewhere, you can probably monetize it a bit with patreon.

There are probably more, but I was curious if anyone here has experience with these platforms and/or if people here are interested in my experience with whichever one I decide on?  At this point, I don't really have aspirations of making dough, I'm more interested in seeing if I can better get my music in front of more people who might enjoy it.  Right now, its between ReverbNation and BandCamp.

Edited by Goredho
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2 hours ago, Goredho said:

Production is crude, and this was before I had acquired keyboards, so its a bunch of guitars and a bass competing with each other for your attention.  If I revisit it, I would probably swap out some of the guitar tracks for keyboards.

 

Man that is super fun. I listened through my Spark so I could jam along.

 

1 hour ago, Goredho said:

I've been using SoundCloud for awhile now, and while its great for quickly sharing a song online, and it will embed a player widget on all the things, it doesn't offer much else.  I'm starting to look at other platforms that might offer more to an independent music creator.  Some I know about:

  • ReverbNation:  Allows song direct sales, streaming distribution to platforms like apple music & spotify, discovery tools, artist website, widgets for sharing/playback, social media outreach (connect your accounts), song reviewing (with songs receiving an 8.0 being featured on their home page) and so on.  It looks like its good for building a following, and mostly targets the artists for revenue.  Like, the freemium plan gets you very little, and the more you want, the more you have to spend.  Its probably bad for the starving artist, but that's not really me.
  • BandCamp:  Seems to be the one that's most trying to help artists.  Artist accounts are free, and they don't have all the add on charges.  They make their money skimming off the top of music and merchandise sales you make through their platform.  They provide similar tools as ReverbNation, but the goal is to get people to buy your shit.  They take 10% from merch sales and 15% from music sales, the remainder goes to the artist, which is a lot better cut than you get elsewhere.  This seems to really suit gigging bands that are building their following through live performances, and are looking for the platform to handle sales & generate money.
  • Patreon: Not music specific, but a way for creators to humbly (or not) ask for patronage and financial support.  I see it used a lot by podcasters and the like, who give access to bonus episodes for your monthly patronage subscription.  Basically onlyfans without the ass and titties.  I don't see it as a way of attracting listeners, and since its not music focused, there are less music-specific tools.  If you have built an audience elsewhere, you can probably monetize it a bit with patreon.

There are probably more, but I was curious if anyone here has experience with these platforms and/or if people here are interested in my experience with whichever one I decide on?  At this point, I don't really have aspirations of making dough, I'm more interested in seeing if I can better get my music in front of more people who might enjoy it.  Right now, its between ReverbNation and BandCamp.

I have the most familiarity with Bandcamp, but that isn't saying  much

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24 minutes ago, G650 said:

Man that is super fun. I listened through my Spark so I could jam along.

 

I have the most familiarity with Bandcamp, but that isn't saying  much

Cool, yeah, it a fun one.  So what are your thoughts on bandcamp, either fro the standpoint as a creator, or as someone consuming music?

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28 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Volume swells are very Alex Lifeson.  Good job!

Appreciate it, and I love Rush/Lifeson.  If you got time to listen to this one, I'd be curious about your thoughts/feedback?  Part of the intent of this song is to make some more accessible music that might appeal to more than guitar nerds.

 

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Man, I like that a lot.  The vocals are totally cool.  Who is that singing?  

Personally, I'd dial up the low end to emphasize the groove more, but I'm not exactly listening on great monitors, so who knows?  I wish I could do keys and synths like that, I can play piano just fine, probably a lot better than fine, but I just never learned that production layering technique.

Love the break, too.  

Make this thing slam more!  (There's my criticism.)

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1 minute ago, jimmyjazz said:

Man, I like that a lot.  The vocals are totally cool.  Who is that singing?  

Personally, I'd dial up the low end to emphasize the groove more, but I'm not exactly listening on great monitors, so who knows?  I wish I could do keys and synths like that, I can play piano just fine, probably a lot better than fine, but I just never learned that production layering technique.

Love the break, too.  

Make this thing slam more!  (There's my criticism.)

Thanks, appreciate that feedback, I'll see about tweaking the low end a bit.  As for the singing...

rs-27916-linda-1800-1386942688.jpg

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Just now, jimmyjazz said:

Oh, I didn't realize you had sampled her.  Sounds really good (as it should).

Yeah, found an acapella version on youtube and ripped it.  Audio Hijack is a pretty cool tool for grabbing audio from anything.  I have a session set up where I can capture the audio from my browser, so I can capture the audio of youtube videos, another for spotify to grab any of that, etc...

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6 minutes ago, Goredho said:

Yeah, found an acapella version on youtube and ripped it.  Audio Hijack is a pretty cool tool for grabbing audio from anything.  I have a session set up where I can capture the audio from my browser, so I can capture the audio of youtube videos, another for spotify to grab any of that, etc...

Maybe mix in a little David Lee Roth? 

(Just kidding.)

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8 hours ago, Goredho said:

Thanks, appreciate that feedback, I'll see about tweaking the low end a bit.  As for the singing...

rs-27916-linda-1800-1386942688.jpg

Got damn I love ke some Linda Ronstadt.

 

10 hours ago, Goredho said:

Cool, yeah, it a fun one.  So what are your thoughts on bandcamp, either fro the standpoint as a creator, or as someone consuming music?

There not a super huge difference from SoundCloud, but I think the interface is a little better as a creator for packaging the content. Plus you can sell downloads.

 

I actually have never used it as a consumer I don't think.

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On 5/12/2023 at 7:56 PM, Goredho said:

Appreciate it, and I love Rush/Lifeson.  If you got time to listen to this one, I'd be curious about your thoughts/feedback?  Part of the intent of this song is to make some more accessible music that might appeal to more than guitar nerds.

 

One of the things that always trips me up is the pic to associate with a song or album.  I inevitably go back and find a picture of a guitar and use that, like I did here.

So I decided to experiment with AI art generation for this purpose.  For this song, I used the prompt:

”a picture of a woman in neglige with mixed emotions.  she looks sad, longing, resentful and angry.”

This is what it spit out.  Thoughts?

 

IMG_0680.jpeg

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46 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

It's interesting . . . the eyes are all kinds of f'ed up, thoug.

 

24 minutes ago, G650 said:

I'm fucking scared is my thoughts

Yeah, generative AI is a big impending change.  Like, think about Pink Floyd and the role Storm Thorgerson played in their run.  All their album covers, etc…. For an independent artist with limited resources to sink into graphic design, photographers, etc…. generative AI might help them provide a more professional product more cheaply and quickly while allowing them to focus more resources and time on their music.

For the graphic artists, it should be scary as fuck.  Like the time to produce this image included the time to come up with those two sentences and about 4 seconds for the AI to analyze the request and produce the image.  It cost $29.99 for the app in the App Store, and that would be divided across however many digital songs or albums I use it to produce artwork for.  Is this on par with a Pink Floyd album cover?  Obviously not, but this is a nascent technology that is going to only get better and better.

AI is fully capable of composing, producing, mixing and mastering music, too.

 

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3 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

What app is it?

This was using Wonder, an apple mobile app.  I'm also gonna play with a few others that are web based like NightCafe, Jasper Art, Starry AI, etc...  Will post some examples from these other products.

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This is StarryAI (webapp), which will not only do "art", but realistic photos.  Here's the photo it generated given the same instructions:

image.thumb.png.2d8208d6ff9e45c7c77afca93dabe6f2.png

It uses a subscription model, its cheapest plan is $8.99 a month for up to 200 image generations in a month.  It offer 5 image generations for free, then you need to pay for a plan.  So did another photo test for it, and I asked it for:  "Make A Photo Of An Indifferent Man Leaving The Room While His Anguished Lover Looks After Him."  Turns out I should have specified his anguished female lover, but its interesting to see what it produced.

image.thumb.png.2fab2840c99ebf9c2ae64f344e48f1fd.png

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On 5/3/2023 at 4:32 PM, jimmyjazz said:

Man, I am a huge Gerry Rafferty fan.  It's interesting, your post made me go look up Chipping Norton, and I'll be damned, there is a clear sonic & aesthetic vibe to the records out of the place, and they're not exactly all similar artists.  Kajagoogoo, Proclaimers, Cutting Crew.  Thanks for the deep dive.

I just stumbled on this phenomenon again by chance. A&R in New York had to have had one of the most distinctive sounds. I was reading a list of songs in the 60s there, Girl From Ipanema by Stan Getz, Thank the Lord For the Night Time by Neil Diamond, I Dig Rock and Roll Music by PPM, Domino by Van, and it instantly heard in my head those songs all the same imprint on them despite being very different.

 

 

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Some of you know or gathered that I live on some acreage in the Colorado mountains.  We have a small ranch/farm, with alpacas, goats, chickens, ducks, etc...  Anyway, the other evening, I was sitting on the porch with a guitar.  I was listening to the breeze, the birds, the goats, etc... and started picking out a song.  This is the result, and I decided to incorporate as much of that context into the song that I could.  It's a pretty simple track musically.  Half of it is just a guitar, some rhythmic elements and the ambient sounds of the farm.  I think the fiddle melody and harmony make the track, though.  The mix was rushed this morning, so I'll revisit that next week.

 

Edited by Goredho
HAHA, enjoy the crotch shot...
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So I rearranged my little studio on the prairie after taking gear out to play live Friday night.  What sort of acoustic treatment might make this a better mic/acoustic recording space?  Foam on the sides, filling that window cutout, & ceiling?  Maybe a rug?  I’m probably going to upgrade my monitors at some point this year, and would like to get them up and separated a bit more.

 

 

IMG_1274.jpeg

Also, this arrived, @jimmyjazz.

 

IMG_1270.jpeg

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40 minutes ago, Goredho said:

So I rearranged my little studio on the prairie after taking gear out to play live Friday night.  What sort of acoustic treatment might make this a better mic/acoustic recording space?  Foam on the sides, filling that window cutout, & ceiling?  Maybe a rug?  I’m probably going to upgrade my monitors at some point this year, and would like to get them up and separated a bit more.

 

 

IMG_1274.jpeg

Also, this arrived, @jimmyjazz.

 

IMG_1270.jpeg

You should relic the Supro.

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1 hour ago, Goredho said:

So I rearranged my little studio on the prairie after taking gear out to play live Friday night.  What sort of acoustic treatment might make this a better mic/acoustic recording space?  Foam on the sides, filling that window cutout, & ceiling?  Maybe a rug?  I’m probably going to upgrade my monitors at some point this year, and would like to get them up and separated a bit more.

Also, this arrived, @jimmyjazz.

If you're up for a little craftiness, some 2" - 4" thick Owens Corning 703 or 705 semi-rigid fiberglass panels covered in burlap will kill a ton of the high frequency trash in that space.  There's not a lot you can do to smooth out the low frequency response, maybe some bass traps in the corners, but you're stuck with the small room geometry, which means the low frequency modes will be too high into the bass range of the music and too far spaced to not color that response.  It's the curse of a small room.

Let us know what you think of that microphone, I need to order one myself.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

So here's one from the way back lol files. My drummer gave me a tape awhile back he had of show we did in high school, creeping up on 30 years ago. Man, what a trip. I've been meaning to digitize these for awhile, just getting to it.

The chintzy tape player I got off Amazon sucks bad, very unstable speed wise, so it's just all wow and flutter. The spectrum analysis is hilarious too, zero content above 7k other than hiss. This may have actually been originally recorded on VHS given that.  I think I'm going to grab a legit old deck off eBay to try and recapture.

It's pretty amazing to me how "90's" these songs sound to me now.

 

 

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58 minutes ago, G650 said:

So here's one from the way back lol files. My drummer gave me a tape awhile back he had of show we did in high school, creeping up on 30 years ago. Man, what a trip. I've been meaning to digitize these for awhile, just getting to it.

The chintzy tape player I got off Amazon sucks bad, very unstable speed wise, so it's just all wow and flutter. The spectrum analysis is hilarious too, zero content above 7k other than hiss. This may have actually been originally recorded on VHS given that.  I think I'm going to grab a legit old deck off eBay to try and recapture.

It's pretty amazing to me how "90's" these songs sound to me now.

 

 

I really dig that.  Definitely has a 90s vibe with those dirty octaves.  Strikes me as a more angry Harvey Danger or something.

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17 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

That's cool, @G650.  Kinda Sonic Youthy in the guitar, but not so much the actual song.  Where was that show?

Norfolk Academy Auditorium, Norfolk Va.

 

You guys are lucky to be the first to receive the almost 30th anniversary Deluxe Edition, with concert photos!

 

scan00111.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 6/27/2023 at 3:24 PM, G650 said:

So here's one from the way back lol files. My drummer gave me a tape awhile back he had of show we did in high school, creeping up on 30 years ago. Man, what a trip. I've been meaning to digitize these for awhile, just getting to it.

The chintzy tape player I got off Amazon sucks bad, very unstable speed wise, so it's just all wow and flutter. The spectrum analysis is hilarious too, zero content above 7k other than hiss. This may have actually been originally recorded on VHS given that.  I think I'm going to grab a legit old deck off eBay to try and recapture.

It's pretty amazing to me how "90's" these songs sound to me now.

 

 

 

 

 

Better quality version of this. I picked up an old Denon Hifi deck off eBay and ran it through my Focusrite

Edited by G650
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3 hours ago, G650 said:

 

 

I probably should have apologized in advance because I'm going to make you guys suffer through all 10 of these.

Heh!  Make me suffer.  I dig that That Misty Mountain Hopish riff and the guitar solos at 2:10.

2 hours ago, G650 said:

 

 

 

Better quality version of this. I picked up an old Denon Hifi deck off eBay and ran it through my Focusrite

Very cool, rocks hard af, then I love the throttled back breakdown at 2:40

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