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What CD Would You Like To Hear Me Do?

Modern Pop (Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, etc.)
8
5%
Classic Rock (Stones, Beatles, Who, Zep)
9
5%
Prog Rock (Yes, Genesis, Kansas, etc.)
18
10%
Show Tunes Style (Sound Of Music, My Fair Lady, etc.)
5
3%
Country (Alan Jackson, Garth Brooks, etc.)
4
2%
Disco (Bee Gees, Tramps, etc.)
24
14%
Metal (various sub genres)
16
9%
EDM (various sub genres)
24
14%
80s (various genres)
14
8%
Your Music Sucks. Please Stop Making It
52
30%
 
Total votes: 174

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Distorted Horizon wrote: Sun Dec 22, 2019 1:26 pm Can I have a quick summary of what has happened here? :)
First off, thanks for the feedback on the song. Much appreciated.

Here's a quick summary.

thejonsolo contacted me vie PM and then email and illustrated what was wrong with my arrangements. He then rearranged one of my songs so I could hear the difference. Since then, I have been using his "template" for my songs.

In short, my whole writing, arranging and production process has changed. It's a lot more work but I think the results speak for themselves.

I have a long way to go before I even get close to being "good" but at least I'm on the right path now.

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Nice :tu:

I'd be happy to receive such PM too :D

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I have a question as I often see you posting "from my upcoming CD.."
Do you submit your music to Spotify, Itunes etc.? Or any physical cd distribution?

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Just had a listen to "A Whole New Start"- main melody/vox sound Harrison-y to me, while the piano reminds me of Christine McVie (Say You Love Me). I think the overall vibe fits nicely with the composition. Production-wise, my nits to pick would be: drums are too wet(reverb), the vocals need a bit of oomph, and there's something odd going on with the bass. I personally would be tempted to take a "What would Jeff Lynne do?" approach to a song like this.
Music can no longer soothe the worried thoughts of monarchs; it can only tell you when it's time to buy margarine or copulate. -xoxos
Discontinue use if rash or irritation develops.

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really liked your approach on 'pieces of life' ...
some small tinkering w/ chord transition through the chorus? ; maybe ...
perhaps some sustain on the power chord at 1.15mn , and sim. ...

the track is well thought out , and well presented ...
my favorite of yours , by a country mile ...

added a bit later :
thejonsolo has done you a great service ...
much along the lines of a picture being worth 1000 words , he has aptly illustrated
the range over which your work can be presented ...
an eye opener , for me , and you will benefit from his efforts ...
Last edited by experimental.crow on Sun Dec 22, 2019 7:54 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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I think "Pieces of Life" is one of your all time best songs including arrangement, lyrics, production and singing. Excellent work!

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enCiphered wrote: Sun Dec 22, 2019 7:17 pm I have a question as I often see you posting "from my upcoming CD.."
Do you submit your music to Spotify, Itunes etc.? Or any physical cd distribution?
Actually, these are CDs I make here on my own. I have no plans on mass distribution at this time simply because I'm sure there would be very little demand given the quality of my vocal and instrumental performance. I am a writer. Not a performer. And I think it shows.

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ccDuckett wrote: Sun Dec 22, 2019 7:27 pm Just had a listen to "A Whole New Start"- main melody/vox sound Harrison-y to me, while the piano reminds me of Christine McVie (Say You Love Me). I think the overall vibe fits nicely with the composition. Production-wise, my nits to pick would be: drums are too wet(reverb), the vocals need a bit of oomph, and there's something odd going on with the bass. I personally would be tempted to take a "What would Jeff Lynne do?" approach to a song like this.
I am a big ELO and Jeff Lynne fan. I should sound as good. :lol:

As for the vocal needing oomph, trust me, it needs more than that. I am NO singer. Never was, never will be.

As for the drums, well, I was told they were too dry. For that matter, everything was too dry. So I added reverb, something I rarely do. I didn't add much, I assure you. But I guess finding that happy balance depending on who is listening, is going to be difficult.

As for whatever "odd" is going on with the bass, well, if you can be more specific (I'm not sure what odd is) I can maybe take a look at it.

Thanks for the listen and the feedback.

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experimental.crow wrote: Sun Dec 22, 2019 7:31 pm really liked your approach on 'pieces of life' ...
some small tinkering w/ chord transition through the chorus? ; maybe ...
perhaps some sustain on the power chord at 1.15mn , and sim. ...

the track is well thought out , and well presented ...
my favorite of yours , by a country mile ...

added a bit later :
thejonsolo has done you a great service ...
much along the lines of a picture being worth 1000 words , he has aptly illustrated
the range over which your work can be presented ...
an eye opener , for me , and you will benefit from his efforts ...
Thanks for the feedback. Yes, I owe Jon the world. But, as you yourself pointed out, tinkering is still needed. I am not 100% happy with the track but had to finish it there because the project started crashing on me and I didn't want to lose the whole thing. I am now stretching my DAW to its max and it's starting to feel the strain.

I am really looking forward to continuing on this path. I think I will find that my music is going to start to go places it never went to before. I just have to have patience and not rush through things. I am already working on my next track for 2 days and have barely put a dent in it. I'm finding that the options opened up are staggering and finding the right fit for the arrangement is harder than I anticipated. It's almost like navigating a maze blindfolded. It's scary, exciting and a lot of hard work.

More to come.

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wagtunes wrote: Sun Dec 22, 2019 10:48 am And, if I'm totally honest, not as enjoyable because it was real work. And that's what separates the amateurs from the professionals. Real work.

I'm excited to see where this new work ethic takes me,
If you look back. Playing three notes in a row was once hard work. Then making a recording where you didn't sound like you were on the Poseidon (after the "adventure") was hard work...

Moving into a new territory is always a challenge. If it was worth pushing through those old moments of fear/avoidance then this will be too. The results with Jon were well worth it. They lean towards that Album-worth-having.

Too many people avoid those moments of fear and avoid Hard Work to their detriment - probably me too so I am not trying to be hypocritical.

:-)

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Benedict wrote: Mon Dec 23, 2019 1:18 am
wagtunes wrote: Sun Dec 22, 2019 10:48 am And, if I'm totally honest, not as enjoyable because it was real work. And that's what separates the amateurs from the professionals. Real work.

I'm excited to see where this new work ethic takes me,
If you look back. Playing three notes in a row was once hard work. Then making a recording where you didn't sound like you were on the Poseidon (after the "adventure") was hard work...

Moving into a new territory is always a challenge. If it was worth pushing through those old moments of fear/avoidance then this will be too. The results with Jon were well worth it. They lean towards that Album-worth-having.

Too many people avoid those moments of fear and avoid Hard Work to their detriment - probably me too so I am not trying to be hypocritical.

:-)
I agree, and it's going to take a lot of dedication on my part to keep at this. But I think that once I get into the swing of doing things this way, I'm not going to be able to go back. Kind of like I could never go back to recording on 8-track tape in one take and no overdubs.

If we don't grow, we stagnate. And if we do that, well then hell, we might as well stop making music altogether.

Since I started writing in 1977, I remember all my milestones.

1984 - Wrote first real song with actual structure. Everything until then was just experimental nonsense.

1990 - Wrote first song that got published.

2008 - First CD that was all digital after a 5 year layoff and having worked with analog tape until then. Cleanest sound to date.

2014 - First recordings using a DAW and being able to do more than 8 tracks of music.

2018 - First mixes that didn't sound like total crap.

2019 - Biggest breakthrough in arrangement and production.

I don't know what comes next. Maybe nothing. Maybe this is as good as it gets simply because I'm running out of years on this rock. But I plan on trying to improve every day that I fire up my DAW.

My only regret is that it took me so long to get to where I am now. But I guess some things can't be rushed. Maybe the group I'm signed with will want more of my songs from here on in now that my arrangements and productions are getting better. Who knows? Maybe I might someday do a song that gets significant spins. Is that what they still call them?

Anyway, my thanks to everybody who was maybe at times a little hard on me. I realize now that they were just trying to get me to improve as a music maker. That Jon was able to finally break through my thick skull had more to do with him than me. He knew just how to handle me. Sometimes we just need that one person who maybe understands us.

In the meantime, this new song I'm working on is proving to be a real challenge. Having a hard time finding an arrangement that I like. Too many possibilities. In fact, I can imagine 5 or 6 different arrangements for this song.

This may take a while. Tomorrow will be day 3 and I haven't got one track of music down yet. Not even an intro. This is a problem that I never had before. I could always just sit down, write, play and be done with it. And I guess it showed. And listening to professional recordings the way I do now (concentrating on the arrangements) gives me infinitely more ideas than I used to have. It's like my brain just thinks differently now.

Anyway, I've rambled on long enough.

Day 4 tomorrow.

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This second track from your new album, Pieces of Life is really something different and I knew it because of this weird feeling of anticipation just after hearing a few seconds of it when synth and vocals kicked in intro. It sounded industrial and cold and different, like you were some space prophet drifting through void. And all this is good because it made this song interesting to my ears.

They way you said "Down in the dirt" it kind of reminded me of Marilyn Manson and I think it could be a good intro to the full blown screaming song like "this is the new shit" or "dissociative" hehe.

It's nice that Jon took time to reveal his secret techniques to you. It seems like one of the nicer Christmas gifts you could get this year, didn't it? hehehe

I'm waiting for more songs to hear. :)



PS in your last post you said that it's complicating things that you can think of many arrangements for your song. I can relate much to it when I think of writing, for example. Infinite possibilities to formule an idea and you have to choose just one. I think it's something every person involved in some creative area struggles with.
I'm a professional and you can't deny it. If you do, you either were tricked by the League, or you are from the League.

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ProfessionalTom wrote: Mon Dec 23, 2019 11:08 am This second track from your new album, Pieces of Life is really something different and I knew it because of this weird feeling of anticipation just after hearing a few seconds of it when synth and vocals kicked in intro. It sounded industrial and cold and different, like you were some space prophet drifting through void. And all this is good because it made this song interesting to my ears.

They way you said "Down in the dirt" it kind of reminded me of Marilyn Manson and I think it could be a good intro to the full blown screaming song like "this is the new shit" or "dissociative" hehe.

It's nice that Jon took time to reveal his secret techniques to you. It seems like one of the nicer Christmas gifts you could get this year, didn't it? hehehe

I'm waiting for more songs to hear. :)



PS in your last post you said that it's complicating things that you can think of many arrangements for your song. I can relate much to it when I think of writing, for example. Infinite possibilities to formule an idea and you have to choose just one. I think it's something every person involved in some creative area struggles with.
Thanks for the listen and the feedback Tom. Yeah, this is a whole new ballgame for me. The second guessing is not something I'm used to. I usually just plop down the first thing that comes to mind and that's the end of it.

But, if this process makes me a better writer, I'm good with it.

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It certainly can be exhausting to try different things and constantly question their usability in the context of an overall mix, but on the other hand the results of this approach can be much more rewarding in many ways than just, as you said, plopping down the first thing that comes to mind.

So yeah I'd say you're on a good path with this new approach to making songs. :D :tu:
I'm a professional and you can't deny it. If you do, you either were tricked by the League, or you are from the League.

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Update: After 4 days, I've got 36 seconds of my new track recorded.

This gives "taking forever" a whole new meaning for me.

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