GRcade

Ad7 wrote:There's a humble bundle for music software

https://www.humblebundle.com/software/t ... cta_button

I've not heard of any of these so don't know of its any good or not, but some of you may want something.

Thanks for posting. I think Soundforge is meant to be good. I have Music Maker from another bundle, didn't really like using it. Not sure what Acid is like.

Sound Forge is a good kitchen sink in terms of processing raw waveforms. It's a good accompaniment to either of Acid Pro or Sony Vegas. It's basically Audacity Pro although Audacity is capable of doing many of the same things.

It's useful to have a full fat waveform editor available - it also masters and burns RedBook Audio i.e. CDs with proper controls for things like CD-text data etc. If anyone still burns CDs.

Would any of it be useful for mastering songs recorded with reaper? Bear in mind I'm amature at best with recording.

Ad7 wrote:Guitar arrived today, it's so beautiful.

Sounds fantastic too, really warm with bright mid tones. Can't wait to spend the evening playing it some more.

God I love this guitar I'm playing it almost every night now, and I'm coming up with at least a new bit of music each time, maybe just a little sequence, and sometimes whole songs. I've filled half of my notebook with new stuff now Some great, some good, some gooseberry fool, but I keep it all in the hope on the weaker stuff I'll be able to take bits and put them in to better ones later on.

I swear the thing plays itself sometimes, its just effortless, and I'm getting so much better at playing cleanly and not fluffing (sod off moggy) notes. It sounds amazing too.

Love it

I've been getting back into my love of metal music in a big way of recent. I picked up my electric guitar (Ibanez that my parents bought for my 30th) the other night for the first time in years. Was surprised I could still shred the hell out of it even if I am a bit rusty. I've a Fender amp that while pretty good the overdrive lacks the kind of crunch I like so I'm considering on buying a new pedal (sold all my other kit years ago along with a few other guitars.) Just a cheap one as I'm only jamming for a bit of fun.

Guitar

I'm still recording little things nearly every weekend, intend to do another Judas Priest cover this weekend. My Schecter needs badly setup.

Starting to get to grips a bit more with the guitar. Experimented with some Blackened Death Metal today. Came up with few riffs I'm reasonably happy with; a fast black metal open chord section then a technical bridge that leads into a nice, bouncy chug. Was rather pleased with the results given how long it's been since I last jammed. Tips of my fingers are a bit sore though! On the plus side I drowned out the neighbour behind me and his penchant for blaring out Oasis every late afternoon. Everyone with sense knows the best Brit-pop band were Pulp.

Ordered a Behringer Ultra Metal distortion pedal today that was discounted to £30. Checked a few reviews on YT and it delivers the sound I'm after, certainly for the price.

All in all I'm glad I went to see that death metal unit from Mumbai the other week. Gave me a kick up the arse and reminded me of how much the music keeps me on track.

While it's not my type of music at all, if love to hear some of your metal compositions. A friend and myself used to trade our recordings, no matter what state they were in and we found it inspirational.

We getting a new ad7 song for Christmas this year?

Bit early to be thinking about Christmas Pedz.

Ad7 wrote:While it's not my type of music at all, if love to hear some of your metal compositions. A friend and myself used to trade our recordings, no matter what state they were in and we found it inspirational.

I'm sure I can rustle up something sometime

Decided to start going through blues scales again. Even though I've begun playing once more I'm still a bit rusty so it seems like a good idea to start working those scales

Gemini73 wrote:Decided to start going through blues scales again. Even though I've begun playing once more I'm still a bit rusty so it seems like a good idea to start working those scales

Just don't linger on that flat 5th

I think I only know ones blues scale which is... the blues scale. Works fine for me.

I just mash up like 4 scales about 90% of the time while making up other stuff.

The scale I rehearse the most is probably the chromatic scale but going up one fret on each string each time and then back down again when I hit 12th. Basically sorts out your left hand work for pretty much anything else you want to play. So if you're rusty, try that.

Gemini73 wrote:

Green Gecko wrote:I think I only know ones blues scale which is... the blues scale. Works fine for me.

I just mash up like 4 scales about 90% of the time while making up other stuff.

The scale I rehearse the most is probably the chromatic scale but going up one fret on each string each time and then back down again when I hit 12th. Basically sorts out your left hand work for pretty much anything else you want to play. So if you're rusty, try that.

Cheers for the tip. Think I'm trying too hard and getting myself confused and frustrated. Need to reel it in a bit.

My teacher would sometimes give me some scales but never really rehearsed them, until one time I specifically asked for some and memorised a few of those; I still play bloody hard stuff. Sometimes I practice little bits of other tunes I know, my main fear with scales unfounded or otherwise (and I have some experience attesting this is true) is getting locked into them and basically playing the same thing over and over again in different order.

So from that perspective I'd actively avoid rehearsing scales. Understanding intervals and cadences is different but besides a technical exercise scales don't do much for me. I've always preferred arpeggiating chords anyway. If it sounds good it sounds good, don't worry too much about a bum note here or these you can always gliss or ornament off that note to make it sound half deliberate to the untrained ear. Sometimes doing that I've come up with the most unusual rhythms and licks that end up being hooks that make the tune or take something offbeat so it isn't the same common time stuff.

If you listen carefully enough there are loads of mistakes in even the most famous records, some solos are pretty crappy but it's all about the soul and combination of the mix. Technical wankery pisses me off. I say that having played past grade 8. It's about making notes sound good not 1000 notes per minute.

And play super slow sometimes. Sometimes I push myself to play like 10x slower than I normally will just so I'm focusing on the music and how it sounds rather than a merely mechanical exercise. It sounds ridiculous at first and it's more difficult because muscle memory weirdly drops off at some point because your brain is anticipating the next note or muscle movement I just forget what I'm doing. But after a while I start to notice my playing is more evocative and hitting less bum notes or realising I'm playing something different to the score that's not as harmonious as it should be but I was getting away with it for a split second there (especially important with held base notes because melodies in the upper register depend on that for the harmony, causing slight dissonance).

wtf, I got booked for a random gig tomorrow (guy found my message in spam) and it turns out to be the same venue I played twice in 2007 before it closed down. what are the chances.

Green Gecko wrote:wtf, I got booked for a random gig tomorrow (guy found my message in spam) and it turns out to be the same venue I played twice in 2007 before it closed down. what are the chances.

Excellent! What type of genre/set do you do?

3 songs with electric guitar and two instrumentals including one part of sonata by Jose Merlin. Not sure I'd say a blend of psychedelic alt rock and and grunge. But my vocal is increasingly punky. I mean I sing but I dirty it up... So hard rock / metal then.

Could have gone worse, my amp modeller went completely tits up even though I ran though my monitors and practiced my set on three separate occasions, think input jack has completely come away from the board now. It was never that good so a mistake to use it live, and there was some ground loop problem creating horrible glitching noises as that's how a digital or software box responds to gooseberry fool like that. Fluked it for the instrumentals 13 minutes late with no audio problems and then my guitar cut out again, so I just asked to borrow a guitar from the audience, kicked everything aside and had to belt out my vocal (and guitar) with no amplification at all, bled all over the guys guitar, took the skin off back of all playing fingers and thumb on the steel strings and cleaned it up after. I was like, sorry i bled all over your guitar after insisting I wouldn't damage it. I insisted the organiser go and get a lemon to clean it with lol. Somehow I managed to finish my set.

That's life eh, anyway apparently my set was good despite stupid gooseberry fool. The guy lending me the guitar thanked me after his set for some reason which was nice. I'll just take my flamenco guitar next time and mics... Although actually I can't, because they're phantom powered . Their breakout box didn't even seem to correspond numerically to their mixer channels, and the mixer was behind a door behind the bar with the tech (who was also a barman) jumping between rooms. They said they didn't have a house amp but there were two in the other room. Thought I could save my back caring about 25kg on the train so I was right to bring the modeller but strawberry float me that was frustrating.

PA was mackie but ffs at least have someone on the deck. They seemed to insist on turning down any unused channels, while not knowing which channel was which... Just turn them all up for strawberry float sake, there's only one mic and if there's nothing in the DI box there or nothing in the breakout you won't get anything but silence. Those speakers are built to withstand the odd pop and click. Weird protocol, especially if no one is there to run the mixing desk anyway. I asked if I could help and they said no because it's behind the bar. Who the strawberry float puts a mixing desk behind a bar?

I'll fix the amp modeller but if there's a ground loop issue there, strawberry float all I can do. It'll just happen again. Just have to slog a practice amp with me if I do another electric set and cut out anything software that won't respond well to power crap. It is a really old building. I've spent good money on noiseless power supplies... Except for that one box.

9 hours later my fingers are still bleeding, mummy strawberry floating steels. If the night runs again I'll probably play that or the next one. I'm glad that place is a music venue again. Open mic next door sounded a bit meh so it was nice to be selected for something, I haven't shopped for a gig in years and years but should do more open mics anyway.

They did have a house drum kit which is nice, I can bring a friend to do some jazz rock improv stuff without really giving any shite if it's open mic. But it's encouraged me to publish new songs and finish mixing various stuff. I've turned thirty but no reason why I can't be a late bloomer even if played most of my gigs 10 years ago.

strawberry floating hell, all that's missing from that is you realised you were naked half way through the set

And never mind that late bloomer nonsense, I'm nearly 40 and harbour fantasies of getting somewhere with my music.