Hi folks!
I'm the owner of an online vocal studio (no promo), and I'm looking for help from you in testing a new product feature. It's independent feedback from two professional vocal coaches and I believe it can be win-win if you are working on you own voice.

If you're interested in receiving that feedback, follow these steps:

1/ Fill out the form and upload your video/audio file, including any specific questions you might have: https://forms.gle/LW3F1pTCHoSAZ3h79
2/ As soon as the feedback is ready (approximately 1 week), we will send it to your email and notify you via SMS
3/ If you would like, I would be happy to have a 10-minute call with you to ask a few questions and get your feedback

It’s riddled in basically all indie folk, but it’s really apparent in Flume by Bon Iver at 00:28. Another example is Bird’s Eye by Philosophy of Music. It sounds like their playing their guitar strings with a violin bow or something.

For those of you who have recorded an album, EP, or even single at a studio in NYC, what was the day rate/package deal? I'm trying to get an estimate of average prices around the city. Thanks so much!

Welcome to the /r/WeAreTheMusicMakers Weekly Collaboration Thread! If you're looking for help with, or wanting to pitch in on a project, post up your details here. Other threads looking for collaboration will be deleted and redirected here.

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Hi! I've been researching for many days now trying to figure out what synth (starts at :07) is in this song:

Fear Factory - Genetic Blueprint: https://youtu.be/ Xq2ZagmbFW8?si=dPtf_MsTzZgkho_S

On a gear forum I found this info:

"Demanufacture was done with a few choice pieces - the trusty Akai S1000, a Kurzweil K2000 and an Oberheim Xpander, all sequenced on the Atari synced to 2" tape.. Remanufacture was made after I upgraded samplers to the Emulator IV (my DAW at the time basically), and there is a lot of Waldorf Pulse+ on that one too (one of my fav cheaper synths).

Remanufacture was more electronic in approach because they were remixes, so all guitars, vocals, drums and sweepy synth riffs were in the EIV (The filters in the EIV are fantastic and are all over this record), Waldo for all the square wave synth sub basses and leads etc and some Roland JD990 for ROM breathy stuff..again it was mixed on a SSL so that little gear went a long way.."

I've listened to every single preset on the expander, and I couldn't find anything. I'm listening through the Waldorf Pulse right now. Can anyone point me in the right direction how to recreate this sound?

I know you’re not allowed to just straight up post your music here, but it’d be cool if I could find some way to get feedback on it. My posts keep getting removed for not having enough text in it, but hopefully it’ll leave this post up.

How would I get a good, thick west coast electric bass tone that's not overbearing in the mix? I want to capture the nice subby aspect while keeping that electric brightness that comes with it.

I really like the whole west coast/tde sound with the punchy, organic drums but I can't seem to get my bass to sound right. I use logic pro and have the modo bass plugin but everything I try either has too much high end or is too subby. I want it to be nice, electric and groovy you know? I hear a lot about putting the high end in stereo but how would I go about doing that? High pass on a second track then have it in stereo instead of mono?

https://youtu.be/e5YSTm2_ApQ?si=5KuEXQjaaaSxuxCn

https://youtu.be/ZmSORFI2XzU?si=tyt3fbHoCO59fmc1

https://youtu.be/_WnXMMOkubA?si=C6J2YO5GE93ZM-7E

https://youtu.be/AoQHhsKnQkg?si=c23G5aANNp4pFlTj

Hi everybody, beginner producer here, I have a dumb question: Let’s say I found a preset of a pad that I like, and it has a proper reverb or/and delay.

Is it correct to leave it on or is it better to turn it off and use the reverb/delay on the return tracks of the mix?

Thanks for the patience

I'm self-taught and not very well versed in the technical aspects of rhythm. I suppose it would depend on the BPM, but say the drums are in 4 on the floor. How much leeway does the pluck have in terms of notes? 1/16ths? 1/32nds?

ETA: I’m not quantising to the grid, I want to insert notes on a MIDI clip freehand, so I’m wondering the best practices to follow to ensure that the notes land in sync with the backing beat

What’s up everyone,

I’m 20 m and play guitar and keyboard in a band in my hometown. Currently I’m in college 2 hours away from home and have been busy with a lot of different stuff this semester. I always have in the back of my mind a nagging feeling that I want to/need to start making and releasing music for the past 3 years or so but either timing hasn’t worked out or I’ve sorta been doing “baby steps” to it (in other words 2 years ago I was not nearly musically versed enough on guitar to be able to flesh out my ideas fully). I’m hoping this summer me and my band back home can start recording and releasing stuff but also I’ve been thinking about whether I should be working right now on music while I’m still young in college.

My school has a music scene and I’ve jammed with some people here but the people weren’t committed and it didn’t really work out. Also I’m frankly not a big fan of my schools music scene as a lot of the bands are just cover bands playing over saturated indie surf rock over and over again. I’m a much bigger fan of my home areas music scene as it’s more dynamic and experimental but for the next year until I graduate I’m only their for the summer and then after college I will likely go to grad school. I want to make cool experimental music but I always feel like a fraud because I have nothing to show for it besides some shitty demos on my phone of me laying out chords for potential songs and scribbled ideas in note books. I also need to learn more about production and improve on my instruments. I guess the question I want to ask is, what steps would older musician advice I take right now in this time of my life to work towards being an artist?

I have a vocal track that’s purposefully all over the place. For the longest time I’ve automated volume by ear. Now I’m curious of different methods to read changes in volume in a waveform for automation purposes. Specifically for riding a fader.

I know I can use a VU meter or the Multimeter, but I’m wondering if there’s a way to peek at 30 seconds of a waveform to get a general idea of changes in volume, then play and try and write the automation accordingly. Like it’s a general -12dB for this verse, this ending yell jumps to -6dB, so let me bump it down around here… I’ve always guessed by viewing the waveform itself, but there must be a more accurate way that is numerically displayed.

Apologies if this is a really dumb question but it’s always evaded me and I can’t seem to ask the right questions for google to answer. Plus I’m sure there’s plenty of ways to achieve this so I’m curious. Thanks.

https://youtu.be/1Vxxn_YnLQ4?t=109

The grey unit above the organ. Nico is playing with it. I can't ID what it is.

I just thought that by decreasing the prominence of chords progression which makes it little ambiguous which in turn captures wider range of emotions, what do you guys think?

Hi guys,

I make quite grungy music with a mix of heavier rock songs and some acoustic tracks. Typically when I perform live only play the acoustic tracks because I’m by myself and so play guitar and sing at the same time.

However I want to start playing my distorted rock music at these live shows as well. It can be hard to find band mates in my area and want to do it by myself. What would be the best way to play the bass and drums as well?

I was thinking to just isolate the bass and drums stems and then put that in the background during a live show. Would that be good enough? What other ways could I perform these tracks?

Welcome to the /r/WeAreTheMusicMakers Weekly Feedback Thread! The comments below in this post is the only place on this subreddit to get feedback on your music, your artist name, your website layout, your music video, or anything else. (Posts seeking feedback outside of this thread will be deleted without warning and you will receive a temporary ban.)

This thread is active for one week after it's posted, at which point it will be automatically replaced.

##Rules:

*Post only one song.- Original comments linking to an album or multiple songs will be removed.

• Write at least three constructive comments. - Give back to your fellow musicians!

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##Tips for a successful post:

• Give a quick outline of your ideas and goals for the track. - "Is this how I trap?" or "First try at a soundtrack for a short film" etc.

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I’ve been writing songs for over a decade, but I’ve only recently started producing my songs in the past year. In recent months I’ve started to really nail down some demos, but I’m not sure where to go next.

Do I look for a producer? Another writer? Do I post these demos as they are?

I’ve always dreamed of the collaborative process of writing in the studio and creating something through a collaborative process, but everything seems to be so online now. My biggest fear is plateauing at this stage.

How do I get my music to the next level?

Welcome to the /r/WeAreTheMusicMakers Weekly Promotion Thread! Here, in the comments below, you can shamelessly promote whatever music project you've been working on. Music, videos, Discord servers, websites, social media, promote anything you want. Posts promoting anything outside this thread will be removed without warning.

Contest mode has been enabled to prevent vote manipulation. Every time you open this thread, you will see new comments at the top. Your comment will be displayed randomly like the others.

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I've seen this firsthand twice now. Artists who just slap whatever plugins/presets on their vocal chain and it ends up sounding pretty damn good. Like maybe 85-90% close to a full professional mix. How do some artists achieve this when they don't even know anything about vocal mixing in the first place?

Mixing a big band piece (full 17 piece), and as some parts in unison are double tracked by the same player, there is some really nasty phasing going on in those parts. Can't really align them since they're two separate takes, but the unison parts are so tight it's resulting in phasing. Wondering what advice any of you would have.

I installed a plugin trial ages ago. Ive delete the plugin from my computer and deactivated it but I’m still getting notifications all the time saying “All Visible Licenses have expired.” Even when my DAW or the iLog app aren’t running. Can anyone help?

Screenshot here;
https://www.awesomescreenshot.com/image/46638634?key=a6b995ae093e1fbf9e41b9af25b31e5a

Hello all, I am looking to make experimental/ambient/noise type music and one aspect I'd like to incorporate into my recordings is tasteful feedback/noise from an amp. How do you get the feedback/noise to sound good relative to the rest of the recording? I have a couple examples of the noisy sort of playing I am looking to for inspiration. Thank you for your time.

https://youtu.be/Lowc8puz9eM?t=2131

https://youtu.be/Q56EnTSuqOU?t=104

​

​

I'm coming from a folk, jazz and rock background however recently been real deep in producing EDM (afro latin grooves with a psytrancy drive).

In my compositional past I follow some pretty typical song structures: aabb, abc, verse chorus bridge, etc....

I'm finding these structures less relevant for what I'm doing now and curious as to how many of you out there structure your long EDM pieces?

I keep aiming for 10min or more generally, trying to keep it dynamic with some highs lows, drops etc...

Anyone got any recommendations how I can backwards plan this? Artist recommendationa of great/simple structure?

As of now I just kinda 'feel it', and switch bits, instruments etc... but I'd prefer to also lock in something a little more conceptual. Thanks!

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I'm working on a hard rock song and wanted a session guitarist to come in and clean up some guitars I laid down because my takes were a tiny bit sloppy.

My friend connected me to his other friend who studied guitar at Julliard and is starting out as a session player. I told him I would pay him $100 to do a handful of takes and he said sure.

Dude... when I got the stems and listened to them... I cringed. The audio quality was fine, but the playing itself was atrocious. It sounded so lifeless and there were little licks and accents he added to the riff and solo that are a bit out of tune and just throw off the groove of the song.

I haven't paid him yet, but I'm honestly at the point where I genuinely prefer my own takes and might just run with them, imperfections and all.

How do I tell him "thank you but you're fired" in the nicest way possible? Am I still supposed to pay him even though I hate the takes and won't be using them (we never signed a contract)?

EDIT: Damn, a lot of thoughtful responses real quick. God bless the internet. So I'm gonna go ahead and give him some feedback and another chance, literally just "do what I did, but better" as someone below said. If it STILL isn't good, I'll just go ahead and use my own takes. But I will still be paying him regardless of the outcome, because ethical business practices are cool and stuff. Appreciate the input yall!

EDIT 2: I paid him and immediately after he offered to do a couple of more takes for free if I wanted. Gave him some more detailed instructions on exactly what I want so we'll see how it turns out, but all is well. Also just want to point out that it genuinely warms my heart how aggressively everyone rallied around this dude and was standing up for his labor rights. Love seeing moments of solidarity and light in this fucked up world.

When i play chords on my vst guitar, it just sounds too dirty and i don;t know what to do. I usually put a preamp, amp and an ir loader on my guitar, maybe you do it differently for rock? The sound that im going for is a slightly distorted one, for playing chords

Hey,

I am trying to go for a certain airy and present vocal sound and would like some feedback on my methodology. When I sing into the a mic, it picks up on a lot of the bass frequencies. When I speak about 6” away from the mic, the bass is overwhelming and sounds like a radio voice.

I run a condenser mic to a Manley VOXBOX, which is a channel strip with a Pultec M-EQ type circuit. Being a man, my speaking voice has a lot of bass in it. When I sing I usually find myself an octave above my lowest speaking voice, so roughly in the baritone-tenor range.

It seems that a common technique with a Pultec M-EQ is to boost and cut bass slightly at the same frequency to elicit a pleasing EQ curve at the fundamental pitch. With the Manley, I usually Boost the low end @150 Hz, do a small mid cut @ 300 Hz , and then crank the “brilliance” band @ 12kHz.

This gives me a decent sound right out of the channel strip, albeit with heavy bass. The bass is still heavy without the boost, but using the boost/cut makes the overtones of my voice sound better. It sounds OK to me, but the bass is not helping the overall sound and I think I want to filter it out after the VOXBOX. When I try this it sounds acceptable to cut at 250 Hz. The bass is certainly reduced but it is hard to tell if I am thinning out on tone. I want an airy vocal anyways but coincidentally I am hearing impaired and it’s very hard to tell how much filtering is too much in headphones.

So…

• What issues might I have if I choose to High Pass filter up to 250 Hz using the SSL E Channel Strip?

• If I cut 250, am I undoing the work of my Pultec M-EQ?

• Would it help to saturate before attempting such a large low cut?

Any advice is welcome.

Hey all, I'm a rookie and a bit confused about my workflow: when I put some distortion (in this case Decapitator by Soundtoys) on my drums, it sounds great and as I want it but it RUINS my dynamics!! My hihat ghost notes become as loud as the accented hits, my manual snare flams sound more like snare rolls, and just drastically lowering velocity om the softer notes seems to sound weird and almost too quiet?? I'm not sure how to use distortion without it completely flattening my drums in that regard.

Normally my effect chain will be EQ - distortion - sometimes comp if my drum bus comp is lighter but otherwise just the two. Would love to see what other people say, I'm sure I'm doing something very wrong but idk what...

Thank you in advance!!!

Welcome to the /r/WeAreTheMusicMakers "Free Talk Friday" Thread! Feel free to talk about anything and everything - This is a text-only thread, but otherwise anything goes!

I've been the lead singer guitarist and songwriter of a garage rock / emo / pop punk band for about 3 years and we have quite a few good original songs, playing around 20+ shows a year. I'm the youngest but we're all about 16-17. We don't have a lot of money but I really wanna record an album or at least an EP. We've tried home recording but I'm the one who produces it and I can't stand listening to my voice and I'm not really skilled enough to produce it the way I want it.

Is it worth it to save and record it in a studio?

Should we try again recording in my garage and I can just suck it up and produce it? (risk sounding like another crappy teenage band)

any other options?

What's up guys! Not sure if this the right place to ask, so forgive me in advance. Though I'd ask here to see what kind of response I get. So, I'm recording a thrash metal demo for my band and we're doing it all ourselves with minimal setup/cost. As far as drums go, we're on the lookout for one so we've taken the task of recording the drum parts ourselves. We just want a demo to have something to show promoters, fans, and other people in the meantime while we grow/settle into ourselves as a band. I'm in charge of the drum parts, but I can be a bit self conscience about getting it right (regarding minimal mistakes/ keeping tempo.) Now, my question is, how important is it to you/you all about getting recordings down perfect for a demo? As a listener and/or musician. Appreciate the feedback.