hey im a songwriter and i'll be recording a new album or ep soon and I would like to have some simple backing tracks with bass or drums maybe, here is a playlist of songs i wrote, the latest two in the playlist will be in the album, i'll record them with a metronom this time so it will be very easy to work with. There will be 4-7 songs, I'll add you as featured artist on the release of course and you can publish the songs we make wherever you want but if you don't want a collab i may pay a small price, I won't be paying much for it cause the songs will be short and simple you probably wouldn't have to record anything twice so it would take you like an hour or two tops.

Here's how I have my mixer set up. a synth going to channel one, a drum machine going into channel 2 etc. I have he effects send running to the in of a kaos pad 3 and the out of the kp3 going into channel 3.

So if I'm playing something on the synth and I have channel one's effects send turned all the way up and channel 3 turned up. Shouldn't I be able to hear the output of the kp3? I only hear it if I turn up the main volume of channel one as well, But then I'm getting the dry synth as well as the effected part of it.

To reiterate, shouldn't I be able to hear just the effects send and not both it and the dry sound? I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong or if this just isn't possible.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Please let me know if you have any questions.

Hi guys, noob here. So I've been gifted a mandolin and it's a nice, fun instrument but I don't really know what to do with it, recording wise. I mostly record pop, singer/sonwriter, regular rock with female vocals but I'm no bluegrass player, so I guess I'll be using it mostly for arrangements.

I also guess it's a nice instrument to for example double guitars in the upper register, like for example an uke, a bit like in REM's "Losing my religion". But besides that I don't really know how to add it to my music.

How do you guys usually use it for recording?

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:

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• 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.

• Ask for feedback on specific things. - "Any tips on EQing?" or "How could I make this section less repetitive?"

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I know this might sound counter productive but I find it helps to sometimes when producing music to just sit down, have a jam sesh and not save! There's really something special about just jamming in the moment without any expectations or judgment about finishing anything.

There's something liberating about creating art for the sake of the moment, letting it exist briefly in its purest form before it fades away. It's a bit like the ephemeral nature of certain experiences in life that are meant to be enjoyed and then let go.

It's also a testament to the transient beauty of creativity and the joy of the process rather than the outcome. Kind of like a fleeting melody that exists only in that moment, connecting deeply with your feelings and then drifting into the ether.

You know what I mean? It just takes the edge off and let's you just have fun. You won't be left with an unfinished track in your saves folder you are going to feel guilty about so there's absolutely no pressure. Trust me, I find it incredibly healing and therapeutic and can really just help you connect and get in the flow. If you like it maybe just hit record live as you play or even take a screen recording while you're jamming just to look back on like a snapshot but when it comes to the end of you're session just close and move on.

I’m learning bass at the minute and can play some decent lines but technically I’d like to add some spice to the parts. My fingers aren’t the quickest which kind of restricts me but some specific things to add in there that don’t require insane speed would be good. My favourite bass playing is by the likes Paul McCartney, Brian Wilson, John entwhistle, bill wyman and Ronnie Lane

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Is it possible to TUNE a giggle stick?

My band wants to use groan tubes for our acoustic set and have them all in different keys like a harmonica player. Is there any way to affect the notes these things produce? The one we got is weirdly in tune with our song "Hold Me Under" and I find that hella funny but I want to go hard af.

Does anyone know the best way to sidechain specific frequencies? I’m looking to sidechain the mids of my guitar to my vocals so they cut through more. I’m guessing this might be possible with multiband compression, but I couldn’t find much info online. Any tips or suggestions

I have a few friends with whom I started playing music together (piano + 2x guitar + 1-2 voices). As a (moderately talented) piano player, I am used to playing sheet music, the guitar players play mostly by chords/ear.

Example: We play this song: https://musescore.com/user/12336401/scores/5570191

I try to play the piano part on the keyboard (which also makes it more challenging for me). One guy plays the chords by ear or plays what fits for the other players, and the other plays a version with chords easier for her to play on the guitar. Her version, for example, contained a 5th quarter note in one measure, for another measure there is a third chord change (that rhythmically doesn't even work out in my head) in one measure which happens at the start of the next measure for me. For a few chords, in the guitar sheet music, it is not even 100% clear at which exact note a chord changes, which is an issue I have never seen. For the second guitar player, this doesn't seem to make a difference. For me, it is, unless it is a pause between measures as in the original song or small deviations or longer-held notes. I can play my part together with the original recording of the song though. We agreed that we fix those two instances so she could play it the same way as me, for a few bars in the later parts of the song I had to drop notes in the right hand completely because they didn't work out with the original song and I played the chords alone.

For the singers, for some songs it is also an issue if I play with my right hand since then I also play something similar to their (upper) voice and I even had to drop the right hand. Conflicting sheet music also sometimes means that I get lost when I don't have a verse on my sheet. For them, it is always super clear where to restart playing where I would need a measure number.

What at least helped me was to listen to the original song and take a look at the singing part. Did we start with a song that is too difficult for the beginning? Should I just rewrite measures that don't work rhythmically or write my part? The main issue for me was them playing like in typical bands vs me trying to play by sheet music and as exact as possible. What tips do you have for me? It is the first time ever playing together with someone else for me except for some improvisations with my piano teacher many years ago.

How would you tackle a mix if you didn’t have access to a studio set up or monitors and just had your go to headphones?

I ask because this is my scenario for the time-being and want to see how much is achievable.

EDIT: Thanks everyone for the tips & advice, validating to know I’m doing some of the stuff already and I’m kind of on the right path. 🙏🏽

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pretty much most of my songs have the same or similar arrangement. its one melody playing throughout the song with other instruments and passages being added as it progresses. that might be fitting for ambient genres and such but thats not what im aiming for and it gets really repetitive. so what can i do to improve at arrangement?

Hey guys,

I'm a guitarist and have been using Ableton Live 11 for a few years now... I'm extremely happy with my guitar and drum mixes and productions, but have noticed that my bass tones and mixes are lacking...

I record DI into a Focusrite Clarett and play a genuine german Hofner 500/1. I listen to Tame Impala, Mac Demarco, The Strokes, but I also listen to more mainstream artists like SZA and Steve Lacy.

I was wondering what you guys think I could do to get a bass sound similar to some of these artists and what you guys are doing specifically at the moment... I've been thinking my problem is my chain, so I've experimented and have gotten a better sound, but still no cigar... I usually find that it sounds too muddy or too quiet in the mix. When I finally get the volume right, the tone is usually off...

At the moment, I am tracking with just an EQ, UAD Fairchild, and the Bass Pedal plugin on Ableton. I have occasionally used and gotten okay with bass sims, but none that sound like Mac Demarco's legendary '2' record... (i know many call his bass tone trash, but 'Annie' has an amazing bass tone, IMO.

When mixing bass, I've been making use of the UAD Pultec EQ1A, the UAD LA2A Silver, and the Soundtoys Decapitator. I also have been using parallel compression... Sometimes the UAD Fairchild, sometimes with the Arturia Sansamp.

Am I doing anything wrong? Can anyone give me any suggestions to help me get closer to the bass tone I would like to achieve?

I put the songs/artists in bold - hope ya'll can look up these references if you aren't aware and maybe hear some suggestions.

Thanks again - this community has always been ahead of so many others. I hope ya'll have a blessed day/night!

Hi, I'm looking for any advice for individuals with experience in recording signing vocals.

I want to start recording quality soundtracks and I think the space I have in my van would be the most ideal place for me to do this.

I don't have a good microphone, so looking for suggestions on quality yet affordable products to use, as well as any other accessories I may need to create a better recording environment in said space.

If anyone has other suggestions, I'd be happy to hear!

For context, I'm not a drummer, but I recorded drums for my song with MIDI acoustic drums (you could think of the genre as soft rock or potentially world music). The song is almost all MIDI piano and strings. Then I had some people from Fiver record them with real instruments, and I was very disappointed that my MIDI drums sounded better. I realize these MIDI drums are usually recorded with top notch instruments, but it was a let down.

Should I be looking for MIDI drummers then instead? Or what's your overall impressions? I feel like traditional drums might sound better for hard rock and classic rock, but for more electronic music, then MIDI drums sound better. Any opinions on this?

I’ll keep it as short as I can. I’ve been using studios at a youth club for 3 years and just recently got around to buying my own equipment for the basics. Due to only having sessions once a week previously, I’ve recorded exclusively on bought beats. Now that I got my hands on my own gear, I’m first trying to get my vocal mixing skills up. I’ve made my best sounding chain so far and even though I am not satisfied yet and am still relying on some presets. I would like feedback to know if I’m going in the right direction.

-Autotune

-First and heaviest compressor

-Surgical EQ, reductions only (high pass contextual since the mic as 60hz low cut built in), after compressor to have more control and so that any changes don’t get pushed back up

-Multiband compression, still relying on some presets but the goal is to have more control over the range

-Simple brightness plugin, so far seems like some sound better than simply boosting the high end

-Gentle/smooth second compressor, to glue everything together

-soothe2, for resonances but am still not sure how it works

-Doubler, brings some width/clarity and separation to the vocal

-Additive EQ, very subtle boost to high mids and highs after compression

-DeEsser, later in the chain to tame after all the high end boosts

-Saturation

Any delays/reverbs etc on bus sends. And on backing vocals I’ve tried turning off all the compressors instead of lowering the volume to give the impression that it’s further away and more reverb. I send all tracks to the same reverb bus. And lastly since I’m buying beats for now, on the instrumental I put compression/multiband or dynamic eq sidechained to the vocals to create a pocket. Also might send it to the same reverb bus as the vocals but very very subtle, mostly to blend everything together.

Thanks for any feedback!

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!

It used to be called Stagelight by openlabs before being bought out by roland. Are you able to record and export in 24-bit or higher?

Generally I gain stage all channels so that I'm not redlining any and the master is also below 0 I was wondering though that since Ableton is floating point, can we redline all channels and then just put a utility on the master chain to reduce volume without any effect on the quality? This assumes no plugins I guess otherwise the plugins on each individual channel might be clipping audio?

Welcome to the /r/WeAreTheMusicMakers Weekly Gear Thread! This is the place to ask what item, program, or service you should buy or use. It is also a great place to get help using your equipment if you are confused about something you found in the manual or in an online tutorial. This thread is active for one week after it's posted, at which point it is automatically replaced.

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I am doing a YouTube channel where I cover various video game songs and make them more "rock" / my own original version, and I am doing a song where I am replacing the lead vocal line in the original track and just playing the vocal melody as a lead guitar solo instead. I have a ton of epic delay on my recording, but in some parts when listening back, it sounds just ever so slightly "off-key", almost a bit flat.

I tune like crazy, but sometimes I am playing way up on the fretboard, like up at the 15, 16, 17th frets, and even though my higher-up strings (G, B, E) are "tuned" when I play them open, when I go up to those higher notes on that same string, and activate my tuner, it will say its slightly flat...which is odd.

Regardless, when I flex-tune in post, it KIND of works if I right click and "set all to perfect pitch" and then raise them up to about +14, it sounds like THAT is where it should be at with the rest of the track; however, all the delay in my take kind of makes these weird "artifacty" sounds that instantly kill the take.

I am willing to re-record all my takes tonight, but before I do, I wanted to ask on here how I can approach this to get a better end result - if I need to turn off all delay, reverb, etc. and just record with no effects, then apply a delay afterwards so if I NEED to pitch correct in post, I don't have all of that reverb and delay messing with the pitch edits? Or take a different approach? Thanks in advance!

ALSO: I am using a PRS Custom 24 with a Kemper Profiler Amp, recording into Logic Pro X.

I'm working on a project with a professional recording / mixing engineer. For the most part, everything sounds incredible. But when listening to one particular song on one of my speaker systems (Beats Pill), I noticed that all the low end of a bass-heavy vocal is practically disappearing when the bassline enters the arrangement.

This issue is most prominent on the beats pill, and not other playback systems. Because of that, the engineer suspects the speakers itself are 'over hyped' or doing something weird. Whereas I'm suspecting the crunchy bassline with added distortion is playing in the low end of the vocal frequency range.

I've got another session scheduled for Saturday and was hoping some of the audiophiles here wouldn't mind giving me a second opinion, so I can go into the session with a plan of attack for addressing this?

Happy to post a link to the current mix if that would help. I wasn't sure if links are allowed in this sub.

So the first person who mixed my music told me it should never be further then -3db, then later he said -6db.

But I’ve always aimed for around -3db and I constantly fail that as my mixes are often landing around -2db to -3db.

The current guy who masters my tracks always manages to work with it though so its fine, I’m not completely bothered about sounding as professional as possible, thats the joys of independent music making.

However I would like to get better at this.

I’m currently working on old tracks so it’s very difficult as the mixing is old and I’m constantly fighting my past self and struggling to get a good mix.

I’m looking forward to starting new tracks to hopefully get better at this, but I’m curious if theres any tips to make sure your track starts off in the right place.

Like does it help to have everything pretty low? Like if every track was to start off at -10db and then when everythings recorded and you get to mixing to move things around?

Any tips would be appreciated, my daw is ableton.

I just got my first pair of studio monitors. The KRK Classic 5. The sound is very clear and crisp but it sounds like they lack a ton of bass. I know they are monitors and should provide a flat sound, rather than just blasting bass like speakers do, but this still much much lower than I expected it to be. I played with the high and low frequency knobs in the back but it's still lacking the lows. Please help I don't wanna return these. 😕

Welcome to the /r/WeAreTheMusicMakers Weekly Quick Questions Thread! If you have general questions (e.g. How do I make this specfic sound?), questions with a Yes/No answer, questions that have only one correct answer (e.g. "What kind of cable connects this mic to this interface?") or very open-ended questions (e.g. "Someone tell me what item I want.") then this is the place!

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###Do not post links to promote music in this thread. You can promote your music in the weekly Promotion thread, and you can get feedback in the weekly Feedback thread. Music can only be posted in this thread if you have a question or response about/containing a particular example in someone else's song.

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In a few weeks, I'm heading off for a 3-day creative retreat in a decent room, all alone with my guitar, MIDI keyboard, some gear, and my laptop for focused yet relaxed music sessions. I've got some ideas and compositions in mind. What’s the ONE essential you'd recommend bringing (or wish you hadn't forgotten) for a creative escape? Could be anything : a plugin, a tool, snacks, lights, whatever. All suggestions and experiences welcome!

I have a master on my computer that I want to record onto cassette via my Tascam 424 Portastudio. I am sending the audio through my Focusrite into two of the Tascam 424 inputs - but am unsure why the audio sounds so much wider and full on headphones directly through the interface, and narrower/less-full when I send it through the Tascam. I suspect I'm not sending the audio correctly out of my interface. Any help appreciated.

I’m mostly dealing with extra vocal noise like low breaths that I would like to have not be audible. I am also not an audio engineer so please have mercy on me and use layman.

So for context I found a Roland Boutique JP-08 synthesizer amongst my passed dad's things that had no accompanying equipment. I inherited a huge love for 80's synthpop from him, and I would love to figure out how to give this little machine the light of day it deserves.

I have a 2023 Macbook Air and an Arturia MiniLab MkII. Is there any way, with my current equipment, for me to run a MIDI signal from my MiniLab to the JP-08 and record the audio into a DAW? (I currently only have FL)