what is going on in your musical life

I want to see emil.y's band

Generally speaking I love sitting and listening to works-in-progress, with or without the creators in the room. What I've learned from personal experience, and as is demonstrated in that tnahcraM assiraM thread, is that the opinion one has of one's own work is defined by the unprecedented. Telling people they're good or bad has no effect on their own opinions or actions. It's always gonna be these weird slanted moments that cause people to change their tack. So in general I just try to be honest and empathetic with music friends and know that I can't control what their takeaway will be. I had a friend ditch a song on their record because it was the song that happened to be playing when I stood up to refill my water glass.

I do the listening thing all the time with people in the room given my day job, and really as long as you jump the hurdle of being nice its not so bad. Critique (esp negative critique) is helpful! I always open with the idea that im going to be honest, not kind, and i havent ever had to savage somebody or anything.

also, being able to find (and i know this is like comp class critique 101, but it feels different w/music, more personal etc) something positive to mention is almost always possible. and ive heard some pretty shitty stuff, but even if its a nice transition or an interesting phrasing or just something technically adept, theres usually something there that can mitigate "you need to sing in tune".

Anyone have any tips on the simplest way to get decent sound with an isight or iphone video recording? I've been thinking about doing a youtube covers project, just guitar and vocals.

ha here comes the dreaded question - do you have an iphone 5 or a prior model?

prior. May get a 5 soon though.

(4S)

if youre seriously thinking about making the transition soon, just make sure that you dont buy anything that uses the current dock connector

ill poke around a bit and see what interface info i can dig up.

I agree with ZS above re: listening to other people's stuff/other people listening to yours - personally speaking, i HATE being forced to listen to someone else's music in the same room with them. if you're in a band with someone, or they're really familiar with your music, then cool, whatever.

For me, it's much better to get a copy and listen on my own, and replay it a few times if you're after more analysis than "it's cool that you did that". I have a small group of people who I'd trust to let me bring over a demo or pre-release copy of something, and sit around listening with beers or whatever, but they're fairly carefully cultivated - not necessarily with the exact same taste as me, but people whose reasoning I understand, or who are particularly articulate when it comes to critiquing (and are also good at being tactful so as not to bruise my fragile ego).

all this critique talk is making me want to look for a voice teacher, or at least formalize a regular agreement with the last guy I studied with (who was a colleague at the time and a couple of years younger than me, so it was a little weird, but now he sings elsewhere so it's not as strange; also he lives up the street from me)

the only time i regularly do the 'listening together' thing is when evaluating a master, playing it for friends who might have sharper ears for frequencies etc

Ha, I'm always pulling out my phone and playing mixes off the internal speakers for people during smoke breaks at dinner parties and asking them "do you like it? do you like it?". But generally I think it's good to listen to mixes in a variety of different environments, with different people and at different times of day before settling on things.

so the big thing that was going on that I hinted at upthread was that I was preparing to audition for The Platters but it didn't happen due to a series of personal issues :-(

I could have been on a cruise ship

whooooa! I'm sorry you didn't get to audition. That's an honor that you were considered for it, though.

yeah that would be cool as fuck. Are the other Platters all old dudes?

what if they were like menudo and forced out members when they turned 75 and replaced them with hot young 40-year-olds

a good friend of mine got it, and tbh he was more vocally-suited for it anyway as he has fewer responsibilities and wouldn't be giving up a career 18 years in the making to tour for less money

still, I could have been like "sorry guys, can't ILX anymore because I've got a gig in Myrtle Beach this week"

all the originals are now dead and I think the age range of the current group is like 25-45?

(in fact there are something like 8 different competing groups calling themselves The Platters, it's sort of hilarious)

"competing" so it's not like one organization farming them out? No one owns the name?

someone should do a documentary on the 8 competing groups calling themselves the The Platters. seriously.

one group does own the name, but I can't tell which one it is (I think it's the one I was planning to audition for)

it is super ripe for a documentary

a veritable buffet of platters

brb pitching reality TV show idea called 'The Platters That Matter'...

your choice of platters?

i was bragging today that someone i "know" was almost a platter

it nearly got me out of a traffic ticket

my band is opening for jason lescaleet in 10 days!

played the most out of tune set of my life sunday nite. lead guitarist broke his top e string during the first song and was like "let's switch!" but then of course the whole thing went out of tune and it sounded a million times worse with the rhythm/riffs off. luckily it's a no wave-ey band so no one noticed *phew*

my band is opening for thrones on 4/20

also someone left a really fancy tuner at my house and never claimed it so i have a very fancy new tuner

After a foolish way too long hiatus of touching music at all (which I kick myself about now - why did I not keep up my keyboard playing argh) I have just recently found the confidence and creative drive to actually start writing and recording my own stuff.

Whats helped has been collaborating with a few amazing friends who have variously contributed guitar/recording lessons, advice, or written tracks for me to sing on, and now I'm feeling ok with doing my own stuff. I've started work on 4 or 5 pieces either entirely alone or collabing with my mate Ben in the past 2-3 weeks which is slightly manic, but incredibly rewarding. He's an amazing synth/industrial musician and I'm really loving working with him, our styles mesh nicely.

I've also been working on a bunch of Nancy Sinatra covers with my dear friend J who is a great indiepop/60s style guitarist. "Bang Bang" is a really fuckin challenging song to sing with a live guitar! There's no freaking beat to the song.

I really need to up my game on the recording/mixing front. I need more gear, I'm just using Reaper and an external soundcard/input device which works nicely but feels vaguely amatueur.

god, i bet that would be a tough song to sing. never thought about it before. i'd like to hear y'all's version.

i am as i type this doing tracking for a super angry black metal band, it sounds cold as fuuuck. i think i posted this before. anyway this is day 2

I went and saw a show in a small kitchen where a guy sat at a table w/ a bowl on it and he put his head in the bowl for five minutes, and, a few secs before I fell asleep for a min in my chair, my friend turned to me and was like "you should try and play here"

I was like "I'm not cool enough musically yet"

god, i bet that would be a tough song to sing.

It really is! I was quite caught off guard tbh. Its simplicity is deceptive.

i've been thinking of doing covers of my favorite country songs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REohDrkt5I4

my band is opening for thrones on 4/20

― 1 P.3. Eternal (roxymuzak), Tuesday, April 16, 2013 6:22 PM (3 hours ago

my band is opening for thrones on ... the less haw-worthy 6/29

I need a new band, I think my old one is dead.

We got our CD for sale now in Sweden, which is pretty cool.

http://oziumrecords.com/shop/details/822

I have a bunch of songs done

I am new to making music but it's strange, I've found that no matter how much I like a song I've made or w/e, when I make something after it I suddenly don't really care about it very much in the sense of listening to it, this is probably normal though

can't wait to get to the stage of not liking any songs I've put together

i have an ableton lesson tonight

also i am mixing 2 records

ableton 9?

just over two weeks until my spiritual ensemble performs Sweenee Hunt's "Witness Cantata" and excerpts from Weill's "Lost In The Stars" with the Boston Landmark Orchestra

I think my wife and I are the only ones who have any idea of how it goes

Haha, like at all?

lol ppl kind of know how it goes, but in rehearsals we're still in the "can you play my part on the piano?" phase and my wife and I, as ppl who sightread every Sunday for 9 months out of the year, it's irritating as shit

also I am finally listening to a recording and I think some of the tempos of some of the movements will be rude awakenings to ppl

I sent a demo off to Spacebomb Records, but now I'm in severe doubt that the mixes I've spent a good while agonising over aren't good enough. Or indeed, that the songs are lightweight fuckery. Dammit. I need a band.

been trying to write some songs or even parts ahead of trying to maybe work on music with other people but i feel like i've totally forgotten how to write stuff. prob just putting too much pressure on myself and need to shake up the process but it's really frustrating to always want to work on music and then finally sit down to do it and nothing decent come out.