On cover tunes
jim d
actually.
In reading more about copyrights, I came across this article. It's kinda
interesting most of the way thru, boring at the end. I didn't realize
that " covering " others music wasn't looked down on until fairly
recently, in the 70's or so. And that now the practice is coming back
into fashion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cover_version
jim d
SID
Write in your own blood,
Stand tall
Give 'em steel Jim
Jim
this is leading me down some new paths. I actually watched a Marilyn
Manson video today. My first ever. Also an interview with the NIN
keyboard ( or something ) guy.
Not so impressed with the goth / guy dressed as a woman thing, but the
music is interesting. It's new to me. Not twangy rhythm guitar and
pattern drum based. I like it. It's more like the some symphonic thing,
or just sounds strung together than what an ( ex ) country guy like me
expects.
I don't think I'll ever be scaring the seniors with black fingernails
and songs full of synths doing sound effects, but ... I may rethink some
elements I take for granted in song structure. With that in mind, I'm
realizing how much the stuff I'm working on sounds 70-ish.
jim d
SID
>
> I don't think I'll ever be scaring the seniors with black fingernails
> and songs full of synths doing sound effects, but ... I may rethink some
> elements I take for granted in song structure. With that in mind, I'm
> realizing how much the stuff I'm working on sounds 70-ish.
>
> jim d
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Soloact
That's right Jim. A lot of what goes on around here is based on a
70's juke box, just look at the definition of "soloact".
Jim
> SID <maro...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Soloact
That's great, and it has one more thumbs up than it did before I looked
:-)
As you know from being in Cleve and all, the weather here today is
wonderful. Sunshine, fall colors and temps in the 60's. Great outdoor
weather. I have to do my final lawn mow of the season, then I'm grabbing
the camera and heading out to make some ( hopefully better ) clips for
the bike video.
Last night I redid all the audio track exports for the video tune. It's
almost entirely audio tracks, and they had to be exported one by one
from Cubase into my new setup. The trick was working out how to align
them. I took Ricks advice there and extended each forward so it started
at 1.1.1.1. Not a real efficient method, as some tracks were only a few
seconds long and this make them almost the full tune length and much
bigger. So instead of being, say, a 7 meg export it was around 45 meg
per affected track.
The other issues with moving tracks was to turn off all the Cubase
effects, get as hot a level as I could on the track ( or at least don't
attenuate it ), and export them as mono. A track would be typically a
single instrument and recorded mono, but in the Cubase effect panel I
added effects and turned it to stereo. That created panning issues when
moved, so the best thing seems to bypass all the effects and just move
the raw track as best I can. Redo the effects and pan with Logic plugs
Long winded, eh ?
I'm waiting until the battery in my mower charges enough to start :-)
later all
jim d
NOTE: oh, please don't take my move from Cubase as a slam of it. Not at
all, Cubase is a great package. It's just that for a while there, their
mac support was dodgy. During that gap I switched to something else.
That's all. Firing it up last night was like visiting an old friend. I
knew where all the controls were, it was so familiar. Too bad they were
so slow getting their act together for a while.
That's a similar situation to what's happening now with Line 6 and OSX
10.6. Line 6 doesn't have workable editor software for the current Apple
os, and so my POD is in a drawer. Hopefully they will remedy the
situation before I forget about the POD.
..... to the mower ..... and beyond ........
Ernie Garner
>realizing how much the stuff I'm working on sounds 70-ish.
Major problem with "our" generation. I was involved with a recording
project, doing keys, where a young female singer / songwriter /
guitarist was being produced by a 70's underground cat. I had to
stand on my lips to keep from screaming. The kid was pretty talented
and used some really interesting chord changes but by the time the
producer was done the songs were a rehash of yesterdays news.
I always liked the swordmanship lesson from the movie Scaramouche
where the instructor tells the hero: "Think of this - a sword is like
a bird. If you clutch it too tightly, you choke It - too lightly and
it flies away." Producing is kind of like that.
Trent Reznor the name you're looking for?
Ernie
Ernie Garner
>
>That's right Jim. A lot of what goes on around here is based on a
>70's juke box, just look at the definition of "soloact".
Autofellatio?
Ernie
Jim
> Ernie Garner <en...@giveitabreakohernie.com> wrote:
> >With that in mind, I'm
> >realizing how much the stuff I'm working on sounds 70-ish.
>
> Major problem with "our" generation. I was involved with a recording
> project, doing keys, where a young female singer / songwriter /
> guitarist was being produced by a 70's underground cat. I had to
> stand on my lips to keep from screaming. The kid was pretty talented
> and used some really interesting chord changes but by the time the
> producer was done the songs were a rehash of yesterdays news.
Yep, I hear the 70's in my tracks. That sound is in my head.
It might be smart to listen to the occasional current artist. I need to
do that more. But then again, there are the artists who ( say ) they
never listen to the radio or anything. Is that true ? For an artist /
writer I can see merit in that, I guess. For a commercial writer, best
to be right in there copying whatever style is hot.
In my earlier years I was usually busy playing playing playing, there
never was time to listen to a lot of other stuff. I did have one trick,
but after I got married and wife totally put a stop to my habit of
putting some album I liked on, set the turntable on repeat forever, and
let it play all night as I slept.
>
> I always liked the swordmanship lesson from the movie Scaramouche
> where the instructor tells the hero: "Think of this - a sword is like
> a bird. If you clutch it too tightly, you choke It - too lightly and
> it flies away." Producing is kind of like that.
>
> Trent Reznor the name you're looking for?
>
> Ernie
Yep Reznor.
Never saw the Scaramouche movie, but I can appreciate the principal.
jim d
Ernie Garner
>to be right in there copying whatever style is hot.
Doesn't work. Whatever you are copying will be old by the time you
finish writing and recording the song. To be a "pop" song writer you
have to be immersed enough in current music to be "one with the trend"
so that your songs are what people will be listening to in six months.
(Rick, what's your "Nashville" input on this?)
Assuming you are not going for platinum I think you are better off
developing a style and an audience for that style. It's like being
the local Italian restaurant. If you are *really* Italian, you won't
appeal to everybody i.e. you won't be McDonald's. Unless you really
want to be McDonald's and put up a sign that touts how many millions
of pounds of linguini you've sold, that's ok. What's important is
that you appeal to enough people to make the effort worthwhile.
I recently had a discussion with a guy from "Shoes" about this. They
were never a major hit, but when they got a good review in Rolling
Stone that gave an address where people could order their CD (they had
no distribution), they immediately got 3000 orders at $10 a pop.
Eventually sales went to 20k. For McCartney this is shit. For four
guys out of Zion, IL with day gigs ...
I think I can say that this is the Leo approach. He's definitely in a
niche market but it's a real market and he addresses it well. Once
someone buys a CD, there's a good chance they will come back for
seconds and thirds. As long as he addresses the needs of his
demographic he can release an album per year and his fans will buy it.
It may not be Trump, but it will pay the electric bill.
I'd be focusing on how you want to musically define yourself and then
weighing it against how much market there would be for your product.
It's a bit late for you to decide you're going to be a pop songwriter
/ artist.
Ernie
SID
You're the limbo champ!
Ernie Garner
Yo, Einstein,
Which way do you bend when you do the limbo?
Ernie
SID
"Over under sideways down"