Forum Members in Bands/Forum Members that Play Music
Hello,
it occured to me that we don't have a topic for us forum members who play music or are in bands..
Also, forgive me if Bry read my mind and posted the same topic I'm writing while I'm writing it. He has a tendency to do that.
I'll start it off, but there doesn't necessarily need to be a specific format.
----
I'm Charlie. I'm a singer/songwriter from Los Angeles, playing both funny and nonfunny songs.
I have two videos on youtube of my solo stuff:
Big City, and I'm Bob Dylan.
I also have a band but I feel then I'd be posting too much.
Now you!
Charlie
P.S. *Shameless Self Promotion* If you are in Los Angeles area and liked the stuff I posted I have two free shows coming up! ask me about them.
it occured to me that we don't have a topic for us forum members who play music or are in bands..
Also, forgive me if Bry read my mind and posted the same topic I'm writing while I'm writing it. He has a tendency to do that.
I'll start it off, but there doesn't necessarily need to be a specific format.
----
I'm Charlie. I'm a singer/songwriter from Los Angeles, playing both funny and nonfunny songs.
I have two videos on youtube of my solo stuff:
Big City, and I'm Bob Dylan.
I also have a band but I feel then I'd be posting too much.
Now you!
Charlie
P.S. *Shameless Self Promotion* If you are in Los Angeles area and liked the stuff I posted I have two free shows coming up! ask me about them.
Comments
Actually, I just got a youtube comment today on one of my JoCo recorded videos. How do I go about telling this person that he needs to contact, I assume, TMBG and JoCo? And that I didn't even write or perform the song? (It was a comment on my Ikea video, but he came across it through my Birdhouse video)
I'm not much of a musician...I don't play any instruments, though I'm trying to fit an acoustic guitar and guitar lessons into my budget cause I really would like to learn. What I DO enjoy immensely, is singing. I LOVE to sing, and though I don't have a fantastic voice I think I do a pretty decent job otherwise. I LOVE to perform for an audience, especially a live one. I'm part of an improv troupe, the 404s, that's done many geeky improv shows at anime conventions (which is not so much musical as it is a performance art, but still, I thought I'd mention it). I karaoke a TON, and am in the midst of covering a bunch of songs for JoCo day to post on Youtube (kerrin's project). I also parodied JoCo's Over There for Canada day/his first concert in Canada, which can still be found on Youtube somewhere.
;' )
Singer/Songwriter. Actor, Writer, Director (Artistic and Musical) of some 40 years.
(Yes, seriously, my first pro performance was aged 5 !!!)
Various groups, plays, musicals, film and TV work...
Anyway... music...
One of my latest
Written for a LARP album I made a year or so ago... more details here including the stories behind the songs.
My only hang-up is that musically my ideas are tempered by my abilities.
I've lost count of the number of songs/tunes I never finsihed because I couldn't play what I was hearing in my head.
So anyway, the other day I bought myself a low-end MIDI keyboard, and now I can not only play tunes but also record and edit them on my computer, and display them on a stave as if I could actually write music. It's great fun, and I'm writing some software that will get my computer to sing to the tunes I play (the singing program was already done ages ago... you might remember I posted a demo of the first couple of lines of Still Alive sung by an actual computer... but entering the tune as notes and durations was tedious and I never got time to finish the song. I'm hoping it will be much easier with the keyboard, and easy to write what MIDI code isn't already in the demo application I found, so that I can finish it and make a crappy video to go with it for the JoCo day blitz.) This suits me perfectly because in general I only press one key on the keyboard at a time, which is about all the speech synthesisers can handle. Nope, no musical talent here.
So yeah... look out for me, I'll be the next Mozart. No wait... [voice style="Arnie"]I'll be Bach.[/voice]
(BTW... the link above, I hope everyone realises that as it is an *in character* album, this isn't my 'usual' singing style!)
;' )
I'm a classically trained singer and conductor, and I can play piano badly. I have a "real" job as an auditor, but I also have a church gig where I sing and teach music in the Sunday school, and I'm the music director of a community children's chorus. Also, my friends and I perform sci-fi themed variety shows at a local con. I'm kind of a musical egghead. I don't write songs, and my arrangements leave something to be desired, but I can transcribe!
www.jason-morris.com
i suppose i have this.
Ex-musician here. Was apparently on track to be a struggling classical pianist until my second year at university, when I got seduced by theatre (no, not a theatre), and got rerouted to the Struggling Theatre Musician queue. Spent a fantastic year as resident musician for a Theatresports improv troupe (tip of the hat to Encubed), and 7.5 surreal years as musician and music director on a cruise line. Now, alas, with a normal day job and an 18-month-old son I struggle to find any time to play music; my big hope is for the day when I can keep my son occupied by making him listen to my practicing ;-)
I think we're all well aware of your musical talent. I still hum "O'Sullivan Stomp".
Been playing "seriously" (ie: teaching myself by messing around a couple hours a day) since the start of 2008. I don't consider myself great by any means; I can't read sheet music to save my life and I barely know where the notes are on the strings, but give me a tab and I'm good to go. :P
I'm focused mainly on acoustic songs, though I do own some electrics.
I find that my interest in guitars combines nicely with JoCo's music, as his songs are fun to play and learning them forces me to be a better player by trying songs I normally think are out of my league (Millionaire Girlfriend is a perfect example).
I'm currently learning I Crush Everything and Flickr, mainly because I enjoy the sound of finger-picked songs opposed to straight strumming songs.
You can find my butchering of 60 or so acoustic songs over the last year on YouTube under the same user name I use here.
Or, since I suppose I can link things, you could just click here.
- Nyk
ps: I also sing really badly because I have no ideal what my vocal range is/would be. Any tips would be appreciated.
http://www.jeffmacdougall.com
P.S. I too am in Los Angeles. (funny, I can't type P.S. now without thinking Paul and Storm)
(even half decent...)
I need help and advice for setting one up !!!
(IE.. what do I buy !?!?!?) ;' )
Charlie
I don; suppose there is much difference between laptop and desktop ??? But maybe Go for desktop for the versatility.
I can get a base unit cheap enough, I just need to know whats good equipment wise.
Like, best soundcard, best mic, best way to get recordings onto the PC.
Pod Studio UX2
or it has a little brother here.
Would one of those, with one of these half decent mic...
(or similar? Any suggestions???)
And that would pretty much be it!?
In terms of sound cards, you may want to try to get something with native "ASIO" support. Not sure exactly what that entails, but I think it's supposed to reduce the mic-to-speaker latency. OTOH, there's an "ASIO4ALL" driver that works with most soundcards (but apparently it can only work with a mic or with speakers at once?). I personally work with MIDI files a lot more than audio recordings, so I was sure to get soundfont support on my Desktop's soundcard.
I hear that laptops generally have poorer soundcards than desktops, but I haven't had any problems with my laptop (yet). And I really like the portability. I can bring it into a walkin closet, or out my car, to get a quieter environment. And I was able to bring it to church with me, to record the handbells for Creepy Doll.
These days, I tend to do recording at night, after he (and pretty much everyone else) is asleep, i.e. the geeklikemetoo mixing hour. I do recording in the basement while people sleep on the second floor; I resorted to the car while I was still living in a two-bedroom apartment.
(nice one!!)
I have 2 audio interfaces. 1 is a firewire Presonus Firewire 10-input jobbie which sounds great but costs more than I'd be willing to pay (won it in a competition, so I didn't pay anything!)
The other is an Edirol 2496 which I picked up from ebay about 3 years ago for under £100 - 2 sets of every input you could need - mic/line/instrument/spif/midi and built like a tank. Needs a desktop as it has a PCI card to plug in, but I've been running it on an old P3 800 machine via Ardour on linux and it copes fine with 8 channel live recordings (usually in pubs or similar hostile environments). Used it to record all three days of the UK Theremin symposium 18 months ago, running for over 36 hours of recording end-to-end. Edirol do equivalent firewire and USB versions now, I think, but you might be able to pick one up for a reasonable amount.
Just about anything by Presonus, Edirol, M-Audio is going to be a good bit of kit. EMU have done some good stuff as well, but some was plagued by poor drivers. A highly respected card is the M-Audio Audiophile which has dropped in price over the past few years to around the 50 quid mark. Only 2 analogue & 2 digital inputs (plus midi), so you'd need a small mixer or mic preamp, but great quality for the price.
Finally for inputs, you could consider something like the Behringer BCA2000 - good value for money and a stack of input options, though I think it could only actually record through two at one time from what I recall, which was the only thing that put me off at the time.
For mics - the SM58 is a favourite for live vocals, but if you're going to be doing a lot of recording (which you SHOULD, based on what we've heard so far), it might be worth investing in a large diaphragm condensor mic like this - SE Electronics, RODE, AKG and numerous others do them for pretty reasonable prices thanks to major improvments in Chinese manufacturing quality control (it used to cost thousands for good quality mics - Neumann, etc.)
If you want an all rounder (for acoustic guitar, percussion, etc as well as vocals) you could try the Rode M3 - it's had some pretty good reviews. If you possibly can, though, do try before you buy - some mics suit certain voices more than others. My condensor is a cheapy Samson C10, which gets the job done, but vocals are NOT my strong point!
Lots of podcast-ready mics with built-in usb interfaces have appeared recently - some are better than others, but if you're likely to be singing a lot (Song Fu, on stage, guest appearances, etc.), then having a mic you are comfortable with using a standard xlr connector means you can take it with you and always know what you're dealing with - it will plug into any PA/desk/interface/etc. without having to go via a PC. Swings and roundabouts, really.
(And some more ideas!)
Looks like this may be a little more expensive than previously thought though!
(When you consider that everything I'd done til the blow out was just recorded through a quickshot stick mic (£5) into my onboard sound card with NO lagging at all!)
Hmmmmmm.........
I've seen this priced between £20 and £100 !!!
Brits are more likely to understand the level of my abilities if I state them like this: I've got ABRSM Grade 5 treble recorder, and am working on Grade 6 to take it in the summer; and I'm taking Grade 5 singing in March.
I started music rather later than I wish I had, so I'm trying to catch up, and dabbling with arranging and composing increasingly as I start having some ideas.
Although that said, a nice bouncy tune came into my head when I was washing up earlier, but I didn't manage to get it written down before it went away again
To be honest, I haven't done a side-by-side test of it against other mics. My singing is my weakest musical ability and I cringe from the out-of-tune notes long before I'm even aware of the tone of my voice being affected. I have used it for a range of uses and have no arguments with it - it does the job fine for me, and I've used it for vocals, uke, acoustic guitar and drum ambience.
Here's a review - incidentally, Sound on Sound is a great source of reviews - keep an eye out in WH Smiths for specials they sometimes run - I did have one they did on mics a while back... [nips off to dig it out of the collection] ... [looks online]... yep, here it is - "Choosing Studio Mics"!
What do you make of this as the recording rig?
I'm trying to keep this as basic as possible.
So, Mic, or Mic and input to a firewire direct input should do it, no?
(I'm assuming that a firewire direct input should pretty much rule out any latency/lag issues when multitracking !??)
I guess the problem with the mic is, I'll never know till I hear it. And I wont hear it til I get it.
(A lot of reviews of almost ALL the mics I've read are totally bi-polar! (It's Great! / It's Crap!!) )
Although have only read good things about AKG...?
Sticking to generalisation here, latency shouldn't be much of an issue with any recent soundcard/motherboard combination and ASIO drivers (or whatever is currently considered to be more solid than ASIO). Firewire itself doesn't guarantee it, and earlier Firewire interfaces had a lot of variability regarding how compatible they were with different audio peripherals. So before taking the plunge there, you might want to research if there are known issues with your specific computer; perhaps Googling your motherboard model number and chipset in conjunction with "audio drivers" could lead you to something.
AKG has indeed got a good record, but there are a LOT of good options at the budget end of the market. One problem with well-known pro brands jumping into the consumer game has always been that they can be in it for the quick buck, selling crap and watering down the currency of their brand (JBL springs to mind).
Taking Lunacy's thinking a bit further, you can't go wrong with a Sound On Sound subscription. It's a really great mag, and unlike the other vaguely similar UK mags, are still quite balanced in their musical outlook, not assuming that everybody who uses a computer for music will primarily be into electronic styles.
Thats the overall problem isn't it !
I won't know until I try /get them!
The subscription to the mag, whereas surely a good idea, is not something that would help as I'm looking to get workhorse items that will do me for a loooong time.
I'm not looking to go pro again, been there, done that, liked it, but it took over your life.
Maybe if fate is unkind and my *job* goes the way of all things then .. maybe.. .but, you know.. i'm 45 !
;' ))
Maybe I'll check out JoCo's set up and trawl for bargain/cheap versions of similar !! ;' )
Don't forget - even the most basic semi-pro gear available these days has a sound quality and flexibility that would have caused jaws to drop even just 10 years ago! For example, my little Boss Micro BR that I take when I'm working away from home (and used to record the Glasgow gig and one of my Song Fu tracks) has the facilities of a portastudio, a guitar fx unit, vocal fx unit, guitar tuner and microphone costing probably around 500 quid or more 10 years ago, but with better quality, for about 120 pounds and it fits in my pocket!
The Boss looks nioce too!!
(HA !!! On the same page was an ad for this !!!
What a piece of synchronicity !!!! Everyone in here should buy shares !! ;'))
Charlie
I'm kind of tempted by the Shure X2U which was recently announced - a much simpler device, like a sort of stick with an XLR port at one end, a USB port at the other, a headphone socket at the side (for zero-latency monitoring) and a couple of dials for adjusting levels so that what arrives at the computer isn't too quiet or clipping. It's not actually available quite yet though, so I don't know if it's any good. Provides phantom power and everything though - if nothing else it'd be a lot neater!
The mic itself I have no complaints about at all, it's lovely, although the blue glowing LED on the front to indicate it's got power could perhaps be a bit less intense (this is a common problem with blue LEDs, I know they're fashionable but there are other colours available...)
Pony
But I might be getting more and more drawn to the Samson for a mic if these reports are anyhting to go by ! Thanks !!
But I figure the latency issues would remain.
(Maybe I don't understand enough about the latency issues.... ;' ) )
Where it is a problem, is when I try to monitor my self over the headphones. I haven't gotten that to work with any setup yet, and probably won't as long as I'm going through the software. It's very disturbing hearing myself repeat myself half a second after I sing/play something. after I sing/play something.
Anyway, if I'm having trouble hearing myself, I'll just turn down the playback volume, or remove the headphones from one of my ears. Ghetto, but hey...
Oooo I ALWAYS have the headphones off one ear.
Just can't get a real feeling of what I'm singing otherwise!
This I feel is an important skill anyway, because you need to do that when you're performing without amplification, which is the majority of what I do.