Song Fu Holiday Special

edited December 2008 in Music Industry 2.0
New Fu, new topic.

Here's a link to the sign-up form for this Song Fu competition.
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Comments

  • According to the sign up page, they should have announced the challenge by now. I wonder what's going on.

    I look forward to being trounced by the competition.
  • Well...
    I emailed...
    (EEK!)
  • The contestants had to send in the bio & photo by 11.59 PM EST on December 1st, so it could be published on December 2nd. I guess we'll be seeing it today.
  • Umm...
    I just got an email saying I've been accepted this morning.
    Biog and Pic emailed tonight!! EEK (again!)
  • Congratulations and good luck to everyone who got in! (It is not as empty a 'good luck' as you see on gambling machines, for you all can have good luck, and all create the best songs you've ever created without being struck down by the lurgy, even though you can't all win.)

    Covenant: You'd probably be the only Song Fu contestant other than Jonathan Coulton and Paul & Storm to have sung on stage with Jonathan Coulton.
  • Well, there's also Bill Corbett of the RiffTones.
  • Oh, okay, then let's just say he's the only challenger to have sung on stage with Jonathan Coulton.
  • Covenant, did you just email them yesterday?
  • Yup! I used the mail address on the site and not the auto mailer cos that wasn;t working
  • edited December 2008
    weird.
    I submitted a week ago and even got an email from Kenneth saying he got my submission..
    but he has not sent me an acceptance email.

    probably just a goof up. Or maybe he figured he already had my info from last time so he didnt need it again.
    Or maybe he HATES MY FREAKING GUTS!
    IM GOING TO GO SET MYSELF ON FIRE & JUMP OFF AN OVERPASS INTO ONCOMMING TRAFFIC!!!!!!
  • Maybe they're just scared you'll run away with it???
    (I know *I* am!)

    ;' )
  • Just send another email, it probably got lost in a spam filter or something.
  • yeah maybe. I'll just send another email.
    I dont think I'll run away with anything.
    Although I did mention the contest to my friend Dave. If he enters the contest we are all doomed.

    He's about every bit as good a songwriter as JoCo.
  • [puffs out chest -all manly-like]

    Bring em oonnn !!!!

    ;' )
  • Hey cool.
    Looks like I did get in.
    Stiff competition this time 'round.

    Song Fu Holiday Edition
  • edited December 2008
    Wow! When I saw all of the challegers and I wasn't among them, I freaked. After a couple of emails, I am in the competition. Whew! Ken Plume is now one of my favorite people.
  • edited December 2008
    Hehehe, I like JeffM's new picture. (And Nate Shivers', but I don't think he's here to read this. Also, the fact that The Masked Stranger doesn't appear to be masked.)

    ETA: ManFriday, maybe they just didn't bother to tell you you were in, because they already had your details from last time. Pretty stupid, but I guess it's possible.
  • Man, is anyone in this contest NOT from these forums? ;-)
  • Hey! "Rusty's Rocking Jamboree" stole my bio! That's not me!

    I'm giving it a miss this time round - just too much other stuff on the go at the moment. Good luck to all the competitors from the JoCo forums, but I'll be secretly hoping that Joe pulls some magic out of his Santa hat, as the competitor on my doorstep (give or take a mile or 30).
  • Psstt.. *I'm* secretly wishing that too...

    Anyway...
    I have a tune in my head. I have an idea for production in mind.
    I have 2 and a bit verses (of 4 stanzas of four lines each)
    and I have a chorus (3 stanzas of three lines each.)
    It seems a bit long... But ... we'll see...

    (I'm only hoping I don't make a total numpty of meself ! I mean, there are MUSICIANS in this thing !!!)
  • A numpty? Some ancient gaelic word maybe? *grin* Grats on getting in all of ya!
  • Blah, Ken Plume didn't place my new bio. I don't like the old one.

    Anyway, good luck everyone!
  • Hmmm..
    Just put down my first run through of my song... 4mins 36 secs.. is that too long ???
  • not if your the Greatful Dead
  • Okay, thats a full verse removed.

    (A full 8 lines and one chorus less!!!!)

    back to work....
  • Perhaps I should have said that it doesn't seem too long to me, before you went and cut things out. But then, a lot of things are better once you've cut out the worst bits, so I shouldn't say not to bother when I haven't heard it.

    Carry on.
  • edited December 2008
    I am the entertainer,
    I come to do my show.
    You've heard my latest record,
    It's been on the radio.
    Ah, it took me years to write it,
    They were the best years of my life.
    It was a beautiful song.
    But it ran too long.
    If you're gonna have a hit,
    You gotta make it fit--
    So they cut it down to 3:05.
  • Right... thats the first demo finished.
    Running time is now 3m 45s.
    My fingers are very sore. (Metal strung acoustic)
    I don't think I'm gonna get what I'm *hearing*, but at least I have something I can work with now !!

    ;' )

    Cup o' tea... bed... start again tomorrow!
    (hope my calluses will have come back by then!)

    Thanks for the comments all!
    J
  • Okay, I should get started on my song today...
  • Well...
    First rough cut of the real recording finished...
    And I am now about to re-start my computer hoping it will *fix* something that has happened.
    Everything was fine.
    Nicely balanced.
    And then I plugged my keyboard in to the computer...
    The keyboard won;t play through my line in loud enough to hear...
    (Have to record THAT analogue too now!)
    But now, suddenly, everything I have recorded sounds distorted, even though there's no red-lining or clipping...

    Covenant
    A Man About To Either Sigh In Relief... Or Lose It BIG Time...
  • Well...
    Both a relief and a bu**er...
    The file itself seems fine.
    ALL my sounds are playing with a level of distortion.
    Problem is, it isn't my speakers. Headphones are giving the same problem (Plugged into a different line out too.)
    Unless its a codec problem (if it is I'm screwed) it might be my on board sound (in which case I'm screwed)

    It won't stop work on my song.
    But it'll mean I have no real idea of what the end result sounds like - only what it sounds like distorted!

    Damnation....
  • So send it to me to hear and I will say if it is distorted or no...
  • you are probably clipping the converters on your soundcard.
  • edited December 2008
    @ ManFriday... Ummm.... 'yeah!'

    ;' ))) (?)

    @JoAnn - Check yer email!
  • @Covenant--what system are you using? In Pro Tools, you can just lower the level of the master fader to ease distortion sometimes.
  • I'm using Acoustica for this one, but its not the program causing the distortion, its system wide.
    What a pain.....
  • what was your recording chain like?
    mic?
    preamp?
    converter/soundcard?
    if you solo an individual track is it distorted or does it not distort until you have all the tracks playing?
  • mic directly into the soundcard.
    (Onboard sound - Realtek AC97 audio)

    Thing is, though, it isn't just mixcraft that is distorting.
    Windows system alert noises are distorting, WMP, winamp, anything that makes a sound, is distorting.

    I can only think it is a codec problem, but I haven't touched them !!
  • might wanna try downloading the latest driver for the soundcard.
  • ;' ) That was my first port of call... Nada.

    Been trying to listen closely to the effect. It's like an overdriven bass boost.
    But I've nothing remotely like that set anywhere!!!

    (Grudamit!)
  • I listened, go check yours now- I didn't listen till now cause I had to finish my abnormal psych paper for tomorrow, last one!
  • edited December 2008
    Well...
    I uninstalled a load of codecs, ran the k-lite pack.
    It has made a slight difference, but there is still an occasional... I can only describe it as listening to a radio not tuned in *quite* correctly... but its intermittent.

    I think a new (real) soundcard is needed!

    ETA
    @JoAnn - reply on its way
  • Haven't found any good theme/lyrics/music ideas yet... :/
  • Jackoff the drunken Elf?
    Just pick one of the seven vices. lust, gluttony, greed, laziness, wrath, envy, pride
    and match it with either, an elf, rain deer, santa, a mouse, a christmas tree, a snowman, etc.
  • I seriously went mad trying to think of something that would be amusing and not crass.
    I could NOT get south park's underpants gnomes out of my head!
    I also got hooked on the idea of the christmas ball polishers...

    Thankfully, I thought of something else!

    ;' )
  • okay....
    Bad to worse....
    Mic not working. (neither of the two I have)
    mic inouts not working (either of the two I have)

    Any time I try to record from mic the level indicators are peaking at max and there is no sound coming through the speakers.

    I think I'm screwed (again)
  • Is the one you already recorded good enough to submit? Oh, there's still a week... any chance of replacing whatever needs to be replaced?
  • edited December 2008
    Have you recorded with this setup before?
    I have always had really horrible luck trying to record with the built-in audio cards on most computers/motherboards.

    YA need something like This

    Or, if you are looking to go cheaper something like This


    You are not in the states are you?
    I have one of the latter I could loan you if you are. IF you are in the UK as I suspect, it would not get to you in time.
  • @ManFriday Really, REALLY, good of you to offer.

    Sadly, UK.
    Only option is to try and get a loan of a computer and use {coughcoughmixcraftportablecoughcough}

    what a damn pain...

    @Angelastic
    Do I think what I have is good enough? Well. its a half decent demo, but in no way a polished track.
    It needs some little bits of filler to link up little effects before the track itself starts. It needs some form of bassline or percussion.
    and my BVs are very thin and needed re-recorded.
    I just had my daughter up here tonight to do exactly that.. but obviously no joy. (We just watched Mean Girls instead!)


    I'll tell you what I will do though. I'm willing to accept your guys judgement on it.
    Come saturday, if I have had no luck, if anyone wants to chip in and tell me what they think, I'll send it on so you can be brutal with me.

    I know its a *songwriting* contest, so in a perfect world, content should take precedent over form... but its a popular vote, and something sounding good will always beat something sounding dross... (Listen to me... what a drama queen!)

    SH*T !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • Well....

    I've done the best I could, considering...

    It's sent in !!!
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