When I first started recording songs in about 1990, I had a tascam cassette 8 track recorder, it was new at the time around 2000.00 and i was a true newbie at recording. I was trying to do all sorts of things with it, and bought an alesis effects unit with all the goodies. Every song that I recorded was totally washed in some sort of an effect. Garbage was what I did for about 2 years. I sold that recorder and late bought a 4 track fostex from a pawn shop for 100.oo. I learned to record on that, it was simple, straightforward and I would only use reverb when really called for. Later came the Adat in 95, Roland v8, computer, etc. I still dont have a polished commercial sound with my recordings, and really dont want that. But, I do not have any over use of effects to look back on now. The old recordings before Reverb came along still stand the test of time. They sound clear, clean, and dont date themselves. I listen now to some of the classic rock songs that I loved in the 70's and can hardly listen to them because of the horrible effects and amount of used. I can listen to a song and pretty well date it by the effects used in it. They have a purpose, but, I think they have to be precisely placed to stand the test of time.
Anyone who does this for a while will have listened back to things we recorded years ago and thought 'what was I thinking' .. but apparently we thought it was good at the time. Welcome to the club. <grin>
Times change and so do we. I call it learning. Thanks for sharing that lesson you learned.
Make your sound your own! .. I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
I was definitely guilty of using too many effects in my early productions. When I open old projects, everything has a long effects chain and doesn't sound very good.
I've since learned that a simple patch on a quality synth recorded through my MOTU interface rarely needs more than subtle EQ, light compression, and a touch of reverb and/or delay, and maybe some saturation (saturation is my secret weapon, usually from SoundToys plugins). If I need anything more drastic to make something sound nice, I should probably just delete it and re-record.
Lots of people new to recording tend to overuse the effects. Either because they think it sounds good and want to "enhance it" a bit or because they think it sounds bad and they're trying to cover it up. (especially vocals)
You can find my music at: www.herbhartley.com Add nothing that adds nothing to the music. You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.
The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.
I used to be very guilty of this when first mixing my own tunes. Sometimes with all the software and toys to use it's easy to forget that sometimes less is more
Convenient Ways to Listen to Band-in-a-Box® Songs Created by Program Users!
The User Showcase Forum is an excellent place to share your Band-in-a-Box® songs and listen to songs other program users are creating!
There are other places you can listen to these songs too! Visit our User Showcase page to sort by genre, artist (forum name), song title, and date - each listing will direct you to the forum post for that song.
If you'd rather listen to these songs in one place, head to our Band-in-a-Box® Radio, where you'll have the option to select the genre playlist for your listening pleasure. This page has SoundCloud built in, so it won't redirect you. We've also added the link to the Artists SoundCloud page here, and a link to their forum post.
We hope you find some inspiration from this amazing collection of User Showcase Songs!
Our User Showcase Forum receives more than 50 posts per day, with people sharing their Band-in-a-Box songs and providing feedback for other songs posted.
Video: Enhanced Melodists in Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows®!
We've enhanced the Melodists feature included in Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows!
Access the Melodist feature by pressing F7 in the program to open the new MultiPicker Library and locate the [Melodist] tab.
You can now generate a melody on any track in the program - very handy! Plus, you select how much of the melody you want generated - specify a range, or apply it to the whole track.
This new panel offers built-in specific support for the Reaper® DAW API allowing direct transfer of Band-in-a-Box® files to/from Reaper® tracks!
When you run the Plugin from Reaper®, there is a panel to set the following options:
-BB Track(s) to send: This allows you to select the Plugin tracks that will be sent Reaper.
-Destination Reaper Track: This lets you select the destination Reaper track to receive media content from the Plugin.
-At Bar: You can select a bar in Reaper where the Plugin tracks should be placed.
-Start Below Selected Track: This allows you to place the Plugin tracks below the destination Reaper track.
-Overwrite Reaper Track: You can overwrite previous content on the destination Reaper track.
-Move to Project Folder: With this option, you can move the Plugin tracks to the Reaper project folder.
-Send Reaper Instructions Enable this option to send the Reaper Instructions instead of rendering audio tracks, which is faster.
-Render Audio & Instructions: Enable this option to generate audio files and the Reaper instructions.
-Send Tracks After Generating: This allows the Plugin to automatically send tracks to Reaper after generating.
-Send Audio for MIDI Track: Enable this option to send rendered audio for MIDI tracks.
-Send RealCharts with Audio: If this option is enabled, Enable this option to send RealCharts with audio.
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