There is no need for stem splitter unless you want the stems for some reason. That step is not needed at all to generate tracks aligned with your song after using ACW..
J&B+P, Nice write. Heartwarming and heart-wrenching. Gorgeous vocals. Nice production. Peter's guitar is perfectly supportive. Excellent mix. Very cool album cover. fj Like you (and Ron), I spent childhood/teen summers working on Grampa's farm (and uncle's farms) in Iowa. Bailing hay, cutting silage, walking beans, milking cows (by hand and machine) and chasing piglets to be neutered. Always glad that I eventually got to go home to "city life" afterwards...but glad to have had the experience...
Thanks for the nice and supportive comments ... and especially for mentioning the write. A positive mention of a write from mr jane is very much gratifying. Sounds like you covered the farm work pretty well. Seems like we remember Grampa's farm. J&B
Oh, also one more trick to the trade always set the option to copy external files to session directory in Studio Pro. This means it will copy the temporary files to the song directory and have less of a chance of missing the files at a later date.
Hi John! You have quite a few interesting elements in this song - where ‘interesting’ = outside the norm or adding variety = good. However, it’s hard to clearly hear the relationship between the melody sung and the chords underneath. I think this is because the melody sounds like it would be tricky to sing, and also the timing is a little off in some places - maybe sounding a bit rushed? When I’ve been faced with this situation myself, here’s some of the things I do …
Punch in the sections that need timing amended and/or use stretch markers to align the vocal or one of those plugins that’ll do it for you
Put an instrument that is playing the melody underneath or alongside the vocal to reinforcement the melody, being careful that the type and volume of the instrument doesn’t make the melody disparity more prominent
Use Melodyne (or similar) to pitch adjust certain notes
The timbre of the vocal sounds good because it gives the impression of a young adult which suits your background given by your own trips when younger. I thought the long bus journey might also be emphasised by a fade out (I know - soooo 1980s) or an instrumental outro? I hope you do make some refinements to this song - it’ll be worth it! Andrew PS This new technique you tried is one I use often. Half the time I start writing in BIAB with a style and input some chords and keep adding and subtracting until I have something appealing to me - same approach with the melody in the editable notation window. The other half usually start with a vocal line and melody that I quickly put into my iPad VoiceMemos app that I then set up in BIAB at another time.
I just listened to your song again. I think the orchestral parts are pretty good. It's amazing how much tension strings can create. In my opinion, they are a good choice and very well implemented. Important message, conveyed by really good vocals. Good stuff
Really strong lyrics, injustice of the world put into very sharp writing "since when is doubt a crime?". And great melody which the AI singer handles superbly like a young country singer. The band is excellent and the mix is very balanced. Not so dramatic song like I'm used to hearing from you, but it's still a very welcome addition to your collection of excellent pop songs with socially conscious message. Janne
Fun "nerdy"/philosophical lyrics, lots of things included, so thoroughly pondered topic. "You try to find a trace of yourself online/But now you have been deleted" what a scary thought, but these Moltbook days this could be a story of an AI agent and for some reason, I'm now thinking the mystery of the deleted pair of socks in the washing machine Interesting arrangement which adds to the mystery. Great mix, nicely panned guitars. And the vocals and harmonies are guaranteed top quality. Janne
I laughed so hard at your harmonica god's name that coffee came out my nose :-)
You know, I never thought about it, but after reading your post, I started laughing, too. His name is Richard Salwitz but he's known as"Magic Dick with the Lickin' Stick.' He's with the J Geils Band, you've probably heard of them. He's a great musician, his intonation is really good, which is hard for a harmonica player to achieve. Here's a link to his signature tune, Whammer Jammer:
Quite an impactful piece of music, Scott. Nevermind your always brilliant guitar work, but the whole thing is full of emotion(s). The video is cool, too, but it seems when I listen to you I like my eyes closed. There is so much beauty in your ability to play that guitar.
Oh, yeah, LOVE THIS, Laurent! Great beat and a fun travelling song --through life. Man, great choices of sax. The whole band is perfect. Love that bass. Very cool video too. I like the almost-choreographed riding.
Hi Marty! That Am - F - E chord move sounds good. I’ve always liked the sweeping strum pattern used - or maybe it was the scraper? In any case, a cool sound. Vocal sounds good. Andrew
Thank you, Andrew.
Originally Posted by Knee Wobbler
Si, Senor Marty Muchas gracias, si numero uno to meeeee! Sorry, my Mexican is non-existent! You certainly have captured that Mexican or is it Spanish feel in this number. And I think your vocals added to that feel, effects or modifications weren’t need. Well done Marty, kind regards
Thanks, Lee. I get your Spanish even though you know moreofit than I do.
Originally Posted by rayc
Marty, you samba as well as swing...very cool & lots of fun in the sounds added to the band arrangement. The bass is particularly good. Love it!
Next will be Samba Swing. hehe Thanks, Ray.
Originally Posted by DonnyGee
BabuMusic, nice little shift in the chord work, I think most flamingo changes would have been Am-Dm-E7, but the F fits well. Nice job. Donny G
Thanks, Donny. F-E was my mom's name.
Originally Posted by DC Ron
Slinky and cool, Marty. LOVE your vocals: Almost over the top, but not a parody, and they work perfectly. That's a nice band, and the bass player is quite excellent, too. Super tune!
Thanks to everyone for listening to the song and commenting on my vocals. I was going for a dark vocal vibe and song. You have no idea how much I appreciate the help on this song from Charlie and Dan. It seems I get these mental blocks when it comes to using the ACW. I seem to go down a deep rabbit hole lol. Charlie do you have any objections to me posting the updated song on my SoundCloud account once I've recuperated from my recent op ? Of course your and dans help will be attributed. Both of you are brilliant. Om
Steve, this has been discussed a lot but it is still confusing *to me*. Many folks have posted cover songs to the I Heard it on YouTube forum and the moderators have never pushed back to my knowledge. So the practice is that it's ok. On the other hand, if you click on the Forum Rules link at the top of this page, Rule 9 reads: "Posting (or requesting) links to songs, music or other copyrighted material is forbidden. You are allowed to post links to your own original songs." There is nothing in the Rules that implies that this only applies to the User Showcase forum. Besides, the User Showcase has its own rules posted at the top of that forum. The subject of posting public domain songs has also come up a few times. The general practice is posting public domain songs is ok. But the definition of public domain varies by country, so it's a bit muddy. (Our host is in Canada, so those are likely the right public domain rules to follow.) Plus public domain isn't going to meet the "your own original songs" definition in Rule 9 referenced above. You can always DM an admin. Or just do it. I suspect it's all going to be fine.
Thanks for the guidance. I'll probably just put a link to my YouTube channel rather than flood with multiple posts.
Hi Andrew, just a quick response to your reply to my comments: I'm also constantly searching for the right key to sing in. Sometimes I try all eight notes of an octave. But often I end up back in the same key I started in... But then the singing sounds different again, because I always sing a little differently. Yeah, I saw you listened to my new song. Thanks for that. It's a bit different, isn't it?
Different Hans, but I like it! In terms of vocals, I go with what I have and no longer embarrassed by it.
Originally Posted by Scott H. Olson
Lots here to like. You definitely chose the right music and instruments to convey the messages in the hard-hitting lyrics. Good write. And you keep it interesting with varying parts and changes. Everything works well and sounds good, including your vocals.
Thanks Scott! When working with the chords and melody and original BIAB RealStyle, I knew I had to make it heavy and the lyrics (written afterward) could be angsty as well, so it turned out to be a good combination.
Originally Posted by laurent4114
Honestly, Andrew, I'm not a big fan of the grunge style; I'm probably too old for it, but I respect it. I like the theme of the song and the way it's sung. The video supports the message very well. It's beautiful work.
To be honest Laurent, I'm not a big fan of the genre either, but I don't mind variety and experimenting with styles/genre outside of my norm to see what comes up - in this case, I've learned about side-chain and 'ducking'. Life-long learning!
Originally Posted by dcuny
It's not my genre, but it nails the feel as far as I'm concerned. And your 12.125 note vocal range was more than sufficient to do the track justice. My own 2 cents - Izzy suggested that manually ducking can give better results than Trackspacer, but Trackspacer is nice because you can have it only take out specific frequencies, so the "pumping" effect is minimized (the sound of one instrument going down in volume when another goes up). But if you buy Trackspacer, make sure you get it on sale! Anyway, nice work.
Thanks David! Never heard of Trackspacer, but that might be because it costs something - I live at the freebie-only end of town, but I might look up to see what that type of plugin is called to look out for equivalent in free. Thanks for the suggestion! In relation to my vocal range, if we're dealing in semitones, that would make it 15. Trying to be clever, I also wanted to express this in a hz range but got horribly confused about whether I was singing C4 to D5 or C3 to D4 - I think the notation for acoustic guitar is not 'normal' so that is throwing me off. Anywho... it's limited!
Originally Posted by rayc
An accurate observation that reaches beyond Oz. Queen Gina & Prince Rupert are 1st nasties amongst the billionaires' club. Music bites as it should. I like the break down too. Excellent.
Thanks Ray! I've become aware of the global nature of this problem, so I'm not sure if it's just a distortion of capitalism (distortion - which is another reason that grunge would be appropriate) or another negative manifestation of the human condition - or both! I usually write a song uniformly throughout, and then when recording and mixing, I start looking for variation within the song to break it up a bit and maintain interest, both for myself and the listener! Thank you to all for listening and your informative comments! Andrew
Great tips! Adjusting the "Natural Arrangement" setting or trying "Jazz Down" might be the quickest fixes if BIAB isn't playing your chords exactly as written.
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