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Ryszard Offline OP
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I recently placed a craigslist ad promoting my services as a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and vocalist seeking to join or form a working group. I will only say that the group's music will combine elements of blues and ambient/electronica and will be unique when it happens.

I was contacted almost immediately by a gentleman seeking a collaborator in a commercial-music enterprise. He is an established songwriter who has the contacts and most of the skills necessary; I auditioned* and he feels that I can complete the package. I have two weeks from Wednesday, April 8 to prepare my studio for co-production.

As I have dealt with responses to my ad I became aware that I actually have three goals within the overarching desire to make my living at music: (1) To play live for its own sake, and to earn short-term cash; (2) to create and market my own, purely creative music, with the goal of its sustaining me long term; (3) and to create and market commercial music for sale to film and TV production houses, websites, ad agencies, etc.

My new collaborator has said he will begin sending me beds to work on as soon as I tell him I am ready. In order to do these things I need to build a DAW (for which I have the parts and software); learn how to effectively use my studio, in particular my sequencer (Nuendo 1.6.2), Band in a Box, RealBand, and Reason, pretty much in that order; create sample music; get better control of my Roland VG-88 "V-Guitar"; set up at least one website (which I need to learn how to do); and get to work. I need to be up by Tuesday, April 21, although I'd like to be ready at the end of this week--Friday the 17th.

So here is my point: I am asking you to hold me accountable. In the time I have been a member here I have posted one piece of music: unacceptable. So, please: Write me at the address posted in my profile (if we get to know one another I'll give you my phone number.); or, in any appropriate post, feel free to challenge me with the question: "What have you done towards reaching these goals today?" And I'll be asking plenty of questions here, because now I have to make this stuff work, and well.

The only way I can fail now is to not answer my phone or email, or not complete the tasks above. Knowing myself, that may not be enough, so I'd like to publicly put myself on the spot, i.e., "Put up or shut up." And you know how I love to talk.

Thanks in advance to all the great teachers, musicians, and listeners here.

R.


* The audition consisted of accompanying the man, whose name some of you songwriters may know, on lead electric guitar during two hours in front of a live audience without knowing what he was going to play. The repertoire consisted of country, pop, and rock music. I even stayed up for half a dozen numbers during an open-mic segment. In that time I missed one note; I'm fairly proud of how I did. And I was publicly introduced for the first time as "Ryszard".


"My primary musical instrument is the personal computer."
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Well, two of us ain't slackers. Me, and the one guy who wrote with encouragement and specific advice.

Quote:

I have two weeks from Wednesday, April 8 to prepare my studio for co-production.




I did it in five days. I built the DAW, installed a sealed copy of Win XP Pro and my music software. My landlord gave me the use of a Studio RTA "Creation Station" studio desk. I was given a "bad" Behringer MX 2004A 16-channel mixer by a friend who is a heavy smoker. I fixed the two unusable (and all scratchy) faders with a can of contact cleaner and have it patched into my system. (Big improvement over the fully professional, but wholly inadequate, TASCAM M-106 six-channel Hi-Z mixer I was using before.) Now I'm pulling out the manuals for the rest of my gear and finding out that it doesn't matter how little I know as long as I consult higher intelligence. But I thought I knew more than I am discovering I did . . .

The deal with the collaborator didn't pan out, at least not yet. As a successful songwriter, he now says he is looking for someone pretty much on his level with whom to co-produce new works. But he isn't ruling me out if I can create some worthy material. More motivation.

In those same five days I also scheduled two jams and will be auditioning tomorrow as a bassist for an alternative folk act. I have continued to scour the craigslist Musicians ads and forward mine to likely prospects. I have created an e-mail address for "Ryszard": sonic-sorcerer@hotmail.com. (If you would like to be on the "Music & Art News from Ryszard" mailing list, let me know. That way there will have to be some, lol. I also promote artist and musician friends of mine.) I've posted another craigslist ad to broaden the likelihood of playing live. It doesn't need to be an ideal situation yet, I just love doing it. It's an energy thingy, something to do while I Paint My Masterpiece.

I still need to create a website, or at least populate some of which I am already a member (myspace, Indaba, mixposure) with new material. Or some material. I might have gotten some of this done, too, but Life Kept Happening, like spending two hours on the phone with Microsoft one day to help sort out my father's PC.

So much to do, and finally, a feeling of urgency about it. For those of you who are agitated because it looks like I'm using this as a personal blog--maybe I am. This isn't for you. It's for me, and to the ones both on and away from this forum whom I trust to encourage, advise and, Deo volente, pray me into the success I've said I've wanted for so long. For the ones who will Pay It Forward. You know who you are. I want to prove myself worthy of you.

Richard


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Good luck, If I have to do something other than like right now, I have to put it on index cards (old days) in my shirt pocket, or now on my blackberry. I have to force myself into the schedule, one hour for this , one hour for that, etc. Otherwise I might just watch a rerun on tv. And I can't work with clutter, it shuts me down, so the first 1/2 hour has to be devoted to cleaning up, gettting the right stuff set up, etc.

Goal oriented thinking is tough.

I'm just wish I was young enough to go to one of the open mic things, but most start at 10 pm. or later now and I've got the oversize track suit on by then and my feet on a heating pad.

Why don't you pick a song and your objective and ask for advice. We all use the same software mostly, and it might be fun to help someone else tweak if from the first pass in Band in a Box to different conclusions.


John Conley
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*Get used to "burning the midnight oil".

*Longterm goals are met by always subdividing any project into its relevant short-term goals and checking those short-term goals off one by one.

*Never get lazy. Many, many times, the answer in the studio is to go back, Jack, and do it again. From scratch. Trying to repair something can chew up time and resources needlessly and is NOT a shortcut. Learn to recognize a "strong performance" track from all the rest. These will shine by themselves. "Bad" can never be hidden by turning that track's volume down.

*REFERENCE RECORDINGS -- It really pays to seek out a reference recording in the style and genre of your project that was mixed and mastered professionally and sounds like the target you are after for each of your projects. Use that recording to A/B with yours, in an effort to find out what the technical differences are and correct yours to suit. Learn to "listen through" the lyrics, content, etc. and just hear the technicals.

*DO IT. -- Those who are prolific get better at this. First thing you should be working on is your DEMO disk. It should be used to show off your highpoints. This starts with creating a list of what your highpoints honestly are and then devising ways to showcase them in short recordings.

*Refer to the first bullet again. Get used to burning the midnight oil. The project is never "done" -- it only gets submitted on the drop-dead date.


--Mac

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Print Mac's post and tack it on the wall.

We're all rooting for ya!

Sundance

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Mac,

What a gem. I've printed several copies of your entire post in 12-point Arial Black. One is over the DAW, one goes in my briefcase; I'll think of something to do with the others. *g*

I've put off the demo for far too long--although I haven't been able to do it on my own until very recently. And I'd forgotten about the reference recordings. I've started on a list of candidates.

Thank you for the pointed specifics.

R.


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I've been following this thread and you started with the right idea and that is to announce to all and sundry your plans as a way to motivate yourself to actually do something so you don't look foolish to the people you made the announcement to. That can work but you're already getting completely sidetracked with technical computer crap that's keeping you away from your primary goal which is to write original material. You've got two threads going right now, one about some driver issue with a Creative soundcard and another with your new PC and how to flash the bios. I know that describing those problems and responding to others suggestions has taken several hours of your time and you probably haven't written a note.
Forget all that stuff and I mean right now or your plans are on a one way trip down the dumper.
You're doing the same thing my sister did. A few years ago she had a showcase at the Whiskey in Hollywood with my nephew on guitar and she brought the house down with several standing O's. A producer came up to her and said he wanted a demo cd of one of the originals asap. She hadn't recorded it yet. My nephew has one of millions of project studios in Southern California and over the next six months tried one version after another and finally never got it done and they never contacted that guy.
The thing is she plays acoustic guitar. I have an Akai DPS 16 hard disc recorder and offered to lend it to them and told them just play the damn tune in one take get it to him but no, they wanted to make a production out of it, make it perfect, all that crap. Now this is Hollywood, maybe that guy's a total fake but they never got it done so they'll never know. It's the song, her voice and that's it and it's the same for you. Buy one of those new Zoom's for a couple of hundred or whatever, lay down a few tracks of your originals and get this thing on the road. Now. You're wasting too much time, man. You can do the project studio part later. If you actually sell something, they're going to redo it anyway.

Bob


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I agree with both Mac and Bob.

For me, the challenge to write and record 14 songs in a month in the FAWM.org challenge completely changed my songwriting, arranging, composing, recording, editing process.

I didn't have many chops as a songwriter/lyricist. My output was perhaps a few songs per year. But those were high-quality demos I was writing. But you know what, not many folks heard them.

Participating FAWM changed all of that. After three years of participation, I can honestly say that I think if you give me a topic, I can crank out a decent song in a day or less time, with some lyrical gems in there for you to remember.

Be prolific; emphasis on the BE.

-Scott

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Quote:

You've got two threads going right now, one about some driver issue with a Creative soundcard and another with your new PC and how to flash the bios.




My little Occam's Razor has been whispering to me that both problems are one and the same...

Find out why the BIOS reports the wrong CPU and you may also lick the Creative card/dongle issue at the same time.


--Mac

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Quote:

I know that describing those problems and responding to others suggestions has taken several hours of your time and you probably haven't written a note. Forget all that stuff and I mean right now or your plans are on a one way trip down the dumper.




So you mean I should put up AND shut up? *g*

You are absolutely right. Not a note has gone to disk. (Even if it had, I would have lost it with the Creative Update fiasco. I thought I backed up what little there was before I reformatted, but I couldn't find a thing later.)

As a partial defense, I have also been working hard to get into a live gig--contacting bands and musicians, honing my resume (finally!), attending jams and auditions (working on material beforehand when possible. One artist has told me to expect a call back for a second audition and has given me charts to work on until then.). There's that little Life Happens thing, too--one guy hired me as a bassist and sent me the charts for the gig; I spent two hours printing them out and $30 on ink and paper, only to have him call back and say he'd changed his mind.

I am committed to the PC workstation. I'd love to have a dedicated bit of hardware but it just ain't in the foreseeable. I could get with friends but that is problematic owing to schedules and their own projects. I could drop back to analog four-track, but . . . I think not. To paraphrase Apollo 13, "This is what I have to work with."

I have taken your and Mac's advice to create a demo as my A-1 priority. I don't have a myspace site (although I am registered elsewhere) because I have nothing to post. I now have a shortlist of reference recordings and a longer list of ideas I have been working on. I will try to keep traffic here to a minimum until I have a message with an mp3 or a URL attached to it, 'kay?

Thanks to everyone for advice that only dedicated musicians could give.

R.


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Boy! This forum really IS like a 12-step program.

I had similar thoughts to those well-expressed above by Bob -- your (many) activities (including PMs to me) resemble what my writer friends call
"pencil-sharpening." The avoidance of real work by messing about the edges -- reading, organizing notes, and, well, sharpening pencils, instead of the hard tasks of writing.

I have had the experience over the last three years of writing three novels, through the group on the web called NaNoWriMo -- stands for "National Novel Writing Month." The task is simple -- write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. I mention it not because I think you should write a novel, and certainly not because I believe my creations are near publishable (altho not bad, for a month's work, I must say), but just to make the point that Bob made -- that we all need to find ways of just getting our butts back to work, and not finding ever new means of avoidance.

This, of course, is in response to your initial plea. You must have already known you were getting off the track (posting about Susan Boyle and the like).

Get back to work -- now! <grin>

Best, Brad.


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Richard -- I wrote the above note just before seeing your last post.

Wow! -- irons in the fire, plates in the air, running out of lithium. Take a breath, man -- 56 years old ain't the end of the road. I am 66 and still "looking for a gig."

Brad.


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Quote:

I have taken your and Mac's advice to create a demo as my A-1 priority. I don't have a myspace site (although I am registered elsewhere) because I have nothing to post.




Bingo. Look, most of us here are pro's at one level or another. We all can hear into a song. We can hear just from you playing your guitar and singing if a tune has potential or not and so can any decent producer you may get hooked up with. Me, Mac, Scott, and many others can take a one track tune of yours and create an opus out of it, 37 tracks of wonderous stuff, bridges, solos, phrase modulations, killer things. Those versions would all be different and to one degree or another, would all be good. The key is you providing good source material to work with. Your guitar and one mic can handle that.
Like I said to my one-legged wife Peg, "Hop to it"!!

Bob


Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.
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Hi Richard.

Just a quick note to say Good Luck on your project.

You mentioned improving your web presence in your first post. My suggestion would be to skip that for now and concentrate only on the music skills and equipment you need for the new business. Websites can be terrific time wasters. Develop the web material only after you are fully confident that the music side is in order. After doing some projects, you'll have a much better idea of what to advertise, anyway.


BIAB 2024 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 6.5 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6; Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus Studio 192, Presonus Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors
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That's good advice from Matt.

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Agreed, but see my Live in Cyberspace post.

R.


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Hi,

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't Nuendo 1.6.2 an old version that is lacking in many features that a sequencer needs. Think it caught up at version 2 or 3.

martin

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Yeah, it has some age on it. Nuendo 1.01 dates to 2000; 1.6.1 to 2002. When I find something lacking I'll worry about making it up. I haven't gotten far enough to find out what it doesn't do well or at all. At $1300 for the upgrade, N4 is unlikely to be the replacement. In fact, there is no money to put into anything. What I have is what I have.

Right now it's a race between Nuendo and RealBand to see which one becomes more functional first. Nuendo has Rewire, sort of, significant because I work with Propellerhead Reason. RealBand has RealTracks--for me, still sort of. Since I am able to export WAVs from BIAB and Reason into either RealBand or Nuendo, I'm able to do whatever I have to so far, albeit in a kludgy kind of way.

R.


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Sounds exciting, man. Good luck and I'll look forward to listening.

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