Umm...my songs...

[vijayan]

Hello People !

I'm posting here after a loong time Was busy with moving and rearranging my studio. But I've been following this forum all along nonethelss. So I made a couple of sound pieces a few days back. They are actually my very first attempts at a reasonably full length song. They are quiet crappy, but I put them on the web just to motivate myself to keeping working on making better music. The songs are at :

http://bluedawn.iuma.com

Do chek them out when you have the time. One of them is just a restless, irritating guitar strumming over a wierd background, the other is a meditative flute piece.

Thanks
Swamy

[mosc]

Swamy,

You're off to a great start. The most difficult part is just making the music. Many people get sidetracked with getting the next piece of gear. You know, that piece of gear that will finally enable them to make great music, and since they don't have it, they don't do music. You have done the right thing, just make pieces; make music as much and as often as you can. You'll teach yourself.

Don't expect it all to be great, or even good. In fact, most of us lack the ability to evaluate our own music. We usually under rate it. Johannes Brahms thought his own music was terrible. Many other great composers thought the same thing about their own music. I learned a great lesson when I was an engineering student: "never expect it to work when you first turn it on." That's the most important thing I ever learned with respect to being an engineer. A correllary for composers would be, "don't expect to like it."

I like these pieces, especially Fishing Flutes. I'd say it's too short; you could go longer with this mood. In Tinny Jungle Guitar, you've got an interesting juxtaposition of sounds. Believe it or not, I think you should add another track. Something that will add some structural interest. I'm a believer in three tracks. The trio is one of the most successful forms in western music, and in Indian and other musics well.

After you get a few one movement pieces under your belt, try doing 2 and 3 movement pieces. I have always found making mulit-movement pieces lots of fun, and since you know you are going to be doing, say, 3 movements, it takes the pressure off making them perfect.

Here's a suggestion. Make a three movement piece where Tinny is the first movement, Flutes is the second, and the third is a throwback to Tinny, but with even more intensity. Writing long pieces is pretty tough. It's easier to make long pieces by making 2, 3, or 4 shorter ones and integrating them into a larger work.

If I'm going over the top with unwanted advice, just say the word and I'll go back to something else. I'm a frustrated music professor.

[vijayan]

Gee...thanks for the suggestions Howard Really appreciate. I do need a music professor at this point ! Anyways I actually had a tabla track with the guitar, and they sounded so nice together. Problem is I can't seem to be able to mic the tablas properly. The bass is totally absent and the mids and highs are too dull. I use only 1 mic, (shure sm 57) with some software plugins. I had trouble mixing in the percussion track with the guitar and synth. So I kinda postponed it untill my next bout of inspiration. I'm planning to use two mics (one for the tabla bass drum and one for mid-high) I tried using my multimedia mic, and it seemd to work ok, but I was not satisfied. I might even endup sequencing from individual tabla bols(words) on fruity loops or something.

Ok, I'll try to stretch the flute piece. I might add something in the middle with much less delays. I was thiking like a flute-recorder duet.

Thanks again Howard ! You're the best
Swamy

[mosc]

OK, if your not careful I'll never shut up.

Let us know when you post some more music.

[Norm Vogel]

Well said, Howard! Soooooo many people get into "collecting" synths that they NEVER make any music!

I used to have a LOT more synths than I do now, and i actually never PLAYED 'em! EVER! I'd rather have less stuff and KNOW how to use it!

PS workin' on something new right now.......for ME, the hardest part is getting the IDEA........once i have that, laying down the song is easy!

Norm

[zynthetix]

[vijayan]

Hiya Zynthetix !

I guess it wouldn't be much of a problem making a tabla. Important thing to learn is probably the black circles in the center. I think they are made of rice paste with iron fillings. People who make (good) tablas typically have been doing it for generations, so I'd say it might be a little hard to match up to a nice pair the first attempt By the way I cannot play the tabla myself. Just bought it on my last visit home. I can do finger drumming a little bit and it kinda sounds ok on a tabla Hmm... wish I had $200-300 to spend on a mic. The way my research is going, it might take forever before I start making any money

gee..i'm lovin these emoticons .... maybe time for a cool avatar too.
Take care y'all

Swamy

[egw]

Try these:

MXL V93M ($99 special at MF)

Rode NT1 ($200)

Studio Projects C1 ($200)