[quote="ShwahnStuff"]I'm really hoping I can stay in the groove of recording things, but for now at least, I've got a new one done called Oklahoma if any of you fine folks want to check it out.

https://soundcloud.com/aecolangeli/oklahoma[/quote]

Ah man, this is awesome. Super catchy. I can't quite put my finger on what it reminds me of; however, it'll come to me soon. Overall, this was a really enjoyable track; something i'll play more then once. Nice job on the vocals too!

Did you have any particular artist in mind when you wrote this?


On a separate note, I finished this up:

https://dewith.bandcamp.com

I didn't change any of the lyrics on a couple songs i previously shared and cut out some songs that felt out of place. Instead, I added a couple songs I wrote when improvising with my roommate. Hope ya'll enjoy and feel free to leave some feedback!

New set of songs:

https://dewith.bandcamp.com/album/28

Dude, 28 and Bubble both sound really nice. You're continuing to smooth out the little rough edges while still keeping it kind of lo-fi/atmospheric, keep it up.

Been busy and dealing with health issues lately, and my computer died, so no new recordings from me. Jamming a lot and will be writing more new stuff soon I'm sure, though.

[quote="Marekenshin"]Dude, 28 and Bubble both sound really nice. You're continuing to smooth out the little rough edges while still keeping it kind of lo-fi/atmospheric, keep it up.

Been busy and dealing with health issues lately, and my computer died, so no new recordings from me. Jamming a lot and will be writing more new stuff soon I'm sure, though. [/quote]

Thanks a ton man.

Looking forward to more Mare songs. sorry to hear about life getting in the way bud. Chin up and remember things will eventually shape up!!

Oh, dude, it was a very positive catalyst. I set out a long-term budget, started planning out an order of priority on purchases with the wife, and we've got a really concrete plan developed for the production/recording/jamming gear that we want and are already in the process of getting things moving even better than before.

Since I'm in no rush to "make it big," I'm happy to refine the skills I can as I build up towards serious production - there's a lot of technical work to be done on the guitar, vocals, keys, and drums before I can really record and produce all the ideas I want in the way that I want to, as a hybrid of electronic styled audio production and more traditional recording techniques. We'll get there. I'm still writing occasional ideas, plotting collaborations, practicing and jamming, etc. Life can't stop me until it stops me living.

So I got Ableton Live Lite by surprise with my wife's keyboard workstation, and discovered her laptop runs it fine. Sooooooo, temptation came calling quickly and I went for the full package (discounted price plus that free upgrade to 10 is hard to resist) and started diving in as I read the manual.

I haven't started messing with like...even a tenth of the features, much less sounds and instruments. But here's my progress at 4 nights in: https://soundcloud.com/midnight-down/new-test-1

Warnnig, didn't mix this yet (kick so loud oh god) and at least half of it is still at the sketch stage, but have some deep house vibing something or other.

[quote="Marekenshin"]So I got Ableton Live Lite by surprise with my wife's keyboard workstation, and discovered her laptop runs it fine. Sooooooo, temptation came calling quickly and I went for the full package (discounted price plus that free upgrade to 10 is hard to resist) and started diving in as I read the manual.

I haven't started messing with like...even a tenth of the features, much less sounds and instruments. But here's my progress at 4 nights in: https://soundcloud.com/midnight-down/new-test-1

Warnnig, didn't mix this yet (kick so loud oh god) and at least half of it is still at the sketch stage, but have some deep house vibing something or other. [/quote]

Congrats! Ableton is a never ending learning DAW (haha). I started out with lite then upgraded to standard 9 discounted through my student ID at the time.

Digging this different style of yours mare. I'm sure there are things you know that I don't with this program lol.

I have a buddy who has a skillshare account and i've found some useful tutorials on there. if you're curious, they have a free 30 day trial i believe.

I finished reading most of the manual and plan to start going through some tutorials and stuff soon. Guarantee I don't know much about the program yet compared to like, most people. Just already a lot of experience with songwriting, haha. In the meantime, I'm mostly getting lost just messing around with things. Here's what I did the past two days lol:

https://soundcloud.com/midnight-down/dance-test-1 (some decent ideas here but the transitions need a lot of improvement, more layers and yadda yadda; just a few hours of dinking around from scratch this evening.)
Edit: updated the EQ and audio effects to make it sound not like garbage over about 30 minutes this morning: https://soundcloud.com/midnight-down/dance-test-1-v2

https://soundcloud.com/midnight-down/sa ... words-test (a song I wrote quite a number of months back and started laying out in ableton; it still needs drum overdubs, vocals, some touching up all over the place, replace the guitars with real guitar, etc.)

https://soundcloud.com/midnight-down/dnb-test-3v2

lololol using samples is easy.

https://soundcloud.com/midnight-down/dnb-test-4

Starting to get comfortable enough with synthesis to use my own pad/bass sounds, huwhee. The bass was based off a preset initially, but the other layers were totally from scratch.

[quote="Marekenshin"]https://soundcloud.com/midnight-down/dnb-test-4

Starting to get comfortable enough with synthesis to use my own pad/bass sounds, huwhee. The bass was based off a preset initially, but the other layers were totally from scratch.[/quote]

ohhhhhhhh i'm liking this one a lot!

Did you buy a pack for those horns?


For all you others out there reading this, check out my new song that'll be on my upcoming album:

https://soundcloud.com/dewith28/superficial-horse

I bought Ableton Live Suite, so it came with quite a few very useful packs (like the "Orchestral Brass" pack which I used there).

Also, already listened to Superficial Horse back when I saw you posted it, but again I really dig the chorus hook.
Your recordings are getting to the point where the line between "sloppy" and "flavorful" is blurring entirely to me. I actually really like when music has a bit of drag and acceleration to it, so when parts briefly miss timing in ways that aren't distracting I can dig it. There are still a few moments where I feel like the timing could be tighter for my tastes, but it's definitely starting to sound more "professional." (Levels are balanced better, too, imo.)

Here's a change of pace - quick acoustic take of the song I wrote on Valentine's Day this year (lol cheesy pop song incoming). I managed to get the whole thing arranged and written from two very brief vocal hook ideas in a single afternoon, but am pretty pleased with it. I purposefully reused elements of some older songs of mine (or variants of said elements), but feels new enough to me haha.
https://soundcloud.com/midnight-down/wish-acoustic

Edit: I threw together another new song in Ableton, but it's made from snippets of a friend's recordings, so I haven't publicly posted it yet (hoping to codevelop the song with him a bit more). Trying to learn sound design and a bunch of techniques related to production, as well as get better at Ableton itself, so it's been a weird but fun time trying to balance a breakneck pace of learning and still writing something new every week.

[quote="Marekenshin"]I bought Ableton Live Suite, so it came with quite a few very useful packs (like the "Orchestral Brass" pack which I used there).

Also, already listened to Superficial Horse back when I saw you posted it, but again I really dig the chorus hook.
Your recordings are getting to the point where the line between "sloppy" and "flavorful" is blurring entirely to me. I actually really like when music has a bit of drag and acceleration to it, so when parts briefly miss timing in ways that aren't distracting I can dig it. There are still a few moments where I feel like the timing could be tighter for my tastes, but it's definitely starting to sound more "professional." (Levels are balanced better, too, imo.)

Here's a change of pace - quick acoustic take of the song I wrote on Valentine's Day this year (lol cheesy pop song incoming). I managed to get the whole thing arranged and written from two very brief vocal hook ideas in a single afternoon, but am pretty pleased with it. I purposefully reused elements of some older songs of mine (or variants of said elements), but feels new enough to me haha.
https://soundcloud.com/midnight-down/wish-acoustic

Edit: I threw together another new song in Ableton, but it's made from snippets of a friend's recordings, so I haven't publicly posted it yet (hoping to codevelop the song with him a bit more). Trying to learn sound design and a bunch of techniques related to production, as well as get better at Ableton itself, so it's been a weird but fun time trying to balance a breakneck pace of learning and still writing something new every week.[/quote]

Yeah my programming of drums is pretty much nonexistent haha. I use a little drum pad and try to do it myself. I need to learn to use a metronome more efficiently. My roommate (who is an excellent drummer) gives me grief on the drums on my track; he also said he wouldn't mind letting me record him playing for my songs which is nice.

Really really like that song you posted "Wish." Those bends are super nice and recapture my focus. Nice work!! Lyrics are very sweet too

I finally got my USB cable (first one got lost in the mail haha) for my mixer the other week, so I set up the board and plugged in my guitar/mic, laid down a few lines, and started doing a musics. It's still garbage in like...every aspect aside from the musical ideas themselves, but we're getting there slowly. Lots and lots of techniques and concepts to learn to get a new genre or three under your belt, but I'm finally starting to wrap my head around some of the concepts and finding better resource for learning things to try.

This is nowhere near a mixed/finished product, but here's this week's sketch: https://soundcloud.com/midnight-down/dnb-test-5v3

I actually wish I could hear the guitar in the background of your more recent song! Seems like you've been having fun though which is awesome!