Music The RedCafe "Original Songwriter's" Music Thread

[The Cat]

Months late but I've finally got my recording setup in place.

Just tried it out the sound is good enough to me - got the rest of the week off so will hopefully get something done now.

 

[The Cat]

Getting a bit further with my recording - worked out how to get some drums done now.

Need to re-record a bit of the guitar I'm not the best player. Enjoying it though.

 

[RedPed]

Getting a bit further with my recording - worked out how to get some drums done now.

Need to re-record a bit of the guitar I'm not the best player. Enjoying it though.

What interface are you using? Need to beef up the drums a bit.

 

[The Cat]

What interface are you using? Need to beef up the drums a bit.

Cheers am using Reaper - still getting used to it amazed I got drums at all

Using a Scarlett Solo interface.

 

[RedPed]

Cheers am using Reaper - still getting used to it amazed I got drums at all

Using a Scarlett Solo interface.

Ah gotcha. I use Mixcraft 9 Pro Studio and just got a PreSonus AudioBox on eBay. Mixcraft is the shit. It's freakin' awesome.

 

[OnlyTwoDaSilvas]

Ah gotcha. I use Mixcraft 9 Pro Studio and just got a PreSonus AudioBox on eBay. Mixcraft is the shit. It's freakin' awesome.

Mixcraft really is the business, especially for the price. Some of the VST's are ridiculously good too.

I use Ableton quite a bit too, purely because it integrates with my synths and stuff better, but I will then arrange and mix in Mixcraft, because the VSTs and effects blow Ableton out of the water, even though Ableton is about 6x the price.

Severely underrated DAW. It usually ranks around the midpoint of the annual Top 20 DAW lists, but honestly, it should be top 5.

 

[RedPed]

Mixcraft really is the business, especially for the price. Some of the VST's are ridiculously good too.

I use Ableton quite a bit too, purely because it integrates with my synths and stuff better, but I will then arrange and mix in Mixcraft, because the VSTs and effects blow Ableton out of the water, even though Ableton is about 6x the price.

Severely underrated DAW. It usually ranks around the midpoint of the annual Top 20 DAW lists, but honestly, it should be top 5.

Completely agree. I was always old school with my synths, sequencers and drum machines etc. and had never used a DAW before until the lockdown. I'd sold all my gear (but kept my beloved Yamaha SY85) so had to use a DAW to keep me sane. I downloaded the trial of Pro Tools and just stumbled across Mixcraft at the same time. Having never used a DAW before, I couldn't get my head around Pro Tools but then Mixcraft just blew me away. It's just insane for the price.

When you see what's bundled with the Pro Studio and how Melodyne is integrated into the system and the remote control app etc., etc., I don't know how they do it. I've learned so much in the last 6 months. I absolutely love it. I'm just waiting for my PreSonus to arrive next week so that I can finally hook up my SY85.

 

[OnlyTwoDaSilvas]

Completely agree. I was always old school with my synths, sequencers and drum machines etc. and had never used a DAW before until the lockdown. I'd sold all my gear (but kept my beloved Yamaha SY85) so had to use a DAW to keep me sane. I downloaded the trial of Pro Tools and just stumbled across Mixcraft at the same time. Having never used a DAW before, I couldn't get my head around Pro Tools but then Mixcraft just blew me away. It's just insane for the price.

When you see what's bundled with the Pro Studio and how Melodyne is integrated into the system and the remote control app etc., etc., I don't know how they do it. I've learned so much in the last 6 months. I absolutely love it. I'm just waiting for my PreSonus to arrive next week so that I can finally hook up my SY85.

It's super great, and just so, so, easy to use. I occasionally just chance my luck at a keyboard shortcut, and half the time it works. e.g. Alt+drag duplicates a clip (pretty much the same as in Photoshop). Stumbled on that by accident. Ctrl + drag by the edge = time stretch. In other DAWs you've got to go through menus to do stuff like that.

Also, if you follow the official Mixcraft page on Facebook, one of the developers, Eric, responds to issues and queries super quickly. Amazing customer support.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

New track

 

[The Cat]

My son asked for some intro music for his podcast which covers gaming, wrestling etc so I've done a rough demo

 

[robinamicrowave]

Got a new EP out.

https://colourfulsevens.bandcamp.com/album/my-thoughts-only-have-more-threads-ep

 

[decorativeed]

My son asked for some intro music for his podcast which covers gaming, wrestling etc so I've done a rough demo

Sounds pretty suitable, good job. Only thing I'd say is that music for podcasts needs to be kept super short. I learned that lesson earlier last year when I did all the music for the podcast we did at work and I just had to keep cutting and cutting away at it. Ended up with 20 seconds and people still said it was too long!

It's here if you fancy a listen, by the way: www.nationalfootballmuseumstrip.com

 

[amolbhatia50k]

 

[The Cat]

Mate of mine does a Twitch poker stream and wanted some intro music a couple of minutes long so I came up with this one.

I am taking a break from work for a few months from next weekend (kind of a reset button push) and have loads to record will never get the time to do it again amoungst other things.

Anyway ..

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Latest track on my channel - this time accompanied by a simple video. Enjoy

 

[amolbhatia50k]

 

[amolbhatia50k]

 

[Mr Pigeon]

Thanks for this, and the other ones you've posted above. Beautiful. It's been a long week and there was something about your music that made me chill out a lot. Are you still writing and recording?

 

[Mr Pigeon]

feck it, @amolbhatia50k has motivated me to post some of this shit I used to do. Bass player on this from my old wedding band;



I'd post some stuff I've done on my own (with acoustic guitar and vox) but I'm too embarrassed. Take one go to record a bassline, including the one above, but take twenty for vocals FFS.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

Thanks for this, and the other ones you've posted above. Beautiful. It's been a long week and there was something about your music that made me chill out a lot. Are you still writing and recording?

Thank you! Really appreciate it

I am still composing and producing. Although I haven’t uploaded anything in a year and a half, I’ve got a lot of material done / nearly done so I’m actually thinking of taking time to put enough new songs into an actual(amateur) album. Obviously with work, the amount of time I spend on actually producing is very small and piecemeal but I’m always composing in my head through the day so that’s really the thing I adore and an integral part of me regardless of output

 

[Cheimoon]

It's super great, and just so, so, easy to use. I occasionally just chance my luck at a keyboard shortcut, and half the time it works. e.g. Alt+drag duplicates a clip (pretty much the same as in Photoshop). Stumbled on that by accident. Ctrl + drag by the edge = time stretch. In other DAWs you've got to go through menus to do stuff like that.

Also, if you follow the official Mixcraft page on Facebook, one of the developers, Eric, responds to issues and queries super quickly. Amazing customer support.

I know this is an old post, but how does this compare to Cubase? I got an older version for free with my audio interface, but I find it very unpleasant to work with - to the point where it actively puts me off doing anything.

Now I know I've got serious motivation and discipline issues around this and better software won't magically fix those; but it would help if I had something simple and intuitive that does not necessarily feature endlessly functionalities!

Nice work btw @amolbhatia50k and @Mr Pigeon! It's been nice listening to those uploads.

 

[decorativeed]

I know this is an old post, but how does this compare to Cubase? I got an older version for free with my audio interface, but I find it very unpleasant to work with - to the point where it actively puts me off doing anything.

Now I know I've got serious motivation and discipline issues around this and better software won't magically fix those; but it would help if I had something simple and intuitive that does not necessarily feature endlessly functionalities!

Nice work btw @amolbhatia50k and @Mr Pigeon! It's been nice listening to those uploads.

This is an issue with all DAWs, I think. And I've got zero self discipline or motivation a lot of the time too, so I know the feeling! Too many possibilities and too many options, and not enough simplicity.

I used Cubase 20 years ago, but I've moved on to Reaper now. I'd recommend giving that a try, as it's free and fully functional without buying it, so long as you wait five seconds for the 'still evaluating' prompt.

A good idea for the discipline stuff is to put all your music making stuff on an old laptop with nothing else on it, so you're not distracted or tempted by other stuff on there.

 

[The Cat]

This is an issue with all DAWs, I think. And I've got zero self discipline or motivation a lot of the time too, so I know the feeling! Too many possibilities and too many options, and not enough simplicity.

I used Cubase 20 years ago, but I've moved on to Reaper now. I'd recommend giving that a try, as it's free and fully functional without buying it, so long as you wait five seconds for the 'still evaluating' prompt.

A good idea for the discipline stuff is to put all your music making stuff on an old laptop with nothing else on it, so you're not distracted or tempted by other stuff on there.

I'll echo Reaper it does everything I could want and the support and community are excellent.

 

[Cheimoon]

This is an issue with all DAWs, I think. And I've got zero self discipline or motivation a lot of the time too, so I know the feeling! Too many possibilities and too many options, and not enough simplicity.

I used Cubase 20 years ago, but I've moved on to Reaper now. I'd recommend giving that a try, as it's free and fully functional without buying it, so long as you wait five seconds for the 'still evaluating' prompt.

A good idea for the discipline stuff is to put all your music making stuff on an old laptop with nothing else on it, so you're not distracted or tempted by other stuff on there.

I'll echo Reaper it does everything I could want and the support and community are excellent.

Thanks guys! I suppose Reaper can work well with real synths and an electronic drumkit? I'm not too interested in using soft synths and whatever else, although I do need reverb and delay for my Alesis Ion and for vocals.

My self-discipline/motivation issue starts with having to take my laptop to the basement and plugging it into my setup, so it's not even the gaming that distracts me. Well, it does in the sense that I might just stay in my living room and do so gaming!

 

[RedPed]

Pound for Pound, for the money you can't beat Mixcraft. They released v.10 a few months back. It's a great piece of software.

 

[The Cat]

Thanks guys! I suppose Reaper can work well with real synths and an electronic drumkit? I'm not too interested in using soft synths and whatever else, although I do need reverb and delay for my Alesis Ion and for vocals.

My self-discipline/motivation issue starts with having to take my laptop to the basement and plugging it into my setup, so it's not even the gaming that distracts me. Well, it does in the sense that I might just stay in my living room and do so gaming!

I plug my synth into my Focusrite interface and that into the pc. Reaper records it from there I don't use plug ins for keyboards. I've not recorded drums yet but I have tested my electronic ones and plugins and not found any issues with anything.

 

[Cheimoon]

I plug my synth into my Focusrite interface and that into the pc. Reaper records it from there I don't use plug ins for keyboards. I've not recorded drums yet but I have tested my electronic ones and plugins and not found any issues with anything.

Yeah, I suppose external audio recording is a pretty basic feature of any modern DAW and that it was really just a silly question on my end!

 

[The Cat]

Yeah, I suppose external audio recording is a pretty basic feature of any modern DAW and that it was really just a silly question on my end!

No questions are silly - there is no way I know more than the basics of using Reaper. I did manage to get a couple of mixing books recently though that I need to make time to read.

 

[Cheimoon]

No questions are silly - there is no way I know more than the basics of using Reaper. I did manage to get a couple of mixing books recently though that I need to make time to read.

Well, I think some of my thinking comes from when I was on a synth forum 20 years ago. Probably technology has advanced quite a bit since then! (And may already have been better than I realized back then. I never used DAWs, I only played live, in a band.)

 

[OnlyTwoDaSilvas]

I know this is an old post, but how does this compare to Cubase? I got an older version for free with my audio interface, but I find it very unpleasant to work with - to the point where it actively puts me off doing anything.

Now I know I've got serious motivation and discipline issues around this and better software won't magically fix those; but it would help if I had something simple and intuitive that does not necessarily feature endlessly functionalities!

I've never used Cubase, but I've tried to use Reason and Reaper, but kept coming back to Mixcraft for ease of use.

Only other DAW I really use is Ableton, but I use them for different things. I typically use Ableton for synth/samples and sequencing, and Mixcraft for recording guitar-based stuff.

 

[The Cat]

Well, I think some of my thinking comes from when I was on a synth forum 20 years ago. Probably technology had advanced quite a bit since then! (And may already have been better than I realized back then. I never used DAWs, I only played live, in a band.)

Exactly the same here until I got a Yamaha MoxF6 a few years ago. There is so much to take in I bought my original Yamaha in around 1991 for live play. Gone from 128 voices to thousands.

I daresay all modern DAWs are excellent I just found Reaper the easiest and being free to evaluate as long as you like it won for me.

 

[Cheimoon]

I've never used Cubase, but I've tried to use Reason and Reaper, but kept coming back to Mixcraft for ease of use.

Only other DAW I really use is Ableton, but I use them for different things. I typically use Ableton for synth/samples and sequencing, and Mixcraft for recording guitar-based stuff.

Exactly the same here until I got a Yamaha MoxF6 a few years ago. There is so much to take in I bought my original Yamaha in around 1991 for live play. Gone from 128 voices to thousands.

I daresay all modern DAWs are excellent I just found Reaper the easiest and being free to evaluate as long as you like it won for me.

I'd mostly be recording my playing (with some copying things around and adding some effects), so sounds like Mixcraft would suit me - but I'll have a look at Reaper as well. I suppose both support midi recording? Saves me having to write down what I'm doing.

 

[The Cat]

I'd mostly be recording my playing (with some copying things around and adding some effects), so sounds like Mixcraft would suit me - but I'll have a look at Reaper as well. I suppose both support midi recording? Saves me having to write down what I'm doing.

Also found a free one called Cakewalk which a lot of people say is one of the easiest to use - just downloaded it but not tried it yet.

 

[decorativeed]

I'd mostly be recording my playing (with some copying things around and adding some effects), so sounds like Mixcraft would suit me - but I'll have a look at Reaper as well. I suppose both support midi recording? Saves me having to write down what I'm doing.

Reaper can do everything like that, it's only as complicated as you care to make it.

I use it for recording live instruments through mics or line in sources as well as plugins through midi.

 

[Salt Bailly]

Also found a free one called Cakewalk which a lot of people say is one of the easiest to use - just downloaded it but not tried it yet.

That takes me back. Brings up fruityloops memories.

 

[Cheimoon]

That takes me back. Brings up fruityloops memories.

And FastTracker! Cakewalk was my midi sequencer in the late 90s and early 00s.

 

[The Cat]

Got some time off now so getting some recording done. Got a lot of tracks to work on. I'm posting this one to make me finish it. This is very rough and unfinished but I've made more progress since uploading it.

Structure the rest of the track and add the bass part next. This is using Reaper with Guitar Rig 5 and a drum VST I found.

 

[Cheimoon]

I've never used Cubase, but I've tried to use Reason and Reaper, but kept coming back to Mixcraft for ease of use.

Only other DAW I really use is Ableton, but I use them for different things. I typically use Ableton for synth/samples and sequencing, and Mixcraft for recording guitar-based stuff.

I (finally) tried Mixcraft and Reaper now (Cakewalk next and last). I liked them both, but Mixcraft might be even easier in its use than Reaper (which was also great). I also liked that it seems to come with a bunch of plugins (synths, keyboards, and fx), cause some fx and a few specific sounds would be welcome to me.

So if you don't mind, I was wondering: do you like the plugins that come with Mixcraft, or do you end up not using them anyway? I'm especially wondering if the fx are any good. (They seemed okay at first use, but I didn't do a ton of testing.) Also, do you have the basic or the pro version, and if pro, why? As you can tell, I'm wondering if its additional features are worth the money (so far, I think not). Thanks!

 

[The Cat]

Did a bass line yesterday not sure whether to redo it but getting there. I just want to finish it now and do the next one.

Some kind of middle 8, a chorus and some awful vocals and it's done.

 

[The Cat]

Added the middle and some synth. Vocals next. Might not post that here