The Songwriter Forum - songwriting reviews, tips and chat
Songwriter Forum => The Bar => Topic started by: Boydie on December 13, 2018, 07:33:28 AM
-
Hey all
I thought it would be fun to see what everyone is wanting/wishing for this Christmas
Peace, harmony and goodwilll to everyone is a given - I am talking about "stuff" ;D
I have been thinking about thinning out my guitar collection and selling/part exchanging a 1994 Japan '57 reissue strat & my 1990 Gibson Les Paul Standard to get a Fender custom shop heavy relic strat - I keep looking at the 60th anniversary model, which has some modern specs but looks really vintage
Is anyone else looking at anything music related this year - either as a gift from Santa or for themself!
-
I'm feeling a little bit like Bob Cratchet this year. Only off on Christmas day then back to the grind the following day. . I'd love to list a series of wonderful music related goodies but not this year unless some scrooge-like character has an overnight epiphany and surprise me with the best guitar in the shop. There is one thing that would be a lovely surprise though I'm not sure if it will arrive before or after Christmas. Like one of the wise men, Nooms will hopefully be the bearer of good tidings re that wish. Sorry I can't provide a list of musical goodies. I am however desperate to see my children on the 28th of December for a few days.
Hope everyone gets some wonderful surprises!
Paul
-
Not really a present, as such...
I had a builder give me an estimate for a small office/studio in half of my garage. It's pretty much impossible to get any writing or recording done these days...so even though it will cost me a few grand...I'm looking forward to getting started planning that.
I hope everyone has a great Christmas :)
-
Whatho ho ho all.
Hmmm Christmas.....I don't really have anything I'd want, I have everything I need. What would be useful is time to practise using the stuff I've already got. I'd also wish for time for my collaborator friends, I hear it often that time is pressing for them too.
Would a Neumann u47 really make more of a difference to my songs than taking the right time to improve my production techniques. Nope it would'nt...gear often gets bought but few take the time to learn how to use it properly.
I spent a week's holiday in Norfolk recently (not far from SlavaB actually) , I took my laptop and dug very deeply into my DAW, and discovered a few really cool things, now THAT was like someone giving me a Christmas Present, now I'm able to do things I didn't before, a Neumann wouldn't.
One of the most useful experiments I carried out was a comparison of mic placements when tracking my Acoustic guitars, might save someone a ton of cash, (if they got frustrated with how an expensive acoustic sounds rubbish, conversely a cheapo guitar can be made to sound better - years agoI had a £100 Yamaha FG160 that I used as my strumming guitar for a few years and I was only able to do this by 1. New strings 2. A thinnish plectrum and 3. Careful mic placement) the difference in getting it right meant that my Gibson, sounded as good as it did live, but that takes time and a very methodical approach.
Recently I've been looking at Stereo separation tools like Waves S1, or Stereo Savage, but in my DAW I have a cool feature that's lurking under the Pan knob allows 2D Surround Sound (and Full surround) which does the job better than those 2, (you can place the L and R signal independently wherever you want, in the 2D Stereo sound stage, so a lead vocal can be a little off centre, and if you have 2 Lead Vocalists this allow you to plonk them EXACTLY where you want them... QED. I'm sure you guys know about that in your DAWs, forgive me if I'm preaching to the converted...
Oh yes, and most of all, I wish for really well written user manuals for the software I have, Videos are fine but when one needs to go step by step through a process, there's nothing that can beat the printed word with screenshots. (Kirnu Cream MIDI arpeggiator, one of the worst manuals known to man)
So I guess what I'm saying is you can make your own christmas presents, from what you have already, and yes, it's time not stuff for me.
cpm
p.s. if anyone has some Tannoy Reds they don't want...You hear EVERYTHING with those, a revelation, if once in your life you get the chance to hear them....
-
Not really a present, as such...
I had a builder give me an estimate for a small office/studio in half of my garage. It's pretty much impossible to get any writing or recording done these days...so even though it will cost me a few grand...I'm looking forward to getting started planning that.
I hope everyone has a great Christmas :)
I had a drummer friend, his Dad built him a small studio, twas brilliant, Council found out, no more studio...but a rather fetching brick/concrete rockery :)
-
Ha ha!
First thing I did was check the council regulations with the builder... Who used to work for the council...
-
He was an eternal optimist...He thought I stay in his band...Ha ha indeed...
-
Nothing that I want or need apart from the thought of another great year of making music. A big thank you to all of my collaboration partners this year @Viscount Cramer & His Orchestra @adamfarr (http://www.songwriterforum.co.uk/index.php?action=profile;u=20124) @Rightly (http://www.songwriterforum.co.uk/index.php?action=profile;u=20219) @Neil C (http://www.songwriterforum.co.uk/index.php?action=profile;u=18856) @PaulAds (http://www.songwriterforum.co.uk/index.php?action=profile;u=20253) @Morefrog Jones (http://www.songwriterforum.co.uk/index.php?action=profile;u=20200) @Wicked Deeds (http://www.songwriterforum.co.uk/index.php?action=profile;u=19231) @Skub (http://www.songwriterforum.co.uk/index.php?action=profile;u=20061) @Binladeda (http://www.songwriterforum.co.uk/index.php?action=profile;u=18620)
Big love to all on the forum :)
-
The "wants" at the top of my list aren't really "stuff" for the most part...I want collaborators nearby, my own personal sound engineer. One "stuff" thing is a real studio, as long as I had an engineer to go with it. Oh, and session musicians--or my own band. It's really difficult for me to get enthusiastic about practicing and recording--even writing--when it's always all by myself.
-
Waves seems to be carrying over a lot of their cyber Monday deals - might get a plug-in or two there, Santa willing.. ;D
-
I'm thinking of asking Santa to gift me Yamaha Vocaloid 5 - it's a pretty neat vocal synthesizer that would allow me to topline effortlessly rather than having to use piano/keys etc which just aren't the same as having them sang - albeit by a robot!
-
I'm thinking of asking Santa to gift me Yamaha Vocaloid 5 - it's a pretty neat vocal synthesizer that would allow me to topline effortlessly rather than having to use piano/keys etc which just aren't the same as having them sang - albeit by a robot!
Well I never, I didn't know this existed...how interesting
-
My wife's Christmas present to me is a Kube soundbooth which hopefully will be delivered before Christmas, they're made to order...
this'll be the first time I haven't had to build my own..luxury!! :) :) 8) 8)
-
Well I never, I didn't know this existed...how interesting
It's one of the better vocaloids by the looks of it. A lot of scope to add vibrato, pitch bend, and to tweak the vocal style that most others don't offer. Based purely on the YouTube tutorials, I can see it as really useful for those like me who don't have a singing note in their head!
-
Vocaloids - sounds like a throat sweet from the 1940's :)
-
Thankfully I resisted the urge to impulse buy the Yamaha Vocaloid and have since had this cheaper alternative from Synthesizer V brought to my attention - seems to be just as useful and is less than half the price, plus there's a free demo version to play around with first. Sure as heel beats me trying to 'sing' in a female voice when throwing ideas around with producers, topliners etc!
-
How did you get on with it in anger?
-
Still playing around with it, really, but so far it seems pretty straight forward to use. Much easier to 'connect' with a topline in terms of timing, prosody etc when using a vocaloid rather than just midi keys!
Having problems getting it connected up to DAW (Mixcraft and Odesi!) thouh - this might be because I'm still in 'evaluating' (ie free trial) mode rather than buying for 'production' purposes yet. Another problem is that it only exports in midi format (which means it still sounds like keys when opened in a DAW!) or UST format as opposed to MP3 - again, could be due to trial version I'm using.
It's a pretty need piece of software and I'd suggest that anyone who writes EDM or who needs/wants a scratch female vocal should check out the free trial version.