r/WeAreTheMusicMakers

I have come across an issue while recording and mixing music and am wondering if anyone else has encountered something similar. I want a drum sound that is big and punchy and tight sounding, but it seems that every kit that has this sound also features crash cymbals with a ton of attack at the very beginning of the cymbal hit. I'm sure this works great when you want to use the crash to accent certain things, but the beats I am programming are riding on the crash throughout the riff, so it sounds really weird having this huge amount of stick attack every time the crash cymbal is hit.

What I really want is more of a consistent wash of soaring high end frequencies rather than jarring pumping over and over. I have tried reducing the velocity, compressing, eq-ing, transient shaping plugins, etc but I can't seem to really get rid of that attack without affecting the sound of the cymbal too much. The only thing that probably would work is going through and manually automating the beginning of the cymbal hit down but that is very tedious.

Modern and massive 2 and ezx metal machine both have this issue. If anyone knows of another midi pack that might work better or has any other tips for reducing the attack let me know.

What do you do with all those unfinished projects that never see the light of day? Would there be interest in sharing these projects so others can get it across the finish line? Working on something that might be perfect if there is interest!

I love writing music and I’ve written and recorded a few songs, but I keep running into the same issue when it comes to recording.

I record my lyrics as I write them, so by the time I’m done writing a song, I have a rough demo recorded.

The problem is when I sit down to officially record the completed song, I sound completely different and it feels like I can’t sing anymore. I’ll listen back to my demo, where I was barely trying, and my vocals sound great, almost perfect I’d say. But when it comes to recording the final version, I’m doing like 20 takes on the first line because I can’t get myself to sound as good as I did on the demo.

Has anyone else experienced this? Am I psyching myself out or trying too hard? Am I overthinking? I just can’t understand why I sound so good and relaxed in my demo and why I can’t match that sound in my final version.

I wrote some songs and have a good friend that’s a drummer that said he’d play/record them. I have Logic Pro x. What’s the best way to record them?

Do I have to buy a bunch of drum mics and then get some kind of mixer to record each mic into a different track? And then use triggers because the sound quality at my house would be horrible? Haha..

What to do?!?

@ MODS: I am attentive to rule 9. My intention is a broad question, to get hints for further research on my own. I hope to not get a ban from a misunderstanding.

I play in a small band, my good mate, a singer songwriter with a guitar and some pedals, and me with an assortment of tiny electronic gizmos, synths, loopers, sequencers and effect boxes, thrown together ad hoc in different configurations.

We meet weekly in a jam space with all sorts of equipment there, mixer, amps, speakers, all sorts of stuff I don't know about, we just plug in and play. Some other bands using the space know the gear much better.

I record our jam sessions and rehearsals by hanging an old Zoom H1 handy recorder from the ceiling. I wish to change it up a notch, and I am thinking I want some sort of multichannel/-track recording going on. Especially I would love some more clean recordings of my own synth and electronics, to somehow combine with the room sound. Perhaps even records my different sources separately, as I normally just go through a tiny passive 4ch stereo mixer from temu. I would also like to separate my mate's guitar and his singing, because all our levels are always a complete mess and he either drowns or overtake and we don't notice while playing, but the recording is almost painful when it's bad.

I don't know how to go about it.

I thought I could perhaps just buy a handful of the cheapest audio recorders (like dicaphones) with line in I could find, but I don't know if there even are line out to pick up. Neither do I know if it is a complete illusion to think that the signals are anywhere near what we hear in the room, because the amps and speakers plays such a big part. I know some of the guitar sound we are happy about comes from the specific amp on top of the speaker, so that one usually doesn't even go through the mixer.

With a previous band constellation, we had a mate come help of with recording an EP, and he brought a specific multichannel audiointerface and a macbook of sorts, and he mic'd up some of the speakers. Maybe I should look into mic'ing up speakers instead? Though still I would be looking at some sort of multichannel/track recording gear.

I am not a millionaire, I can't afford a complete studio, and nor do I expect to get one without spending on it, ofcourse. But I am looking for some way to get started. I like small gear, portable gear, somewhat cheap gear, which is why I think about small recorders, but if I could put a last gen iPad to a multichannel audio interface and that would open a whole new world for me of mixing and producing, I can probably shell out for it.

Anyway, I very much welcome any tips, hints on research topics, shared experiences or even discouraging comments on this subject, and appreciate your time, guys.

How can I support and encourage without getting in the way.

My son recently joined a band.

The band is made up of 6 kids who are 14 and 15 years old.

The band had been established for about 6 months prior to my son joining. They were originally a 3-4 piece act. They did a shuffle around and now it's a 6 piece band.

Prior to my son joining they had a song already on Spotify.

The band (in my opinion) is very good. They write all of their own music.

They get a gig every one to two weeks. They get paid for these gigs.

The kids organise their own gigs and radio interviews. I don't know how they are doing it but it happens.  They have gigs lined up for the next couple of months.

I'm trying to be supportive. More than driving my son to band practice and to his gigs. How can I support them more.

From my understanding they won something (before my son and the newer kids joined) to be able to get a song recorded and on Spotify.

Can I help fund a recording session so they can have more songs on Spotify? Or is there another way I can support them?

We are in a city with population approximately 100k in Australia.

First time was early on, everything felt way more complex than I expected. Plugins, mixing, theory, all at once. I didn't have much time to begin with, and trying to learn it all just wore me out before I made anything I liked.

Second time was similar, got busy with life, fell off for a while, and it was hard to pick back up again.

Still trying to stick with it, but curious what it was for others, the learning curve, no time, no motivation, something else?

So I was recording a fender hotrod deluxe with the spring reverb cranked going into a a sm57, and when I hear the recording back through headphones you can’t really hear the reverb and delay on it as much as in person, however when I add another Marshall amp and record it with a rode NT1 I can hear the effects much more clearer. Is this normal? Should I just record reverb and delay heavy guitars in stereo rather than mono, or is there some work around this.

I am a published poet and I really enjoy writing. I am good at it, according to others not just myself. I would like to write lyrics for artists. Can anyone suggest a way to get into this? I know ghost writers are a thing and common, but how does one get into it? I could write for any genre, but metal and hip hop are my favorites and where I think I could do my best work. I would apreshiate any help, advice or information. Thanks in advance.

I write and record rock songs at home, mostly guitar with some keyboards.

The arrangement and production/mixing process are pretty much one and the same for me. If I can't imagine how I will make the mix work, I make different choices for the arrangement.

One thing that is always a thorn in my side when planning the arrangement is how to prevent the eventual mix from being lop-sided when it comes to panning. I often find myself adding an additional guitar part just so I know the mix will be even.

Right now, for example I have a song which is acoustic guitar, with an electric playing the chords staccato over the top. I've doubled tracked the acoustic guitar and panned it left and right, but double tracking the staccato electric guitar chords in the same way as well feels silly - double tracking everything on the left and right feels a bit amateur sometimes. I've panned the electric guitar left, but it leaves a gaping hole on the right. I maybe want some lead guitar in certain sections, which balances it out during those sections, but then is still unbalanced when the lead guitar's not playing.

Am I the only one who is constantly thinking about this when deciding on their arrangements?

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Curious how many of you have ever picked up an instrument you know nothing about, and played around with it enough to just record a part that you needed for your song?

For instance i've never even touched a violin but wondering just how difficult it would be to record some basic usable string layers if I got my hands on one?

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I feel I can write pretty easily in terms of taking my guitar or keyboard and coming up a progression or writing a structure down but I’m terrible about getting myself on ableton over the week to actually record. Feel like I’ll never drop anything just because I can’t keep a consistent fire of it. I’ll work like 4 days consistent everyday and then 2 days I don’t and the flame dies for it. I want ideas of how hard I should be working for this to happen

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I recently got a used tascam dp-02, and so far im really enjoying it as its my first time messing around with something like it. Im only having a hard time getting good sounding distortion from my pedals. any tips to make my distortion sound clearer?

Hi, I wrote a song recently but for some reason, my MacBook deleted the GarageBand file so I was only left with the mp4 that I saved. I was able to isolate the drum track from the mp4 but I'm not good at programming drums on GarageBand. In all honesty, I just let Garage Band quantize the drums for me but now I'm unable to recreate the drums, let alone manually. Is there any cheap/free method to convert a .wav file of the drums into MIDI for GarageBand? Please and thank you.

I started recording and making music when I was 12-13. Since then I've built up a pretty big catalog of songs across a bunch of genres, and along the way I taught myself the basics of every instrument I could get my hands on. In college, I played in a couple of bands; we even opened for some bigger touring acts a few times.

I'm 26 now, and honestly things have shifted. Life's gotten more complicated, my interests have changed, and while I still go to concerts, still listen to my favorite artists, and still record/produce here and there, I just don't feel that pull to fall in love with new artists anymore. You know that thing where you find someone new and go binge their entire discography? I have zero interest in doing that right now. It's like I feel like I've already heard it all.

A friend asked me recently when I was going to "start listening to music again" and all I could say was "I don't know." And that's the honest truth, I really don't.

Has anyone else gone through a phase like this and come out the other side? Or is this just kind of where I'm at now that I'm older? For context, I was never some prodigy or anything, I still have a ton to learn if I ever wanted to dive back in. I just don't have the drive right now. As a teenager I was completely obsessed, and I never would've imagined I'd end up feeling this checked out.

Music was always my true passion, and I always dreamt about becoming a professional musician, songwriter, composer, anything. But due to circumstances that will take too long to talk about, I was unable to pursue it that much. I can play piano and guitar and sing a bit.

Now I'm 25, doing a full-time job to get by, and I'm as far away from that dream as I can be. Most of my day goes by doing my job, commuting, and chores. Not to mention that I've become numb. I don't feel the drive and passion for anything anymore and am just trying to survive, just like everybody else in the system. And now, realistically, it's just too late.

But I still hold that dream somewhere inside of me, even though I don't feel motivated about it, nor do I have the time for it. And yes, I know I can do it on the side for myself. But I don't want just that. Not because I want fame or crazy money. I just want to do just well enough on music so I can live comfortably like a normal person and not have to do any other corporate job or something that will drain the soul out of me.

My question for anyone reading this: were you in a situation similar to mine, and made it to where I want to? How did you do it? Or if you didn't make it, how did you cope?

(Please, I don't want any motivational BS. I know you mean well, but I want some guidance from someone who is/was in my shoes.)