Forum advice requested - if ya got a minute

MC Gitarz

New member
First off -I gotta say how much how I enjoy this group. No bullshit, great advice, truly a fine blend of talent and experience levels. I've changed a lot of my techniques based on y'all's advice and remarks -and not just the ones about my stuff. And I gotta mention the exceptional musicianship out here. I don't listen to the radio at all anymore - I play my "Homereccers Compilation CDs" - much better stuff.

So what are the expectations of y'all? How often should a person respond or critique to remain "in good standing"? Y'all are really responsive as soon as a new tune hits the board - and I KNOW that takes up studio time. I'm trying to find the balance between my own studio time and active participation. I download a TON of stuff but I if I don't have anything constructive to add, I'd rather not throw out two cents of mindless rambling. (And I'm a totally useless typist - this takes me forever!) But at the same tme I really want to lose that damned "newbie" attachment thing.

I read the FAQs (I believe a lot in RTFM) but there's a lot I don't get yet - (aha! the 'newbie' moniker is apropos!) - like, where do the stars come from?????? Sheesh - I've toasted so many brain cells over the years I can't remember all the damned icons!!

Thanks in advance for the advice - and thanks for listening/critiquing my stuff!
Milan
 
good questions. I listen to ppl`s tunes because I like the exposure. I learn something every time I dl a tune. Either something I want to try or in some cases it may be something I want to prevent myself from doing. I believe it helps. There are times when i dont post for a week or so and miss a few things, and one can only listen to so many tunes with limited time so I go inspells sortof. Theres a lot of talent visiting here regularly and I learn constantly. I dont run a studio, I just record little ideas that come, before they go completely, as I learn to manipulate this software.
If your a member and come to visit you are in good standing. There is no post requirement that I know of. Just dont abuse anybody and all should be cool.
When yu respond to a post there is an option below that allows you to "rate this thread". Thats where the stars come from.

Im a player not an engineer, but with the interaction and exposure in this group I`m gettin to where I can at least get my ideas recorded in a somewhat suitable fashion so that I can hear them come to at least partial fruition. Learning to be a proficient player on severl instruments is another challenge as well. But its coming along slowly but steady.
 
Rate to post

I will speak about myself here and the long-winded approach I have ... ahem ;-)

I am new to the board also, and I am actually desparate to learn how to mix well, and specifically how to mix well for the transition to MP3.

I like to talk, period. I like to participate and 'give information'. I am a brainstormer and although sometimes I seem very 'didactic', I'm really trying to teach ... myself.

I read all the posts, every word. And I think about all of what everyone has said. I'm lucky, I read very, very fast. I talk very, very fast. I learn and retain very, very quickly, and I retain a lot.

My weakness is actually applying what I have read and retained. To make images in my mind about what I should be doing in the software to make what I want to hear happen, what I hear in others music is extremely hard for me.

I did not come by my skills playing my instruments easily. I practice a lot. For 10 years of my life, I literally practiced about 4 hours, or more, per day.

Posting ... is practice for me. This is the woodshed on this board, and my instruments here are words, drawing 'sonic' pictures with words. And I absolutely thrive on it.

I'm sure at some point I'll slow down, and yes, posting a lot does get you listened to more.

When you take the time to review somebody, they naturally want to 'see' and 'hear' what you are all about.

I'm all for posts that voice agreement with another poster and little else, I really think that is as important as posting. But of course the MOST important thing, is listening, and MC Guitarz is doing that, and that is good.

At some point, because of all the listening you are doing, you will have 20 words to say, and those 20 words, whatever they are about, whatever they may be ... will be PROFOUND, and will be worth 100 of my posts :D

Be cool, this is a good topic to air out every once in a while.
 
I agree with MC Gitarz. I've only been here a short while, and the level of knowledge and expertise here is huge. I also post at Tabcrawler which seems to me to be a board where, with a couple of exceptions, people like to talk alot about guitars and throw abuse around among themselves, with very little constructive coming out of it.

I download a lot of stuff to listen to from here. A lot of it is accoustic, folk type stuff which I generally don't comment on as rock and metal is more my thing. I keep my comments to how I felt about the song as a whole, and not about whether or not there was too much compression on the tambourine etc, as I don't know jack shit about that stuff yet. I'm hoping to learn more about that sort of stuff here
 
Man i just say come when you can, you will learn alot. And if you have time stop by and download. I am an extremely busy person so i am not here all of the time. But when i am i am constantly downloading. I just say do what you can in the time you have available. If it is 1 day out of the month or 3 days a week...that is really irrelavent. Just come, learn, listen and Bob's your uncle.
 
Thanks, folks!
Toki - I hear what you're saying - I'm in the same boat - every tune has something to offer either on the positive side or negative and I can tell you some of the changes I've made to my recording/mixing style are noticeable. Thanks for the tip about the stars - sometimes I'm maybe not smart enough to have a computer!

Studio - don't fret, man - I don't think they charge by the inch. I was a journalist for years, being paid by the inch - I can show you verbosity!! But amid the dissertations are pearls of wisdom I've already put to use - MICS! and MIC simulators! I tried your tip about using different mics right away and now I can hear definition in the harmonies. It's a great tip when you don't have anyone around to sing backup! (Yes, I have my room-temp water standing by, too - it's mineral water - Gerolsteiner to be exact.)THANKS!!

Bulls - I'm with ya - the reasons I'm not adept at BBS protocol abound on almost every other board I've visited. I usually quit them early on. This is a great medium but we've all seen the wanton abuse by the moronic few. I can't see it happening here.

Analytical - Thanks a million! I'm in the same boat regarding time - my hours are limited in a day - but almost every tune I've DLed was well worth the time spent. Gotta love it - life without unrealistic expectations. Explain that to my ex-wife (explain it twice, 'cause we got married and divorced twice.)

My thanks for the advice and pointers from all of you!! I feel better now.
Ciao for now
Milan
 
If you haven't already, you'll soon realize there is about as much to gain from others' tunes and corresponding threads as there is from your own. Listen and respond as you see fit. I stumbled onto this site with a bag over my head in a dark room, but with something telling me there was a door.
 
Gerolsteiner !!!

Gerolsteiner is good, it will literally BLOW the flim off your vocal chords !!! ROFL.

Try this, get a fresh lime, not a lemon, a lemon is too acidic.

Squeeze just 3 to 5 drops of lime juice in an 8oz glass of gerolsteiner mineral wasser.

The acid in the lime will boil some of the carbonation out, the basic or alkaline chemical quality of the mineral water will also be balanced by the acid in the lime.

Tastes good to.

I'm looking foward to hearing your harmony vocals.

If you really, really, really want an interesting and totally clean vocal sound, try this.

Get a fresh jalapeno, if you are not used to eating vegetable peppers, get the giant variety of green jalapenos as they are much less hot, I use habaneros for this trick.

Now what I'm about to describe can only be used briefly, because the high powered capsicum acid in the pepper will eventually 'sieze up' the vocal chords and shock them.

But for the purposes of session check this out.

With a very sharp knife, working from the tip of the jalapeno, slice very, very thin circle slices, as thin as you can, about 5-10, leave these stacked on each other, put them on a saucer. Cover the saucer with plastic wrap.

Start your session, use the water method, gently, always very gently. Remember, we are working our vocal chords no matter what other methods we do, and each session affords a limited amount of 'lifespan' , the vocal chords do of course get tired, they become ineffective.

Some might argue with me, they think and rightly so, that blown chords can sometimes sound good. Well here's the jalapeno method.

Take that jalapeneo slice, just one, and put it on the BACK of your tongue, not the tip, not the middle, the back. Be careful.

Let the jalapeno sit there. Yes, it's crazy ...

You will very quickly start to produce a lot of saliva, but it's going to be different because of the placement of the jalapeno slice.

When a LOT of saliva has formed in your mouth, a good pool of it, that is some powerful saliva, because it has a new chemical in it, the capsicum acid from the jalapeno, it's high octance gargle, the best you can get.

Gently tilt the head back and BEFORE that runs into the back of your throat, start the little gargle grunts, little tiny grunting sounds in your lower register.

You are literally BLASTING and BURNING the flim off.

This should only be done near the end of a session, after the chords are warmed up and thoroughly moistened. It makes them ragged very quickly, and some interesting effects can be gotten with the ragged voice, but you can also lose your voice for a day or two if you overdo this. CAUTION.

The water method is gentle and nurturing.
The jalapeno method ... is insane. :D

What you CAN get from the jalapeno method is an intensely sweet, clean, vocal, very focused and ... sweet.

It depends on what type of vocal you are ... as to what you will turn into when you 'pepper' your vocal chords.

The most important thing to remember is not to have any equiptment or a mic in front of you when you do this.

When you tilt your head back to gargle the first couple of times, until you get used to the jalapeno method, your throat will sieze and you will naturally want to expel this shit from your throat as quickly as possible, and you will spit this crap all over everything.

Be careful, be gentle, observe ... how does it make you 'feel'.

Breath naturally, and normally. Yes, the capsicum acid DOES travel in the moist air in your sinuses and nasal passages, so you can literally treat the entire vocal apparatus with the jalapeno method using the gentle slow breathing of the water method and the gentle flexing of the vocal and sinus passages.

Remember, start to clear the throat and gargle BEFORE that heat hits the back of your throat, and then gently work that stuff back there.

Eventually you will be able to 'sing-gargle' with this pool of heat playing around the chords and boiling them 'pure'. Eventually, you can use the glissando method to learn where the most pure point in the break between your chestvoice and headvoice, really, really is .... funky huh ?

sing-gargling with the glisando method will literally strip the vocal chords of all impurities and flim at EVERY FREQUENCY level.

If you regularly use the jalapeno method, you will develop tolerance to the jalapeno capsicum acid and can even move up to serrano's and habenero's. You can literally at some point, just think about the jalapeno method and you will start to generate the saliva you need.

DO NOT smoke while using the jalapeno method, there are all sorts of bad things that can happen. Wait until you are finished with the session.

This method has been used to treat vocal nodes, and it is very, very effective, but the technique is much different and I'm reasearching that.
 
Last edited:
Re: Gerolsteiner !!!

studioviols said:
Gerolsteiner is good, it will literally BLOW the flim off your vocal chords !!! ROFL.

Try this, get a fresh lime, not a lemon, a lemon is too acidic.

Squeeze just 3 to 5 drops of lime juice in an 8oz glass of gerolsteiner mineral wasser.

The acid in the lime will boil some of the carbonation out, the basic or alkaline chemical quality of the mineral water will also be balanced by the acid in the lime.

Tastes good to.

I'm looking foward to hearing your harmony vocals.

If you really, really, really want an interesting and totally clean vocal sound, try this.

Get a fresh jalapeno, if you are not used to eating vegetable peppers, get the giant variety of green jalapenos as they are much less hot, I use habaneros for this trick.

Now what I'm about to describe can only be used briefly, because the high powered capsicum acid in the pepper will eventually 'sieze up' the vocal chords and shock them.

But for the purposes of session check this out.

With a very sharp knife, working from the tip of the jalapeno, slice very, very thin circle slices, as thin as you can, about 5-10, leave these stacked on each other, put them on a saucer. Cover the saucer with plastic wrap.

Start your session, use the water method, gently, always very gently. Remember, we are working our vocal chords no matter what other methods we do, and each session affords a limited amount of 'lifespan' , the vocal chords do of course get tired, they become ineffective.

Some might argue with me, they think and rightly so, that blown chords can sometimes sound good. Well here's the jalapeno method.

Take that jalapeneo slice, just one, and put it on the BACK of your tongue, not the tip, not the middle, the back. Be careful.

Let the jalapeno sit there. Yes, it's crazy ...

You will very quickly start to produce a lot of saliva, but it's going to be different because of the placement of the jalapeno slice.

When a LOT of saliva has formed in your mouth, a good pool of it, that is some powerful saliva, because it has a new chemical in it, the capsicum acid from the jalapeno, it's high octance gargle, the best you can get.

Gently tilt the head back and BEFORE that runs into the back of your throat, start the little gargle grunts, little tiny grunting sounds in your lower register.

You are literally BLASTING and BURNING the flim off.

This should only be done near the end of a session, after the chords are warmed up and thoroughly moistened. It makes them ragged very quickly, and some interesting effects can be gotten with the ragged voice, but you can also lose your voice for a day or two if you overdo this. CAUTION.

The water method is gentle and nurturing.
The jalapeno method ... is insane. :D

What you CAN get from the jalapeno method is an intensely sweet, clean, vocal, very focused and ... sweet.

It depends on what type of vocal you are ... as to what you will turn into when you 'pepper' your vocal chords.

The most important thing to remember is not to have any equiptment or a mic in front of you when you do this.

When you tilt your head back to gargle the first couple of times, until you get used to the jalapeno method, your throat will sieze and you will naturally want to expel this shit from your throat as quickly as possible, and you will spit this crap all over everything.

Be careful, be gentle, observe ... how does it make you 'feel'.

Breath naturally, and normally. Yes, the capsicum acid DOES travel in the moist air in your sinuses and nasal passages, so you can literally treat the entire vocal apparatus with the jalapeno method using the gentle slow breathing of the water method and the gentle flexing of the vocal and sinus passages.

Remember, start to clear the throat and gargle BEFORE that heat hits the back of your throat, and then gently work that stuff back there.

Eventually you will be able to 'sing-gargle' with this pool of heat playing around the chords and boiling them 'pure'. Eventually, you can use the glissando method to learn where the most pure point in the break between your chestvoice and headvoice, really, really is .... funky huh ?

sing-gargling with the glisando method will literally strip the vocal chords of all impurities and flim at EVERY FREQUENCY level.

If you regularly use the jalapeno method, you will develop tolerance to the jalapeno capsicum acid and can even move up to serrano's and habenero's. You can literally at some point, just think about the jalapeno method and you will start to generate the saliva you need.

DO NOT smoke while using the jalapeno method, there are all sorts of bad things that can happen. Wait until you are finished with the session.

This method has been used to treat vocal nodes, and it is very, very effective, but the technique is much different and I'm reasearching that.



"As long as there's beer, I'll sing."

- Zach Wilde

:D

I do like to eat fresh jalepenos though.....
 
Back to the original question :D

I consider myself pretty new around here (although, I just noticed that my post count has gotten high pretty quick :eek: ).

I would guess most of my posts are in here. I thoroughly enjoy listening to folks music here. Plus in the few months I've been here I've learned more about recording and mixing than my entire life before that. I really, truly wish that I could listen to everyone's stuff. But...reality check...I just can't. If I did, I wouldn't get any work done (at my real job), I would never see my wife and daughter and I would never get another song finished (I'm slow enough at that as it is).

That being said, I try to listen to 10 or so songs a week. I'm not always successful...but I try. I don't often have a lot to add, but sometimes I do. I still like to give an 'atta boy (or girl) at any rate.

I actually don't post that much of my stuff because I'm not all that productive at getting stuff finished. But when I do, the folks here are very receptive and helpful.

I can also get pretty long winded. I think studioviols is the only one here who is more of a windbag than I am :p ;) :D. Thing is, his windage is usually more informative than mine :D:D

So there :D
 
Back
Top