Sailor55

I too have several headphones kicking around.  But when I want to hear exactly what I've mixed with no "personality" whatsoever, I turn to my Neumann NDH 20's. They bring nothing of their own to the table. I guess you could say that is their "sound"... i.e. no coloration of any kind.  Granted, they are crazy expensive ($700  CDN these days, slightly less than what I paid for my used Mackie HR824 monitors many years ago) and takes a bit of getting used to, but the entire spectrum is presented in all its naked glory. I listened to some Billy Joel with them recently. Wow. Lots of stuff I'd never heard before. But, whether it be headphones or studio monitors, my vocal shortcomings are generally quite apparent (and irritating) to me. - Dan

On 4/12/2024 at 9:53 AM, Sridhar Raghavan said:

I already noticed that pressing T brings up a pop up panel, though I have not checked out the options there. 

That "pop up panel" is exceedingly important to me and central to my workflow which involves much audio editing. All the stuff one continually needs in a tight little box only an inch away from where the cursor is now.  Please never take that away.  Never.  - Daniel

I donate a healthy sum to my local food bank once each year.  I do it when it's convenient for me, usually toward the end of the year. I am happy to do so and the folks there are certainly appreciative. Early this year they called and asked if I would consider giving the same amount as last year in monthly installments deducted from my bank.

They were quite persistent, but I refused. Clearly, they desire consistent and predictable cash flow. I suppose I can't blame them for that. But I don't like it.  It makes me feel taken for granted and leaves me out of control. If for any reason I can't (or don't want to) give, I must take an action, rather than simply not take an action. 

I realize this is not an apples-to-apples comparison (i.e. charities vs DAW revenues), but seems the whole world is moving in this direction. I own outright a lot of Waves Inc. plug-ins. Waves has a thousand products many of which do  practically the same thing. They'd much rather I pay a permanent yearly fee for the privilege of accessing any plug-in at any time. That puts me in full control of a grand array of products (many of dubious utility, but some that could become integral to a project) while putting me in less control of my money.

Unfortunately, it's something I may have to learn to get used to.

Many thanks John for taking the time to make an extremely useful video. It is much appreciated.

My takeaway: Beyond a membership to  BandLab (which is not particularly useful to me), there is no good reason, at present, to obtain Sonar unless one wishes to monkey about with GUI issues for months on end while actual music production suffers. Cheers... - Daniel

4 hours ago, Dave Gelzleichter said:

btw I hated when they came and put a dial on our phone. I had to learn a 7 digit number, rather than tell the operator a 4 digit number to call my Grandpa.

And here I thought I was an old-timer...

Brilliant. A dance floor filler.  No question about it....  - Daniel

I'll tell you why I like this: It's so very far from what I do or what I ever could do.  (I'm from a era you probably can't conceive of). And yet, I very much recognize the merit and validity of this work. Short and sweet. And so damned tight it squeaks.  All in all, a very clever little tune. I can easily imagine a band of 21-year-olds playing this live in front of a thousand jumping puppies.  All the best... - Daniel

Great stuff!  I like this mix. Very dense, and yet I can easily isolate everything in every direction. Solid guitar work & lyric combined with an interesting sentiment.

Believe me, I know the work that went into this.  Much appreciated. - Daniel

Here's some battlefield angst.  I know there's another song titled "Fire In The Hole" (Steely Dan), but this isn't that. No, not at all. - Daniel

https://www.taggerband.com/Music/FITBH/FireInTheHole.html

Quote

Being a musician rarely qualifies you as a tech savvy person...

I'll say! And the reverse is also true. I've known tech savvy folks with a profound understanding of gear who think producing actual music is just another "technical" issue. Here in Canada, the most commercially successful musical act, by far, is Long & McQuade Musical Instruments.  (For my  American friends, they are the largest gear retailer in this country. I don't think they have a presence in the USA.) - Dan

This is a great piece Rex, and I like it very much as is.  But... If you ask me, I think it's crying out for maracas. I swear I can hear them even though they're not  there. I know its easy for me to say: "just put some maracas in". Maracas are damn hard to get right. But I think they could add an appropriate flavor. - Dan

Fabulous vocals, guitar, lyric & mix, .  Absolutely top notch. I admit I'm not really country guy either, but this is the kind of thing that can really bring me over. You should be proud of this. I would be. - Dan

I like this a lot. Goes interesting and unexpected places. Real drums too. That kick can't be missed. Perfect mood for hanging around the house while it hammers down rain outside. Cheers... -Dan

Thanks for the fabulous feedback everyone! I assure you all that it's very much appreciated. I put a lot of work into my productions and to have them so positively received by others in the same creative community is most rewarding.  And I shall let John D. know he is appreciated. - Daniel

I once lived in a rough neighborhood...

https://www.taggerband.com/Music/FITBH/RedTide.html

• Dimension Pro: acoustic bass, drumbeats, strings
• Addictive Drums 2: additional cymbals
• Lead Guitar: John D, current player in my band
• Vocals: a singer from StudioPros.com whom I hired long ago

- Daniel

I quite liked this. Very well composed and produced. Great picture too.

Facts are facts Steve, and this certainly is good work. - Dan

Wow! A remarkable achievement. Very reminiscent of Zappa at his most tasteful.

Thanks for the great feed back everyone.

KSband: I agree. A little crispy. I've tried to address that somewhat in the multi-band eq on the master bus.

Bjorn: I also agree. Those toms really are (were) a bit over the top. I've now dialed them back some.

treesha: Thanks so kindly. The lead guitar was played by a friend. I did the rest. Except, you can thank Melodyne for the background vocal bits.

Cheers all...  - Dan

 Thanks for commenting and even more thanks for pointing this issue out. Although the tune was mixed in stereo it sounds quite mono because of three really dumb mistakes on my part (which have all been fixed with a new mix now uploaded).

1. I was using a mono VU meter on the drum track (AD2) which I'd neglected to remove. That rendered the whole drum track as mono.
2. One of rack effects in 'Guitar Rig 5' was set to mono, thus, the entire lead guitar track was rendered as mono.
3. The CLA vocal effect was using the 'mono/stereo' version rather than the 'stereo' version. Thus, the whole vocal track as rendered as mono.

And there's the biggest reason to post things. One gets so hung up in composition that glaring production mistakes get overlooked. Thanks again!

Concerning a kid who accidentally went wrong in a place where that kind of thing is frowned upon...

https://www.taggerband.com/Music/FITBH/BillyRanOff.html

I'm not a great singer, yet good enough to make a demo that gives a real singer a concise idea of what I'm after.

I don't like take lanes either. I sing vocals one line at a time. Take after take. I usually know when I've done a keeper. Of course, that's almost never.  Thus, I save a ton of time by not bothering to listen to a dozen takes that I know are weak (i.e. most of them). After enough takes (followed by ctrl-Z), my vocal delivery improves to the point where I have something that's worth examining in Melodyne. If the Melodyne tweaking is not too extensive, I'll do the necessary editing, then render, then move on to the next line.

After I've finished the whole tune I'll take a serious listen to entire vocal in context of the entire song. Invariably, I find there's always a few few lines that could have been better.  I will correct these by the same method detailed above. And yes, it take ages. Did I mention I'm not a great singer?.

Why bother if I plan to hire a pro anyway?  Well, I don't necessarily hire a pro for everything and I don't want any of my demos to be cringe-worthy.

A good singer would find the above to be pure madness.  But I am a pragmatist. I tend to work with what I've got. But I'm always alone when doing thirty takes of the same line.  Nobody wants to hear that. The trick for me is to be ruthless. If I know I've flatted (or, more likely, wavered) on the last word of an otherwise reasonably good take, I'll delete it and keep trying.

The worst thing about comping is the process of deciding what is "best" from dozens of takes.  I prefer to decide that on the fly.

A complete remix & rearrangement of something I posted a few years ago. I had some fun with this.  - Daniel

https://www.taggerband.com/Music/DBH/BillyAndDiva.html

I'd be happy to. But I've never done it before. How much do you need? Just the .cwp file? What about the audio, effects and synths? Where do I send it?

Edit: Actually, I've tried it. The .cwp file alone exhibits these problems without audio, effects etc. It is only 644K in size. I could email it.   - D

I downloaded 2021.12 build 93. I have a small project that happens to have a single folder (no nesting) containing two tracks. It is now completely broken. The two tracks in the folder still play but are not visible. The tracks are disconnected (spatially) from the actual folder. The folder can not be moved, expanded of contracted. You can not remove the tracks out of the folder either by dragging or any other command. Manipulating some other tracks eventually results in a crash.

The file was saved under build 93. I rolled back to build 79. Still broken. I rolled back to build 18. Still broken. The project now seems to be corrupt. I can't go forward, I can't go back. Fortunately this was not a particularly important project. But I think it is now lost.  - D

I found two things confusing: Why does the extra 0.6 dB only occur in the right channel? And why does "render in real time" fix it? As I said, I've tried it both ways many times and the results are perfectly consistent. I can think of only two possibilities: This is a problem specific only to my DAW and only under specific circumstances, or... This is a bug.  If it is a bug, it's fortunately one that very rarely manifests itself. I've never noticed it in dozens of other projects.

I usually only bounce entire mixes to a track at the end of a project, but in future, I will be doing it in real time when I must be confident of the result. Perhaps someone could shed light on why the "real time render" option exists in the first place. Anyway, thanks to everyone who commented. I hesitate to update this thread to "solved". But there does seem to be a usable workaround. - Dan