rfssongs

Not sure where I read it, but I once saw a comment that said there are as many ways of writing a song as there are songs. So I try everything. One direction one day - the opposite direction maybe the next. But writing it down first - that is never going to happen again for me. It just kills my mood. But I suppose what you are trying to accomplish might guide many of those choices.

For me - this is what keeps me sane (kind of).

Kenny,

These "prefab" sources can also be a bit of inspiration, I have at times done this. You don't even have to keep the original track. I do this with drum tracks a lot. A new drum replacement track can be added pretty late in the process if everything is done tightly, for me that's done with Midi. In fact almost everything I initially record is eventually replaced bit by bit as I develop the feel until they are done. And they are never done.

53 minutes ago, bitflipper said:

Oh, the wisdom I could impart to my teenage self . Unfortunately it would have fallen on deaf ears. It takes a long time to realize how deep one's ignorance goes.

Same here.

1 hour ago, Esteban Villanova said:

The DAW is for recording, not for composing.

I think the opposite way - I use the DAW as a central component in writing & arranging.

I know I said it before somewhere but I think there are too many shortcuts enabled by default. I find it far to easy to accidentally hit one of them. Possibly not even realizing it.

(Still I'm too lazy to go thru and disconnect the ones I don't want.)

There is a lot of gear & software I would never buy again that I spent a lot of money on. Keep it simple. The gear won't make me better.

40 minutes ago, pwalpwal said:

Looks like something that will end well.

Where do carpenters learn to install wood flooring - Boarding School.

The space ship takes off around noon so we'll have breakfast before launch followed by a heavenly dinner. 

Not a clean solution but if you create one Arranger Track the length of your song, you can use it to select data only in the time range you need.

I also have problems sometimes with songs that add a lot of empty space at the end of my MP3's.

I'm 65 now and I figure I've only got so much time for song writing left. For me I'm only touchy because I don't want to spend that time getting used to another system.  My biggest concern is if I have a system failure or replace the machine will there be a place to get another copy of the program.

The updates have been great as well.

2 hours ago, Notes_Norton said:

Think of all the licks that we use as the vocabulary of our music. They evolve through time, the boogie woogie piano part of the swing jazz era became a bass line in the early rock days, and so on. There are thousands more like this.

We all learn from what came before, and we are all influenced by what we hear, so some of it is going to come out.

In both jazz and folk music, there is a tradition of quoting a few bars of another song in a new song. It's homage, not plagiarism.

If you steal the melody, or the lyrics, that's an obvious violation. But the rhythm? Or the chord progression? Come on.

Samples are different. They are using someone else's performance. I'm not sure if the paying for them is right. After all, a visual artist can make a collage of different images to create a new work of art, and he/she doesn't have to pay royalties.

Perhaps the musicians should be paid for the session work? I don't know.

The original intent of copyright law was to protect the income of the original artist by being stolen and used by another. There is no way Sheeran's song is hurting the income of the heirs of Marvin Gaye's estate.

Funny thing about copyright.

If someone creates a cure for cancer, he patents it, and gets fewer than 20 years of protection.

Yet a 25-year-old person can write a song, live to 100, and his/her copyright is good for 75 years after he/she dies.

The cure for cancer gets 20 years of protection, and the theoretical song above gets 150 years.

That just doesn't seem right to me.

But this is all just my opinion.

 

Insights and incites by Notes ♫

 

In music school they taught me to borrow phrases. They said that is how it is done. Just like you said.

Yeah simple but then there are blurred lines. I'm no expert but I think some refinement is needed. There are only 12 notes. There is going to be overlap.

Ummm Rock Hard ?

For whom it may concern.

FYI (in case this is not already well known)

I am seeing crashes when I use an external clock sync (MX-88) for recording Arps. On one of those occasions the computer had to be rebooted. Going the other way seems OK. I'll just stay with the Cakewalk Clock driving the MX. 

Just wondering:

does a match made in heaven light faster ?

I noticed that one of the things mentioned in the original post, you wanted to see the name of the drum sound in PRV.  For that, using a drum map is useful. I set up the drum map using the area of the keyboard I want to use & assign the names of the sounds I want to use. The nice thing about the drum map is that you can reorganize which keys triggers a certain drums sound. It works though it's not super user friendly. Once it's set up up you can save it & not have to deal with it again. I usually play my drum part live on the keyboard so this is very useful.

Not sure if that helps with your entire question though.

Go to View markers hit ctrl-a if you want to delate them all & press delete.

If that does not work maybe you have locked the track.

In a rare worst case scenario I have copied each track individually to a new file. I can't remember the circumstances now. It's a last ditch effort but has worked for me.

They say the son is going to eventually swallow the earth but I've seen that kid eat & I don't think he's got that big an appetite.

The good thing about having a short memory is I can laugh at the same jokes more than once 

And meet new friends every day......

16 hours ago, craigb said:

How I see weddings...

That's me !

Another track is solo'd ?

Ouch

1 hour ago, Notes_Norton said:

Too bad Rosemary is not involved, looks like that would be hot.....