TGF Do Something Weekly Challenge Week 1 Thread

[TJontheRoad]

I'm enjoying this thread. I sometimes forget to pick up my guitar when fiddling around with my synths. So this is good reminder to always include some six string stuff in the mix. I'm already working on next week's idea.

 

[Jarick]

Well now Garageband completely crashed just on a new project by itself.

Time to restart and see what happens I guess.

 

[Fireproof]

Sounded great!

Yeah, my fingers always do the same thing. I can play something perfectly for years and then the minute the record light is on I suddenly revert to being a kid picking up my instrument for the first time

Thanks! I figure it can’t be too bad since I got a “copyright claim” on YouTube for using copyrighted music, even though it was just me and my guitar LOL!

 

[Iron1]

Well now Garageband completely crashed just on a new project by itself.

Time to restart and see what happens I guess.

I’ve found that every now and again I have to completely un- and re-install Garageband. For whatever reason, it clears all sorts of glitches/crashes when I do.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Still holding off listening to any of these as I am not sure if people are using existing stems or their own stuff. I have a good start on something and am currently flipping a coin to see if I have time to actually expand upon it or see if I need to just edit down what I have and call it a good first week submission.

 

[DrewJD82]

You should visit your stepmom's place in Baguio. The climate is pretty nice up there, and they got some good weed too As for fermented duck eggs, the trick is to eat them only when you're drunk as f**k, and it'll taste just like chicken

Yeeeeaaahhh I think I’ll pass on the balut. I’ve heard it is beautiful up there, my dad’s been a couple times now and I’d love to see it sometime!

 

[DrewJD82]

Yeah, moving forward when posting a submission, if everyone could state up front they used the supplied drum tracks it’d be a BIG help. Only because it’s REALLY easy to become “influenced” by what you’ve heard, even subconsciously, and next thing you know you just wrote an alternate version of someone’s submission.

 

[fretworn]

I wish I could blame some technology for my slowness… I just haven’t recorded live tracked guitars in well over … um … a really long time. And I don’t know my tools… Using audacity ATM. It was free.

I got the drums done… Thank you, Drew! All I had to do was import to the DAW!

I have a scratch pad of the rhythm guitar laid and some crappy bass down last night (actually just a Bogner amplifier w/ the pitch -12 and a Stratocaster on the neck). Lmao

Was playing with melody last night… But it’s too soon. Gotta go back and fix the bad Bass track today.

It’s not gluing together real well, which is kind of bumming me out from my mix perspective. I feel super constrained on this itty-bitty laptop, touchpad mouse thingy. I miss a real desk.

Also, some latency into the daw ….

I’ll give you something on Friday though… Might be kind of a weird 80s thing, or not… Lol

 

[Los-D]

I hereby humbly submit my contribution to this week's TGF challenge.
I chose the Hard Rock MIDI file and wrote a little Gothic Metal / Rock tune. Really enjoyed the challenge to keep the MIDI file untouched (apart from slightly increasing the tempo) and fit my ideas into the predetermined structure.



Gear used:
- Fender MiJ Modern Strat w. EMG 85/66
- PRS S2 Custom 22 w. EMG 81/66
- Fender Player Precision w. EMG P
- Fractal Audio FM3
- Line 6 Helix Native
- ML Sound Lab & OwnHammer IRs
- EZdrummer 3 w. Death Metal EZX
- PreSonus Quantum 2
- Cubase 12 w. FabFilter, PSP & Valhalla plugins

Yeah!

 

[TheTrueZoltan!]

Yeah!

Thanks man, that was exactly the intention of the song!

 

[DrewJD82]

I wish I could blame some technology for my slowness… I just haven’t recorded live tracked guitars in well over … um … a really long time. And I don’t know my tools… Using audacity ATM. It was free.

I got the drums done… Thank you, Drew! All I had to do was import to the DAW!

I have a scratch pad of the rhythm guitar laid and some crappy bass down last night (actually just a Bogner amplifier w/ the pitch -12 and a Stratocaster on the neck). Lmao

Was playing with melody last night… But it’s too soon. Gotta go back and fix the bad Bass track today.

It’s not gluing together real well, which is kind of bumming me out from my mix perspective. I feel super constrained on this itty-bitty laptop, touchpad mouse thingy. I miss a real desk.

Also, some latency into the daw ….

I’ll give you something on Friday though… Might be kind of a weird 80s thing, or not… Lol

No worries, brother! We’re not expecting a magnum opus from anyone which is why I’ve been so blown away by the submissions! And that’s not to say I doubted everyone’s capabilities, but the way people were talkin’ going into this it was sounding like everyone was going to get Red Light Fever!

Getting a mix to glue together is a bit tricky. While I don’t expect anyone to start dropping cash on plug-ins for this, but I can’t recommend the Brainworx Townhouse bus compressor enough. I put it in the mix bus of every session I start and load it up to “Mix Bus Start’ and don’t touch it. I use the same compressor for parallel compression on drums to get them popping out a bit more, using an untweeked preset.

There’s also stuff like CLA-Mixdown which does the same thing but gives you some EQ controls. Waves is ALWAYS running some kind of sale where you can get a lot of their plugins for dirt cheap. I use more of their stuff than anyone else because it’s what I learned on.

Hahaha I also did that octave-down for bass thing a TON before I got an actual bass!

 

[duzie]

No worries, brother! We’re not expecting a magnum opus from anyone which is why I’ve been so blown away by the submissions! And that’s not to say I doubted everyone’s capabilities, but the way people were talkin’ going into this it was sounding like everyone was going to get Red Light Fever!

Getting a mix to glue together is a bit tricky. While I don’t expect anyone to start dropping cash on plug-ins for this, but I can’t recommend the Brainworx Townhouse bus compressor enough. I put it in the mix bus of every session I start and load it up to “Mix Bus Start’ and don’t touch it. I use the same compressor for parallel compression on drums to get them popping out a bit more, using an untweeked preset.

There’s also stuff like CLA-Mixdown which does the same thing but gives you some EQ controls. Waves is ALWAYS running some kind of sale where you can get a lot of their plugins for dirt cheap. I use more of their stuff than anyone else because it’s what I learned on.

Hahaha I also did that octave-down for bass thing a TON before I got an actual bass!

Compressors
Mixes
Eq
Plug-ins

Damn Drew thanks for starting this because I’m totally clueless up to this point with any of this.
Up until now I’ve really only hit record and thought , well it is what it is .
This is exciting to just now realize I might be able to make things sound better.
Do you know of any tutorials that may be of help with this?
Oh by the way I’m using Logic as a Daw.

 

[DrewJD82]

Compressors
Mixes
Eq
Plug-ins

Damn Drew thanks for starting this because I’m totally clueless up to this point with any of this.
Up until now I’ve really only hit record and thought , well it is what it is .
This is exciting to just now realize I might be able to make things sound better.
Do you know of any tutorials that may be of help with this?
Oh by the way I’m using Logic as a Daw.

If you're on Logic, there's no better dude than this guy- https://www.youtube.com/@MusicTechHelpGuy

98% of what I've learned how to do in Logic was either exploring it on my own or from that dude. His demonstrations are great and he's not all douchey. My best piece of overall advice for making things sound better that's quite easy is top-down mixing. It can be a controversial subject but IDGAF, it works for me. Basically it's loading up some plug-ins on your master buss (Stereo Out on the mixer in Logic) right at the start of tracking.

I just use that Townsend compressor, set it to the first preset and don't touch it. It keeps everything glued together nicely and it's really transparent, so I know right away if a tone isn't working because the track is already sounding like I want the finished product to sound. The reason people argue against it is some people get carried away and start putting a bunch of EQ in there because their instruments are all out of whack with each other to begin with and then when they take all those plug-ins off to have the song mastered somewhere professionally, it sounds like total dogshit and the mastering place either rejects it or has to mix it for you.

There's also some traps people can fall into with compression and limiting without realizing it. Fletcher Munson is another issue where someone wants to limit the piss out of something to get it really loud and it ends up brickwalled. I've seen more musicians than I ever expected claim they couldn't hear brickwalling on albums when it was happening, so I hope those people never get their hands on a limiter!

I'm going to make a thread in the Recording sub about general questions. There's various levels of experience and DAWs here, so that should be a decent pool of info to grab from. Like if you want to figure out how to do up some reverse cymbals or a reverse reverb in front of a snare or vocals, little tricks that spice up a song. For now I'm off to work on my song cuz I'm SLACKIN!

 

[duzie]

If you're on Logic, there's no better dude than this guy- https://www.youtube.com/@MusicTechHelpGuy

98% of what I've learned how to do in Logic was either exploring it on my own or from that dude. His demonstrations are great and he's not all douchey. My best piece of overall advice for making things sound better that's quite easy is top-down mixing. It can be a controversial subject but IDGAF, it works for me. Basically it's loading up some plug-ins on your master buss (Stereo Out on the mixer in Logic) right at the start of tracking.

I just use that Townsend compressor, set it to the first preset and don't touch it. It keeps everything glued together nicely and it's really transparent, so I know right away if a tone isn't working because the track is already sounding like I want the finished product to sound. The reason people argue against it is some people get carried away and start putting a bunch of EQ in there because their instruments are all out of whack with each other to begin with and then when they take all those plug-ins off to have the song mastered somewhere professionally, it sounds like total dogshit and the mastering place either rejects it or has to mix it for you.

There's also some traps people can fall into with compression and limiting without realizing it. Fletcher Munson is another issue where someone wants to limit the piss out of something to get it really loud and it ends up brickwalled. I've seen more musicians than I ever expected claim they couldn't hear brickwalling on albums when it was happening, so I hope those people never get their hands on a limiter!

I'm going to make a thread in the Recording sub about general questions. There's various levels of experience and DAWs here, so that should be a decent pool of info to grab from. Like if you want to figure out how to do up some reverse cymbals or a reverse reverb in front of a snare or vocals, little tricks that spice up a song. For now I'm off to work on my song cuz I'm SLACKIN!

Much appreciated
I realized after I replied to your post that I shouldn’t be clogging up this thread with questions

 

[la szum]

Here is my Do Something. Just a cover of Gilmour 5AM.

A Frankenstrat I made with a cheap body and a scalloped neck from AliExpress. Harmonic Design Z-90 pickups, Axe-FX III, Omnisphere, Cakewalk

That's awesome. Great tone. Great playing. Love the pick rakes. Stealing that preset, too.
Also, Kudos for playing while standing. Dig how you put your body into it.

 

[la szum]

I'm going to make a thread in the Recording sub about general questions. There's various levels of experience and DAWs here, so that should be a decent pool of info to grab from. Like if you want to figure out how to do up some reverse cymbals or a reverse reverb in front of a snare or vocals, little tricks that spice up a song. For now I'm off to work on my song cuz I'm SLACKIN!

Great idea. I was also thinking something like that could be a super useful resource that can build over time,
and then we can share our tips, tricks, techniques, and tirades about technology.

 

[la szum]

I hereby humbly submit my contribution to this week's TGF challenge.
I chose the Hard Rock MIDI file and wrote a little Gothic Metal / Rock tune. Really enjoyed the challenge to keep the MIDI file untouched (apart from slightly increasing the tempo) and fit my ideas into the predetermined structure.



Gear used:
- Fender MiJ Modern Strat w. EMG 85/66
- PRS S2 Custom 22 w. EMG 81/66
- Fender Player Precision w. EMG P
- Fractal Audio FM3
- Line 6 Helix Native
- ML Sound Lab & OwnHammer IRs
- EZdrummer 3 w. Death Metal EZX
- PreSonus Quantum 2
- Cubase 12 w. FabFilter, PSP & Valhalla plugins

Damn! That is super tight. Great playing. Love the tones. Maybe EMGs are ok after all.

Super cool!

 

[la szum]

Here`s a little song i wrote... ( my submission )
I dont like to sit and tweak a song for days and days, so a lot of my music is just a `demo` quick and easy and on to the next one

I use Cubase 10.5 as my DAW
Drums : Toontrack SD3 ( Modern Metal High preset )
I used my `modeler` on bass and guitar.
My guitar is a Yamaha PAC 611 and my bass is a 5 string Dingwall

Guitar track - Mesa Boogie Studio Pre Capture with Mesa Trad S UKV30 90`s cab and Bogner Uber V30 cab ( Pan L & R and 70 % and 70% ) sometimes with a Tape Delay (mono)
Bass Track - Mesa Boogie CA 400+ Ch 2 Model with Darkglass 212 Neo Cab + with Izotope Nectar Bass preset. On Bass DI track I used Darkglass B7k plugin ( cutting a lot of lows, and this is used just to get some `Clank`

Master Plugin- Izotope Ozone 10

Wow. Righteous as fuck! So many of you guys are setting the bar super high right out of the gate. WTF?

I need to do some calf raises now and work on my vertical.

 

[Jarick]

Hit a wall and had to take a break today...bad day at work.

But I wrote another little melody at the end of the day and all I need to do is write up an ending and wrap it up.

 

[la szum]

This was awesome, man! That Dev preset sounds much better in your hands than it does mine! Really cool Tool vibe in this, too!

Was this your first time using Reaper? I only listened on my ipad so far but that sounded pretty damn good, man!

I was surprised I liked the Dev Preset. A lot of it is in the IR. That IR is a keeper.

I've recorded since my first couple of years playing(1986). Started with boom boxes, then 4-tracks,
ADATs, 8 track Fostex with Hard Drives and CD burners, been in a few studios, so I know the
process a bit. But yeah, pretty much my first semi-completed thing in Reaper. I had big ambitions,
but then ultimately decided I wanted to do something with a jammy vibe as if 3 guys were in
a garage or basement just playing along with one another---because those are my roots. Just
go and wing it as you go along.

This has been a lot of fun, and I am looking forward to hear what everyone is going to do (you included!)
going forward. I am excited to hear us all grow and evolve.... or like me.... stay stuck in a mother
fucking rut like a sloppy-ass pig and enjoy the fuck out of it!!!