The TGF Challenge Resource Mega-Thread

DrewJD82

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This is going to be the thread to submit any backing tracks, drum tracks, drum MIDI's, drum WAV's, etc I'm also putting some links to resources to rip audio from YouTube. If you make a mixtape for the cashier at 7-11 with tracks you ripped off YouTube and get busted, you didn't learn it from me!

Ask any questions in here you want to ask about recording or the DAW you're using. There are no stupid questions!

Hopefully building up a big enough pool gives enough content for people to choose from. All are welcomeTM to contribute. Note; if you're submitting a WAV of a drum track, it'd be super duper cool to include the BPM if the info is not stored in the WAV file already*.

How to rip audio from YouTube-

There are a couple ways to do this; via a website or by routing audio from your speakers to your DAW.

Website- You paste a YouTube link into a field and the site will strip the audio and give it to you in Mp3 format. These can be a PITA because they're full of pop-ups and fake links, often requiring a treasure hunt for the real link. Quality varies site to site.

https://ytmp3.cc/67cdb/ (I think this is the one I used before getting SoundFlower)

Routing Audio Into DAW: I strongly prefer this, because it's a clean rip and goes right into your DAW. I'm on a Mac and use Soundflower, it's free and really simple to use. Technically, you don't even use IT, just select it from drop down menus. Apparently Windows 10 has an audio routing feature that allows for this, that's awesome! There's a link below for pre-Windows 10 apps, but I can't test them out. If someone wants to give them a shot and let me know what works, I can update here with a link directly to the app to save some time for everyone.

Soundflower - https://en.softonic.com/s/soundflower:mac

Once you have it installed, all you have to do is open System Preferences>Sound>Output>Soundflower
Then open your DAW and wherever you select your audio input from, select Soundflower.
Arm a track set to Soundflower's input, press Record and then press Play on whatever YouTube video you want the audio from. (Obviously you might want to get rid of the ads before doing this). It'll have to record in real time, but you'll get a great quality recording!

Windows Audio Routers-

If someone with Windows can test one of these out, then write out the instructions in a post on how to use it, you'd be providing a great service for your fellow tgF'ers. I will update this area to keep things efficient.

YouTube Backing/Drum Tracks-

Full band backing tracks-

https://www.youtube.com/@ElevatedJamTracks
https://www.youtube.com/@saiedmouradmusic8202/videos (popular songs)


Drums-only backing tracks-

https://www.youtube.com/@JimDooley (This dude has high quality downloads of his beats, too!)

Drum MIDI's-

An article on getting started with drum MIDI's that also has a link to Reaper, for those of you who need a free DAW with millions of tutorials on YouTubes!


You can Google the song you're looking for, "My Heart Will Go On Drum MIDI" and most likely get a hit. Sometimes you'll end up downloading a MIDI of the full song, but loading it into a DAW should separate all the instruments into indivudual tracks (Logic/Garageband does this anyway) and you can just delete what you don't want.

If you find a MIDI and it sounds like cacapoopoo, shoot me a PM, let me know what sound you're going for and I'll run it through Super Drummer 3 and shoot you the WAV.

Some helpful tips-

You can find a TON of isolated tracks from popular songs on YouTube. Type in "Aerosmith Walk This Way Backing Track" and you'll get this-


These are especially cool if you're going for a specific tone and you get a great idea of how a guitar tone works in a mix as a result. Or you can do the "This is how it SHOULD have been done!" version! You can also substitute the words 'Backing Track' for 'Drums Only' if you want to get just the drum track and do the whole song. You can pretty much find all the isolated tracks individually or in bass/guitar, drums/bass, etc. versions.

Yotatonsipoop.
 
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I’m not going to tell you the amount of cussing involved, or the state of my closet trying to find all the cords, dongles, keyboard, mouse (HEY LETS HIDE YOUR USB C CABLE IN THE BOX WITH SPARE STRINGS BECAUSE THAT MAKES SENSE) to get to this point, or the 30 minutes of troubleshooting it took to realize I wasn’t getting audio because I was wearing my work headset instead of the headphones connected to the interface….

But we ready…

F14988B8-AFD2-4472-94A0-FAA6252D63F5.jpeg


For what I have no idea.

:ROFLMAO:
 
That's awesome Drew, would the covers that i do count? mind you takes me about 2-3 Months per song
you know being a noob and all
but will be a really nice thread to follow and get inspired :D

Thanks
 
That's awesome Drew, would the covers that i do count? mind you takes me about 2-3 Months per song
you know being a noob and all
but will be a really nice thread to follow and get inspired :D

Thanks

This will be tricky to work in there since they're weekly and bi-weekly challenges. But there's no reason you can't submit something that doesn't take 2-3 months!
 
Is this the dropping of the Green Flag or is the Pace Car still out?



It's going to start at 12AM Eastern time, following that, each challenge will start Each Saturday at 12AM and run until 11:59PM the coming Friday.
I'll update this in the rules thread.

Also, submissions need to be submitted in the thread for that week or bi-week.
 
Are we going to be provided a drum track to grab so we are all working from the same spot? Or genre? Theme? When does it start?
 
Are we going to be provided a drum track to grab so we are all working from the same spot? Or genre? Theme? When does it start?

No themes yet, I want to get everyone off the ground first. When I make the threads I'll add the drum tracks to them. I'm not going to kill myself on these because so many are available as it is that will most certainly suit someone's preferred genre better than I could by dropping in some random genres. That and I don't want to spend 1/3 of my week making drum WAVs. :ROFLMAO:
 
No themes yet, I want to get everyone off the ground first. When I make the threads I'll add the drum tracks to them. I'm not going to kill myself on these because so many are available as it is that will most certainly suit someone's preferred genre better than I could by dropping in some random genres. That and I don't want to spend 1/3 of my week making drum WAVs. :ROFLMAO:

Alright so this week it’s anything we want and post it in this thread?
 
Alright so this week it’s anything we want and post it in this thread?

No, submissions will go into the threads that are started at the beginning of every challenge, so every Saturday at midnight I'll make a new one then everyone can post their submissions in those. Or I'll make them ahead of time and just unlock them as the time comes.
 
And will the tempos sync up to how the track keeps time?

Not sure if I'm asking this right..., Say a song has tempo and/or time signature changes, I imagine this info is encoded somehow that your DAW needs, so it can keep the tracks aligned as you play along. Does that information also import?
 
And will the tempos sync up to how the track keeps time?

Not sure if I'm asking this right..., Say a song has tempo and/or time signature changes, I imagine this info is encoded somehow that your DAW needs, so it can keep the tracks aligned as you play along. Does that information also import?

Logic works like that with WAV files, but that doesn’t always mean the information will be included in the WAVs; tempo, markers and the file resolution. I’ve imported plenty that don’t have any info at all as well. No clue how that works in other DAWs though. I’m assuming Mp3’s don’t do this but could be wrong.
 
If I find a guitar backing track in mp3 format, can that be imported into Reaper?

I'd search for a .wav file. Like, Drew said, more of the vital info will be preserved. I doubt an mp3
would have all that important data preserved. mp3s tend to have 10 to 20 times less info/data.

It could be done, but then you would have to play to/build off the mp3 file loaded into a track (mono or stereo)
and not the other way around.
 
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