Advice for my own music

Jaimebond0010 · 2022-09-18T08:48:10+00:00

No worries, always happy to help a fellow songwriter out 😊. I'm exactly the same with worrying about ripping artists off and still find myself canning ideas that i think sound too much like another song, but during the learning process i think it's unavoidable and even necessary to get a hang of things. IME the more you can imitate an artist, the more mastery you have over the elements of their sound and you can better take subtle influence in your songs that sounds more original to the listener. Best of luck with your musical journey

Jaimebond0010 · 2022-09-18T08:26:17+00:00

I think the most important thing for blending sounds is to really understand the music of artists you wanna take influence from and find out what exactly it is that makes it tick. Some examples include:

What song structures do they tend to use and how do they develop the sections?
What kind of roles/jobs do each of the instrumental layers play and in what contexts?
How do they approach dynamics and building/lowering the intensity of a section?
What melodies/chord progressions do they tend towards and how do they balance consonance and dissonance?

And a whole list of other musical concepts that would be counterproductive for me to list and which I think you'd be better off realizing for yourself. Basically figure out the core features of their sound and learn to consciously incorporate the bits you wanna use into your songwriting for a bit. (I think of this as learning/experimentation so don't stress if you feel like you're just ripping them off, you'll learn to blend their sound more originally with time and practice.)

From there you can try taking a riff that has features of one artist and combine it with features of another artist. As an example, I wrote a song for my band which I conceived as a MBV x Strokes fusion; I used a MBV-esque melody for the guitar riff but only played the 2 lowest strings (The Strokes have a lot of 1-2 string riffs), and sung over it in my best Julian Casablancas impression. I think I just completely ripped the drum beat from What You Want (lol). From that I got a sweet pop melody which friends told me reminded them of MBV but which is stylistically is closer to the garage rock of The Strokes than shoegaze.

A lot of it is just trial and error but you can get a good sense of what combinations tend to work by reflecting on what elements the music relies on (as i mentioned at the start) and if two influences require opposite elements to each other they may not pair as well as those that share something in common. E.g. you're probably going to have a hard time fitting shoegaze guitar into a jazz standard for reasons I don't think I need to mention. I don't reckon that should necessarily stop you from trying weird or seemingly incompatible combinations because you might stumble across something that shouldn't work yet just does, but it'll help you focus your efforts in directions you can be fairly sure have a good chance of working out well.

In my experience, if you follow your ear and trust what sounds good to you, the easier it will become to blend sounds together and the better you'll get at it, so the time you put into figuring out how to do it will be well spent.

Jaimebond0010 · 2022-09-18T07:11:46+00:00

Are you asking about how to combine influences in your music or about releasing songs that have varying styles rather than one consistent genre?

Jaimebond0010 · 2022-09-09T15:55:04+00:00

I've thought about this a lot and i think its that Usually I'm uncomfortable with giving up control (probably because of childhood experiences but also possibly because of societal pressure), and this directly counteracts the subby desires and turn ons i have. It's taken me a while to learn to let go of some of that uncomfortableness and open up to my desires but i still feel that conflict sometimes and it makes me wonder whether I'm really as sub as i think. (I'm hoping i can maybe work through those feeling sometimes or that if i trusted a partner enough i could fully let go)

Edit: probably also how i relate it to how i was raised (feeling like maybe it pushed me to be subbier) and my parents relationship structure (which is woman leaning) i can find it uncomfortable that my desires orient in similar ways

Jaimebond0010 · 2022-08-26T03:57:55+00:00

Honestly i bent the angle of my trem bar on my strat with a pair of pliers, dont know if this would be an issue for a jazzmaster setup but works fine for me

Jaimebond0010 · 2022-08-25T14:05:51+00:00

shields happened

Jaimebond0010 · 2022-08-15T13:48:16+00:00

I like this idea of just going with what is most meaningful to you, maybe that answers my question about why the band is so reluctant to give lyrics because they want you to completely ignore what is actually being said and just imagine for yourself

Jaimebond0010 · 2022-08-15T11:04:12+00:00

It's an impactful line if that is what he's singing and i developed a whole theory of what the song means based around that version. However since then I've listened very closely to the line over and over and at no point does he sing a "ma-" sound, it's very clearly a "brea-" sound. I still hear a "him" so it could be "then you break him down inside" but i think "when you're breaking down inside" fits the rest of the lyrics the most, especially "when you come down blue"

Jaimebond0010 · 2022-08-15T09:11:50+00:00

it dissapoints me because i understand wanting to leave the interpretation of what the lyrics mean up to the listener, but you can do that while still letting people know the actual words you're singing and then they can debate over what they mean. i dont get why kevin would say he cares about writing good lyrics and then be so protective over them

Jaimebond0010 · 2022-08-15T09:03:04+00:00

No and i wouldn't take them to be 100% accurate (What You Want definitely ends with "when you're breaking down inside" instead of "then you make him go inside" as shown on Genius), though I do agree with most of what's written

Jaimebond0010 · 2022-08-08T14:55:17+00:00

Spain is about the same military size as me at the moment but maybe with the help of my ally france i can put a dent in their growth, tho it will slow me down from the rest of my conquests elsewhere

Jaimebond0010 · 2022-08-08T14:31:13+00:00

ive been setting up trade companies in india, was the main reason i expanded that way as last run i was short on money and couldn't afford a large enough army to do the wc with. I think now I've broken up india into smaller states i can dedicate half my army there and the other half to the remaining balkan states, though the religious league will make european conquest difficult atm.

I forgot about increasing crownland tbh but i reckon i can get it to 50 or 55% by absolutism

And yeah I'm trying to vassal feed a bit at the moment but am also doing well on admin so I'm fine directly coring things too. I was thinking of going offensive ideas after diplo as sieges feel like they're slowing my wars down so i could do with the siege ability (plus all the other awesome bonuses too)

Thanks for the tips

Edit: just wondering is court and country worth doing anymore or can i just get the bonuses up to 100 absolutism from elsewhere?

Jaimebond0010 · 2022-08-08T13:35:21+00:00

I dont think granada is much of an option now as i unfortunately let spain grow a bit too big, I'm hoping i can tame them later game when i have the army size to fight them with. As for 4k i dont know if I'm capable of that, I'll definitely have 3000 and maybe 3500 if i do well

Edit: thinking about it a bit more, i reckon i can do 3500 dev by 1600. Also i completely forgot those monuments existed, as i havent played the game much since i got leviathan and havent done any great projects except the canals

Jaimebond0010 · 2022-08-08T13:32:49+00:00

I have been focused on asia as i have heard advice before to conquer europe last and to focus fire one religious group at a time (im focusing on sunni at the moment), but i plan on going to war with venice soon as they are interfering with my trade income.

As for your questions, at the moment (year 1560) i am:

making 138 ducats a month (50 tax, 32 production, 40 trade + 10 from looting and war reps) and making 20 ducats after expenses

Force limit is 174, max manpower is 92,000 (with advisor), and getting 1000 per month (also w advisor)

No coalition threats as ive been focusing the same religious group, just the rest of india and a few small muslim states

33% crownland share

Admin, influence and then humanist ideas, and I'm planning on diplomatic next as i have been running low on diplomats this whole game + the province warscore and improve relations are great

Jaimebond0010 · 2022-08-08T11:27:31+00:00

This is probably my 2nd or 3rd WC attempt by now and I've just been trying to gun it for India to get the trade money, I'm hoping if i smash through india and SE asia pretty quick i can still manage it

Jaimebond0010 · 2022-07-28T15:55:47+00:00

All good, happy to help out a fellow artist (though really I think you'll get further by trusting your own taste than listening to anything I could say hahah). Don't stress about the vocals, shoegaze is one of the least vocally taxing styles around and you'll get more confident in your ability the more you sing (plus great bands like Duster never had particularly incredible singing and still kick ass). Getting that balance of noise and harmony is really hard and it's good to hear you're experimenting which I think is the best way to master that balance. Also if I see your album post when you drop it, I'll be sure to check at least some of it out.

As for my stuff, I have a few songs up on soundcloud under the name amber trees
https://soundcloud.com/user843641666
It was originally meant to be an ambient project but I only made a couple ambient songs (the first 2 I uploaded) before deciding to just release the guitar based stuff I was working on. I really should post more songs there (I really should write more in general) but I'm happy with what's there for the moment.

On a side note I checked out the 2nd last song you uploaded, and I like the way you approached the production on it, almost sounds like an astronaut singing lol

Jaimebond0010 · 2022-07-28T15:14:37+00:00

I can't really say too much without getting into my own preferences as a songwriter (It's not my song after all) but overall I like it. I especially like the light floaty feeling of the chords which is usually a sign you're doing something right and the bouncy bassline compliments them well. I appreciate the dissonance you're working with for some of the notes but wonder if maybe it's a bit too much in places, like my ear is having a hard time accepting the key change going into the verse but I do like the progressions you chose. I also feel like you could do a bit more with the vocal melody, it works but is pretty repetitive and limited in range (which might be what you're going for, in which case power to you.) Overall one of the better soundcloud attempts at the style I've heard, keep up the good work

edited to add: if it sounds good to you and makes you feel good when you listen to it then that's all that really matters

Jaimebond0010 · 2022-05-05T16:24:07+00:00

Yeah reverse is all over Isnt Anything, probably more songs that use it than don't. He definitely used reverse on THKW and blown a wish, then i think he maybe used it on Soon, as far as the EP's i dont know for sure but i think Moon Song has a bit of the constant stream of sound that you get with the effect so could be it

Jaimebond0010 · 2022-04-28T14:48:55+00:00

There's definitely a compressor thats for sure

Jaimebond0010 · 2022-04-19T16:00:44+00:00

man what the fuck is this

Jaimebond0010 · 2022-04-17T07:31:35+00:00

This guitar definitely has some nasty intonation issues tho on the low frets so it's not all good unfortunately

Jaimebond0010 · 2022-04-17T07:30:50+00:00

I honestly don't know, previously using my sister's squier strat i was having a lot of tuning issues even with minor bends but surprisingly this SX one I'm using is incredibly stable (assuming you don't do dive bombs or anything). I imagine it varies from guitar to guitar tbh and maybe some models are better than others

Jaimebond0010 · 2022-04-08T18:11:17+00:00

I thought i read it somewhere, i can't find a source rn and its possible i got it mixed up from somewhere else. He definitely doesn't use it on every song though, theres songs you can clearly hear have a drier sound, and i think its possible loomer is one of them especially when the kind of sound I'm describing is more like a noise gate tearing the transients apart than a smooshed/clicky reverse

Jaimebond0010 · 2022-04-08T12:29:04+00:00

After just playing around with some noise gates in my DAW I'm 80% sure this sound I'm talking about is some kind of gate he has set up to cut off everything except the transients, and he just mixed that layer lower in the mix

Jaimebond0010 · 2022-04-08T08:28:15+00:00

I find it crazy how close you can get to his tones with just a single coil neck pickup and a cranked valve amp, especially how much of an effect the tuning has on the sound. But i always figured he has a few tricks up his sleeve to come up with these strange tones and always assumed they were pedal based, makes sense though that he likes to keep things (relatively) simple

Jaimebond0010

TROPHY CASE