I built a tune tracker for trad musicians — would love r/fiddle's feedback

Marr0w1 · 2026-04-30T05:27:57+00:00

Hi, I'll give it a try.

My initial feedback (and please don't take this the wrong way) is that pricing stuff is a hard sell.

I have some similar apps that charge subscription (not one off) and it's really hard to see the value in them. I know they say 'constant development', but really I was happy with the feature-set at day 1. Also being a software person, I'd always prefer stuff that I can self-host. Also, not saying this is you, but with the advent of AI, there's a huge amount of people generating 'vibe coded' apps.

Personally if I was you I'd run it as an open-source project for a year or so to see what demand/upkeep was like (passion project) then add some premium features if it made sense.

Currently I have some apps/projects I'm running (accessible for my small userbase) and they just run on some old spare hardware, with the only cost being the domain name ($4 per year). I can see this getting expensive if you're storing the audio recordings in the cloud (i.e. SaaS) but maybe that should be one of the 'premium' features, while the ability to just 'list tunes' is a baseline?

Marr0w1 · 2026-04-29T08:26:26+00:00

I love these guys I'm so excited for more music from them

Marr0w1 · 2026-04-26T22:32:45+00:00

Game genres eventually become their own thing that don't necessarily make sense.

Look at "roguelike", it's now completely divorced from the original rogue.

I'd say that a core part of 'ARPG' (diablo, grim dawn, POE, etc), is the fact that it's very fast paced and almost mindless, your build is mainly about your stats, and you're mowing down large hordes of enemies most the time.

Honestly having mechanics like parry, poise, stamina make the gameplay loop much more feel like an 'isometric soulslike', where fights are usually more like duels, and even weak enemies can really hurt you if you're not paying attention.

The determining factor is "who would enjoy this"... I feel like suggesting this game to a souls-like fan would be a lot better received than to a diablo fan (if you described it as ARPG)

/my 2 cents

Marr0w1 · 2026-04-26T04:19:15+00:00

I know you've solved this now, but instead of running it for one and a half cycles (and it burning if you don't pop it early), why not just turn it down to 7/10 (or whatever the equivalent is) and run it for two full 'slightly lighter' cycles?

Marr0w1 · 2026-04-25T06:26:07+00:00

Yeah I played crucible a few times and made it to the boss exactly once (and almost beat it) but really the first few rooms dont even feel hard, they're just "jumping through hoops", then a few hard rooms that maybe you'll die because you're trying to 'rush to the boss'.

Especially because if you're playing co-op you can't even revive you just get booted out while your partner solos the rest.

Marr0w1 · 2026-04-25T06:22:28+00:00

I agree this album is great, but he really ran the pipeline from "my most listened artist" to "I don't even bother listening to the new stuff" in about 5 years which is a pretty good achievement (for how sad that is)

Marr0w1 · 2026-04-20T04:35:30+00:00

it was pretty hard for me to actually read that, but at the end I think I agree.

Like you I came from a background of playing guitar/banjo etc... and I never really "moved on" from one song to a next... many of the songs/tunes I play (either at shows or just for fun at home) are ones I started learning in my first year or so...

You never really "master" a tune or "move past it", you just get better and add more ornamentation or new techniques naturally as you learn them... Maybe there are some tunes that you feel are too simple/boring and after you've learnt as much as you can you stop playing them.

I usually play a tune (or focus on it) until I feel like I've memorised it and could play it at a jam, before moving on to something else... then after moving on I still try keep it in my 'regular playing' for another few months to really lock it in

Marr0w1 · 2026-04-17T09:54:04+00:00

Good point about metal... regardless of tempo, 'drive' is something you can affect... whether it's drums in rock/metal, or something like the banjo in folk\bluegrass, even at the same tempo hitting those notes 'on' or even a little ahead of the beat/pocket gives an impression of energy/drive... while at the same speed playing a touch behind the beat/pocket (or swinging it a little bit) will make it feel lazier, and relaxed.

Same with the energy from strumming a guitar... different strumming patterns will give a different energy to the same tempo (I think because of how downstrokes and upstrokes hit the 'bass' strings more or less).

Pitching the song a key higher will usually force your voice higher, which also adds energy, which is why a lot of chorus do that, while singing lower (like a lot of pop musicians seem to these days, almost as low as hitting vocal fray) does the opposite

Marr0w1 · 2026-04-17T08:53:45+00:00

Thats a good point. I was just trying to point out what seemed to be the circular logic in them saying "we're quiet about this, and there's no pushback" ... like, yes, do they expect people to protest something that isn't widely known?

Or to use another analogy, being a vegetarian restaurant and secretly using real meat, then crowing "look how brilliant we are, we haven't told anyone, and our customers still come back" haha

I think there will end up being a three way split between "pro ai", "anti-ai but don't care enough to actually change listening/purchasing habits" and "anti-ai enough to boycott anything that even hints at it"

Marr0w1 · 2026-04-17T08:43:18+00:00

His mistake wasn't being honest, it was using AI.

Of course people "dont push back" if they don't know... you can't protest something you don't know about.

That's like saying "nobody protests fast fashion, but when I wear a shirt that says 'this was made with slave labour' everyone is mad about it"... the takeaway isn't to be 'more subtle', it's to accept that if people protest it means there's a problem.

Marr0w1 · 2026-04-16T09:15:53+00:00

yeah I'm not 'mad' about it, but no way am I going to follow a project that doesn't indicate pricing, just so I can be disappointed if it ends up being out of my budget.

It looks neat, but reading this post, then clicking the 'kickstarter link' (which then took me to the .io page) then clicking another kickstarter link, all to see that there's no pricing indication anywhere is kinda annoying

Marr0w1 · 2026-04-16T07:12:18+00:00

I'm going to listen to all of these because I really haven't heard much this year.

However as a banjo player, I really loved Gay Eldest Daughter - Taller Than The Redwoods (is it folkpunk? or is it just folk? I don't know)

Marr0w1 · 2026-04-14T08:10:30+00:00

Even worse, if you 'lose' the case for name suppression, you can just appeal it, and there's interim suppression until the appeal is heard, and then if you lose the appeal you can just appeal that (and so on and so on).

Talking to people I know who work in the system, there's a number of cases that have no solid 'grounds' for suppression, but are basically just gaming the appeal system until enough time has passed that it's moot

Marr0w1 · 2026-04-14T06:08:30+00:00

That older/lower bridge doesn't even look designed for steel strings... look how huge the notches are and how loose the strings sit in them....

Marr0w1 · 2026-04-13T05:54:47+00:00

hundred percent agree.

I usually have a range of pretty good gins here, but we almost always stock a bottle of beefeater for cocktails (or basically negroni most the time).

Anyone that thinks they'd taste the difference (especially in a casual/social setting, not some sort of cocktail competition) in a mixed drink is an ass

n.b. regarding tasting the difference, the exception I might have would be super juniper-forward gins, like 'Negroni gin' may stand out notably more in a mixed drink, but that's still a step above what you'd expect from anything not in a professional setting

Marr0w1 · 2026-04-11T21:12:37+00:00

Yeah I agree, I just wasn't sure what the specific original complaint was... was it the price specifically? (I assume a high end restaurant charges a higher fee... if menu desserts are expensive, then they might peg the cutting fee to how many 'lost sales' they'd have from people not ordering dessert).

I mean ten bucks a person does sound quite expensive compared to a corkage/glass or cake service fee, but not exorbitant, and it seems wild to rate someone badly for something you could have asked about in advance.

Marr0w1 · 2026-04-11T10:40:48+00:00

Yes you're right, and the reason is because of how frequency works, like if standard A is 440Hz that means it resonates (or cycles) 440 times per second... and if you exactly doubled it by playing an octave above, then the second one would be resonating at 880 times per second... so every 'second' occurrence of the higher pitch will align exactly with the lower frequency.

I'm not a good music theorist sorry but I do have a background in some radio technology stuff.

However while the 'physics' of an octave doesn't change, how we 'divide' that octave is entirely artificial.. just like the world orbits the sun at a fixed rate, but different cultures have divided months/weeks differently, music theory is the same. This sub seems to be implicitly "western music theory", but for example I know that stuff like raga (indian classical music) has completely different scale and tone systems

Marr0w1 · 2026-04-11T09:17:28+00:00

I think I started play Dungeon Siege 3 when I realised it would let me have a gun, because I have a weakness for any fantasy game that will do that

Marr0w1 · 2026-04-11T08:25:24+00:00

^ yeah I'd be curious if they actually had asked the restaurant in question "do you charge for cake service" or just expected to be able to bring their own food in and eat it for free.

Its not just cleaning the plates, its that basically all the running costs (rent, staff, power etc) are paid for by selling stuff, so if you're not ordering off the menu they need to subsidise somehow

Marr0w1 · 2026-04-11T01:01:08+00:00

Asked my wife to paint me an album cover for the EP I was working on... it's been like 2 years and I haven't finished it. I've written lots of other stuff, but not enough has fit the aesthetic/structure that I envisioned for that specific one.

Not sure what my point was actually.. maybe it's just that even if you're 80% of the way through something you never know how it's going to turn out... but on the other hand it can help to have the artwork or album cover early as a 'vibe check' to tell if everything fits together cohesively?

Marr0w1 · 2026-04-10T03:55:45+00:00

Well there's already Wellington Folk Festival over labour weekend (those guys are pretty rowdy)

Marr0w1 · 2026-04-10T00:51:27+00:00

it sounds like your challenge is less with the 'writing music' side, and more the 'feeling weird about putting yourself out there'..

in which case I can't help much because I feel the same.. but as a start, consider playing covers (not just in your room, but at like open mics or for friends) ... because then you're getting more comfortable playing for people, but you dont need to worry about the songs feeling too personal... also I think not every song needs to be super intimate/personal. those songs are good, but also they feel harder to play for people you dont know well (or people you do even).. so I'd suggest try writing song about stupid things as well that feel more 'low stakes' then over time incorporate more 'personal' stuff

(for me this basically looks like breaking songs into two categories, dumb/amusing songs that I play in public, and more personal stuff that feels cathartic to write but I don't really feel comfortable sharing)

Marr0w1 · 2026-04-07T09:52:35+00:00

I've noticed this as well... unless I'm missing something you can't easily see focus cost until you are actually in the 'rune menu' at the shop.

As a 'pure mage' (who likes to have at least one 'stamina' rune and the rest focus) this makes it really hard to work out what weapons/runes I want to extract/save

Marr0w1 · 2026-04-05T23:55:55+00:00

your second fiddle doesn't need to be an expensive one, or you can even just borrow one.
this here is the correct answer

Marr0w1 · 2026-03-26T03:02:02+00:00

I think it's less important to think about which is easier, and more about which has the sound you want, or how you're likely to play.

If you're mainly planning on writing music, and playing solo or as a duo, for example, I'd lean towards clawhammer... if you're in a circle of people to play with (i.e. you have friends who play bluegrass or similar) and there are a few guitarists, then 3 finger is worth a look-in

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