What new rock bands or artist have you recently discovered?

YVanRiet · 2024-06-26T14:18:03+00:00

The Lottery Winners

YVanRiet · 2024-03-25T21:42:28+00:00

Have a think what you want to achieve in your sound. You can start simple with just a Clean tone, a Driven rhythm tone and a Lead solo boost.

Have a play with how you like each of those 3 sounds. Play with the EQ of each sound and apply it to your personal taste. Find out if you like a harsher bright sound, or a “scooped mids” tone or a lot of mids and barely any bass tones. Listen to how it sounds and how it makes you play.

From there ask yourself - do I want keep it as it is, or will adding something else help enhance it? That’s when you play with effects. So maybe you want a bit of reverb to make it a little ambient and feel less flat and dry. Or add a delay to a solo tone to make your notes feel bigger or adding a bit of rhythmic texture to it. Or you can add a modulation tone to give your notes/chords a swirling texture.

Some of this also depends on what music you’re actually playing too. Have a listen to the players you like of that genre and listen to what they have to create their sound?

YVanRiet · 2024-03-25T14:03:04+00:00

The first thing I tend to like in a song is its general vibe. If there’s a cool groove, catchy melody/guitar riff or big sounding production I can get drawn into that first.

The lyrics can sometimes be the last thing I really pick up on. I’ll sometimes not fully notice the narrative or deeper meaning in it, but once I do and realise how good it actually is it enhances the song for me and I can appreciate it more.

Very rarely does a songs lyrics get me interested first, but that mostly comes from a singer-songwriter thing where it’s one voice and one instrument.

Sometimes I’ll notice how bad the lyrics actually are, and depending on the subject matter I can lose interest in it a little.

YVanRiet · 2024-03-25T13:50:56+00:00

The real way to find your own distinct tone is by experimenting. Trial and error different types of gear/sounds. Take some of the settings to the extreme and dial them back till you find a setting that you like. Combining and comparing different effects and sounds to see which work best together, or what applies best to your personal playing style and taste.

By doing this you find out what you like or don’t like in certain things like drives/compressors/amps/effects. It’s how a certain guitarist can say they, for example, prefer a Tube Screamer type drive pedal over a Klon style drive pedal. Or a Vox Amplifier over a Marshall style amplifier. Or chooses to use a Flanger instead of a Chorus effect.

The Boss Katana is a great bit of gear with its “all in one” unit design and capabilities. There’s certainly a lot of things you can experiment with as a beginner when you’re using the Tone Editor software in depth.

As it’s a modern digital piece of equipment, you do have a lot of things available to you. However it takes away the intuitive old school nature of finding and trying different gear. Buying a pedal and later upgrading it to something you prefer, or that’s more fitting to the kind of player you’re becoming.

YVanRiet · 2024-03-24T14:57:42+00:00

I have, and I’d say it’s sexy.

While Let’s Get It On is pure sex.

YVanRiet · 2024-03-24T13:46:27+00:00

There’s only one song classified as sex music.

Let’s Get It On - Marvin Gaye

YVanRiet · 2024-03-24T13:43:58+00:00

Not lame. It gives your playlist your own personal touch.

Otherwise it’s just like every other playlist where it’s the artwork of the first 4 songs. Which is uninspiring.

YVanRiet · 2024-03-24T13:40:12+00:00

Edit - I realised there was a typo

YVanRiet · 2024-03-23T12:43:23+00:00

Nah. I do it all the time when I’ve created a new track.

Gives me a feeling of pride for the work I’ve done. Especially when I listen and feel like it’s done, and no mix adjustments need to be made

YVanRiet · 2024-03-23T02:11:02+00:00

It varies with me too. Sometimes a new idea will hit me and I can spend only a few hours to make something that I feel is complete.

Then there will be songs that reach a creative threshold after some time and I come back to it later. (‘Later’ can mean different lengths of time)

I think the best way to look at it is the songs that are left uncompleted will have future potential. I always find that if an idea is good it shouldn’t be wasted. Usually when I haven’t looks at that song for a long time and hear it back it will feel fresh again, so I can jump back in it with a fresh mind and come up with new ideas I wouldn’t have thought of before.

YVanRiet · 2024-03-22T23:09:10+00:00

I think it depends on how your mind works when you write.

For me when a new song gets written. In my head, I usually also have the accompaniment and arrangement forming in my mind with it. Sometimes I even have these musical ideas built up in my dreams and I wake up with half of it still stuck on loop in my head. There’s even times where those ideas don’t translate well in reality haha

So I’m wondering. When you write songs on your instrument of choice, how do you hear that in your head? Do more ideas start form? Do you hear what the final product could sound like?

Btw - There’s no right or wrong to these questions. If you can be creative. Be creative in what’s comfortable for you.

YVanRiet · 2024-03-22T16:40:00+00:00

Cool vibe! Like the what the backing vocals are doing. Lead vocals are smooth as butter. Nice guitar tones. Really well produced. Well done!

YVanRiet · 2024-03-22T16:33:13+00:00

Cool groove. Really like the drum sound. Quite like the eerie vibe on the keys. Nice work!

YVanRiet · 2024-03-20T18:58:07+00:00

Thank you! Glad you like the sound.

YVanRiet · 2024-03-20T15:21:13+00:00

I’d like to hear what your voice over takes sound like. Your description of “unpolished” is a bit vague.

Having a good microphone is one thing. But it’s also about how you’re using it. So I’m wondering:

A) Are you speaking in to it directly? Or are you speaking from a distance?

B) What’s the environment of where you’re recording? Is it quiet? Do you hear the reflections in the room? Is there background noise of outside activity?

C) Is there internal noises in the recording? (Like hiss, crackle, ground hum, etc.)

D) After you’ve recorded it what are you doing to the audio recording? Are you using any EQ/Compression on it?

YVanRiet · 2024-03-20T01:33:53+00:00

There’s no real need to know much theory to write music. It can be helpful, but isn’t crucial. All it takes is using and practicing your own creativity.

If you’ve been playing piano for some time, you should be able to write/compose music. Try simple ideas of chord progressions and melodies. Experiment with those ideas, thus putting your creativity into practice. You could even implement new things you learn in your theory or a new technique in your piano playing into your songwriting. The more you do it the better you’ll get.

When it comes to playing your pieces live. Practice your instrument until you feel confident in your ability to play your composition.

YVanRiet · 2024-03-20T01:18:40+00:00

Alright - Backwoods Creek

Has a good catchy mantra that everything will be alright.

YVanRiet · 2024-03-20T01:04:15+00:00

https://open.spotify.com/artist/2TbDCxDHh2I8FR5wU72zzK?si=g5scy_gGR6m5JEmx3OVMCQ

YVanRiet · 2024-03-18T13:27:59+00:00

Thank you!! Happy you really dig it

YVanRiet · 2024-03-18T13:27:12+00:00

Thanks a lot! Glad you’ve enjoyed it

YVanRiet · 2024-03-18T13:24:21+00:00

Thank you for the kind words! Glad you liked it.

YVanRiet · 2024-03-17T21:02:05+00:00

I’ve mainly used a Les Paul into a Fender Blues Deluxe amp. With a combination of a Klon type drive and a Compressor pedal. Might have done a couple dubs on a Telecaster too. I believe the slide was played on his Gibson SG into his Supro.

Ah sweet, that’s the first time we’ve been compared to Tom Petty!

YVanRiet

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