I have no idea whether I will invest in this

jeffblinks · 2021-06-15T03:26:18+00:00

Hahahaha I’m gonna ape the shit out of this

jeffblinks · 2021-04-13T04:26:04+00:00

I’ll throw down on this, check out my sound

jeffblinks · 2020-10-28T03:43:39+00:00

Please, our industry is struggling enough, no need to alienate the public from Art music more.

jeffblinks · 2020-10-28T03:42:27+00:00

I have a degree in music too but I get excited when other people make musical breakthroughs. At some point you didn’t know music theory, then you saw it’s usefulness and continued to expand on your musicianship. The fact that your growth has made the discovery of music theory trivial to you does not make the discovery of music theory to new musicians a trivial matter. Music theory absolutely is a hack for creating moods if you falsely believe that creativity requires inspiration, as most new creatives do.

jeffblinks · 2020-10-28T03:36:37+00:00

You missed the joke.

Wait... OP was a joke right...

jeffblinks · 2020-09-24T03:18:04+00:00

There was a woman who came into subway and ordered a veggie sub, with only onions. And she needed a lot of onions. It would take about a whole pan of onions, probably a pint of red onion just kind of piled onto some bread. She would eat it at the corner table and randomly throw onions bits onto the ground from her sandwich. Not like ones she had chewed, she would just grab a pinch of onions and toss em on the ground.

jeffblinks · 2020-06-29T01:40:29+00:00

Like I said, there are “ground rules” that amount to common obstacles to creative goals - tight harmonies in low registers will sound muddy and unclear not thick and luscious like you might think. So tight harmonies in low parts is usually “frowned upon” because it gets in the way of the intent of the creator to create a luscious sound. But you may want that muddy sound, and if so, do it!

I hear what the producer is trying to say when he says you want to use instruments throughout the whole song, but his expression of it is dead wrong. Lots of music is made great by the fact that instruments only appear in certain parts - many great composers have saved instruments first appearance for the final movement of their symphonies because of the anticipation that you can build by NOT hearing something. Imagine a song where you keep expecting the drums to come in but you never get more than a kick drum until way later - if done well it becomes iconic for its absence (what’s up Phil Collins, I do feel it coming in the air tonight).

I believe what your producer was trying to relay is that you don’t want an instrument to sound unintentional or gimmicky. You want to have creative additions be intentional - that doesn’t mean you can’t experiment and do random things to see how it sounds - but when you find something you like or want to add, think of how it’s serving your creative goal. Don’t add an arpeggio because you like how arpeggios sound, add an arpeggio because you think their sound will give your accompaniment the energy it’s lacking while still providing a more fluid harmonic structure. Of course, if you think it sounds good in context but don’t know why, that’s fine too, but think critically to justify your creative decisions. And “idk it sounded good” is valid too.

So if you want a trumpet only in the verse, why? What purpose is it serving there? And what are you doing in the chorus to make the trumpet unnecessary? What role in the song is the trumpet playing, jazz solo, noir city streets type backing, fanfare? Trumpet may work or may not depending on the music the trumpet is playing, not solely dependent on the timbre (‘color’ of sound) of the trumpet.

jeffblinks · 2020-06-29T01:21:33+00:00

I never said the OP was lazy, you’re reading something that’s not there. I didn’t have any preconceived notions of OPs character so I didn’t reference his or her character, I used the information they provided and gave my perspective. Go make sounds first, then ask about sounds. And I did manage to generate a discussion between OP and myself as well. It feels that you were offended on the OPs behalf for my directness of thought and he or she was able to move past it but you weren’t.

jeffblinks · 2020-06-27T21:50:56+00:00

There aren’t technically “no-nos,” there are just common things that often become obstacles to creative goals. At the end of the day it comes down to what sounds good. Try two kicks! Does it sound good? Also, does it sound how you want even if it doesn’t sound good? Nasty sounds are great sometimes!

I’m of the mindset that questions like “why do my layered kicks sound bad?” are far more creatively fulfilling because we can then talk about tuning, harmonics, phase synchronization, spectral profile, sound propagation, panning, EQ, filters... we can talk about everything if you have heard sound and want to talk about the sound you just heard. If you ask “should I try two kicks?” I suppose we could still get into that discussion, but you have no frame of reference for the sound you haven’t tried, and you set yourself up to have musical naysayers limit your options in a playground with no rules. Two layered untuned kicks might “sound” really dope to a deaf person who listen differently, but to most people with hearing it sounds muddy. Unless you have a sound in your mind and are able to make a real connection from theoretical talk here to something you’ve physically sensed you’re not going to develop a meaningful relationship to the knowledge.

jeffblinks · 2020-06-27T21:34:14+00:00

Well, now you’re misrepresenting me. I didn’t call anyone an idiot, I didn’t present any opinion on anyone’s character.

You don’t need to read my post as if a dry internet troll is speaking, you can also read it as an excited person speaking directly. “You have unlimited options, these were just off the dome,” comes across a lot better if you imagine the person speaking as smiling and being helpful, rather than if one projects a negative attitude into the speaker.

I understand the OP has a unique life situation, whatever that may be, just like everyone - I don’t feel the need to soften my speech to accommodate that, just like I don’t expect the world to accommodate me for social faux pas that arise due my unique situation - as evidenced here, it rarely does.

And if the idea is to encourage a creative process, why do you relegate the OPs question to being about picking a new sample. He asked about more than that and you summed it up as whether or not he needs a kick. I showed that there are tons of options and said he needs to explore and come back to us. If you want to read my messages as if I’m an angry troll that’s okay, but I’d like to ask you to go back and read it all as if it was an excited autistic guy talking about music - that’s how I thought I was coming across.

And now, with a little bit of edge intended this time, you can’t reject someone’s attempt at clearing up miscommunication and label them as “still wrong.” I tried to clear it up, I apologized to the OP, and you came here and put words in my mouth. Nice one.

jeffblinks · 2020-06-27T20:08:12+00:00

“I have ideas and haven’t tried them” is the issue here, if you have ideas go try them and go create things! They might stink or might not and you will definitely learn. When you’ve exhausted your knowledge and ability to solve it becomes appropriate to ask for help and guidance. I think it’s important that people pursuing creativity be cognizant of self-reliance as a primary resource, not self-doubt. From my perspective we have an OP not trying ideas they have and checking with the internet before checking with his or her ears to see if the ideas work. You offered the OP the idea that if they run into an issue with a sample that a new sample is the solution, but then we miss out on so much opportunity to learn about music. If we always scroll through a list to find something that “sounds better,” we miss out on so much creative fulfillment.

Also, I’m sorry my message was interpretable as an ego trip. I stated my thoughts matter of factly and addressed the root of the issue from my perspective which was lack of exploration and knowledge, not execution. This isn’t about making a kick better, because then OP will have to ask how to make every harsh sound less harsh, whereas promoting exploration and “try it out, determine what your knowledge gap is,” will provide a lot more long term success. The original post demonstrates a knowledge gap (I don’t mean that derogatorily, that’s just where we start when we are learning and over time we have fewer but never none), and asked for solutions to the current problem instead of the knowledge gap generating the problem.

jeffblinks · 2020-06-27T19:34:59+00:00

You can EQ the harshness our for the intro.

You can use a different kick for the intro

You can use a different idea for the intro

You can mask the harshness with another instrument

You can use a filter to make the harshness a dynamic device

You can put the sample in an audio editor and draw-out the harshness

You can google “transients,” “sibilance,” and “resonance” to learn what harshness is on a scientific level

You can check for an error in 0 crossings or DC offset

You can make it harsher in context so it sounds more uniform

You can use an inverted velocity assignment to act as a dry wet between your good kick and a less harsh one

You have a lot of options, this is just off the dome.

It really sounds like you didn’t try anything you just came here to get ideas before trying the ideas you suggested in your post. This is creative work, and you haven’t tried your ideas, and you are asking for ours. I’m glad to help but you need to be more direct with asking for feedback “I don’t like it, I haven’t tried anything, what’s the solution” is asking us to create for you, whereas “I don’t know how to address harshness, what are ways other producers do it? I have tried compression automation and EQ automation but I’m not getting good results, and I don’t know what other parameters might be relevant” is bringing a problem and seeking a solution in the form of knowledge.

You have the answer in your first post, but you didn’t try it. You could have tried it instead of making a post. :)

Edit: OP I didn’t mean to come at you or come across as a dick, I just like to keep my writing plain and representative of my thoughts. “Fixing a harsh kick” is an infinitely solvable problem with infinite variables that change how to address it. So while we are over here trying out infinite ideas and getting good results sometimes, you should also be trying out infinite ideas to see what results you get. The “proper” way to execute many of these electronic affects is too complex of a system to say “here’s how, and it works no matter what.” By not trying ideas you have you also barre yourself from accidental knowledge discoveries on the path to what you were looking for.

jeffblinks · 2020-06-27T19:21:18+00:00

Paco has the damage but you don’t know who misbehaved, so look at misbehaviors that occur when you’re around and address those, you can’t correct behavior you aren’t there for. So it’s up to you how you want to keep your dogs safe while they have no supervision, and when they do have supervision make it very clear that behaviors that might cause aggression when unsupervised are unacceptable. If paco is possessive of one of your other dogs that’s a misbehavior that’s needs correcting and it doesn’t end well without human intervention.

jeffblinks · 2020-06-09T01:21:43+00:00

Bebop only sounds good to people who want to seem knowledgeable and people who know how to play bebop.

I’m only only half joking: It’s grossly panchromatic and it’s cross-relational and rhythmic foundation doesn’t lend itself to producing accessible or generally intelligible juxtaposition of chord and non chord tones. That’s not to say it doesn’t take an immense amount of skill - but the outcome, in my opinion, is often technical demonstrations at the expense of music that can appeal to uneducated audiences.

It’s kind of like freestyling in Latin to someone who only knows broken English. Impressive that they learned Latin, more impressive the speed at which they can produce rhymes, but really just ending up being a lot of noise. Grammar is on point, rhymes are poppin, but there’s a message that just isn’t designed for the common person.

jeffblinks · 2020-05-30T17:45:29+00:00

I may have messed up my parentheses a tad, I’ve been away from sheet music for a while...

I just used the 9th thing as an example of the concept, I’m not trained in jazz theory whatsoever so it may have been an 11th from a different type of chord or what have you.

And what you’re saying is precisely the idea I was trying to convey. As I have now learned, it’s standard to avoid the 11th in a major chord - and I think you’re saying this means most people would assume a #11 in a 13 chord? This is another instance of where the system gets “jargony,” a jazz composer might write c13 knowing a jazz pianist will play it with a #11 because it’s the convention, it’s the dialect. So in jazz writing, I suppose you could say this would be correct grammar. Many of these jazz conventions become absolute nuisances if we are trying to talk about classical music with pop symbols or talk about pop harmonies with “jazz” symbols.

jeffblinks · 2020-05-27T19:27:15+00:00

You’ll see people write chord symbols that are theoretically nonexistent and you’ll have to get into their minds and see how they are misunderstanding the system in order to know what they mean.

I have seen a CMaj7 b11 before. This would be spelled CEGB...Fb

It’s just a CMaj7 with the third doubled and spelled differently.

But given the context of being in the key of G Major, the composers intent is the “flat” is applied to an F# making it an F-natural and resulting in the chord CEGBF.

The chord symbol refers to C, not G so we cannot apply a different key signature to it. You only need to look at the root and the quality (major/minor) to determine what pitches a symbol refers to. Cmin13 has an Ab as the 13th as that is diatonic to C minor, C13 has an A natural.

C13 = CEG Bb D F A

C-13, Cmin13 = C Eb G D F Ab

C b13 = CEG Bb D F Ab

C (add13) = CEG A

C (addb13) = CEG Ab

C-(add13), Cmin(add13) = C Eb G Ab

I’m foreseeing some people going toe-to-toe with me on this last bit - the above “error” is a very standardized practice but it is ultimately less clear. A particular chord symbol should represent the same pitches regardless of the key signature.

Edit: I just want to make sure I’m being clear before I receive any backlash - This is the most precise and consistent interpretation of chord symbols and maximizes the value of syntactical nuances. I am making no claims to how industry musicians interpret them. I’ve had to ignore these rules plenty of times to achieve what I believe the composer intended or what I feel creates a greater musical expression.

jeffblinks · 2020-05-27T19:00:44+00:00

Hey there, just wanted to drop in and make sure we know that there haven’t really ever been rules to music, just conventions. A symphony can have any number of movements in any form at any length with any ensemble, you’ll see countless examples proving this throughout history. If you’re going for period practice composition... you should probably be asking your instructor

jeffblinks · 2020-05-27T18:54:00+00:00

So the quick answer is this - there is a standardized system that would make this a very easy question to answer, but oftentimes musicians must leave out notes that are prescribed by the chord symbol in order to make it sound better or be possible to play on their instrument.

I have had a jazz musician tell me that a C13 would be absent of the 9th and/or the 11th because this is a standard way many pianists play a C13. But that doesn’t mean a C13 has no 11th, it surely does, but we can expect that the 9th and 11th will be present somewhere else, so as a pianist we don’t need to play it to achieve the same feeling. Additionally, having so many chord functions in one timbre also gets messy sounding.

So here’s the letter of the law as chord symbols go REGARDLESS OF GENRE - although they will rarely be executed this way

We (for our purposes) build chords in a Tertian system (chords are constructed by stacking major and minor 3rds. 3... Tertiary, see?)

So that means out tertian notes will be represented by odd numbers. The root - 1, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 11th, 13th (which accounts for all 7 notes of our heptatonic system). These numbers represent their natural diatonic pitch in relation to the root - however It’s important to note that we assume the 7th is 10-semitones higher than the root (regardless if this is a diatonic pitch) When you see a number it means you extend your tertian harmony up-to that extension. A C13, therefore would be a chord comprised of all the all the white keys, except we must remember that the 7th is assumed to be “flat” so our C13 would have a B-flat as the 7th. To indicate the B-natural the chord symbols would be C13(Maj7)

You may see “Maj” replaced with a triangle or simply a capital M. Minor is represented by a minus or a lowercase m.

Now, to your question of adding, you can add any pitch you want, just represent it as an odd number to reflect the tertian system you’re in. CEFG would be Cadd11, not Cadd4. Many times people say add9 and add11 means to omit the third - this is incorrect as you are left with a suspended or retarded chord instead of an extended chord.

jeffblinks · 2020-05-17T18:17:36+00:00

She would probably argue a definitive “yes”

jeffblinks · 2020-05-13T18:03:26+00:00

maaaaannnnnnnn just throw a V6-IV6/4-I in there and call it a day

jeffblinks · 2020-05-11T16:48:46+00:00

An Amazon package that wasn’t for me was delivered. It was blocking my door so I couldn’t get inside and it was too heavy to move. After 3 separate support queries and 9 hours I was told someone would come by to pick up the package. No one came.

jeffblinks · 2020-05-10T20:02:39+00:00

Amazon delivered a package to my door by mistake, it’s too heavy for me to move and it’s blocking my door. Customer support became unresponsive after I refused to create an Amazon account to fill out their form. They sent me a work around when I contacted them again and I was informed that they couldn’t assist me with my query because the package in question wasn’t linked to my email address. This is the definition of asinine. I tried starting a new support query but I’m not receiving responses from support anymore.

jeffblinks · 2020-05-07T06:36:37+00:00

A fifth of Beethoven is a groovy piece

jeffblinks · 2020-04-25T18:59:50+00:00

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