LinuxMusicians

Hi, everyone! I made a song in MusE Sequencer (muse3).

The song is called Car-Free Village.

Ninbit Music: http://www.nimbitmusic.com/graysonpeddi ... evillage.2
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/grayson-peddie/car-free-village

My song will be available in Google Play Store by next week if all goes well. I just setup an artist store page a few minutes ago.

Credits go to:

falkTX (Creator of KXStudio and tools: http://kxstudio.linuxaudio.org/)
MusE Sequencer team (for MIDI sequencing, http://muse-sequencer.org/)
ZynAddSubFX http://zynaddsubfx.sourceforge.net/)
Qtractor (for humanizing my song, http://qtractor.sourceforge.net/qtractor-index.html)
Harrison Mixbus (http://harrisonconsoles.com/site/mixbus.html)
Calf Studio Gear (http://calf-studio-gear.org/)
drumkv1 (for drum samples, http://drumkv1.sourceforge.net/drumkv1-index.html)
Digital Sound Factory (DSF Studio Orchestra, https://www.digitalsoundfactory.com (the website seems to be down at the time of writing)
Zenhiser (80s Retro Drum, 80s Snare Drum, https://www.zenhiser.com/)

Thanks to j_e_f_f_g (a member over at LinuxMusicians.com (viewtopic.php?f=50&t=14490) for providing some drum samples. A muffled kick drum is used for my song.

And thanks to Graham at TheRecordingRevolution.com for motivating me to create a song for the one-month challenge.

EDIT: Confused "ownCloud" with "SoundCloud."

Update: My Google Play artist page is now live!
https://play.google.com/store/music/art ... 6nhdnhjeay

I'm not able to choose "name your price" as an option as I want to share my song for free, but allow the option to pay for my song if they want to.

Hi Grayson,

Nice work! I like the warmth of the sounds you've chosen and how the song builds, some very nice counterpoint going on with the sequencing as well.

There are some sloppiness here and there in my song, which tells me that 2% of randomness is a bit too much when I humanized my song in Qtractor, but that's lesson to be learned since I'm not a keyboardist; I can't keep up with my timing except when it comes to writing a melody. But even then I get stuck, which I can simply enter MIDI notes manually and it worked.

And this is all with MIDI. I wish I could afford a harp, but then it cost about $1,000 or more and I don't have any room in my bedroom where I'm staying with my family until I get a job soon so I can move to my own place.

Thanks for the compliment and I'm glad you enjoyed my song.

I did not win a giveaway from TheRecordingRevolution.com.

Here's a snippet of an e-mail:

Listening to that many songs (even at an average length of 3 minutes let's say) would have taken me 100 hours of my life to pull off.

That's over 4 days straight of listening to music 24 hours a day So I had to find another way that was fair to pick a winner.

What I decided to do was use a random number generator to start going through and listening to songs one by one. This way I wouldn't be listening to them in any biased order.

...

First - the runners up.

These two guys will be winning one of my in-depth training courses of their choosing absolutely free!

They could pick REthink Mixing, Total Home Recording, or even The Audio Income Project - whatever they want - at no cost to them.

...

And now for the grand prize winner of the One Song One Month Challenge.

Remember this is for the PreSonus Studio192 interface, Digimax DP88 preamps, and Eris E5 monitors.

...

And the $2,000 studio makeover goes to...

...

Well, let me just say that my heart cannot take the heat of a $2,000+ equipment... Boy was I shaken by the fact that all of my effort for writing my song is for nothing...

Gee... I feel like unsubscribing from Graham's mailing list... Even though I did learn a lot from his videos and blog...

I would have preferred Presonus 1818VSL, though I don't think Studio 192 is compatible with Linux at all unless someone has one. $2,000... Really? (sigh)

I would have preferred Presonus 1818VSL, though I don't think Studio 192 is compatible with Linux at all unless someone has one. $2,000... Really? (sigh)

The Studio 192 is class compliant so theoretically it'll work on Linux but some of the features will presumably not be available as it is controlled by software. (Guessing)

http://support.presonus.com/entries/105 ... -Mac-OS-X-

asbak wrote:

I would have preferred Presonus 1818VSL, though I don't think Studio 192 is compatible with Linux at all unless someone has one. $2,000... Really? (sigh)

The Studio 192 is class compliant so theoretically it'll work on Linux but some of the features will presumably not be available as it is controlled by software. (Guessing)

http://support.presonus.com/entries/105 ... -Mac-OS-X-

Thanks. I don't like audio interfaces that can only be controlled by software, which is a big disappointment.

I went ahead and re-release my song today that I made back on late January with improvements to my song. Feedback is appreciated.

For those who have Spotify. My song is available for streaming.
https://open.spotify.com/album/3dKM5kaDT9wNenKrP2zk3j

My song will be available in other streaming services sometime soon.

It's a fun piece, joyful. Can I ask what does the electronic feeling of the percussion represents in a car-free village ? It is such a contrast to the natural-sounding instruments.

I am currently learning. Since a bit more than a year. At the beginning I looked around, like everybody does, and stumbled upon this Recording Revolution. So I subscribe to their 'mixing tips' by email and got them several times a week. After some time they started to feel like flyers in a regular mailbox. More like advertisement than anything else I found. The tipping point was when he mentioned that mixing pros are not good for the little folks. Since at that time I already have bought "Mixing Secrets" by Mike Senior (1) and have found other people on the internet on the topic of mixing/mastering, I dropped this 'revolution'. I think that pros can tell a lot of what mixing is about, no matter who listens.

And there are a few out there that comes across more like business than anything else. Do I want to 'learn' from these guys ? By pure coincidence, there's no other word, I saw on youtube a 'Mixing with Mike' video. Nah, this can't be it. I almost close the browser but I instead clicked on it. This guy, I find, is the real thing. Mixed for about 30 gold records, lots of work with Withney Houston, David Byrne, many others. But there's a catch. One has to be willing ot learn. This is not predigested stuff. One has to take the time to learn. His name is Michael White and you won't see him around. There's only one video of him out there that actually is not a lesson and shows him in a sponsored interview. The rest is all learning material. He has some free stuff and some paid courses. The guy gives the passion of mixing. He is totally dedicated.

The guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbF4kNW0aCk

One of the free lessons, 'Choosing a Reverb' : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBaq3_GDAJg

He also have free online classes on each Wednesday evening (EST 19:00) in which a song is being mix in the course of perhaps a few months.


(1) Senior also has a free web site on mixing resources featuring a lot of multitrack recordings (regularly updated) for mixing practice:

http://www.cambridge-mt.com/

You're right about The Recording "Revolution." I get emails from time to time any $27/month Dueling Mixes and that is only for the rich and not fit those who are to poor to even be considered a musician.

Are there a lot of poor musicians who barely have enough money at all?

And as for my song, it'd be more of a modern kind of car-free living, hence electronic percussions. I'm not aiming for a medieval kind of feel. A "modern village" if you know what I mean.

Update: Here's another example. How about a hyperloop that can transport you between two car-free villages?
https://twitter.com/HyperloopOne/status ... 7551308800

It can happen only in imagination and not in our world in the near future.

The other two songs could help empower your imagination. Think about hour you want to shape our world.
https://soundcloud.com/grayson-peddie

GraysonPeddie wrote:You're right about The Recording "Revolution." I get emails from time to time any $27/month Dueling Mixes and that is only for the rich and not fit those who are to poor to even be considered a musician. Are there a lot of poor musicians who barely have enough money at all?

I have three suggestions, two being free, that I'm sure can bring a lot to mixing skills, as it did for me. One has to be willing to spend the time and learn. it sounds corny to say so, but many people are only looking for ready-made solutions, how to use that plugin or that one. Get a tip for this guy, another from that one, try to 'mix' it all in some kind of passive knowledge. Quality comes from learning, from understanding fundamentals, and practice, and that takes time.

The first one is Michael White's 'Fundamental of Mixing'. See a partial list of topics below. This is free and has a lot packed in.

https://blog.music-production-guide.net ... of-mixing/

The other one is the beginning of the Bitwig Music Production course by Brian Bollman. Section 1 has a lot of basics on frequencies and such.

Such as:
1.02/03 Audio Fatigue and Relative Loudness (32 mins)
1.07 Sampling Rates, Bit Depth, File Compression (44 mins)
1.10 Foundations of Sound: Amplitude (49 mins)
1.11 Foundations of Sound:Frequency, Pitch, Nyquist (75 mins)
1.12 Phase, Beating, Haas Effect (40 mins)
1.13 Foundations of Sound: Timbre, Harmonics (94 mins)
And there are more topics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXE8Br_ ... fryIeGYi_w

The third is the book by Mike Senior, 'Mixing Secrets'. Despite the 'secret' name which could lead to believe this is book w/o any foundation, it is not. It's an excellent book that I refer to on a continuous basis. Ironically, it's also recommended by Graham. It's such a great book, can't ignore it. $25 on Amazon.

Partial list of topics in the 'Fundamentals of Mixing' by Michael White. He extracted these from his weekly online 'Mixing with Mike' lessons:

Lesson 01 why is mixing difficult
Lesson 02 mix translation guide
Lesson 03 mixing 3d sound field
Lesson 04 tools of mixing
Lesson 05 secrets of mixers
Lesson 06 speakers and monitoring
Lesson 07 monitoring self calibration
Lesson 08 evaluating tracks
Lesson 09 session organization
Lesson 10 mix signal flow
Lesson 11 gain structure of mix
Lesson 12 mix mapping
Lesson 13 mapping your mix
Lesson 14 using reference mixes
Lesson 15 pt1 levels and panning
Lesson 15 pt2 levels and panning
Lesson 16 pt1 filters and subtractive eq
Lesson 16 pt2 filters and subtractive eq
Lesson 17 pt1 functional compression
Lesson 17 pt2 functional compression
Lesson 18 pt1 vintage processing
Lesson 18 pt2 vintage processing
Lesson 18 pt3 vintage processing
Lesson 19 assessment and adjustments
Lesson 20 pt1 spacial processing
Lesson 20 pt2 spacial processing
[...]

GraysonPeddie wrote:Update: Here's another example. How about a hyperloop that can transport you between two car-free villages?
https://twitter.com/HyperloopOne/status ... 7551308800

It can happen only in imagination and not in our world in the near future.

I have read about the hyperloop. Of course, this is interesting to move over distances. The challenge remains in large cities, not villages, to move across parts of the city in an efficient manner. I used to cycle to work. Winter, snow, anytime. Then work moved to a distance that cannot be made by cycling. Taking public transportation takes hours and is expensive, when compared to the reliable small 5-speed manual car I have, now 12 years old at 330000 kms without any problem at all, only regular maintenance.