Hey gang!
Just checking to see what you all have lined up for the summer! Also, if there’s anything you need help on to accomplish your music goal for the summer, let us know!
Summer? Summer is 6 months away.
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Ha! I forgot it is completely opposite on that side. 
Soooo, what is your WINTER goal then?
My summer goal is to learn midi drums. I play my own guitars and sing, but drums I really struggle with. I have tried the ones in studio one professional and downloaded the acoustic drum kit as well. I bought EZdrummer and I suck at those too. ha ha
Some of the youtube videos help a little, but it is hard to learn that way for me. I bought a very good electronic set years ago and my friend uses them when my buddies come over for a jam, but I just can’t master them myself. My drummer from our OLD band said he would help with recording, but I hate to bug anybody. Old dog new tricks has got me.
Sincerely
Paul
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I suck at midi drums also, it’s my least favorite part of the whole recording thing. I just use ez drummer and try to find beats that don’t clash with whatever song I’m working on, but listening and picking drum patterns is so tedious and boring, I hate it. As far as summer music goals, I dont really have any specific goals, I’d like to get better at everything, maybe accomplish something new music wise.
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Hmm, I don’t have a particular goal for the summer, but I do have goals overall. I’m just not sure how much time to budget, exactly, so I’m leaving it open.
I knew that I wanted to get better at making music–more specifically, to get faster at it. I narrowed down some things that will help me to do that. Right now I am focused in on a couple: Ear training and performance.
I’m listening critically to music that I love and transcribing it, as well as figuring out what sounds they’re using, and how to get them. I’m training to hear intervals, working my way up to recognizing melodies. I’ll get more into hearing chords. I’ve been using this software called “Train Your Ears” to understand better what different frequencies sound like. My end goal is to be able to make up music in my head, (which I have done all my life,) and be able to quickly bring it into reality, (which has always been a struggle.) I just want to know what I’m doing, what I’m hearing, what I’m working with. I want to feel like I have a mastery over the music I’m making rather than going based on 100% intuition.
Performance wise, I know I’ll save myself a ton of time if I can cut out a lot of the editing that I do. Melodyne is fantastic, but you know what would be even more fantastic? Not needing to use it. I don’t want to have to edit my guitar tracks for timing issues, or do so many takes that I’m exhausted because I just can’t get it right. I’d rather play expressive MIDI parts on the keyboard than pencil them in and painstakingly edit the velocities and timing to make it sound natural. I’m taking drum lessons to improve my sense of rhythm. (And because it’s fun!) I just had my first piano lesson with my brother, (he’s terrific at piano.) I’m practicing guitar because the album I’m transcribing is guitar based. (For Emma, Forever Ago by Bon Iver… one of my favorites.) And I have not begun with this yet, though I suspect it’s the most important, but I plan to work hard on my vocal skills to sing with more skill, have a greater range and control over my tone.
There are other goals I have, but these are the main two I’m focusing on right now. By the end of the summer I hope to have at least made a lot of progress! I’ve always had musical skills that I’ve considered “good enough to scrape by,” but I’m not willing to settle for that anymore.
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I’ve been teaching myself how to make videos… stop/go animation using drawings to go with music… it’s been quite a steep learning curve and I’m still rough-as-guts but finally starting to see a pathway through. I’m using a combination of techniques that aren’t ‘the usual’ so I’ve had a bunch of technical challenges. It’s winter here, so a great time to consolidate and learn stuff…
I’ve had an acute case of “what’s the point?” which has stopped me from recording new songs so learning new stuff is my current goal until the muse swims/flies again. I’d also like to get healthy so that I can sing again… 
Oh… another new goal… I went to a drum making thingummy last weekend and have made myself a big drum using a cedar frame and stretched horse hide… I’d love to be able to record some deep drum tones upon that… It is still drying so I can’t play it for a few days yet but I have my fingers crossed that it will make loverly low melliflous beatings… watch this space… helluva fun to make… but will it work??? Time will tell… 
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Like to see that new video of you marchin playin your new drum
Paul
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hah… marching is such a strange thought…
We have a collective band goal, and that is to acquire more gigs this year. We really enjoy playing live, and it still gives us a buzz, especially when punters are enjoying hearing our originals played!
I seriously need to download Reaper or an equivalent, and that’s when I’ll be tapping all your brains…
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I’m doing a new PC build along with a new interface, so hopefully I’ll be doing more recordings.
I want to finish my album but until recently I really had no idea what to write about, now I just need some time to actually do the work.
Did I mention I’m moving? I’ll have a dedicated space for recording soon which is great but I have no idea how well the room sounds.
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Just out of interest - what software are you using for the stop motion animation?
I’ve actually thought about this for the past few months - I get summer break (being a teacher is awesome!). For me, I have to build some more bass traps for my room, and treat it thoroughly. I’ve treated the room already and it went from unrecordable to actually quite impressive.
Next to that, I have to finish my DIY e-drum kit - I have to build a bass drum, and I’ve managed to skin a real snare drum with a mesh. As a real challenge, I want to build myself a megadrum e-drum module.
Aside from that, I want to write and record some songs.
So, busy busy busy
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Do you have any new tracks for us to mix? I feel like having some more fun with a few outside projects even if it’s not a contest.
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I’m with @doubletrackinjive here - Would love some tracks to mix even if there wasn’t a contest to play for…
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Just out of interest - what software are you using for the stop motion animation?
I tried a few and then started playing around with Clayframes on my cellphone - ever such fun… I was only ever planning on being low key and then… and then it got more complicated as I kept wanting to tweak more bits. So now I am playing with husband’s SLR camera which I’m going to mount on a ceiling bracket and take still shots with a trigger… well Clayframes is cool for that too, you can sound-activate it to take the shot or just touch the screen, but I just wanted to explore real still shots for a different vibe. And I’ve also ended up importing it all into premiere pro which we have as part of a home business package but I’d never used before…
Premiere pro is woop-woop-bells-and-whistles, which is not where I had intended to take this but it is also unmistakably clever… unlike me! Haha… steep learning curves as I figure out video format conversions and infinite new tricks to be learned. I’m playing with charcoal drawings that morph… Heaps of fancy ideas in my head that I’ve yet to learn how to translate… sighhh… 
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Depending on whether you have a mac or a pc I would recommend getting software that has some built in features for stop motion. With my students I have used iStopMotion from Boinx - and it’s brilliant. You can hook up almost any camera and control it from the software. The biggest feature you need in stop motion is onion skinning. If you don’t know what that is - it’s basically being able to see the last photo you took while moving your characters for the next photo. So rather than guessing what movements you need to animate you can see precisely how things are moving.
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Yeah the clayframes has onion skinning, love it. I’ll check out the iStop thanks… the clayframes was really a play-around-with-grandson thing but it kinda hooked me in. It may well be all i need, but definitely worth exploring all options as it seems to have ‘caught me’…
Seasons have no effect on the time I have to spend on music, but for the remainder of calendar 2017 my goal is to come up with at least three new originals. That’s a bar set very low for some of you, but for me that is likely to be a challenge unless I can stumble upon a new burst of creativity… the most recent originals I wrote emerged during the Xmas break last December. Hopefully it won’t take that much downtime to get some sparks going again…
Another goal is to use a “Train Your Ears” module (that one happens to be on sale for US$49 until tomorrow, 31 May, thru AudioDeluxe), or the Harmon/Kardon “How to Listen” exercises in order to improve my ability to hear frequencies and so on. I’ve just finished reading Mike Senior’s book, but it took me so long to get through that I’ve forgotten much of the early chapters so will just start over and make copious bookmarks in my Nook app when I find nuggets I want to try to remember. All part of trying to elevate my mixing and arranging skills to add interest to my stuff, whether original or covers.
That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it…
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I"ve tracked and mixed my new 12 song project “PRAY” and am in the process of nit picking everything to get it ready for mastering. I want to release in October, so I need to be ready by August to give the master(er)?? time to get me off the ground.
Reason 9.5 just hit and opened up VSTs and I’ll be playing the learning game there a bit. (YAY!)
Still trying to get good enough at Reaper to get my drums sounding better (SSD4, which is NOT included in the VSTs that work (so far)). Doesn’t work with VST 3s, which apparently includes Density and Kjearhaus…bummer. Anyone got any recommendations for decent free mastering compressors and limiters that work with Reason 9.5?
That’s the short list…got a computer to start building, new church projects (now head music minister and still drama director). Would like to find a better job this summer as well…