songwriting links

The Muse's Muse 






Pittsburgh Songwriters Network

Murphy's Laws of Songwriting

SongU.com provides multi-level song writing courses developed by award-winning songwriters, song feedback, mentoring, one-on-one song coaching, co-writing, unscreened pitching opportunities and more. You will find all the tools you need to succeed as a songwriter -- all online.
At SongU.com we’ll bring the music industry TO YOU.

AcoustiCafe    http://www.myspace.com/acousticafeorg

Unable to use midi output driver

Unable to use midi output driver
tip: http://www.pgmusic.com/techfaq17.htm#80 and unchecked all sw synths and configured the Roland VSG DXI synth,
There seems to be at least two areas of potential problem-

1. Use of ASIO drivers chosen in more than one open program ( I have had many problems using ASIO drivers but none with MME except for the latency which does not affect my use)

2. The grabbing of drivers when two programs with the same are used in a session

We have had success by these actions -

3. Complete closedown - wait 20 seconds and boot

4. Select ASIO drivers for one program and MME for the other

5. When the message shows you can choose an alternative driver for that session

6. Also one problem cleared itself after a Diskclean - Defrag and Registry clean and compaction

This seems to be a conflict rather than a bug in BIAB
jazzman 

Alternate Tuning Guide

Alternate Tuning Guide

An Introduction to Alternate Tunings

Alternate Tuning PDF

A Crash Course in Open and Alternate Tunings

chord-o-matic excel file

Song Creation Strategy for BIAB

Song Creation Strategy for BIAB

This is the song generation strategy that works best for me.

1. Generate the song using BIAB
2. Mix or sequence them with Real Band or your fave such as Sonar or Audacity or Audition

Within BIAB
1. Create three templates Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

All to be generated ONE FILE per TRACK

2. Part 1 is for all the instruments except Melody and Solo. For example, the Bass, Piano, Guitar, Strings and Drums. These are your rhythm section. You dont need to change this often so it is better to put them as a group in Part 1.

3. Part 2 is a template based on Part 1 but this time, mute all other instruments except Melody. Why? Because this is where your need to experiment (no need to wait for that slow generating RealTracks. for example you use BIAB to generate a Melody.

(Note: if you want to add more tracks not accommodated in Part 1; you may also do that here. For example you want to add some Wind instruments or Strumming or Solo)

4. Part 3 is only the Soloist part. Why? same reason as melody.You want to experiment in Soloist till you best one without waiting for RealTracks that slows you down.

(Note: if you want to add more tracks not accommodated in Part 1; you may also do that here. For example you want to add some Wind instruments or Strumming or Solo)

5. Rename each track so that you will not confused (so many "melody" or "piano" names can confuse you.

6. Open all of them in your favorite Real Band or Cool Edit or Sonar etc...then mix all of them or part of them etc.. you can create different versions of the song (without piano, without electric).. Note that the Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 can give you so many channels to for different instruments and all of these tracks can be opened by Sonar and you can create different versions of your song in your sequencer.


6. And there's your song. Once you have the basic tracks, you can experiment with Part 2 and Part 3 for the best melody and solo. (NO NEED TO change everything.)

Issues about PANNING
I think this is what happens"
Case 1: When you generate the tracks on a PER FILE PER TRACK basis as part of generation of the BIAB song, then the PANNING is maintained. That is, if you use Sequencer to open them separately, their sounds, volume and pan are already embedded in each, and when you play them together as if you come to the original rendered song.

Case 2: When you generate ONLY a single TRACk (not part of the process of generating the entire song) then you get DEAD CENTER pan of that TRACK you generated.

Now, it is up to you. I find it best to PAN them at BIAB so I dont have to experiment too much about their PANNING in sonar or in Audacity. However, it is up to you.

Sound Levels: Do your final mixdown to 3dB levels. Now, if you want to master them at a higher volume (3dB is not loud enough for your iPod), 

- then you do a PEAK LIMIT effect (in Sonar or Real Ban) (the logic of PEAK LImit is somewhere in Google), 
- and then after that you can increase the GAIN.

(the PEAK limit is an important step to prevent distortions when you apply the gain)

Im not saying im correct in all items but hope this will save you some repetitive work. 

Making backing Tracks bob notes norton

Making backing Tracks

onlene_colaboration

wired- Finally, the On-Demand, Online Garage Band Gets Real

Come on … isn't it time to disturb the universe and make some noise? Here's a selection of music collaboration sites to get you started -- no matter what your musical level.

For newbies, I'd recommend (Jamglue or Splicemusic for creating and recording; YourSpins for remixing popular songs.

eJamming: Live online music collaboration

Indaba: Online music making for pro and semi-pro musicians

JamGlue: Like YouTube for collaborative audio

LightSpeed JamNow: Online music creation with audience participation

Mix2r: Music collaboration for DJs and electronica makers

NINJAM: Near-real-time, glitch-free online music collaboration

Splice: Online music creation, remixing, and mashing

YourSpins: Your own remix in a matter of minutes

n Bb 2.0 is a collaborative music and spoken word project conceived byDarren Solomon from Science for Girls.The videos can be played simultaneously — the soundtracks will work together, and the mix can be adjusted with the individual volume sliders.

across the fretboard

fretboard generator

Guitar Fretboard in Depth 

So, what is the correlation between guitar tuning and the guitar fretboard?

This is actually a key point to consider, in order to understand how notes are arranged on the fretboard, as any change in tuning will produce a completely new array. Although there are potentially limitless ways of tuning the guitar, the most useful tuning to know (at least at an initial stage) is the standard one: six strings tuned at the interval of a perfect fourth from each other, except for the second and third strings, which are tuned a major third apart.

Examples: using shell voicings - pdf