Weeklybeats is a 52 week long music project in which artists compose and publicly release 1 song a week for the entire year.
Starting January 1st 2024 GMT each participant will have one week to upload one finished composition. Any style of music or selection of instruments are welcomed and encouraged.
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WeeklyBeats.com / Forums / Posts by CK
Thanks to everyone for so much music to dig through. Theres still a lot I haven't listened to yet, I'm hoping the archive will stay live over the next year at least.
Big ups to the producers that managed to pull it off, even with a lot of great gear its hard to find inspiration and then get together a good arrangement within a week.
Also thanks to Trash and the WB crew for keeping alive the em vibe.
This year I took my music / artistic career more seriously, learning more about the art of songwriting and working on the art of building a strong release.
Learned much about 80s style mixing and have been focusing on a style that I feel I can truely call my own. I feel like I've come a long way the past few years as a vocalist, but mostly in the way of compiling and editing vocals. I've noticed editing vocals improves your pitch perception all the way round.
I think I'm drawn to the 80s style mainly because its uplifting music, and I'm so sick of all the negativity I have to deal with, plus I've listened to so many glitches and cuts and noise over the past decade that I crave more melodic substance I guess.
I wanted to do more WB submissions this year but I kept writing music that I wasn't sure if it would make it on a label.
One thing thats cool about music these days is that the genres are so fractured I think its easier to just be yourself musically and focus on making great art.
Heya, yesterday my nu80s band, the Data Twins released an EP on Synth Records, https://synthrecords.bandcamp.com/album … it-tonight
I feel bad I haven't finished any weekly beats material this year, but I'm really trying to force myself to only release material thats 100% done. I still need to come back and finish the track I started during the no 4/4 week.
But thanks for taking some time out to check out our art, I think my favorite track on the EP is #3 Do Your Thing Bebe. I just dig its chill atmosphere I guess.
Sounds really good for gameboy, nice dynamics.
I think Tumblr is kind of gif central, which is like Twitter and Flickr combined only more gifs, kinda sorta.
Tumblrs gone through some changes like Twitter and Flickr have changed layout and added features over the years but, years ago Tumbler was sort of the place to be if you were into micro blogging and gif collecting / making. It was like Facebook for graphic designers, maby? Its hard to explain but eventually more and more people on Tumblr came over to Twitter as it gained momentum.
I never had a Tumblr page and I didn't really learn much about it till a couple years ago, I had friends that used it but they never really talked about it and I was pretty much wrapped up in the audio world side of things. But since more and more people started double posting their gif/blogs to both Tumblr and Twitter I started discovering some really gifted artists like http://kidmograph.tumblr.com/ and http://maxcapacity.tumblr.com/
Is it weird that theres a few hundred tracks submitted a week, but only like a couple posts in the forum a week? It just seems strange.
I managed to track down a copy of In The Studio With Michael Jackson, through the local library which goes into detail about Bruce Swediens mixing techniques. The book is kinda hard to find but the Sacramento library had a copy. If your new to Bruces style, check out the albus Rufus & Chaka Masterjam, Quiny Jones The Dude, MJ Off The Wall & Thriller. If your into any kind of 80s inspired music I think you'd get a lot out of the book. But here are some of the details I learned that I haven't seen mentioned on gearsluts that have made an improvement in my mixes.
First, high passing all instruments at 100htz about a 18db slope, besides kick, bass, and any sub synths. Bruce used the Harrison 32 series analog console filters, and I found a diy schematic version of the filters used in the console online and checked out the circuit (built a diy module for my rack). Its basically a variation on a 2 pole active opamp filter, that sounds like its about 18db slope (def between 12 and 24db). Its a great circuit that uses a stereo potentiometer to simultaneously adjust feedback and frequency in a cool way. If you can find the schem for the Harrison MR-3 console series filters its a very similar circuit, almost identical aside from adjusted cap and resistor tweaks. But you don't need any special eq per se, it works with a quality plugin, 18db at 100htz high pass is the magic frequency and number.
Second reverb settings, its common knowledge that Bruce loves his EMT 250s, but what I haven't heard mentioned before is that his actual favorite reverb that he used commonly on drums is the AMS RMS16. This is a pretty hard reverb to find but luckily theres a site that offers a free sample of the ambience impulse response, which is actually the reverb model that Bruce mentions he likes in the book.
Another important aspect of how he handles reverb is using a very specific pre-delay of primarily 125ms. He varies it from about 100 to 150ms, but 125ms comes up again and again in the book. His reasoning for this is that he liked to record in great sounding studio rooms and wanted all the early reflections to come through uncolored. This really helps drum sounds and vocals with clarity, and 125ms is actually a fairly large predelay, so I'd find myself sometimes backing it down to 40ms on certain percussion instruments if I wanted the reverb to glue in with the hit a little more. But using 125ms on things like live strings or synths will definitely get you that Billy Jean sound.
Another important part of how Bruce used early reflections was with vocal thickening. He would have MJ do an original and double close, then he would have him step back 2 paces, adjust the preamp gain and record another pass, and optionally have mj step back another 2 paces, set up a Blumlein Pair (x-y figure 8) and do another recording pass.
Bruce also mentioned he would use a subtle pitch speed trick to thicken vocals, where the first vocal recording was done normally, then he would slow down the cue mix playback about 3-4 cents and have the vocalist record a second pass to the cues slowed down pitch. This technique requires precise intonation on part of a vocalist, but after pitching the tape back up, you get a double vocal that has a wider range of harmonics than you would naturally get with a normal double, without actually generating pitch shifted chorusing.
So I figure this might help somebody a little with their mixes, theres actually quite a bit more that gets covered in the book but its mostly about mic types and micing techniques and stories about Quincy and Rod Temperton.
No worries, I didn't end up finishing the track I was going to submit in time for this week, and I spent a few nights working on it. Its in 6/8 but its only about 1:30 long, so maybe I'll be able to finish it up for next week.
Ohm Studio?
Thanks for the tip, much respect for the Finland scene, Ohm Studio looks really interesting.
Most of my friends live a plane ride away from me in different directions these days so I'm thinking it would be cool maybe even to figure out a way to video conference and dropbox stuff. Its cool to be able to work on things sort of each on his own, but sometimes its really important to have a direct connection to bounce ideas off one another directly.
Like the little tweaks and recommendations here and there while building a track. Especially for tracking vocals and stuff, delivery is everything. It really helps to be listening in to whats going on in real time to recommend ideas.
It seems like video chat technology has come a long way the past few years and I'm wondering if any one has been able to link your home studio with another to work on a track together with any luck.
I got inspired after watching Adafruits hangouts vid, deaudmau5 stream, the Future Music studio series, and learning about Steinbergs vst connect software.
I've noticed that there are times of the day when its easier for me to write lyrics, that first hour after I wake up, and about 2 hours before bed. I've heard of other people getting ideas in the shower. Also a few times I'd get ideas while driving, by ideas I mean a lyrical hook or melody line. Getting out and seeing live shows is a great source of energy, although the down side is you might tend to get copycat ideas.
I recommend doing some music research, hunting down and listening to new artists in some way related to a style or musical era that influences you.
For example I'm really into the early 80s style music, and just a few weeks ago I discovered the group "Change" which was Luther Vandross's debut.
I think its important to say something about things that can kill inspiration. Like if you have someone thats an "antivibe" in your vicinity. Someone thats either a jerk / bitch / insane, or just on you about money or some shit. We all know that person thats just drama in a bad way all the fn time. If your stuck around someone like that then it doesn't matter how serious you are about music, your not going to be able to hone your artistry.
Don't feel bad if you instinctively don't feel like the urge to release something that isn't your best work, because the reality is what ever you put your name on becomes your legacy.
Maby take some time out to work on your tools, create some template files, research plugs that can fix your mixing problems, or find a better vocal mic / preamp, or set up your studio, organize a patch bay. Read the manual for your DAW, note any shortcuts you haven't learned, assign shortcuts to a multimedia / gaming mouse, make notes on your favorite patches. If you have hardware synths get a software patch manager and check out other peoples patches, and set up some of your own fav banks.
All this ancillary stuff can slow you down when your doing songwriting, so it really helps to solve all these problems to strike quickly while your inspiration is still hot.
KVR forums would probably have a few threads on that, but if you haven't already Synth 1 is kinda the standard in a free quality vst synth.
What plugins or effects do you find yourself coming back to time and again? Or any specific efx chains that help define your sound?
For reverb, especially vocals, after trying out tons of plugs and hunting through tons of impulse files I find myself coming back to Fokke van Saane's, Master Room MR-II, 3 MR-II (Brilliance 50%), impulse file with Fruity's Convolver. It isn't the widest reverb, but it is an actual stereo spring reverb and the Convolver allows to adjust the wet stereo separation. Its about the closest I've come to that early 80s / late 70s style reverb that I'm after. Though Fokke van Saane's Lexicon 200 impuse files are really good too, but have more low end so need a little filtering.
For compression on instrument / vocal tracks when I need a little bit extra, I seem to always fall back on the Waves LA2A, but I'm also really impressed by Softubes FET Compressor. Softubes CL-1B is really great, but the level / make up gain knob seems a little wonky. I find if I adjust the compression then turn up the gain (makeup) I have to go back and tweak the compression settings again, since the pumping seems to change.
On snare I keep coming back to the Waves API550b, sounds great on toms too. Just don't forget to turn off the analog noise switch, or else your mix will be full of hiss BS.
Using tape or a tape emulator as a limiter is a big part of my master buss sound. The natural dynamics of tape was a huge part of the 70s / 80s sound so I feel personally that you can't really get an authentic synthpop / disco sound without hitting tape at least once in your process. Its pretty difficult to find a decent real tape machine thats in good order let alone tape to use in good condition. So I've been using the Waves Kramer Master Tape plugin which gets pretty damn close. Although one thing thats kinda cool about tape, like tube amps, is each deck is a little different tonally.
I've tried using cassette based recorders, but I've always run into problems with jitter / speed distortions. But if your making one shot samples, like for example drums or bass guitar, something your going to chop up anyway, then you can definitely get that compression / tone by hitting a hifi cassette deck then recording it in and making sample patches. I did that with my Pbass and it turned out pretty good.
Active Filter Cookbook, building a module based on the filter section of a Harrison console EQ. The circuit isn't listed in the Active Filter Cookbook, but its pretty much a variation on a Sallen-Key filter. It has its own mojo, kind of like between a 2 and 4 pole filter.
I really love these threads, finding ergonomic tips. Its amazing how quickly you can run out of space when your trying to get everything accessible.
But this is my studio, Purgatory, and the setup I've been using over the past 2 years. I think finding or building the gear that is part of your artistic vision, your journey that you want to take the listener on, is a huge part of music. Whether you like to collect stomp boxes, or plugins or lo-fi gear, all of them are like the paints your starting off with to create your next piece. You can make a masterpiece in watercolor, acrylic, oil or pastel, even chalk. Its about your artistic vision, what message or vibe do you want to become your journey.
