Will work for food...

     Not literally (I hope), but I am looking for work. The problem is I just don't know where to look. I don't have a lot of connections with musicians/producers in the real world, so I hope to find some connections through the web. So, I'll be posting a link to this entry on various forums in hopes of finding answers to various questions I have. If posting this violates any specific forum policy, I apologize. I will remove upon notification. (I'll be posting to several forums and though I will have looked, it's possible I'll miss something in the legal agreement. Those things are long)


     My current most urgent questions are:


1) How far away from a professional sound am I?

     I know that the audio file in that video above (or below, I may move it) is inadequate to use for a professional production, but the sound I have monitoring the mix in my DAW prior to exporting the mixdown sounds completely different (better) than the what you (and I) hear in the final production. I know that a lot of the difference is made up when it is mastered, but I don't have the time to learn to do that or the money to have something mastered to see. 


2) Are there any good places to connect to free lance or contract production work? If so, what qualifications does one need?


     Hopefully, I will have found the answer in one of the forums that I posted the link to and just not know it yet. I don't know though, because I don't have any formal musical or production training, but I have a demonstrable understanding of a wide variety of skills and learn quickly when it comes to new things (see just a quick note below). I know that one opportunity for income is selling original music for use in productions. That is something I hope to be able to do in the future, but I'm not there yet. That's why I ask the question. I'm sure somewhere there is someone willing to pay for help with some specific task that I could do, but I don't know what it is. Please, if you have any, pass some wisdom on. Feel free to post any advice here or back on the original thread you followed if you think it should stay there. 


     Just a quick note  for what it's worth, one of the reasons it took longer was my original intent was to use Windows Live Movie Maker, but that was far more limited than I knew. So I had to learn how to use Sony Vegas in a day to make this video. (I think that should be worth something). I will update this post soon with more. 


Any advice will be appreciated, thanks,
jdj

Finally

After a long break I finally have some new stuff to share. It took a little longer than I had hoped, but I'm pretty happy with the way these songs came out. I wanted to get some new music on here for people to listen to that would be fairly impressive. The first songs I posted got a luke warm response from those of you that did visit this blog, which wasn't a lot of people (thanks to those of you that did) but since the quality was so low I dind't really push people to check it out. Now I think learned and improved on that first effort enough that I've found a pretty decent sound. (When you listen please remember this isn't professionally produced, just the best I can do right now with the best equipment that I can afford) So without further ado, here is the first song:


Fake it (Cover of the Seether song)

This isn't my strongest vocal performance but I don't think it came out too bad overall. I still haven't found the ideal eq and mix settings for the vocals. I'm still working on it. I think you'll agree when you compare this second post...


Good (Cover of the Better Than Ezra song, Ver 2)

...With the version I originally posted on my Facebook wall and re-posted to this blog (which you can link to in the gadget over on the right, "direct links to songs I've posted", "Good Cover"

     This comparison will really show something that was really slowing me down with this project for a while, the drum sounds. That was a tough hurdle for me. I had a hard time getting the DAW to use plug ins that had good drum sounds. But after a large number of tantrums set off by some new problem that each step towards good drum sounds brought, I think I have something acceptable. Now, for this third post I had a different problem altogether...


Like a Stone (cover of the Audioslave song)

     I had 2 problems with this song. The first was learning how to play it. This is one of my favorite songs and I thought it was simple enough that I could come up with a decent version of it if I am going to be worth anything as a musician. So I checked the guitar tabs, listened, played along with it and got the basics of it. When I started to lay down the bass, I noticed there was something wrong. To try to make a long story short I'll just say this, Tom Morello and Chris Cornell are obviously skilled musicians and I picked up some good knowledge learning to play this song. I'm especially proud of the solo. I was very intimidated by the prospect of trying to do justice to a Morello solo and although it is obvious that it isn't him playing, I'm not ashamed of what I was able to do with it.
     The second problem was getting passable vocals. This is a tough song. If you're familiar with the song you'll notice that there are 2 notes in the last chorus that I had to back off on. That's where the problem was; If I'm driving down the street and listening to this song, I'm all over it. But, when I get in front of that mic, with my house as quiet as I can get it, I start thinking about it and don't sing "relaxed". I try, but I still need to improve on that. With that said though, I don't think I did too badly. I guess that's why I'm posting it.

    Now for the last song...


Jam D

    This is an original work that is the result of working with my brother Jamie (aka Jam D) when he recently visited for Thanksgiving. We were playing around with my studio setup and he found the 808 kit in my drum module. He came up with the 8 bar beat that runs for most of it and then we mutually arrived at the 4 bar bassline. The next day we were planning to visit our cousin Lorie. So I wanted to come up with something to show off what we had created the night before. So I created a drum loop and played some bass with some variations of the basic line and started playing my guitar along with it to see what I could come up with. I know I'm not breaking any new ground with it, but I think it sounds pretty cool. Especially in that I played  it one take after about 2 practice takes.

     So there you have it. It's basically an EP to showcase where I am with this music thing. If this is your first visit to my blog then you may be wondering if this wasn't professionally produced, how did I record this? Well, check out some of the earlier posts, I get into some of those details. This is me performing everything in real time, with very minimal editing (just some minor clean-ups). I hope you enjoy. Please leave comments and let me know what you think.

I promise more soon

I know I haven't posted anything on here lately, but I will be adding some new stuff on here soon. I've been working on some different things and should have new stuff to add soon. Stay tuned!