IIRC it was on one of the many bickerfests in the X1 forum that it was posted on.....I do not recall it being in the songs forum...

Anyway trimph, that thing about the recorder; one thing I like to do is try to come up with ideas on instruments I can't really play. They might not end up going onto a track on those instruments, but it's a really good way of breaking out of habits.

John T


Anyway trimph, that thing about the recorder; one thing I like to do is try to come up with ideas on instruments I can't really play. They might not end up going onto a track on those instruments, but it's a really good way of breaking out of habits.

 I'll keep that idea in mind..I've a few things around here that I really do not play all that well...like an oboe...that still takes a lot of lung power for me....

Good ideas there... 


Now I'm attempting to finish a dingdang modular synth that I started...oh...3 years ago?  What was I thinking....

Yeah, it's interesting how much it breaks you out of wandering up and down scales; for example, you do far more wide intervals when you're going by ear rather than your fingers.

John: Here's where you violated my song privacy:  Where did you find this on me?

"your song explicitly equating atheists with chIld molestors"

http://forum.cakewalk.com/fb.ashx?m=2580190

I let it go then ... but you now force me to expose this.

Great solo danny. A lot of feel to it. Very emotive. Almost like it's speaking to you! I have made a note of this post as I plan to have at least one big solo in the album (the last song - one of those big long drawn out, hugely dynamic pieces!)

DannyGrant: That is the John T you were referring to. John T, you posted an incredible piece of music via Youtube video a year or so ago...remember? :) My thoughts are exactly the way you mentioned them in post 72, Grant. I felt John was a bit abrasive when he first hit the scene, but I love the guy now and have for quite a while. There are people on this forum for me that wouldn't need to post any audio examples of their work because I just kinda know they know what they are talking about. Sure it always helps to hear a little something, especially if someone acts like a Richard Cranium and doesn't back any of it up. One person comes to mind there..but he's been trying to at least lose the tude and cry out for help in his mixes...so maybe not all hope is lost. But even there, nothing he's posted matches his elite tude he throws at people sometimes. I'm glad a few top forum members like Jonbuoy and a few others had the bawls to say something about it and I wasn't all alone.

Thanks bro, I knew I had the right guy.

Matt: thanks! Glad you liked it. Yeah definitely try singing your solo lines. You have a good voice so this should be easy for you to do. Do a couple of solo's on that album if ya feel like it...open that big heart and let it all out man. :)

Dean: That's a really good observation. Id be willing to bet all the views are sales and you can count me as one of those people. I usually don't have to download music today because of Youtube. Or, try this sometime...the next time you hear about a band or song etc, type it into your browser followed by "mp3" and see what comes up. I usually get this site with a bumble bee on it that has every mp3 known to man that I can listen to. It's not a file sharing or torrent site though, I promise.

But I'm definitely one you could put into that % because I strictly listen to stuff on Youtube and whatever mp3 I can get my hands on at the time. I'm not really interested in full albums unless those albums come from people I know from forums etc. I'm a Van Halen fan and didn't even buy their latest album because I was uninterested from the samples I heard. We had to learn two songs for our cover band, so I typed them up and learned them from Youtube. For those two songs, you can count me in as 8-10 listens a piece there. I'm sure I'm not the only artist in a cover band that does it this way. So for sure, people are losing sales in my opinion just because of Youtube no matter what quality is presented. In this situation, the number of plays ramps up because my dumb butt needed more listens to get something down. LOL!

I believe you need to play a Youtube song in entirety before it counts as a play. I could be wrong, but that's what I've seen on my own stuff when listening without being signed in.

As for your question about 10% of stolen downloads be purchased? I'd say more than that, definitely. It's like this...take a guy like me. I'm not stealing anything. I just type in the name of the song I'm looking for, and it comes up for me on Youtube or some place that seems legal to be around like this (I found it) http://beemp3.com/

I don't know if they're legal or not if someone tried to turn them in...but every time I have went to that site to listen to something (and it's been quite a few times) some artist lost money. I don't do this purposely to take food off of anyone's table, honest. I may need to learn one cover song or may just want to hear a song for the moment. That said, without this place and places like it, yeah, I'd have to purchase the music...and rightfully so. How much of this goes on each day....then add in the ones that are stealing complete albums. Or check this out...

The last family party I went to had a DJ. He had his laptop with him and his file sharing torrent thing loaded up so he could pull any song at any time. His entire library of material was from torrents. All he needed was a laptop, some baisc DJ stuff and he was in business. Years ago, a DJ would need to purchase a wide variety of music, right? Now they have wifi and that connection ability everywhere to just connect and grab. Think of how many DJ's do this...that's a lot of stealing going on.

The other side of the coin is...if something is made available, I sincerely believe most people no matter how honest they may be, will take a few songs here and there without admitting to it. What people do in the privacy of their own homes is really no ones business, ya know? I had a friend one time that got into a discussion with us on a site about program sharing and song sharing. He was soo against it, he took up this vigilante approach and was really starting to ruffle some feathers. The guy didn't have a job nor did he have much money. I always tried to help him out whenever I could...loaning a few dollars here and there or getting him deals from Sweetwater etc. One day he calls me on the phone and asks me to fix his computer.

So I go over there...low and behold, this dude had more pirated stuff than I had ever seen in my life! I'm talking external hard drives full. He even had both of my albums from torrents!!! LOL!!! I remember the look on his face when I discovered this as well as the look on mine. His reply to me was "what can I say?" I just shook my head, said "wow I'm just blown away" and never made another mention about it. So you just never know who's doing this stuff and to what extent they go to really. It's too easy to get anything we want to listen to these days even legally through Youtube or that bee site I posted. You better believe there's major cash losses because of it. People think the popularity helps with sales....I will forever disagree. It may help with concerts, but it won't help with album sales as long as this stuff is just available the way it is.

Like I tell everyone that gets into a discussion with me about being a signed artist. If you type my name in a search engine or something like Danny Danzi albums, there will be several torrents available for my music. I've never had a single person mail me and say "I happened to try out a few of your songs using a torrent...now I'm a fan and will buy all your music and spread the word!" When that happens to me a few times, I'll believe file sharing may help a bit...but until that time, I just keep saying my prayers that someone puts a stop to it someday so I'm not working at Burger King any time soon.

-Danny

Jeff Evans


Hey Danny I love the music and this is a technical comment only. I am wanting to hear a better mix between the backing track and your solo. I have not liked the balance on several of your tracks I have listened to where you have done this. In my opinion you have not spent enough time getting that balance right. The backing track is soft and wimpy in the background and the guitar solo loud over that.

Switch off your solo I say and get the backing track sounding loud and clear, crisp and punchy. Listen to it that way for a while then slowly bring your solo level in. The small mono speaker (at low volume) is perfect for this balance. When you can still hear the punch and snap of the backing and the solo level is just right then you know you have nailed that balance. Stop right there!

You already sound great but this will make you sound even better I believe anyway. Guthrie Govan has got the backing and solo tracks sounding right I reckon on most of those demos on Youtube. (eg Larry Carlton, Orange Jam track etc..) I love that guys playing you have to admit. He takes soloing to another level I reckon. Its a never ending story that he tells with his playing.  

Thanks Jeff. You would be correct in your assumption. I never spend much time soloing over backing tracks or mixing them to be honest. Most of the ones I share are old as I've not done any instrumental music for a long time. I just was sharing this one for the melody part not for the mix really as it was an exercise for a student I teach guitar to more so than getting the mix down. If you happened to check out the other solo that was on soundcloud, that was an actual competition so I wanted the solo to be louder so it could be heard.
 
The same with the other I shared in another place....I threw that together just for my head or for those that may have asked me to do something particular. Most of my instrumental stuff comes from a site called Guitarwar that had a file cap limit, so we never really worried about getting things right with mixes until they lifted the cap. It was all about having the solo sections loud enough so that people could judge them. By the time they lifted the file cap, I was no longer posting much music. When I go back and listen to the wave files or encode them to HQ mp3, it's a bit more unforgiving compared to when we had to keep our files at 250 kb on up to 1mb. I never went back and changed anything. But on the one you're talking about, it was just a quick one take exercise that was more about the solo than the mix or the backing track.
 
I was aware of how unbalanced things were, but thank you for bringing it to my attention and for the kind words. :) I guess I have to be more careful of the stuff I post on here. It's kinda nice to throw up a few things that weren't mixed so anal to be honest. LOL!

-Danny