Audiobus: Use your music apps together.
What is Audiobus? — Audiobus is an award-winning music app for iPhone and iPad which lets you use your other music apps together. Chain effects on your favourite synth, run the output of apps or Audio Units into an app like GarageBand or Loopy, or select a different audio interface output for each app. Route MIDI between apps — drive a synth from a MIDI sequencer, or add an arpeggiator to your MIDI keyboard — or sync with your external MIDI gear. And control your entire setup from a MIDI controller.
Download on the App StoreAudiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.
Song Of The Month Club - July 2018
What is the Song of the Month Club?
It's a place where musicians come to give and receive feedback on their work. Anyone is welcome, whatever their level of ability.
The spirit of the club is to contribute: if you submit a song for others to comment on, you should also have the courtesy to listen to everyone else's contributions and give as much feedback as possible. Posting a track and not listening and commenting on others is not cool.
The purpose of feedback is to be honest. Essentially you should give your truthful impressions of the song, whether good or bad. Negative feedback, if done in the right spirit and with courtesy, can be the most useful and can help the artist to grow and improve and correct their mistakes.
All submissions are welcome, don't hesitate if you want to contribute. We like all kinds of music and we are particularly fond of vocals (but of course we still love a great instrumental). If you are thinking of experimenting with vocals this is a good place to get started.
We ask that you only post one song per month in this thread - if you're lucky enough to be able to produce more, then please just submit your strongest material
And finally, iOS is not a requirement for posting here. If you've recorded your song using nothing but a ukulele and a Fostex 4 track, that's fine.
Comments
My entry for the month, lyrics in the spoiler:
Sink in a sea of uncertainty
Drown in a pool of doubt
Reach for the shore that you knew before
Or wade in the shallows and shout
It's not that clear to you or me
We're both so lost and unhappy
We try to change each other's minds
But it's too late, to turn the tide
Drift in the swell of anxiety
Deep is the sea of distrust
Float on the ocean of trouble and poison
And face all your fear and disgust
It's not that clear to you or me
We're both so lost and unhappy
We try to change each other's minds
But it's too late, to turn the tide
So what's the score with you and I?
Do we give up and let it lie?
We try to save our hopes that died
But it's too late to turn the tide
My track for this month's entry:
@richardyot Loving the groove man. The pads are well wicked! They add a lovely contrast to the groove... just makes it more head-boppy. Nicely done!
Literally have the kids crawling all over me will be back tomorrow to start checking these out!!
Loved your voice and the effects you used here, specially the way you differentiate between verses and chorus (in hear more reverb and multiple voices in the chorus). Bravo!
Gadget? Some good synth riffs in there...
This is my latest original song, a heavy metal (yes, isn’t that cool?) with darker tone and lyrics. Loud guitars, and a very fast solo near the end! For this kind of music, nothing better than the german classic silent movie “Faust” with the gorgeous Camila Horn. As usual, lyrics bellow. All recorded and mixed in Auria Pro using an Apogee One, a cheap strat knock-off, an equally cheap precision model bass, MXL mics and a Marshal JTM 30 with a Rat and a Boss delay. Enjoy!
@dedko Very good driving riff, it's memorable and catchy and really gives the track a lot of life. Grooves along beautifully.
Hope the voice loud enough. No apologies for the length, I liked the end bit best.
People seem to long for a past that frankly never existed and I was reminded of this listening to a politician on tv the other day. So this is about him. Hate explaining songs but felt it just needed a mention 😉
@richardyot Agreed with above, awesome groove
solid throughout!
@dedko Awesome! Love how this just drives along. My undiagnosed ADD usually isn't compatible with pieces longer than about 3-4 mins but you kept it interesting with all the movement going on. It's got this Kaskade thing going on I really enjoyed!
@theconnactic AHHHH that solo tho, yessss.... ok so, rockin groove, matches the video well. Wish I had the guts to sing and could think of lyrics lol... everyone's always posting vocal stuff here. That was great I really enjoyed it!
@trackedout Nice! Definitely has this slow roll rocking vibe to it, your vocal delivery sounds familiar but I can't put my finger on it... editing out the (not breathing) but other mouth sounds would be my only suggestion really, especially since it's effected, it amplifies it even more
really like the bass and the straight forward driving drums!
@crouchie Yesss this plays to my EBM / industrial electronic / synthwave sensibilities... love the lead @~1:46, sloppy but controlled. Great production, vocals are mixed well and your delivery is great. And the samples of course - awesome
Okay so, short backstory. I tried my hand at getting into stock music a bit ago, I honestly just don't pump out stuff fast enough, plus, my stuff is just a little too niche. This track started its life on GarageBand as a Pond5 submission that was rejected. I REALLY liked the mood though and couldn't let it die, so I went back to the drawing board, cut everything up and put it into Auxy, added some stuff from Blocs Wave and as always ran the whole thing through Grand Finale.
Now with Sunrizer and Turnado being AUv3 compatible (crossing fingers for Effectrix!), plus the fact my Auxy subscription has ended and I don't see a great reason to re-up it currently, I'll be shifting over to GarageBand (which probably means a little less drum and bass and a little more of the alternative electronic I used to do).
Enough blabbering from me, enjoy! And @richardyot thank you so much for getting this in place each month I always look forward to it and hearing what you guys are cranking out
Nicely done Richard.. Good production. Enjoyed it a lot mate.
Blinding track!...... Excellent stuff....... Fab job!...... you gonna need to take it further.... Throw some euphoria vocals in & out of it...
Not a metal head myself
really, but what you,ve done, you have done well. When your singing the the chorus, you may need to go into (voice that is) simular to Kurt Cobain mode(Smells like Teen Spirit vocal changes)..... Not a criticism, but only a suggestion...... But I did like it all the same.
Good production. I think Mr @Bluepunk may like this?....... I don’t know ifs my aging ears, but maybe need a little more Bass to be brought up in the mix?..
Brilliant mate.. I can’t fault it Dammit!........Oh yes I can....... It wasn’t long enough!...... Only played for 3 minutes..... Should of been longer.
Fab production.. Liked it a lot mate.... Another good one from you. Looking forward to the next one.
This track would of give Depeche Mode a run for its money in the day. Great stuff. Good production
@studs1966 Thanks man! Yeah, I think across the board I might need the let grooves ride out a little more. Working at these stupid fast tempos is misleading too, cause I can look at the arrangement and say "Man this is looking really long" and then when I export it's like 1:38 lol... Auxy requires you to export to see length and I'm not in the habit of exporting ad nauseum just to see where I'm at, so going by my gut which is usually a little more on the attention deficit side
Well here goes my turn... & same vocals. Enjoy guys!.
@studs1966 AHHH YES! Both are great, but you got me hooked on the Deep Disco Mix. Awesome vox, awesome mix. Not much more to add really lol... both really are quite good
Thanks mate.
Rich I love the lyric, the sentiment is melancholy with the negatives addressed but not overly so. And listen man,you’ve cultivated your own vocal style that’s very emotive and unique- I respect vocalists with personality a lot more than ones with range but no soul. From the songs of yours I heard when I first joined the forum to what you’re doing now your vocal work keeps evolving, you should have some real confidence about it, you can convey emotion very well. Which is the point right?
Otherwise, nice production, love the cool syncopated drum groove and the tracks overall mood. A few questions: I’m pretty certain you use Auria Pro & master with FabFilter L2, etc, right? So, on this SoundCloud upload did you do a -14LUFS mix? What’s your opinion on what SoundCloud does to mixes at LUFS & at higher db’s?
I ask because I had to turn up my volume fairly high to get a good listening level. Of course I’d rather have this “problem” than tracks blowing my ears out...
Nice driving groove, the pads are very nice. Dig the whooshes and pulsing melodic line that came in around 2:08, simple but lifted it all up. The ending breakdown and re-entry was cold as ice! Loved that...
Another cool track Dmitri. Very early 90’s melodic metal vibe but it’s not a pure pastiche piece, there’s some cool bits going on. The chorus melody and the cool close harmonies could work in and electronic music context no problem, instead of chugging guitars it could be arpeggios & swirling pads.
Very nice brother.
Hey thanks for the very kind feedback. I agree that my vocals have improved a lot, particularly when I compare them to what they were back in 2015 when I started doing the SOTMC. They were pretty bad back then. I'm still limited in many ways but I am developing a style that works for me, and I'm happy with that. The first thing that struck me when I listened back to this track after not hearing it for a couple of weeks was that the vocals sounded alright, so even if I end up discarding the song (very likely) I'm happy with the performance.
Regarding the mastering, that's right it is mastered to -14 LUFS and for SoundCloud that isn't optimal, because it will sound comparatively quiet. I don't really want to start creating multiple masters for various platforms, so I just live with that compromise. The "problem" you mention can actually be even worse this way of course, because autoplay on SC can then cue up the next track which is really loud and will blow your ears or your speakers! That's actually why streaming platforms enforce -14 LUFS of course, so that you don't get massive jumps in volume from one track to another. Maybe SC will catch up one day.