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 - May 2023 - 🔥 100 consecutive months 🔥
This month marks the 100th consecutive month of the club, which is pretty amazing IMO. The first ever SOTMC was in February 2015, after I mentioned in January that I was planning on writing and recording a song every month, and @JohnnyGoodyear suggested turning the concept into a forum challenge.
Anyway, just over 8 years later, this is the 100th edition. (I haven't missed a month yet).
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 this month, lyrics in the spoiler:
Shake me down, tear me up
Drop me like an empty cup
Let me go so I know
That I’m just a one time show
Just take what you want
You might hurt me on the way
Take what you want
Anyway
You got what you wanted
So take it you want it
You got what you wanted from me
It’s yours if you want it
You got what you wanted
It’s yours if you want it to be
Let me down, at the top
So I really feel the drop
Let me sink in the drink
Let me lie here in the stink
Just take what you want
You might hurt me on the way
Take what you want
Anyway
You got what you wanted
So take it you want it
You got what you wanted from me
It’s yours if you want it
You got what you wanted
It’s yours if you want it to be
WOW. Definitely inspiring me to be more disciplined in monthly track creation. Going to "step up by game more" and try to participate every month.
Edit (added): If I would have started back in 2016, I might have 72+ tracks done!
Go for it
It's improved my songwriting beyond recognition, not to mention my singing, mixing and production skills etc... I listen back to my early entries and they are all terrible, with distorted muddy mixes and horrible vocal processing.
This is the 10 000 hours rules . Make many song craps, ugly one all is good and at the end you become like the best pro.
Congratulations on the 100th consecutive months!!!
Your creativity and musicality is supreme, and your efforts are truly appreciated!!!
You Got What You Wanted is a rocker, and the solo riffs are so loved.
Love this song creation, vocals are clear and crisp.
Thanks Rene! 😍
@richardyot what a great achievement! 100 not out, brilliant stuff. I’m very much a latecomer to the party but it’s a lovely monthly platform to hear some fantastic creations from talented musicians. Thanks so much!
Congratulations for the 100th edition !
I am in love with both the guitar part and sound around 1:15 🔥🧨 😍.
Thanks! I wanted the guitar solo to be exciting, and I think I managed to achieve that. Even the out-of-tune bend near the end was intentional, the aural equivalent of a poke in the eye. The guitar tone is from a Walrus 385 distortion into a Strymon Iridium for the amp and cabinet, then into the interface and iPad.
The guitar solo is good, indeed, but I was thinking of the rhythm guitar ! I love what it is playing at the end of the first chorus right before the solo starts. It lasts only 10-15 seconds...There is some kind of nonchalant tension that fits perfectly its role to call-in for the solo. It holds some hybrid vibe between Neil Young, Jay Mascis and Lee Ranaldo. This might sound strange, but I have a strange ear, this kind of details in a rhythm section usually catch my ears a lot more than any kind of solo...
The opening reminded me of the Sex Pistols! Great song - the guitars are nice, you’ve got that driving rhythm that pushes things along then the solo is really well played, tasteful choice of notes and well mixed, not clashing with the other instruments. The contrast between the heavy instrumentation and your lighter, slightly dreamy vocals is what makes this song. Also, I noticed some excellent drum programming going on too which complements the guitars really well. Very good indeed!
Thanks for clarifying - that section is a short break after the first chorus. It's E minor, A sus2, then the A note on the 4th string slides up to B flat and bends up a semitone to drone with the open B string below it. It's that bend + drone that gives it the edgy sound, kinda like a Sonic Youthism, except played in standard tuning. I've always liked messing around with weird chords that make use of the open strings, they often have a dissonance to them that mixes well with the droning open strings.
Thanks! I did work hard on the drums to try and make them as exciting as possible, with fills complimenting the guitar etc...
My favourite song of all time uses the same mix of heavy guitars and laid-back vocals:
Must mention that as I was listening to this, I happened to look out the kitchen window and on a branch of a tree two pigeons were shagging. But hey, I’m no Dave Attenborough.
Alright Gaffer? Happy Century! You are a musical monster
Of course, we’ll be celebrating a goal monster’s 100 soon too.
Anyway, you sound alright to me with that utterly filthy, hellbound guitar tone you’re slabbing into the grooves. Love it damn you. And yes, the drums sound drum, which is very pleasing. Maybe more ‘click on the kick’ to cut through…especially in the verses and the solo…or maybe you went for a mellow felt beater type feel?
Anyway, sod all that drum bollocks. It’s too long ago since I last heard you sing (please, no more fucking probation) and all I’m going to say is: B+. And you may remember B+ is THE BUSINESS. There is no higher mark. A really nastily catchy song Richard. Brilliant
It came to me then disappeared again…damn…but in lieu of whatever that song is, this one has a gutter guitar tone similar to yours AND that ‘click on the kick’ if only for a reference.
Carry on Gaffer
@Bluepunk where have you been? It seems so long since you were injecting some punk rock into this club 🤘
And I’ve missed your reviews as well, those solid Bs were so hard earned.
Thanks for taking the time to listen and to comment, let’s hope to see you around these parts again sometime. 🎸
This is absolutely amazing.
Respect.🎖️👏👏👏
Thank you 🙏
Well done Richard , your dedication is an inspiration to us all.
Great drums and guitar solo on this ✌️
Thanks! 😊
Rare footage of early AI apps getting together and practicing when no humans were watching…
Nice understated piece the AI came up with, although the sound at the end made me jump out of my skin after two minutes of chilled-out keys
The crackle effect is probably a bit too strong, for me anyway.
Telegram from a facsimile of the royal presence is in the post
You were on my mind recently when we were discussing The Great Qualities as manifested in human evolution and I was finding it hard to beat persistence...
This is a song I wrote a couple of months ago and originally recorded purely using my iPad. I’ve now redone a lot of it using my desktop setup, and also expanded the original somewhat.
There’s quite a lot going on and I found it quite a challenge to mix it – I am more than happy to receive honest opinions on the mix, my vocals, guitars, the drum programming or anything else! It was fun to do and if you listen, I thank you.
I like the intro with the cinematic drums and the male choir voices, it gives the song a unique flavour - I wish those sounds featured more heavily in the rest of the song as it would have made it quite different sounding. The guitar riff is effective, and it has a slightly eastern feel which I liked.
Once the intro is over the song is more conventional, and it feels very polished (and no problems with the mix or production that I noticed). The vocals are clean and the arrangement is well crafted.
Personally I would have loved it if the cinematic drums and male choir made a reappearance in the chorus, to go along with the lead guitar - it would give the song a much more epic feel and fit quite nicely with that prog-rock thing you have going on. Just my 2c.
@richardyot that’s a great idea - I ‘bookended’ the cinematic drums with the return at the end, however I might see if they also work in the choruses. I’ve noticed a couple of things I need to fix so it might not be the final version of the song.
It’s one of those where I’ve spent so long on the song it’s become over familiar and I need some objectivity. Wood from the trees and all that stuff. Thanks so much for your feedback.
Actually no AI involved Richard, just my poor attempt at a joke 🤨
I normally avoid the crackly effect like the plague but wheeled it out for this. Agree it is overdone 😊
Great track @BillS , sort of agree with Richard but thoroughly enjoyed it anyway. Guitar sound and ‘eastern’ feel were tremendous and I always enjoy your lyrics 👍
I assumed you were referring to Piano Motifs, since it's a generative app, and could thus be termed as AI 🎹 🤖🤖
@GeoTony thanks for listening. Pimping the choruses with those orchestral drums is potentially a really good idea, I just don’t know if I’ve got the stomach to work on the track any more, as it’s taken ages to get to where it is now. Maybe I’ll take a break and come back to it. I think if I do this it would also meaning redoing the vocals as well as the instrumentation. Appreciate the feedback.
Congrats to the 100 month milestone, that is really impressive. Keep it up y'all!
Congratulations on reaching a lofty 100 consecutive months. Apparently, the first 100 are the most difficult. Should be a piece of cake from here on out.
Here's my entry for the month. It was improvised just a few weeks before someone very close to me passed away.
I used two MIDI keyboards connected to an iPad. Bome Network software routed the iPad's MIDI notes to Bitwig Studio on a desktop PC. And from there, the MIDI notes were routed to Solo (for the bassoon and violin) and Omnisphere (for the background instruments).
It's titled The Wake.