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 Store

Audiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.

Song Of The Month Club - March 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.


SoundCloud account:

https://soundcloud.com/song-of-the-month-club

«13456

Comments

  • My entry for the month, lyrics in the spoiler:

    Walking through a coastal palace, facing out to sea
    Drinking from a crystal chalice, by an olive tree
    Feel the wind, in your hair
    It's real but you can't perceive it
    It's real, but not for you
    When the tide comes in to the sheltered bay
    Will you lose yourself, will you drift away?

    Pulled in by the tide,
    Pulled in by the tide.

    Drifting through the barren wreckage of who you used to be
    A wind that blows from the horizon takes you out to sea
    Feel the tide, all around
    It's real but you can't perceive it
    It's real, but not for you
    When the tide comes in to the distant bay
    Will you lose yourself, will you drift away?

    Pulled in by the tide,
    Pulled in by the tide.

    It's funny how getting new toys to play with always seems to inspire something new. In this case it was the combination of Middle Eastern Drums and the cello in the recent Kapro Orchestral expansion in Module, used in Gadget in this case. Seemed to create some lovely dreamy sounds that formed the backbone of this song.

  • @richardyot said:
    My entry for the month, lyrics in the spoiler:

    Walking through a coastal palace, facing out to sea
    Drinking from a crystal chalice, by an olive tree
    Feel the wind, in your hair
    It's real but you can't perceive it
    It's real, but not for you
    When the tide comes in to the sheltered bay
    Will you lose yourself, will you drift away?

    Pulled in by the tide,
    Pulled in by the tide.

    Drifting through the barren wreckage of who you used to be
    A wind that blows from the horizon takes you out to sea
    Feel the tide, all around
    It's real but you can't perceive it
    It's real, but not for you
    When the tide comes in to the distant bay
    Will you lose yourself, will you drift away?

    Pulled in by the tide,
    Pulled in by the tide.

    It's funny how getting new toys to play with always seems to inspire something new. In this case it was the combination of Middle Eastern Drums and the cello in the recent Kapro Orchestral expansion in Module, used in Gadget in this case. Seemed to create some lovely dreamy sounds that formed the backbone of this song.

    Nice one mate. ;) Always like listening to you tracks. Always feel mellowed out after I've listened to it. The same feeling after I've listened to Fleetwood Mac, or The Moody Blues LP's. :)

  • Well here's my contribution for this month. I cant believe March is upon us here already? Deep House, with a little sprinkle of Jazz Fusion (with a smidge of Disco strings in there too). 2 mixes of the same song (again). Enjoy. ;)
    1) Deep House Mix.

    2) Deep House Sax Mix.

  • @richardyot said:
    My entry for the month, lyrics in the spoiler:

    Walking through a coastal palace, facing out to sea
    Drinking from a crystal chalice, by an olive tree
    Feel the wind, in your hair
    It's real but you can't perceive it
    It's real, but not for you
    When the tide comes in to the sheltered bay
    Will you lose yourself, will you drift away?

    Pulled in by the tide,
    Pulled in by the tide.

    Drifting through the barren wreckage of who you used to be
    A wind that blows from the horizon takes you out to sea
    Feel the tide, all around
    It's real but you can't perceive it
    It's real, but not for you
    When the tide comes in to the distant bay
    Will you lose yourself, will you drift away?

    Pulled in by the tide,
    Pulled in by the tide.

    It's funny how getting new toys to play with always seems to inspire something new. In this case it was the combination of Middle Eastern Drums and the cello in the recent Kapro Orchestral expansion in Module, used in Gadget in this case. Seemed to create some lovely dreamy sounds that formed the backbone of this song.

    Hello mate,

    Well the music is really great. You have created a great atmosphere with it. (Great mix btw)

    Your lyrics suit the atmosphere you have created, but for me the vocal melody didn’t marry up with the rest of it that well. Sorry buddy, it just needs to be developed a bit more is all. I really like the second “pulled in by the tides” , but the first ones need tightening up a little to my ears.

    I know you love an honest critique, so there it is mate. :)

  • Hi guys,

    First off, thanks to everyone who listened & commented on last months song “Stay Forever.” :)

    This months effort is another co-write/duet with Shevaun. It’s a countryish song. All thoughts are welcome.

  • @richardyot Olive trees and drifting heat. I wonder how much instruments at the outset directly effect the words written/chosen in most songs? Like the backing vocals here a lot. Maybe something you should continue to explore. Adds an extra texture/layer (obviously). Interesting to me to hear your genre expressed primarily with piano rather than the guitar. And then the cello. One of the few songs where the fade away/out sounds absolutely appropriate rather than a 'don't quite know what to do let's just finish it' solution.

    Crits? It feels that the chorus is stronger than the verse, but that the difference between the two is perhaps not distinctive enough. It IS a piece that rolls along so obviously you're not looking for a sudden change. Maybe a break/eight of some sort would help?

    I also wonder, thinking of your 'back catalog', what some of the songs you've written over the recent past would come out like if re-recorded with piano as the central instrument.....

    @all On a more general SOTMC matter, I have decided to take a few months off. Not from making music, but I've had the growing feeling that of late I'm getting more concerned with 'fulfilling my duties' than concentrating on taking things any further. I feel as if I'm ticking boxes a bit and might benefit from taking a break. Probably influenced by the fact that I also have a lot of work/travel over the next 12 weeks or so, but I also feel the need/interest in taking a look at what this past couple of years have delivered and going back to revisit/polish/work (recording/mixing/mastering) which is the area I am most sloppy/ill-educated in.

    Does this mean that (set free!) I will maybe write a song on a plane to Spain next week and submit it? Maybe. Wouldn't be at all surprised. Will also still be about the old place and will chime in on the efforts of others.

  • @JohnnyGoodyear said:
    I also wonder, thinking of your 'back catalog', what some of the songs you've written over the recent past would come out like if re-recorded with piano as the central instrument.....

    Actually I've been moving away from the guitar for a couple of years now, most of my recent output has been piano and synth driven. It's just so hard to get fresh sounds out of the guitar, everything sounds like something that's been done already. I still use the guitar for leads and textures though.

    @JohnnyGoodyear said:
    @all On a more general SOTMC matter, I have decided to take a few months off.

    That's a shame - come back soon.

    @LostBoy85 said:
    Your lyrics suit the atmosphere you have created, but for me the vocal melody didn’t marry up with the rest of it that well. Sorry buddy, it just needs to be developed a bit more is all. I really like the second “pulled in by the tides” , but the first ones need tightening up a little to my ears.

    Thanks, those melodies are tricky buggers, finding something beautiful and memorable isn't easy, which is why I can only play the numbers game and hope one day something emerges from it. Although I know I've improved tremendously over the last few years of doing SOTMC every month, I've yet to write a killer vocal melody or a killer instrumental riff. But the beauty of the exercise is that there's always next month.

  • @richardyot I agree that beautiful & memorable melodies ARE hard to come by, but you sell yourself way to short mate because I have really enjoyed some of your vocal melodies over the years AND you ARE a very talented arranger/instrumentalist. All I meant was that this particular vocal line didn’t work for me. :)

  • @studs1966 I like the sax one a lot mate! Love me some sax! That thing is relentless aswell innit! Kenny G on speed! Hahaha! Good stuff man. :smiley:

  • @LostBoy85 said:
    @richardyot I agree that beautiful & memorable melodies ARE hard to come by, but you sell yourself way to short mate because I have really enjoyed some of your vocal melodies over the years AND you ARE a very talented arranger/instrumentalist. All I meant was that this particular vocal line didn’t work for me. :)

    No worries, it's all good. The whole reason to post is to find out what people think, good or bad, and I definitely want honest opinions and not just back-slapping. :)

  • @LostBoy85 said:
    Hi guys,

    First off, thanks to everyone who listened & commented on last months song “Stay Forever.” :)

    This months effort is another co-write/duet with Shevaun. It’s a countryish song. All thoughts are welcome.

    Another good track matey. I was remixing that in my head after I listened to it. Lol. Keep it up mate. You & the lovely lady seems to be a good Tag Team. Looking forward to the next one. ;)

  • @LostBoy85 said:
    @studs1966 I like the sax one a lot mate! Love me some sax! That thing is relentless aswell innit! Kenny G on speed! Hahaha! Good stuff man. :smiley:

    :D Cheers mate........

  • @LostBoy85 Lovely in its genre Mister Leo. And very pro in lots of aspects. So much so that I was wanting that 'final 10 per cent' of mixing/mastering. Not convinced that your partner's voice is entirely served by the production, especially in the first part. Not close enough? Not quite clear enough? And I don't mean her singing, just the sound/force of the voice as produced. Again, this is only a crit aimed at the highest level. Back where the rest of us mortals live we would consider it a fine piece of work :)

  • So this one was a lot of fun. Went to the University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology, always worth a visit, but this time they had a special show on. The larger native group that inhabited the south coast of BC and Northern Washington state are called the Salish. Amongst many other crafts they were good at, they wove blankets. The art of making them was almost lost after the rest of us showed up, as they were a lot of work, and blankets became cheap. The art has been revived by some very dedicated people, and it is on display in the museum, both old blankets, and the new ones, and info on how they were and are made.

    We don’t value things like blankets very much anymore. They’re cheap and easy to get. But before mass production, they were a valuable thing. They took time, scarce materials and ingenuity to make. They were powerful as gift; and the giving of gifts was a public thing, where society witnessed the giving and receiving, an indication of wealth and strength.

    I really wanted to be inspired that day, and wrote down the melody that came to me during the show. Wrote this piece around it. Created four drawings to go with it. No, not based on Salish culture, just what came to my head. Hope you like it.

  • @richardyot, that’s a great piece. The mix is great. Super spacious, and the levels are perfect. Love where your voice sits in it. Melody is superb, love the strings. It’s just a really, really well put together song.

  • @studs1966, another great track. I listened to the Deep House mix. Your tunes are always so smooth, which is what I always think of with disco. Love the touches of the strings. Sax solo is excellent.

    Might bring the vocal up a bit in the mix, it’s a bit buried. Might bring up that first guitar a bit, at least at the beginning. But pretty small nits.

  • @LostBoy85, love her voice, so perfect for that song. Maybe needs a touch more reverb on it, seems a little tight in the mix? You sounds pretty darn fine as well, but same thought on reverb. I like the arrangement and mix, song deserves restraint, and it’s all in place. Great hook, as well.

  • @studs1966 thanks a lot buddy, I appreciate it. :)

    @JohnnyGoodyear thanks Johnny. You’re always pushing me to do better & hopefully it’s working...I’ve still got a million things to learn & it’s weird trying to mix someone else’s voice when you’ve only done your own for so long...sigh. She is an awesome singer though & as I told her, someone else could make her sound much better, but I did my best. :)

    @rickwaugh Thanks for your time Rick. You may well be right about the reverb, I was trying to keep things reigned in, like an Ed Sheeran vocal mix. I do have delay and verb on both, maybe I needed to crank them both to...2! :D

  • @rickwaugh said:
    @studs1966, another great track. I listened to the Deep House mix. Your tunes are always so smooth, which is what I always think of with disco. Love the touches of the strings. Sax solo is excellent.

    Might bring the vocal up a bit in the mix, it’s a bit buried. Might bring up that first guitar a bit, at least at the beginning. But pretty small nits.

    Cheers mate. :)

  • @rickwaugh Wow! I really enjoyed that. What a great punchy melody! Dum dum dum...da da da dum! I love it! :) That bass is something else innit?! Really nice, elaborate composition, GREAT MIX! I enjoyed the story behind the song, I love the stories of how songs...(& blankets ;) ) are born. Nice artwork aswell.

    Great stuff mate, no nits from me :)

  • Thanks, @LostBoy85. I had no intention of making that a slap bass, but it just worked. It's just one of the auria slap bass samples with a touch of volcano on it to give it an edge.

  • @rickwaugh said:
    So this one was a lot of fun. Went to the University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology, always worth a visit, but this time they had a special show on. The larger native group that inhabited the south coast of BC and Northern Washington state are called the Salish. Amongst many other crafts they were good at, they wove blankets. The art of making them was almost lost after the rest of us showed up, as they were a lot of work, and blankets became cheap. The art has been revived by some very dedicated people, and it is on display in the museum, both old blankets, and the new ones, and info on how they were and are made.

    We don’t value things like blankets very much anymore. They’re cheap and easy to get. But before mass production, they were a valuable thing. They took time, scarce materials and ingenuity to make. They were powerful as gift; and the giving of gifts was a public thing, where society witnessed the giving and receiving, an indication of wealth and strength.

    I really wanted to be inspired that day, and wrote down the melody that came to me during the show. Wrote this piece around it. Created four drawings to go with it. No, not based on Salish culture, just what came to my head. Hope you like it.

    Love it. A very innovative creation. Infact I was imagine a King Tubby Dub mixed version in my head as I was listen to it on second time of hearing it. ;)

  • @studs1966, lol. A dub version of Weavers would be entertaining.

  • @richardyot - Pulled In By The Tide. Beautiful! Atmospheric, clarity and depth in the sound. New toys can certainly be inspiring, have that experience too.

  • edited March 2018

    @LostBoy85 - Hi Leo, great production overall, but the vocals sound a bit too dry for me, I miss reverb. And, when singing together, there is something in it that doesn’t blend very good (in the sound of it), I think it is the mentioned lack of reverb. Could also be that my headphones (Behringer DT880 Premium 250 ohm), which are very dry themselves, exaggerate it.

  • @JohnnyGoodyear said:

    @all On a more general SOTMC matter, I have decided to take a few months off.

    Sorry. No can do. You above anyone should know this place is Musical Mafia. It only takes a chord, or a word to be submitted here on a cold, wet March morning (when strangers think we’re closed) to be accepted, but once you’ve been sheep dipped in Club Blood, there are NO safe havens to live the rest of your life Sir.

    If you survive, I will print petitions in a rare dash of democracy. Baring that, a survey of the melancholy members of Cardiff West Services Monday Morning Club should sort a return of your rasp. IF I detect a smile from any of them, I’ll hunt you down myself. I am very busy and incredibly grumpy.

    See you soon. :)

  • The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • @serosin said:
    @richardyot

    Wow man that is a really nice song! Great vocal harmonies and the use of the cello is beautiful.

    Thank you :)

  • Hi all!
    I’m impressed how you all can make one song every month. For me it takes about 2 months to make a song. I’m still new maybe that’s why. This one I wanted to bring the ukulele and melodica to the front, two instruments that I love. I’m very happy with result and I hope you like it too. The video is only for me to remember my winter holiday, it’s nothing serious.

  • @fattigman said:
    Hi all!
    I’m impressed how you all can make one song every month. For me it takes about 2 months to make a song. I’m still new maybe that’s why. This one I wanted to bring the ukulele and melodica to the front, two instruments that I love. I’m very happy with result and I hope you like it too. The video is only for me to remember my winter holiday, it’s nothing serious.

    Another brilliant one @fattigman. Is a shame that Henry "Junjo" Lawes has gone a few years ago, because I would of suggested that you sent him you material(especially if Now was 1892 ish). Always a pleasure listening to your tracks matey. ;)

Sign In or Register to comment.