what do you do with your song?

[ganon95]

i was wondering what other audio artists do with their songs before releasing it to the audio portal.

like for example, do you listen to it a couple times, do you release it right away after converting it to an mp3, do you show it to your friends?

personally, i put the unfinished/nearly completed/feels finished song on my ipod and listen to it a bunch of times...i also sometimes show friends what i have to hear what they think. you'd be surprised the kinds of things you missed or want to change simply by an ipod listen.

so...what do you do with your song before its released?

[MonkeyV]

I listen to it a few times, but by that point I'm too lazy to make any more changes.

[MrFijiWiji]

i send them to all my friends and even some fans(for melodic critique) on msn and skype... they tell me what they think....and for checking my mastering i send them to my good friend trancecrafter... where he listens to my track on studio monitors and his headphones to try to help as much as possible...

ya so i would recommend sending ur songs to some body who knows what there doing and has alot of experience audio production wise

[Zooloo75]

At 8/9/10 02:49 PM, ganon95 wrote: i was wondering what other audio artists do with their songs before releasing it to the audio portal.

I release it to a different audio portal where people have no idea what they are talking about, and just like music with super fast supersaws flying around with a 4 on floor kick.

Oh wait...I C WUT I DID THAR.

[ajyablo]

I finish it.

Beef up the bass in post and then export as an mp3.
Then I send it to some unsuspecting fools and force them to tell me what they like and dislike about it.
Then I come back to the piece with fresh eyes and their considerations... Decided that they have no idea what they're talking about and proceed to upload it.

[Assios]

At 8/9/10 03:52 PM, Zooloo75 wrote: I release it to a different audio portal where people have no idea what they are talking about, and just like music with super fast supersaws flying around with a 4 on floor kick.

Oh wait...I C WUT I DID THAR.

Haha nice one

[Darkmaster603]

I play the finished piece on my guitar for my grandma, who's no musician but she listens to a lot of jazz and classical music. Then I record it and put it on the internet.

I hate it, but I'm my only music critic besides my grandma that I trust.

[buyj3llo]

Put it on my mp3 player and listen to it over and over again, picking out things I could change. I also listen to it through my laptop speakers because not everybody who listens to the song will be using good headphones, I need to make sure it works on even the worst sound systems.

Also, when in doubt, compressor/ soundgoodizer on the master track.

[Zooloo75]

At 8/9/10 06:28 PM, buyj3llo wrote: Put it on my mp3 player and listen to it over and over again, picking out things I could change. I also listen to it through my laptop speakers because not everybody who listens to the song will be using good headphones, I need to make sure it works on even the worst sound systems.

Also, when in doubt, compressor/ soundgoodizer on the master track.

NO!!! Not on the master track/input! That's the worst thing you could do to your master track/input!!!!
You use compressors on separate inputs for individual sounds/instruments. Mostly for drums or vocals, or anything quiet that should be louder. Also using a soundgoodizer is lazy and results in a sound that is too loud, distorted, or poorly mastered.

And why cater your music to people that are listening to it on a shitty sound system? You shouldn't do that. If they use a laptop or other low quality sound output, then they most likely don't even care or know about the better sound they are missing. Also if you try to make your music sound good on a laptop with low quality speakers and no bass, then your song would sound terrible on a high quality sound system.

[Spikrodd]

I start a song and get a good bit of work done on it. After a few hours, the song becomes repetitive and I can't move on from it well. It's at that point where I let it stand for awhile until i can come back and finish it.

Move forward a few days or weeks... With a refreshed mind, I pick up the song and finish it to the best of my abilities. I usually put final touches on it late at night (12AM - 5AM EST). I've made a poor habit of submitting in that time frame, where no one listens, so yeah.

[ganon95]

At 8/9/10 06:35 PM, Zooloo75 wrote:

o if you try to make your music sound good on a laptop with low quality speakers and no bass, then your song would sound terrible on a high quality sound system.

i completely agree with this statement

[Mystery-Moon-Pie-Aud]

At 8/9/10 06:35 PM, Zooloo75 wrote: NO!!! Not on the master track/input! That's the worst thing you could do to your master track/input!!!!
You use compressors on separate inputs for individual sounds/instruments. Mostly for drums or vocals, or anything quiet that should be louder. Also using a soundgoodizer is lazy and results in a sound that is too loud, distorted, or poorly mastered.

Zooloo, what the hell. That is only the best way to make your track sound better. Soundgoodizer and Nexus ftw!

[Zooloo75]

At 8/9/10 08:42 PM, Mystery-Moon-Pie-Aud wrote:

Zooloo, what the hell. That is only the best way to make your track sound better. Soundgoodizer and Nexus ftw!

I hope this is sarcasm! If not, then I will act like Gravey and say "Fail -41"

[DarkantheHero]

I listen to it nonstop for a day or two. Fixing every little detail that I think needs to be fixed. But by that time I'm sick of it and it doesn't matter because next week I'll just write something better, I just now probably wrote the first song I'll be pleased with for a long time. My friends and family have to hear it 40 times during the making because I don't have a studio or head phones hahah.

[stratkat]

I give it about 1-3 listens after rendering it into an mp3.

After that I put in on NG, if it gets 0's, sleep on it, if it gets 5's, leave it up.

[Step]

Depends on the song.

If it's custom made for a flash:
I export it but don't submit it and wait till the flash is submitted before submitting it. During this time I ask for permission from the flash artist if I can show it to my friends to see what they think and then I do this on MSN. I also listen to it at least 100-500 times in my free time while I'm waiting for the flash artist to finish and add/change some things on it if I hear something I want to add/change.

If it's a WiP:
I export it in low quality and upload to MediaFire or some other file-hosting site. I then post the link in my MSN display message and ask my friends to hear it and give me their criticism.

If it's a normal song:
I export it at highest quality below 8 MB and submit it immediately after.

That's what usually happens anyway.

[Synphonic]

At 8/9/10 03:46 PM, MrFijiWiji wrote: i send them to all my friends and even some fans(for melodic critique) on msn and skype... they tell me what they think....and for checking my mastering i send them to my good friend trancecrafter... where he listens to my track on studio monitors and his headphones to try to help as much as possible...

ya so i would recommend sending ur songs to some body who knows what there doing and has alot of experience audio production wise

Sorry to burst your bubble.. but Trancecrafter isn't all that great with mastering help. If you look at his old youtube videos ( and new ), you can tell he has no idea what he is talking about. Also, he only has like 1 year or so of producing and to me he just buys whatever he sees without looking it through.

I have talked to him before, so don't call me a hater.

[Envy]

I make half a song then lose interest in it, so I upload it as a demo.

[DJ-Chilvan]

When I get a pretty good chunk of it done, I upload it to my Facebook music page as a demo to show my brother and my friends. Then I listen to it non stop within FL (I'm actually doing that now with one of my songs). This is so I could maybe cognate some more ideas to the song's structure and avoid writer's block. After all this and about a month or so of procrastination or being busy with other songs/stuff, I finally finish the song then upload it to Newgrounds and my Facebook music page. The Newgrounds uploading is a really essential step in the music making process because that's where all of you start reviewing my songs and give me really really reallly good advice in becoming a better musician. Thank you for that by the way.
Finally, I go back on Facebook and let my friends know about my new songs. But i dont do this as an advertisement, I do it spontaneously and erratically. Like, if I tell one of my friends that I just met that I make music, they'll be like "cool." So then I'll link them to my Facebook music page and 10/10 times they end up liking my music. Then I find out that they're a musician too, I hear their music or singing, and there we go, I just landed a collab gig. The moral of this story is that shit doesnt have to end at Newgrounds. Who cares about top 5 and 0 bombers? What's really important is post NG. I'm a Freshman in college now and I've already met almost 10 different people that I can be doing collab projects with. I now know girls and guys that have good singing voices so I can now get original acapellas. My roommate's a good rapper. There's so many opportunities for live shows now that I'm in college. The possibilities are endless, you just gotta grab them while you can.

[DJ-Chilvan]

At 8/9/10 09:28 PM, Zooloo75 wrote:

At 8/9/10 08:42 PM, Mystery-Moon-Pie-Aud wrote:

Zooloo, what the hell. That is only the best way to make your track sound better. Soundgoodizer and Nexus ftw!

I hope this is sarcasm! If not, then I will act like Gravey and say "Fail -41"

Its actually true in a ways. I use Soundgoodizer and Nexus, and my tracks sound good. I also master my track with other means too, so I dont just stick on Soundgoodizer like a noob. And as for Nexus, 90% of the time I fully alter the sounds using tons of effects. Here's how I see it, they made Soundgoodizer and Nexus for a reason. For giving your songs that busty sound. Just because its the "easy way out" doesnt mean that its noobish or whatever. There are some big producers that use Nexus and plugins similar to Soundgoodizer. Its all about how you want your music to sound, because in the end, the average person doesn't even know what Nexus or Soundgoodizer is so when they hear your finished product they'll love it a lot and that's what matters. If you refuse to use those plugins and try to look like a "big boy" and end up not having that appeal to your tracks, the listener will notice. If you tell him "its cuz I was too cool for Soundgoodizer and Nexus" he's just gonna be like "dude wtf is that?"

[Zooloo75]

At 8/10/10 12:52 PM, DJ-Chilvan wrote:

At 8/9/10 09:28 PM, Zooloo75 wrote:

At 8/9/10 08:42 PM, Mystery-Moon-Pie-Aud wrote:

Zooloo, what the hell. That is only the best way to make your track sound better. Soundgoodizer and Nexus ftw!

I hope this is sarcasm! If not, then I will act like Gravey and say "Fail -41"

Its actually true in a ways. I use Soundgoodizer and Nexus, and my tracks sound good. I also master my track with other means too, so I dont just stick on Soundgoodizer like a noob. And as for Nexus, 90% of the time I fully alter the sounds using tons of effects. Here's how I see it, they made Soundgoodizer and Nexus for a reason. For giving your songs that busty sound. Just because its the "easy way out" doesnt mean that its noobish or whatever. There are some big producers that use Nexus and plugins similar to Soundgoodizer. Its all about how you want your music to sound, because in the end, the average person doesn't even know what Nexus or Soundgoodizer is so when they hear your finished product they'll love it a lot and that's what matters. If you refuse to use those plugins and try to look like a "big boy" and end up not having that appeal to your tracks, the listener will notice. If you tell him "its cuz I was too cool for Soundgoodizer and Nexus" he's just gonna be like "dude wtf is that?"

I understand your reason. I just listened to Key to Eternity, the sound is ducking too much, which I can tell is from SG. It sounds overbloated and over exaggerated. Your song is good, but I have been producing for four years now, and I can define the frequencies of any sound I hear, and I've been dealing with quality, mixing, mastering for a while now (not trying to brag) and I can hear the typical mastering mistakes of alot of songs here on NG. Your composition is quite nice I must say! :)
With proper mastering, all of your sounds in your song should be able to be heard individually and clearly. I know I'm nowhere near that quality yet, but that's what I'm trying to go for. About Nexus, I have nothing against it, I just don't like the use of it for synths. It makes no sense to me that you can easily make your own synthesized sounds with any VSTi.

I respect your reasons, and I would just like to tell you my reasons to.

[Envy]

At 8/10/10 12:52 PM, DJ-Chilvan wrote:

Its actually true in a ways. I use Soundgoodizer and Nexus,

I've weened myself off of nexus for one big reason:

All the sounds are pre-mastered. So basically if you mix more than a few synths without doing some mixing/mastering of your own they sound out of place and shitty. So I'd just be careful with that.

[B0UNC3]

At 8/11/10 12:07 AM, Envy wrote: All the sounds are pre-mastered. So basically if you mix more than a few synths without doing some mixing/mastering of your own they sound out of place and shitty. So I'd just be careful with that.

Speaking from experience eh?;)

By the way, the soundgoodizer is simply a dumbed up (you get a whole extra knob) preset loader for Maximus with a wet knob.

You can see the a-d presets for the SG in the Maximus preset menu and edit them to sound better.

Whenever I'm doing a song I usually throw around demos top people to hype them up like crazy, after that's done I trash the projectfile.

[CloudsOfPie]

hm...
all of our songs are made by 2 people. most of the time one of us starts ith a melody or basic tune, and both of us give it some new ideas. we allways listen several times to our newer versions before we relase it :D

[Usernamemyarse]

Having second thoughts about uploading music is fir pussies, no matter how bad it is, if your a MAN you WILL upload it as soon as your done.

[DJ-Chilvan]

At 8/11/10 12:07 AM, Envy wrote:

At 8/10/10 12:52 PM, DJ-Chilvan wrote:

Its actually true in a ways. I use Soundgoodizer and Nexus,

I've weened myself off of nexus for one big reason:

All the sounds are pre-mastered. So basically if you mix more than a few synths without doing some mixing/mastering of your own they sound out of place and shitty. So I'd just be careful with that.

Haha you know what? I've had those exact same thoughts lol. Like, I was just wondering that whole thing cuz mathematically they would all end up interfering with one another. I notice this a lot because I have a handful of songs that are 95% Nexus.
Eyy Envy, since you dont use Nexus, what is a really good and versatile VSTi that you love to use? Besides 3xOsc

[Envy]

At 8/11/10 02:56 PM, DJ-Chilvan wrote:

At 8/11/10 12:07 AM, Envy wrote:

Eyy Envy, since you dont use Nexus, what is a really good and versatile VSTi that you love to use? Besides 3xOsc

Sylenth1

My favorite vst by far. It can pretty much reproduce any sound Nexus can make, but gives you the creative edge you want. I'm sure there are probably better VST's out there, but since I was introduced to this one, I fell in love.

It has a super easy interface to get the hang of, and it's not that confusing either (like friggin Z3ta+)

I would recommend it 100% until you found something better than fit your personal preference more.

[DJ-Chilvan]

At 8/11/10 03:38 PM, Envy wrote:

At 8/11/10 02:56 PM, DJ-Chilvan wrote:

At 8/11/10 12:07 AM, Envy wrote:

Eyy Envy, since you dont use Nexus, what is a really good and versatile VSTi that you love to use? Besides 3xOsc

Sylenth1

My favorite vst by far. It can pretty much reproduce any sound Nexus can make, but gives you the creative edge you want. I'm sure there are probably better VST's out there, but since I was introduced to this one, I fell in love.

It has a super easy interface to get the hang of, and it's not that confusing either (like friggin Z3ta+)

I would recommend it 100% until you found something better than fit your personal preference more.

Thanks man. Yea, I've heard of Sylenth1 but never really looked in to it. I'll look in to it and see more. Haha and z3ta+ sounds good but yea, its confusing as fuck. I rarely touch it.

[Zooloo75]

I found a really good free vsti a while back which I find very easy to use with very great outcomes for bass and leads.

It's called TranceDrive. I use it alot because it is quick, easy to use, and results in great sound.

It comes with alot of built-in effects and doesn't use too much memory.

[Par0xysM]

I'll send it to a couple of my friends and get some feedback on it, and listen to it a couple times in the meantime. Then I submit that fucker.