July Composition Challenge

[lurksalot]

Most excellent felicitations and congratulations to the PunkJazzFunkster who is @Leonard Smalls for the June top spot.

Yet again another thought provoking photo for your inspiration this month . Urban/industrial decay !

 

 

Usual rules apply. You know the drill:

✔️ Entries must be <5 minutes and written/recorded this month.

❌ No illegal samples, copyright infringements or other snide goings-on

❌ Bagpipes. please no bagpipes, summer equinox truce now Expired. panpipes only if you have too.

❌ No voting for your own entry. We'll know. And we'll shame you.

A line or two offering an insight to your inspiration will be good as well , it works nicely on the voting thread.

 

Deadline wise , we will split our sides and call midnight on  'tell an old joke day' , and yes, yet again, again you probably have till about 19.00 on the 25th, ( the clue given here is that 'tell an old joke day' is the 24th) the 25th being a Sunday offers a little leeway I guess  .

As the challenge is starting on national postal worker day , get delivering those tunes    ( I'm probably getting these days off a U.S. site , sorry  ) 

[Waddo Soqable]

Just out of interest, do they have to have words/lyrics ?

ps surely no one would ever use bagpipes, ( or pan pipes) .. would they??

[Nail Soup]

13 minutes ago, Waddo Soqable said:

Just out of interest, do they have to have words/lyrics ?

ps surely no one would ever use bagpipes, ( or pan pipes) .. would they??

Have a listen 

[Waddo Soqable]

6 minutes ago, Nail Soup said:

Have a listen 

Bagpipes? Do I have to.. ? 

Edited July 1, 2021 by Waddo Soqable

[Nail Soup]

4 minutes ago, Waddo Soqable said:

Bagpipes? Do I have to.. ? 

Well there might be a song without any 😃

[Waddo Soqable]

5 minutes ago, Nail Soup said:

Well there might be a song without any 😃

Give us a clue then !.. Alternatively send me £10 in PayPal and I'll listen to 'em all.  ..honest 

[Dad3353]

1 hour ago, Waddo Soqable said:

Just out of interest, do they have to have words/lyrics ?

ps surely no one would ever use bagpipes, ( or pan pipes) .. would they??

No, seriously ...

No, words/lyrics/singing are optional (although Lurks abuses this option whenever he can...). Being able to sing is preferable if you want to get votes, but that has never hindered Lurks, either, and has even led to Victory on (rare...) occasions.
Bagpipes..? This is a Running Joke; there have been entries whereby these, or their equally-violent cousins, have been sneaked in, but I can't remember any of these having won, or even come close. There are other 'best not to's', too, such as yodelling, kazoos or sampled nuclear blasts, but, if the picture inspires such, tempt fate and try your luck.
Basically, anything composed legally is Good, and will always be better than not entering anything at all.
Hope this helps. 

[Nail Soup]

15 hours ago, Waddo Soqable said:

Give us a clue then !.. Alternatively send me £10 in PayPal and I'll listen to 'em all.  ..honest 

It was worth a try.

But for future ref: £10 is the bribe for a vote, not just a listen

[Waddo Soqable]

34 minutes ago, Nail Soup said:

It was worth a try.

But for future ref: £10 is the bribe for a vote, not just a listen

A done deal then !👍. ( i did actually vote for you last time, but you can have that one on me !  )

Edited July 2, 2021 by Waddo Soqable

[xgsjx]

I just got Komplete 13 last week & what better excuse to make an entry is that.

So, abandoned warehouse, cue sombre synthetic strings.  Feeling empty, cue lonely piano.  Let's have a look around this ruin.

 

[Waddo Soqable]

I do odd stuff on an old zoom multitrack recorder occasionally but have no clue how you'd upload it ?  Would you first do a copy onto a laptop or something ? Not got a scooby !

I don't really do computers I'm kind of dislexic with them and really don't understand 'em ( or even want to tbh)  ..hence I've never done computer based music / recording myself.

[lurksalot]

1 hour ago, Waddo Soqable said:

I do odd stuff on an old zoom multitrack recorder occasionally but have no clue how you'd upload it ?  Would you first do a copy onto a laptop or something ? Not got a scooby !

I don't really do computers I'm kind of dislexic with them and really don't understand 'em ( or even want to tbh)  ..hence I've never done computer based music / recording myself.

It’s a bit difficult to just explain , but luckily there is a whole thread that can offer some fantastic guidance here , dive in 

 

[Waddo Soqable]

16 minutes ago, lurksalot said:

It’s a bit difficult to just explain , but luckily there is a whole thread that can offer some fantastic guidance here , dive in 

 

Thanks for that, I'll have a look, hopefully I might be able to bodge something, though I'm not trying to do anything directly onto a computer, I'm simply wanting to transfer stuff from the zoom recorder thing, I'm assuming once you get it off there onto a laptop you can upload it wherever, whatever !

[lurksalot]

Soundcloud is a preferred host by many, including me, I think it’s mostly free but I have a pay option to host more stuff 👍

[Waddo Soqable]

1 minute ago, lurksalot said:

Soundcloud is a preferred host by many, including me, I think it’s mostly free but I have a pay option to host more stuff 👍

So i need to download soundcloud on to the laptop then ?

I flicked thru the guide but it's really about making music on a computer, I'm really only wanting to transfer "finished" stuff off the zoom recorder onto computer so it could be shared, sent, whatever.

[lurksalot]

Create an account on soundcloud (online) then you can upload your chosen wav files to it 

[Waddo Soqable]

Cool, I'll give that a go.. 👍

[Dad3353]

55 minutes ago, Waddo Soqable said:

Cool, I'll give that a go.. 👍

What Zoom is it..? We can then advise the best/simplest way of getting something into the Challenge. No, it's not difficult, whatever you've got, and IT literacy is not a requirement, but we can't really advise 'blind'. Getting stuff into Soundcloud is a 'no-brainer', too, as long as there's a web connection and a browser. So... What Zoom is it..? 

[Waddo Soqable]

5 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

What Zoom is it..? We can then advise the best/simplest way of getting something into the Challenge. No, it's not difficult, whatever you've got, and IT literacy is not a requirement, but we can't really advise 'blind'. Getting stuff into Soundcloud is a 'no-brainer', too, as long as there's a web connection and a browser. So... What Zoom is it..? 

Okey Doke Dad.... It's a Mrs 1044 multitrack thingy.. The only outputs are R and L phono plugs and a headphone socket ( big guitar size jack ) there is no usb or owt like that, so i assume to conn to a laptop you'd plug it into the mic socket on the laptop via a lead from either the hadphone out or the phono sockets with suitable converter leads..

Also what (free) version of soundcloud would i need ?   👍

[Nail Soup]

3 hours ago, Waddo Soqable said:

I do odd stuff on an old zoom multitrack recorder occasionally but have no clue how you'd upload it ?  Would you first do a copy onto a laptop or something ? Not got a scooby !

I don't really do computers I'm kind of dislexic with them and really don't understand 'em ( or even want to tbh)  ..hence I've never done computer based music / recording myself.

If you want to stick with the Zoom instead of going to a DAW, the following *might* help:

Before I had a DAW I used to use a ZOOM MRS4 four track recorder.

From the zoom website I downloaded an accessory called an MRS Card Manager or something..

You could use it to back up your memory card, and also to convert your Zoom tracks to WAV files.

(had to pull the card out of the Zoom, and plug it into a card>USB adapter)

 

So I'd use the bounce function in the Zoom to make a final stereo mix to two tracks, and then use the card manager to convert the stereo mix to a WAV mix.

 

Maybe there's a similar tool for your model?

Edited July 3, 2021 by Nail Soup

[Waddo Soqable]

9 minutes ago, Nail Soup said:

If you want to stick with the Zoom instead of going to a DAW, the following *might* help:

Before I had a DAW I used to use a ZOOM MRS4 four track recorder.

From the zoom website I downloaded an accessory called an MRS Card Manager or something..

You could use it to back up your memory card, and also to convert your Zoom tracks to WAV files.

(had to pull the card out of the Zoom, and plug it into a card>USB adapter)

 

So I'd use the bounce function in the Zoom to make a final stereo mix to two tracks, and then use the card manager to convert the stereo mix to a WAV mix.

 

Maybe there's a similar tool for your model?

The zoom is pretty old now so doubt there's much new stuff available for it specifically, but I'll have a look!  I'd stick with doing stuff on it (rather than fight a computer) as i can just about work it in a very simplistic fashion. I pretty much gave up trying to create music as I've lots of ideas but i just can't do the computer malarkey.. I really needed to team up with a computer literate type who could do that side of it, hey ho!

[Dad3353]

1 hour ago, Waddo Soqable said:

The zoom is pretty old now...

That's an understatement. There is (or was..?), however, an optional USB interface card made for it (reference : UIB-01...), which allows amongst other functions, transfer of audio files to a PC via USB. Reverb have one; there may be other sources (E-bay..? Gumtree..? Any BC members with such a card..?). That would be the best bet, I'd say.
If not, taking the phono output (it'd be stereo...) and connecting to the mic input of the PC would work. If you can mix the stereo to mono first, t'would be better (the mic input is mono...). Once recorded on the PC as audio (in whatever format, but WAV is most likely...) it's a simple matter to upload that to Soundcloud. There's nothing to install for Soundcloud, it's all on t'web, so you access it through the Browser (same way as Basschat...). An account is free, and, once this account opened, just upload the WAV. Once you're at that stage, we can guide you, but firstly, get an dummy track you already have, whatever it is, and get it into the PC, either through this optional card, if you can find one, or through the mic jack.
It would be possible using a simple audio interface, such as the Behringer U-Phono UFO202 (costs £18...); that, too, is a simple solution.

Hope this helps. 

[Waddo Soqable]

Thanks so much for that 👍  I'll see if the gizmo for the machine is available ( priced sensibly) my default option was as you say, input thru leads into mic socket, tho shame its only mono, it'd be nice to do a version in stereo for what i have in mind, but what works Is what it Is..! The parts of the track aren't mixed down to stereo at the mo, so a straight output as it stands would be mono anyway, with me riding the faders !

I just now signed up to soundcloud on the laptop ( i think it worked)  so hopefully have that ticked off the list !

ps The behringer thing would just get the signal from the zoom straight onto the laptop then would it ? Or would that do something else..?

Apologies btw, as I'm sure this is like talking to a little kid !

Pps.. I just checked out the zoom interface thing 130 to 140  quid basically,  so that's not happening !!

Edited July 3, 2021 by Waddo Soqable

[Dad3353]

6 minutes ago, Waddo Soqable said:

...ps The behringer thing would just get the signal from the zoom straight onto the laptop then would it ? Or would that do something else..?

I think I may have a Behringer thing lurking here somewhere; I'll have a scout around. If I find it, I'll send it over (yes, free, of course, you dope..!). And yes, that's what it does. It takes the phono signal and pops it down the USB cable into the PC (in stereo, too...). Hold on, then... [ Terminator ] 'I'll be back...' [/Terminator ]

[Waddo Soqable]

1 minute ago, Dad3353 said:

I think I may have a Behringer thing lurking here somewhere; I'll have a scout around. If I find it, I'll send it over (yes, free, of course, you dope..!). And yes, that's what it does. It takes the phono signal and pops it down the USB cable into the PC (in stereo, too...). Hold on, then... [ Terminator ] 'I'll be back...' [/Terminator ]

Blimey sport, you're a handsome geezer and no mistake ! 👍