#Frail Autumn,, #GarageBand,, #Lyrics, #music, #Retirement Projects, #songwriting

Conundrums of GarageBand music transferring.

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YOUNG MAN
OLD MAN
COMPRESSED AND MORE COHESIVE……HOPEFULLY.
NOT COMPRESSED AND BOUNCING AROUND IN HEADPHONES. WEIRD DYNAMICS.

Old man, your life’s been wasted

Too bad it crumbled round you

Old man why don’t you show me the light

Did you plan your future

Or let each day astound you

Old man why don’t you show me what’s right.

Now there’s a man over there

His head in his hands

That man over there

I guess that’s me

Ain’t nobody.

The man over there is not who he seems

He’s a mystery to me.

Someone I dreamed

I’d never be.

So I would like to say to my younger lyrical self. You ain’t lived my life yet! It has been a fairly decent adventure so far. So treat yourself kindly and tread softly. Go with your flow. You won’t need to change a thing.

It was whilst playing this song above in an ad hoc, discordant, weird and nutty dutty way that it actually lifted spirits. Just choosing and layering tracks and drum and synth sounds at random. Simply passing time for ‘Fun Summer-y Vibes’ really. A nowadays throwaway song replacing the angst of having no new melody to pick up and run with. I was thinking about how exciting it is to write songs. Satisfying the inner spirit. Youthful endeavours and new adventures bring a vibrancy of finding real excitement in something you feel you can truly run with. Call it your own. Older age doesn’t dampen that naive, yet hopeful, spirit. It just transforms into a more self critique vibe. Music can never be unenjoyable. Even when writers have ‘inspirational blocks’ it doesn’t matter. Life is a song. You just get out that Pullman Subtle Knife and find your way in to its other dimensions.

AND SO……..TO THE GARAGEBAND CONUNDRUM……..

I sent this answer to a friend here on WordPress asking where the song above, which I uploaded yesterday, had gone. I put it into ‘Draft/Draught’ status. I always think Draught Status because I imagine them in a place of discomfort and awaiting reawakening. I will look at yesterday’s post later today and see if I can compress the sound to a comfortable listening experience. Old Man is a song I wrote when 17. Therefore 51 years ago.

For a bit of distraction, I started playing the chords and lyrics remembered. I was having a day of frustrations of trying to get the electronic drums to connect to GarageBand and trying to get ideas to write some new songs. Nothing was working in either arena. Hence recording the throwaway song above. I was pretty tetchy yesterday, which isn’t me at all. But I’m a tired insomniac currently and overwhelmed with the complexities involved in this music project. A journey of patience required which can get stretched at times. Despite what it offers positively.

It’s akin to most of the words below. A veritable’Spirit of Adventure’.

The reply to my blogging friend, after confirmation I had indeed moved the post, went like this:

“I was listening to the song last night and realised I hadn’t compressed before uploading here to WordPress. So it was bouncing around in my headphones. The loudness and notes were very ‘off ‘ listening wise. Songs sound very weird when that happens. You get pure imbalance and it all sounds painful. The other problem when ‘share bouncing’ the track for sending songs by email to myself, is that the Mac converts the quality format to cope with the email accepting the volume of song information. Like when you can’t send too many photographs by email. Musically the WAV file system is the best format for listening, but too large. Mac offers high end formats for iTunes, YouTube, etc. I never use them as yet. But will in the future. Why email and not MP3? Sending to email allows me to put songs in my iPad File app and then post on to here in WordPress or send to my friends on Messenger.

On re listening to a fair few of the songs uploaded here on WP, I do despair at the differences to be honest. But shrug the shoulders because at least the process of this GarageBand project I’m undertaking is being written about and discussed. And the songs are out there to be listened to despite the weird fragmented qualities they possess. As said in my little justification Mantra……it needs to be ‘Warts and all’.

As said, all of the songs I upload here on WP sound completely different than from the originals on the GarageBand recordings. Here on WP they sound flat, muddy and lifeless when compared to what I hear on GB. I am no technical producer of any skill whatsoever, so cannot cope with mixing at all as yet. Or have the knowledge for properly handling compression complicity.

Also, I never finally mix the tracks for tone, dynamic bite, individual instruments/vocals levelling properly, treat compression with respect or look at synergy in changing individual instrumental sound for mixing textures. Even getting at my true vocal sound either. I put my vocals in a little GB library box that states bright, classic, narration, natural (which doesn’t sound natural at all), etc. Using my decent mic like the vintage 1970s Shure SM58 is wasted. The ambience created is completely askew, and therefore so wrong for actual getting a decent listening experience. I just have no skills in this area. So I tend to sing in a brighter, cleaner, clearer way resulting in emotionless values. Singing out loud here in the house has a different ambience. Whether listeners like my voice or not is just the reality that not all people like the same vocal sounds. Some singers you like or love and they resonate with your soul. Others simply don’t mesh with your soul and leave you completely indifferent.

I need to truly look into this conundrum further in reality really Sheila, because it’s frustrating knowing what the music sounds like in my headphones in The Den. Okay….the songs are still being played naively on instruments I have no skill or dexterity playing as a musician. But, despite playing naively, the songs are far more clear and vibrant than here on WP.

I bought the monitors/speakers for mixing properly too….but haven’t used them in earnest yet. Basically because it is far too complex for my current skills base. I’m caught up in so many learning curves. It gets overwhelming at times”.

15 thoughts on “Conundrums of GarageBand music transferring.”

    1. Thank you cookie. That’s a nice word ‘dashing’. Very old school and reminds me of that phrase ‘full of derring-do’. Like some explorer who goes out to find adventures in life. Very dashing and forever finding feats full of derring-do. Like a Captain Jack Sparrow.

      Actually that photo was from the New Musical Express. We were playing the Marquee in London and the press came to get an interview. Our single had just been released, so it was a very positive vibe.

      I like to give full answers regards this project because it helps both myself to reflect on these challenges. See positive energy within the chaos. But these blogs may also assist others who are doing the same GB learning. They might say ‘Oh! I’m not the only one then!’ Or maybe ‘It’s not that difficult. Try this and it’ll make sense’. Not much of the latter so far. Most answers come from YouTube advice. Or, as Sheila did yesterday, sent me a link to a Yamaha forum concerning the linking up of the drums to the computer problem I’m having. That’s why it is so great here on WP. People who are really kind and thoughtful. Shep, Danny, Stan, Destiny, Brenda and of course yourself are full of encouragement. Others too.

      Thank for the thumbs up with the tune. Currently listening to the band Pulp, with Jarvis Cocker. Now there are some great songs, lyrics and tunes. And a musical sound I would be over the moon to achieve. Long way off though. Cheers cookie.

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    1. Cheers Sheila. I love vintage and gentler times. Dashing seems a very fine English word. And I’ll take and adopt that descriptor in a heartbeat. Something Terry Thomas the actor would say. Johnny’s inspiration for Mordecai was Terry. Such a genius comic. School for Scoundrels (the old black and white film) is one of my brother’s favourite films of all time. I can’t remember it now. But I should imagine it is full of derring-do.

      Overwhelmed is not an exaggeration currently. Been too far into learning and not enough into enjoying I suppose. So it’s nice listening to others’ music more presently. Especially Paul. All the best Sheila.

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      1. Oh, I believe you are overwhelmed with GB and just getting everything connected, working, etc. etc., Gray. I know some might say therein lies the adventure. Like working a puzzle.
        I am not familiar with Terry Thomas or the School for Scoundrels movie, but I will keep an eye out for both. We watch a lot of black and white movies, and shows as they soothe our eyes before sleep.
        I love vintage things too, and feel we all could use gentler times about now. Cheers, Gray.

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      2. Thanks Sheila. When I was studying in University for the Nurse role, a lot of self study was always present. But, you then got to go onto the hospital wards and back in term time university classes and lectures and then share or apply knowledge. This is simply flying solo. And it does wear you down. Especially when it is a holistic collective of writing songs, playing the instruments without having the levels of others and the capture of the songs. Too much I suppose. It is fun a puzzle. But a very tiring one mentally too.

        I want to watch School for Scoundrels soon. Not watched much TV recently. Maybe do as you do and watch before sleep time. Insomnia remedy then.

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    1. I suppose there has to be times of seeking inspiration and answers too. I seem to need to find new lyric ideas currently. Words relate to how strong they are for singing out confidently. And they really matter in the sounds they produce to get a tune/melody around. Very much like your poetic resonance Destiny. 🙏🏽

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      1. I think I understand more how it works with music from here…much like the writing poetry process.
        …and learning too, about that seeking inspiration and answers. Previously it felt simple…then over time you encounter the not simple 😬
        🙏🤍

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      2. Your poetic literacy is descriptive to the point you can taste the words themselves. The photograph support alongside your poems is your ‘muse’ equivalent. Rather like a Japanese tea ceremony focusing upon a piece of art and the guests giving their own personal descriptive analysis through saying their own reaction to the beauty of poetry or prose. But you have provided the words. So you give us readers the equivalent of holistic synergy. I add to the synergy in my own presence by speaking your words out aloud. So the expressive senses are self enhanced. Like reading your favourite book passages out loud to create the effective drama involved in the words. They come alive. Others may use their mind’s eye to enhance your poems. I can’t visualise in the mind, as you know, so speech is my equivalent 🙏🏽.

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      3. I try not to compare my writing to others being less experienced lol…but sometimes it feels too simple…and thank you for saying it the way you did here…gives me hope 🤭
        it’s nice to know what others really think and how they receive what is written…

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      4. William Blake is my favourite poet. It is the beauty of his descriptions that enters the soul. You cannot describe why. You just know certain ways of expression simply work. So you just let them in and let them work the magic.

        I wrote the two lines in Old Man:
        Did you plan your future?
        Or let each day astound you?

        Simple, but it means the answer matters to myself. Because I am asking guidance from my imagined older self. Do I plan for life stability or live life as a free bird. I chose a bit of both in the end Destiny. 😊🙏🏽

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      5. wisely said, Gray… may we all have the sense to ask such questions and be happy with the
        answers when the time comes…
        really appreciated, Gray…

        lol, as my blog says….I feel like I’m still searching between this and that 🤭
        one day…🤞

        🙏🤍🙏

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