My First Album (Instrumental). Feel Free To Add

[MortSahlFan]

If you play violin, trumpet, or whatever, go for it. It's already copyrighted, so have a go and have fun.

A few months ago (years after it was finished), my cousin told me his girlfriend could sing. So I asked her to add vocables (see: "The Great Gig In The Sky"), but she never responded back after I sent her all my stuff, so that would be cool.

Enjoy.. I play all the instruments. Engineer, produce, mix, everything on my own. No computers. Just a Tascam DP-01 with a condenser micrphone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUimy33lGbo

[Top Cat]

Thanks for sharing your Youtube link. I haven't listened to the whole thing yet, but I love hearing what non famous musicians are doing in their studios.
This has a raw recording feeling to it(in a good way). Like a small club where people with open minds go to hear new music.
Turn the lights down, close your eyes through the smoky haze, and just listen.
Feels like you're into jazz avan-garde stuff..cool!

The DP--01 and 08 are good pieces of gear. Kind of the digital version of the early Tascam Portastudio seires.
I think their limitations cause one to get creative, and use whatever you can to get your ideas recorded.

Again, thanks for sharing your hard work, and keep playin!

Bandcamp is a great place to showcase music, and with a Paypal account you can ask whatever you want and Bandcamp and Paypal will handle everything.
Very easy to set up a page, even dumb old farts like me can do it. lol

[MortSahlFan]

Thanks for sharing your Youtube link. I haven't listened to the whole thing yet, but I love hearing what non famous musicians are doing in their studios.
This has a raw recording feeling to it(in a good way). Like a small club where people with open minds go to hear new music.
Turn the lights down, close your eyes through the smoky haze, and just listen.
Feels like you're into jazz avan-garde stuff..cool!

The DP--01 and 08 are good pieces of gear. Kind of the digital version of the early Tascam Portastudio seires.
I think their limitations cause one to get creative, and use whatever you can to get your ideas recorded.

Again, thanks for sharing your hard work, and keep playin!

Bandcamp is a great place to showcase music, and with a Paypal account you can ask whatever you want and Bandcamp and Paypal will handle everything.
Very easy to set up a page, even dumb old farts like me can do it. lol

Wow - thank you for that! I've thought about Bandcamp, after I proved Amazon was ripping me off. I was getting royalty checks until last year, so I purchased my 3rd and 4th CD, and almost 2 yrs later, I didn't get a check, but it's impossible to contact anyone who can help. Long story - deleted my Google/E-mail to get my current YouTube account monetized, but it was denied, and then I couldn't retrieve my account.

I'm kinda burned out, constantly trying to get my music and books to get traction, so I've avoided making a bandcamp account, although I might have created one years ago. I just wonder if its worth it, but I've come to avoid doing things like this to avoid the heartache of getting no attention. I have 2,200 subscribers on this new YouTube channel, and even have a "Pay whatever you feel like" AFTER I finish and send a person my real drum beats. In the last couple of years, I get migraines even after playing for 10 minutes (despite ear protection), so I told myself I'd try to stop playing until I get a paying job, which has really depressed me - not being able to do what I love (and then the neck/shoulder problems, lower back), but your encouraging words might give me the energy to do this.

Thanks again!

[Top Cat]

Wow - thank you for that! I've thought about Bandcamp, after I proved Amazon was ripping me off. I was getting royalty checks until last year, so I purchased my 3rd and 4th CD, and almost 2 yrs later, I didn't get a check, but it's impossible to contact anyone who can help. Long story - deleted my Google/E-mail to get my current YouTube account monetized, but it was denied, and then I couldn't retrieve my account.

I'm kinda burned out, constantly trying to get my music and books to get traction, so I've avoided making a bandcamp account, although I might have created one years ago. I just wonder if its worth it, but I've come to avoid doing things like this to avoid the heartache of getting no attention. I have 2,200 subscribers on this new YouTube channel, and even have a "Pay whatever you feel like" AFTER I finish and send a person my real drum beats. In the last couple of years, I get migraines even after playing for 10 minutes (despite ear protection), so I told myself I'd try to stop playing until I get a paying job, which has really depressed me - not being able to do what I love (and then the neck/shoulder problems, lower back), but your encouraging words might give me the energy to do this.

Thanks again!

I would never discourage anyone to not continue following your dream, but the reality is, it's very difficult to make a living out of creating music these days.
I now see musicians in well know prog bands, performing as guests in other projects, or for instance Ryo Okumoto(Keyboardist) from Spock's Beard, doing many different projects outside of Spock's Beard. And Michael Sadler from Saga is another example. This is I assume to supplement their income, so the drought is affecting even established musicians.

But what IS helpful in my opinion, is to find meaningful employment you don't hate, something which you can tolerate every day.
You get a paycheck which allows you to live above poverty, and in a sense helps you relax when you get home and can create without the worry of whether people will like or purchase what you created.
It frees you up to be yourself, writing, recording and mixing songs which you like, and share, and if people like what you do, that's icing on the cake.

It's hard to work hard on a project, put it out there and have zero interest, but you keep going and never give up. Don't take it personal, it happens to every one of us.
We had a thread here on PE about Nad Sylvan's solo album, he's the singer for Steve Hackett Band, and there was hardly any interest at all in the comments section.
Other members here also find at times very little response to their work.
But you keep going, why? for the love of music and creating, and I always say if just one person listens to your song or music out there, you've accomplished something.

I quit looking at stats on Youtube, Bandcamp or Soundcloud. YT and Bandcamp can really hurt because they show the duration someone listened.
So I just don't look anymore, too discouraging, so I recommend just don't look or worry about stats.

Just for an example about Bandcamp, check out my page, and it may give you a feel whether you'd like to put your music there or not.
I'm not linking it for you to listen to my music, but just so you can see how it's designed and if it's something to work for you.

The one thing about getting more plays is, you have to work the system and have the links everywhere you can. For me, it's too much work, and I'm too old for that stuff! lol

https://richardhermans.bandcamp.com/

I hope perhaps something I said will help you...whatever you do, hit a C and smile.

[MortSahlFan]

I would never discourage anyone to not continue following your dream, but the reality is, it's very difficult to make a living out of creating music these days.
I now see musicians in well know prog bands, performing as guests in other projects, or for instance Ryo Okumoto(Keyboardist) from Spock's Beard, doing many different projects outside of Spock's Beard. And Michael Sadler from Saga is another example. This is I assume to supplement their income, so the drought is affecting even established musicians.

But what IS helpful in my opinion, is to find meaningful employment you don't hate, something which you can tolerate every day.
You get a paycheck which allows you to live above poverty, and in a sense helps you relax when you get home and can create without the worry of whether people will like or purchase what you created.
It frees you up to be yourself, writing, recording and mixing songs which you like, and share, and if people like what you do, that's icing on the cake.

It's hard to work hard on a project, put it out there and have zero interest, but you keep going and never give up. Don't take it personal, it happens to every one of us.
We had a thread here on PE about Nad Sylvan's solo album, he's the singer for Steve Hackett Band, and there was hardly any interest at all in the comments section.
Other members here also find at times very little response to their work.
But you keep going, why? for the love of music and creating, and I always say if just one person listens to your song or music out there, you've accomplished something.

I quit looking at stats on Youtube, Bandcamp or Soundcloud. YT and Bandcamp can really hurt because they show the duration someone listened.
So I just don't look anymore, too discouraging, so I recommend just don't look or worry about stats.

Just for an example about Bandcamp, check out my page, and it may give you a feel whether you'd like to put your music there or not.
I'm not linking it for you to listen to my music, but just so you can see how it's designed and if it's something to work for you.

The one thing about getting more plays is, you have to work the system and have the links everywhere you can. For me, it's too much work, and I'm too old for that stuff! lol

https://richardhermans.bandcamp.com/

I hope perhaps something I said will help you...whatever you do, hit a C and smile.

I appreciate you writing back, and for the words of encouragement.

I did create an account, uploaded a song, and then wanted to upload an entire album. I went through a lot of conversions, but the max is 290 MB, which I can't find under the formats they allow. I'm sure I'll keep trying... something.

If I had any advice for you, it would be to travel abroad. I made a decent living playing music. I've been overseas 6 times, and the last 3 averaged 6 months, and besides the regular clubs, I made a good amount of money (enough to pay the hostel accommodation, etc) busking with a permit in Australia, as well as Asia and Europe. I guess I had luck walking right into a club and finding myself playing drums every night when I wanted to in a city town because I'm from the US. Maybe it's curiosity, hospitality, good business, and maybe the idea of "Oh, he's from American, let's see how good he is" and always had success, but nothing too good. No one gave me an offer I couldn't refuse, but if I had, I would have gladly paid and sent for my drums to be shipped, but I can't imagine lugging my drums to every city.. I probably busked more on an acoustic guitar, which is a bit more challenging than when people (mostly friends, etc) are coming to a bar to see you specifically, as opposed to having to get people's attention while they're walking along.

In my 20s, I had my own business, so that I could travel, and wanting to find musicians from all over was a big reason why.... After almost 30 years of playing, I decided to be sorta content to live in poverty, and whatever happens, happens. I avoid spending money on any non-essential, and try to do what I can. I've spent a ton of time immersing myself, trying to get something going, and I don't know why I'm still struggling.

I've tried really hard to collaborate, even without any contact, since many seem afraid to meet someone they don't know. But for some reason, people just flake out when it comes time to deliver. Not very different than all the bands I've been in -- lack of punctuality, or using rehearsal to learn what they should have at home, and a million other things probably not foreign to most who have been in bands. And then I'll run into someone who assumes artists should work for free (another fellow musician), but finally I thought, "Well, it's not like there's a line of people wanting drum beats" so I sent him 15-20 minutes worth of music (in some cases, stripping away the guitar, just to see what he could come up with) and I heard once from him, saying he'll send it - never did. Lots of those..,.... What can ya do??

I'll check out your stuff later tonight, and wish you luck as well!

[EBES]

I haven't had the chance to listen to your album yet -- I will! -- but I just want to wholeheartedly (and peevishly) agree with your comment about the astounding and widespread flakiness of hobbyist musicians. So many times I've posted demos of songs looking for people who are interested in developing them, and I get lots of responses from people going "this sounds great, I'd love to be a part of it!" and then they send either a tiny bit of music or nothing at all. I'm not offended if people don't want to work with me, but why are they responding to the post in the first place?

Same goes for bands. It's so strange to see people who put large portions of their income into instruments, who clearly love music and cherish the dream of creating and playing, but who can't put in five minutes of sustained attention or follow-through. It's amazing -- I feel sometimes like the world is swamped with music that nobody listens to or cares about, and that apathy is a hard thing to face, but the number of obscure musicians is surely dwarfed by the number of people who want to create music and maybe have some talent or skill but have zero organizational capacity.

Nice to know I'm not the only one who has this issue. Was it better thirty years ago? Is this one of those things where smartphones have made us all scatterbained?

[battema]

A few Bandcamp things:

The file size limit is only for new accounts; once you sell a certain number of copies (or make a certain amount of $$ maybe, can't recall which) that limit is increased. And in terms of formats, upload the best, uncompressed version you have (i.e. a WAV 24/48 master file or the like). Bandcamp will do the conversions to whatever format the eventual customers wish to use.

I think there is a paid option that lets you jump immediately to the larger upload file size limit. Personally, I'm roughly a zero-interest nobody in terms of audience and sales (yes Richard, I know there are some wonderful exceptions ), but I hit their "threshold" within about a month or so.

However...if what one is looking to do is post snippets, demos or stubs in the hope of accumulating collaborators, I'd probably strongly suggest Soundcloud or YouTube as an alternate. When I go to Bandcamp (and I'm ALWAYS on Bandcamp), I'm looking to put my money into product that is ready to sell, not works in progress at the embryonic stage.

[EBES]

I listened to your album and really enjoyed it. Overall I appreciate how it balances clearly composed themes with a bit of a meandering stream-of-consciousness quality, and the flow between pieces it great. It feels very live and very played, which is uncommon for music made independently, where it's easier to use vsts and comp everything (my own music is quite guilty of this).

A few things that stuck out to me -- I like the sci-fi keyboard playing some haunting notes overlaid with surf-ish guitar at 9:14. Nice organ melody at 18ish; cool that it moves through different textures and moods. I like the change of pace in the 6/8 section with some very neat interplay between synth and bass at 22ish. There's a really haunting feeling to the guitar accents at 30:30ish and I love the keyboard melodies at 32 and the way the different synth textures do a call & response (or something? I may be misunderstanding quite what you're doing there but the effect is cool). I like the contrast of piano with moodier synth tone at 44 and the groove in the drums and bass at about 50, and the way it ends on an uplifting note. It builds to a crescendo that's definite but not overly strident or bombastic; it's a very tastefully done crescendo.

[Rarebird]

I listened to a very small portion of your album. I suppose I will be listening to a bit more in the future.

I'm not a musician myself, just a composer, working with a computer, soft-synths and midi-hardware. I've had almost 2 years of pianolessons and at that time my teacher suggested I shoud study composition, which I never did, because if you want to study at music-college, you need to play an instrument, even if you want to study composition.

[MortSahlFan]

I listened to your album and really enjoyed it. Overall I appreciate how it balances clearly composed themes with a bit of a meandering stream-of-consciousness quality, and the flow between pieces it great. It feels very live and very played, which is uncommon for music made independently, where it's easier to use vsts and comp everything (my own music is quite guilty of this).

A few things that stuck out to me -- I like the sci-fi keyboard playing some haunting notes overlaid with surf-ish guitar at 9:14. Nice organ melody at 18ish; cool that it moves through different textures and moods. I like the change of pace in the 6/8 section with some very neat interplay between synth and bass at 22ish. There's a really haunting feeling to the guitar accents at 30:30ish and I love the keyboard melodies at 32 and the way the different synth textures do a call & response (or something? I may be misunderstanding quite what you're doing there but the effect is cool). I like the contrast of piano with moodier synth tone at 44 and the groove in the drums and bass at about 50, and the way it ends on an uplifting note. It builds to a crescendo that's definite but not overly strident or bombastic; it's a very tastefully done crescendo.

Hi and thank you so much for listening and reviewing! I would have gotten to this sooner, but I couldn't remember my password, long story...

Another thank you - you made my day (year?) with the review. I loved going to the certain time-stamps with so much anticipation. And yes, the call and response is definitely what I was doing. The most I seem to get is, "It doesn't sound like anything I've heard before" or "I like it", but that's about it, and it's at the local library, I've done shows, and have asked (when I used to use social media) for a simple Amazon review.

You might even give me the energy (one day) to upload the next 3 CDs I have on my channel. Actually, I do have the first song on the 2nd CD uploaded. It's all done in the key of A, all one Byzantine scale. Actually, it's the 2nd song, but I wanted something more lively, but my Tascam sound was .. hemorrhaging or something with the sound.

[Mister Triscuits]

^ Nice jam! I've got a soft spot for stuff with a middle eastern feel.

[MortSahlFan]

^ Nice jam! I've got a soft spot for stuff with a middle eastern feel.

Me too. Playing and listening. Thank yo so much for the comment!

[EBES]

Hi and thank you so much for listening and reviewing! I would have gotten to this sooner, but I couldn't remember my password, long story...

Another thank you - you made my day (year?) with the review. I loved going to the certain time-stamps with so much anticipation. And yes, the call and response is definitely what I was doing. The most I seem to get is, "It doesn't sound like anything I've heard before" or "I like it", but that's about it, and it's at the local library, I've done shows, and have asked (when I used to use social media) for a simple Amazon review.

You might even give me the energy (one day) to upload the next 3 CDs I have on my channel. Actually, I do have the first song on the 2nd CD uploaded. It's all done in the key of A, all one Byzantine scale. Actually, it's the 2nd song, but I wanted something more lively, but my Tascam sound was .. hemorrhaging or something with the sound.

Didn't happen to dip back into this thread 'til now but I'm subscribed to your YT channel so hopefully the algorithm lets me know as other things come up.

[MortSahlFan]

Didn't happen to dip back into this thread 'til now but I'm subscribed to your YT channel so hopefully the algorithm lets me know as other things come up.

Thanks again - I appreciate that!

I've uploaded some songs since, and there's some buried I'm sure... I usually use "fake" titles (as opposed to the ones on Amazon)....

[EBES]

Thanks again - I appreciate that!

I've uploaded some songs since, and there's some buried I'm sure... I usually use "fake" titles (as opposed to the ones on Amazon)....

I'll have a look. All YT puts in my subscription feed is the Mort Sahl interviews.

[MortSahlFan]

I'll have a look. All YT puts in my subscription feed is the Mort Sahl interviews.

Hmmm.... Well, here's the latest one I put up. Excuse the silly title, but I wanted to see the effect.

[MortSahlFan]

Someone please tell me if this is annoying, but I value the feedback from prog-rockers.

This time I got some help. I needed to change it up, so I found someone in France to do some vocals, and the same with the second song, playing instruments I can't, such as brass. I'd write it out on piano, hum it, have someone transpose from one instrument to another. Besides my drums, my microphone keeps going out, not sure if it's the Tascam, the input, the cable, so I just have someone who has great dependable gear...

The second song below is something I did three days ago, and just uploaded.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Wbf_Jhm1Qc

https://youtu.be/rL8lEzhYGf8

[MortSahlFan]

Final project.... But this time I collaborated and added some singing (very little), but some violin and trumpet based on riffs or solos I played on guitar/piano for them to transpose, and e-mail back to me.

I appreciate the 25 people who listened