Thank you for your kind comment on my piece "A Light Rain". Apologies for this late response, but a week ago you asked me "How do you write when you're scoring your music?" I touch type, so it's fast for me to enter each musical note onto the staves of Sibelius' notation software using my desktop computer. Sibelius has a lot of keyboard shortcuts too, like "h" to create a crescendo, " * " for staccto, "4" for a quarter note, etc. I often start off with a chord progression in the bass clef on Sibelius' piano. Sometimes I work out a bass line, sometimes I just use the chord root. Then I listen to it to see if a melody comes to me. If not, I'll just place a few chord tones here and there in the treble clef until a pattern emerges that I like. Other times I have a clearer idea of what I want beforehand. I usually know how I want the piece to feel. If I want it to feel disturbing, I may use tritones and augmented 2nds in melody lines, like I did in "Nature Culls the Herd", and dissonant harmonies. I'll often have a visual scene in mind mind too. Thanks for asking.

Cheers Matt! It’s been awesome discovering your stuff - I think you’re FAWMing just fine as you are! Looking forward to the Ampek Sessions album… out later this year, right? 😎

About my versatility - I have one simple rule when it comes to song writing: listen to the song! It will tell you what to do and if it doesn't it's not worthy. So, I'm basically just a slave to the song 😅

Thank you for your kind comments on "Dot Matrix"!!

Yeah, I'm officially Thom of Finland. I'll get me coat...

Post FAWM works. Looking forward to listening to your last three songs.

Matt, as you have observed, I have one song to go. I have nothing in the hopper and likely won’t until I return home on Monday. I’ll get something done and can always just do a skirmish. That said, however, if you had any interest in a last minute, down to the wire collaboration, I would look forward to seeing if we could pull something off. Either way is fine just let me know…

You touched on the very thing that was one of my griefs about the song but I also had the same reasoning to just f*** it and leave it as it is 😄 At least for now...

I feel the same about "I Already Won"! I didn't realize how good of a song it could make so I stuck to my plan to keep it short. Would happily work on it after fawm.

Hey Matt, thanks for the post on the recommendation thread. Awfully nice of you to do that…

I know how you feel about that tone knob!

As far as my 4 track, I love it! It gives me a hit of nostalgia dopamine every time I turn it on. My favorite use for it currently is re-amping mixes and drums, tap just adds such a nice texture.

I always loved figuring out how to work around the limitations of only 4 tracks, i find limitations give creativity a jump start. I definitely recommend scooping one up if you can find one, they’re a lot of fun!

Thank you! Yes, @kosch did a wonderful job :)

thanks for comment

Hey! I finally got a chance for a rea harmonica on "High Noon". It's updated :)

RE: Sample. Please email me exactly what I need to do, and I'll send you a WAV (or mp3 worst case scare). :)

Thanks, Matt! The piano vst I used was called Brandenburg in Sampletank. I just put out another piano driven track, this time with Addictive Keys. I've been going back to your tracks for re-spins btw!

I don't do much stretching and only a fair bit of isolating certain stuff in my DAW, but if I can make a copy of that for you, I'm happy to do it. If you want the sample. Just let me know what part(s) to mangle up.

Thanks for the comment on "Give Me Cheeseburger!" The hi hat sound is part of a Logic Pro "Drummer" preset. I will get the exact name for you if you're working with Logic Pro. :)

I had to go back and look for the synth I thought I heard and there it was around 2:20 mark in the right channel 😀 I didn't realize you were using volume swells on the first listen because I focused on the lead so much. Now I totally get why you wanted to try them and I should too!

Thanks for the kind comments on "Mist" and "Carolina", Matt. I really appreciate you stopping by and giving the songs a spin. :)

You volume swells sounded awesome!!! Perfect stuff. Not sure you’ll find anything else worth hijacking. If you happen to listen to the Xmas song you’ll get to hear Serene sing. That will be a gift 😜…

Hi! Thank you so much for your comment on my interstellar adventure. I have been a big fan of odd time signatures for a while, but had mostly written in 4/4 myself. I thought it was time for a change! :)

Yes! I was trying to write something and it sucked, so I retuned and started playing a new thing. I have a lot going on and didn't feel like imagining a whole bunch of lyrics, so I remarked, "I don't have time to be clever!" :)

I haven’t looked into it, but there is a digital 4-track challenge going that you might like. (Unless you are in it already) 🤪

Hi…I did use a GarageBand amp simulator for Carolina. I definitely like some of the GB amp options. My sense is there are some good plugins for amp sims but I have no idea what they are. I certainly would be interested in getting a good amp sim plugin that I can use in Studio One. Some day I suppose… BTW, I hope you got something brewing because I’m waiting with great anticipation for you to post your next song.

Let's make it ! I'm gonna work on something and drop you an email

Thanks for listening and commenting on my songs, I really appreciate it.

Matt, thanks for the listens and generous comments...And for answering my questions. Your song certainly counts as a four track in my book. Not to get back into a question but when you say you go direct in is that into an interface or a DI box. I go direct into my interface and then use amp sims. Some of the amp sims on GarageBand I find work pretty well. I've been trying to use Studio One some but the amp sims I have access to there aren't great. I don't have the pro version. Anyhow, someone on the forum here mentioned using a DI box but I've never tried it.

Regarding Carolina, the volume swells were done using the volume nobs on my guitar. I don't do volume swells much but I do think they sound very cool in the right moments. I'm kind of a hack at doing it but if the guitar part is simple it can work well.

When am I gonna hear your next song? Can't wait!

Ahh thanks for the listen on my weird jam. Your comment got me thinking, could one do a song that was made by a fantasy band line up?? Get a four track cassette player you won’t regret it!! 😃

Thank you, Matt for all your support and kindness.
I hope you are enjoying a lovely Sunday.
Nadia

Thanks for stopping by!

Thanks man! WISH I could do funkedlic - but you have to know your limits 😂

Hey! We just added vocals to "Pay it forward". Feel free to check, if you're curious!

Hi Matt, thank you so much for listening and commenting on some of my songs. I can’t tell you how meaningful it was for me to read what you had to say. When I listened to your music yesterday, I was blown away. I have no idea what your background is but it’s clear you are a fantastic guitar player and musician. I so enjoyed listening to your musical creations. I aspire to play a fraction as well. That said, your compliments had heartwarming impact on me when I read them.

Thanks for commenting on my song "Relentless Olive".

Thanks Matt! FAWM is fun!

Thanks Matt! I’m happy to let you behind the curtain (it’s not a pretty sight). I’ve been using Toontrack’s Superior Drummer 3 for about a year now and it’s ace. Very intuitive and you don’t need to do a lot to get awesome sounding drum parts :)

Thank you for the lovely comment, Matt!

That's great encouragement on knowing my tracks are becoming more cohesive. Thanks a million, Matt!

Hey I love to hear some wah!!! Bring it on.

You are very welcome, Matt. Every person hears/thinks differently and sometimes the same composition can be heard differently by the same person so it's just my opinion at the time I've listened. I really enjoyed my listening and I think it's always good when the music is open to suggestions. Thank you for sharing your beautiful work with us.

YEs my PRS is a new acquisition...about 3 weeks so I haven't had much of chance to play with it...as it relates to pedals etc. I have a 10year old Squire Strat...it's is nice but I would like to upgrade to Fender Strat.

Check out the Squire on this track I did. BTW ...I am using a BOSS ME25 pedal with a wah Thx for the kind words on my songs

https://soundcloud.com/garrett-kirby-472150950/funky-vibes

Thank you for your comment on "In Bloom". To answer your question, i use FL Studio

Thx for the comment on Ode to Zecoop. I used a PRS Santana SE version for one track and a Fender tele for the other..good ears to pick out that Fense sound..

Thanks for your comment on "High Noon". Yes, I think I'll leave this instrumental. The more I think the more I'm ok with the VSTs here. It's hard to get a real slide guitar, harmonica etc. my playing cannot pull that off.

I’ll keep you posted about the Odyssey. My workflow is going to be limited this year, but I will keep you in the know for sure! FAWM-On!!!

Hi Matt, thanks a million for the comment on Halfway There - and a belated welcome to FAWM! Looks like you’re settling in just fine :)

Hi Matt. Thanks for dropping by and happy FAWMing to you. Hope you’re having a good time. Yes, there will be a few more “installments” of Potato Chip Ulysses.

Oh, completely. I feel like genre isn't really something for me to decide -that's for other people if enough people feel a need to classify what I do. And - this just in: there aren't and they don't. Personally, I have no idea or interest in labels for my stuff (though I admit they help in a record shop sometimes!)

Thanks for your nice comment on Sing To Me! I would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for my pesky liner notes confession! I'm just not a good enough guitarist to be able to do something like this with FAWM time constraints. I wish I was.

Thanks for your comments on the 4-track!! They are super fun, like box of chocolates! 😆

I think most people that finish a 4-track will bounce the tracks to the computer and mix/master in the DAW. Bouncing to the computer is easier if the 4-track has individual outputs and the audio interface has 4 inputs, since tracks can be exported individually and in sync, but it can be done even if that's not the case.

Mixing in the 4-track is easier when the song is "almost done", because in general operations are destructive (no undo!) and the amount of processing you can do is limited. My 4-track has 2 sends that I can use for effects, and I can choose how much of each track I want to send to each effect. For "Blank invitations" I had the guitar and the bass sent to a pitch shifter to bring them down an octave, and the vocals being sent to a simple 12 DB amplifier. The signal from the effects is then mixed back.

Each track can also have individual EQ, depending on the 4-track, panning, and of course a fader to adjust volume. My knobs and faders are noisy, so I don't move them while bouncing the final mix; I set them and leave them there. But normally it would be possible to manually EQ/pan/level the tracks as they are playing from tape to do a finer mixing.

Finally, you can add as many effects as you want in a master chain, affecting all tracks. In my case last night I just had a simple reverb to glue all the elements and make them sound like they were recorded in the same room. I thought of adding a little bit of compression for the same effect, but I didn't think it was needed.

Burr did some awesome videos showing the process, posted in the FAWM YouTube channel. In some of them he does the mixing/mastering in the 4-track as well, and he shows his process.

For the vocals samples, i recommend Splice. You can also check Arcade 😉 Thanks for your feedback!

hey thanks a bunch for checking out one of my songs! I appreciate the feedback a lot

Thanks for the kind words on "Winter Thaw". Keep Rocking.

Thank you for your kind message on my track "Hospital Beds", really appreciate it.

Hey Matt! I appreciate the helpful feedback on my latest track! Am looking forward to reviewing your offerings as the month goes on.

Thanks for commenting on "Return Now." I used only two synths I believe. The other instruments were a guitar and piano, plus drums. I used reverb and delay in spots as well. Of course, this was all coming from a VST.

Thanks for your comment on "bawu" 😀

I really like traditional asian music, especially chinese but I'm no expert when it comes to mixing it with something else. Just tried my best ^^

Glad you enjoyed it !

Being a drummer certainly helps! Listening to Sting and Jethro Tull is also a good idea! I have a goal that i need to make something in 9 and 13 before the end of the month 😊

Hi! Thanks for the feedback on my song! :) Are you planning to try out some odd time signatures yourself? :)

Welcome to FAWM! Hope you have a great month, and get to enjoy the community.

Welcome to FAWM!!!