I knocked out one today.

https://write.fawm.org/songs/22107

Ouf I didn't count the hours, but it's been too much. During FAWM I guess I spent 4-6 hours each day, and I missed out for a week. I stop when I have the song structure, chords, riffs and lyrics. Most songs are just MIDI. Only "Glimpse" and "Magnetic Rose" are close to full productions and took several days with several people.
I usually calculate 3-12 months for a full production depending on complexity and team strength. I spend the same time for communication as for mixing. Hard to tell exactly cause I have many projects and teams in parallel.

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed "Magnetic Rose". Full production takes a lot of time, so I cannot do more of those during FAWM.

You asked about the pedal steel.. no, that's "me playing the computer", as is the fiddle. I use MIDI, virtual instruments, samples, auto composers, arpeggiators, and yes, real guitars and probably even a uke and a mandolin if I finish all of my planned demos. Anything that gets my ideas down in music. Thanks for the complements!

I will try to let you know as I record and update those. Short on time lately, but I can maybe knock out a few in the next week or two

I totally believe you searched. I kew the topic was there, and it still took several searches before I found anything. Congrats on finding FAWM.

How cool that you joined FAWM this year after hearing about it for years. I joined last year. I still can't quite believe something this great can exist....

Love it

Thanks so much for continuing to listen and comment and helping push me through a full FAWM! I'm glad at least one person got some special appreciation from "Oh Yamaha." I hoped it might have an audience somewhere and I had a blast making it despite my late FAWM exhaustion.
Congrats on hitting 14 yourself!

Thanks for the comment. Bpm in that track is as fast as 18. At least technically

Thanks for the listen. It was definitely therapeutic, although that did involve a lot of tearful singing and takes while recording. Appreciate your ear for a little while!

regarding my song "Back Off"... thank you for listening. No, the new word I made up was introvertness. My husband doesn't like made up words. I needed a rhyme for nervous and I kind of like it.
I actually was using yap to mean one's mouth, like "shut your mouth", but I just realized the lyrics says "close your yap", and that it not really very clear, so I'll revisit that one.

Thank you, much appreciated!
I'm not very active on SC (well I'm not very active anywhere these days, haha). I'll have to remember to log in and follow you too.
Only one song to get to the trophy! Wishing you inspiration!

Thank you for those really nice comments about our Willie Nelson song. Lots of fun to do.

Yes, absolutely. Great songwriter and moving performer. I saw him play live in SF once. I’ll have to check out the YouTube video! I think I’ve only seen the longer doc.

Thank you so much for your kind praise! I see you have a good selection of songs to go at: I look forward to hearing your work when I get chance.

Keep going, good sir. I hope you get there - should be easy!

Thanx for your comment on my Crusade tune!
I had the urge look it up, cos etymology is another of my hobbies; yes indeed, "catharsis" and "Cathar" do share the same Greek root word, meaning "pure"! 😀

It's the palm-muting a clean-ish guitar track which gives it away.

Wasn't difficult, huh 🙃

What lovely and kind things you said about my song! Thank you. I shall follow you back and check out a few of your tunes.

Very nice to hear your thoughts and song recommendations related to the running song I wrote. That made my day!

Thanks for your comment on Hi, A.I. @spaniel - A little dissonance is what my ears are always attracted to.

Hey, thanks for the feedback on "Let it Go!" Jesus and the Mary Chain + Bauhaus isn't a bad place to be. I'll definitely try your idea of extending the verses when I revisit this song after FAWM. The verse structure changed (and shortened) last minute.

Thanks for the great feedback. More than happy with the similarities to @scottmcb

‘Punch Your Way Out’ is my favourite song from FAWM this year

Hey thank you! Have a go!!! :)

We recorded so much back then, I can't even remember the state we left all those songs in. That said, I may have to recycle Beeswax for some future title. I've always liked how it hits the ear

I was definitely joking about James always being cool, just referring to an infamous line from the show. I do like his song though!

You have a good point about physical gear being as much of an impediment as a benefit. I like it inasmuch as it's fun to play with but I am finding that so don't really need it to do a lot of what I won't to. I mostly want a real drummer to work with! And a few nice effects pedals for performing down the road. I love my Moog Matriarch but it's definitely a to-do to get cool sounds out of it and into the computer. I might not even use it for FAWM but I'm hoping so!

Thanks bud, check this out https://spikedirection.bandcamp.com

Yes. I was messing around with it before the month started and made the photo that is my profile picture. I liked how evocative it was so I decided I'd make one for each song. Though, I wouldn't mind changing the "punch Your Way out" one

Hi @spaniel ! Thanks for your comment on "Parallax." James was always cool 😂
Regarding if I use real drums - no but I wish I could! The only "real" stuff on FAWM songs so far is my voice and a few guitars (w/ slide and ebow) and basses recorded through DI. The effects and everything else are all Logic Pro. I'm finding that compression, reverb, and EQ along with carefully finding (really, hearing) the right virtual elements and tweaking them just right goes a long way for me. That said, I'd love to work with more physical gear! And people too. Some day!

Hi! Regarding your comment on "The Secretary of You", the process is pretty simple. I used FAWM's Titular page to produce a title (which, while computer-assisted, does not use AI), then I started recording, then I discovered the lyrics and melody while I was singing. After I was done singing, I used an AI-based transcription service to produce the text from my acapella voice. (Normally transcription is the slowest part of my process.)

The problem with the AI generated stuff is that the goal is to produce more content than humans can but most people have no idea how much a human can actually create. To understand my own goal for AI-generated content, I must first stretch the bounds of what is humanly possible without AI assistance. This creates a human-generated baseline, and if the AI can't best the human-baseline then my goals can not be achieved through that end.

I mean, look at my stuff. I get a melody and lyrics at the same time, and I don't have to do a secondary process to roll out the vocals. All I really need to do is learn the uke or guitar and I'll be able to generate a song about anything, anytime, anywhere. Plus, I can sing about stuff considered too obscene for ChatGPT, like poop and farts. (I have a whole album of songs about such things already released: "Putting the crap back in crapcapella.")

hey, I appreciate the comment! I'm playing a six string bass going through a Line6 M9, it's a multifx pedal I happened to borrow from a friend the other night that adds some really nice distortion to the tone. And then I have omnisphere running through for that percussion haha.

Thanks! 90's rock is definitely one of my influences when doing songs like this. Nirvana, Soundgarden and Helmet were my favorites then.

Thanks for the kind words about "Twenty Years." Cheers to a couple of FAWMlings making art!

Hey - I love unusual song structures - the AAAAAAAB structure got me listening and suited the song. I'd like to know more about how you recorded it.

Thanks for your comment on „Return of the sun god“! Wow I didn‘t know that, I write music intuitively most of the times. Though I really want to learn more about what I actually do in my songs.

Thanks for the comments on “(I Wanna Be) Lazy At Everything”. Much appreciated!

Thanks for your comment on "All my life"!

Yah hey, is there any other way to say want? I think not!

Thanks for your comment on A Winter's Tale!

Thanks for letting me know about the tack timer! That is weird! And it would be very monotonous to go on for over 7 min! Thanks too for the nice comment!

I'm pretty sure that "Diminishing Returns" ended up as a mambo.

Yes, with the exception of a little added guitar part on “Get Moving,” all my demos thus far are recorded at the same time, one large diaphragm condenser about mouth height and a stereo pair of small omnis as room mics.

12 Pro, I think. The Voice Memos is buried in a group of apps called "Extras" (there's an icon on the 2nd screen).
.

Internal mic. I just us Voice memo on the iPhone, set the phone between my voice and guitar and hit record.

Thanks for your comments on Loyalty. The recording was on my phone, btw..It's so much quicker for me than other options.

I did indeed do that on TGAF. I'm looking forward to your songs, I was thinking about those Galvaden records not long ago

I dunno, I just tell the Push that's what I want to play, LOL!
(But since you asked, it's the Lydian with a flat 7th at the top of the scale, hence the "dominant".)

@spaniel thanks for the listen! I did write the song at work and recorded it very roughly on my iPhone. I'm a music therapist so I have instruments in my office :)

Is this you, Chris?

I switched to the baritone specifically to be able to sing better. Or to at least feel like I'm singing better. Haha. I feel more comfortable hitting notes when I play somewhere between D standard and B standard. It could all just be mental. I do also like the warmer sound but the primary focus was to be able to feel like I could sing higher notes without them actually being all that high.

Hey friend, I’m using a baritone, so the tuning is BEADGb. (B standard)

Thanks for the listen and feedback. Can't wait to hear more 🎵 from you.

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