The Song Fight Bulletin Board

i did a few updates on http://songfightnet.dreamhosters.com/wi ... =Main_Page, the songfight help wiki. there are no audio clips yet but i hope to add some fairly soon.

it's easy to use and it's there to post/edit/review. hopefully we can get to a point where a lot of questions can already be answered by knowledgeable and helpful people upfront.

P.S. The wiki TIK linked to will be permanent on songfight.net proper in a month or so. Development and reference can begin in advance, so please help yourselves to transferring knowledge from the forum to the WIKI. Help us all help each other-- build the wiki into the best repository of *organized* and useful knowledge on the Internet.

NOTE: do not plagiarize. if you get info from somewhere other than a songfight site, please rewrite into your own words, or get permission to repost on the wiki. most articles and such need to be rewritten anyway, IMO.

SECOND NOTE: When writing on this wiki, assume you are speaking to someone with almost no knowledge of anything at all. It may help to begin including a list of "pre-requisite" knowledge at the top of articles. In fact, that's a great idea. Let's do that.

jb wrote:SECOND NOTE: When writing on this wiki, assume you are speaking to someone with almost no knowledge of anything at all. It may help to begin including a list of "pre-requisite" knowledge at the top of articles. In fact, that's a great idea. Let's do that.

not a bad plan. i'll update and do that henceforth.

Is this going to be just for recording advice(the technical side of stuff) or also with other advice (instrument/gear reccomendations, singing tips, guitar basics, etc)?

The wiki should contain info on all aspects of the songfighting process-- writing and recording and performing.

You can even set up a "personal" profile if you want, using it to keep a "song diary". I recommend this. I think it would be very interesting and highly useful, if only as an inspirational device-- showing people who'd like to start being musicians or songwriters what others have used to get their works produced.

If you think it's useful, put it on the wiki. Read the guidelines on the front page, and I think you'll see that the emphasis is on inclusion, rather than figuring out what doesn't belong.

Participation and tolerance are the keys to success.

JB

About the recording guide, anybody have ideas on how to make sure it's organized and categorized well? We want to avoid having a really deep hierarchy but we also should avoid having long pages with tons of text about several different topics, right?

I've created some templates for articles. They are general guidelines to help you write completely and thoroughly-- use them as you wish. They're not rules or required.

http://songfightnet.dreamhosters.com/wi ... e_Template

The audio wiki is now at it's final home:

http://songfight.net/wiki

Please help by adding things to it.

JB

bump.


i plan on adding a basic entry on mics soon.

anyone else? anything?

to include in your mic entry:

1. Practical differences between patterns
2. Practical differences dynamic vs. condenser
3. What you sacrifice with a cheaper microphone
4. Overcoming the limitations of cheap microphones
5. Mic type and positioning on acoustic guitar
6. Mic type and positioning on amplifier

I'm nursing an article on compression, and I've got plans for that mastering article. Any requested includes?

Here are some other article ideas. Remembering that we are concentrating on home recordists. This means people with limited to no experience, operating with limited to no budgets.

Start with simple explanations, and we'll get into more complex ideas at a later time. Think of this as "The Idiot's Guide to Audio"-- for now.

Don't worry about organization. Get the info into the system.

1. A basic, practical explanation of using a patchbay. Preferably with examples that assume a home recording setup rather than a real studio, and which AVOIDS the stupid signal path diagrams and gobbledygook that every other explanation of patchbays falls into.

2. What is this S/PDIF thing?

3. BASIC Keyboard explanations:
a. What is a pad?
b. Why can some synths play only one note at a time?
c. What is an analog synthesizer and why would I want one?
d. What's the difference between a "MIDI Controller" and a synthesizer?

4. What are tubes and why should I care?

5. What is a "ground hum"?
a. This should include an example of what a ground hum sounds like
b. Explain how to replicate a ground hum. This will help people learn to diagnose.
c. Then explain various troubleshooting things (practical, emphasis on people with cheap equipment) that will help get rid of one.

6. What is a sampler? What can you do with one other than playback a quote from a movie in the middle of your song?

7. Elementary computer recording: How do I get noise into my computer and out again? What's involved?

8. Guitar distortion primer

9. Different ways of playing the guitar-- flat-picking vs. fingerpicking vs. strumming vs. using a pick.

10. What are "power chords"?

11. Monitor primer
a. nearfield vs. midfield vs. etc.
i. nearfield are often cheaper and for smaller spaces and you sit closer, etc. midfield are the big things you see in a studio that cost a mint.
b. headphones vs. speakers
c. powered vs. unpowered
i. powered is more expensive
ii. unpowered requires an amplifier

12. What is "latency"?
a. The world needs a good explanation of buffer sizes-- what the hell is a buffer and what does it do for me? If making a smaller buffer size gets me awesome latency (or lack thereof) why would I ever want to make it bigger?

13. What is the diff between 16bit and 32bit? 24 and 48 and 96? WTF? I can't hear a difference, so how can I use these options in my setup?

Puce wrote:I'm nursing an article on compression, and I've got plans for that mastering article. Any requested includes?

I request that you keep in mind the intended audience, which includes me. I have so little knowledge of actually how to use compression. The articles talk and talk, but I can hardly make out what they're saying. It would be SO AWESOME to have examples, before and after shots, of specific techniques that address very particular issues-- rather than an A/B of a whole mixed song where you go "see how much better that sounds?"

Something like this:

"Here is a bass line. Now here's that bass line using the compression settings listed below."

"Here is a vocal line, Now here it is with XYZ compression settings. It is a tenor singer, so you should use A and B. If you are compressing a soprano use C and D. See the article on Mixing Voices for more information about dealing with vocals in a mix."

"Here is the bass AND the vocal line. Notice problem A. Here's how it can be fixed using compression. Here, listen to the result."

Use lots of examples.

Oh here's another thing to address: "What is a 'mix'? Basic Terminology Used in Recording Audio."