you play drums vs rip off other drum tracks..to make your so called pieces to gain pseudo music creation

You have to remember, some of us don't want to play instruments and only want to record vocal to a BT. In general I don't have much interest anymore in what you may call art. While mastering or trying to perfect more a finished mix sometimes seems interesting me, laying down a drum track would personally interest me about as much as going to the dentist. You have to consider the big picture with Riff-Masters and everyone's individual interest(s). It's not really an outlet for ones 'original' aspirations.
 
Sapient said:
You have to remember, some of us don't want to play instruments and only want to record vocal. In general I don't have much interest anymore in what you may call art. While mastering or trying to perfect more a finished mix sometimes seems interesting to me, laying down a drum track would personally interest me about as much as going to the dentist. You have to consider the big picture with Riff-Masters and everyone's individual interest(s). It's not really an outlet for ones 'original' aspirations.
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so in friendly rebuttal how do you even make music..without a time keeper..emotion builder.. the drums..thank you for the RM clarification.. will never even attempt to submit another song,, if pick n chose in song making is the norm..
 
I'm not sure what this is about but the drums have to swing and have a great snare drum sound that cuts through the mix
it's not that easy
 
BFT Gibson said:
so in friendly rebuttal how do you even make music..without a time keeper..emotion builder.. the drums..thank you for the RM clarification.. will never even attempt to submit another song,, if pick n chose in song making is the norm..
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I'm certainly no pro singer but it's the only thing I want to do in the vein of music. Instruments and me are just done these days for me ...just the way life unfolded I guess. To answer your question, I really don't "make" too much music as much as I do practice singing these days. Actually hitting a series of notes fully in key once in a while fortifies what I see as a musical "chubby" for me.

It's the old "different strokes for different folks" for all of us I suppose.
 
Sapient said:
I'm certainly no pro singer but it's the only think I want to do in the vein of music. Instruments and me are just done these days for me ...just the way life unfolded I guess. To answer your question, I really don't "make" too much music as much as I do practice singing these days. Actually hitting a series of notes fully in key once in a while fortifies what I see as a musical "chubby" for me.

It's the old "different strokes for different folks" for all of us I suppose.
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I am going to record a song.. will you sing? Can Reaper files work?
 
I didn;t mean this to be negative.. darn work phone never stops. I am on the organic kick ..what can we make with what we got..
 
BFT Gibson said:
so,,how do you vote if someone makes a song from drums up vs this pseudo stuff goin on? where does the effort really happen?
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I think that a lot of work goes in to drums. Even though I don't own a kit. EZ Drummer is a actual bunch of recorded engineered drums that are free from copyright.
I tapped out some things and it can be time consuming.
 
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So from my position in musical life. I barely play guitar. For Jessie’s girl I played my bass all the way thru a song for the first time ever in the entire time I’ve had it since the mid 90s. I have never taken a piano lesson. I can find middle C on a keyboard and do Chop Sticks. I can keep a pretty decent beat. I cannot play drums. I’ve tried. I can kick it or I can use the sticks. I absolutely can’t do both at the same time. It’s that chew gum and walk at the same time thing. I don’t have a midi controller, so using a Drum App is difficult. And even if I did…. See chewing gum and walking. Plus…. I have no idea how to do what with each drum to lay down a track.

So for the challenge I just did….

I was teaching myself how to play bass, took me over a week just to lay down the bass track… and there’s only 4 notes in the whole song…. 7 if you count the key change.
Teaching myself Reaper and how to record multi tracks.
I wanted to add vocal (me) but ran out of time.
I didn’t do it for votes, was surprised I actually received 5.
I did it for fun and to push me out of my comfort zone.
The only way I have something I can share is if I use a backing track for the instruments I can’t do or I don’t share anything.
 
iblive said:
So from my position in musical life. I barely play guitar. For Jessie’s girl I played my bass all the way thru a song for the first time ever in the entire time I’ve had it since the mid 90s. I have never taken a piano lesson. I can find middle C on a keyboard and do Chop Sticks. I can keep a pretty decent beat. I cannot play drums. I’ve tried. I can kick it or I can use the sticks. I absolutely can’t do both at the same time. It’s that chew gum and walk at the same time thing. I don’t have a midi controller, so using a Drum App is difficult. And even if I did…. See chewing gum and walking. Plus…. I have no idea how to do what with each drum to lay down a track.

So for the challenge I just did….

I was teaching myself how to play bass, took me over a week just to lay down the bass track… and there’s only 4 notes in the whole song…. 7 if you count the key change.
Teaching myself Reaper and how to record multi tracks.
I wanted to add vocal (me) but ran out of time.
I didn’t do it for votes, was surprised I actually received 5.
I did it for fun and to push me out of my comfort zone.
The only way I have something I can share is if I use a backing track for the instruments I can’t do or I don’t share anything.
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It's perfectly fine to do what you are comfortable with.
You can tap the drum parts on your computer keyboard without a midi controller. Also piano roll keys.

That is what the Riffmaster competition is about getting you out of your comfort zone and playing guitar.
 
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It's sort of a slow day at work, so I'll lay down some of my thoughts on this. It might get longwinded lol so I'll try and organize them the best I can. Of course, these are just my opinions.
  • Riffmasters is just for fun. It's a game, and there are points, but they don't really mean anything.
  • I'm a guitar player, not a drummer. I played in bands for many years and I didn't write the drum parts then either, the drummer did
  • Everyone plays and creates music for different reasons. No one reason is more "correct" or legit

I've stated this before, but since joining this forum I've been playing more guitar than I have in probably a decade. I'm writing again and rehearsing. Instead of just picking up a guitar to noodle around (which is fine too) I'm picking it up with a purpose. That purpose is not to win Riffmasters though, it's just to be a part of it. The satisfaction comes from putting together a piece of music that I am proud of. Sure, getting "points" and "votes" for something you put a lot of work into is a nice feeling, but for me it's not the motivating factor for putting in the work. I do it because I enjoy creating something.

I feel like if I took the time to sit down and write some drum parts, I probably could. But they would most likely be fairly generic and simple, and far below the skill level of my guitar playing. I also work 6 days a week and have two little girls at home, so my free time for music is few and far between. Personally, I prefer to spend what little time I have playing an instrument I enjoy and not learning a new one. So I think that it's awesome that there are so many free drum tracks and plugins out there that can get me backing tracks in minutes instead of hours. I don't feel like I'm ripping anything off. I do feel that given the same drum track, different guitarists will come up with different ideas of what to play over it.

Lastly, back when I had the dream of being a guitar player, the dream for me was to be a studio musician. Gigging was fun and I enjoyed writing my own stuff too, but what I really wanted to do was show up each day and figure out what tones and notes to play to make whatever style of music was put in front of me the best that it can be.
That is my favorite thing about playing guitar. So I absolutely love these riffmaster challenges. I like being told what to play. I don't find it stifling, I find it freeing because all that's left for me to do is play.
 
That is another point you mentioned.
(Sure, getting "points" and "votes" for something you put a lot of work into)
I put so much in to the last challenge.

Basically I got too submerged in trying to
get the synth right and making the drum parts by tapping them out.
It ended badly because I ran out of time.
So also another good point is saving time with drum tracks.

I have played drums at a friend's house. I'm not good but I can play a basic beat.
 
Seamus OReally said:
I put more time and creative thought into my MIDI drum parts than the average drummer does. So what if they’re not “real?”
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Some of the drums in EZ drummer are to real sounding , meaning the room sound and certain sets are to crisp or resonate. Stock drums in the modern set come with the compression and reverb settings overdone. I didn't know about having to dial that out before saving.
I have barely written drums in midi but that is also something I will do more of in the future. I can save the EZ drummer midi and edit it. Something I talked to Don about.
 
ibmorjamn said:
That is another point you mentioned.
(Sure, getting "points" and "votes" for something you put a lot of work into)
I put so much in to the last challenge.

Basically I got too submerged in trying to
get the synth right and making the drum parts by tapping them out.
It ended badly because I ran out of time.
So also another good point is saving time with drum tracks.

I have played drums at a friend's house. I'm not good but I can play a basic beat.
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I’m going down the synth rabbit hole at the moment working on a spy theme. It’s fun and exciting but also makes me want to rip my hair out lol
 
BFT Gibson said:
My question if song is made with drums lifted rhythm backing track lifted..how the hell does that even rank vs someone who makes a track from ground up,playing every single instrument & even writing lyrics & singing them..,,popularity contest BS vs artist inspiration
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While I agree in principle to this, as it is obviously more work, to make that the norm would mean cutting out virtually everyone save for a select handful. Not a great way to get everyone involved. When I was in studio a few years back the producer indeed did add some MIDI drums in a couple spots after drums were recorded. Does this make the that song somehow phony?
It was a tool to be used to complete said project and the RM stuff is far easier going and less "important" as it were than playing good money for producing and releasing a song.
 
BFT Gibson said:
Can we have a play what F you play thread where we all win??? I respect anybody that records and posts it ! the rip,off plagiarism backing track stuff not so much
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Some of the material for RM is indeed covers so what is the issue with using a backing drum track for exactly that particular song as opposed to none at all which is my other option.
 
Seamus OReally said:
I put more time and creative thought into my MIDI drum parts than the average drummer does. So what if they’re not “real?”
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Good point. If one has a properly mic'd kit and a good drummer, he might do what is required in a couple of takes. The fun part is in the mixdown.
With MIDI drums, there would be far more involved and conceivably more creativity to get an entire drum kit down for a song. That really makes it more creative and in a sense harder to do and more time consuming.
So.... worth more points?
 
BFT Gibson said:
Now i get forums. finally.. i just thought we all wake up..and go play in bands,,my bad.
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But that begs an interesting question; is one really being more original than the other?
I used to play in a 5 piece band. We did all original material, but we had 2 guitarists, a bassist, a drummer, a vocalist and a friend who recorded us. Everybody contributed their own parts to the songs.

Compared to something like a song I recorded the other day. I used a drum track off the internet, but I wrote and played all the guitar parts, bass parts, lyrics, vocals, plus I recorded and mixed it.

Both could be seen as a “labor of love” in my opinion
 
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