TGF Do Something Challenge 2024 - Season Two - Week One

[Iron1]

Welcome back to the greatest show on Earth!
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Congratulations once again to the Season One Champion @PLX

Additional congratulations go out to the four TGF recording artists who joined the champ on the TGF Greatest Hits (click here) debut album and the accompanying Deep Cuts (and here) release. If you have not listened, liked, shared, subscribed and named your unborn children after the songs on those albums, you are immediately disqualified from all future cool events. Slacker. Just kidding. But please go give 'em a listen.

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In order to get more people DOing SOMETHING this season, we have some new twists for you!

As always, the standard rules apply. Click here for Standard Rules. Yes, that means you @LiveeviL2000 (and you too @FuzzyAce )

Just as we have in the past, you may submit in three categories. Original Track, Cover Song or Guitar Solo.

For this season, we will have THREE CHAMPIONS!

• One "Original Artist Champion"
• One "Cover Song Champion"
• One "Guitar Solo Champion"

(snazzy nicknames for these may or may not be on the way... stop interrupting.)

When you post your entry please begin the post by stating which category applies: Original Track, Cover Song or Guitar Solo.

In order to "spread the wealth" so to speak, and ensure we have three champions, one artist can only win one category. For example, even if @Whizzinby goes on a month long Fen-Fen Bender and chases weird naked Indians through the desert with the ghost of Captain Crunch, yielding more original songs, cover songs and guitar solos than all other artists combined, he can only win in one category. Sorry Whizz!

P.s. Fen-Fen is bad. Weird naked Indians are like totally socially inappropriate these days and Captain Crunch is still alive and well, despite that sordid thing between him and the Green M&M in Antigua.

Now, most importantly:

Just kidding.

The three winners, and a select number of runner-up entrants, will have the opportunity to have their work featured on The Gear Forums official Youtube Record Label's second set of Greatest Hits and Deep Cuts releases.

And go DO SOMETHING!

P.s. Please remember, your entries must be created during this Challenge Season. As much as we love your Ross Gellar Keytar solo from 1998, it has no place in this challenge.

 

[PLX]

"Original Track"

 

[mbenigni]

"Original Track"

24 minutes into the season?!

 

[PLX]

24 minutes into the season?!

I wish I had taken more time, and fixed a couple things in that one.

 

[FuzzyAce]

24 minutes into the season?!

 

[mbenigni]

I wish I had taken more time, and fixed a couple things in that one.

Holy humblebrag, Batman. I’ll spend 24 minutes tuning my guitar.

 

[FuzzyAce]

Holy humblebrag, Batman. I’ll spend 24 minutes tuning my guitar.

That fast? wow

 

[PLX]

Holy humblebrag, Batman. I’ll spend 24 minutes tuning my guitar.

You guys are tuning your guitars ?

 

[FuzzyAce]

You guys are tuning your guitars ?

That's what the manual said to do?

 

[FuzzyAce]

"Original Track"

I'm liking the changes in your track. Nicely done.
You mentioned drums last week -- so what did you end up using for this one?

 

[PLX]

I'm liking the changes in your track. Nicely done.
You mentioned drums last week -- so what did you end up using for this one?

I'm a lazy idiot.. I pull down practice drum tracks off YouTube and just make it work.

 

[mbenigni]

You guys are tuning your guitars ?

I mean… ish. I don’t have all day.

 

[PLX]

I mean… ish. I don’t have all day.

I'm sure you guys know this, but when you start a track in your DAW, there's no reason to start from scratch every time.

I have what I call a "template track" where I have a drum track assigned with EQ. The drum tracks I use are whatever I can find out on teh YouTube at the tempo I want to play at. But they are all low quality because I don't pay for the good ones.

The EQ helps because otherwise the snare always sounds like someone hitting a wet cardboard box with a dead cat.

Same goes for bass. I gave my bass guitar away last year, so I just track my guitar.. compress it, run it through the native pitch shifter in Reaper - down one octave. As long as it buried in the mix, it will pass for a "bass".

The template track I use also already has the Master Bus track open with fade in/fade out.. I just drag that around to where I need it.

Same with the EQ on the master bus. I use a $5 plugin from Audio Assault called IQ EQ to handle the frequency build-up you get from tracking 4 ~6 distorted guitar tracks, and to hi-pass the low end.

 

[FuzzyAce]

I'm a lazy idiot.. I pull down practice drum tracks off YouTube and just make it work.

I get it, you can't be too picky with only 24 minutes to work with.

 

[FuzzyAce]

I'm sure you guys know this, but when you start a track in your DAW, there's no reason to start from scratch every time.

I have what I call a "template track" where I have a drum track assigned with EQ. The drum tracks I use are whatever I can find out on teh YouTube at the tempo I want to play at. But they are all low quality because I don't pay for the good ones.

The EQ helps because otherwise the snare always sounds like someone hitting a wet cardboard box with a dead cat.

Same goes for bass. I gave my bass guitar away last year, so I just track my guitar.. compress it, run it through the native pitch shifter in Reaper - down one octave. As long as it buried in the mix, it will pass for a "bass".

The template track I use also already has the Master Bus track open with fade in/fade out.. I just drag that around to where I need it.

Same with the EQ on the master bus. I use a $5 plugin from Audio Assault called IQ EQ to handle the frequency build-up you get from tracking 4 ~6 distorted guitar tracks, and to hi-pass the low end.

I do have templates but more often than not I start from scratch each session. I'm spontaneous that way. Also, about 90% of my entries are brand new ideas written in the session when I plop down to record that day. It's a bit more unpredictable but I like it that way I guess?

 

[PLX]

I do have templates but more often than not I start from scratch each session. I'm spontaneous that way. Also, about 90% of my entries are brand new ideas written in the session when I plop down to record that day. It's a bit more unpredictable but I like it that way I guess?

I'm at the point where the minutiae of working in the DAW kills my creative process and drains all the fun out of playing the guitar..

I just wanna plug in my guitar and hit record. To me, that's the fun part.

I've learned enough to automate as much of this stuff as possible so I can do just that.. hit record and start wanking riffs.

 

[Whizzinby]

Wife when she sees you heading to the music room at 8:30am “Season 2 has started honey”…

 

[mbenigni]

I do have templates but more often than not I start from scratch each session. I'm spontaneous that way. Also, about 90% of my entries are brand new ideas written in the session when I plop down to record that day. It's a bit more unpredictable but I like it that way I guess?

Same. On the other hand I almost never get anything done…

 

[mbenigni]

Wife when she sees you heading to the music room at 8:30am “Season 2 has started honey”…

Your wife gets started early LOL.

 

[FuzzyAce]

I'm at the point where the minutiae of working in the DAW kills my creative process and drains all the fun out of playing the guitar..

I just wanna plug in my guitar and hit record. To me, that's the fun part.

I've learned enough to automate as much of this stuff as possible so I can do just that.. hit record and start wanking riffs.

I totally get it. But my setup is pretty simple even when I don't use DAW 'templates' (which is pretty much never!). Helix Native has made sessions a lot easier in my case. SD3 is solid and I count on it for most of the drums. You could say those 2 are my templates to start from although they certainly aren't basic plugins. I do want to set up an experimental station connected to my recording desk -- with different noise makers, analog gear and some synths. That is a goal this year because I do like creating textures and soundscapes.