SethTaylor

If you're a musician and you're using social media platforms other than the massive mainstream ones, thank you for being here.

I hope we collectively manage to create a future environment where artists hold control over their art and algorithms and marketing budgets don't decide who gets to make a living.

Small steps.

I'll be taking on a personal challenge. I'll try to get at least one artist I know or like to join at least one non-mainstream social media platform every month.

If I succeed, I'll be back with proof. And if I succeed, you should all try it too! :) It will most likely require [yuck] logging into Meta to message people, but...

I'm willing to fill up a few barf bags while I'm at it. haha All for the greater good.

I've been obsessed with Searows' Death in the Business of Whaling the last few days. It's been raining heavily. That certainly helped set the mood.

Photograph of a Cyclone has amazing banjo. The fingerstyle guitar on Dirt stays in your ear. In Violet has a neat moment about two and a half minutes in where the banjo and the synth blend together seamlessly (that enough might be intriguing enough of a sentence to get you to listen to it).

Also, if you like chorus on your guitar, you'll have plenty.

It's worth your time!

I've decided to start doing daily updates on the progress on my Murky Mind (music) album, which will be released under my band No Outlines. I reckon it might help keep me productive. I guess we'll find out tomorrow... if there is a second update! hahaha

These updates will be on a separate group dedicated to the band so as not to clog up this or any other groups with my daily posts. You can find the nooutlinesband group here: https://lemmy.world/post/44960854

Anyway, after a long series of unpredictable events, I'm back to work. Murky Mind is already fully written. The big challenge recently has been setting up the infrastructure for recording it at home and starting a band that will operate on an extremely low budget so that it has good odds of being profitable. These are great big things to achieve, and that's precisely why they have to be taken one step at a time.

Today I brushed up on my to-do list for the next few months, started sorting through some notes and... most importantly... ran some tests on Reaper to make sure it's the DAW I want to replace Adobe Audition with (Adobe can go to hell with their subscription model and general awfulness)

Something that was really giving me anxiety about Reaper: I checked sound quality after render and it's real nice. Basically, the exported .wav file that comes out of Reaper sounds identical or near-identical to the original recording when re-inserted into the timeline. I'd previously had an issue with Adobe Audition wherein the exported file would sound quieter. I was never able to fully fix it. Glad to be rid of it.

And that's it, really. Not all these updates will be exciting. Some will be text only. I'll try to keep most of them brief and catchy. But that's not the point of this. The point is to keep me focused on this album for at least a couple hours a day and perhaps to give people a glimpse into how making music at home goes.

If you've read all this, heck, you're already one of the biggest fans of this unreleased album. Thank you!

P.S: You won't find any of these updates on mainstream social media. I'm not there anymore and I'm grateful to have company here instead. Thank you for being here!

EDIT: Fixed

(I know I'm unlikely to find another mandolin player or a stringed instrument technician here, but I figured, heck, let's see if I get lucky!)

So my bottom E string seems to be playing consistently one semitone low. It's had fret buzz for a while, but recently it made a pop noise and now it sounds as shown in the video above. I can't see any obvious issues with the string, nut or frets, but something is certainly wrong.

I'd like to start by replacing the strings, but the fact that it plays consistently one semitone off made me think it's more likely a fret issue.

Any thoughts?

Might turn out to be relevant: this is a super old mandolin without a truss rod

EDIT: Fixed

I love this music video. I love the copious amounts of film grain. I love the lighting, including the use of natural light in the desert scenes. I love that pull-out at 1:08 and a bunch of other creative shots throughout that help the band members' charisma shine. There was talk a while ago about how "the music video is dead". I can't even remember why.

I'm aware of these bands: Hey Monday, Wednesday, Thursday

Where are the rest?

UPDATE: This meme has been self-fulfilling because I got home this morning to find the cat in question doing the deed with four male cats in broad daylight in the middle of my yard (the original post was triggered quite innocently by her "bonding" with a cat that wasn't her male bff)

I DID NOT KNOW that they all do it the same day! What the fuck. I figured it happens over the course of the whole spring or something

Gross.

Not kink-shaming but wtf cats! Where's this behavior coming from? 😂 I thought y'all were just innocent adorable furballs

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have about a dozen strays to catch and take to the vet. No joke.

FURTHER UPDATE: It's been 3 hours. The same four cats have returned and are watching the girl one eat. What the fuck is going on?! [ shaking and crying in a corner ] I don't want cats anymore I don't want cats anymore I don't want cats anymore I don't want cats anymore I don't want cats anymore. I chased them away. Forget it. It's 3:30pm. They can go somewhere else or at least wait for dark. I don't want my neighbors to see a cat orgy in my front yard 🫣🫣🫣

Sorry sound like the kind of band you discover by chance at a free show in a dark and damp little pub with only 10 other people in the audience... and I love it.

Total badass superhero pose right there

Went into loaf mode three seconds later haha

Her name is Cadette, she's a stray, she sleeps in my attic and she's still getting used to being pet

The guy in the foreground is Buddy. He's more domesticated

It's a great day to be me! I'm a huge Ratboys fan and there's lots to watch and listen around the new album. I've just stumbled upon this performance I missed from a month ago. I also can't help but notice the location and have to mention that Ratboys openly campaigned against Trump in 2024. A band on the right side of history.