BandLab
-
@gardeningangel1 Jan 2022
Anyone else use BandLab? Seems like it would be great for collaborating. All genres welcome.
-
@dzdandcunfsd Jan 2022
*raises hand*
I don't use it often, but it is really nice for collaborations once you get a handle on its somewhat weird(to me) layout. -
@jimdgreen Jan 2022
I had a quick look, and though something similar - could be very Colab friendly
-
@dzdandcunfsd Jan 2022
@jimdgreen For me the big plus is once everyone is invited to the "project" or whatever its called, anyone can edit/add to or whatever all the individual stems, even if you don't use the DAW they provide for recording (Cakewalk)
-
@gardeningangel1 Jan 2022
Groovy! Thinking I'll start some tracks after the gates open and post them here, then folks can jump in on anything that strikes their fancy. Since it allows projects to have multiple branches this could get very interesting (and hopefully not too complicated).
-
@elainedimasi Jan 2022
Agree with the above! It can be a fun way for a group to throw ideas together and I have used it a lot during the pandemic, my co-workers wanted to record covers. I encouraged folks to record their "real" takes offline against downloaded stems. Sometimes, I premixed stuff to provide stems for folks. But some of us recorded into the web interface.
We finished 3 songs, and I downloaded and mixed all the tracks in the relaxing DAW luxury of Pro Tools. It wasn't just that the Bandlab DAW is limited, I had a lot of fix-it audio editing I wanted to do. ;-)
Something else we did turned out to be really useful. Had a lot of folks that just wanted to do harmony vocals. So we'd have a session for the song, and I made another session called "The Recording Room" where I would change out the guide track and have room for people to do layers of vocals without cluttering up the main song where folks were doing instruments. We managed the 16-track limit easily that way.
My handle on there is elainedimasi, same as here :-) -
@doeeyes Jan 2022
Oh, excellent - up til now I've only had an account so I can continue using Cakewalk, finally a good excuse to investigate it :)
-
@rorowe Jan 2022
I've been Chromebook/Smartphone-only for a few years now. I've struggled to find a multitrack option that I "vibe with". Right now, it's a toss-up between Bandlab and Soundtrap. Would love an excuse to delve deeper into one or the other!
-
@wrenarcher Jan 2022
I signed up for an account last year after reading through the DAW thread and looked at again this year. Not sure why I felt like it didn't work for me then. Maybe because I was only looking at the iOS app? Dunno.
But after looking at again on my laptop last night, it seems like it might be kinda easy to use. Guess I'll have to plug in my little mixing board and see if everything "talks" to each other.
And this idea!... kinda like a "soft collab". Not totally committed and then ultimately letting someone down so this is really cool for me. -
@wacha Jan 2022
I've played around with it a little bit haven't been all that active there. I mainly use it as a resource to quickly grab samples.
-
@gardeningangel1 Jan 2022
Oh yeah, my handle there is Gardening Angel, same as here. Hah, I just had a little flare-up of imposter syndrome wondering if I'm in over my head. Then I remembered what a forgiving, supportive group this is so that cured me.
@elainedimasi Similar, I use Audacity for a few things that aren't included or I just haven't figured out how to do in BandLab. Found you there, digging this cover of I Can See Clearly Now :)
@wrenarcher hope your little mixer is able to join the conversation. Same, no pressure "soft collab" is exactly what I'm thinking. -
@pbtaylorjr Jan 2022
I haven’t done much in bandlab, but I think it’s straightforward enough to figure out on the fly.
I’ve not done much collaborating in previous fawms, but I would be down to try.
If anyone wants to you can hit me up on bandlab - @homeschoolpromking and we can see what beautiful art transpires. -
@elainedimasi Jan 2022
@gardeningangel1 Hey thanks! I'll have to look you up on there!
-
@wrenarcher Jan 2022
Ha! well, how about that.
Didn't take much for me to coax my little mixer along and she seems to be okay with talking to my laptop. They're playing nice and I got to see some nice looking wave patterns in BandLab on a test run.
So yay! -
@wobbiewobbit Jan 2022
i had a little poke around the bandlab side of things a while back (i am a big cakewalk fan) and was hoping there might be an opportunity here to play around with it so yeah count me in! I am wobbiewobbit there as well.
-
@elainedimasi Jan 2022
I'm sending invitations now to a band called FAWMlab :-)
Handles I've got:
@gardeningangel1 @wobbiewobbit @pbtaylorjr=homeschoolpromking @dzdandcunfsd
Handles I've not:
@wrenarcher @wacha @doeeyes
Anyone else?
Come on in to the Skittles Room!
-
@wobbiewobbit Jan 2022
oh funny, i was just looking at that and followed FAWMlab before i saw your message. ON IT!
-
@elainedimasi Jan 2022
@wobbiewobbit that explains why zero seconds after inviting you I got a message requesting access for you! Can you see the Skittles Room as a project in the band? If so, mission accomplished for the evening :-)
-
@dzdandcunfsd Jan 2022
@elainedimasi pretty sure I'm same name there, but haven't even logged onto it in a while. I'll check
-
@elainedimasi Jan 2022
@dzdandcunfsd Got you and updated my post
-
@dzdandcunfsd Jan 2022
@elainedimasi awesome! and could see Skittles Room and edit that, so mission accomplished!
-
@wrenarcher Jan 2022
I’ve been asked to be in a band????
Seems as though 2022 is shoring up rather nicely.
On BandLab I’m: aBirdieOnaWire -
@elainedimasi Jan 2022
Cool @wrenarcher I sent you the invite, and I think when you accept, it sends me a notification that I have to again confirm. When I see it, will do!
-
@gardeningangel1 Jan 2022
This is so awesome!!!
-
@robhowell Jan 2022
I’ve never used BandLab before but I’d love to try some collaborations this year and BandLab sounds like the ideal tool for it so I’ll sign up tonight :)
-
@robhowell Jan 2022
@elainedimasi If it’s an open invitation then I’d love to please get involved! I’ve just signed up to BandLab, my username is robhowell
Thanks! -
@doeeyes Jan 2022
Awww yissss. Seems to work fine, although generally it looks like it's aimed at the cool kids doing their bars in school playgrounds and what have you.
@gardeningangel1 - I'm the same, feeling a bit Imposter-y! I always feel like I'm in over my head (in life generally) but the red flag of 'learning a new DAW in FAWM' is waving proudly at me :) -
@gardeningangel1 Jan 2022
Hi @robhowell ! I just followed you on BL (hope that's the right account). I don't have admin control to send you an invite but I'm sure Elaine will find you :)
-
@elainedimasi Jan 2022
Hi everybody. So whenever I know of the handle of someone who wants to join, I'm sending invitations to the 'band' called FAWMlab. I don't know how to make a band joinable by public link (though that can be done for a "project", which is what they call each multitrack song or session).
Click on "Projects" to see the project called "The Skittles Room" (our lobby / mic check / futz-place) or to start a new project.
I believe you have the choice when you start a project to make it part of a band you belong to, or not and you control that project and can add any collaborators you like. A project that belongs to the band can be seen by everyone in the band.
Make yourselves at home! -
@gardeningangel1 Jan 2022
@doeeyes This is one of the few red flags I encourage running towards rather than away from :) Hey, we can be cool kids, too!
-
@elainedimasi Jan 2022
A few FAWMlabbers are poking around together - come on in if you want to say hi!
-
@gardeningangel1 Jan 2022
Well restringing my guitar somehow turned into a complete overhaul of the band room but I finally got around to adding to this. And I found the chat! I never got to use that before because I had no one to chat with.
-
@feb21sundari Jan 2022
...may be.if I master the use, then I m in the pool too kkkk
-
@musicbymichelle Jan 2022
Just trying out band lab for the first time and I'm a first time fawmer. Would love to collaborate with others.
-
@gardeningangel1 Jan 2022
@musicbymichelle if you post your BandLab user name here @elainedimasi can add you to the group. Welcome to FAWM!!!
-
@gardeningangel1 Jan 2022
Link to the group:
https://www.bandlab.com/band/band7783365270336557 -
@gardeningangel1 Feb 2022
Testing... testing... I recorded "Testcam 2022" over the past couple days just making sure my equipment all works so I'm not going to count it as one of my FAWM songs but if anyone wants to play around with it, you're welcome to it.
-
@elainedimasi Feb 2022
@gardeningangel1 and everybody, awesome, yes I got the email notification in Bandlab and could go right there. That track absolutely will get some airtime.
One thing I'm thinking to do is have one song on my FAWM board called "FAWMlab," which will have liner notes that link to all the songs that come out. Any of us can do this, in addition to those songs one feels strongly connected to, and either posts the song themselves (or as a 2-person collab) or has a separaate pointer song on their board. Just a thought! -
@gardeningangel1 Feb 2022
Great idea @elainedimasi !!! I woke up to so much excitement and activity. Yay it's finally FAWM!
-
@saulius Feb 2022
I've been using BL for two years now for my barbershop chorus the Seattle Seachordsmen. I set up our full song catalog complete with learning tracks for every part - over 150 songs. BL essentially saved our chorus from extinction after the pandemic hit. Chorus members love it for practice because it works great on phones/pads. We used it to record audio for our virtual choir videos, and we even made a complete Holiday show in 2020 with ALL AUDIO tracks recorded on BL - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=958Gj3R2AY8. And last year we made a commercial for Sound Transit, all recorded on BL with most singers using just their earbud mics - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkLlhfO9Cwo.
I download the stems from BL to Logic on my Mac. Then I clean up and time align the tracks and mix them. I was surprised at the quality of many recordings done on phones. Anyway, BL has become one of my essential tools. -
@gardeningangel1 Feb 2022
@saulius Love that barbershop! I'm terribly impressed. If only public transportation was that well orchestrated.
-
@saulius Feb 2022
@gardeningangel1 I love it too, so much. Btw, my BL userid is @saulius_matas. I'd like to check out what you've got going on.
-
@gardeningangel1 Feb 2022
@saulius For sure! Here's the link to the band: https://www.bandlab.com/band/band7783365270336557
@elainedimasi can tag you in. :) -
@elainedimasi Feb 2022
Thx @gardeningangel1 ! @saulius I found a "sauliusmatas" (no underscore) and made the Bandlab invitation to FAWMlab.
Will be on tonight to check out what I have to catch up with! -
@elainedimasi Feb 2022
Hey FAWMlab! Bandlab has a Lyrics/Notes widget, check it out
-
@dzdandcunfsd Feb 2022
@elainedimasi gettin fancy! :)
-
@gardeningangel1 Feb 2022
That is handy! I think I used it once for production notes and then was confused when I couldn't find my notes in my notebook. I need to make a habit of using that.
-
@elainedimasi Feb 2022
Hey "everybody" (but I am almost certain I'm missing a couple FAWM handles for some people in the FAWMlab - please help)
It's said that new teams "form, storm, norm, and perform." We "form" by joining on here, or finding the FAWMlab band in Bandlab and asking to join. Who else would like to be a FAWMlab admin? (I just found the button that does that.) My time zone is west of most of you. I don't want us to drop beats!
"Storm" for us probably means visiting projects like Skittles Room, and checking out each others' FAWM songs, to see what kinds of things we all do!
"Norm and perform" is when we get comfortable slapping up tracks and asking each other to do stuff. Speaking of which, we should as FAWMers decide when to FAWM stuff out and when to make an artwork of it.
I propose TestCAM be FAWMed out soon as a short furry song. I am willing to do the mix after contributors are happy with parts. As a default maybe the FAWMer who launched the song (gardeningangel1 in this case) and someone else, maybe singer and/or mixer (me in this case) would be the collab that posts the demo. For any song, that should be decided who will post. I'm just suggesting a default path.
Here is my first post of my FAWMlab index song!
https://fawm.org/songs/127151/
We should all have one, to point to all songs from the collab! If we feel strongly about a contribution, we can also post a duplicate specific song - we can do anything, this is FAWM :-)
Launch songs! Offer parts! Ask each other for stuff!
@gardeningangel1 @dzdandcunfsd @doeeyes @wrenarcher @wacha @pbtaylorjr @wobbiewobbit @robhowell @saulius @musicbymichelle @jimdgreen @rorowe @wylddandelyon @robcrusade
ps At the end of the month, we get to SING the index song and post it as a bonus track!! -
@wylddandelyon Feb 2022
This look interesting. I sent a request to join.
-
@elainedimasi Feb 2022
Great! Got a few more handles in.
All, the bandlab chats are complicated and I'm not sure I grok it all:
- there are person to person DM's
- I *think* there is a chat within FAWMlab as a Band, but I'm not sure how to navigate to it deliberately
- there is a chat *inside the mix editor* in each Project (=song)
- there are public facing comments for Projects, but those are disabled while the Project is unpublished (doesn't show on public Bandlab feed)
Gooooooood luck and don't give up! -
@gardeningangel1 Feb 2022
@elainedimasi great ideas! Since I wrote my portion of Testcam in January I'm not going to count it in my FAWM songs so just mention me in the liner notes. I really liked the lyrics you wrote for it, hope you're still adding vocals! And the Bowie-esque guitars (why can't I remember who added those?) Really kicked it off as a collab.
I will post a FAWMlab index song place-holder thingy with links to that and any other BL collabs.
You can add me as admin since I keep weird hours, I'll take nightguard duty :) -
@doeeyes Feb 2022
@elainedimasi, ahh I finally understand this now, thanks for posting. Had to read a few times to get it. I'm much more comfortable doing it this way, getting in touch with people first. Just hijacking @gardeningangel1 's TestCam was a bit nervewracking as I've no idea if I was ruining the original plan!
@paulh1237 pointed me to the chat function. For some reason, they put it *inside* the mix editor at the bottom-right. I think they were expecting everyone to join a session and chat while we create at the same time? -
@wrenarcher Feb 2022
The chat window thing had me a little confused as well @doeeyes Kinda makes sense though your hypothesis about chatting while simultaneously creating.
-
@daveyboy103 Feb 2022
I use their mastering service, works great and is free
-
@gardeningangel1 Feb 2022
@daveyboy103 Yeah, I like that it gives you the four options to choose from.
@doeeyes I thought that was your guitar playing! I was very pleased by how you hijacked the track, that's what I was hoping for :)
also to @wrenarcher and everyone else:
Looks like there's a chat within the mix for talking about that particular project and then there's another chat for the band as a whole that I just found.
Looks like we can share new projects to the band as a whole or just select individuals.
I'm thinking, if you share a new BL project to the entire band comment here in this thread what sort of collabs you're hoping for (since we're more likely to see it here than on BL).
If you want to work out who to collab with BEFORE sharing the project link, maybe add the song to your FAWM profile like you would for any other collab and share the FAWM link here to see who's interested. Does that make sense? I hope that makes sense. -
@elainedimasi Feb 2022
FAWMlab chitchat !
1. about finding the chat
2. about gardening
I have a screenshot here to show how to find the chat. Click on the icon of your own bad self at the top right, select Bands, and once you've got the band list and clicked on FAWMlab (or any band), you'll see a chat bubble icon over at the left near Projects. This is the band-wide chat that's not inside the mix editor of a Project (song).
Do you like ~gardening~ your music? Then I invite you to join! I am totally getting the feeling of seeds planted, sprouts fed and watered, and strolling around to see what strange organic music has taken root here. Totally looking forward to harvesting them in the last few days of Feb! -
@gardeningangel1 Feb 2022
LoFiNoFi is sounding great! I might add some boomy drums later if I get my chores done. There's still room and time if anyone wants to start another project.
-
@elainedimasi Feb 2022
@gardeningangel1 totally.
Actually, FAWMlab is turning out similar to the 4-track cassette challenge. There's no preorganization, no postage, no commitment, and no way to know what the next layer on a song will be. Best of both worlds actually! -
@dzdandcunfsd Feb 2022
@elainedimasi I wish their was a way to add some stuff and blame on someone else though LOL, but oh well you can't have everything.
-
@elainedimasi Feb 2022
@dzdandcunfsd just name the track with the handle of someone who isn't in the band at all - that should do it!
-
@gardeningangel1 Feb 2022
@elainedimasi it really is and I'm loving it... much less stressful than the cassette challenge (though the stress motivates me, I'm so relieved when it's over).
@dzdandcunfsd you could just say your dog hacked your account and laid down some killer guitar riffs. -
@edwardsmusic Feb 2022
When I was in uni, we occasionally used BandLab for our music projects (studying the Bachelor of Music). Then we were running into problems, so we switched to Soundtrap. I find the latter platform easier to use.
I am starting to use BandLab as part of my music course (outside of uni; I've graduated). -
@gardeningangel1 Feb 2022
@edwardsmusic was latency one of the problems you had with BandLab? That's been my biggest issue with it.
-
@dzdandcunfsd Feb 2022
@edwardsmusic I had tried to do some collaborating with BandLab maybe two years ago now, and it was super clunky, and hard to keep track of projects/updates/etc. Its gotten quite a bit better.
@gardeningangel1 @elainedimasi both great ideas :D -
@edwardsmusic Feb 2022
@gardeningangel1 Yes, latency was horrible. I recall attempting to record some electric guitar for a project once, but it kept crapping out and eventually I used Soundtrap as the DAW to record it in.
-
@gardeningangel1 Feb 2022
@edwardsmusic Yeah, I've been recording in Audacity, then uploading to Bandlab for sharing, using the effects which are fun, and I like the mastering tool. I was excited to use my digital piano as MIDI but with the latency it's too frustrating.
I'll have to look more into Soundtrap after FAWM. I don't like learning new tools but it looks pretty cool. -
@dzdandcunfsd Feb 2022
https://fawm.org/songs/135024/ The first one. Thanks @musicbymichelle and @elainedimasi I'm glad my throwaway guitar track got put to good use :D
-
@elainedimasi Feb 2022
Hooray @dzdandcunfsd and @musicbymichelle for the FAWMlab harvest!
-
@momentegalerie Feb 2022
I use it sometimes and yeah i like to cooperate or at least try it with bandlap in other months than febuary. If you're interested: i am a german singer songwriter and always needs other instruments/voices to fill and/or to write something together. Give me a message through insta/mail and we're work it out. I usualally write in german but can sing on english, too.
-
@wobbiewobbit Feb 2022
well done on gettting this rolling @elainedimasi and others who got stuck in. i quickly got a pile of collabs/challenges in to deal with and didnt get involved much, but i enjoyed seeing how it can work, and that group is set up now - maybe next time i will offer more. well done bandlab rats!
-
@wylddandelyon Feb 2022
I just want to thank you folks for welcoming me into the bandlab; I meant to try to figure it out, but right after I asked to join you suddenly the GarageBand editing stuff was starting to make sense to me, and I think learning two different new systems at the same time wouldn't have worked well, especially while also writing so many new songs. Maybe by next year I'll have GB solid enough in my mind to try BL with you.
-
@elainedimasi Feb 2022
Another FAWMlab harvest!
Ashes
https://fawm.org/songs/138145/
Grown organically in FAWMlab:
@gardeningangel1 threw a track onto the compost pile - which is how FAWMlab tunes often start!
@doeeyes layered it in guitars and things that got us all excited.
@elainedimasi contributed lyrics and late-at-night singing. -
@gardeningangel1 Feb 2022
Wow @elainedimasi that sure grew into something cool! I'm partial to the gardening metaphor for obvious reasons but it really fits how organically this has all been taking shape.
@momentegalerie wish we'd had more time to work on collabs, hopefully you're back again next year!
@wylddandelyon and @wobbiewobbit thanks for standing by! Hopefully we can do this again next year, now that we've sort of figured out how to go about it.