Posting frequency / How to get more comments

[Saijinn Maas]

...

I had something to add... But after remembering what happened the last time I did, I think it may be smarter to keep quiet. 

[64Guitars]

64guitars, i think i have a legit question. if i do a new verion of an old song i did in a band way back, isnt that like doing a new version of a cover song? as long it is something newly done. i have 2 songs sitting in limbo i'd like to get done which are remakes of songs i did in the 70's. wouldnt that qualify as long as it is something done now rather than putting some old recording on here?

Certainly! Lots of our members have redone songs from their past. As long as it's a new recording, that's fine.

Perhaps a bit of history of the site would help people to understand where we're coming from and why we feel the way we do about older recordings. The site was founded by Pedro on December 16, 2007 as microrecorders.org. He had just bought the new (at that time) Boss Micro BR and, seeing that there weren't a lot of support communities for it, he created one. He posted the first song as an example of what can be done on the Micro BR. Then oldrottenhead and others began posting songs that they had created on their Micro BRs. Since the Micro BR was very new, all of the songs posted were newly-recorded.

After a year or so, the site was renamed to BossBR.net in an effort to open it up to users of other Boss recorders. We started to get new members who owned the BR-600, BR-900, and other Boss recorders. These members might have posted a few recordings that were maybe a year or two old (because the BR-600, BR-900, etc. had been available longer than the Micro BR), but mostly they got into the spirit of the site and posted new songs they'd just recorded.

In December 2009, we had another name change to Songcrafters.org. This was meant to open up the site to people who use other brands of recorders (Zoom, TASCAM, etc.) or software DAWs (Sonar, Cubase, Reaper, etc.). This was when we started to notice the problem with older recordings. Up until this point, our members were almost exclusively users of Boss recorders. Since none of these recorders were more than a few years old, nobody had large back catalogues of songs recorded on their Boss recorder, so they primarily posted new recordings. Since it takes time to create these new recordings, very few people (other than oldrottenhead ) posted more than one song per week. Most of us post much less frequently than that. But after the change to Songcrafters, we started to notice that we'd occassionally get a new member who had a large back catalogue of previously-recorded songs and started posting all of them at once (I recall one member a couple of years ago who posted 20+ songs in two days). We found this very annoying. It's not what we were used to before the name change, and it's not how we want the site to evolve. We've always consisted of people who are actively recording now, usually because they just bought a new recorder and they're excited about it and want to share what they've created. Posting frequency was never an issue before the name change because people were only posting new songs and they couldn't record them fast enough for it to become a problem. But when people started coming here with large back catalogues of previously-recorded songs, posting frequency became an issue. It didn't happen very often, so we tried to deal with each case as it happened rather than posting a bunch of strict rules. A couple of people took offense where none was intended and left Songcrafters. That's unfortunate, but we tried our best to make them understand and assure them that they're welcome here. Others completely understood our point and were happy to comply with our wishes, and they're still active and happy members today.

We really want Songcrafters to continue being a community for people who are actively recording music today. We want to encourage all of our members to take part in the festivals and record new music. Keeping the music new and fresh helps to keep it exciting and gives us something in common.

We have nothing against old songs or old recordings. A bit of tape hiss isn't a problem and often adds character to a recording. But we don't want Songcrafters to be about the past. We want everyone to get involved by making new recordings and sharing them here. If everyone concentrates on making new recordings, we should never have a problem with posting frequency because nobody can record songs fast enough for it to become a problem. So we'll continue to discourage people from posting their back-catalogues and urge them to record new songs instead. I hope everyone understands and respects our view and will comply with it.

[fenderbender]

Nice comments
very varied -I have always loved the variety and talent on here and I still do -big time
I look in and listen to most -OK -truthfully all the songs -without logging in a lot of the time
and jaaaaazzzz man the talent on here ----

My problen can be be cos Im an oldie is that -
some of the music -I dont feel qualified to comment on -
which can maybe lead to people thinking that I might be ignoring their music--
that is not my intention -

I have learned everything I know about recording on Crafters --and it is a special place
and always will be --
so keep up the good work
switch on and record and post
and thank you guys

respect
Tommy

[Hook]

I like to think that I can take constructive criticism, the reality is any criticism is uncomfortable, but if I want to put my creations in the public domain, I have to accept the full range of reactions - and that some people will simply hate what I do, some will like it. What I hope is that people will constructively critique by work, and offer 'have you thought about this ..' or 'I personally would do ...' or 'I'd remix that if I were you ...' and hopefully 'I really liked that because ..' - as 'good job' doesn't really tell you a whole lot. That said, most of the folk hear do the above really well. It gives an opportunity to feed back as well, to share your findings such as 'I got that sound by doing x, y and z' - which again helps us all learn. Too be honest though, not easy answers, and this site will struggle with this question for as long as it exists.

As I read this earlier today on my phone it really struck a chord as I also like to think that I can handle constructive criticism, I don not like it from my wife but I think here I would value it. I might disagree and ignore it or it might really make sense to me, who cares, as has been said what makes sense to one might sound like nonsense to another. I have always liked the way Ferryman will offer suggestions, very encouraging and polite but also to the point, and pretty on the spot also. I for one have crap equipment other than my br and my pa (Fishman as220, it's awesome!), I should say I have mostly mid-range - low quality/cost equipment. Keeping in strings for me with work  runs $30 to $60 a week depending on the season, we have 2 here almost summer(now) and Summer (very soon) so new equipment is almost always shelved unless necessary.
Anyhow, I'm rambling and need to stop so my point is, if you don't like something move onto the next. If you likes something and listened to whole song, say you liked it, dug it, cool whatever. If you thought it was the beshizzell, well talk it up, come back later and talk it up again, make a fuss, burn an effigy, get naked, rock on!
If you can say something constructive say it nice, I want to hear it.
Rock on!

[Dmann]

...

I had something to add... But after remembering what happened the last time I did, I think it may be smarter to keep quiet. 

sound advice
 

[Tony W]

Constructive Criticism-- I thrive on it. Well articulated, or insulting I thrive on it. I wish I got more of it in the past, but I'm sure people knew better, I would have hounded them relentlessly to teach me something. I cut my teeth musically here, so thanks to all those who taught me to play, record and produce.

The best piece of constructive criticism I think I may have received wasn't even intended to be advice. Gnasty said I looked like Steve Austin when on stage. While that's a hell of a compliment, I took something else away from it, I looked like a pissed off redneck! I have been working on smiling and moving a little ever since.

Oh yeah, This thread has not taken the turns I expected, probably because I didn't get too involved! Congrats on a civil thread my friends!

[henwrench]

I thought you were talking about The Six Million Dollar Man.

                                                                         henwrench

[Gnasty]

I probably will delete those posts and there all just in fun.
Truthfully Tony is probably the most prime example ( to me)of why this site not only influences every type of musician being amateur, novice, or pro. In 2 years of basically just picking up the guitar and now playing on stage in a rock band is huge! That's why comments are important. They give one nothing but influence and confidence from one song post to the next!

[Flash Harry]

Roland should actually fund this site for all the great support it gives their product. They probably would if they knew about it!

We do not take any form of support from Roland and would not want to. We're not in their pockets and although I own some Roland kit, I bought this anonymously from my local music stores.  Roland are aware of the site and to my knowledge have never tried to exert any influence over what we do. Certainly I have had no contact with any person representing Roland relating to this site.

We're not an advertising site, there are no adverts here except for the music that people write, play and post, it's about the music and the recording thereof.

We're privately and modestly funded, the site is managed and developed mainly by 64guitars who gives his time freely.

The aim of the site, although implicitly understood by the admin team and by many of the old hands, hasn't been explicitly written as a constitution, I don't think that I would like a constitution. And where there are things happening that the collective admin psyche feel is wrong and against the vision that we have, guidance is posted. And it's just guidance, there's no stick.

That's it, nothing sinister. Just four individual musos (there's only me and OldRottenHead who have met) who think that this is a pretty cool space and want to provide it for others to enjoy.

I like these threads. It's great to see the passion with which members fill their posts. It makes me realise that in a small way I'm making a difference to the world and that this place really matters to people. It makes it worthwhile.

[henwrench]

I like these threads. It's great to see the passion with which members fill their posts. It makes me realise that in a small way I'm making a difference to the world and that this place really matters to people. It makes it worthwhile.

    You are, indeed, the Egg Man.

                                                            henwrench