Rodman

10 hours ago, Willyam said:

So annoyed! I can't create my cover for Black Holes! I recorded different takes for lead/rythm/bass and i don't manage to set all these takes to the same tempo with Ableton! I'll try to read more tutorial but really I want to spend time playing guitar, not with figuring out software!

9 hours ago, AndreCardoso said:

I've been wrestling with Audacity because my cover for Space Oddity is not in the same tempo between bass and rhythm (and now I'm experimenting with tempo/rhythm effects  )

It's been a learning experience 

Don't know if the result will be usable though

Boys! Been there - pain pain pain, but it´s easy to fix:

DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations, so all the software mentioned - Abbleton, Audacity, Reaper, Cakewalk....) behave unexpectedly there... 

DO NOT EDIT THE BMP IN ANY OF THOSE AFTER HAVING ANY TRACKS with guitar or bass or vocals IN THERE

The easy workflow to avoid heartattacks there is:

1) Record your tracks using a metronome or backgroundtrack or along the original song to have it syncable in the same bpm
2) Create a project in your DAW
3) Enter the BPM according to your recordings (either check songbpm.com or by tapping the tempo (type tap song tempo into goo) or if you play along Songsterr or Ultimate Guitar or a Guitar Pro Tab you get the exact bpm right there (recommended)) - you only have to enter the bpm if you plan to add a mididrumtrack or any other time-based track in your Software, if you only use your recorded tracks and maybe the track you did play to - THE BPM IN THE DAW is not used.
4) Paste all the tracks you recorded to your DAW and sync them (do not stretch them, just match the start) - and a good tip for that is start your recording with 4 clicks (precount) so you can just sync there and you are good.
5) adjust volume of the tracks, add effects if you like and
6) render the output file

What does not work:
- recording DIFFERENT tracks WITHOUT caring for tempo (metronome etc) amd sync them for tempo afterwards.
That does not matter if you only record one track, and a workaround is also record one track and record the next ones (eg vocals) while listening to the first as backing track.

Happy covering. If you need any advise just shout.

Rod.

11 hours ago, cacahuate51 said:

Most likely no one / looks like A.I used your picture as your score even though it says satinuke.  Just try to not post scores from other songs or table scores cause it seems to break it. (unless you want to be sneaky and win for that week)

Hopefully it wont count this picture aswell since most of its blured out but who knows. 

The main problem with ai from what ive seen is it automatically pushes the scores...I think it would make organizers life a lil easier if there would be a button for it to only do that once it gets pressed.

This would allow the host of the week to precheck the scores first and see if theres any invalid ones such as yours and mark it before pressing it. Cause right now you can make them invalid but doesnt matter once they are already on the table..

Or maybe it is set up that way and one of the organizers is just pressing gather results without checking first idk. @ avastreg  would know though.        
 

Yeah. the ReactApp is really on the forgiving side reading songtitles and puts like shredscores it in wrong shelves a lot ...
 

It´s a brilliant feature that scores are auto-added and do not have to be approved manually.
We shall work on making the detection-routine more accurate, i know @ avastreg  is constantly on it - THX!

I´m thinking on a blacklist also eg for the SHRED scores so those shall be detected right and ignored.

STILL - EVERY PLAYER shall check her/his scores in the leaderboard and report errors.#

When there are errors we admins just delete them from the lb and mark invalid in React, if there is a high score deleted from a player we shall check the list in REact if there is a score from that player for that class+path and enter that one manually for now.

Rod.

On 4/8/2025 at 4:43 PM, diceslinger said:

My project is at a point where I want to share it.  I 3d printed a guitar body and paired it with a kit guitar neck and electronics to make a playable electric guitar.

I even cut my own "signature" headstock

It is assembled from 7 printed parts

The side pieces attach with nuts imbedded in the core piece.  I paused the printer at the layer right before it seals up the cavities for the nuts.

A closeup of the pattern on the surface.  It was rougher than I wanted, so I covered it with a piece of aluminum foil and ran a hot iron over it to smooth the plastic.  That was tricky, because any wrinkle in the foil transferred to my surface.

I set it up, adjusted the pickup heights, and it plays!  I've never had a Tele (as you can probably guess by my backwards switchplate) but I am blown away by how good it sounds!  Perhaps I will use it on one of my covers in the near future.

This is just amazing! I love that design, open, lightweight, beautiful! And the colr choice... absolutely +1.
One and only part to care about the stability is the centerpart from the neckjoint up to the neck - is that all filament also? 
The filament i use for printing i think if it´s a massive 4cm part would stand the test against the stringtension... if not you could print 2 slots for carbonfibrerods there (cheap and ultra-effective, i also use those to strenghten my wooden necks as modern guitar companies do).
The hybrid system with wooden neck - absolutely +1, the headstockshape - beauty!

How does that filament of yours behave when sanding? I know myself and i´d be probably sanding, polishing and foxing minispots with superglue and fil-dust for hours just because.

One idea lookingh at the headstock - print out matching letters and glue them to the head to brand it and harmonize the optics on the other end maybe.

You absolutely rock! Bravo.
Rod.

8 hours ago, Mikson said:

Wow I agree with @ cacahuate51  about the bass difficulty rating! 
@ Rodman  This is definitely harder than 5.5, I see that in the selection sheet this was initially rated 7 and in my opinion it is correct rating (this could be an upleveling song) or at least 6.5. This is fast and tiring for the hands. I don't see much chance of doing 99% here...

I didn't mention it earlier but when it comes to guitars I agree with all diff ratings, this bass is the only one where I felt dissonance.

Corrected to 7. Thx!

@ diceslinger  i cannot believe my eyes!!! We´ll get into that tomorrow cause i need time to inspect the pictures thoroughly.

Another lesson learned...

Had some real fun there...

Started with bass playthrough the whole song.
Then i  did the heavy guitar but a lil more metal rhythm style maybe i was thinking.
2 passes of acoustic, added some drums and lil synthie thingies, 20 mins of mixing and ... i must say the production quality is getting somewhere.
Thx for pushing!!!!
Don´t forget to post some covers yourself!!!

Rod

SHRED some

22 hours ago, Rodman said:

Yessa..so be it..

Coversong of the week:

Any BLOODHOUNDGANG Song

Ok... been through the discography of the BHG ..... let´s put it that way - noone can be forced to do a cover on them ...... without alternative

SO

Cover challenge of the week
ANY BLOODHOUNDGANG SONG

or

JOAN JETT - I LOVE ROCK´n´ROLL

1 hour ago, cacahuate51 said:

bass playthroughs:

maybe eventually a bloodhound gang cover for the week? I think that would be doable since its kinda simple on guitar and ok vocals

clasic song

intwesting

surprised this is rated only a 5.5? seemed a bit difficult to me but oki 

Yessa..so be it..

Coversong of the week:

Any BLOODHOUNDGANG Song

getting the groove a bit

bass mc

this is very cool

Cannot remember if i had been ever so happy to reach the 80s in advanced

yeah damn those chords

How can we not love the BHG

Hah! Absolutely forgot about the octaves at the end... so forget that score quickly

Let´s SHRED some

49 minutes ago, drand said:

Ey happy birthday! Hope you had a good one

Me advanced sounds like it can’t be right but let’s get it!! You coming @ Vodka  ?

I honestly play so much better than when I started the championship, it hypes me up so much to hear the guitar making all these sounds and I did that!

I can play my favorite songs more and more,  what a feeling… thanks everyone, joining the CS is the best thing I could have done for my playing

As i always say - JOIN THE CS, CAUSE THE CS IS GOOD FOR YOU!

Great you are upleveling ..... complicated situation there, quickly explained:
As you have the highest score also for ADV class last week you instantly levelup at weekend and TAKE THE ADVANCED WIN - CONGRATS!!!!!
@Vodka takes the INT WIN and levels up right after getting the award.
That week you both already participate in adv rhy to kick your new classmates.

Hve fun!

Rod?

2 hours ago, MaZtoR said:

Hey MaZ!!! Long time no see. Great you are back - all ok up there in the North?

Rod.

10 hours ago, Mikson said:

On 4/5/2025 at 12:36 AM, Rodman said:

This is Major Rod to ground control...

Thx @ Mikson !!! Nadszedł czas, aby przyjrzeć się Mistrzowi Bowie bliżej. Trochę się spóźniłam, bo zatrudniłam piosenkarkę - moją cudowną córkę, żeby mnie wspierała. Człowieku, ona jest takim profesjonalistą - jej sesja nagraniowa trwa zaledwie 40 minut, a ona nigdy nie zrobiła czegoś takiego. Dziękuję kochanie!!!! Co zrobiliśmy?
Chciałem zrobić małą wersję, ponieważ ta piosenka jest tak duża. Zrobiłem więc akustyczne odtwarzanie uchwycone za pomocą 2 mikrofonów. Potem zrobiłem partie solowe, poczułem je i... Znowu czuję, że to smutna piosenka, oczywiście niepokojący koniec.
Śpiewał razem z nim i ..... Potem zobaczyłem, jak moja córka zabija go absolutnie na koncercie kończącym semestr w swojej szkole muzycznej, gdzie ma pewien trening wokalny, więc usunąłem moją ścieżkę wokalną i poszedłem na negocjacje, które poszły bardzo dobrze, biorąc pod uwagę umysł 13-latka. Dzisiaj znaleźliśmy trochę czasu na nagranie wokalne.
Wrzuciłem wszystko do Reapera i trochę zmiksowałem i zmasterowałem, czego nauczyłem się w ciągu tygodnia.

Enjoy!

Rod.

Expand  

Oh what a brilliantly arranged project! You really know how to combine multiple tracks and vocals which makes your covers sound so good. I'm just curious if you play all the guitar tracks by heart or do you have any tabs displayed while playing?

Oh thx m8! I am just learning how to mix and master songs - but nowadays... 30 mins of YT give you a pro-producer walktrough how it can be done for whatever recourding you are working on.... insane. Never having done anything like that i am quickly triggering EQs, high pass filtering, searching for interferences in the lows, raising the mids and the hights, Delying, Reverbing, Panning guitars to either side (i next should learn to if i understand those guys right send the tracks extra reverb tracks that are panned to the opposite side to create incredible ambience (?...) to to open the stage for vocals in the middle, volumecorrecting, de-essing and EQing the hell out of that also, i don´t have to autotune my daughter in anyways.. and for myself i´ll leave it just the hopeless way it is , still i shall learn to autotune. It´s fun and a well-needed ear-training for me also cause though using earphones or good speakers i mostly hear the corrections take effect only when they are vastly overdone already and thus have to go back from that point then. Maybe that get´s better when done repeatedly. However mixing was 30mins watching my homehockeyteam losing 1st game of the finals in overtime on TV. This time what really really really was a pain was creating the Picture... You might have seen i like to do AI art.... as soon as you type in daughter, teenager or girl you are doomed, rings all the bells and pics are computed with all the waiting time but don´t get shown. Fun times.

For the guitars: No - i listen to the track often to have the chordchanges in my ear, then i look at the tab (Ultimateguitar in my case as i was gifted Pro from them a few years ago for helping guys with charts, but Songsterr is the same with full featured player you can go through the tab on every path on major songs 

and listen to each path if you like

I normally go through the tab and see if there are signature riffs i like to have in the song - and learn them

If not like in that case i check which chords i need and then start recording with the chordview like that

For the solos i am not learning solos but i try to come up with something that might fit the mood there.... atm it´s pentatonic CAGED only but plan would be when i gain some shredding speed also learn the fretboard and scales, but thats far future.

Rod.

51 minutes ago, cacahuate51 said:

Happy belated birthday @ Rodman !! and thanks for the week!

Edit I think the beginner song is no longer on ignition page? 

Thanks a lot. It´s a lot better with coffee now

Bloodhound Gang - Fire Water Burn link updated

@ drand  @ Vodka  i guess you are good with upleveling to Adv Rhy?

If there are mistakes... meh, i´m somehow hungover from my bd party yd....

I could´t believe we did never play i love Rock´n Roll when it showed up in thr randomizer .... plus i was sure that is ODLC.... nope nope - we shall have fun! Same a bit for the mighty mighty BHG,
Random selection gave me a great song for adv that is gonna be a personal pain --- hard for me!
Anvil is way cool.
As i needed a mc bass i selected a very good file by CS allstar @ albatross213 ... very challenching and cool at all paths - so the guitars made it rhere too.

Enjoy,

Ah.... first one to call a COVERSONG names it. C´mon!

Lead:
- Beginner: @Willyam (70)
- Intermediate: @Vodka (94.57)
- Advanced: @cacahuate51 (99.1)
- Masterclass: @RaZrShReD (91)
- God of Guitar: Leader after week 1 is @RaZrShReD, 1 week left... KEEP ROCKING!!!

Rhythm:
- Beginner: @Willyam (84.4)
- Intermediate: @ Vodka (99.71)
- Advanced: @drand (100)
- Masterclass: @RaZrShReD (94)

Bass:
- Beginner: @Classicoz (99)
- Beginner Bonus: @Willyam (100)
- Intermediate: @loudly (99.39)
- Advanced: @Mikson (98.77)
- Masterclass: @JobwanMojo (98.88)

More great news. There are players to be promoted to higher rank this week.

- @drand is promoted to Advanced class in Rhythm path instantly taking the adv win Bravo.
- @Vodka is promoted to Advanced class in Rhythm path.

Congratulations and good luck with new challenges!
In case the above players do not accept promotion, please advise accordingly in the post so we can revert back to previous Class.
 

Lead Path:
Beginner: Bloodhound Gang - Fire Water Burn (3*) (E Standard) selected by Rodman
Intermediate: Joan Jett & the Blackhearts - I Love Rock 'n' Roll (5*) (E Standard) selected by Daz40
Advanced: The Doobie Brothers - Rockin' Down The Highway (7.5^) (E Standard) selected by Zoutje
Masterclass: Anvil - Free As The Wind (8) (E Standard) selected by kayteck
Masterclass Bonus: Intervals - Sure Shot (9*) (E Standard) selected by week194
God of Guitar: Paul Gilbert - Fuzz Universe (10) (E Standard) [Week 2 of 2]

Rhythm Path:
Beginner: Joan Jett & the Blackhearts - I Love Rock 'n' Roll (4^) (E Standard) selected by Daz40
Intermediate: Anvil - Free As The Wind (6^) (E Standard) selected by kayteck
Advanced: The Doobie Brothers - Rockin' Down The Highway (7*) (E Standard) selected by Zoutje
Masterclass: Intervals - Sure Shot (8) (E Standard) selected by week194

Bass Path:
Beginner: Joan Jett & the Blackhearts - I Love Rock 'n' Roll (2.5) (E Standard) selected by Daz40
Beginner Bonus: Bloodhound Gang - Fire Water Burn (2) (E Standard) selected by Rodman
Intermediate: Anvil - Free As The Wind (3.5) (E Standard) selected by kayteck
Advanced: The Doobie Brothers - Rockin' Down The Highway (7) (E Standard) selected by Zoutje
Masterclass: Intervals - Sure Shot (8) (E Standard) selected by week194

(N) - difficulty rating
(N*) - highest difficulty rating for the class (promotion to higher class possible)
(N^) - difficulty rating higher than the highest for the class (promotion possible)

This is Major Rod to ground control...

Thx @ Mikson !!! It was time to give Master Bowie a closer look. I´m a bit late here cause i hired a singer - my wonderfiul daughter to support me. Man she´s such a pro - her recording session hardly 40mins, and she never did anything like that. Thank you my love!!!! What did we do?
I wanted to do a small version as that song is sooooooooooooo big. So i did a acoustic playthrough captured with 2 mics. Then i did the soloparts i felt them and ... again as i feel it´s a sad song a disturbing finish of course.
Sang along and ..... then saw my daughter killing it absolutely at the semester-ending concert of her music-school where she has some vocal coaching, so deleted my vocaltrack and went negotiating which went extremely well taking into acount the mind of a 13 yo. Today we found some time to the vocal recording.
I threw all into Reaper and did some mixing and mastering i learned over the week.

Enjoy!

Rod.

good one

it was freakin windows update... after 7 or 8 reboots things "normalized"... this is just bad work at MS, baeh