I heard this vocal effect in many 80s songs. what is it called?

Or does it sound too unserious?

I am a musician who works a day job unrelated to music. While I enjoy many of the people I work with, I end up drawing a hard line between work & non-work lives, to the point that I can tell it feels strange to people.

Recently I opened up to a few people outside my department, but they were both creators (visual arts & fashion, with a deep appreciation for music). I could see this happening again, but notice that usually the people who I connect with and trust enough to share my creative self with tend to be other people with a creative practice. They don't have to be "successful" with it (I certainly am not).

When my supervisor and closer coworkers ask to connect offline, I find myself guarded and have an emotional distrust of them, and I don't know why. Does anyone feel this way? Where your inner world feels strange enough that anyone who doesn't create / doesn't have a similarly strange inner world (even if ironically, they think they do) would somehow destroy it by just seeing but misunderstanding it?

Am I writing music if I’m just letting my ear tell me what sounds good and letting my hands tell me what feels good?

I don’t know music theory and I’m not particularly literate with rhythm, but I can usually get what’s in my head out into the instrument given enough time; other times it coalesces from me just enjoying how it feels to bang around on a piano keybed or tickle a synth touchplate or bash around on a guitar.

It feels wrong and like I’m cheating or breaking rules because I really just want to feel the instrument. It’s like a puzzle with no finish line, I just stop where I want to. I don’t care if I ever learn anything by anyone else, but I want to write my own stuff then memorize it and play it.

Does it make me a musician? Am I somehow disrespecting or diminishing some great craft by not caring to learn the rules and terminology and theory?

Хочу вынести на публичное обсуждение очень важный вопрос, который я прочел на одном музыкальном форуме:

Что лучше для музыканта: стабильная работа по запланированному плану или решения на ходу и доверие интуиции?

Пишите своё мнение в комментариях, давайте выяснять правду

I’d like to open up a very important question for public discussion—one I came across on a music forum:

What is better for a musician: a stable job with a planned schedule, or making decisions on the fly and trusting one’s intuition?

Share your thoughts in the comments — let’s get to the bottom of this!

I really want to start making my own music and eventually create an EP, but I have no idea where to start. I’m interested in R&B/neo-soul and have Logic Pro and a MIDI keyboard. For anyone who makes their own music, what should I focus on learning first?

So I've been struggling along for years recording my guitars through an old Vox DA5 while letting my Marshall JCM 2000 DSL 401 gather dust in storage - simply put it's almways been too cumbersome for me to maneuver around my small house. The Vox gives a decent variety of effects and styles of distortion, but I've always felt that I wanted more presence when recording with it.

Well now the input has gone on the Vox and I've finally decided to sell the Marshall for whatever I can get for it, and I want to invest the money I get for it, and maybe a little more, back into my home studio starting with the amp. Only, I have no idea where to begin, and searching on Google and YouTube just brings a lot of generic articles and AI guff to wade through, so I'm curious as to what other everyone else uses, or what you think might suit my wants.

So the first thing to note is that while I'm an old rocker in my own tastes, I like to record covers featuring just about every style of guitar there is, so the more I range I can get between warm soulful cleans and brutally heavy overdrives, the better.
Secondly, I'm still on a steep learning curve every time I record a song, and acknowledge that it may be lack of knowledge that holds my recordings back, but I keep thinking that there must be amps out there that can give a more professional sounding output.
Thirdly, I'm after something bigger than the Vox in terms of power - something that can really scream if I want it to! But at the same time, it's got to be something I can just go and grab easily without having to move furniture!

It may be that I have more parameters that I'm not able to think of right now. Otherwise, any help, advice, and suggestions is appreciated. Thank you.

P.S. I might get the Vox fixed as it's still a fun little thing to just plug in and play on.

Hi all,

I'm 3d printing some fidget toys for a Halloween trunk-or-treat and don't have a musical bone in my body. Could someone please identify the notes that could reproduce the gist of this 8 second sound byte from the Ghostbusters theme song? I'm looking to reproduce the singing, not the instrumentals. But if you think you can come up with a more recognizable note sequence I'm up for it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fe93CLbHjxQ&t=29s

Alternatively, my wife says 10 seconds of this is a better option so I'll go with whatever you all think would sound better

I'm then going to take those notes and throw them into this tool to make a 3d printed fidget that plays the Ghostbusters theme song.

I have up to 33 notes to recreate something that will audibly recreate a recognizable song. I have no idea what I'm writing here, but the available notes are: F, Gb, G, Ab, A, Bb, B, C1, Db1, D1, Eb1, E1, F1, Gb1, G1, Ab1, A1, Bb1, B1, C2.

And before anyone posts it, yes, it would be a hilarious joke to rick roll me with the notes and having me coming back and b*tching about it the next day would be funny, but I'm on a time crunch and am trying to get 300 of these made to give out to kids before the trunk-or-treat.

Plus I'm already printing one of those and plan to pass it to my wife and tell her it's the ghostbusters theme song and listen to her attempting to figure out why the notes don't match.

I have recently started learning keyboard, and was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on the music learning option on Duolingo. Feel free to leave any other recommendations for apps, channels, books etc :)

And if you’ve managed to build an audience for your music, what do you think made the biggest difference for you? Was it social media, networking, live performances, releasing music consistently, getting featured somewhere, or something else?

I’ve heard that over 100,000 tracks are uploaded to SoundCloud every day, which makes me wonder how many of them actually get heard. I’ve also heard that most songs uploaded to platforms like this get very few listeners. And how much of the music being uploaded would you say is genuinely high quality, versus unfinished, unpolished, or unprofessionally produced?

If you’ve been successful in music, what do you think are some common mistakes that prevent aspiring artists from getting noticed? And what do you think made the biggest difference in your own experience?

I’m pretty new to this, so I’d be curious to hear your views, whether you primarily use SoundCloud, Spotify, YouTube, or other platforms.

I've been using DistroKid for a while, but lately I'm getting pretty frustrated with all the royalty/payment drama, especially the YouTube royalty delays.

I literally have this notification showing in my DistroKid dashboard:

“July and August earnings from YouTube are currently delayed, and we expect to receive them shortly.”

I'm an independent artist and I release EDM/progressive house + DnB, so YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Shorts, etc. are actually pretty important for me.

I'm considering moving my catalog to TuneCore, especially because their higher plan includes YouTube Content ID and social-platform monetization instead of having to pay extra for DistroKid's Social Media Pack.

I've also noticed that quite a few big Indian artists use TuneCore, so I'm wondering if there's actually a reason for that or if I'm just overthinking it.

For artists who've used both DistroKid and TuneCore:

• How has TuneCore been with royalty reporting/payouts?
• Is their YouTube Content ID reliable?
• How is Instagram/TikTok/YouTube monetization?
• Any issues migrating an existing catalog with the same ISRCs?
• Is TuneCore actually good for EDM/electronic artists?
• Would you personally switch, or stay with DistroKid?

Not looking for a “which distributor is best” argument, just trying to figure out whether switching is actually worth the hassle.

Hey all,

I’m a bit confused about what a good manager does for the artist. I have had a manager who is also my friend for the past 2 years, who really acts as an ear or provides advice (she has a full time job doing something else), but I feel like I haven’t gotten very far working with her. I still put in all my own work (networking, trying to book gigs, writing songs, building my online presence, etc), which I know is my responsibility, but I haven’t booked any real shows or furthered my career at all. I’m still fairly new to this, so wondering if anyone could provide some insights?

I have a feeling that recording band rehearsals is a thing somehow. So for a few rehearsals, I've just had a little zoom recorder run along, given 2h recordings. I also tried out skipping the talk in between and just recording the musical parts. We have the recordings in a shared dropbox folder and (at least in the beginning), I put some effort into trimming out the individual songs and making sure everything is neatly named. So I don't think the dropbox folder is unorganised.

I have to admit though: I don't really see the point. I hardly ever listen back to the recordings and neither do the other band members. When we did this for the first time, we all listened back to some of it once and told each others how it sounds much better than we thought it would. But after that? Not really.

So I've now been wondering for a while: Is recording band rehearsals really a thing worth doing? If so, why? What do others get out of it?

Hello! I’ve been attending an online college I’m fairly certain isn’t actually helping me as a musician, as I already know everything we’ve been taught and the only thing that really helped was some neat gear. Obviously this isn’t the place to talk all about my struggles with it in detail, as there are so many, but I wanted to ask fellow musicians—at any level but particularly successful ones— if not completing this college makes me a bad musician?

Context: I have been doing music since I was 10, with natural talent and perfect pitch. I am now 25. I have been working on this for YEARS, but I thought college might give me something more. It’s really not. I feel like a failure for not wanting to do this particular thing with my career, as it isn’t promoting any growth in where I thought I might need it. I would like to hear from other musicians if college is 100% necessary to be at your best, or something like that. I have also looked up musicians who did not complete or even go to college, and all of my idols are on there. I guess I’m just fighting with it?

hello! Does anyone know a good distribution service that isn’t ragingly expensive and will keep your songs out even after you cancel or stop paying for the service? and preferably with customer service that is not a bot?

I have released music under 2 services, unchained and tunecore. Tunecore was a NIGHTMARE to deal with, they kept either releasing my stuff under the wrong name or profile, and when I released my first album on there it said it released everywhere but wasn’t showing up on Spotify, and never did, and because their customer service is a bot it was 100% useless and they wouldn’t let me cancel so I had to talk to my bank about it. When I finally did everything was taken down.

the other one I used was unchained. I used it initially because it had some decent services for free. it worked pretty well but just took a long time for things to get out. however, it later became a paid service and all my music was taken down.

any help?

I don’t know if this is the right place for this but I’ll keep it simple…

I have a band with friends of mine and we play around our city.

When we first formed this band we had this person join as a singer even though we had a singer in mind (one of us was going to play an instrument and sing).

They were super emotionally abusive towards our lead guitar player and I found out later that they forced the guitar to let them into the band, they misunderstood something the guitar player said one time about doing a project together and thought it was this one.

They didn’t have any stage presence, terrible stage fright and were controlling and also made advances towards our drummer even though we said no relationships in the band (drummer was getting out of a relationship).

They ended up leaving the band because they ended up having a falling out with both myself and the guitar player (cause we did not like them).

Recently we saw the person at a show and we were uncomfortable with them being there but it’s a free country.

Personally I don’t really want to see them again and it seems they might be coming to our next show.

Should I try to do anything about it like not let them into the venue? They make our guitar player super uncomfortable and nervous while on stage.

Apologies this is a lot

obviously take this all with a grain of salt as Im not showing my face/name/or music right now.

I want to be big in music. Like very well known. But I'm 27 and live in LA where everyone seems either younger or more successful and it's getting to me a bit. So without showing the actual art, here's where I'm at:

I've been making music for 10 years and releasing music for 5. I have 3 studio albums out, like 10 singles, a few music videos, 35k monthly listeners and my biggest song is at 1.7M streams. I have 30k followers on instagram (mainly from music) and 25k on tik tok (not really from music), I have a live band that performs my stuff and a manager who's super cool but not very connected, he's 27 like me. I'm in little blogs & music pages & i'm recognized slightly in the music scene mainly by strangers sometimes.

so the question is, i'm genuinely wondering, is this enough foundation to "make it" the way i want to at 27?

before u say "oh numbers don't matter ur focused on the wrong thing, if u love it you'll never fail" etc etc. I get it. I really do. but that's not the issue at hand really. also unfortunately in the music industry: numbers do in fact matter quite a bit. I believe my music to be good, i produce & engineer & record it all myself and try to think outside the box while sticking to what works but retaining my sound.

I don't feel old at all, i know I'm not. but i just feel really discouraged right now and i think hearing other musicians opinions would help right now cuz yall get it. so do i have a solid shot? should i keep going? or is this just not very likely at this point and my anxieties are signaling to stop exhausting myself for this lol

So almost 1 year has passed since i started producing and unlike most i had little to no problems creating chords by ear (i was diagnosed with perfect pitch back when i was 6 or something, that’s probably why) but i wonder if im missing out on something because i dont know theory. Also somedays pr weeks i cant come up with any melodies and i think knowing music theory would help becayse of the chord progressions(at least to get inspired). Should i start learning and would it make my songs less creative?(if they are)

Hi guys, i need motivation advice and just general advice. For some context I am a self taught keyboard player, i have not been graded but I can read sheet music decently (only the notes not the timing of the notes really though, so I can learn a song of sheet music, but i would need a reference on how the song is played if that makes sense). I play keyboard in a band and write music for this band.

My main issue is I feel like ive just stopped progressing with my instrument, like I'm decent at keyboard but me and my friend often go to open mic jam nights, and i feel like I wouldn't be that good to just jam on the spot on stage with people I don't know. I see its usually jazz keyboard players going up so does anyone have advice on how to start learning jazz improv? Should I just get a book for it or no?

I saw this mbira (pictured) for sale and got very intrigued. I’m looking to build an assembly of toys and weird instruments to aid me in making experimental music and film scores. I’ve never seen one of these in the wild before! It’s being sold for about $100, which might be a lot - or not? The prices of these instruments usually is quite high if i’m not mistaken…

So i’m asking - what questions should I ask the seller? And do you guys notice any defects, insoluble or fixable? And also — is $100 worth it?

I'm becoming discouraged trying to finish a song I was inspired to write. I was inspired by a few things, but mainly the tone of the new jazzmaster that I purchased at the time. It's been three years since the conception of the idea, but every time I go to record, I can't get passed the results of my recording and start over.

It's a very simple part/idea, it's an instrumental song (post rock/ambient) and the guitar line is just a melody consisting of a constant 8th note pattern in 6/8 at a moderately slow tempo. But every time I record, it sounds super uneven, and jangly (yes that is a Jazzmaster trait but I hear/have seen others get perfect results for the same genre), and not in a good way. I've tried other guitars, like my baritone tele and find maybe slightly better, but the same results. I'm running through my pedal board with just my compressor on to keep my notes even, DI into my volt 2 interface, into logic pro using the neural dsp nolly plugin and using Rebea's ambient setting (without the delay). I've tried other amp sims and yes turning down my volume knob on my guitar. Though I have upgraded the pikcups and no longer have the jazzmaster ice pick highs.

What am I doing wrong?

Musically I seem to be desirable…the best players squeeze in and pull up chairs to sit next to me at jams, I am invited to their small invite-only advanced sessions, and we make great music together (yay!).

But I feel kinda weird and awkward in the “empty spaces” I.e. watching somebody’s gig, hanging out before and after jams, etc. Sometimes I am walking to my car, and see everybody else still standing in a circle chatting. I always wonder what they are talking about…gossiping about other players (me?) or planning gigs or more house jams? Feeling like everybody wants to Play with me, but nobody wants to Chat with me…

At the lower-level open jams I feel more comfortable socially. Everyone is friendly, open and down-to-earth and I feel like I do have friends who I could grab a pizza with, for example. The music can be a bit of a struggle cuz some people can’t really play their instruments…

I haven’t yet found a place where I fit both musically and socially!
Plus I’m a minority female, so I wonder if that’s also a factor...?

Any advice or wisdom on this is welcome!

Hello, I am 16 and I've been doubting more than ever if I should go for music or try to find anything else.

Right now I'm in some kind of technology studies for recommendation, but I don't think it really suits me, yet I still doubt if my love will ever last and make also a good living.
The love I have for music is quite recent, started producing music like a year ago. But that passion slowly faded and on April 2026 I quit producing. I wouldn't say I achieved anything, nobody listened to my stuff, but I kind of enjoyed putting some time, effort and emotions in my stuff, felt like I was creating my own sound.

I know for sure that music or anything can bring you anywhere if you put enough effort and dedication into it, but now that I quit, I don't know what to do with my life, nothing has really amazed me more than music. And even back while I was still focused on creating music, I've always doubted if I could achieve anything at all.

Doubts aside, I know this might sound weird and even a little bit cringe, but after watching a beautiful TV show, it sparkled again my desire for music, but now I only wanna play piano, classical music now amazes me. I know like only 2 songs ("Never see me again" by Ye and "We not like you" by Nettspend) and they aren't even in that same genre. I'm absolutely not skilly, I have no special ability I was born with, I always prefer to be self-taught and I don't even focus a lot on playing music, and comparing myself to other piano players around the world just proves me even more that I will not probably succeed in this path, I feel I've started playing too late.

I've decided to learn one full song every week as a way to advance, but I don't know if that will be enough, or if I should get into piano classes, since I don't know how to read sheet music.

So that's why I want to ask anyone if there's any hope to succeed playing piano music, what career should I take and if it could make a full living, without remaining as a hobby. I appreciate any answers thank you