People // steven ebner aka shovel8mo // Blog

Being somewhat new to Indaba, I am not really sure how things work here. I have been signed up for a long time, but used another recording site quite exhaustively before delving into Indaba. I came into it very positive and jumped onboard with a few sessions just over the last month or so. Here is a breakdown of my experience so far.
1. Took a song and tracked a drum track and I think I scared everyone off cause that was weeks ago and no one has even visited the session but me for weeks. Last I know the bass was suppose to be retracked and the vocal finished but it looks like a lost cause at this point.
2. Session Number two: Spent some time tracking drums to a acoustic song and posted the track in the session and havent heard boo from anyone about the track. I know the artist must have heard the track cause I cauight him afterwards as a viewer of my studio page. I messaged him asking what was so secretive that he couldn't simply say thanks or something.
3. Spent a bit of time tracking drums for a pop song for an audition track and wasted upload usage because there was already a drum track for the song, but artists never update their session "needs" field and so you dont know if they have tracks or are happy with the tracks they have. Waste of time in my book!
4. Was invited to track the next song the artist posted and came up with a track for him the next day. He thought it was awesome and that was that. I probably wont get a finished mix as is the case most of the time.
So, what's my point? My point is please don't encourage people to do just whatever because there are usually a tail of other people that are involved that end up discouraged cause the activity of a session chills out and not much gets accomplished. What might solve this problem is a field that defines the intent of the artist that is hosting the session:
1. Serious about the song
2. Want to just hang out with other artists.
3. Am working on an entire project, this is 1 of 10 songs.
-You get the idea.
I dont mind helping others, but I think that the songwriters owe the performers a little something and should show their gratitude by FINISHING what they start, updating the "session needs" field and communicating their intentions for posting the song in the first place.
We want people doing songs and getting the creative juices flowing, but when you post that this song needs (Drums, guitar) whatever, you are asking others to pour their hearts into your song and really for the most part for nothing.
Which leads me to my last point. If someone throws you a killer track, please - send them 10.00 bucks or something for a cup of coffee and a new pair of sticks (being they probably wasted their sticks on your song). Sometimes, I think we devalue music too much. Music is about sharing and expression. If someone spent a bunch of time coming over to your house to give you great guitar tracks, your wife would probably insist that they stay for dinner or something (being that we men are many times to damn dumb to think about it).
Keep it positive! Keep it real! Keep it Flowing and Value each others time and work!
Some food for thought!
My two cents.
That should be Indaba's new slogan.

"SOMETHING sounds better (even if it's crap) Than NOTHING"

I disagree. Crap is crap.....end of story. I'd rather listen to silence than crap. Crap is a waste of my time.

Just my opinion :)

~gabe