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My name is JAK3. I'm an independent electronic artist, and I am working on my debut album for release in early 2013! I've been producing for many years, but mostly for other people, and I got tired of making beats for rappers, so I decided to do my own thing and make the sort of music that I want to make. I know that a lot of people do not like heavy use of autotune, so if you are one of them, then you may want to skip me... but if you don't mind heavily processed vocals (or think they sound beautiful like I do) , then please please check me out. I would place the genre in "electronic pop" , but the album will be a mixture of the electro sound heard in "Empty Avenue" and also a psychedelic rock sort of vibe.  I'm still in the very early phases of being a solo artist and trying to build my audience - but music creation and the music industry are my two passions, so I know that with enough dedication and hard work I will get to the level that I aspire to be at. If you dig my stuff, please share it with anyone else you think may like it, and even if you don't like it, thank you so much for giving me a chance and listening to my music!! Here's the video for my first single, Empty Avenue (my first iTunes release!!) http://youtu.be/fhj1RDsZxfo?hd=1 And the acoustic version for the autotune haters: http://youtu.be/t1N_BMhBhSg Official Website: http://bit.ly/UkUdii Facebook: http://on.fb.me/W4qsnj Twitter: http://bit.ly/Zyw4d8 vv tongue firmly planted in cheek in regards to the acoustic stuff vv JAK3 fucked around with this message at 06:19 on Nov 15, 2012 |
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Nov 15, 2012 05:11
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I think I am a bit more self-aware than that. This isn't some sort of Tommy Wiseau thing. This is the sound and image that I am intentionally going for. I welcome constructive criticism with open arms, though. JAK3 fucked around with this message at 10:46 on Nov 15, 2012 |
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Nov 15, 2012 10:27
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Adulterous Hitler posted:Apart from the horrible music, I especially love how you stole the logo of the MK Dons and present it as your own. I actually had no idea. I am shocked by my Google image search results. Not really sure what to do about that one. I guess we'll see what happens. Plenty of unrelated company logos are similar. Seriously though, guys, I appreciate that not everyone likes what I'm doing -- that's one of the cool things about art. I would never expect to post anything, anywhere, and have 100% positive feedback. I'm okay with you guys who aren't fans of my work. I'm not going to keep replying to everything, though. I love hearing feedback, and certainly there are bound to be those of you who just absolutely despise my art, and that's ok, and I won't defend myself against everyone who says "this is awful". Thanks for checking it out. JAK3 fucked around with this message at 11:52 on Nov 15, 2012 |
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Nov 15, 2012 11:39
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Well, you guys generally didn't like my first attempt with "Empty Avenue" so I'm trying once more to seek the approval of NMD goons  This one is called "Sacrifice" http://youtu.be/oDh0SmupsLE?hd=1 
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Nov 30, 2012 03:38
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Thanks for the actual feedback, guys. I appreciate it. The irony with this project is that I find myself needing a producer. I started my music career AS a producer working for other people, but with my own music I really think having an extra set of hands and ears would go a long way. I actually spent a considerable amount of time working on the mix, and all of those tracks were played from scratch, the only loop is the acoustic guitar and I looped it myself. The sound of the track I think turned out quite brilliant, it has a dark sort of energy to it that I think fits the song. The kick drum does get louder during the chorus but that was by design to try and help boost the energy during those parts. Also, I had "Empty Avenue" professionally mastered and intend to do the same with this song once I feel that I have truly finalized my mix. That should help everything sort of click into place I think. If I had all the money in the world, I would totally hire someone to do my mixing for me. But as it is, I'm doing this project solely by myself, so it's difficult to get things to the level that they should be, all alone.
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Nov 30, 2012 10:06
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I don't make dance music. Music as an artform seems to have this unique quality in that people always want to compare it to other musical works. When you see an abstract painting, you do not say "I think the blue parts should have been red" or look at a Picasso and say "That really doesn't look very much like a person." Andy Warhol's art was a bit rubbish, don't you think? But wasn't it saying something? Did it not provoke a reaction? It didn't look like the work that Matisse created. Why do we do this with music but not with visual art? JAK3 fucked around with this message at 16:11 on Nov 30, 2012 |
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Nov 30, 2012 16:05
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This thread is called "The House/Electro/Synth and accompanying genres megathread" I'm sorry that you don't like my music, but that's ok, because it's art. There's a lot of art that I don't like too. Art is subjective, but art criticism must be objective in order for it to be valid. The only actual feedback that I've received from you guys has been the person who told my that my mix could be better. That's factual, not opinion. Your opinions are valuable to me, but I recognize them as being opinions.
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Nov 30, 2012 17:22
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I'm feeding into this a lot more than I should, but are there any actual reasons why my music is boring and poorly produced? Or is that just your opinion of it? My feelings aren't hurt that I'm getting some negative reactions here, but I have to admit that it gets kind of annoying to be told "This is bad" but no actual reasons why. Boring? What does boring mean? Are you aware of the possibility that while you may find it to be boring, there is someone else out there who thinks it's a work of genius? I'm not saying that my work is genius, but you are aware of this possibility right?
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Nov 30, 2012 17:30
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dj bobby bieber posted:I laid it out for you pretty clearly. Nah I wasn't talking about you. Like I said in one of my posts, you were the one who gave me useful feedback. You're pretty much the only dude whose response was valid to me in any way. I know that I have a lot of room for growth, and this particular song is still probably 90% mixed and hasn't been mastered yet. My experiences with Empty Avenue was that the professional master that I paid for (I had always tried to just half-assed master tracks myself previously) made a huge difference to the final product and that song was honestly decently well received by people despite the few attempts of trolling on my YouTube channel (some of these were actually really funny and I enjoyed them) I'm making an amateur mistake by replying so much to the feedback in this thread. I realize this, it's something that I am quite self-aware of in addition to the rest of the things people say about my music. "Boring" is getting used a lot , and I am ok with that term as well because I myself consider my general sound to be somewhat monochromatic. In response to the very frequent "too much autotune" and "can't understand the lyrics" , I have this to say : The effect is intentional, has been given years of thought and research (getting into pretentious sounding territory now but this is hard to avoid as an artist or anyone in any field really talking about their work publicly) -- I consider my voice to be an additional instrument / synth sound in my music, I do not and have not ever considered myself to be a "singer" and have never presented myself as being such. I view my music as being the sort of thing that you can just put on ambiently in the background and maybe vibe to some stuff in it that perks your ears up from time to time. In the context of listening to the full album (there are 13 songs in various stages of production at this point and the album as a whole makes a lot more sense than these individual songs I've been putting out) and the web/visual experience that will accompany it along with a real REAL music video (Empty Avenue was basically me loving around with Final Cut Pro and Adobe After Effects) will help to bring it all together into what I think is going to be a pretty unique direction for a self-proclaimed "pop" artist to go. I'm not really comfortable with labels or genres in general, but the two that I have used are "electronic" and "pop" - I have never described my music as being "dance music" , "house music" or any sub-genre of just plain ol' electronic. The pop element comes into play with my overall career goals - I want to be right up there alongside the top 40 darlings but I am not aiming for my music itself to compete with any of them. I see a much bigger picture than just the music, and I feel that I have a lot of interesting artistic concepts to express once given the forum to do so. I do not think that my music itself is my biggest or best asset. It is simply the first of many vehicles of public self-expression that I am choosing to pursue. This was a lot of words to say about myself, and I may regret every word of it (I've been with these forums for many many years and I have a firm grasp of the overall tone and paradigm of the forums I'm posting in) but I guess I was probably looking for a reason to say all of this because I think that this project is something that is best understood when let in on the bigger concept behind it. I'm still in the very early processes of this album and everything that will accompany it, and I didn't mean to sound defensive or cocky or pretentious (but once again this is hard not to do in this sort of situation). I appreciate the feedback and I hope that I haven't turned anyone off too badly with all of this. If the world will give me a chance and stop trying to put labels and comparisons on everything, I think there could be some enjoyable things to come from it. JAK3 fucked around with this message at 19:16 on Nov 30, 2012 |
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Nov 30, 2012 19:14
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^ Most of that was in response to very misinterpreted quotes. I'm not going to correct them lest I be labeled as "defensive" , but just know that most of that was A. things I already know and B. just plain invalid because my initial quote was heavily misunderstood by you. I am not a guy who just got a Macbook Pro and started loving around with Garageband. I'm not just hitting some lovely generic "pitch correction" button and grinning at the fact that I sound like that T-Pain feller. For the record I don't even use Antares Autotune, I use the Neptune function in Reason 6.5 and I play my voice through a MIDI controller so yes I am familiar with the nitty-gritty details of pitch correction and voice synthesis. These are by no means my first forays into music. I have been studying, practicing, learning, and experimenting with and about music for going on 8 years now. I have my obligatory first horrible "albums" that will never see the light of day and make me cringe to listen to all these years later. I've done the shifts in style and direction that come with years of experience. I am actually quite well educated on music and the music industry itself. This is not me dipping my toes into trying this whole music thing. This is the result of many years of many different musical projects - it's my first official album, but by no means did I just fall off of the turnip truck, so to speak. I appreciate your elder statesman position with all of this, and you have some great thoughts about it all, but please realize that I put a massive amount of deep thought into every aspect of this, including and even particularly, the "am I a disillusioned Tommy Wiseau-esque fool?" -- I think about this stuff very very very much. I'm done talking about it and trying to justify myself. Of course I have room to grow. I grow every time I work on a track or write a new song. This entire album has been a growing experience and I am truly just getting started in the public eye but I am not new to this by any stretch of the imagination.
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Nov 30, 2012 20:30
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Yes, that's a good example to illustrate the things I said in my previous post. Note that the Space Mask video was created and posted 5 years ago. Edit: Like, are you all really under the impression that I look at things like the song you just posted and think "Yep, that's pretty good stuff!" ??? If so, you are misinformed. If I had a million dollars for every lovely LoonaSik song I did that ISN'T up on YouTube, then I would be doing pretty well. That video is there as an example of the very growth and shifts in direction that I mentioned. I -recognize- and think the same thoughts that you guys are thinking about this stuff. It's all there for a reason. I'm not as deep into fantasy land as you seem to think I am. JAK3 fucked around with this message at 20:43 on Nov 30, 2012 |
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Nov 30, 2012 20:39
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This is truly the last thing I am going to say about all of this: It's not that I am not listening to the opinions, methods, techniques that have been given here in this thread. I never once have said anything to the effect of "I'm not changing anything" or "No that's wrong" - I haven't gotten personally offended by anything said here, and honestly? To try and say that I'm not taking criticism very well or that I don't listen to feedback is just ludicrous. Just because I want to make everything very clear about what I'm trying to do doesn't mean that I am not ALSO listening and taking note of the things that I'm being told to do. When Sacrifice is legitimately released, the guitar loop will be replaced with actual real guitar with more interesting progressions, played by a guitarist, and the drum track and vocals will be tweaked, all thanks to the tips given to me in this thread. There's been a lot of misunderstanding here today, just because I like to talk about what I'm doing and take it very seriously and have a lot to say about it doesn't mean that I am trying to justify or defend anything that I'm doing wrong. I think I have been pretty open with you all about all of this. Thanks for listening to what I've had to say about it all. There are no hard feelings on my end whatsoever.
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Nov 30, 2012 21:10
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demonR6 posted:I have been reading up the last few catching up, just out of curiosity how old are you man? On one hand you are trying to come off as a seasoned pro who has been around the block and knows what is going on, then on the other hand I am wondering if you are barely in your 20's and struggling to get a break of some sort. I am 24 and I've been working with music full-time since I graduated high school in 2007. Despite how amateur this stuff may look (in comparison to what, I wonder - Let's remember that I don't have a factory of people creating things for me like the big acts do) , this really is my career and has been for years. This is how I have and continue to make my living, whether or not some people on the internet think it's a joke. I'd like to remind everyone that it's really difficult being expected to not just be a musician but also my own engineer, producer, editor, manager, marketing agent, stylist, graphic designer, videographer, etc etc etc. A little bit of slack could be given in regards to how much one person is expected to be a professional at. vvv I'm just trying to shift things into perspective a little bit and keep it all relative. Everything I say is getting so overblown. vvv JAK3 fucked around with this message at 21:28 on Nov 30, 2012 |
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Nov 30, 2012 21:17
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-Inu- posted:You need to reevaluate what you're trying to accomplish here. If you want to be a musician, then music should be your priority. Period. The fact that you're doing "so much stuff" isn't and never will be justification for your music not being up to par. The year is 2012. The technical capability of being able to produce electronic music is no longer a feat in itself. There is so much market saturation now that your music needs to be top tier just to get your foot in the door. You might pull in a few people with your marketing/promotion, but you're not going to be able to hold an audience once they hear the actual music. You're right, and Melee was right about most of what he said as well. Having slept on this all and given it some time to echo around in my head, there's a lot that I'm taking away from the dialogue with you all and there certainly are a few things that I'm going to have to reevaluate. Sorry for being a tool, I'll be making some changes to how I do things going forward.
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Dec 1, 2012 04:20
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Adulterous Hitler posted:How about you start by not using the MK Dons logo as your own anymore? Being from America and not into any sports whatsoever, I had never heard of the MK Dons or seen their logo until this was brought to my attention earlier in this thread --- Pure coincidence, my creative process was basically putting a K and a 3 together (The font I used was Kremlin) and turning it on its side... I thought it was kind of cool because it resembles a heart, etc. So this was not me "stealing" anything, it was just by chance that it had been done before. That being said, I am going to drop the logo.
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Dec 1, 2012 11:49
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