[YoshiIsDaBomb]

I really want to start learning how to make customs for this website. However, they are some hurdles that I have to get over. Things that scare me the most are tempo mapping and making the animations for the rockers on stage (custom venues basically) and my lack of knowledge for guitar and bass charting (and almost everything else).

 

To get myself started, I compiled a list of songs that have yet to be made as customs that I think would be good for a beginner like me.

 

– I Only Have Eyes for You by the Flamingos

– Just One Look by Doris Troy

– Just the Way You Are by Billy Joel

– Say It Isn’t So by Hall & Oates

– Lay Down Sally by Eric Clapton

– Walk Like a Man by The Four Seasons

– Big Girls Don’t Cry by The Four Seasons

– Sherry by The Four Seasons

– Who Loves You by The Four Seasons

– Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy) by John Lennon

– New Light by John Mayer

– Both Sides Now by Judy Collins

– Summer Girls by LFO

– Man in the Mirror by Michael Jackson

– Mississippi Queen (Original Version) by Mountain

– Pass the Dutchie by Musical Youth

– I Lived by OneRepublic

– Diamond Girl by Seals & Crofts

– All I Want by Toad the Wet Sprocket

– I Know What Boys Like by The Waitresses

– I’m Not in Love by 10cc

 

I would really appreciate if someone decided to pitch in and help with any of these customs. I use Songsterr to help me with the drums and pro versions of guitar, bass and maybe keys (I don’t really know how the normal version works). For vocals, I try to find sheet music online for that particular song. You can tell me which song is good to work on first if you are an expert at music.

 

I might try working on these. Otherwise, you can just use this list to find a custom you want to work on your own and post it on the database. Not sure if I ever will get around to making customs, but I see these as a great start. Thanks!

[rubydanger]

My quick guess would be either Lay Down Sally or I Know What Boys Like would be the easiest to start with, but some of the others I am not familiar with so maybe one of them would be easier.

 

I was like you, deathly afraid of proper tempo mapping, now it is actually one of my favorite things to do. I still don’t play in custom venues much, but it’s not that difficult I have learned very recently. CAT has a create animations button, and Magma generates random animation which is usually enough for me. (I know many like to do full authored animation)

 

Do you actually have any charting experience – there are many different tools from the past that can still be incorporated with Reaper. I still use Feedback for most of my charting and then fine tune them within Reaper.

 

I have some time, maybe I can make a video of how I basically start my customs, even though I am not the best author out there, I feel I am getting better every custom.

[YoshiIsDaBomb]

My quick guess would be either Lay Down Sally or I Know What Boys Like would be the easiest to start with, but some of the others I am not familiar with so maybe one of them would be easier.

 

I was like you, deathly afraid of proper tempo mapping, now it is actually one of my favorite things to do. I still don’t play in custom venues much, but it’s not that difficult I have learned very recently. CAT has a create animations button, and Magma generates random animation which is usually enough for me. (I know many like to do full authored animation)

 

Do you actually have any charting experience – there are many different tools from the past that can still be incorporated with Reaper. I still use Feedback for most of my charting and then fine tune them within Reaper.

 

I have some time, maybe I can make a video of how I basically start my customs, even though I am not the best author out there, I feel I am getting better every custom.

Thanks for telling me Ruby! I’d like to see a video of how you do customs! I could learn from you then begin to improve through experience!

[rubydanger]

Just checked them – Waitresses would be the best starting song for sure. I am PMing you a link to vid I made for ya

[Shroud]

I really want to start learning how to make customs for this website. However, they are some hurdles that I have to get over. Things that scare me the most are tempo mapping and making the animations for the rockers on stage (custom venues basically) and my lack of knowledge for guitar and bass charting (and almost everything else).

 

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I am only currently doing my 4th custom now, so I can’t really say I am an expert, but since I have been making my customs full-band all by myself, at least I can share what I’ve learned so far.

 

First of all relax, take it easy… get into the state of mind that charting customs is a hobby, and as such it is supposed to be enjoyable. It doesn’t mean it’s easy, in fact it is often challenging, but you need to learn to enjoy the challenge as something that rewards itself. Make sure you don’t develop any competitive feelings about charting, it is NOT a competition! (Hint: signs that it’s turning into a competition are for example wanting to rush towards releasing your custom as soon as possible, planning an impossibly ambitious list of songs to chart, or constantly starting to work on new customs without ever finishing the previous)

 

Take yourself an evening off or a weekend afternoon to do at least the following preliminary studies:

 

– read Farottone’s beginners’ tutorial: https://dl.c3universe.com/53cec8d2f2465

– watch pksage’s video tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2rfk21tm1I

– install the tools you need (at least Reaper, Magma and C3 CON Tools): http://customscreators.com/index.php?/topic/8997-list-of-all-authoring-stuff-reaper-magma-tutorials-etc/

– bookmark RBN authoring instructions (but you can read these along while charting): http://docs.c3universe.com/rbndocs/index.php?title=Main_Page

 

When I started, I thought I was going to first only add missing instruments to existing customs, but I quickly jumped to full-charting instead. To make it easier, you can pick a song without any keyboard or harmonies (although I didn’t). Honestly, I don’t think it’s worth charting Pro Guitar/Bass at all because there are too few people playing those, or at least I would wait until later, you can always release your first custom without them and add them afterwards.

 

Some bits I’ve learned about charting specific instruments:

 

1) TEMPO MAP

 

– Always the first thing to do…

– Most pop/rock songs have fairly constant tempo, if they also have drums more or less from the beginning until the end, then tempo mapping is in fact quite easy.

– Trust the visual peaks in the audio file in Reaper more than your ears.

– If you see that tempo markers change the BPM by less than 1 (or 2 for faster songs) then you’re probably doing it well enough.

 

2) DRUMS

 

– This is the easiest to chart, so it’s good to start a custom from this instrument.

– It helps to focus on separate drums sounds at different times: for example, do a first chart of only kickdrum+snare; then go back and chart closed/open hihats and ride; then back again and add fills and crashes

– Watch videos of the original band playing the song, because often it’s difficult to hear if the drummer is for example playing 8ths on the hihat or playing 16ths but accenting the 8ths; similarly, in the video you can tell better what toms are being used, if hihat is played with alternating hands (in which case you should use disco-flips), what toms are used…

– Some drummers use a lot of ghost notes, in that case it’s your choice to chart them or not, just stick with your choice for the whole song.

3) BASS

– Also very easy to chart, boost the low frequencies with any equalizer in Reaper to hear it better.

– You have to choose how to reduce all notes to 5 buttons: strive for consistency (same note = same button, during the whole song) and follow the principle of going up/down with the pitch as much as possible.

4) GUITAR

– Things get challenging here… be prepared to make a lot of compromises.

– The most important thing here (as with any other instrument) is to get the rhythm right. You can do a first pass on your chart by marking all guitar sounds with a single note, just to make sure the rhythm is correct. Maybe skip the solos for the moment.

– If you know how to play real guitar, you can shape chords to resemble the true finger positions, but the 5-button guitar controller is extremely limited, so this idea works only when the song features very few chords throughout. Otherwise, it doesn’t really matter which “shape” (i.e. button combo) you use for each chord, as long as you use the same combo for the same chord in the whole song.

– Get a chords transcription of the song. The web is full of free guitar transcriptions for everything imaginable, but if you’re lucky to have a library with music sheet books then even better (they are more reliable). Again, for charting guitar it doesn’t really matter which chords are used, but the transcription will make sure you know where each chord is used again, so you will use the same combos consistently.

5) VOCALS

 

– Mostly, you’ll have to learn to chart by ear. Be patient, everyone can do it.

– Use the midi FX in Reaper to hear beeps when clicking/adding notes, this is a huge help for nailing vocal notes.

– If you have access to music sheet books, they always have a note-by-note transcription of the main vocals. I’ve never understood why they do, as I always thought singers simply need to listen to the record and sing the same notes, but with such a book in hand, your job in charting vocals is 99% done: just copy those notes directly into the midi and adjust the start/end of each note if necessary.

– You will notice that many singers don’t sing exactly in time but slightly earlier or later than 8ths, 16ths or whatever. Ideally, you would like to chart the start/end of each note exactly as the singer does, but don’t get mad about it… if the difference is small, you can fit those notes to 8ths/16ths and it won’t hurt in most cases.

– If you make compromises, it’s better to have a vocal note too short than too long, i.e. start a bit later or end a bit sooner. This makes singing easier.

 

6) KEYS

 

– Charting by ear is very hard, but not as hard as most people think.

– By all means, if you can find a note-by-note piano/keyboard transcription, use it.

– Alternatively you can find many MIDI files for free on the web created for karaoke to help you charting, but be aware they most of them are very different from the original song (stuff is missing or heavily changed, sounds not existing in the original are added, and sometimes everything is in the wrong key). It might end up being harder than worth.

– If no transcription is available, remember the chords transcription you found for the guitar? The keyboard plays the same chords so use the same chord chart for keys. You might need a bit of music theory to know which notes are in each key, but we can help you with that too.

 

7) HARMONIES

 

– Also very hard to chart by ear, but there are shortcuts.

– When background singers harmonize i.e. sing at the same time as the main singer but different notes, most of the times they follow a pattern. They have of course to stay in the same key, but a frequent choice is to sing a 3rd above the main voice, meaning that the notes of the second singer are 3 or 4 “rows” (in Reaper) above. So which one, 3 or 4? That varies from one note to the other, but one will be in the same key while the other will sound out of key, so you should be able to tell by ear. Other times the background singer harmonizes a 3rd below (3 or 4 rows lower) or a 5th above (almost always 7 rows higher, except a special note which is 6 rows higher).

[rubydanger]

And let me elaborate on a comment I made earlier.

I use feedback to chart, because that’s what I have always used since gh2 came out. I would not recommend feedback to anyone that is trying to learn to be honest. There are many extra steps I need to go through to make them rb compatible. I am sure there are better tools out there now for this, I only use it because it is what I know.

[Author]

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