Macjams

About eight years ago, I attained my first digital recording interface for home musicians, Cakewalk Home Studio. Home recording has since become a passionate hobby of mine. Most of my extra money, unfortunately, goes into either my guitar rig or what I call my "studio". I've been very pleased at the outcome of my most recent musical projects. I consider several of my latest tracks to be my best productions thus far. Since my acquiring of a duel full band EQ, a vocal processor, and a bunch of new mics, the sound quality has improved greatly. What's fun for me is the strive for perfection. There is so much for me to learn about audio production. It's fun to look back at some of the awful tracks I've recorded and see how far I've come. It's also fun to know I've got a long way to go.

However, in all the time and money invested, there was never a real "point" to doing what I do, other than the fact that I love it. It's my hobby. However, there was never any real reason to spend time perfecting my music. The only demands to meet were my own goals, and even then, I could fudge a bit and say "that's good enough".

Then a friend introduced me to Macjams. Macjams, unlike some of the big sister websites like Pure Volume and Myspace Music, is dedicated purely to home recording artists. Macjams is a community based server with a blog-like homepage that keeps members posted with the lastest plugins, loops, recording gear, and Mac updates. The real meat of macjams is their music posting. Dozens of songs are posted every day by musicians from all over the world. Any music style you can think of can be found on amongst the tens of thousands of songs.

Each song posted comes complete with its own page. The musician usually presents lyrics as well as audio tecniques implemented, type of gear used, and other miscellaneous information about the song. Each page consists of a comments section along with a category-based rating system for members. Top rated songs are showcased on Macjams homepage.

The community aspect of Macjams is phenominal. Members of the site tend to understand that Macjams exists to offer a home for musicians to grow and learn together. Unlike Myspace, it's not about showcasing a musician or band to the masses. Macjams delivers a system built on feedback designed to create a community of musicians to improve their skills, because it's what we love to do. The site provides me personally with a finish line. My goal in "finishing" a song and uploading it for feedback derives from the desire not to impress, not to attempt to be better than others, but to deliver my absolute best for the sake of learning more. There's always something to improve. If my best is presented, the faults that show usually are much more "advanced" in the process of becoming a better producer. Ohers better than me who earnestly seek my growth as a musician can assist me in that process.

If you look hard enough, you may be able to find some of my OLD recordings (as in, first time ever)...Yikes. But good luck.

We be Jammin!

Post Links: Macjams Homepage