Wedgebill wrote:Now I'm not sure if I'm less than average and undaft or above average and completely daft. As daft as it might seem, I always thought I was about average and quite daft :rolleyes:
I'd like a cold daft please! -------- BAM!! A round of COLD DAFTS 'fer everyone!
First off, RW -- I got 'yer back man! stop trashin' the Riffer, man! hahahaha
I'll say even though I'm still learning how to use this product, it does kick major bootay as shredrex stated.
I bought the guitarport on word of mouth from a friend and didn't think much of the RW demo right away. I was using the guitar port straight into Sony Vegas 8.0 and just laying down some ideas here and there..... not really motivated... then I started messing around with the Instant Drummer in the demo and was able to jam with it---- AND like it! So I broke down and shelled out for the upgrade (line6 version) because it had GREAT reviews on musicians friend, I think it was....
I hadn't even been playing my guitar for about 5 years, and after using RiffWorks for a few minutes, I had put together an arrangement of the ideas I had recorded in Vegas which had been rather un-inspired because I was just playing to the metronome when I recorded. Using the Instant Drummer, within an hour or so, I had written and arranged my first full song using RW, including vocals! I was completely AMAZED at how much RiffWorks inspired me!
edit:
http://www.riffworld.com/Members/tmotech/on-my-way-home_1/Here's a link to the first RW tune... go easy on me!(oddly enough, I DIDN'T use the Matt Sorum demo -- I think it was "Trash Funk")
So I was COMPLETELY satisfied instantly by this program and still find much satisfaction with being able to jam on the fly and re-arrange songs in seconds to see how one "RIFF" goes with another "RIFF". The thing is, that everyone who has spent any time using this product sees that using RiffWorks is like the ultimate "scratch pad" for song writing! It allows you to do in minutes, what it would take weeks to do in a studio or hash out in a band-room. Every musician who can plug in to this program, should.
It is so easy to come up with a completely different version of a song in mere seconds -- you can just move around the order of your song to see how it matches up. The power to do different arrangements of your songs on the fly is so damn cool!
The other amazing thing, from a guitarist standpoint - at least this guitarist, is using RiffWorks is EXACTLY how every one of my bands has written music.
Someone has an Idea - maybe what they believe to be "finished song" or just a riff, whatever....
Everyone starts dropping in.
A song is eventually hashed out, by saying things like..... "uhh.... you know that part in the beginning, ya know, uh (bass riff playing)? -- Lets move that to the end of the chorus and play that 3 times, break at the end and go back to the 1st verse...."
--- "Hey, ya, that sounds sweet! Let's give it a try!"
---- ear splitting music playing, everyone looking confused, because the lava lamp and the strobe light are freakin' everyone out except for the drummer, who is suddenly playing at a different tempo, apparently matching the strobe light, and won't stop playing because he can't even see you around the giant 6' foot bass cabinet blocking his view of most everyone in the room. After a minute or so the painful symbols stop.
----"lets try that again!" --- and on for a few hours, maybe, or minutes if your lucky....
With RiffWorks, it's the total "plug 'n play" deal. Plug in, record parts, move 'em around, lock and load.
The ONLY drawback for me, after using the RW Standard, is the lack of a solid groove on tight breaks and fills. I always have breaks in my songs or parts that really would drastically improve with a live drummer hammering the song out to the feel of the actual song itself. So, unfortunately, until that part of Riff Works improves or until I learn how to program drums, which I will have to learn from the ground up, our util I learn to actually play the drums, which I have been attempting recently and it's obvious it will take me many, many years - these songs will always be a "Pre-Drummer" version.
As far as new Ideas -
I like the idea of being able to re-order the "stack of layers" - i think someone mentioned that.
I also like the idea of being able to drag and drop a number of sections from the song build to do overdubs - great idea....
I could only ask for more ability to write lyric ideas - the little "riffnotes" pad is really terrible and limited. I would say make a built-in guitar music composition pad, in the style of a blank guitar scratch book available at an book/music store. One with the neck diagram so you can easily stamp out chords quickly. This will help when you come back to a "cold" song, letting you see the chord progressions visually, as well as the audio.
Again, don't get me wrong, even if the finished product is a "pre drummer demo" or something, this product is amazing at facilitating quick, on-the-fly song writing and arrangements. It is completely intuitive to the way a musician writes music. It is the closest I have come to a sort of direct link to my creativity. And it is pretty easy to export your work from RiffWorks into pretty much any "digital studio software" to use post-production, so to speak.
RiffWorks Standard is SO WORTH THE INVESTMENT!
.... and that doesn't even cover the RiffWorld community.... so cool
by blue4u » Sat Jun 20, 2009 7:16 pm 
I kindly go sit in the corner now 
