I know a lot of forum regulars have got music sites... here's your opportunity to whack them up and tell us what you're doing... don't be shy...

I'll show you mine if you show me yours . Actually, I've seen yours and have to say, for the benefit of other readers, it's a brilliant and fascinating resource, so go see http://www.bemuso.com

My own modest effort is at http://www.mattdowning.co.uk . It's not very exciting, and I still haven't worked out what to do about the pointless 'welcome' page - just ditch it probably and go straight to one of the other pages. But it serves it's purpose as the music is easily accesible so I can refer people to it if they want to hear examples of my work.

My other favourite forumee sites are by Blue Mask, Carlos Presents and James Lehman (very professional without being pseudocorporate or irritating).

Matt

'ere ya go...

www.StrawberryEmu.com

Designed and programmed by my wonderful partner Victoria...

There's a Flash animation game on the music clips page if ya fancy that. Hopefully I'll get some of my more recent output up there soon.

http://users.telenet.be/inocybe/

here ya go..

--------------------
Didn't your mother ever tell you not to eat nuclear warheads?

Quote:

---

I still haven't worked out what to do about the pointless 'welcome' page - just ditch it probably and go straight to one of the other pages.

---

Yeh, I wondered about what to put first on my site, i decided to go for just news on the opening page, rather than a 'Hi welcome to my site...' type page. I don't like thos 'click here to enter site' pages, so pointless, like shrink wrapping for web sites!

My own site's still under construction BTW, but when it's ready you'll all know about it!

www.thewisemonkeys.com

Loads of info and I think it works quite well, but by god do we need a designer!!!

Here goes: http://www.clubotaku.org/mimi/uk/album11.php or archive.org/details-db.php?mediatype=audio&identifier=mimi011

--------------------
http://ocp.pt.vu
http://pygar.pt.vu

Mine's www.rachelapp.co.uk.

I'm not too happy with it right now, i need to make it more user-friendly for people with poor sight (i have to admit i didn't really think about it when i designed it)

Oh, and i need more content LOL

It's just HTML raw coding - i'm a bit old fashioned when it comes to websites, probably because i did my first one in the "early days" (1995)... I mean, i'm old fashioned as a web designer, not a surfer! I like well-designed fancy websites but when i think about making a new website for whatever project i have or for friends, i always think of it in terms of coding (be it HTML, perl, php etc), it's quite bizarre... Maybe it's laziness LOL

--------------------
Songwriting and music recording blog

Bit of a bandwidth hog, but have a look!

http://www.renditionstudios.net

--------------------
High quality, original music compositions for Video Games and Multimedia: Rendition Studios - www.renditionstudios.net

Okie-dokie, if you must (also a bandwidth hog):
www.ultrachronic.com

mines www.7171.com - (well, it's mine and another guy together) - written in cold fusion - we're going to try a small web-based label next doing compilations fo user tracks.

--------------------
www.7161.com
Free online music space & Homepages

I think that should be www.7161.com

OH YEAH!... lol... i always was crap at maths & speeling

--------------------
www.7161.com
Free online music space & Homepages

Hi Mine is www.moefoe.co.uk. there are a few tracks to listen to, but have to sign up to get the full tracks. Hope you like it.

www.inpaindie.net


theres loads of mp3`s and some videos as well on there, for those not into heavy check out two new souls

--------------------
as metal as your nanna`s new hip

O.K. www.digitraxstudio.co.uk
Vic

In drastic need of an update, here

Bazza

--------------------
This time next week, who'll give a sh*t
http://www.podcastrevision.co.uk

www.msweb.co.uk

currently undergoing a major redesign, the webhosting tools should be back online by friday....

any feedback welcomed..

--------------------
P.I.G.L.E.T - where is polly?

ooh, er mine's www.ronkymac.com - I'm working on creating a dedicated music section at the moment, because I have it under 'Files' just now...

any comments appreciated...

--------------------
ronald@rmacd.com
www.rmacd.com

www.abundantrecords.co.uk

I'll have to check some of these sites out later when I get a chance - sounds like some cool stuff is going on...

--------------------
Some of me music.

http://www.olifreke.com/

Plus my newest release is a Digital Download at TrackitDown.net, the largest (legal) dance music download site in the UK.

Listen to my track here (at #4 in the top sellers):
http://www.trackitdown.net/genre/hard_dance.html

--------------------
Cassette Electrik

Quote Oli Freke:

---

...TrackitDown.net, the largest (legal) dance music download site in the UK...

---

Sounds unlikely Oli, but I'm prepared to be corrected. What's your measure of "largest"?

I had to look... trackitdown seem to have come from nowhere since August... what's the story? Do they advertise or is it word-of-mouth? I have to admit this is the first mention of them I've seen.

One of the main guys behind trackitdown.net is Ed Real who was the A&R for Nukleuz Records, which itself was pretty much the biggest hard dance label in the UK for about 6 years (think it's just folded though...)
So it's got credentials, and they seem to have a lot of the big labels of dance on there.

I think their proposal is much more directed at DJs than the 'consumer', and is a pretty compelling one - download a track, stick it on CD and play it out that evening, all for about a quarter of the price of a slice of vinyl.

I'll be sad to see vinyl go, but that's what it's looking like, at least for the smaller dance labels.

--------------------
Cassette Electrik

Interesting Oli, thanks. How unhip am I, eh?

Vic, I happened to click on your link for some unknown reason and my immediate thought was "why are none of the images clickable links?".

Tip: Don't waste any opportunity on your site to make something clickable, as there is nothing worse for visitors, and the moment you scroll down the page on your site, you lose sight of the three yellow button links at the top right (well, on my screen you do).

Just my initial impressions.

Ian G

--------------------
SOS Gear Videos now screening on www.SoundOnSound.tv
SOS Podcasts

www.morphsville.com

Due for a bit of a design update soon to conicide with our new album on the way.

Edited by morphsville (01/10/04 12:07 PM)

Quote Ronkymac:

---

ooh, er mine's www.ronkymac.com - I'm working on creating a dedicated music section at the moment, because I have it under 'Files' just now...

any comments appreciated...

---

Intrigued. What's "2.8GHz Dell running Windows XP with Cubase SX2 and Logic Sound Track 24"?

--------------------
SOS Gear Videos now screening on www.SoundOnSound.tv
SOS Podcasts

Quote Forum Admin:

---

Quote Ronkymac:

---

ooh, er mine's www.ronkymac.com - I'm working on creating a dedicated music section at the moment, because I have it under 'Files' just now...

any comments appreciated...

---

Intrigued. What's "2.8GHz Dell running Windows XP with Cubase SX2 and Logic Sound Track 24"?

---

Lol, Logic ST24 came with the soundcard (STA C-Port)-- I was puzzled as to what it was as well, and it didn't come up with anything on Google, but it seems to look the same as logic... I'd love to hear from anyone else that uses it - so far I can't find anyone else on this forum has it...

--------------------
ronald@rmacd.com
www.rmacd.com

Thanks for your input Ian.
I'll have get round to it,
Regards,Vic

oh dear

all these look better than mine...

http://uk.geocities.com/bigd22646/

mind you I have no webdesign knowledge
I picked up some basic html but still dont know how to edit it proficiently
This is something I want to get to work on before end of year..

Does M.soft word do simple html design???
Does anyone know of basic free html s/w for MacOSX??

--------------------
aural orgasms

Mac OSX free HTML - http://www.tacosw.com/

TextEdit also does some basic stuff.

Word does convert docs to HTML but it makes very big and rough pages. Editing its HTML is a nightmare. Avoid.

I use BBEdit. Highly recommended but costs...

And here is mine, just freshly uploaded:

www.pego.be

--------------------
Free guitar lessons:
http://www.pego.be

And a new update, with forum too and some new lessons added. Powertab lessons downloadable.

www.pego.be

Oh go on then, here's mine..

Own Little World Site

And I've just noticed that I've refound my virginity.

I hate virginity. Well, unless its a brunette, slim, 18 years old, on a beach..........

Sorry, seeme to have drifted off for a bit there. Anyway;

Deluxe Records

We've only just started operating but we're not holding back. I'm not going to say anything like "the best dance record label" because to be quite honest, we're not. Ministry probably are. But, anyway that's a different topic. We're just doing our thang.

Andy

Blimey!

Some really good sites out there.

just started revamping mine (made it myself)....

The World of Mistrust

At the moment it's got a long way to go - nowhere near finished - tweaking it forever more. I'm adding more stuff all the time.

--------------------
mistrust's music - you'll love it!

Hi, I like your site Mistrust, good simple uncluttered design, though i would have preferred a bit more content. Was that really Midge Ure in your photo gallery or am i being thick and missing the point? if the real man you should be making more of it - don't be modest!

http://www.rhythm-machine.co.uk

Quote mistrust:

---

At the moment it's got a long way to go - nowhere near finished - tweaking it forever more. I'm adding more stuff all the time.

---

That's the way of the world for web sites.

They are never ever "finished"...

Ian G

--------------------
SOS Gear Videos now screening on www.SoundOnSound.tv
SOS Podcasts

Mistrust,

I would drop the opening screen and go straight to your Home page personally.

BTW good to see a non-laptop computer (Mac G4) being used live on-stage for a gig in one of those photos!

Mac G4 on stage

Ian G

PS: did it behave itself or were there any problems?

--------------------
SOS Gear Videos now screening on www.SoundOnSound.tv
SOS Podcasts

Looks as if it's taking a break from playing the guitar.

/coat

Here's my rap/hip-hop oriented site. This is my first "real" site design. Was fun and challenging.

www.futurehot.com

--------------------
FutureHot Productions.Hot Hip-Hop/Rap beats.

The Jiggers Ceilidh Band

New Website about to be launched:
Big day Music: professional Musicians for the perfect Scottish Wedding

And also another site about to be launched for my studio/music, but all I have is a picture at the moment...
jpg draft of www,beatcave,co,uk website new look

I also did this one:
The New Scottish Choir and Orchestra

but it's being taken over by a proper web-team soon, as I've not had the time to maintain/finish it...

Any opinions on my sites (especially bigdaymusic one) are always welcomed. I'm not a pro designer, just do it as a hobby.

g

--------------------
Ceilidh Band Scotland
Wedding Music Scotland

I looked at the bigday music one.
It was tidy and neat, but i thought the design a bit dull considering the exciting subject you have on offer (music/musicians).

For example, instead of a monochrome musical score as the pic on the left, how about colour pics of musicians at work in evening dress, kilts or whatever. the pic could change from page to page thus adding some colour and interest.

Neeldess to say there wasn't much content & none of the band links works, but i assume that's a work in progress?

Basic design OK, but make it more interesting, you are trying to sell something after all.

BTW I'm certainly no expert either, just a bloke who dabbles, so take my advice accordingly.

Thanks Glyn. All comments are useful. Finding the right image is a difficult business! The links will be up and running soon too, and I see what you mean about the excitement factor: it would benefit from being a little more exciting!

g

--------------------
Ceilidh Band Scotland
Wedding Music Scotland

Well, Old Man - New Musician, here goes :-

http://www.databloem.com/0_DTS.htm

http://www.soundclick.com/dreamingtheseed


Love on your souls-Deek

The Urban Myth Club

http://www.urbanmythclub.com

We're selling tracks direct from the site and it's working!

Hope you enjoy the music.

Dez

--------------------
Recording Artist (urbanmythclub.com), Founder TRL Music, Music Life Coach (musiclifecoach.com).
New Course: The 7 Secrets to Success in Music

Another one...

Its my first effort at a site so be gentle.
You'll need 'flash' and a good fast connection for this one, or a lot of patience!

Not finished yet of course, and it works best in Internet explorer. Not sure about other browsers.

Comments welcome. Good or bad.

Paul.

www.idlehands.info

--------------------
"don't concentrate on the finger, or you will miss all the heavenly glory..."

Edited by Mr Smith (17/11/04 08:50 AM)

Mr.Smith, i think you did a really good job with that site. Neat and tidy. I couldn't seem to get the biogs up, don't know if they're not finished yet? But most of the other stuff appeared for me. Like to see 'news' on the front page, that's good.

Don't like the pointless opening flash thing (not just your site but in general), but then i never do, i mean whats the point, apart to show cleverness, if i want a movie I'll watch a DVD right?

I would have said the site was excellent, that is if I hadn't visited the one in Rob's other thread, which is just outstandingly brilliant in my opinion - check it out.

Yeah, I saw that after posting this. (Head held low in shame)
Very, VERY good site.

Thanks for the comments.

Biogs are unfinished as yet, I'm not sure which angle to approach them from.

The pointless bit at the start is supposed to have some music playing and is kinda like a front cover. Presentation purposes, but yeah I suppose fundamently it serves no purpose.

anyway, thanks again

Paul.

--------------------
"don't concentrate on the finger, or you will miss all the heavenly glory..."

Quote Mr Smith:

---

Biogs are unfinished as yet, I'm not sure which angle to approach them from.

---

I know what you mean, it's a difficult trick to get the biog right without sounding too pretentious, but also to make it interesting, especialy when you're talking about yourself!

Quote Sean Monkey:

---

www.thewisemonkeys.com

Loads of info and I think it works quite well, but by god do we need a designer!!!

---

The Wise Monkeys

Cheeky sod!!! I designed our site. And I did it all with raw HTML in "notepad". And it took me ages. Wait till I see you at the next rehearsal!

I know, I was there, remember?

Anyway, I meant no disrespect to your coding prowess, which is undoubtedly impressive. But it does look a bit stark.

Here is mine.

--------------------
www.descentintomadness.com

here's my site

www.mattsearles.com

its in progress but I am building it myself... always searching for feed back I might add

--------------------
My artist website is [url] www.mattsearles.com [/url] My new podcast on the business side of culture creation can be found at www.asymmetricbizcult.com

I really don't like the blue text on a blue background for the links etc, that's a no-no in my view. Makes it difficult to read, especialy for old timers like me.
I would switch it to white on blue or something, make it as easy as possible for the visitor to see the info.

--------------------

http://www.bunshop.org.uk/

I havent updated it in ages.Im no web eggspert so have to rely on my web-pixie.

--------------------
The Photographers

yeah.. good point actually.. my index page is the only page where I have the blue on blue background.. I put those links up as short cuts to deeper places in my site.. the idea being that they should be for people who have been to my site before and don't want to have to go through a lot pages to get some place.. The idea was that the 'sound artist' and 'web design' links where really the main front doors...

anyway.. I'm not really happy with the index page.. I was thinking I might do something like make so that when the index page opens it would automatically go to a specific dimension so that links on the sides could have the proper kind of visual relationship to the center image.. and the buttons below the main image would be immediately visible.. but I just haven't gotten around to it yet... on top of that I've been thinking about throwing out the index page as it stands and finishing a Flash splash page that I have in the pipe line.. but even in that scenario the current page would be the non-flash index page

But yeah.. I should definitely change the link colors.

The blue back ground color is a kind of branding idea... To be associated with the sky or water.. and I have a few flash sections to the site in the pipe line that ought to reinforce this idea a bit more..

It should be mentioned that there are sections in the site where the reading is even harder to read then on the Index page!!!

--------------------
My artist website is [url] www.mattsearles.com [/url] My new podcast on the business side of culture creation can be found at www.asymmetricbizcult.com

Ours is quite basic, its just a front for our Music links...............


"FACTOR-X-MUSIC"

--------------------
SYSTEM-X BAND PAGE SYSTEM-X @ factorXmusic

CARLOsPRESENTS

I love the C64 and music. I also love Rob C. So iwanted to make some music but have it on a site that looks good.

My only problem is that the songs have to be downloaded before you can hear them.


I need to work out how to do streaming.

--------------------
My Jukebocks

Edited by www.carlospresents.co.uk (19/12/04 06:00 PM)

Carlos, Looking good. Sorry if the FTP has been a bit unrelible lately. I've been re-jigging things here.

Flash is one way of streaming, or you cud use the M3U trick. Where you just have the person download the playlist, and then there player streams the track from the server...

Best Wishes, and Happy Christmas, Laurence

--------------------
P.I.G.L.E.T - where is polly?

Quote GlynB:

---

I looked at the bigday music one.
It was tidy and neat, but i thought the design a bit dull considering the exciting subject you have on offer (music/musicians).

For example, instead of a monochrome musical score as the pic on the left, how about colour pics of musicians at work in evening dress, kilts or whatever. the pic could change from page to page thus adding some colour and interest.

Neeldess to say there wasn't much content & none of the band links works, but i assume that's a work in progress?

Basic design OK, but make it more interesting, you are trying to sell something after all.

BTW I'm certainly no expert either, just a bloke who dabbles, so take my advice accordingly.

---

Hi Glyn (et al). Bigday music site now revamped:
www.bigdaymusic.net/bigdaymusic

let me know what you think now!
g

--------------------
Ceilidh Band Scotland
Wedding Music Scotland

I've also updated (but not finished) my studio holding page found here
g

--------------------
Ceilidh Band Scotland
Wedding Music Scotland

Quote *gregster*:

---

Quote GlynB:

---

I looked at the bigday music one.
It was tidy and neat, but i thought the design a bit dull considering the exciting subject you have on offer (music/musicians).

For example, instead of a monochrome musical score as the pic on the left, how about colour pics of musicians at work in evening dress, kilts or whatever. the pic could change from page to page thus adding some colour and interest.

Neeldess to say there wasn't much content & none of the band links works, but i assume that's a work in progress?

Basic design OK, but make it more interesting, you are trying to sell something after all.

BTW I'm certainly no expert either, just a bloke who dabbles, so take my advice accordingly.

---

Hi Glyn (et al). Bigday music site now revamped:
www.bigdaymusic.net/bigdaymusic

let me know what you think now!
g

---

What I think now?

It's really good! All the links I checked worked. the site design is more colourful and bright. Gives feeling of confidence - these poeople are trustworty, they won't screw up my wedding!

Would like to see some photos added of musicians in action at events you have organised. But if you are just starting out that will be difficult I suppose? Certainly when you've got a few under your belt add a photos section of succesful events you've done, pics of brides and pipers in full regalia, a caelie band in action, that type of thing.

Good luck.

My main site is...
www.msweb.co.uk

But I'm working on...
www.msweb.co.uk/site2
any ideas on this intial design would be apperciated...

--------------------
P.I.G.L.E.T - where is polly?

www.famolly.com

best viewed on a computer

Giant With Laser...

The design of the main site looks drab to my eyes. Music is EXCITING, but your site design doesn't convey that, it's very business-like, l8ike a site would be that sold office stationary for example! It looks like the Microsoft MSN site, maybe because of the colour scheme and the blue banner along the top?

Having said that, it is tidy and professional looking, if that's what you're after.

The new site doesn't have enough content to pass comment on, but again you seem to be opting for an unispiring design choice.

Sorry if that disapoints, I know how much work will have gone into this, so it hurts when its criticised, but i think you need to liven it up.

Edited by GlynB (30/12/04 11:43 AM)

Quote Giant with Laser Eyes:

---

www.msweb.co.uk/site2
any ideas on this intial design would be apperciated...

---

I get some weird layout stuff when loading this page in IE6.0 - I'd post a jpg up, but I can't remember the ftp details of my free space

Other than that, just to re-iterate what Glen has said, it looks a bit 'corporate' (friendly, fluffy corporate, but still corporate) at the moment.

FMH

Quote xFasterMikeyH:

---

Quote Giant with Laser Eyes:

---

www.msweb.co.uk/site2
any ideas on this intial design would be apperciated...

---

I get some weird layout stuff when loading this page in IE6.0 - I'd post a jpg up, but I can't remember the ftp details of my free space

Other than that, just to re-iterate what Glen has said, it looks a bit 'corporate' (friendly, fluffy corporate, but still corporate) at the moment.

FMH

---

Yea, sombody mentioned that... But I can't get it to do it myself. It must be error in the CSS coding. I will look tonight...

If you need some free space, feel free to signup with msweb.co.uk
(see link in my sig)

Laurence

--------------------
P.I.G.L.E.T - where is polly?

hi famolly. my first impression was that it had a nice graphic: draw that yourself? second impression was that the site wasn't taking itself too seriously (which is fine)
3rd was a real annoyance: the lack of a BACK button (except via rightclick). That is a real pet hate of many browsers: back is the most-used function in a browser: don't make it difficult to get at!
g

--------------------
Ceilidh Band Scotland
Wedding Music Scotland

hi gregster,

yup, i did the picture. what do you mean by "the site wasn't taking itself too seriously"?
last, i didnt think a back button was required as theres links at the bottom that take you back.

cheers for your response

ben

Good graphics Ben... just good. And how many web pages do I see in a day? Far too many... so you must be OK.

--------------------
www.bemuso.com

GlenB,

I did have this idea, but I think its bordering on the edge of taking the piss!
http://msweb.dynalias.com/site2design/2logo.jpg
http://msweb.dynalias.com/site2design/3logo.jpg
But I agree the other site, lacks interest and focus...

Maybe add a cuckoo! hehe, no i'm joking really!

I love the FaMolly site, I wish I could do graphics like that. Its really nice... Not to keen on times new roman font, but apart from that its lush!
Laurence

--------------------
P.I.G.L.E.T - where is polly?

Edited by Giant with Laser Eyes (30/12/04 11:10 PM)

Laurence, I didn't realise that your site was a corporate site, my comments on it were about it being a 'music' site (I thought that 'projects' related to whatever music you're working on and 'studio' would be pictures of your studio). Bearing that in mind, might be as well to ignore my pearls of wisdom.

I guess the main thing for you to think about it is who you're selling to. I personally like the cuckoo thing, but if I were looking for someone to make me a business website that would probably put me off.

Sorry to have confused things further!

FMH

Quote xFasterMikeyH:

---

Laurence, I didn't realise that your site was a corporate site, my comments on it were about it being a 'music' site (I thought that 'projects' related to whatever music you're working on and 'studio' would be pictures of your studio). Bearing that in mind, might be as well to ignore my pearls of wisdom.

I guess the main thing for you to think about it is who you're selling to. I personally like the cuckoo thing, but if I were looking for someone to make me a business website that would probably put me off.

Sorry to have confused things further!

FMH

---

Yes, me too, I assumed it was a music site. If you're a design consultancy or whatever then I guess the layout is OK, but surely if you're into design you should be coming up with something novel or unusual?

I rather like the 'bird' examples of pages for a design company, it shows an example of... er.. design!

The design question really comes down to how people use your site and what your message is. Unless you need to impress people in some way or hit them with a strong message it's difficult to spice up the design without getting contrived or distracting. On a music site you do need a focussed image and holistic feel, but for a general utility or information site sometimes bland is the right thing... as long as you spell out what's going on.

Broadly speaking, don't spend time on design that doesn't serve any purpose... but you need to make that call yourself. Second opinions are always useful.

One thing I'd take from the feedback on Laurence's main site is that the purpose and message could be stronger on page one. Will people think: what is MSWeb? What do they do?

--------------------
www.bemuso.com

One thing I've realised about my web-browsing is that I don't like, or usually don't read the nav buttons, especially if there are too many or it's not obvious what they take me to straight away.

Buttons that say "about" are a bit cryptic, for example.
My tip to designers would be to make your nav buttons totally transparent to the eye. Try using 2-3 words if it clarifies exactly what it is the target page is. Deciphering buttons is NOT something people can be bothered doing a lot of the time.

Also, remember that your first page is your first impression: the customer is not interested in you, he's interested in HIMSELF. Reel him in by simply offering the benefits HE could be experiencing were he to use your service/product, then he'll give you more of his time.
g

--------------------
Ceilidh Band Scotland
Wedding Music Scotland

The Urban Myth Club

http://www.urbanmythclub.com

Like this site alot, very clean and polished, good content and I also like the music samples.

Darryl
www.glideascope.com

I don't share your button thing entirely Greg but I know what you mean. I normally click them to see (if I'm interested in the site) but don't really read them and think.

I'm happy with "About" though, it's one of the things I look for on a new site, and there's a kind of convention that About, FAQ, What's new, Site map, Contact, etc. on the home page usually mean the same on every site. Certainly, "about" isn't very descriptive, but we know it means here's some info about the purpose of this site and who we are.

--------------------
www.bemuso.com

Here's my site for review:

www.glideascope.com

This was the second version completed around 8 months ago, would appreciate your thoughts and comments.

Glideascope
www.glideascope.com

Quote *gregster*:

---

One thing I've realised about my web-browsing is that I don't like, or usually don't read the nav buttons, especially if there are too many or it's not obvious what they take me to straight away.

Buttons that say "about" are a bit cryptic, for example.
My tip to designers would be to make your nav buttons totally transparent to the eye. Try using 2-3 words if it clarifies exactly what it is the target page is. Deciphering buttons is NOT something people can be bothered doing a lot of the time.

Also, remember that your first page is your first impression: the customer is not interested in you, he's interested in HIMSELF. Reel him in by simply offering the benefits HE could be experiencing were he to use your service/product, then he'll give you more of his time.
g

---

I think it maybe depends how experienced the visitor is?
I mean there are some kind of 'standard' buttons that I expect to be there and I know what I expect to see when i click them.

Contact - I expect to see contact information, address, email, etc.

About - I expect an explanantion of what the company or the site is 'about'

Gallery - usualy photos of the artist or product

Links - links to other associated sites

Blog - biographical log

News - obvious

Home button - to return to the home page

I think if people keep to these type of conventions then there shouldn't be too much problem in knowing what they're for and finding your way around?

yep, agree Glyn. That is pretty conventional. I think that the "about" button is the only one that has unclear connotations, convention or not! "Background" perhaps???, or "history"?
I think that any band that takes itself seriously would consider having a "press" page (unless they were already well known). It is pretty difficult to assert originality but maintain a conventionally practical approach. Anyone seen sites that do this? I'll start a new thread:
"band websites that you like"
I have to say that I quite like the "ween" website (although I can only remember that it kept me interested enough to actually read it!)
g

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Ceilidh Band Scotland
Wedding Music Scotland

Still slightly under construction. Sorry, I mean constantly updated and improved. www.wireempire.com

Feel free to give me some feedback.

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www.myspace.com/arcanamusic

Quote Armadillo:

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Still slightly under construction. Sorry, I mean constantly updated and improved. www.wireempire.com

Feel free to give me some feedback.

---

I am 512kbs, loaded fine. Simple, easy to follow from first impressions. Audio link didn't work for me (maybe it's not running yet?) I don't like the keyboard picture in the main image. The setup looks untidy and "home-studio" esque. Obviously, you don't want to mislead people, but I'd be wary of pictures of CRT monitors, which are Soooo last year in terms of studio image.

Oh, hang on. The music just started after about 2 minutes of waiting... hmm. maybe a bit long.
I'd recommend having an instant loop that plays a couple of times that originated from your studio, with a clear option to turn it off.

Also, I don't know about the "list of songs_and their styles" idea. I've been toying with this as well, but I honestly don't know if people will be interested...I don't think that people like to think of being "pigeonholed listeners". It does depend on what your target market is I suppose. If they are clients looking for factory styles for corporate videos etc then it might be ok. If you're trying to "sell" your work as commercially viable stuff, I'd go with the "integral media player" option. By all means have a downloads page for samples (for people who really want a decent hifi version of your work), but I'd put a radio player on there with lo-fi samples playing automatically until they're switched off.

Those are just my thoughts. I'm being a bit more picky because I feel that your site design skills and musical skills obviously are of a standard to make these smaller things of importance.

good1
g

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Ceilidh Band Scotland
Wedding Music Scotland

Dammit. just spent 20 min. writing a reply and then IE crashes.
Thanks a lot for being thorough.

Quote *gregster*:

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I am 512kbs, loaded fine. Simple, easy to follow from first impressions. Audio link didn't work for me (maybe it's not running yet?) I don't like the keyboard picture in the main image. The setup looks untidy and "home-studio" esque. Obviously, you don't want to mislead people, but I'd be wary of pictures of CRT monitors, which are Soooo last year in terms of studio image.

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Well it is a home studio, and all my hardware is probably worth less than £2000 (2nd hand anyway), so I don't really know how else to represent it.

Quote:

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Oh, hang on. The music just started after about 2 minutes of waiting... hmm. maybe a bit long.
I'd recommend having an instant loop that plays a couple of times that originated from your studio, with a clear option to turn it off.

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Hmm... strange, it should stream almost instantly. I'd like to know if other people are experiencing the same problem.
Don't like the loop thing. The page will take longer to load and a short loop gets annoying quite fast.

Quote:

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Also, I don't know about the "list of songs_and their styles" idea. I've been toying with this as well, but I honestly don't know if people will be interested...I don't think that people like to think of being "pigeonholed listeners". It does depend on what your target market is I suppose. If they are clients looking for factory styles for corporate videos etc then it might be ok. If you're trying to "sell" your work as commercially viable stuff, I'd go with the "integral media player" option. By all means have a downloads page for samples (for people who really want a decent hifi version of your work), but I'd put a radio player on there with lo-fi samples playing automatically until they're switched off.

---

I like pigeonholes. Often in eg. "sound files" on SOS, I can't be arsed to listen to the music cause I don't know if it's a genre I like. I wouldn't eg. listen to country or indie. It's just a waste of time imo listening to songs just to find out that musically they are as far away from anything you listen as it could be.

Lo-fi option would be nice though. Will look into that.

What is my market? Good question. Within the last year I've been trying to start up a nu-metal/breakbeat band, been producing euro trance with a singer, been looking to go into library music, and trying to start up a RnB project.

Quote:

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Those are just my thoughts. I'm being a bit more picky because I feel that your site design skills and musical skills obviously are of a standard to make these smaller things of importance.

good1
g

---

Thanks in regards to musical skills.
Web design skills however, are not as good as they might seem. Basically, I've bought a template, edited it, new text, images, added links etc. nothing major.
To be honest I'm not sure if I can add a dedicated player etc.

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www.myspace.com/arcanamusic

Gregster:
You didn't mention that the "services" link didn't work, and neither did "showreels". Under construction. I think

the music started playing after about 5 seconds here (512 adsl). It's a shame there's no indication along the nature of 'streaming started, please wait while buffering.." just so the viewer has visual feedback that something is happening.

I had 2 hours spare, so I started redesigning my site...

http://msweb.co.uk/mswebv6/

Any comments, thoughts...
or ideas how to make it in the middle! of the page!
Laurence

--------------------
P.I.G.L.E.T - where is polly?

I like the sky.

What the hell are you selling anyway? I don't get it.

never got it with the current site either.

whats the word giant dude?

What's like..... your quest?

to center it you could use this
And then lose the doctype line

I'm sure I had got the 100% table trick in there, but I will look again when I remove the doc-type line.

Thanks again, Laurence

*edit*

out of interest why lose the doc type line?

--------------------
P.I.G.L.E.T - where is polly?

Edited by Giant with Laser Eyes (30/01/05 11:19 PM)

Http://www.ukslc.org

What you guys think ??

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http://www.ukslc.org/ - UK Sound And Lighting Community

Good. The breadcrumbs top left look odd for some reason, but otherwise very clean and classy.

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www.bemuso.com

...Nice.

That black bar at the bottom's tough to read though... Maybe you could use the yellow from the top?

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www.RTaylor-Design.Com

Does nobody in here browse full screen?

Isn't designing for 800x600 a little "last century"?

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www.RTaylor-Design.Com

Quote:

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or ideas how to make it in the middle! of the page!
Laurence

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%?

This:
http://www.w3.org/

http://imgseek.python-hosting.com/
{Which you can apparently run in windows now...}

As opposed to this?:
http://www.oasis-open.org/home/index.php

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www.RTaylor-Design.Com

Quote Rick Taylor:

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http://imgseek.python-hosting.com/
{Which you can apparently run in windows now...}

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Not sure about the evolutionary model.

http://imgseek.sourceforge.net/net/

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www.RTaylor-Design.Com

Hello all,

Here's a little site I've been working on. There's not much on it at the moment. Let me know what y'all think, and any suggestions/crits/etc will be appreciated...

www.papamofoman.com

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http://www.papamofoman.com
myspace

Quote Rick Taylor:

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Does nobody in here browse full screen?

Isn't designing for 800x600 a little "last century"?

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It isnt designed for 800x600

I just like having bars on either side of the page.

Makes it look nice and clean !!

Just personal preferance really but it should display well on any window size

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http://www.ukslc.org/ - UK Sound And Lighting Community

I don't like sites that decide how you want your screen...

Why not let the user decide? If they want 800x600 it should work for them. And if they want full screen it should work too.

I don't browse full screen... isn't running a single app rather '60s?

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www.bemuso.com

Quote 3guk:

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Quote Rick Taylor:

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Does nobody in here browse full screen?

Isn't designing for 800x600 a little "last century"?

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It isnt designed for 800x600

I just like having bars on either side of the page.

Makes it look nice and clean !!

Just personal preferance really but it should display well on any window size

---

I wasn't actually targeting your site. But it might apply.

I think it should display equally well on any screen too... hence the % preference. Look at the page you're reading this on. {As well as most of the majors out here... ms, yahoo, google, etc.}

Personally, I think those itty bitty pages are irritating.

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www.RTaylor-Design.Com

Quote Rob C.:

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I don't like sites that decide how you want your screen...

Why not let the user decide? If they want 800x600 it should work for them. And if they want full screen it should work too.

I don't browse full screen... isn't running a single app rather '60s?

---

Again... that's why I think stuff should scale.

I run Gnome with 4 desktops... I usually open apps full screen on each desktop... Mailer, NVU, Editor and Browser {for 'net sessions.. the setup's different depending on what I'm doing. } Even in Windows I generally maximize things that I want to pay attention to and use the taskbar to switch between them. {all sessions}

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www.RTaylor-Design.Com

I've just uploaded my bands website, Sell Crazy. It has taken me a while to do but I think it is looking pretty good. I would think that though seeing as I created it . I'd be interested to hear what people think of it.

Cheers,

Gareth.

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My Homepage
My Band

http://www.hairthieves.com

Pop, rock and soudtrackesque soundscapes.

Enjoy

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http://www.hairthieves.com
http://www.myspace.com/thehairthieves

Quote Gareth Duncan:

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I've just uploaded my bands website, Sell Crazy. It has taken me a while to do but I think it is looking pretty good. I would think that though seeing as I created it . I'd be interested to hear what people think of it.

Cheers,

Gareth.

---

I thought the layout was really good. neat and tidy. Didn't like the repetition of so and so will get you so and so bit on the home page, most of the links had obvious meanings in my opinion, you could instead have a 'hover over' explanantion of each link button if you want to explain what each one does?

Also the photos look a bit amateurish. it would be well worht getting someone who knows what they're doing with a camera and get some decent lookinbg ones done. Just some 'constructive' criticism. Good job overall.

--------------------

Thanks for the comments.

Quote GlynB:

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Didn't like the repetition of so and so will get you so and so bit on the home page, most of the links had obvious meanings in my opinion, you could instead have a 'hover over' explanantion of each link button if you want to explain what each one does?

---

I wasn't sure if it was obvious that the plectrums on the left were suppose to be links. I need to think of a way to make them more obvious then I can remove the explanation from the front page.

Quote GlynB:

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Also the photos look a bit amateurish. it would be well worht getting someone who knows what they're doing with a camera and get some decent lookinbg ones done.

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I agree completely. They were really just place holders so that I could get the layout right. My skills with a camera are a bit lacking .

Cheers,

Gareth.

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My Homepage
My Band

Quote Gareth Duncan:

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Thanks for the comments.

Quote GlynB:

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Didn't like the repetition of so and so will get you so and so bit on the home page, most of the links had obvious meanings in my opinion, you could instead have a 'hover over' explanantion of each link button if you want to explain what each one does?

---

I wasn't sure if it was obvious that the plectrums on the left were suppose to be links. I need to think of a way to make them more obvious then I can remove the explanation from the front page.

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I'd just kill the explanations... I think the picks are fine. Maybe they could stand to be bigger. Folk looking for a place to click are not going to have a problem figuring them out as they are. Maybe the text in the logo is a bit small... the curves on the right hand side are a bit rough as well. You might try drawing them in a vector program and exporting them. Sodipodi's been ported to Windows if you don't have something like Illustrator.

Quote GlynB:

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Quote:

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Also the photos look a bit amateurish. it would be well worht getting someone who knows what they're doing with a camera and get some decent lookinbg ones done.

---

I agree completely. They were really just place holders so that I could get the layout right. My skills with a camera are a bit lacking .

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You might just shoot a lot of closeups at a practice some night. Closer is better if the background's a living room. Shoot enough and you should easily come up with usable stuff. You might play with the room lights a bit...

I think I'd do the same thing to the studio shots that you've done to the guitar shots... Or maybe do some sort of set in the basement or the alley or something. Shots of a table in the living room or bedroom look like just that. They don't give you a professional look or set any type of personality for the band. Telling the truth is probably good... you don't have to tell folk everything though.

If you do shoot stuff in the living room... close the window unless it's to the side of what you're shooting. Shooting with it at your back is probably better.

I like the guitar closeups...

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www.RTaylor-Design.Com

Quote Rick Taylor:

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the curves on the right hand side are a bit rough as well. You might try drawing them in a vector program and exporting them. Sodipodi's been ported to Windows if you don't have something like Illustrator.

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Now you've pointed that out it is all I can see . I've heard some good stuff about Sodipodi (I'm using Linux) so I'll have to give it a go. Thanks.

Quote Rick Taylor:

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You might just shoot a lot of closeups at a practice some night. Closer is better if the background's a living room. Shoot enough and you should easily come up with usable stuff. You might play with the room lights a bit...

---

Good idea, I just hope poeple can stand closeups of our faces .

Thanks for the advice.

Gareth.

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My Homepage
My Band

my new site..

http://www.listen.to/inocybe

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Didn't your mother ever tell you not to eat nuclear warheads?

Quite a nice tidy site.

I don't like the use of the bog-standard 'Times new Roman' font, I suggest using Arial., Times NR looks amateurish and your site is better than that. This is really easy to fix.

On the pictures page the small thumb nails wouldn't expand to bigger pictures, is that still work in progress, or is it designed that way just to have little photos?

Overall not too bad.

--------------------

GlynB, thanks for the comment, really appreciate it. I wonder how come you see the times font (maybe the stylesheet isn't linked properly..)it should use Geneva -> arial ->Helvetia -> sans serif family... I'm a bit puzzled as why this happens, it's not the first time I use a css file .. I've tested the site on all major browsers and platforms. I'm going to look a bit deeper into why this is happening to you (and not to me, so far).

Which browser are you using and which platform you're on? do you have the Geneva font installed ? Are links displayed in blue? or in black?

the small pictures will stay small no need to see them all blown up IMHO.. I like to keep this site simple and easy updatable..

--------------------
Didn't your mother ever tell you not to eat nuclear warheads?

Inocybe:

The font displays correctly in Firefox here but not in IE6. The reason is that IE doesn't cascade the font-family style rule down to the td contents when applied to a table cell. If you move the font-family declaration to the body element then all should be well.

i.e.

body{

font-family: : Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;

}


IE doesn't handle cascading styles very well in general and in the case of tables its even worse. In my experience its best to avoid applying styles to table elements when you want to style the contents of cells and rather style the contents directly. Im not a big fan of table layouts generally but that's another story.

That not withstanding its a very nice site you've got there. Good stuff.

Quote inocybe:

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GlynB, thanks for the comment, really appreciate it. I wonder how come you see the times font (maybe the stylesheet isn't linked properly..)it should use Geneva -> arial ->Helvetia -> sans serif family... I'm a bit puzzled as why this happens, it's not the first time I use a css file .. I've tested the site on all major browsers and platforms. I'm going to look a bit deeper into why this is happening to you (and not to me, so far).

Which browser are you using and which platform you're on? do you have the Geneva font installed ? Are links displayed in blue? or in black?

the small pictures will stay small no need to see them all blown up IMHO.. I like to keep this site simple and easy updatable..

---

Yes i have geneva font installed, I checked for it in MSWord and it's there as an option, as are arial etc.

Links are displayed in Black. Using Internet Explorer version 6. Standard stuff.

Looks like the stylesheet isn't sorking properly?

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Quote inocybe:

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the small pictures will stay small no need to see them all blown up IMHO.. I like to keep this site simple and easy updatable..

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Personally, I think they work really well that way.

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www.RTaylor-Design.Com