thawkins
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Posts posted by thawkins
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1 hour ago, purlieu said:
The alternative is definitely sending to labels. When I pop something on my own Bandcamp I sell between 5-10 copies. My last release on a label has sold 120-ish so far.
Depends on whether you have the time to find suitable labels, of course. There are tens of thousands of DIY labels these days, if your material's decent then there's probably someone out there who'd release it. But yeah, it can be an exhausting task and I totally understand the 'bung it on Bandcamp and move on' approach, because it just takes away the stress. As I say, I do it myself sometimes. But, although I make music largely for myself, I can't deny the satisfaction that comes from people - outside a few friends - actually buying my albums.
I would send it to some labels, but yeah I don't know any small time niche labels that would actually be interested in the style I make.
Maybe I should start searching and sending some demos..
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2 hours ago, purlieu said:
Yeah, unless you've got an already established fanbase, self-releasing on Bandcamp is kind of useless these days. I often see idiots saying things like "people will discover it if it's good!", so I sacrificed* an EP to an anonymous Bandcamp page and literally nobody has listened to it. There are so many releases these days, especially electronic stuff, that it's next-to-impossible to get your stuff heard.
*I wasn't going to release it anyway because it was so heavily sample-based and I got in trouble for sampling earlier this year.
What's the alternative though? I am never getting an established fanbase if I do not put my things on somewhere. And I don't think I will ever have any success sending my material to a label or something, although honestly I don't really try to send any demos anywhere either...
Putting stuff on bandcamp is more like "yeah milestone achieved, I finished some tracks", which is a nice thing that happens once a year maybe.-
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Hungry for some fatty kuna sushi now.
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On 6/7/2021 at 3:54 AM, Bubba69 said:
The deal with the whole youtube thumbnail shittery is that it's statistically proven that certain types of thumbnails get some consistent 20-30% better engagement or something insanely significant like that. most youtubers can't ignore this kind of simple economic win. Yeah it pisses off millennials and boomers but it provides enough of an engagement swing it's worth it. I just watch who I know I like even though a lot of them have started cargo culting some horrible thumbnail patterns. The video content stays more or less the same with or without the horrible thumbnails.
Engagement, what a cursed word.
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3 minutes ago, chim said:
Why are you even bothering with linear timecode stuff outside of a DAW? The classic way to do it was ride a bunch of mixer faders. You're not going to get much more precision than that outside of a programmable DAW.
I mean for example syncing the internal arpeggiator of the AKAI MPK Mini to the DAW. I don't know if timecode is the best term for this but it has to do with realtime MIDI data and the sync with the MPK was really unstable for some reason.
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39 minutes ago, sweepstakes said:
Yes. The layout, the gross light-up pads, and the color touch screen like a smart phone. And look and feel matters when it comes to gear. If you truly don't care about look and feel and you fancy yourself a very practical goal-oriented music-maker, then in general software + cheap MIDI controllers are the tools for you.
Yeah except don't buy cheap AKAI MIDI controllers either - well at least not bottom dollar stuff that you want to use for something more than sending pitch and CC data.
For anything that needs to handle timecode, arpeggiator, velocity sensitivity you need something better than the cheapo products.
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JJOS guy is the Cenk of AKAI.
Also he is probably also the mysterious author of bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto.
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I am not running away from computers for good, I am just thinking that having a standalone sequencer would help me grow better musically.
I really really detest the recent trend of having to depend on some software running on a computer in order to use your gear to the fullest. More often than not this ends up being some shoddily made stuff that falls out of the support window pretty much instantly once the vendor releases some new and shiny thing. Unless of course you shell out $$$$ for the top of the line pro model that costs 2x the price of a new laptop. It always leads to some DRM fueled push to try and make people pay for subscriptions or pay for additional software that makes your device useful.
I mean the AKAI MPK Mini I have can not even get a basic MIDI sync going without insanely drifting. Yet the old MPC series has legendary MIDI timing, so something must have happened in the meantime.
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5 hours ago, xox said:
Not sure about this; never heard of it! Majority of Akai users recommend buying new ones over the old ones, for many many reasons. Only thing that’s better with the old ones is the retro 12-bit sound but for that you need to buy MPC60. What makes newer machine great is that you can export your projects directly to Ableton, and finish you tracks there, if you wish so ( i hate my OT for not having this option or Overbridge or more physical outs), but afaik you are not dependent on computers, of course, I could be wrong about this.
btw… Stand-alone Maschine was released not long ago!
I mean I got it because a person I know offered to sell it. I did not do any deep market research and I was not going to buy anything new (i.e. not used) anyway.
It won't make logical sense in any way, it was and will be an emotional decision.
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3 minutes ago, xox said:
well if you want finger drumming it’s understandable and NI Maschine is much more costly! But, I saw used MPC Lives and Ones being sold for the same monies as 1000s, which is bizarre!
Also, it’s possible to find an OT mk1 costing about the same (don’t be afraid of it; i own an mk2 and I don’t make berlin techno
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NI Maschine is not usable stand alone without the computer, right?
I think the reason why old MPCs are valuable is that at some point AKAI sold out and their newer stuff is not as good, and the same thing really - now you depend on having a computer around in order to have the full feature set (I remember at least one of the new MPCs has this problem).
I really wanted a standalone sequencer with real-time recording and looping for a long time, stars aligned and that's why the MPC1000. Who knows, maybe I will hate it eventually.
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And here is the intro parts, slightly rearranged and remixed.
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8 hours ago, xox said:
Why that sampler? Ive never used an MPC and i just wonder why would someone use one in 2021 and why that one with other MPC-s, and other sampler options around?
I have always wanted it and now when I could justify affording it and get one from a known good previous owner, I decided to go for it.
I think I am mostly interested in the combination of the finger drumming pads, and MIDI sequencing without a computer. Sampling is good too I guess, but it's not something that has ever really been a part of my workflow.
Lots of people still use the old MPC series with JJOS too.
And realistically the only alternative is the Octatrack, which goes for twice the price used and (being an asshole now) for me it is mostly associated with some berlin glitch techno rapidly disappearing up their own ass sound design.
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I am waiting for my MPC1000 which is still stuck in customs although now they have said I am going to pay some import taxes on it, so things finally might be moving along.
I don't want any gear anymore really. I want more free time to play with my gear though.
Maybe real-world studio rental places could open up again so I can meet up with my guitarist pal and unload myself at a drum kit.
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This is probably the best jam session we have had so far.
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Here's a video that illustrates the point I was trying to make earlier - you take certain pieces of music theory that help you in making whatever it is that you are trying to make. Saying that "I use music theory" without any qualifiers is kind of meaningless (i.e. saying that you use *every concept* in theory).
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So I spent some time and remixed and arrange the intro of that last jam session recording, feeling better about it than I usually do.
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On 5/17/2021 at 2:41 PM, Konakov said:
Light digital electro from Ukraine
SQL/606
This is really nice, brings back some memories. I like when you have a nice blend of groove and driving rhythm, but it's not super polished and may sound a little thin in places - this makes it more real and personal and kind of alive.
Thanks.
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And here's the recording of this week's jam session:
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This kind of reminds me of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_man_theory. In this thread it's maybe more like Great Man/Gear Theory.
Like sure Hendrix used pedals and he did it well. Was he the only one to do that at that time? Probably not, because he did not exist in a vacuum and had his influences and contemporary artists that he was inspired and influenced by. Home recording basically did not exist back then so all we know is the stuff someone could afford to record in a studio and that was good enough for some record company dude to be actually released.
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On 5/24/2021 at 4:07 PM, Jed said:
When the electric guitar and electric bass were widely released, Jazz Fusion appeared w/ Bitches Brew pretty quickly after the technology was introduced. Some technology advancements can make some pretty profound changes to the music scene pretty quickly.
Right, but Bitches Brew was recorded 2nd half of 1969. There were some artists using electric guitars and basses way before that: for example the wiki page for electric blues sets it to late 1930s (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_blues).
I agree that Bitches Brew is a groundbreaking album in many ways, but if you think how it was recorded - a bunch of established and really good musicians coming together to jam out and record these tracks - then it also depends as much on 10-20 years of practice and people getting used to electric and amplified guitars/basses.
I mean my point is that from a bird's eye view it looks like bam! Fender Jazz Bass is released and you have Bitches Brew and jazz fusion in a few years. Then you look at the wiki page and see it's released 10 years before. Then you look at Fender Precision and it was released in 1951. And these are mass production releases - just like with gear today, pro musicians get their hands on stuff early.
The more closely you look both in terms of gear technology and music genre evolution, the fuzzier and more difficult it gets to really draw a sharp line and say "here, this was the point where stuff changed drastically".
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2 minutes ago, Himelstein said:
These dang newfangled 3.5mm MIDI! When I was a kid we had to walk 20 miles in the snow, with no shoes on, just to get to RadioShack and buy cables that had all the pins wired. Owww! My back! Dang kids with their Pokémon cards and fancy sneakers.
You forgot "uphill both ways"! The damn youth nowadays can't even remember things properly! When I was a kid ....
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I recall that those newfangled 3.5mm MIDI jacks have different wiring standards, so my first instinct is to check what sort of standard Polyend works with and compare with your other synths (the ones where the adapter/cable works).
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That's nice. I should dust off my generative patch which almost does the same thing.
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8 hours ago, xox said:
Changing the frequency response inevitably changes the phase response of the sound, which is time distortion of the EQed frequencies = some freqs hitting speakers earlier some later than the rest of the freq spectrum (it can change the timbre too) = distortion of spacial placement of the sound = distorted picture of the music
It can only be corrected with correction systems that measures and corrects the phase response of the EDed sound and the phase response of the room and such systems cost a lot of money! So better stay away from cheap solutions and just do what Nil said.
Ruler-flat-response rooms need to be built from the ground up with special materials in special shapes, and you’d need 100.000 monies for that alone. Any other normal room will have 15-20 db dips and peaks in the sub 1000 hz range that can be correct with tons of absorbers and diffusers but never to be ruler-flat! Impossible! But dips&peaks of 5-10 db are realistically good enough if you learn the room. Yes, correction softwares can make it better from there but then again it faks with the sound too much and better just live with the peaks. imoedit: Sonarworks has linear response option! But still to effectively correct the overall phase response it would needed to correct the phase response of the room too, which it doesn’t
If you are talking about phase response, do you mean basically what happens if you do any EQ - i.e. some harmonics are added to the sound? Something like this
I am not sure if the thing I use does anything like that, but on the other hand the SoS review does not mention anything about phase https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/ik-multimedia-arc-25
I was really happy with my previous room and the EQ correction seemed to work well, but this one I am not so sure about yet. Of course now I decided to make a IR out of the plugin and not use it directly. Maybe this introduces some weirdness too.
I still think it's probably the best tradeoff because any kind of physical room treatment is out of the question. However maybe I should just fire up Room EQ Wizard and see what I can do by messing with the global EQ on my audio interface and the room correction options on the monitors themselves. Although the EQ on the interface might also mess with the phase...
Ableton Live 11
in EKT General Discussion
Posted
Yeah I have noticed that. I stopped using those built-in Max devices at some point though - they were somehow unreliable and buggy I felt.