Tim Smith

Ya lost me there Craig. That isn't hard to do.

Yeah I tend to be a pessimist when it comes to craigslist, but sometimes things can work out well using it. I just found a used van on there. The guy selling it posted pics of recent new engine work. My wife was convinced that for the price it was a sham. I went there to look at it and the guy was looking to move and had another vehicle so he didn't need it. It was a great bargain. No trouble from the van yet. I hired a guy who advertised he put up house siding. He was supposed to finish the job. I made the mistake of paying him per day. I think he got his drug money and ran. Never showed up after that and never called. I ended up finishing the job myself. I have had pretty good luck giving away free stuff. All except the rooster. No one wants a free rooster. I had a few interested parties but no follow through. I pulled in one guy who played bass for us on a team through CL. He is a pretty good player but he couldn't commit to doing it all the time. I have been following him on social media. He is in a re made band that lost a few members. I am a pinch hitter bass player on my churches worship team. I have an old LTD rock bass. The one that takes a 9 volt battery. I play so little that I actually have stickers for the notes in a few places so I won't forget where to put my fingers on it when I play. They asked me if I played bass. I said yes. I didn't tell them I use stickers. It works. I think almost anyone could play bass * ducks and runs*. Glad you got lucky on CL Bit. I somehow have two logons here. I guess all depending on the cookies in the computer I'm using. I must have signed into BL using my name once. This computer recognizes that. I am otherwise Starise.

I was approached not long ago to join a band . I looked at the practical side of it for me: At least once or twice a week to a practice 40 miles away AFTER my day job. I'm running on fumes already after being up over 12 hours straight. That fun factor would really need to pull me in. In my case I said no and haven't ever regretted it. I gotta hand it to anyone over 60 who is out there doing it with gusto and having fun. You are probably in a good area for Craigs list to find musicians. In my area you might get lucky..........or you might get a nut job. The ratio of nut jobs to legit players on Craigslist is probably a high nod to the first one and a shrug on the next. Of course there are good player nut jobs too. I will say I've met some of the weirdest people alive in bands.

a comma ent?

This is for Bapu

This is for @Jacques Boileau Thanks!

I though you said this thread was locked? ......................oh it was.....................and then unlocked. Otay. Wait....there are 2000 posts missing.

Just a suggestion to the mods for the future. Why not simply delete the post itself? Another forum I frequent does that. They won't kill the whole thread over some random left field comment. They just delete ONLY the post that didn't fit.

I didn't know where else to post this. I have been subscribed to CCM through pocketmags.com for awhile now. I only get the digital subscriptions. Since I am subscribed through pm.com would I be able to get the free downloads associated with that magazine somehow? I didn't see any links for those who have the digital version of the magazine.

Yep. With me it's more keys than guitar but same basic thing sometimes. It gets really deep. Far too deep for the CH section of the forum. I mean, pretty much anything is too deep for the CH.😁

Yes these and more appear to be included. QUALIFYING PRODUCTS

That's really nice work there Shane! My recordings lack that nice sheen this has. Probably the difference between using real instruments and sampled ones. You are quite the talent and should at least try to do some more when you can. Sorry to hear about your dog. I hate to think about mine dying one day. I can relate to the " I can't duplicate it again" thinking. I'll bet you could get close though. I always looked at this like we are chips off the old block ( the creator) and so we are also creators in a much lesser capacity. I often imagine other things besides music that I guess I would call creative but they border on engineering. It starts as an idea on a piece of paper that took shape. I see no harm in using things others created to make my own creations. @Starship Krupa said-It's just a label, anyway. Or a conceit. Bottom line, create something. The process of actually doing so tends to stimulate more ideas and more creations. Just writing that little diddy in the studio the other evening made me feel better. I can't explain it.

Here's my latest attempt at creativity. A one night sort of thing.

If you decide to change your mind, here's a company I use. They sell both paper and cloth based cones. Plenty of YouTube videos to show you how to do it if they have the cone for your speaker. I recently re coned the rear subwoofer in an older Toyota Avalon. That car uses a custom speaker with a special independent amp. In other words an odd amperage, a special impedance and high price to buy a new one. They start at 300.00. I ordered and replaced the paper/foam cone with an improved cloth version for 25.00. They send you the glue too.The stereo sounds great. Here the LINK.

I was comparing an upgrade to Total Studio 3 MAX from my Total Studio 2 MAX to this 25th anniversary deal. I have already picked up some of the items that are in 3 MAX such as the Sunset Sound reverb. TRacks 5 MAX is in both packages. I would be getting Amplitube 5 MAX over 4 MAX, although I have Amplitube 5 SE. I don't have the tape machines which are all included in TS 3 MAX. I already have ARC 3 with the mic and Lurssen Mastering console. Somehow I wound up with Spaceport 77'. I must have bought it separate since it isn't in Total Studio 2 MAX. I have Sample Tank 4 MAX. I must have bought that separately as well since it isn't part of Total Studio 2 MAX. I'm missing some of the Syntronic stuff that's included in Total Studio 3 MAX. I have alternate tape machines from other makers but wouldn't mind having the ones in this deal. The B3 Organ isn't in anything I already have. I didn't see either Electromagnetik or Mixbox in either version of Total Studio MAX. To compare the two deals- Upgrade to Total Studio 3 MAX from 2 MAX is 499.00 US. I would actually be getting the same by doing this deal for 199.00 single product and getting the additional products. I think the deal slightly favors guitarists over keys players because of the more expensive amp models in the deal. Not that it isn't also a deal for key players. From what I have been able to tell the Total Studio MAX title isn't really a unified shell. It's simply a larger collection of products. IOW you still download and operate programs separately. This makes looking at a MAX upgrade less attractive than single product deals. What this means is in the future, if IK offers a MAX upgrade sale most of us will have all of the products already. This seems slightly confusing to me but I realize it's just the way things are presented and packaged. If I could somehow unify all of my purchases under a MAX 3 it might make things more organized. I see it possibly making that larger package less appealing in the future. Same as NI offering KOMPLETE but you only gain a few instruments that you could buy separate unless you waited 10 years to upgrade. This marketing stuff really throws me for a loop lol. I will essentially have MAX 3 without the name plus a few extras for a little under 2 bills.....I think.

I probably would not work well under a deadline or it wouldn't be as much fun because instead of doing it for fun it would be doing it for a boss somewhere. If I had to do something in a certain genre fast I would probably grab Acid Pro and pull some genre focused loops out of it as a backdrop. I would imagine some use Biab for that purpose as well. Slap a few verses and a chorus in there and go with it. From what little I know of Library music it's seems to be mostly filler music for movies or ad spots. Not really structured to be a song. Maybe more theme based. I guess that would make it easier to make. Scaler 2 would definitely help to get ideas with no or little inspiration. Yeah I could probably do it. If it payed the bills with regularity maybe....I think I know better than that. Might be nice side change here and there if I could do it. I'm not knocking you or anyone else who does it. More power to ya.😁 I'm just not too sure about it working for me. I know deep down I'm creative. I guess it depends on how a person defines creative. I'm in a lull right now and I'm grumbling about it because I've done more and better in the past. I think at least part of my issue is being too busy or putting too many other things in front of making music. I have guitars that have hung on my wall for well over a year and I haven't even thought about playing one. I still play music I just haven't been making much of it lately. Makes me feel much better to think maybe it isn't age related and I'll get it back again. Thanks! Ha....that's how old I am. Heading into the big 60. I'm glad you haven't lost it. With all the music out there it's easy to play something that sounds like something else. I never was really great with lyrics.

I know this is going to sound like a terrible attitude, but I don't need those guys and I'm not going to make them an album of free music just for the opportunity to be accepted....or not. Sorry that's just where I'm at right now. I don't even care enough to care if anyone likes what I do any more. I did manage to record some last evening and I had almost forgotten how much fun it can be. Only had enough time to record and shape up a small mix. I had one other mix I spent some time on a few weeks ago. When I came back to it I chopped a lot out of it. I generally over record and over mix parts which ends up they step on each other. I thinned it out a bit. Another common thing for me is there's played in midi off a little here and there. Seems a simple thing to go in and fix it. Just time consuming. Bringing up the midi editing window, going through each track. Before you know it three hours went by. Feels good to have something you consider finished if for no other reason than it was fun to do it for me. What I'll do with it- Who knows? It probably only means something to me.

Old guys with all day to practice might get pretty good after awhile. Even a blind squirrel gets a nut every now and then. There is a tipping point though. If you wait too long to retire your ears don't work any more.

Well thanks guys for relating your opinions on this. I can very closely relate to more than a few of the comments here. I think when I was younger I had this feeling I could go somewhere with what I was doing. That part of it was exciting. As the years have gone on I have come to realize that if I want to continue with any of it, none of it will ever go anywhere. What it amounts to then is simply my own satisfaction. When I say "go anywhere" it didn't necessarily need to be monetarily. I just wanted to feel like what I did was somehow relevant or valuable in some way. I have never been a musician's musician. I know a few of those guys who make their living at it going around in bands playing local bars and events. Most of those guys I know don't do extremely well at it financially. More like they squeak by. They love what they are doing and wouldn't trade it for anything. My squeaking by is in the music, although I don't want to sell myself short because I can be pretty capable. I don't really look at those acts backed by lot's of money because it isn't mine or probably anyone else's reality here. In all honesty I doubt I would like that lifestyle . I mainly just miss those 3 or 4 hour nightly stints where I had an idea and developed it and stayed up late. Sometimes I would spend all day Saturday at it.I have a space set aside for a studio eventually. There are like three projects in front of it, so it hasn't happened yet. I think this has a big bearing on my overall drive to do it. Right now I go into a small bedroom to record and play and it isn't always quiet there. Granted I have come up with some decent material in that room before one of my dogs was trapped in there and ripped all the carpet from around the door trying to get out. It's a pretty depressing space right now. The instrument I was learning (violin) was way more right brained than left brained to learn. I still haven't manged to be able to use it creatively to any large extent. Too much mind power goes into holding it and not touching any of the strings. Proper bow force etc. I can play it, I just can't creatively play it. Does that make sense? I guess I'm still not after 8 years familiar enough with the instrument. I have seen that process as more of a DRAIN on creativity than anything helpful. My teacher was so strict she wouldn't ever let me play for longer than 5 minutes without stopping me to correct me. I had fun playing before I took lessons from her. I eventually decided to look for another teacher. I haven't found one yet. I think I often feel like Shane where I would literally collectively spend days on something only to put it somewhere and have three people listen to the first 10 seconds of it. Not really worth it if the goal is to get it out there. The other option would be to make music to sell to libraries or similar as at least one other person mentioned so far. 4 to 8 hours in front of a computer recording and editing is enough for me with some time away in between. I can't imagine doing it every day day in and day out.

It seems all the best songs were made when artists were in their younger years. It is true we get less creative later in life? My example is probably different than any other but maybe similar to a few. I started out as a musician and went to recording in DAWS later on. I have always worked a day job that wasn't a work from home job which means I get home later in the afternoon. The weekends are often spent doing the things you need to do to keep a house and property tended. Long story short, I don't have loads of time to do anything musical. At one time I could stay focused on a project late into the evening often paying the price the next day. I also took to learning a new instrument abut 8 years ago and only recently pulled off of it temporarily because it was burning me out and my teacher was not a good match. This alone took a lot of the time I might have been in the studio mixing. So maybe my issue isn't age but lack of time. Now when I get home after chores I'm tired and don't feel like pushing it at the mixing desk for 3 or 4 more hours. How about you? Do you feel age is a factor?

I still haven't jumped in yet. Mainly because I haven't figured out what to get. I thought today was the last day. Looks like we are going through October now. I have more time to decide.

I still don't know exactly what I want to look at here. The organ looks interesting but another maker who will go unnamed just offered an organ that might work for me better. I still think for anyone who is just getting started this one is tough to beat. No matter how much some might dislike the business model, at least IK hasn't resorted to the monthly payment to keep things going or the subscription renewal..........yet. I have to hand it to them for that. Coming from a customer vantage point I like simply buying the product and updating it so far for free from IK. I'm not gonna lie, the mix plugs look like reworked modules that were used in ST4 and others. No harm in putting them all in one place, giving them a name and marketing them as modules. Sort of an alternative to the TRacks shell. That package looks interesting because it's all there in one place and easily managed. Do I need it? No. Will I buy it? Maybe. Depending on your major product purchased looks like most things are about 399.00 US on the upper end to qualify for anything either at that same price or for less. So essentially what we are buying is a product package we select for 399.00 or thereabouts. I know of nowhere else a person can spend that amount and walk away with this much either plugins or instruments hopefully unattached in any way in the future. The reciprocal part of it comes in when they come out with new products and you buy additional things off of their online portals. It also makes them front and center for many who bought into these deals as compared to some other maker selling their plugins one at a time with less unity in the systems. Hopefully people who buy in here are loyalists for a long time to come. I have been using IK products for longer than I care to share here. They have always been at or above all but the very best and most expensive plugin makers. They manage to come close enough to them that many times it doesn't make a huge difference. Plugins will never make you a better mixer. Only YOU make you a better mixer. I noticed AT5 has stage capabilities for anyone who wants to take a computer on stage. For the traveling regular guitarist I don't see that working, but then those guys are like unicorns right now. If you see one consider yourself lucky. The rest of us who might end up in Ed's bar down the street on the weekend might consider it over a hardware alternative. As a keys player it's the same thing with me for ST4. I might do it but probably won't because I have hardware alternatives. For the 3 million who will play their guitar in front of a computer screen might as well go for it. OK I'm long winded....I'll stop for now.

I had many of these same problems earlier on. Since that time IK has updated their download distribution portal. This 'should' make things MUCH better now. It's still a lot of files but things have been going smoother. Hats off to IK for improving this issue. Not sure how large A5 is. I mostly had those issues with ST4. Smaller downloads like additional plugins should be painless. Much depends on your network. If you have the average cable modem connection should be fine.

I'm a lefty but I put my right hand over my left, maybe proving bitflipper's statement. I have never played any instruments that favored left handers. I always reasoned either hand works equally well on any instrument just doing different things.

Notice only the low count members say that. You made 162 posts, well kiss my grits. Disclaimer- I only make failed attempts at humor.