bitflipper

Greetings, Human. Right back atcha!

I zoomed in on a live performance to see if they'd show the keyboards - it was a Roland RD-700, a digital piano / sampler. But it's a fairly generic-sounding patch. I'd expect to be able to find a pretty close match in Omnisphere. Like maybe "Early Chromaphonic Pad 1".

Choose whatever DAW works for you. It doesn't matter if it's Audacity from 2005, Garage Band or SONAR 6. I could have frozen time at SONAR 8.5 and it wouldn't have bothered me at all, given that that version was stable and had every feature I needed. But then, I'm a dinosaur from the days of analog tape, a time when technology wasn't the enabler that it is today. For some, having an extensive loop library is critical to their creative process. Others love the ability to treat a composition as a series of chunks that you can move around like Lego blocks. Many are inspired by tools that generate MIDI sequences or turn a one-note drone into complex polyrhythms. Whatever floats yer boat. So why does an old-school player like me keep up with the latest versions and get excited by the prospect of Sonar coming back as a mainstream DAW? It's not the major gee-whiz features, but rather the many, many little usability enhancements that cumulatively help the DAW disappear into the background. The best DAW is the one you don't have to think about. The one that doesn't intrude into your zone of creativity. So if you're already there with SPLAT, carry on and be happy.

Have patience. This is a new phase of beta coming up that will greatly expand the number of testers. They're calling it a "public" beta, but will still be by invitation and require NDAs. A new private subforum and mailing list will be created for this second phase. If you're waiting on acceptance it's probably down to administrative factors. Cakewalk may reasonably want to make sure the product has reached a certain level of stability before comitting to wider distribution. Those joining during this period will probably be getting more polished versions than the initial beta group are accustomed to, with fewer experimental or partially-implemented features, which reflects the current state of Sonar. It's come a long way in the past year. Caveat: I am mostly just speculating along with the rest of you, as I am not privy to any insider information.

This has been my go-to orchestral library for the last 3 years. I have bigger and more detailed libraries, but none that are as easy to use as Amadeus. It's got the whole orchestra, including percussion. For casual orchestrators (e.g. putting a string section behind a ballad) this is all you'll need. The only thing it doesn't do particularly well is solo strings, so I normally float a separate solo violin to carry the melody atop Amadeus' violin section .

This is rarely a problem. Most plugin upgrades look - to the DAW - like the same plugin as the original, and honor the same automation parameters and custom presets. That may not be the case if the new version is radically different from the original, but when that happens the two versions will typically have different names, allowing you to have old and new side by side so that projects using the old version are unaffected. Worst-case scenario is you are forced to replace the old one with the new one, and then the DAW then complains about a missing plugin. Even then, Cakewalk makes it fairly easy to painlessly substitute the new one and carry on. Any automation you had on the track will still be there but you'll have to manually reassign them to the new plugin.

Don't tell me I've been replaced by a cheap electronic simulation! When they came for the drummers with drum machines, I was unconcerned because it did not affect me. When they came for the bass players with synths, I did not speak up because, hey, more for me to do. When they came for the string and brass players with sample libraries, I said nothing. Worse, I bought them. When they finally came for me, there was no one left to speak up for me.

An electrician once told me that plumbers only need to know two things: sh*t rolls downhill and payday's on Friday. I actually did some plumbing myself for awhile. It was industrial plumbing of corrosive chemicals. Stuff that would dissolve the soles off your shoes. Working with compression fittings and titanium tubes that could snap in two if you tightened or bent them too far. Surprisingly, it was actually fun work. But I hated working with water. Water lets you know that if there is any way for it to get out, it will find it. I have respect for any professional who can consistently make soldered copper and glued PVC connections that don't leak.

Such is the wisdom only experience can provide. As the saying goes, don't wrestle with pigs; you'll both just get dirty but the pig likes it. Good thing I didn't mention that we were - shudder - forced to use the dishwasher for a week because it still had hot water.

Since my back surgery 10 years ago, there are certain things I just can't do anymore. Like trimming my toenails. Or crawling under the kitchen sink. Correction: I can get under the sink, but I can't get back out unless someone's there to drag me out by my ankles. Consequently, routine home repairs that in the past I'd have done myself I now have to turn over to professionals. My latest plumbing money-sink began when my granddaughter dropped the sprayer into the sink and broke its plastic handle. Because the sprayer is integral to the faucet assembly and cannot be replaced separately, that meant buying a new faucet. I liked the old faucet just fine, but OK, at this point I'm only out $280. When it came time to install it, I drafted my grandson into being the guy under the sink. But he couldn't turn off the hot water. I figured it was a disintegrated o-ring in the shutoff valve and we could live with it being stuck open, so I shut off the main water and proceeded with the installation. But after we were done, no hot water came out of the faucet. Now I know I've got to replace the shutoff valve, but I'm not going to trust my grandson to replace it. So I brace myself and hire a plumber, thinking it'll be a couple hundred bucks. Nope. $1,007.45. Ouch. But at least I know it's been done right. The o-ring had indeed disintegrated, and little pieces of rubber gasket had been sucked up into the faucet. Next day my daughter reports that it's dripping. With no youthful helpers around, I do my best to crawl under there and tighten the fitting. That only slowed the drip. Another call to the plumber, who I reminded had promised that the work was warrantied. Plumber comes out, says no, the warranty doesn't apply because the leak is from the hose going up to the faucet, not the part he replaced. He'll fix it, but it'll be another $335. For want of one little piece of broken plastic, I'm out $1,600. So how is this music-related? That money was going to be spent on a musical instrument. But at least I have hot water now, so I will just sing to myself as I wash the dishes.

Such thoughts have flitted through my head from time to time, too. But they don't take hold, for two reasons. First, I enjoy my own music. How could I not, given that it's custom tailored for an audience of one? I took out all the things I didn't want to hear and put in things that I did want to hear. When I'm falling asleep with headphones on, and the player lands on one of my own tunes, especially if I haven't heard it in awhile, I genuinely like it. Not necessarily because it's great or inspired or breaks new ground, but because I made it for me and I know what me likes. Second, these days I'm putting a lot of energy into live performance. Talk about a potential waste of time - live music happens in the moment and then it's gone forever. Nobody outside the people in that room will ever hear it. That truly is the essence of music: here's me putting something into your ear right now in real time. If you don't like it we can both pretend it never happened, but even if it works neither of us have any proof that it did. Either way, it's meant to be enjoyed in the moment, like most of the best parts of life.

I think of ba-midi often. Years ago when I was very poor due to a problematic relationship with the IRS, he gifted me a license for FabFilter Pro-Q, which remains my most-used plugin to this day. So yeh, I think of Billie every time I Ioad it up. He inspired me to pay it forward whenever an opportunity arose, mostly by gifting gear to other musicians. Which reminds me, I need to create a will. I'd hate to have all my stuff end up in a yard sale to be snatched up by Craigslist resellers.

That's the punchline of an old joke about dropping a piano down a mineshaft.

Well, I didn't know "CAPTCHA" was an acronym. I thought it was just part of the internet's ubiquitous propensity for mis-spellings and random capitalization. RAWK on, DOOD.

Psst. There's another key right next to it called - get this - "B" minor. Yup, it's real and it's a whole 'nother world. There are even rumors of some foolish explorers venturing out into a dark creepy dungeon known only as (shudder) A flat minor. Oxygen not included.

Don't be depressed by this. Rather, think of it as a call to arms. You are a music creator and nobody's telling you what kind of music to create. Plus you know you'll probably never make gobs of money at it anyway, so go wild and express yourself. Need help breaking out of Am? Consult a saxophonist. Want to get away from 4/4? Ask a drummer.

I gotta imagine it causes traffic jams.

Dave Rat gives a tour and delivers the technical specs. Each box contains either 80 or 96 speakers, each with their own amplifier. They go for $36-38K apiece, so I won't be adding any to my rig, although it would be fun to be able to target sound at that one guy in the audience who's being a jerk. This gear is amazing. I've never heard of directionality like this, outside of sonic military weapons. Even though you're in a sphere, which should be the worst-possible acoustical environment, you don't hear the room.

Hey, I'm a singer, too.

I'm just the opposite. Being able to run them off phantom power was a major selling point. The bass player's sansamp runs off phantom, too. We have just one critical piece of gear that needs batteries, which is our singer's wireless mic. It has caused more than one panic 7-11 run right before showtime. I should probably buy them in bulk at Costco, but dagnabit, I supply the PA; she can be responsible for her own damn batteries.

Good for you, John. As gratifying as it is to whine and moan when we're mistreated, at the end of the day we bear the responsibility for our own signal quality. You have reminded me that I cheaped out on DIs and bought - shudder - Behringer DIs for guitar and drums. Knock wood, they haven't failed us yet.

No, it's the name of the band. We do cover the song, though, even though nowadays most gigs are done well before midnight. Which is OK by me. Same here. If you want to get a sense of how arrogant some FoH guys are, spend some time on the r/livesound subreddit. They are embarrassingly dismissive of the performers' wishes (well, to be fair, a lot of musicians ARE a-holes), e.g. telling them to set the volume to 10 on every amp and instrument and never touch those knobs, because the mix is their exclusive purview (I am not making that up). And don't dare post asking for advice if you're a singer-songwriter who plays 50-person house parties because somebody will tell you that nothing less than an L'Acoustics line array with flown subs will work. At one gig I sang an entire song with my mic muted. I could not get the FoH "engineer's" attention because he wasn't even at his desk. And to add further insult, we had to pay him out of our wages. A few weeks ago we were on a stage where half the floor monitors were shut off and only drums were coming through the other half. Our "monitor" was the echo coming off the back wall of the room 100' away (yes, that's a 200 millisecond round trip, not conducive to a tight performance). We were recently offered our choice of dates at a local brewery. They said that in winter the bands play indoors and have a sound system and engineer, but in summer they play outdoors and have to bring their own PA. We asked for a date in July. It's such a joy and relief when we luck out and get somebody who understands the equipment, knows how to mix, and pays attention to what's going on.

Yeh, it did get cropped. I was the only one who noticed. I have always wondered what would happen if I just insisted on bringing my own PA and running sound myself, because 80% of the time I'm sure I could do better. But I'm afraid that would be diplomatically impossible. We have a gig coming up where I've seen the PA that'll be used and already know it's a Frankenstein assemblage of garage-sale components, and the guy running it has no clue what he's doing. Unfortunately, he is also the promoter of the event and could have additional work for us. Whether that turns into a recurring thing depends on how well it ends up paying, as we'll be getting only ticket sales. I don't do this for the money, so the bucks have to be substantial before I'll tolerate a bad-sounding performance. Such was the case last night. There is a monetary threshold beyond which I am able to suck it up and just cash the check.

It was exactly the nightmare I'd expected. FoH guy talked a good talk, and had nice gear (JBL line array, Yamaha TF board). But you couldn't have made it sound worse if you tried. The room is extremely reverberant, and not at all in a nice way. But check out CraigB's light show! Blame my granddaughter for the lo-res image. I guess she's got her camera preferences set to very low resolution. But we got a lot of compliments about the background video. Thanks again, Craig! Sure, we sounded awful. But we got free food, the paycheck was substantial, and we've been asked back.

That's pretty meta, KK. I'm adding that to my "best forum quotes" file. I don't mean to dismiss your premise, which has some merit. Consolidation generally does not encourage innovation in any industry and is in fact more likely to shift focus to maximizing profit - after all, somebody's gotta pay for those acquisitions. But I do not despair because the barrier to entry into the music software business is still quite low. There will always be guys intensely flipping bits in their basements trying to make something cool enough to maybe provide a decent income for them.