Simeon Amburgey

Hello everyone, I am sorry for not chiming in sooner, it has been a bit of a mess to say the least. In short, I fell prey to a classic collaboration phishing attack, the most convincing I had ever seen. The hackers were posing as Lichty Guitars and wanted me to select one of their custom made instruments to inbox and share my experiences in a video. The communication looked legit and did not give me a reason to doubt the authenticity, but their trap was about to be sprung. Thursday about 12:00 pm EST, I opened an application from them (the impersonator) that was able to steal what I believe were my SESSION COOKIES, giving them a way to bypass the usual Two Factor Authentication I had set up. Things happened very quickly from there. After closing my computer we went out and on our way I get a Two Factor Prompt that someone was trying to log in from the Netherlands. I clicked NO This Is Not Me, but the damage was done. I tried pulling over to try and change my password but they had already gained access and locked me out. The next thing was my wife gets a notification that “I” just started a livestream, but it was “TESLA” and something to do with cryptocurrency. Needless to say I turned the car around and headed back home to see if there was anything I could do. I immediately started to try and change passwords for other sensitive accounts using the Gmail account associated with my channel. I also made contact by phone with the real Lichty Guitars (which I should have done in the first place) and verified that this was indeed a scam and that they have been targeted before. I also Tweeted my situation tagging YouTube Creators as that was really the only option to get any type of support. Email, chat, of course phone options were non existent. After a little while, I received a direct message on Twitter giving me a way to submit an account recovery form. I filled out the information and then all I could do was wait. Time passes (it is later Thursday), and I get an email saying my account has been recovered. So I immediately go and change passwords and work on doing malware scans to eliminate any possible threat that might still be on my system. I then see that I could now login to my channel to start cleaning up the mess. When this type of hack occurs, usually nothing on the channel is deleted, they will set all of the videos to PRIVATE and change other meta data, channel icon, and channel name. I did a bulk edit to mark my videos to public again and tried to get my channel name and icon set back to normal. Things were looking fine UNTIL I get an email from YouTube saying that now my channel had been TERMINATED! This was something I never expected but now it seems that this was possibly in response to viewers seeing something was wrong on the channel earlier and reporting it to YouTube as a precaution. So back to Twitter as well as following up with replies to earlier emails from YouTube partner support. Now I wait…….. I did get a response from YouTube late last night assuring me that they are working on getting things resolved, so I am hopeful that will be soon. In the mean time, I ordered a YUBIkey which is a hardware two factor device that ironically was what the hackers were using to prevent me from logging in or regaining access to my account. I am also working through making sure I changed passwords on other platforms that might be vulnerable. So, many lessons learned and wake up call received. The biggest one is not fully trusting that little voice saying, why would a guitar company want you to do a video, you don’t even play guitar 😂😂😂😂 I laugh a little now but with a deep regret that this happened in the first place, costing me a lot of lost time trying to fix a mess that could have easily been avoided. I have to say that I have received so much support from the community and that has been such a comfort and encouragement. Also, by sharing what happened to me maybe someone will be spared the headache that I am dealing with now. I will keep everyone posted as the events continue to unfold. You can follow me on Twitter @praisetracks if you are on that platform but I will be here as well. Staying joyful, Simeon

I guess I am lucky 13! 😂 Congratulations on launching this new endeavor, hopefully the momentum can pick up as you have a lot to offer.

Very interesting 🧐 We we’re able to pick up a Samsung 50” 4K UHD television for Christmas and it is amazing. We had been using a 42” Samsung 3D TV for years. It is still 1080p but since it is a 3D television, it has a 120hz refresh rate. It is one of the Samsung models that required the 3D LCD shutter glasses to work. I moved it into the studio to see how it would work. It is Huge compared to the smaller monitor I had there before. I need to get it back more on the wall to make sure I can handle it being so close and so HUGE 😂I still have the mounting arm attached to the wal so once I remove that I can get a better idea. Did I mention, this is a HUGE difference, but cool that you can really see what’s going on. Joyfully! Simeon

Yep, another one of those must have plugins, I use it all of the time to help with vocals sitting better in a mix.

The Winter Sale starts at 10 AM EST and should be very interesting when it goes live. Yeah, I sent a support ticket in last night letting them know about the broken URL, hopefully that gets fixed.

One of my channel viewers reached out to me on Instagram letting me know about this crazy set of Spitfire Audio Classic Kontakt (Full) libraries. There seems to be some very interesting titles there. I am hoping to get to take a look at these soon but thought I would pass along the info here: https://www.spitfireaudio.com/offers (This is not an affiliate link, it just looks very cool) Joyfully, Simeon

Peter, I did this earlier today, taking a listen to the close mics without any additional reverb to try and get a very dry sound. I think having these extra close mic options help provide some additional flexibility and helps to tame the otherwise cavernous stage A. Enjoy:

It is a huge, beautiful beast of a piano. I suspected this was coming and excited to see if finally released. I also appreciate that they recorded it stage center in stead of offset to one side like the Imperial and CFX, it feels more natural out of the box that way. I am hoping to be featuring it in the channel on an upcoming livestream, possibly as soon as this Friday, so stay tuned! Joyfully! Simeon

I picked this up (purchased) during John's weekly Plugin Guru livestream. It is massive, and has such a depth to it, that is kind of hard to explain. Only a short time with it but I also have the Arturia version as well, so that might be interesting to listen to the two of them side by side. More adventures to come I'm sure. Joyfully, Simeon

Congratulations my friend, what an amazing accomplishment! Joyfully, Simeon

You mean $299????? 🤯 Edit: I see where you said Own all other synths. My upgrade was $299.... It does look amazing however!

Here is a standalone feature from Friday's livestream (edited and indexed). It is really a significant update. (not sponsored or affiliated).

Hello everyone, I am looking forward to sharing another Joyful Journey with all of you TODAY. The Wheel Of Fun is going to get a workout for sure. Giveaways from Spitfire, Sonixinema, UVI, and Modartt. (I did receive NFR copies of the libraries reviewed and are not involved financially with any of the mentioned developers) Join me here:

I LOVE the Intimate Cello and think they have broken some new ground here. They mentioned about possibly being able to roll in some of the newfound techniques into some of the existing titles which will be exciting. They have sent me the Contemporary CELLO but I have been having an issue with Native Access but Stay tuned! Joyfully, Simeon

I am hoping to feature it on this Friday's livestream. Modartt was also very kind to provide several copies of Pianoteq STAGE for some giveaways which I am always excited to have to bless the channel viewers. In order to participate, all you have to do is register for The Wheel Of Fun here: https://bit.ly/Enter_The_Wheel_Of_Fun While I have a relationship with Modartt as they have been kind to provide review copies of Pianoteq, I am not affiliated in a financial way with them.I look forward to seeing you on Friday and will post a link when the livestream is scheduled. Joyfully, Simeon

Reid, I am still on Vegas Pro 15 😂 The sale pop up started happening after rebuilding my system after a crash last week, I have also been trying to get into DaVinci Resolve, but the DAWesque nature of Vegas makes it hard to do.

Elements is one of the best values for a very creative library. What makes it even more special is the way Stefano the developer continues to add value by releasing so many FREE preset expansions for it. While there might be similar instruments, I think what Stefano brings to the individual programming is what can set it apart from the rest of the pack.

I just received todays PluginGuru livestream message with an additional special. 20buckstospend Use this promo code to buy a new library of inspiring patches and save $20! Special offer is good until Sunday Night at Midnight PDT At checkout click the green "Click to enter it" text and enter "20buckstospend" and save!

Yes, Antler, that is one of the best paths to the full version of a Kontakt and was how I did it back in the day 😎 When you have one of the Free Kontakt Player libraries you can do a crossgrade to the full version and Summer sales add more joy.

Good morning Christian, I am still trying to get that definitive list together but each time I do someone releases another piano 😂 I think piano libraries are so subjective as what inspires me might not do the same for others or I might not like something that others are raving about. Not to go off topic too much but I usually pull up Keyscape many times when first starting an arrangement if it is more upbeat, jazzy, etc. It seems to sit right in the mix without having to do a lot up front. I am not a fan however of their approach to key releases, the sound sort of gets cut off, I need to look into this more. Now back to VSL, I find that I go to the 280VC, the Steinway 274, or the Imperial when working more orchestrally as they have the spacious, larger than life sound. The 280vc is drier which works well. Sometimes, however the 280vc can sound harsh at times so you have to be mindful of mic positions, EQ, and such. The Free Soft Imperial is very specific in that it plays like a cloud without the need to include the higher velocity layers to achieve a characteristic sound. This is similar to Spitfire’s approach with Intimate Grand Piano, not focused on the FFF but rather the emotional ppp. This approach was to create an alternative to all of the “felted” pianos out there. So, we are getting closer. 🤓 The countdown continues. Joyfully, Simeon

I’ll just leave this here 🤓 Let's Play The FREE Soft Imperial From Vienna Symphonic Library

No, as I am mainly on Windows. I do have a 2012 MacBook however 🤓 I have heard a lot of great reports about the Silicon compatibility. One of the huge benefits to using UNIFY on the new Mac Silicon is that UNIFY can act like a bridge to non Silicon VSTs and actually run them natively inside of Unify, almost like a very high performance wrapper.

I am looking forward to Friday’s livestream, there are so many amazing instruments being released that it is so hard to keep up with all of them. I look forward to seeing you Friday Oct. 28 at 4:00 pm est!

It's time for another Joyful Journey.

Yes, as well as Voices. I have had a play for a little bit and hope to dive in deeper. The issue that I have is that when using some of the more complex patches that it can spike the CPU somewhat. I look forward to sharing more very soon. Joyfully, Simeon