X-53mph

Do you mean instruments? Cause I am definitely thinking of selling my Dobro. The strat and the Acoustic are staying though. I've already listed some of my mics. There was once a time when I would buy a new toy to try to reignite my passion for music. That seems to have passed too.

Thanks for the compliment @PhonoBrainer. Truth is, there are millions of people making good stuff out there every day. I'm just one of millions (maybe even billions) and I have to face up to the fact that it's good, but not better than that. As for my age: I am turning 50 next year, though I don't look it. I've got that youthful Thurston Moore look about me. I was never able to make music my main job. I've always had a main job in something else, and music has occasionally brought me some nice payments here and there, but nothing spectacular. However, in recent years it's become a loss leader. Stats in the tens even when I push the music. Sites asking me to sign up for this or sign up for that. Pay for plays. Pay for airplay. Pay for promotion. Pay for advise. Everyone wants my money for the promise of exposure. It's one long con. And most importantly, it doesn't make me happy anymore. So I quit.

Since I was a kid, making music has been an integral part of my life. I learned the guitar by joining a band and playing Nirvana and Dinosaur Jnr covers. Later, I became the front man of my own bands as well as the guitarist and songwriter in others. Then in my 20s I got signed under my moniker 53mph . I released a few records, had some radio and TV play, was offered management, but I never really broke the big time. I guess because of that I always felt that I had some unresolved business, and so I've been making music under the name 53mph ever since. In recent years, however, music making has started to feel like a slog. I was never a prolific writer or performer, but I was producing music every week. In the last 4 months I have not written or recorded anything new. I no longer have the drive to keep at it. Add to that the fact that I don't have an audience, I don't have a following, and I have never understood how to crack the social media fan machine (without selling a piece of my soul). I feel like a stranger in a strange land. Everything came to a head when at the end of last year I was contacted by a music promoter. I won't mention names, but he had a history of working with big names. We had a zoom chat in which he said he'd be willing to 'put in a shift' pushing my stuff to labels in Europe. We talked about what would be required from me: radio appearances, festival circuits, social media promotion. That's when I realized, I don't really want it. I then had some sessions with a mentor. This was meant to focus my attention onto what my 'brand' was and what I was 'selling', how to build a following on-line etc. The end result is....I've become musically empty. The plan laid out before me looked like a hamster wheel that I could never leave. It was like I'd woken from a dream. So I've decided. enough is enough. I quit. I used to make music because I loved making music, but these days I can see no point. So I quit. I'm taking everything off-line except for Bandcamp, which is going to become a mausoleum to 53mph. Soundcloud, YouTube, TikTok, X-Twitter...all gone. I need to go away and rediscover what it is about making music that I love. I need a fresh start. So this is the end, my friends.

Just out of curiosity, does anyone NOT use auto tune on pop songs these days. Is there a Dogma movement for music production, like there used to be for movies?

Just to give some feedback - I downloaded a version of Fruity Loops for Linux and Reaper. Both load up just fine with their demo projects. The problem, as everyone mentioned, is the Audio drivers. I could get my Behringer UMC22 to work, but not in any useful sense. The audio spluttered and stuttered continuously. I'm too old and tired to go down the troubleshooting route in the world of Linux. I'm going to nip this in the bud now before I waste any more time whipping that dead donkey. Thanks for all your input guys.

Hi guys, This is totally unrelated to Cakewalk (unless they plan on going Linux) but I recently resurrected my old HP Pavilion laptop (which was my main DAW for years) and installed Linux. It's powerful enough to run the most recent Ubuntu release without trouble. I'm interested in whether anyone is using a Linux system as a DAW, and if so what might be some recommendations to install. I'm going to give Ardour a try, maybe Reaper. Any other ideas. I like the idea of getting away from an advertising centred OS, which is what Microsoft, Google and Apple have all become. All suggestions happily accepted. P

I'll second this. Once I got Acon Digital Acoustica, I never needed to open Sound Forge ever again. 👍

If I were making string music, I might well get this. As it is, I've got so many string vst that I don't use, I cannot justify even 28 bucks.... which makes me sad. 😞

From what I can quickly gleam, they are still operating but they will be a narrowing of product development. I found this on the Vegas forums concerning that particular product.

...sniggers Avid.

Reaper users are like lynx users....or People's Temple converts. Come on and drink the kool aid! 🧉

Correction of my own mistake.

Wait! Is Tonex from ik multimedia? I used to use IK plugins years ago but I moved away from their ecosystem because I found them too resource heavy and glitchy. Have they improved any?

I agree, and I raised this with Nembrini myself. Unfortunately, they are based in Italy and the taxation on on-line transactions by the government is very high compared to other countries (I know, I live here). It's one of the reasons Italy is an unattractive country for foreign investors.

I've started using Nembrini more in my mixes. I use the Lo-fi vintage clipper to add a little je ne sais quoi to my mixes in the same way Air adds a certain lift in the final mix. I recently started using the Acoustic Voice Guitar Amp. It doesn't work well with a plugged in acoustic guitar, but it works great with a DI electric. It also means I can get down a decent acoustic track without having to pull out the mics. Definitely worth a look.

Poll time - Instrument or form of torture?

I write almost exclusively in alt tunings on acoustic guitar, and I use a lot of alt barre chords up and down the neck. I tend to down-tune my strings, which means the tension is a bit more forgiving on the fingers. Try tuning down. My best advise for playing barre chords is to build up your finger muscles. The fact I also play piano might help with that. There was a time when I did boxing, which helped build up hand muscles (I favoured bare knuckles against a punch bag) or you could use those finger strengthening tools for guitarists. Ultimately, the best way is to work through the pain until you're comfortable with the chords.

It sounds like Phoebe Bridge's guitar sound. Very nice

@ralfrobert Previous sfx / loop packs on humble bundle have been zipped folders of single sound files. You would have to download the whole pack to get the single sound out.

I saw this - crazy low price, but is it worth getting if I already have an Audio-Technica 2020USB+ ? The 2020 is great for Zoom calls and laying down 1 track tacks, but it doesn't work well with multi part productions (latency issues, no dedicated drivers). How does the Mackie stand up as an instrument or vocal mic in music production?

True story. The bigshot A&R uncle of a friend of mine - "This guy should not be allowed to make music." I might get t-shirts printed with that quote.

Update to the copyright debacle: After nearly 30 days I got contacted by Landr (who I use to release my music) informing me that the copyright claim is because FUGA is the collection agency they use. This is on the one hand good news because it means it wasn't a random scammer. On the other hand, it's not great because I could find no mention of this partnership on Landr's website when it first happened to me, hence my concern. However, there is now an article on their blog site answering this question posted 19 days ago: https://support.landr.com/hc/en-us/articles/15442436320791-Why-is-FUGA-claiming-my-tracks-on-YouTube I cannot say I'm super pleased to learn about this partnership considering the negative reviews online concerning FUGA, but I guess this is the new norm. Now all I have to do is sit back and watch those pennies roll in. Correction: roll by.

Stumbled across this post and I think it's actually a good idea. So, I've give ahead and subscribed to your channel. Here's mine: https://youtube.com/@53mph

This got me thinking....has CbB been putting hidden coding into mixdowns to make them copyright traceable? This might explain why FUGA auto-detected copyright content in my music when uploading to YouTube.

Out now on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/7jurYdTHa3PwvRzk4JgsDv?si=kC1I9yD8TyenqlBkt9P5Yg