X-53mph

It's been a long time coming, but this song is now out on all good (and bad) Streaming services today. https://open.spotify.com/album/4KJSEpK8awp8GEy25XKOsE?si=fuTTTA1xSzu9uww-iZhmpQ&utm_source=copy-link I haven't been pushing it very hard, but it's been getting spins on internet radio. I'm hoping it will make it onto a playlist or two. If any of you guys want to give it a listen, it'd be much appreciated 🙏

Has anyone used these programs? Just curious.

I did try and warn you off Lenovo.I 've tried them out, but always found the performance to be well below the specs. Call me paranoid, but I just did trust them.

I bought my Dell second hand from eBay. It's an XPS 15 Touch. Fan noise is super quiet. My old HP sounds like it's asthmatic by comparison. My son's new HP pavilion is pretty good with heat, You know there is a simple hack to get the power settings menu back, right?

Nah! Stick with Cakewalk! 🤣

🤣🤣🤣🤣 That made me laugh out loud.

If you're a hobbiest, a laptop and usb-c soundcard will set you back less than 1,000 (if you shop smart). Spending a fortune on a man cave in your 50s is a sign of mid-life crisis. 😉

Just get a decent laptop second hand for all round work and use that for everything. At this point in your life there is no point having a boutique machine. If you're not making money from your music, don't throw more money at it if you cannot afford it. 3500 is a ridiculous amount to spend on a hobby. Just gets second hand laptop for under 1k.

I'll be honest. I have ups and downs. Days I love making music and days when I'd happily sell all my guitars. It's normal. I've been lucky in that I've tasted some success, so I know the highs. But with the highs comes the deep lows, and in many ways that makes it worse. I'm lucky that I've got a son who is amazing on the piano. So I feel the baton has been passed. Even if I gave up tomorrow, there would always be music in my life. Currently, I'm enjoying putting my stuff out on internet radio. Have you ever pursued that avenue? I've discovered a few really nice stations that actively support unsigned acts (I don't know the quality of your work, but it needs to be better than demo quality), and I like the community that I've found around these stations. If you're interested, I can point you in the direction of some stations....but make sure the songs are radio ready. Don't waste your (and their) time sending bad demos.

I understand your reasons for wanting to stick with older OSs, but the hard and fast truth is windows 11 is here to stay. New software and hardware is going to be made with Windows 11 in mind. Buying a system to work with older programs will mean you lose out on newer (safer) updated OSs. As Leonardo DiCaprio said 'it's the way of the future.' I'm running W11 and so far haven't found any conflicts with the software I 'actually' use. I don't really know if some older plugins don't work because I've been weaning myself off them. The only plugins I've had issues with were mixbus, but I don't think that is a fault of compatibility with Windows 11. And i disagree that it's slower. It's just a case of tweaking it to suit your purposes. Talking of latency. The best latency I ever got was from a 1999 laptop running duo core CPU 4GB ram 60GB memory. Why? Because it used FireWire. I got zero latency with an Edirol Fa-101. Ever since FireWire was killed off, I'm yet to see anything that comes close. USB 3 was a flop for sound cards, thunderbolt is too expensive (and Apple-y), Usb-C...? I am about to delve into Usb-C. I'm thinking of getting a Presonus. Hopefully it can match the Fa-101.

I totally agree with @Tim Smith regarding marketing tactics. I almost bought an HP based on the specs until I read deeper for similar reasons. Be really careful when you read the CPU clock speed as listed. Laptop companies are tending to list CPU burst speeds only and not the base speeds. As you probably already know, for audio production, the base speeds it more important than the burst speed. I've seen laptops listed as 3Ghz, only to learn that the base speed was under 2Ghz. Always read up on the cpu manufacturer's website on the base speed of whatever CPU is listed. Also, I really don't understand why you want to get a laptop with windows 10? Any new laptop running Windows 11 out the box has been designed and set up to work best with Windows 11. If you buy a Windows 10 machine and then upgrade, you run the risk of incomparability. This is especially important for the new CPU security feature in Windows 11. If you get a laptop running security compromised drivers, you won't be able to run that feature.

I've always bought HP until this year I switched to Dell XPS. I wouldn't go back to HP. There is something about the way they are set up. Glitchy. I got my son a new top of the range HP for Christmas and it's good, but I think my Dell is better. Steer clear of Lenovo. I know they are the biggest laptop manufacturers in the world, and bang for buck the most economic. I just don't trust them for security. Lenovo is part state owned. They have been caught out preinstalling hackware in the past. We are entering a cyber cold war. Just saying. Is there anywhere you could go to try out the feel and look if the computer? On paper they always look wonderful, but when I go to the shops and check they out, Lenovo screens underimpress, HP keyboards feel plasticy etc.. seeing them in the flesh helps. Have you considered Asus?

@aidan o driscoll you don't work for Huion, do you? 😅

I'm sure there are some good ones out there. The problem is sorting through the chaff. I asked friends who are designers and they all said you can't go wrong with Wacom. In contrast, you can go very wrong with some of the crap promoted on Amazon. My advice to anyone. Read deeply into the review/comments. Get past the paid reviews and you'll usually get to the truth.

Just get a wacom drawing pad. The drivers for this are the most stable. Avoid cheap brands on Amazon. You buy cheap, you get cheap. The beauty of a wacom pad is that you can use it in any computer, so it's transferable.

So basically, Spotify won't tell you you're on a playlist (that you might not even know about) until it gets 25 listens? That seems rather shady. Why not? It's not like they have to cover admin costs to do it. It's all automated. What is the points of holding back stats? On the app, if I look back in time it shows me 4 of 17 playlists. that's 13 playlists I dont know about. Do all the other streaming services operate this way? Deezer, for example? I've had music on Deezer for years and have the grand total of zero plays. Is that because no one has listened or because I haven't reached a threshold?

Does anyone on here have some experience of using the Spotify for Artists page? I get very low numbers for listeners. I never really thought much of it. Just brushed it's off. However, I've recently been pushing my music to radio stations and on Twitter. And I KNOW I'm on playlists on Spotify (I have links to them). So why does Spotify for Artists not show these playlists? I've always doubted the transparency of Spotify. I'm now starting to think it's all bullshit. Anyone know how it works?

Ok, before I answer this. Did you check on the Dell support site to see if you need to update the BIOS and drivers? Dell has an app which will do it all for you. This is especially important because you're running Windows 11. Before worrying about anything else, you need to do this one thing.

When you say 'updated', what do you mean? Updated the BIOS? Updated CbB? Updated windows? Which windows? 10 or 11? Can you please be more specific?

I recently picked up a Dell XPS for audio. When I set up my DAW, I thought I'd made a huge mistake. I couldn't get CbB to work at all; audio drop outs and freezing with only one track. I was tearing my hair out. Then I read post by other people having the same problem. The solution? Update your BIOS, update your drivers using the Dell updater, turn off the Radeon graphics app. See if that makes a difference. I'm also using a Steinberg (correction Behringer) Interface (Euphoria). The unit didn't come with an asio driver and the performance under wasapi was, frankly, shit. However, I came across a YouTube video with a link to an asio driver for Steinberg which worked a treat.

Sound to me like one of the mods has piggy backed on your internet connection and might be using your computer as part of a hive. Have you run a speed test? Checked all the non-microsoft running processes accessing the internet? My son plays mods and I warn him all the time....but do they listen? I'm just waiting for his laptop to pick up viruses like a 2 dollar hooker.

Geez, I love how sympathetic you guys are. Just because YOU have never had a virus doesn't mean other people haven't. I teach in a lot of companies, and I know of at least two of my clients who had their servers hacked and data either stolen or ransomed as a result. These are companies that deal with sensitive military hardware. One hack was the result of a guy downloading YouTube videos. I know IT security people who are dealing with hacks on a daily basis. Just the other day in my home country, the entire rail network was hacked by teenagers in Bulgaria. They brought the system to a stand still for a week. So you can brush it off as scare mongering but ask yourselves, how many small developers, plugin resellers are keeping their sites and software safe? The same sites we rush to for that freebie deal. Just saying.

I'm sure many of you use VLC player. It appears it has been used by hackers to gain access to user's computers. Story here: https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/vlc-media-player-exploited-by-chinese-hackers/

Interesting list, but not a single de-esser in it. I'd love to know of a good free de-esser.

@Hidden SymmetrySymmetry thanks. I've been using eBay for about the same a amount of time, bought a lot of books and sold a ton of music gear, but after moving to Italy I needed to open a new account, so I look like a newbie 😕 I agree the terms and conditions are a bit meh. But I'm glad they made it safer when buying. I got myself a second hand Dell XPS and was on tender hooks waiting for it to arrive, but I always knew I was safe. In the old days eBay never held onto the money after a transaction so there was more chance of getting scammed. I'll wait a few days, then relist. I hate time wasters though.