telecode 101

$4k.. wow..

I work a lot in americana and country. i would say IKM SampleTank is probably the most bang for your buck. It pretty much has all that you would need. Though some of those Americana records also used quite a bit of synths.  Lots of prophets, DX-7 and so on. Whatever was in those studios at the times had around. Does not mean they had an electronic records feel. It's all about how you make them sound. Syntronik has lots of those prophet like samples.

5 hours ago, Jason Neudorf said:

..the SampleTank engine ..

I can probably chime in as I am a big ST user. So what I have so far discovered is, i like the fact that its a unified interface. Also if you use individual instances of ST with one instrument per instance, it uses separate cores of the CPU which seems quite handy for working with multiple tracks as i keeps resource usage low. Also, if you are mildly familiar with T-racks, the effects are really straight forward to navigate.  I have also found I seem to like the sampled syntronick synths better than arturias emulations They just seem to have more punch to them and stand out better in a mix -- to my ears anyways. My only beef with it is the dark GU. its sometimes hard to see small fonts. Maybe something IKM folks can address in future update.

The ST deal is pretty good if you are a ST user. It includes the new mojo stuff  and also the dobro resonator.

https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/stmojosynthesis/

4 hours ago, Clint Martin said:

If I prefer to play my own bass parts, what does EZbass do for me?

Can I upload my part and convert it to midi, and replace it with a toontrack bass sample?

yes to both i believe. what i do with it is i play the bass part in keyboard in midi. then throw it at EZB. and then apply a pattern and see how that works out. it can also accept a wave file of a guitar di part.

I see the availability of music really no different that availability of tv and film content. In the last, 30 or 40 years ago you only had a few channels or radio stations. So yeah, it was really easy for make something and capture an audience. there weren't that many other channels to switch to.

5 hours ago, Carl Ewing said:

The art is making the music.

this is pretty much the only thing I care or focus on. its  a hobby. like those people that will buy some paints and a small canvas and go pain a flower or creek on weekends for their own enjoyment. or someone picking up photography as a hobby. but in this case, music and software. It has nothing to do whatsoever with trying to sell the canvas or photos  in a gallery or try to make prints and sell it in IKEA. its totally devoid of that sort of commercial reality and does not need to be joined at the hip in order to be enjoyable or successful.

the business of music is a different thing. its not just music. its a lot of marketing, selling, dealing with people that don't make music. maybe even dealing with a lot of annoying people you dont want to deal with or even be near them. it's not something everyone wants to do if they dont have to do it.

1 hour ago, PavlovsCat said:

Yep. that is the challenge beyond the challenge of making really good music people want to listen to. It's a lot like having a website. There was a time in the early days of the web where having a website was a big deal. MySpace was awesome for its time, IMO. But now there's so much content out there it's incredibly difficult for someone without a team and big budget behind them to find the RIGHT audience. 

Peter brought up Dave Kerzner -- who I'm guessing some people here are familiar with (he founded Sonic Reality and had played keyboards with Kevin Gilbert -- a singer/songwriter/musician I was very fond of -- back in the 90s). Dave has done a lot of touring (live shows) and is active engaging his fans in social media. So, he follows the indie long-time model of combining traditional live shows and online presence. I think, unless you have a huge social media presence -- such as being a popular influencer -- that's the route that still works best for most indie artists. If you haven't built an audience using either live shows or online, and just put your music up on a service like BandCamp, they will not come (taking that from the often-used Field of Dreams paraphrase, "if you build it they will come"). It's simply too challenging for the right audience to find the right music with so much content out there. That's when you either need a lot of luck (rare) or, more likely, a lot of money and a publicity machine behind you. Most musicians putting up their music on services like BandCamp don't have those resources. I think there are ways of doing it better than the current solutions, especially with using AI to match those who want music around their interests, but the problem is always going to be that those recommendations are going to be impacted by financial concerns. That is, the platforms are going to promote those who pay and I doubt that will ever change. It would have to be a nonprofit that is completely ethics driven by art over commerce for indie artists to get the same treatment as artists with a big budget behind them. 

I am just doing this with no commercial expectations. I just do it because I enjoy doing it and its a hobby. Making music and using music tools that were in the past inaccessible is whats it all about for me. its a lot of fun. I sort of approach it as a personal challenge to myself. Can I be focused enough to complete a song or a complete work that lasts 5 mins or so.

I am very far removed from what is currently modern or popular music and musicians.  Where I am these are the types of people that are currently what audiences like to see and  hear. That ain't me. Kerzner is cool and respect what he does, but I would never do that and never did it in the past. a) I have a job and use the monies  from that to fund my hobbies. And b) even when I was younger, I never was after making money from music. I never taught guitar to kids in the neighbor hood or did things like play in cover bands.

1 hour ago, PavlovsCat said:

Thanks for the post, @Peter - IK Multimedia.  I do think BandCamp has been a good place for musicians. Their revenue split is pretty generous.  I didn't mean to be a Debbie Downer, I just meant to express that I think the vast majority of creators there won't see success and there's no easy solution for that.

I didn't realize that Dave has used it so extensively. I need to spend more time there. Is that largely where Dave has cultivated and grown his fan base online (of course,  in addition to touring/live shows)?

Last I heard. It would take you a year listening 24/7 to catch up with all the music being released in one day on Spotify. There is no way you could figure out what artists you would want to listen to without a big label and big marketing campaign.

I bought the last Ry Cooder Taj Mahal release on BC. I figured maybe the money

all goes to the artists.

I am a big fan of these eq’s. it’s like painting with broad brush strokes and adding colours. 

I have yet to upgrade the IK products. Just waiting for all this to settle down. 

I looked up Songtradr and don’t quite understand what that company is. Do they license music to be used by for profit entities like ad agencies and tv show and what not? If so, then where does that place musicians that operate in the indie alternative sphere? People making music and releasing music that is not intentionally pre pared to be used for selling something else? 

Oh man. So what does this all mean? 
 

no seriously.  I was putting all my bets that band camp was gonna be the new business model for indie artists. WTF!!

Hmm. Pretty messed up. 

1 hour ago, Sander Verstraten said:

That was because of the exchange rate between Euro and USD back then. Should have bought more packs back then

Yup. Regrets. My life is full of them. 

The Toontrack packs are okay. I keep thinking prices went up. I still have a few left over codes for the 6 pack I bought a while ago.

"The only piano instrument you’ll ever need"

but what am I now gonna do with the other 99 piano VIs I have on my DAW?

Anyone have any thoughts on that reamp plug-in?

Oh well. I am not updating 

It looks cool but man, that is a lot of $$$. Does it really make that much difference workflow wise?

They make good stuff. I am guitarist and I have a lot of fancy amp sims, but that STARK still gets lots of use from me. its nice to mix tones from different vendors. a well thought out GUI and workflow and easy on CPU.

I want my BF $99 upgrade sale. 

are these good prices? i am in limbo now with Cubase.

47 minutes ago, MusicMan said:

$79 for Zener Limiter is pretty good. I think that may even be the cheapest it gets normally.

I think it is. Now come on Swedos, give us another coupon we can stack on top!