aidan o driscoll

17 minutes ago, Wibbles said:

I get Netflix for £6pm through my Sky TV subscription.

I take it Sky don't offer that deal in your locality.

Nope and most likely if they did its for new subscribers.

However I investigated further tonight and found there is NETFLIX STANDARD and NETFLIX BASIC

Standard is €14.99pm while Basic is €8.99pm. Seems like the same thing except for two differences .. Basic is HD 720 while Standard is HD 1080, Basic allows you to Download on 1 device while Standard allows you to Download on 2 devices .. something we never did, always watch on the main TV screen in sitting room.

So the thing is HD 720 vs HD 1080 and save €6 a month, Is it that  noticeable?

Well I must be irredeemable so. I subscribe to

- Vodafone mobile ( €60pm  bill pay for biz ), Vodafone gigabit BBand/Phone ( €50pm for biz ) , Sky tv ( €32pm ),

- Spotify ( €9.99pm ), Netflix ( €14.99pm HD1080 ), Prime ( €8.99pm ), Loopcloud ( €55 pa ), Quickbooks online for my biz Accounts ( €20pm )

Yip thats about €200pm

4 minutes ago, DeeringAmps said:

@aidan o driscoll admittedly there is not enough collaboration on the songs forum. But one more subsection on the forum would seem to me to be a “fool’s errand”. 
Just my nickel98 there…

t

I did mention the forum. But also possibility of a purpose built seperate section at the website specifically for us to offer each other music services either a place where people can look for services and list same and/or offer services. In website parlance it would be a directory type facility .. the ebay type thing or donedeal, but simpler

Just now, DeeringAmps said:

It’s called the songs forum. 

t

Which says - "Post links to your songs, share and discuss." If something isnt made obvious generally people will not be aware

More talking of an obvious specific service type facility where CW members can offer services either free or at a cost. So ig people are hiring from CW community they may consider other members here rather than a third party service.   

On 5/20/2023 at 4:55 PM, smallstonefan said:

I took professional vocal lessons and still can't sign. I'm not tone-deaf and can play a decent level of guitar - but for some reason singing just isn't something I've been able to learn.

So no, not simpler for me.

However, hiring other singers to sing for me (or asking friends) is simpler. That's what I did on this track: Believe! https://open.spotify.com/track/3Qy72nlMl1F0cp1MmUOvJT

Oh, and Bapu was kind enough to play bass for me on that one! THANK YOU BAPU! I absolutely love that bass tone.

So, friends, hired guns, drum vsts, AI - whatever tools it takes to get the final result. 👍

Now isnt that a thing which could be leveraged by Bandlab within the Cakewalk community. A simple dedicated section here at the forum to CW users asking for musicians / vocalists amongst us to play on each others tracks as a service.

OR a complete seperate service section for this where members can show off there musical expertise and hire same.

5 hours ago, Zo said:

Sonicouture here but yeah hollow sound are superb gems .

Yip @Zo

https://www.soniccouture.com/en/products/35-rare-and-unique/g21-novachord/

Interesting. Re singing - 8 mins in - discusses Synthesizer V

Re MIDJOURNEY mentioned earlier:

https://www.fastcompany.com/90782742/midjourney-was-made-to-turn-david-bowie-songs-into-music-videos

"The new generation of artificial intelligence tools for image synthesis are so good that they are already being used everywhere, from music albums to magazine covers."

HOLLOW SUN have had a Novachord for a long time

http://hollowsun.com/HS2/products/novachord/index.htm

6 hours ago, Bruno de Souza Lino said:

You have to understand that, as a tool, AI is still a far cry from solving any problems I have. Doesn't matter how fast it grows if it doesn't do squat for me. A tool is only as good as how useful it is for you.

You are framing it about yourself and optional usage. Its not about you using AI optionally and after that it doesnt matter. Its about the businesses you might deal with selling your service or product ( eg music ) to who will replace you with a satisfactory ( to them ) AI and either dumping you or lowering the price you get paid for your work.

If you are a hobbyist not relying on music etc to make a living then fair enough. Im not sure which you are? 

1 hour ago, Bruno de Souza Lino said:

AI might change the world. But none of us will be alive to see it happen.

I disagree .. Give this a year or less to see huge changes in the world of work and job losses. Watched and read fair bit about this in recent times and thats a conclusion from many. This is happening VERY fast. 

So lets see ... I added this here now on Tuesday the 16th of May 2023 and lets see, in a years time how well this has borne out .. or not. If I have to eat my words then, I will gladly do so.

The EU at least are already grappling with AI laws, trying to draft comprehensively. However this is not happening much elsewhere in the world when it actually needs to. The rules of engagement with AI and legals around it need to be world wide for it to be anyway effective. AI + bad actors, state or otherwise has huge implications.

Again I will state .. many here are seeing AI as something that THEY will or will not choose to use. Thats not IT though. What IT is, is AI for example being used in music, graphics, film industries to generate content that otherwise would have been done by people and hence either doing these people out of a job/jobs OR lowering the value money wise that they can get for these jobs. The core of the hollywood writers strike recently was exactly about this from what I gathered, in relation to ChatGPT.

Dont get trapped in the idea that business has ethics. It doesnt when it comes to the bottom line. If AI tools can be used to produce what was previously produced by an employee in any reasonable fashion then biz will opt for the AI to lower payroll and increase margin. Fool to think otherwise. AI in areas of graphics, written word, audio, film etc is good enough already to start seeing this threat as a reality

Yes, if we are hobbyists and dont depend on making music, graphics, film for a living then it is easy to be glib perhaps or not care. Indeed this AI thing will most likely not affect you. But my reason and audience for this thread was not for the hobbyists here or elsewhere, its more for those working in these industries and jobs that could really see threat from AI in alot shorter time than they might think.

Finally, AI dev is going at a very fast pace. What we have now will be indistinguishable from what will be here in a years time at this rate of development. 

57 minutes ago, Jimbo 88 said:

I don't need a machine to tell me how to generate a  chord progression or a melody or how to eq.   What i can use is AI vocals to let me hear my compositions ( I am already doing this and loving it).

AI will be great for making suggestions, but not for doing anything original because it can only go back and use what has already been done. I've tried writing songs with AI and if you don't have a great starting point or story it's not going to do you much good.  Again it's great at making suggestions.  AI for songwriting is a glorified thesaurus.

Band in a Box and any drum loop program  do pretty much the same thing already.   We've had AI in different versions for years.

Yes Jim, but TBH it wont stop you or I producing music .. However where it could cause issues is in the employment of musicians/artists in various settings who would normally be producing audio but  now replaced by AI to do same job.

Many here are looking at this AI and saying nope it will have no effect on me in making my music, I will continue. That is correct. But where the effect will be is on jobs in the music and graphics and film  industry where the corporates will see AI as in there control, cheaper and faster so more profit for them. Dont need no pesky troublesome demanding humans no more

31 minutes ago, Tony Carpenter said:

I feel very safe at this stage.. LOL.

4 minutes ago, Esteban Villanova said:

AI art is soulless. It's derivative and made by a machine with no consciousness of its own death. The fact that this is a thing shows that modern people don't care about the 'soul' anymore. The end is nigh.

Yip @Esteban Villanova .. spot on. BUT for big biz in the music and film scenes its all about the bottom line and control. So getting something done faster cheaper and with more control will be the joy they have for AI artists. Add to this the fact that for too long now ( started in 90s with napster ) MUSIC has been devalued so current generations now expect all this for FREE.

We can moan about the soulessness etc but most likely it will be only us creatives that worry about this Im afraid. However I do see AI developing rapidly to in some way sort this

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20230507-the-jobs-ai-wont-take-yet

"That doesn’t necessarily mean all jobs that are considered ‘creative’ are safe. In fact, things like graphic design and visual art-related roles may be among the first to go"

https://fox17.com/news/local/nashville-tn-google-news-artificial-intelligence-us-senator-bill-hagerty-pushes-copyright-office-to-protect-singers-songwriters-as-ai-advances#

"NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tennessee) has requested the U.S. Copyright Office to protect the material of singers and songwriters as the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) poses issues within the music industry."

An opinion - https://soundmatters.tv/ai-and-the-future-of-music-creation/

https://www.hklaw.com/en/insights/publications/2023/05/the-summer-of-deep-drakes-how-generative-ai-is-creating-new-music

"This technology is already having a profound impact on how music is consumed and created and calls into question how well equipped copyright law is to handle AI's growing impact on the music industry."

That chinese proverb "May you live in interesting times" applies?

Interesting times ahead I reckon, as this whole AI thing develops. Could happen sooner than we think. Already in Japan re Manga Comics apparently an AI made a Manga Graphic comic in 6 weeks that would take a human artist 2 years

https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/japan-first-ai-generated-manga-art-intl-hnk/index.html

Here is a new AI DAW based on Chatgpt:

https://www.audiocipher.com/post/ai-daw

Recently, a whole new OASIS album was released with an AI Liam Gallagher .. called AISIS. Is this just the beginning? 

https://www.euronews.com/culture/2023/04/20/someones-made-a-new-oasis-album-with-ai-and-liam-gallagher-thinks-it-is-mega

Are you a DJ? Well SPOTIFY has got your number it seems:

https://techcrunch.com/2023/03/13/spotifys-new-dj-feature-is-the-first-step-into-the-streamers-ai-powered-future/

"The AI DJ’s voice, meanwhile, was created using technology Spotify acquired from Sonatic last year and is based on that of Spotify’s head of Cultural Partnerships Xavier “X” Jernigan, host of Spotify’s now-defunct morning show podcast, “The Get Up.” Surprisingly, the voice sounds incredibly realistic and not at all robotic."

So let the discussion begin

PS - Mmm ... will we have an AI Cakewalk?

Found Augmented Strings to be a bit of a resource hog on my core i5, 16GB Ram SSD system. Augmented Brass etc the same I assume?

FEEL IT - https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/play-series/feel-it/

HIGHER PLACE - https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/expansions/higher-place/

$49 each - Listen to the Audio demos

Here is a review vid
 

For the uninitiated

whatever plan you sub to you get monthly points that can be used to buy individual loops/samples or sample packs. At the moment i have amassed 9947 points so must make good inroads to getting a load of stuff

You also get a daily FREE SOUNDS thing that resets every 24 hrs. So outside of your points you can download 25 samples daily to add to your collection 

1 hour ago, Fleer said:

Are most of these sounds loops or actual samples? Not that much into loops myself. 

Not sure what you mean. They are samples in that they are audio and downloadable. The loop thing only comes in if the sample can be seamlessly looped start to end and around again. Most of the Drum samples are loops. Single hits are not and most of the keys, vocals etc may not be loopable. However alot of Bass are.

Loopcloud is not just a huge selection of random samples, its alot of sample packs which would have loops and samples that can work together. They are "curated" in that fashion. You can download individual loops, samples hits OR download a "currated" sample pack that has samples that work together, similar genre

The magic happens in the loopcloud 8 track daw where you can live audition and mix samples and loops together. This also has effects per track and you can change the tempo and pitch of the samples live also. The plugin in say Cakewalk/DAW will auto set the samples you have in the loopcloud tracks to the tempo of your project

Thats my take on what you ask

@MusicMan All fair points BUT I found the way around this is first audition and build the loops in the loopcloud app with the 8 track in there along with your DAW project. When happy you have the FINAL sounds you want you can then add / export them via the loopcloud app to tracks in your project. No need of the loopcloud app any more

With respect to the plugins eg loopcloud drums, same thing - once happy with the loop and sound you created in there convert to wav on track in the project.

Then no issues with the sub being kept up. 

Its a mindset thing i suppose. I would only use the loopcloud app and plugs to create the ideas .. when happy I would do above and detach all from the project, no big deal at all 

Nothing stopping you from downloading all your owned loops from loopcloud also and archive. I think it downloads them anyway to local drive

17 minutes ago, dubdisciple said:

Another reason I have cooled on sample sites is the licenses are often ridiculous. I have read small print on some samples (including the midi) that require full production credit and absurd split of royalties if placed.  

When I read one license agreement, I realized that all these vintage instruments, scaler type products and sound degrading processors made it kind of easy to "make" vintage sounding samples. Not only does this work well, but this is how a lot of these sample loops are made.  It's actually less time consuming to make samples than to search through hundreds of thousands. 

With that said, some don't feel like doing all of that so services like Loopcloud are helpful to them.

From Loopcloud webite:

Are all of Loopcloud’s samples royalty-free? -

Yes. You’ll have a full royalty-free license for every sample that you download from Loopcloud. Any samples that you purchase with points - or through your free quota - are yours for a lifetime. 

======================================================

This from here - Loopcloud 6.0 Review: Changing the Way You Produce Music

Loopcloud is a DAW-integrated sample subscription service. It lets you audition, chop up, and tweak over 4 million loops and one-shots, all of which are 100% royalty-free. That means you can use them however you’d like without risk of owing a copyright owner money!

As I said in my post above you have to stop viewing loopcloud as JUST LOOPS. The app and tools around it and integration with your daw turn this system into having the ability to make original instruments from loops .. Also keep in mind its not just loops, its one hit sounds too for example full one hit kits 

They also have worked alot on the search algorithm system to really narrow down a search for loop types you are looking for.

5 hours ago, Fleer said:

Is anyone using this? Would love to know how good the downloadable sounds are.  It’s on sale at half price it seems (https://audioplugin.deals/product/loopcloud-studio-annual-pass/). 

I have it -- yearly sub. I usually cancel it just before sub up and they come back to me with similar offer as in the title.

Yes I like. The following:

- Its integration into your DAW via loopcloud plugin
- The extra plugs you get - Loopcloud Drum, Loopcloud Play, Bass Master, Khords

LoopCloud Drum - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4cUaP59iNs
LoopCloud Play - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=579hBO9cphw

- The 8 track DAW inside the Loopcloud app that syncs with your track in say Cakewalk, so you can live audition up to 8 separate samples in that DAW along with the track playing in CW and can chop change the samples while the track is playing live. Also in the LC Daw you can chop, effect and lots of other stuff to turn the loops into original sounds
- The LOOPCLOUD Cloud space where you can save your loops 
- The free loops you can add to your collection - every 24 hours the clock resets.

So pointless just viewing this as a huge selection of loops ONLY .. its the tools around these loops and the integration with your DAW. 

I find it also a great thing to use as a start point creatively 

Just installed NA2 .. and indeed, relative to NA1 it is a resource hog cpu wise etc.

BUT I did see updates not in NA1 and we really only use NA to update, add new or uninstall so its not on all the time 

Tracktion Waveform Pro 12 - Upgrade from Waveform Pro 11 is $49.90 with the GROUP coupon