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What have you got your eye on?


jude77

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2 hours ago, sarine said:

I want to point out something else that is super important, and on topic, kind of.

I've realized the quest for branded, packaged inspiration hasn't increased my creativity. The more I hoarded different plugins and sounds, the more it distracted me from making music. Sure, I've been inspired, and I'm not arguing that the million billion Kontakt libraries out there don't have some aesthetic and sense-tickling sound material in them that can be put to very practical use too.

But it really is mostly snake oil if you're a hobbyist, and if you're a professional then you're not hoarding and looking for inspiration - you already know what you're doing and what you might want to be doing (or trying to do), and you can't afford to waste time and money on the silly activity of trying to acquire every single sound-emitting digital apparatus on offer out there. The software vendors have realized the hobbyist segment is a gold mine because they don't know what they're doing, and they don't know what they want, so they can sell us anything with enough marketing effort, even the same thing over and over again.

I'm arguing that all this might not actually be helping you in the way you think it is, and that pretty much the opposite is true. I say this because I've realized that - in my case at least - inspiration is not a thing that "comes to you", it's not a thing you must wait for, comes and goes on its own whim, or is purely sensual or emotional in nature. One of the most important realizations I've had in my creative endeavors was that inspiration can be labored, and I think realistically you can't be a professional in the creative industry if you can't beat yourself to inspiration when needed, by all means necessary. The most significant function of all these distractions around us that pretend to be our muse, is actually just diversion from the types of activity that would allow us to develop the habits, discipline, focus and mindset that are pre-requisites for the ability to conjure up inspiration and creativity by will. Those things, which involve a lot of not having fun, are the most solid foundation for injecting into the fun any value above and beyond the hedonistic sensations in the moment, and personal fulfillment - but they also cultivate those solitary aspects of enjoying art/creativity, by heightening the sense of continuity and connectedness between your own individual creative experiences, by virtue of the discipline and focus allowing the produce of your imagination to have more of a narrative.

You know how in some disciplines the artists/craftsmen dedicate a certain month of the year to specific techniques or mediums, the same could benefit a computer musician. For example, go a full month using nothing but single primitive waveform oscillators in your music, plus just one model of each type of processor, and use only raw, unprocessed samples to overlay with them. Dedicate the whole month to learning how to express your finest emotions using the most primitive elements, and master using the tools you have. Not only would it make you a better producer technically, it might help find or cultivate your style, and in the end you would have a clearer picture of what you actually want.

Sarine what you say is 100 % true , i've developped several rules to "waranty my creativity and efficency" but multiplication of options is devasting my students ...i fight warez just becaseu of that at first (and of course for barnds) but when  i make them understand it's dangerous for them , it's more efficient .... subkect i really want to cover on furture videos more aimed on methodology !! (stay tuned)

 

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18 hours ago, Freyja Grimaude-Valens said:

I have a rule for these things, which has saved me from a lot of GAS. I ask myself "Will I ever find myself using this? Will this be useful for my project?" If the answer is yes, then I'll consider it.

The problem with GAS is similar like with other drugs in advanced stadium. It disrupts judgment. It tells me every time 'you need it and you will use it' but what true is we know :(

19 hours ago, Freyja Grimaude-Valens said:

Another question I'll ask is "Can I do better?" If the answer is yes, then I'll skip the deal.

Yep, this is interesting question. It leads to conclusion (similar as in your example) maybe it is much better buy pricey plugin which would replace  instantly all those 'great deal' plugins.

My colleague who is session musician is using this tactics for hw gear. Never looking at river of deals for different alternatives to have things cheapest as possible with 'similar' result.  He is first taking a look what is the best for his goal then going for this just looking good deals but without hesitation. This save him a lot of time, and temporary solutions later not used or needed to be sold as still not giving that killing result... The very little exceptions are guitars although he sold most he rarely used.

But... First thing he is doing it for living so whatever price is for the gear he will earn the money to refund it.

And second what is attracting very often people playing with production and mixing that desire to have huge pallette of 'colors. And this thing is killing one... :( Hard to resist as it make a sense... For instance is it the best of the world saturation plugin enough?  Is it able to give any of flavor possible to match any mode of ours and song?

For those of us who are professionals in prod/mix/master things still is not a big deal as they can refund after some gigs...  But rest of us... well... economy is not favorite thing... Better not to sum up what we spent...

Anyway there is pleasant side-effect... (not counting our pleasure with playing with toys ;) Huge amount of people create big market when even such dream as below $29 per good plugin is possible ;)

My point is GAS is very sneaky thing and what sarine mentioned about kind of relationship between creating music vs reacting to deals/collecting plugins is kind of guideline for ultimate cure for GAS... 

Which is make more music, even more and more, take gigs etc... Then there is no time to look through all those deals and what's more the more we are doing the more we can ensure what we really need...

If I buy 5 piano VSTi and am happy with great deals but when trying to use it to do job nor just for myself but ordered and not satisfied with results... What it would tell me about efficiency of my decisions? :(

 

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15 minutes ago, synkrotron said:

I've always said I'd never bother with Kontakt... I am now having a slight change of mind... Just need the price to come down. A lot...

Watch KVR...it goes on sale quite a bit there and the transfer process is
pretty straightforward...and BF is coming...so there's that option also

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9 minutes ago, Zo said:

lol i swear , that the word "gas , gaz " is the most used around here lol , this would be called the gas section lol or the toxic section ahahah !!!

unfortunately you are right 😛

So Larry is GAS provider? ;)

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2 hours ago, synkrotron said:

I've always said I'd never bother with Kontakt... I am now having a slight change of mind... Just need the price to come down. A lot...

Kontakt is one of those things I had to get eventually, so I prepared for the sale last summer. I planned for it too, making strategic purchases that will serve me, and knock the price down to $125 when it goes on sale. Well worth it, considering how many deadass good libraries don't use the player.

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4 hours ago, Piotr said:

The problem with GAS is similar like with other drugs in advanced stadium. It disrupts judgment. It tells me every time 'you need it and you will use it' but what true is we know :(

Well, one thing I do is I put it in my wishlist, and then see if it pops in my head, and if I can visualize my workflow using it.

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On 10/3/2019 at 4:25 PM, synkrotron said:

Interesting... What sort of "strategic purchases?"

Taking stock of your library, what kind of plugins and sounds you're really missing, doing research and asking about every deal to see if what you're getting is actually good. There's also keeping your ears to the ground for upcoming sales, so that you won't drop...say $60 on a pretty good plugin that was worth $200, when the very next week, you get T-Boned with a top of the line plugin of the same type, that normally sells for $399 and is selling for $150. Sure, you'd be spending way more, and the savings ratio isn't as good, but the price drop is larger, and you won't end up lusting after the top of the line plugin after making that $60 purchase.

There's also factoring in skill and readiness to take full advantage of the deal. Like, right now, I would LOVE to have the current orchestral tools deal on NI right now, but a) I don't have the drive space b) I am not very skilled at orchestral scoring, so I am better off with something more general, so I took the Palette Symphonic Sketchpad deal. Understanding what you just bought is an important factor.

Avoiding unnecessary overlap is also a thing. For example, this deal looks very attractive to me right now, but I pretty much already have everything I need to make music in the synthwave style in the form of a massive synth collection. I am just missing drum machine plugins, but there are ways around that. Picking that library up would be a vanity purchase, when I am not trying to save up for something else.

Edited by Freyja Grimaude-Valens
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On 10/4/2019 at 3:11 AM, Freyja Grimaude-Valens said:

There's also factoring in skill and readiness to take full advantage of the deal. Like, right now, I would LOVE to have the current orchestral tools deal on NI right now, but a) I don't have the drive space b) I am not very skilled at orchestral scoring, so I am better off with something more general, so I took the Palette Symphonic Sketchpad deal. Understanding what you just bought is an important factor.

That's true for me as well.  My ability to score and for orchestra (and need to do so) doesn't currently justify having anything more detailed than Dimension Pro.

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