Tim Smith

Are you saying those who work a regular job are normal? Lots of creativity there in other work besides music. I don't see how anyone, full time musician or not doesn't have responsibilities? How do you get away from that ?

I suspect that many who play music and didn't go for a professional degree always wonder what it would have been like if they did. At least these are my thoughts after many years playing music. Sure I had the basics early on and I took a few lessons. I self educated a lot since then in both music technology and music theory. I only wanted to learn enough theory to get me by since it was too much like math class. I have been involved with other musicians, some of them educated at very well respected and expensive music colleges. Some of them more like Notes, going to gigs and making money doing what they like.One of those persons is sometimes asked to play with a local orchestra. He is more talented than most and has a great personality to go along with it. I readily acknowledge I will probably only ever get to a certain level. I sometimes ask myself "what if" I had gone into music as a career 100% ? Everyone is different. I had too many other interests, some of which have helped me to own a home with a pool in the back yard and multiple cars with enough income to not feel strapped . Much of what I can do as a result of my other training which is varied means I didn't have to pay someone else big $$ to do it. This had the effect of increasing my net worth. I have always enjoyed working with my hands. If I had gone into music as my life's goal I would have forever been an unhappy "one trick pony" and I probably would have felt I missed out on other things. For me music is only one of the things I like to do. I have great respect for those who put their entire lives into it and do well at it. "If" I had been extremely successful at music, I know I would have still had other interests on the side. Ted Nugent likes to hunt. I'm not a hunter, but I would probably have a shop somewhere and be fixing or building something when I wasn't at my music day job. When it comes right down to it, survival is important. In order to survive having a list of other skills isn't a bad thing. The problem is, too many wanna bes look at the top of the music pinnacle and want to be there not realizing most of their success was based on a marketing machine only a few can take advantage of if looking at modern music stars. If looking at professional music, there are only a few of those slots. I have a friend who is graduating with a degree in conducting. At the pro level they make millions conducting orchestras. I hope he makes it, but the reality is he just jumped into a career with few slots. A guy who gets a zillion plays on YouTube or any other social network might get the attention of the big industry guys with the money. Might as in it's a a slim chance. Only if they think they can market you. In that case- sign on the dotted line

Slow reflexes and big hands, fast reflexes with small hands or everything in between. Bacon grease tends to make the keys slippery. Nothing worse than hogging the keyboard.

I sent the thing back.

No measuring tape handy at the moment. I have average sized hands and when I play they look like claws. The product of not enough piano lessons. I can see larger hands as a disadvantage since it mostly depends on where you need those fingers to be. Smaller = more efficient. Less mass means more speed. This is why the giants all have mostly died off.

YT is an option. I have a few videos uploaded, most of them are hid from the public. I use Movie Maker Pro which can get the job done. If you are mainly a musician though who doesn't fancy playing in video editing software, it's probably not a fit. I mainly just dabbled in it. Not enough time to make anything super slick. I liked Vimeo better.

Yep, pretty much.

Soundcloud- Is presently my mainstay. I am paying for the pro plan. I am happy with the quality, the reliability and the stats. One thing I note is always a bump in stats at the beginning of a new track posting. After that it gets buried in oblivion. I get most of my followers at the beginning of a new track. Might be curious individuals who happen to see it in their feed and click on it. There are a LOT of other musicians on SC, so it almost becomes like a club for support. I'll admit I don't have time to listen to much of their material because I'm making my own material. I make an effort, but many times that's all it is. Lots of musicians there who garner large followings are regularly commenting on other's tracks. This mutual thing boosts the numbers, but they probably don't translate to reality most of the time. Some people cheat and buy followers. Yes you can do that. I wouldn't know why anyone would. It's the reason we see tracks that suck with thousands of plays. I am seriously considering making a move away from SC, so it will be interesting to hear comments from others on the other options.

Ugh. I'm sure you have rolled this one over long ago as an option. If you bought 3rd party maybe they have record of the purchase? If you can find the purchase date in your accounts area make a screen clip and show them. It seems with Steinberg the left hand often doesn't know what the right hand is doing. Your account should show the purchase date.

Musicians obviously notice Bandcamp because we are looking at all of the options out there. The general public though? Probably not to any large degree. I see Bandcamp similar to Soundcloud. I mostly use SC for storage, but at one point I was more genre focused and garnered a fair amount of followers. Shot myself in the foot by getting into too many different things and alienating my small fan base. I have thought about deleting a bunch of my old material and attempting to remain more focused on a genre. If I had done things better I could have probably doubled my followers. At some point I will likely clean house there and pare it down some. I used my existing YouTube channel to put up some other stuff. The people that like it, like it a lot but there aren't very many of them. A few years back something major happened to Soundcloud . I can say this because material that was of lesser quality was getting lots of legit listens and comments from listeners. Now when I release anything in that same genre that's at least as good if not better I'm lucky to get 35 plays on it in a month. On a good tune I would have 300-500 plays in a month if the material was good. A couple of my loyal listeners stop around probably more out of curiosity to see how far away from the main genre I'm going to stray this time with comments like, " now THAT was different." So between the odd change at Soundcloud and me drifting too far from center on a chosen genre, my following is pitiful. I blame only myself for it, because I didn't care what genre it was. I just made music I wanted to make. My goals were pretty much non existent so far as a marketing plan is concerned. I still have over 2000 people as followers, but I've lost at least 500. It costs me about 155.00 a year which is mostly money down the tubes, so I might be looking for another place to park a few tunes. SC has marketing plans I have never looked into. Now when I launch a new tune I get fake members with big boobies offering to market my tunes for $$. I suspect they are on every new launch of anything. I could put out, " I pick my nose for fun" and they would make me an offer.

@cclarry I would not give up. Cubase 12 is worth the trouble. If you copy the people @simon mentioned in your post on the Steinberg forum, I really think they will help you out.

Hmmmmm. That's much smaller than I realized. Sampletank 4 MAX is 300 gb. Makes Omnisphere look small in comparison. I could probably do some rearranging on my SSDs and cough up that much space.?

Thanks @Simeon Amburgey Though I have mostly used only patches John has programmed, I plan to venture into making a few of my own. Being a versatile wrapper as you say, is only one of the things that makes the UNIFY amazing. Thanks for bringing up these other titles. I tend to be similar to you in that I am mostly looking at orchestral and acoustic patches. I also like to venture into other things occasionally. @ZincT @Fleer I keep hearing this about Omnisphere. For me it would be more than just buying the software. I would need to expand my system hard drive capacity. It is a little salty as @Doug Rintoul alludes to, but then it isn't a small program and it isn't lacking in what it is capable of. At some point I'll be there. I have trouble keeping the mail cleared off my kitchen table. If I had Omnisphere..............let's just say I'm thankful for metadata and organized libraries. I see myself searching "electric pianos" and 500 of them pop up. I'll need to pop the B vitamins and caffeine to get through the searches. It's always been a problem for me though. I let all the presets in my hardware keyboards intimidate me.

Thanks Erik. I should know soon. I have run into similar things with open box in the past, but I still mostly go that route. It's a gamble and so far I've been very lucky.

Last night I updated my copy of Unify to version 1.8. It really is an amazing program thanks to John and his team for all of their hard work. Probably the most confusing part of the program for me so far is the way they sell patches for existing synths you may or may not already own. So far as I know Unify still accepts older VSTs. This is a boon for anyone with a DAW that went to strictly VST3. John wrote presets for some free ones too and included a few of those in the core program. When John makes a video he is usually showing examples using other programs like Omnisphere and Serum. I'm not sure if LoFi was free of not. So far I have BBC Core and Discovery. Last night I bought MegaMagic Pads 2 Mosaic. I don't usually buy pads but these are some very well programmed amazing pads. I also have megamagic guitars but I bought it for Kontakt. I had Surge already, so I have the pads for it which while being ok, not amazing but then Surge isn't amazing compared to other synths IMHO. My question is, what 3rd party programs would you recommend for Unify? Omnisphere is probably a consideration, but man- It's huge anyways. Does making another 1000 presets for it really help to give us too many choices? On Unify's built in content. Word of advice. Located sound files on another drive if you have one. Even though the original program isn't super huge, successive library purchases are beginning to eat up my C drive.

Update- After some deliberation I decided to initially go with an Arturia Keyscape MKII 61. It may seem I reneged on my last comments. Let me explain- I realized that what I was mainly after was basic DAW control and since I already have a bunch of 88 key controllers, I can always hook one up in tandem with the MKII if necessary. My workflow is usually inputting tracks first and them mixing later. I like having mixing faders and controls in close proximity to my playing position. I looked at dedicated DAW controllers Like the Mackie and the Studio One controller. Since I will be using my controller with Cakewalk, Cubase and others I decided against it because some reported issues with it in Cubase. The Mackie is probably more than I really need at this point and the placing of any such controller would be a difficulty given my space right now ( a large kitchen table). While I love NI's controller it is severely lacking in tactile DAW controls. I will probably get one in the near future when I get my studio moved over and have more room because the NI universe is where I often find myself. For now though, I don't want such a dedicated controller because I use all sorts of libraries. The 49 key version would probably do me fine just for manipulation of a VSTi AFTER I play the track. That would be my main intent with that controller. To work with automation in Kontakt. So far as meta data, I can find what I want to find well enough to get by for now. The less expensive version of the Arturia line might have been ok too, but I didn't want the possibility I might need a function I didn't have. Plus I have seem what happens to other brands of cheaper controllers and keyboards after they sit for a long time. I have a small Oxygen controller, like 49 Keys and the knobs on it feel like someone coated them with jelly even though it sat in a conditioned space. The rubber has gone mushy over time. The only problem I might have with the Arturia is one I made for myself. I ordered an open box because it was much less. Hopefully someone else didn't register the keyboard software. I have a feeling they probably did. I hope I'm wrong about that. If this is the case, then I'll need to chase them for another authorization and my less expensive keyboard might be more expensive than I planned.

I sort of kind of ended up with a new elicenser due to an issue with Cubase. I jumped the gun and ordered it thinking I would need it. I anticipated eventually getting some VSL libraries. After a technical hiccup my old one started working again. So far as I know, they are the only ones who support that dongle and I've heard they are going to ilok. I recently bought an ilok so I should be ok there. I have Korg licenses on my present elicenser but I believe all of those licenses went to an online recognition. Any other reason to maybe think about keeping this or updating my old one? Anyone else using it besides Steinberg and VSL? Thanks.

Sorry to hear this. I'm not sure exactly what could be happening. You said your license did not show a grace period?

Thanks @Hidden Symmetry that is very kind of you. My last conversation with Steinberg rep Matthias involved him asking me to try all of my USB ports which I had already done. He also asked me to try the dongle in another computer. This I had not tried. Matthias was going to check with his support dept. to see if there were any other options besides me buying a new dongle because basically they couldn't see my dongle. I put the dongle in my laptop and downloaded the elicenser control program. My licenses came up immediately. * scratches head* Either they did something I was unaware of on the server end or loading the control program on my laptop suddenly made something work, which seems to make no sense *scratches head again* After transferring the dongle to my DAW everything went smooth as silk. Prior to this I tried every USB port on my DAW and nothing worked. This last time it even worked using my hub. Matthias was very helpful. I still don't know exactly what fixed it. All I can say is I can see the licenses and I have version 12 loaded and working. Yay!

I have a few tunes I play in 9/8. I can play them if I don't chew gum at the same time.

You do know women are right 99.999999999% of the time right? She is his mom and would probably know better than anyone. My opinion is that it's a lot to do in a short time window. Probably too much unless he is a fast astute learner with a great memory who will dig in. Even then it's a lot of work to make that kind of a jump in that amount of time. I agree with others that his heart should be in it regardless of whether he attempts to take the route mentioned or any other musical route. I don't mean partially in, I mean IN IT. Can't waver at difficulty. The next question is, "if" he makes that grade what's the next step? Every journey starts with the first step, but one also has to look at the journey. Does he want to be sitting in front of a class full of 4th graders teaching them basic music? Every day all year long? If at the high school level, you still have to put up with the drummers, out of tune horns and people who should not be in the band. I was in the high school band and I would not have wanted to be my teacher lol. Is this what he is signing up for? What are the other options? We seen what happened to the night club and bar trade during COVID. Even when it's good it's probably a struggle. How about a church music leader? Usually low or barely adequate pay. He could break into Hollywood or the New York scene, but then there's a lot of riffraff and stuff you have to put up with there too. Record sales are dismal compared to several decades ago. The records that do sell. Let's just say it's complicated. The percentages are similar to playing the lottery and winning it. And once you get on top you realize it isn't really much fun up there. The money coming into it comes from people who run organizations with agendas and they don't care what you want. Sound dismal? I've only told you the good news. I work for a large educational institution and my wife is an educator. Back before education was simply learning something it was great. Now education is indoctrination. It's social engineering, but then so is most TV programming.

In my case I think I probably have a bad dongle. Matthias confirmed they could not connect to my dongle. I was asked to try different ports on my computer, try another computer etc. I have already done that to no avail. Well ok I haven't tried it in my laptop yet. I have lost faith on that old dongle anyways at this point. I'm not sure what the process is for buying a new dongle and getting it registered, but I think I'm just going to order a new one. At 27 dollars for a new one. I don't think that's a bad price to pay. They haven't suggested this yet, but I think that's where this is eventually headed. I mean, I bought in and jumped three versions for 399.00. This is almost unheard of. I plan to maybe get some Vienna libraries later and they use the same system, so 27 bucks to get everything cleared up is not unreasonable for me at this point. And @simon Thanks again for your help. I'll update if anyone cares to know. At this point though, it would appear my dongle must have taken a nose dive.

Many thanks @simon I am sorry if I'm coming off a little agitated here. I am always professional when dealing with customer service. I am often in that position in my job where I deal with "customers". It isn't in my code to treat anyone badly for any reason in any situation. I am still human though and sometimes things can push me over the edge. Even then I try to remain composed. This is petty in comparison to people out there with real problems. I realize they are still working though all of this. I appear to be one of those who fell through the cracks since many others have had an ok experience. And truthfully, I'm not to sure it isn't my dongle that has failed. In that case it would not be them at all. I will take your advice and reach out to them to see what can be done. Thanks!

Oh yeah, I've been over there. My problem seems to be unique in that my elicenser can't be loaded. Actual quote response from the last email I sent them- Hello, The issue that I can see right off the bat is that your elicense control center is not showing you have your USB dongle with pro 11 on it. You would need that plugged in for the upgrade to be able to work as it needs to see 11 to upgrade from first. After that the dongle is no longer needed for Cubase 12 Let me know Let them know what? That I know that they know that there is no license on my dongle? What part of " my elicenser failed and your server doesn't see it" don't they understand? "Plugged in?" WTH I've tried all my usb ports and rebooted numerous times. Do they think I'm so thick I didn't plug the thing in? I hate to purchase a dongle, but since I lost other licenses and I can't reach out to the server with this one. It might be an option. Granted my other licenses were mostly the free ones from VSL and a few old Korg licenses. I don't really care if I loose them. If my dongle is wiped why can't they just send me a registration code? It isn't like I'll be able to use 12 without it.