X-53mph

I'm not seeing a discount. Is there a coupon code?

Hi guys, I was checking out the new Sonar website (looking for status updates), and I noticed all the social media links to Instagram, YouTube, Twitter (that needs updating 😂), so I thought I'd check some of them out to see what was new. 😳 They haven't been updated in years. Guys! Guys! GUYS! You really need to sort out your social media. Either get rid of the links (because they are useless) or get someone to update them on a regular basis. Otherwise, the perception is that Sonar is a zombie product. If you want to seriously give the impression that Sonar is still in the game, update those socials, or just delete the accounts and delete the links. Un-updated socials are a liability. That's all. Over and out.

? Farewell from Ugritone ? It's with a heavy heart and a sense of profound nostalgia that we announce the end of an era: Ugritone, the sonic bastion of raw, unfiltered Metal, is closing its doors. From 2017 to 2024, we've lived, breathed, and bled Metal, striving to push the boundaries of what could be achieved in the underground music scene. But the time has come to share this sad piece of news with our dedicated community. The harsh realities of life and the unforgiving nature of the free market have finally caught up with us. Despite our unwavering passion and relentless drive, the stark truth is that we've faced burnout after burnout, stretching ourselves thin, and simply lacking the resources to make the necessary moves to bring this project up to the speed it deserves. The industry demands more than we can currently give, and it's either all or nothing. We refuse to deliver a half-hearted effort. We will not settle for a 20% AI/automation-powered compromise. The essence of Ugritone has always been about genuine, unadulterated creativity, and we can't continue unless we can fully honor that spirit. To our fans, collaborators, and everyone who has been a part of this journey, we want to express our deepest gratitude. Thank you for embracing our wild ideas, for your relentless support, and for allowing us to reflect our passion within the Metal world. Your enthusiasm and dedication have meant everything to us. As we bow out, know that Ugritone's legacy will live on in the riffs, the beats, and the raw energy we've shared. Here's to the memories, the music, and the Metal. Keep it loud. Keep it real. Forever in Metal, Ugritone As we prepare to close this chapter, we're embarking on a Farewell Sale that will run until the end of the year. This is your last chance to grab a piece of Ugritone history. Here are some of our top digital products: Drum samplers - starting from $5 MIDI Packs - Starting From $2 Impulse Responses - $2 Other Plugins - Starting from $5 This is our way of saying thank you for your undying support. You've been the backbone of Ugritone, and we want to give back to you one last time. So, dig in, grab your favorite pieces, and let’s make this final encore one to remember. www.ugritone.com

@57Gregy Thanks for pointing that out to me. I've never used that function in CbB before. I have to say though, playing around with it this morning, it's not exactly user friendly.

I like your use of relevant. Perhaps what we should be asking is, is Cakewalk relevant in the modern music market? Don't get me wrong, I have loved using Cakewalk over the years and made some music on it that I'm really proud of....but I'm part of the disappearing market for Cakewalk....the question for Cakewalk should be, how do they cater for the next generation of music makers? If, at one time, the aim of DAWs was to compete with the likes of Pro Tools for market dominance...well, I'd say those days are coming to a close. The music industry may no longer be made up of studios sharing projects across the world. The battle of the DAWs seems to have become a battle to keep existing client bases and to squeeze those existing customers for pennies by offering small changes and alterations over long stretched out periods of time. CbB has been doing this for free over the last few years (all praise to them) but it isn't a good business model. So whatever the future of Cakewalk is, it needs to address the question....how can it capture the upcoming music makers, and not just rely on the existing (and soon to be no-longer existing) users. That's the hard mathematics of it. Then again. Maybe Noel just wants to retire and get out of the game. Who knows?

I know that your post is partly tongue in cheek, but I think what you're proposing is actually quite healthy. I recently took a step back from social media and the internet in general, and I feel the benefits. Since deleting my Twitter(X), YouTube, Facebook etc.. I've found myself playing the guitar more. I'm also engaging with my family more...which is not always such a good thing As for GAS - I've started selling stuff on Ebay that has been collecting dust in my gear collection waiting for the day it might be used, and with the money from that, I'm buying gear (not plugins) that I actually want. Bought myself a travel guitar for the summer and headphone amp. In fact, I haven't opened a DAW in months, which feels really liberating. Instead, I'm playing the guitar every day.

I'd love to see his take on piano plugins....

So what is he selling? Right at the end........."buy my EQing course". But aren't all music production courses the same?

Don't worry. I've found one. ChordPic.com Or Chord Library (android app)

Does anyone know of a guitar chord writing software where you can paint in the dots? I've got Scaler 2, but it limits you to the 'known' chords in it's database. I'm interested in writing down 'uncommon' chords which may not be in most databases. I've also tried some of the free software that comes up on Google, but none of them seem to do what I want (or perhaps I'm just not aware that they can). At the moment, I write my chores on paper (so archaic), but I'd quite like to be able to organise them into sheet music with lyrics. Any help is greatly appreciated. Cheers

Check out Pika.art You'll need to apply to sign up. You could also try genmo.ai You can mess around with them for free making 5 second videos, but if you want to make anything longer, you'll have to pay. In my experience Genmo gives some really f##ked up results - stuff of fever dreams - Pika is more 'uncanny valley'.

Little heads up. If you already own any of the libraries in the bundle, you'll see a different price. For example, I own Intimate Strings, so I get a price of 79.20 for the Pop Bundle.

I hear FTX are having a yard sale.

I'm gonna push back against some of what you said here. Sure, back in the day the Top Ten was always jam packed with candy floss toss, but that was music for the general public. I remember my step father used to DJ on river boat parties, and he'd buy the top-ten singles every week, because he knew they were the ones most people would ask for. He had crates full of top ten singles from the previous years, and I would sometimes go through them hoping to find a gem. As you can imagine, most of it was trash. Anyone remember Tarzan Boy? Crazy Frog? Those were the songs people wanted to listen to. That was for the masses. But we are not talking about that here, right? We are talking about high musicianship and connoisseurship. There used to be places for people like that . In the UK, there were late night DJs like John Peel who would introduce niche audiences to niche music. My friends and I would tape his shows because you were guaranteed to discover a gem each time (on a side note, I was luck enough to have my single be played by him shortly before his passing). Then there was the indie scene. I grew up buying bootlegs and test pressings from small indie record shops. They were places to hang out, meet like minded people, even meet the bands sometimes. That was a far cry from big labels. Sure you had to make the effort to go to the shop....but you were likely to get recommended something great by the guy behind the counter, and that personal touch meant a whole lot more than the 'other buyers also liked' suggestion at the bottom of your Amazon order or YouTube page. They were places of community. Also, how did a teenager living in the suburbs of the UK get to know about American indie music? DIY Skateboard videos is where. Before the internet, we used to circulate low quality skateboard videos. That was where I discovered Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jnr, Black Flag, Husker Du etc. Sure there was MTV, but most kids I knew didn't have MTV or cable or satellite. Later on, in my 20s, it was boutique labels that introduced me to the best music. If you liked Bjork, you'd check out the rest of One Little Indian's roster. If you were into Badly Drawn Boy, you'd check out the other artists on Twisted Nerve. The labels were a form of curation, just as great DJs were curators. Not everyone was in the pockets of big labels, and not every label was out to shaft the little guys. Many of them where like small families. However, that all seems to have gone now. Sure, there are still labels (online and offline) but they are trying to stay afloat in an ocean of trash. Sure there are playlist curators....but.....comon.....seriously? It's not that the Brave New World of the internet self distribution doesn't have its pros (I can now write a song, record it in a day, and have it up on-line in 24 hours - whoopy), it's that any level of real curation has fallen to the wayside. The so-called gate-keepers were there to slow down the onslaught of sludge. I'll explain a bit more clearly from my own personal experience. A few years ago I decided to explore the world of internet radio. There are lots and lots of legitimate radio stations on-line which will accept open submission from unknows, unsigned artists. I started pushing my stuff wondering if this might lead somewhere. As I'm sure you all know, if you have an account with Spotify or Bandcamp etc, you can see your stats on a daily basis, you can monitor the progress. You can see when, where, even who, listens to your music. (I don't think this is always a healthy thing). Well over the course of two years having my music playing on loads of radio stations (sometimes on a daily basis), being nominated for an award, being put into dozens and dozens of playlists, the impact on my stats was....nothing. Most playlists are never listened to by anyone other than the artists on them (just sign up to one of the many playlists on X/Twitter and you'll receive your set of instructions to stream the entire playlist daily to 'improve' each others stats). Those radio stations (I suspect) are not listened to by anyone other than the artists on them either. It started to feel like nothing more than a vanity project. Now, take into account the millions and millions of songs being self released every day; where is the audience for them? That is, in my opinion, the problem with the internet model. The sheer volume and the lack of curation. @Starship Krupa what I'm specifically kicking back against is when you said 'it's the lack of effort' that people put into finding new music. I disagree. Suggesting that the listener isn't trying hard enough to find new music when they have to wade through a sea of millions and millions of mediocre (or worse) self-published stuff is disregarding just how frustrating it has become. And let's also be clear. We don't just search out music that sounds good. We want a story. We want a package. We want a brand. That's why the people who are good at self promotion are the top feeders. But being internet savvy and good at promotion doesn't necessarily make someone a great writer of player. Let's be honest, to get to the level of Lenny Breau you'd have to be playing for hours each day...not servicing your online accounts and pushing content. But that's what it has become. When I was talking with a mentor he told me a thing that I recognize to be sadly true. 'It's not about the music anymore. The music is just a freebie'. No-one want to pay for music anymore. So musicians are now having to use the music as ways into selling something else. At the moment the big trends are services promising the keys to the kingdom. Promises of increasing your Spotify stats if you sign up to their course. Promises of perfect mixes if you sign up to their course. The music is just an end product, like the crappy pottery experiments that are the end result of that 2 week pottery course. The music has become devalued to such a level that it means nothing. Sure there are still great musicians out there. Sure we can go look for them. But it's like me putting you in a shipping container yard in Shanghai and telling you to find a great pair of shoes: they are in there somewhere, but how much effort are you going to put into finding them?

@John Vere did you ever do a version of Will the Circle Be Unbroken for them? I love that song. I want that played at my funeral.