Sad news about Cory Pelizzari

[Reid Rosefelt]

So incredibly sad.  Many people who have watched his videos know that he has had a long struggle with mental illness.  

He will be missed.

[Marc Cormier]

Oh my.  Totally unexpected.  He gave me so much knowledge and inspiration as I’m sure he did many others.  Such a loss.

[PavlovsCat]

Cory and I bonded at a deep level.  I'm the Peter D. he posted about on YouTube. I knew he was struggling mightily. I was trying to get a new computer shipped out to him,  a really decked-out machine. He was not doing well financially and had a lousy, underpowered computer. How unfair is it that someone so gifted as a musician and creator struggled to afford a powerful enough computer to do the music he loved and make the most honest review videos I've ever seen. 

I'm so heartbroken. I'm with my son at a football game at his college crying. My wife knows how deeply Cory and I bonded. Cory experienced horrific abuse as a kid and that doesn't just leave you as an adult. 

He was incredibly talented, honest and sweet, He used his platform to share his life to help others in many ways, including trying to de-stigmatize mental illness. 

 I often referred to Cory as the only influencer I respect. Greg Schlaepfer of Orange Tree Samples and I are good friends and we both loved, cared about and respected Cory.  

Watch his videos sharing about his mental illness. He tried to make the world a more accepting place. Let's not forget him or his message. Rest in peace,  Cory. Thank you for your friendship. I'm so, so sorry.  

Edited November 12, 2023 by PavlovsCat

[PavlovsCat]

I'd also urge people,  if Mike Greene continues to leverage Cory in his attacks on 8Dio,  please ask him to stop. Mike never once spoke with Cory,  never had a PM or email,  yet he used him in at least 2 dozen attacks on 8Dio when behind the scenes I was begging him to stop,  that it was harmful to Cory.  He didn't care. I would just hope people will politely ask Mike to stop now. It was wrong when Mike knew the real situation and Cory being hospitalized and though Cory's gone now, it's still wrong. 

[Craig Fowler]

I only found Cory's videos through this forum. I think I would have liked him. I hope he's at peace.

[InstrEd]

Makes me so sad that mental health is not taken seriously by so many people

[LAGinz]

Very sad news, indeed. Almost everyone I know has been affected in some way by some type of mental illness within their circle of family and friends. We need to do better.

[Fleer]

Sad. Very sad. 

[Simeon Amburgey]

I saw the news around 5 AM this morning and it broke my heart. As many have mentioned Cory was the YouTuber that we all were inspired to become. His no nonsense approach and ethics were the traits we respected and admired.

Putting yourself out there is exhilarating but also at times exasperating and exhausting in so many ways, especially mentally. It is so easy for us to see someone on their channel and make judgements about them, who we think they are when in reality as is all too true in this case, there is so much more going on. As in Cory’s case battles and pain occurring that the depth would break even the best of us.

Praying for his family and loved ones, as well as the broader community who are dealing with losing a friend who for the majority of us have never met but made a connection that affected us in a profound and positive way.

May we all be more compassionate and reach out to those who we feel are going through a struggle. Even the smallest word of encouragement can be such a powerful way to help someone.

Simeon

[PavlovsCat]

My wife,  daughter and I are driving home (my wife's driving) after visiting my son at college and we're listening to Cory's recent music. And I thought maybe we could use this thread to share how he affected us.  

Cory was brave. When I saw how vulnerable Cory made himself by publicly sharing his mental illness,  I was moved by his courage and also worried how vulnerable he made himself, because of how society stigmatizes mental illness. 

Cory was a disarmingly kind, sweet and open hearted man. He was extremely vulnerable. I had first  learned of Cory after becoming a fan of his videos when I saw him do what no influencer should ever do if they want to keep the freebies, sponsorships and money coming, he told the unvarnished truth. I've long been outspoken on ethics as a marketer.  And Cory was honest and really knew his stuff.  Unlike 99.99% of influencers, if Cory saw problems with a sample library, he told you exactly what it was. I really wish that was the way all influencers were,  just a talented,  honest person telling the truth, not shill pitchman posing as a "reviewer." That means turning down or missing out on making cash. That took serious integrity. I enormously admired that. This man was not a shill. Cory was the real deal, with a huge heart. 

 

Edited November 12, 2023 by PavlovsCat

[PavlovsCat]

5 hours ago, InstrEd said:

Makes me so sad that mental health is not taken seriously by so many people

Incredibly true. And in Cory's  case, he was doing the right things and seeking help and resources. I think society must do a better job in helping,  accepting and caring for those with mental illness. 

Edited November 12, 2023 by PavlovsCat

[mibby]

I had never run across his channel before and am listening to his most recent release on BandCamp now.  The songs and lyrics have a whole added weight and solemness that I didn't expect.  I notice he dedicated the song Winter to Robin Williams too... I sincerely hope he's found a place of peace.  So very sad.

https://corypelizzari.bandcamp.com/album/after-night

 

Edited November 12, 2023 by mibby

[Last Call]

Losing one of your own is so bitter. Our music community was lucky to have him.
Usually it doesn't but this time it hit me and made me cry. 

[Reid Rosefelt]

Cory was a fragile, sensitive soul.  And things came along that hurt him and made things worse.  I have no idea about what situation he's talking about, but this is worth listening to if you cared about him.

Edited November 12, 2023 by Reid Rosefelt

[Niky Serrano]

17 hours ago, PavlovsCat said:

My wife,  daughter and I are driving home (my wife's driving) after visiting my son at college and we're listening to Cory's recent music. And I thought maybe we could use this thread to share how he affected us.  

Cory was brave. When I saw how vulnerable Cory made himself by publicly sharing his mental illness,  I was moved by his courage and also worried how vulnerable he made himself, because of how society stigmatizes mental illness. 

Cory was a disarmingly kind, sweet and open hearted man. He was extremely vulnerable. I had first  learned of Cory after becoming a fan of his videos when I saw him do what no influencer should ever do if they want to keep the freebies, sponsorships and money coming, he told the unvarnished truth. I've long been outspoken on ethics as a marketer.  And Cory was honest and really knew his stuff.  Unlike 99.99% of influencers, if Cory saw problems with a sample library, he told you exactly what it was. I really wish that was the way all influencers were,  just a talented,  honest person telling the truth, not shill pitchman posing as a "reviewer." That means turning down or missing out on making cash. That took serious integrity. I enormously admired that. This man was not a shill. Cory was the real deal, with a huge heart. 

 

I love your words!

[PavlovsCat]

So with my friend Cory gone. I want to honor him and I wish this video wasn't being used as part of an attack strategy on 8Dio, especially now after Cory has taken his life. Here's the true story of what happened around 8 years ago that resulted in that video that Reid has posted to turn around a tribute to Cory into exploiting Cory for an attack on 8Dio. I'm not going to pretend I'm not sickened by his actions: 

Cory never did a video review or any review of an 8Dio library under his own name at any point. Cory did make a couple of helpful videos where he walked through some issues he had with some 8Dio libraries, but never a review, which is the subject of the video.  NEVER. Cory was an 8Dio customer who started doing some work for one of 8Dio's competitors, who was also Troels' former business partner in ToneHammer.

The reviews in question referred to in Cory's YouTube video, were made under a different person's name, But it was clearly a sock puppet account Cory made. Despite the different name, the sock puppet account used Cory's IP address, his business name and his email address featuring Cory's full name -- the same email address that he used in our correspondence. The account holder never purchased any 8Dio libraries but made three 1 star reviews of 8Dio libraries which not only trashed the libraries, but 8Dio management. The review system wasn't even a system I was familiar with like Trust Pilot, It was something out of WordPress. It had nothing to do with YouTube, it was just on 8Dio's website. Tawnia and Cory exchanged a bunch of emails about these reviews  -- this is where the two first got to know one another. At first, Cory denied that he made the reviews and said they were made by a business partner who was no longer with his organization so he couldn't change them (I actually have the correspondence). Of course, that makes no sense when it used Cory's email address. The responses really aren't logical and eventually Cory kind of admitted that he made the reviews, but he was really upset about being confronted and called out. Cory's behavior in that correspondence isn't logical or consistent and I wouldn't call him a liar, because I think his rationale was more complicated due to his mental illness. Tawnia was telling him that he could do reviews in his own name, but the sock puppet account never purchased any libraries and needed to be deleted as it violated their company policy.  As a dot com owner myself, I would have went to the company that hosted the review system and just explained it to them and sent them the correspondence. 

In the 8 years since then -- and I asked Cory about this stuff and he didn't want to get into it -- because he's embarrassed and the fact is, he's told some mistruths about it, 8Dio ended up leaving the rating platform and it became a non-issue. But this video was an issue and Cory was both uncomfortable about doing and also didn't want to take it down.  

Cory was very poor, and from our correspondence, I take it, but never directly asked, that it left him unable to hold down employment. He used a business name, but I don't think he was actually making money from it. It just appeared to be what he hoped would be a business from making YouTube videos and music shared on YouTube and BandCamp. Cory and Tawnia's correspondence has continued for years to the point where Tawnia became a confidant for Cory. I realize that Cory was very frustrated with Tawnia for repeatedly questioning him about the sock puppet  account, but their relationship was definitely not a mere business relationship, it was significantly Tawnia checking in with Cory and Cory confiding the personal details in his life. It's really surprising to me that Tawnia was telling Cory she wanted him to make walkthrough videos for 8Dio after posting that video and knowing his issues, and to me, it speaks to her compassion and empathy. 99.999% of business people in Tawnia's shoes would have given up on Cory. I'm an empath and I'd love to think that I would have reacted like Tawnia, but to be very frank, I almost certainly wouldn't have used him for anything to do with my business. Understand the journey that Tawnia and Cory went on. 
Tawnia started out just seeing fake reviews and being upset about them and wanting Cory to do the right thing and remove them. She never, at any point, had objections to a review under Cory's real account. But as she learned more and more about Cory's mental illness, she became someone who deeply cared about him and their relationship was not a business relationship. Tawnia looked out for Cory as a friend and she was working with me to help Cory for the last few weeks. Tawnia and Cory were recently working together before I got involved for Cory to make walkthrough videos as a contractor for 8Dio. When I got to know Tawnia and told her about Cory needing a more powerful PC and we came up with the idea as two friends of Cory to get him a new powerful PC -- which Tawnia was giving him as a gift. I was trying to get his shipping address. 

It wasn't in exchange for taking down that video either. Of course, you can bet that Tawnia loathes that is up there. If someone thinks that the narrative of 8Dio suing people who make negative reviews is true, please search for my numerous brutal review posts on 8Dio libraries on this forum (a did an extremely harsh review on a guitar and a Wurli library; they're still there and 8Dio is aware of them and Tawnia is a friend of mine and never even subtly hinted that she wanted me to take those reviews down or edit them; although I admit, I was super harsh and do feel a bit uncomfortable about them,. but they're still there as they were when I originally posted them) . And today when Tawnia and I were crying together on the phone, there was never a moment where she paused and said, "By the way, if you don't take down those hyper critical reviews of our libraries down, I'm going to sue you." Because it's a BS narrative Greene is pushing and Greene knew all this stuff, he knew Cory didn't want him talking about this stuff, and he knew that I was the one that Mario received advice from 13 yrs ago and Mario's story today was BS -- the developer who bought me in still had notes and screenshots that proved what I posted and Troels posted was true. And I have never had any negative conversations with Mario, but he wasn't telling the truth. He and Sarah -- who referred to Tawnia as a phony evil bitch, eventually admitted that neither of them ever met, emailed, PMed or had any interaction with Tawnia but solely based their opinion on what Greene told them. None of them ever even reached out to Cory. Not once. 

Is this story complex? Yes. If anyone has questions about it or my friend Cory. Ask me. I will tell you the truth.

Edited November 12, 2023 by PavlovsCat

[kitekrazy1]

On 11/11/2023 at 12:36 PM, PavlovsCat said:

I'd also urge people,  if Mike Greene continues to leverage Cory in his attacks on 8Dio,  please ask him to stop. Mike never once spoke with Cory,  never had a PM or email,  yet he used him in at least 2 dozen attacks on 8Dio when behind the scenes I was begging him to stop,  that it was harmful to Cory.  He didn't care. I would just hope people will politely ask Mike to stop now. It was wrong when Mike knew the real situation and Cory being hospitalized and though Cory's gone now, it's still wrong. 

Yea, let's bring more Vi-Control drama into this.  This forum is unique in this. We also abuse the Deals section as if no one was going to read this.

Edited November 12, 2023 by kitekrazy

[PavlovsCat]

21 minutes ago, kitekrazy said:

Yea, let's bring more Vi-Control drama into this.  This forum is unique in this. We also abuse the Deals section as if no one was going to read this.

I get what you're saying, but this is merely a wannabe influencer helping Mike Greene attack a competitor even after the man they exploited took his life. 8Dio's reputation has been harmed so badly that every thread that comes up about them, every social media post, every tweet, posts on another forums, someone posts that they've read terrible things about 8Dio.  And Cory was a causality of Mike Greene's war. Cory didn't want to be exploited and knew that was the only reason they were sharing this. He had actually asked me to post on VI Contrrol on his behalf. 

I was begging Greene to stop exploiting Cory that Cory was in terrible shape and that thread was making things worse. Greene mocked me for it. Greene referred to Cory as his friend in more than 2 dozen posts, made up facts about a video review that never happened, and knew it, but he kept doing it. It's not just drama. It is an unethical attack on people and exploitation of a man who was severely mentally ill. Why do you think this has been such a big deal to me. Obviously, 8Dio isn't paying me to write these posts, read the story above. I'll edit it down. It will begin to make sense to you after I edit it. 

Edited November 12, 2023 by PavlovsCat

[kitekrazy1]

Some advice was given in the forum you loathe but still have to go back for one of those Vi-Control beatdowns. That was predictable.  You feel the need to spill it over here. It got to the point a user blocked you here.  You just need to let it go and no more explaining or defending yourself.  

and Thank you Reid for posting it in the wrong part of this site.   One of these days Deals might be removed from the forum due to abuse.

Deals should be renamed to DAW users knitting circles.  I'm here to look to buy more stuff I don't need and those opinions that push me off a cliff. 

Mods need to move this one. 

 

[PavlovsCat]

1 hour ago, kitekrazy said:

Some advice was given in the forum you loathe but still have to go back for one of those Vi-Control beatdowns. That was predictable.  You feel the need to spill it over here. It got to the point a user blocked you here.  You just need to let it go and no more explaining or defending yourself.  

and Thank you Reid for posting it in the wrong part of this site.   One of these days Deals might be removed from the forum due to abuse.

Deals should be renamed to DAW users knitting circles.  I'm here to look to buy more stuff I don't need and those opinions that push me off a cliff. 

Mods need to move this one. 

 

The guy who blocked me, Technoista was the same guy who harassed Larry into leaving this forum. I can live with that. Block me if you're annoyed with me. But Reid has turned this thread memorializing Cory into exploiting him for Greene's war on Tawnia and 8Dio.  I'm not saying that Cory took his life due to Greene's exploiting him, but I know that it was troubling to him and humiliating and it sickens me to see how he was exploited. So, yeah, this thread doesn't belong in the deals posts, but this is about one man who took his life, a man I considered a friend, and people who didn't know him exploiting him. F yeah in an effort to spread lies just to attack Greene's competitor, who just happens to be dealing with an incredibly difficult circumstance in her own family this week and I'm dealing with Cory's death with her, and I'm just crushed by it. She's just crushed by it and along come these people who want to exploit all of it for their own profit or for Greene's profit. I'm not going to be silent and watch that happen. If I'm blocked I''m blocked. But I loved this man too much and I care about people and the truth to much to see this happen. It's a bit more important than deals and if it annoys you, just ignore the thread or my posts. There's no reason for Reid to put up a video that Mike Greene exploited to attack 8Dio, and I just explained the story behind the video at a level I never would have if Reid didn't try to convert this thread from a tribute to Cory to an attack on 8Dio exploiting Cory. 

Edited November 12, 2023 by PavlovsCat