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Are We Only As Good As Our Samples?


Johnbee58

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John, I respect you and everyone else on this forum. Honestly man, if you're gonna put your music up for people to critique then that's exactly what they'll do. If you just want people to listen to your stuff but not comment on it and/or not offer you any criticism other than to praise you, you wouldn't be doing yourself any favors if your goal is to improve.. And in that vein, since you've posted this thread I'm going to give you my straight up opinion and I promise brother it's from the heart.. 

Your attitude often sucks man and is a turn off.. seemingly always down on yourself that you're not getting the praise you feel you're owed for the hard work you've put into your music. But I'll tell you, all the heart and countless hours we put into our work.. truth is *no one cares* about that -- *no one*; they're subjectively listening to your music and judging it based solely on what they're hearing, void of the emotional connection you personally have to the music - and I'm the same way, because I know all that hard work, itself, doesn't qualify or guarantee anything.

And a lot of us aren't financially well off and have life issues etc.. that's neither here nor there and, frankly, I think is more of an excuse here than anything. And really, complaining about how certain people react to your music on the internet is like going into a sports bar during a game and complaining about loud dude bros.. it's par for the course. No, samples (or lack of quality samples) aren't your particular problem. If you've got Trilian, Miroslav, Arturia etc.. no. You need to focus on your songwriting -- and I'm speaking generally -- and your attitude. That's not meant to be harsh.. I'm saying you don't appear to handle criticism w/o taking it extremely personally to the point of snapping at people and  wanting to give up, and that's no good. If people would otherwise just praise you non-stop w/o ever telling you what they truly think, that's no good either. The other side of that is not everyone who would critique your music even likes or listens to that kind of music per se.. some people don't get a particular style/vibe, and still others just don't know s#!t period but will still give critique anyway because that's people and that's the internet, so some things just need to be taken for what they're worth. If you want to post your work online I think you need to learn to take all that in but filter it; don't let it poison you like this. And maybe don't take yourself so seriously. 

OK it's 11:00am and I've got to get s#!t ready for today. My family is politically divided so I'll be drinking especially heavily today.. in fact I think I'll start now

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1 hour ago, emeraldsoul said:

The title to your thread is "Are we only as good as our samples" - that's an intriguing notion and could be a very worthy discussion.

The content of your responses, however, leans towards calling people "Snobs" who have (arguably) better or more expensive sound sources than you do.

wtf?

If you just really want to pull the "snob" trigger, then that is class warfare, not a thread about sound source quality.

If you want to generally lament about your lack of dinero and the limitations it enforces upon your music, I think that's completely fine here. We all make do with what we've got - everyone makes do with what they've got. By all means, complain about your finances. People might offer suggestions. 1) credit card?  2) political affiliations? I mean, if a politician was offering "Free Kontakt for All Who Want It", or a cool free "$1,000 a month" minimum income, you might vote for them?

 

Beyond that, when people try to be helpful, maybe don't call them names like "snob"

 

Good luck in your endeavors.

-Tom

 

I only called this person a snob because they seemed to insist that I shouldn't be happy with what I'm using. And I do consider it a form of class warfare for someone to put down what I use because theirs is better (in their mind) and/or more expensive.  I don't like to be confrontational but it's like telling me I'm wrong for settling for Toontrack.  Even if I could afford "better" I'd probably prefer to continue to use Toontrack.  It's MY preference.  I don't question other people's preferences. I respect other people's choices.  What gives them the right to question mine?  EZ Keys sounds like a piano, it's in my price range and that's what I want to use.  You use what you want to use and I'll use what I want to use.  I don't say you're wrong for your preferences.  Please don't say I'm wrong for mine.  PLEASE!

JB

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18 minutes ago, Johnbee58 said:

 

I only called this person a snob because they seemed to insist that I shouldn't be happy with what I'm using. And I do consider it a form of class warfare for someone to put down what I use because theirs is better (in their mind) and/or more expensive.  I don't like to be confrontational but it's like telling me I'm wrong for settling for Toontrack.  Even if I could afford "better" I'd probably prefer to continue to use Toontrack.  It's MY preference.  I don't question other people's preferences. I respect other people's choices.  What gives them the right to question mine?  EZ Keys sounds like a piano, it's in my price range and that's what I want to use.  You use what you want to use and I'll use what I want to use.  I don't say you're wrong for your preferences.  Please don't say I'm wrong for mine.  PLEASE!

JB

I never said you were "wrong" for using EZ Toontrack, or for any other musical preferences you have selected. Did I?

Did the person you called a "snob" actually put you or your EZ Toontrack down? Were they really "questioning your preferences" ?  Or did they just offer their opinion of alternatives? Kind of like you might expect someone to do, given the title of your post?

 

I in fact notice a difference between EZ Drums and SD3, and to me it's not a small sonic difference. EZ Drums have a lot of pre-mixed effects baked in. I'm glad you are good with that, and I for one am not attacking you for being a happy camper . . .  Especially on Thanksgiving! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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As I understand it, EZ is mix-ready and slightly cut down; SD is effectively a more comprehensive raw sample set for you to mix yourself. One version isn't 'better' than another: it depends on one's mixing skills/whether the mix-ready version matches what your putting it in to.

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On 11/27/2019 at 12:41 PM, Johnbee58 said:

But instead, I'm poor so I have to settle for Toontrack EZ Drummer and EZ Keys (How terrible)!! and a handful of other CHEAP plugins and equipment.

It sounded to me like you were the one complaining about EZ Drummer, not me, what I said was:

"Why don't you just start another post saying you want to move from EZ drummer to something better and not too expensive. You might be surprised there could be something that fits in with your budget. This would at least be a positive thing to do. Or if you like EZ drummer, keep using it and ignore the haters."

I haven't heard your music and have not commented on it as far as I know. I was just reading between the lines and it seemed to me you don't like the sound of EZ Drummer but you don't want to move to a different platform that you are not familiar with. From what I remember of EZ Drummer, I didn't like it much because it was centered around Rock and the actual drum sounds I didn't like much.

I use NI Studio Drummer because I got it with Komplete Ultimate 10 and I used it a lot and became familiar with it. I am sure there is better out there. I have also used AD2 which was also good but moved away, again because of install/authorization systems that were not compatible with my computer.

Whatever you use, you are going to want better later if you continue to create music, that is what happens, the endless pursuit of "better" sounds. Sounds to me like you've reached the end with EZ Drummer, it's not in the same league as your other instruments anyway. Just take it around the back of the house and shoot it in the head.

Commit to learning something new.

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2 hours ago, Tezza said:

 

It sounded to me like you were the one complaining about EZ Drummer, not me, what I said was:

"Why don't you just start another post saying you want to move from EZ drummer to something better and not too expensive. You might be surprised there could be something that fits in with your budget. This would at least be a positive thing to do. Or if you like EZ drummer, keep using it and ignore the haters."

I haven't heard your music and have not commented on it as far as I know. I was just reading between the lines and it seemed to me you don't like the sound of EZ Drummer but you don't want to move to a different platform that you are not familiar with. From what I remember of EZ Drummer, I didn't like it much because it was centered around Rock and the actual drum sounds I didn't like much.

I use NI Studio Drummer because I got it with Komplete Ultimate 10 and I used it a lot and became familiar with it. I am sure there is better out there. I have also used AD2 which was also good but moved away, again because of install/authorization systems that were not compatible with my computer.

Whatever you use, you are going to want better later if you continue to create music, that is what happens, the endless pursuit of "better" sounds. Sounds to me like you've reached the end with EZ Drummer, it's not in the same league as your other instruments anyway. Just take it around the back of the house and shoot it in the head.

Commit to learning something new.

I'm only going to say it one more time.  I like EZ Drummer and EZ Keys.  If you can't respect that, I have nothing more to say to you.

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