starise

Sorry to hear of this Mike. Hang in there. The only hopeless is the hopeless we impose on ourselves. Maybe a great opportunity to take a much needed break?

Native instruments have a history of making fine software and have become a staple for both home musicians and for those who make music for epic movies. All it takes is one look at what they have to offer and you can see why. With the advent of a program called Kontakt which is a sample player that doesn't really record samples things took off considerably. Since the release of Kontakt their product line has moved upward and onward. Today it is difficult to find any serious studio without one of their products. The largest heavyweight in their product line presently is a product called Komplete....Now they like to start things with "K" at Native Instruments. Not sure why..a German thing maybe, the main thing is they make killer instruments designed to fit inside your DAW and can be just as comfortable on stage as in your studio. Enter Komplete 10 and Komplete 10 Ultimate. You will try hard to find a more full featured set of tools anywhere on the planet. Remember me metioning Kontakt? Kontakt is full to the brim with everything from orchestral instruments to pop,rock and techno sounds. Before I bought Komplete all I used was Kontakt and it usually filled all the gaps. You get Kontakt when you buy Komplete.130 Gb of sheer music power in the Komplete basic version. Ultimate is even more than that. No matter what kind of music you like there is sure to be a lot of usable sounds there for you. Before I tell you a few things about Komplete I need to mention a requirement of it. You will want another hard drive to stream the sounds off of. Fortunately in the ultimate version a hard drive is provided. I have three seperate hard drives on my computer right now. Word of advice- Don't use "green" drives or anything that advertises power savings. All of those drives can hamper you getting the samples off of the drive. Get a straight 7200 rpm high performance drive before you ever think about Komplete.It isn't a matter of size. Two drives work better with one working the OS and another streaming the sound files. I You have at least two drives? Ok we're ready. Komplete 10 is 13 dvds if you opted for the basic version. Set aside some time for the install, maybe have another task to do alongside this as there is no fast way to install 130 gb of data into a hard drive. The first disk has the installer on it and if you already have NI's factory update program on your hard drive from prior installations then it will recognize you and registration will be straightforward.If you don't have that program, no real problem either as it will install it for you. From then on it will offer updates when they become available. Here are some of few programs you get in Komplete 10- Reaktor- It doesn't seem like much if you say it fast. What is Reaktor? Reaktor itself houses at least a half dozen synths ready to play complete with arpeggiators and effects. It's probably more than that, and they all sound good. In addition Reactor is programmable and is known for having a robust following of third party content creators on the web.You can program it yourself or look to see what others have done. Not necessarily intuitive, but once you get onto it you won't believe what you can do! Guitar Rig Pro 5- A big contender and a top one in guitar software. With GR5 you can plug your guitar into your audio interface and have that Fender or Marshall sound you always wanted. Deep and extensive don't begin to tell you all it is capable of. Chances are, if you can imagine a guitar tone of any kind..its in there Not just amps but tons of effects. Presets to play just about any guitar sound made in the last 40 years. Scarbee Bass- If you need a really good bass in your mix this is it. Various synths to fill any techo, electronic or soundscape desire- Monark,Rounds,Kontour, Ansynth and more lots more! Pianos- Tons of them. Kontakt has a slew of them already but Komplete has even more and they all sound good. Of special mention is the "Giant" piano. A nice peasant full sounding piano that sits well in mixes and had presets for the more adventurous. Yamaha,Bosendorfers, Steinways, Uprights. If you play piano you get a lot of bang for your buck. And each can be adjusted to your liking. Electric piano -The FM synth has all of the tine bases covered in addition to others. Organs? Want that B-3 sound with lots of presets? There are some sweet organs in Komplete! Battery and DRUMLAB are a few of the drum players in Komplete 10. In Battery Pads can be drug to selected pads and played to midi rhythms in any way you want.Same with DRUMLAB. Studio Drummer- A full featured and great sounding drum program competeing with the likes of Addctive Drums 2 and BFD 3. It has tended to me one of my go to drum programs many times because of the included loops and the sounds. Orchestral Music?- It's covered well in Kontakt. Its more than the sounds. Loops,patterns and presets abound in all of the different programs. The only limitaion really is getting your head around all of it. Kind of like eating an elephant, One bite at a time. It's really not that bad, especially if you happen to take well to things technical. You don't need to learn all of it in a day. Collectively speaking you get a LOT in Komplete. If you had to buy all of it seperately it would cost far more than the sum of its parts. If you already own an NI product you can get some kind of a discount to buy Komplete. Once you get into their system and own a product future buying is less painful. Cheer! Tim

That's ok Tunesmith...when have you ever read any thread and had everyone agree on everything? Me neither I think middle of the road is a safe place to be. I think at my place in life now I like some kind of a substance to things...to me this adds a value. We live in a time when nothing means anything to anyone, or everything can mean anything..so when something means something I like it, even if I'm not in agreement with it. Even if I don't pick up on it in the first listen.I see a depth...know what I mean? I'm not against hidden meanings. We have had them for centuries in many things. In covering this subject matter I think we have a scope of opinion that is a reflection of how society generally handles everything....one person states something, another person states an alternate or different view...the democratic process most of us live with accepts all views as equal and maybe they are or maybe they aren't...yet in order to make everything sit well with everyone we accept that all views are equal even if one view can be proven to be wrong or is not accurate. When talking about art there is always room for flexibility and it comes down to what the artist wants and that might be entirely different than the public perception of it...although this is another condition of society...the herd mentality usually follows that we don't go too deep in anything because the deeper you go the more room there is for disagreement, but at what cost..reality? The elephant in the room sometimes is that we are all less because we all all inclusive to a fault. So if I were to take my instructions from this thread to write a song I would try to write something superficial in order to be digestable to the most people commercially.Or maybe try to cram a meaning into a few quick phrases....I think we are mostly talking about pop music here because it is usually upbeat and has a hook of some kind...to me the commercial value is secondary to the substance of it. I'm no expert in songwriting, I don't know every trick.I like to try. I like to be moved and to understand what I'm listening to if at all possible but that's me...

Zed.LOL!! That's one way to get an audience. Here is the video I mentioned in case you never seen it. Who would have thought.

Larry I can really relate to your OP. I approach song construction the same way as you most of the time. I usually develop the mechanics of the song first from something I am feeling. The tough part is to convey that feeling into words. Sometimes it comes easy..other times it can be tough. I'm working on one now that I have all the underpinnings for and I can hear a vocal but in my mind it hasn't formed into anything verbal yet ..lol. All I need are words and I can develop it into something but the words haven't came yet. I know I want to write something about interconnectedness, maybe using string or web as some kind of a description...but things peter out after that If I were to draw the conclusion that there are others like me , then I can understand why we have so many songs where the writer might have settled for second best because a wonderful lyric couldn't be found and since this is *ahem* art...we can get away with it and not too many people even seem to care. Just like you I grew up full of hormones and pumped on caffeine most of the time ( ok maybe that wasn't you )...so I took songs in big gulps. If it were a book I would be speed reading it. I liked more of the vibe...the jist of the whole thing without really knowing anything about the song meaning and I must not have cared because i never went to a lot of trouble to find out back then. Heck for all I cared the lyrics could be part of the instrumentation and sometimes they had that effect. Then as I got older. I started to listen to music for an actual reason. It became more than something going on in the background as a kind of distant entertainment. If I read you right S , you have taken a similar route. You started to appreciate lyrics more later on. I appreciate the artist more if I discover a meaningful lyric in their music. It takes the music to a deeper level for me. I like to feel what they are feeling but also know why they are feeling it. I'm no longer as satisfied with something I can't readily comprehend,feel or relate to. .I might try to listen several times to get the meaning...but sometimes it 's impossible to get a meaning and it's obvious that you can't get a meaning from it unless you consult the artist and ask them and sometimes they don't know.Sometimes the music is powerful enough for me to be only mildly concerned with lyric, but I still wonder what it all means. To me a song doesn't need to be overly complicated to accomplish its mission.Remember some of those lyrics in some Kansas songs? I don't think many would get to the bottom of some of those in one listen. To me, making such long drawn out lyrics can take away , rather than add to it. Some great thoughts there Tunesmith! If you are solely looking at monetary considerations when referring to Sting, then maybe taking that direction or non direction is a good thing. I don't know all of those lyrics to this day , the part that comes across is the part about watching and yes, us men, we watch and make calculated decisions based on what we see and hear...so that part of the song resonates with me even though I don't know the rest of it....although I always thought it was odd that watching was emphasized so much in that song. I think I had a small hunch but never really knew. What I hear you saying is that commercial success isn't dependent on clearly understood meaningful lyrics.From that perspective I totally agree. Commercial success back when Sting was hot was arguably more dependent on record companies than it is now. Has todays listener/buyer changed any since then? Buying habits maybe...listeners, probably not. Some people don't really want to listen or reflect. They are looking for an escape from that . Life can seem easier when you don't know the details sometimes. I think we all need to detach at times and just enjoy something without thinking about it. OTOH taking in meaning and depth can make us stronger...and maybe we can do both. I like to think that there are more people out there who really appreciate a song with some kind of depth to it and not just song writers. I think it's possible to do both. Write a good song with a meaningful lyric...doesn't need to be a deep soul searcher kind of thing...just have some kind of meaning and direction to mean more to me personally and I haven't always been that way.

I was recently discussing this topic with another musician and I think we were saying some of the same things basically but might have had slightly different views. Communication might have been an issue as well. I hear a lot of music with lyrics that I have no idea what they mean. Sometimes an artist has an intended meaning and at other times the artist has a very generic approach to it. My method is either an overt meaning or a partially hidden meaning. Sometimes hidden meanings can be dual meanings depending. Sometimes when I write the latter I get requests from listeners to explain what I intended to say in the song. Since a lyric can help to move a person emotionally, the way a lyric is taken can have an impact either way as I see it. I have never set out to write anything with an extremely difficult understanding but that's me. I tend to be very analytical in my approach and my brain tries very hard to make some kind of a connection pretty soon into a song. Some songs seem to be a way the writer is grappling with an issue but hasn't resolved the issue and so the song kind of lets you hanging ,because the writer is still hanging...I have heard several songs like that lately. Some of those songs leave me with an unfinished feeling even though the music itself is wonderful. Sometimes the answers in songs don't work in the real world...at least not for me. Some writers seem to think that if they are too overt in their approach it might sound like they are "preaching" some kind of a message that others might not welcome. I can certainly see where this could happen although in my case I feel my songs simply make a statement of a percieved reality that might invite further introspection, alternate thought or neither depending on the listener. For instance, my song" Wise Man From Wongo" could be taken to mean that someone visited a guru on a mountain and recieved some kind of insight from him that helped. The deeper meaning is that to recieve wisdom is to pursue the wise. The wise could be anyone...but I chose to use a guru type of figure to represent wisdom even though I don't consider gurus to always be wise...the picture of an older man is very representative of wisdom as older people usually are more wise( not always). Sometimes my meanings are very vague....so I think I might be a lot like those who write mysterious songs. I write mysterious sometimes but I intend the listener to get a meaning from it. Usually though in the music I hear...there is some kind of a purpose, but not always. Music can move with no lyrics at all..good music is moving no matter what. If you include a lyric, how do you decide what to write? Do you intentioanlly set out to be mysterious? Why? Sometimes when I listen to music it seems like a snapshot of an artist...of where they are emotionally, mentally, etc. A point in time where they are sad or confused or happy,or telling a story...but I can usually tell what these songs are. Other times the artists seems to me to be insulated from or detached from the music. The music seems less about personal expression and more about an aim to do something that sits well with a majority of people. I like to read the artist when I hear the music see a glimpse into who they are or what they are conveying from their viewpoint. What are your thoughts? Does a selection of lyric determine the value of the music? For instance a TV commercial...does the use of music for commercial reasons cheapen the medium in your opinion? Is music written for or about...say God make it more valuable? Music about sex? Music about love? Music about everyday activity can tell a story but it takes away any important story elements IMO. Unless people find it interesting and can somehow relate to it. The power to make it important or unimportant seems to be in our hands.

A funny kitty video might be a great place to place a song...or maybe not.....whats that popular song recently that went viral? Called " Whats the Fox Say" or something like that. How about, " Whats The Cat Say"?......second thought...scratch that

Very nice Emily! I like live videos! I seem to have missed the small person singing in the background though

Hey Randy...that D.O.G. song..I don't know how I missed it man. I loved it! My comments about competition were more directed at the whole music biz thing...I wasn't even tying it into the thing you won here. From what I gather the competition here was more of a light hearted fun kind of thing....no D.O.G.S eating D.O.G.S LOL!! I was thinking more of the artist on the road at the mercy of a manager and record company....not sure how creative that tends to be..know what I mean? Great conversation...in the same or a similar boat...I totally agree.

I didn't know you won a contest. Congratulations!! I guess I should keep up with more of these things. Which song was it?...I'll check it out. I never want to discourage someone with a plan. Honestly dude, if someone came to me today and said..."hey we want to sponsor you and pay for your tour"..I'd be like...I really need to think about this. I like where I live. I don't want to be on the road for a year. I don't want a manager to call the shots on my life. I would probably bow out I have everything I need and then some....doesn't take much to please me. My concept of wealth is kind of like this- I might own an apple tree and I can see 1000 apples on it but how many can I eat at one time and how many do I really need? I make music for personal satisfaction mainly, so I'm not beating paths to record companies doors. To me a simple life is a better life. I'm not saying I have all the answers and I am not trying to put my life into someone elses vision....I wish you the very best on making the album and on continued success. I don't think it's for me really. If you believe in yourself you're most of the way there I personally don't like competing.Competition distracts creativity. I want to be good at whatever I do, but I don't want to measure that according to what someone else is doing,and to me the music biz is all about competition. We all do what we do for different reasons. Mine are probably different than many. To be in the company of others who do something similar to me is a good feeling and probably why I'm here a lot. I can certainly relate to doing something without realizing the implications. I bought a fixer upper house about 10 years ago because I had a good" feeling" about the place....two remodeled bathrooms, a remodeled kitchen, a remodeled living room/dining room with a whole wall book case/TV build in , bedroom remodels, a totally redone exterior..including a wrap around porch..most recently replacing a garage door (not done yet) ...new heating/AC. New electrical service upgrade...I'm getting tired I did 95% of it all on my own....if I had it to do again I think I would have walked the other way LOL!! I do have one of the nicest places in my neighborhood though! All of that time I could have been working on music and been satisfied with a basic house. I'm to the point now where I don't want to do any more but Ive poured the foundation for a rear addition...so I'm not out of the woods for some time yet. And you know what...none of it really matters.Nada...it's something to sit and look at.And what does any accomplishment really mean? The satisfaction that you can say you did it? That feels good for a little while but then what?....see I'm pessimistic

Just 1L To answer your question about why I use a paid version of Soundcloud...I guess my aspirations were much bigger than my actual production has been up to this point I pulled about 15 of my songs off of soundcloud and I'm thinking about pulling more because i am trying to get a certain level of song up there. I haven't accomplished that yet but I'm trying. IMO I have a few stinkers still posted...maybe some think they all are I am trying to get quality to win over quantity. I have no pie in the sky dreams at this point.If a song becomes popular great, but that's not why I'm in it. I am being realistic. I enjoy playing and I can post music so why not Realistically spending money on SC is probably a waste. I do value the people who I have met through soundcloud. You get to see more stats with the paid version. I'm not really using it right now. Sometimes I might look at it and see who really was interested in my music, but really the stats don't tell you a whole lot about why someone might have listened to a tune. I'm no where near making an album yet...one can dream I suppose The small time people who are making money in music seem to be doing radio voice overs and selling to music catalogs...joining Taxi...that sort of thing, or they are in a local or semi-local band who has an income stream. In order to make money at music streaming most need to identify with a large audience...but not only that...they need to have an audience with money who spend it on music. It's one thing to get 10,000 plays on Soundcloud, quite another to translate that into cold hard cash.What's 10,000 plays at .007 a play? It seems to me that it either takes a good working team who compliment one another, like a talented individual and a cut throat business man who does whatever is necessary. or a very rare type "A" personality who is also creative and talented to make ends meet in music. Most creative types are not business savy. Certainly knowing the right people goes a long long way towards making it. Big stars have the wind at their backs....huge social networking and TV budgets and teams of people to help make it happen and theres always something in it for them...I'll call it induced popularity. Being on top means staying on top. There's always another vocalist, guitarist, whatever out there who would stop at nothing to take your place. You will get old and if your popularity rests on your image then you either need to continually reinvent yourself or get out of the game and let someone younger take the slots. I admit being slightly pessimistic about all of it. I know people are making money. I really hope some can pull it off. I wish you the best!! Be optimistic but also be realistic.There are thousands of talented people and it's more about the push and the way you push than the talent. I recently spoke with a man who has invested thousands of dollars in himself and in his music. In my opinion he is talented but nothing extrordinary.He is quite popular on social networks, but he admits to spending far more money than he has ever made on any of it. He has the money to spend and pay studio musicians...and he spends it. Maybe one day it will all pay off. But so far...after a lot of money spent it hasn't. Maybe my views are skewed..if they are someone please correct me...but this is how it looks to me.

My only reality on it right now is that I pay Soundcloud to post my music....not the other way around...so who's making the money? I would be interested to hear what is happening with mid level musicians using Amazon and iTunes to sell their music. I know of a guitar player who is one of the best anywhere in classic rock and he has an album on CD Baby. His Soundcloud is not doing well at all which goes to show you that ability isn't necessarily reflected there. I wouldn't quit my day job. Honestly some might do better with voice overs and radio work than CD sells. Some are doing it successfully because they have an interesting niche. I have recently been dealing with some labels on another front ( not my music) and it is as much about the push behind you as it is the music itself....it really helps to have a marketing engine behind you. I'm going to go a step further and say I think it is probably more important than the music....just look at some of the talent on the radio now.

One thing I'm finding is that I can't change 95% of those things...I only seem to find the wisdom to know the difference after a lot of trial and error. Is the humility to accepting those things the same thing as giving our direction away? And if so, why do we have direction at all? Sometimes I think I would have made a much better robot. The bright spot is that we still have some measure of control and maybe it's that small amount that makes all the difference.

Best wishes TapperMike in getting those "sea legs" back again. I was trying to put the most optimistic view on it possible. I make it sound much easier than it really is. I certainly don't want to leave you with the impression that I don't get the hardship involved in something like this. Getting from point A to point B can be a challenge at times. I always looked at it like an opportunity, but sometimes opportunity looks more like hardship during the transition phase....I wish you all the best. The whole mentality of employment bothers me to think about sometimes. Many employers look at their help like a means to an end and not a human being. Sounds like you have the right approach though....don't give up. If you give up you'll stop looking and if you stop looking you won't ever find anything. As I understand it here in the states a lot of computer work is sent over seas now. Is this what happened or did the product stop being successful?

I wish you the best in looking for a favorable situation.FWIW to this day I don't work a job I especially like, even though it isn't a bad job. Sometimes I think it might be a blessing to be fired, but I keep doing well at it;) One of these days maybe someone will hand me a pink slip and I'd be like..thank you Jesus! If I were in your shoes I would make a grand attempt to remake myself. A perfect opportunity with plenty of time to use that creativity to do whatever you want to do.....I have come across some of the craziest business ideas...things like dog walking services.No lie, this exists in New York and is profitable to the owner. I know of a person who takes care of fish aquariums in posh executive offices. My niece just started selling homemade bath bombs online. Whatever you start you're the CEO....you get to make the decisions.

...The result of another discussion over on another thread, I thought it might be interesting to look at the current offerings in recording software and see if there are any clear winners. Things have changed a bit over the last several years in regards to the software available. Not all of us have the means to simply buy multiple programs to try. Thankfully there are several companies that offer free demos to try. Some have decided to try cracked software which I highly advise against for not only the most obvious reasons, but also because you essentially forfeit future supports and upgrades...not to mention that sometimes a company will offer a sweet deal on an upgrade if you possess a registered copy of a lower version of the software, in fact, this has been the way I have upgraded several programs...I waited for a sale which always happens, especially around the holidays. If you happen to be shopping for a DAW or recording software you might have started to notice a trend. When one company adds a feature, the competition usually follows up with something similar, so we end up with many similar feature sets on different programs. What you discover to be best for you might not be best for someone else. How can you know what is best? This all depends on what type of music you plan to make since these programs all have strengths and weaknesses. For the longest time all you would hear was pro toosl, pro tools, pro tools....all of the big players had it and used it. Then Avid almost went bankrupt and are still trying to catch up. People who don't understand the technology might think that when Avid/M-audio announced 64 bit software it was some kind of milestone. Many of the big players had already adopted it years ago...64 bit was simply a sales pitch. Pro Tools has mainly one thing going for it right now. Name recognition, and this is slowly going away as users start to see the offerings of other companies.Many smaller studios have abandoned Pro Tools altogether. Logic is another popular player with the Apple and pro recording crowd. Unlike Pro Tools Apple has a very relevant and capable program. Nothing head and shoulders above the other big players though. The main draw in Logic is that it is designed to run on Apple Computers from the ground up.Another big advantage is that it is inexpensive in the DAW world..something like 199.00...absurdly inexpensive for what you get. If you own an Apple computer you would be hard pressed to do better, and it is cross compatible with the lighter Garage Band. The disadvantage being that it only works with apple computers and you can't load a Pro Tools session into a Logic program..Apple- good system but closed system. Under Logic and Pro Tools come all of the other companies who make software for recording... Here are some questions to ask yourself- Do you want to produce or simply record? Do you plan to use a pro studio to complete a project, or do you intend to bring your music to master yourself? Software is simply a tool to accomplish an end...so why make so much of it? Mainly because decent software and the accompanying DAW can be quite an investment, so it pays to investigate the best for you. If you simply need to get a vocal and a guitar recorded, an iPad might even do just fine with a low cost software app in it or Garage band. It's when you start to look at the music as a production that things get a bit more complicated. A certain level of production is now expected or people seldom even listen to it. Within the first few seconds of a recording most listeners have already decided if they want to continue based on the quality of the recording. Comments welcome!!

Interesting. I recently set up a Facebook page for a venture I'm involved with. I remember questioning the validity buying likes...I put it in the same league as buying Soundcloud likes..... I didn't buy any likes. If they don't legitimately like my page I don't want them to click it.

I don't know how many of you have visited the music shop on Songstuff. If you're like me you go to the places you are most familiar with and seldom think about what else is on this website. So I wanted to remind you that there is a shop on the site and seeing as how this is one of the few ways that the site raises funds to pay for the site I'm giving a gentle reminder. No none has put me up to this and maybe I'm going too far, but I think that the shop is not the easiest thing to remember to look at, at least for me it isn't...yet it serves an important function. I don't think most people come here with the intent to shop, so think of it as a healthy way to support songstuff to pay their expenses so John doesn't need to keep dipping into his own pockets to keep it going, and get something in return. Now I looked over there and seen a few things I'm interested in...no it's not the thong and I doubt I'll be getting the tank tops, but I seen some helpful books and other things. I'm not rich and I won't be making a huge difference, but if we all get one or two items it would make a big difference. I don't see any paypal donation logo here and as far as I know, there is no other source of revenue other than a web link or two. So don't read this and then think, I'll need to check that out...why not go over there right now and check it out?? What are we waiting for? I appreciate all of the fine people who make songstuff happen and I hope we can help it to continue!

I think everyone needs to do what they personally feel they should do. I can certainly see why you feel the way you do. People seem to get into things for so many different reasons. I agree with you that a true musician/artist isn't so concerned about these things. The music business has always been primarily about making money. I see the relationship as a kind of reciprocal thing....."they" being the music business can give an artist a way to feed his family and provide exposure and impact that he himself is incapable of giving to himself...the old business model is becoming something of a dinosaur. The new model is more web centric and makes a lot less money. The other extreme is mostly what we now have...a huge bunch of musicians giving their music away for free and depending on other income sources. These talent shows are very popular right now...I can see why many might want to be on even if simply for name recognition. I think the carrot of success is dangled in the face of musicians who see it as a way out of a mundane existence. Success is a kind of misleading word IMHO. Success is like finding one diamond in 100 million tons of dirt...the effort required to get to it is huge, but people only see the end result., and when you have it...it might not be what you thought it was. Success or no success, life goes on ...those people still get into disagreements with their girlfriends, spend too much money and get sick...it's not like you get to instant perfection and divinity. Humanity is the same across all lines.Some of us just have more money and popularity, but when it's all over they will eventually be forgotten just like the rest of us. I say do what you feel in your soul and don't worry about the rest. Make art, live life...have fun...enjoy the ride where ever that might take you.

Sorry I wasn't much help Hobosage..... Just a FYI- I won't be posting any more links to my recording site here on songstuff. There's plenty of good info already here. I'll still be around but not as apparent

I hope you get SPAN figured out. It is a wonderful thing and I use it on fairly regular basis, not just to look at where certain frequencies are but also to see if I'm clipping. The thing about SPAN is that is can be loaded onto the master or onto any channel. Basically if Studio One doesn't see the VST it won't load it, so I would check your preferences/settings and make sure it is set to look for it.You might need to designate which folder it should look in. I would also confirm that you have the version needed to use after market VST. I have Studio One but I have never delved into that part of it. If SPAN isn't auto loading , simply drag it into your VST folder. One other thing to look at....if the version of SPAN you are loading is 64bit it won't work in a 32 bit computer, but a 32 bit should still work in a 64 bit computer.

If you can't sound decent on a cheap mic, chances are you won't sound much better on a better one. Vocalists tend to be tough on ourselves. I heard you on one recording and it was ok IMO. Nothing wrong with trying to better ourselves either. You might make good use of proximity effect...the closer you get to some mics the more detail you get in the lower voice ranges. Dynamics usually are better at this kind of thing but it can be done with a condenser mic too. Sometimes a dynamic like an SM 57/58 actually works better that a high end condenser for some vox for proximity effect. Tom -lol, I have done that (had my condenser mic backwards)..some of those mics don't make that very apparent.

David, Thanks for checking the article out !I tend to attempt to rely on the provided fill in my midi pattern library, but as you probably already know, it can be difficult to find the right fit. In those cases I have been able to use my keyboard controller to play in my own fills. I have been known to dissect midi loops and get decent results. You might be interested in this..usb, controller only. No internal sound brain. Looks as if it would need a trigger pedal to open and close the high hats. http://www.alesis.com/controlpad

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AKG 4033, stand and pop filter... Focusrite interface. Improving the audio simply involves practice and getting good takes.