MisterB

Some of their stuff is based on a good idea, but just sounds dreadful (eg Session Horns), some is just too general, or lacking detail (like their orchestral library), and their recent additions (Play Libraries) don't seem to have much in the way of direction, in spite of there being a billion of them, for each and every sub-genre of dance music. I love the sound of the Electric Mint guitar, but its rhythm presets are just way too shallow. Way too many drum libraries. Battery has the same problem - too many sounds but not enough organization. Komplete Kontrol is another kind of okay idea, but poorly implemented with a dreadful UI and to be honest, its obvious that they only came up with it to allow them to push their keyboards. I mean, we survived for many years assigning cc's to sliders and knobs on keyboards. Now we have the same knobs, but they have to be assigned in NI's own software. Kontakt 7 seems to be going in the same direction as Komplete Kontrol, and its just annoying to use for things like string libraries where you want to put together a set of channels from a single library, rather than search by preset name. There's no uniformity to their UI's, or method for preset searching. They're just in a real mess. I do use some of their libraries though - Noire is a lovely instrument, though a bit limited in its scope for use. All the pianos are decent. I use some third party libraries in Kontakt too. I kind of half read with some dismay, a thread on VI Control that implied NI were not going to allow registering of discontinued products, and that is a big problem. Honestly, they might have backtracked on that idea (I hope so!). I used to use their Rhodes and Hammond B3... until I heard the Arturia ones that just sound so much better. Arturia's synth collection has taken over from most of my NI synths too, not only because they sound better, but they're easier to find. With NI's stuff... some of it is in Kontakt, some of it is in Reaktor... then there are a handful of individual products. You have to remember where everything is. I guess Komplete Kontrol would fix that problem if the UI was better implemented. For bass, piano and drums, I make a lot of use of Toontrack products (not keen on their piano sounds, but the concept of EZ Keys is great, and EZ keys 2 which is just around the corner, looks fabulous). Superior drummer sound fantastic. EZ bass is just okay for sound, but the convenience of writing bass parts is fabulous. This said, Toontrack causes their own frustrations, so NI is not alone in that regard. I like a lot of NI's effects VST's, and I was happy to get Ozone Standard in the last update of Komplete. I had a friend who used to release fairly obscure sample libraries for Kontakt that made it into the hands of some top film composers. I know how much work they were! I once recorded some percussion instruments to create a library, but never ended up doing anything with it.

Funny, it was the Tonight Show that I figured out how damn good Ariana Grande is. She did this one... She also did this, and totally nails it.

I have Komplete 14 Standard. I become less impressed each time I give NI money TBH, and although their upgrades to Komplete have generally been worth it to get one or two new titles that interest me, I don't like the way they're going with all these play expansions, and many of their other general expansions to be messy and disorganized. I also have their Komplete Kontrol M32. It's not my main keyboard (an old Novation SLMkII), which I will replace at some point, but I doubt it will be an NI keyboard. I think they're a bit overpriced. Synth-wise I find myself choosing Arturia products over NI products almost completely, and there's actually not much of Komplete that I still use other than Kontakt with 3rd party libraries.

Wow, you're full of surprises today. I must admit, I haven't explored the site in depth. Didn't know about the blogs, or clubs... in fact, I haven't really paid attention to much beyond the forums. Time to delve in. R.

Why do you bin your songs after a month or two?

I think I could listen to Sammy Rae sing anything.

I used to play in a big band. There were probably 18-20 of us. We did a whole gig in front of an audience of 4. Fast forward, and I played in a funk band. I don't know what the gig scene is like here now, but back then it was dreadful. Bands start playing at midnight, and finish around 4am. If you're the opener, so you get to play at midnight, you often get to play in front of an empty bar. If you're doing the main set, you have tons of people there but they're all wasted. But probably the worst experience I ever had. Again, used to play in a funk band. I'm massively allergic to marijuana, and it tended to follow us around. Although illegal at the time, we played in bars where it was evident. We did one where the air was very thick with marijuana smoke. Oh man, I do not remember much about that one and had to go home after the first set. Also once did a new years gig, and we, the band got pretty wasted before we even started. By all accounts, we were terrible. It was still a good time by all... but it was the end of drinking before a gig for us.

My favourites, in no particular order... Karen Carpenter N'Dea Davenport Sammy Rae Anna Maria Jopek Shayna Steele I also think that these folks have absolutely gorgeous voices, very mainstream, but are wasted on songs that really ruin the purity of their voices - Christina Aguliera Ariana Grande Sorry... I listen to mostly female singers. I guess for male it would be Freddie Mercury, Sting, Jarvis Church (used to be Philosopher Kings lead).

MIDI pitch bend traditionally utilizes two Continuous Controllers - MSB (Most Significant Byte) and LSB (Least Significant Byte). This allows a keyboard to send pitch bend data that has 16384 steps instead of the usual 128, which would not be enough to create really smooth pitch bends over an octave. Your midi device and DAW probably automatically handles this so that you don't need to think about it, but if you find a pitch bend over one octave has noticeable notches in the pitch bend itself, this would be something to look at. The pitch bend range itself, should be part of the specs of the sound source, not necessarily the controller that's generating the pitch bend data. If you're using a soft-synth, you should be able to set the pitch bend range to something other than the default 2 semi-tones. A hardware synth should work in the same way, and that's where I'd look for the pitch bend range - in the sound source itself, not the controller. For audio, there are a couple of ways I could approach this in Cubase, and I imagine its similar in most DAW's. I could use Audio >Processes > Pitch Shift, and create a pitch envelope to sweep over an octave. This would change my audio file. Or I could drag my audio to a sampler track (this is a track type, like Audio, MIDI...), and create a pitch envelope in that. That would create something that I could trigger with a MIDI key. I imagine at least Studio One has sampler tracks, and likely the ability to create a pitch envelope. Protools probably has at least the ability to create a pitch envelope. Sorry, don't have either of these on my system (only Cubase... for life ), but I think most DAW's have similar feature sets. I know this is an old thread, but it didn't really have a definitive answer. I'm trying to give one here, so that it might help someone in the future.

Doing everything myself (writing, sequencing, mixing, mastering) means there is no objective, or isolated opinions. I'm the only person critiquing my own work, and that's hard. Who knows whether its good, okay or the worst thing people have ever (not) heard?

I should follow my own advice here, but I think keeping things in check with reference material is great. I wish I hadn't got rid of all my CD's, because the 16-20kHz would have been useful in checking references. I wonder if many people have the same problem as I have - objectivity in your own mixing. This is where a mentor is useful. I've never had one, and its the biggest issue I've ever had in music production over the many years that I've been doing it. People are often unwilling to tell you the truth too. When something is bad, it would be great if people would tell you that it is, and what you can do to fix it. Not having this certainly limits your ability to progress with confidence in your own ability.

You know something just occurred to me... I wonder if SongStuff has TOO MANY forums. It's so spread out that you don't necessarily engage in things you might. I mentioned above about wanting more on the tech side, but you know, I only ever look on the VST/VSTi forum, because that's where my brain goes when I think about these things. That forum is a ghost town. If this were lumped in with the Music Production and Recording forum for example and the VST forum didn't exist, I'd automatically go to the Music Production forum... there might be more engagement on both sides. Doesn't just apply to this, but also to all of the forums, perhaps with the exception of the critique forums, which already tend to have quite a lot of engagement, and lumping together might cause some frustration. Going to try and engage on the Music Production forum now.

I don't engage with other songwriters in the real world and this is the only songwriting forum I'm on, so I guess the answer is no, but not because I don't think it deserves to be recommended, but because I have no one to recommend it to. Something you can't really do much about - I'd like to see more engagement in the technical - MIDI and audio in particular, but of course, guitar, keyboard and other tech too. Nothing. I'm happy to see people discussing things even if I have no interest in them myself. It's great to see a community work together. I'm not really there yet, but ultimately, I think so, yes. Again, I'm not really there, at least on the lyrical side. I have enjoyed working with a few SongStuff members on songs, providing the musical and production side, and would like to work with others too. That said, my time is pretty limited and it takes me a long time to work through the production of a song. That won't change until I retire (another 10 years away!).

Its bizarre how much work it is to engage musicians and songwriters. There aren't THAT MANY forums out there, and yet they all seem deserted. At the same time, I can kind of see why. Artists tend to be quite insular, particularly if they are looking to be individual. Many are introverted, and self-deprecating, but at the same time, self-centred. My, what a combination. It's no wonder that the boards are dead. I've had difficulties engaging on SongStuff. I mean I have co-written six songs with three SongStuff members over the last six months, and I'm currently working on two more, but my forum contributions have been pretty lacking, I'll admit. I've been criticized for not contributing enough to the forums (bizarrely, on a thread that mostly consisted of a back and forth between me and the OP on music theory). I won't lie. That really put me off SongStuff. Made me pretty annoyed at the time too. I came here to help me learn more about writing lyrics. I've been a musician for a long time, but I don't have the ability to critique lyrics for example, and my own niche interests in musical genres leaves me with very little musical knowledge in other genres. We all have our personalities, our own stuff to deal with, our own knowledge and ability to help others, and our own limitations on time that we can use to contribute to the community. You get out what you put in, no question, but for many, you just can't do it all or what you wish you could. I've seen this struggle on audio and song-writing forums since the start of the century. I realize this post doesn't help the thread, but it might at least give a perspective that you might not be totally aware of.

A starting point for you might be MuseNet and Google Magenta Studio. Not sure they do exactly what you want, but I think they might be close.

It consists of... A slightly customized Staples desk A chair Dell XPS i7-12700, 32GB RAM, RTX3060 PC with Windows 11, Cubase Pro 12 A mega f***ton of software/sound libraries/VSTi's/VST's. Benq 27" monitor LG 29" ultra-wide monitor Elgato Stream Deck Cyberpower UPS Steinberg UR22C audio interface Dynaudio BM5A monitors (speakers) Two keyboards - Novation SL49 (I spilled a whole mug of very hot creamy, sugery coffee all over it in around 2011 while it was plugged in and turned on, and it still works*), NI M32 Roland FC-300 MIDI foot pedals Akai EWI 4000S (MIDI Wind Instrument) Sennheiser HD280 headphones * - not recommended as a fun thing to do. After pulling the power quicker than you can say circuit breaker, I had to literally wash and scrub the inside, including the circuit board, and then let it dry for two weeks before putting it all back together and gently turning it on.

Can FL use VST's? Have you checked out Izotope's Stutter Edit 2? Also CableGuys Shaperbox Time module would do something similar, though it would be triggered in a different way.

Probably not particularly popular in this forum, but I can't stop listening to Sammy Rae and the Friends. They have a couple of EP's out (most recently they seem to be releasing covers, which I'm not particularly a fan of). I love Sammy Rae's delivery, and lyrics, and the band is pretty darned funky. Here's an example. Lots of their stuff on YT from live shows, but this is from one of their studio EP's.

I don't have a Spotify account, so all I can hear is a brief preview, and there's no variation in the arrangement in that preview. So its hard to give any kind of objective response. Would you be willing to upload the track to the forum? If you're looking for a more objective review, it might be worth adding some information that gives some background on what you're thinking to give some context. "Classical" is a pretty broad term.

What is so special about the effects? The product page for the SP-404 (original) doesn't even mention them other than in number (as in 29 effects), suggesting to me that there's probably nothing particularly special about them. Just wondering if maybe something else would fit your needs. There's lots out there to fit all budgets.

mix up = eclectic. Nothing wrong with it. Enjoy the process.

I produce all my own stuff. I don't have an outlet for it, and do it all for me. It's the way I unwind. So, if the results aren't commercial, and they're not to anyone elses taste, it doesn't matter. It served its purpose by allowing me to take control of the entire creative process. Doesn't matter how long it takes either. If I worked out how much I spend on my studio, and how many songs I produce in there, it works out very expensive. I could hire session musicians, and commercial studio time. But that's not the point by any means.

btw - had a listen to the start of your June album. Bit short on ear time this morning, but will listen through the rest and some of your other stuff tonight. Like what I've heard so far. Great production too.

Nothing wrong with collaborating. It's not cheating. There aren't too many big names working entirely on their own. I use helpers like EZ Bass, EZ drummer and EZ keys because I don't play any of these instruments well (and bass and drums, I don't play at all). I used to think this was cheating, but now I see it as simply hiring a session player. I use my own chord progressions, melody line and put it all together in my own arrangement. So even if I've used someone elses playing, its still my song. Most recently, I've picked up Synthesizer V which provides my vocals. It's completely changed my ability to work on vocal songs (because I also don't sing). I write by looking for a seed, then seeing where it goes. I hardly ever start out with a specific course or concept, though I do tend to stick to fairly conventional forms, at least in vocal music. When I'm not inspired, I use my studio time (grand term: it's a tiny room with my computer in it) to practice techniques - I do everything in the box, so trying to get realistic sounding things, IMO requires technique in the same way as practicing a musical instrument does. When I am inspired, it typically just flows, and I go with it. I get to 80% very quickly. Then the last 20% of production takes forever. I constantly doubt my abilities, and constantly doubt whether what I have come up with is worth anyone's listen. But I do it for myself, so if I can come back days later and think its okay, I've achieved what I set out to do. I'm currently very deficient at writing lyrics. It's why I joined this forum, and I'm really hoping to make big improvements in that area over the next year or so. I'm a constant creative - I worked full time in music for 17 years, and had photography as a hobby. Now I'm a full time photographer and music production is my hobby. Neither comes easy to me, but I am committed to both, and both make my brain happy.

There is a world-wide movement called The RPM Challenge. I think its expanded recently to something similar where you can write an album a month, but was traditionally write an album in the month of February. I did it once, after they changed the rules and allowed users to write EP's (I did a five track 20minute EP). That was enough for me in a month. When I listen back to my EP, it's kind of garbage. LOL. Generally speaking, I do have problems finishing stuff, but I think I'd rather things take what they take. I do admire people who can come up with a significant amount of content though.