TapperMike

I see a lot of luthier shops online and I have to ask myself "How do they stay in business?" I wish I had mad skills like the guys in the stewart mac videos.... and tools. Actually I'd just settle for a girlfriend/wife with the skills and have that be her hobby. I did date a woman who had a knack for refinishing and upholstery. I always tried to get her into guitar repair but she wouldn't budge.

http://pro.magix.com/en/samplitude/miditech-english.730.html Samplitude Pro X Silver - Free Download For Windows XP, Windows Vista & Windows 7 VST supported Up to 44.1kHz samplerate 8 tracks (MIDI / Audio) Unlimited objects per track 2 Submix busses 2 AUX busses Input / Output: 4/4 Intuitive interface Hybrid Audio Engine Renewed docking concept Object oriented workflow 32-Bit Floating Point engine Mixer Object editor Export: Wave, OGG, MP3 (requires WMP 10 or higher) The product is free all you have to do is register with Magix. Until recently Samplitude Pro was my daw of choice for mixdown / mastering. I'll be honest I've had some minor issues with my outdated version and was always reluctant to upgrade do to recurring bugs. I don't know if those bugs have been resolved in this build. It obviously doesn't come close to the pay version with included sounds, effects, bussing options. However if all you need is 8 tracks of midi/audio It will do the trick just fine. It comes with a limited edition of revolta (synth engine) as well as Independence Free a sample based library with advanced rompler type editing. I've had various versions of independence free in the past. While its a perfectly functional virtual instrument library on a quality par with pay libraries the included sounds I've found were limited.

The free kontakt player version will only allow the free sounds provided by NI for the free kontact player. If you wish to use third party plugins that utilize the kontakt player or the other offerrings by Native instruments you will have to purchase the pay version of the kontakt player. It's worth is really a matter of what you think it's worth. I have the free kontakt player and I was so unimpressed with the free sounds I decided not to purchase the pay version. There are plenty of both free and pay virtual instruments on the market which don't require the pay version of kontakt. If money were no object.... Heck ya! I'd buy Native Instruments Komplete with every instrument they have. And I'd have the added advantage of having the kontakt player for purchases of non Native Instruments virtual instruments that use the Kontakt engine. Naitive Instruments is the leader in virtual effects and instruments. However that is not to say other companies don't make similar products. I would caution you on collecting free (legal or illegal) and pay virtual instruments and effects. There is no end to them regardless of manufactuer. Having endless selection can seem like a great idea at the time until ....you spend all your time downloading as opposed to using the instruments/effects and even then not recording. I know of hundreds of people who do exactly that. There vst folders are so bloated it's hard for them to remember what they were looking for let alone loading it into a daw. Then they get so obsessed with trying different plugins with different settings... hours, days, weeks, months even years go by before they actually record anything.

Rob, Thank you. That song brought back memories of my long forgotten youth. Carrying on from Rob... Strange Magic - ELO http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28_unHqjVp0

Tenth Avenue Freeze Out - The Boss http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPH72_2y0Lg

So far... I am not liking Ohm. It crashed my computer three times and was unable to recognize my sound card via asio. Which is funny to me because every daw I've ever owned has had no issues with my sound card or asio4All. Two of the three times it crashed were simply downloading / running an open project offering. I finally did get the program working with my sound card by using Windows media drivers. I downloaded a different open project and.... The effects plugins they used were not on my system. Ohm studio froze those tracks so I wasn't able to rewrite or send them to my own plugins. The tracks were serverly garbled. I boosted the latency and bit rate as much as I could and I still got pops and crackles. The piece was pitch shifted because I still couldn't achieve the bit rate used on the original recording with my set up. I was about to submit a call to the support system when I noticed the online chat system they had. I watched as other users expressed similar issues. The bully brigade was in full force. Rather then trying to find out the source of the problems they pretty much kicked the newer users out. I tried to do some basic editing of the project files, but even the simplest of common features to all other daws were no where to be found. Simple things such as selecting a region of a clip / audio track by click, drag. As I've already used up two of my ten free projects without much success. I'm reluctant to open another project or start my own. Project info, which is common in most daw's is non existant in this one or I simply haven't found it. I've tried to find out if the program has such a feature. It would be nice to have something aside from tempo to go on when opening a project .... Like Key at leaset. Also it would be nice if there were some information about the author in the project info sheet. However there is none as far as I'm aware.

Actually. I've had a good run with mixcraft. However the mixcraft jammers are a limited lot. Two other guys and me. It's a bit of a production just to get a song up and running for them to jam over. And since all three of us are guitarists... It gets old quick. The concept of a collab/jam is a very exciting proposition to me. There are many pitfalls of attempting to run any true online collaboration. The first being daw of choice. Sure one could simply pull the stems into any current daw but they won't go in gracefully. The second has to do with how well the score is done. I don't have the greatest ear in the world and I hate having to transcribe a piece before I can jam to it. So I always go the extra mile and chart out anything I offer to anyone else. While it's appreciated it's rarely recipricated. Then there is this whole skillset / musical maturity thing. IRL when ever I've done a collab I could lock down players into an arrangement. Or they could find thier spot.

I have quite regularly. http://forums.acoustica.com/bbs/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=15075

It looks like an interesting concept. Kind of makes me regret my mixcraft purchase now. The thing I don't like about it so far. "All your base are now belong to us" Apparently you can't store your own work locally or work offline. Everything must be via the Ohm network. Alledgedly they will be releasing a 2.0 for personal storage.

I've had more slow pay/ no pay customers in the web design field then one can shake a stick at. I've just recently stepped down as Super Moderator @ flashkit after having been there for 14 years. Flashkit has been in the hands of many larger companies through the years. At first it was independent, then sold to internet.com. Then jupiter media then Getty and now Quinn Street / Developer.com All the admins take between 50 and 100k per domain name and usually work about 10 to 15 hours a week per domain. There was much promise that I would take on fk as the admin or one of the other domains during the internet.com and jupiter media years. Never happened. most posts were assigned to individuals with little to no previous background in either administration or in the field the site they acted as the admin over. I used to work at a restaraunt as a cook. We went through owners like water. One case was pure nepotism. The owner who had originally been a partner then siezed the biz from his other partners had actually walked into the restaraunt 2 times in 5 years. Upon taking total control he handed the General Manager position to his son. His son that had recently graduated from college with an accounting degree and had three months trainee / volenteer work at an accounting firm. Many B2B operators in the hospitality field go above and beyond to try and maintain good relations with customers. 90 days same as cash, 180 days same as cash. Not only goods providers but service providers as well. Electricians, Carpenters etc. My Employers were not hospitiality people. They didn't recognize thier own customer base. They made bad decision after bad decision which came back to bite them. Then they had a great idea. Lets make more bad decisions and file for Chapter 11. We won't have to pay back all this debt and get a fresh start. So they hired all these companies to do remodling work but they didn't fix things that could cost them the biz like... the air make up ventilation system. They bought more dry goods then they could reasonably go through from sales as well as perishibles that we couldn't move. And they applied and recieved chapter 11 status meaning they didn't have to pay for it all. Many of our suppliers simply bit the bullet and moved on. Which meant we could no longer get quality products (produce etc) from quality purveyors. Carpet installers and Electricians picked our entrance which drove off business. Of what remained they didn't look at the history of sales and the breakdown. Sure making it a big bar and less of a restaraunt did increase bar sales slightly. But it dropped food sales like a rock. Over the 20 years that the place had been a restaraunt there was a balance put in place by the customers. 50/50 Food/Liquor. As soon as that balance titled in either direction long term sales diminished. When they pushed for a larger bar and made it a more open bar food sales dropped like a rock. Bar sales actually diminished as well. So come the big weekend. Our restaraunt sat on the shore of a lake. We would get a lot of business because of that over summer. Unfortunately this happened. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_2003 When the power came back on for everyone else ours didn't. Why? Someone forgot to pay the electric bill. We tried to keep the coolers cold with ice and dry ice but still thousands of dollars of food began to spoil. Once we got the electricity on. The Gas and the Water stopped. Again someone decided they could wait a little longer to pay the bills. We had water cooled walk-in coolers. The food spoiled anyway. The owner didn't want to throw it out. Cometh the Health Department. Five days after the blackout we were still unprepared to serve the public but we did anyway. The health department shut us down for a multitude of no brainers all having to do with the owner / general managers prior decisions. They tried to make last ditch efforts to get things fixed like the climate control for the hoods but no electrician would go near the place due to prior non payment issues. They tried to rent refrigerated trucks from our food purveyors but again no one trusted the company. They didn't own the property and the lease was up. In short they were forced to shut thier doors. We had a staff of 100's I'd been working at that location for 12 years. I could never return to the payscale I was recieving there. I was unemployed for three months and the next job I got was a 50% cut in pay. Six years later new owners took posession of the location and opened a new bar / restaraunt. I'd already been working in the tech field and I'd made a decision not to go back.

The jazz legacy is filled with interpertations. If you copy things exactly as the original it was shunned. The honor was to bring your own gift to the song. Sadly the "Smooth Jazz" movement does not retain the tradition. It seems they have a goal of trying to retain all the character of the original. much like your average cover band.

While Band in a box doesn't have a Chet Atkins chord solo harmony function. It has several others. Atkins is actually quite simple compared to Lenny Breau, Ted Greene or Ed Bickert. Here's the thing. If one is unprepared to learn new things because one thinks that they know enough it's an all stop. The three chord mentality is an all stop. If you refuse to learn more because you think you can know it all do it all with three chords you have a reductionist mentality which will forever hinder you. It will stop you cold before you begin. I've dealt with that mentality in many a forum and from many a student. At which time all stopped. As a musician you need to take control over your musical destiny. You do that by learning and applying what you learn. I couldn't apply myself to play like Chet Atkins does with his alternating bass and melody on top. So I took lessons I took lessons and took lessons and followed up with slow methodical practice till I got the hang of it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18YgS67ASmI But if you decide not to learn how to play like Chet Atkins who's fault is it if you don't sound like him? Arranging for the guitar is not the same as writing a melody. If you are going to write the melody it's a good idea to be able to play the melody and figure out what chord progression you are going to use first. Most fingerstyle guitarists with lots of experience in fingerstyle guitar can write arrangements with minimal effor. If you don't have those abilities or knowledge of how it works then... well you are up a creek without a paddle. There are tools believe it or not that can harmonize a given melody if the framework for the key/chord progression is already laid down... Oddly I use these tools when I'm doing reharmonization as a foundation for my interpertations of melodies. I don't always stick to the path that's offerred I've picked up a few tricks of my own and will mix and match to suit. I've mentioned the product so many times on this forum it's a wonder I haven't been banned for spamming.

Many years back I was listening to NPR (national public radio) when a string quartet came on and played a Jimi Hendrix tune. I thought wow... that's different. Then I saw this americana band (bluegrass) live playing all these classic soul/funk songs on traditional instruments and in the bluegrass style. They were great. Today I saw this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJ3BAF_15yQ Which is a wonderful treatment of the song. What "standard" have you "heard in a new light recently?

Aint No Mountain High Enough - Marvin Gaye / Tammy Terrel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz-UvQYAmbg#aid=P8-pbgHi-YQ

Re site finding / listing. Honestly if you want to do something like this for yourself. Post a blog and updated it. That way if someone asks you can refer them to your blog post. Long before Google+ there used to be this online chat service for people who couldn't or wouldn't use a search engine. Log into the service and people would be there to help you find what you were looking for. The workers suffered all kinds of abuse from people making fun. I happen to know of a few of the perpetrators as they would post thier abusive behaviour from the chat discussions online. Google+ has all the potential for this type of abuse. I don't use google plus. I have seen how some people use reporting (false) abuse can affect an earnest person who becomes a target of stalking. Re recording. See http://youtube.com As well consult your help files and or the companies website for tutorials first. As well,,,,there's always Youtube and here's why. Every daw has it's own feature set. For me to explain how to achieve X in mixcraft that information is useless to someone who doesn't have mixcraft but a different product. It's a lot faster more accurate if someone actually just searches for a video on then tries to post something here using a daw that no one else is familar with.

This came to me via facebook. http://www.tickld.com/x/i-wish-i-worked-with-this-manhes-hilarious I used to have my own web design firm, then later a hosting company as well. I threw it all away after dealing with clients much like the client in the article. Getting work wasn't the problem. Getting paid was. If you think that this is limited to design or music, trust me it isn't. Commercial contractors (electricians, remodeling, carpet installers etc) all experience a similar fate when dealing with commerical clients. The clients refuse to pay anything up front then are slow if at all to pay afterwards. Taking a client to small claims court and winning doesn't assure that you'll be recompensed for your efforts. What are your experiences with slow / no pay types for services you have provided?

It wasn't from here I found out about the site. It's funny all the disclaimers and the half truths I found along the way. I still signed up with a false identity. The punishment is.... I'm banned if they somehow find out I'm not who I say I am. Which is fine by me. I love how one can't really read the full terms until one is signed up. Apparently they have all rights to the content displayed on their site for as long as it's on thier site. Which means if you contribute your material it automatically becomes their material both in publishing and copyright. So long as it's on thier site. Ergo if you leave or want to pull your content... well you can't. It's there as long as they host it or it's been linked to. Getty strikes again. I'm sure I've told this story before. SXC.HU used to be a stock image exchange where. Graphic artists and photographers could showcase and sell thier material. The company I work for farmed out much of our early template work to a third party which bought images from sxc.hu members. All 100% legal. The template/design company went out of business and we had have records of the reciepts showing that they paid for the image...... Here's where it gets funky. SXC was aquired by Getty. Getty changed the policy stating that all the images on sxc now belonged to Getty. Graphic Designers who used the site were furious. Unfortunately SXC made it near impossible to sue them. all your base are now belong to us. So the artists all feel ripped off and pull up stakes and lose all their works. Getty then went on a suing spree. They tried to sue the design hose that supplied us with our templates and..lost. However the Design House's reputation was buried in the process and between the legal costs as well as other matters they went bankrupt. Getty tried to sue us and lost. Our victory barely covered our court costs. Now Getty is going after our customer base and winning because it's cheaper for the customer to simply pay the money then to go to court. So as I see "FindMySong" They are simply looking for material that they can grab all rights to. Then if the "song" that someone provided as a collab shows up anywhere on the market they'll pull the same thing that Getty did. Sue the artist for using the material without rights (because the artist signs away rights when they post) Sue anyone who posts the song online or performs the song or record label/publisher who might use the song later. I am past the point where I think any of the music I produce will make me money. All the page hits and downloads won't make a dent in my bottom line. I'm not past the point where I don't like sharing what I've done. And I'm not past the point where I'm ready to surrender usage of my own material. If I want to play a song I wrote then dammit no one should be able to stop me (I've got a number of stories, thankfully not mine where the exact same thing has happend but I digress) A few weeks ago I started doing collaborations online. Someone put up the project files and I did some overdubs. (Something even ten years ago I'd demand money for upfront) It was an enjoyable experience. I then started to produce songs for collaboration. I'd write, record, mix and then release my project files so that others could "jam in" That was fun a lot of work but fun. However I noticed somethings.... Musicians and remix guys where then taking my material and showcasing it as thier own without recognizing my efforts. As I stated earlier I'm not in it for the moeny. I'm happy for anyone else in the world who wishes to make a living writing music. I do like to be recognized for my work. So I initiated a Share and Share alike policy regarding the music I release for collaborations. http://www.tappermike.com/?q=node/38 Here are the details. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en_US Well I noticed a drop off of Jammers when I initiated the CC license. Which...is fine. Maybe they didn't feel inspired, maybe they don't like acknoledging or sharing. People are more then welcome to leave the game if they can't follow the rules. of the game. Here is where things get interesting. I'm thinking of forming my own collab portal. NOT LIKE FindMySong but a place specifically for "jammers" A jammers collab forum. Something that casts a wider net then... the acousitca forums. Where, musicians, singers and engineers can share and share alike. I've got a lot of kinks to work out. but FindMySong gave me some ideas to work from and some area's I want to do the exact opposite of.

Electronic Dance Music Meanwhile I just signed up for a new collab website of which I'm starting to become suspicious. They say they are in beta form and seeking testers. They also say they are a student project but the web design looks too slick. Considering the name of the place is *spamming website*. I'm starting to wonder if there isn't some type of larger agency. They ask a lot of suspicious questions on sign up. Like your twitter account fb, soundcloud, and a lot of stuff not pertanient to what a collaboration project should be like.

I actually resent having a facebook account. Peer (Sibling) pressure is why I relented and finally got one. My Sisters constantly coerced and cagoled me into getting a facebook account so we could stay in touch more easily then phone/email etc.I get to look at what foods they are eating and they get the occasional blurb about what's new with me. I also have to oversee my companies fb account which rarely gets any visitors even the staff. Most of our users who want to discuss the product do so in our forums. Nonetheless I do Acknoledge my fellow song stuff members when they provide something of interest to me. Like Tom or Jan. Often times I'm jammed with content that I may only have a passing interest in like "Seymour Duncan pickups" as well as advertising for things I have no interest in while content provided by "friends" that does interest me seems to slip right past my fb.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVfHeWTKjag This is pretty interesting stuff.

I wish you good luck with that. I personally think that the way of technology has gone people pay too much for what they really need to accomplish things. But if you want to get recognized as a songwriter you are going to have to go out and sing for your super. Noone is going to beat a path to your doorstep. Have you ever heard of "The Brill Building" That's the way songwriters used to work. It is a huge building that used to be filled with songwriters, publishers, record labels producers and artist. That's the way things got done. Nashville has that same type of megaplex scene. If you aren't in bed with these movers and shakers your music will go about as far as your front porch. Noone is going to pull a sheet of your music from thin air and say let's try this. Noone who can do anything with your music is scouring youtube or soundcloud looking for the next big thing. You have to be the one busting down the doors. You have to be the one putting the sheet in front of them and supplying them personally face to face with the music. Taxi may give you a general road plan and evaluate your material but they won't take it farther up the road. A publisher may help to open some doors for you once you are established but they aren't going to waste their time with you if you aren't They already have more then enough talent waiting inline with a track record behind them. The last guy I've ever read about "making it in the big time music biz while working from home is....Jan Hammer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Hammer He went down a long hard road before he could simply sit at home and produce the music for miami vice. He said of the time it was the most demanding work he had ever done having to produce essentially an album every two weeks long before the advent of technology of today. Eventually he became burned out and was cut as the shows music producer. When I was out performing live, Every minute I could I was "pressing the flesh" "Hi, how are you doing? You should really come out and see us at such and such on so and so. When I was an engineer I'd always be stroking the artists ego. Because if they like you they might find more work for you in the future. Same thing with producing. I'd always have my ear to the ground and all the players would too. You will have to create a "buzz' around you. You have to be the "go to man" when someone needs what you have to offer. Because if you don't there will be a Johnny on the Spot who can provide what you could have. Luck is being at the right place at the right time. In a field like music you need all the luck you can get, regardless of your skills. Carole King was a big name singer/songwriter long before she began actually performing her own material. Same with Neil Sedaka (see brill building) CK got of to a very very young start in a time where songwriters were still separated for the most part from singers. They literally worked in cubicals where the action was, competing with other songwriters. All the ducks were lined up at the brill building. A composer / songwriter could write a score have it copyrighted get a publisher and a producer and an artist and a label all in the same place. The same place that had advertising companies.

No, not that I can recall. Most of the 70's and early 80's are a blur to me now.

Mac, You should try some collabs like I do at acoustica's forums http://forums.acoustica.com/bbs/viewforum.php?f=23&sid=3bb35d82f50c4a5064b9d7298c74ced6 One of us will do the basic chord charts and maybe more throw down a few tracks then the rest join in.

Yes, I was a session musician, and a recording engineer. I studied at the now defunct Detroit Recording Institute under the masters of Motown in the late 70's / Went on to study live performance production at Oakland University. I worked for a few local recording studios includint Tantus. I've worked with Anita Baker and "Was Not Was" to name a few. Don Was is noe the president of Blue Note Records. I've also done work as a session guitarist. Mostly for local television and radio in both the Detroit area and Fort Meyers Florida. I've been in touring fusion and rock bands. I've done Dalley in the Alley, Arts Beats and Eats, as well as the Detroit Jazz Festival. I've played with Etta James, Koko Taylor, Johnny Lee Hooker to name but a few. At one time Sonny Kendricks (brother of Eddie Kendricks ) was my drummer and I started my own studio back in the early 90's Sunk every penny I had into it not to mention more I didn't. I read all the books did all the legwork and I thought I could make it happen but it didn't. Do you know how much it costs to buy a CD burner in '90? It was about 20,000 for a professional cd recorder. It dropped to 12,000 in `92 I didn't get out clean from my company bankrupcy. It follwed me. Still not giving up on things I worked myself to death with three jobs cooking in order to rebuild my studio. I got a Roland VS1680 and started doing hiphop production for gangstra's It wasn't safe but they paid. Eventually I lost out on that and I'd regularly turn down grunge acts who wanted me to produce record them for free. Many years later I met up with a producer who did have a plan for beat poets. He wouldn't charge them for recording time and he'd pay for half the cd production costs but he controlled distribution and got a bigger cut from the CD. He had a partner who would get these artists shows at colleges. They (His partner and he) would clean up on cover charges, sound engineering charges and cd sales at the event. He too also got out of the biz. Simply because there are those who feel it's a big show and they are posing and there are those who want to take it to the next level and feel they have something to prove. The whole Tupac thing was my wake up call to get out quick. My buddy finally started to see the writing on the wall with a young son he wanted no where near that type of lifestyle. As a musician I'm probably playing the worst in my life. As a musician I'm enjoying my playing more simply returning to an amatuer state (which I have been for the better part of a decade now) I don't have to show up early, press the flesh with everyone.stay long after a gig to wait to pack it all up. Not look over my shoulder as I'm going ot the door with my equipment and cashbox, As an engineer/producer... Well look around everyone and their brother thinks because they have this tool or that tool they are equally as competent as you and they don't need you. Very very few studios still remain from my studio days. Stuff that I would get calls on from advertising companies are now sorted out via taxi The major markets are still there but they are getting smaller and harder to crack. Think about how much American Television is actually farmed out to Canada. Think about the fact that many popular American Cartoons are actually drawn by asians like The Simpsons is actually animated in Korea. While American production music in television and movies is dropping, The Korean market is expanding and it's a lot bigger then Psy or BoA. I don't live in LA, or NY or Memphis and I'm not going to move now. My glory days are behind me. I'm an old man, even getting regular work outside the industry is hard as hell for people my age. (mid 50's) My Story isn't everyone's. If you are young and have a lot of hoodzpah go out and take on the world. If nothing else you won't be living a life of regret thinking about what you could have but didn't do.

Here's a thing..... As a musician a lot of work goes into simply writing/recording. Often times after one has written and recorded the tracks one easily has a feeling the job is done and to simply slap down a simple mix and call it a day. It's often smarter even if you are very confident/competent in your own mixings skills to farm that stuff out. You won't have fresh ears coming into the last stages because you've already worked the piece to death just creating it. It was a slow death for me writing/arranging/playing all the instruments and handling the mixdown. Peer recognition wasn't enough to keep me going. Collab work has saved me. On some songs I lay down tracks for others on some songs I handle mixdown and on some songs I do the foundational work. But never all three for a song I don't ever expect to get airplay. I've been extremely productive with my collaboration work and even though none of us are even in the same state I feel a sense of comaradare and team effort. Sure not all the end products are up to my complete satisfaction but....they are done. I have no illusions or aspirations of becoming a professional singer songwriter. Been there done that. It doesn't stop me from wanting to make music