june contest ... GOSSIP

[AndreasE]

it's all too corporate if you ask me but that's what music became long before i was even born so who am i to argue with it? whinging does not change the reality.

You™ speak in mysteries.

[Lady J]

it's all too corporate if you ask me but that's what music became long before i was even born so who am i to argue with it? whinging does not change the reality.

You gotta play the game if you want to win.

Agreed and so I have done and will do again shortly.

But at least play to your strengths. I don't know. You've had some measure of success.

Yeah, a little bit

(Or so I gather from your previous posts.) I've got a few acquaintances and friends in the music industry: (musicians and label people) and they're pretty blasé about it.

Yeah it really depends on who they are and what they do.

They can walk down the street without being recognized, that's for sure. But they make a decent living doing what they love. That's all I need from a job while in my spare time I make the world a better place.

Hey that's how i'd love to live but I have to do this thing to its fullest and biggest in order to have the means to really help the world a slightly better place.

I've never considered music to be a professional path for me to follow.

It's all I've ever done. My last non industry job was about 10 years ago and it was my first job. So that explains why we see it a little different.

I wonder if the bemoaning of amateurs about the recording industry (me included) is like single people warning about the dangers of marriage.

Oh I think you're right here. I was not bemoaning the system, actually quite the opposite. Those who want to be apart of that world learn and know how to work it. Those who cant be bothered do other things. one does not negate the other by the way

[Hovmod]

Wopelka:

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[WoJ]

pff, screw wopelka! ...I wanna play!

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WoJ

[farlukar]

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Dark Trance? I like the warping done in here -- tasty use of mangling. The mix sounds kind of muddy, like maybe the woofers used to master the track are not referrencing enough lows? Just a thought because I had that problem (maybe still do )

Small speakers:

[Beardedone]

I have entertained buying BFD, but am looking at Battery also (but Cheeses that damn Battery sure is expensive )

If you can get BFD you won't regret it. I haven't used a more competently designed and executed Virtual Instrument. I have only scratched the surface with what I want to do with it and I have yet to get BFD XFL.

Cheers,
Gordon

[herodotus]

Somewhere in my silent loneliness I am just wondering why people seem to like bashing record companies and pretend to look down on being signed by a label.

I am just trying to remember how many times Fripp was hailed as the hero, or Jean Michel Jarre or maybe Pink Floyd????

Fripp was royally screwed by his old label/management company (Editions EG). They took advantage (as they always do) of the fact that he had the "I don't care about business, I am a musician" attitude that so many REAL musicians have, and took the lions share of his publishing royalties.

That is why he formed DGM.

That is also why Zappa formed Barking Pumpkin and Zeppelin formed Swan Song.

There are many other stories like this.

Also, here in America, 90% of the major label releases are crap: watered down, trite, and assembled by highly paid engineers from what little bits of music that can be coerced (using the worlds best mics and pre-amps) from the almost talentless (but very cute) people who are todays pop stars.

If you are one of them, then I am sure that todays music industry is just grand. But for some real musicians with real talent, it can seem somewhat less inviting.

[xander]

And thanks, ...xander, for the review. I'm glad you liked the mix. The harp was only there to give you false expectations, though

OK

[xander]

I have entertained buying BFD, but am looking at Battery also (but Cheeses that damn Battery sure is expensive )

If you can get BFD you won't regret it. I haven't used a more competently designed and executed Virtual Instrument. I have only scratched the surface with what I want to do with it and I have yet to get BFD XFL.

Cheers,
Gordon

What I want to find out is which one uses the most CPU. All the NI stuff I have tried so far eats CPU cycles like mad -- it's as if NI thinks everyone is running a water-cooled Cray or something.

I know the short answer is "Buy a faster CPU", but I am already running a 3.2GHz and with all the audio layering I do it still isn't really enough. I guess, in the end though, I have to make some sacrifices if I want to use a top-notch drum sampler.

But wow -- that BFD sure sounds sweet. You've done them proud on that tune.

[emdot_ambient]

Somewhere in my silent loneliness I am just wondering why people seem to like bashing record companies and pretend to look down on being signed by a label.

I don't look down on being signed by a label . . . I'm just highly suspicious of any label deal. When you look at how the vast majority of those who get signed to labels end up (broke and forgotten) you can't help but be cynical. Take a look at the numbers on how the average record deal adds up (average costs for each step of bringing a record onto the market, who gets paid what) and you'll see that the artist--the one(s) that this is all supposed to be about--always end up with the worst of the deal.

So many tales are out there about how so-and-so got screwed. There are so many ways the record companies can profit at the artist's expense . . . and above all, the fact that this is an industry owned by mega-corporations who look at it as a cash flow exercise, not an art . . . not even a business to be in because they like the product . . . and it all just adds up to a whole lot of no fun.

Still I would imagine that having a major label offer you a deal would almost be impossible to turn down. It's simply too seductive. And anything that looks that good should send up huge red flags.

Bottom line, record deals are never about putting the music first. If that's what you care about, big record deals are the kiss of death.

Ask the Cocteau Twins.

[xander]

Also, here in America, 90% of the major label releases are crap: watered down, trite, and assembled by highly paid engineers from what little bits of music that can be coerced (using the worlds best mics and pre-amps) from the almost talentless (but very cute) people who are todays pop stars.

If you are one of them, then I am sure that todays music industry is just grand. But for some real musicians with real talent, it can seem somewhat less inviting.

Every time a corporation seeks to pinpoint-market a "product" by fine-tuning and uber-packaging it's mass appeal, you get watered-down pap suitable for the lowest common denominator consumer. Many don't like this idea and feel like they're 'prostituting' their ambitions.

But music is music. It's what people enjoy. I can't put down my sister for her adoration of Britney anymore than I can put down my father for his love of Wendy Carlos & Tomita.

Ultimately, if your gig is doing top 40 pop, trance dance, lounge exotica or prog jazz, do you write it for your personal enjoyment or for a wider audience to enjoy? If you want to make a living at it, you are bound to do the latter.

Ideally, of course, we all want to hit upon something relatively original that finds a wide audience and make a comfortable living doing it, but how common is that? Some musicians are "entertainers", and some are "musicians' musicians".

I love everything Chic Corea does, but my sister says it makes her wanna puke and she can't dance to it.

[herodotus]

But music is music. It's what people enjoy. I can't put down my sister for her adoration of Britney anymore than I can put down my father for his love of Wendy Carlos & Tomita.

Ultimately, if your gig is doing top 40 pop, trance dance, lounge exotica or prog jazz, do you write it for your personal enjoyment or for a wider audience to enjoy? If you want to make a living at it, you are bound to do the latter.

Ideally, of course, we all want to hit upon something relatively original that finds a wide audience and make a comfortable living doing it, but how common is that? Some musicians are "entertainers", and some are "musicians' musicians".

I love everything Chic Corea does, but my sister says it makes her wanna puke and she can't dance to it.

I have nothing against people who like Britney and the like. Nor do I think that the culture of LCD pop is inherently evil. After all, it's not like everyone would start appreciating the subtleties of Webern if you took their Britney from them.

The problem isn't that Britney is bad. The problem is the failed business model that concentrates on LCD pop to the virtual exclusion of everything else, when there are millions who want something else but who don't register on the old, outmoded radar devices (like, e.g. Billboard charts) used by the Big 5.

And with that I will relent in hijacking this poor thread.

[You™]

Ideally, of course, we all want to hit upon something relatively original that finds a wide audience and make a comfortable living doing it, but how common is that? Some musicians are "entertainers", and some are "musicians' musicians".

I have nothing against people who like Britney and the like. Nor do I think that the culture of LCD pop is inherently evil. After all, it's not like everyone would start appreciating the subtleties of Webern if you took their Britney from them.

The problem isn't that Britney is bad. The problem is the failed business model that concentrates on LCD pop to the virtual exclusion of everything else, when there are millions who want something else but who don't register on the old, outmoded radar devices (like, e.g. Billboard charts) used by the Big 5.

Things are changing for the better. There's a great article called "The Long Tail" which I'm sure some of you all have read, but if you haven't, it's worth it. It's a stretch to call the music industry a failed business model. It's worked very well for a proud few. But I agree that the LCD appears to rapidly becoming less economical. When businessmen realize they can make more money selling a less homogenized product then there's hope that even Britney will be OK in my book. But for now, I do have something against adults who like that pap.

[herodotus]

Things are changing for the better. There's a great article called "The Long Tail" which I'm sure some of you all have read, but if you haven't, it's worth it.

Thanks for that link!!

Great stuff, that.

[Lady J]

It is not just in America that LCD is the standard. It is like that across much of the world now from Russia to Korea to Europe to Thailand....

People want something instantly recognisable.

"Knock Knock"
"who's there"
"America"

welcome to the Popcalypse