What's new?

[Paul Battersby]

It's been quiet around here for a while. Just curious what everyone is doing these days? Still making music, sampling instruments, writing books, developing plugins? What's new?

[PPH]

(06-22-2021, 01:17 PM)Paul Battersby Wrote: It's been quiet around here for a while. Just curious what everyone is doing these days? Still making music, sampling instruments, writing books, developing plugins? What's new?

I have kind of "finished" a piece I've been making for months. Of course, "finished", because it's almost finished "musically", i.e. I may change some instrumentation, but structurally, I won't change anything. And now I'm trying to make it sound well (i.e. changing sampling libraries, tweaking automation, etc). I'm also working on some other pieces I have thought of lots of time ago.

Also, I got Kontakt and some new sample libraries, VSC Pro among them. I replaced the solo trumpet I was using in the track mentioned above, and the result was great. It has this wonderful vibrato that starts a little while after the samples are triggered. So yes, still making music, and trying to learn to better use the technological resources available.

[Paul Battersby]

(06-22-2021, 02:36 PM)PPH Wrote: I have kind of "finished" a piece I've been making for months. Of course, "finished", because it's almost finished "musically", i.e. I may change some instrumentation, but structurally, I won't change anything.

I'm always relieved when a piece of music reaches that stage. Where I know it's viable and I can just relax and tweak it a little. I assume this new piece of music of yours will eventually appear here?

[PPH]

(06-22-2021, 03:00 PM)Paul Battersby Wrote:

(06-22-2021, 02:36 PM)PPH Wrote: I have kind of "finished" a piece I've been making for months. Of course, "finished", because it's almost finished "musically", i.e. I may change some instrumentation, but structurally, I won't change anything.

I'm always relieved when a piece of music reaches that stage. Where I know it's viable and I can just relax and tweak it a little. I assume this new piece of music of yours will eventually appear here?

I hope so! It's quite long and gave me a lot of work, so I guess the idea is that others be able to listen to it. But there's some more work to do yet.

[Nayrb]

Well, I've just been working on my Master's in English. I moved to my university for about eight months, now I'm back living with the parents and  working in retail at a Half Price Books. Trying to find a regular-people job again while I finish this degree.

I've been learning Reaper, and I've transferred my orchestra template over to it. I've bought up a bunch of old and or cheap libraries and really added quite a bit of capability to it. I've been meaning to write some reviews and explanations of said libraries and post them here. I just haven't had a lot of time to do music. I've barely even practiced my guitar. I don't suppose that will change until the end of the year, but I do keep saying I intend to carve out some time for music whenever I can!

There were supposed to be re-releases of my old music that never materialized, and that missing third album from 2018 is still unreleased. Might try to make all that happen this summer / fall to keep myself in the spirit! I expect I'll come back to it all with a vengeance as soon as I'm able. I have plenty of ideas kicking around in my head.

[Mattias Westlund]

Well, I'm working on my writing projects mostly. I haven't made any music in months except for a couple of synthy things thrown together as background music for a Youtube video. I've also been going deeper down the retrocomputing rabbit hole with my collection growing almost monthly, so that occupies a fair bit of my time as well.

I still visit the forum every other day or so, but I don't have much to contribute right now.

[Paul Battersby]

(06-23-2021, 03:21 AM)Nayrb Wrote: Well, I've just been working on my Master's in English.

Was that affected by the pandemic or have you been able to study mostly uninterrupted?

(06-23-2021, 03:21 AM)Nayrb Wrote: I've been learning Reaper

I use Reaper as well. I like it and find it very customizable. It suits my needs well.

(06-23-2021, 03:21 AM)Nayrb Wrote: There were supposed to be re-releases of my old music that never materialized, and that missing third album from 2018 is still unreleased.

At least you have plenty of music related projects to look forward to sharing once you have the time.

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(06-23-2021, 09:25 AM)Mattias Westlund Wrote: I haven't made any music in months except for a couple of synthy things thrown together as background music for a Youtube video.

I took a quick look at that video. The background music definitely adds interest and suits the video well.

[Nayrb]

(06-23-2021, 09:25 AM)Mattias Westlund Wrote: Well, I'm working on my writing projects mostly. I haven't made any music in months except for a couple of synthy things thrown together as background music for a Youtube video. I've also been going deeper down the retrocomputing rabbit hole with my collection growing almost monthly, so that occupies a fair bit of my time as well.

I still visit the forum every other day or so, but I don't have much to contribute right now.

I watched the video (or, rather, am watching it right now). I get a kick out of those IDE ribbons. It's like PCs used to have seat belts inside them : the Soundblaster looks great too! My first music rig had an Xfi X-treme Gamer. I wish I had messed with the onboard "studio" more.

I'm also doing a little work on my PC. I took out the eight year old liquid cooler (because they are only supposed to last six years) and put in a Noctua NH-U12S air cooler. By an oversight, I ended up not having an exhaust fan, so I have one on order. I still fire it up now and then, and it seems to be running pretty quietly, though I expect cooler temps ones I get the new case fan in to improve airflow.

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(06-23-2021, 12:04 PM)Paul Battersby Wrote:

(06-23-2021, 03:21 AM)Nayrb Wrote: Well, I've just been working on my Master's in English.

Was that affected by the pandemic or have you been able to study mostly uninterrupted?

Yep! Even though I moved to campus, all my work as a tutor was done remotely, and since most of my classes were still online, I spent most of my time in my little campus apartment. Consequently, I learned that COVID made my tinnitus much worse

[Terry93D]

(06-22-2021, 01:17 PM)Paul Battersby Wrote: It's been quiet around here for a while. Just curious what everyone is doing these days? Still making music, sampling instruments, writing books, developing plugins? What's new?

Still making music! As the posts I add to my running thread would indicate. I've got a YouTube channel now and I've still got enough tracks in my backlog to upload new tracks for the next two Mondays. Besides that I've been writing (not very good) poetry and working out again. And I'm finally going to get my driver's license this fall...

[Chris Spyratos]

Nice to see a new discussion going on here! Personally, I haven't doing much productive work regarding music lately, even though I am studying some jazz guitar material as well as going through my personal notes regarding composition. Due to my day job pressure and the ongoing pandemic situation here, I tend to use music more as a hobby to relieve stress. The result being some retro/80s/synth/disco fun grooves with free VSTs, that might or might not evolve into something bigger than a single track. Working with synths is fun and easy for the most part and that project actually gave me quite a lot of understanding regarding the use of melody and rhythm.

I also had some ideas for piano and string quartet that I was working on but now I think of it more of a study of a certain style and I don't really know if I should bother realizing them with VSTs since it would demand a serious amount of programming.

I have been really enjoying learning some foreign languages with a mobile app, cut down on the use of social media and their distractions, caring for my cat and walking the family dog, contemplating the world and stuff...