Anybody out there?

[Mattias Westlund]

Things are getting a bit... crickety. After ousting our dear lunatic Jerry I'm not seeing a whole lot of activity here. I will be removing the WP-based mattiaswestlund.net blog soon (I haven't posted anything there since July 2020) and I have to ask: has Scoring Central run its course as well?

I'm not into the VO thing anymore, so I don't contribute with much. At the same time, it's not a problem keeping this place around, if you want it.

On a related note, my VO articles will go offline when the blog thing does. If there is interest, I might make some pdf version of them for posterity.

[Paul Battersby]

I guess when this site started, there was a lot of recent activity surrounding sample library development. That doesn't seem to be the case anymore. I'd like to see more activity here but I don't have much to add these days myself.

(02-12-2022, 03:37 AM)Mattias Westlund Wrote: After ousting our dear lunatic Jerry

Did I miss something? I don't remember a Jerry. Was he something beyond the usual spammer?

[Terry93D]

(02-12-2022, 03:37 AM)Mattias Westlund Wrote: Things are getting a bit... crickety. After ousting our dear lunatic Jerry I'm not seeing a whole lot of activity here. I will be removing the WP-based mattiaswestlund.net blog soon (I haven't posted anything there since July 2020) and I have to ask: has Scoring Central run its course as well?

I'm not into the VO thing anymore, so I don't contribute with much. At the same time, it's not a problem keeping this place around, if you want it.

On a related note, my VO articles will go offline when the blog thing does. If there is interest, I might make some pdf version of them for posterity.

I take the "dear lunatic Jerry" was Jerry Gerber?

Going to be sad to see the site go - definitely would be interested in a .pdf version.  

As for the forum... not sure if I can judge, but... the most active threads lately have been those talking about sci-fi and tv (and your writing, of course!). And the nr of members regularly active (for a given value of regularly active) could probably be counted on one hand. Maybe it has run its course.

[Nayrb]

Sorry to hear about the website. I would definitely like PDFs of your articles, though. They are pretty important, I think.

I'd like to see the forum stay alive, honestly. It's an invaluable resource for me, and even just backtracking to old conversations is helpful. I have no problem with there being other topics of conversation on here that are not VO-specific, because conversations tend to be that way: they meander and come around to shared points of interests anyway. I also plan on getting pretty seriously back into making music once I finish this protracted thesis (home-stretch!), and I was planning on posting a lot about it for feedback and such. I don't see why it couldn't come back to life at any time. I also like hearing about the other music projects, like retro machines and stuff.

So I vote to keep the forum around, and will even make an effort to be more active once I'm able to drop something out of the juggling routine that is my current existence

[peastman]

I found your articles very helpful. I would be sorry to see them disappear from the internet.

[PPH]

I check this site out quite often, but as you say, in general there's not a lot to see. What happened to Jerry?

[Mattias Westlund]

(02-14-2022, 12:00 PM)PPH Wrote: What happened to Jerry?

I took issue with his attitude and him using the forum as a platform for self-promotion.

[Samulis]

(02-14-2022, 12:48 PM)Mattias Westlund Wrote:

(02-14-2022, 12:00 PM)PPH Wrote: What happened to Jerry?

I took issue with his attitude and him using the forum as a platform for self-promotion.

I think you made the right call. Personally I did not visit much when he was around; it appeared the same was true for others. The whole "I wrote another symphony" thing really turned me off; maybe more out of jealousy or the absurd opinion I have that one should not claim to truly write for an instrument unless one has at least tried to play it. I have in recent years met so many people who claim to 'write' for every instrument under the sun when they have zero idea how they actually work or behave in real life and it continually makes me a little sick. These days I struggle to write anything more than brass quintets, and usually nothing longer than 2-3 minutes; the best I've done this past year is a book of duets to play with some friends. Going back to the basics!

Edit: To be clear here, that has nothing to do with people who write VIRTUAL music for VIRTUAL instruments. When you write for a VIRTUAL instrument, you do have to study its "idiomatic" nature, and I have all the respect in the world for Mattias, Paul, and everyone else here who has shared lovely virtual music over the years, because it is abundantly and immediately clear when listening to your music that you do take the time to find the "best" sound for each instrument. The thing I have the problem with is writing music with the intent of a live musician reading it without taking the effort to truly respect and care for their time, their unique instrument, and their craft.

I am happy to continue to stop by once a week or so and post a little. Truth be told, most of what I do these days is recording things for other people or other things which mostly aren't really appropriate to share here. Although I still write music to some extent, I have not shared most of it and won't until I have the time and resources to record it (I don't want to just share the crummy GM-soundfont MIDI mockups I use out of laziness!). Even my work in sampling has slowed significantly, although I am pleased to say that I am working on a major update for VCSL and a few commercial libraries still.

I myself think the forum should be at the very least preserved. There are many excellent posts and discussions going back years (discussions on stereo recording and positioning, our threads about old samplers, the time I tried to figure out the music system in Alpha Centauri, and of course, all of Mattias' writings). It would be a shame for them to be lost.

Maybe I will make a (single) thread/post to share some recent recording projects. I have gotten quite into videography lately, if anyone else is interested in discussing videography, photography, color grading, vintage/cheap lenses, etc. I would be very happy to discuss that. Just let me know.

[Mattias Westlund]

(02-15-2022, 04:24 AM)Samulis Wrote: I think you made the right call. Personally I did not visit much when he was around; it appeared the same was true for others. The whole "I wrote another symphony" thing really turned me off

Well, I'm all for believing in yourself and your abilities. Going around telling everyone you're an unassailable genius is something else entirely though, and something I have much harder to stomach. Besides, being openly uninterested in either giving or receiving advice goes against the very spirit of this forum. I admit I could have handled the situation more gracefully, but damn, people like that just bring out the worst in me.

(02-15-2022, 04:24 AM)Samulis Wrote: I myself think the forum should be at the very least preserved. There are many excellent posts and discussions going back years (discussions on stereo recording and positioning, our threads about old samplers, the time I tried to figure out the music system in Alpha Centauri, and of course, all of Mattias' writings). It would be a shame for them to be lost.

After I posted this thread, I realized there are several topics on here that I go back to semi-regularly, so yeah, would be a shame to lose all this stuff.

(02-15-2022, 04:24 AM)Samulis Wrote: I have gotten quite into videography lately, if anyone else is interested in discussing videography, photography, color grading, vintage/cheap lenses, etc. I would be very happy to discuss that. Just let me know.

I would definitely be interested! I have recently purchased both a camcorder and a camera plus various accessories to up my photo/video content game. I'm not very knowledgable about any of it though, so I'll take any tips I can get