BTW, not quite my usual cup of tea, but recently I really got excited about a Punjabi rapper called 'Sidhu Moose Wala'. I learned that he had "the first Indian album to have more than 1 billion streams on Spotify" (!!!) but then getting the gist of the comments in a particularly good track of his ['Dawood'] I realized he is no longer with us, murdered on 29 May 2022 [Wikipedia]. Makes you think, doesn't it? Vanitas vanitatum, omnia vanitas. 
[quote="SamuelClouston"]
Wow - i hadn't actually thought to work out a specific amount but 25 quid from 8500 plays a month doesn't seem much. I like your attitiude though, and it should be more common, that even making a penny from doing what you love is kind of a blessing - especially when the market is more saturated than ever!
Always good to set goals. Maybe we should come back at the start of 2025 and check in?
[/quote]
Always like your positive outlook! See my other post with regard to "Musical New Years Resolutions", I have to cram in a lot of tuts but I am fairly confident that eventually I have leveled up on the skills enabling me to (pretty much) go where I want, "start of 2025" sounds great, the year itself has a pleasant ring to it, it is almost insisting that memorable works should be produced that year. Poor 2024, it only has just begun, but for me it's just a(n essential) launching platform for magical 2025. Geopolitical and Environmental situation permitting that is and of course a sustained level of solid personal health, physical and mental (and so many other things should line up it is almost daunting if not outright depressing)....
Not ready yet to actually start producing. I have bought tutorials for a lifetime but the problem is I haven't watched and played along (nearly) any. For some reason I am easily turned off when for instance I am expected to watch an instructor tweak a kick for an excruciatingly long 45 minutes etc. I am still looking for those courses that really connect with me and make following them a breeze. I am fully conscious that without studying a bunch of tuts I simply won't make any progress and I have been stuck in this yes/no/maybe mental quagmire for way too long.
For 2024 I have subscribed to both ProducerTech and Sonic Academy and my plan is to finally put in the work hoping that my tut aversion will abate and I get into some daily grind groove seeing those tuts as an essential chain of steps toward actual production. To make good on this (self)promise I intend to keep track of the stuff I actually watched, with one or two paragraphs added with my personal evaluation of each course. I'll either incorporate this in my PT profile or include a link to some online resource like Google docs assuming I won't lose my cherished (illusion of) online anonymity.
I don't think I am the only one wrestling with this reluctance or outright aversion for the hard work of tutting along, as a matter of fact (and I won't win the Mr. Geniality title for this) in most musical pieces by PT "students" on the PT site or linked from it, I can hear pretty obvious beginner's mistakes making me think these budding producers could do with a few weeks (or months!) extra of tutorials... Obviously, tutorials are not the same as talent, but they could/should provide solid skills that could compensate or mask (to some extent) a talent shortage. What's talent anyway? Most olden time success stories were one-hit-wonders.
I am not there yet, but even a pathetic monthly streaming income of say, $25 (for a period of say 18 months) would totally validate my musical endeavors in contrast with the vast army of dreamers and dabblers who make diddly squat. I love the idea of passive income and since AI is busy wiping out the industry any revenue from this sinking ship is a boon to me. That $25 pittance might fire me up to find ways to improve upon that number. I realize that even $25 streaming revenue in today's industry is not easily obtained: "Spotify pays artists between $0.003 - $0.005 per stream on average" so that would require approx. 8500 streams p.m. to reach that figure on that platform.
Somehow that doesn't seem unattainable and that's why I resubscribed to ProducerTech and I will be setting learning goals for 2024 and subsequent production goals asap.
[quote="admin"]
Yeah in terms of the sound design and mixing skills, you can refer to any of the 'fatter' styles of music, like D&B, Bass Music, Mainroom House, Techno... etc. Seppa, Reso, The Cyborgs all have good pointers in their courses.
As for the arrangement, it's just the same as a lot of other styles only more full on! AMp'd up! Basically with fewer parts and ideas, but way more processing.
We could have a crack at a Hardstyle course, or maybe a bonus set of tuts for members - it would be fun!
[/quote]
Thanks for that info. The possibility of PT 'going hardstyle' makes me giggle nervously! I was only reminded of the existence of hardstyle by the hardstyle "Wham - Last Christmas (HardEditz Remix) (Hardstyle)" reference of @samuelclouston in the Xmassignment 2023 [thread], the accompanying energetic music video obviously having nothing to do with that remix but still showcasing hardstyle's popular appeal.
"Be careful what you wish for" comes to mind because that OTT musical genre has the monster DNA of fast-food and porn. It is interesting that there are not many tutorials (if any) on the major course platforms but there is still a decent ecosystem of samples and presets (with rowdy WAproduction obviously domineering this niche). On Youtube there are some half-decent tuts with a pretty remarkable (what do you know: 'melodic hardstyle') two part [A], [B] series by artist Xonar, others seem to approach this theme as a joke and lack hardstyle pedigree.
Perhaps outside the ProducerTech biosphere but I would like a tut/breakdown on Big Room House "Festival Bangers"; I know this genre by its unadulterated commercial slant is not very well liked among the musical gourmets in this community but for others it might be fun to have a go. As it can't be denied the genre is quite popular market wise with plenty of streams, popular events and festivals it will be of extra interest for those of us in pursuit of the elusive ... banger. As a genre Big Room is nowadays stylistically a bit more diverse compared to its early days so a tut could focus on a subgenre with greater appeal to the larger PT audience.
At this point I would even welcome a tut/breakdown in the jocular vein of a musical style "hackneyed pastiche*" and if so I immediately would like to add a similar request for "Hardstyle"!
I suspect the Mainroom courses on ProducerTech could provide some transferable skills for Big Room but I haven't explored that route yet.
* I thought I'd just invented this phrase but it turns out to be a bit of a trope among movie and literature critics...
Just the other day I watched a YT vid by "Venus Theory" in which he basically stated that after he sat behind FL Studio for a couple of minutes he couldn't make heads or tail of it and decided it was not for him.
I kinda struggle with FL Studio myself (being only moderately adept in Ableton) but I have decided to give learning it a shot because I have a collab planned and as you can guess the other party only has FL Studio. For years I stayed current on subscriptions on many a DAW that I NEVER used (like Cubase, Reason and FL Studio).... oh, the folly of it all.
Even before the advent of Avicii and Martin Garrix etc. FL Studio was supposedly already seriously improving but with artists like that the program has gained some traction especially with the younger demographic (which, to be fair, was always this product's target audience). Anecdotal evidence on this 2023 survey webpage suggests that among 6000 respondents 9% use Ableton and 2% FL Studio [who knows of a better DAW stats resource?].
With a recent update 21.2 "FL Cloud" was introduced, FL studio's own "LoopCloud". Interesting enough it has a flat fee no matter how many samples you DL into your projects, but if you should overdo it (> 'fair usage') DL bandwidth will be restricted.
"Credit-free subscriptions: No more counting credits – just download any sound you need, whenever you need it."
https://www.image-line.com/fl-cloud
For now "FL Cloud" contains approx. 2280 sound packs which, if we would guesstimate 50 sounds per pack, equals 114.000 (max. 150.000?) loops and one-shots in total, a modest amount for now but "100% exclusive. Entirely original samples, only available in FL Cloud.". Since I am a bit of a sound junkie I'll probably take the promotional one year subscription for 50 euro. A fair amount of packs are by W.A. Production, a label not well known for its 'subtlety', but there are other labels and not all sounds are about 'festival bangers'. In all fairness, LoopCloud itself has a limited genre scope and many a genre is absent or only has a few packs representing it.
The FL Cloud package also features AI-powered mastering and a distribution solution (powered by DistroKid) in that respect they've got one up on LoopCloud/Loopmasters. I would fear (but I haven't researched it) that distributing through that FL Studio + DistroKid channel might lock you in on renewing FL Cloud subscription.
I enclose 2 screenshots: one shows you the (basic) search options of FL Cloud within FL Studio , the other the current promotion.
Thanks for that action packed session, endearing to see Rob on occasion be so self-deprecating about his musical improvisations. I am bit bummed that I wasn't quick enough to try and guess the 'mystery carol' in the comments, I could have sworn it to be "Süßer Trost, mein Jesus kömmt" by Noddy.
I am bit worried that Ableton is falling over themselves to stay fresh and relevant, from what I have seen v12 is quite a departure from v10 and v11. Not a night and day difference, but far beyond a mere incremental difference. Will be interesting to see how Bitwig will push the envelope in response.
Quick question: does the v12 loopcloudy breakdown of sounds and presets (?) also extend to "places" where you might have added 3rd party sounds? I am guessing that is not the case and the new function only helps to optimize the (long overdue) searchability of Ableton's own resources.
Stopping this scandalously insolent program from (pointlessly) automatically starting on Windows is rather easy*:
To stop Windows programs launching at startup
To stop Window programs launching at startup, open Settings > Apps > Startup
There you will find the culprit "Beatport Access.exe", make sure its slider is in the off position. Should you ever need it, you can launch the program it manually:
Beatport Access Shortcut is by default in this dir:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Plugin Boutique
Default location Program :
C:\Program Files\Plugin Boutique\Beatport Access\Beatport Access.exe
Side note: My Maschine software recently crashed because of some MicrosoftEdgeWebview2 exception, a (MS Edge aux) program bundled with Beatport Access.exe. Before installing Beatport Access I never had this problem, I don't think at PBB/Beatport they are as software savvy as they think they are.
To stop MAC programs launching at startup
On MAC stopping Beatport Access from automatically starting is probably also not that complicated but I don't have a MAC so I can't verify, but Google says this:
* Why they didn't include a simple "disable at startup" option in Beatport Access's minimalistic settings panel is anybody's guess...
[quote="smillington"]
Im thinking of taking the plunge into Ableton Live in this recent sale and wondering if 'Standard' would give me enough to work with, or whether I would end up regretting pushing the boat out for 'Suite'. Any chance you could outline your thoughts on this on the stream Rob? Any other views from the community would be appreciated as well 
[/quote]
You know you can see the items (clicking on the plus signs) that the standard and suite license contains (https://www.ableton.com/en/shop/live/); the main difference are of course sound packs, software instruments and audio effects. I wouldn't be swayed by the packs and software instruments alone (almost never use the packs myself), but the significant difference in audio effects would always have me choose for suite. Once a suite licensee you can look forward to quite reasonable upgrade prices (with approx. twice a year a short 20% discount campaign). I tend to defer my upgrades but like now the other day I upgraded to v.11 with a free upgrade to v.12. Having said that a future upgrade from standard to suite also carries a reasonable price tag and if you already use external plugins for your audio fx you might as well go with 'Standard'. Alternatively it is sometimes possible to buy e.g. a software instrument separately (like 'Operator') so you could customize/extend your standard version (I assume this to be the case considering the layout of the Ableton shop). A LoopCloud happy acquaintance of mine is perfectly content with the 16 track "Intro" version, I could never convince him to go "Standard" or even upgrade to a higher version of "Intro" that does away with the 8 scene max per track (it is a workable 16 now)!
