The TelenatorThe TelenatorThe TelenatorThe TelenatorYes, adimatis, thank you for your kind words. Glad you enjoy what I share on the forum sometimes. I know a few of us have questioned this forum’s health and continued existence, but sharing here now and then can be a refreshing break from lengthy staring into computer screens, clicking on things and adjusting settings and whatnot.
I find this particular topic most fascinating. I don’t think we men have ever in any way discouraged women from using this technology, but they have seemed rather slow to embrace it until recently. The few I have observed posting in forums seem knowledgeable and quite interested in making good use of this kind of software for creating music. And they are certainly better behaved than so many of the men, as some of the other forums veer toward battle zones and the Wild, Wild West these days. I don’t wonder at all why we don’t see more participation from them in forum threads!
The TelenatorMLS wrote:
‘If I speak of DAWs with women that I know, they fall asleep!’
MLS, you have no idea how easy you get off with the women only falling asleep. I had one, two girlfriends ago who would deliberately roll her eyes at me several times like I was certifiably insane or deranged or something of the sort . . . any time I dared start in with anything to do with all of this, even the briefest mention of ‘digital music’ or ‘software’. Then, right after, she would sometimes begin the ‘silent treatment’ for an hour or so. In time, I could tell that she truly had developed a grudge and perhaps also a jealousy against my DAW and time spent there, and I quickly became careful never to talk of Podium or my softsynths in any kind of endearing manner.
I became paranoid that she might go as far as pouring a glass of ale over a PC keyboard perhaps. Yes, she was a mean one! To this day I wonder whether she somehow managed to inject water into the chassis of my Fender Twin amp, as my amp tech informed me one day, upon repairing a bad solder joint in there that ‘it is very, very corroded in there’, yet that amp has rarely been out of the studio or out of doors. Luckily, I bored her nearly to death, and she flew away one fine autumn day!
MLS also wrote:
‘Women have a vision of things . . . they have a greater sensitivity: all that they do (or almost), they do it better than men.’
You won’t believe this next, but I will summon the courage to relate this. One of the women in my Friends List from up above, Paula, the operatic composer, I have known since age 4. We were sort of childhood sweethearts and she was the only person I invited to my birthday party at age 5. You see, I was so fond of her as a little boy because she was a complete ‘Tommy Boy’ or ‘Tom Boy’, as boyish, rough and tumble girls were called. She was the only girl who would play Cowboys and Indians with me and climb in trees.
Here is the point of my telling this: MLS, you think all women are angels, aye? In grade level 6, Paula got into an argument during recess with the opposing softball team captain, my best mate, Matthew, a good 20 cm taller than me and more muscular. With no teacher nearby to calm the situation, they got into a real fight and Paula beat him up, nearly broke his nose, and set him running to the nurse screaming and crying. Matty learned you never told Paula what to do. Today she is a graduate of Julliard College of Music, an acclaimed pianist and composer, living in the heart of Manhattan in New York City. (Kindly don’t publish this story elsewhere, but I had to tell it!)
They are ‘Sugar and Spice and everything Nice’! Cheers!
The Telenatoradimatis wrote:
‘Tele, you really enjoy writing don’t ya?!’
It depends I think. It depends on whether there is anything worth writing about. As regards any new discipline, the boys rush in, nowadays always followed closely behind by the girls. What always begins as the novel participation of women and the ‘talk of the town’ — a tip of the hat, btw, to an earlier woman rocker and recording artist, Chrissie Hynde — soon becomes business as usual. The point throughout I’ve been making is that women, grabbing an electric guitar and playing more like what is common of male guitarists, have made a major impact on music worldwide, and there is no going back. I eagerly anticipate somewhat the same as we experience more and more women picking up the tools of what has been very much one big and rather exclusive boys’ club for more than 10 years and showing us a thing or two about this art.
Aside from the constant and astonishing advances in DSP, this is one of the only other bright spots to my thinking within the larger music industry which continues to collapse under its own weight. I think a fresh perspective is badly needed, too, as so much of what I’m hearing from home studios seems awfully stale and overly self-serving lately.
To better answer your first question, though, I chose professional writing and editing to complement my pursuit of music back when I was first starting out, to fill the gaps between those first few and scattered gigs. It has served very well, whether in the capacity of university professor, reviewer, guide and manual editing for various plugins, and my very last steady position until a little over 2 years ago as Editor of the monthly music magazine The Beat. Now, however, I get to ‘play’ retired and write more for my own satisfaction and self-improvement and, with hope, entertain and inform others as well! Cheers!
The TelenatorPerhaps the initial asking of the question may sound somewhere between coy and predatory. I don’t know. But as proof of its importance — long-term importance, I must insist — is that right now it is mainly a handful of women, many on my list above, who are completely revitalising The Blues, much like SRV, Kenny Wayne Sheppard, Gary Moore, and then-little 15-yr-old Johnny Lang did during the ’80s.
Although I’m not certain that women will save the art of home digital recording from its runaway addiction to over-use of other people’s samples, the addiction to endless looping and other self-obsessed forms of belly button gazing that seems to have a choke hold on DAW usage, I think their increasing contributions and input is direly needed.
Right now, I know of a few chaps who are stellar quality musicians and composers whom I dare not name, who are so fed up with the current state of things that they are ready to puke. One last letter I received said, ‘This one makes me recall a recent discussion with some other colleagues about the state of things around music and the web, and I told them that I was constantly re-evaluating what my motivations are for being/staying involved in music – at least in a visible way – these days.’
And, ‘At one time I was wondering what was the reason for adding to the noise and profusion’ . . .
And, ‘A question I like to ponder sometimes, is if the whole model we’ve been
> given to operate within since I was a young musician, is not entirely
> contrived and unsustainable, and here I mean the sleazy big-money,
> big-corporate music world that musicians have long felt compelled to aspire
> to’.
The one chap I’m quoting from here is a rather well-known composer, musicologist and synth and instrument designer. He is widely known and respected — and these words are not unique to him alone; there has been an ongoing discussion along these lines among several much more noteworthy than myself, people you simply wouldn’t believe are about ready to ‘chuck it’, call it quits because of the current state of popular music.
Clearly, female input alone cannot save us all from ourselves. Perhaps they will end up producing music that is even more self-indulgent, insipid and tautological. After all, as women have come into the halls of power in business and government, we note that their behavior is sometimes even more ruthless and manipulative than that of men. It turns out that placing women in positions of power was no saving cure as was promised for our troubled world after all.
At this point, however, I think some of us would welcome a fresh perspective even if it had to come from Martians or space aliens. Make no mistake, this is a dodgy, barmy mess that music AND the industry is in these days. Finally, even if none of this persuades, consider that your protest is of a ‘general chat’ topic that resides in our General Chat forum!
Cheers!
The TelenatorThere is always the possibility that certain females might buy Podium as a gift for someone, but I’m more inclined to say they are buying for themselves.
Very recently, there has appeared perhaps as many as half a dozen gals over at Reaper forums. As I scan other forums now and then, I’ve run into others, too. I notice they all seem rather well-informed and having a serious ‘go’ at it. I got to talking with one in a thread very recently and it was quite interesting.
This reminds me just a little of when all the gals came to electric guitar during the ’90s. Of many who are now fine, established players, perhaps most remarkable is Orianthi. She’s a dangerous musician; it would take everything I’ve got to go toe-to-toe playing across from her. Look up one of her videos sometime — her technique and phrasing is most excellent for fusion and classic rock. There are a handful of ‘blues gals’ as well now. I’ve met many and most are trying to tour as much as possible to build up steady followings.
The EU has welcomed all of them with open arms! About half of these are a little older, closer to middle age currently and very savvy. Carmen Getit (watch this one!), Leslie Ann Maxwell, Summer Fragomeni-Hay, Cari Caruso, Phoenix Burns-Espinel (bassist), Christyna Bible, Stella Blue, Irish Bernadette, Paula Kimper (keys, famous opera composer), Laurie Morvan (watch her too!), Sharon Benson (elec. violin, vocals), Shauna Marshall (top vocalist), Holle Thee Maxwell (vocals, R&B, blues), BluesMamma Yeshe, Dawn O’Keefe Williams, Leslye Layne Russell, Andrea Jones, Gwenyth Hayes, Addie Lee (another rising star), Marlina Teich, Dani Wilde (tops!, hot gold album), Kellie Rucker, Shari Puorto, Debbie Bond, Crystal Vernon Gambino, Amanda Smith-Skinner (bassist), Deanna Bogart (sax, vocals, etc., went platinum last year), Catherine Denise (gold album I think, rising star) — Okay, I’m bragging here, but these are just some of the working, recording, full-time pro musician women from my Fb Friends List.
These gals? Most all have DAWs and at least record demo stuff at home, on the bus, on the road, no joke. Oh, Tasha Taylor, Jill Sharpe, Tara London (scary good performer), Kat Newton, SharBaby Newport (hot blues guitar), Liza Williams, etc. These ladies could mop the floor with most of the chaps who hang around those DAW and KVR forums.
Back to DAWs, you have to assume ALL of these ladies are recording at least some at home with a good DAW. I believe we need their input critically, because, as you look around, there are an awful lot of blokes and posers putting out consistent rubbish of these lame, boring samples, mediocre loop stuff and the like. On guitar, the ones I’ve mentioned sent a blast of a wakeup call to many of us over-contented lazy toadies. I fully expect many breaths of fresh air from the ladies recording original works with software just such as Podium. I would guess that the visual aesthetics of Podium might be a strong first attraction to this DAW from the female species, wouldn’t you perhaps agree?
Cheers, and keep an eye on the horizons!
–Tele
The TelenatorAs much as I appreciate (and do use) the 64-bit float processing option, I will suggest that more and more DAW makers are offering this more as a status or ‘nice’ feature perk to attract users to their product. Note that Pro Tools is proclaiming this new feature loudly in their latest PT11 version, yet some — Podium a prime example — have offered this for a while already.
Quality difference between 32- and 64-float? Negligible at best. Can anyone detect any audible difference in resulting file(s)? I admit I can’t.
Also, the problem reported by the OP has also turned up in rendering in other DAWs, although I can’t say if the causes were the same.
The TelenatorHey, alex. I just wanted to mention, also — you prefer the HyBrit. That’s a sharp amp, but I ended up liking the Le456 best. Everything he offers is really nice. Ever try loading up all six cabs on his LeCab2? I haven’t got around to it yet.
The TelenatorThis particular ‘freeware roundup’ as they call it, contains several of the instruments and effects that we have mentioned in several of our threads. One in particular that I like among these is Jacky Ligon’s XenFont. It can be used as a sturdy, regular font player without any need to dabble into microtonality, yet that feature is always available just a click away. His excelent VA synth, Ivor, is worth your consideration when at his site, along with the larger FM synth Xenharmonic.
What I find most curious about this current roundup is that TSE’s X50 amp head is included here. Perhaps it has had an upgrade, but this amp has been around quite some time and is already well-known. I find it the best EVH 5150 software emulation yet for those seeking the heavier guitar sounds.
Anyway, here is the link:
http://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/free-music-software-round-up-week-121-570943
The TelenatorSince you’re bumping this one, I’ll add this Plektron site. Nice cabs, both mono and stereo, for free, comes with some IRs or you can use others. I bought their POWERED amp head for just those couple of dollars ’cause it will do heavier stuff and S-Gear doesn’t have a metal amp yet.
http://www.plektronfx.com/products.php
I use these cabs when I’m too lazy to set up S-Gear or want to check out a different amp or FX pedal.
The Telenatorfabiospark wrote:
“If one decides to try a DAW (free or not) to see
which one suits his needs best, it probably won’t be
happy seeing that he has to spend money for
a MIDI controller just to test the app.”
Nope. Having a virtual key board available for Reaper didn’t help me decide anything about whether I was interested in buying it as a DAW to use. There are too many other important factors in deciding on a DAW. The need for a reliable keyboard comes when you settle down with one to do some work. With any, all I need to know is, Does this take MIDI input without hassles and is it editable. Compare Reaper’s MIDI Editor piano roll and tell me how it fares to Podium’s.
[Edit] Hint: Podium’s editor is about 3-4 times better.
The Telenator+1 CymaticCycle. I’ve been using the SleepyTime plugins for a while — Mono and Stereo meters, Transient and the Dual Panner.
The Hofa that were mentioned are very nice, and until recently their website was only in German. The Flux Stereo Tool (free) plugin is better than Hofa’s and has better controls to it. I think Flux’s Bittersweet (also free) is also worth having if only to stare at from time to time — gorgeous but Transient offers better and less subtle controls. Hofa’s free meter is rather nice, once you get used to how it works.
The TelenatorThe most enjoyable part of the thread linked above is that Frits is given the title ‘Mr Administrator from Denmark’.
I still maintain a strong feature request of a Virtual Keyboard option be added to Podium ASAP, for benefit of new and impoverished DAW users who come to Podium. I think this would help the new people greatly, because there are obviously many items on a new person’s ‘shopping list’ when it comes to getting started with serious home recording.
But the truth of the matter is A CONTROLLER KEYBOARD of some make and model is A MUST, so start looking for a deal, as there are some from time to time. Don’t start out with M-Audio’s latest $500 ‘everything’ keyboard, if your budget won’t allow it easily; there are many cheaper options out there.
Just one example, I find the little KORG keypad2 and controller2 (or whatever exactly they are called) to be adorable and no more than $59 each.
I’ve used both the Qwerty Keys and Reaper’s GUI Virtual Keyboard and neither are very worthwhile options for any serious work in the long run. Those get old very fast.