Wolfram

Interesting video, but the songs created there are soooo far off today's cutting edge. In particular, harking back to my previous post, the prompts are really vague and convey no information whatsoever about the song itself - what is it about? is it a male or female singer? any key words / phrases to use in the actual song? I spent some time working on how to get the best results from Suno v4, and it turns out that it responds pretty well to detail in the prompt, and especially if you include a phrase to build the song around (one of mine was "Throwing the dice, rolling a kiss.") Results do vary in quality, but around one in ten is of superb quality from the point of view of song and musical structure - v4 has really got musical variation working well and, I am ashamed to say it, comes up with more interesting musical variation than I would usually bring to my songs...

A couple of things I'd like to add. Firstly, and most importantly, the quality/suitability of output from any natural language AI system is largely dependent on the quality of the prompt provided. Rubbish in, rubbish out. But it's more nuanced than that - crafting prompts is a whole skill in itself, just like responses you might get from a child to a question will depend deeply upon how you ask the question. Expecting magical perfect responses from AI if you provide poorly thought-through prompts that lack detail and specificity is unrealistic, and it's in these types of situations that I see AI being quickly dismissed. I work with a number of businesses, all of which are now using AI in one form or another. At the moment, my own use of AI is for coding support - a job that it is doing with devastating ability and efficiency. I took the time to learn how to prompt for different types of support (everything from being a glorified search engine to producing whole boilerplate web services upon which I build specific functionality) and I estimate my productivity is two to three times what it was. In fact, it has given me the ability to start two new projects that had been on the back burner for several years due to lack of time and lack of certain skills and knowledge. It doesn't magically do everything but, for me at least, it has been responsible for me creating things that likely would never have happened. The second thing is that most people's experience of AI is Large Language Models. These are generalist (basically, they use the same algorithm that's used for predictive text messaging, just with many more levels of depth in the neural net), not specialist. This means you can talk to a LLM about literally anything and it will give you its best responses. Compare that to talking to a single human being about that wide range of subjects - e.g. coding, to English literature, to biology - and how many useful responses you'd get. Things will get even more interesting with more specialised AI's, trained in specific areas of expertise and for specific tasks. I'm already evaluating AI tools that won't just help with specific coding tasks, but will ingest an entire codebase and assist with making fundamental changes across the whole project. So far, not perfect, but a window on the futurre.

Ok... clearly very few people here (and not singling the Basschat community out - by extension, the general public) have the faintest idea what a VPN is. A Virtual Private Network is what just about every single mediium- to large-sized company in the world uses to allow employees to connect to their 'internal' networks from their laptops or phones when they are not physically in the office. That's it, nothing more sinister. A VPN is something you connect to from 'external' so that you appear 'internal'. Anyone, anywhere in the world can set up a VPN. It's not something that can be made illegal, any more than setting up your own Internet server; it is a networking tool used by millions of companies. It also has uses for individuals. There are commercial providers of VPNs which allow you to connect from one regional IP address (e.g. China) and connect to another (e.g. rest of world). These are used extensively by people (e.g. in China) to access information that would otherwise be censored. The UK has absolutely no jurisdiction over, say, a US company that provides a VPN solution in the USA that happens to be connected to by an individual in the UK in order to access US-based websites. The only way to ban that is to regulate all connections from UK citizens to websites outside of the UK.... like China does. It is also common for an individual usually gamers) to buy or rent their own server somewhere else in the world, install a free, open-source VPN, and be able to connect to it and appear to be connecting to any website from the VPN's 'home' location. We're on seriously slippery slopes if we're suggesting either that the government reviews any and all software installed on any server by a UK citizen, anywhere in the world, or that we ban encrypted web traffic outside of the UK. Even China doesn't go that far! The real problem here is 'protecting the children' will do no such thing. The only reason the big multinational providers are engaging with this is they can see it will decimate their competition in the UK and give them the true monopoly they want. And, truthfully, Ofcom want - they don't want to regulate a large industry; they're quite happy with that being pushed into illegality by obscurity, and to lawyer up with 4-5 multinational opponents who will have the resources to negotiate a resolution that suits them. Look at the Canadian ban on TikTok. They called the government's bluff, and ignored it. They're still happily operating there, and Canadians are still using it. Because they have billions in Chinese funding to keep it going.

Of course forums won't disappear - this is only UK legislation - people in the US, EU and rest of world are not affected by this nonsense. But the post from the owner of thefretboard.co.uk is absolutely right: under the current proposed legislation, it will become almost impossible to run any kind of online forum from the UK, and international forums will just block all IP addresses from the UK. The risks are just too severe - a fine of up to £18 million and a criminal conviction for the owner / managers. The legislation was drafted with only large, commercial, multinational companies like Facebook, X etc. in mind; if the legislation is enforced as it stands, those will be our only option in the UK for any kind of online discussion, unless we use VPNs to access international forums based abroad... which we all will... which will make the legislation utterly pointless, apart from having destroyed a large number of UK businesses.

Glad you got it out! I've had a 1/4" jack stuck in the left output of my old Korg D1600 multitrack recorder for years now. It will be difficult to get to (socket soldered onto a PCB, requiring a complete dismantling of the machine... so I've left it. But lesson learned; no more cheap cables for me!

Ok, this is faaaaar from finished - work has been insane this month - but I managed to carve out a couple of hours this evening to throw something together. An ethereal soundtrack-style musing on the serpent, the fruit and temptation. The tech: all of the synth, bass and vocal sounds are all from Zero-G Ethera Gold 2.5, except the massive drum from EastWest Stormdrum 2. The guitar is the first outing for my new (to me) PRS Singlecut 245, played though my Line6 Helix. Glue reverb is Relab LX480, delay from the magnificent Mountain Road DSP Lumina, and there's a sprinkling of Ozone for good measure.

Great advice here. In particular I would say: Tune up. Be as rehearsed as you can be. Play the bass(es) you know you're comfortable with - I would not advise getting a setup or new strings right before the session, unless you're used to that way of working (e.g. I know acoustic guitarists who put on a fresh set of strings before every gig). If your strings are cruddy, changer them well before the session, then see point 2 again. And don't turn up with a special instrument just because it's 'better' than what you normally play. It won't be. Enjoy yourself! Tune up. A story: I recorded my late father playing his acoustic guitar about 15 years ago now. He was an awesome player, but was very lackadaisical about tuning the instrument. Somehow it wasn't so noticeable when he was playing in the room, but listening back to that recording.... argh. Alas, I can't do it again now. Keep your instrument in tune!

Sorry for any misunderstanding; all good.

This is a dig at my September entry; I'll bite. Here's a screenshot of part of my "Telegraph Hill" Cubase project - each part was created and arranged separately, with sampler tracks used to re-pitch elements. The workflow was pretty much the same as musicians who use loops and samples to create music, but I used elements created using AI with input prompts that I crafted myself; is that any more or less 'composition' than using loops or samples created by a complete stranger with absolutely no input from myself? I'm sure the debate will rage on...

I go by many names 😆

Thank you! It was great to be back in the competition and I had a lot of fun with this one.

It doesn't matter if you're travelling with it or not, and there is no particular concession for musical instruments. You have an allowance of £390 worth of goods (other than alcohol, cigarettes); legally, if the total value of goods you are importing (i.e. purchased abroad and are bringing back to the UK) then you must declare it at customs and pay the duty and VAT. If you don't declare, legally it is smuggling. Obviously, items that you already own can be carried with you to and from another country freely; that's different. The info is all here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5fe05e488fa8f5148f633267/6.7005__SE_CUS_v3.pdf Now of course I'm sure many people chance it and do not declare everything or would argue they've had the guitar for years and years, and you may be lucky, but think the burden of proof would be on you - returning from Germany with a brand-new German-made Warwick might land you in hot water!

The £135 threshold applies only to duty; 20% VAT applies to everything (unless it's a gift worth less than £39). It's on that website- in the VAT section: It's a real pain... especially as VAT is charged on the value of the item + the shipping cost + any duty due.

Ok, after a long absence I actually managed to rush something together for this month's competition. "This road's seen joy, this road has killed. Telegraph Hill haunts me still." The tech stuff: this was a bit of an experiment. I created every individual element using AI tools - there are no "real" instruments or human voices in this track; vocals, guitar, bass and drum sections were all created using AI prompts and lyric sections I wrote. I wanted to try using AI in the same way many of us use more conventional tools like ezDrummer, ezBass, ezKeys, UJAM Virtual Guitarist and other such tools to provide us with drum, guitar, keyboard parts etc., with a nod to the sampling scene and workflows of yore. I arranged and sequenced all the elements conventionally in Cubase, mostly using Sampler Tracks. I'm working abroad at the moment so didn't have my studio machine or any plugins except what comes with Cubase, so there's just a bit of compression, eq, delay and reverb to glue it together, and it's squeezed through Cubase's brickwall limiter.

Hah, I was about to re-post that myself! Not really my cup of tea, but if I was after a Jazz that's the one I would buy right now. Every Sei bass I've played has been exceptional, and I've been hankering after one for a while now - but it will be a headless Flamboyant sixer.

If you're talking about the USB cable from the interface to the Max then USB2 max length is 5 metres and USB3 is 3 metres (unless you get into using special active cables) so that won't work. The Behringer ADA8200 is not an interface, it is an ADAT 8-channel expander and will not work with a computer or iPad on its own. To use it you would need to make sure your existing two-channel interface has an ADAT digital input, and connect it through that - beware, it would be a rare 2-channel interface that does have ADAT and not a single one comes to mind. I have no experience using an iPad for recording so don't know anything about compatibility or how many channels it can manage, so can't advise there unfortunately. It all sounds very complicated! I would definitely either move the Mac, or I would acquire a single digital multitracker with enough channels to track everything in one place (e.g. Tascam DP-24, Zoom R12/R20 etc.) then move to Logic Pro for mixing. You may even want to keep it all in the multitracker - many of my best songs were recorded on an old Korg D1600, which I still have and still works some 20 years later. Good luck!

As a small business who used to sell on Amazon, I could say much about my experience. Except I can't, because Amazon makes every seller sign an NDA.

Firstly, you don't need to bounce audio into and out of a Mac like that. Use Existential Audio's Blackhole audio driver - you set iTunes output to Blackhole's output, Audacity's input to Blackhole's input and it loops it back entirely digitally in the Mac. It's $10 I think. https://existential.audio/blackhole/ For a small audio interface, I highly rate MOTU's M2 or M4 depending on your needs. I use one as a portable interface with my Macbook Pro; the converters sound great and it's been completely bulletproof.

Steinberg Spectralayers is the tool you want - you don't need a(nother) DAW if it's speech. I'm still on version 10 but 11 has just been released and I will upgrade. I've also used iZotope RX but not for a few versions now; I found Spectralayers' approach far more intuitive and effective for a musician so have stuck with it. You'll probably find it useful for other tasks too. I recently used it to remove the lead vocal from a song to create a practice backing track and pitch that down two tones to bring it into the range of a singer for practice. Job done in a couple of minutes to a very high standard.

I've failed - the last two weeks have been super-busy and I was away for Le Mans - it's still just an intro 😢. I was rather proud of the Uilleann pipes. Maybe next time.

It's been a while but I'm going to try to get one in this month, but time is against me. There is an intro down, so while there may be a probe of this month's relaxed bagpipes rule, at least it's well within the five minute rule!

Yup, when I first started age 14 I couldn't afford a mixer or multitrack. I had two Sony Walkman, one with record facility. I'd solder together cables in various configurations to mix sources together with the output from one deck, play from that deck and record the combination to the second. Of course, any mistake and it was right back to the beginning to do the whole dub over... I have many, many tapes full of half-songs cut off abruptly at a fluff. How far we have come! Although strangely, some of those old recordings really sound pretty good! Plenty of analog warmth 🤣

I think there's a case that the best value DAW is the one you know and doesn't get in your way - my time is my most precious and limited commodity so anything that speeds up my music creative process is a Good Thing. I have been using Cubase since VST 3.5, circa 1997. I know it inside out, it's quick and intuitive and I have no need to invest time into learning different software. However, I have dabbled in Logic when collaborating, and a couple of specifics I found slowed down my workflow: I record most of my VST instruments from live input, either keyboard or wind controller, and record guitar, bass and vocals live; I very rarely program anything. As project sizes increase, this means I am frequently changing the buffer size for recording a part vs project playback. Logic seems to reload the whole project each time I did this; Cubase is near-instant. Big deal for my particular workflow. I try to minimise my use of audio pitch and time correction, but when I do need them Cubase's built-in tools are so intuitive and well-integrated that you can easily use them for a tiny correction and are not tempted to over-use, as you might be if you had to load and set up a plugin. But it comes down to what you know and what fits with your workflow. For example Cubase can't do what Ableton Live or Bitwig do in non-linear music creation. And one massive omission in Cubase (and even Nuendo) that many DAWs have is the ability to easily export loop sections with tails rendered back into the beginning... there are workarounds but I really don't know why this isn't implemented as a basic feature since anyone working in video game music or loop production needs it.

I wasn't familiar with Seefeel and Ulrich Schnauss, but just had a listen. Don't fall into the trap of thinking you need hundreds of plugins - it sounds like you need one good delay and one good reverb. This will depend on your budget, but there are lots of delay options at all prices - personally I like the vintage sound of SoundToys EchoBoy but it is quite heavy on your processor and is quite expensive. I think the Relab LX480 reverb would be a great fit for that type of music, and the Essentials version is on sale for $29 atm. Synth-wise.... there is a huge range of VSTs. My advice would be to get only one or two and really learn how to use them - the temptation is that you need lots of plugins to get different sounds, but you really don't and it can just become a distraction. I have accumulated way more synth VSTis over the years than I know what to do with, and 90% of the time it's u-he Diva that gets used. Also look at what software bundles you get with the controller keyboards - Arturia has its ecosystem as, for example, does Native Instruments. For the kind of music you gave as a reference, I would be reaching for Diva and Native Instruments Massive X (incidentally a similar sound engine to the Hydrasynth) from my collection, but there are lots more choices. Another pointer for instruments is Spitfire Audio's free LABS range - lots of really interesting stuff there and it's all free.

A few thoughts. The DT770s are closed-back 'phones - perfect for preventing the sound of a backing track leaking into the microphone if you're recording vocals, but not ideal for mixing / monitoring - they won't be as comfortable and the sound will be somewhat compromised. You haven't mentioned a microphone or wanting to record vocals, so if monitoring / mixing is your main use case then I would definitely consider a decent pair of open-back headphones. Beyer DT990 for example, or Sennheiser HD650. Re: MIDI, I would still connect your HX Stomp and LPD8 via USB (the HX Stomp will still be accessible as a MIDI device even if not using its USB audio) so unless you are considering adding non-USB MIDI kit it's not really a consideration. The HX Stomp actually works as a pretty decent interface if guitar/bass is the only 'out-of-the-box' instrument you're using - the main reason to upgrade to a 'proper' interface would be if you want to introduce a microphone(s) into your setup. At that point there are a multitude of choices, the Minifuse 2 being one of them, that are functionally almost identical. Personally I like the MOTU M2 / M4 as a portable interface - dead simple, rock solid and just work. Arturia controllers have a good reputation, but I've never used one. It depends what you want to use it for, but for me a two-octave controller would be useless - I'm a pianist and need to be able to play full parts. But it may be fine for what you want to do - just make sure the very small keyboard will actually work for you. I have used Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol keyboards which I really like, and they ingrate fantastically with my DAW (Cubase), not sure about Reaper. My controller is a 76-key Yamaha SY99 from 1992 - still going strong! If it were me I would also definitely budget for some monitors. I find long periods working on any type of headphones fatiguing, and much prefer to work on speakers. Hope that's helpful!