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[Jeekem]

I’m not into Pop either but you have some cool things going on in the song. I hate to be critical because you have a much bigger body of work that I do.
I seem to record things I write and get them sounding as good as I can and then I delete them because they don’t live up to my own expectations or standards.

I thought the synth part was kind of cool. I can’t seem to figure out what the sound is right around the time the guitar solo ends there are some great bell like tones in the background that I thought were great.

Overall though, the mix sounds a bit too compressed. It’s like everything that is going on is happening in a very narrow band of frequencies. I think it would sound better with both more highs and lows standing out.

I liked it better than what I hear on any Top 40 type stations these days. I’ll reveal that I’m a Grandpa and tell you that what I hear the most on Pop radio and TV still sounds like fricking disco to me. (And yes, disco still sucks)(I don’t watch much TV and haven’t seen Idol or the Voice since my wife passed away a couple of years ago)

When I was younger R&B consisted of Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, etc. What they call R&B these days sounds like Disco too. The only dance music I ever liked was either up tempo big band stuff or serious boogie. Little Feat is freaking dance music. No one was ever able to stay in their seat when they were on stage. Everyone was dancing on the back of their seat.

Please forgive my critique. I’m fast approaching geezerhood I guess.

JeeKem

[Jeekem]

Better yet- get EZPlayer! It’s a great program and very easy to use.

JeeKem

[Jeekem]

There is also a really good free DAW called Audacity which has a built-in midi sequencer. You can drag any number of loops over and have them play in order.
You can also google .mid +files and find thousands of free midi versions of thousands of songs. I used to download a bunch of these and edit out everything but the drums. Edit a bunch of songs that you like and then play them through Solo.

You can also play them through General MIDI using Media player if your soundcard supports General Midi. (Most of them do.) If you have a midi keyboard they’ll sound better.

They won’t sound as good as through Solo with some decent monitors though.

Edit out everything but drums and bass and put together a practice play list using Audacity? I used to do a lot of that.

JeeKem

[Jeekem]

I’ve not even had a chance to install and see what the changes are but I wanted to say thanks for putting something out there for those of us who still like to play around with Beatstation.

I really appreciate this. I was a late comer to this software and was a bit disappointed after originally purchasing it. This was the ONLY Toontrack product I have ever been disappointed by.
I had felt like it was only useful for making modern dance music at first, which I don’t really like much.

JeeKem

[Jeekem]

Can you set a default kit to come up when you open Superior Drummer in a DAW?

Mine always comes up with Avatar and creates a lot of tracks with nothing assigned to them, even when I select Multichannel within SD2.30 s mixer.

JeeKem

[Jeekem]

I, too, would like to see some new features – maybe like infusing it with the ability to interact with EZKeys or some other soft synths and of course- making it usable through an MPD or MPC???????

It definately needs to be updated. Maybe combine it with the Drumtracker product and offer that as an upgrade?

Give us something! Anything! There is some low hanging fruit on the Beatstation tree!

JeeKem

[Jeekem]

Hey Scott- I loved the Superior Drummer 2 course over at Groove3.
This month they are having a $99.00 sale on their all-access pass. Your courses are a big part of the reason I bought the one-year all-access pass last year and why I just renewed it today.
I don’t mean to be plugging them here but for $99.00 you can have access to EVERY course on their site for a year.
I refer to your SD2 course all the time for refresher lessons. If you need to learn anything about music and/or related production software: VSTs, synths, DAWs, effects, etc. etc. etc. this is what you could use to do so.
This is a steal. This has been the best $99.00 investment that I’ve ever made. (EXCEPT, OF COURSE, for the times I invested in purchasing Beatstation, EXDrummer, Superior Drummer 2, EZKeys, EZXs, SDXs, MIDI packs and presets from TOONTRACK!!!) I’d have to say that if ToonTrack didn’t put out such great in-depth, done thought of every damn thing, infinitley customizable genius software the Groove3 wouldn’t have anything worthwhile to teach anyone about.

I hope the shameless b-nosing in the last line makes it ok to post this here. (I really did learn a lot from the courses you have done though- so Thank You for that!)

JeeKem

[Jeekem]

I don’t think you can. You may be able to tweak the resolution for the program and use a lower resolution and make it appear a bit bigger?

I think I remember reading somewhere that this is by design but I don’t remember why. I know IK Multimedia’s Sampletank and Amplitube programs behave the same way.

It bugs me a little with Sampletank because it is hard to read sometimes but EZD is such a great program it doesn’t really bother me.

I love the Toontrack stuff because it is so easy to work with.

There is a great course on Superior Drummer over at Groove3 by Scott Griggs. (I think) Groove 3 is having a special this month for a 1 year All-Access path for $99.00. My access was due to expire so I just renewed today. It is a bargain at three times that price. They have a ton of tutorials and they are all really good IMHO.
They also have a course on EZKeys. Not as in-depth as the SD course but well worth checking out.

JeeKem

[Jeekem]

“Anybody use Maschine as a midi controller?
If so – how do you like the performance of the pads?
I am considering purchasing Maschine and would like to know.
Thanks “

-Scott

I second that! I’d also like to know if you can do the same thing with one the AKAI Pad Controllers or other Mfgs. (Some of them are cheaper than the NI Maschine)

JeeKem

[Jeekem]

There are a couple of free sequencers such as Audigy or N-Track that I think have VST support. Audigy is a great program with a LOT of features.

It would help to know whether you are on a PC or Mac.
I’m a Sonar user as well but started off with a much cheaper version probably years ago on Windows 95 and the upgrade prices were great when on sale. I’m up to Sonar X1d Producer Extended now and I don’t think I’ve ever put out a hundred dollars in one year. (At least for the DAW program, not including EZXs and other VSTs)

Depending on what kind of music you’re creating I will say quite loudly that I think EZ Keys is maybe the coolest VST I’ve ever owned. The Toontrack programs are all great though.

JeeKem

[Jeekem]

I would definately go for EZ-BASS and a blues expansion pack!

JeeKem

[Jeekem]

I think I’d bail out and either download a fresh file or at least start unzipping again. Make sure you have enough free disk drive space. I’ve never had one take more than a couple of minutes- tops.

JeeKem

[Jeekem]

You have to be running EZD as a plug-in in your DAW and not as the Stand Alone outside your DAW. When I use it like this, the EZD tracks sync with the tempo in my project. I try to stay fairly close to the native tempo of the drum track though just because when you slow down a sound that mu8ch it messes with the pitch and stuff.

I think the product can do all that you want but you DO have to put in time using it and some things can only get simplified so much. I absolutely love this product but you and I may have different things that we’re hoping to achieve. There is a good course on Groove 3 and at least one other site. This program does stuff that I don’t even know that I need yet. I think it’s the easiest one I’ve tried.

We all want a program that you can come in and say – hey ToonTrack, do a cymbal and snare thingy for like a couple of bars and then play an original 12 bar blues thingy while following my intensity level while I play my guitar and sing and pretend to be a tortured artist and stuff. I want it to look like Marilyn Monroe too.

Hey- Good luck.

JeeKem

[Jeekem]

How long have you had the Live trial version installed? I think I read somewhere that after 30 days it starts shutting off some of the basic features.
I guess if they didn’t do that no one would ever pay for the software.
BUT – I’ve never really used Live. I do have a free version of it that came with one of my controllers or something. I also haven’t used a Mac for ten years so I won’t be very helpful, I’m afraid.
I just thought I would mention the limitations of the trial version. (If I remember correctly)
It’s worth consideration.

JeeKem

[Jeekem]

That is freaking hilarious!  and probably why I don’t want to gig anymore

JeeKem

[Author]

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