I do almost everything with closed-back headphones, simply because they're better for recording (they leak way less sound) and this way I don't have to switch between different models.

If you need a workhorse software synth, you may want to look into SynthMaster, which is currently on sale. I haven't used it myself but I hear it's extremely flexible if you're willing to put in the effort (and put up with a quite complex user interface). If you get SynthMaster Player + the crossgra...

You betcha! And by the way, I would have announced this myself if you hadn't beat me to it.

AFAIK you can't really use foam to dampen bass, due to the extreme wavelengths involved (rule of thumb being: 1/4 wavelength of insulation or don't bother). The only category of things that really work and don't have the size of a small building is bass-eating cabinets that have a membrane or someth...

You know, "Carte Blanche" is from the French for "blank check." I don't think it is. The French word for check is "chèque". A more faithful translation is "white card" or "blank paper". On donnait ainsi à l’ennemi une grande feuille de papier vierge...

If you have Essential, the update is free.
If you have another edition and purchased/registered after 1 March, the update is free.
In any other case:
Assistant $49
Editor $99
Studio $149

And yes, the changes look very convincing...

While we're at it, the information about the IRC channel on songfight.net is outdated. We moved from euIRC to Mibbit quite some time ago, due to some difficulties with euIRC.

My own take on the subject, split off into a separate post for better readability, has more of a focus on "maintaining" creativity in general. I think the true curse of creativity is what happens if you paint yourself into a corner where you feel pressured to be creative (or to be creative...

I'm not a huge fan of Peterson - I think he uses way too many convoluted sentences to make his ideas sound fancier than they are. Anyway, I watched it, and the whole thing is about trying to turn creativity into a career, not about creativity as such - even if he takes several minutes to get to the ...

iZotope are currently selling an extremely discounted bundle of: Ozone Elements (mastering, basic features like maximizer/limiter, imager, EQ) RX Elements (audio editing/recovery, basic features like de-click, de-clip, de-hum, voice de-noise) Neutron Elements (channel strip type plugin with stuff li...

Just in case it wasn't clear, this doesn't mean you have 60 days to click the button. It means that the license expires after 60 days.
Nice gesture though.

Actually, it can work there, too. Two tracks panned hard left and right. But the timing can't be too far off. Another trick is the Haas effect. Pan them both wide, nudge one track back 20ms (give or take 10 to taste) and then balance the volume. Works great on acoustic guitars. There is one major p...

That's the stand-alone media player jumping in and intercepting the link. You can turn this off for all media (audio/video) links: Go to the URL "about:config" and toggle the setting "media.play-stand-alone". Or use the classic workaround: right-click MP3 links and choose "s...

I'm way ahead of that, here's a compact mathematical representation of all songs ever made (and all songs ever to be written), among a few other things:
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I've read multiple accounts from random people on the internet claiming that Degoo mysteriously lost some of the data (or compressed? Who knows) and wouldn't let them download some of the data. At least one person also claimed downloads were insanely slow for them. Just something to consider. That a...

Native Instruments is giving away a reverb, too (and a voucher for their shop): https://www.native-instruments.com/en/s ... day-gifts/

I don't like pitch modification to the extent that natural intonation and modulation is lost. It gets even worse if you use it for harmonies. They always sound super artificial - even though Melodyne tries to add in some humanization, it still sounds robot-y. And, of course, less than subtle pitch c...

Semi-related: So I tried out Pitchmap (which is currently on sale, too) on a few full mixes. I can't say I'd recommend it for that. It misses way too many things for my taste, so if, for example, I try to change the scale, clearly audible parts of the background still use the old scale. It might wor...

To answer the question about Essential vs. Assistant: Essential does away with all of the detailed pitch and timing editing. These are the things you can do in Assistant but not in Essential: Change the phrasing intensity within notes (from super flat to exaggerated) Change the pitch transitions (fr...

ReaTune is pretty aggravating to use IMO. It's difficult to "aim" corrections, and its pitch detection is pretty bad, at least on my vocals. The big benefit in all of the paid options (except the dumbed down versions of Auto-Tune) is that you can adjust the detection results after the fact...

VST Buzz is doing a Black Friday sale (going for another 12 days as of now) on 26 plugins and bundles. Particularly interesting IMO: Orchestral Bundle by Aria Sounds . For €67/£58.25/$75.99 excl. VAT ( 90% off ) This requires a full version of NI Kontakt 4 (5 for the harp)! You get the following sam...

Black friday deals at iZotope : Elements bundle $49 (Ozone, Neutron, Nectar, RX and others, 93% off!), Music Production Suite 3 $499 (~50% off) and others (but these are the most aggressively priced ones). Sale probably going until 6 Dec. PS. Celemony is running a sale on Melodyne: "essential&q...