Hi! I'm new to Music Maker, and am wondering if Producer Base is worth looking into. I can't find much info about it nor do they have any new content on the home page. Should I just upload to Youtube instead to get exposure for my messy mixes?
@Axel-Gillespie >> wondering if Producer Base is worth looking into. There was something of a community when it first started, still is to some extent. But I guess the word got out, and there are now people who seem to dump everything they've ever created on the site. Flooding the site doesn't help anybody, it dilutes the experience.
But is Youtube any different? Perhaps only in the sense of a broader potential audience. One important distinction is that Youtube is for everybody, ProducerBase is for people who make music.
In addition to @gjonny comments, there is the Media section of the forum, which is curated by the Moderators, where you can upload your creations for critique.
. . . . Should I just upload to Youtube instead to get exposure for my messy mixes? . . . .
An issue with using YouTube is that you are likely to get hit with Copyright strikes, some may be valid, many will not be.
You, or anyone else using Soundpools, only have copyright of the entire work that has been created.
Copyright of Soundpool loops is retained by Magix - you and other users of those loops only have licences to use them within the terms and conditions of the appropriate licences.
There is no differentiation that indicates a Soundpool(s) is (are) commercially licenced and others are not - they are the same soundpools, you must retain copies of the licences for those you purchase.
Anyone claiming that you have copied a piece of their work, ie have used the same loop or loops, cannot claim copyright on that alone.
There have been many ‘copyright’ claims on music eg on Youtube, Soundcloud etc from ‘scrapers’ – identities specifically looking for music to claim a copyright on and demanding a fee for compensation or to allow the creator to continue having the music available.
Certain organisations, which are used by musicians to manage copyright, similarly cannot claim copyright protection down to the level of individual loops - only on complete works or identifiable signature riffs etc, created by the musician.
To avoid any claims completely you would have to create an 'original work' by writing the music and lyrics, play the built in Instruments or writing the notes in the MIDI Editor, and/or record yourself, performing on instrument(s) eg guitar, or singing - and no Soundpool loops.
As mentioned by @gjonny Producerbase has become a dumping ground for users unlimited music uploads which does get completely overwhelming and the experience is lost.
Magixinfo own media section is a great friendly community where you have a greater chance of having your music checked out and feedback left and it's worth returning the favour as you get more listener's for your music, many users collaborate with each other as well.
At Magixinfo you can only upload two pieces of music maximum a day giving you and everyone else more opportunity to have your work checked out.
Thank you for your answers. Very helpful. I created a soundtrack for a short flythru I did for a restaurant a couple of weeks ago. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ynXxfxmGzM-Y56nIqwrczRIb-In_RRsB/view?usp=drive_link Apologies if this link is not allowed. It's a bit much for an empty restaurant and I only uploaded it to my Google drive for the principles to see. It was also the first piece of music I created with loops when I got this program. I guess I'll just buy that midi keyboard I was looking at, use my guitar, and create my own tunes instead of using loops but it would be nice to get some feedback and perhaps collaboration on some stuff. I used to use Vegas for my video editing and Acid Pro, but when this company bought it from Sony I switched to Premiere Pro and became a monthly Adobe Creative suite user. I just started with this so I haven't seen the media section for Magix yet but I'll look for it today.
The only page I saw in Producer base was when I clicked on the link from the help section of Magix and all the stuff was two years old and I didn't join the free version because that meant it had a pay version. Since I just bought yearly access to all the soundpools, I should have read the fine print and saved some money. Should have talked to you guys first. I guess I'll have to go read the fine print on the use of the soundpool loops, and if something does sound good enough, buy the commercial license to gain full legal access to them.
I was a second engineer at a recording studio in the 80's, a lighting director in the 90's, and had a small recording studio in my house in the early 90's as well. Although I dabbled in playing music I never really created any music myself. I kind of want to create a DJ type set of music, with a virtual lightshow/video show, then maybe buy the lights to make it real eventually and post on YouTube to gain a following an monetize it like I see a few people doing. I need to learn how these DJ's using bits of other peoples music gain legal access to them to monetize it for themselves and to play it live.
One of the moderators pointed me to this topic as I don't use any Magix DAW but do have another dedicated couple of DAWs that I do use and one is mainly used for creating music with loops. Because I am not using a Magix DAW is the reason I don't normally visit this part of the forums or contribute here.
There are sites out there that do not charge for commercial use of their loops providing they are not used as stand alone samples but a part of a new musical composition created by yourself. Preferably cut up, changed pitch etc. You just have to read the end user licence agreements very carefully. So far anything I have made and uploaded to YouTube has not had any copyright strikes (Touch wood). One such site for commercial use allowed sound loops can be found here. Read the end user licence agreement carefully and you will see what I mean. The DAW I do use also came with a library of over 900 loops which is also free for similar use and they have their own shop with more loops and some are at reasonable prices. Also look out for HumbleBundle offerings of sound loops but again visit the sites the loops are offered from before purchasing any or using them. Also make sure you are buying loops and not complete songs. At first my music was similar to your own but since using loops more recently I have begun to use less electronic sounds and gone for more traditional instrument sounding compositions and branched out with my styles more.
I have a somewhat similar background story to yourself and don't class myself as a musician but can either practice musical phrases and lay them down one bit at a time using MIDI or select relevant sections of sound loops to create a new composition.
I do tend to only upload to YouTube but mainly my compositions are made for use with my own video content rather than trying to build a dedicated music channel.
As the video at least was made with Movie Edit Studio I can show a version of what I do here.
Thanks for the welcome and thanks for the info CubeAce. I forgot I had a subscription to Artlist, and it turns out they have audio loops as well. I just have to read their terms of service. Thanks for the links as well. I'm getting ready to buy an Akai keyboard with the M-Audio Air 19214 audio interface, and it comes with some free software and loops, I think Ableton Live Lite and MPC beats also, so more new stuff to learn.
Checked out your video. That looks like it was a fun gig, and would have been fun to fly/film with my FPV gear. Subscribed.
Listen, I'd like to ask why soundloop sounds change completely after you've bought that soundloop for yourself?After the purchase, the sounds are much quieter and sound like an out-of-tune guitar: as if I had switched headphones to a tin bucket. Honestly, **** what **** to do and produce music when the voices sound like ass. Is there anything that can be fixed?
@Kristiina-Koivukangas Make sure the audio driver settings are correct. Navigate to File > Settings > Program Settings > Audio/MIDI. Select an ASIO driver, for example Music Maker ASIO. Click on the Advanced button next to the driver selection to open the driver settings. Select your audio input and audio output and set the buffer size to something reasonable like 512 samples. Usually, this should help with sound quality.
@Kristiina-Koivukangas Then I suggest you restart your computer to re-initialize all drivers in case they are currently in a corrupted state. Please select the Restart option and not the Shut down option.
If this doesn't help, please create a new topic with some audio examples and hardware specifications of your computer, since your question has nothing to do with Producerbase.
I have an M-Audio Axiom 32 Mini and a Roland ED PC-300.
I don't have a dedicated sound card but can still get latency down to 10ms @ 24bit 48kHz which is good enough for me as most loops are not normally available at any higher quality than that and the dynamic range and frequency response is probably better than my hearing. Setting up a DAW to have higher input settings than that when using loops often ends in odd sounds and a lot of vsts (especially the free ones) don't work well at higher sampling rates such as reverb units.
If I had really good microphones and was close miking drums or an instrument amp I might go up to 32 bit for safety but otherwise there really isn't a need and the kit / instrument would probably need some compression after anyway. Also I doubt my power amps powering my speakers / headphones has a similar signal to noise ratio as the ADC/DAC in the computer. Don't get me wrong. I have used dedicated sound cards / interfaces in the past but with my current inboard sound chip I really don't hear a difference any more and the latency issue for me is negligible. If I used the S/N ratio available I would damage my hearing 🤣.
As for flying drones at events. In the UK over the last few years the rules have become much more (draconian / safety conscious, depending on point of view) and even flying a small drone like the DJI Mavic drones, or even smaller. you would need to get special permission and be qualified to an above average level and even then the guidelines of where you could fly or not would still be a little limited. You should look up the current UK drone laws. It is what has put me off buying one and I've never seen one in use at our local festivals. Our local authorities are very good at dealing with illegal drones. I have even been to a firework display that was halted until the drones were dealt with. It did not improve the crowds mood. That is not to say a person could not fly a drone at such events but they tend to be the top qualified drone pilots and normally hired by the organisers. My job on that occasion was just to get a little footage of the fair and footage of the dragon boat races from a given vantage point where I spent most of the day with a long telephoto lens and a tripod. Luckily it was a shady spot with available free beverages and food.
Good luck with your composing and let us know where you decide to post your output.
One of the mods here may have to alert me to that final point as I am mainly active in the video section of the forums.
I was looking at the M-Audio 32 with sustain pedal as well. I haven't pulled the trigger on a purchase yet though. So far I haven't had any issues with this program except one, and I was able to get rid of the issue by resetting the program settings. For some reason when I launched the program and started working, all the loops sounded like they were over peaked and distorted, even when the volume levels were way down. I looked for answers in the forums and there were many different solutions, but resetting worked for me.
I'm studying for my part 107 FAA license so I don't run into those issues and I always ask for permission from the land/business owner before I fly. I would love to fly through a fireworks display, but I would ask for permission first. You should consider getting an FAA license so you can fly/video at those events. Buy a cheap remote controller, download Liftoff and teach yourself on your computer before you fly. It's more fun than you can imagine, and the cinematography you can get from the air is spectacular. Also, it's not only the UK. The US has been making it harder as well. The new remote id rules are ridiculous, expensive and a cumbersome pain in the butt.
You were lucky to get some shade, food and drink at that event. I'm sure you had fun though.
Thanks for the luck, and I will probably post here and on YouTube under a new account name for the music/lightshow/video projection concept. This is for my FPV stuff on YouTube... axelfpv1983 if you want a look. I'll post the new music account after I've set it up in a few weeks/months.
When replying to a post if you type an @ onto the page you will get a list of the people who responded to the topic and select the one you wish to respond to. They will then be shown an alert when they log into the site so will know to look for the response.
I find the M-Audio gear to be reliable but the finish is one that is not the most robust. For the price though very good value for money.
The not to fly overhead of anyone within 50 feet rule here would rule out being able to fly over most of these events and in that instance the event took place on privately owned land and the organisers had no say in giving permissions. Because of the amount of local residencies to that site, the land owners do no longer give permission. I do work for a few local organisations and none of them allow any drone flying when there are large crowds of the public attending but do allow video and still photography. About five to six years ago it was possible to use a small drone but I haven't seen any drone that is relatively close and not some distance away for some time now. I have seen two instances of people with the very mini follow type drone escorted off premisses. It is getting harder in general to legally film anywhere with or without a drone unless you are on public land or filming for an organisation. I notice the majority of your videos are in open areas and have increased your number of subscribers by one 😂.
Most of what I do for organisers is stills photography for their advertising or record keeping. The videos are often off my own back in my own spare time. The dragon boat racing was an exception not likely to be repeated. They were nice people who looked after me exceptionally better than most organisations but from an organising perspective chaotic as in knowing what they wanted of getting permissions to enter certain areas to gain access for filming or giving me a working schedule of what was happening where and when. Hence a lot of shaky footage. I had no idea I would be so far away and relying on my long lenses or the volume of the crowds to get through from one area to another.
Regarding unusual sounds coming from loops or recorded sound in general.
In my experience so far it has either come down to buffer size / sample rate settings within a given program or the general in / out settings of the audio interface either not being able to be used at the set sample rate / bit depth selected within the Windows settings. Vst's can also be adversely effected especially if you are able to mix vst2 with vst3 effects within one program. Other problems can include not having the loops on the suggested default location which is often on the C: drive / Program data / (program folder) / loops or userlibrarysounds folders.
I personally find using another internal fast drive to create and use projects from far more reliable than using an external USB drive or cloud storage space which the latter is probably the worst place to run files to or from.
These are just suggestions but I don't run into distortion problems often myself.
Mixing 24 bit and 16 bit recordings can sometimes lead to different volume levels occurring but shouldn't unless they are also different sample rates. Again it shouldn't make a difference but sometimes does. 24 bit recordings should have better dynamic ranges than 16 bit and it is unusual not to have to adjust levels during a project.
I also tend to stick to wave files although ogg files can also be extremely good.
I don't use a Magix music program but all commercial sound loops except sound effects should be tagged with tempo and key information as well as how many bars the loop's duration is, which should be viewable from the library section of the program as well as a way to change the loop's key or tempo if needed or not automatically matched to the project settings when previewing or placing onto the timeline.
Yeah, that at symbol thing messed me up. Didn't realize it would cause an action. Thank you for clarifying what it does.
Thanks for the subscribe as well! Yeah, I don't like to tempt fate and I follow the FAA rules because I would like to turn this into a business soon. There are many rules about flying around people and at night. I'm taking some classes online to study for my test.
Thank you for answering for Kristina as well. Not really sure why she posted in this thread but hopefully she got the help she needed.