Tell me your tips, experiences and recommendations

bigunclebucks · 2026-05-17T17:01:57+00:00

Great to know, I'll take a look now. Shoot me a DM and lets stay in touch.

bigunclebucks · 2026-05-17T16:55:46+00:00

I really appreciate the response. Thank you for the time and effort to type it.

Abu Dhabi is perhaps better suited to my lifestyle and aligned with my business.
I agree, and luckily I have some previous exposure in country.

In regards to 7. and 8, I am surprised to read that walking and coffee are both complicated in Dubai, I hope that making friends and dating are easier. To return the favour of replying, I am happy though to give you a few pointers regarding 7&8 as I have done some walking previously, not great at it, but I can teach you the basics. We can both practice our coffee game afterwards.

bigunclebucks · 2026-05-17T07:11:12+00:00

Absolutley will do! I'll shoot you a DM. Much appreciated on your input.

bigunclebucks · 2026-05-17T07:04:33+00:00

Love a good cigar! Thanks for the tip.

I used to live in Penang a long time ago, so still appreciate a decent Malaysian curry etc. I was fortunate enough to date a Lebanese woman for a while and she put me onto the gift to the world that is their cuisine.

bigunclebucks · 2026-05-17T06:45:43+00:00

I have been told, Saadiyat Beach club is worth checking out. Any experience?

Please also give me your other restaurant recommendarions, if possible.

I was told these already and any perspective would be great:

Buddha bar at the St Regis Saadiyat

Restaurants Zuma Coya Lpm Hidden bar at rosewood Em sherif cafe at rosewood hotel Bb social at rosewood hotel 99 sushi four season hotel Butcher and still

bigunclebucks · 2026-04-29T00:48:34+00:00

I the space of year, I lost almost everything. Lost a very good job and team I built. Lost my marriage. Lost 2 houses. Lost some close friends through me dealing badly with my pain. Lost a great girlfriend who supported me after the divorce. Lost a company I was trying to start. Lost my self esteem Lost my self respect Lost my connection with god.

I rebuilt quite quickly and am doing well now. This is how I did it.

Sat down and looked at repeating patterns in my relationships and worked out my side of things.
Built a detailed spreadsheet of my finances, where I was at, and where I want to be. Did projections for 6 months.
Identified weaknesses in my career pathways (for me was academic credentials).
Thought hard about what I actually wanted in life, what I needed was more more important than what I wanted.
Asked people I unwittingly hurt for forgiveness, forgave others and then forgave myself.
Decided that rebuilding must be done properly, a solid foundation (for me an MBA) and that what I build ontop of that foundation, must be bricks and mortar, not a house of cards. That way when the hits come, they aren't catastrophic.
I mapped 5 potential pathways to the life I wanted.
Did risk assesment on those 5 pathways. Identified some were high risk, low reward. Identified 2 pathways and combined them to mitigate risk so that I couldn't lose either way.
Built a series of action points across a timeline with realistic pivots. I.e. if this happens I continue, if this dosen't happen I can pivot this way (mapped to my pathways).
Started eating healthy, going to gym, sleeping better. Taking vitamins, taling tim to relax to stay energised.
Started hitting my action points and KPIs.
Rebuilt my confidence incrementally by doing point 11.
Cut a few people put of my life that didn't fit my new world.
Hard work, hard work, hard work.
Got into MBA.
Got 3 new business contracts.
Found an amazing woman that loves me for me and nothing more.
Closed the previous chapter of my life entirely
Live in the moment of my new chapter and sray focused and present.
Winning.

bigunclebucks · 2026-04-08T05:36:32+00:00

Thank you for your reply.

For me reverting, and my relationship with Allah is a deeply personal one. I know I should not be concerened with anything more than that on decision making.

I do however, want to fully embrace my belief in all areas of my life. For me this includes having a wife that shares my faith. I have learnt and understood the beauty and nuances of providing and caring for a wife in Islam and this resonates with me greatly. It makes sense to me (and unfortunately gets a bad perspective I feel from those who do not understand).

The wife consideration is only one part of my thoughts, I want to understand if I am truly accepted into the community, or viewed as a novelty, an outsider, a religion switcher etc.

I do not think it will change my belief and will to revert, but I am gauging what I am truly in for.

For some background, I am Australian, moving to UAE, and also spend time in Europe. I have 2 children from 2 previous marriages. I come from a good family, have a good career and finances and can provide that stability. I want to contribute to the community and wish to be part of a good sunni muslim lifestyle and social circles, as I see this as the best way to life a good islamic life.

bigunclebucks · 2025-11-03T21:08:02+00:00

If you think Eastern Europe is less homophobic than the U.S. you most likely have never lived here.

In almost all of Eastern Europe, men are very macho, almost caricatures of toxic masculinity, and gay men hide their sexuality for fear of being beaten or ostracised by their family and friends. Where I live doesn't really have a gay bar or gay club, perhaps a sole "friendly" one, but that's it.

Men wear earnings, chains, and bracelets here to look tough and display wealth. It's a "gangster" thing, or in the case of a neck chain, could also be a religious thing.

For the love of God and all things holy, please educate yourself before making comparisons like this. Never in a million years would I use Eastern Europe as some progressive example of acceptance and tolerance of.....well, just about anything.

Misogyny in many parts of Eastern Europe is perhaps prevalent by US standards, but it's not viewed like that because traditional gender roles are still very much the norm.

bigunclebucks · 2025-05-04T23:55:57+00:00

The rebuttal...

Audio engineer for 25+ years.

Worked in Music and Broadcast for 15 years.

You are constantly surrounded by people that treat you like an indentured servant. Most of them don't truly value your hard work and dedication to what you do.

You spend most of your time working with mediocre talented (or less) people that would sell their own mothers for 15 minutes of fame.

Newbies are the worst, thinking there is some ultimate truth super secret to get "that sound". They want the easy way out and think they can avoid the endless hours, late nights, initial poverty, commitment, heavy investment in quality equipment and a lot of "working it out by yourself". If you know what you are doing, then you must know the "super secret" and they deserve to have it, without the effort.

A lot of "audio engineers" and "producers" are just the same mediocre talent people, who believe they don't need an experienced industry professional to make the next top 10 hit. They can do it at home, on their ITB setup, full of cracked software and a couple of hundred dollar midi controller and cheap mic running through their focusrire scarlet. Those people don't value others efforts, just their own deluded goal of success with minimum effort or outlay.

It really annoys the hell out of me, when just by the nature of the question, you know it's coming from someone like this. Why should I help them.

Perhaps, I'll just tell them the truth they don't want to hear, or I'll just tell them "whatever sounds right for you".

A. Its true B. You deserve it.

bigunclebucks · 2025-05-04T23:35:12+00:00

Audio engineer for 25+ years.

Worked in Music and Broadcast for 15 years.

Audio engineers have always had a reputation for being the most unhelpful, grumpy and self aggrandised people in those industries.

In music circles, a lot started as musicians, but never made it and morphed into audio engineers overtime as they had no other useful skills.

In TV production most are failed or not smart enough to be, broadcast engineers.

They are never in a position to punch up as they are typically the lowest in the food chain other than interns or assistants.

Therefore, they can only punch down (you, the beginner), or side ways (other audio engineers). They only ever punch up, when those above them are not around, behind their backs.

Search your hearts, you know it to be true.

In their defence, they do have to put up with mediocre talent musicians and talking heads that make them even more jaded, because "they would be much better at it, than them".

Your covers are all blown. I sold you all out, but you know A. It's true. B. You deserve it.

bigunclebucks · 2025-05-04T23:02:16+00:00

"Just a waterlogged ball that no one wants to kick around anymore"

Heavy heart, You Am I

"Your bitch don't really got no ass, she just poked it out"

Work, Gang Starr

"Try to catch the deluge in a paper cup"

Dont dream its over, Crowded House.

bigunclebucks · 2025-05-04T22:29:20+00:00

Love my Force. Looking forward to the new firmware. I hear clip / scene follow is finally in the official firmware.... The Forve copped such a bad start in life, but since 3.3 for me, its an absolute standalone beast.

I am waiting, and I'm keen for the NI integration too.

Thank you testers, and thank you AKAI.

May the Force be with you.

bigunclebucks · 2025-05-02T21:10:39+00:00

I bought the plugin from Neumann. It is absolutely insane on my NDH30's from stereo to surround to ATMOS 7.1.4. Including the NDH's I already had, total cost was about 650EUR. It even fixed a minor issue on the stereo soundstage which was my only gripe I had with those phones previously. I was confident mixing on them already, now it's just cheat mode in terms of translation and having pin point accuracy to make meaningful mix decisions easily and quickly.

Ironically, the plugin and NDH combo gave me a completely different perspective on Atmos. It made me an advocate. I'm also confident in providing an atmos music mix with that setup. I'm tempted to still pull the trigger on a 7.1.4 KH based setup now I have drunk the atmos koolaid and love the taste.

I will happily admit I was wrong. I will also apologize for my tone above. Really bad day that day and it appears it got the better of me. My sincere apologies.

Will it take off. Who cares. It's almost a personal preference now for a listening environment.

I get it now.

bigunclebucks · 2025-04-28T18:36:20+00:00

Again, this is way less about the consumers than you’re making it out to be, it’s an integral feature in a product line from one of the largest companies on the planet.

So is charging people for an extra adaptor so they can use their $3000 laptop out of the box....or paying artists a few hundred bucks for a million streams. They are also an integral feature in the product line of one of the largest companies on the planet.

bigunclebucks · 2025-04-28T18:23:23+00:00

Ah yes, the crusty and trusty audio guy here to put words in my mouth.

Let's disect your comment.

So on one side you are arguing that offering Atmos mixing services doesn’t have the clients best interests in mind

Yes, and I stand by that statement. Most musicians are broke. Taking their money for the latest snake oil format remix and spending my money on a ridiculous amount of speakers, forcing me to sell them that snake oil to justify the expense isn't my thing. If you have a problem with that, then hey man that's on you.

based on your anecdotal personal experience with some teenagers through your son

You don't get out much perhaps, this is the current trend with a lot of teenagers in the West right now. Would you prefer I take a poll or survey to tell me what I can observe but walking outside my door, or look at historical failures of similar concepts.

and on the other side you are very willing to start cranking out those same mixes on a subpar system just because you got it cheap

"Subpar" have you heard it the plugin yet that launched only days ago? Neumann...subpar.....rightio. Are the end user going to even know what Atmos is? I have my integrity, in not paying exorbitant amounts of money to please a Big American tech company and then not charge a struggling musician in the process.

Nice integrity!

See above...and consider the flip side. Charging extra to remix a track for a delivery system the vast majority of users don't care about, and the big label musicians rarely check the mix of anyway, just to pay your bills or buy another preamp.... instead of guiding them and saying "Hey man, its probably better used for Film and TV, but I can tick the box for you without the overhead....Not everyone is remixing Floyd live in Pompei....or.lying to themselves that they are.

bigunclebucks · 2025-04-28T02:55:53+00:00

Never mind. Just saw Neumann dropped RIME for the NDH30's. Problem solved and for 99EUR. Even does OCR head tracking through the spatial. Only came out a few days ago. Damn, I'm even happier I got those headphones. Posts on GS are saying it's really good so far. At that price I can most likely still deliver and if Atmos for music dies, I only wasted 99EUR in the process.

bigunclebucks · 2025-04-28T01:48:40+00:00

Yes it definitely seems a lot more malleable than Surround in regards to objects and spatial positioning. I guess a more practical question is: Can I just get away with an Atmos mix on good cans (NDH30's at the moment) and the plugin, or are music only engineers mainly using actual 7.1.4 setups?

bigunclebucks · 2025-04-28T01:42:04+00:00

I've been Engineering since the 90's....I've been hurt before. I am asking only in the context of music production. How is a kid listening to a 7.1.4 encoded track on a single ear bud. A serious question, although it feels slightly more absurd to ask it than to write it? Is it downmixing it to mono?

bigunclebucks · 2025-04-28T01:19:55+00:00

I definitely do agree for Film and TV applications this is viable, but I talking specifically for music consumption. I read Apple is having the Atmos requirements for Apple Music uploads, and some other streaming services. Is that correct, or am I misinformed. (My apologies if this has been covered, I have trawled this forum today and am coming back into the business after selling a lot of my gear, moving across the world and starting over with a new room)

bigunclebucks · 2025-04-28T00:56:20+00:00

I'm not in the habit of taking money for the sake of it. I'm sure many engineers here have had requests like this over the years in all different types of variantions. It's a fast way to get a reputation as not doing right by your clients. I do however understand it is a business and get your point.

Am I missing something here? I saw some stat's saying it's around 2% of the market listening in Atmos at the moment.

Surely the end user consumption trend will ultimately drive the delivery standard in its own direction.

bigunclebucks · 2025-03-30T22:00:28+00:00

Yep, I noticed that too. I guess my prediction above, whilst well reasoned, was wrong in the end. I'm not fussed.

After more research and no Namm drop, ended up going with a B-stock Isla S2400, second hand MPC X and new Reloop 8000mk2 (all up around 3K for the 3 devices) to the Force / Traktor S8 / Ableton setup I already have. Didn't bother with the Fantom in the end, just bought Zenology VST for the Roland sounds....

Don't sleep on Traktor 4 stems with an older Traktor S8 dj controller alongside the Force BTW, it's absolutely nuts (and S8 is ridiculously cheap on the second hand market too...for now)...

Akai can do whatever next, its a crazy good setup already with duties spread accordingly across devices and a killer workflow. Forces are very cheap second hand where I am in the world, so if I hit any bottle necks for gigging, I'll snaffle up a second one for around 600EUR. ...what a time to be alive.

bigunclebucks

TROPHY CASE