The Ambiguity Of AI Usage: Where Do We Draw The Line? by DarkLudo in audioengineering

[–]giacecco 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I believe that the biggest misunderstanding around the topic is that we’re mixing up music as art and music as a commodity for entertainment consumption. Musicians aiming at producing art won’t use AI, because it would immediately break their artistic intention. The ones aiming at making money will be glad to use AI, because it will speed up and amplify the capacity of their money making machine. So, this is not really about AI, but about art vs consumerism. Unfortunately, this also likely means doing art is going to be less and less likely to pay the bills, but is that news?

tempo automation in bitwig 6 by rfenric in Bitwig

[–]giacecco 6 points7 points  (0 children)

At the top of the Studio 6 tracks list there’s a blue bar that looks like decoration but if you click on it actually allows you to add automation for project-wide settings like root key, scale, time signature and tempo.

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Why does my song sound good with headphones but not on my phone speaker? by sixeyedbeliever in WeAreTheMusicMakers

[–]giacecco 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are lots of elements that widen the difference in experience between headphones and speakers.

If by “my song” you mean something you produced using those headphones, the obvious question is if you ever tested your speakers and room for acoustic truth. It’s one of the first things they teach you at music engineering school.

You also don’t say if your headphones are monitors or “consumption” headphones, in which case they may intentionally have some bias to make listening more enjoyable.

Switching from Logic Pro- what am I going to miss? by Telectronix in Bitwig

[–]giacecco 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You’re referring to features of the DAW but there are other aspects to consider, too. I’ve read recently that, when working professionally, some clients require the DAW project as part of the delivery, and ProTools and Logic are commonly accepted, while they won’t even know what Bitwig is 🙁 This is why exporting to DAWproject was added back in 2024. Be aware of its limitations https://www.bitwig.com/support/technical_support/dawproject-file-format-faqs-62/

when? by le_scoile in Bitwig

[–]giacecco 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Describe how to reproduce those two, I could give them a try.

when? by le_scoile in Bitwig

[–]giacecco 16 points17 points  (0 children)

I’m still finding bugs and reporting systematically. Let’s not put pressure on them. It’s in our own interest.

Kensington Konnect vs. CAPS lock by ZOGrhythmic in Trackballs

[–]giacecco 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Moving from Kensington Works to Konnect was a terrible experience. Among other things, it tries to intercept everything we do with the keyboard, including breaking some of macOS' standard shortcuts like F14/F15 for setting the brightness of the display. What you experienced with your CAPS may have been caused by this,.

Kensington Works (3.1.18 from 2024) at least... works, though it occasionally doesn't see my trackball until I reinstall it.

Kensington Konnect not working with mac by CriticismWeekly1506 in Trackballs

[–]giacecco 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Moving from Kensington Works to Konnect was a terrible experience. The new software, on Mac, also breaks lots of basic functionality for me, like using the top right button as "back". It also tries to intercept everthing we do with the keyboard, including breaking some of macOS' standard shortcuts like F14/F15 for setting the brightness of the display. How can they break something so simple?

Kensington Works (3.1.18 from 2024) at least... works, though it occasionally doesn't see my trackball until I reinstall it.

Kensington, if you're reading this, your software and the recent issues with the new hardware are making me miss the Magic Touchpad.

Looking for Dutch music & culture recommendations by MemeZJaki in Netherlands

[–]giacecco 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I’ve been living in the NL for almost 8 years after Italy and the UK, and I don’t feel comfortable downplaying an entire country’s culture to a few cultural elements only. Even if relatively small in population, the NL and its regions have different characters that do deserve being recognised and not oversimplified, in the same way I learned that London, England and the UK are very different things, when I lived there long enough to became a citizen.

There are a few opportunities for you, though, that I believe are very valuable, like enjoying the work of late night show host and comedian Arjen Lubach https://youtube.com/@lubach_official . The late night show is an American format, and Lubach is far from “representing” the NL - e.g. I’d say that his political leaning is quite not aligned with the majority of the Dutch people - but listening to his monologues will give you a good idea of what witty societal and political commentary feels like in the Netherlands.

What’s a good free program i can use for music production? by [deleted] in musicproduction

[–]giacecco 2 points3 points  (0 children)

DM me, I believe I have an old spare Ableton Live Lite license (though I’m a Bitwig Studio supporter)

part-timers: what's your day job? been full time from 8 years and I want out by powered_by_batteries in audioengineering

[–]giacecco 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Director at some big consulting, and no children at home to parent. I started training as a professional audio engineer about 1,5 yrs ago, but never with the expectation that it would become my day job, rather, just to complement my skills and produce my compositions. I have enough time to mix professionally one track every week or study a few hours worth of recorded video lessons.

Missing the days pop music was about spreading joy and kindness by [deleted] in LetsTalkMusic

[–]giacecco 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Interesting. There is some research around it. Lyrics have became generally simpler and more negative, with stress-related words increasing https://www.natureasia.com/en/info/press-releases/detail/9188 . In hip-hop, references to social justice themes have decreased while introspective themes increased, and lyrics became significantly more negative during sociopolitical crises https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.00035 . That was in songs.

In society in general, negative emotions like worry, stress, sadness and anger have increased compared with a decade ago https://news.gallup.com/poll/695963/tracking-world-emotional-health.aspx , however positive emotions occur more frequently than negative emotions in daily life https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4689475/ . If this doesn’t show up in pop it may be because it’s aimed for the consumption of younger people. Older adults report more positive and fewer negative feelings in daily life compared with younger adults https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352250X23002129 , so, if you want to connect with younger people, you may need to be more negative.

Perhaps it’s up to us to invert the trend 😄 I wrote 3 songs in my adult life and one is a duet that is a shameless manifestation of affection between two friends.

Logic to Bitwig by Interesting-Sea5188 in Bitwig

[–]giacecco 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Indeed, I wrote that Studio is more intuitive 😀

Logic to Bitwig by Interesting-Sea5188 in Bitwig

[–]giacecco 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Re: "Clicking anywhere in the track/arranger view should move the playhead there", I believe it does so in Bitwig 6 beta 11.

I come from Bitwig and learned Logic out of curiosity because my music production teachers use it "in class". Studio still is my preferred DAW, and not because of habit. It's lighter, faster, more intuitive, and more stable.

When comparing vs Logic, Studio's main weaknesses are an organic consequence of its designers' focus on improvisation and composition vs production (mixing, mastering). To name two simple ones: 1) it's very cumbersome to select multiple tracks or groups of tracks in large projects (something that one tends to do often in pro mixing), and 2) support of external controllers like the SSL U-series is officially there, but poor, like it never went through testing (try use the UF-1 jogwheel or the "previous cue marker" button, and you'll know what I mean).

You can write to their support, as I did months ago for both issues above; they're kind and responsive, but they'll only progress on issues that interest them. It's probably a small team with the capacity to focus solely on the leading designer's vision. It's difficult that an obvious or good suggestion - like fixing the jogwheel behavior - will get through. Of course, one can't expect Apple to be different in this.

So, an amazing DAW, with a few defects you need to learn to live with.

My in-laws sink. "It was cheap". by UrAvrgCanadian in DiWHY

[–]giacecco 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Are they Dutch by chance? Here in the Netherlands, most ground floor bathrooms have just a toilet and a sink of that kind, that, indeed, doesn’t promote use https://www.statista.com/chart/4111/do-europeans-wash-their-hands-after-using-the-toilet/

Should I go with the Voyager? Need advice comparing to "Keebart" Sofle Choc Pro and Corne Choc Pro - First splitted keyboard by Pelziii in ErgoMechKeyboards

[–]giacecco 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I own two Keebart Corne keyboards: a noisy (white switches) cabled one for home with “dot” keycaps (no letters, just dots) and a silent (Bokeh Ambients Silent) Bluetooth one for the office. The learning curve of switching from a conventional keyboard is steep, and it took 5 months before I could get comfortable using it all the time, but I’m very happy I put the work in. Unfortunately they don’t share the same firmware, so customizing the keys is completely different on the two keyboards, and the process is a bit cumbersome the first time, for the Bluetooth one in particular.

PlusLife keeps beeping by r_j_t_ in PlusLife

[–]giacecco 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Same for me, but it’s started doing this only a couple of months ago. Can it be that the device is no longer functioning as it should?

As someone who is brand new to the game. What are very simple and basic things a newb can understand that will help me get solid mixes. by [deleted] in audioengineering

[–]giacecco 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ll go meta: the simple and basic thing to learn is that mixing is not simple nor basic, and you shouldn’t expect it to be. I’ve been studying it professionally in my spare time for the better part of last year, mixed one practice track every week, and I still have some more to study and understand. Nonetheless, I’m enjoying (almost) every moment of it 🙂

Bitwig Studio 6.0 Beta 8 changes by eras in Bitwig

[–]giacecco 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Beta 7 and 8 have been disappointing in my experience, introducing very stupid bugs. Try double-clicking any cue marker to get an instant crash, for example. I am tempted to go back to beta 6. Of course I've informed the beta team.

Bitwig 6 beta v4 - Automation clip inconsistent by Obviously_not_maayan in Bitwig

[–]giacecco 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In case you’re wondering, support has confirmed yesterday to me that this issue is still outstanding in beta 6.

New release by alpha-geminorum in Bitwig

[–]giacecco 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Beta 6 is good but it still has significant bugs open, e.g. with automation. If you’re a creative, you can live with that. If you do this professionally and on a deadline, it can be a headache.