New Memeber - Initial thoughts

SayersWeb · Joined: Apr 07, 2003 Posts: 62 Location: Sugar Land, Texas

Hi,

I saw Howard's post about this forum on BeyondEM today, so I came over and joined.

While I have a fresh pair of eyes maybe I can give a first impressions about the forum?

The idea is wonderful. I think the Yahoo Groups is too limited to build a true community. Also the topics are single threaded since they are email based.

It's also nice to have a collection of Artists to explore. I tried to create this with the BeyondEM pages at MP3.com. I posted monthly playlists, interviews, etc. The problem was that the entire burden was on me and it was a lot of work. Also, it was hard to get people to participate. Here an artist has control over their own content and the give and take of a forum can keep people coming back.

The Events and Concert Series, Associations, Organizations and Communities, and Artists sections of this site make perfect sense to me. It would be nice if there was some kind of genre indication for Artists on the main page. Maybe ask people to place it in their descriptions? I'm not sure what styles of electronic artists will use this site, but it could get frustrating to have to weed through dozens of dance related artists when I am in the mood to explore some new classic styled EM.

Instruments and Equipment only has entries for SoftSynths and Sequencers. What about hardware synths, mixing and recording, etc? Is there a plan to offer space for these discussions?

When I first read the How-To's I figured it was a FAQ on how to use the forums since it is in the same section as site News, and community building topics. It was surprising when it turned out to be studio techniques.

Would it be better to have one forum called studio/production/performance that could cover all topics from equipment to software to live performance? This could be where artists share their experiences, ask questions, etc. Similar to the EM Masterclass list at Yahoo Groups. Since a Forum can have multiple threads this could be a great way to have discussions on varying topics without having to drill-down through so many forums.

The News, Commentary, Schmooze and electro-music.com could probably all be rolled into one forum. This is where everyone could gather and would be the first place to check when you visit the site. Here relationships could be built between artists, fans, industry people, etc. It's where we all get to know one another and bcome a community.

I guess my point is that maybe things can be rolled up to fewer forums in an effort to build more of a community feel. The discussions are a bit disjointed since they are spread between so many different forums. If the need arises later things can be split out when it makes the most sense.

Oh, one last question. Is there a Forum FAQ that answers questions like how to add a new entry in the Artist area?

Well... whatever happens, I think this site is a great idea and I hope to contribute in a positive way. Please take these comments to be constructive and an effort to share intial impressions. I don't mean to seem ungrateful or don't want to ruffle any feathers. Wink

egw · Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2003 6:10 am Post subject:

Hey Sayer - welcome!
Your suggestions are great, I think they would streamline and improve things.
The FAQ could go in the electro-music.com forum. Or maybe rename that.
How-tos could be bundled in with instruments and equipment, and given a slightly broader title. Categories like HW synths, recording and engineering etc. could be added there. Technical stuff. Discussions about performance and experiences perhaps goes somewhere else.

SayersWeb · Joined: Apr 07, 2003 Posts: 62 Location: Sugar Land, Texas

egw · Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2003 8:12 am Post subject:

Yes that's me!
Here's my musiclinks page:
http://waltzer.crosswinds.net/egw/musiclinks.htm

mosc · Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2003 8:53 am Post subject:

Excellent suggestions. Thanks. I'll start "hacking" as soon as I can. The forums and categories were just put up on the fly without too much careful thought. We were just trying out the forums to see if they held much promise.

I think the concept and the implementation PHPBB software is very good. It is easy for the admin to move topics around to different forums. It's all done via a pretty well designed web interface. My only complaint is that this text entry page, called bbcode, doesn't work as well with Netscape (even version 7) as it does with IE. The spellcheck function is a total bust with Netscape. It has caused me to switch browsers.

Sayer, your web site has a GREAT pic of your studio. I'm impressed how neat it is. Wink

Maybe we could have something, a topic or something, where people post photos of their studios, with a description.

egw · Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2003 10:15 am Post subject:

I was really impressed with the photography on Sayer's site!

Photos of studios is a cool idea - Mark Pulver used to have a bunch of them up at midiwall, but I don't see them there anymore.

egw · Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2003 10:25 am Post subject: studio pics

ok, I found them:
http://www.midiwall.com/gear/gearpics.html

SayersWeb · Joined: Apr 07, 2003 Posts: 62 Location: Sugar Land, Texas

Hi mosc! (Howard, right?) Yes... I really like this BB software. It gives a lot of flexibility. I have not had the pain of trying to administer one though! Wink

Yep, I gave up on Netscape a while ago for similar reasons. I tried to avoid IE out of prinicple, but eventually had to admit defeat and start using it.

Greg - Aha! I remember "Mutation Vector" from the BeyondEM station! I look forward to hearing some more MP3s of your music, do you have any online?

BTW... thanks to you both for checking out my studio pictures! It's always interesting to see what people do with their setups. I'm actually in the middle of reconfiguring my studio. Just bought a new rack synth to house the tabletop synths so that everything will be in easier reach:
Posted Image, might have been reduced in size. Click Image to view fullscreen.

Posted Image, might have been reduced in size. Click Image to view fullscreen.

Funny Greg should mention Mark Pulver. I email with his ex, Amanda Pehlke, from time to time.... She has a very impressive studio setup:
http://www.cikira.com/gear/index.html

She hasn't produced music in quite some time though... Seems like most people with a large synth collection become collectors and stop creating music. Sad

mosc · Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2003 12:34 pm Post subject:

egw · Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2003 2:25 pm Post subject:

Hi Sayer
mp3.com is a joke, so I haven't bothered to put any more mp3s up.
I am going to check out iuma. Seems more artist-friendly.
Meanwhile the latest Mutation Vector CD, "Placebo Merchant" will be available shortly right here on electro-music.com!

I know you're in the DC area - is there anything happening down there in terms of em performance venues? Have you ever been to the Red Room?

SayersWeb · Joined: Apr 07, 2003 Posts: 62 Location: Sugar Land, Texas

SayersWeb · Joined: Apr 07, 2003 Posts: 62 Location: Sugar Land, Texas

egw · Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2003 6:26 am Post subject:

Why is it an advantage to stream from your personal site, rather than from iuma?

The Red Room is in Baltimore
http://www.redroom.org/
It's focus is on experimental music, but I think that includes some kinds of electronic music. I know Charles Cohen has played there.

SayersWeb · Joined: Apr 07, 2003 Posts: 62 Location: Sugar Land, Texas

mosc · Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2003 8:26 am Post subject:

Speaking of streaming and web sites. I've been considering offering such services here for members. Is there a need for this, and what kind of services should there be for musicians?

Another member here on this site, who I will not mention their name else they might be bombarded with requests for favors, has access to some disk/bandwidth resources.

egw · Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2003 7:27 am Post subject:

egw · Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2003 7:34 am Post subject:

I think you really need to have streaming when you are selling CDs - so people can check out samples of the music.
Not necessarily continuous streaming, like in a radio station format.
That's a different concept, but would also be a nice way to promote the music.

Norm Vogel · Joined: Feb 20, 2003 Posts: 157 Location: Central NJ

Everyone knows that www.mp3.com sucks, but, sometimes, AMPCAST isn't much better!

I had a bad experience with Ampcast. As you probably know, they charge your credit card every few months. I didn't know it, but my Wife maxxed it out, so they were unable to draw from it.

They let me know that my site was going to be taken down ON THE VERY DAY THAT IT was TO BE TAKEN DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!

In other words, I had to "pay up" the day i recd the email, or my site would be taken down that very day!!!!!!!

I wrote 'em, saying that this was a lot of bullshit, and that, if the cc was ng, that they should've notified me. I got a rather "pissy" response from them.

So, i signed up with a new isp (www.powweb.com) that gives you 500MB, for about the same price that Ampcast charges. BUT, i have TOTAL CONTROL as to what i can do with it.

IUMA isn't bad, but i've found that you don't get much exposure there.

Norm