Activity – MAS webmaster (R. Schletty)

Jay Johnson replied 1 year, 3 months ago

Oh wow! You clearly have a ton of experience in this area. I am jam packing as many concepts into my mind as it will allow (regardless of the many neural sprains and tears along the way. LOL)

However, as I learn and attempt to share what I find that I think may be beneficial… I pick up some things now, and some later depending upon budget, my expectation of impact, and most importantly (where I am along my personal path… and my ability to confidently apply). As a relative “Noob”, I am still working out fundamentals regarding DAWs. But, if I feel like I may miss a major sale which could impact a fiscal hit later then is when I have to begin making decisions.

For example the Native Instruments sale, I felt that I should go ahead and seal the deal on, now that I have learned some fundamentals and will possibly be able to use their tools more appreciably than 5 months ago. But, PianoTeq felt like a great long-term with (as you stated) an extraordinarily small footprint, so I sealed that as well.

For Orange Tree Samples having their sale, it’s perfect because I DESPERATELY need some guitars, and since they only want the commitment now, and are giving the remainder of the month to complete purchase, it doesn’t hit my budget as hard as “Flash Sales”.

….Good LORD it’s GREAT to be working again!!! LOL
- Richard Schletty replied 1 year, 3 months ago
  
  Let’s invite Doug Millaway to this group discussion. He also has a ton of gear, software and experience. He did a great Zoom session on Steinberg Cubase (DAW) and some awesome virtual instruments. Look for “12.02.2020 Mixer: Doug Millaway on Studio Setup” on this page: https://mnsongwriters.org/activities/resources/
  
  I can also post here some additional suggestions – esp. for virtual guitar. For starters, check out Bolder Sounds – https://boldersounds.com/. I have their Guitarrón which I use for recording and sequencing Spanish psalms, believe it or nuts: https://catholicliturgyinsong.org/product/domingo-11-ordinario-b-salmo-91-que-bueno-es-darte-gracias-senor/
  - Jay Johnson replied 1 year, 3 months ago
    
    Wait… I am new to this site/platform… So, are you stating that members of this “Group” do not have “Member/Group Permissions” necessary to invite other members?
    
    I have to issue inviting him or anyone. But, i’d just assume set it up so that any MAS member can invite any other MAS member… I intended it to be a publicly accessible resource within MAS… (if possible).
    - Richard Schletty replied 1 year, 3 months ago
      
      Any MAS member who is logged in can join – assuming they see the new Group. You set it up correctly as an open discussion group. We can also send invites to give a nudge to those we think would be interested.
      
      There is also the option for a private discussion group by invitation only.
      
      I just invited three members.
      
      The whole BuddyPress profiles, music gallery and discussion area is relatively new and many members don’t visit it very often.
      
      BuddyPress calls your new Group “pubiic” which is not quite accurate. Only logged in MAS members can join and participate. The general public (those not logged in) can only see the description of the group but not the discussion thread.
      
      I appreciate your trying out this feature of BuddyPress. It has lots of potential but it underutilized.
      
      Note that I also log in as webmaster/adminsinger – when I do WordPress administrative stuff.
      
      BTW, we are looking for a WordPress admin apprentice to back me up.
      
      Richard Schletty
  - Jay Johnson replied 1 year, 3 months ago
    
    Ok… So, I have a better sense of things now.
    
    Quick question, do you have two accounts (one as member and one as “Webmaster”)?
    - Richard Schletty replied 1 year, 3 months ago
      
      Yes! Two accounts. I just explained that in another reply. I figured you’d be confused. The other one is Webmaster/adminsinger.
  - Jay Johnson replied 1 year, 3 months ago
    
    Odd, there are some downstream messages which I cannot reply to. No worries, it may be an accommodation for “Clean Message Nesting”. I am still getting accustomed.
    
    Thank you for the invitation to apprentice. Unfortunately while I was out of work, I took on a number of volunteer positions and am now back at work in addition to added responsibilities.
    
    Adding to that, some people are asking me to do things regarding music collaboration (and I REALLY want to) but I am struggling with some things regarding DAW setup in Nuendo for Control Panel which feel counter-intuitive and I cannot find tutorials on them (due to ADHD written instructions are nearly impossibly for me personally to learn with).
    
    So, for the time being I really need to simmer into the myriad responsibilities lain before me and become proficient at them all before undertaking and/or transitioning other aims. But, again… I thank you for keeping me in mind.
    
    Also, PLEASE feel free to invite who you see fit. While you are a Webmaster, I am certain that you could. But, I feel that you would not engage as such without discussion, as I get the sense that you respect group management ideologies/ownership/privacy etc. which I greatly respect. So, I added you as a “Mod”… let’s just state for “rhetorical purpose” that you feel confident to do with this group as you see fit.
    
    You know the community far better than I. You know which personalities are productive, potentially toxic, and the site itself. So please, engage as liberally as suits you. :-)
    - Richard Schletty replied 1 year, 3 months ago
      
      I’ll test the thing about not being able to reply. I clicked on the link in the email notification I received but had to log back in before I could see the reply option.
      
      Thanks for your thoughts. Keep me up to date on your skills acquisition. I actually use Logic Pro X for 95% of my songs. I’m not as in-depth as others. My DAW needs are simple: 4 or 5 vox tracks and 3-5 instrument tracks, most of which are real audio as opposed to virtual MIDI.
      
      Best.
    - MAS webmaster (R. Schletty) replied 1 year, 2 months ago
      
      By the way, there is another template available for BuddyPress called “Nouveau”. I tried it early on and didn’t like it as much as the original “Legacy” template. I activated the Nouveau template (which only affects BuddyPress pages) for about 10 minutes and discovered it has some of the features you desire. For example, showing at the top the most recent comment in a private messaging thread. It also allows RTF – rich text formatting. Very nice. But the layout breaks at certain screen sizes. I would have to do a bunch of CSS overrides to fix it.
      
      One more option: MAS could subscribe to BuddyBoss and get an integrated community solution: https://www.buddyboss.com. However, it would be a pain to switch to that theme as it would completely change the look and feel of the present site built with the “Genesis” framework and Cobalt Apps’ “Dynamik-Gen” child theme.
      
      Tons of BuddyPress theme development tips and code recipes here: https://codex.buddypress.org/themes/
      
      I don’t want to ask you again if you are interested in diving into the WordPress backend to help create modules that improve member engagement. Your plate is full. But know that the door is always open. Maybe down the line…

Jay Johnson replied 1 year, 2 months ago

I will certainly do my utmost Brother. “Lord knows” that there’s an ocean of them out there. But as members of the community join and comment, over time, hopefully I will get a better since of where the market demands and interest lie so that I may better post based upon need within the same lightweight manner, that the postings not errantly become an organic-spam-posting community filled with material beyond impact or even current sales-windows. :-)
- MAS webmaster (R. Schletty) replied 1 year, 2 months ago
  
  I spent a lot of time and money on sequencing apps and virtual libraries since 2004, and I don’t regret the fact that I maybe only use 5% of what I purchased in any given month. It was great to learn a variety of approaches to recording and mixing. I finally settled in on mostly using live/real guitar for my music tracks. Makes it more convincing and engaging, in my opinion. Especially with the genre of music I am mostly arranging and recording – liturgical music. Virtual instruments are very good these days but can sometimes lack expression and “dither”. Some virtual instruments can sound too even or even machine-gun-like.

@webmaster