The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Lunkhead wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 10, 2022 8:12 am

If you somehow STILL don't have a large diaphragm condenser microphone, you really ought to get one. Your vocals will probably sound a lot better vs a dynamic mic (although those can be fine in some situations) and definitely better than if you're using the mic built in to your phone or laptop or headset etc. Here's a probably decent mic for $60, discounted from $200 just for today.

https://www.musiciansfriend.com/stupid

You'll need to make sure you've got an audio interface with phantom power (or a mic preamp/mixer/hardware recorder/etc. with phantom power). Nearly every interface will have that, if it has an XLR/mic input.

I swear by MXL mics. They’re stupidly good for the price, and that deal is particularly good. I haven’t used that particular model but I’d expect it to be great.

I have not used that particular model either, but almost everything I've recorded vocals for over the past 12 (?) years have been using a few different MXL condenser microphones (possibly small diaphragm versions though...?) and I have never had any issues either.

Amazon has the Fender Kurt Cobain Jag-Stang Rosewood Fingerboard Guitar on sale for $800 when it is usually $1300.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B098XYC5GW

IK Multimedia are selling their complete software bundle for $/€149 (regular price €999 as I recall); if you have any of their MAX products you can upgrade for $/€99 and if you have maxcoins you can bring it down to $/€69.

BFD3 is currently on sale for $/€49 (regular $/€329 or some such). This is the first seriously deep discount I've seen for BFD.

Plugin Boutique is selling a bundle of Auto-Tune Access, Native Instruments FM8, iZotope Neoverb and Scaler 2 for $99.

Also worth noting that Native Instruments are doing their annual November sale, although Komplete isn't included this time around.

IK Multimedia's UNO line is on sale too. You can great a pretty nice sounding monophonic analog synth with a ton of features that's also compact and battery/bus powered, for only $149:

https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/u ... y=unosynth

And a drum machine in a similar form factor with good analog and samples sounds and lots of features, for only $199:

https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/u ... ey=unodrum

Here's a place that makes condenser microphones inside of spent shotgun shells. Great for tight spots. I have an x/y I've used as a drum overhead, yet to try on acoustic guitar, but quite pleased with it. Just ordered a single to try on snare/guitar. Inexpensive and handmade in good old Vermont. You can hate guns, like me, and still check'em out. Take note of the ribbon mic they've added on a limited basis.

https://www.12gaugemicrophones.com/

Paco Del Stinko wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 26, 2022 6:17 am

Here's a place that makes condenser microphones inside of spent shotgun shells. Great for tight spots. I have an x/y I've used as a drum overhead, yet to try on acoustic guitar, but quite pleased with it. Just ordered a single to try on snare/guitar. Inexpensive and handmade in good old Vermont. You can hate guns, like me, and still check'em out. Take note of the ribbon mic they've added on a limited basis.

https://www.12gaugemicrophones.com/

I totally forgot about these and have wanted that x/y stereo mic forever. I'm gonna take another look. Thanks for the reminder Paco!

Black Friday sales are LIVE: 11/25-11/28
Use Coupon Code: BLACK for 20% off sitewide

Not audio but if you dabble in visual stuff (fliers, posters, album art, Song Fight art, zines) Affinity (Photoshop rival) is offering the bundle of Designer/Photo/Publisher for $99.99, permanent license - that’s NO subscription, huzzah! I’ve used Affinity Photo for years and love it; I hear it is rather similar to Photoshop.

Yeah, Affinity v1 was pretty janky but v2 fixes almost all of the jank and it's actually a nice alternative now. Also that $100 gives you a license for Mac, Windows, and iPad. It's an amazing deal and I made the switch a few weeks ago.

Purchased Affinity Photo and I'm not entirely happy with it. I do like all of the extra features that I'm not used to having and they will certainly come in handy. But the resizing and export features are like... completely stupid. I did manage to do cover art with it but used the old program to resize. I'll do some homework and go back and see if I can figure it out later.

What was the resize/export method you were using before? Affinity’s is pretty similar to photoshop’s “save for web” which is pretty fast and easy when you get used to it, but it does need a little patience to get the hang of.

I was using photoscape where you simply hit resize with the new pixel and it would resize the project with no downgrade in quality and you could save as with a filetype and a filename. (I could have all three songfight art files in about thirty seconds or so.) This current headache is merely a learning curve but all the guides I've looked at are straightforward, simple and ineffective.

I'll get there, I'm just bitching about having to learn a proper program for a change.

Hm, for that sort of thing I'd probably use ImageMagick, which is a command-line tool that you can write scripts for (although that isn't the easiest thing in the world if you're not already a programmer of some sort).

For the SF cover art uploader I'd be tempted to just finally make the SF uploader automatically resize stuff for everyone, since that is an annoying butthole thing to have to do and the original intention of "have three different images for different archive contexts" thing hasn't really been, y'know, relevant.

It'd be super awesome if you could just upload any old size over 400x400 and have it work. Then again, if I had the vaguest idea what Spud wanted for the 150 and 100 pixel art (different in what way?) then I could easily do that as well.

Affinity is going to save me so much time on editing it won't be funny. But it's going to cost me time on all the mundane things I usually do. That's only partially due to the learning curve but at least it'll get much better if I force myself to use it for (almost) everything. I've never used Photoshop etc., so I'm really a beginner when it comes to work flows in photo editing. I will say that I have figured out "work arounds" for a ton of art fight entries.

Yeah. Although this is getting pretty off-topic for the thread. Maybe we could move the chat to discord?

SynthMaster 2 and SynthMaster One, both among the more affordable and fairly powerful synth plugins, are currently on sale for up to 70% off, plus an extra 15% off (so up to ~74.5% off total) with the coupon "YMLP15OFF".

Both plugins have the same audio engine but SynthMaster One is a little trimmed down, meaning it might be the better choice for people who don't want to get too crazy.

Deals without the extra coupon:
SynthMaster One $29
SynthMaster 2 $39
Both plugins $59
"Everything" bundle (both plugins and all preset packs) $159; includes a free upgrade to SynthMaster 3 which is still in development. However I'm not sure the preset packs are actually worth that much...

Some people on the internet complain about stability issues; I used it for a while and it worked fine for me but YMMV.

Upgrades are discounted, too.
Valid until January 8th.
https://www.kv331audio.com/index.aspx

Wow — amplitube 5 guitar amp simulation is on sale for just $49 and add-on collections are $29.
https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/?S1=457

Edited to say that ikMultimedia's T-Racks mastering suite is also on for $49

Presonus mics with built in fx are a good deal
https://www.presonus.com/en-US/misc%2Fm ... 00201.html

Today's SDotD is a pair of Mackie Monitors for $50. I have these and they are decent enough. Used them as my studio monitors until I upgraded and now use them with a turntable for casual listening.

https://www.musiciansfriend.com/stupid?icid=210190

Mackie CR3-X 3" Powered Studio Monitors Limited-Edition Gold Trim (Pair)
The CR3-X 3" Creative Reference multimedia monitors from Mackie offer studio-quality sound with cosmetics that complement any desk whether you’re making music, creating content or just relaxing to your favorite tunes. CR3-X 3" monitors feature a sleek design with a brushed metal panel and distinct outline, plus a convenient front-panel headphone ... Read More

Good deal on a large diaphragm condenser mic as the SDotD today:

https://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-aud ... 1000000000

Down to $60 from $200. If you're just starting out and you're on a budget, this could be a really good "real" mic. You'll have to pair it with an audio interface that has phantom power though. There are many options for those though under $100.

BFD3, the virtual drum plugin, is currently on sale over at Audio Plugin Deals for $99. That's the cheapest I've ever seen it, by far.
https://audioplugin.deals/product/bfd3/

(edit: never mind, I posted a sale price of $49 in the past. Still, it's significantly cheaper than full price...)