Is it just me or...

[egan.]

I'm an oldie and there has been an ebb and flow over the years but it seems like the forum reskin was a real mouth punch to activity here. I may be wrong. It may just be the coincidence of the holidays etc. but it sure seems like a lot of folks never came back after the downtime.

 

[Mago]

I'm not really an oldie I guess, but for me discussion shifted a lot to private conversations on facebook and such. Mostly with people a got to know on here. The last really interesting thing I can remember that was discussed on here was when the kemper came out.
There have been a couple of new interesting pieces, but there wasn't really as much of an discussion about it as it used to be.
And with "used to be" I mean even the time long after andy used to chime in himself, cause I wasn't around in that golden time myself.

I guess there's just a lot of other places where you can get valuable info nowadays. Youtube is a lot bigger then even back when I joined.
Not too big on facebook groups myself, but I guess a lot of people shift to those too.

A lot of the stuff that drove people to this forum just is easier to find nowadays by just googling. Lots of products to help get there faster too.
I found the forum when I was looking for drum samples. Nowadays there's a million great stores for that, for example.

And maybe also, no idea how much that would influence it though: Andy doesn't do as many releases anymore as he used to in the 2000s.

 

[Nuno Filipe]

I'm an oldie and there has been an ebb and flow over the years but it seems like the forum reskin was a real mouth punch to activity here. I may be wrong. It may just be the coincidence of the holidays etc. but it sure seems like a lot of folks never came back after the downtime.

The forum was already pretty dead before that but I think the reskin killed even a bit more.

As Mago says, years ago this was a great place with valuable information and years ago there werent many places with such amount of good info around. Nowadays there are lot of foruns, blogs, sites about this, any random guy can learn the mix basics with youtube videos to do home recordings with some satisfying quality. Besides that there are so many shit this days that offers detours for a real mix, avoind losing time and everything that comes with mixing. Like ezmix that brings what people want and need for their home recording, people that dont want and dont care about being producers, mixers. Nowadays there are Vsts, that consists in having just one knob for the sake of simplicity.

I also think that some people realized that being here and spending hours and hours reading this and that, doesnt take them to any place. Reading without practicing is useless and nowadays the standard to sell a product like a mix is very, very high because almost anyone can do semi pro mix, reading, seeing videos and practicing for some months, especially if we are talking in mixing fake drums, fake bass, guitars e.t.c
So, who really wants something in this area have to work a lot to create some distinctive sound that might appeal for the customers and nowadays that´s not easy, because the standard quality in the metal records it´s questionable. It´s almost always the same snare with the same samples, the bass with the same post processing with a lot of overdrive, the guitars differs little from records to records and in the end the musicianship it´s very little with every quantized to hell and back. But it´s what most people want and like, so we just have to live with it.

So with all of this in mind, it´s understandble that this is not the place that used to be. Because the things are always changing and this isnt more the only place with valuable and exclusive information.

 

[SocialNumb]

The tone nazi regime has finally fallen.

 

[JeffTD]

I feel like part of the reason that some of the greats don't post anymore is because they get less out of the forum in return. When you see a lot of the same discussions being rehashed then there isn't much incentive for the more professional users to stick around. Idk.

This. I've gotten less and less enjoyment/knowledge out of the forum over the last 2-3 years while this place has simultaneously moved towards being a marketplace for reamps/drum samples/shitty DI + drum midi packages for 'mixing practice' over the same time period. It got especially bad this past summer (look at the Merch Room now), and 2-3 months ago I deleted the forum from my browser bookmarks. The place just downright sucks now - an empty husk of what it used to be.

 

[FarBeyondMetal]

Was going downhill before, but the reskin really did not help things. Myself, like the forum has taken a steady decline in recording activity. Makes me a sad panda

 

[Clockwork]

This. I've gotten less and less enjoyment/knowledge out of the forum over the last 2-3 years while this place has simultaneously moved towards being a marketplace for reamps/drum samples/shitty DI + drum midi packages for 'mixing practice' over the same time period. It got especially bad this past summer (look at the Merch Room now), and 2-3 months ago I deleted the forum from my browser bookmarks. The place just downright sucks now - an empty husk of what it used to be.

So are there any places that you do feel like people are having good meaningful discussions rather than just newbie Q&A time, or do you agree that most of that seems to just be happening in personal communiques (like fb, etc...).

Sucks to think that the forum is dying and there is nothing to replace it. I can't stand Seven String or Gearslutz. :/

 

[JeffTD]

So are there any places that you do feel like people are having good meaningful discussions rather than just newbie Q&A time, or do you agree that most of that seems to just be happening in personal communiques (like fb, etc...).

Sucks to think that the forum is dying and there is nothing to replace it. I can't stand Seven String or Gearslutz. :/

There are a couple Facebook forums that I peek into that are OK, and the Slack group is still relatively active and we have some great discussions in there. Realistically I don't spend as much time myself recording to begin with as I used to, but these days if I want to have interesting discussions about recording techniques/experiences or hear stuff that other people are doing that excites me, I don't come here.

 

[LeSedna]

This made me check this thread :

http://edm.com/articles/2015-11-10/edm-only-genre-growing

 

[KillFrenzy]

The biggest reason this forum is dying is because it is no longer difficult to get a polished sounding recording.

PLUS

Nowadays there are lot of foruns, blogs, sites about this, any random guy can learn the mix basics with youtube videos to do home recordings with some satisfying quality. Besides that there are so many shit this days that offers detours for a real mix, avoind losing time and everything that comes with mixing. Like ezmix that brings what people want and need for their home recording, people that dont want and dont care about being producers, mixers. Nowadays there are Vsts, that consists in having just one knob for the sake of simplicity.

And other things in the same direction.

Sometimes I just feel like I'm polishing turd during my work. Besides that, most my clients don't have a clue of what they really want and have no sense of quality or originality. I feel like if I just EZMixed everything they would be COMPLETELY happy with the results.
As a (slightly) pessimist I think that after all these years as an AE (or trying to be one), studying a lot just for my personal satisfaction is not enough since my clients may not appreciate the real effort behind their productions.

Maybe some of the older guys in the forum feel the same way. Specially the one that work mostly with amateur bands and unskilled musicians.

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

This made me check this thread :

http://edm.com/articles/2015-11-10/edm-only-genre-growing

There's no Y-axis here dude, at least I see none in my browser

 

[LokiFoki]

This made me check this thread :

http://edm.com/articles/2015-11-10/edm-only-genre-growing

Checking the website listed as the source revealed that it's just using google trends. So it its not worth a damn.

Google trends does not show absolute values, but you can compare two trends to each other:



edm are you even trying?

 

[CiG]

This made me check this thread :

http://edm.com/articles/2015-11-10/edm-only-genre-growing

EDM? Dance Music is already electronic.

 

[Ermz]

The erosion of the board happened over several years, and like in most cases, a multitude of factors were the cause, rather than a single magic bullet. You have to take into account that the board has been around for a decade and a half, and there is ultimately only so much that can be said about record production.

 

[Fabbio]

Ah, those days...
When Andy was a regular poster and James Murphy too. And that guy, Aaron, who was a good friend of Jeff Loomis.
I remember the Blabbermouth site was under the Roadrunner wings back then...
A lot of us lost interest a little in record producing and recording. Me first. Others made the step to the next level and went on to be professionals with very little time to dedicate to young Joey Music Guy Sturgis fans.
I personally still lurk here in the bar.
And don't forget that epic tits and ass thread that got canceled due to google advertising policy... That was a pity.
Plus: NITRONIUM BLOOD!

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

Hey peeps, been a long time.

This question was brought up pretty much once a year back when I was frequently visiting here, and even during the last years of my attendance there weren't all that many old timers left. Things change, music business changes and the whole art of music production has changed really a lot in the last ten years or so, especially when it comes to modern metal. It's inevitable, I guess.

IIRC a lot of people left because the forum was turning into a how can I sound like sturgis core (and no that's not a rag on Joey).

Yeah, that's why I left. I thought it was bullshit. It was all amp sims, the same drum samples and the same sound over and over again. Not saying I didn't participate in that at times myself, but it just got too much. It seemed no-one gave a fuck about micing amps and drums anymore and getting the most out of that, and got into a shortcut after shortcut kinda thing. Not saying there's anything wrong with that, just not my cup of tea. I check out the threads here about once a month or so now, so I might not be getting a good picture visiting so rarely, but yeah, seems it's still pretty much the same.

 

[Trevoire520]

Funnily enough I deleted the forum from my bookmark toolbar a week or so ago as I was sick of coming by here every day and there being little or no interesting conversations happening. I come back today and I think there's a few cool threads! Maybe I need to leave longer between visits.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

I think to expound a bit more:

1. New threads were met with "do a search." Kind of hard to keep content going if all that is said is "do a search" instead of re hashing a concept with the goal of coming up with new ideas.

2. If said person did a search and bumped an old thread, that wasn't always met with positive results either. It was almost as if some of us just didn't want to talk about it again. lol

3. An influx of how do I make a Sturgis mix (giving him his own forum was a good idea IMO).

4. IIRC James Murphy got out because he had less time for it and got sick of all of the above (plus you know actually physically sick, poor dude), plus IIRC there was a thread where people where being twats, I can't fucking find it under the new skin though. I think he also didn't like some of the off topic content.

5. The rise of facebook and youtube. People are just not doing forums as much anymore. I'm experiencing this with other forums as well. I left HC like 3 years ago because it got so dumb it wasn't worth it (that and the 2 software upgrades were just fucking bad).

6. Andy Sneap only posted when I first started on the boards, but he didn't often (I remember when he put up the Chimera toms, that was pretty kickass). I'm guessing he is just a busy dude. TBH I have no idea if he even has much to do with this forum anymore other than we discuss his work from time to time.

7. Misha, Lammert, Joey, Toxic Grind Machine (sorry I may not be remembering his U.N. right), JeffTD, Glenn Fricker, Ermin, etc... were posting a lot more work. We had some quality work being posted and that of course made more more interesting content. I'm guessing most if not all of these guys have better things to do these days.

 

[ArsMemoria]

Yeah, that's why I left. I thought it was bullshit. It was all amp sims, the same drum samples and the same sound over and over again. Not saying I didn't participate in that at times myself, but it just got too much. It seemed no-one gave a fuck about micing amps and drums anymore and getting the most out of that, and got into a shortcut after shortcut kinda thing. Not saying there's anything wrong with that, just not my cup of tea. I check out the threads here about once a month or so now, so I might not be getting a good picture visiting so rarely, but yeah, seems it's still pretty much the same.

Although, I'm pretty new to the forum, and a bit guilty of posting a few newb questions myself, this statement I agree with a ton. It's gotten a bit old with the constant barrage of amp sims, impulses, and the same mix-ready drum samples. I've been slacking a lot on some of the mix practice stuff because, not that this is a bitch against the guys that provide the files, I'm just sick of working with samples and all I have at the moment are amp sims and impulses. So, to be honest, my drive to do anything is a bit down since I'm just so tired of the same canned shit.

I really need to look up a lot of old threads and just soak in some of the information.

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

I see a couple things that could potentially return this forum to glory...

I am optimistic that in the next 10 years or so someone will find a way to make metal that is more sonically dynamic and inventive while ultimately staying heavy and maintaining the whole metal attitude. Such a movement would require a new way of playing and recording and would probably regenerate a ton of interest here.

Another possibility is a breakthrough in live sound. When they figure out how to make metal sound pristine at live shows this place will go nuts again. My hope is that quantum computing will lead to that breakthrough.