It’s always good to know what’s going on in the world of music if you’re a music producer, writer, performer, whatever. Over the last year or so, I’ve stumbled upon a few places that I go to now and then to either get help or some info of some kind. So what I thought I would do in this article is share some of these places so that you can check them out yourself. Please note that some of these forums are very specific to a certain product. But they can still be useful for generic information that you might find you’ll need someday, maybe if for no other reason than you run into somebody you end up working with who uses one of these products. And who knows, you might actually decide to pick one of them up yourself after doing the research.
Anyway, having said all that, let’s get started.
Probably the top music related forum for producers anyway has to be Gearslutz. The place is like walking into a black hole. I have never in my life seen so many sub forums.
Gearslutz is kind of like that candy store that you just don’t want to leave but you know if you stay there any longer than necessary you’ll never get out without a tummy ache, or in this case, a headache. Way too much info and way too little time.
My personal favorite sub forums are the Computer Music, where you can get info on all the best plugins and VSTs. In fact, there is one thread there right now that you could get so lost in, you’ll never make it to any other part of the forum. The thread title is something like “Your Top 5 Plugins” and each post, which I think has been going on for something like 50 pages, is a members top 5 plugins. Some will also list their top 5 synth plugins. Well don’t ask. The recommendations are all over the map. And let me tell you, I’ve checked out some of these plugins and they’re excellent. We’re talking top of the line stuff like $200 compressors. Just demoing all the recommendations could take weeks. And you’ll never see another thread at the whole forum.
Do yourself a favor. If you’re into music production, go to Gearslutz to find out what the top gear is. It covers everything in the field.
Now, if you want to dedicate your time to home recording and actually getting good at the art and getting the best sound possible, I recommend going to recordingreview.com.
Here you’re going to get into all the specs and how to’s of recording so that your home recordings don’t sound like crap. There is one sub forum called “Bash This Recording” where you can actually get your work reviewed. Please keep in mind that members of forums are not afraid to tell you just how crappy your recording is. But you’ll at least get some honest opinions.
There is also a recording gear review section and a sub forum on recording tactics, tips and tricks that I’m sure you’ll find useful.
If you’re struggling at all with getting a good sound out of your home recordings, you just might want to check this place out.
What if you’re a songwriter? Well, there is a forum just for songwriters. It’s thesongwritersforum.com.
You’ll probably want to check out the sub forum Documents, Tutorials and E-Learning if you actually want to learn how to write songs.
But believe it or not, that’s not the main focus of this sub forum. The main focus is actually on the law, primarily copyright law. You’ll even find your copyright registration forms there.
This is not a flashy, glitzy forum and as a result doesn’t appear to get a ton of traffic. Some sub forums haven’t had posts in a month. But the info is there if you need it. If nothing else, every songwriter should make sure they understand copyright or they could land themselves in a to of legal trouble.
Next we move onto the KVR Audio forum. Like Gearslutz, this place is massive. Maybe not as big, but big.
KVR focuses mainly on plugins but it does cover other avenues as well.
One of the great parts of KVR is that is has company forums. So let’s say you want to get info on Embertone. There is a subforum for just that company and you can ask any questions you want specific to that companies instruments. It’s like having a direct link to customer service.
What I love most about KVR in general is that you can do a search for the most recent plugins and it will list them from the newest releases going back. This way you’ll never miss anything that’s coming out. The other day I think I downloaded something like 5 or 6 new VSTs, some of which weren’t bad for free or dirt cheap ($1.71).
KVR is another place you can get totally lost in.
So let me stop there because I think this is important. Forums are great for getting information. There is no question about that. But they can also be a time suck. Some of them have so much information that it can be overwhelming. This is why you have to discipline yourself when you go to one. Make a schedule for yourself. Agree that you’ll only stay there a certain length of time each day or you’ll never get your work done.
One other thing about forums that you need to be aware of. At every forum you’re going to run into your trolls. These are people who are there just to start arguments. They’ll say things like “VSTs suck and can never be as good as hardware synths” and then the battle begins. Don’t let yourself get caught up in these. The trolls are hoping to get a rise out of you. Don’t let them.
Anyway, that’s about it for this article. I know I’ve only scratched the surface on forums and we’ll do more in the future. But I’m sure these will hold you for a long while.
Maybe too long.
For The Love Of Music,
Steven “Wags” Wagenheim