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benedictrm

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Everything posted by benedictrm

  1. I am like @english_voice in this. Most of you know me, but for any who don’t, I am a Mix Engineer who mixes not only Bands but Audio Program for Doctors, Lawyers etc. (they pay their, and therefore my, bills). While it is lovely to have the fanciest, bestest, expensivest of gear in your perfectly anechoic chamber (at whose door no raven may ever be allowed to tap tap) the reality is probably better different. I get plenty of work sent from gear (and rooms) that claim best-ness yet they are poor. I get material that is basic gear but is good work. The human driving is what matters more than any amount of gear. While people will wax lyrical about Condensor microphones and their famed sensitivity, I will wax heretical and remind that they are hard to use and very easy to get a nastly sound with so suggest a cheap as chips Dynamic like the Behringer XM8500 as perfectly suited to getting it done. Again with the Audio Interface & Mic Preamps. Sure if Frank Sinatra is coming over, buy the gold plated doohickey with the big knobs (and expect a slap in the chops when you can’t use it). Otherwise, the again cheap as chips Audient Evo4 will do a fine job. The things I will say to really avoid are the Podcast mics that look very fancy and connect by USB as they are ok but not for the price compared to the gear I mentioned above. And yes Mic placement, on a stand no less, is at least 50% of your battle. I have a couple of articles on my site written for clients I would share if I could. This is my pic on Mic Placement image700×839 38.8 KB🙂
  2. I am a Mix Engineer who mixes both Songs and Audio Program for Professionals like Doctors & Lawyers. There are some voice preparation issues but that is a Mixing thing and unless you are doing the voice preparation for mixing, none of your issue. Don’t let anyone say you have a terrible voice. That is just mean, or someone trying to get rid of a competitor who frightens them. Most often when someone goes out of their way to say how sucky my mix work is, I find they either have no work of their own to show (too scared) or their work is formulaic in the extreme (still too scared). If David Attenborough or Marlon Brando gives you some advice, listen. Otherwise, nod and smile - then tell them how pathetic they are (last part optional and technically better not to do but if they keep pushing…) Otherwise, just as per the advice above, work on the core of your craft with accuracy & clarity. 🙂
  3. no, No, NO And in case you just missed it N.O. There is no official relationship between activity on this forum and Fiverr Gigs. At all. There is coincidence. And there is a slight chance that the female (and perhaps 10% of the male) freelancers here think you are cute and want to learn a bit more about you. Oh and competitors. Keep your eyes on your work - and the pretty ladies (or boys, as I ain’t judgey) 🙂
  4. True, but once a seller has a review they get to respond. I have found that when a good defense of why you did what you did is given it shows prospective buyers that you will not be taken advantage of. This is true even if you are a newish seller. This ^^^ A scammer will see a good defense that shows that this person is not an easy mark. A good buyer will see someone with pride in their work and dignity. Those who don’t read reviews don’t care either way. 🙂
  5. I thought I’d see how Edge behaved when i got my new machine and so far, no dramas at all. Bing is probably not the equal of google Search but Edge is not giving me any dramas. 🙂
  6. Fiverr is an interesting and rather unique place. The logic that has traditionally applied in the real world does not always play out here. i leave it to you do decide if that is good, bad, or indifferent. You have to do the work on the assumption that the client is sane and understands what will be done (assuming you Gig is clear and your communication with them has been honest and understanding of what they have said). Sadly then the (non)customer can say they said/meant something completely different and therefore the work done does not suit their need for any/no reason. TOS indicates otherwise but as some are indicating, this is not always the way it is applied. Like everything in this world, everything has become infinitely malleable to what the interpreter wants, i.e. most people want the issue to go away so they take the easiest path, cancel the job, give the money back and go for a drink. You can fight and morally perhaps should. Will it achieve anything? :-I
  7. There is far too much fear-obsession over ownership. Making a Logo for Coke: If I am on Staff the work is definitely owned by Coke. That is the essence of Work For HireIf I am a freelancer Coke probably stipulate upfront that they get the whole thing and pay accordingly. I agree or I don’t agree and get the job or not. They want me to say yes so they pay properly (i.e. not $15, $50 or even $500) so I am happy to do their logo and hand it over.In both cases, I can always say “I made that logo”. Unless they also asked and I agreed to sign a ‘gag order’ in which case any sane business will pay even more money seeing bragging rights are gold in the creative world so not being able to say “I done that”, is limiting future work which is the business damaging the freelancer so they compensate accordingly. A wise business like Coke knows that exclusivity is important in a logo but not necessarily in a piece of music (note they often use hits or songs that sound like they could be hits seeing no one want to pay) so they make it clear what the terms are and pay accordingly. A Brief from Coke would never read like a BR here that goes and yet on Fiverr, and in other freelance spaces, we see ~10 of these each per day. Ownership is not the necessity that people misconstrue it to be (unless they are actively trying to be mean). If I write a cool song that a record label thinks might go #1, they ask me to license it’s usage to them so they can put it on the radio, make a video and get it selling like hotcakes. They pay me well for this. Maybe not 80% of their take as they have a lot of expenses to get it to #1 but enough that I am happy to do it, not just once but again.100% of nothing = 0, but 20% of a million = hell yeah! In the case of my logo, once the license agreement is there, I cannot do things to damage the usage of the work. So no matter what the terms of making a Logo for Coke, I can’t sell it to Pepsi or the Army for The Liberation of Satan as that is injurious to the purposes for which the work was commissioned. However, if it is a piece of music, I can do whatever I like that is not in conflict with the terms of the contract that was agreed, paid, and fully honored by the purchaser. That means that technically I can sell the same piece of music to Enya, Ramones, Cannibal Corpse, and P!ink. they can all be having hits with my same piece of music. That could be fun LOL If you don’t want to pay to prevent that, that is on you, not on the person who is just making a living from their skills. 🙂
  8. It is sad that people want to see other people as cogs in their life and not fully real people in their own lives. Most truly wealthy people understand that their backline, the reason they have their success is because of other people. Robbie Williams would be who dat? if it weren’t for other people, not only the people who saw his potential, but the people who make & mix his music, and we cannot forget the people who chose to be his fans. None of those people are forced to be there. If they were, it wouldn’t really work. The mindset that we see here too often is that all of those people are in-essence tools of the person which is not wise seeing if you need Creatives (and you do if you are here) then you need these people to be personally engaged in you, your project and therefore your success. That is not you-alone success, but a shared success. Richard Branson is known for supporting his people. Richard Branson is known. 🙂
  9. I recommend that you take a bit (or lot) more time reading The Law. The way you paint it here, if you come work for me for 5 mins, I pretty well own YOU. That went out with the Magana Carta. Well it didn’t really but the idea that this sense of ownership of other people as ok did. It took many hundreds of years to get a lot better, esp seeing there is always some wannabe Dictator trying to own everyone. This sense that if you pay a $1 you own everything is at best one-eyed, but in reality dangerous for the person who thinks it. Yes law is clear that a delivered product or service for pay must be fit for purpose which means that if I dig a hole in your back yard I can’t come back and fill it in just because, but if I made your Logo, unless you specified (and paid accordingly) naming rights always return to the creator. Nike own the swish but the person who had the idea can say so, the person who drew it can say so as much as they please so long as they don’t impede Nike’s usage of the swish.’ Work made for the Jones for a slide night is worth significantly less than the very same thing made for Coke to transmit to everyone in the world and must be valued accordingly. 🙂
  10. Without seeming to be advertising at all, what sort of work is it, Hand Coding or Copy in WordPress? 🙂
  11. Hi @eliiclaire My pa was Guild Hall London major in Organist & Choirmaster and second in Harpsichord (common as piano playing action was a liability with on/off action of pipe organs. I grew up in a house with Baroque music on organ and harpsichord. He also built harpsichords for sale. Like you, he had no feel for Rock. We could get him to play Beatles tunes but he felt unconnected with them. Just as I feel very unconnected with many modern forms of music, to me they have no Story (narrative content). If you need assistance with Mixing or similar, just ask. 🙂
  12. Does his site require YOUR email? Or can it be: that does the job. Maybe he can even make you an email that is really his but lets him set you up with a working email (that you never use as it is not yours to check). There are ways to do these things with no breaches anywhere with just a bit of thought. 🙂
  13. Audacity is really not DAW in the same sense as Reason (my preference and what I edit podcasts in), Cubase, Logic, ProTools etc. Audacity is for basic editing and no more. It does what it does fine but is inelegant in the extreme for serious work (it is free). Move to a real DAW as soon as you can. Probably you will need to buy a Microphone* and that will require an Audio interface to plug into (for a pre-amp). Most of those come bundled with a lite version of DAW. That will get you there for recording and basic editng. There are even some things out there that you can use anyway like Studio one Prime but most are either very limited in features to get you on their wagon or just as nasty to use as Audacity. 🙂 *USB Podcast mics are almost always a bad joke, esp seeing you can buy something like a Behringer XM8500 + Audient evo4 for less (and get Cubase lite). Invest in a good mic stand as positioning helps heaps.
  14. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t. Seeing Reason developed a good control interface many years before NKS, it probably isn’t a thing they would bother to pick up as it always feels that when another Dev creates a competing control system (that they don’t always share) that they are corralling their customers more than improving things for anyone. I have no idea about Reason and NKS but I think is it not a thing. NKS users would know so check in Forums (Reason Talk maybe you can stand the sniping in that place). 🙂
  15. Reason has accepted VST plugins for years now 😉 🙂
  16. Just found this. Very good. Ditto for music. Except any Mix Engineer should have a Portfolio work of songs they Mixed they can show so asking them to do unpaid test work is equally unprofessional. Especially seeing “just a minute of my song” takes as long to do as the whole song which is 4-6 hours at least. More often 8-10 hours. The Mix isn’t done until it is done. Show any decent (and honest) Mix Engineer your rough mix mp3 and they can advise probable outcomes. This is how you get to know your Engineer and what you can expect. Hint, anyone who suggests that you will get a Grammy Winning Hit is a big filthy fibber; e.g. Quincy Jones initially thought Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” was a bust. Talk to the Mix Engineer just a bit - after listening to their work - and understand how they think as that is far more important than if they mixed something that sounds exactly like your song as in most cases, the wrong type of engineer will make every single song sound exactly the same - big fail for you when you want your song to be unique. I make a series of video where I show a Mix Before & After (unless it is a commercial work) and then talk through all the decisions I made and Why. Anyone who can’t see if I am suitable after looking at even the Final Mix (10:30 in this one) is not suited to me. 🙂
  17. Don’t you think I (and no doubt people like me) have done that already - many times. Yet sill we are “demanded” to give more. Have you not seen that there is a person or two who post links to solid material over and over. Yet right after that, clearly without reading, the same people are asking the same clueless questions. If the question is broken, it cannot be answered directly. If the questioner is blind, nothing “easy” will help them. Why? What have, or will, these people ever give back to me either directly or indirectly with a better world? Entitlement is not a pretty or productive thing - no matter how popular it is. Our aim is to get people off their entitlement train so they can solve not only their own problems but by extension the problems of the world that they are currently creating (or perpetuating). If you want to understand the logic, read Ayn Rand. Or even the saying where they talk about giving a man a fish vs teaching him how to get fish for himself. Some people will stand there forever with hands out and never even try to “make” their own fish. Allowing (or encouraging) this is not kindness. image1080×1080 181 KB🙂
  18. I have shared plenty of real in-depth knowledge on how to do the marketing thing over the last few months. As have other (see above) and in 99% of cases it is ignored. People only seem to want silly tis n trix that will never work or if they did work once will not work again. Especially if every thoughtless fool rushes over and spams the opportunity. No, not hiding anything at all. merely understanding that there is little to gain in giving to people who do not want to improve themselves (yet are happy to suck like vampires and cry like babies) 🙂
  19. It is a shame that you have to turn every conversation into a blatant advert for yourself. It diminishes your credibility every time you do it. 😦
  20. Ungh. I just saw the update. They got you on a technicality. A technicality that the buyer didn’t contest at the time but they now raise, despite having accepted it at the time. I smell :poo: But it will be hard to defeat unless you can find this work in-use. In future make sure you have very clear requirements like Orientation, Sizing etc in your Requirements so this should not happen or if it does, you can point to their info being followed. I very much like to know the context of the work so I can see if there are technical things and more subtle requirements that the buyer may not have thought to mention. That happens a lot. Good clients really appreciate this. Interestingly many buyers (I think Resellers) decline to provide this so I cannot work with them out of fear that this will be the outcome too often. 🙂 FWIW, I think it is rather nice work so other people who value you should be out there. Maybe see if you can sell this again. Which if you have not been paid you have full rights to do seeing the first person is not using it (right). I’d use it as an album cover in a heartbeat - but sadly original music doesn’t make $200 in a year, a decade…
  21. We hear too many of these. You are doing the right thing, talking to CS. Be sure they can see all the relevant info to show that you delivered as per client brief and your portfolio promises. Show that the client was happy. That they let it autocomplete is irrelevant. Try to make sure you don’t get too emotive. Focus on facts and not feelings - they should be self evident from the facts. Ask directly to have your payment reinstated as you did everything correctly under TOS (and make sure you did). You might check to see if this person is still on Fiverr, if not they may have made a chargeback which means Fiverr no longer has that money. I have herd that some have recovered from this when making it clear that they did everything right and therefore are deserving of their pay. You could also look online Google Image Search etc to see if the image is in-use. this proves that the work was acceptable and therefore deserving of payment. If you find the image in use DO NOT approach the person until Fiverr have ruled. Even then you might be better to let servers and Google manage the takedown (painful as it is). You can only do this once it is totally proven that you have/will not be paid. 🙂
  22. If you already have a decent Portfolio that shows your style and quality asking for free test work is unprofessional in the extreme and yes, as already noted, likely dodgy AF. They can of course order a small package in which you supply their Audition piece. This is working platform not a place for using people like slaves. The only possible exception could be if it is character work and they want to see if you can deliver the character. The buyer (and they aren’t one of them until they buy something) can either send you a small paid job. Or you could do a bit of the work and post it in your general portfolio as showing character work could be useful for you. They can listen to the new portfolio piece on your YouTube or wherever you put these things (with a watermark). That latter is a gamble but you get something from it and they get what they (claim to) need. 🙂
  23. Fiverr can’t refund the money if you are taking back via PayPal so you snookered yourself by breaking the TOS and putting Fiverr in a lose lose situation seeing they could pay you back your money then PayPal could take the same amount again. I am sure Fiverr are as loathe to part with that $2,8000 as you are your $1,400. The best you can do is try to get Fiverr to re-instate your account with the monies as Fiverr credit but they may well just say no seeing you have done one of the worst things you could have. I would start with a massive Mea Cupla apology… 🙂
  24. Ditto on that (if you didn’t read that already) 🙂
  25. I hear y’all. This is noisier than the Dell but better. I was stunned at the noise from the hard core gamer models. It is like the manufacturers compete to make them noisier so they then have to compete harder with noise reduction on the headsets to over come the key clacking. This is the first time I have bought a keyboard, let alone a fancy one. Like not one that came with the machine. My first Dell keyboard is still solid as a draft horse, it just was a total Celine Dion (went on and on). It was however all 50 shades of finger gunge so seemed time to move on with the new machine. Mistake as despite being a serious XPS model, the keyboard was worth about $5 and the Shift key was erratic so _apitalization was a _erpetual _roblem. 🙂
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