xKnuckles

OMG I am so sorry to hear this! This year just gets worse and worse. RIP Jimmy. xx

Hi Pashkuli, Congratulations on your inventions. The keyboard looks interesting. It is always fascinating to see an alternative approach to anything which we take for granted. I would love to try it out one day. The new notation system has, I believe, some fatal flaws which you may be unaware of. You seem to be approaching notation from a standpoint of having not found it easy to learn or particularly user friendly. I believe it is fair to say that it is indeed not particularly quick to learn, but once understood then it becomes not only user friendly, but also extremely beautiful in the way in which all aspects of it fit perfectly together. However, that is something which needs to be experienced rathter than discussed, so we need not delve into it. What we can delve into, however, is that in your eagerness to make notation more simple, you have sacrificed some of its most important features. These are - funnily enough - ease of reading (legibility), and ease of playing. I could summarise them, in fact, as 'simplicity'. Once the hard labour of learning the language of conventional written music has been completed, a musician can pick up a score and know at a glance what style of music it is; roughly what it will sound like; how difficult it is likely to be to play, and hundreds of other things. Some very experienced musicians will be able to silently 'read' the music and perhaps hear it play in their heads. Looking at your score for Fur Elise, the first thing that occurred to me was that extremely good eyesight would be required. All of those nearly identical symbols! Good lighting, clear eyes and time to make out each symbol would be essential. In conventional notation it is possible for an experienced pianst to sightread a complex score involving lots of simultaneous notes at a fast pace. This is possible because standard notation is so very easy to read (once you know how). It looks like how it sounds. If the notes go up, the pitch goes up. So a pianist would be looking at not only the individual notes but also at the patterns and shapes created by them and between them. He would be further assisted by the key signature, which filters the notes down to seven main ones. If any of the other five are to be used then they come with an extremely visible 'red flag' known as an accidental (a sharp, flat or natural). This all serves to allow a pianist to use a combination of reading of notes, combined with looking at shapes (when the notes are going by too quickly to read) and noting the red flags (to hopefully avoid huge clams...) But your system puts equal weight on all 12 notes, so the pianist is not given the assistance which he recieved from conventional notation. There is nothing to distinguish scale notes from non-scale notes. Worse still, they look incredibly similar (particularly in bad light or to tired eyes ...) And worst of all: you have notes of different pitch residing on the same horizontal lines with nothing to tell them apart other than their tiny symbols. I am confident that, if we took a hypothetical sample of competent pianists who knew both systems of notation (and who had never heard nor played Fur Elise ...), they would all be able to manage it in conventional notation with very few mistakes. I am equally confident that they would struggle to play it from your notation and it would be riddled with mistakes. Those first 5 notes all look nearly the same! Anyways, sorry to be a bit negative about something which you have clearly put a lot of work into, but I truly think that your new system - as it stands - will make it more difficult for musicians to read music, not easier. But good luck with all of your inventions. It is very impressive to hear such innovative ideas.

Good decision. Last week I had a 5 piece band rehearsal (.....in preparation for a gig in October which ended up being cancelled the day before the rehearsal due to new rules requiring a 10pm curfew for all UK venues....) After some consideration we decided to go ahead with the rehearsal anyways. I rejected the garage option for all the reasons given above. Instead I opted for the house. We spread over 3 rooms in an L shape, so we could all see most - but not all - of the rest of the band. I set up PA so everyone could hear each other really well even if we could not see each other. The singer stood at the open French doors and sang facing outwards. All doors and windows were open. I wore two masks. It was a great rehearsal and I think it was as safe as we could manage, but there is definitely always risk involved...

Oops...apologies - I missed that bit. This is truly great news!! Surely they will have sorted out vaccines by then.... The mere thought of going to such a gig is pretty overwhelming after all these months of abstinence. All possible fingers firmly crossed....

Belated Happy birthday Sam. Sorry I missed your party....I hope you all stayed 2m apart... Did you save me any cake? Hopefully I will get to the next one.....

So sorry for your loss Ron. RIP Cheryl.

Here is another idea, Rob: If you look at the central column of your tripod, (the one which the camera attaches to) you will see that it has a metal loop at the bottom. Try hooking something over it and attach a bag filled with heavy objects to it. It will make the tripod much more stable (if it does not collapse....). I use such a technique outdoors to make my camera stable in strong winds on my slightly-less-than-ideal tripod.

Wow guys...this post is extremely vivid and really gives me an insight into what you have been, and are going through. Hearing about these fires is absolutely terrible & distressing - is there anything on earth more terrifying than fire? - but as a far away observer I generally don't think about the implications with regard to air quality etc. when hearing news reports. I cannot begin to imagine how horrible it must be to not be able to access fresh air....something so many of us just take for granted. I really hope the situation improves quickly and that strong preventative measures are able to be implemented, ready for the future. I hope each of you, and all your loved ones, stays safe. Please take care. What a year!!

Hi Kwyn. I always use K&M boom mic stands. The are built like tree trunks and never wilt. For standing with two keyboards I had a K&M keyboard stand adapted to take just the top of the boom. It works like a dream and means that I have a surprisingly small footprint on stage. :0

Ii OMG for one heart stopping moment I thought you were following up the lizard story with the boa constrictor story..... Congratulations on your studio!! Amazing work and so interesting to see it electronically grow. Have you felt tempted to put in double doors for extra sound insulation?

Wonderful - thank you! I am going on an electronic world tour.

So, there have now been some developments in this unsavoury saga... My (glowing and wondrous) credit card company has contacted me to confirm that no money will ever be sent again, and if Soundcloud were to attempt to get its hands on any more, they would ensure that I got a refund. I also had an email from Soundcloud. I got a bit excited. Maybe this would be the moment for them to attempt to placate an extremely disgruntled, annoyed and fuming customer....... Maybe they would take the opportunity to proudly announce that my subscription has been cancelled as requested and they hope they could be of service in the future.... and maybe they would also take the opportunity to apologize for the lamentable state of their website and the time they have caused me to waste in attempting to sort this out... But - needless to say, the email did not attempt to do any of those things. Instead it - can you guess??????........................... - was sent to WARN ME that if I do not renew then my subscription will end in two weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The subject of the email was "Renew today....."

Always happy to help, Joe.

Thanks for doing that Dave - I appreciiate it. Always good to know that one is not being personally targeted.

Maybe it has a motor....

I am beyond 30 days and should be able to cancel any time, as stated here: Sounds easy and great doesn"t it?..... Except it doesn't work. The thirty day thing is only relevant if you are asking for a refund - which I am not.

Keep in mind, SC has 175 million listeners Many have ' free ' accounts. Thus, I think they treat folks as a #. Even with a paid sub, it isn't a bunch of money, thus the service level is minimal. 2 years ago, there were rumors of bankruptcy with SC, but they pulled out of it and got some funding. What other choices do serious musicians have ? YouTube is not my thing. SoundCloud is good for audio quality. From there, there is Bandcamp, AudioMack. I am serious about publishing my material, thus I work to underdstand the bigger picture of these sites. I think if it were a simple matter of trying to find the cheapest and easiest way of dealing with large numbers of customers, then they would have a website which worked properly. A website which allowed people - with one simple click of a button - to discontinue their pro account. Like millions of other websites do. Like they advertise that they do.... Instead they have chosen to remove this abllity from the website entirely and to send their customers on a wild goose chase (such as I am experiencing here...) If the only way out involves tracking down an almost impossible to find email address and then dealing directly with one of their employees (should you happen to be one of the lucky ones whose email gets a golden ticket)... then clearly this is neither suited to dealing with large volumes of enquiries, nor labour unintensive..... No, something else entirely seems to be going on here. They are not seeking to help people take the simplest and easiest route out. They are seeking to make it so difficult and complex to find the door that we 'can checkout any time we want, but we can never leave.....' And in so doing, they appear to be attempting - quietly and sinisterly - to trap people into paying their subscription for far longer than they wish.

Hi Baggypants. That sounds like a completely different scenario. Presumably your friends signed up to a contract of a certain period of time and then decided they wished to pull out of it before it had finished? I only signed up to a one month subscription. It automatically renews but, according to the agreement, I can cancel at any time. If I am not allowed to cancel when I wish to do so, it would not be me who would be breaking the agreement. But, having said that, I have just received a further email from them which has allocated me a 'ticket number". Why they sent the other - entirely unhelpful email - first, I do not know, but I am pleased at this development. I am a naturally optimistic person, but will, at present, refrain from holding my breath in anticipation of a speedy conclusion to this frustrating episode....

Loved it.

Hi Rob. Very good point - thank you. Yes my surface does take screenshots and I actually did take a few along the way...just to keep track of where I had been in the maze. I think I will hold on to them....

Good for you Docbop! Excellent use of social media!. I have not the energy to follow suit....but it would be good if people were informed about what is going on....

I agree- SC is exasperating to deal with. Did you make an effort here to make your case ? SoundCloud Support Here is their 'response": 'Hi, This is an automatic message. We don"t monitor emails sent directly to this email address and we won"t be able to reply to your email. Please visit this help article for instructions on how to get support. If you"re not able to find the answer you need in our Help Center, you can file a support ticket If you want to report infringing content, or if you have another legal request that requires immediate assistance, please visit our Terms of Use for information about our policies and to learn how to send your report. Thanks, Your friends at SoundCloud. ' As useful as a set of piano keys made of playdough. The 'support ticket" is just yet another labyrinth: designed to take you round and round in circles until you despair, run out of time and give up hope of achieving whatever it was you were hoping to do. Unfortunately for Soundcloud, we all have lots more spare time at present to shine a spotlight on this murky slime. It cannot be legal in any country to run a site such as this without providing working contact details of any kind....but so far I have failed to find any. It cannot be legal to enrol people on subscriptions with promises that they can cancel at any time without providing them with any means to do so..... The more I look into this the more shocked I am at what they are doing. P.S. As far as your question goes, Greg, ' Did you make an effort here to make your case' ... I do not have any case to make. I simply wish to stop a subscription. I do not and should not need to jump through any hoops to do so. Something is very very wrong here.

No need imo. Instead first confirm they've actually charged your CC. If they have file a dispute with the CC company. Soundcloud then has 60 days (typically) to respond back if they wish to fight the dispute (I doubt they would). In the mean time the CC should credit your account near immediately while waiting this 60 day period. Thanks Mark. This is good advice and I will do it tonight. Soundcloud will never get so much as a sniff of a penny from me ever again. Fortunately my credit card company is excellent and has always been very helpful. And they they perform incredible superhuman feats such as publishing real contact details; actually reading and replying to emails and even answering telephone calls!! Soundcloud could learn so much from them....

I am utterly shocked at this situation. I actually thought a huge global website like soundclould would be trustworthy. At the moment I feel like I am being scammed. If necessary I will cut up and cancel my credit card and stop the subscription that way, but I would much prefer to simply cancel the soundcloud subscription. WHY would they think it acceptable to treat people this way?

Hello Greg. I have wasted a considerable amount of my time on this this morning and tried everything. Contacting soundcloud is - as with so many huge companies - impossible. No telephone number, no email address. Online 'support' which is just a load of useless articles which carry incorrect information. I am pretty shocked at how bad this situation is. They are basically attempting to get their hands on my money against my will (surely this must be illegal????): giving me no possible means of cancelling this subscription which I wish I had gone to great lengths to avoid!