How helpful are you?

Armistice

Son of Yoda
I don't know about you guys, but I have this "thing" about who I help around here - especially with newbies. Unless it's about recording original music, in some genre that I'm not outright hostile to, and the questioner demonstrates some level of intelligence and desire to learn, I pretty much don't play.

It doesn't have any impact as people seem to come along and attempt to answer their questions anyway - some of you are so very helpful to anyone who asks.

So the "can I sing" threads, the "how do you remove vocals from an MP3" threads, the what settings did "XXX use on YYYY song" threads, the "I'm really after confirmation of my own ill-conceived ideas " threads, the "how do I get AAAA's sound" threads, the "I did a cover version (I do make exceptions) of ZZZZZ what do you think" threads, the "I'm after a lo-fi sound" threads, the "I can't learn to sing and play my acoustic guitar separately" threads, the "how do I treat this single guitar/vocal track and pan it to get a doubled guitar/vocal" threads etc. etc. etc. I just pass by. It doesn't matter - someone answers the question anyway.

I respect the people who put in the time and effort to master these skills, or for that matter, any skills, no matter what stage of the journey they're at.

People here talk about the death of the music business and how there's so much crap music around these days... consider that by helping some of the people asking these questions that perhaps you're part of the problem. :D

/rant. I'm in a mood. :laughings:
 
I don't know about you guys, but I have this "thing" about who I help around here

Ditto. If it's not already someone I know and trust can handle my honesty, I'm not going to bother. It's pointless. People are too fucking stupid and too fucking sensitive for my time now. It sucks because I do want to help people, but they make it more trouble than it's worth. They want false praise and coddling. There's one jackass in the clinic that...never mind.

And like you, I know someone else will jump at the chance to chime in, so I need not bother anymore. Especially when I see that the helpers doing the helping don't know jack shit themselves. It's a strange era at HR.
 
I'll give opinion and a view from experience from time to time where I choose to. I don't feel I qualify to go giving advice on every subject like some people do. I find reading certain people's replies to questions cringworthy at times. Giving advice on things completely over their heads but what they think they know because they've read a bit.

But, each to their own.
 
Helping is often steering people away from bad advice or plain wrong stuff that gets posted....

Being stupid is a condition, being ignorant is self imposed. A lot of what gets asked is already here and been covered dozens of times. If noobs or long time members cant be assed to search I can rarely be assed to reply.
 
1- I can't help anyone get the super-compressed popular rock sound they're looking for because I don't care for it myself.
2- Every time I've ever tried to help someone in the past, they've either ignored my advice or argued with it.
3- As mentioned, you're basically helping someone make garbage music.
 
But I will go out of my way to ridicule the exceptionally clueless.. gotta pull my own weight somehow.
 
I find the forum helpful. But I don't find the search helpful as terms come up in so many different contexts.

The only things I really give a shit about though are getting a good sound out of an amp or sim and recording it. I don't even know off the top of my head what VST stands for. I'm not that interested in doing anything after record has been pressed.

So, no, I'm not helpful unless telling people to stop cocking about with turd polish is helpful.
I am helpful in explaining (repeatedly) the scientific method to people - even if all this does is prevent the spread of disinformation.
 
I don't really care who asks a question, nor how dumb the question may seem. If I can give an answer I will.

However, there are a few things I find frustrating:

* people who ask a question along the lines of "will this work?" when all they need to do is actually try it;
* people who think that technology is a substitute for talent;
* people who ask a question seeking a particular answer and who don't accept that it may not be the answer;
* people who don't understand that recording, like any other profession or trade, requires knowledge, skill and experience, and acquiring these takes time;
* people who don't have basic problem-solving abilities, and for example, are unable to isolate a problem cause by simple process of elimination.
 
* people who ask a question along the lines of "will this work?" when all they need to do is actually try it;
This can be a decent question when you're in the office and you're thinking about stuff - you come up with an idea of something that might work but haven't tested it. Someone might be able to tell you that its a shite, idea but for what you're trying to achieve you could try a different thing instead. Saves you a lot of time/pain in the arse factor.

Explaining what you're trying to achieve is always a better way of asking a question though.
 
I don't really care who asks a question, nor how dumb the question may seem. If I can give an answer I will.

However, there are a few things I find frustrating:

* people who ask a question along the lines of "will this work?" when all they need to do is actually try it;
* people who think that technology is a substitute for talent;
* people who ask a question seeking a particular answer and who don't accept that it may not be the answer;
* people who don't understand that recording, like any other profession or trade, requires knowledge, skill and experience, and acquiring these takes time;
* people who don't have basic problem-solving abilities, and for example, are unable to isolate a problem cause by simple process of elimination.

Dude, that's literally every question and scenario in here. And I agree with you.
 
This can be a decent question when you're in the office and you're thinking about stuff

True enough. But I reckon that people in the office thinking about that kind of stuff would be less common than people doing their thing in their studio. What I am referring to is stuff like: "I've got mike A, mike B and mike C. Which is best for guitar?" So why would they not set them up and see which gives the best results for them? The question is unnecessary.
 
There's a guy in the studio building forum right now doing everything wrong. But he's probably put $30K into the darn thing and he's already building and way past the design stage. I couldn't bring myself to tell him.
 
There's a guy in the studio building forum right now doing everything wrong. But he's probably put $30K into the darn thing and he's already building and way past the design stage. I couldn't bring myself to tell him.

The 'little tiny control room' guy? Yeah, you can only help those who want to be helped. Too many people just want affirmation of what they've already done.
 
Post in here, maybe the vst forum..or keyboard synths...not much else really. I will if i can get recording again.
 
I pretty much don't bother anymore unless I see someone else recommending something extremely dumb...the way I see it, there's already a crap ton of info online in pretty much any format you would want...YouTube/articles/podcasts/forum posts. I guess it's my way of promoting self growth by letting them work to find the answers instead of just answering the same 10-20 questions on repeat lol
 
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