Hello, I hope you’re all keeping well. It’s been a while since I’ve written something so I thought it’d be a nice time to provide an update. As ever I’m extremely grateful for all the support I’ve had. It’s still extremely humbling to receive messages from people who’ve been happy with my sounds many months after they were released or even purchased. It’s a great feeling to know there’s more people out there that might discover them.
Progress
Since last year I’ve kept myself busy unsuccessfully dodging viruses, supporting the family and releasing sound banks as much as I can. On a personal note, life hasn’t been quite the same (as for everyone). I got Covid last year, but have never really felt the same since. I find I suffer from a lot of brain fog moments and bouts of fatigue/tiredness which is frustrating. Some days are better than others but I can’t help feeling something has changed. Still I’ve had the jabs and hopefully things will keep improving.
The saying “so many synths and too little time” could not be more apt. Often I get myself down in the dumps thinking how to make things faster, or what to cut out to increase my output. Soundsauca isn’t my only concern, but it’s certainly my passion.
Sound Passion
That passion comes at a cost though. All the videos and rendering (which are always secondary and made after the sounds) often take just as long as creating patches. However I love the visual aspect to presenting sounds and I’m keen to keep trying new things out.
Recently it’s dawned on me that my beloved laptop is struggling. Earlier this year, the battery swelled up and warped the case. Apple were pretty cool and replaced the battery (and most of the external casing) for free, despite being out of warranty. I’m no expert but one theory is that the laptop has probably spent so long getting all hot and bothered inside that something had to give.
Moving on, I’m looking at getting something newer to do video rendering, maybe a PC as there’s some really cool GPUs to munch that video down. It’s a shame there’s a worldwide shortage of silicon though. I did look at just getting an eGPU (external GPU) for my Macbook. However, the prices are often insane – as much as a computer in some cases. This wouldn’t guarantee compatibility either so I’ve shelved that one.
Final Cut
I have also considered cutting back on some of the video to allow for more time for extra sound design. It’s certainly a thought. My latest sound bank, Himalaya for the Novation Peak still follows the format of previous YouTube videos. However I did split the bank into 2 videos as it’s quite a long time to keep people’s attention.
I keep wondering if people would still be interested if there were less examples, and/or less graphical work done. I’m not thinking of this to save myself work, but the question I face is whether more banks would be a good tradeoff.
I’ve had a few point out that it’s a waste of time making long videos as they’re never watched. Well looking at my figures it’s certainly true that views drop off over time as expected, but many do watch them too. Regardless, there’s loads of other demos out there that are more concise if that’s a thing. I always put my heart and soul into all aspects of my work and want that to continue. Still, if you have a view on this, I’d appreciate your feedback.
All the best,
Michael