Google Synthesizer Search Buttons

Google is now displaying Search Buttons as a "carousel" widget above image search. I did a search for "synthesizers" in Google Images and this is what came up.

This is my specialty field of marketing, SEO (search engine optimization) -- and this combines SEO and synthesizers.

CLICK on image for LARGER view.

Google is moving forward in contextual search, guessing what you might want to search for next.

I'm not sure how much of my previous searching factors into this.

Not much, apparently, because the Search Buttons should include Moog, DSI, modular, touchpad, ribbon controller, Arturia, Mutable Instruments, Ciat-Lonbarde, Folktek, Gotharman, and other relevant terms that I use often in search.

I horizontal scrolled through all the buttons. None of the above terms were included.

I had Private results activated, instead of Global, which means Google Search was allegedly factoring in my previous search behavior. Sure didn't seem like it.

FAIL.

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Dancing to Str8 Sounds @ Goddess Boheme

Dancing to "Dance Like a Large Hadron Collider on Mars" tune by Str8 Sounds @ Goddess Boheme. "Fool's Paradise" event, April 1, 2016.

Goddess Boheme, 606 W. Main Street, Peoria, IL USA.

A CIAO First Friday art, fashion & music show. 

Passion and Hard Work Won't Make You Successful

On Shark Tank, I keep seeing entrepreneurs who think their main selling point is their passion and hard work.

Passion and hard work mean absolutely nothing. I've known lunatics who were passionate and working hard.

I think this crazy attitude comes from New Age gurus.


"Wish hard enough and it will magically materialize."

"What you picture in your mind must appear in the world."

"Thoughts are things."

"Believe it will happen, and it will happen."

"Have zeal and make it real."

"Fake it until you make it."

And other loads of crap.

To succeed, you must be smart, not just fanatical.

You need to know the market.

You have to first know the problems, needs, and desires of your customer. Without that foundation, all the passion and hard work in the world will accomplish nothing.

You don't just invent something, then try to see who you can sell it to. You have to begin with the customer's pain and perplexity, their anguish and anger, their frustration and futility.

You have to see a big problem that is not being solved very well by competitors. You then design a solution and those who need it are already craving it.

Marketing is simply connecting your solution with the people who need it.

Your marketing must come not from a marketing team in a conference room, but from the lips of customers, how they talk, what they say about their problem, what they dream about and desire.

Your website, Facebook business page, brochures, radio commercials, TV advertising, business cards, everything should speak to that need and in the language your customers are using.

Your marketing should start and end with "You...." and not "We...."

Your company should be positioned as the expert, the problem solver, the thought leader in your field.

Whether your business is ham and sausage ... or photography and video productions.

You start with the customers and their needs, questions, problems, wishes, hopes, and dreams. NOT with your corporation or how great your product is.

Nobody wants to buy your products and they never will.

What they want is a way to fix a deficiency, enhance a lifestyle, or solve a problem. That's what they will buy. Not "product" but SOLUTION.

How To Use Owners Manuals to Overcome Buyer's Remorse -- ELEKTRON ANALOG FOUR example

Owner's Manuals should always include text that reinforces what the product is and does for the customer.

This is the manufacturer's last chance to overcome buyer's remorse, diminish returns, and encourage customers to recruit their friends.

When a customer receives a product from a store or from a delivery method, ecstasy is quickly followed by doubts, misgivings, disappointments.

"Is this really such a great purchase? Did I make the best decision? Is this product living up to my expectations and the hype to which I was exposed? Did I waste my money? Should I return this and get something better?

The Owner's Manual is a fantastic opportunity to answer these questions by truthfully emphasizing how incredible the product is and why the customer made the right purchasing decision.

Owner's Manual introductions are the manufacturers way to give the customer ammunition for responding to questions from friends, like: "Why did you spend so much money on that thing? Why didn't you buy what I own?"

However, most owners manuals fail to do anymore than say "Thanks for buying our product. Please read this instruction book carefully."

Here's what Elektron provides in the Analog Four reference manual.

QUOTE

THE BACKGROUND OF THE ANALOG FOUR

Some things never go out of style. They seem to possess an inner, timeless quality, an objective trait that sets them apart from the rest. Makes them stand out. They can be found in all areas of human activity, throughout history.

From science to art, literature to architecture, photography to theatre - works of art embodying the essence of these expressions are found everywhere. Including, of course, within the domain of sound.

Making and shaping sound using analog circuits goes far back in time. Initially used in compositions dating from the first decades of the 20th century, analog circuits were popularized in the 1960s thanks to artists such as Wendy Carlos.

Today, they are frequently emulated by both hardware and software. Their legacy is impressive.

The analog tone and timbre has become synonymous with appealing sounds. Rightly so. The depth, fullness and slightly skewed characteristics of analog sounds speak directly to us.

As the French poet Baudelaire noted:

“Irregularity, in other words the unexpected, the surprising, the astonishing, are essential to and characteristic of
beauty.” (Intimate Journals, 1930).

We at Elektron owe a lot to analog technology. It is in our blood. The Sidstation, our first product, featured an analog filter which was decisive in generating the unique sound of the synth.

With the Analog Four we return, in a sense, back to where we started.

Only this time we bring the knowledge and experience gained from the development of instruments like the Machinedrum, Monomachine and Octatrack. The result, we can confidently claim, is the best of two worlds.

Rich, warm and lucent analog sound, combined with the accuracy and precision only state of the art digital control can achieve.

This makes the Analog Four not only a perfect match for our existing product lines - the instrument is also ideal for any modern studio or live setup in need of that inimitable analog sound.

The Analog Four is our contribution to the proud history of analog instruments.

Enjoy the power of true hardware,

The Elektron Team


END QUOTE



http://www.kraftmusic.com/media/documentation/Elektron_Analog_Four_Full_Reference_Manual_OS1.1.pdf

Fighting Trolls and Beating Them with Misinterpretation

I greatly enjoy it when trolls make their futile little attempts to disagree with my viewpoint, or to flame my own music.

My secret weapons in online debate consist of:

(1) not caring about who likes or dislikes my music

(2) not caring about their hysterical rants

(3) not caring about "winning" a discussion

(4) not caring about their fragile egos and their desperate clinging to a musical artist whom I have debunked as a fake.

(5) totally ignoring nonsensical replies and keep hammering away at your main point, remaining completely oblivious to hateful flames and wild accusations

(6) repeatedly pretending to misinterpret destructive criticism as praise

-- this really annoys and infuriates trolls, often causing them to say "I'm done with this conversation." You turn the tables on them. Trolls want to make you angry and upset, but you make him so angry and upset, he can't take it anymore.

If you make music to please and get praise from other people, you'll always be sensitive and vulnerable to hostility.

Make music to please yourself and forget about fans, stardom, and popularity. That junk is for narcissistic losers.

Case in point: the Dorian Concept video of him pretending to be working hard, hot-knobbing and air-tweaking his MicroKorg in a pretentious show of nonsense at the Boiler Room.

Dorian Concept is easily seen to be faking a performance as he uses a pre-recorded set. It's like lip-syncing, only with a synthesizer.

Go to YouTube and type in "Dorian Concept Boiler Room" and you'll see the fake performance video.

Guys who adore and idolize this fraudster Dorian Concept get really bent out of shape when they see me critique him.

Watch my Troll Smashing technique in action. Maybe it will help you in a similar situation.

***************************

Playground Music:

+Steven Streight Can you not hear the delay effect? He's changing the delay timing

Steven Streight:

He's making furious motions, touching knobs without even turning them, they stay in the same position.

jayjaybirdsnest:

+Steven Streight Also looks like hes got some form of adhd or ocd.

Personally i have both, and when im playing live i get super nervous and somewhat jittery, so i usually fuck with the eq knobs a lot, even if other people cant hear the differences i'm so tuned into the music that i can hear even the slightest little change. most likely another factor.

Nocturnes:

+Steven Streight  Either way he's producing shit better than you'll ever be able to create in your whole life.

All his movements are subtle, he's actually playing the controller and it's not meant to perform the whole song from scratch but rather add minor effects live.

Fuck off with that foo foo lame ass shit. You're being completely hypocritical as well, implying you have nothing to hate/disrespect Dorian Concept. But you're doing just that you old little shit.

Steven Streight:

Bullshit. Dorian Concept is faking it and you know it. All that hot knobbing and air tweaking with no change in the sound.

He's a pathetic fraud. It's abundantly obvious.

I know what's going on, and so do the many other synthesizer players I showed this video to. We know MicroKorgs. Dude's not playing it.

Aname Goeshere:

+Steven Streight Any sufficiently advanced virtuoso is indistinguishable from magic.

Steven Streight:

This performance is neither "virtuoso" nor "magic" but almost entirely fake.

Nocturnes:

How is he fucking fake, that makes no sense. Look at your fucking videos, all you're doing is smashing your face mindlessly on your kassolator that you obviously do not know how to use.

m1studio:

+Steven Streight Steven, completely agree.This guy is a fakey fake live.

He is literally pretending to play the keys; he has his fingers resting on the plastic above the key bed.

He even flicks his hand next to the keyboard as if he's doing something. I'm sure to the crowd that is below him can't tell what they heck he's doing, but the video sure shows that clear as day.

They even start shaking and moving the camera more, because the camera operator even realizes what he's "doing" is absolutely nothing.

Maybe he wrote and performed the music in studio (maybe), but he's not performing anything live that he recorded.

Even the fake knob tweaking (old DJ trick) doesn't do anything to the sound.

He's frickin' constantly moving about to different knobs like an idiot with no result.

Yeah he has the cables plugged in, but that's all for show.

This guy sucks.

Nocturnes:

This is a performance with the use of effects to only heighten/increase the sound of his specific music. His production is so complex that you cannot perform single handily by yourself on a single synth. It's polyphonic because there is multiple rhythm within a single beat and a looper wouldn't be sufficient because the timing and tempo constantly changes.

Nocturnes:

This is something you won't ever understand because you aren't an actual musician, or at least a knowledgeable/talented one for that matter.

Nocturnes:

Look at your videos -- they're fucking terrible and you should kill yourself.

Steven Streight:

Thanks. I'm glad you like them.

I'll make more, and there will never be any hot-knobbing or air tweaking fake playing nonsense on them, I guarantee it.

Nocturnes:

Yeah your music actually sucks, you will never be as good as Dorian.

Steven Streight:

Thanks. I'm happy I can please you with my actual synthesizer playing, rather than pretending to perform along with a pre-recorded set.

Nocturnes:

You're cancer to music, and you'll never be a respect musician.

Steven Streight:

I greatly appreciate your taking the time to watch all of my amazing music videos.

Your boy-love for Dorian Concept, the fake MicroKorg player, is really cute, too.

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Not Posting Anything About Your Business on Your Facebook Business Page

One of the most common and serious mistakes I see is Facebook Business pages where the owner, or whoever is handling their Facebook marketing, NEVER posts anything relevant to their business.

It's really amazing to see this. Lots of posts, but they're either trivial and silly, or they're informative, but not related to the business.

And they never post anything about their own business.


Nothing about their new products, new employees, community events they participate in, awards they've received, training programs, job openings, corporate philosophy, industry news -- nothing.

I can't quite understand how anybody could be this absurd.

Did the business owner turn their Facebook page over to some young person and just say, "Have fun with it" -- ???

The owner has no business goals he or she hopes to achieve with their Facebook Business page?

If you're a business owner with a Facebook Business page devoted to your business, take a look at it.

Are you sharing your expertise?

Are you posting anything about your business, your products, discounts, special events, new features, customer testimonials, explanations of what makes you different from your competitors?

Are you linking to news items that relate to your field?

Are you posting photos of your products in use, solving the needs of customers?

Are you posting photos of your company's involvement in community events and fund raisers?

Are you sharing videos that help customers better understand their problems and how to solve them?

Definition of "music"

We use synthesizers and other devices to make music.

But what do we mean by "music"?

Is "music" somehow different from "soundscapes" or "noise jams"?

"Music" is whatever the composer says it is.

"Music" is just organized noise with a theory behind it.

"Music" is anything from a single sustained tone to a complex orchestration of 1,000 instruments.

"Music" is a series of sine waves that have been modulated.

Any sonic event or audio material can be, and probably has been, used in a "musical" context.

Merriam-Webster defines the nebulous term "music" as:

a : the science or art of ordering tones or sounds in succession, in combination, and in temporal relationships to produce a composition having unity and continuity.

b : vocal, instrumental, or mechanical sounds having rhythm, melody, or harmony.

We can argue forever on what is, and what is not, "music." It boils down to a matter of opinion, and there is no true consensus, even among classical musicians, on what is "real" or "authentic" music.

Among classical composers from the beginning until today, they fight and argue and accuse their rivals of composing works that are "not music."

As avant garde composer John Cage put it in the essay "History of Experimental Music in the United States": "Debussy said quite some time ago, 'Any sounds in any combination and in any succession are henceforth free to be used in a musical continuity.'"

When the Beatles first came on the scene, old timers and traditional musicians claimed that "This is NOT music, it's just noise."

Can you imagine now calling "A Day in the Life", "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Yesterday", or "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" just "noise"?

Is Merzbow's sonic output "noise" or "music"?

Is the sound of a summer night, the crickets and cicadas and bullfrogs and howling wolves -- is this "music"? Why or why not?

How do you think of "music"?

Does it even matter? Do we really need a definition of "music" to do what we do?

Do you ever produce sounds with a synthesizer that you feel can never find a place in any "musical" context?

PHOTO: Eitan Shafer’s redesigned Samchillian.