Musicians' thread.

HAL 9000 said:

The Kiffness Talks about SAMRO's Dark Little Secrets - Renaldo Gouws​



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Good watch. It’s interesting that this comes to light only now though. I’ve seen probably around 20 musicians try and eventually give up with this coming back to the labels for help with copyright. A lot of the smaller labels are just like, they screwed us as well.
 
HAL 9000 said:

The Kiffness Talks about SAMRO's Dark Little Secrets - Renaldo Gouws​



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www.dailymaverick.co.za

SA Music Rights Organisation board and executives flee offices to avoid members’ ire

The Southern African Music Rights Organisation has made increasingly desperate attempts to quash emerging reports of fraud and corruption.
www.dailymaverick.co.za www.dailymaverick.co.za

The article from Daily Maverick details a dramatic escalation in the crisis engulfing the Southern African Music Rights Organisation (Samro). Over recent weeks, Samro has faced growing scrutiny over allegations of fraud and corruption. In an effort to avoid direct confrontation with its members, the board and executives vacated their offices and held an Extraordinary General Meeting online from an undisclosed location. This move denied members physical access and violated governance protocols, particularly the Companies Act, which requires member consent for changes to meeting formats.


At the heart of the controversy is a forensic report commissioned in 2021 by Samro COO Mpho Mofikoe, which was completed in 2023 but subsequently buried. Mofikoe, who later spoke out against the board’s interference and raised concerns about threats to her safety and that of witnesses, was suspended shortly after naming implicated board members and refusing to hand over related files. Her suspension was officially described as precautionary, though many members view it as retaliatory.


The report implicated several high-profile board members, including Louise Bulley of VVP Publishing, Ryan Hill of Universal Music Publishing, and Rowlin Naicker of Sony Music Publishing. These individuals were voted out during a July meeting, but Samro later attempted to reinstate them in a follow-up meeting that was inaccessible to most members due to its digital-only format. This decision sparked outrage, especially since many members lack reliable internet access.


David Alexander, former head of Sheer Publishing and a long-serving board member, was reportedly granted secret amnesty and assisted in emigrating to the United States to avoid prosecution. His name appears in a leaked portion of the forensic report, and members claim board chair Nicholas Maweni supported his visa application despite ongoing investigations.


The article also highlights the personal impact on members like gospel artist William Mthethwa, who recovered R400,000 in royalties thanks to Mofikoe’s efforts but believes he has been shortchanged by millions over his career. Samro’s actions have raised serious concerns about transparency, accountability, and the erosion of member rights in an organization meant to serve their interests. The situation reflects a broader pattern of governance failures and impunity within South African institutions.
 
I saw that ladies video a few days ago, it’s is pretty impressive but I wonder if what we see is just a code look alike GUI and she's not actually coding per say just using a daw on the regular
 
airborne said:
I saw that ladies video a few days ago, it’s is pretty impressive but I wonder if what we see is just a code look alike GUI and she's not actually coding per say just using a daw on the regular
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Think she's just running her vocals through a daw for FX. Everything else seems to be done on Strudel, though probably loaded a few custom samples.

Strudel REPL

Strudel is a music live coding environment for the browser, porting the TidalCycles pattern language to JavaScript.
strudel.cc strudel.cc
 
RedViking said:
Dude what did you get for the loop station? I hate using the pc as same I sit in front of it the whole day. They quite pricey.
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Set up a price alert on Amazon.com a few weeks ago, price of this unit dropped around 15% so decided to go for it. With shipping was still around R6000 cheaper than locally.

mkr.jpg
 
saor said:
Set up a price alert on Amazon.com a few weeks ago, price of this unit dropped around 15% so decided to go for it. With shipping was still around R6000 cheaper than locally.

View attachment 1902167
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These things are amazing but even with R6k off still a very hefty R12k?
Being a desktop unit what/how are you planning on using it?
 
airborne said:
These things are amazing but even with R6k off still a very hefty R12k?
Being a desktop unit what/how are you planning on using it?
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Drum machine
Guitar
Synth / keyboard
Mic

Will probably need to get an audio switcher box to let me choose between multiple inputs. Will use it at home but then also take it with when I'm visiting family to jam with. I've got a few switch pedals lying around if i really want to toggle this unit by stomping on a switch but i think I'll be fine just pressing the buttons by hand. My dad has Boss guitar loop pedals and I'm not really a fan of how they operate and I wanted something with interesting fx and routing options.

Bass guitar especially when we're jamming - I get bored playing the same riff over and over so this takes care of that. My nephews are also getting into music and the younger one especially enjoys creating weird shit so he'll enjoy looping his vocals and playing with the effects. Still need to see what happens with the bass & guitar going straight into this unit what the output sounds like.
 
saor said:
Set up a price alert on Amazon.com a few weeks ago, price of this unit dropped around 15% so decided to go for it. With shipping was still around R6000 cheaper than locally.

View attachment 1902167
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giphy.gif


/adds @soar to ignore list 😭
 
saor said:
Drum machine
Guitar
Synth / keyboard
Mic

Will probably need to get an audio switcher box to let me choose between multiple inputs. Will use it at home but then also take it with when I'm visiting family to jam with. I've got a few switch pedals lying around if i really want to toggle this unit by stomping on a switch but i think I'll be fine just pressing the buttons by hand. My dad has Boss guitar loop pedals and I'm not really a fan of how they operate and I wanted something with interesting fx and routing options.

Bass guitar especially when we're jamming - I get bored playing the same riff over and over so this takes care of that. My nephews are also getting into music and the younger one especially enjoys creating weird shit so he'll enjoy looping his vocals and playing with the effects. Still need to see what happens with the bass & guitar going straight into this unit what the output sounds like.
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That looper and an old novation xl launch control is very versatile especially if you want to use it with a DAW but I think the 505mkII supports midi natively so if the get the novation xl launch control mk3 with midi outputs you can directly control it.
 
airborne said:
That looper and an old novation xl launch control is very versatile especially if you want to use it with a DAW but I think the 505mkII supports midi natively so if the get the novation xl launch control mk3 with midi outputs you can directly control it.
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Staying far away from DAW :X3: . Want a pure hardware setup.

I've got a Kork PadKontrol I can use as a midi device with the 505 if necessary (505 has midi in & out). I plan to have midi on my step sequencer build so that it can sync with the 505.

emr.jpg

Also this, which is still one of the best midi controllers ever made - it's almost infinitely programmable, has leds for each knob and right now is running custom firmware that turns it into a midi step-sequencer.

isnt-it-amazing-that-for-over-10-years-the-bcr-2000-has-v0-fxN7LW58FpTDN9yQ5KpNZxtuMJDFx4_bm1...webp
 
RedViking said:
Not really. Just the guitar. But I currently use a basic looper built into my GX-10. WOuld have been nice to have more than one and being able to control them.
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The ability to visually build signal chains on this thing looks incredible.

gx-10_gal_01.webp
 
saor said:
The ability to visually build signal chains on this thing looks incredible.

View attachment 1902263
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Yeah works great for me. What is nice is that it gives me a really good idea of what pedals and amp I eventually would like to invest in. Boss makes quality stuff. I run it off a battery and take with wherever I go and then I record through my phone.
 
RedViking said:
Yeah works great for me. What is nice is that it gives me a really good idea of what pedals and amp I eventually would like to invest in. Boss makes quality stuff. I run it off a battery and take with wherever I go and then I record through my phone.
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How do you record through your phone?
 
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