Audiobus: Use your music apps together.
What is Audiobus? — Audiobus is an award-winning music app for iPhone and iPad which lets you use your other music apps together. Chain effects on your favourite synth, run the output of apps or Audio Units into an app like GarageBand or Loopy, or select a different audio interface output for each app. Route MIDI between apps — drive a synth from a MIDI sequencer, or add an arpeggiator to your MIDI keyboard — or sync with your external MIDI gear. And control your entire setup from a MIDI controller.
Download on the App StoreAudiobus is the app that makes the rest of your setup better.
Marketing wordplay - where to from here
So it seems the latest word that has been commandeered for hyping things up is "insane", for example, "check out this insane midi pack", or, "with 400 insane new presets". What will be the next word used when people need to top that? What is beyond insane? "Criminally deranged midi pack". "800 new just cut my parrot in half to see whether it was symmetrical presets"?
And how does a word like insane tell the consumer anything other than we are trying to grab your attention without providing any useful information (cough, Slate Digital).
Comments
I feel like “insane” has been oversaturated for a few years now. I think it’s a descendent of “rad” and the slightly edgier surfer/California slang that followed (i.e. “gnarly”, “wicked”, “sick”)
At least the “epic” epidemic has abated thank heavens. Just like the “douchebag” plague when it was the only insult everyone knew for a good decade around 2003-2012. The “epic” fad extended far too long and was never even cute to begin with.
I’ll make a prediction for next up; it’s actually a word I started to use just to amuse myself and see if it would catch on among my circle of friends. What’s insaner than “insane”?? Sicker than “sick”?
“Vile”. That’s so vile, man. Vile! I love it! Totally vile.
5 star thread. I love bitching about these types of word trends and I find it interesting seeing them develop, then boom, then be such universal things I can’t even say them in earnest anymore. My biggest word peeve of all time is “personal brand”. I still cannot get over how fucking stupid that is. Truly vile.
Tubular thread Esquire!
Watch it, poindexter
@oat is putrid worse than vile? I thing "sick" was pretty epic, but "insane" was totally sick. Vile is pretty putrid but I think putrid is totally vile.
The one I hate is "dope". It drives me, for want of a better word, insane.
What was wrong with "fab" or "gear"?
This thread is the bee’s knees!
What's wrong with an actual description. Like 120 new DnB presets. I know that is subjective to a degree but pointless adjectives like insane just tell you nothing. I don't look any further when I see that sort of statement. I guess lots of people do.
Agreed. That would be spiffing. Ants pants, what ho!
Anyway, my initial point was where to next? If you can guess the next major music gear market speak hype word I'll tell you how to get 1000 insane new samples for free.
Radical, shit moves in cycles, it’s probably getting close for a radical comeback, lol.
Hey that'd be great. I remember that one.
Hmmm, probably some new tik tok nonsense word ala ‘fleek’. Impossible to predict and prevent. We’re doomed!
That would be totally flecked up, I'm grokking sure of that.
What makes me cringe is "Fire", "Fiyaaaa" or 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Usually a good sign of absolute mediocrity.
It's also a consequence, at least in part, of the democratisation of content generation. When there are a million YouTube "producers" offering "reviews" on the exact same products, they need to stand out in order to generate clicks. So they use ever more extreme words and make idiotic faces on the cover still. BTW, this combination usually also stands in for actual content.
Sad.
But look on the bright side: you can use these words and visuals as obvious warning signs to avoid crap content. Just like you already do with those "13 reasons to do something, the 5th will make you cry" kind of titles.
‘Awesome’, I’ve actually felt awe very few times in my life; the first sight of real mountains, the great Rift Valley, a blue whale alongside a boat I was in. They were awesome 😎
oat-phipps got it right when he said "5 star thread. I love bitching about these types of word trends." What goes around...the next word is bitchin' (again).
oat_phipps also said, "Watch it, poindexter." Decades ago I had a series of cartoon stories in Surfer Magazine. The two guys I worked with and I came up with a cartoon character, fat and balding, named Poindexter. A couple of weeks after the cartoon came out, the publisher Steve Pezman, who hadn't seen the comic, came to work and asked someone, "What is a poindexter?" Turns out some kids called him that as he was paddling out!
Exactly. You have to save these words for when you need them or they lose the impact.
Very, very good point.
First time I heard that was from Bart Simpson. Must be a long time ago but I'd say I was late to the party. I'm not even sure if it is an insult or not.
Poindexter is a surname. But the nerd connotation comes from the Felix the Cat cartoon, it was the kid lab professor's name.
"Insane midi pack" - meh.
"Absolutely mental midi pack" - going somewhere
"Completely deranged, raging psychopathic midi pack for demented lunatics" - Not that's an interesting pack I want to own.
My prediction is that 'heinous' will be used as marketing hyperbole at some point in the future.
I'm just glad very few companies have sullied my personal favourite... 'sublime' (must be said with a french accent)
"Gérard, listen, I have to say, this midi pack, it's sublime, just sublime. A majestic show of musical perfection in it's purest form. I was so delighted when I first hear those wonderful tones, I was conveyed into a state of transcendence. Splendorous! Magnificient! Triumphant!"
Read that with a posh voice in your head if you please so.
Other phrases that are misleading are 'Tons of Stuff' or 'Massive Amounts Of...'
When I hear things like 'tons of presets' and it turns out to be around ~100 it's to my ears very misleading.
Other phrases that are very 'subjective' and highly annoying are awesome, stunning, epic etc. etc. etc.
(What can be epic for one person can be total shite for another).
As for 'wordplay' I personally get super annoyed when the "producers" or "demo persons" mix up basic terms...
Maybe the companies that use 'Insane' when marketing stuff just feel that their customers are 'Insane Enough' to actually buy their crap? (Or are simply 'brainwashed' by looking at 'production videos' on Youtube that promote the products).
Or worst case 'My favorite artist / producers uses that so it must be good...'.
When a company seems their customers 'insane' (which is one way to read the marketing lingo) it's just a sign to stay away from them...
Other marketing terms that I have a hard time to swallow is marketing how many GigaBytes in size a certain sound library is...
...size is not a measurement of quality!
Enough rant for now, but when will Youtube actually add proper content filters and search functions?
(I like music production related videos but when 'everything' seems to be based around edm & trap I loose interest).
Cheers!
Doesn’t bother me in the slightest. You’ve gotta be smart enough to cut thru the marketing BS and make decisions for yourself. First thing I do when I see a new piece of music gear (or any music related product) is read the manual and look at the jacks on the back to determine if it’s what I need/want. Of course they’re going to hype it up. Its an over saturated market of hobbyists. They’re essentially trying to convince people to buy stuff they don’t really need. Be that samples, apps, synths, DAWS, plugins, etc.
I’ve also got literally TB’s full of samples spanning decades. So the chance of you getting me to buy more is less than zero. No more matter how “insane” they might be.
👌
Best guess: never. Google is not in the business of "Don't be evil" any more. It is in the business of trying to make you to click as often as possible and consume ads in the process. "Radicalisation algorithms" help with that, so they continue to exist, despite the social pushback. Offering a smart filtering system would cut down on the number of clicks, so it will not be developed.
Just guessing though.
So true
Google was never in the business of “Don’t Be Evil”. That was pure “insane” marketing hyperbole for willing dupes.
For me, "literally" is the worst one of the moment.
Is it getting used in marketing? I have no idea but I bloody hope not...