I know quite a few of you know @Mark Lantz from various programs at Mastering.com . We found out earlier today that Mark passed away Sunday morning. We don't know the details but I'm asking you to keep Mark's wife Laura in your prayers. Last month Mark released "Always by my Side", a song he wrote and produced about and dedicated to his wife. Mark and I have had many conversations, 1 on 1 zoom calls, mentor calls, and chat messages. I have watched him progress since Sept 2023 as he started his musical journey with us. He went from not knowing anything about the DAW to becoming a great producer utilizing his natural singing ability and talent. While I am very sad that he has passed away, I know he was a man of great faith and is in the promised land today. There is so much more I can say about Mark, and will over time, but for now, I'll just post a link to his Spotify songs he released with the help of his mentors and community of friends in the program. If anyone ever tells you your music isn't important, stay away from them - there is power in music ... Mark's music, and his journey to get to where he released songs, touched many people and is an inspiration to us all. Here's a link to his Spotify page with his songs "Always by my Side" and "Into the Light", both of which hit home today for me. R.I.P. my friend ... see you in Heaven. https://open.spotify.com/artist/4qpArhT1mBq5vW0ZfK5seb?si=pfVMUPtTRYOFQ1vuJ_vCyQ

If you have new music you want to share to get some exposure, post it below! If you want feedback or have a specific conversation about the song, you can do a dedicated post. But if you just want to share something you've release to help get streams, post it below (and make sure you stream other peoples music too!)

In the Spring of 1978,I bought a Gibson RD Artist. The unique thing about it is at the time a company named Norlin owned both Gibson and Moog so they had Moog do some advanced electronics to include active EQ, compressor, expander and preamp circuitry. We are approaching 50 years together. I liked to experiment with electronics going way back and hacked on this one to add additional phase options and other unnecessary features. Through all the hacking and the natural aging process, the poor thing doesn’t play consistently due to end-of-life of the capacitors. Anyway I dove in today and have compiled a parts list on Digikey and will be restoring the electronics over the next few weeks. Here’s some before photos! Wish me luck!

Hi Gang, I had posted this tip about a year ago in the older community platform; thought I'd re-post here in the new one so it's not lost. (And as I clearly state in the doc, ** under no circumstances should this or any other app be used to bypass digital protection schemes for monetary purposes, or to avoid paying music creators and distributors their fair share! Besides being illegal, it’s bad karma. ** ) -------- As part of my MP 101 coursework, I was looking for reference tracks for "Panic". I found some good suggestions here in the community, but when I went to import them from Apple Music into Logic Pro, I ran into a stumbling block: the files are protected (m4p) and thus can't be easily imported. Long story short, I figured out how to use the free BlackHole "virtual wire" app to work around this limitation. Now I can easily find and import reference tracks without wasting nearly as much valuable time. :) I put together this cheat sheet which documents how to do it. I hope you find it useful! Cheers, Steve

I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Holiday Season before I shut it down. I'll be out of town till the 28th and won't have access to a computer so if you have something urgent, you can reach out to support@mastering.com ...You can send me a DM and I'll check them first chance I get ... probably not before the 28th ... but I'll get back to you as soon as possible. I sincerely wish the best for all of you and look forward to working with you in 2026 (wow ... it'll be 50 years since graduation HS ... crap, I'm old) Let's have a great break, and make the New Year the best one ever!!! See ya around the virtual campus.