# Samples Spotlight RIP



## woodsdenis

The Darris closing YT channel because of unacceptable comments etc. Not really sure of the specifics but pretty sad if a pretty niche channel can’t be immune to this kind of BS.


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## R. Soul

woodsdenis said:


> The Darris closing YT channel because of unacceptable comments etc. Not really sure of the specifics but pretty sad if a pretty niche channel can’t be immune to this kind of BS.


He talks about it here.


Yeah, it's really a shame.

I just don't understand it. Time after time, reviews and sample news are posted by Samples Spotlight, Audio Spotlight, SampleCast and Sample library review... and they just drop off the page without any comments.
I thought everyone in this forum loved information about the newest libraries, but if that's the case, there's surely very little interest.

It also seems that SampleCast stopped putting out new videos, so it's getting harder and harder to find any videos of new sample libraries, other than the ones by the devs themselves, which is a real shame IMO.


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## Land of Missing Parts

The Darris is a classy guy and working professional who generously gave his time to help others.

When you spend enough time hearing someone's voice in a conversational manner--which is how he voiced his videos--it's easy to feel like you've actually spent time with them; like they are a friend.

But of course, he doesn't get to feel that on his end. I imagine it can be lonely to have that kind of one way conversation with so many people, to put so much time and effort into helping people and to get so little love back in return.

So, to the extent that it helps, I want to say I appreciate what he did. If we ever do hang out in real life, drinks will be on me, sir.


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## Shredoverdrive

It sure is sad. Great reviews by my book. Which makes me think :
What was his last review, please? I'm sure I saw it but I cant seem to remember...


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## Land of Missing Parts

Shredoverdrive said:


> It sure is sad. Great reviews by my book. Which makes me think :
> What was his last review, please? I'm sure I saw it but I cant seem to remember...


Afflatus.

We all love our samples and take our work seriously, and that's healthy, but some folks--probably just a tiny few--need to learn some sense of proportion.

They're just samples. Being a decent human being is _far_ more important.


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## reutunes

R. Soul said:


> Yeah, it's really a shame.
> 
> I just don't understand it. Time after time, reviews and sample news are posted by Samples Spotlight, Audio Spotlight, SampleCast and Sample library review... and they just drop off the page without any comments.
> I thought everyone in this forum loved information about the newest libraries, but if that's the case, there's surely very little interest.
> 
> It also seems that SampleCast stopped putting out new videos, so it's getting harder and harder to find any videos of new sample libraries, other than the ones by the devs themselves, which is a real shame IMO.



Yes, it's terrible that Chris had to stop doing his videos. We are friends and I've spoken to him in the last couple of days and when he explained the reasons why I am not surprised that he felt the need to step away. Sending love his way.

Thanks for the shout out about The Samplecast. Let me clarify a couple of things about the current state of affairs over here at Samplecast HQ:

Basically I'm a one-man-band and it takes me over a day to put the show together, not to mention all the time it takes to chase up developers for their reviews and information. I won't go into the gory details of why The Samplecast is STILL off air after running for 73 episodes, but it's basically a combination of a huge workload and some personal problems that needed dealing with. Occasionally I will livestream libraries, especially if a company has sent me something nice or there's a demand for a deeper look at something that's on offer. This is literally all I can do at the moment as unlike other channels such as Sample Library Review, I don't have a big team to support me.

Obviously no video show also means no podcast either (which is also a huge undertaking each week) but if you're on the lookout for a fun podcast about music tech may I direct you to Appetite 4 Production which is helmed by two of the funniest people I know. It's slanted more towards plugins and hardware but still covers a good range of topics. Their Music Tech Exam episode is an hour that everyone should listen to - lots of fun.

As for The Samplecast, I'm still active on Facebook to a certain extent and I get lovely emails and messages every day from those who miss the show - thank you so much for those. I can't promise to be back with the weekly shows in the near future, but you never know.

Reuben (and the Samplecat)
xxx


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## Jimmy Hellfire

Wow, that's sad to hear. So weird. How much hate can you possibly get talking about sample libraries?


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## AlexanderSchiborr

I don´t know his channel and I actually don´t watch much of these reviews. But man..closing because of some YT comments? I find that hilarous. There are always people who disagree and use heavy words. Sure that is not nice, but fuck that shit. Just be yourself, do what you like and fuck the rest. If you in public release videos especially on YT you have to expect that not everbody is nice, we are not in a perfect world. I don´t say that this is cool, but at least you should be aware of that. So at least I would care a flying f. Just ignore those comments. Get a thicker skin, I would say. I know it is not easy but in the end you get stronger. In the end you do those people a favor. Do you want that? I doubt. Thats their goal that you stop doing what you love.


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## Jimmy Hellfire

I agree with Alexander. In the end, it's "sticks and stones". It's just words on YouTube. Any idiot out there can type those into a comment box. Don't stop doing something you like because someone might type a few nasty characters. The only thing even less interesting or relevant than people's asinine blathering is people's asinine typing.


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## mouse

Easy to say "its just some words" or "get a thicker skin" when you don't know the full details of what happened. Plenty of crazies on the internet so there could have been threats against his family or god knows what else. Maybe cut the guy some slack when we don't know the full story


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## Vik

woodsdenis said:


> The Darris closing YT channel because of unacceptable comments etc.


I understand that sometimes enough is enough - especially on internet if one has to deal with unacceptable comments etc. Nevertheless: this is 'too bad', because Samples Spotlight was my favourite site for sample library reviews.


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## MartinH.

Don't know what happend here, but it's sad to hear.



AlexanderSchiborr said:


> I don´t know his channel and I actually don´t watch much of these reviews. But man..closing because of some YT comments? I find that hilarous. There are always people who disagree and use heavy words. Sure that is not nice, but fuck that shit. Just be yourself, do what you like and fuck the rest. If you in public release videos especially on YT you have to expect that not everbody is nice, we are not in a perfect world. I don´t say that this is cool, but at least you should be aware of that. So at least I would care a flying f. Just ignore those comments. Get a thicker skin, I would say. I know it is not easy but in the end you get stronger. In the end you do those people a favor. Do you want that? I doubt. Thats their goal that you stop doing what you love.





Jimmy Hellfire said:


> I agree with Alexander. In the end, it's "sticks and stones". It's just words on YouTube. Any idiot out there can type those into a comment box. Don't stop doing something you like because someone might type a few nasty characters. The only thing even less interesting or relevant than people's asinine blathering is people's asinine typing.



Most youtubers don't talk about the full extend of the kind of harassment they get behind the scenes, things can get _much _worse than "a few mean comments". Like e.g. death/rape threats to members of your family/friends/bandmembers, fraudulent accusations of criminal activities made against you, leading to raids or SWATtings...
These are all things that youtubers have reported happening to them. 
And the youtube algorithm is fine-tuned to spoon feed your videos to every mentally ill-adjusted troll because they have "high engagement" because they literally can't stop themselves from watching the full video and commenting on it.
Alex, imagine the dude that put so much effort into making the troll video about you, had instead put the same amount of effort into terrorizing your parents irl. You'd probably have a harder time just shaking that off. Some things you just can't ignore.


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## AlexanderSchiborr

MartinH. said:


> Don't know what happend here, but it's sad to hear.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Most youtubers don't talk about the full extend of the kind of harassment they get behind the scenes, things can get _much _worse than "a few mean comments". Like e.g. death/rape threats to members of your family/friends/bandmembers, fraudulent accusations of criminal activities made against you, leading to raids or SWATtings...
> These are all things that youtubers have reported happening to them.
> And the youtube algorithm is fine-tuned to spoon feed your videos to every mentally ill-adjusted troll because they have "high engagement" because they literally can't stop themselves from watching the full video and commenting on it.
> Alex, imagine the dude that put so much effort into making the troll video about you, had instead put the same amount of effort into terrorizing your parents irl. You'd probably have a harder time just shaking that off. Some things you just can't ignore.



Martin, I agree. But I assumed from what I heard and read here that he decided to close his channel because of rude comments? Is that the case? Or not? Of course you can come with many assumptions but as long as it comes to troll comments on YT I would not close my reviewing channel just because some people are showing up telling somebody how douchy they find the reviews.


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## joed

AlexanderSchiborr said:


> Martin, I agree. But I assumed from what I heard and read here that he decided to close his channel because of rude comments? Is that the case? Or not? Of course you can come with many assumptions but as long as it comes to troll comments on YT I would not close my reviewing channel just because some people are showing up telling somebody how douchy they find the reviews.


You should maybe read his explaination in his comments on his Youtube page. It seems there were threats made against his wife/family.


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## AlexanderSchiborr

joed said:


> You should maybe read his explaination in his comments on his Youtube page. It seems there were threats made against his wife/family.



Oh I just read that there. I didn´t read that in first line so I assumed it was just trolling comments like youtube is full of that stuff. This things are crossing a line indeed.


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## Jimmy Hellfire

Who the hell threatens a guy's family over sample library reviews?!


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## mouse

Jimmy Hellfire said:


> Who the hell threatens a guy's family over sample library reviews?!


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## Tatu

I'd be curious to know, if those comments/threads came from actual users / VI-enthusiasts, or some random users (bots?) that spread that shit everywhere?


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## Erick - BVA

woodsdenis said:


> The Darris closing YT channel because of unacceptable comments etc. Not really sure of the specifics but pretty sad if a pretty niche channel can’t be immune to this kind of BS.


Hmm.... I feel like caving to trolls or rude people just encourages them more. I get negative comments on my YT from time to time. I just either ignore them or troll them back by being nice (which is unexpected I guess) or having a snarky comment.


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## MartinH.

Sibelius19 said:


> Hmm.... I feel like caving to trolls or rude people just encourages them more. I get negative comments on my YT from time to time. I just either ignore them or troll them back by being nice (which is unexpected I guess) or having a snarky comment.


Not everyone gets the same level of abuse and not everyone has the same level of tolerance for it. I understand where you are coming from, and kudos to you if you won't budge to a few trolls, but you really can't put that blame/burden on others. I'd cut my losses on an endeavour like this in a heartbeat if it stressed me out too much. The last thing I'd wanna hear then is well-meaning people like you rubbing it in further.
The other day I've seen a video by a youtuber talking about why he uploads less and less - he gets comments like "I'm gonna run over your kid with my car when he comes home from school today" and on google the autocomplete reveals the most commonly searched query for his name to be "(his_nickname) wife", needless to say he never mentions or shows her in any videos, the only reason for people to look for her is for harassment/stalking. And he plays gigs with a band, he can't exactly hide from the public. Death threats get a lot scarier when you know people can trivially find you irl. Personally I really don't think it's fair or justified to point fingers at those people and say "You shouldn't quit, you're letting them win."


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## d.healey

You can turn comments off on YouTube, maybe that would help


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## Erick - BVA

d.healey said:


> You can turn comments off on YouTube, maybe that would help


Good point


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## Erick - BVA

MartinH. said:


> Not everyone gets the same level of abuse and not everyone has the same level of tolerance for it. I understand where you are coming from, and kudos to you if you won't budge to a few trolls, but you really can't put that blame/burden on others. I'd cut my losses on an endeavour like this in a heartbeat if it stressed me out too much. The last thing I'd wanna hear then is well-meaning people like you rubbing it in further.
> The other day I've seen a video by a youtuber talking about why he uploads less and less - he gets comments like "I'm gonna run over your kid with my car when he comes home from school today" and on google the autocomplete reveals the most commonly searched query for his name to be "(his_nickname) wife", needless to say he never mentions or shows her in any videos, the only reason for people to look for her is for harassment/stalking. And he plays gigs with a band, he can't exactly hide from the public. Death threats get a lot scarier when you know people can trivially find you irl. Personally I really don't think it's fair or justified to point fingers at those people and say "You shouldn't quit, you're letting them win."


I was not pointing fingers at anyone, and I am definitely not blaming the victim. People who harrass other people are definitely in the wrong. There is no excuse for it.


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## Michel Simons

d.healey said:


> You can turn comments off on YouTube, maybe that would help



Of course that's possible, but I could imagine that the ability to interact with your (well-meaning) viewers is part of why you post the videos in the first place.


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## Daniel James

Jimmy Hellfire said:


> Wow, that's sad to hear. So weird. How much hate can you possibly get talking about sample libraries?


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## mouse

Daniel James said:


>



Heh


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## The Darris

Thanks everyone for the thoughts and kind words. It's much appreciated. The situation, as some have explained here, went beyond just simple trolling in my opinion. I won't go into the details of the comments made but they were threats against myself and my family. Had this been a simple troll poking fun at my style, production quality, etc, I would have ignored it. However, these comments were directed at me personally and were enough to basically ruin any joy I had in producing content.

Some may have noticed that I hadn't been putting out videos as often as I did last year. There were two reasons for this. The first being that I have been working a lot more frequently and time available to sit down with a library, review it, and publish a video just wasn't available to me anymore. That's why I had stopped taking on new review requests for months now. Afflatus was an exception because Strezov Sampling asked me over a year ago to review it and I promised I would. The second reason is that I had started to receive threats in the past but not to the extreme of this weeks latest volley of hatred. My wife and I talked about it and we felt the best approach, _for now_, was to make all of my content private or unlisted in order to stop the flow of comments. I've filed a few claims with YouTube in hopes to shutdown certain users down and seek any for of justice I can. It's easy for me to ignore things like this but when you include my wife into the mix, it's a little too personal for me to just simply shrug it off.

I've read a lot of supporting comments both here and other places that shows just how much a lot of you appreciated my content so I decided earlier today to create an unlisted playlist of all of my Samples Spotlight reviews for those who are looking to spend some money this Holiday season and need some resources to research. You can check them all out below. I would love to produce future content and I'm considering my options of it in the future but for now, Samples Spotlight just became a part of my life that wasn't fun to manage or deal with because the drama involved was absurd. I'm a working professional now, I only have so much of my time dedicated to dealing with industry drama. Haha. Anyway, thank you all so much for the support. I'm still going to be an active voice on here so I'm not entirely dead to you all....yet.

Cheers,

Chris

Samples Spotlight - All Reviews​


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## Daniel James

The Darris said:


> Thanks everyone for the thoughts and kind words. It's much appreciated. The situation, as some have explained here, went beyond just simple trolling in my opinion. I won't go into the details of the comments made but they were threats against myself and my family. Had this been a simple troll poking fun at my style, production quality, etc, I would have ignored it. However, these comments were directed at me personally and were enough to basically ruin any joy I had in producing content.
> 
> Some may have noticed that I hadn't been putting out videos as often as I did last year. There were two reasons for this. The first being that I have been working a lot more frequently and time available to sit down with a library, review it, and publish a video just wasn't available to me anymore. That's why I had stopped taking on new review requests for months now. Afflatus was an exception because Strezov Sampling asked me over a year ago to review it and I promised I would. The second reason is that I had started to receive threats in the past but not to the extreme of this weeks latest volley of hatred. My wife and I talked about it and we felt the best approach, _for now_, was to make all of my content private or unlisted in order to stop the flow of comments. I've filed a few claims with YouTube in hopes to shutdown certain users down and seek any for of justice I can. It's easy for me to ignore things like this but when you include my wife into the mix, it's a little too personal for me to just simply shrug it off.
> 
> I've read a lot of supporting comments both here and other places that shows just how much a lot of you appreciated my content so I decided earlier today to create an unlisted playlist of all of my Samples Spotlight reviews for those who are looking to spend some money this Holiday season and need some resources to research. You can check them all out below. I would love to produce future content and I'm considering my options of it in the future but for now, Samples Spotlight just became a part of my life that wasn't fun to manage or deal with because the drama involved was absurd. I'm a working professional now, I only have so much of my time dedicated to dealing with industry drama. Haha. Anyway, thank you all so much for the support. I'm still going to be an active voice on here so I'm not entirely dead to you all....yet.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Chris



I have been there too man. Sometimes its a bit much, take a few weeks then see how you feel. I know people here will be sad to see you stop. I always report death threats to the police. The bad names and stuff I just ignore these days, there was a point there when it would get to me. Now I just block those trolls from being able to comment on the videos. Its your space you can do as you please 

Hope it gets better soon mate, some people can be cunts. Trust me xD

-DJ


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## John Busby

@The Darris sorry for your troubles man, i wish you and your family the best!


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## The Darris

Daniel James said:


> I have been there too man. Sometimes its a bit much, take a few weeks then see how you feel. I know people here will be sad to see you stop. I always report death threats to the police. The bad names and stuff I just ignore these days, there was a point there when it would get to me. Now I just block those trolls from being able to comment on the videos. Its your space you can do as you please
> 
> Hope it gets better soon mate, some people can be c****. Trust me xD
> 
> -DJ


Thanks man. I'm considering the police report but I'm one who doesn't like to overreact too much. We'll see how just taking a break and getting a breath of fresh air will help. Thanks again!!

-C


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## artinro

The Darris said:


> Thanks everyone for the thoughts and kind words. It's much appreciated. The situation, as some have explained here, went beyond just simple trolling in my opinion. I won't go into the details of the comments made but they were threats against myself and my family. Had this been a simple troll poking fun at my style, production quality, etc, I would have ignored it. However, these comments were directed at me personally and were enough to basically ruin any joy I had in producing content.......



You have many friends here, Chris, and your content and the time you take to create it is most appreciated. Hope some of the offenders in question are dealt with by youtube.


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## Jimmy Hellfire

Daniel James said:


>



Haha, fair play.


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## SimonCharlesHanna

The Darris said:


> Thanks man. I'm considering the police report but I'm one who doesn't like to overreact too much. We'll see how just taking a break and getting a breath of fresh air will help. Thanks again!!
> 
> -C


You can 'annoy' the police all you want - who cares! You don't need to be mates with them.


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## Janos McKennitt

I feel very sorry for you and your family. Thanks a lot for giving us the playlist of your videos (I watched many of them in the past, when I needed certain information). 
I can just second what's already said: turn off comments. I think not everything has to be social today. If people have important questions, they can still contact you.


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## synergy543

Sad to hear the news Chris. I really enjoyed your reviews and thought they were top-notch and will miss your POV. You went in depth with your knowledge as a percussionist and composer that was very insightful. And I also really appreciated your replies to msgs when I had questions as they were very helpful to me in making decisions. Best wishes in your new endeavors.


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## JEPA

go with the police with no exception! The a**&%oles ruining your live don't deserve your condescendence, they don't care any f** about how you are feeling. Sick people..


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## frank_m

I am very sorry to hear that. I have seen many of your reviews when I needed to decide whether to buy a library or not and I always found them helpful. Take care and keep your head up. Frank.


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## ionian

Shame that people go so out of their minds but it seems to be prevalent both online and, across the entire world, today. Everyone seems to be nuts. 

I remember someone posting once about belonging to a gardening forum and two members got into it over the correct way to plant roses or something, and the thread had to be closed down ultimately when one threatened to go to the other's house and burn it to the ground. Over friggin' roses. 

The internet was a mistake.


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## MusicIstheBest

I enjoyed your videos quite a bit, you are appreciated. The madness of our world is displayed in the youtube comments sections. And we really know things have gone to shit when you're getting threats over (very well-presented) reviews of sample libraries.


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## Mike Fox

What in the actual hell?! Seriously. The douche bag trolls of the earth need to back the fu$! off. You know that this kind of schoolyard bully/death threat BS has gone way too far when someone can't even review sample libs without being threatened to these kinds of extremes. 

@The Darris I always enjoyed your reviews, and you were actually one of the reviewers who inspired me to create my own review channel. Don't forget that what you did meant a lot to us.


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## Lode_Runner

I just want to chime in and also say I really appreciated your reviews Christopher, particularly because they were honest assessments rather than simply another advertising avenue. I do hope to see you back up again soon, but understand if you don't.

That people would go so far as to threaten you and your wife over a sample library review is insane. I hope you do report that to the police, these people should be charged.

I agree with others that you should disable the youtube comments, and speak to people at VI Control - at least we have moderators here. Youtube on the other hand is the Wild West, they allow all sorts of comments to sit there unmoderated including white supremacy etc.


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## Satorious

I'd just like to share my support with others here for @The Darris - personal attacks of this nature are totally unacceptable. I hope a short break lends some perspective (this is essentially just one idiot ruining it for all of us), but in the meantime please report the incident(s) to the proper authorities. I'd hate to see them potentially doing this to others or other communities. Like others I'll miss your videos, but I totally understand and respect your decision - whatever you ultimate decide.


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## Soundhound

Is there any way the people who sabotaged Chris' site could be reported and banned? I also liked the reviews and found them valuable. This sucks.


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