# Anybody heard of Musiversal?



## Wally Garten (Nov 16, 2020)

I know nothing about it -- just saw it on a Youtube ad -- but seems like it's some kind of service where you can connect with session musicians who have home recording setups and do a kind of virtual session. Which is great for Covid, but also seems great for bedroom producers in general.









Record your songs in real time with professional session musicians | Musiversal


Record your songs in real time with world-class session musicians, vocalists, producers and audio engineers




www.musiversal.com





Anybody foresee any downsides? I want to believe this could work, but I'm also leery of gig-type apps exploiting workers. Thoughts?


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## bryla (Nov 16, 2020)

Yes they were called the 99 dollar orchestra a while ago. You can search this forum for experiences.


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## Polkasound (Nov 16, 2020)

I've never heard of it before, but the concept seems very COVID-inspired, I hate to say.

For a music production company continually churning out tracks, paying $99/month for unlimited session musicians would be an answer to a prayer. It would save thousands of dollars versus using a site like SoundBetter.

But unlike SoundBetter where musicians set their own price for each project, musicians get paid a fixed monthly salary. This sounds great for COVID-affected musicians who really need work right now, but what if you end up being one of the 5% of musicians who get stuck with 95% of the work? Whatever monthly salary Musiversal is paying, can adequately compensate for 160 hours?


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## Wally Garten (Nov 16, 2020)

Polkasound said:


> I've never heard of it before, but the concept seems very COVID-inspired, I hate to say.
> 
> For a music production company continually churning out tracks, paying $99/month for unlimited session musicians would be an answer to a prayer. It would save thousands of dollars versus using a site like SoundBetter.
> 
> But unlike SoundBetter where musicians set their own price for each project, musicians get paid a fixed monthly salary. This sounds great for COVID-affected musicians who really need work right now, but what if you end up being one of the 5% of musicians who get stuck with 95% of the work? Whatever monthly salary Musiversal is paying, can adequately compensate for 160 hours?



Yeah, the "unlimited" part was what caught my eye, too. I would assume it's not legal to pay people "part time" wages for more than about 20 hours of recording, but in this brave new 1099 world, who knows? I would guess if it sucks bad enough, people would quit -- but it's a hard world out there right now....

And thanks -- will check out SoundBetter. 

(Would also welcome people's other recommendations for sites to connect directly with session musicians!)


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## stevenson-again (Jan 27, 2021)

Ok Interesting.

Has anyone had any experiences with them? Not sure I like the salary idea but I guess that might be due to the pandemic situation.


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## jonathanparham (Jan 27, 2021)

I get an email from them now and again. it seems experiences are mixed. Also, they've changed ensembles. It used to be 30 on up to 56 musicians and the London strings. Now it's just the 30 piece group. I was just looking at a forum member's YT about them. As @bryla says you can see people's responses and hear results. There's also a VI thread about remote orchestra recommendations.


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## RazorBlade (May 12, 2021)

From what I've heard, they pay about $20 an hour. Seems awesome to me!


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## Musicologo (Jul 5, 2021)

I've been using them for some months (I am one of the early adopters to try this out), hoping to produce two albums with their musicians. I usually write out my songs in sheet music and then sometimes arrange them using logic virtual instruments, and then replace instrument by instrument, other times I just give instructions on the fly based on how I feel they are playing the sheet music (that's the advantage of real time sessions!). In this case, I've started out by recording the drums, then the bass, guitars, keys, and vocals, all in half hour sessions - the trick is to really plan ahead and be as much detailed as possible. In case of 3-4 minute songs is often possible to get 3-4 full takes in a session which gives you plenty options for doublings and variations (lead and strummed guitar; piano, wurlitzer and hammond, etc...) I've mixed myself, and then used their mastering session (which is included in the plan). This is the final track, you can judge by yourselves, I hope you like it!


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## Phryq (Sep 7, 2021)

I just tried them. Recordings had incorrect rhythms, wrong notes, out of tune. Here's a recording with their bass and sax. I've fixed it 90%, but still haven't gotten to the bass tuning.




{update} I've been trying for 2 months to get a single recording from them. They won't answer emails, and I've lost 2 months worth of payments, with no recordings. If I mail them about upgrading and giving them more money, they reply instantly, but if I want to receive recordings or a refund, there's nothing. From now on I'll use 5er.


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## Jeff Hix (Aug 18, 2022)

Musiversal is in it's 4th year now and has worked through the kinks mentioned in this thread and has pivoted from appealing to the masses toward focusing on meeting the needs and requirements of the professional media composer. Definitely worth checking out again as there are now 200+ instruments available - all with elite world class musicians as they've upleveled and expanded their roster. There are videos and blogs too on their website and youtube page from several of the musicians that share how Musiversal has changed their lives for the better, like giving them the chance to qualify for a mortgage for the first time in their life. It's a true win-win for composers and musicians that's changing the industry. Lastly there's been a huge focus on customer service has also significantly improved response times and resources available from pre-production to mixing and mastering (including Latin grammy award winning professionals). Definitely worth another look if you're looking to improve the quality of your recordings while staying in budget and delivering on deadline!


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## rowong (Aug 19, 2022)

for me i never heard of it before but i do wanna know more about them.


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## creativeforge (Aug 19, 2022)

Jeff Hix said:


> Musiversal is in it's 4th year now and has worked through the kinks mentioned in this thread and has pivoted from appealing to the masses toward focusing on meeting the needs and requirements of the professional media composer. Definitely worth checking out again as there are now 200+ instruments available - all with elite world class musicians as they've upleveled and expanded their roster. There are videos and blogs too on their website and youtube page from several of the musicians that share how Musiversal has changed their lives for the better, like giving them the chance to qualify for a mortgage for the first time in their life. It's a true win-win for composers and musicians that's changing the industry. Lastly there's been a huge focus on customer service has also significantly improved response times and resources available from pre-production to mixing and mastering (including Latin grammy award winning professionals). Definitely worth another look if you're looking to improve the quality of your recordings while staying in budget and delivering on deadline!



How did you find this out?


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## doctoremmet (Aug 19, 2022)

creativeforge said:


> How did you find this out?


From their website:


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## Nico5 (Aug 19, 2022)

Jeff Hix said:


> Musiversal is in it's 4th year now and has worked through the kinks mentioned in this thread and has pivoted from appealing to the masses toward focusing on meeting the needs and requirements of the professional media composer. Definitely worth checking out again as there are now 200+ instruments available - all with elite world class musicians as they've upleveled and expanded their roster. There are videos and blogs too on their website and youtube page from several of the musicians that share how Musiversal has changed their lives for the better, like giving them the chance to qualify for a mortgage for the first time in their life. It's a true win-win for composers and musicians that's changing the industry. Lastly there's been a huge focus on customer service has also significantly improved response times and resources available from pre-production to mixing and mastering (including Latin grammy award winning professionals). Definitely worth another look if you're looking to improve the quality of your recordings while staying in budget and delivering on deadline!


Hi Jeff,

Is it fair to assume, you're the Head of Sales at Musiversal?

And if yes, any reason, why you haven't disclosed that in your post or in your vi-control "about" page?


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## Loïc D (Aug 19, 2022)

doctoremmet said:


> From their website:


It certainly looks fishy (sorry, couldn’t resist)


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## Gaffable (Aug 19, 2022)

Hi Jeff, welcome to VI-Control. The forum is a friendly place and I think that people will appreciate your participation here.

I recommend that you change the title of your VI-Control account from "New Member" to "Head of Sales at Musiversal", so that everybody understands the nature of your relationship with Musiversal.

To change the title, click on your name in the top right-hand corner of the website, then select "Account details" from the drop-down menu and then type what you want next to "Custom title".


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