Light and Dark Mode
LinkedMusicians gives you the option to view the site in either light or dark mode. Simply use the switch on the upper right side to select the mode you prefer.
Left Hand Side Navigation Bar
You can get everywhere you want around the site by using the left-hand navigation bar. We’ll start by briefly walking you through each menu item and then break some of them out in more detail below.
Under the Community heading you’ll see a link for Groups / Social Walls. These are the interest-based social media walls of LinkedMusicians, similar to Facebook walls or subreddits. The Forums are like any other forums. So why have social media walls plus forums? Social media walls are great for fast-paced conversation more like how we talk in real life. Forums are great for when you have information that you want to keep in a more structured, archived manner and refer back to, like a sale from a developer, a list of great free sample libraries or instructions on how to configure the soundcard on your DAW. The Activity menu item refers to the posts and comments you’ve made on the site. It’s personalized for each member. The blog menu item refers to the official LinkedMusicians Blog.
Under the Resources heading you’ll see a link for Free Instruments & Plugins. Right now, these include a list of free, reviewed and recommended free sample libraries for Kontakt (paid version) and Kontakt Player (free version) and a list of free, reviewed and recommended free sample libraries for free sample players. Both are the most extensive curated lists of reviewed and recommended sample libraries we could find anywhere. We have more lists coming soon, including our lists of the best free soft synths and plugin effects. Linked Musicians QuickGuides is our series of helpful articles covering areas of music theory in plain English. They’re meant to explain things simply, without requiring you to have had any formal music training. Our first two QuickGuides cover scales and modes and understanding chords.
Under the Directories heading you’ll see two glossaries — we use the term dictionaries because it’s more commonly used — The Audio / DAW Related Terms Dictionary and the Songwriter’s Dictionary. We created these dictionaries because experienced DAW users and audio engineers often post using technical jargon and advanced concepts that may be unfamiliar to many DAW users. We wanted to have an easily available resource so that when you see unfamiliar jargon, you can quickly discover what it means.
The 3 main sections of LinkedMusicians
LinkedMusicians Forums
LinkedMusicians Forums are like any other online forums. Forums are great for sharing information that’s meant to be used for an extended period by the community. It’s great for structure. LinkedMusicians Forums enable you to create posts / threads / topics add a comment on threads or create a poll.
LinkedMusicians Groups / Social Walls
LinkedMusicians GROUPS are social media walls-based posting, primarily organized around shared interests. It’s the same general idea as social media sites like Facebook (Facebook Groups) and Reddit (subreddits). Where forums shine at providing structure, organizing information, and being great places to archive knowledge and information that the community can refer back to over and over again over time, GROUPS are better suited for conversations between people, more like real-life conversations, hence, why they’re referred to as social media and traditional forums regularly are not.
You’ll find that some of the LInkedMusicians GROUPS have a related forum. The related forum enables the GROUP to maintain important information and resources in one central place where it can be referred to again and again over time. For example, a member of the Songwriting GROUP compiles a list of great resources for songwriters, like training materials, rhyming dictionaries, etc., that they believe many others will find useful and want to reference.
LinkedMusicians groups let you do the things the big social media sites let you do, like tag other users, make friends (the above image shows a friend request option), insert links to YouTube, SoundCloud, etc.
While most of the GROUPS are organized by shared interests, such as songwriting, one GROUP — the Coffee House GROUP — is for a general discussion related around music. When you register at LinkedMusicians, you’re automatically part of the Coffee House Group and can start posting there — so say hello and introduce yourself! You’re free to join any other GROUPS you like too. But I think of the Coffee House as our meeting place and chill.
LinkedMusicians User Control Panel / Private Messaging
The LinkedMusicians user control panel lets you view your activity — the posts and comments you’ve made or are following in the Forums and Groups, adjust your profile photo / avatar and background photo, send and receive private messages, see activity from your friends, update your account info and more.
Creating a Forum Signature
To create a forum signature, go to your profile and click edit.
How to Comment on a Forum Topic / Thread
Commenting on a topic / thread is easy. Simply scroll to the bottom of the page to find the editor where you write your comment. Press submit when you’re ready to post it.
After pressing submit, your comment will appear on the page.
How to Create a Forum Topic / Thread
Select the forum or subforum you wish to create a new topic. Scroll to the bottom of that page and see text “Create New Topic.” Fill in the title and body text and press “Submit” when your post is ready.
That’s all. The new topic has been created.
Need an Idea for your First Coffee House GROUP post? Here are Some Suggestions.
Provide a short introduction telling us a little about yourself, what you play or do related to music, your musical history, how long you’ve played or sang, how many instruments you play, if you’re a pro, semi-pro, or hobbyist, how you got started doing music and how long you’ve been doing recording or home recording, your level of experience with audio recording and engineering, your last gig, the artists that inspire you, what you hope to get out of LinkedMusicians… You get the idea!
As a LinkedMusicians member, you’re free to join as many Groups as you like. Hope you enjoy the community!
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