Deadmau5 streamed on Twitch 10 days ago, as he usually does, but only just recently has a clip of the stream surfaced in which Deadmau5 calls Cymatics.fm, the popular producer of sample packs, the “AIDS” of the dubstep community.
Let’s get one thing out of the way really, really quick. Deadmau5 is not directly saying that Cymatics is cancerous. He’s referring to the way in which producers use Cymatics as a crutch, and probably use their packs far too often without any modification of the presets found within. The comment about AIDS is more a misguided metaphor to the spread of what deadmau5 probably considers something akin to a disease.
And looking at many bedroom dubstep producers in 2016, it’s fairly obvious that he’s right. Along with Cymatics packs, Virtual Riot packs are also more common than you’d ever realize and are probably a core component of some of your favorite songs without you even knowing. That’s not to say those songs aren’t good – but as deadmau5 says, “You have to be creative if you want to stick out.” And if you’re using the same pack as thousands of other producers, and most importantly, if you’re not changing the base sounds, you’re not going to stick out. 
We reached out to Cymatics with the video, and they said, “Honestly, our products are not just meant for direct use. We’ve actually been doing a lot of things lately to make sure that the producers in our community are learning every aspect of production and sound design, and not just using presets. Just last week, we created and released a 30 Day Serum Sound Design Guide and the Sound Designer’s Guide to Reverse Engineering to help producers get good at sound design so they can get the skills they need to create original sounds.”
It’s funny that the video clip surfaced today, as Cymatics is actually just starting their Christmas giveaway, giving away five sets of KRK Rokit 6 Studio Monitors. You can check that all out below.
Photo by Matt Barnes
