(Somewhat.) I've had a fantastic 3-or-so years hanging out with and learning from you guys. But lately, I've sort-of found that my style is changing rapidly in a way that makes it difficult for me to get the mixing and songwriting tips I'm hoping/looking for.
I'm looking to bounce to a community that will take more of an electronic/pop edge on mixing and production in general rather than SONAR-specialized. I also hope I can find somewhere I'll get a little more traction.

I'm not LEAVING! I'll be asking/answering SONAR specific questions here, I'll keep listening and giving feedback and stuff.

Thanks for the awesome times, this has been invaluable!

You can belong to more than one forum.

mudgel
You can belong to more than one forum.

Oh no!  I think Ed just passed out after reading that!  Alas, poor Bapu, I knew his post count Horatio... 

mudgel
You can belong to more than one forum.

Exactly! I'm a member of another couple of forums and also hang out "anonymously" at a couple of others.  I dabble in electronic music too and even though the Sonar forum seems to be populated by people of more traditional musical styles, loads of the most relevant and useful audio advice applies to all styles. Most of us want warm, punchy, vibrant mixes. Of course if you're looking to ask questions about EDM synth design then a forum like Gearslutz might be more relevant. On the flip side, I often find EDM based communities to be very ego driven. A lot of those guys have very fixed ideas about how a track should sound and will shout down any kind of dissent. They can also be very anal about the excruciatingly tedious definitions of EDM genres and sub-genres. 
 
Personally I believe that the online culture has almost ruined the electronic music culture - back in the late 80's/early 90's a lot of the excitement in the electro music scene came from the fact that nobody really knew what they were doing - there were few rules and it was all about people grappling about in their own little worlds, coming up with their own ways of approaching sound design, arrangement and mixing. That's where the likes of Aphex Twin came from. Now it's like you can go online and learn these "music by numbers" approaches to making tracks and everyone's heads are swimming with the terminology - intros, build ups, risers, bass drops etc. They learn the formulas and snap them into place. The result is an explosion of tracks which pretty much sound the same as each other. I fast forward past them on Spotify all the time
 
For me the best electronic music producers are those who listen to a wide range of genres from past and present and incorporate those influences in their own experimental dabblings. Sometimes I'll come across a truly great electro track and I can hear Frank Zappa or the Mahavishnu Orchestra in there. Diversity is the key. No need to say goodbye to any one forum or another - you'll pickup invaluable tidbits from all of them, no matter what the dominant genres are. 

Although I'm a member of a couple dozen forums, I only really participate regularly on four and not that much any more.  Not even counting this forum, I have well over 100,000 posts on four others over the last ten plus years (though one that I had about 44,000 on is no longer around).

There are other forums? 

 
 

davdud101
 
Farewell

I'm not LEAVING!
 

Aloha, Aloha.
 
 

@Davdud - when you find this more generalized forum of mixing approaches and techniques, I would hope you would post some of the links to them back here.  I also tend to look outside the box when learning things like mixing, which has so many nuances and interesting things to learn and to try.
 
And, I would do the same, posting things I would think benefit this community here as well, so that all can broaden our understand of this beautiful and yet sometimes #Q@%)#^!)*^!^)*( frustrating passion of ours.  :)
 
Bob Bone
 

Great post, sharke. 
 

...I often find EDM based communities to be very ego driven. A lot of those guys have very fixed ideas about how a track should sound and will shout down any kind of dissent. They can also be very anal about the excruciatingly tedious definitions of EDM genres and sub-genres.

 
Substitute any genre for "EDM" (e.g. "_____ Metal") that appeals primarily to 15- to 25-year-olds and the statement holds true.
 
It isn't exclusively youngsters that fall prey to the me-too syndrome, they're just the most up-front about their desire to mimic their idols because they're desperate for peer acceptance. Guys my age also persist in a fascination with how the Beatles got this or that sound, or expect a string section to sound like Mantovani, brass like John Williams, drums like John Bonham, and synth patches like Rick Wakeman.
 
I try to be open-minded, but I've got my own nits regarding musical taxonomy, too.
 
I don't like the way the term "R&B" is used today. It's not particularly rhythmic and it has no connection to blues. Sam Cooke's "Let the Good Times Roll", that's R&B. Alicia Keys, talented lady but sorry, not R&B.
 
Blues is an ocean of sameness. The biggest-selling blues record of all time was the result of a traditional blues guy taking a creative chance by adding a string section and abandoning the standard 12-bar chord progression. It was a one-time event and it hasn't happened again. Every blues guy today is interchangeable with every other. 
 
I take issue with what they call "Country" now, too. Seems this is where melodic rock 'n roll has taken refuge. Some truly excellent stuff is happening under the "country" umbrella - I heard Keith Urban doing "It's a Man's World" (now that's R&B) on TV yesterday and was absolutely floored. Not country music, though. Country music is descended from home-made music, simple and lyric-centered and meant to be sung along with. 
 
Progressive Rock stopped being progressive 30 years ago. Everything under that category today is built, Lego-style, from a stock library of sounds and techniques that got frozen with Dark Side of the Moon and Close to the Edge. I guess we all decided that nobody would ever do better than that, and stopped trying.
 
Carlos Santana shook up the world with Abraxis, melding traditional Latin music with rock 'n roll. Today, he's phoning it in. I'm sure he's developed new licks, but he knows better than to use them in front of an audience. They just want to hear Black Magic Woman. Again. The category Santana invented back then has now become part of the frozen library, even for its own inventor.
 
Metal, same story. Way too many sub-genres, often distinguished solely by tempo and tone. And none of them are exploring new territory. 
 
Jazz, ditto. It's now either music to fall asleep to or is so eclectic that only posers pretend to like it. Don't you dare try sneaking in a catchy hook or an infectious rhythm - that's not Jazz. 
 
Bottom line is genres are a marketing invention that mean nothing from a creative standpoint. They exist so that consumers know in advance what they're getting. But who really wants to know that? It's like movie trailers that give away the whole plot. I want to be surprised.

Fare, well that about says it.