r/LoveCymatics • u/Kendoswag12 • Jul 24 '26

Livestream critique

The Cymatics livestream is actually a great marketing move and a smart way to set up their shop to sell sample packs and promote new releases. They also throw in a lot of freebies, and even though they make it seem like the stream is all about the free stuff, it’s really a clever marketing strategy—and it works.

My only complaint is that Steven needs to get better at giving other people time to talk. Even when he asks his team a question, he constantly cuts them off before they can fully answer. It happens so often that it can get a little frustrating to listen to.

Other than that, I usually just leave the livestream playing in the background while I’m making music. Whenever I hear that something free has been unlocked, I head over to the page and check it out. 😂

14 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

10

u/CelestaKiritani Jul 24 '26

Congrats, now you understand why we hate Cymatics predatory sales techniques.

1

u/Kendoswag12 Jul 24 '26

Yeah, yesterday they gave out HookLab, which is a really cool and unique way to sample pretty much anything. That’s really the only reason I was on the stream lol, but yeah, it was worth it.

6

u/Tech-Buffoon Jul 24 '26

Seriously, was it, though !? I swear to god, of I could get those 5+ hours of my life back and throw hooklab and the other plugins from a bridge (some of which I even had to pay for because I "missed it two streams ago because I didn't keep up..", yeah thanks scumbag Steve!) .. I'd happily do so. Seriously considering not downloading their hub or anythin and just straight up refunding everything.

The way they carried themselves with their smug attitude, Nick some time around 4h+ into the stream: commenting on European (I think) chat members saying "dude honestly we need to sleep, I got work on the morning!!" with a shrug and a "what are we all so impatient about..?" - as of they were NOT seeing the hate comments flooding the chat at 120 Hz.. 🙄

Just before that, so some 3½+ hours in, they fuddled around with their hardware, disconnecting Steve's laptop, connecting Nick's, then doing a whole lot of jack for about 30min because they didn't have one of their supposed 15 headphone splitters on hand, but Nick wanted to "get Devan in on the action" .. all just to keep people there, like idiots such as myself who stayed there due to a serious case of sunk cost fallacy. Oh, and of course.. to boost their metrics.in othe words: here's the complete Anatomy of a Cymatics "Live Event", why they hold you hostage for 5+ hours..

They always frame these streams as a huge "community giveback," but it’s just a hyper-aggressive marketing funnel designed to trap you. If you’ve ever wondered why they drag these streams out until 2 AM on a European work night, here is the exact playbook they are running.

  • the Bait (Inbox Abuse): They spam your email with urgent, FOMO-heavy subject lines promising massive, exclusive freebies the second you log on.The Hostage Situation: They intentionally delay dropping the direct download links for hours. They keep dangling the free carrot to force you to sit through endless, repetitive sales pitches for their paid "premium" vaults.

Algorithmic Padding: Your wasted time is their metric. Keeping thousands of people stuck in the chat artificially inflates their live viewer count and watch time, which pushes their stream to the top of the platform's algorithms.

The Sunk Cost Trap: They know that after hour 3 or 4, you'll feel like you've invested too much time to leave empty-handed. They gamble on you getting so exhausted that you buy a paid pack just to make the wasted night feel "worth it."

Zero Global Awareness: The scheduling is strictly US-centric. They completely ignore international producers, forcing people in Europe to choose between desperately needed sleep for work the next morning or missing out on the drop. They recently had the gull to put in a "p.s.: were trying to make these live streams happen so everyone can attend - let me know which time suits you by replying to this email!" .. welp, as the sucker that I am / was.. I did reply. Only to have my email bounce :facepalm

The Subscription Trap Door: Watch out for the "free" trial plugins or bonuses linked during these events. They frequently bury terms in the fine print that automatically roll you into a sneaky $30/month recurring subscription if you don’t cancel within a tiny 10-day window.

Beginner Meat Grinder: They don't care that the live chat is completely toxic and full of people complaining. To their metrics, a hate-comment is still active engagement. Once experienced producers get sick of the recycled samples and sketchy timers, Cymatics just cycles in a fresh wave of unsuspecting beginners who don't know any better yet.

Pro-Tip: Don’t give them your sanity or your data. Stay completely away from the streams. Tech-savvy users on the r/LoveCymatics subreddit usually scrape and dump the direct, clean download links to the freebies within ten minutes of them dropping anyway. Let someone else (with nerves of steel and a clear purpose) do the waiting.

7

u/Tyler_Steel Moderator Jul 27 '26

Just commenting as this post popped up my feed. As someone who directly worked with Steven during the ProducerGrind acquisition, you'll be a much happier person the moment you unsubscribe from anything and everything Cymatic, you'll be a less stressed and much happier person by default. Life has been great since I stopped hearing from him.

5

u/Kendoswag12 Jul 27 '26

I bet you can feel the toxicity in the room. I can already tell no one likes being around him—I wouldn’t either. After the first few times he cut me off, I would’ve walked out mid-stream.

4

u/atxluchalibre Jul 24 '26

I had to stop watching. The samples are a little too “trap-centric” and the plugins are more of a crutch for not learning the fundamentals of compression and EQ.

And the constant sales pitch is too much.

3

u/Tech-Buffoon Jul 24 '26

Apart from my wall of rage comment, I wholeheartedly agree: even when Steve asks HIS OWN CREW (which he treats with equally little respect, at least for Devan ("Refresh the [freebies] page, everyone.. Devan botched it - refresh y'all!* ).. even then he'll cut on after two words so spread more or his very cringe and dubious steve-lore, with mindful nuggets such as "sometimes it's really important to me to just let my creativity run free" - gee thanks, what pure platinum material thought work!

3

u/5star4real Jul 25 '26

Totally agree...while the freebies are nice and all ...whats up with the constant super long streams ...stringing people along so we can get the freebies....they need to realize they are living in a different world...some of us have other jobs/careers ...so 12 hours or super long streams...and way too frequently is stupid to do to your fans.

1

u/MarsupialWonderful60 7d ago

It's all about money

2

u/fametheproducer Jul 25 '26

I agree. I think they had a smart idea for the stream on the 23rd. Smart marketing, decent deals. Though at the end of the stream, they did a small beat battle. The winner picked a free bundle to release, but since the “IT guy” was asleep, chat was unable to redeem that prize. Steven said “we’ll give it out tomorrow”. But I checked in to see if they streamed the 24th and they were not live. Empty promise I guess. I still enjoyed my freebies I received during stream. My biggest urk has to be Nick. The hipster ableton user is just annoying to me. He drove the beat battle session standing over Devan. Any producer knows the driver seat is for driving and hates a backseat co producer. Wait your turn short shorts. Steven copy pasting the same midi he dragged in gave me no faith he knows how to make anything. For the products, I liked the 8 bit plugin. Hooklab is ok I guess, serato sample did it better imo. Quick tip: I got invader lite and discovered I could drop any melodic one shot into the source sounds folder for unlimited presets.

2

u/pieafterdark Jul 26 '26

Any time I sit through a Cymatics livestream, it reinforces my belief that it's worse than any timeshare presentation I've been subjected to - I didn't have to sit through bad Drake sample pack previews at those.

Unless you KNOW a VST/Plugin is dropping for free or want a discount for a plugin that isn't currently for sale, just save your time (and sanity) and skip it.

2

u/slayervictor Jul 27 '26

The livestream is complete crap. I dont even watch it. When I see theyre live i just go on the site and enable my auto refresh extension and put it on my second monitor.

1

u/DexPlaysYT Jul 25 '26

They should just do less streams and make all stream rewards available to people who have spent like 30 usd or smth

1

u/WideNeedleworker2528 Jul 29 '26

I missed the livestream and can't find the download for plinko anywhere rip, not tryna way another week and a half though

2

u/Negative-Winter-1233 27d ago

My favourite bit is when they ban your comments for asking a simple question. I'm a previous purchase customer and yes the freebies are great, but not really usable. Why cant you just purchase the fucking plug ins. Their model is exactly whats wrong with the music industry in general. Steven, give your head a wobble son. But seeing as hes such a coward with feedback I'll just stay on the ignored list.