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Personally I hate the flat cartoon thing. I like a mixer to look like a mixer, a compressor to look like one, etc. I have Abelton Lite....opened it once and thought it was nice that Fisher-Price had a music application for children Moving the unicorns tale to increase volume or rotating the triangle with the dot in it to increase modulation isn't something I'm going to do. Nostalgia on the other hand is fun....the old Cakewalk and Cubase interfaces, the really cool synths(at least we thought so for the times), just making music on the computer was such a good feeling! But over the years I've gotten more serious about creating music and need an environment conducive to that...but that's me

I've never bought anything twice...but I have come close! I retired at the end of last year so I'm more conscious of my purchase power and needs and desires

What did you think of the Addictive Drums 2 facelift of a couple years ago? Going from that faux brushed aluminum 3-D fantasy spaceship control panel paradigm to the current crisp, flat look. I neglected AD2 for a long time because the UI made me feel like if I turned away and then looked back it would be 1992 and I'd be running GeoWorks on a 386. I made a new skin for Session Drummer 3 so that I didn't have to look at that faux metal panel complete with drop shadows and two little vents (or speaker grills) up at top left and right. Putting vents in the panel of something that's not even supposed to resemble an actual real world object is weird. It's worse than rack screws on FX plug-in panels. No wonder so much recent music has been so boring. The people who designed our music software UI's once dreamed of sending us to the stars. No wonder that the music made now sounds two dimensional like the current UI fashion.😁 Seriously, I reeeeeallly don't like the embossed metallic plastic 3-D look for software UI's in 2025. Maybe it was the hot thing 20 years ago but we now seem to have less need for our computer programs to look like physical objects. I used to tease Acoustica about the "woodgrain" side panels on Mixcraft's mixer. Maybe I'll live long enough to feel nostalgia for that sort of thing. Or....do you mean the Spartan, plain, homely as hell look, like the DXi plug-ins that still ship with Vegas Pro and Sound Forge? The ones that make the Sonitus fx suite look fancy? The ReaPlugs look. I think AirWindows must be the masters of that, where the plug-ins don't even have UI's, rather it's supplied by the DAW presenting the user with a generic page of labeled sliders. Do most DAW's even still let you run plug-ins using the "generic" UI? It might be fun to try a few modern plug-ins with the generic UI turned on just to see how they look. Especially something weird like Motion: Fractal or whatever.

Not sure, I don't get out much. Can't wait for 17, one of my favourite primes.

In another thread here we are sorting out how to add multi output drums after the fact. All is fine but then I thought to save time I would create a track template and then use that. Take note that these are all my backing track projects which are all very much the same layout and are pure midi. Many are also holdovers from the early days when I used split instrument tracks. More on that in a minute. So I opened another project and I inserted the track template. All went as planed and I now had the SSD5 drums with 6 outputs all properly named and routing all good. I dragged the Midi drums into the what I assumed was an instrument track and it wouldn't play? I dragged the midi back to the midi track and set the output to the instrument track and it plays?? ( by the way holding down shift does not keep the data in sync) Then I start noticing that all the icons for the midi tracks look like what I remember as instrument tracks as there is just a little keyboard. I confirmed that this was happening by first inserting an instrument and then inserting a split instrument. Both have the same icon? Now the question? is this something new or is this yet another graphics issue? So as it is there is no way to distinguish between the two types of instrument tracks. If you look at my screen shot you can see that Addictive drums is a split track. True pianos is not. And then the Combi organ, orange track is a instrument track and below the green tracks are split instrument tracks but all use same icon. Here is new Sonar Here is Platinum

One of the profiles in that pack were "messed up" I think it was one of the clean DI captures. I mentioned it sounded phasey but not sure they went back and re-captured it. I've done over 1000 captures myself (thus have experience with the process), and occasionally I've experienced the same kind of thing where they capture process messes up and does not sound like the setup did at all. There was a similar problem they had with one of the JHS amp releases they collaborated on, but I'm sure they didn't re-capture that one since JHS is half way across the country and it was an on-site event. The Tube Modulator is my favorite in the box uni-vibe simulation. I think I grabbed it for about $10 in what now seems like a one-time-only sale years ago. I agree, the BF "half off" is the normal discount they run periodically on it.

That sounds like a most elegant solution.

Here's a few more tips: Reading what @Chaps posted a light bulb went off. I saved the 6 output set up as a Pre Set in SSD5. Opened a different project. I didn't bother opening the Synth Properties this time. It's not necessary. Loaded the Pre set. This saved a lot of work. and then using Add tracks set the output to my C bus and added 5 new tracks. Now just assign the inputs and name, done. The SSD5 routing options like in the case of choosing the multi output option on first inserting, creates way to many tracks to my liking. For me 6 or 8 stereo tracks is plenty. In many cases I really only want to process the snare and kick separately from the rest of the kit. Any fine tuning can be done in the drum GUI mixer. What I will do is create a few different track templates for this and see if that works even faster.

Recently I had two windows BSOD instances upon opening Windows 10 related to Focusrite driver. I think Focusrite needs to review and update their drivers following the late windows update or Cakewalk and other DAW updates. I am waiting for my new PC to arrive and I will install Windows 11 and hope things get better! My actual PC is more than 10 years old!

I inserted SSD5 free with the First Synth Audio Output option then clicked the insert soft synth option button in the synth rack and as far as I can tell this changed nothing in the SSD5 internal routing or available audio tracks for the instrument. All instruments were still output to the first stereo pair out 1 st. While you can click the output at the bottom of the volume slider to choose a different audio output for the instrument another option is to use the Routing Presets in the Mix section which offers three default options for instrument outputs, as shown in the image below. Then when you create the audio tracks for them you can easily tell which output to use. What I sometime do is to insert a drum synth with All Synth Audio Outputs: Stereo (or mono) which creates a LOT of audio tracks, and then I just delete the ones I am not going to use leaving the audio tracks remaining already receiving output from the correct kit piece.

Last year was something free that wasn't limited. It's like a smaller version of something they sell.

Our BF booty is more often what we don't need but it should go much deeper Such as buying upgrades of products you barely cracked open. Those sample libraries that you are now wondering what to delete or now shopping for external storage. Not to mention bits of hardware. Bought what you already have or have to do an extensive search to make sure. Who is going to be first so I know I'm not alone.

For me the deal breaker with the free version was no workspaces and as a rule I won't use any software that has a nag screen. I always toss them a few pennies to just get rid of them. I don't like wasting time when I open a program no matter how brief. And you never realize how dependent you are on simple things like the Workspaces. It is also a time waster for my workflow to have to re set up my views. I prefer the one button reset that workspaces allows. The rest I could care less about. I have hundreds of plug ins including the ones from Platinum etc. I haven't used Sonitus plug ins for years and don't plan on returning to them. Sonar is not my main Daw but I have important workflows that I need to use it for because it is still the best at doing certain things for me. Especially working with Midi. I think no one should only use only one Daw. I am 100% am against the Membership plan but that looks like it will never go away now. And when asked if the Free version would be available forever a staff member said there was no answer to that because it's a business and things can always change. The membership is on sale right now for a reasonable price. I am just going year by years for now. I can always use Platinum in an emergency but it become very apparent how far we have come since then and it's like driving an old car with no ABS brakes.

LIMITED-TIME FREE DOWNLOAD: Backs EQ by NoiseAsh https://audioplugin.deals/product/backs-eq-by-noiseash/

Ever notice most plugins in a DAW never win an eye candy award. I am always attracted to Live's 8bit look. All of those former Sony now Magix, I always want the GUI look like it was 20 years ago.

OK this works Opened an old project with the SSD5 as a stereo out only set up. From the synth rack open the Synth Properties and change to multi output. Open the SSD 5 Mixer and assign kick to output 1, snare 2 , toms 3 hats 4 and so on. Now on playback only the kick is heard. Outputs 2 to 6 are going nowhere. Insert new audio tracks, open the Input menu and choose the appropriate input from the dropdown which looks just like your audio interfaces list with left right or stereo as options. I chose stereo. Now just name the tracks and your done. EDIT: I forgot to change the output of the new audio tracks to my drum bus C. The best way to do this is use the Add tracks / advanced and choose it there as well as inserting the 5 new tracks. Even though the mixer in the GUI can do a lot this gives you the option of not just mixing but using 3rd party effects. Totally a game changer for working with canned drums.

It's in the one I downloaded from the very first post...dearVR Monitor v1.17 is included.

I think that was the only way to go. Get it done now, before the next price hike, and then coast with this new build until prices get back to normal -- if they ever will. Hope the build goes well!

Yes, this is the case. MIDI clips are way more expensive CPU wise than audio clips. An audio clip has one event : the audio, which is really just a file on disk. A MIDI clip in contrast has potentially thousands of events, held in memory. Displaying the MIDI clips, is a bit like tiling a floor... if you have a few big 3' square tiles, you can tile the floor pretty quickly. If you have 1000's of 1" square tiles, it's gonna take forever. Now take the scenario (for clips with hidden data) where you've actually got 1000's of 3' square transparent tiles with only a 1" square being visible... imagine how long that will take. And if you nudge the placement, it all has to be re-arranged again. That is, in effect what Sonar is doing when it's painting MIDI clips, both on the Clips View and the PRV. Having clips without hidden data will improve performance, but having fewer clips will make a HUGE difference to improving performance.

Only in this galaxy?

As said Normalizing the audio doesn’t solve anything. It is also a destructive editing technique so it can’t be reversed after you save and close the project. So that is one reason why we use methods like clip gain and plug ins to solve the problem. They are not destructive. First important tip is to use your Pop filter to make sure you are always the same distance from your Mike. I find some condenser mikes are terrible for recording evenly. The correct equipment and set up will go a long ways towards solving this problem. I used to use clip gain but now I’m using Melodyne to even out my vocal track. Yes it’s destructive too but I always work with a second copy of the track. I find it faster and easier than clip gain because it breaks it down into each note. You can also do groups of notes or tell it to automatically even things out. You are more or less working with audio the same way you work with midi. I have gotten pretty good at this so it’s quick. The I use the CA2A and Boost 11 to smooth it out. The CA2A is also found as the PC2A pro channel module. I set it so it rarely moves and add just a little gain. The Boost 11 is actually one of the best limiters out of 60 I tested a few years ago. But don’t add the Boost gain past +5 or it will add nasty harmonic distortion. I rarely use it past +3 if at all. I use the limiter set between-2.0 and -5.0 db. Depending on material. If I need more gain I add it in the CA 2A because I prefer the smooth harmonic distortion it adds. I have not had a chance to test the Concrete Limiter yet. The best limiter over all is Thomas Munts free Loud Max. It is the most faithful at keeping true to the setting. Most limiters let as much as 8 db true peak pass through what you had set them to. Not really Brick wall, more like rubber. Be aware that compressors come in 2 flavours. Ones that colour and the ones that don’t. Some can be adjusted to do both. Example the CA2A adds colour. Which is really harmonic distortion. it is well done so is like the smooth texture of a good tube guitar amp This is rarely the case. The other design is the clear clean sound like the Sonitus or Melda compressor. The Sonitus actually has a way to add distortion but it’s a bit on the nasty scale. If you own a Focusrite interface make sure you download the free Effects they include. The Red series is one of my favourite compressors. If that’s still available it worth more than the price of the Solo.

Thanks for the listen and comments. Yeah, I've already been working on addressing those issues as well as other things in there that are bothering me about the mix. I'm also working out an outro guitar solo while trying to improve my guitar playing technique that is currently inadequate to perform that solo. Those years of not playing guitar after almost cutting my left hand in half in an industrial accident have really affected my ability to play the things I hear in my head. I didn't do any singing during those years either and that vocal track really reflects that. It was just a scratch vocal anyway so I'm going to work on improving that as well.

Would you call this an "impulse" purchase? Or is there a more convoluted reason to want it?

Given what I said about Roku and Netflix and the TV manufacturers being in cahoots? Yes, let's update the app riiiiight before the holiday shopping season. It will break it on multiple streaming TV's, which means either sales of new streaming TV's, for which we get license fees, or sales of new Roku boxes, for which we get license fees.

Yes but only 9 isn't prime! 🤪