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I thought the original Ripchord freebie was damn good, but V2 is amazingly better! It's like Cthulu in that you can play a chord with one finger, but now you can play with 2 fingers or 3 or as many as you want with each triggering whatever you want - a chord, octaves, cluster, you name it. And they have added strumming (up/down/both with randomization) and velocity (accent the high part of a chord/low part of a chord, randomization). Entering chords is MUCH easier than Cthulu (which I always thought was awkward for chord entry). You can edit a chord by adding individual notes as you please, name it, play it, edit it some more, etc. You add the sounds you want to trigger, so you can use keyboards, or strings, or whatever. It's REAL NICE for a freebie! Check it out: https://trackbout.com/ripchord

I have the main library Palette Symphonic Sketchpad. It's...ok-ish. It's actually kind of an odd package, in terms of quality. For a sketchpad it is quite complete, with many useful parts -- but also a bit rough around the edges and variable in quality from patch to patch. I don't like the interface much, and the samples are a distinctly mixed bag. It ticks all the boxes in terms of orchestral sections, with strings, woodwinds and brass being the main players, and additional patches for various percussion, timps, hand percussion, piano, harp, choir and some synth patches. For the ensemble patches (strings, woods and brass) Palette has a full set of articulations (all the usual suspects, plus tenuto and major/minor trills). And surprisingly, it has a separate chamber-sized patches for each ensemble. There are three mic positions: Close, Decca and Hall. The Decca is the default, but with more baked in room ambience than I expected. I find it a bit muddy and difficult to blend with other libraries. The Close mic is a lot better for that, but needs a fair amount of added reverb. The sound of the strings players is decent, but not the most refined sound (certainly not the glossy and pristine sound of the Albion ONE strings I regularly use). Rather, it is solid and workmanlike, with a hint of rasp. The basic articulations are fine, except I don't like the spiccato - too abrupt and punchy, and not enough velocity layers for my tastes. Admittedly, I haven't really played around with the settings in the GUI, so possibly that can be adjusted. The trills are a nice articulation option, and are the only parts of the package that are currently in my orchestral template, as they are the best trill samples available to me when it comes to blending them with my Albion and 8Dio strings (Albion doesn't have trills, and I don't like the 8Dio ones - and while the Pallete samples take a bit of work, they do fit in fairly well after some reverb, panning and eq). The woodwinds are adequate - nothing special, but they get the job done. The brass is okay when played en masse. But for both the winds and brass patches, the overlap points of the instruments is kind of obvious and does not leave enough room for individual sections to play melodies cleanly. I also don't like the position of the brass players in the soundscape. There are some weird bits to the library... The glockenspiel is really not good -- quite unusable, to my ears, which was something of a surprise. How do you mess up a glockenspiel? The Close mic sounds nice, but it's really dry and in-your-face, and thus hard to place in my orchestral soundscape. The Decca is really ambient, and has the weirdest sound when played hard -- there is a deep banging sound to the highest velocity samples, as though the percussionist is hitting his knees on the glock stand in his enthusiasm. The Hall mic is no better. Quite odd and quite unusable. The Harp has lots of nice strings, and one or two strings that sound brittle and obvious, and thus make the patch hard to use. Those strings (high C and D) stand out way too much, and draw all kinds of the wrong attention to themselves. They only fit in with their brethren when played at the lowest velocity. So I don't use the harp. The timps are perfectly fine, and include a nicely programmed set of mod wheel crescendos that drop in a final hit upon release. They work well, and I've used them to good effect. The piano sounds surprisingly decent for a small add-on to an orchestral package. Quite usable. The hand percussion, trailer percussion and orchestral percussion are all decent, with a generous number of different instruments. The choir is very limited, but adequate for the very basic stuff (oh, ah and mm). So, it's kind of a strange package -- almost like the alpha release of a good orchestral library, with solid potential but some genuine rough spots. It is good for sketching and works well on my laptop (where it sees most of its use, along with Da Capo). I bought it on sale earlier this year (I don't recall what I paid for it), and it has been useful - but I'm glad I didn't pay full price. That's just my two cents. As always, YMMV. Rob

What are the odds? Two people working on songs with the same title. A good old fashioned mushy love song here, completed almost completely in CbB. Hope you enjoy it. https://www.bandlab.com/wilbyforce/waitingforyou20-05cb669c?revId=3f3a4aaa-9854-ea11-a94c-0003ffd1c4f7

I have certainly spent a lot of time with it Piotr and I guess whether it's boring is a personal thing but I liked the approach. I can read music and know where all the notes are on the piano but just lacked keyboard skills (e.g. which fingers to use and when etc.). I liked the chapters that teach some typical rhythm patterns used by pianists and then applied them to some well known songs. I found myself going "off-piste" with these when I noticed that they would work with songs that I wanted to learn. They cover a lot of these but I also dove into the later chapters which show you how to play quite a few songs. I have a few other piano courses but I find myself coming back to this one more often. They do also cover some tricks and tips for improving your play and making nice sounding chords.

Lol Piotr.....we all think it, Piotr says it.

Let's hope the changelog is not only "Fix - Spelling mistakes"

I emitted numerous growls and vocalizations when Camel Audio stopped supporting Windows...

For me CPU hit is nothing to worry about, on my demo machine I only have a 4790 i7 and it's not an issue. It sounds pretty damn fine I must say, haven't really got anything negative to say about it. Oh, if you got the Jampoints, you can get it for a touch over $100 from IK ($104 or something iirc)

As an alternative.... https://www.arturia.com/products/software-effects/preamps-bundle/trida-pre it's €49 until March 4th...

... but you can teach those new dogs some old tricks, daddy-o.

Do check out the Suite version though, as it holds an amazing bunch of stuff for not much more than the regular upgrade.

ok, not to complain again and again about the same about voucher and getting so boring I would dye of it I just have created post to PA and send to them. Included below. If any of $50/$75 voucher owner would like to join and send to them also her/his thought is very welcome of course. Anyway I feel now quite calm and relaxed... I did everything I could. Now it is not up to me... Nothing I can do... Anything but wait till my cursed $50 voucher disappear and case solved... If the surprised me this time in pleasant way it would be great. If not never mind... The will be more and more deals to feed the GAS on many great manufacturers ------ here is content if anybody cares -- Dear PA, I was so excited when I earned $50 voucher hoping it will give me even better possibilities to buy what I want... But instead I got terrible disappointment... $50 voucher is useless... The ways better is to have $25 voucher! Starting this year no single deal as good as for $25 voucher owners... I wanted MC77 on January so much but unfortunately was restricted by limit to use voucher and I ended with wasted voucher... Also no combined deals with anything what I was interested This month the same situation bx_console Focusrite was what I really wanted but was not able to buy it as I could having still $25 voucher... Of course to cross the $50 voucher limit I could add any random $29 plugin but: 1/ It would cost still more than if I had $25 voucher - maybe $4 more seems not much but is is psychologically completely disappointing and disgusting for people who bought more to be forced now payed more for things Sounds like 'buy more and you will be not appreciated but discriminated' 2/ I don't want to pay for any random or already owned plugin So if it is not kind of oversight but conscious policy maybe you would provide for us $50 and $75 owners possibility to use our vouchers just like voucher with lower value (even if 1 time only 'losing' 'value')? Well, of course, I can just wait till my last year spent money value again will be below $300 so I will get $25 voucher again the only one which is really usable... Or maybe you could give more plugins on deals to combine them? Isn't the idea of limits on higher vouchers? Anyway probably the more desired plugins by me were already on deals so maybe just never mind and whatever ? Or maybe I can use all those months with such sale politics to get rid of GAS syndrome and instead constant looking for colors I should stop buying and focus on music... And I would be grateful for your help with saving my money and helping me focus on music instead of constant looking for deals, counting, waiting, hoping, whole month checking, trying to guess what to do etc... You can consider again what you would really like from people who are investing more in your plugins or you can just do nothing... More and more people are getting aware $50/$75 vouchers are not any price but rather penalty... Regards, Piotr --------------------

I think it's a pretty decent starter kit, with lots of tools. I can see students getting a lot of good use out of it. And its a great library for travelling with a laptop -- which is what I use it for on a regular basis. I'd really like it if they gave it some more polish, though. I haven't downloaded the update yet. Might do that later this week.

Ample Sound AMH - Light Your Fire by Tremendouz

That's odd. MIDI Output is enabled on mine with the new version. But I have auto-plugin scanning on startup enabled. If you don't perhaps you need to do a manual scan to update the settings for the Reason plugin (since they changed with this release)?

No problem, I've received plenty of critiques over the years & I welcome it.

Hide /Unhide all muted tracks and take lanes globally, with a single button... perhaps even "freeze@archive"+hide / un-hide all non playing items. So if you have a project with a lot of stuff that is "not playing", but you want to keep it "in project", this will make it cleaner to work with and reduce the usage of computer resources.

I think scook covered it. I will just add: Cakewalk by BandLab is same as Sonar Platinum, EXCEPT that Cakewalk by BandLab is EVEN BETTER, because there are new features/improvements that have been added, and it appears that further development/support is now ongoing. I kept using Platinum way too long (before switching to CbB) because I had presumed CbB was a "light" version of Cakewalk Sonar. I am extremely happy with Cakewalk by Bandlab, because the DAW I know best is "alive and well". And the amount of excellent Youtube tutorials for Cakewalk by Bandlab is tremendous. Not to mention there is a plethora of older Cakewalk Sonar Youtube tutorials that are still relevant.

For live performance, definitely check out https://gigperformer.com/ I did gigs with Cakewalk Sonar starting in 2013 (because I knew Sonar so well, but of course it was not suited well at all for "live gig" situation), then I was much happier after switching a true "live VST host and song/setlist manager" which was Brainspawn Forte (until they ceased development), and now, Gig Performer is my choice for "live VST host and song/setlist manager".

Upgrading from 10 to 11 Suite. Good value, $1200 worth of Rack Extensions for only $100 more than the regular upgrade.

Thanks Steve, much appreciated! As for the stone, I'll see what I can do. Paulo, if you only knew... Happy to hear from you! Thanks

Cakewalk did not offer physical media for Platinum. You will have to create the disks yourself. The installers are available in your old Cakewalk account. Addictive Drums and Melodyne are managed by their respective companies. XLN Audio has a universal installer for their products. It is available at their site Melodyne should be downloaded directly from your Celemony account. With the exception of these two products, the rest of Platinum should be installed using the Cakewalk Command Center. The installers used by the Cakewalk Command Center are the same as the installers in your old Cakewalk Account. They are cached on your PC. The default location is C:\ProgramData\Cakewalk\Command Center\Downloads. Cakewalk By BandLab can use everything bundled with 64 bit Platinum. CbB started with the Platinum code base so the DAW is very similar to Platinum except it does not include most of the plug-ins and content bundled with Platinum. Of course, CbB has been updated regularly since BandLab purchased the code. Currently BandLab recommends performing a full install of SONAR Platinum then install CbB.

Not sure what happened there, typically you'll get a message that it is out of date but yes you do indeed need to download the newest version of T-RackS to have access to the newest single processors etc. We have a new Overview video also:

JUST $29.99 TODAY!* BX-DLY-2999 Use this voucher code during checkout! Offer ends February 22 - 11:59 pm - California Time (PST)

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If you plan on keeping it, buy 150 Credits with your jampoints, and it's about $95!

Another Guitar VI you may want to consider is Amplesound. They are my go to's... https://www.amplesound.net/en/index.asp

I agree with Gary - great melodies and lyrics but there is some digital distortion with the final mix/master

In my case, I can probably recommend them all . My little ones have showed some interest (here and there) in playing the piano, so this might be good for them. I on the other hand...…(as my father used to say) 'you can't teach old dogs new tricks'.

loving the chord changes Keith. Great vocal performance again - your voice reminds me of someone and I just can't put my finger on it. Mix-wise, the drums lack a bit of punch somehow

True, but why get a decent mic-pre, only to plug it into a cheap laptop sound chip? For about the same price, the better option is a single channel USB audio interface (with a decent mic pre built in). For example, the Behringer UM2 is $48. It uses the ASIO4all driver, but it's designed as an audio interface, so performance is way better than any onboard sound chip.

Currently, lowest price I can find is $114.81 at JRR with code FORUM https://www.jrrshop.com/propellerhead-reason-upgrade

@ZincT Thank you

Hi Wookie, Tom, Paul, Douglas, Allan + Bjorn, Thanks for listening and commenting it is really appreciated. regards paul

Moving back towards sampled synths myself. Really liking Syntronik.

Brilliant:

Yes...Primary Colors also got updated. They have also switched to "Pulse" downloader, the same one that Impact Soundworks uses

Definitely skipping this. If they fixed a tuning issue that will just make my guitar playing sound worse.

Mine work...LOL

Did you know virgin wool is almost exclusively from ugly sheep!

I worked a lot with software, professionally and for myself, and in my experience one of the most frequent problems is that the analyst(s) and/or engineer(s) forget to rule rare cases and exceptions as many topics are to complex. This even happens in software development for airplanes and fighters and leads sometimes even to their crashes, although that is one of the software industries that implies most money, manpower and testing cycles (but nevertheless it happens)! In other words IMO a real good online mastering or something else that is art-like is nearly impossible!

First off I really liked your vocal - well done there. This song has a good hook on the chorus "Fallen Star" - very nice. It's a well composed song. I like those stops you put in there on the drum track. It does have a bit of an 80's vibe to it. Very catchy song - the type to sing along to. Nicely done.

Nice one guys , just cant beat a couple of stops to give a song that extra kick works perfectly . cheers paul DB

Yes, exactly, in reality, there are about 4 different alternate notes per octave (on the higher notes) these VST's have to cover. I don't think guitarists are interested in playing high notes on the 22nd fret of the lowest E string. It wouldn't be functional to have to put in key switches for every note on the midi roll to identify the string being played, not even possible I think, especially if you have 4 or 5 notes all being played at the same time. At the moment, I am experimenting with Amplesounds "forced capo" feature, which is available in open play mode (some VST's have this feature but only in strum mode). This tells the sample player that you are playing in a certain range of about 4 or 5 frets and it must select the notes being played from that range. It only requires two keyswitches per bar generally before you move out of that range and then require another 2 keyswitches. It requires 2, one to tell the sample player that you are going to force capo and another midi note to say what string is the root. It's doable in terms of programming, I'll see how it goes. It's probably worth saying that these problems wouldn't be encountered by most keyboard players seeking a strumming acoustic guitar to put into the mix. They want and expect the open string sound, or they can capo the VST to strum at a certain fret. All the VST's can do this in one way or another.

I haven't forgotten enlisting your help in the timing issue. It's become apparent to me that I have to spend more time trialing different libraries to find the one that will work for me, I have most of them now and have been going through them. My problem is that my style of play falls between strumming, solo and finger picking modes. I pluck chords "claw" style, a number of notes at the same time, while also doing a little finger picking and break in and out of the occasional strumming, I also move up and down the neck doing this. All this may happen within one short piece. The acoustic guitar VST's are struggling with this since they tend to break things up, you are either in strum mode, solo mode or finger picking mode and there are different rules for each that don't fit the way I play. I just want one mode where I can do everything. Also, they can't easily detect where on the fret board I am playing. I am having some success though, but it is taking time going through the libraries/manuals and learning if they have the relevant key switches I need or not. I probably won't get the time to work it out until the weekend. I didn't think it would be this hard but then when I think about it, it is hard to get the VST to play the exact same chords I am playing when you consider that on a keyboard and midi roll, one note exists only once in each octave. On a guitar, there may be 5 or 6 instances of one note, all the same octave but played in different fret positions on different strings and therefore a very different sound or timbre for each one. This is the problem for me and different libraries have different ways of handling this or not. I am hoping to get as close as possible to getting exact replication of what I am playing, I think it is possible, will just take a bit more time.

where were you?

I only edit in the staff view - well I would were it a better editor. Please, please make staff view editing more comprehensive.

Don't the Superior kits all come with drum maps? There are also some GM maps for various Superior kits in the Groove Monkee Midi packs. However, because most of these maps contain all the i-mappings as well, they are rather large and cumbersome. Because of this, I've had to make my own. It's time consuming but not that difficult. I always end up moving the kit pieces around so as too keep them together. It's much easier to edit a midi track that way. I'll try and dig up what I have. HTH Paul