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I think for a beginner FabFilter is way overkill. There is no way you will get anything close to value out of having it early in your musical journey. That doesn't mean it isn't excellent stuff, but jumping into the Mastering Bundle is a bit much. The same is also true of the iZotope advanced versions. The extra things the advanced versions bring aren't going to be all that big a deal either. But the better answer is the question: What do you want to do? If you just want to eq mixes, Fabfilter's Pro-Q 3 is much better than any iZotope Eq. If you want to mix a track, Neutron is a better toolset for someone without a lot of experience. To mix a track using Fabfilter tools requires you know how to use a lot of tools, none of which will hold your hand even a little bit. Neutron has a lot more hand-holding/AI. If you want to master an album or a track, again Ozone is the better toolset for someone without a lot of experience. Mastering with Fabfilter requires really knowing how to master/what you want. Ozone can help you more. My advice if you must get some Fabfilter plugin, would be to just get Pro-Q 3 and not the Fabfilter Mastering bundle. The other Fabfilter plugins in the Mastering Bundle are still a version behind the flagship EQ (and the upgrades won't be free) and you aren't ready to use them just yet. Upgrade the iZotope plugins to advanced based on what you want to focus on, or just stand pat with the standard versions. Get a year of experience and then re-evaluate. Since Pro-Q 3 isn't on sale, I'd say you should wait till you can get it on sale (I think they will have some sale price on single plugins around xmas). Adding a bundle of tools just will make learning harder, I know this one from experience, since I love bundles. At least with iZotope you are talking about single tools. OK very complex bundles of tools all tied together, but still just two things. I bought the Fabfilter stuff in bundles and I know I've gotten less out of it because of that.

We just want our original King back.

They should just pay the bitcoin ransom.

It's what Larry would have wanted........

Yeah, there's that garage sale dream I keep having where I stumble into a garage toward the end of the day and there's this woman there looking sad wondering what to do with all the stuff she hasn't sold that day. Over in the corner there's this pile of metal boxes all dusty. She explains that it belonged to her deceased husband who once had a recording studio. She is moving next week and she really needs to get rid of everything. She says she will take any good offers on "those boxes" over in the corner. I mosey on over there trying to look bored to look at the boxes. I only have 100 bucks in my wallet. I offer it to her and she looks relieved saying she accepts asking me when I can come and take it all away. It ends up being a pile of vintage gear that most engineers would give their right arm for.......man what a dream that was. So now I can put all of that in my studio and they might even feature me on the cover of a well known recording magazine. People will look at that and say wow!! that dude has quite a load of gear there ( I know dream on). It was a nice dream

Overused in the eighty and know back to the hype more cunningly, Chorus is a very used modulation effect by guitarists and keyboards players. The modulated signal is then mixed with the original dry instrument to create the effect. http://superflydsp.com/index.php/2020/06/30/electric-chorus-freeware/?fbclid=IwAR3vXfUm8mfFtU_cVHdvMCTi7wqu8Tl2JF2ghAaXmTPYzTIXjO-ZUuAuwX8

You already have better tools than even some pros have. My suggestion is don't spend any more money and learn the tools you have.

"If in doubt, tw*t it up into A minor" ~ Strummy (1962 onwards)

Hi folks! A number of people asked me to demonstrate mastering using stock plugins only, in Cakewalk by Bandlab. So - here it is! WATCH HERE: https://youtu.be/YHLSw82gfTA

My Mistresses to the King!

Doh! this is the version I have been using, I am not sure why it popped on on Installation Manager, it looked like a new product, not an update and was a 1GB download. so I got quite excited.

Hi Giovanni, I'm not sure if you can change mute/solo priority, but an easy way to check mixes with reference tracks is to create a "Reference" Bus and direct all reference tracks to it. Set the output to this bus directly to your main hardware o/p's and not your mix bus. Now select exclusive solo and you can toggle between your "Reference" buss and your "Mix" bus. Another easier workaround is to set the outputs of your reference tracks to your hardware outs (you don't want reference tracks to be processed by any mix bus fx anyways), then solo your mix bus. Now when you solo the reference track that's what you hear, when you un-solo it you hear your mix. This way if you have several reference tracks you simply solo the one you want to hear. When you are finished comparing just mute all your reference tracks. If you have all your mix elements going to the mix bus you can leave this in solo although I always un-solo the mix bus. I hope that helps. Paul

I am starting to believe the conspiracy theory that they are one and the same 🤪

I'm thinking Larry and Uncle E(From JRR) went on Holiday together. Please come back soon

2B Clipped is a distortion plug-in based on the distortion and filter engine that we have built for our top selling plug-in 2B Filtered. The large distortion knob first adds some character to the sounds you put through the plug-in, but as soon as you open the distortion knob more than half it will transform into a clip distortion. In this way, the plug-in is suitable not only for adding subtle character to your sounds, but also for completely overdriving them. We have added small pieces of our developed filter 2B Filtered so that you can transform exactly that part of the sound that is needed. The plug-in is completely free. https://2bplayed.com/product/2b-clipped/?utm_content=buffer35292&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer&wmc-currency=USD

Automatic Flying-Wahwah - Freeware Automatic Wahwah is a classic 70’s Wahwah effect. Modelled from state of art analog time-varying-filter. Our Flying-Wahwah offers you a Read more FlyingPhaser - Freeware Phaser creates smooth and subtle sweeping filter effect. Modeled from state of art time-varying-filter our effect provide you analog feel Read more Stereo FlyingTremolo - Freeware The Stereo Tremolo, generates analog feel Tremolo modulation. Stereo widening effect is achieved by panning the Tremolo waveform. You can Read more FlyingChorus - Freeware Overused in the eighty and know back to the hype more cunningly, Chorus is a very used modulation effect by Read more https://superflydsp.com/

Chords like A5 or E5 are the simplest there are. They are simply the root note and a fifth (which could be of alcohol for all I know! 😁). They're common name is the "Power Chord!" (you should read that loudly and with reverb). As I mentioned, your input CAN come from a modeler (think Line 6 or AxeFX, if you're super rich) or a profiler (think Kemper). It doesn't have to be a mic'ed amp. My point is to save the raw signal as well! Here's two more of my little secrets: Layers! If you have ZERO intention of ever playing live and just want to make songs that sound good, then feel free to liberally apply layers over layers as needed. If you want that perfect pick-slide, then perform it separately (see next tip) and add it in the mix later. If you want some extra feedback, well, same thing! ETC.!!! Tired of recording a crappy take, deleting, rewinding and trying again? Here's what I do: Set a playback loop for a section of the song. Set this wider than the the area you want to record in. Then do loop recordings inside this playback loop, but (here's the trick), keep ALL the takes! Go ahead and record 10 or 30 times. It's amazing how you'll really get into the groove after a few tries and, not only can you use the best result, but sometimes combining two of them sounds awesome! One final note: HAVE FUN! This isn't your job, is it? 🙂

IMHO Know what you want play way before you go into your DAW If playing what you want to play is not up to par take some time and practice just what you want to play. If it takes a few days, so what, have fun getting it under your fingers my point is know what you want to play before you try recording anything and spend some time playing it a lot first

While I whole heartedly agree with 99.99 % of what you said, I would only add that I believe many plugins are very accurate representations of actual hardware units. While not many people can afford 5K for a compressor or a channel strip we can afford to buy something that is so close many wouldn't know for MUCH less. I don't claim to be extremely knowledgeable about dedcated 1960's-1970's hardware since it wasn't ever a part of my reality, so maybe I'm missing something. I have heard some pretty good mixes using mimicked hardware in software though. My software Korg M-1 sounds exactly like my hardware M-1 did....only at the time they wanted 100.00 each for all of the cards for it which were included in the software version. No intention to start a war here. I really wish I could get some of that expensive gear Lots of hobbyists eventually at the least end up with some kind of a channel strip if using mics is a high priority. I don't see it as a necessity though given the quality of today's pre amps.

I jumped right into that one. Actually this is pretty tame.

Earlier today, this chap wandered up to me in the street. He was obviously the worse for drink, as he started serenading me: "There is no pain you are receding A distant ship smoke on the horizon You are only coming through in waves Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying When I was a child I had a fever My hands felt just like two balloons Now I've got that feeling once again I can't explain you would not understand This is not how I am I have become comfortably numb" Sheesh, I thought to myself, that's a bit off the wall.

I think if you stay in this you'll eventually have both. At least I seen Fabfilter Pro-Q as the last EQ I would ever need......not that I wouldn't try another one. Not sure how far along you are in your mixing hobby. At the very beginning you're still learning the basic concepts. You can make pretty good mixes using basic plugins. I've been at it awhile and I still have a lot to learn. I think maybe you could use the basic CbB plugins in the beginning to get a good understanding of EQ frequencies. IOW where your instruments generally sit. What many beginners don't realize is that EQ is often more subtractive than additive. Often if gain is needed it is very small. The CbB EQ can be expanded and is actually a pretty nice EQ in every sense of the word. Most good mixes are only EQ, proper gain staging and maybe some compression per channel. Most masters are similar only your looking at the whole mix and trying to get the mix to the correct levels without going too far using a limiter. You and your ears are more important than the plug in. Many of the best mixing techniques you won't ever learn using automated or pre set chains. In order to really learn you need to know WHY and in what context. What is the goal? In this respect Ozone or IK Multimedia TRacks can be very educational. Look at an Ozone preset. What are they doing to achieve that result? Look at how each module is set. Cakewalk has chains too. Simply click the arrows on a module in the pro channel and you will see a drop down list. Looking at these chains can be very educational. Once you know how all of that works you can build your own chains using any plugin you desire or use pre made ones. I have Ozone 7 all the way through Ozone 9 advanced still on my computer. If anything I think that program has made too many people complacent about getting more involved in a mix. Yes it is effective, but if all you ever do is use a preset you might as well hire one of those online mastering services and save yourself some time and money. Fabfilter is just a more fully featured set of the most used plugins. Pro-Q3 has a way to solo each freq. band. You can choose to make the band "dynamic" in that it will cut that band by a certain amount depending on the material and how you set it, so it's really similar to built in multi band compressor. You can take any frequency and put it where you want it in the stereo or M/S field. So it basically can pan too. Ozone also has a dynamic EQ as does Melda. Neutron isn't a new Idea. Voxengo and others have something similar that can look at other EQ in different tracks and make a comparative analysis. Basically a smart EQ that can share data across channels. I have Neutron but I tended to like simply soloing tracks together and manually EQing that way. You might not agree with Neutron's decisions. Remember, it's more about those two things on either side of your head The worst thing you can do is to think that any plugin will make you sound better. In the end, only you and your mixing skill will make you sound better. The higher end plugins are just icing on the cake.

Performance: Obviously AudioSnap to get the timing closer to on-grid, and Melodyne on occasion to fix bends that miss their mark more than I'd like. Sound: double, and double some more. If I'm doing some heavy rock sort of thing, I'll double the rhythm guitar part, and have each track going through a dual-amp virutal rig. I pretty much use dual-amp configs on every distorted guitar part, so as to get a more complex/interesting tone. Also, there's the "hey, that's not a guitar, that's a bass playing up an octave!" trick - grab a bass and play the root of the rhythm on the 'D' string so that it's up in the same octave as the low string on the guitars, and then really crunch the heck out of it and blend in to desired effect. Because the D string on the bass is both fatter and much longer than the E string on the guitars it'll have a very nice 'heavy' tonality to it, without interfering with whatever the real bass part is doing.

No it wouldn't . It would just be more bloatware that many would never use. There's a whole world of instruments out there from free to those costing many hundreds for those that need them. There's no need to be bundling more junk with the installer.

where is Larry - he wouldn't want to miss this !!!! ( )

For the coming 4 weeks we are launching a new pack every week. This week is the kick-off with a very cool 'Lead Pack'. This pack contains a lot of cool amps but more importantly very high quality lead profiles! Lead Pack -new profile pack. Here Latest Free Pack: HERE https://bertmeulendijkprofiles.com/

Hi nice forum folk Fizzy Pickle are James 'jamesg1213' Griffiths on Guitar, Ed 'Bapu' Kocol on Bass and backing vocals, Liz 'the current mrs daryl1968' Greenway on vocals and myself on keys, vocals and knob twiddling. This is a song we did a while ago but now with video.

I've been writing moody songs lately, and here is my latest. I'm too close to it to hear anything right now, so I will let it rest and ask all of you for your thoughts. My main gimmick in this song is that I mapped Superior Drummer 3 to Addictive Drums 2 in order to use my AD2 library of beats. Way cool. Thank you for your time and help! It can be found here: https://soundclick.com/r/s8doyj remixed on 7/14/20 (less vocal compression, more drums) remixed on 7/18/20 (less organ, less mud, more air)

you're doing the right thing. The best way is what works for you. I usually go with whatever I played after I hit the record button. For me at least the first run through is usually the best .

A T-shirt with his own face on it........ Oh, wait..........

Jim, Thanks for the listen. Loved Mac Davis. There was a video on this song as well.

Yeah, pretty heavy on CPU but this thing sounds ridiculously good.

The two Sonible EQs are my go-to's. I like that I am fully in control, but they give me a starting point better than anything I could do myself

No, no... Fleer is advertising! 😁 His subtlety of mentioning that he went to MIT. That makes him a nerd among nerds!

Try a Hofner Beatle Bass. Light as a feather.

I'm a crap guitarist. I prefer to simply collab with better guitarists. Simples.

IIRC, it is a +3db HF shelf starting around 4k

Not worried about opinions, they are like...well, you know the rest...everyone has one. But not going to take it without firing back. I agree with you, and thanks for the comments. There was a lot I could have said, but wasn't worth the effort or time, I have music to make... you may visit to see some recent work of mine--ps, I made the videos, too.

I have guitar issues from time to time... not so much soloing, but I have a nasty habit (due to lack of practise) of bending strings out of tune when playing chords, or getting mutes/buzzes from not barring properly. When this happens, I record each chord shape / phrase separately, either in different takes or different tracks.... then merge them back in to the one track afterwards. Any odd tuning / intonation / timing issues can easily be sorted with melodyne.

I hear you on that. Didn't like any of their presets, eventually made a couple of my own that I reuse on everything. Find iZotope's EQ somewhat weird to operate compared to the EQ in the ProChannel, though having 8 bands to play with instead of 4+2 is nice. Rarely every use the FX/Delay/Reverb modules; limited versatility and they don't sound that good to me. Mostly I use it for the gate, dual parallel compressors, de-esser, saturation, and limiter. It's nice having that chain of FX only take up one slot in the track strip, just from a screen-space perspective. Also, while not used on this track, I like the Harmonizer module. Often add on two unison voices, panned left/right and 10db behind the main, with a couple of percent of time/pitch variation to subtly (or not-so-subtly) fatten up a thin voice.

I started school back in the late 60's, finished in November 98, there was no way I was going to go to High School. If I had continued on to High School I'd probably be on my final year now. Would I qualify for the Educational License?

Surrender - Swing Out Sister

This is a fine version, man. Really nice. Regards, Bob

Favorably. But you’d better get Adaptiverb.

Why yes, actually, some blues would be really great right now! An absoulte 100% A+++ on all those awesome guitars! Well played and well captured! cheers, -Tom

I may start a thread about this, but Pro Tools, after being a decade behind Cakewalk with Folders, has now lept ahead. Put tracks into a folder, and it acts as an advanced Bus or Aux track, with tons of routing and control options.