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OMG I got credited on a record! It's not actually the first time ever, but I'm super proud to be associated with these artists. So talented! So here I am bragging. Bet none of you shmoes have worked with the mighty Chris Vasi like I have! 😛

When I have the Piano Roll View open in its default configuration, with the piano keys at the left, I can press a key on my MIDI controller and the piano key corresponding to the note I am playing is indicated visually, by the key taking on a darker appearance. This is useful for being able to quickly determine where to draw notes in the PRV: Unfortunately, such is not the case when the PRV is displaying the Drum Grid. You may wonder why I would need to have "snare" light up when it's obvious by listening that I'm playing the snare, but I have multiple drum machines that map samples and patterns across octaves in addition to the usual kick, snare, clap, toms, hats, etc. I can play a key, and the sample sound or pattern will come out of the monitors, but it's not obvious looking at the drum grid which key I'm pressing and therefore which row to draw my notes: In the above screen shot, you see that I'd have to find the row corresponding to the pattern I'm playing through trial-and-error. It would be much easier if the instrument names at the left could similarly highlight like they do when the piano keys are showing. Unfortunately the other way to get my drum names showing on the left is to use a drum names instrument map, which also doesn't have this visual indication of pressed notes.

So you might have seen my recent post about an old music folder I found in my attic, dating back to circa 1980. Well, this is the first track to emerge from what has become known as The Lost Attic Tapes project. This particular song has an interesting back story, I actually wrote it on guitar as an entry for a local (and I mean local) song competition – I’d have been about 17 or 18 I guess at the time (so you’ll forgive the lyrical naivety I hope). We had to submit a recorded take (on TDK's finest quality cassette tape) as well as lyrics and music, so I had a piano arrangement written by a local semi-pro musician who was a mate of a mate. The bass player from my band played bass and my mate did drums and BGVs. My then guitar teacher played the piano and also composed the guitar solo (after two listens he recorded that in a single take). I then had to learn it and perform it on the day, as well as doing the lead vocal. In the end, we came second to a girl with an acoustic guitar and a song called ‘Suicide Letters’ (I told you it was a low bar). So we all retired to the pub afterwards to drink our £15 prize money – life changing stuff eh. We used to perform this song in my band, Jetlag, (guitar, bass and drums) and once, the drummer got so bored, he put his sticks down and went to the bar (don’t you just love drummers), I don’t think anyone noticed. As to the track itself, I started by re-creating the piano arrangement in Notion from the original dots (that’s the track with the higher register notes). I then made a chord track from that arrangement (programmed in PRV and played using a Soft Rhodes), which I then used in EzKeys - using one of the contemporary soul MIDI pack arrangements as a session pianist – this added a lower register to the piano to fill out the sound. The VSTs I used are Pianoteq 7 Stage and Synthogy Ivory II. I used EzBass to create the bass track and EzDrummer for a drum track. The ‘acoustic’ guitar is actually my T5z, patched through a CLA guitars plugin and the guitar solo - which is the same guitar - is patched through one of the TH-U All packs with a touch of added delay. I’m not sure this was ever in my vocal range over 40 years ago and it’s even less so now, but I really didn’t want to change the key. I did my best with the vocals and BGVs (give me some credit for attempting a four part harmony on the outro). The lyrics are very simple, but they have an innocent naivety I rather like – the World seemed a far simpler place back then. Any improvements in my mixing are entirely down to the efforts of Mike @Creative Sauce (do check out his channel on YouTube if you haven’t already). This is the most complicated project I have ever attempted - with more tracks, buses and sends than enough. My projects used to be ever so simple (crap, but simple 😉 ) until I started watching Mike's videos and I now have delusions of capability 😂 - any production howlers are entirely mine, despite Mike's best efforts to make me better at my craft. Anyway - here it is – the first track off the Lost Attic Tapes: Breaking Away, circa 1980. I hope you enjoy it, nits and crits welcome as always. I had a lot of fun re-creating this – a real nostalgia trip. Andy

I started using Levels not long ago and now I'm using it on every one of my projects. It has interesting tools like inter-sample peak metering (if you're not using a "true peak" limiter, is it introducing glitches or distortion? this will tell you right away). Yes, my results are better, it gives me a lot of work and it's forcing me to learn... It does point out areas where to improve the mixing/mastering but, with my limited experience it takes me a bit of time understanding what Levels is saying, how to actually fix it, and whether I should fix it or adjust the settings of Levels instead. Some examples: if the music is low on stereo field, how should I fix it? (if I don't have it there yet, adding a ping pong delay to guitar tracks will help, but more often than not it's not enough) or, if I am making an EDM track and get a warning that my dynamic range is low, what is the right solution? (music for dancing in a club is not expected to have the same dynamic range as other styles of music to begin with, so the thresholds should be lowered in Levels first before making adjustments to the music). Some people criticize that analyzing existing "great" music in Levels will point out multiple issues, and use that test to determine that Levels is "wrong" and "useless" but... (a) quite possibly in those tests they are using the default setting and not adjusting them to match the expected style, and (b) the reason plenty of older music is getting remastered nowadays is because the taste in music production has changed through the years and it isn't really that wrong saying that, judging by modern standards, older music production was lacking qualities that modern listeners are expecting. TL;DR - Levels is a pretty useful tool. There is a bit of a learning curve but it's worth it. If you don't have it yet, it's probably $32.99 well spent

Hello there, There would be awesome feature that shows plugin latencies and cpu usage for each plugin in a performance monitor screen like Studio One does. That would be awesome to check what plugin does how many ms latency and performance issues.

My apologies. I have fixed the issue and the culprit is as usual... Waves Audio I missed the V13 update (don't know why), once I updated to V13, the project is opening well and even a bit faster than before so 2022.02 not to blame at all. Apologies again, RaphaëlWolfgang

Run the app to download, and new version will install upon exit

Note that these are "Upgrade from Version 2 to Version 3" only

IZotope tools are very capable, so you'll be fine 🙂 With EQ, the best thing I learnt was making space for each sound and dynamic EQ with sidechain, so when a vocal for example plays at the same time as some keys, or whatever, that may share some of the same space, you can duck the keys just in those clashing frequencies to allow space for the vocals. Also comes into programming and trying to avoid that collision, but otherwise try and bring out the main essence of each sound and not have two clashing. A number of EQs like you would likely have with IZotope allow you to overlay them visually so you can see where they're fighting. Can make a much clearer track. EQ is also just highlighting what you like about a sound/instruments, so that's a good place to start 🙂

Thanks, friends!

I haven't personally used Mixroom, but for some weird reason Bassroom is really good at sculpturing the bass, so it wouldn't surprise me if Mixroom was good too. You don't really need any of them, but they're just tools that can help. It's worthwhile spending the time learning the theory and being able to use any EQ. Lots of good free resources to point you in the right direction. It's easy to get stuck in the loop of thinking we need another plugin to solve something, when we've all probably got more than we need and it would be better to spend the time learning and practicing with what we've got 🙂

Well.. if you haven't seen it, then it's safe to say it hasn't been on sale 🤣 The upgrade price direct through them isn't far off just buying the full versy on sale too.. it's a shame though, they would actually sell a lot more of them.. I don't think they get the whole loyalty pricing thing.. Don't overlook Bassroom.. it's a surprisingly good EQ for lower frequencies 🙂

$16.79 with code GROUP at JRR https://www.jrrshop.com/psp-springbox

Guys, get the Big Bang Orchestra FREE! https://www.vsl.co.at/en/BBO I just did and already tested it in Reaper. Works and sounds great! Since VSL used the dongle I never bothered even thinking about them, even though arguably they are the best sounding and pro sounding ever. This freebie alone will keep you busy for hours. And this freebie also doesn't use Cloud, it is validated on your mac. They also seem to have great prices, the choirs alone omg, they sound just astonishingly awesome in my M1 Air Mac speakers. Uff uff uff (judging by the demos, I didn't buy it, lol).

Their LEL is fantastic! Gritty, Lo-Fi Soviet nastiness

I’m hanging on to my K13UCE serial to register when 14 arrives.

Boyss-Sound-e-Scapes is celebrating 7th Year Anniversary! • First of all, there is a sale: ENDED! • Second, a new product is released, Guitar DI, which is a multisampled "dry" electric guitar made for sound design. Formats: Kontakt, sfz and Decent Sampler. It is also on sale for 70% off. You can check more about it along with video and audio demos HERE. • Third and last, we released a light version of the Guitar DI for our 7th Year free pack. The main difference is that it has only 2 round robins compared to its bigger brother. We thought this through and 1 round robin would make the Lite version too limited, while with 2 round robins it's usable on its own. All specifics of differences are on the last tab on the Guitar DI Lite product page (click here), the tab named: "Lite vs Full". Thanks for being with us throughout the years! Boyss-Sound-e-Scapes

Received e-mail from Spitfire Audio. Again, sorry if this has already been posted, took a quick look and I didn't see it. In which case, I guess this post is just a reminder. I don't have any of the $29 libraries. Suggestions/recommendations on which two to get (one for $29 + free $10 gift card; the second for $19 using the $10 giftcard)? Receive a Free $10 Gift Card With Any Originals or SA Collaboration

At EveryPlugin https://everyplugin.com/mastering-the-mix.html

New March Deals up to 78% off available now @ Rast Sound. See Offers, https://rastsound.com/deals/

The one commitment made by Meng as he acquired the rights to the Cakewalk software was that the Cakewalk DAW would be free for as long as it exists. That would preclude it from ever reverting to a payware model.

Great spot Gary, those opening chords might have been ever-so-slightly influenced from 'Make It With You' - I was quite a fan of David Gates and Bread back in the day.

If you have the first version, email support and you should be able to upgrade for $26. I did in December. @PavlovsCat ^^^ THIS! ^^^ I got them free too and have been using Bassroom lately on every mix. I'll get things to where I think I'm "done", then put Bassroom on my Mixbus and run it through to see what it comes up with. More often than not, I like what it suggests or close too it. I don't have Mixroom so can't speak to that. After @Eusebio Rufian-Zilbermann write-up I'm going to be exploring Levels some more too. But Bassroom has been one of the most pleasant plugin surprises in a long while. PS. Oh, I see that Expose 2 is only $32 at EP so $26 isn't much of a discount. Still worth it though. 🙂

Thank Noel. I rolled back. Problem still persist. PS, I started new topic as suggested.

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I don't like it when a developer doesn't take time to include a PDF manual and you have to go to a web page to figure out how to use it.

Aw, c'mon. People often take that route because in most cases, it works fine for them. Therefore, if it works fine on their system with their projects, what remains? You tell me. Sure it's possible that a specific situation is exposing a bug/incompatibility in Cakewalk. For that to be useful, we have to figure out what that specific situation is. There are so many variables. Hardware, plug-ins, sunspot activity (as you point out). Take this instance: if there were a consistent bug this nasty in the MP3 export process itself, it would have reared its head during beta testing and Early Access. You're not the only person exporting MP3's, and nobody else has said anything. So. What remains? What's possibly different about your project from the thousands where MP3 export works fine? Definitely it could be that there's something unique that's exposing a bug in Cakewalk's export. There are so many options in MP3 export settings that it could be that nobody else is using precisely the ones that you are (bit depth, rate, dithering, on and on). There's also the matter of plug-ins that don't agree with Cakewalk, which may be down to Cakewalk or may be down to the plug-in. And so on. I just had a weirdness in a project involving TAL-Elek7ro. It was working fine then started making a huge POP and going silent. Then I remembered I had left Cakewalk running overnight, which, amazingly considering how it was 4 years ago, I can now usually do with impunity. Restarted Cakewalk, no problem. Is it an issue with Cakewalk? Probably, but too obscure for me to chase down. Solution: exit Cakewalk before I go to bed. Please post the exact settings you're using for your export so that others can try it. And if possible, put your system specs (esp. RAM and sound device) in your sig.

Sorry to hear about the tremors - I thought you did a good job on this one - your use of synths are always ear candy - nicely done.

Storm - Rain. Alice In Chains - Rain When I Die:

I think you are mis-remembering in this particular case; Slide Over to Make room has not worked correctly for well over a decade if it ever did; down-stream clips that didn't need to move would move and would move to the right even when you were dragging something to the left. Ripple Edit addressed this and many other case where Add Measures, Delete Hole and related actions would not deliver expected results. For the most part, the old ways still work (or still don't work) as they used to when Ripple Edit is disabled.

One thing I've found that is an awesome approach to learning (hey, I actually have a certificate in accelerated learning - lol!) is to read/see the same concepts from multiple sources. Sometimes you just aren't "getting it" from one teacher, but absorb the same material from other teachers as well and things tend to click. Another issue is that you need to learn at the speed that is right for you. Because most teachers pace their material towards the bulk of their audience, it can be too slow to keep the attention of the quicker students or still too fast for the ones that might not have all the assumed background (prerequisites) for the class. I love being able to speed up most of the tutorial videos I find to 1.5x or 2x the speed. Most of the time it doesn't make the speaker unintelligible, and your brain actually retains the material easier at higher speeds (less time for other bits of stray information to pollute the training). Note that this is never a constant for any student either! Some topics will always seem easier than others. Remember, the vast majority of everything you gather is subconscious and there's only a small amount that can be kept in your short-term memory. One interesting technique (which, unfortunately, is rarely possible in today's world) is to take breaks and find a way to prevent new information from writing over your short-term memory long enough for all of what you learned to soak into your long-term memory. One study using students learning a new language then sitting in isolation chambers showed a HUGE increase in what they could remember and recall. Needless to say, this is one of the main reasons for repetition (which also alerts the brain that what its hearing is important, unlike the MILLIONS of bits that are irrelevant). This is also why actually doing what you're learning is important. It adds further importance, but also introduces additional avenues like touch. Involving as many senses as possible is very helpful. There is SOOOO much more to this! Take the state of mind you're in when you're learning versus when you're trying to recall what you've learned. I'm sure most of us have gone through a class in school where we thought we knew everything required for an examine only to not be able to access the answers during the test! The reason this happens is that we learned the material while in a relaxed alpha brain state, but then tried to recall things while in a stressed-out beta brain state. This is why it's important to learn things in the same state that they will need to be recalled (and exactly why militaries train cadets under extreme conditions; it's amazing how your thinking shuts down when you're cold, tired, sore and people are shooting at you!). This is also why people get stage fright. While some things can be learned rapidly, if it's not done on a solid foundation it's just like a house of cards. Maybe you can tap with two hands like Eddie on guitar, but if you don't know WHY or can only do it for a few seconds, what's the use? Also, you are far more likely (as explained above) to completely forget how to do anything except soil yourself when everyone is now staring at you. 😁

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder

Mostly A / B - ing should be done gain matched otherwise record to DAW and gain adjust on playback for comparison. I was so impressed by the Iron plugin that I did test it at the time versus the hw Iron. I thought I might as well sell the hardware... So, in my setup and test I did, I only remember thinking that there was no way I would sell the hardware (Iron) ever! I use it on my master bus. Proper HW vs plugin tests for Comps & Eq's (and saturators) are rather depending on one's personal system and configurations. Does one use WIFI - ETHERNET, what buffers sizes, Sampling rate, bit depth, converters, cables, power supplies, grounding etc... I also think that for me going out (from Daw to analog hardware) at least once is very beneficial... I do it (go out to analog) at mixing stage and then do mastering ITB @ 384kHz / 192kHz on a PC.

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Owning the Izotope Suite of tools should be more than enough. We all fall into GAS…

$29.99 bx_masterdesk: The Analog Way of Mastering in the Box Use voucher code during checkout! Flash Sale offer expires 11:59 PM PST on March 21, 2022. MASTERDESK-2999 This is a fixed price offer! The price for this product will not change if you add more plugins to your order. But you will get dynamic discounts of 20-60% on any additional purchase. Local VAT taxes may be added, only if required by law in your country. https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/products/bx_masterdesk.html

Cheers Larry. I hadn't spotted these before. Nice one 👍🏻

The free versions can only be used for personal use - commercial use is not allowed. Not sure how they would ever keep track of that though - but that is the message on each free product page.

But he could never leave

In my opinion the main advantage of attending school is probably the social environment that provides ideas, feedback and reference to realistically assess your level compared with your peers. At best the competition can motivate you to push yourself harder and get validation for your efforts, while on the flipside it could make you question your existence. "School taught" doesn't really exist in higher education. There are self-learned people (amateurs, dilettantes) who never attended university but may be at the same level of proficiency (or higher) in a subject as someone with a Ph.D. However, being "schooled" by university isn't really a thing; to succeed you must learn to seek information and teach yourself with the mindset of the dilettante in addition to actually attending the school. The involvement of external guidance, curriculum requirements and progress tracking might help you find your "destined" path, or they might cause you to lose sight of it forever.

BTW...if you are going to buy any Keepforest items during this sale, either Plugin Boutique or Best Service for the rewards are the best bet. The only advantage to buying directly from Keepforest is that your products WILL show up in your Keepforest Product Manager

Thks Larry ... guyz look at « who we are « there s at the end a list of other dev they like ...(sonicouture , sounddust ´ hollow sun ...). And some do pretty unik stuff as well .... classy act to point out those imho ...

I highly recommend getting the FREE Versions of Devastator, Ferrum, etc... they are really great! I'm surprised that they are not "paid" versions.

100 thanks for that Mark. Right under my nose🥸

Always a pleasure to hear you music Jeff, I have only listened to the BBC version I must say they instrumentation sounds very authentic to these furry ears. I know they are samples but I always make time when the BBC proms are on to listen to real orchestra's, I am very fortunate to own some very cool Hi Fi speakers, as you know and I believe the guy how designed the Epos was a big classical fan.

I am looking forward to seeing you during Saturday morning's livestream. The adventure will take us through some really interesting and sometimes crazy instruments. The new 88E from Impact Soundworks is a quirky FREE piano library for the Free Kontakt player, oh did I mention it was FREE???? ;^) Also the Soniccouture Clavichord is on intro special as well. As always, I will be chatting and answering your questions about the latest things going on in the world of sample libraries and music technology. I look forward to seeing you there:

That was like saying, "I'll never do xxxxxxxx." I knew when I read that comment... that there was absolutely no way.

New video up showing how to use midi FX in Cakewalk. I show 3 ways to use them in Cakewalk.. leave a comment below or on the video of which one you might try..

you are a human doormat anywhere you work. you get treated like shit. all depends how you accept that. i am in (i guess you could call it big end) IT.. we deal with quasi big shots trying to do big data and ML.. you get treated like a door mat all the time. but it beats fixing iphones .. so i do it do the doormat routine with a smile on my face.