Matthew Sorrels

The samples files in Majestica 2.0 are unchanged. The only thing different/new is the instruments and art files. They could have sold/shipped an upgrade that was only a few hundred megabytes instead of a complete 20gig download. But I guess they couldn't justify $20 for that.

So it turns out I already had Century Ostinato Strings (I thought for sure I checked before I ordered, but may have just missed it) so no extra copy. So I only paid an extra $20 to upgrade by not waiting a day.

Based on the VI thread I bought Majestica 1.0 yesterday before the 65% off coupon expired (it was supposed to expire yesterday). In theory that should have netted me the Century Ostinato Strings and Majestica 1.0 plus qualified me for the $20 upgrade to 2.0. The $20 upgrade coupon did show up today. But the Century Ostinato Strings are still missing in action. And it looks like the 65% off coupon is still good, so I'm basically out $20 more than if I hadn't believed them.

Right now I'm using a UMC204HD plus a Mackie Big Knob and a custom Headphone switcher I built myself. I think this might replace that whole thing and give me more inputs/outputs to boot.

They keep offering things I already own for free. Very disappointing.

There are 11 Sampletank instruments in this I don't have (I have everything else but Arc). Wish they had included The Resonator, but oh well. I doubt it will get to buy 1 get 10, but it should at least cover the Cinekinetik instruments. I'm in for 1.

And still no way to tell if there are updates to things you have installed. Plus this the first time I tried updating:

Lame. The FAQ says you can contact their support. I guess they don't like installing on a computer running a Hypervisor. Not giving up my virtual machines for a plugin.

So during this flash sale I picked up Ibrido Cinematica which was one of the few libraries of theirs I didn't have. Sadly it doesn't work with Kontakt 6.6.0 in Steinberg DAWs (Cubase and Nuendo) using the VST3 version. It won't restore/reload your instrument settings. Works fine in VST3 in Cakewalk and Reaper but not in Cubase or Nuendo. Sonokinetic's support advised me to remove the VST3 plugin and fall back to the VST2 version. Which of course makes every single project I've saved with the VST3 Kontakt plugin not load the saved settings. So a total non-starter for me. They claim it's Steinberg's fault, but I think that seems kind of suspect. I suspect it's more a combination of Native Instruments and the specific scripting the Ibrido instruments are doing. Given there are three companies involved with this problem and I have no energy or interest to make a giant internet/YouTube/Twitter/Twitch issue about it, I figure the odds it ever being fixed is way less than zero. So heads up, if you haven't upgraded to Kontakt 6.6.0 you might want to pull the VST3 version after you update but before you get committed to it (their are other libraries that also have problems with the VST3 version). To do this, after upgrading if you go into C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3 and rename Kontakt.vst3 to Kontakt.BAD you'll fall back to the VST2 version and I think be good to go. If you have already upgraded and are too far along to just toss it, don't use any of the Ibrido instruments, they won't reload correctly, or just use Cakewalk/Reaper and avoid Steinberg DAWs.

There are some "hacks" that will let you make a library appear but most of them have very bad side effects or require you run older versions of Kontakt. You may be tempted to try these but I can't stress enough you don't want to have to deal with trying to fix it later.

In high school I took a year long course on COBOL on an HP-3000.

It may be related to the tempo window changes too. Of course it does mean you can't real time adjust the tempo (even with the pen tool in the tempo window) but the UJAM UI doesn't seem to mess up so I guess that's a win.

Is this the problem I wasn't able to reproduce that with the current version of Cakewalk this morning. Everything seemed to work just fine.

People trying to break up bundles I think is what that refers to.

They also are requiring you own the product for 30 days and are completely cutting off selling un-registered codes. While I think we are still seeing early days on the resale of digital products/rights, I have no doubt governments will get involved. If for no other reason than people die. What happens to your digital rights then will end up being a huge mess that they will have no choice but to sort out. But given every year there are new lawsuits over first sale doctrine and other aspects I don't think things are going to work out anytime soon. If Toontrack is serious their next move will be to stop allowing retail vendors to sell codes. Either shut that down completely or move it to a system where the product is directly registered upon purchase. I know Valve would like to move to a system where key codes for games aren't sold. I suspect other digital retailers want that as well. Change will be endless and constant. Odd are good most of it won't actually be good for any of us though.

Alex Pfeffer is having a Summer sale on his MIDI packs, 3 euro each. I have most of these (and got the new ones with this sale) they are pretty decent if you need things like string ostinatos as MIDI phrases. https://store.alexpfeffer.co/

You can configure an articulation so that the keyswitches aren't transposed but a range of keys are. But that would mean you would have a special transpose articulation map. It's not a generic thing. And it doesn't stack with other MIDI processing plugins (including one's bundled with Cakewalk). Everyone sees only MIDI notes.

I think it's the smaller value, percentages don't add. (Original Price * (1-Orange Slice Discount)) * (1-Group Discount) = Final Price

I guess it's time to pick up those couple of guitars that Banjo I'm missing. 😁

They sent me a extra $25 off coupon for owning Arpology on this. So if you are in that boat, check your email before you buy. Code claims to be unique or I'd share it.

Just FYI I believe the Cakewalk Pro-Channel versions of all of these are still broken.

What fresh hell is this? They have no option to sign in using your own email address. Looks like they force you to give up access to Google, Facebook or Twitter to get an account. Which may or may not have any connection to your T&S purchases.

I cross graded to get Nuendo (instead of upgrading and losing my Cubase license). In hindsight it was a dumb move. Nuendo is Cubase + extra video/film and game features. The only difference is Cubase seems to get earlier 0.5 updates but Nuendo catches up pretty quickly. They do seem to be trying to keep them in sync more than they have in the past. As for support, I'd imagine Nuendo support is slightly better, but I've yet to see it in practice. All things considered though, I've stopped updating my Cubase license. If selling it wasn't such a pain, I'd most likely just sell it off. If you are only doing music/audio then Cubase is awesome, you don't need Nuendo. But if you are doing anything with video/film/games getting Nuendo instead of Cubase may be a good idea. Though to be honest I think I could easily live with just Cubase even for film/video/game work. That said, lately with Cakewalk adding expression maps I've kind of stopped using Nuendo and went back to Cakewalk. Cakewalk's video support is pretty weak though, but I understand it and can live with it. Not like I'm outputting video with any of these apps really.

Toontrack Product Manager is showing updates for: Ballads 2 EZkeys MIDI Ballads EZkeys MIDI Fusion EZkeys MIDI Jazz Ballads EZkeys MIDI Singer-Songwriter EZkeys MIDI Not sure what they changed.

Sadly the 50% off coupon doesn't work on the M-Tron bundle. But free Minimonsta is nice I guess. Not sure it's worth getting 50% on M-Tron without the add-ons if your goal is the whole package.