Matthew Sorrels

If they re-offer the BBCSO intro price for the weekend (which I think everyone believes they will) and throw this in as a bonus I may have to re-think Spitfire's role in my instrument library.

I just tried importing them and Cthulhu reads it in and sets it all up across the keyboard. Kind of nice actually. Looking at my MIDI collection I seem to have the fully FeelMySound collection, but I don't remember buying it. Perhaps it was all free before. Their PDF/pages with pictures of all the chords are really handy though. There are a bunch of MIDI helper plugins these days that might help you explore some of the odd scales. Scalar has a bunch of nice choices with hints on the type of scale it is/etc. But it's not the only one.

Take that back you might be able to use the import midi file option. I have a full set of Cthulhu keys presets I think I downloaded from some KvR post, but I can't really remember for sure. I have a lot of Cthulhu presets (including this pack). To be honest I don't think they are all that useful.

I think you'd have to set it up inside Cthulu by hand, I don't think there is any easy way to use them directly. I use them a bunch just to get the right keys for more complex chords (anything bigger than a triad) and to stay in scale.

FeelYourSound.com has a nice Free Scale-Chords project (and a cheap larger version) https://feelyoursound.com/scale-chords/ The MIDI files are really useful as cut&paste sources.

I've put up an update of the template with three additional versions that might prove helpful. The download URL is still the same https://drive.google.com/open?id=1l6By35cP4b4rvejEab6WdbESi5mGX-iE 11/23/2019 Added three more versions of the basic template BBCSO Basic-AllEnabled The full template but with every synth instrument connected. This takes a long time to fully load. BBCSO Basic-CoreArt Only 3 articulations per instrument, long, short and a legato. Everything disconnected. BBCSO Basic-CoreArt-AllEnabled Just the 3 core articulations with every instrument connected/enabled. The all enabled versions take longer to load of course and even once the template opens the samples will be loading the in background. The CoreArt All Enabled version takes about 51 seconds to open and around 3 minutes to fully load for me. It uses around 15 gigs of ram (reports 6.96GB).

The disconnected synths are the Cakewalk version of Cubase's disabled track. In an ideal world you'd find the instrument track you want to use (say Trumpets A3) and then enable it and start writing. Then you'd do more tracks, only enabling the instruments you need, rather than every instrument. Because the template has everything rigged and routed but disabled you start with a very flexible base. The problem of course is that in Cubase you can right click a track and pick Enable Track, but Cakewalk doesn't really seem to have any connection at all from the instrument track to the disconnected synth. There is a connection going the other way though. If you select a synth in the synth rack, the track it's connected does does get selected in the trackview. You can tell which synths are connected because the disconnected ones will have parenthesis around the name in the Synth Rack. There are a handful of features that could be added to Cakewalk that would make this whole process so much better, but I'm not sure how exactly to get that on the development roadmap. To be honest I've never bothered using a full template like this, so I may be missing huge CbB workflow tricks. I always hand build projects to match what I'm doing. I've never bothered with the fully setup template (I have a couple of starter templates that rig up multi audio outs on Kontakt and some buses but that's it). This every track you might ever want but disabled style seems to be much more common with most orchestral composers these days though. I can see the appeal for using it as a starting point. But it would be so nice if you could multi select tracks and just enable them all at once/etc. If I could add two features to CbB they would be connect synth as a right click on instrument tracks and a multi-select connect synth. The whole synth rack itself could really use a multi-select feature to be honest. Enabling all 56 tracks in the template with all the articulations takes a bit over 1 minute (1:08) for my computer to open, but then if you open one of the instances you will see it's still loading the sample data. This continues for a while. Total time (for me) from open to the last blinking LED light is 5:38. This can vary based on your Spitfire plugin settings. I'm using 999 voices, 12128 Preload Size and 65536 Stream Buffer Size (defaults except for voices), It also takes a crazy long time (45 seconds) to close the project/exit Cakewalk once everything is loaded. This is actually more bothersome since Cakewalk looks like it has exited but is still clearing memory in the background and can't be restarted until it's done. When the full enabled template is fully loaded it eats about 30gigs of ram. A stripped down version with a reasonable set of articulations is definitely on my list (post what you think should be included). I could also make a version with everything enabled -- but with a 5+ minute load time I'm not sure that will be very useful. Perhaps the two features together would be more reasonable. While I don't really like the key switching they have setup by default, I've never been fond of the a track for each articulation style template. That is another possibility. But it would be a lot of tracks and CbB doesn't let you nest track folders which I think would be necessary to make that manageable. I'm certainly willing to setup more complex versions of the template. I avoided most of the mixing/effects stuff since CbB included effects are kind of weak with the switch from SONAR. But tracks could be setup with those if that made sense as well The biggest problem with using a template like this is you can't mass direct the instrument settings very easily. Changing 56 plugins settings one at a time is a bit painful. I still have some hope Spitfire will work through some of their Windows issues and get the load times and playback to be a bit smoother. As long as you are only using a handful of instruments I don't think it's so bad, but when you try to scale up to 56 things start to fall apart. I see these templates as kind of a work in progress. Spitfire spent a long time building their Logic template, I've only spent a few hours on this. More feedback would help. Ideally I'd like this to be so you could just start a new project and jump right into being productive.

K10U to K12U CE at 50% off is perfectly reasonable. Kontakt 6 is reason enough. Plus skipping every other Ultimate update, also very reasonable. 😀

Beta has lost all meaning. You ship it to the general public, it's fair game. I just spent more time than it was worth moving their demo WAV files from the library directory (which it insisted on placing them since it thinks they are libraries) to my Wav/Loop sample directory (I keep Wav/loop files separate from Kontakt libraries) than it was really worth. Their download manager is trying too hard (pick a bunch of directories) and failing completely. And of course as a result of re-organizing their stuff there is no way their update feature can work for me. They also are missing two of my Viking products but had my Evolution Dragon and Atlantica. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't let their download process my full products, which kind of makes it not so useful.

Would be nice if they offered someway to actually download the download manager, other than on a popup window my browser kills before I can even see it. I think perhaps they have jumped the shark a bit here.

The new site really doesn't work well with my Firefox at all. When I try to download I see a flash of a screen and then I get a page complaining about not having a kfp URL handler. In Chrome that flash of a screen stays up and offers the only download to their download manager on the entire site.

I do the spreadsheet tracking on things I'm interested in. Lots of early sales this year has made things interesting. One thing I think is true is that the magical 50% off mark isn't being hit as often as I'd had hoped. As a rule my resistance to buying something is pretty much based on how close to 50% off I can get it. I try to get one large item every Christmas season. Though I may have already covered that this year (with BBCSO). I usually try to get a deal on a large/complete bundle, but I think I've got most of those over the last 15 years or so. A deal on a bundle usually works out to a crazy good price though, but isn't always that easy to find. Lots of vendors see the bundle as a deal and don't want to further discount it. I almost never buy NI single instruments though, because they will be added to the Ultimate bundle soon enough and then require re-selling. A few of the recent additions are tempting (Straylight, Noire, Mallet Flux) but I know long term they will be part of the Ultimate bundle and are best left until then. Be sure to check any credits you have at the various marketplaces. Musician Friend often has coupons too plus a points program. Can be helpful getting things like Omnisphere, FL Studio, etc. Things that don't normally go on sale anywhere. Several UK stores will sell download codes without VAT to US customers. Depending on the exchange rate that can help make a deal reasonable. They also often have point/discount programs that can be used as well. I suspect there will be a few flash sales, the spreadsheet tracking prices can help with that. I try really hard to evaluate what I get by focusing on things that will get me some place (musical growth is a journey). Another fancy EQ or compressor won't change my world all that much, but a year subscription to something like Groove 3, might. The same is true for hardware. Sometimes the best thing you can buy is more RAM/SSD/etc. I add hard drive space at a pretty fast clip since every storage device I have also has to have something to back it up on. Lots of Christmas discounts in those areas. I'm very disappointed in the audio interfaces on offer this season. It doesn't look like Thunderbolt 3 is going to take off, everyone must be waiting for USB 4. I held off on a Thunderbolt interface since my new computer has Thunderbolt 3 built in and I didn't want a converter to Thunderbolt 2. But it doesn't look like that's going to happen anytime soon. MIDI controllers this year seem kind of weak as well or the ones that are interesting aren't getting discounts. Some of the new hardware synths seem more interesting this year but I try to avoid too much of that if I can. Figure out what's in your way and focus on getting things that help there. Don't be afraid to challenge your long held beliefs either. With software we tend to defend our choices a bit too hard sometimes, especially early choices of DAWs and samplers, etc. Sometimes that is just unproductive. Yes full Kontakt may be expensive, but getting it can open doors. Yes the full version of Cubase isn't cheap, but it may make you much more productive. Even subscription only services may make a lot more sense if you really break it down. It's your music, you need to figure out your own way to making it. That may also include not buying or getting anything. Limiting choices and alternatives can be crazy productive as well. Too much choice can be bad also. Remember have fun with it, no matter what. If it's stressing you out, stop and do something else.

I just made my starter version available, see this message for more details

I've packaged up my starter template for the BBCSO sample library https://www.spitfireaudio.com/shop/a-z/bbc-symphony-orchestra/ It's not exactly a clone of their Logic template, more like a starter version with all the hard coloring/naming/icon setup work done. It's something you can start with though. Download it here https://drive.google.com/open?id=1l6By35cP4b4rvejEab6WdbESi5mGX-iE Here's the readme for the template BBC Symphony Orchestra template for Cakewalk by Bandlab 11/21/2019 This is my take on a template for CbB for Spitfire Audio's BBC Symphony Orchestra. It's based on the templates they provide for Logic and the Cubase conversions done by Alex Watson. You can find all of their templates at The Page https://www.spitfireaudiothepage.com/ To use this template with CbB you need to have installed the BBC plugin as well as the library. You will need to copy the track icons (which are mainly from the Cubase version, which seem to be slightly altered versions of the Logic version) into your Cakewalk Track Icons folder. You can find this by opening the CbB preferences and selecting File->Folder Locations. The default is usually your Cakewalk content directory then Cakewalk Core\Track Icons. But it's best to just check the preferences to get the correct path. Copy the whole BBCSO folder included in this zip to that directory. On that same folder preferences panel is a Templates entry. Copy the "BBCSO Basic.cwt" file to that directory. Now when you do a new in CbB you should have the BBCSO Basic as a project template choice. The template is created using single instrument tracks of the VST3 version of the plugin. All the instrument tracks are disconnected synths. This allows CbB to load the entire template nearly instantly. With a disconnected synth you must first find the instrument in the Synth Rack, select it and at the top of the Synth Rack click the small drop arrow and choose "Synth Connected". This will cause the instrument to load. All the instruments are setup with all the articulations loaded and the Mix 1 mic set to full volume. Pretty much the default settings on the plugin for any instrument you load. Feel free to load the template and alter those settings to whatever you'd like. I don't believe there is any way to go directly from the instrument track in the trackview to the entry in the Synth Rack nor is there anyway to do the "Synth Connected" operation from the track itself. If I find some better solution to this I'll update this readme. There are a number of differences between this basic template and the templates Spitfire is providing. The big ones are: Only one basic, all articulations, template -- not the 4 Spitfire is planning. No sync plop, Pre roll, Count and Cue Start markers (so no pre-created offset to start on bar 5) No effect tracks, effect sends, or extra stem tracks The basic structure of the template is as follows. Each major group (Woodwinds, Brass, Keys, Perc, Strings) has a color coded track folder. The percussion has two track folders, since CbB doesn't support nested track folders. One percussion folder is for tuned percussion and the other is each of the single hit articulations (like Bass Drum 1, etc) This Untuned Percussion folder also has a track at the top with all the articulations loaded as well as separate tracks for each separate untuned percussion articulation. This is the only articulation breakout in the template. All of these tracks have a synth tied to them in the Synth Rack. The output of each of these is sent to a Aux Track in the STEMS track folder at the bottom of the template. These aux tracks are then routed into a FULL MIX aux track which is sent to the Master audio bus. At the bottom of the template is an additional PRINT track folder which contains clones of the STEMS aux tracks that are setup to be armed for recording and would allow you to save the resulting audio. If you don't print raw stems you can delete this entire folder with no effect. There are a number of ways you can setup this "after the track" routing to support all sorts of mixing and effect chains. I've built none of that into this starter template but there is nothing stopping you from adding another set of Aux tracks to receive effect versions of the stems and or bus tracks for feeding headphones and applying whole project level effects. Starting with this should save you a bit of time naming synths and tracks, loading icons, coloring tracks. Feel free to contact me if you find issues, the easiest way is via email or on the Cakewalk forum. Changelog 11/21/2019 First public release

Vintage Vault 1 got this too. Run the UVI Portal to update.

I picked it up, because of this thread on VI https://vi-control.net/community/threads/whats-wrong-with-this-deal.86113/ No I wasn't willing to subscribe to his service for one month to get everything super cheap, but I know how hard it is to make it selling software, so I was willing to buy something. Waiting for this VST Buzz deal fit my personal ethics, still a discount but also supporting something I'd like to encourage. If you get it be sure to install the snapshot presets (see the manual for how). I played through the presets with Scalar last night and they are pretty interesting. Though to be honest I'm having a hard to seeing exactly how/what I'd use them in. But a lot of "Indie" Kontakt instruments are like that. I do think if you needed some music on a film/video this might fit the bill by itself. But if you are looking to add it to a larger work of music, that might be a bit harder. Kind of reminds me of Spitfire's British Drama Toolkit.

Here's the post with as much information as I've seen https://forum.scalerplugin.com/t/scaler-2-0-update/1289

They did ship version 1.0.5 and they are working with us I guess. I've been sending emails back and forth, 2 or 3 cycles a week pretty much. But from other posts on VI I'm not really sure anyone is happy with it on a PC. To be honest I'm not sure I believe it's working that well on a Mac, given how it works on the PC, but I haven't seen Mac users complaining. I'm half-tempted to buy a copy of Logic and stick it on the headless MacMini in my office I use as a compile box and just see how it runs, but that Mac really isn't what I'd call close to modern or reasonable for a DAW. As long as you can survive crazy high settings on preload and streaming buffer (ie you have a ton of physical ram) 1.0.5 will mostly playback OK. It's scary how much better EastWest Hollywood Orchestra is as far as resources/load times/and playback. And I always thought it was awful in those areas. Good news is they still haven't quite yet given up. But I'm not sure they are really getting serious either, I would have sent out custom instrumented builds by this point to people like me and maybe connected in to look at it in person.

It did speed up loading the BBCSO for me (from 10 minutes to 5 minutes) but is still a long way from making it usable (that's on a very fast SATA internal mounted SSD). The LABS stuff loads so fast I'm not sure you'd even notice if it was/wasn't optimized. For me BBCSO took more than two hours to optimize, LABS only took a minute or so. Still not sure what exactly it does (other than re-write all the files).

They are just presets, but it does seem to have the ability to offer alternatives to any chord choice (either you made or you got from a preset progression). It can also detect chords you play into it and suggest a key/scale combination that works with that. Seems to have an flexible UI for switching voices and choosing inversions. I've only played with a bit but I do like it more than others I have. The UI resizes and is very effective, lots of these MIDI plugins haven't kept up with modern UI styles or are buggy, this seem remarkably stable and cleanly laid out. The presets are fairly extensive, including traditional "styles" and also some artist based presets (though no one I've heard of). So far I like the keyboard playback mode the most, where you assign a bunch of chords (from whatever well you want to get them from) to the white keys c2-c3. So you don't have to worry about playing, you can just "jam" with the progression. I have other MIDI plugins that have the same feature but this just feel more usable. Maybe it's because of how easy it is to setup the chords or the quality of the built in instruments (which you don't have to use, you can send it to your favorite synths of course). The arp modes seem a bit weak (it doesn't play arp'ed chords just single notes) and the strum doesn't have as many options as say instascaler. So far though I like it. This class of plugin has a lot of duds, so perhaps my expectations weren't that high. Will have to see once I get my head around everything it does if I still like it.

You need to update your video card drivers. Don't assume you get the right/best driver through Windows Update, you need to go to the hardware's driver site and download and install it.

When IK's B-3X came out I downloaded the demo and played with it for a while. I agree it's pretty nice, but in the end I decided it didn't go above and beyond what I already had (Arturia gave the B3 update to V5 and V6 collection owners for free), so I punted (or at least put it off pending an IK deal). I always second guess these decisions though. I thought last year when they did this black Friday deal and I jumped on V6 shortly later the deal showed up at retailers for even less. I can't remember too well though. But I think I'm going to hold off a bit just in case (or go searching through emails).

There is a form on Re-Compose's site about registering your old serials with WA, who have taken over their products. In theory that should get you a free upgrade to the WA version. I filled it out for Liquid Notes and I2C8 but haven't heard anything back. Fair warning though I2C8 was pretty awful and unusable, I'd wait for a review on MIDIQ before buying.

As much trouble as this has been, this morning I loaded up one of the Cubase templates from The Page, enabled all the strings and one horn. Armed them all and recorded in a small little bit. Then tweaked it for all the various parts. Since I can't play at all it sounded at best silly, but it plays back without glitching (using the default streaming settings). Now it does take 20gigs of ram, which for the small number of instruments is a bit high, but that's one mic and all articulations. I think people trying to make this work on 16 and 32 gig systems might feel a bit of pain. In theory I could try some lower streaming settings, might lower the memory footprint. I also could unload a bunch of articulations I'm never likely to use. I've still got to figure out the key switching, the template is rigged for using Cubase expressions but I'm not sure how to run that from the keyboard yet. I wish I could see the keyswitches on the keyboard. It has an option for it but the template's keyswitches are all at C-1 which I guess isn't visible in the plugin's keyboard and there is no way to pan/scoll the keys. I also really wish there was some sort of commander mode so that I could easily configure all the instances for mics and loaded articulations. Even just being able to see what everything is set to would be useful. Opening each instruments UI and expanding it to see the settings is a lot of work. Their plugins do talk to each other already, just need some additional UI and functionality to manage all the instances. The strings definitely sound nice. The legato is a bit touchy on the keyboard but that's not all that uncommon. Had to edit a bit to make it right. A better player may not have much trouble with that at all though. Lots of people on VI are still having problems after 1.0.5 with streaming and memory, even I can get it to hiccup if I load more mics on just one instrument. I figure they are still a few patches away at this point from Windows users being happy. And maybe 2 full major releases away from a good usable system. They really need to give up on their UI's style over functionality bias and instead focus on creating stylish functionality.

Kontakt 6 Creator Tools are for people building their own instruments. I think you have to buy Kontakt 6 full to get them.