Tezza

I see all the great deals here but what puts me off buying them is being able to organize all the authorizations and passwords to accounts etc for each plugin or VSTi and keeping track of it all. It might be that it's just my expectations are wrong, what I think is normal isn't. At the moment, I write it down on a card and have to refer to it all the time. Is there some special way to keep track of all this information, do people put it on their computers or have some easy way to file it or access it. What is the norm for the number of authorizations/accounts for the various plugins etc that people use with their DAW's. Perhaps I just need to alter my expectations and learn to organize better, I don't know.

I have a folder called "VST Main" under program files and all my third party VST's go in there. I don't use 32 bit vst's. Sometimes the VST's are automatically installed to different folders by whatever DAW or third party vendor so I leave them there and put them in the VST scan list in the DAW. I don't care about VST 2 or 3 conflicts, I think there have been a couple of problems, I just deleted the VST 3 copy if necessary.

Does anyone know what instruments and plugs can be used outside of Mixcraft 9 in other DAW's? I know they have added some new instruments and plugs.

Looks interesting but getting killed on the exchange rate. I wish they would give Aussie discount or something.

Hitfilm can be fussy about what graphics card you use with it, it wouldn't work at all with my old intel internal graphics. It does however work very well with the right card and utilizes the card a lot. You might want to check your card meets the specs on their site. I don't have any problems with my 6gb Nvidia 1060 GTX. I installed it all today. Was planning to buy windows 10, reformat etc as I am on 7. Not necessary, I upgraded to Windows 10 from 7 for free with the Microsoft migration tool which still works. It was quite painless, didn't even bother to update BIOS and firmware on my motherboard, had to reinstall the audio drivers for the UR44 and graphics but that was about it, everything seems to be fine. I will download the stock footage and the LUTs next, be good to see what they are like. Will chuck some footage into Hitfilm tomorrow, test it out. One thing I did notice, I wasn't able to close Action Pro, the little cross on top right wasn't there. That's an animation package that also comes with the bundle, don't think I will use it though. Now I am on 10, might also get the Davinci Resolve NLE see what that's like. from what people are saying seems like it might be ok with ignite as well. I'm actually a bit of a scifi fan so hitfilm hit's the spot for me. Used to use Premiere and mucked about with after effects but would not consider those programs today. I don't do adobe cloud/subscription stuff.

It's pretty easy to work with to do basic NLE stuff, I think the text input is the only reason I wouldn't use it as my default editor, this may have changed with the recent version. It's also easy to bring the FX into footage but they will look a bit raw, a little overdone usually, without tweaking. When you get to understand the numerous options to tweak the effect to look really believable in your footage, or build effects from scratch using the generators, that's when it starts to look really good. I would advise a big dedicated monitor for this, I just use my TV, it's only 32 inches but it's 1080p, and that is all I need at present. It's a lot easier to see gradients, shadows, lights etc and to make the necessary subtle changes that really get it to sit with the footage.

Nice effort Simeon, music sounds great. I like that they show the download sizes on humble download page, about 50gigs of goodness in total! AAArgh! Windows 10 required and my 256gig C drive is not going to cope at all oh well, everything else has been updated so all i need to do is chuck in a new motherboard with CPU and ram and windows 10. Was going to do that soon anyway.

Wow!

Is this for real? I've never used this humble bumble thing before but all of this for $30.00 is a friggin brilliant Christmas present! I've been using a basic version of Hitfilm and was just considering moving to pro. It is a very steep learning curve but I'm up there now. I've always wanted to incorporate Sci-Fi into my films. Some of the things you can do with Hitfilm look really good, not cheesy at all if you get it right on a big monitor for editing. I have just moved to Mirrorless from Canon, just got a secondhand GH3 for cheap but getting good glass. If it works out, I'll grab a GH4 and have the GH3 as backup. All the LUT's, lower third stuff and FX etc....Fantastic! Vegas is my main NLE, but I have yet to combine the two together in a consistent workflow yet. I bought it but will have to go to the library to download this afternoon, still can't believe it will actually happen.....this is an excellent package for me, just at the right time, thanks heaps Aiden! Now to just cross my fingers and hope it all goes according to plan.

Or you can just create an instrument track with the ivory vsti loaded on it, then just drag the midi data on to that track.

This is why I do not use Sonivox products, I was interested in many of their offerings sound wise but 28 step installation and ilok software is not something I have any interest in. It is an odd situation, requiring ilok to buy a $10.00 product. Instead of reducing their prices, they would get more mileage changing the authorization procedure.

All I can hear on the demos for the downloads is extremely distorted heavy metal type sounds, even on standard guitar.

I couldn't find any clean DI sounds at unreal instruments, it was all full on heavy metal sounds, I generally don't use that style of sound. I am not sure what is available in the free version of Kontakt as I have only the paid version, in that, I can select something like Jazz guitar and select a pickup style, turn everything else off and that gives a clean DI sound, not unlike when I plug my actual guitar in, in fact that is what I use to create the DI sound, I model it on what my actual guitar sounds like plugged in. Then I can feed that into Guitar Rig into twang for example and with some FX. The end result is that nobody I know can tell it's not a real guitar, mixed in with real guitar, I even get confused which is which. But this is for a specific style of sound, finger or pick picking cleaner Jazz style, with a little dirt and strummed chords, some heavier distorted block chords etc. I've not tried getting metal sounds out of it, I don't think it would do those that well.

Same here, I had a terrible tinnitus in my left ear that went on for years, there is a little high frequency loss but for the most part it seems to have gone away....touch wood. It was due to playing on the right of the drummer in bands...or to the position I used to take in a local nightclub that I frequented much to often, not to sure. I have ear plugs in my car at all times so I can use them if necessary, I also take them with me when going to the cinema, I've only used them once there, I have a cut down version especially for the cinema, don't use them usually but it's nice to know they are there if I need them. Even in a shop when the loud alarm went off, I dropped everything and went outside. I remember in the heavy metal band, we played at a particular venue regularly and due to complaints by local residents, they installed a traffic light system, when it glowed red then you had to turn down but the volume was pretty low. So the crew would fix the light so it would only ever glow green or orange, regardless of the volume, they would change it after. Worked a treat for many gigs! These days, volume doesn't seem to be a concern where and when I play live, more jazzy and acoustic type stuff.

From the manual: There are 4 different keyboard velocity curves and 3 fixed velocity levels to choose between, depending on how sensitive and dynamic you want the Impact GX keyboard to play. Here is how you change a velocity curve: Steps: 1. Press the [Setup] button. The LED button is illuminated blue to indicate setup is active. 2. Press the G#1 key on your keyboard to select Velocity Curve. 3. Enter the value corresponding to the velocity curve you want (1 to 7 - see below) using the white number keys spanning G3–B4 (G4-B5 on GX61). 4. Press Enter (C5). This will change the velocity curve setting immediately and exit Setup. Velocity curves: 1 Normal, focus on mid to high velocity levels 2 Soft, The most dynamic curve with a focus on the low to mid velocity levels 3 Hard, focus on the higher velocity levels. If you don't like exercising your finger muscles, this may be the one for you 4 Linear, approximates a linear experience from low to high 5 127 Fixed, fixed velocity level at 127 6 100 Fixed fixed velocity level at 100 7 64 Fixed fixed velocity level at 64

All this stuff gives me a headache.

Maybe I should go upstairs and rattle a few cages, it's been a while.....

"ancient guitar-slinging primates" There's still plenty of them around. I am proud to call myself one.

The free version of Kontakt has some guitars in it if you like programming midi guitars, if you use the basic guitar sounds and disable the processing of them in Kontakt and then feed that to something like guitar rig, they can sound alright.

I stick to Moccona 3 and 5, the dark roast and classic. I've often thought about getting a machine but am too cowardly to actually do it.

That's what put me off the Sonivox stuff, there's like 28 steps to get it running and authorized. Couldn't be bothered, I have enough pianos anyway at the moment. I just use what came with KU10 and haven't really looked for pianos since, so cannot help in recommending one.

Part of the problem might be that the velocity curve of the keyboard doesn't suit you. I was using that keyboard and out of the box, they can have an unflattering velocity curve, It can max out the velocities of the instruments with little pressure on the keyboard making them sound a bit loud and harsh, especially if you are a hard player. I changed it to a softer one, you'll have to consult the manual about doing this as I have forgotten how to do it. I believe it has 4 to choose from. Velocity curves are an individual choice depending on how hard or soft you like to play.

Thamks Mettelus, have tried the Amplesound lite stuff but didn't really like it, sounded thin to me. Might be ok in a mix but I need something more upfront.

I tried Reaper 4 and 5 but I never liked it, just didn't bond with it. I also found it to be a bit unstable, it would suddenly close down without any warning, just shut off, gone. No windows notification either. I went to the reaper forums with my complaint but was machine gunned by reaper lovers saying it was all my fault. I am sure it must work for some people but I like to be able to have my DAW on all day and come back to it on and off adding a bit of midi/audio or whatever and I want it to just sit there and work. I am also not a dual monitor person, I like single window. Being able to change everything in CbB, to remove/change stuff I don't use and have it looking simple is what I like. I think CbB provides the most control over that than any other DAW. I have it set like old Acid 7 most of the time, with the pan and volume in the track headers etc. I'm not that inspired to try it again, happy with what I've got. I jump between CbB and Cubase, they are the only 2 DAW's I use now after using so many others.

Yes, that seems to be the case and music generally doesn't require intense graphics so perhaps its ok to have a big powerful graphics card in the DAW. Mine just gets slightly noisier when I am doing rendering or scrubbing FX over video. I don't do gaming on the computer so have never heard it roar,