Tezza

I've always used internal graphics for music systems, never had a problem, even with dual monitors. I've bumped mine up to a 6gb card with multiple HDMI out but that is because I am doing video editing as well now. It's the noise the cards can make that puts me off them but this one is not so bad.

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It sounded to me like you were the one complaining about EZ Drummer, not me, what I said was: "Why don't you just start another post saying you want to move from EZ drummer to something better and not too expensive. You might be surprised there could be something that fits in with your budget. This would at least be a positive thing to do. Or if you like EZ drummer, keep using it and ignore the haters." I haven't heard your music and have not commented on it as far as I know. I was just reading between the lines and it seemed to me you don't like the sound of EZ Drummer but you don't want to move to a different platform that you are not familiar with. From what I remember of EZ Drummer, I didn't like it much because it was centered around Rock and the actual drum sounds I didn't like much. I use NI Studio Drummer because I got it with Komplete Ultimate 10 and I used it a lot and became familiar with it. I am sure there is better out there. I have also used AD2 which was also good but moved away, again because of install/authorization systems that were not compatible with my computer. Whatever you use, you are going to want better later if you continue to create music, that is what happens, the endless pursuit of "better" sounds. Sounds to me like you've reached the end with EZ Drummer, it's not in the same league as your other instruments anyway. Just take it around the back of the house and shoot it in the head. Commit to learning something new.

Why don't you just start another post saying you want to move from EZ drummer to something better and not too expensive. You might be surprised there could be something that fits in with your budget. This would at least be a positive hing to do. Or if you like EZ drummer, keep using it and ignore the haters. A decent piano is not hard to find. You've already got some samples there that are excellent quality, Trillian, Miroslav, NI strings and Acoustic guitar, Arturia DX7, so I don't know what your on about. Just upgrade your drums and get a decent piano. I think one comes with Miroslav anyway, so use that and just get some better drums. If your playing Trillian with EZ drummer, your not doing it justice anyway.

Nope, too expensive, the Taylor I was interested in but even with discount was US $135.00 which is AUS $200.00.

Hmmmm..........I am needing a good steel string acoustic and clean sounding jazz guitar right now for some midi based jazz/orchestral arrangements. I have Komplete ultimate 10 and thought these would be covered, the acoustic is not, there are some electrics in Kontakt Factory but not great for clean. I have moved away from NI now because of their install procedure, no good for me with bad internet. Will have a look but if the install and authorization procedure is not clearly explained from the outset, I will pass.

It depends what kind of music you make but I think great midi samples or loops for the music you are producing is important. Having a good and well setup guitar if you are a guitarist, being able to sing and having one good mic if you are going to do your own vocals. Keyboards are generally well catered for one way or another. A modern computer, nothing fancy needed really though, as long as its got multiple SSD's, In the box plugins ok. I don't use Toontrack instruments but I used to, I moved away from them because of the download/authorization process. EZ Drummer is ok but surely it's not that much to move to superior drummer or wait for some specials on other drum programs. There is a big jump in sound there, it's also not that hard to get something better than EZ keys, even Piano 192, the free one is better sounding as a piano. You should be able to move up to something better for not much coin. I'm sure those who are listening to your stuff are just giving honest feedback. If your poor you just have to do more legwork to get the good samples and pounce about now, black Friday. Is this about cost or is it about change? Moving to something different can be a bit of a learning curve at first, just cram it in and the new becomes old very quickly.

Awful! Hope they find a rego plate or face to identify on the cameras. You might also want to leave a list with the local pawn shops/secondhand dealers/music shops depending on how big your town is. Not having receipts/serial numbers might be an issue if they pawn it and you try to get it back. Reminds me of the day when I was in a heavy metal band and broke my cardinal rule by leaving all the gear in the van overnight. I remember waking up, looking down at the van parked in the bay and seeing the door open.... We got all the gear back because the idiot that stole it all bragged about it down the local pub, word got back to us, so we paid him a visit and served up some heavy metal style justice. He had pawned some of it but gave us all the names and we went over with him to all the pawn shops and got that gear back. We had to first take him to a couple of places so he could loan money to get the gear back as he had spent some of it. Pawn shops were not that sympathetic initially because we didn't have receipts or proof of ownership but 10 angry looking, long haired guys in leather convinced them otherwise. 2 carloads of 10 guys driving around town repairing his mess, it was a bit like pulp fiction. It wasn't necessary to call the police, we just roughed him up a bit and the crew gave him "community service". That meant he had to work loading gear to and from the van and stage gaffing etc we made him work 6 gigs and the crew didn't treat him the best, he wasn't referred to by name but was called "the criminal". He went to the same school as some of us did so we knew him from school days. I think he learned his lesson.

I always found sony vegas pro to be stable, back in the day, it was a highly pirated software and the cracked versions were never stable for long, a lot of people complaining about crashes were using the cracked version. I don't know what the newer Magix versions are like, I am still using 10. I've also been using hitfilm quite a lot recently, pretty surprising, the quality of effects like planes flying over, rockets hitting cities, star trek beam outs. Not cheesy at all but so many variables to play with.

Never thought about it until now. Damn it, you've presented me with another problem now that I never realized existed. I won't able able to sleep tonight!

No, I would not be able to stand that. My bedroom is free of all electrical equipment and everything all over the house is turned off at the power point when I go to bed. That might be because electricity is so expensive here but also, I just don't like going to bed knowing there are things on. I am a bit OCD there, I will check and double check and sometimes triple check all power points are off before going to bed or going out.

I am similar to you, I had 128gig boot disc on both my laptop (where I download stuff) and my offline DAW. I quickly found I needed to upgrade both to 256gig boot drives and even with that I am just "coping". Programs can be large and I am an avid video downloader especially from my account with lynda.com. These videos cannot be transferred to a USB disc and must run on a laptop so a bit of build up there. A program like Cubase for example is about 30gig but that is a zip file. So you need 30gig space to download it then you need another 30gig space to extract it and then you need another 30gig to install it so 100gig just to install. You can remove the others once it's installed but you need a lot of free space to initially install it. I am also getting back into video and website building and you can get the same problem with those problems. I can cope at the moment but I would agree that for me anyway, the new size for a boot disc on both my laptop and DAW will be 500gig on any new computer I move to or build. I wouldn't go to 1TB though, I don't think that would be necessary as I have more drives on both the laptop and DAW to transfer data to. I don't know if it makes much difference what size you use in terms of speed of start up because SSD's are like RAM memory in many ways. I still think it is good housekeeping to keep the boot disc as clean and lean as possible. On my laptop which is connected to the internet and involved in many downloads, I do notice windows slowing down over time and I occasionally defrag it even though they say you shouldn't do this with SSD's, I only do it occasionally, 3 time a year. I do notice it speeds windows up after a defrag and cleaning out the junk. On my offline DAW, I don't notice windows slowing down at all. I still defrag once a year though.

It's when everything goes dark and you can't breathe. That's the telling signs you have probably left it too late to do something. The smoke blacks out the sun and turns day into night, that's when the smoke is high up and being blown your way. Next comes the ground level smoke, so thick, you will suffocate. You will die from smoke inhalation and your body will be turned to dust before you ever even see the flames, the heat field generated at the front of the fire can melt cars. Best to have a plan.

I only have one, which is the ur44. I have a bunch of others which are going on Gumtree. For field recording I have the Tascam DR60d and the 40d audio recorders. That is for nature sounds, documentary work and run and gun. I thought about using the laptop for some of these with an interface but the audio recorders are simpler. I did video a local guy busking and for that I just had the 40d on top of the DSLR and used it's dual mics, sounded fine. For festivals I use the dr60d sat underneath the DSLR and 2 rode NT5's on a bracket I made up, all handheld but sounds great.

In terms of pricing, I use lynda.com because my library has an agreement with them which means I get all video tutorials free. However there are no Bandlab videos there only old Sonar. There are also free options on youtube but as you say, these are disconnected and not really that useful and hit and miss in terms of quality. I also have an account with Groove 3, don't know what is up there at the moment but I bought the Sonar videos when they had a special. I also bought the SWA stuff. I think your videos are great but the opening overlays with skull and crossbones and fire put me off. I can see this coming from your background with heavy metal but to my eyes you are limiting yourself to this genre. In my opinion, the overlays should be more generic and professional that would appeal to all DAW users, including children. If I was a father and saw my kids watching your videos, I would be concerned. Also, some people might consider them devilish, again, limiting your audience. In addition, DAW product manufacturers are more likely to recommend your videos if the level of professionalism you display, matches theirs. Professional looking websites and content attract me to videos because I think I am buying a professional product. Your content is great but your presentation needs some work in my view. I would buy a video such as you are describing with the above mentioned changes for $25.00 US. Exchange rates are terrible at the moment and this would be 36.00 dollars or thereabouts in AUS. That's about the limit for me with videos. I think you are in a position where you can have a unique product that can address a hole in the market and would be quite popular if you made it more appealing to a wider audience. Setting your price under the market threshold would be the best idea to start off, bigger turnover for slightly less money and taking into account current exchange rates. You could always have specials as well. I also think you should stick with the stock FX plugins in Bandlab and supplement it with free VSTi plugins for instruments. This way, anyone can follow the tutorials. I hope you get it all done, then I will buy. Even though I have got quite proficient, I still like to use videos on the way others do things.

It will be there somewhere, lurking. If you install Kontakt, it's almost impossible for your DAW not to see it. Unless you've installed it to a secluded location that is not on your current VST plugin list in Cakewalk.

Yes, you have to check the pin assignments on whatever you are wiring the XLR's to, make sure they are compatible. For example, I made some cables for my Rokits from the UR44. The UR44 info says what the pin assignments are for the trs output and the Rokits say what the pin assignments are for there input. They have to line up. Very often there is a diagram of the pin assignments on the unit itself, if not, consult the manual. They "should" line up correctly and it is usually tip=hot, ring=cold, sleeve= ground/sleeve. It's worth just checking, especially with XLR where it is not so clear cut. With XLR you also have male and female which can confuse so you have to make sure that you know the pin numbers and that they line up between male and female.

Short answer is yes, as McCleod has pointed out, they must be isolated connections. I don't usually use a multimeter but a magnifying glass, I only can be bothered getting the multimeter out if there is a problem I cannot trace. Sometimes fine metal fibers that make up the twine of the individual lead you are soldering can short on other contacts. Can be missed with the human eye but checking with a magnifying glass can find them. If you mix up the hot and cold pins, get them the wrong way round, then what happens next will be dependent on whatever you connect them to. Typically it results in a quieter signal, so that could be your problem. It can also damage components, so watch out! I went through this making up cables connecting microphones to XLR inputs on video cameras and field mixer equipment.

Yes, at least use some decent headphones. Double tracking is frequently used to thicken up instruments recorded in audio or you can record those instruments originally in stereo. Some think it is different for midi based VST recording, it isn't. Some think that if you just duplicate a midi track and pan one left and one right you have "thickened" the track, they are wrong. Recording midi is the same as audio, namely you have to record 2 different performances and then pan one left, one right. It is the nuances in the recorded performances, the differences, that thicken the sound. If you are not actually recording midi but writing it in, you can duplicate this by duplicating the original track and then making sure the velocities and placement of the notes are different in the second track, move them around. I will try to explain what I mean, If you imagine the following 4 note chord is set on a grid at 64th's and has been manually drawn in the piano roll. The dashes are 64th's, the brackets are the beginning and end of the midi note and the v represents the velocity of the note. : -------[note v80]------ -------[note v80]------ -------[note v80]------ -------[note v80]------ This will sound thin, all the notes start the same, end the same and have the same velocities. It's less noticeable on synths but very noticeable on pianos or any natural sounding instrument. This is what it looks like when I play it in: -------[note v85 ]------- -----[note v93 ]--------- --------[note v97 ]---- ------[note v88 ]------- This sounds thicker and richer and the reason why when you play it in it sound better. The notes start and end differently and it It will also sound different to the chord above because different notes are being emphasized through different velocities. Piano players almost unconsciously emphasize certain notes in a chord to enrich the melody. Now lets have a look at drawing in and recording in stereo: Track one, left -------[note v80]------ -------[note v80]------ -------[note v80]------ -------[note v80]------ Track two right -------[note v80]------ -------[note v80]------ -------[note v80]------ -------[note v80]------ This is still going to sound thin and lifeless. lets record or draw the two tracks in slightly differently: Track one, left -------[note v85 ]------- -----[note v93 ]--------- --------[note v97 ]---- ------[note v88 ]------- Track two, right ---------[note v92 ]----- ------[note v80 ]------- -------[note v99 ]------ ------[note v85 ]------- This will sound thick and full. The note lengths, placement and velocities are different within each track and also between the tracks. When I play in from the keyboard, I will typically then go in and make minor adjustments in the placement of the notes if i need to if they are too far off time. I rarely use quantization or turn the grid on.

From memory, I am not at my DAW now, you can try rebuilding the database, I think it is in Options--->Database--->Reset, something like that, I think you need to do it when Kontakt is open in the DAW, not standalone.

I like it, piano playing is very nice, good job. I was expecting to hear some composition coming in after the first 4, violins or strings, oboe etc just to raise it up a bit. The underpinning chord and melody structure of the piano is great though.

Nice!

Damn!

Hit the nail on the head for me! well done!

Happy anniversary Moshuang! Wow! what I like is the fact that I have read the suggestions, reported bugs and complaints in this very forum and soon after, an update comes out to incorporate that very stuff, this one really nails it for me! You bakers are right on target and very much in touch with the users, well done!