Tezza

If you have recorded dry guitar into a wave file on a track, when you put guitar rig into FX on that track you should hear guitar rig processing the audio on that track. If this is not happening for you it is because something is not turned on somewhere, make sure that guitar rig is turned on in the FX bin and see if you are getting audio into guitar rig from the input meters on guitar rig itself. You should set this up first before mixing down, involving other tracks or cutting and splicing wave forms. This is how it is supposed to work and you need to get this right first. It is just a simple FX like every other FX. You do not need to mix down and guitar rig does not use a lot of CPU, I run many instances of it all over the place without problems on my puny 4th generation i5 with 8 gigs of ram. Even with it running in hi quality. When you are happy with your tone on the track, then you can mix down. If you want to then investigate different ways to run it, by putting it on a send and feeding a track to it etc then that is up to you. But you really need to get it running normally first, like any other FX.

If the amp is that old, it will probably need a dedust of the circuit board, just a general clean and then just replace all the tubes at once and be done with it. I would replace both the ax7 and 6l6 tubes, do them all. If you have a local established guitar/amp repair shop, give them a ring and see what they recommend, they might do the whole thing for you and give it a service for a reasonable cost. They can clean it, install the tubes and then test it, apart from using electrical equipment, they can tell from the noise it makes whether it is on spec or if anything else is wrong with it and what that will be. I don't touch tubes at all, always use tissues or a clean tea towel or something when I replace them. Habit I guess. If it were me, I would dismantle the whole thing, including the amp head section, the speakers and the handles....everything, give everything a good clean, then tighten everything back up again, put those new tubes in and then call it a day. If it's still behaving strangely after that, I would take it to the shop as it will be beyond my knowledge. Stuff can get loose with age which can lead to rattles and buzzes etc which sometimes you only hear when you record.

Or, download the updates manually, you can run Service Center to determine what the updates are and then get them manually if you are like me and have K10 or below and hate native access or can't use it.

I have the old LX not the newer LX+ but I do have the newer GX. The old LX has a synth style action, nothing like the newer GX which has the stiffer piano style action. I don't know what the newer LX+ is like. I really liked the action on the LX, I only got the GX to save on space, was expecting it to be the same but it wasn't at all.

Yes, that does not work using Studio One with ANY third party controller, it just doesn't have that capability, no soft takeover. Ditto with the failure to color the tracks you bank when using banks of eight. You never know what bank you are on, again Studio One cannot do this with ANY third party controller. Apparently, there has been some work with Nektar integration so I don't know if version 4 is better at this or not.

One of the many reasons I gave up Studio One. It has those same and more problems with EVERY third party controller you try to use it with unless you use their own controller hardware. I never had problems with either my LX or GX controller with Cakewalk, they both worked as expected, I cannot decide which to use though, not a fan of the GX keyboard action but like it's size. If the controller section or midi section are not working, it will be because you have not got the right driver assigned to each, there are 2 from memory, with non descriptive names, if the controller is not working, make sure it is set up correctly in Cakewalks controllers section in preferences and make sure you have the right driver selected. You can switch them around and try both to see which works.

Thanks, I am in Australia but yes I get free access to all Lynda courses through my public library, as a premium member as well! (which means you can download the exercise files etc)

I got it ages ago but never installed it because I forgot about it, it was v1.6 then. Thanks for this info, reminded me, will download and try to remember to install it. They've certainly added many new features, hope it is not too complex to use.

+1 for Steinberg, love my UR44, just never had any problems of any kind...ever, with any DAW. Unlike other interfaces I have had. Although I do hate Steinbergs "support" for it's products. I had NI audio interface, it was ok but no DSP chip. I don't think you get DSP with any NI audio interfaces though, I like DSP.

I love many of the courses on Udemy but you cannot download the video files to your computer so it's not for me. With Lynda and Groove and some others, I can download the video files to my laptop at the library (good internet) and then take them back to my DAW at home (poor/no internet) and watch them as I do the exercises on my DAW. I really, really wish Udemy would allow you to download video files to your computer, I would buy a few if that was the case.

What is special with Kontakt 6, it uses the same factory library as Kontakt 5 doesn't it?

I have a hatred for using 32 bit plugins in 64 bit OS/DAW system, go all 64 bit, you won't regret it. Personally, I wish they would remove the native bridge from Cakewalk and make it 64 bit only. Other DAW's have done this and people adjusted to it. Other DAW's that use native bridges have the same problem, barely a week goes by without a few complaints on their forums about instability or crashing that is inevitably traced back to using some (usually really old) 32 bit plugin in a 64 bit DAW. Just replace them with the 64 bit version in your old projects, as Pwalpwal has pointed out there is a 64 bit version available for Crunchesser. If you cant replace them, find a similar 64 bit plugin and live with it.

Well, it didn't disappoint, native access for me is officially the worst ever software I have ever installed on my computer. Hours and hours trying to get it to work, it needs to be on-line all the time even while installing from the disc, then for no reason it hangs on installing but in fact isn't really doing anything. I suspect this could be due to my poor internet connection but the point of getting the hard disk was to avoid internet downloads. It leaves half installed rubbish all over the system, even trying to install one application at a time from the disk (you cannot select multiple applications anyway) wouldn't work. There is nothing about this software that I can recommend. It won't let you know if it is downloading from the net or installing from disk, I suspect it installs the application from disk and then applies updates from the net. If you have a bad connection, it repeatedly takes hours to install a small application then fails or doesn't even tell you it's failed, you have to guess that something has gone wrong. The install indicator just goes from side to side, no visual indication of progress of install. If you have a lightning internet connection, perhaps you will not experience this, but it is of no use to me at all, I will see if I can return it tomorrow.

Well K12CE is 900gig according to specs, if you only have 630g on the hard drive then ............ Not a biggie perhaps if you have great internet, one thing is for sure, native access will tell you nothing about what it is doing, it is an evil and devious application, just sits there smiling while it endlessly downloads mega gigs behind the scenes and all the time your DAW will need to be connected to the internet and if any download should fail...... This means you will need to have an anti virus on your DAW because it will be spending so much time on the internet. When I think of service center I think what a helpful and pleasant application it was, keeping me well informed and offering me the choice of downloading anything at all or going to the library and downloading it manually on another computer and then transferring it to my computer, no sustained internet connection required. When I think of native access, I feel insecurity and fear that I just know is going to boil over into frustration and anger and disappointment.

Nope, not for me, I can install K10U from the hard drive with no internet connection at all, after it has installed I need only connect to activate and register, then done and everything works. I only needed to download rounds and kontour separately but there was no problem with this since they can be downloaded from a separate on-line computer on my laptop at the library, then transferred. When I connect to the internet on my DAW, service center will tell me what updates are available and then I can list those and go and get the manual updates if I want or I can choose to let service center install the updates over the net (which I do not). This is all without using the native access. I think native access is the culprit, if you use service center instead you have control over what is downloaded, it tells you everything but native access tells you nothing it just does it's thing behind the scenes. With K12U you have no choice but to use native access. With K10U service center installs by default and you are then pushed to use native access but you don't have to.

Ugh! install is horrid. Native access has to update itself on the internet when you load it from the disk, that took 1 hour, the same time it took me to install K10U completely. There are no hard drive icons and no way to tell whether native access is installing content from the hard drive or from the internet. It didn't pickup my hard drive at first, then just flashes a box saying hard drive located but you have to keep it connected to the internet throughout the install or it will not install from the hard drive. I have no way of knowing what it is installing from where. I have to create more space on my hard drive for the samples but this is starting to look like a doorstop for me, not useable. If it thinks it can download 100gig from the internet on my connection, that will never work. Very disappointed, the whole point of having the hard drive is so that you don't have to download from the internet. I'll give it another shot when I have created hard drive space but this is not going well at all. If i reformat, then native access will have to update itself again, another hour on the internet of who knows how much data. I checked with the installation instructions and apparently this is how it works. It says "now leave it to native access to install any content, updates and extra downloads". This is exactly what I do not want it to do, I want it to install from the hard disk only, so it's looking like a no go for me at the moment.

It's no option for me, I need the hard drive because internet download is not possible for me. That's why I went for the Native Instruments stuff. I don't care that you can't use the drive for anything else. It only took me 1hour to install the whole lot of Komplete 10 Ultimate off the drive, see how long it takes this time with K12U. I get the box within 3 days from Melbourne.

Thanks, I probably would have got the K12CE upgrade instead if I had known about it before I got the K12U. I only found out about it afterwards. I usually buy through StoreDJ on Ebay here in Australia and I needed the hard drive. The K12CE option wasn't on Ebay but it was on StoreDJ's own shop site (but with no Ebay discount) as I found out later. It was still about $449.00 (Aus) whereas mine was $249.00. I think you get the full symphony series and more expansions, I get the symphony essentials and less expansions. Probably would have gone for it if I had known but still happy with what I ended up with. Orchestral composing is a new field I am dabbling with as well as other stuff so it will probably suffice for the moment.

I got the update to Komplete ultimate 12 from 10. It came on the hard drive, hopefully most of it is on the hard drive as my internet is terrible. I want to do a clean install and not have Kontakt 5 there, the remaining projects I have to transfer over can all have Kontakt 5 removed and then I will replace with 6 on the new opened projects. I don't like duplicates of anything on my system. My plan is to remove everything of Komplete ultimate 10 and then install 12. I hope the icons light up for hard drive option or I will be stuffed. That is the whole point of the hard drive option.

I didn't actually say that, I reject the "I can't sing" mentality and also the "it's too late to learn" mentality as well. What I said was that you were an untrained and/or inexperienced singer that could do with some lessons. It could be that you have just never learned to sing properly or you've forgotten and need some refresher lessons. Our voice changes as we age, typically in males we may lose flexibility and range in the higher register but we gain resonance and range in the lower register. It is true that some people might have a genetic advantage in that, for various reasons, their voice might have a good natural tone and some people might have a less pleasant natural voice. It's not really possible to know where you stand with this until you've at least had a few lessons and got opinions from professional voice coaches. All human beings can learn to sing, to hold pitch control their voice and identify their comfortable range, maybe some voices age differently as well, I don't know. You won't know how much your voice can improve until you try. I've listened to a lot of artists as they age and their voice in general still sounds fantastic. You should listen to some of the older artists, they feature on Daryl Halls "Live from daryl's house" on youtube for example. There are artist's in their 70's and 80's. Music doesn't have to be a fully on or off activity. But it can be very beneficial health wise, especially mental health. When music becomes painful it's time to reassess why your doing it. Perhaps your just stuck in a rut doing the same thing over and over. I ask myself what I am going to do in the next couple of hours with music, sit with the acoustic and sing the old songs in half voice or do piano lessons or sing to big band midi files in full voice or write a new song or learn a new cover. For me, it is like meditation. When I get back to civilization, I will put it all together but there is no rush, the journey is just as important as the destination. Music should never be boring or a drag or become tedious or unsettling at any age. If it does, your doing it wrong. Do something different with it. It should improve your mental health not destroy it! There's nothing wrong with a break now and then either. You don't have to "give up" music, even if you take a long break, the skills you have learned over the years will still be there if you decide to pick it up again. If the whole vocal thing is really driving you nuts, then concentrate on the producing side and get some singers to try out with your songs. Nothing feels better than giving your massive problem to someone else. Collaborate with a local or try the Bandlab thing or the "fiverr" thing.

Aye! Close enough to get to a pub in Glasgow for a fight every Friday night.

I started at school about 11 and by 13 was playing in a punk band, that band was so much fun there was no way I was not going to play, then at 17 it morphed into a heavy metal band which became quite serious, if you didn't learn the new songs, you were abducted and "tortured" by the other band members and road crew. There were various punishments, that motivated us all to learn new songs quickly! Then in my mid 20's, I joined/created various weird bands and also then moved on to Cabaret and Jazz in my 30's, then mainly acoustic guitar in romantic Jazz style, worked up and down the east coast of Australia doing that for 5 years. I worked out a style which was a combination of finger picking, strumming and chord plucking that meant I could do a jazz style of just about any song on the acoustic guitar with vocals and maintain the dynamics and intensity of the song.

Amen to this, the sight of Studio One 4's 70 new features, zillions of tiny cryptic icons and menus, utter disaster, together with the ever deepening blackness the deeper you go into the program, completely put me off the program. I have Studio One 3 but I won't be upgrading to 4 and it will eventually disappear from my computer back into it's box.

I have Komplete Ultimate 10 and noticed that I can get an upgrade to Komplete Ultimate 12 at the moment for about $275.00, $240.00 with Ebay discount which is pretty amazing (Aus dollars) So I got it, don't know if NI are having sales or what. I got it from a local dealer through Ebay here in Australia. I get the full box with the hard drive of all the samples etc. I like that because I live in a regional area with awful internet. If I bought just a hard drive here of the same size, it would cost as much as that so I don't know what is going on there. It is on it's way here and will arrive in a few days, just as I turn my computer on and ....nothing! friggin hell! It means I have the 2 acoustic guitar instruments and the electric guitar instrument and a free upgrade to Massive X coming soon, plus a bunch of synths and cinematic instruments. Also comes with Kontakt 6, wish they had guitar rig 6 but still on 5, oh well. Also in addition to the pro series woodwind and strings etc they are doing limited sample sets of their orchestral gear with Komplete Ultimate 12. By my calculations that should mean in the USA that you can get an upgrade from KU8-11 to KU12 for around $170.00.

The voice has been recorded fine, it is an accurate recording of your singing voice. You are singing from your neck and not from your stomach or diaphragm. You are not a trained or experienced singer. This results in a nasally, thin, strained sound which gets worse as you raise the pitch of your voice, this is what you are getting. If you are going to do vocals on your recordings then my advice would be to take some singing lessons and learn to sing from your diaphragm, you will have to unlearn everything you are doing now. It would only take a few lessons and then you would get it, otherwise do not sing on your recordings, let someone else who knows how to sing do it. Would you let someone who cannot play guitar or keyboards play on your recordings? Why do so many people see vocals, which is the main focus of the whole song, as an afterthought. Seriously John, as a vocal teacher and long time vocalist, I can hear straight away what is wrong with your voice, and also know how much you can improve, get a local teacher and your vocals would improve immensely. The breath has to come from your diaphragm and be mediated by your vocal box, there is a constant pressure on your abs and diaphragm which pushes the air up then you control it with your vocal box, mouth, sinuses, nose etc. The first time you do this it feels all wrong but then eventually you get it and then your world changes. You might get some improvement by singing "up", that is, putting the microphone above your lips and pointing down to your mouth and chest area, so you have to stand straight up and sing up. That posture might feel a bit weird but it will reduce the nasal sound and force you to breathe differently, more properly. This is what most professional solo singers do, it's a bit hard if your playing an instrument at the same time but level or up is ok, singing down with the mic below your lips is not good. Mic technique by moving your mouth closer to the mic on the quieter passages to take advantage of the proximity effect might also improve it. But you have to have a closed monitoring system to do this properly, the 280's will be fine for that. The Sennheiser 280's are fine for vocal monitors and the mics sound fine, the interface is fine, the recording is fine. Try pitching practice by singing into a wall with your hand cupping your ear to hear the sound from the wall. Do you practice your vocals dry, without the headphones, recording etc. Just you and your voice with a piano key or guitar to initially pitch the song.