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Save up the $49 for the next Total Studio Max deal that includes all of the new IK products that weren't in the last TSM...

But I would wager that SynthMaster 3 is released before Zebra 3. Wait, which one is the tortoise?

Seriously!!! 😂

Just FYI, if you already have any content in Halion Sonic SE it will be added to Halion 7 Sonic when you install it. I had several Sonic SE 3 libraries that were bundled with Dorico 4 Elements that are now visible in Halion 7 Sonic. That included some decent General MIDI sounds usable in a 16-channel multitimbral setup, and other Sonic SE libraries. Here's a list of the instruments available to purchase for Halion 7 at Steinberg. There are also a few freebies such as Guitar Harmonics, LoFi Piano, and Novel Piano. https://www.steinberg.net/vst-instruments/ So Halion Sonic is somewhat comparable to Kontakt Player, with the Steinberg full version being Halion 7. Here's a shot Halion Sonic 7 with my Halion Sonic SE 3 libraries included:

Bulent/KV331 posted this in a new SM 3 development updates thread over at the KVR forum: https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=592609

It's the same 12 note names repeated in each octave. So agree that it's not too hard to learn the 12 note names on a keyboard or piano roll for one octave. Much more logical than a guitar fretboard!

I had long forgotten about something similar that I ran into with an Intel Pentium 4 socket-478 motherboard nearly 20 years ago. There were a few different D865 motherboard revs around and some had an older BIOS loaded from the factory with variations in CPU support for that particular socket (that I was initially unaware of). At the time I was building my 3rd machine based on that motherboard, and was stepping up from the Prescott 2.4GHz CPU to a Prescott 3.0GHz CPU. However after tearing my hair out trying to figure out why the Prescott 3.0 CPU wouldn't boot, but the Prescott 2.4 CPU would boot, I discovered the answer! After some research, it turned out that my latest motherboard was an older rev board with an older BIOS that lacked the proper support for my new CPU. So I powered it up OK using the Prescott 2.4 CPU, and then flashed the new BIOS. After swapped in the newer CPU all was good! Your story just jogged my memory, LOL. For the record, it's surely interesting that can still be an issue!

Umm, it's a sample player not a synth...

And using the BlueARP DM MK.1 hardware unit... "YES, 7 Synths at the same time! In this video using 1 master keyboard (Novation SL-61 MKII) and BlueARP DM MK.1 I have created some improvised Trance Music. The following synths were used and are all controlled by BlueARP DM MK.1" Korg ARP 2600 FS Sub Bass Yamaha AN1-X Mid Bass Behringer TD-3 Aceed lines. (Sequenced in and transposed in BlueARP DM) Roland JP-8000 Supersaw arpeggios Moog One Supersaw Pad Roland V-Synth Transition FX Korg M1 (from Legacy Collection) Additional Pads For percussion I sequenced a Behringer RD-9 and RD-8 in Ableton 11, triggered via a Push controller. BlueARP DM's clock is slaved to Ableton, and on start BlueARP DM starts running in time. Audio is processed through Ableton also in real-time, this is how I'm getting a more polished sound, but no sequencing of anything other than the percussion was done in Ableton. https://omg-instruments.com/wp/?page_id=52

If you are looking for a chord tool, try Scaler or one of his cousins, for an arpeggiator try BlueARP or Kirnu Cream. What is BlueARP plugin? https://omg-instruments.com/wp/?page_id=63

I had Norton Ghost back in my Windows XP days. Don't think I even tried that with Windows 7. 😂 My money is on Macrium Reflect 8 Home these days. It's extremely reliable, well documented and supported, and with a helpful user forum. https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW80/Macrium+Reflect+User+Guide $69.95/single license, or $139.95/4-pack. Not a subscription, or an annual fee. You get updates for free until the next major version is released. Macrium Reflect 7 was released in February 2017 and had rolling point releases through October 2020. Bug fixes and improvements are frequently released between the point releases. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macrium_Reflect It comes with 12-months Essentials Support which I've never needed to use, as their User Guide and forum have gotten me through anything I've encountered. 12 months of hand-holding should be more than enough to get up and running. Macrium Reflect 8 Home https://www.macrium.com/products/home

Totally true!!! If you are going to use more than one factory preset in a mix, its always best to dial back the FX. When I am auditioning a preset, I usually first disable the FX to get an idea of what the preset sounds like dry. Then I tweak to taste, especially if it's drenched in reverb and I intend to use a reverb bus for more than one instrument. Getting an already "wet" sound to fit in a mix can be challenging if there's too much going on. That's a different problem than trying to fit multiple instruments together when their frequency spectrums clash. That's usually the job for a multiband EQ to carve out the sonic spaces required for each. Think how the orchestral string section is made up of instruments that each have their own "home" in the spectrum, the violin, the viola, the cello, and the bass. Their parts are arranged to fit together so that even in unison they can be octaves apart and not sound muddy.

Agree. My desktop C drive is a 500GB NVMe M.2 SSD that is only at about 50% used. I make a scheduled full image backup using Macrium Reflect every night, with moderate compression, that takes about 35-40 mins. My C drive contains my software executables and plugins, plus my documents and projects. But the plugin content goes on my secondary internal D drive, also an SSD. But that is almost 2 TB of data that doesn't change frequently, so I only make a full image of that drive monthly. My projects fit fine on my C drive as I mostly work with MIDI, and don't record much audio. But YMMV in that regard. I believe many users benefit from organizing their projects on a separate drive. In some cases users may want to keep their active projects on their SSD until the project is finished, then archive the finished project files and master elsewhere on HDD, to free up the space for another project. I also have a couple of HDD internal SATA drives that I use for archives, and I put my image files on several external USB3 HDDs. I always keep at least one of these USB drives disconnected and stored away from my PC, for a worst case scenario. Critical files get backed up as needed to the cloud as an extra copy, but not the entire system. If my main system ever goes sideways due to malware, a bad driver, sketchy program install, or a troublesome update, I can restore the C drive back to the last drive image in about 20 minutes using the rapid delta restore in Macrium Reflect Home. It sure beats the prospect of re-installing Windows or spending time trying to figure out how to clean up a mess left behind after I tried to uninstall an offender. I could live with one drive on my workstation, as I do with my laptop. But that's not as flexible because it's everything or nothing as far as backups and restores.

Interesting deep dive on drum programming with Chromaphone 3, courtesy of the master buckaroonie!

Layer B appears to be just an "init" patch when first turned on, so it may not be doing much. Tip: Click on the ellipsis (...) next to the Layer B power button, then choose "Browse..." from the dropdown to access the Layer Browser. From there you can browse to any bank and load any patch layer from it into your Layer B.

I'll have to look around for some big hitters, but my experience is similar to yours. Try searching the v3 Factory Library as all of those use both layers A & B. Most of the expansions do not use both, as most of them were produced before the release of the dual layers in v3. Dual layers offers far richer sound and more complex sounds, but at likely an increased load. Since all of the sounds are generated mathematically with physical modeling, that will hit the CPU, especially with lots of polyphony and long sustain envelopes. Worst case is that using both layers might be the same as running two instances of Chromaphone each with one layer active, plus consideration for how many layer effects and master effects are used. But IMO, Chromaphone is such a unique instrument, and the latest version is one of the best sounding synths available. I also have Ultra Analog VA-3 and String Studio VS-3, but Chromaphone is my favorite. I saw that coming when I started collecting the freebie AAS banks, and liked it the best. Soon after it ended up as #1 on my wishlist! No regrets!

Just a quick summary... I jumped on at Chromaphone 2, then upgraded to Chromaphone 3, and eventually picked up all of the sound banks for it. It's a big improvement going from v2 to v3. AAS did a makeover of the synth GUI and comprehensive patch browser, and added a 2nd synth layer. So it's like having two independent synths in one with a [Layer A + Layer B] architecture. AAS remastered the v2 factory library to optimize it for v3, plus added a new factory library for v3 that makes use of both layers. Of course the existing AAS sound bank expansions still work as well, but most are only one layer patches, unless they were designed for v3. User banks from earlier versions may need to be converted by importing them into v3. You can browse patches using the "layer browser" from either Layer A or Layer B to load patches into that specific layer. If the patch you are browsing for has both layers enabled, such as from the v3 factory bank, you can choose either source layer A or B to load. So you can combine any two patch layers in your current patch.