Canopus

18 minutes ago, Starise said:

I haven't seen how large the files are. I would imagine that these are not large libraries which would make them great for stage work using a laptop.

I just bought the White Grand (a Malmsjö Grand Piano) and it’s 4.95 GB unzipped. During Black Friday I bought the S.S.G. (probably a Yamaha C3 or G3) and that one was 3.16 GB. So my guess is that most of these first gen SampleTekk libraries are somewhere around those numbers.

As far as I can see, the demo links at SampleTekk doesn’t work in Firefox, but they do work in Chrome (at least for me). The problem seems to be that SampleTekk doesn’t expose the SoundCloud player directly, but is wrapping the links into an internal player which doesn’t work with Firefox. The easy solution is of course to open the SampleTekk site in Chrome instead.

Edit: All of a sudden the never-ending "Waiting..." (or was it "Loading..."?) messages next to the demo tracks in Firefox have disappeared and the player links have started to work there as well. Whether it was a temporary thing or maybe that some fix now has been done at the site, but the SoundCloud player problem now seems to have disappeared.

The upgrade price for me from Vintage Vault 2 would be a hefty €199. If UVI had cut that in half to €99 I just might have considered it.

5 hours ago, Syphus said:

I'm thinking of backing up (imaging current disk) and giving 10 a try but I need to understand what is meant by "Deactivating" licenses (as mentioned in previous posts).  Are we talking just ILok or all registered (licensed)  Vst's.

Unfortunately it’s hard to find two companies with the same activation schemes. The obstacles are probably fewer if you don’t go for a clean Windows 10 install, but in case that’s what you’re aiming for, here are some of my findings:

• Obviously all plug-ins using iLok licenses stored on a computer should be deactivated on the Win 7 drive (i.e. put back into the cloud using iLok License Manager) and later dragged back to new Win 10 installation. Maybe it works anyway when not doing a complete upgrade, but considering the amount of money at stake I wouldn’t risk it and it only takes a few minutes. Any license stored on a physical  iLok dongle is of course a non-issue.
   
• Software licenses from Steinberg (like Cubase or WaveLab) and Vienna Symphonic Library (VSL) are normally stored on a physical eLicenser dongle and thus non-issues as well. Also some older Arturia plug-ins run under eLicenser.
   
• Plug-ins from XLN Audio can’t be directly deactivated, but the XLN Online Installer will detect that you’re on a different OS and you can then easily move e.g. Addictive Drums licenses by removing your old computer and creating a new computer in your account on their web site. And that’s regardless if you’ve done a clean install or not.
   
• Toontrack will let you deactivate and later reactivate software on another computer directly from the Toontrack Product Manager. Great thinking there.
   
• Plug-ins from Arturia can be uninstalled using the Arturia Software Center. It's actually not clear to me if this will also deactivate the licenses, but it would certainly be strange if they weren't, as the Arturia Software Center is connected to your account when active. I didn’t have any problem reactivating them anyway.
   
• When it comes to Native Instruments the only information I could find was to uninstall my Komplete 10 Ultimate bundle using the Windows Control Panel > Programs and Features and then reinstall it. That worked for me. To be clear, I uninstalled the Bundle and not all the individual Komplete libraries and effects; they were automatically removed when the bundle was uninstalled. But I still find it strange that there’s currently no way to deactivate NI plugins from within Native Access.
   
• As for third-party libraries that only run under full Kontakt, they are never activated using computer-based fingerprints as far as I know and thus there's no need for deactivation. But of course there could be exceptions that I'm not aware of.
   
• iZotope products may or may not be authorized through iLok. If they are, licenses are of course deactivated as described above for iLok. If not, they can be uninstalled using the iZotope Product Manager. As with Arturia, it’s not absolutely clear to me whether this also deactivates the licenses, but it would certainly be strange if they weren’t as iZotope Product Manager is connected to your account when running. And I didn’t have any problem reactivating them anyway.

But of course the list of vendors goes on and on.

I recently upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10 on my last two Win 7 computers. On the first (laptop) computer I did a fresh install and that took over a week to get all my licenses and stuff to almost work. So when the next PC (desktop) was to be upgraded I wasn’t quite as patient and did not do a fresh install. The time it took was of course only a fraction of the time compared to the clean install, but I’ve yet to see any serious problems arise from taking this shortcut.

In both cases I first used Acronis True Image to clone both Windows 7 system drives. I then deactivated all software licenses that could be deactivated on the source drives. Finally I upgraded each clone and activated things that needed to be reactivated. That way it would have been possible to roll back by reinstalling the Win 7 source drives in case the upgrade didn't work, but that hasn't been necessary.

To be honest, I wasn't that worried about having to reinstall anything, but very concerned about not losing any of my software licenses in the process. CbB was of course a non-issue being free.

There’s a long thread about different ways to attack a Windows 10 upgrade here:

No worries, there are options for vegetarians as well.

Don’t ask me. It just crept up through the drain while I was busy covering my semi-automatic in nail polish.

49 minutes ago, User 905133 said:

Possibly related issue previously noted, described, and confirmed, but not reported (using 2019.09 build 70). Thanks for the visuals show the problem!!! A few pictures are indeed worth more than several dozen words!!!!

No, I don’t think the OP in the thread “Soft Synth Muting” is discussing the same thing. He is claiming that Mute doesn’t work, but goes on to say that Solo does work. The Exclusive Solo function is never mentioned in that whole thread, although that is what this thread is all about. So no, that’s a different animal.

I’ve now submitted a formal problem report.

There seems to be a repaint problem with the Solo buttons in the PRV Track Pane when Exclusive Solo is activated. This only happens to me when a Solo button is clicked in that particular pane, not when a Solo button is clicked in the Track View or in the Synth Rack. The Exclusive Solo function is however working as expected, it's just that the Solo button in that pane goes out of sync with the corresponding buttons in the GUI.

Here's an animated GIF to show the problem.
Legend: Green Rectangle = OK, Red Rectangle =  Not OK.

The only way to make the failing Solo button go dark is to move the cursor over that button, which to me indicates a repaint problem.

I have VocalSynth 2 and although I don’t use it on vocals, I find it useful for adding some interesting background atmosphere to instruments carrying a simple melody line when I turn the Mix knob down to around 50% or less. Fully engaged it’s almost always too much.

You open up the KIT panel and then click the L in the upper-left corner of one of the Flexi slots to load a kit piece. You can optionally navigate between kit pieces by clicking the Up or Down arrow beneath the L button it that Flexi slot to find the one best suited for your needs. That might however be less convenient, unless you have already narrowed in on the type of kit piece using the first method mentioned above.

1 hour ago, simon said:

a good price I suppose  - still don't feel strongly enough to pull the trigger ?

anyone else bought it ?

Not me. I think its primary use is for adding orchestral effects to scoring. If you’re not into that, there are more general libraries that will fit you better. But I do think the price is great for those that are part of the target group.

No, the only 8dio library that still remains on my wish list after this year’s purchases is the Century Brass Bundle. Maybe next year, if the price is right.

That shouldn’t have anything to do with the latest update. Most likely you have activated the option “Recycle Plug-In Windows” in Preferences > File > VST Settings > General. Unselect that checkbox and you should be able to display multiple VSTs again.

4 minutes ago, Steve Moddelmog said:

Ah, thanks for that!  But I've been using Sonar / Cakewalk for over 15 years and have certainly saved VST sounds.  How is it that I am just discovering this?

I take that as a rhetorical question.

That’s by default. In order to let a plug-in have keyboard focus, you must click the small keyboard icon in the upper right corner of that plug-in. The button tooltip is “Give All Keystrokes to Plug-in”.

Giveaways like this are normally posted in the Deals sub-forum. There you will find this post:

Zynaptiq used to have upgrades to the Design Bundle, so if you had two of the three bundled plug-ins you could get the bundle reasonably cheap. I haven’t seen that in a long time, so I guess I’ll just hang on to my Adaptiverb and live without both Morph 2 and Wormhole until Zynaptiq change their upgrade policies. The last two are really niche products anyway. But yeah, fun.

Well, finally. That was THREE HOURS I COULD ACTUALLY HAVE USED to something better than trying to logon to Arturia’s servers.

Nah, I'm grateful.

Here's a link to the Z3TA+ 2.2 update release notes:

http://www.cakewalk.com/Support/Knowledge-Base/2007013432/Z3TA-2-2-Update

Great job! There must have been countless hours going into that document for the benefit of the community. Hopefully this will help more CbB users get over the threshold to make custom theme modifications, either for their own private use or out in the open.

As you also actively participate in other CbB sub-forums, maybe you should also add a link to the document in your signature to spread the word outside the small group of users visiting the UI Themes forum.

I’m in the same position having all the electric pianos I need, so normally I would have waited for tomorrow morning (CET) and hopefully have got Hybrid Tools Neo instead. But as I’m travelling for quite a few hours tomorrow I won’t be able to do that, so I had to grab the chance to get the All Claire Bundle while it was still possible. At around $21 per instrument this is as cheap as it will get for quite some time.

This is the cheapest ever for the All Claire bundle, I think. In May 8DIO had a 70% discount at $198, but I much prefer almost 80% at $148. Regardless, this will turn out to be one pretty expensive Black Holiday for me. And you also get 78 GB of vintage keyboards for free. My sample drive will not be happy.

12 hours ago, simon said:

where is @Canopus  with a hilarious  bell related music genre pun ?

@simon Sorry, I don't really understand the "pun" part, but my hopes of using my 8DIO Century Harps freebie in just about anything cross-over hasn’t really worked the way I’d hoped. My best bets Hip Harp or Deep Harp (or just about anything EDH) have been deeply disappointing. Unfortunately, I think that adding Christmas bells will even, if possible, make it worse. Now I’m seriously thinking of using the harp freebie in symphonic stuff. Or possibly as a giant cheese cutter.

The fact that 8DIO now have raised the breaking point for the freebie from $99 to $148 might be an indication that tomorrow’s All Claire Bundle will be sold for $148. If so, I might be tempted.