Starship Krupa

This video is done for use with Studio One, but I followed the first part of it and it works a treat with Sonar.

All you have to do after you've set it up per his instructions is go into Sonar's Preferences and add the new MIDI device as an input, then it will be available as an input to any MIDI track.

It's fun to map buttons to note 36 and 38 and use it with a drum VI.

I followed the Studio One guy's video and got it to work in about 10 minutes with Sonar.

It's fun to map some buttons to notes 36, 38 and so on and then use it with a drum VI.

Now I have the idea to fire this up while I'm actually playing Elder Scrolls Online, recording whatever MIDI happens while I'm in combat.

43 minutes ago, Amberwolf said:

I think I was using an old sidewinder

The biggest issue I've run into when trying to find a way to control audio software with a game controller is that there seem to have been multiple ways to do it with hardware that the original PC game port spec. The Sidewinder was Microsoft's own line, right? I skipped over that specific area of PC development because I preferred keyboard/mouse up until about a year ago when a friend gave me a PS4 controller with a broken trigger. I fixed the trigger with parts from Amazon and found that I really liked it, it especially helped me with Outer Wilds, which I was obsessed with playing at the time.

The game port ones are the solutions that Google's AI tries to give me. Maybe because it was born after the XBox/PS3 USB type took over and doesn't remember there being any other kind. 😄

But I'm trying to use an XBox controller (and/or PlayStation controller).

I think that the Fergo one you linked to is the most promising, here's a guy who got it to work with Studio One.

I also found a great rant from the MIDI Manufacturers Association about the pitfalls of using the common game port to MIDI port hack (and using computers for music in general):

https://web.archive.org/web/20081222191817/http://www.midi.org/about-midi/electrical.shtml

"Designers of personal computers are not generally audio engineers and apparently have not heard of ground loops. In fact, given the noisy fans and screaming disk drives that go into the PC, it is a wonder they can hear at all."

I'm sensing frustration there, MIDI Manufacturers Association. Sometimes when I feel frustrated I remember the serenity prayer, which helps me remember that I am powerless over other people's design decisions. 😄

I do hope that whoever wrote that has kept their musical career going into this time when reducing ambient noise is a design goal.

On 1/8/2025 at 7:25 PM, Amberwolf said:

You can use a joystick for MIDI easily enough; there have been several programs / drivers for doing that.

If you could post links to them, I'd most appreciate it. I switched to using controllers for gaming a year and change ago and at the time had the idea that it would be interesting to use one for DAW control, but never found a way to do it.

On 1/8/2025 at 7:25 PM, Amberwolf said:

I never looked into using one for mouse / keyboard control, but I'm sure there's options for that, too.

I found out the hard way that Steam intercepts controller input and uses it for Windows if you leave the Steam launcher app running. It was causing trouble with non-Steam games so I turned it off. But I could move the cursor, click on stuff etc.

Too clumsy and non-specific for use in a DAW, but if the controller buttons and sticks could be made to control plug-in functions like a KAOSS pad or whatever, that would most definitely pique my interest.

2 hours ago, Back from the Abit KT7 said:

30 years and counting. Everything from Notepad++ to RX* Advanced :

I am sooooo lucky.

Someone near me has donated fully-functional Wacom tablets to Salvation Army twice over the last couple of years. One smaller white one and a larger dark charcoal one.

Usually Wacom tablets in thrift stores are missing their stylii, but not in this case, matter of fact both of them came with extra nibs.

I bought a Corel Painter Humble Bundle just because I'd gotten a Wacom tablet for $7. Later I got a larger tablet from Salvation Army (which had disconnection problems until I replaced its USB cable) and then Rebelle on deep discount.

8 hours ago, kitekrazy1 said:

That isn't really any different than realizing what is in a DAW is quite adequate.

Mm, not quite what I meant.

I was specifically comparing those free licensed plug-in packages to Waves' entry level bundles.

"Adequate" is different for everyone. One of my bottom lines is that with few exceptions (that Quadcurve EQ in Sonar is just too handy), I'd rather not invest time and effort on DAW-locked plug-ins. Plug-ins that aren't DAW-locked help me to have some familiarity across hosts I use.

So right there, that puts me at least into a collection of bread-and-butter freebies.

If I were certain that I'd only want to use them in one single DAW, then DAW-locked ones might not be a problem.

The only basic category where I'd feel held back would be reverb. For me it's MTurboReverb or the Phoenix/Nimbus/Stratus algorithm under whatever name.

On 1/31/2025 at 3:38 PM, kitekrazy1 said:

Their entry level bundles are hard to beat.

Still? In these times when so many freebies are available to cover the basics (and then some)? Kilohearts Essentials, MeldaProduction MFreeFX, Native Instruments Komplete Start....

On 1/31/2025 at 3:25 AM, MusicMan said:

Apart from iLok dongle sales, there's really no reason Pace couldn't do the same.  They would probably win a lot more sales for their developer customers, but for some reason I don't think plugin and instrument companies are really their primary concern 🤣

?

What do you think their primary concern actually is? As far as I can tell, their sources of revenue are licensing their copy protection to software companies and selling their dongles to software users. As far as I can tell, the bulk of their customers for both of these are working in the audio field.

What am I missing?

Haven't tried them yet, but there are some interesting items here:

https://voxsamples.com/collections/free-audio-plugins

1 hour ago, Audio Git said:

It would appear that I am the only Vegas pro 2024 downloader who was disappointed with this bundle, through lack of clarity.  Be careful with what you may get.

Although it is unfortunate that you bought it expecting to get those iZotope packages and then didn't get them, you're probably right that nobody else, at least around here, cared.

But all is not lost when it comes to free iZotope products, as kitekrazy said, Ozone Elements is regularly included in promos. Most recently, earlier this month anyone with a registered Focusrite interface could register a copy of Ozozne Elements. The deal probably didn't show up here because it's so common.

See if this still works: https://go.mastering.com/optin1690400043647

If you can't find free iZotope Ozone/RX licenses right now, at least snag all the current iZotope freebies, along with the Plugin Alliance freebies. Th e PA freebies include Masterdesk Classic, which I personally prefer to Ozone Elements as a quickie mastering widget.

The iZotope freebies include some individual components of Ozone Standard, such as Imager and EQ.

Other than that, there's so much loss leader stuff out there that by the time you download, install, and check out the stuff available from MeldaProduction, Kilohearts, Plugin Alliance, Native Instruments, and iZotope, another Ozone Elements giveaway will pop up.

RX is less common but not unheard of.

11 hours ago, MusicMan said:

So anyone with a DAW in the studio that also works mobile on a laptop, or second DAW in another location, it stops working completely

The single seat thing is pretty stingy. Even most iLok'd plug-ins allow 2 seats. But hey, it's their business

There is a touch of redemption in the fact that you can keep your Waves licenses on a removable drive, like an SD card or thumb drive, so in theory at least, you can use them on the laptop if you tote the SD card along. That's much cheaper than having to purchase a physical iLok dongle, for which I give them credit.

The only Waves plugins I've ever used are the many freebies they've given out over the years, and since they tend to run the same freebies multiple times, I have duplicate licenses for the ones I'd be likely to use anyway. Just in case, I keep the licenses on a micro SD card.

10 hours ago, kitekrazy1 said:

I'd bet some of the plugins bought years ago still work fine.

So far I've not had a single one "go bad" on me. I paid for WUP once to be able to update a couple of freebies I got. I think it was $14 to take two plug-ins from v. 9 to v. 11. I think the new feature that I wanted was the resizable GUI.

Which has always puzzled me about the wailing and gnashing of teeth around WUP. Yeah, Waves are a little pushy about trying to sell it, but nobody's forced to pay for WUP. In the event that a plug-in breaks, you can jump in and WUP any plug-ins that have broken and have them updated to the latest versions.

Seems fair to me.

5 hours ago, Audio Git said:

Has the HB version of SFp17 been crippled of Izotope features?

The people to ask are MAGIX and Humble Bundle.

I don't know, because I wouldn't install iZotope Elements, I have the full Standard versions of those products.

In the past, I remember the Ozone products being omitted from the Humble Bundle Sound Forge, but they also made it pretty clear that this was the case.

17 hours ago, dubdisciple said:

@Starship Krupa that is why i think the product was kind of a friendly spite offering.  The one thing that would give this the most value is if the interfaces worked exactly like the products being emulated. 

It wouldn't hurt to give it an "Edit" button, with a good, full-featured MeldaProduction parametric EQ underneath.

So you think Vojtech was taking the pi55 with MTurboEQ? I hadn't considered that, but yeah, given what longtime readers of the MeldaProduction forum remember about his public statements regarding things like this, it's either a goof or a capitulation.

Maybe someone at the parent company was pressuring him and this is what he came up with to shut them up.😄

"MTurboComp is great, how about the same thing with an EQ? People say your stuff sounds good but they can't get past the UI."

"It's an EQ, there's nothing more to it than a collection of filters in a box. All of our EQ's already have saturation, even the free one."

"Pleeeeeeeeeease?"

"Okay, if you'll be quiet and leave us alone."

If anyone wants this sort of EQ, save your $9, go to IK Multimedia and get any flavor of T-RackS 6. Right now, the standard version is $50, the MAX version is $80, and the Intro version is free.

They all come with Classic Equalizer, which is what MTurboEQ says it's trying to be.

I watched the tutorial and it seems like it doesn't do anything that you couldn't do for free with MOscillator and MEqualizer.

What it does is wrap it all up in a nice easy to use package, with automated tests. Time is money and so is convenience.

Kinda inspires me to try it with the aforementioned freebie plug-ins.

I wonder why H-Comp is in so many giveaways. It's a nice processor.

On 1/27/2025 at 2:12 PM, dubdisciple said:

There is not a setting that cannot be nulled in mautodynamic eq

I don't think you'd even need MAutodynamicEQ to get it to null. Every control except for the "analog" knob is covered by MEqualizer, which is free to use.

The "analog" knob seems to add a tiny bit of noise, so if you really wanted to nail it, I suppose you might also need MNoiseGenerator, another freebie.

A more honest, straightforward way to deliver this plugin would be to just take MEqualizer, stick a couple more features on it, for instance modulators and the noise generator, maybe make it an 8 band EQ, and the 10 devices.

MDeluxeEqualizer. It could go with my other fantasy MeldaProduction product, MDeluxeCompressor.

Here's what their ad copy says about MTurboEQ:

Quote

There is no doubt, that you could do 99.9999% of the sound of any analog equalizer using a versatile parametric equalizer, such as MAutoDynamicEq. It's just frequencies and curves after all, there's no hidden magic.

And:

Quote

All models in MTurboEQ have pretty much the same user interface and features.

So what they're selling is a set of 12 "devices" for MEqualizer, but without access to the features that make MEqualizer such a powerhouse. The work put into MTurboEQ would have been better spent adding the 12 devices to MAutoDynamicEQ.

I don't know who would want MTurboEQ. People who dig analog mojo and workflow aren't attracted to Melda products. Other companies (IK Multimedia, UAD) already have that covered, and they do a great job. Isn't T-RackS on sale right now for about $60? T-RackS looks so great, is such eye candy that sometimes I substitute with a T-RackS EQ or compressor just to have that pretty UI in my project. Also, their implementation of M/S is easier to operate than MeldaProduction's.

21 hours ago, Magic Russ said:

There aren't a lot of things that do what MRhythmizer does either

Supposedly it clones an FL Studio effect called Gross Beat. So you can do what Gross Beat does in hosts other than FL Studio.

There are starting to be some more, but yeah, for a long time it was MRhythmizer and Stutter Edit.

Cableguys TimeShaper appears to have a similar function?

Option paralysis is a hallmark of multiple MeldaProduction products, including MTurboDelay.

To be honest, outside the upgraded FreeFX bundle the MEssentialsFX bundle, there aren't too many I'd miss. MRhythmizer is a great glitching effect and MDrumLeveler is a unique processor. I'd not want to be without those. The linear phase EQ's, freeform EQ's, if theirs didn't exist I'd use someone else's. MDynamics and MModernCompressor have that psychoacoustic detector that I like.

Still, over 50 plug-ins that I'd not wish to be without.

No secret that I really like MeldaProduction's products and business policies.

Here's my review of MTurboEQ:

I've had MTurboEQ for years and I still haven't used it on any project.

Using Plugin Doctor, I was able to use MEQualizer (from the FreeFX bundle) to dial in the same curve, took me about 5 minutes from starting Plugin Doctor.

The Saturation knobs do the same thing, the "Analog" control on MTurboEQ brings up the noise floor a tiny bit, and that's about it.

The big difference between them in practical use is that MEQualizer is much more versatile.🤨

(Unless you have FabFilter Pro-Q, I suggest spending some time exploring the features of MEQualizer. When it comes to performing tonal surgery, it does things I've never seen in another manufacturer's EQ, most notably the harmonics feature)

What it looks like is that they used MEQualizer as a starting point, then made "devices" (Melda's term for simplified GUI's) that mimic the control layouts of various classic hardware units. This is more apparent if you go into MTurboEQ's settings and disable "custom GUI for devices," which does away with the skeuomorphic UI's and exposes the controls.

If it were possible to create devices and custom GUI's in MEQualizer, MTurboEQ would be entirely superfluous. It's really just MEQualizer with "devices," and as is the case with any "device" in MeldaProduction's plug-ins, they are subsets of the plug-in's features, designed to simplify the use of the program by hiding certain controls and overlaying a more familiar interface.

They don't sonically emulate the hardware they imitate, they only vaguely copy the front panel controls. They admit as much in the ad copy on the website.

So unless you're trying to leverage your way into the MMixingFX, MMasteringFX, MTotalFX, or MComplete bundles, skip it. That would be the only reason to drop the $9, unless you'd pay $9 to add custom GUI devices to MEQualizer.

Here's ins2map.zip for anyone who wants it.

ins2map.zip

On 1/12/2025 at 12:53 AM, Carl Ewing said:

I mean - this is a business thing. If I walk into your studio as a client and your using 'Willy's Freebie Daduk', East West Orchestral Gold, and Cubase's stock guitar amp plugins, I'm going to walk out the door lol.

You say this like it's a bad thing. 😄

I wonder how many people reading this ever have people walk into our studios as clients.

Anyone who thinks like that would first observe that I was using Sonar and it would be game over for them.

In the event that I did work with clients, and someone had a problem with whatever tools I was using to do my job, I would most definitely want them gone ASAP. This goes for any enterprise I might engage in, audio engineering or otherwise. In the past I have run a business where clients did come into my shop. It never even occurred to me to acquire something with the goal of impressing clients.

Whatever tools I use are up to me to choose and acquire, and anyone who has a problem with them is strongly encouraged (required even) to find another provider of services who would be a better fit.

Some of the tools I regularly use in my studio are considered to be top-tier in their categories. Others are bargain basement and/or freeware. The only criterion for their use is that they get the job done.

Charcoal:

Argon with my personal color set:

On 1/17/2025 at 8:53 AM, User 905133 said:

Introduced a new style, Charcoal, and set it as the default.

Charcoal is not going to change anyone's mind about the fugliness of MeldaProduction's stock look.

Sometimes I forget how much difference it makes to set my own colors in the MeldaProduction plug-ins.

6 hours ago, msmcleod said:

By default, the arranger automatically shifts things along as you go.

After I posted this, I dug more deeply into the Reference Guide and discovered that it matters exactly where you drop the section. If I drop it in the center of the blank space, it behaves as I expected it to. If I drop it at the left edge, it slides everything to the right.