Starship Krupa

3 hours ago, onlyinitforthemoney said:

they all seems to annoys me

The phrase sampler is unfortunately one category of utility VSTi that is still underserved.

There was one called Sitala for a while, but they turned it into payware.

At the moment, for my phrase sampling needs I use TX16Wx.

Also, it would be helpful to know which ones you've tried that annoy you.

2 hours ago, pwalpwal said:

Erik's post above has some nice stuff well worth checking out

And I forgot to mention: all are free licensed.

And speaking of Komplete Start, when I went to that link I noticed a whole bunch of stuff that was added to Kontakt 8 Player that I didn't know about, like Chords Tool, Phrases Tool, and an arpeggiator.

After a somewhat weak start, Native have turned Kontakt Player into a must-have. Of course, many would argue that full Kontakt is a must-have, but I've never seen the need, and Kontakt Player was off-putting when I first tried it (in order to use Sennheiser DrumMic'a).

It comes with a heaping helping of useful instruments, and now these tools.

Music software companies have really embraced the loss-leader concept in the past decade.

4 hours ago, Salvatore Sorice said:

Thanks @Starship Krupa  I’ll keep experimenting and check out the plugins you mentioned. 

Keep in mind what others have said about enabling external sidechain in whatever gate you're using. For whatever reasons, most gates I've seen don't do so by default.

13 hours ago, Cannimagine said:

I like new toys( instruments and effects)

https://kilohearts.com/products/kilohearts_essentials

https://www.meldaproduction.com/MFreeFxBundle

https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/bundles/komplete-start/

https://www.izotope.com/en/products/free-audio-plug-ins.html

https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/products/pa_free_bundle.html

Get those and your new toy box will runneth over.

If that's still not enough, check https://discuss.cakewalk.com/topic/5229-freeware-instruments-thread/

And https://discuss.cakewalk.com/topic/5064-favorite-freeware-fx-thread/

13 hours ago, mettelus said:

Stutter Edit 2 is one of those that goes on sale for $10 from time to time (full price is like $199), which is typical for iZotope products.

I snagged a Stutter Edit 2 license during one of iZotope's discounts. It's incredibly deep and capable, so much so that I've so far not used it as much as I thought I would. Even after working my way through a Producertech course, I still don't feel like I have a handle on it.

Anyway, yeah, just about any gate with a sidechain input can do what you did in your audio example. It's just a matter of getting the settings right. The level coming from the send is important, as are the various attack, release, hold, and so on settings in the gate itself. It looks like the Sonitus gate works pretty well with minimum twiddling, which I guess isn't surprising for a stock plug-in.

My number one favorite powerful gate is Unfiltered Audio G8 (don't let the price tag fool you, it's the most capable gate I've ever seen), which is also available for free in the Computer Music Magazine plug-in suite. There's some feature or other that the G8CM version lacks, but it's one that I never use. I bought a license for the "full" version mostly because I wanted the developers to be compensated for making such a great processor.

On 1/15/2025 at 4:54 AM, Name said:

I don't have time to lament my fate.

Wisely put.

In creating his music, Avicii tried and used a variety of synthesizers. If Z3TA+2 had not been available, he would have used something else.

As you seek to emulate your hero, one of the possible tools that you might use is not available, but many more are available, including ones that weren't available to him. All you can do is do as he would have done if this particular tool had not been available to him: find other tools and move forward.

7 hours ago, Brian Walton said:

All good ideas/process but still requires that beast of an installer (and the repeat of that installer every time they update).  

I've got most of them but just seems like a massive disc space waste as I honestly only use a few of them.

They fulfill my desire to have emulations of classic hardware on hand. Their UI's are so pretty.

Also, not mentioned often but important to me is that most of them can switch into M/S mode.

It was actually their Fairchild 670 emulation that first lit my mid-side lightbulb. One of the presets is for master widening, and it sounds amazing, so I puzzled out how mid-side compression could enhance width. Since then, I've become very fond of mid-side processing in general.

Wow, glad to see some activity with the Focusrite Collective after such a long period of none.

15 hours ago, Brian Walton said:

I like the IKM one, but for a lot of people that don't own the whole suite (I own most of it), the fact it requires you to download an insanely large install just to run what you do have might be enough to make someone take the UAD freebie and deal with ilok.  

Oh that T RackS installer. If you don't have T Racks MAX you are blessed with demo (unregistered) versions of every plug-in you don't already own.

If you delete them, the next time you get a T RackS license you'll have to run the installer all over again, at which time they'll all be back. So instead of deleting the demo versions, I created a T RackS bullpen folder and move them to it. If I get a license for one of them, I copy it back to the VST3 folder and register it.

On 2/13/2025 at 1:36 PM, Gswitz said:

The weird thing is the bridge pickup had noticeable changes to the tone.  The neck did not.

I guess you've already figured out: the tone control is a lowpass filter. You're only going to notice its effect when there's enough high frequency information to "miss."

Round wound strings are WAY brighter than flat wounds, and what's coming from that bridge pickup also has more high-end frequency content.

1 minute ago, kitekrazy1 said:

I've stopped installing anything UAD since you have no control over their app.  Sure you could delete it and still install their stuff.  Their connect app has no options and starts up with Windows.

It's now become something to consider when deciding whether to buy (or keep in the case of freebies) software: how much crap does the installer shovel vs. the thing I actually want to use?

I don't mind installing installation managers, but I won't allow services that aren't needed by the plug-in.

On 2/13/2025 at 3:07 PM, Promidi said:

I do not think you will get any easier than SHIFT drag vertically for a move or  CTRL +  SHIFT drag vertically for a copy.

+1

I usually avoid "forum no votes" on feature requests, but the clip context menu is already HUGE.

On 11/26/2024 at 3:54 PM, Mark D. said:

Without creating bugs, let us pick what to show in there would be nice, so I can remove that empty box, Pro Channel, Sends if I wanted. A suggestion for the future, that's all. Just being able to make that FX (24) box shown as tall as I want & get rid of that empty space above the Gain and Pan knobs there

I was puzzled at first about what you were referring to in the "track view."

Then I realized you were talking about the pair of console strips that by default appear to the left of Track View. That box to the left of the Track View has its own name, Inspector. I believe you're talking about Inspector.

It's already possible to choose which console strip modules to display in Inspector, and a cool thing about it is that this setting can be different between Console and Inspector.

Click on the Display button at the lower left of Inspector and you'll see the options, which include the ability to disable module resizing.:

As you see, you can remove Sends and ProChannel, per your request, along with everything else except the track name.

Unfortunately no matter what other modules you remove, FX Rack is still limited in the number of FX it can display, So there's your feature request: allow the FX Rack to show as many FX as space permits.

There's an aspect of this that still constitutes a feature request: there should be a way to also suppress display of notes that are in muted lanes, not just muted clips.

It's easier to mute an entire lane than it is to mute all of the individual clips in a lane.

Word of caution: the installer includes the "Universal Audio Helper Service," which is set to start automatically.

I disabled it and the plug-in is still functional. And it is a pretty nice 1176 clone.

I think at the moment, I have at least 5 services set to manual start that were originally installed by some plug-in manufacturer or other and invariably set to automatic start.

Native Instruments (2X), Arturia, UA, Antares, Softube.

Two more that I allow to run, the PACE service and Waves Local Server.

None of the disabled services prevent the associated plug-ins from working, although most of the companies' installer programs will complain if they're not running.

This seems silly to me. There are plenty of services on my systems that the programs that need them start on demand.

Yes

4 hours ago, Mr No Name said:

If I was to use a saffire pro 40 and send an output to a scarlett 2i4 connected to a laptop via usb, would this negate the need for firewire and saffire drivers?  can the saffire pro 40 be used passively? 

I believe that the Pro 40 can be used as a standalone powered mixer, if that's what you mean by "passively."

With a 2i4 you wouldn't be able to simultaneously route its individual channels to the DAW to get more than the 2i4's 2 tracks.

However, if you get a USB interface with ADAT input, such as the Scarlett 16i16, which by itself has only 2 inputs, the Pro 40 can be used as an expander to add 8 more channels via its ADAT output. This is how I plan on using mine if Firewire finally does go away, or if I switch to a computer that can't accept expansion cards. In this scenario, all software chores are handled by the USB device's driver and control panel. The Pro 40 would be sending data to the USB device, which would pass it on to the host device using its USB connection. 

This is already in common use, Focusrite's OctoPre is one of many ADAT expanders designed to be used that way.

Another development that might be an extinction-level event for me and Firewire would be if Microsoft's planned audio-optimized USB driver for Windows 11 actually does what Pete Brown thinks it can (shown by independent testing).

At that point, I might get a 16i16 or an Audient iD14, a USB interface similar to the 16i16 but less expensive, also only 2 preamps of its own, with  channel ADAT input. Brand doesn't matter, to the Audient, or any other interface with ADAT in, what comes in via ADAT is just raw data, it doesn't care who the manufacturer was.

One caveat is that you might need to use a Firewire-equipped computer one last time to configure the Pro 40's routing, so that all inputs are routed straight to their corresponding ADAT outputs. If you haven't changed the routing from stock, that probably wouldn't be a problem.

Yet another possibility would be a USB interface that also has S/PDIF input, since the Pro 40 has S/PDIF out. That would only add 2 more channels to whatever the new interface already had, but it would still be a worthy use for a Pro 40.

So you see, whatever happens, there's no reason to toss a working Pro 40 or any other recording interface that can output its channels via ADAT. It should still have plenty of life left in it switched to expansion duty.

While it's true that a new Scarlett 16i16 costs about $150 more than a 2i4, even Behringer's cheapest 8 channel ADAT preamp is $150. Focusrite's OctoPre is $500 and has similar preamps to the Pro 40. The 16i16 also has 8 pin DIN MIDI, which is a must-have feature for me.

I wonder how many working 8 channel Firewire interfaces have been chucked due to Firewire fear that could still be in use as 8 channel ADAT expanders. I hate to see anything go to waste.

2 minutes ago, Mr No Name said:

using a pc with a firewire card

This.

If you want to know more about Thunderbolt 3 to Firewire connections, I believe that @Jim Roseberry has experience with that.

1 hour ago, David Baay said:

MIDI comp split healing worked in X3. IIRC, that's when comping was implemented.

It doesn't seem to be working in Cakewalk Sonar. But you say it used to work?

Really, if it worked the same as with audio clips, that would help a LOT.

Sounds like a fresh bug report is in order?

12 minutes ago, David Baay said:

But since the tool exists, and I'm a MIDI guy, I thought I should give it a go. Maybe over time it can become smart enough to work as seamlessly and intuitively as audio comping.

I think that it could work better than it does now with even some small changes.

When doing splits using the Split Tool, there's an option to "split any underlying MIDI notes when you split clips, and insert MIDI chase events (such as continuous controllers, Pitch Wheel, and Patch Change) at the split position."

Assuming that this works as advertised, perhaps it could also apply to the automatically-created splits that Sonar creates in Comping Mode.

edit: Hmm, I just tried that and it didn't work the way I expected. Of course, my expectations for this seem to be out of whack with how things actually are....

2 minutes ago, David Baay said:

I also seldom use loop recording as it can also be unsuitable for MIDI recording because if you hit a note a hair early at the end of one take instead of the beginning of the next, it gets truncated. Another place where a little AI is needed.

Until such time as we relinquish control to our AI overlords, I usually make my loop section a bit longer than it needs to be in order to help avoid this.

MIDI recording seems to get more fidgety the further I get from doing one take at a time and stopping in between, but hey, gotta love those editing tools!

8 hours ago, Alan Idron said:

I'm doing multiple passes and recording and getting midi take folders.

Tho I can't yet see how I select to listen to certain takes?  it just shows how many takes and recording I did.  Thanks!

I think what you need to do is expand your take lanes (the button is in the lower left corner of the track header, as highlighted in screen grab):

This should show you all of your takes, organized as clips in each lane.

As you see in the screen grab, take lane headers include Mute and Solo buttons.

Your clips also have their own mute, in order to toggle a clip's mute, click on its upper half to select it, then press "K."

52 minutes ago, David Baay said:

I've answered this question in the past, but maybe not for you. The assumption when comp recording is that a new take is intended to replace some or all of the previous takes in that that were presumably inferior in that section, so it automatically makes splits in all the other clips and mutes them....

....The automatic splits are just intended to facilitate the work of replacing not-so-good material with better material.

Yes, you have answered it for me, but only in regard to audio takes. And for audio takes, it makes sense (not that I wouldn't love to be able to switch it off as in Sound on Sound recording, but that's another matter).

I was specifically trying to get clarity on how it works for MIDI. Although they mostly work the same, there are some important differences that I'm trying to sort out.

52 minutes ago, David Baay said:

That goal was achievable only by an excrutiatingly complicated series of comping moves...

....One of the Devs chimed in confirming my conclusion that the Comping workflow was not intended for MIDI

I can only defer to their greater understanding and agree that as currently implemented, it doesn't appear to be suited for MIDI. What I was experiencing was a feature, just one that doesn't work as well as it might.

52 minutes ago, David Baay said:

was easy to obtain by manually editing MIDI the old-fashioned way

This was actually my goal. I want to record a series of takes, in loop mode and/or one at a time, and then edit the parts into one finished part, by doing manual cut, paste and copy moves on the clips, along with individual note editing and drawing in the PRV.

I wasn't recording MIDI in Comping Mode because I wanted to use the Sonar comping workflow on MIDI data, I recorded in Comping Mode because I didn't want to hear the previous takes.

Now, thanks to your input and assurance that yeah, it's supposed to work that way, it just doesn't do it in a way that accomplishes what I want to do, I've worked out a method for doing what I want to do.

My solution is to record the first, looped takes in Comping Mode. This way, previous takes are muted, and the notes are within nice, full-width clips. Then if I want to do a shorter take, I switch to Sound on Sound and mute the previous lanes (oh Smart Swipe, how I do love thee) before recording.

Simple, no hassle. I suspect that if I were to flip back into looped recording, I would run afoul of the automatic clip split feature.

57 minutes ago, Sock Monkey said:

As I’ve said before. For midi all you need is 2 tracks. The instrument track and a midi track. Between the two and sound on sound  you can create almost anything that you want.

I always use separate synth and MIDI tracks when working with MIDI. While I understand the value of the Simple Instrument track type in keeping things....simple, whenever I tried to use one I somehow always wound up splitting it anyway. And yes, Sound on Sound Mode is now part of my MIDI workflow.

57 minutes ago, Sock Monkey said:

After spending time in few other Daw’s midi editing functions I can only say Sonar rules them all.

I concur. Sonar does MIDI so well (with a couple of exceptions cough drum maps cough) I was puzzled as to how things could go so pear-shaped. Turns out it's a feature, not a bug; I was using it incorrectly.

2 hours ago, David Baay said:

Comping and Comp-recording is really not suited to MIDI

Yet the mode exists, and as far as I can tell, there's no description of what to expect in the documentation.

2 hours ago, David Baay said:

you really just need to record sound-on-sound and do the editing manually

Doing the editing manually is exactly what I want, but I also want to record takes without hearing all of the previous takes.

2 hours ago, David Baay said:

If you heal the splits or move them to reveal the MIDI that's been cropped out of existence, you'll find it's all still there.

As I said....

13 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

I was able to salvage the first 2 takes by deleting the newly-created clips and dragging out the remaining clip edge to reveal the MIDI notes (fortunately still there), but this seems like a lot of trouble and risk to go to (especially if it happens multiple times) and I'd rather just prevent it from happening in the first place.

I've brought up similar issues in the past with Cakewalk/Sonar's recording modes, getting splits that I didn't ask for and other oddness, with both MIDI and audio recording. One of the questions that I've never gotten an answer to is "why is Sonar making these splits in the first place?" If I understood the logic behind it, I might be able to avoid it, or at least it would seem less like the program is fighting me. Since the behavior looks arbitrary (to me), I have a hard time working around it.

From the way people talk about it, it seems like Sonar is designed to do that, automatically make these splits at certain points.

Does the program assume that I always want to make an edit at the beginning and end of a newly-recorded clip? So it tries to help by making splits in all the existing clips?

I can't find any description in the documentation of how these automatic splits are supposed to fit in a workflow.

4 hours ago, reginaldStjohn said:

You can always "heal" the split clips by swiping across the whole take with the smart tool.

That is not working here. When I swipe across either in the top half of the clip (I-beam cursor) all it does is select the clips, when I swipe across the lower half (comping cursor), it selects them, unmutes them, and mutes all of the clips in the other lanes. No healing.

In neither case does it stitch the clips back together. The only thing that works is deleting all but the leftmost clip in the lane, then dragging the remaining clip's right edge out until the notes are restored. This gets tedious when I have to do it for multiple takes. It gets out of hand quickly with a higher count of takes.

It's not just a matter of tidiness, if I don't get it right I can wind up with truncated notes as well as duplicate notes sounding simultaneously.

I know how swipe-to-heal is supposed to work because I do it all the time with audio takes. It doesn't work for MIDI takes. At least not for me. I tried swipe-selecting all the clips in a lane and performing a Bounce to Clip, and that was even worse, all of the clips in that lane vanished.

On 2/9/2025 at 4:20 PM, David Baay said:

Apply an appropriate Drum Map to the output of the MIDI track and you will be able to mute/solo individual kit pieces as well as having them named in the PRV's drum pane.

And here's an example of what the PRV looks like using Addictive Drums 2 with a drum map applied.  See the M and S buttons next to each instrument. Very handy.

Note to OP: applying a drum map and getting it to make the PRV look like this can be....challenging. Especially the first time you try it.

So if you run into any snags with this, just ask.

First clue: The only menu command in the Piano Roll View menus that relates to them is "Show/Hide Drum Pane," but there's other stuff you need to set up before it will display a drum editing grid.

In order to use a drum map, you'll be visiting either the track header or console strip of your drum machine's MIDI track.