Brian Walton

On 9/30/2019 at 4:44 PM, Fleer said:

You guys are not helping. 

They make solid plugins but $50 for a couple "effect types" I basically won't use is a super easy pass for me.  

And agree the Two notes is cheaper for the cab simulator and those guys know a bit about cab simulation.

23 hours ago, Notes_Norton said:

Thanks.

I've been using ThinkPads for decades. I like the smaller footprint of the older models for on-stage better than the new ones, which is why I'm thinking refurbished.

I've seen them as low as $100 and up from there. The model I'm retiring is an R30.

Notes

New ones are much smaller than those old clunkers.  Yes your 17 year old machine has a "square" screen, but there is also the thickness component.  

If that thing was actually usable for 17 years, that is a small miracle.  Current model life expectency isn't even a fraction of that.

The T430 feels about twice the size of a T490.  

Unless I was the original owner I wouldn't look at anything older than a T440.   That is already a 5 year old laptop, which is end of life time frame for many users.  

On 9/28/2019 at 10:44 AM, Notes_Norton said:

NewEgg.com has refurbished ThinkPad laptops.

Has anyone had experience with them?

 

Bob

Lots of experience with ThinkPads T440,450,460,470,480 (and s) models.

No experience with Refurbs though.  Would only risk it if the price was right.  They make good machines but refurb in a laptop is likley basically used with some swapped out parts.

3 hours ago, Freyja Grimaude-Valens said:

Keep in mind, they are essentially abandonware at this point. There is a reason they're on sale for so low.

Most plugins are abandonware as far as I'm concerned.

They are 64 bit and VST, I'm guessing those standards will be supported for a little while.

I've got Waves v9 pluings from a year ago that don't work as they are Abandonware if you don't pay more than I paid for them in the first place to WUP.  

Own Strings and Brass but have never installed them (size and ilok)

Very cool.  Was worried it was goign to be another ambient guitar texture thing (which I have plenty of tools for myself).  This I can get some use out of!

On 9/28/2019 at 6:14 PM, Magic Russ said:

Anyone see this one yet?

 

 

All those MasterClass ads are annoying.  Good to see an excellent spoof done by celebrities.  

On 9/28/2019 at 9:20 PM, emeraldsoul said:

Oh jeez.

Well, they are talented for sure but I never really caught on to their music, apart from a couple of funkier efforts. And my wife absolutely loves them, as they are the soundtrack for her midlife Chrysler . . .  and is more or less dragging me to an arena concert of theirs.

They are pretty popular, so looks like I'm in the wrong of it. I promise to keep an open mind as I listen with disdain at their simplicity. 

I'm open to the alternative facts of any superfans here . . . what am I missing???

 

 

Alternate fact seems to be your wife has good taste in music

Forget the fact that they are popular, they were writing excellent songs, with an organic approach years before they got main stream acclaim.  They have copious amounts of talent, the simplicty could be considered an art.  Dan can get some really interesting tones, plays tastefully and writes good parts with solid lyrics and melodies.  They actually deserve the success, the real deal, in my opinion.  (newest album is "meh" though)

Search "The Black Keys: No longer the underdogs" on youtube.

7 hours ago, Royal Yaksman said:

It all ran smoothly here and I am running Windows 10 as well.

I would recommend running the installs with administrator privileges.

I did that but no luck with that step alone.

First computer took Support deleting a bunch of files and other manipulations.  2nd computer I had to both copy the folder from the 1st computer and then run an install.  Both computers working, but took hours of work and support to make it happen (and I have way more IT experience than the average person).

4 hours ago, sarine said:

Painter is more an art application for digital drawing and painting.

Paint Shop Pro is for photo editing.

I don't see any photo management applications in this bundle, like there was Photo Manager Deluxe in the last.

This is true.  

I personally didn't bond with PaintShop Pro for photo editing.  If that is the only thing someone was looking at in the bundle, I'd recommend Affinity Photo next time it goes on sale for $35-40 again.  

I got the bundle to add ParticleShop as a plugin for Affinity Photo, and Painter 2019 for the ability to paint on photos (or turn them into paintings.  Painting on photos can easily be done with Affinity Photo, but wanted to check out the abilities of some of the "smart" workflow that Painter brings to the table in that particular area.  

4 hours ago, cclarry said:

I'll pick this up before it's over...I need a good Photo Program

Fair warning, the Painter Program has been a nightmare to install on both (up to date Windows 10) machines I've tried it on.

Curious the experience of others.

5 hours ago, Ashay Arekar said:

Bloody hell..... I paid 49$ for all elements plugins ...... And now they offer it for free !! 😱🤭😤😡

This only includes one that was in the bundle.  $49 is still a steal to get the others.

I paid over $125 for that same set during very good sales.

4 hours ago, slartabartfast said:

Uninstalling just takes a few minutes, and does not leave scars on your computer. More to the point, the time it takes to figure out how to use new software is the major cost of anything new. If you spend a couple of dozen hours figuring out that the software is not really going to be useful, that is time you will never be able to buy back at any price.

Instaling and Uninstalling software can leave, scars.  Lets just say I know more than the average person in this area (though I'm not a full blown expert in that particular area of computer science), if you are not familiar with this, especially with software that can require authrizaiton methods you might want to either do more research in the area or just remain blissfull.  Not all software leaves such scars, but this is pretty small time software, so I'm betting it would take way more time than I'd be willing to commit to looking into how the particualr software operates.  

Ever wonder why you can't just uninstall and reinstall software to start a trial over again?  Pretty basic stuff...it leaves things behind that are (usually) not easy to get rid of.  And the more software you install and uninstall, the more of those leftovers you have.  And that doesn't even touch on other things that can get left behind.

35 minutes ago, Matthew Sorrels said:

If you don't want to learn yet another DAW you might want to consider Captain Chords. 

https://mixedinkey.com/captain-plugins/

It's slightly more EDM centric than perhaps you'd like but it's become my favorite play with chords and rhythms without doing a lot of work tool.  They don't list it but it works fine in Cakewalk (better than in Cubase actually, the resize works in CbB).  The Windows version of Captain Melody may still be a beta.  But I've been using it without a lot of headaches for a while now though.  I guess the big downside is you have to be online -- copy protection requires a net connection or something.  Doesn't effect me so I haven't cared, but if you are purely offline it might.

Thanks, aware of Captain Chords, but $80 is way out of line with what I'd be willing to pay.

Have EzKeys, which I got for about $29.  Would certainly like something with an improved workflow, but $80 isn't going to do it for me at this time.  

31 minutes ago, abacab said:

That is Waveform 8 (no chord track existed in Waveform until version 9). The track you see named "Chord" in the video is just Track 1 that he labeled "Chord", to contain his chord pattern MIDI clips.

Later in the video you will notice that he has done  the same with the "Bass" and "Melody" tracks after he inserts the MIDI clips.

He uses a different pattern generator (i.e. Chords, Bass, Melody) with each of these clips, and has named the tracks accordingly.

I have Waveform 8 and 9, but not this free version, and I would assume the pattern generator works the same in the free version if they bothered to include it.

Yes, you can export your MIDI tracks as MIDI files from Waveform. Since that is a core function of the DAW, it would not make any sense to limit that.

If this interests you, it is free to try, so why not grab it? The Waveform installer itself should be rather small without all of the bundled content of the full version. My "Waveform 9 (64-bit).exe" installed program is only 66MB.

 

I may do that, but it did not interest me until the discovery of the "chord/song" building functions you pointed out.  Installing software is more than just the size, instaling and uninstalling things can start to have a trickle effect in computer performance depending on the way a compay handles the process, therefore I only install when I beleive there is an expected value out of a program.  

Appreciate the feedback.  

1 hour ago, abacab said:

You can't do this in CbB. This is included in Waveform.

 

That is cool and something BandLab really should integrate.  I've long said a tool like this is far more useful than some random feature enhancement to bridge the gap between beginner and advance composer/daw user.

Question though, the start clearly shows the Chord Track (which mentioned above is not included in this free version.  Does the entierty of this Pattern Generator work in the free version, and can the MIDI then be exported as a MIDI file?

Thank you!

56 minutes ago, Zo said:

It s great daw for ideas and inspiration but when it comes to mixing , a pain ....

Without the tools mentioned that are not included, in what way does it help you put down/come up with ideas/insipiration.  

I could see what with the Chord Track (which is't included), but the comparisoin is to Cakewalk, what idea/production tools does this free version include that are superior/easier to create with?  That is what I'm curious about.

Without that, seems like a waste of Hard Drive space and time dedicated to learning the product.  Only positive I'm aware of is cross platform abilites which Cakewalk lacks for those that are not Windows centric.  

I live in a non-Apple world personally.  

9 hours ago, Matthew Sorrels said:

Normally I'm loath to "undercut" the computer magazines, if they want people to enter words from specific pages I won't share those or if each copy has a unique code.  But in this case they didn't do anything to connect access to this free version with the purchase of the magazine, which kind of devalues my buying it.  I fully expect Tracktion to start offering this free version to everyone as soon as the various music magazines have ran their exclusives.

The free version seems to be missing a few of the things I was actually interested in (chord tracks).  Here's the list of what is missing from a post on KvR
https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=530966&start=37

From that post:

- Melodyne
- AutoTune
- Groove Dr
- Actions panel
- Edit groups
- Track snapshots
- Track editor
- Subtractive
- Artisan collection
- Drum sampler
- Macros
- Modifiers (except LFO)
- Faceplates
- Chord track
- Multi sampler
- Master mix

There are no track or plugin count limits in Waveform Free.

 

Wihtout those things (especially chord track), I'm not sure it would be worth the time, not seeing anyting that would enhance what BandLab gifted everyone for free.

42 minutes ago, craigb said:

And I tend to like half of the opposite of the opposite. 😁

(Mogami - don't have any Canare)

I don't actually use either for instrument runs on my own rig, They serve as backups for others in the stuido if the session runs out of better cables.  

The "best cable quest" resulted in a pile of cables that are rarely used.  

I do use Canare for XLRs though, has to be the star quad ones though.    Did tests against more expensive cables and those results were negligable.  Great build , flexibility and shielding qualites for the money.    Balanced is much different than unbalanced runs though.  

19 minutes ago, batsbrew said:

 

i like canare for guitar, mogami for mic recording and patching.

I like the opposite.  Canare is more robust for the Mic Cable  and the higher cap doesn't matter since they are balanced cables

I like Canare for a live stage cable for guitar due to the robust nature, but I do not like the tone suck on my instruments (even running 10 ft cables.

As for George Ls, not a fan of the design (and I've a/b them in guitar runs and not a fan of the sound either.  Granted that doesn't really matter once you hit a buffered signal on your pedal board.  

Mesh - Wirlwhind makes some of the most robust cables out there.  Good choice when reliablity is paramount.  

1 hour ago, Mesh said:

Hey Bats, do you request/specify all the individual connectors (i.e. connector A, B, color boot, color ring etc...) from here: https://www.performanceaudio.com/custom-cables-1-4-ts-instrument-cable-made-from-canare-gs-6-neutrik-connectors.html or speak with them and tell them what you generally want?

 

I have  no idea about those connectors and wouldn't know which ones to pick...

 

  

Most are the same model Neutric NP2X.  The question is do you want a 90 right angle or Straight connector on one or both ends (the silver ones are just fine).

I would stay away from the silent option as they are not reliable at all.

The color boot/ring is just an aesthetic thing if you want to be able to tell your cables apart.  

Also the link you sent posted is for Canare Cables, be aware they are on the dark sounding side.  If you play a Tele, might be fine..but they can get muddy with something like a humbucker guitar.  Mogami is more neutral.

15 hours ago, Byron Dickens said:

"Reputable brand" is the key term.

Whirlwind, Pro-Co, Planet Waves, Fender are all repuitable brands.

They are not producing cables that have the properties that Evidence Audio or VanDenHul or Vovox are creating and I'd argue they are worth a dime more.  Are they worth $60+ more per cable, well that depends on the individual as well as the quality of the gear they are plugging in.  

4 hours ago, Hidden Symmetry said:

.............Think it was called the over under technique.

Correct.   I can't touch a cable of any kind without an auto reflex using this technique.  

Can't remember what life was like without it.  

47 minutes ago, InstrEd said:

No it was for my Synths to keyboard amps. I was broadcasting AM670

Funny thing is because the house was split-level and the family room was below ground level, cement, the stereo system with regular speaker wires were fine.
 

Wow, you have have had some terrible instrument cables then!

3 hours ago, InstrEd said:

I had an instant where they did come in handy.  First house we lived close to radio transmitter relay tower for high powered AM station. House was aluminum sided with foil insulation. Cheap cables acted as an antenna. I brought a set of the high priced Monster Cable and they worked.  Probably could of got away with mid-tier priced ones instead of the low co  st ones that caused the trouble.  Place in now is brick and I don't think I have had any problems with any of my cables  

I believe you are talking about speaker wire in this instace which is a different animal.

Most speakerwire is not shielded (as in most cases that shielding isn't needed).  However your environment was likley the expection and cheap insulated wire would have done the trick also, just a matter of knowing what to look for to solve the problem.  

On 9/13/2019 at 9:59 PM, Byron Dickens said:

Monster cables are overpriced snake oil. 

 

Any reputable brand cable will be just fine; ain't a dime's worth of difference between them.

I agree Monster is overpriced snake oil.  But that isn't what the OP is looking at.

All cables are not equal assuming you have a top quality guitar and amp (and not a lot of fuss going on between them).  Sure various cable are fine, but just any old cable can impact tone and response when using professional guitar equipment.  

These differences don't really matter with active outputs (on guitars, keyboard, etcs), but with vintage style passive pickups and a no-nonsense tube amp, there can be differences.  

Then again, you might have enough hearing damage to notice the difference, and there are other areas to improve tone more dramatically....but once one addresses those, cables are part of the equation (perhpas the last part).  

31 minutes ago, Mesh said:

Great info guys and very, very helpful indeed. Some of those high end cables are quite pricey and not sure if I can justify the purchase to my CFO at home, but will try to get something good that fits my need/price.

Thanks Paulo for the link, it led me to their instrument cable site: https://www.wireworldproaudio.com/instrument.html#instcables

https://www.wireworldcable.com/best-guitar-cables.html

Very interesting technology, quality, and detail going into these cables.....definitely a worth looking into.

They also make $70 USB cables, I'd use extreme caution.   (and the switching plugs, while a good theory are pretty awful in reality).  

As for the Jerry Garcia piece.  He used Canare G6 cables, which are pretty high on the cap end.  They are robust and can be custom ordered for a reasonable price.  I've used them on pedal boards mostly since once you hit a buffer the cable differences have little impact.  

A non-guitar Center cheaper custom made Mogami Gold is a decent starting point on "better" cables.  Should be able to get them for less than $1 per foot plus the plugs.

Something like the Lava Blue Deamon will likley be brighter per foot than what you are used to.  How good this sounds can be dependent on the guitar.  I tend to like something a little warmer.  

Evidence Audio intentionally does not publish cap specs.  The amount of actual musical testing (Tony the inventor) did is unreal, there is a reason the end product actually made a difference.  It wasn't just about theoretical, he tested in real conditions to determine the results.