Brian Walton

On 4/13/2019 at 12:18 PM, kitekrazy said:

That seems to be unique to that site. I've never seen a bad review.

I have, but rarely see anything really low on the stuff they offer for $1 or less.  Realistically are the majority of people going to give one or two stars for something they got practically for free?  Doubtful.  It is actually more likely on an expensive product.  And should they get scores that low, chances are they won't carry it long. 

Wonder why they don't have a plugin with Restore Assistant (have to use the stand alone app), kind of an annoying workflow.  

The other Elements series have the Assistant function in the VST3 version.

Confirmed (as did others).  

I already had 6, bought this one and put the serial number in my Account and it enabled RX7 elements automatically.  

7 hours ago, abacab said:

iZotope Ozone Elements has a handy maximizer. If you use the "Master Assistant" it will bring the volume up automatically after it listens to your music.

Also, nothing was mentioned about the audio signal chain in the source recording. What was recorded and at what levels, what pre-amp and interface was used, etc. If the input signal level was too low when recording it, amplifying it effectively will be harder.

 

This.  iZotope Ozone Elements is the easy answer here.  Basically no real knowledge needed and instant very good results thanks to AI learning 

They had this as a giveaway a few years ago for Black Friday I believe.  Got it then and don't think I used it on a single mix.  

Not that it is junk or anything.  Just seemed like another clutter up the plug-in folder tool.  

20 hours ago, Zo said:

It wasn't expiredlol the US reseller sold the same serial twice , the thing is that i asked for mine literally one year later lol

It sounds like you are saying JRR sold the same serial number twice.  If so, shame on them.   Once sold it was yours and should not have been sold to someone else, the passage of time is irrelevant. 

It is still the best looking interface on the market.  Not sure what this nonsense about being obsolete about. 

3 hours ago, Sergio said:

I'm near to null regarding drums and drum programming but I like the sound of AD kits a lot. I just purchased Jamstix in the recent Rayzoon sale hoping to improve the matters a bit (as the Jamstix "brain" can be used with AD drum sets), but it is a complex program and I guess I'll need some time to learn it properly. I think this is the farther I can go in order to have proper drum sounds in my productions. I'm not willing to buy any other drum libraries (except the remaining AD ones I don't have), at least in the near future.

For me, this is the path.

AI for drums driving good sounding samples.  AD samples are good enough.  

I use JamStix to drive it.  JamStix the only issue is the complexity to get it to do what I want.  However, when it is working, it sounds far more realistic than these other platforms and "static" patterns.  

I think I got my pair of 402s for $150 (without the control module).  Not sure I'd pay that much for the added feature.

I prefer my 502s.  FWIW.  (Also have to be careful some have noise issues.  I kept 4 502s, but bought 6-7 to get the keepers.

1 hour ago, Piotr said:

I guess using cloud ilok is not much different than using Waves license manager. 

For me it means not to forget to release licenses before moving to other location to be able to use it

 

 

 

Sounds even worse to me:

This feature requires that the computer is continuously connected to the internet during use. 

Never used the built in sounds.  It is a unique tool to create interesting drum parts though.  

No clue how to get it to actually play an idea I have in my head, but have been able to get a number of parts I've used.  

54 minutes ago, tom said:

Saw on Gearslutz, not tried this yet and seems to be their first plugin. Free for limited time

 

https://www.nembriniaudio.com/products/lofi-vintage-clipper

Had interest until I saw this:

Plugins require an iLok3, or iLok cloud for authorization

On 3/3/2019 at 11:40 PM, bobernaut said:

Wonderful replies here, thanks! It would seem that there are two possibilities here...

1) Jim is a great guy who knows his stuff

2) Jim has agents who help him work a scam on musicians

 

Joking, of course! Believe it or not, I trust the members here far more than I trust many other people. Is that sad? Whatever the reason, you all look out for each other here and that's awesome...man!

Now, as for the topic, again, thanks for your help. Now, all I have to do is try and figure out which one to go for (at Studiocat's) and narrow down some things or maybe I should say figure out some things. I actually have good mechanical, building and electrical skills but can't see myself trying to build one even though I am certain that there is a great satisfaction in doing so. Can you really save that much money by building your own anyway? I don't know but you all probably do since you have already built a PC or two. I am afraid I shall have to go the purchase route on this one.

I am thinking about the one s.l.i.p. suggested--it seems about right, or do I go higher for "future proofing"? Or, is it overkill as mettelus suggested? I guess I need to call Jim, that is, if he accepts calls. Did you guys just order yours by clicking through the parts or did you have a discussion with him first? Also, how does payment work? Do you pay in full prior to the build or some other way? I think that's probably fairly important...

Also, not one taker on Sweetwater's builds. I'm surprised by that. I guess they just can't hang with Jim.

 

Well, thanks so much everyone for your help on this. If anyone has more to say about any of this I would love to hear it

 

many thanks

bob

 

Sweetwater isn't exaclty a low cost leader and the actual customer support will depend on the rep.  

As for your original question, yes the Audio device and driver should be front and center in the conversation.  If you haven't upgraded in a while you might not have the best connection and stability with the computer.

As long as it isn't in the program, no problem with the tiny ads here.

Anyone have a direct email to Spitfire support?

You can't open a ticket about the forgot password function not sending a password.  You have to actually have a working password to open a ticket about it - basically a loophole.  

(and yes the newsletter emails come to my inbox on a regular basis)

On 2/24/2019 at 11:33 AM, bitflipper said:

ProChannel modules are not fundamentally different from third-party plugins. They're all doing the same things under the hood. Although efficiency does vary from one vendor to the next, the major factors such as buffer sizes will necessarily apply to all  plugins of that type.

 

There can be major differences between plugins in terms of the way they use resources.  

Try Putting Waves' Abbey Roads Reverb on 20 tracks, do the same with B-Reverb or Rematrix.  Chances are your computer can't handle Abbey Roads, but will have little issue with the Overload pro-channels.  Same basic effect, reverb.  

As for the OP, the Fly out EQ in the PC seem to be very efficient, use them on every channel all the time and don't see big spikes in the resorurce manager.  

On 2/22/2019 at 10:14 AM, Chuck E Baby said:

When you say "Period" does this mean Cakewalk is giving us the wrong System requirements ?

 

Bandlab by Cakewalk-

OS: Windows 7, 8/8.1 or 10  (64-bit)

Processor: 2.6GHz Intel or AMD multi-core processor (at least Intel i5 or AMD A10 APU recommended)

Memory: 4GB

Hard Drive: 5GB for minimal install (20GB recommended)

Monitor Resolution: 1280x800 (1920 x 1080 recommended)

Audio Interface: ASIO compatible hardware is recommended

I would say so on Win10, as others have noted that basically means you would need to have a super clean machine and only run Bandlab to have about 1.5 gigs of ram allocated to it.  How much actual recording can you do with 1.5 gigs of RAM?  Not much if you plan on using any effects, etc.

Yes, Cakewalk with actually open if it is the only program running on a Win10 machine with 4 gigs of ram.  You won't get far though.

Windows 10 needs more than 4 gigs of ram.  Period.  

18 minutes ago, Byron Dickens said:

It is of course wise to take reasonable and prudent precautions,  but going on the internet is not really all that dangerous if you stay away from websites you probably shouldn't be visiting anyway.  You know what I  mean.

Honestly that isn't true at all.  

The internet is a very dangerious place even staying on the "main paths"

However, Windows 10 seems to have some decent protection built in.  

OP has WIndows 7 - not as safe without ad on programs for defense.  

If it was me.  I'd connect and download the latest, authorize it and then go back off the internet for about 5 months, then do another update at that time with the same method.  I also woudl back up all projects and data to an external HD that is not connected during those updates.  

3 hours ago, abacab said:

That's a big +1 for my iLok License Manager protected plugins. Same for Waves!

They take a Windows update in stride, and keep on rockin!

XLN requiring an new authorization every windows update is out of control, but every single time the process worked for me as long as I have an internet connetion and can remember my login and password.

Waves on the other hand gives me problems every single time I buy a new plugin from them, without fail as it seems to require a Waves Central update and then along comes some problem along the way.  

Very helpful for picking out chord progressions very quickly.  I listen to a lot of music where sheet music isn't avaialbe and have found this great when I don't have time to work things out.  A real time saver.

Sad they are getting rid of it.  Curious what the next product will be.

15 minutes ago, Byron Dickens said:

One of the big issues with DaVinci  Resolve is that it is EXTREMELY  demanding of resources.  Especially GPU.  The forum is chock full of people with 10 year old low end laptops  complaining that it crashes all the time. Or that it won't even open.  They never bothered to look at the system  requirements and then come unglued when they get told "Windows 7 is not supported.  Can't help you, upgrade to 10 first"  or "512mb of GPU memory ? 4GB is the minimum recommend.  You need to upgrade. "

The DaVinci systems requirements are vage at best.  

I've got a modern Lenovo T470 with SSD, etc. and it doesn't run it properly.  I also have an older machine (but win 10 with SSD and lots of ram and an older Graphics Card, and it won't even open yet I can run multicam productions in Premiere Pro all day long.  

Two machines with Win10, plenty of RAM, and SSD but will not run properly.  Graphics Card requirements can be unknown unless you are using something they specifically spell out as compatible.  Davinci needs to work on system compatiblity instead of "you have to have a brand new computer with all top shelf components."  My machines run multiple HD videos playing at the same time without issue....in other NLEs.  

But I get your point, however Davinci isn't a great example.  

5 hours ago, synkrotron said:

On topic please! 😛

 

As someone who willingly paid for Sonar/Cakewalk, the notion of why it is free can only be summed up with words like "miracle" and things of that nature.  

The topic of why hasen't everyone in the Windows DAW world jumped on board?  That at least has a point of discussion.  

10 hours ago, SomeGuy said:

That's increasingly not true:

DAWs with AAF Support:

Pro Tools

Cubase

Nuendo

Samplitude 

Sequoia

Studio One

Digital Performer

Logic Pro X

etc.

…  I can list others, if needed.

OMF is a legacy interchange format, and AAF is meant to replace it.  So it isn't even really worth implementing OMF support in this day and age.  You just go straight to AAF, instead.  AAF is needed.  OMF support is often pretty bad, and most NLEs don't support it at all.

I don't need AAF for transferring from DAW to DAW.  I need AAF to transfer between NLE and DAW...  It's a major workflow enhancement.

I'm paid the make video productions and have never used it.  All audio is always handled in cakewalk and then put in various NLEs. (Premiere Pro, Vegas, Davinci Resolve, Camtasia).  But we all have different needs and workflows.  

Also AAF doesn't work "well" in all the DAWs listed, and was my point.  

As for the other post about VSTis. It is much about ones skill to manipulate audio.  I have GPO and find it adequate at best.   And in case you are unaware Sonar was packaged with some stuff from GPO within the Dimension pro program.

I don't think any DAW comes with market leading sampled instruments if that is what you need.

1 hour ago, SomeGuy said:

A lot of those free Effects and Instruments are terrible-to-mediocre.  I'm actually speaking from experience, because Cakewalk being free was initially the big "pull" to me...

However, the "price" is not working out to be much of a competitive advantage since I'll probably have to pay $200 to bolt on AAF support, $150 for Orchestral Instruments (like Garrison Personal Orchestra 5), and then some - even if other DAWs have perfectly serviceable content for my uses.  The "Free" stuff that I've found has been pretty lackluster (worse than a lot of the stuff that is bundled with DAWs), and that's not even touching on things like Cinematic Loops/One Hits/SFX and similar content that is bundled with DAWs, these days (i.e. SONAR Platinum actually bundled a decent amount of this type of content).

So, I'm stuck at a weird situation where I like the interface and the way it's integrated/optimized well for my choice platform... but it might not be worth it in the grand scheme of things because other DAWs come with perfectly usable content out of the box, and it would be a one and done purchase for me at this point.  I'm not very interested in the EDM/Trance/Hip Hop type stuff that is popular, these days  🙂

Plus, having to manage all of those licenses (and probably multiple extra web accounts) vs. one DAW purchase.  Convenience is also a factor, at least for me.

You are doing it wrong if Cakewalk + $500 doesn't get you everything you need to produce good music.

$500 is the tier these other "comperable" products are at that include real content.  All of this is better than what comes with any DAW under $300.  

  https://vis.versilstudios.com/vsco-community.html

http://www.philharmonia.co.uk/explore/sound_samples

https://samplesfrommars.com/products/all-products-from-mars

https://stevenslatedrums.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011778653-SSD5-Free-Win-Installation

This was $40

https://samplesfrommars.com/products/all-products-from-mars

Cinematic Loops/OneHits/Etc that you get with Platinum.  Well if you don't produce EDM/Trance/Hip hop, not sure how much real value they have then.  When I went through the SPLT content, that is what I kept thinking this stuff is primarily usable for that type of music produciton.  You can get that kind of content for $5 by buying a Computer Music Magazine digitally and then downloading the content.  Do that with the right purchases and for about $30 you could have a collection of content that is far larger than what comes included.  LOTs of Free/Cheap loop/sample content out there.  that $5 purchase will also get you a bunch of Pro Quality Effects and Instruments.  

While there is a lot of Free Junk out there, plenty of stuff that is just as good as the paid products.  The AAS stuff I mentioned is top tier and was available for a period of time for literally $1.

If you get such a package with a DAW it will be tied to that DAW or it will require another authorization method.  

Lack of AAF support (or good support) is common with a number of DAWs, it isn't just a Cakewalk limitaiton.  I work with video a lot and frankly never need it for the work I do.  As for transfering projects to other DAWs, the pros I work with don't care about it and just want unprocessed tracks for mixing/mastering if I'm sending it out for that purpose.  

All depends on the content you are looking for.  If you are not willing to do any real research on the market, then yes, paying money for a package might be a good option (and Sonar was one of the BEST paid options for the content it came with).  Just like people buy the giant Waves bundles only to find out they really only use 3-4 plug ins in the package that they could have bought for $25 a piece.