Vernon Barnes

Thanks for the comments and suggestions. I have run the Western Digital Lifeguard quick diagnostics and the drive passes. I am now running the advanced diagnostics which is going to take the best part of three hours. The sister drive failed and was replaced last year. I am considering options, one is to replace the potentially problematic 2TB drive with a 4TB drive. WD 7200 drives of this size seem very expensive, Toshiba seem better value for money but I need to do more research.

I have downloaded several more of the Anthology series and I am not feeling the love. It would be disingenuous to say they are bad but nothing is grabbing me and I think in most cases I could find better sounds in my collection. I also downloaded the SRX keys. It is a source of decent sounds with a small footprint but again I don't think it brings much new to my party. I have yet to download others as unlike the Anthology sounds it seems to be necessary to install on the system drive. They are not huge but if you install all 10 SRX modules you are looking at approximately 3GB and having this on a SSD system drive negates the small footprint argument.

Given the age of the computer, at least 6 years any serious issues and I would consider a replacement but I don't want to do that just yet. The good news is the disc image completed without problems and everything is working ok for now.

Just what you need in lock-down. I went to open a project earlier and it failed. Problems accessing one of my sample drives. I tried to open folders and just got IO errors. After rebooting the computer all seems OK. Everything should be backed up apart from Komplete 12 for which i have the install discs and some of the more recent libraries I purchased. I have the downloads on another disc. Never the less I have cleared enough space on an external drive to create a new disc image, which I will attempt later as it will save a lot of time if the disc need replacing. I am debating if I should order a replacement disc now or wait until there is a total failure. Lock-down makes everything more complicated.

Very intuitive. Thanks!

I have downloaded one of these. 16 tracks including room mics etc. It seems to be well recorded and comes with a track listing with notes.

This looks interesting, free drum stems from session drummer Emily Dolan Davies. https://emilydrums.com/stem-club-about/

I have moved on to look at the anthology series and the Concerto player. One issue seems to be if you insert the Concerto player in Cakewalk it only has one output, when you look in GUI it has the option to send different parts to different outputs as one would expect from a modern multi-timberal ROMplier. (There is a similar longstanding issue with Drumcore where multi-outs are not available in Cakewalk.) I cant say I am blown away by the anthology sounds I have down loaded so far. They are not bad but given I have seemingly better options already they have not started to tempt me with the Pro membership.

I am happy with the composer cloud subscription. One thing I have found is I get more use form the items I would not have bought outright than the ones that appealed most at first glance. EW have kept adding new content which keeps it fresh.

Look for the option button , its in different places on each synth, there you will find the UI scaling options. I think 125% and 150% depending on the synth work best for me but you can go up to 200% The preset management seems to be too tightly tied to the hardware band/patch structure. Korg improved some of their VST synths, like the Polysix and MonoPoly in a recent update by adding a decent modern patch browser. So far my fear that if i tried the demos I would be hooked into the ultimate subscription looks like it will be unfounded, not that any of them are bad they just don't add that much to the party when I look at my existing options. I was keen to look at the SH101 for nostalgic reasons. I had one along with the MC202 sequencer version back in the early 80's. Truth is its good for what it was but then comes the realization you had a SH101 because you could not afford anything else. I would have preferred a Sequential Pro 1 or a Korg Monopoly. I am working through the rest of the collection I quite like the JX-3P and would buy it if the price was right. I have yet to compare the Jupiter 8 to the Arturia version. I think I will keep the Core subscription running for a while and see where they take Zenology, apparently there are developments afoot. I like it as quick source of good sounds for sketching but I feel it does need some extra editing ability. However I do wonder how many of the sounds would make it to a final track and not be replaced by something better? I think its the hardware link that is the strength here. Having those sounds organized and loaded up on a hardware synth for live use would be excellent.

Am - Asus2 - Em- Asus4- Dm

I got a reply to mine too. Fingers crossed.

There seems to some sort of resolution with some people being able to upload their mixes.

I must say the free version of Zenology is is pretty decent on first impressions. It appears to be a synth that acts like a ROMplier with lots of presets and limited editing facilities. The preset browser is pretty good so finding sounds is a lot better than most. The sounds them self are good without jumping in your face, which probably means they will sit well in a mix. I would say grabbing the basic player with its factory patches is a no-brainer. I suspect $3 / Month for the expansions will be worthwhile if you like lots of presets.

I have often looked at it but for most of the stuff I would be interested in It would have to be the ultimate, I don't need it for $199 a year. I may check out this Zenology thing and may give it a go depending on the commitment on subscription length.

I started to watch this Richard Thompson last night as a live stream but the audio and video was totally out of sync so I will watch this on demand version later which seems to be fine.

Musicians are finding new ways to play live and there are a lot of these "virtual" concerts cropping up. There is some great stuff in here.

Thanks, I thought it must have been possible.

I had a slight issue importing and I started this thread upstairs.

Steven Wilson is currently running a remix competition for his track "Personal Shopper" I downloaded the stems here http://thefuturebites.com/remix/ The format of the tracks is PCM Broadcast WAV 48000 HZ 24 Bit Stereo. Importing the files into Cakewalk using Import - Audio causes them to be placed in positions way down the time line. In the Broadcast wave info box it says the Time Code is 01:05:22.08 (for the drums) which is exactly the time it imports at, which is logical. Initially I re-saved all the stems in Audacity as non broadcast WAV and all import into Cakewalk and sync properly. Once realized what was happening with the Broadcast WAV time code I imported all the stems into a different project and deleted the empty space before 01:05:22.08 and everything is properly in sync. So all the WAV files start at the same place and the timecode is not required to synchronize the tracks. Both methods are a bit long winded so my question; Is there a more straightforward way of importing the data. I don't see any options in the Import function.

http://thefuturebites.com/remix/ I will be downloading the stems at least, I am sure I can learn something. Incidentally I have heard that Soundcloud have taken down some entries for copyright infringment. Looks like a communication problem and hopefully it will be resolved.

I am looking forward to the upgrade. I tend to gravitate to Softube Modular but Cherry Audio is every bit as good and has a wider range of modules available. I should use it more.

King Crimson made the isolated Melotron parts from Starless available. It's quite an eye opener and support you view on context absolutely.

There may be some people here who have their music on Bandcamp so it would be a good time to generate a bit of interest or its a good time to buy and support artists in this difficult environment. For those who don't know Bandcamp they are generally regarded as the good guys of the digital music industry for independent artists with low fees. https://bandcamp.com/fair_trade_music_policy From a fans perspective the options to down load MP3s at different bit rates or FLAC or WAV files means you can have both compact versions for you phone and lossless versions for HQ listening.

Note - the link goes to the individual instrument page for the stage piano - That's what's £21 If you want the bundle go here https://www.kontakthub.com/bundle/vintage-keys-collection-kontakt But at £59.80 its not the deal I thought it was going to be.