mettelus

Helix Native used to be a freebie for owning Floor (or Rack), but when I just checked Line 6's site I got a 404 error clicking that box near the top ("Helix Native for Helix owners"). It is worth asking them about if you do not already have it.

Depending on how detailed you want to get with IR tweaking, there are free ones all over the place. A couple good sets are God's Cab (MESA, there are a few others on that page), and Acoustic IRs (especially if recording off a piezo pickup).

Good point! I have only seen lasers used in precision manufacturing for electronics, so never really thought of that. The StewMac video I saw was sort of depressing to see since the gaps between the inlays and the fretboard were big enough that Dale actually used a fretboard shaving to fill one of them. The mica powder is recommended to use 5g per gallon or so of epoxy, and even the starter kit I got is 240g (24 colors). Pretty much any flat surface is easily doable since it self levels... not sure if a fretboard would be as easy, but the epoxy will overfill without running onto a dry surface, so can sand that down. So many videos of tables and countertops being done. I have an antique butcher block that saw a lot of use (nice big 1" deep cleaver crater on one side), plus the previous owner got stains on it. I always wanted to redo that so now thinking epoxy will not only fill it but make the top perfectly level (and is good for cutting surfaces too). This will be interesting to play with once the epoxy gets here.

You'll appreciate this. The very first crude search I did (forget the exact terms used now) returned two different Alembics with custom inlays on them. That search quest left me baffled in a way, because there are videos from StewMac showing how to epoxy fill the GAPS around an inlay, but not doing the inlay with epoxy. Both the inlay and pockets in that video were done with a CNC machine (can't get more precise than that), yet it still had the edge gaps I do not like. Another big difference with epoxy is adding vibrant color via the mica powder rather than just variations of white. The mica powder and carving tools came already, but the epoxy will take a couple of weeks. I can get test carvings done at least in the mean time at least.

For the past year I have been pondering how best to do a custom inlay. To get a machined fit requires excessive time (and precision), so I pondered permanent vinyl for a bit (easiest), but want the inlay effect. It wasn't until a few days ago that it occured to me that an inlay doesn't need to be hard until it is complete, so started to look at liquid options. Lo and behold, mica powder (either opaque or semi-transparent) is used in a truckload of crafts with clear epoxy (some of which are downright gorgeous), but not many hits out there for guitar inlays. Inlays with gaps around them bother me, so a liquid solution would solve that since only the edge of the wood will matter. I just ordered some opaque mica powder, expoxy and fine carving tools to give this a go but was curious if anyone had seen this done before? I have had a hankering for carving a guitar over the past several years, so this side project may explode in scope.

It is a massive decision point on what to do with the band after the loss of a member (whether to pack it up or continue). You already mentioned AC/DC, but for folks who lived through listening to Back In Black for the first time after Bon Scott's death... we were highly critical yet amazed. A portion of the credit for that album needs to go to Mutt Lange though (the album was done over just 7 weeks in the Bahamas!).

Or could take the model Melda uses where revenue is from new sales rather than soaking loyal customers. It is far easier to get an existing customer to shell out more money than to convince a new customer to buy a product (what started Adobe with their hostage tactics). The internet and electronic delivery has inserted a complacency of software release with bugs without much thought because fixes are easily distributed. Some systems do not have that luxury, most recent example would be an idiot shutting down all flights in the US.

I would try and send them another email. When I had my 8 fiasco last year (and no response), that affected my 9 upgrade. Greg (from support) was the guy who responded about 9 and sent an email with all the codes (only work required was in the eLicenser). He had also sent an eLicenser helper executable link (I downloaded anyway, but didn't use... it pops up a "only use this if instructed to by support"). Greg sent me the two activation codes I needed, and the last part was simply reopening 9, refreshing the activation manager popup and activating it (again). It was night and day for me for support from them. I am assuming that your situation is to rebuild your eLicenser file so it will take the upgrade code (what I think that helper executable is for), so I would try a separate ticket with them and tell them your eLicenser is not showing products you own so you cannot upgrade and need the eLicenser fixed.

I used Macrium Reflect (free version) when I updated my C Drive. What I needed most was to resize the Recovery Partition (defaulted to 500MB and I was using 495MB of it; I upped that to 1GB during the clone). Your primary partition will also need to be resized to use up the remainder of the new drive. This video walks through every step for that (why it is a little long), including partition changes. The clone was pretty much connecting both drives, do your work, then shutdown and swap the original out.

The bundles also go up in cost over time as well, so the cost to on-board keeps going up with new additions. I think the MCompleteBundle is roughly $200 more on sale than when I got it (had 99 plugins at that time). Also bear in mind that a number of multi-band plugins have free counterparts. I made an Excel spreadsheet years ago on that and didn't count the single-band ones since they are essentially dupes. Depending on personal usage, the instruments are the most expensive and one may or may not get full use from them.

Another thing to check is what plugins you are using. Delay compensation may not be accurate depending on what FX are active. When recording audio tracks into a fairly robust mix, it is often best to globally bypass FX (E hotkey) during tracking and only use FX during the mixing phase. Check and see if the E hotkey (Global FX bypass) helps your situation.

It is worth noting that MConvolutionEZ (part of the MFreeFXBundle) is also a (free) IR loader.

There is always some gimmick out and about, but unfortunately the common limiting denominator is human hearing, which rarely gets discussed.

"Now it seems to me some fine things have been laid upon your table, but you only want the ones you can't get." - Eagles

MS has had "Home Use Programs" for years that were $9.99 based on employees needing to use Office at home. IIRC, that program ended with 2019, but I thought they were forcing 365 on everyone. I didn't realize there was anything after 2019, so these might be a return of the HUP variety.