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mettelus

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Posts posted by mettelus

  1. 2 hours ago, Xoo said:

    I forget where and when I read this, but apparently vacuum cleaners generate static which can kill electronics like PCs, hence why people use (low power) air blowers to shift dust.

    Everything that generates friction has some amount of static (vacuum or blower), which is why you always want to have a grounding circuit when working on electronics. Although some components are designed for a "typical arc," many are not, so even the static you generate walking on carpet in winter can arc when installing simple things like RAM modules. For computer work, working with one hand and using the other to grab the computer chassis is typically sufficient.

    Going to the extreme end with friction/static... helicopters can generate 50KV or so of static, which is why if you are rescuing someone at sea you always ground the helicopter to the ocean before grabbing the person.. although that is DC current (packs a real punch, but shouldn't outright kill you), it is not something to hit a potentially drowning person with.

  2. 1 hour ago, John Vere said:

    hold CTRL when dragging one track up or down. All selected tracks will resize equally. 

    Clip gain adjustment only works on the clip that is actively being hovered over (one at a time) and was reported as a bug recently. This actually adjusts the gain of the clip so is not overly practical (it is not a "zoom," per se).

    For the OP, I admit the "all tracks" is a little confusing, so John probably is on point that the waveforms are not easily viewable "as is"? There is also a waveform zoom (dB meter just left of the waveform in the track view), the cursor is a little waveform tail and up/down arrows, but again needs to be done one at a time. This method is a true zoom (no gain insertion), but not an "all at once" thing either.

    "All tracks" confused me, since there is only so much real estate to play with, so zooming 8 tracks can fill up a screen (even via zoom/reset view). There are also shortcuts to zoom selected tracks to fit screen (all at the same height), etc., but if the underlying issue is the height of the waveform itself in the track, I do not know of an "all at once" cure for that.

  3. Quick note, get in the habit of saving both project templates and (more importantly IMO) track templates when you put that much work into routing things that you may ever use in another project. Track templates are more ideal, because you can save multiple tracks that are project independent... so you can simply add a track "from template" and Cakewalk will insert all of the tracks, routings and busses that you saved. It will save you a lot of time going forward. Always, always save intricate routings as a track template.

    • Like 3
  4. 23 hours ago, Robert Bone said:

    Two days ago, my brand spanking new power supply instantly shut off, which instantly shut off the computer, RIGHT in the middle of my updating the NVIDIA video drivers.

    Are you getting any motherboard errors from powering the machine on? That is about the only internal diagnostic that will let you know if components have failed (as the MB "sees" things). The reason I ask this is because when something loses power it is typically not destructive (sudden voltage drop is not, and the source is designed to take the arc), but if there is a spike involved prior to that power loss, it can be destructive. "Selective tripping" is the term often used to define this, basically the arc from power surges needs to be controlled at the device closest to the power source that can take it. In a situation where the power source is what caused it, that protection may have been bypassed with the failure, so everything that was plugged into it at the time is now suspect. Unfortunately the troubleshooting on this either requires diagnostics of everything in question (not simple) or swapping out the suspect parts to see what is good and bad.

    NVIDIAs driver cycle includes a brief on/off reset to the card to allow the new drivers to install, but if the power supply reacted to that, the card may have failed and transmitted that surge to it as well. Both of those components reacted to the "same thing," which is a big concern.

    That said, there are companies that have very liberal return policies, so you can troubleshoot via that method and return the things that you prove are good if you take that route. For what you described, both the power supply and graphics card are suspect already. You can also contact those vendors directly about what happened and you might get lucky and get into contact with an engineer who knows the design and protective features cold (and can give you a proper answer, and where to focus attention).

    • Like 1
  5. IIRC, those only needed the serial/registration codes to activate (not internet), and that pop up window occurred during the actual installation. There were a couple that had to be run as administrator during install to register properly in Windows, but I forget the details of them all now (pretty sure that was only Dimension Pro and/or Rapture). If that doesn't have a "register" option when you use it inside SONAR, try re-installing it with the file you downloaded from your account. There "should" be a window during that installation asking you for the serial/registration codes, that will then add CA-2A to your Windows registry to unlock it.

  6. No worries, it was really more to point out the importance of the music theory behind what the harmonies are "doing" and often the "why" is more important. I had someone asking me about harmonies who was fascinated by them but knew no music theory, so rather than try to explain with words (I actually took a shot at this, but was excruciating), I sent her a video dissecting "Seven Bridges Road," which is a good example and did that with Melodyne to visually show what I was talking about. The chord progression is DMaj, CMaj, GMaj, but if you sung it solo, the most prominent notes are D, C, B.... but all of the notes sung by all of the singers fit perfectly on the DMaj, CMaj, and GMaj chords. My point was really to be deliberate about harmonies, so that they match the song.

    A side note I thought of after the first post was that old guitar pedals had "harmonizers" that just blindly followed the note played (no song key capability), so they sounded cool solo, but didn't work in a song unless you only played notes that had harmonies that also hit the song key (or if you got lucky).

  7. Be careful with using automatic harmonies because your real intent is to make a melody better fit the active chord in the chord progression. With common things like a B note sung over a GMaj chord (G,B,D), you do not want to blindly use 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc. (on that B note), because the note (even if the harmonizer locks to a GMaj song key) can easily fall outside of the underlying chord intent. In the case of a sung B over a GMaj chord, the D (or 3rd if locked to song key) is often the better choice, but only for that particular combination, not blindly all the way through. You've already found out that the interval being static doesn't quite work through an entire piece.

    Sometimes it is simpler to use an instrument track (pad or strings) to noodle out harmonies like a parallel melody, and be deliberate about it. Then you are doing something very intentional to make the result fit than try to figure out "automation" of something you are not sure what it is really doing. It also forces you into the "parallel melody" mindset... what should that second person actually be singing?

    • Great Idea 1
  8. 1 hour ago, Grem said:

    Listen to the last thing Gene says!! Shows where his mind is... always!!

    Whew... good thing they didn't choose "Water" after all!! They would have had a stranglehold on one of the most important markets on the planet (according to Gene anyway). Since their logo has different fonts used in it, I am not quite so sure of that comment though.

    https://www.kissusa.com/pages/about

    That company was founded in 1989. I cannot find any references of Gene to that company in a quick search. Again, the "K" in that logo is a custom font, so even their trucks have the registered trademark next to KISS (scroll down to the video insert at the bottom).

  9. 43 minutes ago, JnTuneTech said:

    Choices in the routing can seem confusing at first though, just remember each track, instrument, will have its own specific routing choices, and the various external controller setups have their own MIDI settings, and so forth.

    Many VSTis also have MIDI-through (or even MIDI-outs that pass things like arpeggios) capability so a virtual instrument can also pass MIDI as an output. This can lead to very complex routing schemes (and also potential confusion of what is going where with older projects). As you work with more complex routings, it will also be helpful to take notes on specifics because of this so that you can minimize the time it takes to get re-acquainted with older projects later on.

    There are also plugins that can assist with layering instruments to make things visually simpler, but a lot of the routing starts with the use of MIDI channels to keep MIDI information "in its own lane," so to speak. When you have an input set to "Omni" (the default) is what will often trip up new folks because that instrument will then play all MIDI it is receiving, and it is not always clear as to where the data is coming from.

    • Like 1
  10. When it goes on sale, yes. I last upgraded Samplitude Pro Suite on v5 because it was the same price as the SL Pro upgrade at that time and had all of the extra goodies. Unfortunately, in my case, the only thing that has changed between v5 and v8 is the version of Samplitude (although the GUI got a massive overhaul), newer version of SF Pro (and never the current one) and SL Pro... IIRC all of the other content is identical, and I do not use Samplitude. Again, this is different for each person on a case-by-case basis, but the Samplitude Pro Suite (when on sale) is often the cheapest alternative to onboarding into SpectraLayers Pro (current version).

  11. 25 minutes ago, Mark B said:

    People compare to Resolve does Free version allow import/H265 now as I previously found that a limitation

    Yes, Resolve is on v18 now. The free version does not allow for the use of hardware acceleration (only Studio will), but both support H.265.

    It is also worth noting to new users that the Studio version is a one-time $300 upgrade, rather than an upgrade each version. However, it is highly recommended that you know the free version well and will actually use the Studio features before ever considering that upgrade. The Studio version has all of the bells and whistles which go far beyond what a normal user would ever use, but is also a significant bang-for-the-buck deal over the Adobe Premiere Pro/Mocha combo ($300 once for DaVinci Resolve Studio versus roughly $600/year for Adobe Premiere Pro/Mocha).

  12. +1, there are a lot of basic editors that have the DAW-like workflow to them. Even the Corel HumbleBundle is still alive (all current versions), which includes PaintShop Pro and AfterShot Pro that you may find useful for the picture work you want to do. All of the brushes in that bundle are for Particle Shop (plugin for PSP) or Painter (which is included for the top tier). Basically any editor with multiple tracks available will do what you are asking (which most have these days). If you do buy that one, spend the extra $0.51 to get Painter, since that is the most expensive software in that bundle.

    While DaVinci Resolve (free) will do just about anything, I am always hesitant to recommend that to anyone new. You will spend a lot of time just learning the GUI, but if you invest that time, it is an incredibly capable program. It even asks you on install what workspace layout you prefer, and "like Adobe Premiere Pro" is one of the options. For someone new that can be overwhelming.

    • Thanks 1
  13. I didn't even realize these existed, but saw a news article today that made me look this first one up. One reporter said they often get 30 or 60 second commercial snippets during the holidays, but tend to get more views from people digging for the full shorts. Apparently Chevy teamed up with the Alzheimer's Association this year, and it is rather impressive... even more so since they don't make anything deliberate regarding the vehicle, more the nostalgic triggers from it. Very, very well done.

    After I found that one, there were references to another from 2021 that I had never seen either (sheesh). I am not sure where they were running the snippets, but I actually had to go digging to find this one. I recognized the car right away because my dad used to drive us kids around in one 40 years ago (had to find the video by looking for the car!).

    Never underestimate the power of nostalgia and its effect on people. There have been other videos posted over the years on the triggers that help with memory (music being a huge one), but I found that first video to be on the mark as a "commercial" for the holidays.

    • Like 2
  14. Correct. The "One" version is the free version and has limited capabilities and no layer separation at all. The MAGIX Suite offers can certainly be the cheaper upgrade to SpectraLayers Pro (especially if you do not own any of the other goodies in that Suite). YMMV, but if you are not upgrading from the very last version (SL Pro 9), the other offers from MAGIX are worth looking at, especially if you are an outright "first-time buyer"... it will probably be the cheapest path.

  15. 1 hour ago, PhonoBrainer said:

    In other words, scaler EQ works great as long as your entire song stays in the same key, or the same chord?

    Pretty much. Once a key is selected you can select/deselect notes from the entire scale (with a mouse), but once the transport is in motion that is not an option, and changing the key itself is a no go at that point. While you could sort of get around this with chopping a song into sections and/or creating a custom controller linkage to it, it would still be incredibly clunky. There is a lot of functionality embedded in many DAWs that would allow more refinement that Scaler EQ cannot take advantage of (yet), so the advantage of it is not significant over other methods already available.

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 1
  16. 41 minutes ago, Max Arwood said:

    Then again I use a .22mm saw blade.

    That is just amazingly small... nothing but respect for you! I have far less patience when working on tiny things, so have to take a break a come back often. I was doing auto work this summer and got into a couple situations where the access to things was an inch or less and just kept thinking "Seriously? You designed a clearance that only a toddler can access??"

    • Like 1
  17. 2 hours ago, itzaStudio said:

    Hmm ... This could actually be the issue...? 🤔 I haven't re used the same audio files tho from a project to the next.

    I do have ALBUM\DEMO\AUDIO ... and in the demo-folder I have saved at least 25 songs sharing the same audio folder. Instead of using a template I have just used Save as... from an existing song when starting working on a new one. Still, each project file should just look downwards, not minding what I renamed the ALBUM-folder?

    There is a utility in this thread from the old forums called "Projectscope" that would be worth testing on your cwp files. I would verify your theory that all audio you are using is nested (in the Project/Audio subfolder). It is very possible that some of the referenced audio is not nested, so when you renamed that folder the pointers broke. If those pointers are truly absolute and not relative, then renaming the folder could break them (I have not seen this before), but @azslow3 would be a better person to answer this as he knows the cwp file structure better.

  18. I forgot to follow up on this. PB came back saying that they weren't sure of dynamic keyswitches and referred me to their forum. This thread has basically what I had asked about:

    "As for scale switching, we are looking at solutions for this as a priority. We have conceived ‘link’ buttons you can assign keys and scales to and automate between but receiving midi input is also on the cards but may require further work."

    In addition to my request (to better follow chord progressions or melody lines), this one specifically asked about key changes, which is even more critical. Right now, Scaler EQ cannot address either dynamically on its own.

  19. 4 hours ago, aidan o driscoll said:

    I know the saying where social media is concerned - "YOU ARE THE PRODUCT" - but i don't think legally that extends to companies scraping data from soc media to use without any form of permission

    Unfortunately, once you publish something it enters the public domain, so rights diminish dramatically. If anyone can open something up to look at it, there is little control on what they are actually doing with it. Even just being in public means you can be photographed (paparazzi make a living off this), so the only real legal threshold that can be crossed is when it enters into the realm of "stalking." A lot of what you mention has actually been around for years, well before "AI" entered the picture, AI just made it easier to assemble and correlate data into information. One of the most surveilled locations on Earth went so far as to improve facial recognition to identify people "even wearing masks" during the pandemic. There are complex algorithms already in place that go far beyond just what someone looks like, and much of it centers on what people willing publish to social media. In the digital world, anything and everything published is permanent record and will survive long after we are all dead.

    • Like 2
  20. 2 hours ago, DeeringAmps said:

    What I fear most, is the loss of user base; day after day after day. 
    Am I confident that it will all sort itself out? Yep, but at what cost? (again in terms of user base)

    A simple statistic is that roughly 7% of the world population is born/dies in 5 years, so the number of new users that onboarded with CbB has some "number" associated with it. I have worked with a few folks who fall into this exact category, so have advised them on how to safeguard their work going forward. I even went so far as to refer one to the original post I had made regarding this a few months ago and they came back with "I found some of those replies arrogant." I found the use of the word "arrogant" truly stunning from a new user, and even though I defended one of the people in question, that was a one-off situation out of courtesy and will not happen again.

    I have simply advised people not to get excited for now, safeguard your work, wait for what really happens, then adjust accordingly. Many people are also not jacked into the internet (i.e., pandemic onboardees), so there is another subset that won't even know about this until they think to re-open a project in a couple years. I hope when they do that they are not met with an unpleasant surprise.

    • Like 2
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