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mettelus

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Everything posted by mettelus

  1. After I walked away I realized what he is doing, so you do want the compressors after the reverb/delay on the associated busses (can just drag/drop to reposition them). The reason is that he is saturating the bus with either reverb/delay and using the compressor to choke off that signal while the vocal is actually going. If the compressor is first, it will choke off what the reverb or delay sees, so there won't be that saturated FX tail he is talking about in that video.
  2. Based on what that video is showing: You have a Vocal track in place. In the console view (OR you can show the Bus Pane (small icon in the lower right on the left track view pane)), right click an empty bus->"Insert Stereo Bus" Rename it so it is descriptive (like Reverb Bus). In the track view (left pane), right click your Vocal track (the area beneath the name)->Insert Send->Choose the "Reverb Bus" you just made (or whatever you named it). Leave it post-fader. In the Console View (or Bus Pane)->Insert a Sonitus Compressor, and then a Sonitus Reverb below it. Back on your Audio Track, right click->Insert Send->Sonitus Compressor-Reverb Bus (or whatever you named the bus). Repeat the above to add another bus for Delay, but using Sonitus Delay for step 4 on the new bus instead of Sonitus Reverb. When finished, you should have FOUR sends on the vocal track: Post-fader out to Reverb Bus. Post-fader out to Delay Bus. Side chain input to the Sonitus Compressor on the Reverb Bus. Side chain input to the Sonitus Compressor on the Delay Bus. Tweak to taste. The compressors are ducking the vocal (not sure why that video shows them in front of the reverb/delay). The settings he used are fine (solo the vocal track while messing with it so you can easily hear your changes). Quick edit: See post below.
  3. Side comment on this one, since it comes up quite often. A "solution" to lackluster samples I have come to rely on Melda's MCharacter. It excels at dry, monophonic material and allows you to sculpt harmonics in samples before sending them into an FX chain (always use this first in the chain). Even with TTS-1, you can up-sample the default piano and get very usable iterations. It can definitely address a lot of "sample quality" issues as well as the urge to buy more instruments of the same type, and is one of the very few plugins that lets you do harmonic surgery on a "note by note" basis. That said, a few important comments on this, especially if you are unfamiliar with MeldaProduction... 1) Melda has a 15-day fully functional trial on all products, so set aside time to test it before ever buying it, 2) Melda always has plugins for at least 50% off (either in the Eternal Madness cycle or during holidays), 3) Melda gives you $10 just for signing up for a newsletter, and 4) If you use another's referral code you get 20% off your first purchase (but I would honestly save that silver bullet for a bundle, not an individual plugin). MCharacter will struggle with wet or polyphonic material, but can certainly be used for creative purposes. Over the years I have shied away from samples that have baked in FX (like Spitfire Audio LABS), and often turn internal FX to VSTis off (MCharacter needs to be first in the chain to be most effective). Also, there are a lot of free VSTi pianos out there, and many can be "dealt with" by using external FX chains as long as the samples are dry. Quick edit: The TL/DR version of the above is that MCharacter lets you surgically change the timbre (even mutating one instrument into another). I was chuckling to myself when I realized the "simpler description" is just one word!
  4. Historically, Microsoft has had $9 versions for work-from-home situations (one for Office, one for Project, and one for Visio in for the 2019 versions), but nothing prevents companies from scarfing up tons of them and reselling them. When linked to your Microsoft account, you can even log in as a new user on a computer and use them. The mobile versions are free, and I have always just logged into those apps with my Microsoft account and they work and transfer files without issues.
  5. Sort of OT, but related... JRR had Nectar 3 Plus (for a new non-iZotope user) for $99, while the upgrade was listed as $79 last week. When the newer versions got released, that jumped back up to $249 and seems to have since disappeared (iZotope has always excelled at removing older versions), but errors from a 3rd party often absolve the buyer... and screen caps of invoices are always recommended just in case. I have only had one issue with a vendor in the past and the first thing they asked for was the invoice from the 3rd party vendor... I sent that, issue resolved, done deal. That iZotope sale the last week of August had some statement on the iZotope site to the effect of "Buy Ozone 10 Advanced or Nectar 3 Plus and qualify for special pricing when the new version arrives!" That was the first time I have seen a blatant "new version" ad, but the overall execution was a bit haphazard (probably due to the merger).
  6. On cell here, so this might have been answered. NA had an update to it and the install process (not the download) was mighty slow today. Seems NA and iZotope's Product Portal conflict with each other too, so they could not both be open simultaneously and work properly. NA also came up that I had to repair a lot of stuff... Not overly happy there.
  7. Some folks just feed off of negativity... it is often better not to feed them.
  8. I do appreciate them splitting out the modules. I just got a chance to kick the tires on Nectar 4 for a bit, but didn't catch the video above until afterwards. The new "assistant" page is handy for quick tweaks (they are pretty much macros for the FX chain), but can also delve into the FX chain as with previous versions. I am a bit on the fence with the auto-level still... for dialogue that is helpful (I was more focused there just now), but for a vocal track I would not do what they did in that video (the dynamic range of a vocalist often adds the emotion to the song). Nectar 4 has become a better Swiss army knife for sure. I didn't even touch the backing vocal stuff shown in that video, but now I am curious. I will have to check that out later when I have time.
  9. When I saw that price I had a feeling that this might be the case, so jumped on it immediately. Even owning 5.2 that is $14 a pop for 3 new versions of software.
  10. Audio DSP has been saturated for quite some time, so many things are like painting a sheep and trying to sell it as a different animal. People still buy them though. Even 8 years later, Rack Spacer is still around and still free. Can't get more accurate hardware emulation than that one!
  11. "Tedious job" and "no issues" used in the same sentence is counterintuitive to an average user though.
  12. I had that happen to me updating the Product Portal. First Captcha hell, then I get an email from NI thanking me for setting up my account(??). Everything was showing with 10 updates available, but I was already bored by that point and blew the updates off.
  13. Meh, censorship is its own form of self destruction, and folks don't need to bash in the Coffee House or Deals forum anyway. There have been plenty of posts in the main Cakewalk forum over the years. Gibson really backed Cakewalk into a corner with what they did, so I am more curious given what has been stated and implied on how this will manifest itself in reality.
  14. Compressors are one of the most often used musical tools, so I want to be sure I am not trying to oversimplify them. It is important that they are understood. Thank you for posting those files. I sent you a PM, and can discuss that either there or here (your preference), but I tried to keep the simplest FX chain possible in what I did with your original.
  15. Being new, you did jump into the deeper end of the pool, so give yourself a LOT of credit for the tenacity to stick with it (pun intended). Even separately, controllers, MIDI, and virtual instruments can be daunting and you jumped in with all three. Sometimes it is best to focus on a small task and learn that, say just sitting with SSD5 and tailoring out your default kit, working with a drum map, or working with the outputs of SSD5. Eat the elephant one bite at a time. Acronyms and keywords are going to come at you like drinking from a fire hose, you will not be able to escape that. Something that may be helpful there is to ask a question on what you want to do with a given task, and folks will very often come back with ideas and the keywords you need so you can delve further. Never hesitate to ask; this forum has some exceptional folks who go the extra mile to help others. Another trick you should be aware of... to find things that may have already been posted in detail (often there are), a Google search that starts with "site:discuss.cakewalk.com" (this forum) or "site:forum.cakewalk.com" (the old forum) and then the keywords you are looking for will give you better results and zero in on these forum(s) specifically. Such as "site:discuss.cakewalk.com How to make a drum map"
  16. Is all good, we all have to learn at some point, so asking (and more often doing) are the best ways to learn new things. Let me summarize again for context with what you asked above. The "knee" is where a compressor kicks in. Below it, the ratio is 1:1, and above that is where the compressor kicks in and uses whatever ratio you have set. It is simple the point where the compressor kicks in and looks like a knee on that graph. You are correct with normalization. It takes the loudest part of a wave form and raises it to the level you specify while keeping the dynamic range. I do most EQ prior to compression (you can have multiple EQs in a chain) for the simple reason that if you reduce the dynamic range (compress) on a signal, it makes EQ more difficult, and if you have something you didn't want in the first place (like room noise), it is harder to remove after going through a compressor. The normalization is so that the compressor kicks in consistently for everything you are feeding it (without it, the entire signal may pass below the threshold you have set, so the compressor is doing nothing). The reason is more so that FX chains you set up will be easier to tailor when already "close" in the future. Again, there is no right or wrong to many things, so is more consistency in a workflow that works for you and makes sense. Patch points are just a feature to keep in mind, but they allow you to record a signal at a processing point that you choose.
  17. I am not familiar with SSD5 specifically, but most of that (if not all) can be done from inside the VSTi. Each kit piece should have its own EQ, pan, fader, etc., as well as overhead and room channels, and often their own built-in FX racks. The audio outputs of many VSTis also include multiple outputs (almost like their own mini-DAW) allowing you to record the audio to separate tracks or mixing entirely within the VSTi depending on your preference. When learning that aspect, you could focus on just learning SSD5 and use MIDI samples that either come with SSD5 or from the loop library (drag/drop into MIDI tracks) to learn the routing and functionality of SSD5 itself.
  18. This is the MIDI versus audio again, but you also mentioned tracking versus mixing, so will hit those quick. For tracking (recording MIDI from the TD-17), you want buffers lower (may need to shut FX off globally with the "E" hotkey) so that latency is minimal. This is so you can capture your MIDI performance with kit pieces on separate tracks (preferred). For mixing (post production), you are now working with editing MIDI performance in Cakewalk, and tailoring the audio from SSD5 to fill the stage appropriately. During this part, you will want buffers higher (you will get latency and should not be tracking/recording during this stage) and be focused on the mix. If you do need to track again during this, the global FX bypass can be helpful, but mixing is more the relaxing, drinking coffee and focusing on post production part. Keep your tracking a post-production stages separate and realize that the buffer size varies between them as well.
  19. MIDI can be a bit daunting when first learning, but a big advantage to MIDI is that if you capture a MIDI recording, you can modify the sample sounds after the performance during the editing phase. With a VSTi it is as simple as changing/modifying the kit piece in SSD5(swap snares, change the kick parameters, etc.). It is not until you record the audio output that you are "locked in" as it were. @Lord Tim is giving you a lot of good advice here, so I don't want to step on what he is doing. Just keep in mind that you are working with two distinct yet interrelated things: 1) recording your MIDI performance from the TD-17 and it being mapped correctly to fire SSD5 (you can edit the MIDI as you see fit after performing as well), and 2) the audio performance of SSD5 which is quite similar to what you have done to tailor your TD-17 kit.
  20. I just looked at the other thread quickly. This thread title seems like you are trying to get SSD5 to play through the TD-17? I just wanted to clarify that (has its own editing issues), and be a more complex routing setup. Let's rewind a bit, since you are new... First, MIDI is only note information (no sound), and the TD kits (I am familiar with the TD-9) have a MIDI path and and audio one. I think this is why the VST Instruments (VSTi) got mentioned in the other thread. With MIDI, you can record each kit piece to its own track, but if you record the audio output (what you tailored), you get "everything" back as one combined audio track. Seems the hat was too loud so you wanted to be able to edit the individual pieces. Quick answer to the question is that if you are sending MIDI to the TD-17, you must also be receiving the audio output from the TD-17 back into a new audio track in Cakewalk with the input echo (speaker icon) enabled. MIDI will then go to the TD-17, get processed with your kit setup, and come back to Cakewalk as audio, but as one track rather than separate pieces. (This is a pain, since editing is simpler with the pieces on different tracks). If you record a performance as MIDI, you can record one piece per track, but would need to then record each track individually (solo each piece, MIDI to the TD-17, and record the audio from the TD-17 back to a new track in Cakewalk). Optionally, you could use the same routing, but record them all into one audio track, but that limits editing options for the audio at that point. Pay attention when setting up tracks for if it is MIDI or audio, and what the input/output is for each track. Any MIDI must be processed into audio (either by a VSTi or hardware) in order to then be recorded as audio on a new track. Setting up VSTis can be complex unto themselves, so trying not to bury you with information here.
  21. Here is the link to the documentation on that, and the "2X" button at the top of the GUI is a global enable/bypass for it. Another option to consider is only to use for rendering, not for playback, which will lighten CPU load. For real world experience, it has more dependency on the quality of the samples being used rather than the plugin itself, so setting the up "across the board" may be overkill if working with quality samples. Where it does make a big difference is with using legacy products/samples, such as those with TTS-1.
  22. That is far better than the alternative IMO. Typing the same answer to a dozen different people asking the same question over the years has gotten a bit old, but part of that was also because the search engine wasn't the greatest. There have been a lot of helpful posts over the years that have just faded into oblivion and are very difficult to find.
  23. I guess I would prefer one knob wetter to one bed wetter, but looks like a title from a raunchy personal ad... "Wanted: One Knob Wetter"
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