mettelus

Be VERY careful about making assumptions like this. This comment stuck out for me so much that it is worth jacking the brakes on for a second. In order to use compression, you need to understand compression... how it functions, when to use it, and when it can become your worst enemy. This link is a good reference, and particularly of note is the "Anatomy of a Compressor" graphic near the top. It is good to get intimately familiar with those parameters, and they are common to any compressor (whether you have adjustments for them or not). To Alan's point, a "heavy" compressor is typically to tame plosives or spikes, and often set with high thresholds and high ratios (similar to a limiter), just enough to bring those spikes down into a reasonable range without affecting the "core" audio. After that, a "lighter" compressor with a lower threshold and low ratio (typically 2:1 maximum) would be used to even out the bulk of the audio content, and is often used to then feed more elements of an FX chain (which in turn can have thresholds as well). As Craig mentioned, this is highly dependent on the actual material, what you are trying to achieve, and what the rest of any FX is doing. To the points above, it is worth reiterating that there is no "one size fits all" solution. Just be cautious of this mindset. **** As to what options to use, that can be 100% personal preference. Several months ago someone had asked for vocal help with the caveat of buying nothing new. For her situation, TDR Nova was used, in addition to CbB's Sonitus Multiband. For free options, Nova has the advantage of being a dynamic compressor (as well as the visual aid of seeing the output as you make adjustments), and Sonitus Multiband was useful on a sibilant issue she was facing. Again, everything is content-specific, so learn to reach for the right tools for the job at hand and adjust accordingly.

Have to be mindful of serious posts in the CH. Just the title made me half expect to see this Now I am not sure if I should be disappointed or not.

Zero experience with these, but a generic "best [whatever]" will often yield a buyersguide.org link near the top worth perusing. Best Portable Keyboards give this one, and the Blackstar models seems to hit the top of that list for foldable variants. Once you dig into review on things, I find the negative reviews tend to be the most useful (if they took the time to actually write something substantial in it). It is also good if you can put the price point into the "expendable" category, so if it gets dropped into a lake you won't freak out about it.

You are almost destined to come to grips with this one if using a 256GB C drive. Once you start working with audio/video files, the temp files alone go into GB range quickly (most apps allow for directing temp files storage locations, but few purge them on their own). Some installers also leave rather massive files in the Windows/Installer (hidden) directory for each version you have installed... that directory alone can take up 10% of the C drive if not monitored. Even uninstalling can leave orphans, and PatchCleaner is the only utility that comes to mind in dealing with those easily. The advantage of a smaller C drive has always been with imaging. xcopy/robocopy are quick ways to archive data files, but when safeguarding the OS, an image is required. Oddly enough, the reason I stepped up to a 512GB C drive was that the Recovery partition defaults to 500MB, so when I swapped drives, I increased that to 1GB. Once that partition went over 90%, the boot ups started getting funky, and the drive was being degraded due to usage anyway. Even after that swap, I still keep the C drive small (210GB for 804 installed apps) for imaging reasons. When things start bubbling over the 4GB range, I start considering if it is worth a junction or outright uninstalling.

This is wise advice. A quick alternative to populating the background track is to shift-drag clips from take lanes into another "Background Vocal" track. Shift-drag preserves timing (CTRL-drag makes a copy, CRTL-Shift-drag does both) so in your case, just using Shift-drag will move them out of the original track (leaving holes from where you took them) so you are not confused by what remains in the original track. Quick edit - You could also construct the Lead Vocal track the same way to avoid confusion. Have the original track with all of the takes, then shift-drag clips to the appropriate (Lead or Background) track... then when you are done, everything left in the original track can safely be deleted.

As silly as this sounds, I had this happen a while back and seemed to be during the acquisition by NI. Both Native Access and the Product Portal had updates that didn't automatically prompt the update, but did affect the installs. I cannot remember the exact recipe I used, but be sure you have the most recent Product Portal version installed and try a re-installation from within that. IIRC, there was some fruity log-in requiring me to log into Native Access (with my iZotope credentials of all things) to get the Product Portal to log back in. I would hope that was fixed by now, but it is possible that is what has happened. If that and a manual VST rescan doesn't work, try shooting an email to iZotope... they are pretty responsive there.

As long as the audio wasn't clipped during recording (i.e., it was not clipped at the interface) and you are only seeing it from FX during mixing, you can isolate that section of audio (split it at both ends), then use clip gain (CTRL-mouse drag down) to reduce the gain on that region specifically to make it better match prior sessions. But if that was clipped by the interface during recording (i.e., the 24-bit audio written to disc), then re-recording is a better consideration.

Just to clarify this for you (I tend to send one-liners from my phone in posts), the only channels available on a stereo interface are left and right (front). Even the center channel in a surround system is a separate speaker channel, so panning anything "center" when using surround pans (those pan knobs are a quick giveaway) is telling the DAW to mono output on that channel. In a stereo environment that will output the same volume from both speakers, but in surround that is its own channel that doesn't exist for you. Unless you are mixing and playing back on a surround system, channels like center, right-rear, left-rear, bass, etc. won't be available. Stick to the channels you have available in the environment you are using, which are stereo in your case.

Why are you using surround on a stereo interface? One reason you can be losing sound is because you have channels set up in surround that the interface doesn't have available.

The only two things I have noticed that will cause these issues are 1) using junctions for the main apps (things like Battery are highly sensitive to this one) and 2) some registry cleaners will clear the registration data on libraries.

That second video you posted is very well done. The only thing to note is he used needle-nose pliers on the jack nuts on the face... it is much better to use a ratchet (or even adjustable wrench in a pinch) on those so you do not scratch them (same for guitar tuners if you ever pop them out).

The other thing that came to mind is @John Vere may have already claimed the demo in the past (even V6 has been out almost a year and a half now). If you already claimed the demo previously (whether you used it or not), as soon as you log into your account, your only option would be to buy it. IIRC, just by logging into your account, there should be records of everything downloaded for that account (including trials). I do, however, find this odd propensity to promulgate disinformation rather entertaining. It seems to rear its ugly head any time "self-interest" is involved.

Just from the overview, VEA has "most" of the easy screen from Nectar 4 on it, so it makes me wonder if it is simply a lesser version of that section. If so, that is actually driving modules behind the scenes (you just cannot edit them), but may be a very viable alterative to Nectar 4 for some folks.

You shouldn't have to take off any components (possibly the knob on the top itself if the pot is actually mounted to the bottom half... you'll know as soon as you take out those 6 end screws, but I'd wager that pot is mounted to the top plate). Most components are mounted, then wired, so you just need access to the contacts from "inside." I suspect it has a single printed circuit board (PCB) mounted to the bottom half (and should not need to take this off). Unless they did something funky, just opening it will let you access what you need to clean. Quick update for clarification: The slot behind the wiring tabs on the back of pots is direct access to the wiper internally.

Gibson has their nostalgia kicks, but the market they need to appeal to only have grandparents who would remember these. Weird tidbit on the wiki page for the originals... "according to Gibson's records 204 were sold in 1961." As these cost more than a HELIX Floor, it does baffle me about the price point as well.

Are you saying the "Free 30-Day Pro Demo" link on this page doesn't work? The demo has always been for the Pro version AFAIK, but is a one-time deal like most software out there. I only mentioned it because the "Performance Monitor" is one of the easiest and "free" ones (if you have never run the demo before). There have been tools over the years done for SONAR, but they require multiple inserts rather than a "dashboard" view to let you see what all the guts are doing in a few seconds.

Unfortunately, Cakewalk doesn't have a performance monitor that drills into plugin performance (it has been feature requested more than once), and threads on these topics hit quite often. Nectar 3/4 both can have a significant CPU/latency hit, with Nectar 3 being (far) worse. The "A Bit of Everything" preset inserts 18% CPU usage and 195.6ms of latency (one instance) with Nectar 3, and 14% CPU/16ms with Nectar 4 (latency is far better, but still). That said, when you have a slew of plugins, trial-and-error troubleshooting can be a royal PITA. Being in a situation where you do not know whether the issue is the machine or plugins (much more likely), a DEMO of Studio One will give you insight into plugin issues immediately. Simply load a couple loops into a few tracks, drop in plugins you are using often, then "View->Performance Monitor" and check "Show devices." You will be able to see the performance of each plugin (similar to this), and some of them may totally shock you by what they are doing to your system. You really need to have a firm grasp of what plugins are problem children before you go tearing into a system looking for issues (that may or may not be relevant).

I took a quick look at that controller and a couple things for you. First, there are 3 screws on each end so the unit will come apart into 2 pieces AFAICT (the bottom and sides are one piece). The guts are not "loose" but any interconnecting wiring may be short, so opening it similar to a book is the best way to open the case. Just disconnect everything prior and be sure to use a screwdriver that seats properly so you do not round off the corners of the screws. Working on a towel helps a lot if a screw tries to escape, so it won't roll off someplace on you. The buttons (should) have a protective rubber mat over the switches, but all of the contacts need to be sprayed with them clearly exposed to clean them properly. Pots have a hole on the back (the "big knob"), and the push buttons can be gotten from the top (under where the mat should be). The TRS jacks you can get from the outside easily like you already did; but if you pop that open, that is also a good opportunity to add a little more "spring" to them by pushing them a little toward the center of the 1/4" holes (the tip connection is really just a spring).

Quick question on this... did you take the cover off and apply the DeOxit through the hole on the back of the pot? The wiper blade is actually "exposed" (and accessible) there, and that is the only way to get DeOxit onto what has actually corroded inside a potentiometer.

Absolutely, automation lanes are commonly used for material that is resident within a track. This is a link to an old help file page, but there are also videos online to help explain as well. Try to be as descriptive as possible with searches, and automation lane videos will pop up for you. Mike at Creative Sauce has a couple of them here and here. I wasn't clear from your OP if you were looking to modify performance real time or were focused on mixing (where the track contents are static, but you want to adjust that content).

I am not sure if you have done much guitar work, but many lower end guitars will need finishing work on frets, nut, and possibly hardware (bridge specifically). This is in addition to any PUP swaps or wiring changes. If looking for mahogany specifically, China has one of the largest reserves, so is easy to get one-piece bodies cheap that way. With the amount of work you may be facing (just keep that in mind), kits are another option, but you would also need to final finish the wood in addition to the above. I built a LP kit a couple years ago and only needed to replace one PUP and the bridge. @Grem also picked up Strat-style kit and just finished it recently, but some of that set up was a bit more than he was anticipating. Because of the level of attention I gave to that kit, the only guitar I own that plays better is the one I had PLEK'd.

Another alternative is RiffStation, which was a paid-for app that got unlocked when the developer stopped support so is now free but can be hard to find. With RiffStation you can adjust tempo of the playback file (only one file at a time) on the left side of the main screen. It was geared for guitarists, but can be used on any media it supports.

MTremelo is all that is required (no need for the MB variant), and is free (part of the MFreeFXBundle). If your work is to create the filter for audio (which seems the case but not sure), you can have MTremelo do that work for you, and also adjust length as desired to filter at different rates "on the fly." Below is a quick screen cap of what @Promidi was referring to. The yellow, fuchsia, and orange paths are blowouts from the main screen. You can get rid of the negative cycles via either the yellow or fuchsia paths in the pic above, and edit those to your heart's content. The orange is advanced settings, and you do not want interpolation or crossfading enabled (based on the OP), but you certainly can depending on the desired result. Be sure depth is set to 100% (main screen), as well as sync to DAW and set the length to what you need (1/128th in your OP description). MTremelo alone will allow you to mash up audio at will without the need to do any additional advanced editing shenanigans.

You are sort of asking two questions here. The built-in loop construction view is Alt-7 on the keyboard. As far as playing back varying lengths of that loop "on demand," if that loop always starts at the beginning, you could try using the Matrix View (Alt-5), and adjust the settings to stop playback between cells so that you can MIDI-control the duration of what is played. There is a very old tutorial series that is still (mostly) applicable for most of CbB (it was made for SONAR X2). The chapter list and videos are on separate pages. What you are asking about are Chapter 26 (Matrix View) and Chapter 35 (Groove Loops).

Just to reiterate the above, what you are seeking can easily be done with a VST Instrument (there are many free ones that are nice) and you can either trigger notes by manually entering them in the Piano Roll View (PRV), via the Virtual Keyboard, or with an external MIDI controller. You will be editing mostly in the PRV, but you would not need a keyboard that has onboard sounds, so if you want a physical MIDI controller, that can be plugged in via USB and seen as a separate device in CbB without issues or conflicts with your 2i2.