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mettelus

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Posts posted by mettelus

  1. Hmmm... scroll halfway down the page and this section stands out:

    "Dolby Atmos Support*

    ORIA integrates with the Dolby Renderer, letting you take control of the down mix functionality directly from ORIA’s user interface. Ideal for quickly checking your mix in different monitoring layouts, such as 7.1, 5.1, stereo and more.

    *Pending Certification"

     

    Fact of the matter is you can mix on any surround system with a DAW that can see it. For $2700 you can buy a a pretty wicked surround system.

    • Great Idea 1
  2. 2 hours ago, Misha said:

    So likely I hit Echo on one of the Kontakt tracks that I don't want to touch by accident, right? 

    Correct, when working with VSTis, the input echo should follow the active track unless you have manually echoed other tracks (just be mindful of doing this). This allows you to work and keep VSTis in "omni" mode and your controller set on channel 1 for "most" situations. It makes things simpler from a routing perspective, but keep track of where input echos are (they should follow the active track for overdubbing work).

    However, when you work with VSTis that have pass-through, or even generate their own MIDI outputs, is when to be more diligent with channel assignments and routing. Be cognizant of this one, since you could be passing MIDI to a VSTi from the controller which is then sharing an "output" to everything else reading that MIDI channel.

    • Like 1
  3. 34 minutes ago, Misha said:

    I have several plugins that use same MIDI in channel for physical MIDI controller.  Is it possible to shift  the focus from one plugin to another, without rechanneling to other  MIDI channels or setting all others to "none"? 

    Can you clarify this further? Does "plugin" mean VSTi (virtual instrument) here? If so, it is common practice to only input echo the active track (for recording), so other tracks would only be playing data already present on those tracks in an overdub scenario. IIRC, "input echo current track" is set to on by default, so that should automatically shift for you with whichever track you put into focus while working. Just to clarify, "none" and "omni" used to be interchangeable (not sure if this was ever changed), so input echo may be what you are seeking.

    However, if by "plugin" you mean inserted FX, they will actively listen to the channel they are assigned to, so that becomes more complex and may require attention to channel assignments.

  4. 9 hours ago, TheSteven said:

    But I must admit that while I always checkout and collect their offerings I don't use it (at least not yet)

    I am in the same boat with this. With FX pre-baked into the samples (all 36GB of them) and a rudimentary GUI, the limitations outweigh the usefulness for me. I forget now which newer instrument I had caught a review of, but the GUI being used replicated LABS enough that I passed on watching the rest of it. LABS was definitely good exposure to Spitfire as a whole though, so I did pick up a few other things along the way.

    • Like 2
  5. Is this happening frequently enough that you can see if there is a process is spiking the CPU before the fans kick on? It is quite possible that the fans are functioning "as expected" but there may be a background app triggering the fans that may not be properly scripted to throttle itself based on CPU temp. Task Manager may be helpful if this occurs frequently enough. On the Processes tab if you sort descending by CPU, something may obviously bubble to the top of that list before the fans kick on. You can also leave it running behind the left edge of another app and squish down the "Name" column and move the CPU column next to it so you can leave it running but still monitor it while you are doing other things.

    There are also a few "phone home" processes that try to do their business as quickly and stealthily as possible, so putting the machine into "airplane mode" would be another option to check. Most of them will not trigger at all without a live internet connection.

  6. 3 hours ago, Simple Verse said:

    Am I correct assuming this trick is rather modern thing? I don't think they used this back in the 90's in euro dance? Or what you think? Any sample tracks where this might have been applied during that era?

    If by "rather modern thing" you mean "fad," then pretty much; no different than gated drums or even the loudness wars. As far as the mechanics behind it, there is nothing new about it. That video keeps popping up off and on, but it is definitely not a "required" feature to be used. I am definitely not a "swimming in reverb" proponent, but someone had asked how to set that up in CbB specifically several months ago.

     

    • Like 1
  7. 2 hours ago, Byron Dickens said:

    You know what really baffles me the most? Those assholes who complain that you aren't being helpful when you link them to the exact page in the documentation or to a clear, concise video that completely explains their exact question. 

    LOL, this one got me a while back with someone doing a tempo map in Melodyne. I had even bookmarked the start time in the YT link and it was only 40s long to watch! After that thread ran for a another page, I finally broke down and asked if they even watched it, it is only 40s long??? Good grief. Some people seem too focused on the attention from having a "problem" than really wanting a solution/work around. Usually I just back out of those without saying a word, but that one actually triggered me.

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  8. Do you happen to have any Corsair fan controls installed? The only time I have seen this occur is from their drivers (and on a desktop), but the situation was rather unique. They actually drilled into the UEFI and adjusted clock settings, so had created a cycle of massive CPU heat generation due to extreme O/C inserts followed by "jet engine" cooling cycles. I had to go into services to manually disable that (was Corsair LINK 4 on this machine), then into UEFI to re-clock the machine.

    Barring that very specific, oddball situation, be sure to always run a laptop on a hard surface with the vent ports totally free from obstruction. Fans kicking in like that are triggered by a temperature threshold, so a utility to monitor all temps is warranted until you can find out what the fan is triggering on and what is causing the heat. Moo0 System Monitor is a lightly-weight utility that may help; the "portable" version is specifically handy because you do not need to install anything and can carry it around with you on a thumb drive to use when needed.

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  9. I am with @57Gregy on this one. An interface conflict like in the OP is very common when it is in use by another program (even Windows). It seems from the OP that you have both applications open, and since Guitar Rig does have recording capability (for the looper), I am assuming you opened Guitar Rig first and it locked your Scarlett on you. Guitar Rig should only be used as a VST internal to SONAR in this case.

    Windows is also the gatekeeper, so another thing to verify is that both "Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device" and "Give exclusive mode applications priority" are unchecked in the Properties->Advanced tab for the Scarlett in the Windows Sound Control Panel. Even silly things like browsing YouTube or such can cause Windows to give control of your interface to the browser with those options checked. Windows is very much "first come, first served" so I even go so far as to explicitly assign the RealTek chip as the default sound device in Windows so that most apps won't even see the interface unless you assign it within the app itself. The first app that sees that interface and uses it can lock it on you.

    • Like 1
  10. There have been various iterations of pop ups/warnings over the years to varying degrees of effectiveness for missing components, but this situation warrants a pop up when the transport is started. A pop up with "You currently have no output device selected. Would you like to select one now?" and a button that either drills them directly into the preferences page or a routing blurb would help new folks a lot. A routing map of the current project would be true icing on the cake, but this particular one is a (not-so-obvious) showstopper. Even something as simple as highlighting the drop down in the Master to RED when "none" is selected would make people take notice (they could be monitoring a buss instead, but it would make the situation more obvious just in case).

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  11. +1 to the above. Another thing to be cognizant of is that many "solutions" are static in two regards... 1) they assume collapse to mono, and 2) they often apply a solution that will not change during the duration of a song unless you actively intercept that. While neither is inherently "bad," they tend to ignore two other important elements, panning and faders. Another thing to keep in mind is to focus on elements in the same way that you want the listener to track them (even with simple faders/automation) to give space/focus when introduced then move them more into the background if they are repetitive. Even with frequency collisions, the louder will take precedence at that point in time, so EQ may not always be the right choice for the situation.

    While many "unmasking" tools can be super helpful, just beware of things that give you a static solution irrespective of the dynamics of the song itself, verse, chorus, yada yada, across an entire track.

    • Like 2
  12. On 1/25/2024 at 11:23 AM, ST1 said:

    When I play the problematic songs in Cakewalk, the meters that would indicate playback is happening don’t show any activity either. It’s like the song has actually become silent across all tracks. It is bizarre.

    As rsinger noted, this isn't a device issue, this is indicative of a routing issue. You may have opened a project without the initial Master output connected so it may have defaulted to "none" on you at that point. If you saved it after that point, the routing will continue to have no Master out until you assign it manually to something that Cakewalk can see (via Windows). It is always good practice to have devices connected and online before launching the app that needs them.

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  13. 7 hours ago, charles kasler said:

    These seem like two different functions to me but are they redundant?

    Frequency masking is a psycho-acoustic effect whereby frequencies only 2-3dB lower in volume begin to get "drowned out," so the EQ approach is much more surgical to mixing. Many compressors affect the entire frequency spectrum, so ducking can "pump" frequencies that were never an issue to be unmasked anyway and become obvious very quickly. If you are using instruments with a wide frequency output (particularly synths), the EQ approach allows for the rest of the spectrum (that has no masking issues) to shine through without affecting it. An extreme example for clarification... ducking a bass track from a vocal would be moot and actually cause the bass to drop out with every phrase being sung.

  14. 4 hours ago, Alan Bachman said:

    it would be nice if there was a way to have Cakewalk, or a plugin, automatically adjust the envelopes, so that all one has to do as is check them out and maybe make some tweaks from the application of the auto envelope adjuster.

    This was actually a side issue in the situation I had mentioned above. She had had minimal exposure to recording/DAW usage and not developed an ear for listening at that point, so I found myself constantly searching for visual aids to drive explanations home. I ended up having her Bounce to Track(s) fairly frequently when she started out so that she could visually see those changes on her own till she developed an ear for them. Barring a few exceptions, waveform changes due to tweaks, and especially FX, can only be visualized by baking them in on a Bounce to Track(s). For real-time monitoring, SPAN is also a good tool to monitor changes since you can use instances side-by-side to "straddle" the FX in question, as well as it being light-weight enough that you can use it pretty much anywhere and everywhere you need to "see" in a project.

    • Like 3
  15. 9 hours ago, Simple Verse said:

    Doesn't the harder one overrun the more subtle one anyway?

    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.

    • Like 4
  16. 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.

  17. 5 hours ago, Paul Young said:

    I don't want to deal with makelink either.

    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.

  18. 1 hour ago, Tim Elmore said:

    However, I prefer to record a double in a completely separate track because that provides independent adjustment of playback levels and other parameters (panning, effects, etc.).

    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.

    • Like 1
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  19. 8 hours ago, prey said:

    All show “Installed” in iZotope Product portal in Windows 11

    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.

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