Cecelius2

Where is the best place for best price to purchase (download version) of Komplete13Collectors Edition Upgrade (from K12Ultimate) in the USA? I don't need the hard-drive and don't see any USA vendors that have it on sale. I would normally purchase from Jrrshop but they do not have the sale yet. Thanks

Good News! Spitfire is fixing the LABS Leak. I received an email from Spitfire tech support today with beta versions that fix the leak. I have tested the vst and vst3 beta releases and I used Pluginguru's Unify 1.5 to make sure that this is fixed. I tried every category/type of LABS instruments and there were no crashes any more; I also let it run for most of the morning; no crashes. So, Spitfire will be updating this fix to Labs at some point (I do not know when). C2

FYI--Labs Memory leak. The programmer/coder over at PluginGuru has said that Labs has a serious Memory Leak problem. Here is a link to their forum where he says: "LABS has serious memory bugs. We have an ongoing discussion with Spitfire Audio support staff." and also "This is a known issue with the LABS plug-in, which I have reported to Spitfire Audio. It affects every host, not just Unify. Please report it to Spitfire yourself,..." Here is a link to his quote: https://forums.pluginguru.com/questions-about-unify-v1-0/unify-is-crashing-labs/#post-8761 My problem is that Labs is still crashing my Cakewalk and Cubase DAWS on two different Desktop computers, but to be fair I have had the vst Unify from pluginguru also running when LABS crashed. Please submit support tickets to Spitfire Audio Support so they can track down this memory leak and crashing of LABS. Cecelius2

I have seen LABS crash my Cakewalk and my Unify vst. I reported this to Spitfire Audio last week and opened a support ticket. You should also know that The Pluginguru complany has indicated that there is a problem with LABS crashing their PluginGuru Unify program and that LABS also is crashing multiple DAWS. Pluginguru opened a support ticket with Spitfire ; their support ticket # is: 169679. You should also report your problem to Spitfire and mention that ticket number. The more people who complain about this problem with LABS, the better the chance that it will be fixed. [EDIT: Since you mentioned the possiblity of a Netkar issue, let me add that this crashing happens no matter which controller I use, which are Native Instruments S61, StudioLogic SL990, and my Edirol/Roland PCR800; so I do not think it is related to Nektar controllers.-- I hope that helps. Please report your issue to Spitfire Audio's Support.]

Thanks. This is very helpful information. I do like and use the Fender collections and use mostly clean and clean boast overdriven sounds. I have installed AT5CS but it does not have the VIR cabinet enhancements; so it is hard to hear any cabinet changes. I am leaning toward getting AT5SE and your post has helped. Thanks C2

This has been alluded to in other posts, but I thought I would ask now that some of you have had time to try out AT5 QUESTION: How does AT5 compare to Neural DSP (Plini, Abasi, Fortin) or Scuffham S-Gear? I primarily use these and am very happy but I still use AT4 (Fender collections and SWR Bass). Is AT5 up to the same "realism" that S-Gear or Neural DSP provide? [I might upgrade AT4 to AT5SE but only if AT5 is close to Neural] Thanks C2

Thanks Matthew and Reid. Both of you have answered my question. What you have said is what I suspected. Your responses have helped.

Question for you guys who have purchased in previous seasons: If an Sonikinetic product is on sale during the Black Friday sale, is it worth waiting for the 12 Days of Christmas to see if it will also be part of that sale? or is it best to purchase the product during the BF sale as they do not repeat products during the Christmas sale? I ask because I have not purchased from them in either the BF or the 12 Days of Christmas sales. I have my eye on one of their products and definitely want to pick it up during a sale, but do not know how things have been done there in the past seasons. Any advice? C2

After reading this thread I waited. Then after several attempts, I finally was able to update my Cubase 10 to Cubase 11 Pro (using a 10 to 10.5 update). I had purchased the 10 to 10.5 update this past summer, but held the activation until 11 came out. At first, my eLicenser would not perform its maintenance process. It took several tries over several hours. But just now, the eLicenser successfully did its maintenance process. So, I then entered the 10 to 10.5 update and got a message that said they were updating me to Cubase 11. Thanks to those who recommended waiting this past Summer. I think I will do this every year (that is purchase the .5 update, but hold it until the next full update arrives before activation). C2

Off Topic a bit. How do you use the kontakthub credits? I have 57 credits, but do not know if that means 57 dollars/euros off or 57 cents. Anyone every used their credits?

I logged in and found that if I click on the menu tab (top far right) that there was a drop down menu. At the bottom of the drop down list there is a "sign out" option. I don't know if it is working properly. It did not seem to log me out, but when I exited and went back I was logged out.

+1 on Keyswitches needed. FYI--I am longtime user of Cakewalk (since 1994 TwelveTones Cakewalk 3.0 midi sequencer). Love Cakewalk. I also use Cubase Pro (because of midi editing and keyswitches) and I just got Studio One 5 upgrade only because of the keyswitches. Cakewalk (CnB) is my goto, first to goto, DAW. I use it first, but sometimes I have to use Cubase or SO5. I realize that the Bakers have done a tremendous job and I look forward to the new update with the expanded arranger track features. It would be nice if CnB would eventually get Keyswitch maping like Cubase Pro and SO5 have. Just my 2cents. C2

I did get a reply to my email today. I will not repeat all he wrote, but here are a couple paragraphs that pertain to the issue of distortion and some presets being too loud: "Thank you for your note and for the feedback. Please be aware that many of the presets are meant for a certain style of playing. For example, the preset "LA Beauty" which was mentioned on the Cakewalk forum as causing distortion, is meant for Thomas Newman "American Beauty" type delicate playing. It will certainly distort at louder velocities because it is not meant to be played that way. If other presets are distorting, they are most likely not the right preset for the playing style. If you would like to send me an export of your midi, I can take a look at it and recommend the most appropriate velocity settings and suggested presets. Also remember that you can always turn down the microphone volumes under the Close and Room microphones for gain staging. This is recommended as it behaves like an analog console." I can live with this since the tonal character of each preset is the desired behaviour as designed by the developer. I can tweak my velocity settings and maybe do some Kontakt Script editing to adjust the volume levels for my playing. I also will look forward to any future updates that the developer issues and will monitor that Vi-Control thread. C2

Let me add that the developer noted this also on the VI-control thread pertaining to the new 701920 nki update: "Certain presets have also been updated to make limiting less aggressive. Future updates will add GUI functionality for controlling the compression/limiting of some presets."

Christian: I purchased this back in June. I too noticed the distortion on some presets and also several presets being way too hot. I immediately noticed that I had to do gain staging with many presets--I would have to lower the Kontakt volume slider down for the instrument itself. This helped some on some presets with them being too loud. However, I also had to add a limiter to the general output on the Kontakt output buss. This helped with some presets redlining the outputs, but it did not help with the distortion. I just downloaded the 071920 update nki that Simeon linked. Simeon--Thanks for this link. This update helped with some of the gain staging issue, but the distortion is still there on several presets. I have had to go into the "wrench" Kontakt setup for each preset and adjust some of the effects in the chain used. Still, there is too much distortion on some presets. The new update is better, but there needs to further adjustments to deal with the distortion on some presets I also just sent SimpleSam an email explaining my issues. EDIT: Here is a very good video showing how to tweak the Kontakt scripting for Signature Grand. Very helpful

Jean: Thanks very much for this workaround. I tried it and it worked perfectly. Now I have my old Softube Mix Bundle working in the Prochannel, but for the vst 2 and vst3 audio effects I have the updated Softube products. Thanks for a great save. C2

I got the Reason Rack Lite as part of this deal. I got it for the Midi Out feature. The Midi Out works very well with Cakewalk CnB; CnB shows the correct midi out channel from the Reason RackLite Midi Out. You can change the midi channel on the Reason Rack Lite's Midi Out and you can select that midi channel in CnB and it works well. If I loaded several different midi outs on Reason Rack, all of the midi outs show and work correctly with CnB. However, I could not get Reason Rack Lite to work this well in Cubase 10 or Studio One 4.5. In both Cubase and Studio One I could get Reason Rack to send out midi, but neither Cubase nor Studio One would show the Reason Rack's Midi Out CHANNELS. There was just a one single generic output. Yes, I could get midi out of the Rack, but only one channel, and there was no way of selecting the midi channel. I had to load multiple instances of Reason Rack Lite to get separate midi outs (and still not able to select the channel in Cubase or SO4.5) Just so you know, I tried LoopMidi and LoopBe1 with Cubase and Studio One to see if there was a problem, but both midi products worked correctly and both Cubase and Studio One would show all 16 midi channels available. Maybe I just have something wrong. I can get Reason Rack Lite's Midi Out to work correctly in CnB, but the results with Cubase 10 and Studio One 4.5 are minimal. Yes it works, but with less than optimal results. BTW, I googled this and found that others have reported the same problem with Cubase. Perhaps others might want to report their experiences with this. If someone has been able to get Reason Rack Lite's Midi to work with all the midi channels available in Cubase or SO4.5, I would like to hear their results. C2

If anyone wants to support the request to be able to relocate/move the Sounds Library, here is a link to a thread I started on the Scaler Forum: https://forum.scalerplugin.com/t/relocation-of-sounds-library/3405 Cecelius2

I was very surprised that Scaler 2 did not have the option of moving the Sounds Library to a different location. The new Scaler 2 has a sounds library of 671MB and installed only on the C drive in the Public documents folder. Given that many are using small SSD drives for C drive and use larger hard drives for Samples, it is strange that the developers did not provide the option of moving the Sounds library. The Preferences does have a link to show where the Sounds library is, but not to change the location. Most developers now provide some means of moving or relocating the library of sounds/samples; so this should be something that is possible. The ability to move the Sounds Library has been a feature request going back to Scaler 1 and has been reported to be on the "to do" list. I and another have just made a request over on the Scaler Forum to have this feature added. The response has been that this is a feature request that will be considered once they have gotten Scaler 2 "rock solid" but that there are other features that are "prioritising over this one". This is very understandable as Scaler must be stable and bug free; however, I hope that they will follow through on this feature request to be able to move the Samples/Sounds library. BTW, Scaler 2 is a great product and so much fun and educational to use. Cecelius2

Thanks Ryan IKM! I am so glad you posted. Yes you are correct, and I was wrong. You actually can go direct out and disable cabs and amps. I had not figured out how to select/enable the DI (by clicking the Direct tab and having it's light come on) on the Mixer section. I was just trying to blend but had not enabled the DI itself. I apologize for my misleading mistake. Again, this is a GREAT sounding Hammond! And for this price, I cannot pass it up. Thanks again for this correction. [Edit: I just purchased it for $84 using my jampoints. Thank you IKM for a delightful product and a very nice sale!] C2

I know that GG Audio's Blue 3 and GSI's VB3-II are both modeled; I think that UVI's B5 is a hybrid that uses Samples and some modelling, and IKM's B3X is also some kind of hybrid that uses a mixture of samples and audio processing but with only a 500mb footprint. As I have noted in a different post, B3X, Blue 3, and VB3-II all have trial demos that you can download and try out on your system. This way you can find which is best for your needs and system.. Perhaps others might want to chime in to confirm or correct this?

I like this setup myself very much! While GG's Spin (Leslie) is great, adding IKM's Leslie adds something really nice to Blue3 and takes it to a very similar feel and sound as B3X. You can pretty much tweak Blue3 and get that B3X vibe by using IKM's Leslie. If IKM was not having this sale where with Jampoints I can get it for $84, I would just use Blue3 +IKM Leslie, but for this sale price, I can not pass up this deal. Also, playing B3X is just fun and very full sounding. Blue3 + IKM Leslie is still less than 1/2 the hit on the CPU compared to B3X. I figure that I can use B3X on smaller mixes and handle the hit, but for bigger CPU demanding mixes I may use Blue3+IKM Leslie. [Also I may use "freeze track" with B3x more so to reduce the cpu load.] [Edit: Let add that B3X's high CPU hit is worse when the GUI is open, but when the GUI is closed, the CPU load does drop considerably.]

I am still evaluating IKM B3X. From what I have read on other forums, the top contenders are B3X, GG Audio's Blue 3 v2, UVI's B5 and GSI's VB3-II. There are trial versions of IKM B3X, Blue 3 and VB3-11. I would highly recommend you downloading all three and comparing them. They are all very very good, but they are different. B3X has a much bigger CPU hit than either Blue 3 or VB3-II. The latter two are modeled and load very fast, but B3X takes longer to load up and to switch presets. I have been hoping to get B3X and this price is very good; so I will probably get it. One thing I will say is that with both Blue 3 and VB3-II you can completely disable the leslie/cab and then use whatever other Leslie or Amp you wish; I loaded IKM's Amplitude Leslie and it sounds Great However, on IKM's B3X you can bypass the leslie amp, but not the cabinets. You can use either the Leslie amp or the Amplitude Amp (included) but you can not completely bypass the cabs completely. [Edit: This is wrong. See Ryan's post latter in this thread]. I recommend downloading the demos and comparing them on your system. [I wish that UVI's B5 had a trial demo, but it does not and so I can not comment on it, --others rave over it.] Also google Blue 3, UVI B5 and IKM B3X and you will find several threads where they are compared.

Yes, I am still around, but rarely post. I come everyday to look for Larry's best and latest deals.

I am very interested in the B3, but I downloaded the demo/trial version today. Whoah--it is a serious CPU hog. I compaired it to Blue3 and added Amplitude's Leslie as its amp/cab thinking that it would be comperable but IKM's B3x is about three times the drain. I may still get IKM B3 because the sale is good especially with Jampoints, but I am shocked by the CPU hit.