Jim Roseberry

Tried the v10 demo. If you're wanting to push performance boundaries at ultra low latency... this isn't the DAW to do that. 14900k CPU 96k at a 32-sample ASIO buffer size Mixbus reports 60-90% CPU use (Resource Monitor shows about 7%) This is with a single track of audio... or a single MIDI track with Kontakt 7 running The Grandeur. Like the feature set... $500 seems a bit steep for the full-featured version.

You can download the plugin. What you can't do is Submit your registration for a license. The Submit button doesn't work.

While I don't like the idea of "hard enforced" hardware limitations, 8th Gen CPUs were released 7 years ago. ie: A 10+ year old machine with 4-8GB RAM is not going to be ideal for running Win11. It would be nice if you could make that judgement for yourself... but you'd do better using the older OS and essentially "freezing" the machine in time (as far as OS/Software updates). Unfortunately, data-mining (and use) is a major part of our current society. A Google "Cloud" facility is being built about 10 minutes from our house. It looks more like a miliary compound than a computer server facility (it's massive, has cryogenic cooling towers, and they try to hide it from view with huge mounds of dirt ). Win11 takes more effort to rein-in... but once done, it's a great DAW platform. To add some perspective, I bought a $4000 Mac Studio (M2 Ultra CPU) for testing/support of clients. A 14700k based machine can achieve slightly lower round-trip latency (sub 1ms)... and scores higher on Cinebench Multi-Core. M2 Ultra scores 28.8k (about the same as a 12900k) 14700k scores 34k 14900k scores 40k Data-mining will happen with all the above. Pick your poison.

I just posted a comment... and it's been hidden (awaiting approval)??? Never encountered that on these forums (not even going back to the CompuServ days)

I've had FedEx pretend to make a delivery attempt (especially on Fridays). Particularly annoying when you're waiting all day specifically not to miss delivery. I've had a USPS driver throw a computer case out of the truck. UPS once dropped a machine from chest-level to pavement - right in front of my client (I spent several hundred dollars to overnight this machine for a session with BB King's daughter). Amazon normally does well... but many times an item won't ship (or it's been delayed or lost). The best way to prevent shipping damage is to keep things completely immobile. That's why (as crazy as it sounds), we pack both the inside AND outside of all DAWs (double boxed). Haven't had any shipping damage in years.

Kronos 73 and 88 probably wouldn't work for you. 73-key Kronos weighs 46.5 pounds 88-key Kronos weighs 53 pounds Boot time can take a long while (depending on exactly what you have loading). I'd say the better part of two minutes. The Kronos 88 is a bit smaller than the M8x (somewhere in-between the Stage 4 and M8x)... and weights about 9 pounds less. The beauty of Kronos is the samples stream from SSD. The downside is that it's been discontinued. Getting your own samples into the Kronos is far my cryptic than with Stage 4 or Montage. Korg have said Nautilus is now the successor to Kronos. I had a Nautilus 88 AT for a brief period. The UI (screen jumping) didn't click with me. Much prefer the Kronos UI (and more controls). That said, I prefer the Montage UI to Kronos. Had the K2700 two separate times. Tried hard to live with the awful UI the second time. When I got deeper into programming, I found a problem with Portamento. It's really hard to describe in words, but it just sounds wrong... like the pitch slide curve isn't correct. It almost sounds like a glitch. I have to cover a lot of mono Moog'ish sounds... and that absolutely ended it for me. Pardon me for totally derailing the AstroLab thread!!!

Montage has a lot of EQ options. Element (loosely an oscillator): Each Element has it's own EQ Part: 3-band pre A/B insert effects 2-band post A/B insert effects A/B Insert Effects: Insert effects can be many different things... including EQ Master: Master out has a 5-band EQ Elements make up a Part... and Parts make a Performance. Every sound (patch) on the Montage OG and M is a Performance. There's no Single Patch and Multi-Patch. If you just need a single Part (sound), it's a Performance with just that one Part. Each performance can use up to 16 Parts.

Like Dave, I've never used any of the Nord presets. I've always programmed from scratch. Wasn't overly impressed with the stock Stage 4 library... but it's relatively easy to add your own (Sample Robot to the rescue). Went to see Night Ranger last night. Eric Levy plays a Motif XS on bottom with an organ as second tier keyboard. Sounded great. Helps that he's a great player. 😁 I'm not huge on B3, but I find the Stage 3/4 to sound ok. I know what you mean about the fast Leslie. I was going to mention the Ventilator... but you've already got one. Montage M has the new Leslie VCM effect (recently ported from their Stage Pianos). Take some time to get familiar with it. You can control Leslie speed with the Ribbon (stop, slow, fast). I use a high-pass filter on the 2-Band EQ (post Leslie)... to pull out a lot of bottom end.

Before I moved to the Nord Stage 3 (and then Stage 4), I used the OG Montage. Played a lot of gigs with the OG Montage 7. Over time, I grew dissatisfied with it's analog synth capabilities. In particular, it lacked accurate voice-priority/articulation for monophonic analog synth sounds. I got the Stage 3 after seeing Toto. So many touring players were (are) using the Stage 3, there had to be something special about it. The local GC had the Stage 3 in-stock... so I gabbed one. Up till this point, I'd always used workstation type keyboards. I never thought I'd be happy using a "Stage Piano". I was worried that the Stage 3's two Synth Engines wouldn't allow me to cover things like "Here I Go Again" or "Turn Me Loose". Quite the contrary, I was able to program our entire four hour show in two days. Ironically, the Stage 3's two Synth Engines are in some ways more flexible than the three Synth Engines on the Stage 4. ie: To cover the Intro for "Turn Me Loose" (G5add9), we need four notes each playing a sawtooth wave. Each of the Stage 3's Synth Engines allow you to select a pair of waveforms... and tune each waveform individually. I programmed Synth Engine 1 to play the G root and the 5th above it (both sawtooth waveforms). Synth Engine two is playing the G octave above and the 9th above the root (both sawtooth waveforms). On the Stage 4, I have to use all three Synth Engines to achieve the same thing. Each Synth Engine allows a pair of Waveforms... but you're limited to preset 5th and octave intervals. To get a 9th, 3rd, or 7th interval, you have to use a Synth Engine just for that singular note. Nord keyboards are great in many ways... but some limitations are head-scratchers. We get an additional Synth Engine with the Stage 4, but sometimes have to burn it to achieve the same as Stage 3. Another thing to know about the Nord Stage 3 and 4; user-samples in the Synth Engine are single velocity (there are no velocity splits). I was initially extremely concerned about this limitation. A couple years back (playing NYE), we had to cover Garth Brooks' "Friends In Low Places". We're a Rock band... but it was requested. I had to cover the violin melody on keyboard. I was thinking that was going to be pure unadulterated CHEESE. Still had the OG Montage, so I called up it's solo violin sample. OMG, It was awful. No way would I use it. Called up the solo violin sample on the Stage 3... and even though it was a single velocity, it sounded far better. At that point, I stopped worrying about the single velocity limitation. On to the Stage 4: I was one of the first in the US to get the Stage 4 (pre-ordered the day it was announced). Stage 4 basically doubles the user-sample space, adds another Synth Engine, and has expanded effects/processing. As with all keyboards, you don't discover the dirty-details... until you dig deep. Is that an AC/DC song? 🤪 I discovered an issue with broken Portamento on Synth Engine 1 (and it's intermittent). Some have tried to convince me it's a hardware issue... but it's not. If I flash back to firmware 1.06, Portamento always works as expected. Nord introduced a bug at firmware version 1.08... that persists in the latest firmware 1.24. I've contacted Nord twice about this issue. No response/address after many months. It's a real pain when you have to cover things the intro for "Turn Me Loose"... where I have to use all three Synth Engines to generate that G5add9. When the issue happens, Synth Engines 2 and 3 do the two octave glide up... and Synth Engine 1 immediately plays two octaves up (no glide). This isn't as bad as playing a half-step out of key... but it's a close second. 😉 For me, Portamento is a fundamental function. It should be fixed. I should also mention that many of the samples that came with the Stage 3 do not come with the Stage 4. If you're going to migrate, make sure you keep the Stage 3 until you've fully migrated. I had to sample a LOT of the sounds I needed from the Stage 3... and also sampled various instruments to supplement the stock Stage 4 samples. This took a couple months. My transition to the Stage 4 was far more time-consuming than the transition to the Stage 3. The Stage 4 is expensive... and my patience with Nord is wearing thin. Enter the Montage M. Though not as immediate as the Stage 3/4, the UI now offers much more realtime control. Takes time to set it up... but you can control drawbars, percussion, noises of a B3... similar to the Stage 3/4. The M adds AN-X (VA Synth Engine with 16-voice polyphony). This addresses many of my concerns with more authentic analog synth sounds (especially polyphonic). Where AN-X falls a bit short; the Filters sound somewhat generic (not a lot of character)... and monophonic note articulation. Nord's VA mono articulations are more flexible. ie: You can have the Filter (only) retrigger based on velocity... while playing monophonic using Portamento. AN-X can't do that. I use this on the Bridge for the synth melody on "Feels Like The First Time". I'm playing a mono (Moog'ish) synth sound... and I like having subtle control over the timbre of each note (based on velocity). Yes, I could play it without, but it sounds flat/sterile. Ironically, Montage M can do this when using the AWM2 (samples) Engine. The Montage M doesn't have many of the odd limitations that you'd find on a Stage 3/4. Montage M has far more user-sample space (3.7GB vs 1GB on Stage 4 and .5GB on Stage 3) Splits can be anywhere you choose (they're preset on Stage 3/4) User-samples can use velocity splits (limited to a single velocity on Stage 3/4) Programming, the M has far more "granular" control A single Montage M part can consist of up to 128 Elements (loosely an oscillator). Combine that with trigger conditions... and the M is the closest we have to Kontakt in a hardware instrument. If Yamaha would have provided disk-streaming for samples, it would have been game changing. Polyphony was never an issue with the Stage 3/4... even on things like "Here I Go Again" where I use four layers (Acoustic Piano, Electric Piano, Synth Pad, Vocal Pad). The Montage M has even more polyphony (up to 400 voices). Yamaha have released the first version of ESP (a true 1:1 virtual instrument of the Montage M). This version doesn't have full editing (only quick edits). The next release will have full/deep editing. Montage M8x certainly isn't an inexpensive option, but it's $1200 less than the Stage 4. If you get a Stage 4, some of the included samples are pretty lame (brass, choirs, strings, guitars)... especially if you're used to a higher-end workstation. You'll have to supplement these with your own samples (or source from online venders like Narfsounds). For "Addicted To Love", I sampled a brass layer I created in Montage... and layered that with one of the included brass samples. That made a huge difference. For "Dirty Laundry", I sampled the Vox organ I was using from the OG Montage. I didn't have to do this... as the Stage 3/4 have Vox organs... but it sounds more authentic (to the song). If you grab a Montage M, you won't have to sample much (if anything). I have to cover Malcom Youngs guitar on "Thunderstruck"... on keyboard. Didn't want to sound like absolute cheese, so I sampled each of the guitar chords/notes... and put those into the Stage 3/4 and Montage M8x. The Strings, Horns, Choirs on the Montage M sound very good. Acoustic Piano and Electric Pianos are (IMO) pretty much a wash. Nord has distilled the Stage 3/4 to those features which are absolutely necessary. Some limitations leave me wondering why... but I will say that I've always been able to cover what's necessary. The Montage M is going to be a deeper dive. It'll take longer to program... but the possibilities are FAR beyond the Stage 4. If you've ever played the OG Montage 6 or 7, the M7 keybed is identical. If you've played Korg's unweighted Kronos keyboards, the action is identical. IMO, The Montage M is currently the best all-in-one keyboard/workstation. It's not perfect... but none of them are. Downside for many (myself included), the M8x is HUGE and heavy. Stage 4 88 weighs just a little more than the M7... and you have 88 weighted keys. Much prefer weighted keys for playing Piano. M8x action is slightly heavier than the Stage 4. Stage 4's keybed is light enough that you can move pretty fast. In a perfect world, I'd like the Montage M8x in the size/weight of the Stage 4, the Nord's VA Engine, and no odd limitations. If you've read this tome, both keyboards are amazing and annoying. Choose the one who's limitations you can most easily live with (or work around). Hope I haven't confused more than helped! 😁

Years ago, I created the first collection of IRs of the 480L (sold by SEK'D America as Samplitools IR). Later, I redid them and sold them as ReverbTools. At that time, software based algorithmic Reverb was not particularly good... and was CPU intensive. Convolution was the only way to achieve higher quality Reverb. The limitation with Convolution is that it doesn't capture any of the modulation in the reverb tails. Flash forward to today... Relab's LX480 plugin is bit-accurate recreation of Lexicon's 480L. What comes out is identical to the real 480L. Convolution and IRs can/do produce great sounding ambience. If you're looking for authentic 480L ambience, check out the LX480. https://relabdevelopment.com/lx480-dual-engine-reverb/ The downside, it's not free. 😉 If you're into the Bricasti M7: Seventh Heaven Professional sounds fantastic. https://www.liquidsonics.com/software/seventh-heaven-professional/ We have numerous TV/Film composer clients using it.

My solution to Song Mode isn't super elegant (wastes a lot of patch space)... but it works equally well for me. I've had an issue with broken Portamento on Synth Engine 1 (intermittent) since firmware 1.08. Contacted Nord twice... and heard nothing from them. Only solution is to flash back to firmware 1.06 (where Portamento works exactly as expected). If you haven't, check out the Montage M8x. It's a huge/heavy beast, but it's a really nice instrument. Weakest spot is the AN-X filters (which are a bit generic). I may replace my Stage-4 will the M8x (still haven't decided).

Other than the envelope, I don't see a lot of correlation. A lot of modern virtual-instruments have similar UIs (Icarus, Avenger, Serum, Pigments, etc). If you look at guitar processors, Line-6's Helix almost defined the current generation's UI (Quad Cortex, GT-1000, Headrush, etc). IMO, looks closer to Tone2's Saurus:

Having 88 weighted keys would be more appealing... but (for me) not with the same limited specs. Also, not crazy about Arturia's 88-key weighted action (very stiff/sluggish) If you have to play something like the organ solo to Carry On Wayward Son (moves *fast*) that's nigh on impossible. It's tough on M8x and less so on the Stage-4 Side Note: After playing other more stiff/sluggish 88-key keyboards, the Stage-4 almost feels organ like. If you have tendonitis, the Stage-4 keyboard is wonderful. There's enough weight to play with nuance... but there's not a lot of resistance (less wear/tear on tendons).

Several things keep me on the sidelines (as someone who plays out regularly): Polyphony (48 voices is pretty limited for pianos... especially if you're using a lot of sustain pedal, 8 or 16 voices for the synths). Multi-Timbral (only two simultaneous sounds). Lack of realtime controls. I've been spoiled by keyboards that offer lots of realtime control (Nord Stage 3/4, 3rd Wave, and Montage M8x). Tiny display (this is maybe the must puzzling) I like the idea of having the V Collection in a self-contained hardware keyboard. Even as a second tier keyboard, it would have been more exciting to see 16-part Multi-Timbral and 128-voices of polyphony. There are times where I have to layer 3 or four sounds to achieve the desired result. Two would never suffice. If you want to edit the V Collection sounds, you need both AstroLab and the V Collection. That's about $2000. That's starting to get into "workstation" cost. MODX+ is $1349 (no aftertouch) Nautilus AT is $2200 The AstroLab would be a whole lot more appealing if it offered many realtime controls for V Collection synth parameters. If I have to edit the sounds on a computer, it would be nice to have near knob/button per-function. That would make it feel a whole lot more integrated (like I'm operating a dedicated hardware instrument). If you've ever edited sounds on something like a Nord Stage 4 (almost knob/button per-function)... and then switch to editing virtual-instruments with a mouse/keyboard (especially if you're programming an entire four hour show), it's a whole lot more tedious.

I'm not into hating Behringer. Many local sound engineers use the X32 I've got a UBX-A on pre-order since the beginning of December 2023 Had loads of fun with the Poly D (poor name choice but works great) Have a pair of Klark Teknic KT76 compressors (love them) From what I've heard, this "Vintage" plugin isn't overly exciting/inspiring. Sounds generic to my ears (not a lot of character). UI looks nice...