Jim Roseberry

I see Reaper as more of an engineer's tool than a music production tool. I tend to use Reaper for simpler projects (audio editing, learning songs, recording a VO for the wife, etc). I gave up trying different Theme's years ago. That rabbit-hole can burn hours of time... and doesn't seem to change much (anything?) function wise. Reaper is incredibly CPU efficient... and is particularly good for audio editing. The Item Editor is similar to Samplitude's Object Editor (lots of realtime control). I'd actually like to see the "road plan" or stated development goals for v7.

I'm saying you want to avoid AMD's latest video cards... especially if you're pushing the limits of ultra low latency audio performance. I use Nvidia RTX cards in many builds... including two of my own. They work just fine. ie: A 13900k based machine (with RTX video card) can run IK's ToneX (similar to Kemper but in a plugin) at sub 1ms total round-trip latency.

FWIW, If you're pushing the limits of ultra low latency audio, a machine will glitch sooner with an AMD RX6xxx/7xxx vs. Nvidia RTX-3xxx/4xxx.

Kemper (using Rig Manager) is a similar scenario. There are thousands of Profiles that sound terrible. I hear the new "Liquid Profiles"... with modeled Tone Stacks sound excellent. Pretty amazing coming from a 12+ year-old piece of hardware. FWIW, I didn't get ToneX to browse thru other peoples Captures. I got ToneX to Capture my own amps/pedals. IK should update ToneX so it can run multiple Captures simultaneously. ie: It would be great to run an Amp/Cab Capture... with a separate drive/boost Capture. If you use ToneX within Amplitube 5, it's a lot more flexible.

Nice keyboard rig! Nord Stage 3 and Kronos are two of the very best available. Spider keyboard stand is also great. My home rig has Nord Stage 4 (bottom) and Wave-2 (top) on a Spider stand. Only use the Stage 4 live (no top tier). It can take some time/doing... but if you can get to the point where you're hiring commercial sound/lights, it's a tremendous relief (mentally and physically). In Central OH, commercial sound/lights (with good engineer) is $300-$350. If you're typically charging say $800, that may seem impossible... but here's the thing: Without commercial sound/lights, an $800 band sounds/looks like an $800 band. With commercial sound/lights, you look and sound like a more expensive band. You ARE that $1100-$1200 a night band. Quality commercial sound/lights pay for themselves. Taking it even further, get the guitar and bass player to go with a DI rig. No carrying heavy amps... and no 100w tube-amps blasting on stage. Our guitar player uses a POD Go. Nobody misses his Marshall half-stack. No one questions his "tone". Bass player is using an Ampeg Scrambler (pedal preamp). This way, each player is responsible for his/her gear. Simple load-in and load-out... With adequate monitors... you'll never miss the amps. If you play festivals, the crews/engineers will love you. You can get on/off stage in literally 10 minutes... and without having a coronary. 🤪 We all have day-jobs (careers)... so the gigs really aren't about money. But, it's pretty nice to play a gig where you walk away with decent pay. We wanted to have NYE off this year. One venue kept asking us to book it... so we threw out a high figure (hoping they'd say no). They agreed (facepalm emoji). Don't limit your possibilities.

Always like the original Omni Channel. Lots of useful tools in the plugin. ie: The two de-essers are great for multiple things... including reducing guitar string squeaks. I like the way Andrew Scheps goes thru the plugin in the demo video. Real-world examples showing the utility of the plugin. My Omni Channel isn't currently under WUP... but (IMO) it's worth the $29 to grab v2. Of late, it seems cheaper to just purchase a discounted (new) version... vs maintaining WUP.

If you're playing festivals or corporate events: Make sure the event provides some type of cover/canopy (this is important for both sun and potential rain). See if the event will provide some type of access to AC (an RV, trailer, building, etc). It won't help while performing, but it will provide some relief during breaks or pre/post. If you're playing in the hot sun, a fan on stage helps tremendously. I'd also have a cooler with damp cold towels (put them around your neck). Yesterday, we played a festival opening for Lynch Mob and Jackyl. Was raining during load-in... temperature was about 77-78. After we started, the sun came out and it was hot as hades. Since it was 60-70% chance of rain, I didn't worry about my fan or the cold damp towels. Had to play two hours straight (no break). Drank loads of water. Only used the restroom once. With a large stage/crowd, I try to move a lot and put out as much energy as possible. Totally and completely exhausted! Thankfully, we had a RV with the AC cranked... so pre/post show we could cool down. Get some rest..

I use RTX-3060Ti and RTX-3070 (separate machines). The 13900k sitting next to me can run IK's ToneX at 96k using a 16-sample ASIO buffer size (~0.5ms total round-trip latency). If there were DPC Latency issues, that wouldn't be possible.

Hi Jack, There have been Nvidia driver versions that were problematic... but the vast majority have been fine. If you do encounter a DPC Latency issue (specific to the Nvidia driver), there are both "Studio" and "Game Ready" drivers available... as well as being able to roll-back to a previous driver. I'm not a fan of current AMD RX video cards. At ultra low audio latency settings, you'll encounter audio glitches sooner (vs using a Nivida card).

Love my Orion Studio Synergy Core. I think the plugins are ok... but not superior to higher-end native offerings from UA, SSL, etc. One advantage of the hardware based plugins (like Apollo series) is that you can monitor with low round-trip latency (regardless of ASIO buffer size). Not crazy about the idea of paying yearly for native versions. Might have gone for a perpetual license.

Just went thru a similar scenario with a camera lens coming from B&H (overnight to OH from NJ). Overnight took 3 days.

I had the new OB-X8 😉 It has both the Xa and 8 Filters and Envelopes. I'll probably grab the OB-X8 module when it's available. To me, nothing sounds quite like that filter (especially on lower notes).

Had an OB-X8 for a few months. The hardware filter has an almost angry character on low notes. Hard to describe in words, but you immediately know it's an Oberheim. To my ears, the filter on the plugin sounds nothing like this.

IMO, Much better than Gobler!

I'm not going to waste substantial time/energy arguing a point that's extremely obvious. Windows has a 30-year leap on Linux as a DAW platform. Why would anyone want migrate to a limited number of supported audio interfaces, a limited number of plugins, a very limited number of DAW application choices, a platform where they essentially are left fending for themselves (no real support), etc. None of the major DAW app and plugin developers are developing for Linux. It's not hard to understand... nor understand why (ridiculously small niche market, no profit). Linux DAWs are a "solution" to a problem that doesn't exist.

It was an honorable thing (upon his passing) that Bob transferred ownership of Moog to his employees. IMO, It's sad that none of those employees had the passion, vision, drive to take Moog to even greater places. This is kind of like a capital finance company buying Guitar Center (and now Sweetwater). Sure hope Sweetwater stays relatively the same. My 30-year Sales Engineer Stuart Hisey retired just before the company was sold. Felt a strange sense of being abandoned. 🤪 The one constant is that nothing stays the same.

I'm sure there's overlap between VST3 specs and MIDI 2.0 specs. I'm not aware of any major piece of gear that's actually using MIDI 2.0 It'll probably be another decade before it's common. 🤪

One of my best friends from HS (in my band) got the Juno-106 when it came out. I was never crazy about it. It's easy to program... because it doesn't have many options. The much lauded Chorus circuit is noisy. The Jupiter-8 isn't my favorite vintage synth, but I think it's better than the Juno-106. OB-X, Memory Moog, and MiniMoog are my favorites... with Prophet-5 also in the mix.

I just saw the Email. When the founder passes (or even just moves on), a company is often never quite the same. The original passion and vision just aren't there. I hope this doesn't end up like Creative/Emu. I had an original MiniMoog Model D (bought it from a HS band-mate for $50). It was badly in need of service... and I let it sit and collect dust (for years). Finally sold it to a friend. Always loved that raw "electric" sound. It's almost like you can hear the electricity running thru it. Forward to a couple years ago. I saved and liquidated a lot of gear to grab a MoogOne. I was hoping it would be my one-and-done "be all" analog synth. On paper, it should have been exactly that. In reality, it had serious intonation issues... that go far beyond analog drift. The reissue Model D (MiniMoog) and Matriarch don't suffer from this issue... neither do the OB-X8 or Prophet 10 (or any other modern analog). Gave up on the idea of having a polyphonic Moog. Decided to get rid of several things and just grab the reissue Model D. It's uber simple... but it has THAT sound. I can leave the Model D on for days... and intonation is tighter than the One. Sad... but not surprising. Akai is still releasing new (somewhat innovative) products under InMusic... but I don't think it's the same as when Roger Linn was involved.

One of the saddest (IMO) was when Creative bought Emu. Just quietly faded away...

Took what, 40 years?! And how many devices are 2.0 capable?

I generally don't like the idea of sampled analog synths... but this sounds particularly good.

Aside from the CPU Core parking issue in later versions of Win10, there's no significant performance difference between Win10/Win11. For those running 12th/13th Gen Intel CPUs, it's that "compelling" reason we've been waiting for.

I didn't like some of the default GUI changes in Win11. With some tweaks and a little time, I don't find it much different than Win10.

If you're running 12th or 13th Gen Intel CPUs, you're currently (essentially) forced to move to Win11. Microsoft has broken the ability to disable CPU Core Parking in Win10. Have a look at your cores in Resource Monitor. If you've applied necessary tweaks to disable CPU Core Parking, you will see that it's (now) not disabled. If you're running heavy loads at low latency, this kills performance. The couple ms it takes to unpark the cores can cause glitches.