Jim Roseberry

FWIW, It's probably more hassle than it's worth. 4GB RAM is barely enough to run Win10 or Win11. With a host application and Keyscape running, the machine would be hitting the VM Swapfile (in lieu of having enough physical RAM). That would kill performance.

Hard to make good recommendations without more specifics about the types of projects the OP plans to do. If it's larger scale Orchestral Composition (using the likes of Hollywood Strings, Orchestral Tools Ark series, Spitfire's BBC Symphony Orchestra, etc), an i9 CPU with 64GB RAM isn't overkill in any way. If it's simple 24-track song-writing demos... with just a couple of small Virtual-Instruments, then the i9 and 64GB RAM are totally overkill.

Thunderbolt 3 and 4 work great under both Windows 10 and Windows 11. Just a matter of tending to all the details... RME UFX+, UA Apollo/Satellite, Presonus Quantum, Antelope are all rock-solid connected via Thunderbolt. Anyone who says Thunderbolt doesn't work (or is flaky) under Win10/Win11 doesn't know what they're doing.

Years ago, I had an early MiniMoog. Keyboard player from my high-school band owned it... and it was sitting in his basement collecting dust. Sold it to me for $50. I kept it several years... and ultimately sold it to a friend for $200. I was planning on getting it refurbished... but never wanted to spend the money. Bad decision... as (good condition) they're currently selling for $10-$12k. The current reissues are a more "affordable" $5k... and they're better instruments. Tuning stability is shocking. I leave it on for hours (sometimes days)... and it's still in-tune. There's a dedicated LFO, so you don't have to use the 3rd Oscillator for vibrato. Key-bed has velocity and aftertouch. I traded a lot of gear to get the reissue. Wasn't going to do it... but figured I'd regret missing the opportunity. There's no way I'd pay $10+k for a vintage Model-D. Nostalgia plays a big part... but there's nothing quite like the sound/experience. Software synths are infinitely more practical... but it's hard to beat the immediacy of a knob/switch/button laden hardware synth. If you were into the PPG in the 80s-90s, the new "3rd Wave" from Groove Synthesis (couple former Sequential guys) is pretty amazing. Has the same filter as the Prophet 10. Kind of a renaissance or new golden-age for hardware synths

It would be nice if Yamaha released an 88-key Montage successor that weighed about 40-lbs. Better Filters, better mono behavior, VA synth section, etc.

At nearly $2k, who is this targeting? Someone with a more elaborate setup is going to need more inputs (keyboards, guitar processors, etc) Someone looking for a two-channel audio interface most likely isn't wanting to spend nearly $2k. I'm always a bit leery when a company new to audio interfaces has a first release. Yes, Neuman is a name/brand with stellar reputation... for microphones. What Neuman doesn't have is a 10-20 year reputation for creating rock-solid low-latency drivers (equal to the best available).

Here in Columbus, OH... (at gigs) most guitarists are using Modelers or Profilers at gigs. The ones using amps are typically using smaller tube heads like the newer 20w Marshall JCM, Friedman PT-20, etc. I can think of one guy who's using a 50w 5150-III. Sound is fantastic, cartage is minimal, much smaller stage foot-print, and stage volume is lower In short, just a whole lot more practical... and especially so with the quality available today

I watched... and thought... "Is this guy actually enjoying playing?"

Picked up a Nautilus 73 a while back. Absolutely hated the keybed. Aside from the key action feeling "cheap", the velocity response of the acoustic pianos just felt off. I hear the 88-key version uses the same keybed as Kronos (sans aftertouch). If that's the case, it's an excellent keybed. If wish they made Nautilus in module/rack format.

Love the SSL plugins.

I completely understand. 😀 I sold my Triamp mk3, Helios, and Revv Generator 120mk3 All sounded great... but G.A.S. got the best of me... and I wanted other things that I'd use more.

Look at the price of "boutique" amp heads: H&K Triamp mk3 Friedman BE-100 Deluxe Bogner 20th Ecstasy All are $4000+ I bought four boutique amps to Capture/Profile. Started getting more into keyboards... and realized I had way too much tied up in large/heavy amps (not being used enough). Cost on everything is getting out of hand. The new MiniMoog re-issue is $5k. Absolutely crazy... until you compare with a vintage Model D... which (in good shape) is selling for 10-12k. When I was 17-18, I used to make of list of all my "dream" studio gear. I would add up the total cost... and it would be ~$200k. Remember freaking out thinking... OMG I'll never be able to get those things. Now that I'm old, I can get some of it... but I have to pick-and-choose. I did liquidate three of those expensive tube amps... and grabbed the Model D re-issue. As a kid, I loved the MiniMoog. For me, the re-issue is a chance to have one (in good working order). It's a nostalgic thing... To get back on topic, I'm not overly surprised by the cost of the MESA Mark VII. Given the relative cost of everything increasing (components, labor, packing, shipping, etc), it's inevitable. Cost for large boxes that I use to ship DAWs has literally doubled the past 24 months. A large bag of (worthless) packing-peanuts is now ~$100! 😱

If using IK's ToneX plugin for Advanced Captures, you pretty much have to be running a RTX video card (unless you like waiting for hour/s).

FWIW, I don't have any issue with RTX-3xxx or RTX-4xxx series video cards. With a RTX video card installed, 13900k and 7950x can both run IK's ToneX at 96k using a 16-sample ASIO buffer size.

Darn fingers sometimes have a mind of their own. I've corrected my post. I meant video card.

Video card supply and prices have somewhat normalized. RTX-4090 is pushing $2k RTX-3050, 3060Ti, 3070Ti are more than enough for most... and cost a whole lot less.

I would not currently use AMD video cards. In my ultra low latency (audio) testing, AMD's 6xxx series resulted in audio glitches sooner (vs running a RTX-3xxx or RTX-4xxx) Some applications/plugins can benefit from a dedicated video card. ie: Modular synths (where there are scores of widgets changing/moving)

No loss there. When it comes to low-latency audio performance, Rocket Lake's more latent architecture made it a step backward (vs 10th Gen). Thankfully, this was solved in 12th and 13th Gen CPUs.

FWIW, They still have a lot of work to finish on the QC mk1 😁

No... I meant that you can't load a Amp/Cab Capture... and long a second Boost/Drive pedal Capture (simultaneously). Different patches use different Captures.

I think it was mentioned that ToneX would be updated to allow loading a second Capture for Boost/Drive pedal. That really needs to be there. I know there are work-arounds (Amplitube, using another plugin prior to ToneX, using a real boost/drive pedal before ToneX pedal), but this is part of the appeal. Nobody wants to run a Tubescreamer without an amp. 🤪

M1 is nowhere in the ballpark of the 13900k. Haven't tested the M2 (yet). Looking at Cinebench R23 scores, M2's multi-core score is nowhere close to 40k. 13900k is a workstation CPU (requiring massive cooling). The Apple M1 and M2 chips are not (and Apple doesn't market them as such)

I've tested the 7950x and 13900k/s extensively. 13900k's Efficient cores don't bottleneck/degrade performance. Keep in mind they're running at 4.3-4.4GHz. 7950x's base clock speed is 4.5GHz 13900k bests the 7950x in both single-core and multi-core performance. 13900k and 7950x can both run IK's ToneX plugin at 96k using a 16-sample ASIO buffer size (~0.5ms total round-trip latency). Both the 7950x and 13900k have 32 processing threads.

The last couple of generations, AMD and Intel have been leap-frogging each other (performance wise). ie: When the 7950x was released, it leap-frogged the 12900k/s (performance wise). Then, Intel released the 13900k/s... which is faster than the 7950x. With the Ryzen 5xxx series, AMD finally got their ultra low latency audio performance together. Prior Threadripper and Ryzen CPUs were not a good choice for ultra low latency DAW applications. Flash forward to current generation: AMD 7950x Intel i9-13900k/s I've extensively tested both the 7950x and 13900k/s. Both are excellent ultra low latency performers. Both run on the hotter side... requiring top-tier liquid cooling (to keep CPU cool/quiet). 13900k/s is currently the fastest DAW CPU. (Scores over 40k in Cinebench R23 multi-core test) 7950x and 13900k can both run IK's ToneX plugin (similar to Kemper) at 96k using a 16-sample ASIO buffer size. That's 0.5ms total round-trip latency! In real-world use, there's not a huge difference between the two. Top-tier motherboards for both (X670e and Z790) offer similar features (including Thunderbolt-4).