TW5011

This may not sound like a difficult thing, but it usually is much more complicated than it seems. Buying a company's apps and taking over the code is often an immense amount of work, to the point that it would be quicker to write it from scratch than to learn what they did and update it. There are exceptions, of course, because some programmers use good coding technique and document what they're doing. But in my experience, it's usually really difficult. BTW, I've worked at a couple of companies where I wrote custom code for their apps. One of them was a billion-dollar IT company that had bought some other companies. I know several programming languages, but one program we inherited was in a language I'd never seen before, with lines like this: RTVDTAARA DTAARA(*LDA (1 10)) RTNVAR(&PNAM) and there was no documentation whatsoever. It was not fun, nor efficient at all. Looking up the terms, it's not too difficult to figure out what it's doing, but deciphering why they did it can be quite elusive. And when there are tens of thousands of lines of code that isn't organized well or documented, you can spend years on it, and by then it's falling behind the competition (and probably incompatible with another Apple operating system upgrade). I suspect many corporate leaders don't understand this, so when companies like MAGIX or InMusic buy other companies, they probably suspect they can just put people to work on it and upgrades happen, while not bothering to keep the original developers (because it's cheaper to hire entry-level programmers). This is probably the main reason some companies become a graveyard of companies they have bought.

36 Hz is certainly low enough for most music... although there are some genres of music that go below that. For example: Not that everyone will care or appreciate it... but just in case you like exploring different styles of music. I'm thankful that most monitors now do a suitable job of representing the sub bass, plus we have visual monitoring (like SPAN) to see what's going on. Having subwoofers on my systems, it's obvious when some engineer didn't realize what was going on down there and ignored it (or rolled off everything below 60 Hz). (And to be honest, the first album I mixed had too much bass because my monitoring system didn't have enough. That was 22 years ago, and I've learned a few things since then, and improved my monitoring setup.)

This unexpected sale from u-he has really disrupted my budget for this time of year... I'm not complaining, because I've wanted a few more things from them, but now I've got to put something else on the backburner want list... A while back I thought I had got almost all I really wanted, but maybe there's something about all these sales that has me looking around and getting more GAS...

I just got the email about their new entire collection referenced above, and it says: { The Cyber Bundle 2023 combines every PA release, from old favorites to brand-new releases. Get over 180 plugins from Focusrite, SSL, Brainworx, Shadow Hills Industries, Black Box Analog Design, and more. For a limited time, get the lot and unlock a world of analog studio sound for one unbeatable price of $899 (MSRP $2,999). } I'm not interested since I've previously got so many great deals, but what stood out to me was the $2,999 MSRP. For over 180 plugins, that would mean the average MSRP for each plugin is around $16. Was that a Freudian slip on their part or is my math wrong?

The NI Session Horns are not the highest rated, but some people like the sound better when using the close mics. They wouldn't be my first choice to buy separately, but I got them as part of Komplete, and they can sound good. Also, as someone mentioned, layering can help too.

I get that it's easy to think "why would I need just a desk bell?" But as SoundIron typically does, they do a lot with the samples to create different sounds with it.

I use it too. It's convenient, and it's also fun to load up a couple of presets and see how it can take your drums (for example) in a different direction. Normally I wouldn't use presets for mixing, but when experimenting, this is a neat tool for that. (When I record my own drums, I know what I'm working toward, but if using pre-recorded drums or loops, sometimes they just need a different "flavor" to the mix, and MixBox makes it a little more fun to explore variations, since it has so many options in it and is easy to use.) Also, as someone said, this doesn't have the install frustrations of other IK stuff, since it's separate. (I dislike the T-Racks way of installing, so I wrote a script to clean it up, but I'm nerdy like that.)

Just to clarify on this, Sweetwater is again offering the 10% deal on gift cards for Father's Day, however, they have changed it up. They used to give the 10% added to the gift card, but now the bonus 10% is in the form of Bonus Bucks, which has its own set of limitations. Not only are a few brands excluded (including Native Instruments), but "Bonus Bucks cannot be combined with any other special offers, including sale, promotional or clearance items." So that greatly limits their potential. They also expire after 60 days. So the deal isn't as good as it was previously. However, if there is something you're wanting to buy at normal price that would become free or very low cost with the Bonus Bucks you'd get, then it could still be a good deal. But unfortunately it's not as good as it was previously.

I'm glad computers are much cheaper now! (I got my first one in '92, and had to add a sound card.) Regarding Kontakt libraries and hard drives, the libraries that have thousands of small files (like under 1 MB) actually load slower from an SSD than a hard drive. I have tested access times when copying thousands of these files, and it explains why some Kontakt libraries (particularly those by 8Dio) load extremely slow, even from an NVME drive. I don't know where the dividing line is for size vs speed efficiency, but I put all my Kontakt libraries with large sample files (like with the .nkx extension) on an SSD / NVME drive, but those with thousands of small files on a regular HDD. I'd guess the difference is because of the cache that a mechanical drive has. For those less nerdy than me, a mechanical hard drive reads in a large chunk of data at once and stores it in fast memory onboard the drive, which greatly speeds up access since often the next file you need is next on the drive (which is why you don't want them fragmented). My 6TB hard drive has 256MB of cache. So for Kontakt libraries with sample files under 1MB, my mechanical drive reads in hundreds of them at once. And thus my mechanical HDD can actually outperform my NVME drive in select scenarios. So my point is, don't assume that putting Kontakt libraries on an SSD will make them faster. For some it's much faster, but for some it's worse. And that's good news, because now you know (and knowing is half the battle, some say), and buying a large HDD is cheaper than SSD.

Good discussion! I'd tell my past self to make more music, freeing up more time for that by spending less time learning about it (whether reading or YouTube) and less time researching plugins. Nothing wrong with those things, of course, and they are helpful, but making music is my ultimate goal here, and sometimes I spend too much time on research. Also, experience is worth more than reading more about it. Actually finishing songs and aiming for professional quality is more valuable than just reading about it, IMO. Plus, songs get made along the way! Not all the songs will be great, but they are part of the process of improving as an artist.

Quick OT reply -- I didn't make the pixelated image above, but wanted to add that the app Irfanview is free and has a multitude of effects to apply to images. It also has an effects browser, where you can select a section (like a serial #) and test various effects on it and with varying intensities. It's also my preferred image viewer for numerous reasons. I have no association with them, but have used it for many years.

One potential way to save more money on this is with Sweetwater, if you're willing to wait. In recent years, they sold gift cards on Father's Day for 10% off, which could then be applied to this upgrade. They also have in years past discounted the upgrade during GearFest during June. However, with the new owners, there are no guarantees. GearFest is mostly just an online two-day sale now, and who knows if the gift card sale will happen. (And be sure to check the terms of the gift card, in case they exclude anything.) So I'm just tossing this out there, if you're willing to wait and try it. I've done it before, and will try it again, in case it works, since I'm not in a hurry to get the upgrade, and saving money is important for me right now.

A number of newer cars don't include a CD player anymore. So people are being forced to use digital media (whether ripping CDs or streaming), unless they want to listen to just the radio. I know of people who still buy CDs, but that audience has shrunk so much, so I understand why CD Baby is doing it. An ironic point to this is that CDs still have better audio quality than streaming audio... so it's not like when cassettes or VHS were discontinued.

I'll give another vote to Noctua fans. When I built my current PC in 2021, I did a lot of research regarding noise because my previous machine was quite loud with fan noise. I'm using a Noctua NH-D15S on a 10900K and it's completely silent and keeps it cool enough. (Of course newer CPUs may demand more cooling.) I also researched cases and their fans for optimal airflow, and my fans don't have to run at full speed most of the time, which helps. I also researched the noise of graphics cards, because that was the loudest source of fan noise in my previous one, and each manufacturer varies in how well they implement fans. I ended up with a RTX 3070 that is silent even at 100% load (gaming) -- of course, case airflow matters on this, too. It was a lot of research, but resulted in a high-performance PC that is quiet. So it is possible... Cleaning dust out also helps, too -- which I need to do soon. You might also check in your BIOS if your motherboard has fans -- some newer ones do, which are small and often noisy, and perhaps their speed can be adjusted, too, in addition to having the CPU & case fans adjust their speeds based on case temperature.

I also like using MixBox to experiment. There are quite a few presets that take the sound in a different direction than I normally would, and sometimes that's inspiring. I'll still probably tweak it, but it's inspiring and adds some fun and randomness to the process, which is a good thing. It can still be used for normal mixing, of course, and it's good at that, but I've enjoyed experimenting with it when an instrument (like the drums) just needs something and fixing it doesn't seem like fun at that time. MixBox has made it more fun, which I appreciate.