Bruno de Souza Lino

Good riddance. They've been in a steady decline in face of new market offerings and their aggressive behavior of blocking and going after anyone that criticizes them, rather then dealing with it in a professional manner has left a bad taste in the mouths of salespeople and consumers.

On 1/5/2021 at 9:32 PM, Olaf said:

it's something that looks analog, it's got the consoles - for now neve and api, but uad already have ssl emulations, too, and among the better ones, so that's probably gonna be in there, too - it's got the tape, and i've heard it sounds very well. it's free with uad apollo interfaces - and some others - and i believe it's paid if you don't own one. but it's only for mac, for now. well worth a look into the workflow, i believe.

https://www.uaudio.com/luna.html

I wouldn't put money on Luna in the near or far future. It wasn't made with intent of being a new competitor in the market, but rather a very basic tool made for UAD owners by UAD owners and hopefully will drag new users into their ecosystem.

4 hours ago, RexRed said:

I find that my ears tell me it sounds great then when I fix the correlation trace phase it sounds better. Then when when I A/B it, the unfixed part usually sounds boxy and artificially expanded and way too wide. I never trust my ears, I only trust the correlation trace. Once I know it is within the bounds then I use my ears.

Just like I never use EQs that don't have spectrum analysis.

I need to see it too, so I can verify for sure. That is like saying well, it looks like about a foot long, no, I get a tape measure and check it for sure...

Also now I check my effects busses to see that they are traced. My effects are more often then not out of phase.

I used to just put reverb and delay in the track bin, Now I use sends to buses and only use parallel effects so I can correct the trace on them too.

Then my master mix bus does not go into the red at various odd points.

Didn't your ears tell that it sounded gorgeous before you spotted the phase issue in the meter?

51 minutes ago, Barry de Roode said:

Thanks for the responses, it helped a lot!

This is what I did (I copy pasted from the answers):

• Location of Cakewalk Projects. The new computer has 2 HD's: a SSD with the operating system & programs and a SATA for data. I experimented with the location of the Cakewalk projects and it turned out that putting them on the SATA drive performed better (counter intuitive, I know)
• Boost the CPU. There are several ways that achieve the same result: 
  • Start + run "control powercfg.cpl,,1" (without quotes) and set CPU Min and Max to 100%. 
  • Set the power plan to "High Performance power plan"
  • Note: I did not have any settings in the BIOS to alter
• Tune Cakewalk.  In preferences | Audio | Configuration File adjusted the following:
  • EnableSetThreadIdealProcessor = False 
  • MixThreadCount = {number of cores minus 1}  (This really made the system run smoother)

All together it makes my new system as good as my old. Still wondering why it isn't much better, but I can live with the result so far.

I wouldn't count much on boost clocks. The advertised boost is only for a single core out of the 8 you have. The 4770S boosts lower, but his base frequency is higher. 1 GHz higher.

Good riddance, I say.
Mesa had gotten a really bad reputation in the recent years for blocking and going after anyone that criticized their products. If some of you are not aware, there has the infamous Cab Clone incident where Anderton's (who is an authorized Mesa dealer) did a video about the Cab Clone and were honest about it saying they didn't like the product and that it wasn't very good (because it was a piece of crap). What followed was Mesa demanding Anderton's to take the video out and redo it displaying the product in a positive view with a Mesa demonstrator under the threat of removing the store from their list of authorized dealers. Not agreeing with that (Lee never hid the fact that Mesa did this and even posted comments on the new video explaining the situation), they did make the new video with the demonstrator. After that and many criticisms, they released the second version of the Cab Clone which, surprisingly, was made by Two Notes, not Mesa.

9 hours ago, craigb said:

From an intellectual stance, I know a person can realize a much larger range than is usually specified (20 Hz to 20,000 Hz); I even have devices I used during my PhD work that go up to 100,000 Hz (like an Echofone Ultrasonic Listening System first created to attempt to communicate with dolphins).  Although you may not consciously hear frequencies outside of the usual range, we found evidence that a person IS getting some benefits, primarily in the accelerated learning area.

I heard a similar argument about harmonics a few years ago on Gearslutz. Sure, some frequencies outside the hearing spectrum can be perceived in other ways. Music is something that was invented and developed as a product to be heard. Not watched, not perceived some other way. So, anything that goes beyond the audible spectrum either way is unnecessary, IMO.

I believe TH3 also has a looper function.

Only issue I am aware with MODO Bass other than the one described by the OP is that the plugin doesn't honor CC 64 properly. Even if you're holding the key or have the note held in the clip, letting go of the sustain pedal or turning CC 64 to 0 will immediately make the note stop ringing.

16 minutes ago, Sidney Earl Goodroe said:

Disappointed that the Leslie cabs in A4 do not carry over to A5!!! I do love to use that Harrison-Clapton swirl from time to time. I hate to spend more money but I guess I'll have to purchase a Leslie in the Custom Shop for A5.

Kinda bites when A4 had 2 to choose from.

That's a bit of an oddity. They should. I'd complain to IK about it, considering their statement that all purchases carry over across versions and they were even eager to give people that bought 4 MAX a version 5 with everything during the pre-release period.

5 hours ago, ilir bajri said:

Thank you for taking time to try them and for reporting problems and for your critique. Will loook into these.
 

Ideally, you should be shooting for a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 as determined here https://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-WCAG20-20081211/#visual-audio-contrast-contrast

On 7/4/2020 at 4:00 PM, Starship Krupa said:

My usual practice is these days to load single-hits into software samplers to make kits out of them, assuming I'm going to use them multiple times per song (usually the case with drums/percussion). This would be triggered by MIDI.

So to answer your question, I sometimes use samples loaded into a VSTi, a software sampler.

As for which way I do it, it kind of depends on how many times I'm going to use the sound in a song, and how. I've downloaded sample libraries that contained individual drum hits and turned them into drum kits by loading them into VSTi's, following the Standard GM mapping. I sometimes like to trigger clips of spoken dialog, and I will sometimes also load those clips into a software sampler instrument to be triggered by MIDI.

I took an online course in EDM production, and for the initial instruction in "beatmaking" the instructor had us use the sample content the other way, though, by dropping the individual hits in as audio clips on tracks in our DAW's, using the copy and paste features to repeat the measures.

This allows for greater flexibility as you may then use whatever clip editing features are available in your DAW to work on the clips before you start copying them. Fades, gain automation, envelope automation, filter automation, etc. Of course, some software samplers have those features, too.

It can also matter how well-edited the hits are to begin with, if you need to work on them at all before using them in your beats, adjusting gain, envelopes, or whatever.

If you find yourself with samples you regularly need to do work on, then get good at using them as clips. If it's faster and easier for you to think in terms of MIDI notes and drum machines, load 'em into a sampler.

I feel like this is is the equivalent to "eating a 1 pound steak versus 100 pieces of shoe leather." The feeling of accomplishment is much greater after eating the shoe leather.

There's a lot of things I'd buy from PA even without the voucher, just discounted but...No money. Can look, but not touch.

8 hours ago, jack c. said:

nice recording job and chord changes quantize snare kick.jack c.

Maybe the humanizer settings are a bit too extreme on DrumGizmo.

On 1/5/2021 at 1:17 PM, Bruno de Souza Lino said:

You might also want to install X3 to have Perfect Space, Vintage Channel and some of the synths that were left behind, like Pentagon.

My mistake. Vintage Channel is on X2. X3 is for Perfect Space, LP 64 EQ and MB as well as Pentagon I.

2 minutes ago, Brian Walton said:

Becuase  ears can only hear what is being reproduced via speakers of some type.

If you don't think there is a quality differene between sets of speakers, then we are not even talking the same language.  

Oh yes. There are quality differences between speakers, but that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the notion that all it takes to tell MP3 from WAV is a sufficiently high end playback system.

Should I remind you that nobody gave two tosses about Yamaha NS10's until Quincy Jones made a Platinum record using them? Gear quality is not solely tied to how much it costs. You'd be surprised to find boutique hifi speaker systems costing over half a million dollars with up to 25% THD and IM Distortion. That what believing in audio gets you.

3 minutes ago, Brian Walton said:

No it doensn't when they can do it a statistacially significant number of times.

The issue with quality of playback system is different than perfect pitch detection in that the the differences between the lossy and lossless formats are related to quality of sound reproduction.  $10 earbuds do not reveal the same level of sound detail as $15K Genelec Speakers do in a treated room.

 

Lossy compression throws out data in the files and they attempted to do so to minimize the perception of loss, which they have done a very good job of at high bitrate encoding.  However outstanding sound reproduction helps to reveal those subtle differences.

You think a mixing engeneer can also mix records on $10 headphones?  There is a reason why studio monitors are built and sold.

Once again, if their ears are so special, why their detection relies on a specific set of conditions to work?

As per mixing on 10$ headphones, I wouldn't be surprised to find many people out there doing it. Not everyone has the budget to high end equipment but have a will to make music. Mixing with headphones was almost taboo 10 years ago and now even famous engineers are doing it.

- Better handling of clip fx. The way it's currently set up, you have this teeny tiny rack that lists them and you can easily lose it by clicking somewhere else.

13 hours ago, John Vere said:

https://shop.celemony.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/CelemonyShop.woa  
 

looks like it’s still $99 on the Celemony site. They made a bunch of improvements with this release. You can use the license on 2 machines too.  It’s not exactly intuitive to use. Tools icons are weird and really small.   But once I learned the navigation and how to access the different tools it became easier.  
Thats. Why I stayed with v vocal as I found it very intuitive to use.
 I won’t be using it again but I realize I never rendered the tracks I used it on. So I need it just to perform the rendering 

The latest version of Essential removed the Audio to MIDI conversion feature. You need the next version high up for that.

I'd only use the vouchers if you could use them to purchase stuff that's the same price as the voucher itself or less than it.

12 minutes ago, Brian Walton said:

They were blind tests and results are mixed but I can tell you with absolute certainty that some people do have the ability as long as the playback equipment is good enough.  Small percentage of the population but they do exist.  Just like only a tiny percent have perfect pitch.  

If the difference depends on a playback system, then I'll argue that knowing the (alleged) quality of the playback system introduces confirmation bias. If those special eared people can detect it, they can detect it no matter what the conditions are. That would be the same as someone with perfect pitch stating they can only accurately tell pitches under certain conditions.

I managed to download the piano plugin and could not get a clean sound out of it. All sounds come out distorted and full of noise no matter how high the samples were. On top of that:

- Your website states that the plugins are VST3. They're not. Putting them where VST3 plugins are and scanning them yields no results.
- Initially I thought you had to download the plugin and the samples separately, then I was surprised to find the plugin along with the samples in the samples download. What? Not only that, but the dll bundled with the samples has a different name and is detected as a different plugin too.
- There are no installation instructions for the samples anywhere.

As for the UI:
- The UI is very dark and has contrast issues. People that are visually impaired will have a hard time using the plugin.
- Many of the buttons are unresponsive when you click on them. When I opened the settings to see if I could fix the audio issues, the plugin would not close it no matter how much I clicked on the button.
- The presets section seems to have a cork, as clicking it the first time doesn't load a preset, but rather shows "ScriptLabel1" instead.

15 minutes ago, Brian Walton said:

It actually depends on both playback equipment and ones ears.  In a car environment those factors are almost always negated.

Using high end playback equipment doing A/Bs with above average ears there absolutly are people that can pick the better source above an average of "guessing."  I've done blind tests with clients befroe in a studio environment.  Not everyone gets it, but there are those that can....one of which that got it right every single time was literally blind.  Which re-inforces the concept that ones other senses become heightended if you loose one.

Without knowing the exact parameters of your test environment, I highly doubt it. Ethan Winer has some tests on his website for bit rate, dither and so going on for over 10 years and no one has been able to guess the results correctly.

This song was originally meant to be a submission for a song contest hosted by Orchestral Tools with the theme "outside", but I missed the deadline to send it.

I don't quite remember what I used for guitar, but the drums are DrumGizmo making use of its humanizing feature with some manual tweaking of velocities and timing, as well as adding things like ghost notes and such.

Spectrogram was done with ffmpeg using some pretty large commands that spit out the video with the audio added to it and the effect.

The song sounds nice and has a nice atmosphere to it, but it's a bit too flat IMO. What I mean by that is the volume remains constant throughout the piece even in places where you should be louder or softer. You should consider that rather than just making everything louder.  I don't think it's the kind of music that would benefit from having everything with no dynamic range, considering the style.

As per the drums, they do sound sequenced.  A real drummer, no matter what their name is, will never hit the exact same volume every time. Even when you compress the sound you can hear that. There's also the timing thing. It's impossible for a human being to perfectly lock into a time grid and even some of the drummers lauded for their tight timing will never hit perfectly on time.  Granted that my impression might stem from the mix being static and not pushing and pulling. If you're programming drums by hand, getting them to sound realistic manually is some extra work but can be worth it, rather than expecting a plugin to get it right.

I had to complain about it in their forums about their eLicenser expiring my Wavelab license. Eventually, one of the admins gave me a new activation key.

The only thing I'd consider if I had extra money would be the 50 EUR upgrade from LE 10.5 to Elements 11.