JoeGBradford

Glad you found Mike's videos useful. I've learned so much through them and he has a great presenting style

I've got them on an external SSD connected by USB 3 but might invest in an additional internal SSD.

I haven't written anything for ages - too bust going through all the sounds at my disposal and rating them where that is an option!

Thanks for all the responses - the sensible ones anyway ?

As it happens the RAM I bought won't quite fit behind the heat sink & fan (though my replaced fan is working which is a great relief - unfortunately I did have to pay £25 for the whole assembly as they no longer sell the fan as a spare which would have only cost me about £5!).

The RAM has heatfins which makes it quite a lot deeper than my existing RAM - it was hard to judge whether it would fit until I tried. I'll have to return the RAM to the store (Scan) but I am not sure I'll bother getting replacements as I'm unsure now whether it is really worth it as my main hope was that it would improve sample loading times - if that is not the case I don't really have any issues with anything else at the moment so maybe wait and see if I ever get to the point of having problems then reconsider. I've learned a lot from the discussion here so thanks again ?

The more I've looked into this the more I am thinking I may be best just using the new RAM and ditching the old. It will still give me twice what I have already. I don't want to risk the PC becoming unstable or having BSOD issues!

7 minutes ago, InstrEd said:

But if you brought an OEM desktop like Dell, a lot of times the settings are not available in the BIOS.  YMMV.  

It was a custom made one from Chillblast. It has four Ram slots in two pairs close together

Thanks that's very interesting. I've ordered the Ram sticks already. Same manufacturer as the ones I have (Corsair) but faster 1600 rather than 1333 Mhz. I understand these will only run at same speed as my existing Ram. It might be best then to ditch my existing Ram and just use the new ones? So that would be 16gb rather than the 8gb I have at present or 24 GB if I kept the existing with the new

That's what my friend said!

My CPU fan packed up the other day so I'm having to pluck up courage to go inside the PC - not something I do very often. Whilst I am there I've decided to up my RAM from 8Gb to 24Gb - what benefits will this bring me in terms of running CbB and VSTs - also other general benefits?  I was just going to buy 8Gb more but my PC enthusiast friend encouraged me to go for 16! I'm expecting it will decrease sample loading times especially for VSTs such as Miroslav Philharmonik but I am interested to find out if my money has been well spent!

Whilst diagnosing the problem I also gave the inside of the PC a good clean for the first time in it's several years of life!

Yeah absolutely no criticism or whingeing here. Just glad to have such a superb constantly updated DAW for free. Whenever you are ready guys ?

I'd be keen to see improvements to the staff view too. I usually use piano roll as it is more flexible but would find a more usable staff view very helpful

Ah that's great. Must have missed that! Possibly because I downloaded a mix which comprises two MP3 files rather than downloading individual files.

Glad it's proving useful!

Looks like the AL 5 updates cured the problem I had with favourites and preset change buttons not showing up in CbB (but showing up in Reason). Or maybe it was just reinstalling that solved the issue

Fair point! Agreed PIB have done the right thing!

Or here. Except I had to install them on system drive for them to work rather than data drive where I keep most of my VSTs

2 hours ago, jesse g said:

Got it with T-Racks 5 Max ?

Yeah I checked that's where I got it too. It was another unused IK effect that I got from CM ?

I'm sure they're very good though 

The BBC have opened up their sound effects library for free download (mp3 only unfortunately and only for non commercial use). They also have a basic mixer you can use to put together a mix of sounds and share it - though I don't seem to be able to actually save the mix which is odd but maybe I'm missing something

https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search 

Yep that's where I got it from

I think this is the one that was free with Computer Music a while back. If so  proved very useful when I got TS Max 2 as it gave me upgrade pricing. Not used it yet though!

Second the advice to watch Creative Sauce tutorials. Mike is a great tutor and he has a whole series on Cakewalk and another on recording a song. There are lots of other excellent tutorials out there too. 

https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCESNxzJHzDnCIuRO0RhQLeA

I got the problem so restarted and all was well then

Analog Lab Lite is superb well worth exploring! Around 900 sounds and then a load more available from their website (though I didn't find a huge number of useful sounds in these additional packs but that is probably just me!)

This is a recognised issue which has been the subject of a few previous threads. I believe the issue is with the plugin rather than CbB but it clearly hasn't been fixed yet

Not impressed by the installation procedure - the link you receive from CM takes you to the download page. Installs fine but when you open it it then tells you to update so you have to go through the rigmarole again! Haven't tried it yet but hope it's not as buggy as full version is reported to be. Doesn't look very inspiring. I think that is the last of my CM subscription so I'll have to decide if it is worth bothering again if a good deal comes up. I got these for about £1.20 each which was worth it I suppose

Agree the strings are very nice - just sustains and spiccatos but a good full sound in both. The piano si ok but I have those coming out of my ears! Percussion is ok if a bit limited - a small selection of rolls and hits