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Humble Bundle - Your Sounds Your Movies


ZincT

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21 minutes ago, Paul Young said:

Those studio version are actually very good for the money.  I started out on Movie Studio Platinum before moving on to Vegas years ago when it was Sony.  Too bad MAGIX MP3 deluxe is not in this.

As I mentioned above .. dredging through my past humble bundle purchases and MAGIX MP3 DELUX 19 is in there:

https://www.magix.com/ie/music/mp3-deluxe/

That can be installed alongside the current bundle .. if you bought past bundles you might have it already

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This....this is...a very good deal.

I initially looked it over and kinda tossed a mental coin, y'know, I got the last one and the update from Vegas 10 to 15 was great, and I settled into Sound Forge Studio 12 as my go-to audio editor, but they're both working just fine, Movie Studio is for the laptop and I don't know if I've ever even done a full project with it. But it was a huge value for the money, and this one seemed a bit less of an addition to my toolset.

I thought it would be fun to try out ACID, though, and maybe I'd like this Video Pro X, and shoot, if nothing else, it's a version upgrade to my favorite audio editor.

BUH-DANG! I'm kind of shaking at the idea that I might have passed on it.

I could tell within 5 minutes of opening Video Pro X that unless the program is crashy, Vegas would likely be fading into my past. Sound Forge 13 is an insane leap feature-wise, now it has visual themes and a video track and 5.1 surround sound and tempo mapping and LUFS metering and too much other stuff to take in, so if you've been using Sound Forge 12, it's well worth the quarter for that upgrade alone. If you do video, it's a way to check out Video Pro X, which is probably less capable than Vegas Pro in the sense that it may not be as suitable for tackling network TV kinds of productions, but it has a much smoother and intuitive look and feel to it without seeming dumbed down.

And I haven't even installed ACID or Movie Studio Platinum or Music Maker Plus yet, in descending order of anticipation. I watched the promo video for Movie Studio, and even it had some interesting looking new features. Music Maker is of little interest, but I think Plus may come with a few VST or DXi plug-ins that work outside the DAW. And I like to see what's out there for people who want to get started.

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More impressions:

ACID 11 is likely a dead end for me at this point as a DAW. To the extent that I'm getting into that style of work, I'm more interested in using tools like Break Tweaker inside Cakewalk.

And since Cakewalk's mighty Console View is the True Love of My Life, it's tough to open the mixers on these other DAW's and have that "how do these people live with this?" impression. Maybe they export stems to Mixbus or Pyramix or something (I really want to know what Dave Tipper uses, that guy is my mix engineer idol). Similar impression I had with the MPC Beats DAW. Maybe if like most of youse, I had more seat time with Cakewalk/SONAR itself and wasn't still learning it, I'd be more interested in these, but even though it's been years since the BandLab release, I'm still learning CbB and its strengths and limitations.

Movie Studio Platinum 16 was a pleasant surprise. Whereas the last version I had suffered from being an obviously dumbed down version of Vegas Pro, this time around it's more of a targeted version of Vegas Pro. There is the dumbed down mode, but also Advanced mode, and rather than just turning things off, it also simplifies the interface to eliminate distractions, but in a good way. I may be spending some time with this one to see if I prefer it or Video Pro X. Seems odd when I have Vegas Pro, but I don't really use the features that are missing from Movie Studio. Vegas Pro comes with more FX, but just like with SPlat/CbB, install Vegas Pro, then install Movie Studio, there are your FX. Speaking of FX, MAGIX USA seem to have been working out on their little minimal UI DXi audio FX, and it installs a bunch of those. Paragraphic EQ, multiband compressor, etc. DXi lives on at MAGIX. Maybe that's their copy protection.

If you're on the fence about getting this for some reason, spend the price of dinner for two at Burger King on it, make some delicious spaghetti marinara instead, and get a bundle of amazing programs.

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Good rundown. Been a fan of Humble for a while now, and scored some great deals with it! Have Vegas Pro 14 as a result, and have managed to use it on a few small projects. Was really wondering about the Video Pro X thing and Movie Studio Platinum 16.  But my point and shoot camera and smartphone have video record mode, so...

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14 hours ago, Tezza said:

The only thing that puts me off Vegas movie studio is the audio bit depth of 16 bits. I like 24 or 32 bit float when working with audio in video.

I think the movie studio line is intended for casual users. For serious audio, one could always move up to Vegas Pro, or move to a DAW for the final audio mixing task.

Vegas Pro 14 User Manual (older version):

PCM audio

Sample Rate / Bit Depth / Channels / Compression

48,000 Hz 16, 20, or 24 bit Stereo Uncompressed

96,000 Hz 16, 20, or 24 bit Stereo Uncompressed

 

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yeh, I've already got pro, been using it for years. That wouldn't stop me from getting the studio version though to see what it's like but the 16 bit audio thing is a deal breaker for me. I already stem out 24 bits from Vegas Pro to DAW but you wouldn't be able to do that with studio, you are going to only stem out 16 bit audio so it isn't really possible to compensate by using a DAW alongside the studio version.

Camcorder audio might be 16 bit but from a dedicated audio recorder it is 24 bit if you do dual sound recording. You need to be able to line it all up in the video editor. You might have a number of tracks and effects recorded in 24 bit. It's basically crippleware, no reason to keep it at 16 bit, just that if they raised it to 24 bit, significantly fewer people would buy the much more expensive Vegas Pro.

Most people don't even know it's 16 bit anyway. You can use it with VST effects's but these days these effects don't always work well with 16 bit. One of the reasons why even Vegas Pro can be crashy when using VST effects, because people don't set Vegas Pro to 24 bit audio, they don't realize they are running it at 16 bit. 

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I have the most recent version of Vegas Movie Studio Platinum. Been using ACID 9 very rarely but still like to keep it around. Thinking about the 10 upgrade. Music Maker isn't anything to get excited over. I uninstalled it from my computer. I have considered Vegas Pro which is still expensive using Magix crossgrade pricing.

One thing these Magix video programs do is load video efx that you don't really own. You load it up and realize you have to buy it. I find that frustrating. The price to buy some of those video efx is also pretty steep. In the video realm I'm more like a loops producer in that I use existing video and don't often go out capturing my own.

I agree that though vst plugins are supposed to work in Vegas the implementation has been very glitchy for me. Loading up cpu heavy vsts usually freeze it up. Vegas prefers to work with the limited plugins offered in their list.

And I'll admit my head is spinning on just what they offer, what it's supposed to do, how it's supposed to be better than the last version. They offer too many similar products and not enough explanation as to the differences. I didn't look closely at the "deal" yet ZincT. Maybe there's some light at the end of the tunnel. Thanks.

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On 8/23/2020 at 4:09 AM, Starise said:

I agree that though vst plugins are supposed to work in Vegas the implementation has been very glitchy for me. Loading up cpu heavy vsts usually freeze it up. Vegas prefers to work with the limited plugins offered in their list.

I meant to give this tip here. I realise like me, many of you might have quiet alot of VSTs on your systems and that VST Instruments and VST Effects are all dumped into the same folder for likes of CW & Vegas etc to find once pointed at that folder.

A while back i started to seperate out the EFFECTS vsts from the INSTRUMENTs vsts .. into seperate folders eg VST64Instruments and VST64Effects.

The likes of VEGAS would most likely be more suited to see the VST Effects ONLY and not the Instruments. 

For years now as you said Vegas has been glitchy with respect to finding VSTs and installing because Vegas seems to check VSTs on startup each time and consequently can hang or take ages. So by just showing Vegas the Effects VST path, I found things alot slicker. 

Edited by aidan o driscoll
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6 minutes ago, aidan o driscoll said:

I meant to give this tip here. I realise like me, many of you might have quiet alot of VSTs on your systems and that VST Instruments and VST Effects are all dumped into the same folder for likes of CW & Vegas etc to find once pointed at that folder.

A while back i started to seperate out the EFFECTS vsts from the INSTRUMENTs vsts .. into seperate folders eg VST64Instruments and VST64Effects.

The likes of VEGAS would most likely be more suited to see the VST Effects ONLY and not the Instruments. 

For years now as you said Vegas has been glitchy with respect to finding VSTs and installing because Vegas seems to check VSTs on startup each time and consequently can hang or take ages. So by just showing Vegas the Effects VST path, I found things alot slicker. 

Hi aidan

Thanks for that bit of advice. Some systems do tend to mix those two folders up.  Mostly for me though the effects plugins would scan ok , then  I would get adventurous and drop something like Waves Abbey Road chambers onto the audio track, then " uh oh" screen goes white.  I'm thinking maybe if I wait for a few minutes things will self correct...... wishful thinking. Screen freeze. The software can't seem to handle it.  Lately if I am mixing a video I don't even bother. I either use the included plugins or export the audio track for work elsewhere. I have sort of grown to accept it for what it is. 

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On 8/15/2020 at 9:30 PM, aidan o driscoll said:

BTW @ZincT .. I started dredging through my Humble Bundle past bundles and found there:

https://www.magix.com/ie/music/vintage-effects-suite/

Just installed them, nice ... might be in your collection too from the past

Sorry Aiden, just realised I missed this message.  I have had a look through my HB account and there are quite a few bits that I haven't used. 

I think it's because I went for a bundle for example to upgrade to Vegas Pro 14 Edit and subsequently Pro 15 Edit which came with a load of other stuff that I wasn't really bothered about. I do have that vintage effects suite which I will have a look at although I suspect that I have other equivalents.

On 8/23/2020 at 4:09 AM, Starise said:

I have the most recent version of Vegas Movie Studio Platinum. Been using ACID 9 very rarely but still like to keep it around. Thinking about the 10 upgrade. Music Maker isn't anything to get excited over. I uninstalled it from my computer. I have considered Vegas Pro which is still expensive using Magix crossgrade pricing.

One thing these Magix video programs do is load video efx that you don't really own. You load it up and realize you have to buy it. I find that frustrating. The price to buy some of those video efx is also pretty steep. In the video realm I'm more like a loops producer in that I use existing video and don't often go out capturing my own.

I agree that though vst plugins are supposed to work in Vegas the implementation has been very glitchy for me. Loading up cpu heavy vsts usually freeze it up. Vegas prefers to work with the limited plugins offered in their list.

And I'll admit my head is spinning on just what they offer, what it's supposed to do, how it's supposed to be better than the last version. They offer too many similar products and not enough explanation as to the differences. I didn't look closely at the "deal" yet ZincT. Maybe there's some light at the end of the tunnel. Thanks.

I have also had some issues with Vegas Pro and stopped using it at version 15 after I had wasted hours editing a particular project which subsequently wouldn't complete rendering. I had similar problems with earlier versions and all of the "solutions" I found didn't work for me so I just decided to move to a different platform (DaVinci Resolve) which has been pretty much rock solid. I also use HitFilm Pro (another HB deal) for the occasional quick render.  With this HB deal I am probably most curious about Video Pro X and the cost investment to find out isn't that great.
 

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DaVinci keeps coming up in different circles for me. Not heard of Video Pro X.  Might be worth a try. I was looking at those full frame Panasonics for video work. That stuff gets deep....and eventually expensive if you pursue it. I'm still trying to decide where I should be there. My video now sucks I ain't gonna lie.  I was seriously eyeing drones. I imagined some nice footage a bout 10 miles from here of the mountains and the river....when I think about the river I get nervous and the daydream ends....The river, a 1200.00 drone. A beginner.  Maybe I would rather have a hot poker shoved ....never mind. Drone insurance?  If only they could make a submarine flying drone.

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Just wanted to post this here as a heads-up to anyone who installs the Sound Forge Audio Studio 13.

It comes with a little hidden bonus in the form of a Magix Low Latency ASIO driver named "mgxasio4_x64.dll". 🤪

If you are only using Windows Audio, you might be OK. But I have audio hardware and a dedicated ASIO driver for that purpose, and an apparent conflict.

I began having issues starting Cakewalk, and a few other programs, that would hang for several minutes attempting to use the Magix ASIO, even though they were set up to use my real ASIO driver.

Unfortunately, MAGIX didn't even ask permission to install, or bother to include an uninstaller for this driver. So I uninstalled Sound Forge Audio Studio 13, and that took care of it.

Apparently you can alternatively hack it away by removing these:
 
Go into the Registry...

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ASIO - delete the Magix Low Latency ASIO driver entry

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\ASIO - delete the Magix Low Latency ASIO driver entry

And then remove this file...

c:\Program Files\Common Files\Magix Services\System\mgxasio4_x64.dll


 

Edited by abacab
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1 minute ago, abacab said:

Just wanted to post this here as a heads-up to anyone who installs the Sound Forge Audio Studio 13.

It comes with a little hidden bonus in the form of a Magix Low Latency ASIO driver named "mgxasio4_x64.dll". 🤪

i actually had a similar issue when i got my new AUDIENT EVO 4 Audio U/I last week. It comes with own ASIO drivers. However when I opened CW the audio engine crashed and hung. It turned out that it was both ASIO4ALL and the FL Studio Asio drivers were causing the problem. So uninstalled and no probs after that.

So similar lesson learned :D

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15 minutes ago, aidan o driscoll said:

i actually had a similar issue when i got my new AUDIENT EVO 4 Audio U/I last week. It comes with own ASIO drivers. However when I opened CW the audio engine crashed and hung. It turned out that it was both ASIO4ALL and the FL Studio Asio drivers were causing the problem. So uninstalled and no probs after that.

So similar lesson learned :D

I think ASIO is mostly trouble free if you only have ONE version installed. ASIO4ALL works great on my laptop which just uses on-board audio.

I also ran into a similar issue a few years ago when a Steinberg demo decided to install its own low latency driver unannounced.

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