MusicMan

Is there a particular reason you're needing WUP and how many plugins are you looking at covering? Sometimes it's cheaper to just buy the plugs again, or upgrade to a bundle ?

Oh that is what I was thinking of! I do remember vaguely there was a workaround. Seemed odd they wouldn't just allow people to add more paths, but at least the workarounds were pretty effective.

I'm sure we've advised people enough times not to buy Waves plugins ??

That's a good point. For me where they sit inside the VST folder on the hard drive shouldn't matter, as all DAWs should allow for custom groups/folders. Some plugins aren't just a compressor, or just a saturator, they could be looked at as both, or more, so I might want them in multiple categories. For some reason ages ago, I seem to remember Live only allowing me to configure one VST folder path.. doesn't sound right though, so I may be remembering that incorrectly ?

Haha.. no apologies needed for the rant ? It's good to look at all sides. I think you somewhat misinterpreted me there. I in no way said that VST3 is better in every regard. There are definitely some benefits though beyond the VST2 standard. But I'm more saying adopting a single standard makes more sense. I also don't think SB is doing it to make the lives of other Devs easier, that's just an incidental benefit that comes with it. Incidentally, VST2 was released in 1999, while VST3 was 2008, so it really is quite a bit older. I definitely agree it should be an open standard. Maybe that would also help adoption in Protools etc. Having multiple standards in general, makes little sense and just leads to extra coding, testing and disk space. I did have a good laugh at the Apple comment too ? That is somewhat something they would do! I also agree they shouldn't be commodity, but that's the nature of computers, software and tech. Analogue hardware wins that battle for sure. I do half wonder if they might have fired it off as a threat to get some of the Devs moving and then there could be an extension, but I guess we'll have to see ?

Some valid points for sure and I definitely won't be happy losing access to some, but VST3 has been around since about 2008 I think, so that's plenty of time for developers to pull their finger out. SB stopped issuing licences for the SDK for VST2 in 2018(?) If they don't do it, they will need to support them for the next 20 years! It was the same as dropping support for Windows XP that many developers eventually did, almost some 20 years after its release as well ? Same with dropping 32bit plugins. There's some annoyance to get there, but once everything is just x64/VST3 (and some other formats for those other crappy DAWs (Jokes!), then it will be so much less work for all of the Devs and they can focus on core compatibilities. Probably even release new Mac compatible updates faster as they don't need to dev and test VST2, VST3, etc. It will also stop Devs installing VST2 plugins by default that I end up having to delete as I only use VST3 if they've got it! It will reduce the myriad of random folders around my hard drive that these guys install into as well, as there's only one file path for the standard (two if you include 32bit) ? So yep, it sucks a little, but will actually be a lot better in so many ways ?

Completely agreed and a good workaround especially for some of those great plugins we already own and will never get updated. Im going to go out on a limb here and guess that almost none of us really need any more plugins.. of course that doesn't seem to be stopping us though! Haha.. I have plenty in this space and if it was VST3, I suspect I probably would have bought it anyway at that price ?

I've thought about this as an option too, but of course your existing projects won't open up with them, so you would lose all your settings. Unless you started saving a preset for every instance of RC-20 ? Apart from that not a bad option.

I think this might only be VST2 which I'm starting to pay a little more attention to now, given Steinberg's announced they're discontinuing support for it and other DAWs will eventually start to follow.

I'd almost consider this one, but pretty sure there's no VST3 and has a smell of abandonware, so it's possibly never coming, or might be a paid update. It's listed above and on the site, but some Mac users might want to pay particular attention to this point: *Minimonsta DOES NOT WORK with macOS 11 (Big Sur).

If that wasn't Slate I might consider it ? Actually I shouldn't consider it anyway... I own plenty of channel strips, some of which I've barely used! I did buy this 9000J semi recently though for a similar price and I do like that one ?

The $25 voucher is generic and there's a survey voucher too ?

Latency Mon is pretty easy so you'll be fine. I normally leave it run for about half an hour and then look at what is causing the most interrupts/latency. It's often a driver. Did you change OS, DAW version, Sample Rates, buffer sizes or anything at the same time as the upgrade? Do you have a USB wireless card? Have you tried unplugging any peripherals that aren't essential to test? I suspect you're already aware of these by the sound, but doesn't hurt to check ?

Ableton is quite a bit heavier on resources than Cubase for me. I was surprised at just how much, even when using the same virtual instruments and plugins. You might find it's one of the drivers making too many interrupts to the CPU as well, causing DPC Latency. If you haven't done already, I normally go into device manager and disable anything that isn't required. I also look at what applications start up with the computer and disable anything not essential too.

I wasn't referring to the M1 change, but more even just a number of the yearly OS updates that quite often render applications incompatible because Apple decided to change something without caring about the impacts for their customers. But that's OK, because the applications they sell, which let's face it are the only ones they want you to buy will be compatible. Unfortunately some of the developers are no longer in business, so they will never be updated. Windows PCs often support things almost indefinitely. Hell 32 bit plugins from 10 years ago still install and run perfectly. My DAW doesn't natively support them, but some DAWs still do and most importantly the underlying OS does. Apple OS updates often break them so they don't work in any DAW, or even install. Back on the parts, for HDD, looking at the Mac Mini to upgrade FROM 512GB to 1TB is about $200 or so I believe. To buy a Samsung 970 EVO Plus M.2 2TB NVMe hard drive outright for a PC, is about the same price. Not just to get an extra 512GB, but to buy from scratch. I looked at the Mac Pro to check the upgrades, but when I saw the starting from prices, the argument for Apple being cheaper/similar is already lost, even if they paid you for a hard drive upgrade ? As for CPU, no, I'm not talking old parts. Brand new parts, just a more current generation. Like we know, often a couple of generations ahead, the cheapest CPU will be faster than what was the flagship at times. So in a few years, you could simply buy a much better performing CPU and drop it straight in with AMD. That's where Apple just can't compete. Even if people go for the lot and upgrade the CPU, Motherboard and RAM, then it's lightyears cheaper than a new Apple, so your TCO over the life of your PC DAW just gets further and further ahead. I still can't see it being anywhere close to even. If I spent the same money on a PC build as a Mac Pro, it would be ridiculous.. I'd just be buying the most expensive best parts just to get there!! Or I could easily buy the same spec, for less money and even still have money left for a new instrument, some awesome mic pres, or other bits of audio hardware. I do agree on the screens. I like their screens ? But even then, with all the money saved, I could buy a couple of top end non Apple screens and still be in front. Apple looks better from an aesthetics perspective I'd say and marketed amazingly. But I can't agree that they price similarly and I've owned both.

By the time you pay for new versions of software due to Apple dramatically changing the OS and making them incompatible, I'd say not ? Also super easy just to upgrade components with PC, so the second build is often quite a lot cheaper. AMD in particular is good in new ranges of CPUs traditionally being compatible with older motherboards as well, so people can sometimes get away with very decent upgrades, for crazy cheap by the time they need an upgrade. Internal storage is so overpriced with Apple as well that if you're matching internal for internal, there's even less chance of Apple competing on price. Apple has some advantages, but price for me isn't one of them. I went from producing on PC to trying Apple for a number of years, then back to PC and couldn't be happier ?

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say no.. Waves are indeed NOT listening ? But I'm sort of glad.. it makes me not listen to the Waves sales, or anything they sell in general, so I save money ?

Pretty great price if you add a loyalty or survey voucher and one of the nicer Pultecs I reckon ?

If your hard drive fails, OS corruption etc then you lose you licences. Yes, some devs might grant you replacement ones, but that's not guaranteed. They may have even gone out of business. In my opinion, iLok wouldn't be so bad if they automatically covered and protected against that. Some people buy the hardware key and pay a yearly amount for that protection, however it's still more hassle and a yearly cost than other traditional methods.

I knew it was a different part of their store/system, but didn't realise it had a different account part as well! I guess once I've got the serials/codes from my spoils I never go back in there enough ?

I thought it was JRRShop from memory

They're really not safe making mistakes with you around ? Thanks for posting the bundle!

I wonder if that was a pricing error for the bundle at $15. Given that El Clapo on sale at Best Service is now $15. Lars' link is now dead/404. Also when I bought the bundle it was called the "El Clapo Bundle" which I thought was unusual, whereas the bundle now on Best Service is called "Claps, Stomps and Snaps Bundle" which is more what I expected it to be. Either way for $15 it was a good one ?

That's not a bad price for the bundle. I don't recall ever seeing it that cheap before! ?

I use Cubase and bought Mixbus the other day. I'll always produce in Cubase I'd say, but I like the idea of exporting stems from Cubase and then mixing in Mixbus. Performance wise, Cubase is better. If you're purely recording audio, or have a fast enough computer, that may not matter, but otherwise worth keeping in mind. Mixbus is kinda fun and different and does get a nice warm sound. I did notice that some plugins didn't work though. A couple have been updated and now do. Basically Cubase is better, but Mixbus is different and that makes it a fun option to have ?