Doug Steinschneider

I bought a Vizio V405-H9 two years ago for $210. I upgraded my video card with a Gigabyte 1030 that cost about $90. I also mounted it to my desk with a Vivo gas assist arm. As long as the display supports chroma 4:4:4 it should look ok for computer use. I was surprised how good it looks. I have scaling set at 125%. It has a remote with very easy to cycle through display modes. For normal computer use like spreadsheets I have it less bright. For music applications I have it set slightly brighter. Go to rtings.com to check if a display is ok for computer use. Many gamers have gone to 27" 1440 monitors, they're not too expensive and correctly display color and framerate. Not sure about how TV displays do on those fronts but for mixing/recording it certainly doesn't matter.

What's this! All Elysia products in a bundle for $7.99. I'm in. I got almost all the way through checkout before I figured out it was a subscription ?

Changed my mind and ended up getting Angelicals. These freebies are a real workout! Love it. EDIT - These patches are really great - writing a song based on Angelicals patch "20 - EP"

Decided to get Masala (first version). I don't have anything with Indian sounds so figured I'd give this one a try.

Thanks, I've been doing fine with the Session version so I think I'll hold off on that upgrade.

Question for this forum. I use Lounge Lizard 4 Session and Air Velvet for my Rhodes and Wurli needs. I got the Session version for about $15 from Plugin Boutique a few years ago so my final cost for the full version would be $65. Any opinion on this upgrade would be appreciated.

@Kal Elle - I think if you create a user account you will then see the pick one freebie sound pack list from this link https://www.applied-acoustics.com/portal/gift/ . AAS is a great company and they don't spam at all. BTW, I'm glad you asked the question because it made me take a closer look at the page and I found a $49 upgrade path for my Lounge Lizard Session version to the full version.

@Kal Elle - any of the many presets for Chroma, Studio Strings, Lounge Lizard and Ultra Analog will play with their AAS Player so if you hear something you like in the demos the patches for that sound pack will be playable for you. The limitation is you can't edit them.

I have Lounge Lizard 4 player - I thought it came with Caffeine but my account doesn't show it. I was hoping Caffeine or Insomnia was more traditional EP Rhodes/Wurli goodness but it looks more like "stressed EP" I'm thinking of getting something for the AAS player. The Angelicals demo sounds good, Transparency also. Has anyone gotten one of these sound packs that really knocked them out? BTW, this promotion is an excellent way for AAS to get people to check out their instruments and sound packs. I really like the Chroma and Studio String examples I've listened to.

You can flip through the photos without a fakebook login - looks like fun. I've only been to Vegas for trade shows so I'm always busy and jealous of the people site seeing.

I was on a livestream (I think AudioPluginDeals) and Larry won a giveaway and I thought to myself - he deserves that!

I have several identical Dell Optiplex 7020's I got from an office that went to remote only. My test restore was to a second computer but like you, I have Viboot on a computer that has Hyper-V and I'm going to try it. I've been using Hyper-v for years on servers. VM's for both servers and workstations. Hyper-V can be added to any Windows 10 or 11 Pro. If you're using Windows 10/11 home VirtualBox works well. Just perusing threads of people having problems with the newer software based iLok after hardware changes. At least if the hard drive is replaced and then the OS restored you should be OK

Historically I've not been a fan of the various license protection systems but the version of iLok where you login and then license the computer has been working well. I've been moving a few licenses I have only one copy of between machines on a regular basis (Air Velvet for example - did just pick up another copy for $10 finally) and the iLok system has been working flawlessly. BTW, I highly recommend Macrium Reflect Free to image your OS drive, 2.5 SATA drives are cheap these days, get one equal to your OS drive and a USB dongle to connect it and backup. If something happens you can spin the image up and move the licenses.

EDIT - didn't scroll down enough to see that @cclarry already posted this deal Great deal for somebody who is just getting into AmpliTube: https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/amplitube5/?pkey=amplitube-5-max

Thanks, picked up the Vocal Bundle for Voxbox - also added DeCoda LE as gift - that should be fun to check out, I once saw a review that said it's interesting to run music through for insight.

Thanks for the tips - I've got them downloaded - next step is to try them

I went to the Acoustic IR database. I have a Takamine Jasmine with a Joyo JE-307 installed. The guitar itself sounds good for a sub $100 guitar and the $25 pre-amp actually works ok. I looked at Nembrini's Acoustic Voice but didn't buy it and I'm interested in trying the acousticir.free.fr IR database. The JE-307 I think is a knock off of the old 90's Fishman "barn door" preamps. That pre-amp isn't listed so I'm wondering of the listed ones, which would be the closest?

I've learned a lot about mixing because I was able to get mixing chain plugins inexpensively (or free) and experiment with them. Mixing is a science/art I find fascinating but I prefer to play instruments with my limited time so I gravitate towards "black box" plugins that can quickly get me mostly there. I confess that following the deals here and collecting what I can on the cheap has been a lot of fun and once in a while a plugin just works for me - Sunset Reverb, Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor are examples. @Starship Krupa - I'm curious what you did to mod your RA-100? I use that amp for mixing.

Thanks, I actually did glimpse that one on Newegg but for some reason it didn't register.

Hi Jim, I looked at Mini-ITX cases but didn't come across one these dimensions - 9.5" x 6.5" x 14". I saw some smaller that I think would be a cooling issue as other's mentioned and others that were sized for home theater. The size above would be a good compromise - do you know which case company makes one that size - Thanks!

The use case is for gigging with VST synths. The host software is Cantabile. The laptops have been excellent (one is a backup). The past six months I made a lot of changes (Win10 updates, UMC204HD driver newer version, new updates to some of the VST's, new version of Cantabile) and noticed some glitching when playing lots of notes that wasn't there before, I will take Erik's advice and make sure all recommended tweaks for a music machine are in place correctly. I have removed anything that doesn't need to be running, turned off power management for hardware devices, tweaked the power configuration, and a long list of other things listed. I'm willing to go larger than a NUC as Jim recommended above. I think a Mini-ITX will be the build

I'm using some laptops now that have been good for years (i5 3.5Ghz, 16GB RAM, SSD) but between Windows 10 updates and newer VST's I'm starting to get some glitching (Spitfire and IK B-3X for example). I want to go to the micro form factor plus a screen. Some motherboard, ram and storage configurations work better together for music production, any recommendations would be very appreciated.

Definitely go to SSD for storage but do full ongoing back ups - when those fail it's not like the spinners.

+1 on Macrium Reflect. I've been doing a lot of swap ins of SSD drives. I used to use whatever the manufacturer provided for cloning software but after constantly running into glitches (Samsung Data Migration) (WD version of Acronis) I settled on always using Macrium Reflect.

I avoid RAID 0 (sometimes referred to as disk striping). It's more difficult to recover if there's a problem (as OP is experiencing) . Surprised a system would be setup that way as the default configuration.