Tim Smith

Yeah I think this is one of the most dangerous besides buying anything from an unlocked site online. Anyone that has physical possession of your card, even if for a few minutes. That's enough time to grab the number and the code on the back. When I eat out I have my eyes on the clerk at all times when checking out, but that time in the motel the girl walked away with the card and came back. Now I register any rooms I'm staying at online. Most terminals now require a 4 digit code to bill. Sorry to hear about your experiences. Customer service has only gotten worse after COVID. I made the mistake once of backordering furniture at a discount store. The furniture never came in. They kept pushing the date back until I demanded my money back. The fine print on the document I signed stated I would have to take merchandise instead. I could have fought it but decided to do that and never go back there. That place didn't last long. Not sure if you've ordered furniture lately but for awhile there things were quoted a 4 to 6 months out. They usually won't sell you what's on the floor. Lessons learned. Only deal with reputable people, period.

Thanks for sharing this @pwalpwalWow. I've never been on an acid trip, but this must come close.^^^^^^^^^^^ More than a few kinks to work out there to make it sound anything like music. And what's with the 3d glasses and ancient Aztec pic in the background? Anything that can make a sound using brain waves is interesting for sure. I didn't know the failure rate was that high. They had one chimp trained to play a video game and he was getting pretty good at it. I have a concern that when they implant this into humans some dude will switch into video game mode thinking he is playing a war game, and take everyone out. The end goal is data access that seamlessly fits into your thinking like recalling your own thoughts. You can think a thought and be retrieving data from the web instead of your own brain. They claim anyone in the hive will be vastly more intelligent. They don't talk about external control as much but I think it's in the plans too. If they can manage your sensory inputs they can probably influence what you think. The lines between real and not real can be severely blurred because you can potentially have something in there telling the parts of your brain that see reality that it's real when it's not. A crude representation of it now would be how some people get immersed in TV and forget it's all actors and acting. It isn't really the world, it's the world the way they want it to be represented. Then the world follows ( or so they hope). There were experiments that accurately tracked brain waves and could detect from those responses things about that person. Everyone has a different frequency or frequencies so these devices would need to be calibrated. The same info could be used to put signals INTO a person brain. In the beginning they determined the frequency ranges and the waves but didn't know how to analyze them. They have taken it a few steps further in being able to tell what the waves mean and even interpret them. These were mostly government experiments or govt. funded. The people behind all of this say at first it will be devices on our clothing, then it will go to implants eventually. Anyone have some extra tin foil I can have??

If you were offered a brain implant to control your DAW would you do it? I have been following the transition of technology from external to internal. I don't really ascribe to transhumanism, but I think the potential to use it to help people who have disabilities is amazing. The phone went from a bag phone to what we have now. It was called a cell phone, now often called a smart phone. In reality they need to change the name of it again to hand held computer system. The trans humanists are looking for ways to migrate tech into your body. Some say the c**vd vaccine was a precursor to this because it had nanobots in it pharm didn't identify. I don't want to get into that discussion, but I think it points to where we are headed. Elon Musk has been at this awhile now and implanted a chimp awhile back. Imagine being able to call up web pages and see them in your brain or on a monitor at will. I think some people will do it. Look at how attached we are to smart phones as tools. Seriouslty I think there are more than a few that would have symptoms of addiction withdrawal if you took away their phones. Those phones are the center of their universe. They have become the go to devices for pretty much everything and have in many cases replaced what larger computers do. I print off of mine and control huge systems with it. It's kinda sad to think this way, but if they ever implant a baby with this it will become a part of that persons reality. Even older persons will lean on it. Yeah, I'm in line for one sarcasm intended. No way. That's one hive I won't be in.

Thanks Jim, While I like the heavier piano type keys I like synth keys for fast playing. I see the Korg as somewhere in between those two. It definitely has a better build than most typical synth controllers in addition to all of those amazing sounds (Kronos). If I had come across the right deal on one I would have snagged it. If you don't know already I tend to be a bargain hunter even if I could buy new. I managed to make some more headway with this controller. Managed to get it to work in Cubase. The problem was me. I tried it in Cakewalk last evening and didn't get a template completely made in ACT. It seems ACT will work nicely for this. Being a lefty I like the way the faders and knobs on the MKII are laid out which is odd because I like having my right hand free to the faders and having the pads on the left in case I wanted to make a drum beat. The pads can be programmed to do anything else in user mode. There are lots of options to tie to in Cubase. For a pianist I would probably recommend the 88 key version for anyone who likes a weighted piano key action. I think in my situation being transitional and not having a lot of room , the 61 is best for now. As I type this I am looking at 4 88 key controllers, so if I get the urge for an 88 I can grab one of those. I am hoping that temporarily I can make this thing work for DAW control. Once I get octave shifting down it shouldn't be a problem. In Cakewalk, with it in MUI mode all of my F keys went to many important cakewalk functions. It's going to take some effort to get a template completely made for it.

In thoughts and prayers.

One thing I haven't done so far is a license transfer. To me that would seem legit if I knew the person or was familiar with their site. I don't think I would deal with a site like this with no reputation along with all of the other shady things mentioned about it. Some financial services like Paypal have certain protections a customer can fall back on. Most credit cards have protections in the event of fraud. I wouldn't order in the first place, but if I thought I might be getting into something I could regret, I would at least check my credit card company's protective measures beforehand so the "just in case" the deal goes sour you can get your money back. I only had an issue once and it wasn't online. I traced it back to a hotel I stayed at. I immediately called the cc company and got it cleared up. I love this guy's videos, he really knows how to play scam telemarketers- Scammer Payback

Some people are doing while others are analyzing how to do- Like these guys. You can tell they we having a lot of fun. Either that or pumped up on coke. Of one thing we can be sure they are gifted musicians. We don't see how much practice went into this. The casual way they all just walked in and played means it was natural to them. Not, "now let's see here what are we going to do now?" Practice is practice. Doesn't has nothing to do with sitting in an institution and reading about it.

Yeah, I agree @sarine I thought the subject would be good fodder for a thread. I have seen those licenses you mentioned and yes, they are probably group licenses someone split up. Some vendors are more slick than this one was. It is easy to be fooled in some cases if one doesn't run a check. Online customer comments can be padded. Maybe I mentioned the time I left a less than favorable review and a manufacturer called me offing a discount to change it to a positive rating. Google can be misleading too. Send a reviewer free merchandise to review. The inclination is often going to be to give a more positive review than if they had bought it. The advertiser sees it as advertising to send out x number of free merchandise for people to review. Ebay has software hucksters too. Not that I'm telling you anything you don't already know. In some of those cases it would appear they cracked software or they aren't really sending you a product. They can get your cash, fold and do it again. No factory support on stolen software. Things have changed some over time. Gone are the days when all you needed was a serial number that could be used multiple times. Now all numbers check in with a server and tie it to a computer. This is why it surprises me these guys are still around. I remember the last software product I ordered hard copy. I basically got a box in the mail with a serial number in it ?

As I said with Cubase.........scrapping the dongle opens the door to the 'possibility' we could go to a subscription option. Frankly in this case if the price was right I might do it.

Reorganization usually joins multiple interests together. The question I am asking is who does it benefit the most? or is everyone benefited equally? This would probably tie in the with motive. WHY was it done? The only thing I can see from the limited view on my end is consolidation since no new services have been announced to the consumer. Consolidation means better industry control. Everywhere you look this is happening in all types of other industries.Industry control means market control. Monopoly might be too strong a word but it's close. If someone could control a whole industry, there would be no competition. If you want an example of this look at gas prices right now.

FYI This website was a random selection representative of similar sites offering software for similar prices. I would agree first impressions are it seems a little iffy. Here is one review of the site which leans in a positive direction but remains inconclusive. Since the site was launched in 2021 apparently there haven't been many customers that leave comments on their experiences. If Spectrasonics never offer discounts, then I have my answer. The only caveat there might be that they are forfeiting a profit margin to make a sale. This is unlikely but possible. I'm not sure what the margin is to vendors who sell the product so I can't determine if they could take this kind of a hit and still make money. My guess is the profit margin is very small on this software. I think I'm going to stop looking for now. It's a waste of time. Must be a lot of money to be made in the scam business.

I know this is drifting slightly off topic - I see mastering as more than only what happens at the end of a mix. I don't claim to be a master of mastering. I have learned a few things over the years that have helped the end product sound better. If a person can anticipate the end goal for a mix, they can set up the mix to work better for a master. A few questions I might ask myself are: What kind of a mix am I shooting for? Since different mixes will need different treatment this is important. If the goal is to have music that's interesting dynamically, I would normally send the tracks to master at a lower level than I would for music with less interesting dynamics in a genre that need to be loud such as EDM. If I'm looking to make a master of a folk group playing guitars with no drums I would be somewhere in the -6db ranges going to master, then I might use several layers of light compression and limiting to get it to level while retaining the dynamics. In a 4 piece rock band I will be looking to push the guitars through the mix using a mid emphasis keeping as much of the mids as I can without making mud.Usually rolling off the bass on electric guitars. On bass I will be looking to make it work well with the bass drum by placing them at slightly different frequencies and ducking or dynamic EQ to keep them from stepping on each other. Snare and cymbals will be panned and in the same vicinity as the electric guitars.A bass guitar that has some upper end character I would exploit by slightly boosting the upper harmonics of it. When I get to master with that mix I will be looking at dynamics and how the tracks are playing against one another. Sometimes it makes sense to side chain a master compressor if the mud can't be tamed , other times a little EQ work on the individual tracks will make this unnecessary. Deeps EQ cuts might be necessary if shooting for a clean rock mix. If shooting for a more garage grunge feel, a little tube dirt never hurts. The key is to have a mix that pops well before you ever go to master. At master you could pull a Metallica and pump it way up to the edge with a limiter. The better the limiter, the better the end result. Not all limiters are created equal. You can still ride automation on the master to give a little more character to the final mix. Nothing too extreme. I try to add in my reverb early and sometimes I will stack reverb sends to get a desired result. Because adding a reverb in Cakewalk has a cumulative db effect, it's very easy to overdo reverb. I almost always roll off the low end on my reverb sends. No one wants to hear the low end mush associated with most reverbs. We only want the higher reverb transients. In a rock mix where the guitars were already tracked with a reverb, things could get complicated. If I can't make it jive, I might resort to using subtractive methods like Izotope RX reverb removal. With guitars it's usually a delay that I can let alone. It's probably better to add efx onto guitars AFTER tracking. That way you can time the effects to the timing of the project. If I were mixing EDM, that's all pretty much about putting everything in your face. The bass needs to drive and cut. The lines here can be blurred when working with synths, since a synth can have both a bass and a high end personality. One thing is an absolute, mud never cuts in a mix. I would go after a low end sound that's clean but very powerful. The beat is going to carry this. The EQ on this mixes would be more smiley face than anything. Compressors would be set to fast attack. There's really a lot to getting a mix ready for a master.

Got it. Thanks.

I think @Reid Rosefelt had some good thoughts on the subject which I believe kicked off the debate about what "creatives" use. If we are defining creatives as those who only work in the film and music industries, we still have to account for the eroding of the Mac base for those people over time due to Apple's pricing, performance comparisons and business practices. Sure we can debate Apple's pricing, but let's face it, I am not aware of large numbers of 'creatives' buying the lower end macs at 700.00 a pop. When we get into what those guys need the price goes up steeply. This is why a percentage of creatives in that part of the creative spectrum have indeed swung over to PC....and if your boss has a nice budget for computer replacement, heck it isn't their money, maybe they would just go buy the high end mac because that's what they want. Who really buys most of the computers for music ? What percentage of the total are those who are in the full time music and film industry? My hunch is the percentage is probably very small in comparison to the total number of computers sold for music. The mostly silent majority are likely independent artists, small studios and hobbyists. This is where PC is really winning has already won. I read a survey once that showed more Macs were in Europe than in North America. This may be true, I'm not sure but I wouldn't doubt it. " More Macs" doesn't mean more Macs than PCs, it simply means more Macs compared to North America. The average business, the average home owner who wants to do any sort of work that requires more than a small laptop or an ipad is vastly more apt to be using a PC. Most large institutions use PC with maybe a few macs scattered in the music or art departments. Almost ALL businesses use PC. I think it can be safely said PC's out number macs exponentially in the public sector. This is why Apple concentrated their business model on smaller devices such as iphones, ipads and laptops. The creative market has become a niche market for them. Any benefit had from the new architecture is probably trickle down. Apple knows there's real competition in markets dominated by PC. Although the move to their own chip development is helping to swing a few users to Apple, I believe it's probably too little too late for them to take that market, especially when Intel and AMD come out with their own similar competition. In tech there's always an answer to the competition and you can bet they have engineers developing an answer. Why would the silent majority PC user looking for a music computer make a jump to Mac when there are computers they already have familiarity with that will run the software they want to run? A small percentage may jump to one for novelty sake to try the Mac experience, The vast majority though, they are going to take the path of least resistance. A few small gains in Mac performance ( if they really exist in a real world test ) will probably not be enough to sway them away. I mean, if you told me I could run 153 tracks .vs 135 tracks between systems, however if system A is significantly more expensive than system B. Nah.......ain't happenin' especially if I can't be assured it won't be phased out.

I have seen MOBOS with two M.2 ports. I guess lanes and cpu are something that needs a match to work properly and why if I were going that route I would be looking at the specs on both. If I had the lanes, I would be trying to use them all on that higher spec'd drive for sure. This could be a misconception on my part, I have attempted to have multiple drives for sample libraries so that one drive isn't being overtaxed if running several libs at once. I'll try to spread those samples out as opposed to lumping them all on one larger drive. ............if not streaming libraries, I guess it doesn't matter as much.

Bob is a great guy who knows much about his area of expertise. I still have his books signed by him, although I might not know where they are right now. I see him as a hardware guy, pretty much invented the K-system which differs from LUFS in the setup. If you pull something in on the K system, it's probably going to be ok on the LUFS system as well. Everyone is adopting LUFS . Thankfully most mastering tools include both. I once asked- How loud can I make this and not be too loud? Now I ask- How can I retain the dynamic quality and intention of the track while mastering it to a volume that sounds comfortable on most systems at mid volume?

I see a big swing for this program. Generally at places like Sweetwater and Musicians Friend the price is in the 479.00 range. Some vendors though have it for a lot less like this one. Am I missing something? Since the vendors are not as well known I question some of it. Do you know of any better known vendors who offer this product at this price?...and why is it so much less at this vendor? Thanks.

EDIT- Cakewalk has some mastering chains built in if you know where to look for them. Ozone 9, TRacks 5, Lurssen mastering console also by IK. Sometimes all it takes is a good EQ and limiter on the master bus. My method is to load a chain in either Ozone or TRacks and modify it to my needs. Ozone gets a lot of attention, but recently I have preferred TRacks over it. Waves has a very reasonably priced mastering chain that works especially well for me on rock mixes called the Abbey Road TG Mastering chain advertising for 59 smackers today on the Waves site. It could be used for any genre but has a few chains that can really make a rock track smoke.

Good suggestion. I usually come here and forget they have a forum . This controller has three main function buttons. One for Arturia VSTi, one for DAW control, and a user programmable function. I was building a script for it last evening in the user programming mode. I had about 15 of the most used functions in the DAW mapped to it, but stopped when I had trouble programming the sliders and pan knobs. The things I mapped worked well. I am having issues with random midi notes now. This isn't something that happened before. Could be as simple as a bad usb cable. This was one issue another user experienced when this happened. A pinched ribbon cable was another problem noted on this controller. At this point I can't recommend the controller. This hasn't been the kind of a process they lead you to believe it will be. Things haven't just 'clicked'. I bought it to solve a problem, not create three more.

Thanks for the heads up. I have been reluctant to update due to lack of use. I keep getting the pop ups to upgrade.

I received the Arturia Keyscape MKII 61. It appears from the packaging the controller was never opened completely, so for whatever reason I got a great deal on a controller. The keyboard registered with Arturia ok. I downloaded the software and was blown away by the quality of the Arturia synths and V piano. MY interface was set at 192 and there was no noticeable lag in playing it. The key bed on the 61 key version is zippy and lightening fast. I would say more of a synth action which is what I prefer for faster playing. It's a well designed and sturdily built controller. Updating the firmware was no problem. Since my main reason for getting it was DAW control I tried using it in different configurations. There are templates for Logic, Studio One, Ableton, Reaper, MUI control and Cubase. Unfortunately no Cakewalk template. Documentation on specifics is sparse with Arturia relying mostly on web pages and video for instruction on YouTube. If the instructions they give you work for what you want to do it's fine. I have usually found web help pages to be lacking. This was no exception. Their forum might be more helpful. As with any tech, none of it always goes off without a hitch. Usually we have to figure out how to make things that don't work function, sometimes without any instructions. Here is how things have shaped up after one evening with the MKII. I tried the DAW functions with the DAWS I own that are covered. Ableton- This was a no brainer since I think they must somehow be in cahoots with Arturia. The programming for DAW control worked right out of the box. No surprise since a lite version of Ableton is included. If this is your DAW no worries. Studio One- I added the MKII as a controller which SO seen. The keys worked on a soft synth in SO. I set DAW control to SO in the MKII....nothing. I tried it in MUI mode. Nothing. Cubase- MKII set to Cubase control. Again all keyboard controller related functions worked fine. DAW functions play a note whenever ANY key is pressed. Several others had this issue over on Reddit and claim the problem is the midi port settings, some suggested using Mackie mode instead. I need to track this down more tonight. MCU mode made no difference. Cakewalk- I didn't get that far yet. I'll let you know. It looks like Creative Sauce had no issue getting his 88 key version to work in Cakewalk. At least with Cubase 12 there are several ways to approach a solution. I could opt to build a script for it from scratch. Unfortunately Cubase has the Arturia essentials scripts but lacks the MKII ones.

? Check out the new midi remote if you haven't already.

Diddly fingers are a good thing.

Hey Notes, I had no intent to get into a discussion about which is better or worse, I was just making the point that probably resonates with a lot of people. We do other things and we are happy with that life as well. You still have to be somewhere to get paid like the rest of us, so in a sense you are a slave to the dollar as well. You don't see it that way because you really seem to like what you do. I don't see how you could enjoy having a 104 fever and making the gig but I digress. It's beginning to sound like any other job to me. I guess I am very fortunate at my job. If I get sick I still get paid. I have lots of paid vacation time and great health benefits. My arrival and departure times are not on any kind of a time clock. I am fairly punctual, so I show up at an agreed on time. I have a retirement account here that is building up rather nicely after 20 years. My home is paid off. I travel if I want to travel. I live where I wanted to live. I guess I don't see myself as a 'wage slave' at all. I can walk out the door any time I want to and never come back or they can let me go and I'll find something else to do. No worries From your perspective it might look like a 20 year gig that never stopped. My supervisor is hands off because he can trust me to do the job. I can see the beauty in having some structure. I work Mon-Fri and have my weekends off. No one ever approaches me about a shift or hours change. If I need another day during the week I take it off. I don't need to think about going somewhere new because I mostly always go to the same place. I went yesterday to get a medical test and no one asks any questions. They know I don't abuse the system. My pay is regular like clockwork. I never need to worry if someone is going to pay me or not. No situation is ever perfect, but this has worked well for me. Working in the government sector means it's one of the last places to lay anyone off in my line of work. My point here being, it can be a good thing either way. I can go home and play in music after dinner or take all day on a Saturday to play if I so desire. I can come home on week nights and play in music all evening. I have a wonderful wife as well( I should have probably put that first on the list) she is really amazing. And you need people like us because we are the ones who go to the places musicians play and buy tickets to hear full time musicians

It's good to know I'm not the only one. I tend to play into the keys further than I should. For me it is a natural tendency. My tough German violin teacher is on me now about picking my fingers up too high on the violin. She hasn't resorted to using a ruler on me yet, but I sense it coming. No matter what I pick up I can't seem to play it the right way.