Tim Smith

I think it works well. One word- Transiberian orchestra. In their case a little more rock that orchestra but still...............

Can't get much more authentic to the original than this which actually surpasses it in terms of the mix/mastering.

Thanks Shane. Yeah it's the DX Martin but it sounds pretty good.

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The new mix is a huge improvement. ?

My only nit so far has been the Sampletank browser where you have to select the title EVERY TIME you want to search something. I would much rather have everything selected as DEFAULT upon load up. They could do it because it doesn't load the samples. It only selects a direction path. I still have the occasional issues with ST4 and Studio One 5. Not having these issues with any other DAW including Cakewalk.

The plugin market is getting more and more crowded. Back in the day Waves was one of only a handful of go to plug in companies. Now we have many more in the game. Not just college kids playing with code, but great well made plug ins. Some of them free. I love my Waves plugins, but most of the time anything they do can be duplicated with something else. Some are unique and make using them easier than alternatives. Waves isn't the only ones who regularly update their plugins. Which makes sticking with them in the future a tough call UNLESS I get a killer deal on WUP and I mean killer deal because my price to WUP makes me think about using another company. Sorry....Just being real here.

This is a live composition I did in my studio. It has a few small boo boos but was a fun one to make. I play 4 different parts in with a looper,

Here's one I did with a talented vocalist awhile back and maybe I'll throw in one where I'm improving Christmas tunes too.

Nice playing John. MODO bass is really kicking in this mix. Sounds like the real deal. I liked the way you brought the synths in around the 3:00 mark and changed it up with the drums. That must have taken some work to get right. -Tim

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Nice playing and mix here Mark. Happy B-day!

You are a very talented singer/ guitarist. The arrangement seems just fine to me. Any comments I have about the song itself are only opinions on what I might experiment with if it were me. I would probably try pulling up the harmony in the choruses some. If I could pull the midi up for the drums I would maybe try adding some extra drum hits in key places especially highlighted toward the end. At about the 5:00 time mark I would try delay automation on the guitar to give the ending a more spacey take away. I would not leave it in all the way but add it in that one part. The key idea would be variation here and there is more exciting and sounds more spontaneous if done well. I'm on earbuds here at my job so I can't really comment on the mix critically. Comes across on these buds well.

Great mix and expert salvage on that old mix. I either use TRacks 5 or O9 when mastering. Lurssen Mastering console has been absolute junk on my machine. When I throw a track into it all I get is a garbled mess. Nice work! You guys could play even way back then.

A little slow earlier, seems to have caught up for me now.

I never bought another DAW to replace Cakewalk, I have only bought other DAWS to compliment it. For me Studio One is a mixed bag. I liked that they incorporated pretty good notation features right into the program. Efx are good. Can't beat it for mixing and mastering an album. The included synths are meh. Even though when the whole Gibson selloff thing went down many compared SO to CbB as similar in many respects. I would disagree that the workflow in SO is anywhere near as nice as CbB unless maybe you bought and use it in conjunction with a Presonus hardware controller. I would probably rather get something like a Mackie and use it with all my DAWS. As stand alone I find midi editing in SO to be less powerful or intuitive than the PR roll in Cakewalk. Even though SO has wonderful mastering features I prefer to master in CbB with my own plugins. On a scale of 1-10 SO to me is a 6, maybe a 7. If I have an instrument out ready to play it with an idea, I don't see ever using anything else and I have several other DAWS I paid for. Best overall workflow to draft and mix ideas without getting hug over how something works in the DAW.

Well I jumped. Thanks cclarry. Cakewalk will still be the DAW I use for fast constructions . I'm going to see how the midi works in Cubase. -Tim

I don't have a touch screen (yet ).I have one in my future plans though. Thanks!

Thanks for this info. Not sure if Cakewalk does this in both directions. All of the drum programs I own let you drag midi from the drum program into a track in Cakewalk, BFD, All the kits in Komplete, Addictive Drums, to name a few. Now I'm wondering if Cakewalk is bi directional. The issue of midi is becoming bigger for me. I am building larger mixes using it. I just recently discovered ghost notes on all tracks in the Cakewalk PR. Most of my midi work up until now hasn't been huge track counts. True to the exact beat electronic music isn't my thing. Real musicians never start at the exact same time. I think what I'm looking for is easy arrangement tools and maybe tools that would let me take a lead track and build a complimentary track with the midi. For instance a feature that would let me take a section of midi, copy it to another track and tune it a 5th down, or double a part a 3rd up. Things like that. Many movie composers are using Cubase. Not sure if this is similar to the way most big studios have PT just because it is the standard.

Thanks cclarry, I was kind of hoping someone would talk me out of it I wanted someone to tell me the midi tools aren't as good as I have been told for a long time. And VST, hard to go wrong there. They will always have the updates probably before anyone else does, because well, they make the updates. To make it even more tempting, I have a dongle already.

I have had a love hate relationship with this program and I don't even own it. I almost bought it numerous times. Came so close. This is probably as good as it's going to get from them which isn't bad for anyone who might want to get into the Cubase game. For those who have the program, does it really do any great things the other DAWS can't?

Well I busted my keyster to get this part fast. I'll post a vid of the way I usually play it ( The Star Of Munster) much slower and the faster version that this score called for between verses. 112 bpm with 4 16th notes on each down/up beat. That's fast. I had a couple of technical questions too. Is this the right mic on stage for the violin? It didn't seem to be picking me up very well. I understand some distance helps to minimize string noises, yet in this application I think maybe I needed another setup to be heard. I came in slightly late on my intro part. The band covered it up pretty well that most didn't notice it. I'm sure you musicians here will notice it. If that video doesn't start at 28:32 that is the time mark to hear it. Of course the camera panned on me while I was making violin faces. I worked really hard to get this right but this was the first time I played it with the band and the jazz feel kinda threw me off, especially for a song with an Irish flavor. I guess I wasn't 100% due to this. I stayed in time the rest of the song. Sounded better live. I was louder. The broadcast feed isn't that great. It's interesting I actually received a lot of compliments on my playing. I came away feeling as if I had bombed it. It's hard to tell because when you're looking out at 200 Presbyterians most are not giving any outward indication. Very little feedback from the audience either way. After reviewing this I think the faster part the score called for didn't quite gel.

Thanks to all who recently commented and others. @treesha @thegaltieribrothers @Makke @Douglas Kirby @DeeringAmps @David Sprouse All ideas, kudos and suggestions much appreciated!

Allan. Much appreciated. Thanks for comments.

True that. Some of the sounds in that pak are realistic. I liked the Post Rock pak which I'm considering through Audio Deluxe. I have Journey which has some things in it I might use. For anyone that hasn't Swatch is a free download and has been improved. Objeq Delay is one of my main go to delays although I only use a few of the presets. I went through my freeb Good Folks last night and it's quality guitar sounds. I would prefer using the guitar paks in Strum but I'm not sure I can load them into my older version. Right now the default is AAS player.