Starise

I picked up the Tina Quo cello Legato. Nice little library.

I see things getting better with the new midi standard coming out for future gear. I have a few dual purpose keyboards that have both a usb and a 5 pin midi connector that also have built in sound engines. What I'm finding in the studio is I seldom use the external sound engines lately. It's just too easy to load VSTi and play with the security of program and template saves. I don't have to come back and remember what I did on a hardware synth. I sometimes record both an audio and a midi track simultaneous because a certain sound in the keyboard has a feel I liked and I think it helped me play just a little better as a result. If it's in time and clean I might decide to use it. You could probably get all kinds of dated keyboards cheap online and only use them as your sound sources. It's a lot of work though, rounding up keyboards, getting them all set up. For me that's best if I'm playing keyboards live. Forget the computer unless you need tracks.

The interesting thing to me about DAWS is that most of them are still around after 30 years with more recent ones (Bitwig) coming along later. I guess the incentive is there. Smaller companies like Mixcraft are still around and updating. If they weren't making money I don't think that would happen.Cakewalk came close to being a name in Wikipedia with only a historical meaning. Many of the Asian countries economies are more stable than ever meaning you probably have millions of future potential customers. No one DAW seems to dominate, they all have a place. Behringer gear wouldn't be my first choice right now in the home studio market. I think one of their interfaces still uses ASIO for all. They have taken the PA house gear by storm. I use an X32 elsewhere and it works very well. If their emergence into the house and concert systems market is any indication, the home studio market competition has good reason to be concerned. For instance if they come out with an interface at half the price of Presonus with the same latency numbers and a free included DAW................ you don't have to think much about that one.

I do have one of these in the studio.

After some investigation further into this and looking for into it like you did sadicus, I have come to my own conclusions which are probably not in line with your goals. While I really hope you can make Matrix do what you want it to do I am highly skeptical now. If all you wanted to do was pre record and "fire off" loops then it would probably be adequate for that. When you record to the Matrix it saves it to a clips area. Retrieving that loop immediately might be an issue using only a midi controller. When comparing the Matrix to something like Ableton the Matrix looks to be a highly simplified version of a looper. Until this part of the program is developed further I don't think I would use it on stage, but that's me. If you can make it work like a hardware looper that records. plays and erases on the fly then please do share how you did it. I have an RC-300. Those have been for sale for long time and are still listed for sale because they work really well for playing ideas in and getting an instant playback. Many of the guitar multi effects also have some kind of a looper built in. If you are looking for a software looper solution you won't do better than Ableton for that. I hate to say it because I am a long time Cakewalk user, but this portion of the program is nowhere near as developed as Ableton Live 10. Even if you use Ableton there will likely be some work to do in setting up a controller to record instantly and play back immediately after. It will still be easier than the matrix. There are likely VST MC type plugins that do similar but they are all a little different and a look at the specs would be necessary. Here the RC-300 in action. This guy makes it look a lot easier than it really is......or maybe he is way more talented than me. Very possible. Ableton Live 10

SSD>plugins instruments>larger SSD> plugins instruments>another SSD> plugins instruments>another SSD>plugins instruments>nother SSD>plugins instruments> continue ad nauseam. Newegg is my friend.

I guess I need to play the notes between the notes more often.

No matter what software you use to play the loops, you'll need a good scheme to trigger them when needed...with keyboards you often need both hands, but can free up a second or two to push a button. Playing guitars you probably don't want to run around pushing buttons.I have found keyboards easier to use smaller tactile midi controllers with, like pads programmed to launch clips. This is only because we can put those things closer to our hands and quickly hit the pad or key or button....even then things can go terribly wrong if you missed one of the steps in making the show. If I were playing guitar I would be looking at foot switches that can send midi commands or hardware loopers with foot switches. I have never seen anyone play guitar and use a pad or button to record and play the loops.....it has probably been done, but seems a lot more difficult to me for a guitarist. Admittedly I used Ableton Live for this. Not because Cakewalk won't probably do it. In my case I had files written in and made for that program. I played with the matrix awhile back. I was able to record the loops, but didn't use a controller to do that.In theory it should work in a similar way. Before you go out and buy a controller for the laptop I would maybe experiment with midi bindings to loops in the matrix and make some test loops triggering them with commands from anything you have laying around or your QWERTY keyboard...at least that way you ran it through a test and it did want you wanted it to do. The benefit to hardware loopers is you can instantly erase what you recorded and record something else. I see the matrix as more of a loop player though maybe someone else can comment who recorded loops live.

Very well done in my opinion. Does remind me of the south. The tempo is perfect for the way this moves. The guitar, harmonica are just perfect! You can sing too Nice and thanks for sharing!

Thanks for sharing that. It's sort of what I was driving at in so many words. The origin of music is eternal. It is important you brought up new age music and made it clear that this isn't what you mean't. I know what you mean't

Music was intended to be eternal in my opinion. As such there is no end to it and almost infinite variations in any given theme.

Jesse are you looking for critique or just putting this out there?

Hi Doug, This one probably brings back some good memories for you. I liked the retro feel to the mix. Great harmony mix. Are the vox just a little bit right leaning in the panning? It might be that more of one frequency is coming into my right side. Not sure. Thank for sharing!

The VST scanner only scans the folders you give it. You will need to go to the plugin scanner under edit>preferences>VST and designate the folder location on the scan list. If you are scanning a 32 bit plugin there might be issues due to recent changes in Cakewalk regarding 32 bit plugins. Not sure about Kontakt. Maybe others can comment on this...some plugins don't like to be moved around because plugin location was designated when it was installed and is tied to the registration. Moving things around with some install schemes moves around the registration. When the portal tries to update it's blind to the plug in (because it was moved).

Great idea for a thread and very helpful! It seems many who use outboard interfaces use ASIO. I recently had need to temporarily switch to MME drivers because my screen capture software wasn't playing well with both my DAW and it. Is there any benefit to using MME over ASIO? MME seemed more compatible to a larger cross section of devices. On the subject of cleaning out the junk. What about old versions of Cakewalk? Aren't they still on the drive? Are there places where large amounts of disk memory might be wasted unawares?

For me it depends on the type of editing. If I am making changes to individual tracks I mostly use Cakewalk. If I am working on a master for edit I use Sound Forge. Case in point- I just had a track that needed to be cut down from over 3 minutes to 2 minutes or under. I put the master in Sound Forge and the process was easy to make splits and move things around. I was impressed by how well the split points merged in Sound Forge. If you get between beats no one will ever know. I don't often use Sound Forge, but for that. It saved my butt.

Another thing that further complicates the issues here...not all of the online music sites use the same exact criteria. K-20 almost never works for me and I often peak occasionally using K-14. I might need to re calibrate with pink noise again. The overall perception of loudness usually increases when I disengage ARC or my Sonarworks plugin in the headphones. This is probably important in headphones because this is what most hear in reality because ear buds are often boosted or cut in similar ranges. It's good to know that Craig reports similar in mastering to -11 LUFS which also pushes the limits some, but not too much. Craig are you seeing red on the meters? I get the occasional peaks. If it isn't too bad I release it.

Kite I think it's because they have a market with the gamer crowd, though I have seen studios where they dress up the computer case. Goes along with the running light leds under the recording desk . When I bought a case it was primarily about noise suppression for me. I don't even have a lava lamp.? Intel/AMD....that's a can of worms I won't open. Mainly because once it's open I don't know if I can close it Competition is good though.

4u? not 4 me. Adios Amigo.

They must have found a really good pig to make those pipes ? Most on the outside have no idea the level of difficulty in playing some of these instruments. I don't know if this guy has an air pump pushing air into this thing. That would make sense. They take a lot of air to work and they sound funny when they are running out of it, (air that is). For all I know this might be a synth and the bag is a prop. I wouldn't bet on that though.

I happen to also be very fond of bagpipes...so I won't knock then unless the person can't play. I have heard them played well. There's that other instrument called the Uilleann pipes. I'm not as fond of those. They are easy to spot. I looks like someone killed a pig, took his innards out and added a mouth piece to one end.. When they play those it sounds like the animal might still be alive though he can't move because he is trapped under the arm. I think drummers in rock bands and viola players in classical music get more jokes made about them.

Some of those fast food places are REALLY fast. They make it fast. I eat it fast. Comes out even faster.........where's the loooooooooooo. Too late.

I usually make a comparison between the K-System and other methods. To my ears the K-System has on kid gloves compared to the prior db "just under zero"methods. In these discussions RMS usually comes up as overall more important. LUFS is probably more relevant now as Craig mentions. Clipping is still clipping no matter how it's measured. Dealing with the peaks through gentle compression and multi-band limiting can really help when the material only has a few offending peaks. This lets me bring the master up higher in a more controlled way. You certainly won't be called on the carpet for using the K-System. I suspect they used some of that data when coming up with LUFS. I seemed to always be pushing the limits of it for some of my material though. I still rely a lot on the older db/RMS ways. Then I throw a metering plugin on the master to see how that looks on LUFS and the K. My mixes seem to pop better that way. Very often an acceptable mix using only the db meters is too high in the K-System......and that can potentially be frustrating. So I might ignore the K-System Depending on where the master is going the site you upload it to will limit it to their specs. It's all enough to make you pull your hair out.

Thanks for comments guys, @David Sprouse The trumpet is from the Cuba library that comes with Komplete. I love that trumpet! The vox are assorted samples from Sampletank 4. The brass was played in by me. I found that if I hit the key right it would bounce making it sound like the trumpet player was double tounqing. No piano roll or corrections made later. Same thing with the pianos. Just improvisation. Basic jazz stuff I hear you on the drums. Most jazz bands would have a drummer that changes things up. I guess drumming is the one thing I sometimes struggle with. I added a tinkle bell toward the end. @DeeringAmps Yes I couldn't have said it better. Jazz does smell funny no doubt Thanks for that announcement Tom. It is what it is. I feel glad I made something. If someone likes it great! If not...I'll roll with it. This is still a great place to listen to good music! Thanks for commenting.