Starise

Welllll........................ I guess if you can't get up you can always have Amazon deliver the donuts. 

I donut know what to say. Oh yes I do. I like coffee....and paper magazines. 

I'm glad to see that you have the hang of the BL interface. I'm running behind on my intentions there. Has that special Wookie sauce in it that only you can make. Enjoyable journey to a place I've never been before. Thanks for sharing!

You do quite well on those keys. Given the subject matter I can see why it has the feel it does. Very reflective, almost meditative. Great theme running through it all. Good to hear another one from you!

Sweet tone happening here.. using an amp you built?  I thought the mix was well done. Playing never veers....thumbs up and thanks for posting!

Dang, I don't know what they're putting in the food there in Utah but it must be helping you play like a maniac. All kidding aside, I know you work hard to sound like that and it pays off in the end!  No timidity in this mix. Fits well for this genre. Nice man! Don't know what else to say...great mix, great chops combine to make great results. 

Douglas, I really enjoyed listening to this retro track. Has that old stones vibe to it right down to the guitars and vocals. Like it was made in a studio from that period. I mean that as a high compliment. I also use the Abbey Road TG mastering chain often. Does an exceptional job. 

Congrats on another track well done!

Hi guys,

Been away and just got back. I really appreciate the feedback and listens. Tom. I kinda mixed it up on strings there with the cello being strainght Kontakt library, Joshua Bell violin . A little Amadeus and for light background I used  Spitfire Albion One.

I wish I could get to the PacNW to see what that's like sometime. Beautiful out there too I'm sure.

Well....................... At least we can still get a coffee in B&N. If there's a still a B&N in your area.

I was recently flying between states. Couldn't find a music mag in an airport to save my life. Figured I would visit a local mall with a book store. The one I visited had a magazine rack that went into next Tuesday. I figure FOR SURE they would have something. Nope.

The last Keyboard magazine I bought was 60% advertising filler. Not even good bathroom material!

I tried the sub route with SOS. Subscribed to their paper version for years. Something about holding that mag and flipping through it is a better experience than my iPad. The batteries never run down, don't need to hunt for a page with my finger. My right to see it will never go away.Must cost a fortune to mail a mag like SOS to the states from the UK.  I can see why it's going that way (digital). I don't need to like it.

Running Win 10 here. You are probably correct on the OGG files. I don't use them. Kenny is the only one I know who uses them. Also have Mixcraft..would be way cool to use those loops in ACID.  Haven't tried to do that yet.

Wish I had known about the 20.00 deal. You sure it has everything the website version has? All the loops libraries?? Same version? Almost sounds like some kind of a pirate job. Well worth the 99 clams....and a steal at 20 if this is legit.

The version I bought was 99.00. The most recent. I kept getting these emails. They kept tempting me and I finally bought it. Had ACID for years. Didn't use it during the whole Sony thing. I missed what it could do. Used loops in Cakewalk. More cumbersome yet doable. TBH I am not a regular loops user but it can be fun and a quick way to build up a backing track.

Loaded it on another computer besides the one I had the old copy of ACID on. I'm not sure what the 20.00 version is. If it gets you into the basic loop world I guess that will get you acclimated to the basic. The version I have is pretty smack. No crashes yet. Made some guitar tracks and loaded em' up in it. Now I can put the guitar away and mix.

I don't use rewire. Makes no sense for what I do. Why run two DAWS?  I simply export the tracks and import them into Cakewalk. Even if you don't use the tracks it's a great way to find a groove, have a frame work to build from. I have Ableton too and it is so much more complicated to do the same things. Set the resolutions correctly in Cakewalk and you can do a similar thing but less intuitive IMHO. The loops bump right up against one another and line up perfectly. 

The sale I bought had a few free libraries thrown in. They give you a choice on the loop quality you want to download. 16/44.1 is good for me. I like playing in the DAW.....I'm a seasoned musician who plays multiple instruments. Loops? So what?

They all seem to have a way to try and collect from you in the future. I really like Waves plugins. I'll admit some of the marketing seems a bit confusing sometimes.  I'm pretty much invested in the Waves world right now. No real need to update WUP at this time. I don't consider a 240.00 ish price every 4 or 5 years unreasonable to keep all of my plugins up to date. Likely they will have a Black Friday sale, maybe on WUP.  I'm not paying a large sum every year.

Just because a plugin is expired doesn't mean you can't use it. It only means that it probably has an update or will be due for one. Same as people are still using CW Platinum on older computers....non WUPPED plugs will run for a long time. For me, it's all good. Just depends on how you see it I guess

Interesting to read this. I just upgraded to the pro 9 version from an older version. Admittedly I was reluctant to do so. If you think of "loops" as simply building blocks to a song. Loops which you can create yourself BTW. It isn't a bad thing.  I can play guitar but it seemed I wasted hours on end when live tracking making sequential verses exactly the same. Sure they would always be close, but often not close enough for me to accept. One would have a little extra something in it while finger picking. 

If you make a loop of the verse/chorus and bridge that's locked to tempo you save TONS of time. I haven't used the program in awhile so I'm still feeling my way around making loops well. Loops can be sent to a folder and seen easily in the explorer. After that it's simple drag and drop. Don't forget that any of it can be pitch or tempo adjusted. If I'm playing guitar and changing keys it's a whole can of worms to open for me. For me, I think making my own loops is the way to go.

Yes it can also be done in several other DAWs including Cakewalk by Bandlab. I just prefer the user interface in this DAW. Also records audio and sees all of my Waves plugins. Not too deep to get your head around it really. Well worth this pittance if you fancy making your main song parts into loops and rearranging them at will.

Thank you for the comments all! I thought I had been here to comment already ? Sorry it took me so long to get back. I put this to a picture collage for anyone that might care to look at it.. also made some corrections to the mix.

The pic collage- I took em' two days ago a half hour from my house.

Whale Well, this is good music. What else need I say here?  Has that slathering of Lynn in it that would make the sound unmistakable anywhere, yet each song has an originality to it....signature Lynn. Good Music. Nuff said. Thanks for sharing it!

This has a nice retro feel I don't often hear. I feel like I'm back in 1973 11 years old and listening to a tune on the radio. I hope you understand that this is a high compliment from me on this because I really like that stuff!!!

Great subject matter. If only we could be our online selves.....As I have come to expect from you  this is yet another pristine mix. Tell me if I'm wrong about your mixes ( I probably am) It sounds as if you are making some deep cuts in EQ to get such clarity in the mix. I feel as if I'm in a huge room with only a few items in it when I listen to a mix you've made. I have often almost envied you for that .

I like this approach and it works very well with you and the missus here.

That should be a guitar and not a gun you're holding.....well ok I understand you might need to go after the bass player? Second thought, maybe you need both.

Quite a nice "jam" you have going on there . Nice silky guitar prowess is abundant!

This compo began as a piano part which I sectioned into individual parts. Then added further additional parts to it. That's how I made it in a nutshell....

39 minutes ago, Notes_Norton said:

The last Mac product I had was an iPad. I liked it OK but getting files from my PC to the iPad and back was a major PITA. With the Galaxy/Android I just use USBtoGo.

I've had Macs from the old Classic II using OS6 through some version of OSX (I love the marketing, making everybody say Oh Ess ***** instead of Oh Ess Ten). I sold the desktop Mac when Band-in-a-Box got to the point where I no longer needed it.

I have nothing against Apple except that they seem to go through great pains to keep you in their 'ecosystem' and not letting you talk to those Windows, Linux and Chrome people's computers.

But as far as the OS is concerned, some things are easier on Apple, some things are easier on Windows.

I let the software choose my OS. Since my 'moonlighting' job is writing aftermarket styles for Band-in-a-Box, and since the StyleMaker app for BiaB has many more features on the PC version of BiaB, it puts me firmly in the Windows camp. I can make styles that work better on all versions of BiaB if I make them on the Windows app.

On stage (gigging is my primary job) I use ThinkPad computers. They are built like tanks, flat black and without a glowing Apple logo for my audience to see. I'm just retiring one that I've been using on stage since 2002 and was built by IBM. 17 years of hard service is very good for a computer. It still works, the CMOS battery died, or so I thought. I replaced it and it still exhibits the problem. I have to manually enter the date before the computer finishes booting up. Well I can't have something on stage that isn't 100% so out it goes. I got my money's worth.

On the PC I still use Master Tracks Pro MIDI sequencer, even though it orphaned, Band-in-a-Box, Encore Notation, Power Tracks Pro Audio, and now Cakewalk. I have a bank of hardware synths and samplers that I've been adding to since the 1980s. The TX81z still has some nice FM melodic percussion sounds in it that the ROMplers and plug-ins have never duplicated (it also has some sounds that need to be forgotten). That's my oldest synth module.

I make a living doing music and nothing but music, so I'm a happy guy!

Insights and incites by Notes

The fact that I haven't touched a Mac in probably 20 years is proof I never needed one to do what I do...........well ok, I did touch one a few times at Best Buy. Might have pushed a few buttons, but nothing happened. I swear it!

Geeese..............why only October? I can be sarcastic all year.

This reminds me of a dude I follow who has a facebook page for his "band". Only I can't find any of his music or links to it on the page. Sometimes I think these guys are hoping to build a band, start a FB page. Things don't take off the way they plan. The page still sits there a year later, last post being a year ago. Or maybe he died?? Hope not.

10 hours ago, antler said:

This might be a loaded question, but is there a good reason to get the mastering stuff if I have Ozone Advanced?

This is where I'm sitting too.......but GAS. Nuff said.  I mean if you're going to throw me 10 other plugins......I know it's a marketing tactic. I guess I like being marketed to like this lol. As an aside, another very pleasant mastering surprise for me was Waves Abbey Road TG Mastering chain. I picked that up on a deal. Unlike Lurssen you can adjust those modules. Also several killer presets included. No it isn't like Ozone or TRacks where you can load up tunes stand alone and master them. So what? Master them in the daw.

Wow Kenny! I knew you were a good player. Had no idea you were such a good mixer/compo maker.Kudos to you man!

You got da funk!

I dunno Craig. That might be interesting.?

 I guess it never really bothered me if one guy gets a better deal on something I might have paid more for earlier. Things are always changing. Companies are trying to flex with the market and times. 

The only thing that has bothered me so far is when I'm in the middle of a mix trying to pull plugs for a track. I open the IK list and see a lot of choices. This seems to be because they load these duds on the list that you don't actually own. They want you to click on it, go to the custom shop and buy it. Nada. It just frustrates me and I go pull a Waves or similar plugin so I can get my mix done. I don't have all day to move out of my mix to do that. I am probably less likely to return to my IK list the next time because I'm not sure what I actually own and what was a dud they put on there for me to chase after. I want a tool box with tool I can readily pull and use. I notice the same thing with Amplitube. I would rather have an occasional email instead of them swamping my plugs list with useless stuff.

As far as my general perception of the company and their products are concerned, I think they have a great product line that covers a lot of bases, right up there with many of the others. In a nutshell, they are a great company that excels at marketing, and I mean REALLY excels at marketing. Their schtick for the plugins thing is the group buy which seems to be very effective. I have participated in several of those and I feel I got a good value for money spent. Having said that, it really is marketing at it's best. I know that. Plug X is priced higher than it's really worth because you never know how much value someone will put on a plugin. To you it might be worth 149.00, to me it might only looks like 49.99 or less. In the end you wind up with a bunch of plugins. There's also the idea that buying a product at a lower tier on a group buy sets you up for them to get an upgrade out of you later on. Notice TrackS MAX version was not offered. They did throw some nice deals into the mix this time though IMHO, ARC is great if you don't have it. Yet you will want ARC 3.0 when it comes out. This is what keeps the train moving. These guys need to eat too . I don't begrudge them that.

As far as what Cclarry and kitecrazy mentioned,  It's those little things that can loose a customer, such as not allowing unlimited time to download sounds. Charging fees for things other do for free. Might seem small. It isn't when you consider you've lost a customer or at least left a bad taste in their mouth. Err on generosity and you'll win every time. Go the other way and things won't go well.