Tezza

Gorgeous!

Acid looks so primitive and clunky compared to modern daws these days, I did use it for many years though. Acid and vegas made me a lot of money in a broadcast production studio I had some time ago so I have a soft spot for them, watching for the vegas 16 deal.....

This would be great if everyone also posted a picture of where they come from.

When you say you've added a hard drive, does that mean you now have 2 or did you replace the one you had before. 2 hard drives are probably the minimum in my view. Really, just a stock computer with 2 hard drives should be fine for any DAW but it does depend on what you are doing with it. If you use a lot of heavy samples then best to put those on their own drive, I use 3. If you use a lot of heavy synths then you need a good CPU for that. You can end up like the dog chasing it's own tail if you make too many adjustments to the computer. You haven't said what the specs of your computer are. Comparing the performance of different DAW's does no good because the way they work is different. Pro Tools for example will never run well on one hard drive, but other DAW's might do better. This doesn't mean that Pro Tools is worse than other DAW's. Cubase can be fussy if you don't have the right hard drive set up but that doesn't mean Cubase is worse. The trick is getting a hardware system that all DAW's will run well on so if you change to another DAW it's pretty seamless. I've got a crappy old 3rd generation i5 with 8 gig of ram but I do use 3 ssd's. I've yet to have any DAW play up on my system and I've tried them all. Sometimes I have had them on all day and into the night, no problem. Mine is an offline DAW as well. It could be that you have some mechanical problem with the RAM seating in the motherboard or in the motherboard itself. If other DAW's are working well then CbB should as well. I don't know about your history with Sonar, I have never used that program. BIOS changes may affect one DAW but not another, I would return your BIOS to factory settings. There is no need to change anything there other than disabling the onboard audio, unless you run an offline computer and want to disable bits your not using so the operating system can't see them and you can conserve resources. The only other thing that can affect some DAW's but not others is the graphics card and drivers. Again, it would be good to know what is in your computer.

Yes, I am the same, I find I think less and less about the technical side or whether what I am listening to is neutral or not, give me color, I want to hear color and dynamics when I am recording. Also, loudness, even if you are playing virtual instruments, if you want them to sound like a real band (not everyone does), you have to turn up the volume to stage volume, it changes the way you play, you can tap the dynamics, which you cant sense at a low volume, same for guitar and amp sims, give me glorious color, loudness and dynamics, technical side can come later when all the damage is done.

According to Native Instruments, some of their samples are 44.1 and some 48k (some cinematic samples), they said I shouldn't worry about it, just set whatever sample rate I want and let Kontakt do the job of matching the sample sample rate to host. There is a small increase in CPU usage if Kontakt has to resample but compared to all the other things using CPU resources in the DAW, it's not worth talking about.

Thanks Craig, yes looks like a possible fender decal, I'll try the precision samples I have, leonid is a brilliant bass player, sounds awesome!

Can you ignore Sonarworks during creating and just use it when it comes to the mixing stage. I think this is a problem for home recording musicians, namely, musicians want a lively exciting, colored sound when recording and playing because it is inspirational. The technical side of mixing demands a flat neutral sound in order to get the mix right and transferable to a range of listening devices. How people juggle this I don't know but I bet everyone has different ways of achieving it. Might be worthy of a topic in the coffee house. I have just put Morphit (poor mans sonarworks!) on and am trying to set up a second mix to the second headphone out. An idea I got from Bapu in the coffee house, so this is another option. if you have the hardware for it. I used it a couple of times before but like you, didn't like the sound and also clicking it on and off in the master bus. I have yet to trial it on a mix though. These sorts of effects to counteract the coloring of headphones and monitors might be worthwhile, or it might just be marketing speak, I don't know yet. It might still just boil down to learning your headphones and mixing around them. When I first used my HD598's to mix, it was awful but it has massively improved recently because I have been using them a lot for everything and am beginning to really get to know them. By the way, I also have the ATH-M50x's and yes, they are very good at delivering an exciting sound to play and record to. Not flat and neutral by themselves though, they have the "W" shaped eq, boost in the bass, midrange and treble frequencies.

Sorry, just had to, these guys blow my mind! Can a bass player tell me what bass leonid is playing?

I found the forum post, by accident really: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As we all know, there are currently two sampling rates that are used most frequently. It's 44.1kHz and 48kHz. Every library is developed with something in mind. Libraries sampled at 44.1 are considered to be great for general usage, while 48 is used mainly for cinematic setting, due to direct compatibility with DVD audio tracks. However in general, you may find 48 where you least expected it. As Kontakt resampling algorithm needs to resample every single sample that is played and does not conform with project settings, this add loads of additional CPU usage that can be used for anything else, and also real-time resampling may result in deteriorated quality and ringing artefacts. For this purpose, I thought of making a list of developers and their most preferred sampling rate. Depending on your project requirements and the libraries used, you can select the most suitable one. 44100Hz (44.1kHz) is used by: 8dio 9V Audio Audiobro Bela D Media Best Service Embertone Orange Tree Samples HollowSun ProjectSAM Soniccouture Sample Logic Sample Modeling Tonehammer Wavesfactory Westgate Studios 48000Hz (48kHz) is used by: 8dio (certain libraries, 1969 Steinway Piano) Cinesamples Cinematic Strings FT Samples Native Instruments Galaxy SONiVOX Spitfire Audio This list is subject to periodical revisions. For me, 48kHz is a way to go, as I am a big fan of Spitfire, also 48kHz has many advantages over 44.1kHz like less aggressive curve for ATH noise-shaping and nearly-lossless upconversion to 96kHz. Resampling sample content of a single library is not that of a problem. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- According to this guy Native Instruments is 48k, I don't think that's right unless he's talking about the cinematic samples perhaps. I thought all Kontakt samples were 44.1k.

Yes, some are 48k and even 96k, I don't know which is which though, I did stumble on a forum post on another forum that had a list of sample libraries and said which was which , but I do not know that off hand, it's very hard to get the information because vendors don't really advertise it much and it's not talked about much because in the end, it doesn't matter if it's 44.1 or 48k. I think it's the vendors that specialize in cinematic sample libraries that are likely to have 48k samples.

Adelaide, Australia, well not really in Adelaide but that is the nearest big smoke to me, I'm out in the bush.

I find I am mixing and tracking guitars and vocals more and more on my 598's. They have become my go to phone for everything now, I really love them for vocals. The HD 598's have a single cord and are around 50 ohms I think, unlike the higher ohmage and dual cords of the 6xx series, that's why I like them. The loer ohmage suits my UR44 interface. They don't have great isolation of course because they are open back, but I don't care about that anymore. I like hearing the ambient noise when I track guitars or vocals, it is more inspiring, plus they are so light and comfy with the velour pads and they don't clamp and have large enough cups to go around your ears, you really can forget they are on. Thankfully they come with a straight long cord, another plus if you ask me. Mine have got the big 6.5 plug which is fine for the DAW. I got a 6.5 to 3.5 adapter for when I am on the laptop as I am also checking music there sometimes and it's good to use the same phones to reference. Mine are the cream ones. I think you will really like them, I would be interested in your comparison with the 600's. I also have the ATH-50s, the HD 380's and HD 280's, they all have their purposes but I am finding it more efficient just to use the one pair when working. I don't have Sonarworks but I do have Morphit, haven't used it yet. I like your idea of using the second headphone out and have the Sonarworks dedicated to that, beats clicking it on and off on the master bus of your main mix. I might try something similar with the UR44's second headphone and Morphit, since I haven't found a use yet for the second headphone out.

Thanks, I am also considering getting a headphone amplifier, not for volume but for increased clarity at low medium volumes in the phones and to be able to move up to the senny 650's, do you get increased sonic performance/clarity at low levels?

I should say I am still a little undecided on this though, when I record just vocals and acoustic guitar, I can clearly hear quite a difference in the quality of the sound from 44.1 to 96k and even a bit between 44.1 and 48k. However in a busy mix with lots of VST instruments and drums, I can hear a slight difference in the recorded audio of 48k over 44.1 but when you slip it all beck into the mix it's really difficult if at all to notice and other things like eq make more of a difference anyway. Also, I am noticing some weird latency behavior when running in 48k that I am trying to iron out. In addition, I know this sounds crazy but my VST instruments seem sometimes to be slightly out of tune, that cannot be right, I'll have to do more testing. EDIT: The out of tune was due to the electric guitar warping and having too higher action and bow, putting the barre chords out on the 5th to 8th fret. Probably due to the weather and neglect. Made the virtual instruments seem out of tune sometimes. Just tightened the neck up, dropped the action a bit and did the intonation and it's better now. The latency appears to be due to a new driver I put on for the UR44, it only affects the virtual instruments from my midi keyboard not the audio. So doesn't seem to be due to working in 48k.

I've switched to 48k as my standard for everything now, it does sound better to me, more alive. I haven't noticed any CPU problems but I don't run large projects. Don't know the relevance of what you use matters anymore, is anyone still burning CD's? Video was easier to sync at 48k but I think with bluray that has gone to 96k now Even my acoustic stuff if I record at 96k it sounds better, especially the reverbs. Although, I don't use it much, can't stand swapping sample rates all the time so I stick with 48k. I know that some VST instruments come with samples of 44.1 or 48k which is converted, don't know which is which though. Theoretically, if you use VST's with 48k samples then they should sound better if your project is 48k. But I don't know which is which. It's easy to convert to whatever you need in the end anyway. I agree with Jim, ultimately, there are other things that affect your sound more than sample rates. It's whatever you are happy with and what your system can manage, given the project size. Most just run 44.1k and don't think about it because that has been the "industry standard". I know others might disagree but I do notice the difference between 44.1k, 48k and 96k.

Thanks for clearing that up. I had an issue with a Novation Launchkey, when I looked at my midi monitor (I don't know what DAW I was using at that time) it showed a continual pulse, c2 note off I understand. At the time I didn't know what it was but it filled up my midi monitor and I couldn't see anything else. At first I thought it was a faulty keyboard and then found out about the "heartbeat". After that experience I said no more to "mackie control" because that's what I thought was causing it. When I see keyboards that only offer "mackie control" as a means for the keyboards onboard transport etc to communicate with the DAW, I look elsewhere. I wasn't aware of the difference between HUI and MCU.

Does this also get rid of the mackie heartbeat, you know how it constantly transmits a midi signal.

Thanks for this post, I am in Australia and the exchange rate between Aus dollars and US dollars is bad enough as it is, without sneaky conversion taxes being applied. Time to do calculations before I buy anything. Sometimes I ask the vendor for an "Aussie discount" because I have to pay so much more, sometimes they send me a voucher! Don't ask, don't get! Have to thank my mother for that advice. The conversion rate does affect whom I buy from, US companies are at the bottom of the list at the moment, unless they give me a voucher of course, then it's all sweet.

It most certainly does, at home on my awful internet 600mb takes 45minutes to 60 minutes and that's providing the connection sticks, might have to do a few resumes. At the Library using their wifi it takes about 7 minutes. I think in this case, as has been suggested, it is probably downloading in the background and the internet connection is slow.

Yes, these guys have taken it to the extreme though, they are now a megaband touring the world with the core members being in their mid/late 60's. They have added other band members as well now. The difference is I guess, that their musical careers were relatively ordinary before they hit their 60's, then, the retirement age in Russia being 60, they were going to retire but decided to do one Chicago cover as a tribute and put it on the net, it exploded from there. So you could say that their careers really started in their 60's. Unlike other older bands many of whom are still rocking on into their 60's and 70's but they made their fame and were known when they were younger. The original Chicago members fully support them as well. http://leonidandf.com/ They have proven that age is no excuse, not just to continue playing music but to also start your professional careers. What an inspiration!

It pays to look in the accounts sometimes, see if there is any new things been added. I recently wanted to update my K10U to K12U but the way native access forces you to download straight to the DAW didn't work out for me as I have atrocious unfixable internet at home at the moment. I returned it and got a full refund after a bit of a fight. I went recently went to my NI account and found although they had deleted the K12U from my account, the synths from K12U were still there with serial numbers. I queried this and they said it was an apology because K12U didn't work out for me, way to go Native Instruments!

I tried to get the A-series Kontrol keyboard tested at a retail outlet in the city , said could I bring my laptop in to try with my kontrol software, they said no, only have a few, they are in boxes, can only buy a box. None are even on demo. They do have some demos of other keyboards though, not many, they won't take it out of the box to let you try.

I couldn't get hold of the S61 mki or the s49 mkii. They were both available in my area but they sold before I could get to them. I don't like the mki because it has those touch strips instead of the solid pitch and modulation wheels. I could live with it though, at least you can turn the lights off. On the markii you cannot turn the lights off. I couldn't live with that. They have the Fatar keybed which is supposed to be good. Some are saying that the A series kontrol keybeds are also good. I won't buy another keyboard without testing it out though. I get what you are saying about testing on the DAW, Keybed has to be good and velocities also, I don't know how you do that though other than buy secondhand and if you don't like then move on. The nearest music shop to me is about 100kms away. They don't carry a lot and what they do carry, you can't really try in the shop as they are not hooked up.

I love these guys, a bunch of Russians in their 60's (half of which can't even speak english) who decided not to retire and create a Chicago cover band instead, gone viral! I am using their interpretation of this song as a reference track in a rock song that I want to put real sounding trumpets and brass in.