Michael Elliott

Unfortunately that didn't fix the crash. The log is attached. But just to confirm, yes, that is the version of gdiplus.dll on my system. I realize your plugins just *look* like the Cakewalk originals in style, and are not coded like them....but my broken brain seems to be trying to tell me something. I can't tell what it is yet, since different parts of my brain sometimes don't talk to each other, but...i'll post it if I figure it out. I think they were coded in MFC rather than VS (I don't really know the difference, if there even is one). SONARPDR.exe.7684.dmp.zip

No change. Here's the dump for CSMIDIModulator, if it's helpful. SONARPDR.exe.5780.dmp.zip In the meantime, while I'm figuring out how to setup the spare laptop to debug stuff, would a procmon system monitoring file be useful, run during the crash? They're likely to be very large; even just a few seconds of just 32bit processes (excluding 64bit) is about 70mb.

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I don't know Holst's The Planets well enough to know if any of the arranging/etc was changed (Variorum will have to answer that part), but if not, then the original was created by Gustav Holst a little over a century ago (before movies with sound existed ). It has been used in some films/videos, however, including a visually well-made BBC series about the solar system. https://www.bbcearth.com/shows/the-planets If it's helpful, this page has more info on the suite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Planets and this google has links to various orchestrations and performances of it. https://www.google.com/search?q=gustav+holst+mars .

I didn't think to try the originals, but I'll do that now. Space isn't a problem for the spare laptop; ATM it basically just has Windows on it, and a few utility programs. it's windows10 can't be updated either, but in it's case it is because the updates always fail (even starting from a fresh Lenovo factory restore), and it ends up stuck in a loop trying to install, reboot, fail, install, reboot, etc, so I had to disable the ability to update, and because that's only temporary on 10home, I can't trust it to stay connected to a network. So I'll have to do the downloading with the other machine for an "offline install" (if it has that option), then put the install files on the spare machine and let it go. (yeah, nothing is ever easy)

As you expected, the VCredistributable didn't change anything. Is there anywhere to get just the specific debug libraries? According to the MS page https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/install/install-visual-studio?view=vs-2022 individual components can be installed, rather than the whole thing, so if you know which specific component I need to just do the debugging part, I can install those (as long as it isn't something that could break the computer--if it's possible to break something, I'll use the spare laptop instead).

It is almost certainly hot, especially in the bass...I found I accidentally had two instances of VX-64 Vocal Strip in the big giant morphing bass soundtrack (one in the track fx bin, and one in the bass buss fx bin), both set to Bass Blaster preset. 😊 For curiosity, since I don't see any red meter markers or clip indications on the master bus (or any other tracks/busses) from SONAR itself, I setup EAS Inspector on the master bus, and in the default or moderate modes, it doesn't show any clip incidents (says I have 0.1db headroom on both L & R), so the distortion must be before then, and kept from clipping in the later parts of the chain by one of the compressors or limiters after the distortion happens. I usually use the Sonitus Multiband as a limiter by bypassing all the bands and just turning on the limit, then setting the master gain on it for the max output I want a track to have; of the few working limiters I have this process seems to give the best results so far. ** I have to disable one of them and rerender the track and repost it; I'll make a post here when that's done. (it will replace the original version on the Bandcamp page, so you won't be able to A/B them, unfortunately. I don't make new BC pages for each song version because it would fill my site fast that way, and make it hard for people to see what is really there. So I just keep the latest version in each song page, and just add version numbers in the song notes on the page so if someone remembers they listened to it on a certain date and liked it better then than now I can go back to the version that was there then to provide it to them, but so far that has never happened. *** It probably is repetititititve in places; I often have issues with my variations not being sufficiently varied for others to listen to.**** Like most of my tracks, it's still a work-in-progress (though I don't know when I will be able to get back to it, at present I am working on Ookami no Kami no Yume (Wolf's Dream of a Hunt). https://discuss.cakewalk.com/topic/81204-ookami-no-kari-no-yume-wolfs-dream-of-the-hunt/ **I can't install new VSTs because if I run the VST adapter scan in any mode, (ancient SONAR) it breaks existing working plugins for no reason, and then I have to restore the previous registry entries....if I could find out what the VST IDs were for new plugins, I could probably hack them into the registry manually. I've tried many solutions over the years but nothing works. The only way for me to use new things is to host them outside SONAR and use a virtual audio cable between them.

The files are definitely unzipped from the debug.zip file. If I use the windows context menu (possibly from 7zip?) extract function on the DLL itself it extracts into various files and folders that are parts of the DLL internals, so when they show up as the CSHumanizeDS32_D.dll and CSWaverDS32_D.dll they are as unzipped as they can get and still be used. The command that I run on them using the sendto menu works on anything else that is a registerable (or unregisterable) dll file (not all of them can be), and has worked for other manual registering/etc I have done so far in this process for previous files. (and is how I normally do this for various MFX and DX effect / DXi synth install / uninstall or temporary troubleshooting). So it *should* work on these, as well; the results I get aren't those of a failure of the registration process but rather of a file that can't be registered / doesn't have the parts the regsvr32 program is looking for. 😕 Just in case, I used Windows Powershell in admin mode, and this command line for each debug-version dll: C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared MIDI Plugins\Viramor\Debug> c:\windows\system32\regsvr32.exe CSWaverDS32_D.dll C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared MIDI Plugins\Viramor\Debug> c:\windows\system32\regsvr32.exe CSHumanizeDS32_D.dll with the same result as previously posted. "The module "C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared MIDI Plugins\Viramor\Debug\CSWaverDS32_D.dll" (or CSHumanizeDS32_D.dll) failed to load. Make sure the binary is stored at the specified path or debug it to check for problems with the binary or dependent .DLL files. The specified module could not be found." Same results if I add the .\ to the path that you use in the bat files for the other plugins. C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared MIDI Plugins\Viramor\Debug> c:\windows\system32\regsvr32.exe .\CSHumanizeDS32_D.dll Same results if I force it to use the 64bit regsvr32 C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared MIDI Plugins\Viramor\Debug> c:\windows\SysWOW64\regsvr32.exe CSWaverDS32_D.dll C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared MIDI Plugins\Viramor\Debug> c:\windows\SysWOW64\regsvr32.exe CSHumanizeDS32_D.dll I also tried editing your install_all.bat file for just these two, by removing the other files from it and leaving just these lines after the START section, also with the same result. regsvr32 .\CSHumanizeDS32_D.dll regsvr32 .\CSWaverDS32_D.dll I redownloaded the debug.zip file and reextracted it, both with the same end results, first using 7zip, then using the windows browser to see the contents of the zipped folder and copying/pasting the files in it to an uncompressed folder, in case it was a download or extraction fault. To be sure the files in the debug.zip are not being corrupted between you posting them and me downloading them, I've attached a new debug.zip file that contains the actual files as extracted on my system, along with my modified install_all.bat file. Anything else will have to wait till tomorrow, I've dozed off a few times typing this up so I hope I didn't miss any info you need. 😊 Faulty Debug.zip

That was my first computer, when I was in grade school, saving hand-typed BASIC programs on a cassette-tape drive. Unfortunately I lost most of my computer collection (and much more important things) in a housefire about 11 and a half years ago, so I don't have it or my Amigas, etc. anymore. I'm not sure you can fit much of a MIDI program (well, *any* program) in the kilobyte or so of ram I think it had (been a really long time, so can't say if that's anywhere near accurate 😊 Win10 64bit version 1511 build 10586.218 Machine is a Lenovo ideapad 300-17isk 64bit CPU Core i5-6200U @2.3ghz/2.4ghz 16gb ram The debug versions won't register using either 64 or 32bit process C:\Windows\SysWOW64\regsvr32.exe filename.dll C:\Windows\System32\regsvr32.exe filename.dll (These are in my SendTo folder and work normally with registerable dlls). with the message "The module "C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared MIDI Plugins\Viramor\Debug\CSWaverDS32_D.dll" (or CSHumanizeDS32_D.dll) failed to load. Make sure the binary is stored at the specified path or debug it to check for problems with the binary or dependent .DLL files. The specified module could not be found. Registering the previous 32bit version of either, then replacing it with the debug version (renaming the debug version to match the registered one), then starting SONAR and inserting either just gives the Missing Plugin dialog. Is there a different procedure for registering them that I can try?

If you want to experiment and generate a different version, this is the link to the AI test kitchen and the text used to get that output. https://aitestkitchen.withgoogle.com/tools/image-fx/75ei259rog000 "Cartoon Green Zombie with missing teeth and brown hair wearing glasses playing keyboards and synths all wired together on various shelves with monitors showing sequencer software on a spaceship orbiting Mars in a huge viewscreen in the morning" Or I can do it, if you prefer, just tell me what to change in the description.

Ok, i couldn't doze off wihtout at least peeking...but they all crash on insert. Visually the same as the previous crash. Crashdump files in this archive (too big to attach here) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KnF3YCEfO1tg3pbNe-rNKYJS8NTjdJjg/view?usp=sharing Install went normally, though I did alter the install process very slightly. I'd already unregistered all of the previous versions (64 and 32 bit), but I ran the validators to verify none showed up in either one (true). Then before running either bat file, i looked at them to see what they would do, and noticed that the uninstaller's first line after START is regsvr32 /u .\CSAntiOverlap.dll then it has regsvr32 /u .\CSAntiOverlapDS32.dll regsvr32 /u .\CSHumanizeDS32.dll regsvr32 /u .\CSMidiModulatorDS32.dll regsvr32 /u .\CSMultiCompanderDS32.dll regsvr32 /u .\CSTransposeDS32.dll regsvr32 /u .\CSWaverDS32.dll So i removed that first extraneous line as it isn't going to do anything (except maybe generate a not found error), and i removed @ECHO OFF from them and put pause at the end so it would hold the cmd window open for me to see any errors, in both bat files. (I can also copy/paste the output like this, if you need it). Then I ran the thus-modified installer bat file without errors, and the validators show no 64bit (as it should) and these for 32bit (edited down to just the ones relevant to this discussion) ******************** 32 Bit MidiFX ******************** PluginID: {0E1CF1D2-976F-4D42-BAA9-10360D222222} Name: CSMultiCompanderV2 Path: C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared MIDI Plugins\Viramor\32BitPlugins\CSMultiCompanderDS32.dll PluginID: {220F4FF1-EC49-4FB4-8132-44E18105F76D} Name: CSWaver Path: C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared MIDI Plugins\Viramor\32BitPlugins\CSWaverDS32.dll PluginID: {324DA819-C319-4817-B750-E9357308D820} Name: CSHumanize Path: C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared MIDI Plugins\Viramor\32BitPlugins\CSHumanizeDS32.dll PluginID: {478566E2-A387-4310-B2FE-562EC7370349} Name: CSAntiOverlap Path: C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared MIDI Plugins\Viramor\32BitPlugins\CSAntiOverlapDS32.dll PluginID: {7AC4F12E-E608-43F7-83F3-651F723B37E2} Name: CSTranspose Path: C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared MIDI Plugins\Viramor\32BitPlugins\CSTransposeDS32.dll PluginID: {7D21059E-4536-4B98-B9C7-DAE443026565} Name: CSMidiModulator Path: C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared MIDI Plugins\Viramor\32BitPlugins\CSMidiModulatorDS32.dll Opened SONAR, created a new blank file, added a MIDI track and maximized both it and the track view, and saved it as Viramor Test 1.cwp and closed SONAR (so it will be at the top of the MRU in the file menu, even if something goes wrong and SONAR crashes). Then I reopened SONAR and opened the blank project, and inserted the first of these MFX, and got the same (visually) kind of crash as with the original 32bit version of CSHumanize. I proceeded to do this again for each of the new versions of the MFX, as they show in the menu (alphabetically), and each crashed. So the crashdump file linked near the top of the post should have one crash for each one, in that order by date/time. (hopefully I correctly typed this up, I have dozed off several times writing this post)

Thank you. I am too wiped out from work to safely test them tonite; already dozed off a couple times (but I can never stay asleep, sometimes i get on the computer to get my mind out of the hamster wheel to doze off again); hopefully be able to start testing them tomorrow. I think, wihtout rechecking the feature lists, that the ones I would get the most use out of would be Humanize, Antioverlap (since the CALs don't work right past maybe SONAR 3 or 4?; I forget), MIDIEQ, Transpose, and possibly Waver. I'm sure I'll use the others for various things too, but those I have definite uses for. There's a few things the Modulator should be useful for (since drawing repetitive envelopes is kind of a PITA especially just to do a quickie modulation, like for a filter, etc, and envelopes can't be modulated by other envelopes....) BTW...I'll test for this, but can Antioverlap be used to *force* a specific overlap instead (for assorted legato / portamento / etc functions)? There are several patches (mostly on Z3TA2+) that act significantly different when the notes overlap just a bit vs not overlapping or overlapping too much); I used this feature in several places in Neotenous Chordata to cause filtering to occur and greatly change the sound of that part of the track, without having to otherwise do anything special to the patch or the track's contents, automation, etc. (can be done "live" if you can play well enough; I rarely can but a plugin would make that easy and much more fun). EDIT: It may be possible to use TC's MFX to do the specific overlapping after AO has done the unoverlap. have to try that at some point. Secondarily, can anything in AO be modulated externally? (i'm not sure how this would affect the various synths, but I am curious....)

Thanks--I will have to try out VSC. It just about has to be better than the arduino IDE, which has, for instance, several different places you must configure locations of things (and which you have to keep changing depending on the code, project, etc just to get stuff to compile).

Here's some cover art for your track If you don't like it I can remove it, but a whimsy struck me, and google has this AI art thingy (that sorta kinda does what you ask for, in a way), and I had MSPaint and a few sleepless minutes...

I like your hardware collection....(not any specific thing, just that there is so much of it all nice and setup for using).

Thanks for posting that--I googled 8dio, and found something I will have to save up the money for (all their sales seem to have just ended yesterday, of course the day before I found out they existed!); I love making vocal stuff (not necessarily with words) but was provided a useless uncontrollable and mediocre or worse voice by nature (you can hear it in a very few of my projects, post-massive manual adjustments and corrections inside SONAR; I'd name / link them but the rules say we're not supposed to in other people's threads?) ...anyway, these https://soundpaint.com/products/forgotten-voices-cait https://soundpaint.com/products/forgotten-voices-barbary https://soundpaint.com/products/terrie are what I *wish* I sounded like and would create music with. Unfortunately the way the site is setup, it doesn't really let you hear what individual stuff is available in it or how it "works", but the demos, assuming they were created using *only* that sound, indicate it would probably do at least some of what I want. (I've used the Gaelic Voices from LABS and some other free "operatic" samples plus Hunter Rogerson's free Spellsinger from the PianoBook website in one project that's in another thread here*** but none of them are really what I wanted; just what I had. ) I also like texturing instruments like the https://soundpaint.com/products/braahms-horn-generator ***I was just going to link to an existing thread here for it but it shows a huge preview of it; I just wanted to put a tiny unobtrusive link in there.

If only the IDE was designed properly to assist the user, rather than hinder.... Whoever came up with the overall layout / design needs to actualy be forced to use it. (I have a thing about bad UI design / layout / etc...i try not to rant but sometimes I have to fight to keep it in :blush: Few developers are interested in it). But yes, for the very little I have actually gotten to work, it *is* fun. Long ago I used to make scifi props for conventions, with all sorts of blinky lights and sounds...I actually began the concept of the Snuggles wolfy back then, but even the very basics of what I wanted to do were not within the reach of affordable hobbyist robotics. Only fairly recently did it become easily and affordably possible to do this sort of thing (assuming I had a clue with how to code it). My laptop is still a mechanical drive...I tried to upgrade to SSD but I can't get anything to clone it over (don't recall the specific errors; it's been a while), yet no testing (not even Spinrite) shows a problem with the drive or filesystem. (I was going to clone it both for the existing laptop and for the backup identical laptop, and put the mechanical away for an ultimate PnP backup device...so at the moment I have both the SSDs just sitting until I can come up with a solution). Even weirder, the software that comes with (on!) the SSD itself (from Samsung's factory) apparently isn't even designed to test, monitor, or clone anything to the SSD types, just the mechanical ones, and they don't supply anything that can. 😵

I truly appreciate the work you're doing just to get 32bit versions of these MFX for perhaps the last person on earth still using this SONAR version. 😆 I understand the very basics of programming itself, and once upon a time knew BASIC and 650x assembly, back in the 1980s...but have yet to learn the high level languages in use today. I have been working veeery sloooowly on a robotics project idea over the years, called Snuggles The Wolf (for emotional support), and am trying to learn Arduino to then figure out how to create a complex IMU sensor network (which has to work to make the rest of the project do what's needed). So far, in all this time, I've managed to compile and install on one Arduino board a very simple program modified from an online demo to track an IMU's 3axis position and move servos to match, just to prove that would work...there's probably a thousand times that complexity left to go. Not sure I'll finish it in my lifetime.

I like this; it's the kind of thing I am trying to learn how to do (orchestral arrangements in general), but I would probably have to run multiple computers each with it's own copy of SONAR and the various plugins, and split the project up between them, synced over a network, to do that heavy a project.

Thanks! I unregistered the previous one and cleaned out the manually-created entries, and then registered the new one. This one registers correctly, and inserts, but the instant the GUI opens it has just the shaded backdrop (no controls, etc yet) and SONAR crashes. The steps to create the crash were to simply open SONAR (oops, sorry, Jellybean submitted the post for me accidentally) open SONAR, click the New Project File button, uncheck the Store Audio In Its Own Folder and just let it create a new Normal (blank) project. Create a new MIDI track, expand it, right click in FX bin and insert CSHumanize. Poof. I've attached the zipped crashdump if it's useful. (those I don't know how to read) SONARPDR.exe.3900.dmp.zip

Thank you for doing this. If it helps, I've been a beta tester before, so I'm willing to do that if you're up for making 32bit versions. (if I have to, I have a spare set of laptop hardware I can stick a drive into and install just SONAR 32bit onto to do testing with; this would take at least a few days to get set up...it won't test interactions with anything else, but it would allow testing without risking my regular setup until the plugin was at least verified to work without exploding. 😆 For now, I succesfully unregistered all of the 64 bit plugins, as verified by your (very helpfu!) validator. Then I registered just the new CSHumanize.dll file you've attached, but it doesn't show up. The validators show that it is registering itself as a 64bit plugin rather than 32. ******************** 64 Bit MidiFX ******************** PluginID: {324DA819-C319-4817-B750-E9357308D820} Name: CSHumanize Path: C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared MIDI Plugins\Viramor\CSHumanize.dll I found it's entry in the 64bit registry section and copy or move that to the 32bit section to see if it was just in the wrong place. Searching for the id number the validator provides, it has an entry in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Cakewalk Music Software\MIDI Filters\{324DA819-C319-4817-B750-E9357308D820} with a default no-value-set data entry, and these entries HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{324DA819-C319-4817-B750-E9357308D820} with Default data CSHumanize HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{324DA819-C319-4817-B750-E9357308D820}\InprocServer32 with Default data entry of C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared MIDI Plugins\Viramor\CSHumanize.dll (where I put the file and registered it from) and HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{324DA820-C319-4817-B750-E9357308D820} wiht a Default data entry of CSHumanize Property Page and HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{324DA819-C319-4817-B750-E9357308D820}\InprocServer32 with Default data entry of C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared MIDI Plugins\Viramor\CSHumanize.dll as well as HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{324DA819-C319-4817-B750-E9357308D820} with Default data CSHumanize and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{324DA819-C319-4817-B750-E9357308D820}\InprocServer32 with Default data of C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared MIDI Plugins\Viramor\CSHumanize.dll So I copied the entries above to the 32 bit locations based on searching the registry for the info on Cakewalk's own 32-bit Quantize MFX (it shows up only in the 32-bit validator, so I'm assuming it's a 32bit effect) but using the id number and other info for the CSHumanize entries. This does now let it show up in SONAR, but it reports a "missing plugin" when I insert it, presumably because something about the file is not what it expects? Sorry it took so long to finish the reply, was pulled away for a while by JellyBeanThePerfectlyNormalSchmoo (my Saint Bernard) for playtime and then herantiseizure meds and more playtime.

I appreciate the help. That appears to be the issue, 32 bit vs 64, as the Viramor/Variorum plugins are only listed in the results from the 64bit validator. Presumably with this you don't need the registry key amount? I guess I assumed it was the 64bit version since I thought I have used 64bit audio fx, but I recall from way back when that there is something called bitbridge that allows one to use the other, so perhaps that is what allowed this to work (unless that only works to use 32bit stuff inside 64bit SONAR; I don't recall). I can't find anything in the SONAR software itself, or the file dialog details, that tells me if it's the 64bit or 32bit program. I don't recall if I changed the path during the install or not; I usually don't but there are occasions where I have to do this with some programs so they will find content from previous versions correctly. If it weren't for the possibility of it screwing up the system and breaking my projects, I would just reinstall and ensure it's the 64bit version. But it's safer to leave that alone and just have to continue do all the work manually that these plugins could do for me, than risk problems with my projects. I don't suppose you have 32bit versions of the plugins laying around? 😉 BTW, it doesn't really matter, but I previously mistakenly typed "Shared MFX" as the folder name, when it's actually "Shared MIDI Plugins" (my brain probably just used the shorthand version)--otherwise the path is the same.

When the Dark Closed In and Night Eclipsed Day https://amberwolf.bandcamp.com/track/when-the-dark-closed-in-and-night-eclipsed-day All constructive criticism welcome. (I'm no professional; it's just a (very important to me) hobby, so improvement is always possible, and easier with help from others. Heck, I'm not even a musician, or a real composer, etc.) I played in the electric guitar parts with the Ibanez 6-string bass with Shred as an effects rack; the rest was played into the system as MIDI notes from a keyboard into various synths (multiple instances of Z3TA+2 and Dimension, each with various effects such as Sonitus Multiband Compressor, Sonitus Reverb, Channel Tools, VX64 Vocal Strip PX64 percussion Strip, etc), then edited as MIDI for the original basic arrangement and mix. Some further editing was done in MIDI, but most of it after that has been rendering the synths as audio and editing the individual clips / notes. There are also some background "operatic" vocalizations from an old free library by MusicRadar, edited and pitched / stretched as needed. More of various styles at https://amberwolf.bandcamp.com with older and more experimental / unfinished work at http://soundclick.com/amberwolf New version: I fixed the bass plugin problem and reduced the master bus final Multiband-EQ/compressor plugin output by 1dB. Does that fix that problem? If not, could you tell me about what times in the song that the problem occurs? (I can't see it on the monitoring plugins or meters, or hear it here, but my tinnitus masks quite a few frequencies / etc, and I don't have any "good" mastering stuff that shows me much).

Just Give Me a Voice https://amberwolf.bandcamp.com/track/just-give-me-a-voice This one was rescued from oblivion by chance--I'd some long time before recorded some noodling around on the guitar to a simple repetitititititve drumtrack (some Musiclab SlicyDrummer Lite default fed into DR-008 with some basic drumkit), but one day after having problems with a different project that kept crashing because of a plugin problem, and not wanting to keep dealing with that, i was fishing thru old projects to see what I could just play around with for fun. I loaded up a piano synth, and the SI Strings, and played them both from the same keyboard, and started playing wiht the built in track arpeggiator. Eventually I found an interesting simple pattern, edited it's settings to suit the playing I could manage (I often have poor fine control of my body so I don't play anything well), and discovered that the strings had a very different velocity response than the piano, so I used that to keep the piano going about the same volume in places where the strings would quieten down or get louder, without having to mess around with post-performance volume envelopes, velocity edits, etc...it's much more fun to do stuff when I can create on-the-fly, even if I have to do lots of mistake-edits later. Then I chopped up the guitar track (actually played in using the Ibanez 6-string bass, since the strings are far enough apart for me to fret without banging the wrong strings; I have to play all guitars laying in my lap face up with fingers from the top, not wrapped around the neck), nuked the very bad bass track and stuck in the SI Bass Guitar instead, and drew in a MIDI track to work with parts of the existing real guitar track. Had to do some major corrections, timing, etc. for that guitar track, and used the clip-properties retuning functions to change which notes were played in several sections. IIRC it's using Shred by AcmeBarGig for the amp and head fx. Then came replacing the crappy drummachine track with something sounding more like a real performance. I'm sure it's not like a real drummer would play, since I can't do that either, but it fits the rest of the song. Much more detail work later, and you get what you hear. All constructive criticism welcome. (I'm no professional; it's just a (very important to me) hobby, so improvement is always possible, and easier with help from others. Heck, I'm not even a musician, or a real composer, etc.) More of various styles at https://amberwolf.bandcamp.com with older and more experimental / unfinished work at http://soundclick.com/amberwolf

The Moon, It Read To Me, And It Was Bright https://amberwolf.bandcamp.com/track/the-moon-it-read-to-me-and-it-was-bright This one started out purely electronic, a bit after making Neotenous Chordata, but while editing it, evolution thru experimentation occured, and I ended up with this odd soundscape. I left both versions up on Bandcamp, because they're really different songs at this point. All constructive criticism welcome. (I'm no professional; it's just a (very important to me) hobby, so improvement is always possible, and easier with help from others. Heck, I'm not even a musician, or a real composer, etc.) Song notes: Extended orchestral vocal version of a song whose name woke me from a dream to make me write it down; there's a movie scene out there waiting for this one: The first vocals you hear are built and modified from a collection called Gaelic Voices by the BBC called LABS, played using Spitfire Audio (they also have several versions of the BBC Discover Symphony Orchestra; I only have the most basic one). I played these in with MIDI notes to get full vocalizations from the library, then cut them up and adjusted pitches and volumes for the segments I wanted until they fit in the mix. Because of the way they designed the library, these sound pretty good the way they are, since it's intended to be played like this. But the operatic vocals are built and modified from a free sample collection by MusicRadar that includes a few bits from each of several of their full collections. This required manually importing each sound I wanted to use, then cutting them up into separate vocalizations and adjusting volume envelopes and pitches manually for many hours until they sounded something like what I wanted. In the mix, it's pretty good--by themselves they sound terrible, very unnatural. The orchestral percussion was going to be from the BBC DSO but I ran into trouble with the virtual audio cable used to connect it to SONAR crashing repeatedly (after working perfectly for days to do the Gaelic Voices stuff), so I ended up using some BigFishAudio free sample collection pieces to build things like the Taiko crescendos, kettle drum bits, etc from. Like the operatic vocals, these were much more tedious since I couldn't just play it in, and instead had to import the wave files and manually set them up and modify them for each sound used in the song. Additional backing vocal effects from Spellsinger (a vocal sampler kit by Hunter Rogerson), using DecentSampler. Almost all the rest of the sounds come from synths built into ancient SONAR from close to two decades ago, as with the effects used to process them, mostly Dimension and Z3TA+2. More of various styles at https://amberwolf.bandcamp.com with older and more experimental / unfinished work at http://soundclick.com/amberwolf