abacab

https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/xcom-2

That may be a good reason to wait...

I don't believe that you can transfer a license for an underlying product that you are upgrading from, such as with the TS Max 2 to TS Max 3.5 upgrade. But if you don't plan to upgrade, then sure you can transfer it.

NKS would be nice, so based on their previous efforts, it's probably on the way...

Yes, indeed it does! And the Black Box HG-2 is like frosting on the cake! And I just noticed that bx_oberhausen provides NKS presets in Komplete Kontrol.

Well my NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 has 896 CUDA Cores, whatever that means. Probably not the same thing, as this was a modest sub $200 GPU board a couple of years ago. But to the credit of Arturia's developers, they seem to have steered much of the graphic hit to the graphics processor. Yet, at 40% it's still got legs!

Discovered that the KeyLab (and probably the MiniLab) has the macro controls pre-mapped for this! For everyone else with a generic MIDI controller, there is MIDI Learn to assign them with.

That thing has like a bazillion cores. Wouldn't imagine it breaking a sweat, LOL!

Not going to make a difference if your GPU is integrated into your CPU. The work is all being handled by the CPU. My CPU was handling it fine because my discrete GPU was working hard at 40% load, so in my case you are correct.

I would recommend Unify as an up-to-date replacement for VIP as a means to be used for building up multi layered instrument patches, especially for those needing more flexibility with covered plugin types. Unify will let you add as many layers as your computer can take, as well as audio FX per layer, an arpeggiator, special MIDI FX, MIDI file player, sample player, etc. You will still need to use a DAW for tracking though, but you do have the capability to play an entire mix live with one finger, while twiddling knobs on your controller. If that's your thing! ? This is a very deep program, and is ultimately the most flexible and powerful plugin host that I have used so far. Runs as a plugin, or standalone. https://www.pluginguru.com/products/unify-standard/ "Say hello to a NEW WAY of working with Plug-ins of all types! Unify can work with MIDI Effects, Instruments and Audio Effects in super creative fun ways. Unify Comes in VST (technically known as VST2), VST3 and Standalone for PC and Mac (Mac version also includes an Audio Unit version of Unify). One of the cool things with Unify is that any format of plug-in can load other formats of plug-ins – meaning the Audio Unit version can easily load VST3 and VST plug-ins while you’re using it in Logic Pro X (which doesn’t know what to do with VST or VST3 plug-ins). We talked to a number of small (like us) developers who have made some rather amazing free plug-ins in the last 20 years and received their blessing to include their plug-ins and audio effects – along with our own Guru Sample Player and 14 Effects we built ourselves so that Unify ships with 400 ready-to-play patches when you install it."

Found a list of the VIP factory plugin maps that should be available here: https://inmusicbrands.force.com/akaipro/s/article/VIP-Everything-you-need-to-know-about-Plugin-Maps

That archive could be useful. VIP still works as it is, but future development, bug fixes, etc. are not very likely. They stopped short of adding VST3 support, so looking like VST2 only forever. Regarding the user map share, that concept really never took off and had rather low participation. Most of the maps that were posted were for plugins I did not own. But there are quite a few factory maps that are available after you scan for new plugins. In addition to the requisite synths from AIR and SONiVOX, I was quite surprised after I acquired the Arturia V Collection 8 and the Korg Collection 3 last year. Many of those instruments had factory maps available for the factory presets. Obviously instruments released in the last few years will not appear. And even NI synths such as Absynth 5, Battery 4, FM 8, Massive (original) are covered. Also PluginBoutiqe Virtual CZ, Tone2 Saurus, U-he Bazille, Diva, Hive, TyrellN6, Zebra2 & Zebralette. Plus a number of the Waves FX seem to be well represented. A lot of folks likely assumed that VIP was just intended to compete with Native Instruments and their Komplete Kontrol and NKS ecosystem. I have and use Komplete Kontrol, but VIP can do so much more. KK never could, and still cannot, layer more than one instrument. KK is mostly just a very fancy preset selector. But VIP allows you to layer up to 8 instruments in 8 channels as a multi, similar to a DAW, with 4 plugin inserts per channel, 4 aux buses, and multiple sends to them via a mixer section. So the total flexibility to use any VST2 plugin without the lack of enforced compatibility for 3rd party plugins, such as employed with the NKS ecosystem, pretty much ensures that not all plugins would play nicely... YMMV. But it's still cool for what works! You just have to lower your expectations from it being the holy grail, and expect to hit a few bumps.

You are welcome!

I just took a another look at CPU performance using Augmented Strings, this time in standalone mode. It's about the same here as with the plugin, just without the DAW overhead. Big difference though is with minimizing the GUI to the taskbar, the graphics process keeps running full blast until you exit the standalone instrument.

This also appears to be dead, along with all of the former KB articles for VIP: http://www.akaipro.com/support/kb/articles/vip---how-to-build-a-plugin-map

http://community.akaipro.com/akai_professional/topics/advance-vip-plugin-map-thread-share-yours-here Good luck!

I took a first look at the CPU usage for Augmented Strings in Cakewalk, using the Windows task manager, and compared it with the Engine Load in Cakewalk Performance. One thing jumped right out at me immediately! My NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 was running at 30-40% just idling with the Augmented Strings GUI open. The plugin audio process seemed to be done by one core, and another core seemed to be used by a graphics rendering thread, using around 50% of a single core! However just by closing the plugin window, my GPU dropped back to a more normal 2%, and the CPU core supporting that also dropped back to baseline. The audio engine load seemed to average around 10% at idle, but jumped to 20-30% during playback. So performance would probably depend on how your graphics are configured with integrated or discrete GPU, and how fast your CPU is. This thing sounds great, even with the GUI closed! But it's fairly obvious to me that there is quite a hardware price to pay for Arturia's latest pretty graphics!

This ^^^ How did you access/hack Cakewalk's preset list?

Thanks! I have located the folder, but now the Cakewalk plugin window only allows me to load the presets one at a time, directly from the folder. It doesn't seem to remember any presets that I have already loaded. The preset pull-down in the plugin window just says "no preset". A current preset can be loaded from the folder, but then it's completely replaced by the next preset that I load, and so on. By comparison, Studio One keeps track of the presets loaded from the host side, in fact you can import them all at once, so then no need to dig back into the folder every time that you want to load a preset. Am I missing something here in Cakewalk?

Thanks! That worked in S1. Except only the "import preset" option took me to the correct folder path. The "load preset" took me back to the songs folder for some reason. No biggie. So I ended up selecting all presets using the "import preset" and all presets were imported from "C:\Users\[username}\Documents\VST3 Presets\Plugin Alliance\Black Box Analog Design HG-2". I figured out that the presets for this plugin are only available via the host DAW, as there is no internal preset management. But in Ableton and Reaper no importing was required, as they were already available from the host plugin window. Been a while since I used a plugin without on-board preset management, LOL. Not a regular bx user, but this is a good un!

Even when using CCC? I performed a clean install of Win 10 in 2016, and CCC installed and authorized all of my Cakewalk stuff, Sonar Platinum and all the extras.

Just a question here about Black Box HG-2... The HG-2 manual references these presets, but I'm unable to locate them, and the documentation offers no further details... Appreciate anyone who can provide some further insight into this! INCLUDED PRESETS Presets 1 - 28 were contributed by Eric Racy, co-owner of Black Box Analog Design. A platinum selling Recording and Mix Engineer, he lives and works in LA in a wide range of genres and with clients ranging from indie bands to Grammy winning pop artists. His clients and credits have included Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj, Pharrell, Tyga, Jonathan Davis, 2NE1, Troye Sivan, Alessia Cara, Kelly Clarkson, Divinity Roxx, Kelly Rowland, J. Cole, Janelle Monáe, Mario,Missy Elliott, Zendaya, Lil Wayne, Big Sean, Busta Rhymes, Photek and many more. Presets 29 - 38 were contributed by Trevor Case, an industry veteran of twenty years. He got his start composing, remixing and producing music for artists and corporate clients. His focus over the last decade has been mastering. Trevor has had the pleasure of working with indie artists such as Friends of Foes, Embracing Abomination, Divinity Roxx, Flatland Sound Studio and Jesse Brown as well as mastering projects featuring Missy Elliot, Troye Sivan, Kelly Clarkson, Mario and more.

Exactly! Hopefully the new blood at NI and iZotope will shake things up in a positive direction!

And FYI for any Plugin Guru fans, many of the bx_oberhausen factory patches were created by John "Skippy" Lemkuhl (PluginGuru.com).

It seems that the new "investors" have decided to drop an entrepreneur into the middle of the mix. It's been years since NI or iZotope have shown any real signs of innovation. They have apparently just been satisfied with their existing cash cows, and the profits trickling in each quarter. This move is probably intended to light a fire under them! For reference, consider Apple after Steve Jobs left, and the Apple after he returned...