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The aesthetics could definitely use a facelift! But the functionality has been much improved!

You really do need to watch the video all the way to the end to realize the full capabilities of this tool. At first I thought, well all that could be done with a few simple arpeggiators ... but then ... look out!

I felt the same way about the ST3 UI. The new ST4 UI is a breath of fresh air by comparison. I agree that there could still be improvements, but it's much easier to work with now! Especially with the scalable UI.

I would be very surprised to find an average user that comes here looking for a free DAW that has otherwise extensive/demanding (read expensive) requirements for orchestral instruments libraries The more pedestrian sample libraries probably suit the average hobbyist, home recordist, or songwriter just fine. In fact if you are doing paid work your client would probably be much more happy with a live recorded orchestra, than with a Kontakt sample library. Cheers! ?

Cakewalk MIDI Basics

The only thing I would ask is that Cakewalk please stop scanning all Waves shells completely at startup after adding just a single Waves plugin. Cakewalk starts up OK, but the plug-in scan continues for an extended time after start up. Running Cakewalk 2020-11 (Build 099). I realize how the Waves Shell obfuscates changes with individual plug-ins, but other DAWs don't seem to have this issue to the same extent.

If a streaming service accepts a lossless format such as FLAC, and is going to transcode whatever you upload anyway, you might as well send them the highest resolution file that they will accept, rather than MP3 (lossy). Imagine that the rules for peaks might vary with different file formats, so running a few test uploads/transcodes with the chosen service is probably a good idea to judge the end results.

You can easily switch the ST4 browser back to "Folder" view by instrument, similar to the default ST3 view. Agree that the ST4 default "Category" view is confusing...

Reel ADT is a very nice one! I got it included back when I upgraded to the Abbey Road Collection. Vintage double tracking, well done!

I got my code for the CLA EchoSphere this morning and downloaded it. Sounds nice! Thanks, Waves! ?

Got the free CLA EchoSphere this morning. ? Nice combo of a slap and a plate!

Great guitar solos ZT!

You do realize that you can revert the ST4 browser to the classic folder view like ST3, right? IK didn't make a big deal about that in the user guide, but it works well. That along with the search box, and the browser is better than ever! Just click the little nearly invisible folder icon at the top left side of the library pane to switch browser modes. No need to chew sand... ?

Grabbed it for $38. A no-brainer! ?

Hey Zo, what is it that you are not finding in that fine delay collection that you already own? An excuse to spend more money? ?

Yes, iZotope addresses potential performance issues due to the way that Iris handles signal processing in the Reference Manual, in the section "CPU Optimization". As you mentioned, lowering voices (polyphony) is one suggestion that they also make. Freezing tracks, hiding the UI, increasing buffer size, avoiding resource intensive filters, reducing envelope release times are some additional strategies outlined. But I don't think that this can be compared to other samplers that you listed. Much more is going on here under the hood than sample playback, such as the resampling, time stretching, and pitch shifting. My old CPU was a 3rd gen Intel i-3 at 3.4GHz that Iris 2 brought to its knees, just as you have described. No problem with other samplers either. I'm not saying you are doing anything wrong, except perhaps assuming that Iris 2 is just a sample player. It is a synthesizer with heavy processing demands that uses samples as the oscillators.

I think that might be a hasty generalization. Probably more dependent on core clock speed, which is lower in older spec and low power laptop CPUs. I'm running a desktop Intel 9th gen Core i5-9600k at 4.6GHz, and Iris 2 barely moves the CPU meters. ? Using Win10 Pro and Focusrite ASIO @ 24/48000 with 256 buffers.

I think it's the same as the MiniMogue VA listed here for free. It's apparently an old one and still 32-bit only. https://vst4free.com/plugin/405/

I wouldn't go so far as to call the ST3 ones crap. While the ST4 samples are awesome, they don't cover all instruments, so the ST3 library is an important fallback for bread and butter sounds! The ST3 instruments will work in the new UI as well. And there is a hidden bonus to using the ST3 library in the ST4 interface. They are less CPU demanding. If you load up all 16 slots of a single instance of the ST4 plug-in with ST4 sounds only, especially the ones with larger sample sizes, you will see what I mean. I can't even load up 8 slots before things start to fall apart with pops and clicks, etc. And that is with an Intel Core i5-9600K CPU running 4.6GHz on a Z-390 board running 16GB of DDR4 memory. Instrument plug-ins run their audio signal path in a single thread, so even though I have six cores, only one is doing most of the work. The solution is to run multiple instances of the ST-4 plug-in in order to spread the total ST4 load to a few more cores.

Thanks Larry! Don't have any Deluxe Bucks in my account. You would think that my largest purchase there would have earned me some since that was for Sonar Platinum Lifetime, LOL! Probably time to create an account at Best Service... ?

Z3TA+2 and DimPro have individual installers in Command Center. I think for the original classic z3ta+ that was bundled with certain versions of Sonar, you would need to run the Sonar installer and then select that plugin from the bundle. scook is correct, none of them are locked to Sonar.

Is Best Service still the lowest?

You are taking that phrase too literally. By comparison the iLok is ~$44.95 and the Steinberg is ~$27.99. I'm sure that you can source a relatively "cheaper" name brand USB memory stick. My go-to "cheap" brand has generally been SanDisk or Lexar. Edit: While both have been around for years, SanDisk is now owned by Western Digital since 2016, and Lexar is now owned by Chinese tech company Longsys since 2017. You can get a SanDisk 16GB Ultra USB 3.0 Flash Drive at Amazon for $6.49.

Oh well, Dune 3 is on sale this month!