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You would need to retain your ST3 content library (with the imports included). It will work directly in ST4.

Yes, that sounds correct based on everything I've read. I do not have any v2 instruments to test with, but once you have imported them to ST3 and they are in that format you should be good to go.

ST4 cannot import older formats. You need to convert them to ST3 format first in order to use them in ST4. There are dual synth engines in ST4, and that covers ST3 & 4. The ST3 format doesn't require import because it can be used directly in ST4. If you open ST3 instruments in ST4, you will see a little icon in the editor that indicates you are using an ST3 sound, and the editor features will be limited to those designed for ST3. Only ST4 instruments will show the new ST4 features in the editor. But you still can use ST3 instruments with other new features in ST4 such as the new UI and the new FX view.

Agreed. But the best thing about DAW popularity is the number of quality tutorials and dedicated hardware controllers that seems to follow the market share...

Just leave ST3 installed and don't re-install the libraries again, just because they are included in ST4 MAX. The ST3 libraries in the ST3 content folder can be added to a separate path in ST4. My setup is like this: D:\SampleTank 3 (contains all ST3 libraries, Syntronik, Miroslav, and ST3 sound expansions such as Neil Peart Drums, Alan Parson's Imperial Grand, etc). D:\SampleTank 4 (contains all ST4 libraries and ST4 based expansions such as SpacePort 77, Clavitubes)

I was surprised by that too, although I have ASIO on my DAW. I had to use ASIO4ALL on my laptop which is RealTek audio only. I looked on the Ableton site and found this article in the knowledge base: https://help.ableton.com/hc/en-us/articles/360003149240-ASIO-is-the-recommended-audio-driver-on-Windows Also found a 3 year old forum thread by the PC users in the Live 10 beta. https://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?t=228482 They speculate that WASAPI may not meet Ableton's standards for latency. My observation is that WASAPI is a Windows only driver, where Live is cross platform with Mac, so it may not have as much priority with their devs for testing and QA. I mean, like Live just got VST3 support for the first time in version 10.1 last year, so QA for stability must mean something over there!

I believe that the brush pack installers are using available secondary drives as temp space, and not cleaning up after the install. Bug? Probably! The real brush library is located at: "C:\Program Files\Corel\Painter 2020\Brushes". So those "extra" brush folders don't seem to matter after installation.

Which can be corrected by placing a shortcut in the VST2 folder that points to an alternate folder. For example, my main VST2 folder is: "C:\Program Files\VstPlugIns". So I created a shortcut in that folder to point to "C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\VstPlugins", where all of my Cakewalk branded VST2 plug-ins reside. Live scans them all that way, by following the shortcut from the main VST2 folder.

I found that the Painter brushes from the expansion brush packs are installed in the application brush library, along with the current factory brushes located here: "C:\Program Files\Corel\Painter 2020\Brushes". There are also libraries for some previous editions of Painter located in there. I recently noticed that the brush pack installers did in fact place a copy of each brush pack on my Data Volume (D:), at the root of the volume, and not in a sub-folder. I do not understand why that happened, but I moved them all into a new sub-folder, and Painter did not mind. Apparently after new brush packs are installed Painter only uses the copy in the application brush library. The installers did not ask what destination path to use. My scratch drive is also set to (C:) in preferences, but I have not seen that is use yet.

The pre-order price for the upgrade to ST4 MAX from ST3 was $199 in Dec 2018. I got in for $141 with $59 JamPoints on the pre-order.

Did you listen to the 33 tracks made with ST4 on SoundCloud?

After FL Studio, and Studio One, Live is the # 3 most popular DAW in the world. Cakewalk made the list, at #8 this year. Guess free counts for something! According to Music Radar

Yes, but in addition to extensive controller compatibility, I would recommend Live with it's live looping and sampling abilities, for actual live use over Cakewalk. So for live and studio use, you might want both. Nothing against Cakewalk, but it was not really designed for live use, although some do use it for that. Cakewalk works best as a recording studio, where Live is weak by comparison to a linear DAW, but it can be used that way. Just a matter of choosing the best tool for the job.

Great plan if you need either of these hardware devices. Get a piano for free!

From what I can see, the main drawback to Live is that it does not have a notation or staff view. ?

It's limited to 8 tracks and 8 scenes, but is a good way to try out the workflow of Live. https://www.ableton.com/en/products/live-lite/features/

The MODO Bass is probably worth it, if you have some Jam Points! I picked that up on the GB and it is cool! Or this... https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/index.php?A=sampletank-4-max&utm_source=forum&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=maxyourworkstation2020

I was lacking Amplitube 4 Max, T-Racks 5 Max, the Lurssen, and the full Miroslav. Jumped in for $104 with Jam Points! ?

+1 for MT-PowerDrumKit 2. That is a good entry level kit for free. https://www.powerdrumkit.com/ It has an internal mixer that you can use to assign the 13 kit pieces to 8 stereo audio outputs (or a single track if desired). The outputs can appear as 8 stereo audio tracks in Cakewalk, if you use insert soft synth options for the instrument as "MIDI Source & All Synth Audio Outputs: Stereo". Then in the MT mixer, If you group the hats, toms, and crashes into the same channels for each group respectively, you can fit all of the kit pieces into eight audio tracks.

I leave all of my applications entirely on my C drive (500GB SSD), except where they explicitly let me point to additional content or libraries on another path such as D (1TB SSD). I run into less weird sh*t that way. So no, I didn't see that...YMMV.

Pro has batch output, and the initial setup comes with a few batches already setup for image resize or file type. You can customize or add your own batches and optionally add preset effects that you want to apply to all images in the batch. I'm not sure if it can analyze the photos, so I assume it just runs the batch as a script, applying the same presets to each. You would probably want to run through the camera roll yourself, analyze and apply any needed corrections to individual photos, then batch any changes that would apply to all. This video covers some of the basics.

Good to know, and that makes sense as PaintShop has some plugin ability. I found this in the ParticleShop help files, so it would seem to also apply to the Corel Painter Brush Packs that work in ParticleShop:

Happy that I bought in way back at the intro price... ?