abacab

I have the whole AIR collection. There is a lot of value in there. It was once an exclusive for Pro Tools users, but now available as  VST and AU plugins.

Obviously needs a facelift, but for the price hard to quibble over details...

Buy them piecemeal, or as collections, which is the best bang for the buck!

On 7/4/2020 at 2:32 PM, Starship Krupa said:

Not like "I hear some slapback on this, let's see, about 75mS, 20% feedback...." More like, "I'd like to blow the mind of someone listening to this on a good sound system in the dark. Let's see what happens if I put Fracture on it and start twiddling knobs."

Yup! Exactly! ???

You can get Reason 11 Intro at JRR for $88.11 with discount code "forum". Plugin and standalone. 10 instruments.

https://www.jrrshop.com/propellerhead-reason-intro

On 7/2/2020 at 3:58 AM, Starship Krupa said:

I have been chinscratching the past few days about Sonivox Vocalizer Pro for $10 and this seems like a good excuse to just get it. The thing is I want an actual real vocoder, and I have read at least one review that said that it wasn't one, that it was a really cool vocal processor that could get vocoder-ish sounds.

Also, Sonivox are kind of....ugh. I've downloaded the trial for it, and for this hugely complex processor, what's missing? A manual. So far I can't find any documentation for it. It looks pretty powerful but what good is it if it just sits there like an alien artifact? The point in paying for a commercial vocoder is to get something I don't have to be a wizard to figure out.

iZotope VocalSynth 2 is 75% off for $49 at PluginBoutique. https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/2-Effects/54-Vocal-Processing/4413-VocalSynth-2

Of course Waves Morphoder is on sale for $29.99 but not at PB. https://www.waves.com/plugins/morphoder

And the TAL Vocoder is still a free download. https://tal-software.com/products/tal-vocoder

I think that for that price everyone should get a copy. Nice sounding hybrid synth, that comes with a large preset library.

But it's no longer "The Next Generation in Synthesis".

Interface needs a facelift, and a scalable one at that. But otherwise it's still a very good sound tool. ?

13 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

Glitchmachines, makers of fine tools for sound design and EDM production, have a free bundle that includes a couple of plug-ins that do very strange things to audio. Fracture (buffer effect) and Hysteresis (delay effect).

I ran across those a few years ago. ?

Very cool for experimental sounds. It's amazing how you can mangle sounds with them. For example, just try running a drum track through them. You can get some very weird spacey effects. Also try with some normal instrument sounds and you can get some very unpredictable results.

Fun stuff!

19 hours ago, telecode 101 said:

i think i will end up getting one of the AAS things that are on sale. i like the warm analogue sound of them.

Good idea! I decided to grab another sound pack for Chromaphone for $19. Was planning to do that anyway. Thanks for reminding me that the sale was still on!

Will take a look at the Reason Rack plugin for free.

I got a free code for Reason Lite last year that was bundled with a piece of hardware.

I ended up uninstalling it. If I was really interested, I would step up to Reason Intro.

On 6/28/2020 at 1:36 AM, Hillmy said:

I see 2 Cakewalk products. One in the XCHANGE Instrument bundle and one in the Producer bundle. Will we still be able to register them?

I have always wondered about that. Since Gibson shut down Cakewalk, I don't believe that it's been possible to register legacy Cakewalk products. BandLab has not released anything but the DAW to this point.

2 hours ago, User 905133 said:

I have AD2 on account (waiting to get some kits, etc.)  so I haven't faced the re-authorization issue.  Maybe someone know, does that need to be done just with Windows upgrades?  I have had issues with Pace iLok and uninstalled it along with software that uses it.  However, please correct me if I am wrong, it seemed like  Pace/iLok and/or the software that uses that protection scheme needs to log in every time the software is boot.  In fact, one software package tried to sync to the corporate servers frequently (i.e., while using the software).  I opted out of that "feature." but the software still tried and failed.

If XLN requires re-authorization once in a while, to me that seems far less intrusive.  I suppose I will have to download a kit to find out. 

The issue with XLN is that if your Windows machine ID changes, then it looks like you are using a different computer that has not been activated with XLN yet. Usually a quick fix, Nothing running in the background like some other protection schemes. Just the XLN Installer that you run on demand.

But you will need to sign in to your XLN Audio account on the web to adjust your computer activations.

On 6/27/2020 at 3:30 PM, Vernon Barnes said:

Mmm - I may have spoken too soon in saying its easy to resolve, this time its proving more tricky to sort out. I may be doing something daft. I will try tomorrow and if that fails contact support.

Apparently the XLN license activation is tied to the machine ID. This changes with every Windows 10 version upgrade, i.e. 1903, 1909, 2004, etc.

Maybe they should use Pace iLok instead? I have had no issues with that!

The bang for the buck deal on Addictive Drums is to buy  an official "custom" bundle from a 3rd party distributor. Funny, but they don't sell that at their XLN store.

You get AD2 with your choice of content.  So pick any 3 kits (ADPaks), plus any 3 MIDIPaks, plus 3 additional kit pieces. You don't have to select them all up front, as XLN will show unused credits until you select all the parts you registered.

For example take a look at this at Audio Deluxe. You have to sign in to see the member discount in the cart. https://www.audiodeluxe.com/products/xln-audio-addictive-drums-2-custom

With code "SUMMER2020" you get a discount of $23.97 so your order total would be $125.98.

Highly recommended, and the only way I've bought their kits!

Plus once you have started with AD2, you might be interested later in the occasional XLN sale, when all their stuff goes for 50% off. That's when I've stocked up on extra "custom" bundles.

18 hours ago, Dzilizzi said:

I have a few programs, including PhotoShop Elements.  But I usually end up back with Microsoft Digital Image Suite (2006).  It still works on Windows 10 and is easy to use, for the most part.  That said, I would love to have PhotoShop, but buy the time I could talk myself into buying it (hobbyist, not pro) it went subscription.  No, just no.  If I were a business? Sure.  It is deductible.  It is probably worth it.   Corel was on my list to try, so I ordered this.  Hopefully the suggestions above will work to remove the pop-ups and it will be useful.  If not, back to Digital Image Suite......

PaintShop Pro: How To Disable Messages in PaintShop Pro

https://support.corel.com/hc/en-us/articles/115012807447-PaintShop-Pro-How-To-Disable-Messages-in-PaintShop-Pro#CUH

How to change your preferences for the Corel Update Helper

https://support.corel.com/hc/en-us/articles/115012433607#p0

7 hours ago, Cristian said:

Extreme differences?
The GUI, the workflow, Ableton has a lot more tutorials out there, and it's also on macOS.
And then there's Max for Live which is a whole different can of worms.

OTOH Cakewalk is free, and it also has Matrix View, which covers a lot of Ableton's Session View.
Ableton Live is quite expensive to get access to the really juicy features (at least $299 if you own live Lite).
Cakewalk's tutorial stash is also (slowly) growing.

Ableton is built like a performance DAW, Cakewalk is built more like a recording & production DAW as far as workflow goes.

I mean, at the end of the day, if you feel the itch to see what it's like, you can get the trial, no ??

I would add, get both if you can. Live is a great secondary tool to have with ANY conventional recording and production DAW. It is a different animal from those.

Great for creative and experimental sound design, the session view is unparalleled. And it was built for live performance, as some have found that conventional DAWs are basically intended for studio recording only.

Try it for free while you can!

I still use an old copy of Photoshop Elements as my current go-to editor for quick edits. I know my way around it and can get a lot of stuff done quickly.

Also have a current copy of CorelDraw Graphics Suite, and have been rather fond of the included Corel PhotoPaint raster graphics program like forever. It's a good toolbox for some serious editing! Does CMYK, while Adobe Pjhotoshop Elements is limited to RGB. I also have a very old standalone copy of the full Photoshop if I ever need some serious lifting...

I never really got into Paintshop Pro, but I do have the latest edition due to a good deal from Humble Bundle. Probably need to spend more time with the tutorials, but in general the workflow is a bit different than I'm used to. The popularity of the program begs me to check it out some more.

20 hours ago, BassDaddy said:

An SSD drive is a game changer for sample libraries. You would not regret that purchase.

My next project is the sample drive. Changing my system drive to SSD was a big game changer!

Got my secondary SATA hard drive split into two partitions, one for samples and one for archives, and its nearly full. Going to add another SATA SSD exclusively for the samples, and dedicate the spinner to archives.

Then I can buy more sample libraries. Which is out of the question at the moment, and I'm afraid I might miss a good deal! ?

20 hours ago, Peter - IK Multimedia said:

Yes, that's how I prefer things.   Just like Mr Bond but I'm now confused because I just watched him solving a murder whilst using a southern accent so he must be in deep cover.

Ah! "Knives Out". Good whodunit flick!

18 hours ago, twanger said:

Having been abandoned by Gibson Cakewalk after purchasing Platinum, I have been trying Reaper.  But still considering my options, and  I like SPlat.   So, I thought, go back and study the issue again.   And after reading some of the shills here,  decided to at least checkout the latest from Bandlab, having downloaded THEIR Cakewalk some time back.  

So, Bandlab Assistant update install warns me that the latest update doesnt support Win 7.    

Do I want to continue, it asks? 

No.  I trust Bandlab or any other DAW maker/plugin publisher about as much as I trust Microsoft to get it right and not screw up their user's setup and waste hours and hours while incessantly promising to solve all the worlds problems with better, faster, and quicker loading software. 

MS Window's Nine Biggest Lies:  This new version will load faster.

Which is Not.At.All.

Well I am running an audio interface in Win 10 with manufacturer drivers that were last updated for Win 7. It works. The device is end of  life and no longer supported, but I can live with that until it stops working. My choice.

But I can understand why  application developers only support the currently supported Windows  operating systems, because in this case their tools are totally dependent on Microsoft. It's fine if you wish  to run end of life operating systems, but you should focus on DAWs that were were developed and tested on them.

If you wish to run the latest DAW, you should keep up with the latest OS for best results. That's where it was tested.

On 6/5/2020 at 7:07 AM, Piotr said:

edit:

Forgot mention:  There are also pretty good Amplesound bass VSTis with riffer as tool to avoid painful work with articulation in MIDI directly but not compatible in this area with other manufactures VSTi of course.

I have the AmpleSound Metal Ray bass.

The riffer does output MIDI if you select that in options. So you can route the MIDI to any other VSTi in your project. The Metal Ray only has picked samples, and I have sent the riffs live via MIDI over to their free P-Bass for fingered samples, while muting the audio output from the Metal Ray.

You just have to ensure that you don't use the low string on the 5-string when you send MIDI to a 4-string bass. Or at least transpose up. ?

Doesn't it kind of tick you off a bit that Cakewalk/Gibson  didn't really partner with a hardware company to make a dedicated controller, except for when Roland owned them previously and released the A-PRO series.

I got the Cakewalk/Roland A-300PRO and it works, but using ACT in Cakewalk isn't exactly intuitive. A bit fiddly to set up. But even that's fairly old tech now.

It would be nice if Cakewalk implemented a more universal standard that would work fully plug and play with more modern controllers.

16 hours ago, BassDaddy said:

a ubiquitous mystery wrapped in an omnipresent riddle

Spoiler alert!!!

11 hours ago, John Bradley said:

Biggest problem witn Syntronik is, being sample based, it takes an irritating amount of time to switch presets. With hundreds (thousands?) of presets, I've never been patient enough to listen to the vast majority of them.

I agree with the issue of sound preview with Syntronik. I have the same beef with the instruments in SampleTank 4 Max. The load time kills me when auditioning sounds.

I think that the sounds are excellent in both products. Was even thinking about upgrading my sample drive to an SSD to improve that.

But in comparison, I recently picked up Arturia's Analog Lab for the massive amount (6500) of preset analog synth sounds provided. And they load instantly for me. Would probably consider jumping on the full collection, but the amount of tweaking in the Lab is sufficient for most performance needs.  Sound designers or hardware synth lovers might disagree with that last statement.

Cakewalk by BandLab will see them if they are properly installed.

You may want to contact support@cakewalk.com for assistance.

TH-3 Cakewalk probably has plenty of guitar amp sim, cabinets, and processing to get you started. Just start with a decent clean guitar virtual instrument sound and run it though the effect.

Also, IK Multimedia offers AmpliTube Custom Shop for free. https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/amplitubecs/index.php?p=info

You get 24 free pieces of gear to start, including 9 stomps, 4 amps, 5 cabs, 3 mics, 2 rack effects. And then you can add on more by purchasing additional pieces.

You could run LatencyMon to see if you are getting excessive page faults. Windows might be swapping memory in and out to the page file on disk in an "unfriendly to audio samples" manner.

Also you can open Resource Monitor from Task Manager by clicking the link at the bottom of the Performance tab. Then look at the Disk tab. It will show the open files being used. You can sort views there by clicking on the column headings. For example I can see all processes that are actively using "C:\Pagefile.Sys".

As scook mentioned though, CbB will be reported as a whole, not by individual plugins.

I have also never tried to run samples from an external drive. YMMV. That performance might differ by the plugin design, and how often the samples are read by the plugin, i.e., sample streaming.

Bottom line for the page file issue is that more RAM reduces the need for page file usage. I  suppose some folks may even disable it if they have massive amounts of extra RAM (through Control Panel > System > Advanced system settings > Advanced > Performance  >  Settings > Advanced > Virtual memory).