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And I would fault inMusic for that, not the original founders and developers. I'm sure they lost control over development issues when they were bought out. The suits are in charge now...

It will probably go on sale for $29 any day now!

Possibly. She sold SONiVOX to inMusic Brands, the current owner of Akai, M-Audio, Alesis, AIR, SONiVOX, etc. https://www.qubiqaudio.com/about-us

They released Solina and Stratum in 2018. https://sonivoxmi.com/news Solina and Stratum use the new struQture audio engine from Qubiq Audio. https://www.qubiqaudio.com The Qubiq CEO is Jennifer Hruska , SONiVOX founder. Patrice Tarabbia is Qubiq's Chief Technology Officer. He is the founder of BigTick Audio Software (Rhino). https://www.bigtickaudio.com/

Ran updater, but everything was up to date already. Have United Heavy, but not United Pop.

It's a bit better than it was. I installed the v4.0.3 when it first released. Then earlier today I re-installed "ST4_MAX_Instruments_Installer_1_1", followed by the "ST4_MAX_Sound_Library_Update_1_3". That seems to have helped for today, as I didn't get the insta-crashes with certain instruments. The memory use also seemed to stay in line as I was auditioning various presets. Hard to say if there are other variables at play here, and just didn't hit the rough patch today. Time will tell! Looking forward to 4.0.4!!!

IBTL!

TTS-1 is a one of a kind MIDI GM multi-timbral synth that was developed by Roland when they owned Cakewalk. It is probably still the best way to open GM files and have the GM sounds open automatically. And since Roland no longer owns Cakewalk, I doubt that TTS-1 will ever be updated. As far as I know there is no way to expand TTS-1 with new sounds. I usually just use TTS-1 to open the GM file, and then replace any tracks with a different plugin if I want another sound. The best commercial ($$$) options for a multi-timbral (non-GM) synth would be Kontakt, Halion 6, SampleTank, and UVI workstation.

Just use the VST plugin version of Kontakt Player, or Komplete Kontrol, in Cakewalk. Add the plugin by using the menu "Insert > Soft Synth" or insert an instrument from the track view or synth rack. Then the MIDI inputs in Cakewalk, or MIDI clips in the Cakewalk track. will use the instrument track in Cakewalk the same way as with any other virtual instrument plugin, such as TTS-1. No need to use the external standalone version of Kontakt or Komplete Kontrol. You won't see MIDI or audio preferences in the VST plugin version, as all that is supplied by the plugin host, which in your case would be Cakewalk. Those settings reside in Cakewalk preferences.

Yes the Kontakt Factory Selection "Band" folder (a cut down lite version) is included with the free Kontakt Player in the Komplete Start bundle that was recommended. There are only a limited number of instruments in this package, as it is intended to be a sampler for the full product. That one upright bass is the only one I have seen included with the free Player. The instruments that are included are good quality! Anyway before spending any money on Kontakt, I would follow Krupa's suggestion to check out the AIR Music Tech Xpand!2. Xpand!2 is a handy plugin to have for quickly adding instrument parts. I think it sounds better than TTS-1. Included in the 2500+ sounds, it has 5 acoustic bass presets, including hard, medium, and soft. It is only $12.59 with code "GROUP", in the cart at JRR Shop: https://www.jrrshop.com/air-music-tech-xpand-2 The full Kontakt ($399) factory library only has two upright basses in the "Band" collection: Kontakt Factory Library Manual I don't see any additional upright basses in the available Kontakt add-ons either, but if you want to browse the selection of available add-ons, these NI "Powered by Kontakt" instrument libraries are available separately for Kontakt Player: Powered by Kontakt

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Exactly! I have not even had the desire to go there yet, LOL! One thing that I observed about the new streaming options, say "Small" vs. "Large", is that the presets load up much quicker with the "Small" setting. They take forever with "Large". "Medium" seems to be about the same as before the most recent v4.0.3 update. I could almost go make a pot of coffee in the amount of time it took to load the Red Strat Full Keyswitch using the "Large" streaming setting.

How about "phuket_lingling"? Big problem with the sonah

The acoustic Steel String Parlor guitar in full KS, and the electric Black LP and Red Strat in their full KS presets are huge troublemakers for me in this regard.

I'm just speculating here, but my hunch is that Windows isn't happy with how SampleTank 4 is managing memory. There is a significant amount of memory being "committed" for an instance of ST4 way above the amount in use. I see the commit number frequently exceed the installed RAM in my machine. I have also been really surprised at the base memory footprint of ST4, compared to other audio applications and plugins. ST4 v4.0.0 through v4.0.2 (empty, no presets loaded) were using 2.1GB on my machine. The update to ST4 v4.0.3 dropped that down to 1.4GB. But that is still a lot. I have had the thing creep up to 5-6GB after loading a few instruments (one at a time, not concurrently).

I already have a ticket open with IK support, but so far I am mainly interested in getting the standalone stable first. I wish to avoid any finger pointing at DAWs, so by using the standalone version to reproduce the crashes eliminates the DAW variable completely! And I have been able to crash several DAWs with the plugin, as well as the standalone.

The Kontakt Player (included in Komplete Start) comes with several decent basses in the free factory library. Two electric basses (classic and funk), and the upright bass. The sound quality should easily exceed that of TTS-1.

I had both set to "Medium", but I have also tried both set to "Small" and "Large". That seemed to avoid the specific crash scenario I described earlier, but a few others still crash ST4, particularly with the new guitar instruments on either of the other settings. No luck with those, before or after changing the streaming settings.

This issue sounds similar in a way to when a guitar player records a live take without a click track or a metronome to keep him locked to a tempo. Then when he imports the audio take into a DAW project, the guitar tempo doesn't line up with the beats on the grid due to the rigid default tempo map in the DAW. Sure, the guitar player may sound great with his relaxed timing, and have more swing or human feel. But when you want to arrange things later in the DAW, you have your work cut out for you to create a variable tempo map so that your MIDI instrument tracks can sync to the guitar, and stay on the beat with the grid. So I think it is design intent that software has to make certain assumptions, like the number of beats in a measure adding up consistently, or that all tracks in a DAW project must follow a common tempo map. Maybe software can be improved some day so that we don't have to tell it everything, but it seems at this point we still may have to create content that it can interpret correctly according to the assumptions it follows.

This happens mostly with just switching around with the big new instruments in ST4 MAX (4.0.3). You know, the ones I really want to try out because they sound so good. My sample libraries are all installed on an internal 1TB SATA HDD 7200 RPM. One example that recreates my crash consistently: 1. Launch ST4 standalone. 2. Load "C7 Grand Binaural - Natural". Play a few notes to verify that the sound has loaded correctly. 3. Then replace that instrument with "C7 Grand Classical". It loads, but as soon as I try to play the first note, it just freezes up, and I have to kill the task. A few other scenarios have the interface just going poof. If I load "C7 Grand Classical" first, it loads and plays OK, so that instrument doesn't appear to have a corrupted file or anything. So far I can also load and play the lighter ST4 instruments, for example all of the EPs and Basses. My ST3, Syntronik, and Miroslav 2 CE instruments seem to be OK.

With all that experience, surely you two can figure out a workaround for the issue.

Ever heard of quantize? It should snap your notes to the grid before you export your MIDI version for score creation. You could retain an un-quantized version for playback in Cakewalk if you prefer the un-quantized live feel of the performance.

I don't think you understand at all. The need to export your MIDI to another application to create a "score" is exactly what is required. I doubt that MIDI files created with the Cakewalk piano roll would potentially have the same issues as MIDI recorded live. And for that there is quantize. I thought that was a sarcastic joke you were making about Finale. Seriously! And referring me to another post, which refers to yet another post is annoying. Please just say what you gotta say!

No joy. Still getting crashes even with the latest updates. Switching instruments still seems to be an issue.