Canopus

It may be worth noting that VAT is not included in the advertised prices, but it will be added at checkout. I noticed that last year when I was considering Play4Life, so I eventually backed out. 

25 minutes ago, MrFigg said:

How long did you have to wait?

About 10 hours. The license link came through some middle-man called Skuport, so check your spam folder if it doesn'r arrive in due time. Well, provided you bought from JRR Shop, that is.

Just a quick tip for anyone thinking the Lounge Lizard EP-5 GUI lost too much of its contrast compared to EP-4. It is possible to enhance the legibility to more acceptable levels pretty easily. As all EP-5 GUI elements are stored as images in C:\Program Files\Applied Acoustics Systems\Lounge Lizard EP-5\Bitmaps (in Windows, that is), all you need is an image editor that can handle png files. I used Photoshop, but free alternatives like Gimp will do perfectly fine. Be sure to create a backup of the Bitmaps folder before you begin.

As for me, I updated the four background GUI files (two for Tines and two for Reed) by adjusting the levels; first by brighten the midtones and then by increasing the contrast. Here’s one of them, as displayed in Sonar.

It took me some 20 minutes in total for all four images, and, although subtle, I think it turned out pretty well. Of course, much more could be done by anyone so inclined.

38 minutes ago, Promidi said:

Is anyone having an issue with the VST2 version preset dropdown of Lounge Lizard EP5 not staying put....  it disappears before you have a chance the select the preset.  

This is on CbB, VST2 only.  VST3 is fine.

I can't see that when running the VST2 version in CbB. The drop-down stays where it should be. I tested 75 %, 100 % and 125 % scaling to see if there was any difference, but it worked as expected regardless. However, I much prefer the Library view as it allows presets to be changed without the need to press Enter each and every time a new preset should be loaded. Using the Up and Down keys are sufficient there.

On 6/5/2025 at 1:00 PM, MrFigg said:

Let me/ us know if you have no regrets when it finally arrives :).

Wow. Is the site up again already? That was fast! Just a tad more than 24 hours.

As to the question, I can’t really hear any difference when running the EP-4 sound banks in EP-4 and EP-5 side by side. But that may be a good thing. I’m sure the enhanced physical modelling core will add to the realism when put to the test.

However, I honestly prefer the main user interface in EP-4; it’s brighter, has better contrast and larger knobs compared to EP-5. Also, to have all the tweakability that’s available by default in EP4, you have to switch EP-5 to its detailed Expert mode. Sure, you can resize the GUI in EP-5 from 75 % to 200 % in 25 % increments, which is great, but to my aging, not-so-20/20 vision, it’s questionable whether the UI overall can be considered an upgrade.

On the other hand, I do appreciate the new Library with its Search function and possibility to select and filter Favorites. An additional 150 factory presets won’t hurt, and the updated Effects rack is a step forward.

As always, you win some and you lose some, but overall, I have no regrets.

1 hour ago, MrFigg said:

Hmmm. I have Lounge Lizard 4. Also have another 10 (at least) Rhodes plugins. $41.16 though. Hmmm

Yep, my exact thoughts. I have tons of Rhodes and Wurlis, including Lounge Lizard EP-4, and don’t really need another one. But AAS has always been one of the really good and generous companies, giving away a free sound bank every year, so I thought I’d show them some love and pressed the button anyway. Still waiting for my license, though.

However, I bought the upgrade for $41.16 at JRR Shop, and not directly from AAS for $49. My altruism has its limits.

I just noticed that AAS has released an updated version of their electric piano, called Lounge Lizard EP-5. The price is $149 (regular price a pretty hefty $199), or $49 when upgrading from EP-4 (regular price $79). It can optionally be bought at JRR Shop for $125.16, or the upgrade for $41.16, using code GROUP.

Here's what's new.

44 minutes ago, Promidi said:

CAL stands for Cakewalk Application Language.  I have been available in various iterations of Cakewalk going back a few decades. 

Reminds of that song by Paul Simon, “You can call me CAL”. 

You can’t activate such an old version. Instead, download the latest version of Cakewalk by BandLab from here. That version was released in December 2024. Once installed, the activation will most likely work as expected.

Press X.

On 5/8/2025 at 2:32 PM, Milton Sica said:

Can anyone help me expand my information on all the trucks used by Cakewalk for our items?

Also, your post mentioned "trucks", which I guess translates to "caminhão". Of course, it was obvious you meant "tracks", but at first glance the end result was indeed pretty strange. 

7 hours ago, OutrageProductions said:

If you have a fake (ASIO4ALL/Realtek/Behringer, et al) driver that says it's ASIO, then you're asking for problems.

For the record, Behringer use ASIO4All for their cheapest interfaces, but true ASIO compliant drivers for the others. Also, they never call their ASIO4All drivers anything but ASIO4All, so there should be no risk of confusion.

Release notes:

1. Support for “Modern Heavy” ADpak
2. Support for “Modern Heavy Beats & Songs” MIDIpak
3. Ability to link Kick to Flexi slot to simulate double kick drums
4. Option to turn on/off Snare buzz from Kick, Tom and Flexi (when a kick or tom is loaded)
5. Tone Designer on Flexi slots
6. Bugfixes, UI tweaks and performance improvements

51 minutes ago, audioschmaudio said:

Depends if you count Prophet V3.

That’s true, I had forgotten about that one. Arturia works in mysterious ways.

1 hour ago, Skijumptoes said:

I could never understand that, I had Spark with the hardware controller and used to think it was brilliant.  Odd move why they removed it, must've been an issue with some underlying licensing or coding perhaps?

Or maybe Arturia thought they could make more money selling it separately. It’s still available for €149, but they’ve never bothered to make a VST3 version. Pretty strange.

1 hour ago, Magic Russ said:

I generally agree but one thing they don't have in this collection is a drum kit.

When I bought V Collection 4 in 2015, Arturia Spark 2 was included. It had been removed in V Collection 5, but was of course still available for those with VC4. As far as I know, that is the only virtual instrument that has ever been removed.

3 hours ago, apoliticalboy said:

You used to be able to download it from roland clan(fan site) -- but I can't find one anymore [...]

I think there still is a Roland FA-06 instrument file on the Roland Clan forum. Have a look at this post from 2015. At the very bottom of that post there is a link to a .rar file which is said to contain the final version of the FA-06 .ins files. Good luck.

2 hours ago, Marc Cormier said:

I JUST retired from playing net last month.  One hip replaced two years ago that feels great, but now have a meniscus tear that won't heal.  I'm 58 now but had the chance to play in a morning pickup with some great Detroit legends for the last 15 years and play goal in 5 alumni games.  I can't wait to sell my gear.  It's hard to look at now.

I found an interview with you on YouTube where, in the first 23 minutes, you talked about your story and the NHL alumni experience. Great story!

6 hours ago, Release said:

Mine was $299.  I had to jump on it.  Way too much fun to be had, even though I have enough sounds to explore for 2 lifetimes as it is.

I have to admit, I did too. Only a few days ago I was pretty sure I wouldn’t buy any more plugins, like ever, but with an upgrade price of €299 for all of this, UVI made me an offer I simply couldn’t refuse.

My upgrade offer is €299. It's a lot of stuff, but do I need it?

Does it make any difference whether you in UVI Workstation have Preferences > General > Use OpenGL Renderer turned On of Off? Also, do you have Preferences > General > UI Scaling and Preferences > General > Script UI Scaling set to some other value than 100%? If so, does it make any difference if you set them both to 100%? Or, any combination of the settings mentioned above?

FWIW, I’ve never experienced this myself and I’ve used UVI Workstation with Cakewalk SONAR/CbB/Sonar for well over 10 years.

28 minutes ago, Paul G said:

Are you saying that every time you open Sonar you have to sign in with BL?

It was like that two days ago. But I tested again right now, and if I enter the 2FA code when first starting Sonar and then exit Sonar, I am indeed able to start Sonar a second time without being asked to log on and go through 2FA yet again. I guess something has been changed on the server since Monday, because I haven’t changed anything on my side. So, hopefully this change of behaviour will last. The constant 2FA nagging two days ago made me seriously start considering my alternatives.

This is getting pretty ridiculous. I've had to do 2FA every time I've started Sonar today. Sure, I have to do 2FA to gain access to quite a lot of sites these days, but that's mostly when I'm out travelling and start using a different IP address. Also, I have absolutely no problem with 2FA when it comes to things like banking or card purchases. But every time I start an effing DAW?

C'mon.

5 hours ago, Luc said:

They have a sale on upgrades and in my case with M1, the price I got is the best one so far (lowest until now was $150 and it's now $132.45).

I think you previously had to own three instruments in the collection to get an upgrade price of $150. For me,  only having two instruments, it was never below $199. So, I'm currently being offered an upgrade to KORG Collection 5 for $132.45. Although it's a pretty good price, $99 would have been better. Hm.

Welcome home, Larry! Hm, haven’t I said that once before?