Magic Russ

Uncle E posted on the guitar forum yesterday at KVR, so he's ok even if his site isn't.

I'm really skeptical about Guitar Rig 6. Guitar Rig 5 came out in 2011 (?) and the added amp models weren't competitive even back then. I've seen a lot of references to job postings at NI over the years which mention GR, but not a lot of deliverables.

I hope nobody downvotes me for saying I use Songsmith on occasion. I've found a lot of the Rigid libraries inspirational. They seem to find good ways to combine sounds and patterns. I was recently going through old projects and found a lot of them started with sequences from Absynth or Rapture.

Wampler Pinnacle + Fender Princeton is one of my favorite combos.

Plugins like AAS Strum GS2 are great because a couple of random notes on the keyboard can give you a chord progression you might not otherwise have come up with. EZ Keys as well. Contests, particularly remix contests, are also great because they force you to come up with ideas that are not obvious.

I ended up going with the Funky Cat library for Strum. I don't love it but it might have some potential and it was on sale and I probably would have bought it anyway. That aside, I was playing with the rack recently. I think the biggest use I will get out of it is the MIDI Out device.

I believe the word you are looking for is "vintage". However, it does come with a MIDI Out device. You can create an instrument track with the Reason Rack where the MIDI Output device is loaded. Once you have done that, you can set any number of other instrument tracks to use the Rack's midi output as an input. This will allow you to play multiple synths simultaneously.

While I was getting around to getting a MIDI loopback.... Plugin Boutique is giving away Reason Lite with any purchase. This comes with a VST3 rack plugin which has a MIDI output device. This works perfectly so far.

MXR Chorus is what I use most from that package.

Cakewalk typically won't let you have one midi track be the input for multiple synths. However, if you have an instrument which generates midi out, multiple synths can use this generated midi as an output. I have been able to do this with both Jamstix and EZ Keys. What I would like to find is a VST instrument which would basically just pass midi through. That way I could use that as a sort of MIDI patch point, and be able to play multiple instruments with one MIDI track. Does anyone have any recommendations for such a thing?

It's not bad but I think I spent more time going through hoops to get it than I will spend playing it.

VST3 version has issues. VST 2.4 is ok.

Regularly $129 https://www.scuffhamamps.com/product/s-gear

Ooh you'll wait a long time...

Funny you should mention that. Their library had a cool prepared piano sound that became the basis of a track that I should finish.

Saw it listed in S-Gear forum. I haven't had a chance to try it yet but their Cranked AC plugin was pretty good (although 32 bit only).

They have a pretty good support team for a product that's supposedly not developed any more.

https://www.wamplerpedals.com/wampler-digital-downloads/ Includes 3 VST3 effects: Dimension Envelope Filter UVibe

For anyone who is on the fence, the sale has been extended through June 1.

It turns out I must have bumped the knob on my interface. I normally have it set around 2:00, but saw that it was set to 3:00. Turning back to 2:00 fixed the problem. However, when I was getting the clipping the input meters on Revalver were reading somewhere in the middle and not showing how hot my input was.

Release notes for EZkeys 1.3.0 2020-05-20 EZkeys 1.3.0 is now available to download using the Product Manager or from the ‘My Products’ area in your Toontrack account. Please note that version 1.3.0 is required for the support of EZkeys products released from this point forward (Q2 2020). CHANGES MIDI dragged from EZkeys now includes chord information that can be used by EZbass. The RTAS format has been removed. On Mac, EZkeys is now 64-bit only and requires macOS 10.9 or higher. On Windows, the standalone now has support for WASAPI audio devices but no longer supports MME. On Mac in the audio device settings in the standalone, there is no longer a device type menu, since it always only contained “Core Audio.” BUG FIXES On Mac, after you had opened a menu in the chord wheel, the chord wheel started flickering when the mouse was moved over it and tooltips stopped working. In Ableton Live, EZkeys should no longer get suspended if it has been silent for a while and its window is closed. The chord analysis of recorded blocks in time signatures other than 4/4 should work better now. When recording from a host track, notes at the very beginning of the track were not always recorded. The Default Project is no longer overwritten if the sound libraries are missing at startup. If a song block had been shortened at beginning and the “hidden/virtual beginning” was before the start of the track, the block would be moved 1/64 note to the right when the project was loaded or when the block was involved in an undo action. If a song block had been placed at a triplet note, loading the project or undoing something involving the block would sometimes incorrectly move the block to the nearest 1/64 note. The Clean button in the Chord Selector is now updated (enabled/disabled) on every chord change.

I gave in and got a couple of the amp packs including the Fender Deluxe, Morse, and Laney. I noticed something odd though. The cleans sound great with my single coils/split coils, but when I play them through humbuckers, I get clipping. Not good pushing-amp clipping, but more like a click with some static. If I put a drive box in front it sounds like it should, and the crunch sounds seem alright. It's just the cleans that give me that problem.

Don't ask me, I'm just an Observer in this thread

I don't recall seeing this mentioned, but does it have MIDI Out?

Thanks. It looks like some of them have DI versions available, but I will keep in mind that the cabs and mic are fixed for most of these.