Starship Krupa

Nice. That's something I forgot to emphasize: whenever bundle sales come around, ALWAYS log in to your MeldaProduction account and check your upgrade offers. Current ownership of a plug-in in a bundle never fails to result in the cost of the bundle being reduced more than you think it would. In my experience anyway....

So much less so that they apparently started calling themselves the less miserables. Like the untouchables, less misery instead of lack of touchability. Seriously, considering the plaintive cries I've read on this forum regarding z3ta+2's availability, it seems like an installable copy could be a rather valuable commodity.

Sonar Free Tier includes every feature of Guitar Tracks 4 and many more, so I must ask why.

The ability to double click on the EQ display when ProChannel is closed and have it show the expanded EQ UI is a long requested feature. So long requested that those who requested it despair of it ever actually being implemented.

Ripple Edit should output a real time MIDI event every .5 seconds while it is engaged. This would allow the user to route it to a soft synth playing a loud obnoxious screech or whatever, as well as route it to an external MIDI controlled relay switch connected to a powerful xenon strobe light. The only problem I can think of with this is that after emerging from a complex editing operation, it wouldn't help me remember why the noise and flashing were happening.

And they say two wrongs don't make a right!

Same. I'm keeping Pianoverse because it sounds great and has some very useful pianos.

Elastique Pro doesn't add any functionality to Sonar, it's just a more "advanced" algorithm for doing what it does. There are other stretching and pitching algorithms that come with Sonar FT. They're the ones that SONAR Platinum had. Elastique Pro wasn't added until Cakewalk by BandLab. When Sonar FT came along, I tried some brief experiments with the different algorithms and determined that the presence or absence of Elastique Pro isn't something I'd ever notice with my current usage of the DAW. Mostly what I stretch is lower fidelity dialog samples, and when I do use it on music, it's not extreme and it's surrounded by other mix elements. As HOOK says, that feller isn't doing any stretching, it's just editing. Editing is no different between SonarFT and SonarPre.

And they come out with new instruments for MSoundFactory rather often. I'm not a fan of bloat, but that thing sounds so damn good I don't mind. I wondered how it could possibly be enough better than Monastery Grand to justify burning that much storage. Then I played it. It is good enough to justify burning that much storage.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: TMP, oy, oy, oy...

As the resident MeldaMoonie, I'll chime in with these suggestions for anyone who's been waiting to port to the Meldaverse: MEssentialsFX Bundle is as the name says it is. MTurboReverble (the equal of any algo reverb plug-in I've tried), MTurboDelay, MAutoAlign, MLimiterX, and MAutoDynamicEQ are the top of the heap for usefulness. MSpectralDynamicsLE is an interesting and powerful tool, it can do noise reduction and perform functions similar to Trackspacer and a whole bunch of other stuff. MCompare is great for setting up FX chain A/B testing. I haven't messed much with MSaturatorMB. The only clinker, IMO, is MTurboComp. It doesn't have anything under the hood that MCompressor doesn't, it amounts to a bunch of Melda "devices" with skeumorphic UI's. To me, those work fine in MTurboReverble, MLimiterX and MTurboDelay, but when I want pretty UI's I use T-RackS. $114. All plug-ins that overlap with other bundles will get you credit in the other bundle. The other thing I recommend is upgrading the MFreeFX Bundle. Even though there is a free version you can use, $22 for 37 plug-ins is an acephalic deal. The compressor and EQ in the bundle would cost $50 each from another vendor, IMO. MCompressor has features that aren't even in other MeldaProduction dynamics processors. MEQualizer can solo bands, the analyzer can track the frequencies of peaks, etc. The utilities like MOscillator, MNoiseGenerator and MStereoScope are unsurpassed anywhere. MTuner is a polyphonic tuner which can also output MIDI from the analyzed signal. If you've downloaded the bundle, I recommend going through every audio processor and running a few presets. I had the bundle for a long time before I did that and was bowled over by things like MComb, a ferocious comb filter. If you've never bought from them before, with MusicMan's referral code, you can have both for $109. Or just MEssentialsFX for $91, or upgrade FreeFX for $18.

The CA/2A surely deserves to be on the market in some way or other. I'd love to be able to use the QuadCurve outside the ProChannel. I don't know how feasible that is. Here's an interesting article I just found from when the QuadCurve first came out: https://noelborthwick.com/cakewalk/2012/03/09/quadcurve-eq-demystified/ I was looking for that EQ that copied UI of the SONAR/CbB/Sonar ProChannel EQ. It was entered in the KVR contest half a dozen years or so ago. An odd thing it was. It was only the compact PC module. I wondered why someone would do that at the time. Ah, found it. Look familiar?

That's exactly why I don't use DAW-locked plug-ins. When the Cakewalk devs first murmured about porting the Sonitus suite to VST3 I told them why I don't use host-locked plug-ins if there is any alternative. The only one I regularly use is the ProChannel's QuadCurve EQ, because it's just so convenient and straightforward (and sounds good). But I have and use multiple VST hosts that aren't competitors to Sonar (Vegas Pro, Audacity, Sound Forge), and there's no reason to use any host-locked processors. It would be like having a vacuum cleaner that only worked in my living room. Why would I bother with such a thing? No matter how well it worked, it wouldn't work enough better to have to learn a completely different set of controls, attachments, whatever. Even the simplest compressor or EQ is more complicated to learn than a vacuum cleaner. If you want something with simple controls and an uncluttered display, download Kilohearts Essentials for free. Those FX resemble traditional "stock" plug-ins in every way except for being host locked. I think the solution they came up with, to have the Core FX usable in other hosts by using the same authentication system that Sonar uses, is pretty brilliant. I've never seen another company using it. Cakewalk under Gibson got into the "plug-in business," where they were trying to sell their premium synths and processors outside of the SONAR ecosystem. PreSonus and Tracktion are making a run at this today. The SI Instrument collection used to be available as a separate product. They were eventually surpassed by even free products, but they were decent enough for the time. When the CA/2A compressor first came out, it got EXCELLENT reviews, some probably still consider it one of the best, most faithful LA/2A emulations. I think its algorithm still ships in Sonar Premium's PC module. It would be a great candidate for inclusion with Sonar Premium. LP-EQ, LP-MBEQ, Adaptive Limiter, these would all be great to have in Sonar Premium.

And that is so sad, about the iPad I mean. I think the iPad is an amazing platform and I really don't like how hard it is to just keep using the versions of apps that run great on them. One of the apps that can no longer run on my iPad mini is Amazon's. It won't install the latest one and when I try to use the older one, it throws up a b1tch box saying that Amazon's site isn't compatible with older versions. No one will ever convince me that any iPad that's ever been made is somehow not up to the task of displaying photos and text descriptions of things. I dislike babble about conspiracies or whatever, but is it really just a coincidence that Amazon makes zillions of dollars selling new Apple products? That they have a direct financial incentive to play along with Apple's forced obsolescence policies? Even if Apple isn't giving them a $5 a unit discount on wholesale product to play along or whatever, every time someone decides that their iPhone or iPad or MacBook is "too old," Amazon is likely to benefit, being the #1 retailer of their products. My guess is that your 4790 system runs great with Sonar, and probably everything else, providing you have something newer than a GTX 550 in it. My Windows 11 test system is a 4770 with a GX 1030 in it, and not only does Sonar fly on it, I can game on the thing, do video editing, etc. It's my "shop" computer, and when I'm using it, I don't feel constrained by its performance at all.

Couple of things I forgot to mention: It can be fussy the first time to figure out how to load the presets, but once you do it successfully the first time, they come up fine every time afterward. Second, while as TracingArcs says, there are some good presets, they are old school and don't slather a ton of stereo chorus, delay, and reverb on them like today's factory patches all seem to. Most of them don't use any of those FX at all, so when auditioning presets, I advise at least using stereo chorus, and maybe add some reverb, too. The first time I ran through the factory presets, I started out thinking they were kinda "meh," but then it hit me: there aren't any FX on them. They're like the opposite of A|A|S patches where it sounds like everything is running through the Cocteau Twins' rack rig. I don't like that I (we) have become so used to factory synth sounds being so heavily effected, but I understand why it's no longer feasible to do it any other way. Everyone auditions synths by running through the factory sounds. They have to sound great in isolation or your synth won't sell. But when it comes time to actually use factory patches in a mix, I usually find myself turning off reverb, narrowing chorus (or using stereo management processors), and high passing them to leave room to hear the other instruments. This is one of the biggest reasons I shelled out for Chromaphone and Ultra Analog VA: I just wanted to be able to turn off the damn reverb. A|A|S are smart marketers. Their soundpacks do sound the same using their Player as they do in their synth products, but you can't turn the reverb off. I've never made my own patch in either of those synths, and if A|A|S Player had a way to adjust reverb level, I wouldn't have bought the synths.

I'm pretty sure you and I have different views on this, but if you're referring to TTS-1, Cakewalk has stated explicitly that it is "not supported." They do this for very few plug-ins, and I think it means that they may have tried to get it to work reliably but were unable to before being told by Roland to cease distributing it. So the answer to "why not use it" is "because many users have reported issues with it and there's a decent chance that there will be more issues in the future, issues that have no chance of being addressed. So it's risky."

Minimogue VA is a favorite of mine. I'm not sure how faithful it is to the original hardware Minimoog, but it's free, so check it out. Scroll down on that page.

One of my favorite free reverbs is Wave Alchemy's Magic7. In their words, "Experience the immersive sound of the legendary Bricasti M7 reverb for FREE with Magic7." I have other reverb plug-ins that I love, so I have no need for a free Bricastalike (MTurboReverb's "Brichamber" model is one of my go tos), but when I've messed around with it just testing it, it sounded really good. The MeldaProduction FreeFX Bundle also includes MCharmVerb, which is an algorithm reverb that sounds pretty good, and MConvolverEZ, which is a convolution reverb that I am told sounds really good. Of course if you have Sonar Premium, it comes with the Sonitus algorithms in VST3 form with new UI's, so you could go with Cakewalk Core Reverb and it should sound exactly similar to using the DXi version.

I personally have no issue with any of those, but yeah, that's a thing, their installation process, even before MPluginManager, is just something I let do its thing and keep my hands off. I trust it to know what it's doing or at least not to ruin anything. Fortunately, in the dozen years or so that I've been a big user of their products, MeldaProduction have never shipped a product, even a beta version, that didn't function perfectly as advertised for me. I've never had to roll anything back, never had to dive into the file system, none of that. The only hassle I've run into with them as far as installation was when I wanted to move my MSoundFactory samples to a different drive. I hacked at it and hacked at it, asked on their forum, bla bla bla, and finally threw up my hands and let the installer download it all over again. It took way less time to just start fresh than I spent trying to get MSoundFactory or MPluginManager to recognize my changed sample location.

We'll see. Maybe someday, but it seems like a daunting task right now. Of course, due to the perversity of these things, I fear that iZotope and Plugin Alliance will get shoehorned into my least favorite installer of the cabal, Native Access. But for now at least, I'd say that the current Plugin Alliance installer is one of my favorites, up there with Kilohearts and MeldaProduction/United. It's moved ahead of iZotope Product Portal. Maybe that could be a new category in the KVR Awards: best installer shell.

Sweet! I must run it....

Some installer shells I like, many I do not. I agree with Brian that when the number of plug-ins I have from a manufacturer gets past a certain point, it would be a giant pain in the butt to have to manually check for updates by visiting their websites, then downloading installers for each individual plug-in. For instance, between Kilohearts Essentials and MeldaProduction's FreeFX Bundle, both of which I consider mandatory, there are over 70 plug-ins. That would be a tedious task, I don't know how long it would take me. Even conservatively allowing just one minute to download and install one plug-in, that would be over an hour. I also have more IK Multimedia T Racks modules than I would care to install individually. With a good installer shell, it takes a matter of minutes. It's just not practical to have individual standalone installers when your line includes a bundle of 35 freebies that everyone who deals with your company will probably want to install. The best ones are Kilohearts in first place, followed closely by MeldaProduction/United, then iZotope. Kilohearts gets the nod because it doesn't even install itself, it's a standalone executable. MeldaProduction's does install itself, and while that doesn't bother me, it still gives Kilohearts the edge. iZotope is a distant third because it no longer stores my login information, I have to enter it each time I run the shell. Kilohearts and MeldaProduction aren't perfect, but the sins they commit are relatively minor ones. What I want from an installer shell program is numero uno, don't install any damn services, and don't screw up iLok or the VC++ redistributables by overwriting them with older versions. Then I want the installer shell to be able to phone home and version check all of my installed plug-ins, and give me individual control over which ones I wish to install/update. Both Kilohearts and Melda do this. I want it to be able to store my log-in information so that I don't have to enter it each time (Native/iZotope, why do you make me enter my email and password EVERY time I run the installer shell?). It should allow the user to set the install folders for VST2's and samples or other resources and it should allow the user to choose which plug-in formats they wish to install. And it should OBEY those choices and not install friggin' AAX and/or VST2 after I explicitly tell it I only want 64-bit VST3. It should have the option to store installer files locally in case I need to repair an installation. The OPTION. Do you hear me iZotope? I don't want to have to periodically purge old installers from my Downloads folder. It should allow queueing of downloads so as to allow long downloads to run unattended. Arturia's allows me to choose to queue multiple updates, but then if I pause one (because it's taking too long or whatever), all updates stop and I have to force quit the installer. Sometimes they all grind to a halt for no reason whatsoever (maybe the individual product's installer is hidden behind the main window?). I'm running it right now and queued updates for 3 products. When the first one finished, the other two just sat there saying "waiting." For what, I don't know, but invariably, if I quit the installer and start it back up, the remaining updates will complete. Ah, yes, I see, as soon as I killed the installer shell using Task Manager, the installer for Analog Lab popped up. So crappy. It should not clutter my VST3 folder with "demo" versions of plug-ins I don't own. IK frickin' Multimedia, hang your head in shame. T RackS is such a great product line, and that practice of installing ALL of the modules regardless of license status makes it look bad. When I think of T RackS, it's always with a twinge of remembering the drudgery I have to go through each time I update it, having to refer to my list of licenses and move all the rest of the product line out of my VST3 folder. It should handle the task of activating the products that I own without my needing to enter serial numbers in the plug-ins themselves. It should not install duplicate libraries when I have licenses whose content overlaps. IK Multimedia again. I found out at one point that I was both missing a great deal of the suite I had paid for (SampleTank MAX), AND that I had lost WAY too much disk space to duplication of samples. Aside from the first three companies, all of the remaining installer shell programs I know of commit fundamental sins such as not checking versions (Plugin Alliance), installing services, not storing login information (as I type this, Vienna Assistant can't log me in for whatever reason). Unfortunately, the challenged ones outnumber the solid ones, so installer shells get a bad name (not undeserved).

[pedantry] And also shares the nomenclature of the company name being WA Production rather than "WA Productions." As in MeldaProduction. The way I remember is that the tools they make are used for "production." [/pedantry] I think it will always be a matter of confusion for native English speakers....Melda are my favorite plug-in company and I need a mnemonic to remember that their name contains a verb🙄

It has the whiff of spin-off. I hadn't recalled that they dropped the tiered versions, Vegas Pro Edit, etc.

I got Vegas Pro 21 the last time it was Humble Bundled by MAGIX. That was a pretty big update for me because it added VST3 support as well as expanded the use of GPU's for rendering. After that, I'm not sure new features would be anything I would use. Here's the link, the upgrade price for just Vegas Pro without the other stuff is $99: https://www.vegascreativesoftware.com/us/vegas-pro/pricing/