Starship Krupa

Yes to both. And you get a free license for A|A|S ObjecDelay, which is pretty amazing plug-in. It's so simple and effective that yes, there is a temptation to overapply and leave too large a hole in the target track at first, but your ears will probably rein you in when you listen the next day. ? There are still occasions where I find that the ancient art of EQ carving works better, but I consider Trackspacer essential to my arsenal.

EXPOSE is a useful tool, Analog Lab Lite is cuh-razy what you get. Be sure to look in the Arturia store for free sound banks.

My current fave pad sampler to use with Cakewalk. Drag and drop clips from Cakewalk tracks right onto the pads.

Apple of course led the way by hiring a dude named "Guy" to be an evangelist, complete with that title. I've just usually been too broke to afford Macs for the most part. My computer background was from building XT clones out of junk parts so that I could get on BBSes, not from going to a university that had a lab with donated Macs and then getting my own as a graduation present at student discount.

Yeah, Freakshow live up to the promise of the name, or at least their promo videos do. They remind me of stuff that used to get on public access very late into the morning in Los Angeles. Meldaproduction, sure, on a product page for MWaveformTwiddlerMB, they'd link to a video about how to set up "multiparameters" in a compressor and you'd never find out about the features of MWaveformTwiddlerMB, or even what a "waveform twiddler" is supposed to do, only that it has the most advanced UI on the planet and more features and control than any other, plus it's "multiband."

That's for sure. Meldaproduction products are also smart enough to (I think) shut off all metering when you simply close the UI. I'm a fan of SoundSpot's graphical displays but avoid using the ones with the fancy animations because they eat so much engine, even with the UI closed. Meldaproduction are also the first plug-in developer I've seen who (in the latest version) turn off the plug-ins when no audio is flowing. They're irresistible to software geeks like me because of things like this. The modular design, reuse of code, commitment to bug-free products, tinkerability, "mad genius" developer, and, of course, the sound quality. Even the plainness of the UI's encourages me to understand what they're doing rather than assuming I'm extracting mojo from an imitation antique hardware unit. The band menu can be dragged away from the main window. I agree that having a separate dialog pop up just to be able to type in exact values can be annoying, but in the case of many of the plug-ins, MEqualizer included, that dialog exposes useful ways to enter the data, like a little piano keyboard at the bottom so you can click on it and cut or boost frequencies that correspond to notes without having to know the frequency. In time-based ones, it lets you click on beat divisions, etc. Typical Meldaproduction, useful complexity. I was curious enough to check this out, so I fired up an organ patch in TTS-1 and opened MPhaser. Checked for presets, the usual list of 5 descriptive ones, the rest random 2-words put together which don't exclude the "seven words." "Rotary," nope, not even close, so I started with Default. Starting from Default, it took me about a minute to cook up a respectable slow Leslie that when I tried my modwheel, the rate changed with it. I took me longer to type this than to get that Leslie sound, complete with a nice idiosyncrasy in the waveform thanks to the display and Shape morphing knob. The only clinker is that the "Saturation" knob only seems to make the sound louder, not saturated, so to get a distorted Leslie amp, you'd need another effect. All the other controls worked as I would expect on a Phaser. No abrupt click on the LFO, either. Our mileage varied, but in this case, I see a mad powerful phaser with all its important controls front-facing and labeled correctly, plus a very useful LFO shape display. Also (if you should want to spend more time playing with your phaser than making music) an "advanced" panel that opens into another, more bizarre world of options, including custom creation of waveform shapes and loading a sample to superimpose on the waveform (for fans of wrecked audio, I just tried this, and it gets crazy, ring-modulated sounds, and it even displays the sample's waveform on the main LFO waveform shape display). It goes to show how different two people's experiences can be. As for manuals and UX, my philosophy is that a program should allow a new user who is somewhat familiar with the type of software to figure out how to perform its standard functions. Controls and menus should be clearly labeled and located and right click context menus for anything that moves. Past that point, for deeper features, that is what the manual is for. MPhaser has the standard controls front-facing (plus a few more). It also has the Advanced panel, with another crazy dimension to explore. That's where things fall apart for me in the Meldaverse, because of the spotty docs. I'd love to tweak my sounds with the options under that Advanced panel, but I can't get anywhere with the generic boilerplate in the "manual." Whatever, MPhaser is still a powerhouse even if I don't touch "Advanced." P.S. MNotepad now takes only a single click to activate the redundant typing box.?

I don't know how they keep track, as it's not like Cakewalk where it knows the email address you used. I always assumed that they put a key file or registry entry somewhere that tracks how many times you've started it up. That doesn't account for you being timed out on multiple systems. Which, BTW, aren't you supposed to stop using it or pay for a license after the trial? That's not optional, it's the terms of their license.

I watched the video on the page hoping to, y'know, hear how it sounded, but it's a couple of guys sitting in a studio chatting with each other about one of the guys' careers. I'm not sure how this relates to the product as the interviewer doesn't introduce their roles. Best guess is that the musician, a sax player, was recorded for the library and the other guy is the developer? It's an interesting enough interview, but I don't know for sure why it's on the product page. Made me want to check out what they came up with, though, so I guess it worked.?

AVLinux, hadn't heard of it. Is it better than Ubuntu Studio for things like Ardour and Waveform. @Jim Roseberry, I use Windows, but I think the "fascination" for doing DAW work in Linux is that people trying it really prefer Linux (as I have long preferred Windows). Some people still say the same thing about doing DAW work in Windows. As you say, going back 20 years, remember how Mac users at best thought it was "cute" that people were actually trying to run Photoshop or any DAW or NLE in Windows? Linux people may be tired of dealing with Microsoft the way that I am tired of dealing with Apple, who have been shafting A/V software developers for years. And we're not all pros. Some of us are home music hobbyists, some seldom record audio and work entirely "in the box." And part of the fun of the hobby is that I can be mixing in Cakewalk on something like my hand-me-down 10-year-old notebook. Recording with 16 inputs of Firewire interfaces whose drivers go back to Windows 7. I get that in your line of work, or one of them, the customers for your (superbly, by reports) integrated systems just want it to work, flawlessly, with no trouble, no tinkering, and are willing to pay. I'm kind of the opposite, my system upgrades are when someone is giving away a computer, then I do the work of turning it into a usable DAW. I enjoy the tinkering part too.

I've not seen it specific to Cakewalk, but in various programs. A reboot of the computer always took care of it. Is it persisting through a complete system restart?

Goes for any malware program including Windows Defender. Also exclude your Cakewalk Projects folder so that it doesn't scan your audio files in real time.

While I do agree with Bruno that the UI's on a lot of Melda's stuff lacks in accessibility, that's not my opinion about all of them. Oddly, it's two of the Free Bundle's plug-ins that beat the snot out of every competing effect in their categories, IMO (I haven't tried the legendary FabFilter, so don't hate): MCompressor and MEqualizer. MCompressor is everything a digital compressor needs to be, The meter shows the exact compression curve. Plenty of compressors do that, even the Sonitus that comes with Cakewalk. Where MCompressor wins is that the animated indicator that shows what the level is and what the compressor is doing is a vertical line that travels from side-to-side over the graph. This makes it dead simple to set the compressor so that the line is "dancing" right across the knee, or only touching it occasionally, or slamming it, or whatever effect you're trying to get. Park it right in the ear-tickle zone and fine tune if necessary. Yes, other compressors have a dot that does the same thing, but for me at least, that vertical line makes so much more sense, to the point that when I was groping to understand compression, it was MCompressor that finally did it. Unfortunately, the usual Melda idiosyncratic stubbornness creeps in with the other compressors, and I think MDynamics and its MB version are the only ones where you can enable this type of meter. Maybe Maybe MTurboComp, but not the LE version. Anyway, it's not visible unless you click the "edit" button. Despite multiple users praising this metering system to the heavens, he says it's not worth the trouble to add it to the other compressors that lack it. ? MEQualizer has the usual drag-dots like in the QuadCurve EQ, but it also lets your adjust Q via dragging. It also has a great realtime analyzer display that you can set to show the exact frequencies of your peaks. It also has a simple band isolation mode that cuts the sound down to just the band you're dragging. Of course, in addition to all of this, you can right click on the dots and get the usual insane amount of parameters to select and tune, bu I'm sticking to the front-facing stuff. It's informative, intuitive, and even attractive. Frustrating, sure, but they make no bones claiming ease of use and say that this stuff is for advanced users, so none of their stuff should be a casual buy (except for the Free Bundle and MAutoAlign). Other companies do "intuitive" and "instant results" way better. I think the "Turbo" line was his effort to improve that, and if those compressors had the MCompressor metering, I would recommend them to anyone.

iZotope Vocal Doubler and Softube Saturation Knob also have that feature. And it is a feature, because in both cases, it inspired me to find superior alternatives.

Hallmarks of the SoundSpot line, unfortunately. For the FX, yeah, you get really cool graphics, but the issue is that once you close the UI, the CPU hit from the graphics (which I guess don't use GPU) doesn't go away, unlike with better designed plug-ins. So I tend to stick to the SoundSpot FX that have minimal or no metering, such as Cyclone, Overtone, Glitch, and Voxbox, unless it's something unique. Which with the rise of W.A. Production, is getting to be less and less the case.

Mm, not in my experience. Most of the software I use is freeware, and very few have beg screens. Especially with creative software, where I fire it up when I am inspired, having to click through a beg screen....just ain't gonna happen. The way Meldaproduction handles it, where with the Free Bundle there is a small banner at the bottom of the UI (and non-essential "pro" features if you choose to pay), is what I prefer. And in the case of that company, I used the free versions for years before eventually purchasing hundreds of dollars worth of licenses from them. The way REAPER does it, as trialware that starts nagging after the (generous) trial period is up, is good too. Let it be beg-free for a month before the pitch starts to let people decide whether they like it before being confronted with the guilt screen. I don't mind being asked for a donation, but not by having to click through a guilt trip. And if paying makes the nag go away or alters the program, it's not a "donation," it's a commercial license.

That is the result of a couple of bugs in Waves 12. First, there is a Waves background app called "Waves Local Server" that enables the "plug-in browser," that new awesome feature that now lets you browse the same list of plug-ins but with a black background. This server starts when your DAW loads the Waves shell, but fails to stop when you exit the DAW. Second, this program puts a lock on the library sndfile.dll in your Cakewalk program directory that prevents the Cakewalk installer from replacing it. The issue is the subject of this sticky alert:

Infectious sense of humor ya got there.?

Regarding the 50% upgrade credit if you buy from a reseller, right now MRhythmizer is $22 at Pluginboutique for what lists for $59. Not a huge margin under 50%, but still less than the upgrade credit you'd get to go to MRhythmizerMB. My biggest issue with Meldaproduction hasn't anything to do with pricing, quality, or performance. It's with what is not delivered with the product in the form of basic documentation. Yeah, even their most basic compressor has more features than other companies' top of the line products, but figuring out how to use and apply those extra features or even knowing that they exist is needlessly obscure. I say "needlessly" because the developer has the most engaged user base of any plug-in developer, people who would be happy to submit "quick start" addenda for the manuals, but he kinda just blows it off. The insult to this injury is that the factory presets often lack in descriptive names, rather they're called something like "ovulating opossum" or whatever. I mean, I get my money's worth and more, no doubt, but I have all these FX that have extra features that I might use if I could get a better sense of what they did and how to implement that. I could ask on their forum, which has plenty of people happy to help, but a lot of the time I'm so far lost I don't even know what to ask. AND there is an unfortunate growing tendency amongst hardcore users to say how it could be done easily in MXXX, which is a $1200 multieffect that seems to include versions of all of the individual plug-ins. ? Caveats. The moral is to know what I'm buying and on what terms, and not to bet too heavily on what might be coming down the road.

After literally years of trying, I finally completed their registration process, only to find out that every time I want to use the thing, I have to sign in. With Cakewalk and Waveform and other excellent free DAW's, I could see no reason to proceed.

You had a sextant at least! I remember when "piano roll view" meant going to Shakey's Pizza and staring at the piano, when "track view" was something that you had while waiting for your train, when "console view" was what happened when you'd watch TV, and when "staff view" meant that a company had windows in its offices. A "cue sheet" was something we sat on at a cookout and "cursor" was what my mom became when she dropped a jar of applesauce.

First, DallasSteve is correct in referring to that as a "page" rather than an "article," as in something written by one or more people who stake their reputations on its accuracy. Notice there is no way to up or downvote comments. Slant seems to be a collection of laypeople's opinions. Nothing wrong with that as long as people reading it remember it. SONAR is on there as well, and one of its "CONs" is supposedly that it has no scissors tool. It's as if Consumer Reports were written by YouTube comments. I do notice that in the summary, while Cakewalk outranks Pro Tools overall, Pro Tools has a slight edge when Slant's community of experts is ranking "free music making software tools." Got that? Cakewalk's the better DAW, but Pro Tools is the better free software. Second, Steve, did you miss this comment higher on the page? "Pro: Updated frequently" ? Since there's been some confusion expressed regarding BandLab and its relationship with Cakewalk, I'll see if I can clarify: BandLab is a company and also the name of one of its flagship products, a freeware DAW that runs in Chrome-based web browsers and on iOS and Android devices. There is a "social media" site also by that name where musicians may connect and collaborate using the DAW. Cakewalk by BandLab is another product of the BandLab company, a freeware DAW that runs on Windows and was originally based on the SONAR DAW code that BandLab purchased over 3 years ago and has been constantly improving ever since. Cakewalk has a small amount of integration with the BandLab social media site in that it is possible to upload and download projects directly from and to Cakewalk. It is not necessary to use the BandLab social media site or any version of BandLab the DAW in order to use Cakewalk. The only requirement is that the user must create a BandLab account in order to download, install, and register Cakewalk. Cakewalk must be allowed to connect to the internet at least once every 6 months to contact the BandLab licensing server and renew the license, no user intervention necessary. So, if you want to use a DAW on your phone, tablet, or in a browser, check out the BandLab DAW. If you want a much more comprehensive DAW that runs on your Windows system, check out Cakewalk by BandLab. Hope this helps.

This. You may choose how to apply your upgrade credit, either for enabling extra features in the single plug-in, or getting a collection with more plug-ins. FWIW, regarding the assumption that the user paid 50% of list if they bought it from a reseller: at least in my case, that would be quite generous, as I have always paid much less than 50% of list when buying from resellers. Resellers put certain plug-ins at way deeper than 50% discount from time to time. I got MReverbMB that way at PB. Otherwise, why bother buying from a reseller? Meldaproduction rotates all of their individual plug-ins through the 50% off sales anyway. Regarding users airing grievances because the calculations from the website came out wrong, here's a consumer tip: the first place to contact is customer support at the company. Then if you still don't get satisfaction you can complain on public fora to warn/commiserate with other consumers. Companies make mistakes. Web sites have programs on the back end that can have bugs. Orders are not processed by human beings. Assuming that it's a deliberate "policy" rather than a bug, well, does making that assumption get a person anywhere except angry? Unless they somehow enjoy venting and then eye-rolling when they don't get validation? I don't get it. If I think I was overcharged for something, I contact the company and ask them to make it right, and that can include a refund of the transaction. This policy has never failed me, ever, in half a century of buying things. Some companies don't apply any credit from individual products toward bundles. A wise consumer must study the upgrade policies if future upgrading is important to them. There are many plug-in developers out there. I don't require any single company's product(s) to be perfectly happy and functional making music and mixing and none of them owe me conformation to my idea of "fair" when it comes to their policies, merely that they allow their policies to be known before I purchase. People on this forum especially should remember that there's never a guarantee that any company is going to survive until you decide to upgrade. If I had held a license for SONAR Artist or Home Studio in November 2017, and BandLab hadn't stepped in....yikes.

lkjb QRange. A 12-band linear phase EQ. Excellent plug-in. I'm also a fan of the same company's Luftikus knob EQ.

I did a more detailed review of TurboComp(LE), back when we all got it: If you're a first time Meldaproduction customer, use my (or anyone else's) referral code to get 20% off your first order. My code is MELDA1923165. It's also a good time to upgrade your 37 FreeBundle FX while you're getting that 20% discount. Sign up for their newsletter and get another $12 credit to really bring the cost down.