Starship Krupa

My T-RackS management process is to move my unregistered ones to a folder not scanned by any of my audio (or video) software, then as I acquire licenses for them, move those back to the appropriate folder. I found out the hard way that the new install/authorizer doesn't re-download plug-ins that it thinks I already have installed, so I just keep them in quarantine until they're licensed. PITA, but IK Multimedia flows so much great stuff for free that I'll spot them a bit of hassle. BTW, while I do like that the VST3 spec calls for a centralized canonical install location, I don't like that I now have no easy way to separate VST FX from VSTi's. With VST2's, I have 2 folders, VSTInst and VSTFx, so I can tell audio editors to only scan VSTFx and instrument hosts to only scan VSTInst (if I choose not to use my FX in them). This used to save a lot of time and hassle, not having VSTi's in an audio editor that can't use them. Sound Forge, my editor of choice, makes no distinction between FX and instruments, so every launch I get it churning away installing instruments it can't use.

Dang, I guess I missed that one. I still haven't found the ideal dbx compressor to replace de la Mancha's, which is unfortunately 32-bit abandonware.

I would like to give profuse thanks for these two "smaller" features. The first is heaven sent for people like me who struggle to keep a tidy Track View and the second has been a bedevilment since day one of adopting CbB. This kind of thing is really great to see, really shows a consideration for the many working styles we may have or adopt.

Mouse wheel zooming (Fast Zoom in Cakewalk-ese) is a feature dear to me. Unfortunately, right now, it's rather broken. This is the way it's supposed to work and I think that most of your functions are covered: http://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=Cakewalk&language=3&help=Arranging.22.html#1838690 Yes, it would be nice to choose the modifier keys, but it first has to work as designed.

This is an endlessly requested feature, been seeing it for years. Made it myself even. Just want to bump it.

There is never an instance where I don't want to see the new synth's UI when I replace one with another. Never. We can choose to open the UI when we first create an instrument track, why is this not possible with replace? The current behavior assumes that I will want to use the synth's default preset. How often is that the case?

I think this one is bumpworthy. The number and quality of plug-ins in this is....ugh, maybe we use those terms "crazy," "insane," "no-brainer," etc. to the point where they lose their impact. I'll just list them with descriptions of what they do: Imprint (multiband transient shaper) Screamo (distortion with smear) Mutant Delay (tempo delay with filter and crossfeed) Vocal Splitter (the traditional ADT effect with filtering and saturation) Vocal Compressor (3 series compression stages with gate and EQ) Outlaw (level rider) Orchid (chorus with shimmer) Vocal Cleaner (noise reduction, EQ-type de-ess, gate) Mutant Reverb (stereo reverb with ducker) I own and can vouch for the usefulness of 1-5, haven't had much call for Outlaw's talents. Most (not all for sure) of W.A. stuff gets quick results by throwing them on and giving the controls a bit of torque, and these are no exception.

Quadravox is great fun, but I snag'd it earlier when it was a freebie, so full up on Quadravox. ANIMATE it is, always up for a good bus processor.

This was the first feature I ever requested, years ago. In Mixcraft, this command is bound by default to the "10" key, and I use it so much that my "10" developed a shiny spot. When I checked out CbB, I couldn't believe that there wasn't such a command. At least now with the track height resize modifier keys, it's easier to tidy up the track heights, but still, doing a Fit To Project when you only have 3 or 4 tracks in the project results in way too tall tracks.

Just a reminder here that these "list all the features you'd like to see" threads, while well-intentioned and fun, are where good ideas go to languish. If you really want to see your suggestions implemented, they must get in front of the devs' eyes, and the way to do that is to post your idea in its own thread, then let it get Liked and commented on by people who either agree with you or don't. Keep bumping it until you see results. They want to know what the demand is before they take the time to implement them, and it's not as easy to do that in a thread like this. There are some fine ideas here, each of which deserves its own thread. The subforum is for posting "what new features you'd like to see," so they don't need to be restricted to one thread.

As mentioned earlier, SONIVOX Orchestral Woodwind Companion has staccato samples. Right now, you can get their entire Film Score Companion bundle for $20 at Pluginboutique. That gives you all 3 Orchestral Companions, plus Cinematic Percussion and their sampled grand. And you can try before you buy, just go to SONIVOX' site and download the trial.

https://www.pluginboutique.com/deals/show?sale_id=6813 Yeah, I know, most of us have purchased all of their stuff in order to qualify for the Pluginboutique freebies, but if for some reason you passed up Cyclone, their bus compressor, it's a very good tool, one I use on every mix. The GUI is big and beautiful and it's kind of two identical compressors in one. It does either L&R or Mid-Side mode, with the two sides individually adjustable. This is something that often requires two instances of a compressor to achieve, so it's very handy to have it all in one. Every compressor adjustment is there, including knee, and there's adjustable saturation and a switch for RMS or Peak detection. I use it in mid-side with different threshold and release settings on mid and side, to enhance the stereo field. If you haven't tried that technique, you may be in for a surprise treat. Also included in the sale are Overtone, which is a mastering style EQ that can do the independent L&R/Mid-Side thing that Cyclone does, and Glitch, which is a tool for exactly that. These are just the ones I personally recommend. I haven't tried the Union synth, but some on the forum liked it well enough for the price. SoundSpot's day in the sun, to the extent that they had one, seems to be over, eclipsed and outclassed by W.A. Production, but there are some gems in its portfolio.

Steve, I find it hard to believe that there is anything in regard to Cakewalk that you know "very little about!"

Part of the issue with these is that we all really only know about products that we've tried. It's not as if everyone who voted tried half a dozen products in each category and made educated choices. Guitar Rig is part of Komplete, and there's even a free version, so the NI fans are going to vote for that even if they have little interest in amp sims. I think I use Voxengo Boogex more than anything else. Maybe the Overloud TH3 that comes with CbB. I don't even think about it I use them so infrequently. Manufacturers have forums where users are encouraged to vote. I've long suspected that the success of Reaper in these polls may be skewed by their very active and online-engaged user base rather than reflecting the product's actual popularity. For the people it works well for, it seems to work really well, and everyone else is kinda "wut?" All of which adds up to these things being kinda clickbait, IMO, although I do participate.

The reason is that iZotope bought the entire Exponential Audio line (and I presume IP), which had been licensing strictly via iLok single seats. iZotope's licensing is everyone's favorite "sane" method, where you can do it using their authentication, which allows for 5 machines before you must reset, or use iLok if you are an engineer who works at multiple locations and want to be able to carry your licenses to any machine. I don't own a physical iLok, so I can't easily move my licenses around if I want to go laptoppin'. When they absorbed Exponential, they pretty much just added their branding to the UI's and that was it and the iLok single seat licensing came along with that. You'll notice that the UI's on the Expo stuff isn't done with the usual sexy iZotope panache, although they're quite functional and logically laid out. They've since come out with a whole new reverb called Neoverb, which uses the Exponential algorithms and has an iZotope-y UI and what look to be some amazing features. It would probably be my cost-no-object 'verb, just guessing without having listened to it (or Bricasti). And I'm sure Neoverb has the usual iZotope licensing.

In my mind, it really comes down to what you're trying to do and your philosophy of mixing. My thing is creating a landscape, where it sounds like all of the instruments and elements exist in the same real life or virtual space. To that end, I make use of bus compression, for instance I route all of the guitars to a bus and put a bus compressor on it (my favorite is SoundSpot Cyclone, which is on sale at PB for $5). I also stick to using Phoenix and send individual instruments or buses to a single instance of it. There is also the Gary Katz/Steely Dan thing, which sounds to me more like they are reverbing individual elements each in their own space. And that sounds mighty good too. As you point out, though, virtual instruments often come with their own reverb built into patches, which make for the individual character, so I use a judgment call for that. If it's an orchestral instrument, I turn it off, but for synths, maybe, maybe not. The thing to listen for is having your reverbs "pile up" and turn into a big wash (unless you like that sort of thing ?), or stomp on each other. I don't know what kind of music you do, but if you have nothing from iZo/Expo, this is not one to pass up. I dropped the same amount of money on just buying 2 licenses each of Excalibur and Phoenix. I can't say enough good about Phoenix. I'd been using TrueVerb and the highly regarded freeware OrilRiver and it was like going from a Chevy (and I'm a Chevy man!) to a Ferrari. I'm thinking of pulling the trigger even though I already have Iris2, Trash2, Excalibur, Phoenix, and all the Elements Suite. Maybe some of them will make a good holiday present for a recordist friend. Anyone know if iZo allow you to split a bundle?

I do indeed.

I haven't tried either of them, so I can't say for sure, but I think I understand this. At the moment, I have more plug-ins than I know what to do with, literally. It's great to have an effect that is incredibly versatile and deep in features, but with that can come a danger of too much choice. I feel weird admitting this, but it was the default preset in Phoenix that knocked me out, and 90% of the time, when I use it, I leave it on that preset. On one hand, it seems kind of lame. Part of me says that as an amateur mix engineer I "should" be able to tweak all the parameters like pre-delay, early reflections, decay time, pre-EQ, post-EQ, etc, to get exactly what's right for the track. But then I remind myself that very many classic recordings were mixed using chambers and plates and even springs that had no or rudimentary parameter adjustments. Black boxes that you feed audio into and get a fully wet reverb simulation out of, and the most you can do is treat those signals on the way in and out. So I guess I'm using Phoenix on its default preset like that. It has a zillion other presets as well, which is great, and a big complaint I have with TrueVerb: I like the algorithm a lot, and I know it's capable of a lot more than I've ever gotten out of it, but the (in my eyes) too few presets that it comes with are not so great. Do I have time to delve deep into a reverb when I have yet to really get a handle on my Glitchmachines plug-ins?

You can add a post to the Discussion and mention it. Also, calling it to the attention of @Noel Borthwick, who maintains the KVR entry (and I see updated the version this round). ARA 2 is something that not every DAW has, to be sure, helps Cakewalk stand out from the pack. Also, while we have Noel's attention, the Cakewalk Studio Instruments entry lists the bundle as No Longer Available. I posted in the Discussion that it's actually now free via BandLab Assistant. And has CA-2A been included with CbB? I think it's now in CbB as a PC module, but I'm not sure about the VST. Since I own a full license for it, I don't really know. It's also listed as No Longer Available.

Hmm. Not sure that would be of value to me. Thanks for filling me in. I know you're a fellow Exponential devotee. I still haven't gotten over how Phoenix just humbles everything else I tried. I do find value in other, "character" reverbs like Valhalla SuperMassive. Oh man do I ever love that one.

No snark intended, why don't you make one? I'd like to see that too. The information is here, you just want to see it collated, right? It's true, that weekly dopamine squirt for $10 adds up to $500 over a year's time. But I look at it like this: how much does it cost to eat one meal at Burger King, or even just leave a respectable tip in a fancier restaurant? We toss that money around like it's nothing. "Gotta eat, after all." And then whatever enjoyment I had from eating the burger ends right there. We only notice that these "cheap" plug-ins add up because we get to keep them and, we hope, enjoy them. Ultimately, for people like me who are still learning, I try to move toward settling down with my favorite bread-and-butter ones, like my go-to compressors and reverb and EQ's. However, the ones that pull me in now are the "creative" or sound design ones. I'm especially getting into glitch-y sounds, so Glitchmachines running a $5 sale is just too good to pass up. Same with Trash 2. Not to mention all the fun toys that W.A. Production are cranking out. Would I pay $40 for 5 stompboxes? That's how many top-tier FX are in that iZotope Holiday Bundle.

I don't know, hence the "danger" I mentioned. That's about me personally, I have 2 licenses each for Excalibur and Phoenix, and as far as "natural" reverbs go, Phoenix handily trounced everything I've ever heard. I've never tried R2, and it's hard for me to understand how Phoenix could be improved upon. However, I am seeking to learn how to build very "spatial" mixes, I'm amazed by the sonic holograms created by the likes of Dave Tipper and Telefon Tel Aviv and a tool to help me place things in the sonic landscape would be a valuable thing to have. I have TrueVerb, which is supposed to be able to do that, but I've never been able to get a handle on that aspect of it.

Theoretically, yes, but it's kind of a hassle to do that each time. For the $10 that second licenses for Phoenix and Excalibur each cost me, it's worth it. Thing is, I have a total of 4 computers that I do DAW work on at least occasionally, if I count my iMac (which runs Logic, Garageband, Live, and Waveform). Pace announced this big deal, cloud licensing, but plug-in manufacturers have to specifically cloud-enable their plug-ins, and only two of my (relatively inexpensive) products have it enabled. Same with network licensing, which would be really great at my place. I have no beef with Waves' system, the ability to put your licenses on a generic thumb drive is great.

Worth every penny for the Exponential FX alone. Matter of fact, it's tempting to jump on it just to get another set of licenses for Phoenix and Excalibur, and have R2 to experiment with. Danger is in falling in love with R2 and then having only one license for it. With all the duplicate licenses I've bought for iLok'd products, by this time I could have paid for a dongle.

I'm with the OP in that I would really like to be able to do this in the Browser, without having to load the Plug-In Manager.