Starship Krupa

Maybe so, although there are plenty who disagree. Thing is, context: BandLab own the code for these plug-ins and BandLab are marketing a Windows DAW that ships with a rather small and increasingly dated-looking collection of plug-ins (which is why I started the freeware FX thread, to help new users on tight budgets augment that). To paraphrase "Desiderata," there will always be greater and lesser plug-ins. In my experience, they're at least the equal of their counterparts in most other DAW's. ReaComp, ReaDelay, etc. They don't try to put phony "analog warmth" into your signal, who cares, like the ReaPlugs, they allow access to a multitude of parameters that other processors distill down to one or two knobs. If they got a UI update and were included in VST64 form (which we know already exists, because they used to sell the package separately for $19.99), then that's another incentive to download and try CbB. It would come with a dozen or so FX and instruments that could be used in any DAW (and would have Cakewalk branding).

I love this idea, but until such time as it's implemented, a macro that would seek out and bypass only iZotope suite FX* would take care of 90% of my issues in this area. ? *leaving Exponential Audio stuff alone

Don't get me started on compressors and EQ's. Maybe since my studio work back in the day was as "the talent" and I did my real learning using the Meldaproduction Free Bundle, I've tended not to chase emulations of "classic" compressors. I'm more likely to set up MModernCompressor with a 10mS attack and 400mS release and go from there as I am to use CA-2A, unless I want the ProChannel version. And I keep forgetting that I'm supposed to splash "color EQ" around on my tracks, although I guess the Quadcurve set to "E" might count as that. I turn on the console emulation because it's there. I don't drive it too hard, though. There may be a "Pultec" somewhere in my collection of EQ's, but I've forgotten about it. Perhaps someday one will become my favorite new/old toy.

I understand that Sound Center was an old 32-bit synth that was later replaced by 64-bit Rapture, so depending on what license(s) you own, if you go the canonical route of installing the latest version of SONAR you paid for, then installing the newest version of Cakewalk by BandLab, you should end up with a version of Rapture (either Session or Pro) that will play your Sound Center content without incurring the overhead of the 32-bit wrapper. (I don't have firsthand knowledge of this process, as I am new to Cakewalk as of BandLab's tenure, but I pay attention on the forums and have a good memory for issues I've read about. Also good Google-Fu.) Check this out: http://forum.cakewalk.com/Can-Cakewalk-Sound-Center-be-used-with-other-DAWs-m3709641.aspx

Hmm. I didn't hear the "static" you describe with the DB-33 in the sections where they weren't using the crappy distortion modeling. I have wondered if there is anything left to the AIR company any more. No new product development in years, their website hasn't been updated in over a year. It seems like they're just squeezing whatever licensing fees they can out of the existing products. As long as DB-33 doesn't crash, who cares if the distortion modeling sounds like a bad phone connection? ?

You'll be happy to know that the functionality you want is there, but you have to take an extra step. Are you aware of Quick Grouping? That's Cakewalk's ability to group track functions on an ad hoc basis by selecting the Tracks, then holding down Ctrl while clicking or dragging. Input Echo toggle is a Quick Groupable function. There are many Quick Groupable functions, such as fader moves, pan moves, mute, solo and record toggles, etc. It really speeds up the work when used in tandem with swipe selection of track headers. So in your case, you'd select the tracks you want to toggle Input Echo (which you can quickly do by holding the left mouse button down and swiping across the Track Numbers), then hold Ctrl when you click on the icon. For a specific example, let's say I have Tracks 1-16. Tracks 1-12 and 14-16 have Input Echo on, 13 does not, and I want to invert that. In Console View, I'd swipe select all 16 tracks, then Ctrl-click on any Input Echo button. Done. This takes about a second with 16 tracks. In Track View, maybe a touch longer, depending on if I have lanes open and have to scroll. Also, if you're a big Input Echo toggler, you can assign a keystroke to it, but it only works on a per-track basis.

Yes, I was reading the thread while enjoying the jazz and thinking "Uhh, on Bandcamp I can usually buy the album for $10 and have it in FLAC form, so if I wanted to buy one or all of Hidden's songs, how would I do it here...." So it's more like Soundcloud, I guess? I see Bandcamp as a listening/sales/promotion platform that does pretty well at all 3. You can follow artists and labels, they can send out messages to the people who follow them to let them know about releases and tour dates, etc. Tracks are usually available in FLAC and WAV, and when listening to my music collection through their app, their CODEC sounds really good. The purchasing process gives the buyer warm fuzzies, with encouragement to leave a note to the artist (which I have done and gotten at least one very nice reply). It looks like BandLab are so far going for only the promotion and listening (haven't given their CODEC any critical listening), which matches their usual M.O. of doing their best to confound anyone trying to figure out how they'll make money from a given part of their operations. ? I'll be up on it as soon as I have enough finished songs....yeah.

Considering all the hassle I had getting my serial for Elements (so totally worth it, BTW), I sort of stumbled into this one. I went to serialcenter.de and just put in my username and password and they sent me a valid coupon. Not sure that it's supposed to work that way but I will not complain. I didn't have to buy the issue or answer any questions or anything. And good heavens is that Sigmund a monster of an effect. I think I'd need to take a few days to study the manual to get an idea of what it's capable of. When I downloaded it, all I had to go by was Eusebio's description of "nice delay for pads," so I was startled to see the UI with so many different sections, like a synthesizer.

I have my ex' K1 in front of me, also main MIDI controller. It's compact, has a great feel. The only drawback is that I have to put the TenCrazy plug-in on every MIDI track to filter out the "nervous nellie" All Notes Off that it sends when I lift off the last key. I used to audition all these great ambient VSTi's and wonder why they didn't sound quite right, got glitches and pops in very non-CPU-hungry synths. Then I noticed that they only happened when I would pick up all my fingers.... Then I got busy with MIDI-Ox and saw that some silly bugger had programmed the thing to basically panic button every time the player lifts. Probably the same dork responsible for the joystick not being able to transmit MIDI (oh the sadness). Seems like you could get at your internal sound engine with sysex messages even with broken bank buttons? Why risk forming some weird event horizon paradox and having an army of Daleks come flying through? "I heard you liked your K1, so I installed a K1 that you could play using your K1."

Quick Grouping, indeed, one of my favorite and most often used features. It's especially useful when a mix has gotten too "hot" and I need to pull all the faders back except one.

I found your rantings literally incomprehensible. Some problem with feeling cheated buying Asian food? I've never heard of Pinao Rolls before, although they sound delicious. I don't know why you would post about your restaurant troubles here, but if you felt like this new place clipped you on your pinao rolls or any other dish, take it up with the manager if you can, and if you don't find satisfaction through that channel, hit them on Yelp. This forum is for Cakewalk by BandLab.

My usual practice is these days to load single-hits into software samplers to make kits out of them, assuming I'm going to use them multiple times per song (usually the case with drums/percussion). This would be triggered by MIDI. So to answer your question, I sometimes use samples loaded into a VSTi, a software sampler. As for which way I do it, it kind of depends on how many times I'm going to use the sound in a song, and how. I've downloaded sample libraries that contained individual drum hits and turned them into drum kits by loading them into VSTi's, following the Standard GM mapping. I sometimes like to trigger clips of spoken dialog, and I will sometimes also load those clips into a software sampler instrument to be triggered by MIDI. I took an online course in EDM production, and for the initial instruction in "beatmaking" the instructor had us use the sample content the other way, though, by dropping the individual hits in as audio clips on tracks in our DAW's, using the copy and paste features to repeat the measures. This allows for greater flexibility as you may then use whatever clip editing features are available in your DAW to work on the clips before you start copying them. Fades, gain automation, envelope automation, filter automation, etc. Of course, some software samplers have those features, too. It can also matter how well-edited the hits are to begin with, if you need to work on them at all before using them in your beats, adjusting gain, envelopes, or whatever. If you find yourself with samples you regularly need to do work on, then get good at using them as clips. If it's faster and easier for you to think in terms of MIDI notes and drum machines, load 'em into a sampler.

Yeah, so far I wouldn't put predictability of results high on their list of strengths. ? They're the sort of processor that one fiddles about with, comes up with something really interesting-sounding, then quickly saves a preset, because there ain't NO way of retracing those steps. Not like "I hear some slapback on this, let's see, about 75mS, 20% feedback...." More like, "I'd like to blow the mind of someone listening to this on a good sound system in the dark. Let's see what happens if I put Fracture on it and start twiddling knobs."

I think for this project I'm just going to go with TAL Vocoder II and use its internal oscillator. If you do that, it becomes dead simple, you just insert the TAL Vocoder as an effect on the track you want to use as the modulator (traditionally the voice) and route a MIDI track to the TAL Vocoder. Whatever you play or program on the MIDI track is whatever MIDI note the Vocoder's oscillator will play. I had been trying to feed it both the carrier and the modulator as external signals, and I would still like to get that to work fully at some point, but the internal VCO is versatile enough and also allows me to feed it a stereo input as a carrier. It gets a much better "vocoder" sound than any of the presets in the AIR Vocalizer Pro.

Eventide Anthology XI for$1799!

Thing is, Chuck, they're actually giving you money. ? With me, it's more mostly just me volunteering to be the one who mixes the project or whatever. It's more of an investment of curiosity than money. iZotope notwithstanding, the beauty of the algorithms is not always proportional to the beauty of the UI's. If it were, SoundSpot's processors would mostly sound amazing and Exponential Audio's would mostly sound unexciting. Unfortunately not the case with SoundSpot, fortunately not the case with Exponential Audio. The planet-killer reverb in my collection is Exponential Phoenix Stereo, which also has the dowdiest beige-on-greyscale UI. I think even Sonitus fx Reverb, a 22-year-old design, has a slicker look. The shecksiest throbbing neon-on-black UI is on Oracle by SoundSpot, which is known for having the nastiest algorithm in all of Reverbdom, the redeeming thing about it is that it's really an "effect" reverb, if you try to use it to get a natural sound, abandon all hope. On the other hand, SoundSpot make my favorite bus compressor, Cyclone, which sounds/works better than it looks (and it looks really good). A few of my go-to (also cutting-edge tech) plug-ins are Meldaproduction, who are known for their....utilitarian UI's. They probably wouldn't win any beauty contests. I happen to love Meldaproduction UI's myself, mostly. Then there's Voxengo's plug-ins, great-sounding, so useful, I've been trying for years to come up with a custom color scheme that doesn't make my eyes want to shut tightly at the sight of them. I think they picked Meldaproduction's ugly stick out of the dumpster after it broke.

My fallback for whenever anyone questions anything I use is raising one eyebrow and flashing a mad scientist smile and saying "ah, that's my secret ingredient!" My hope is that they'll think that they're getting something that other mix engineers don't know about or whatever. ? Or that they'll at least just relax and let me handle it.

Bump time, 'cause I discovered a couple of sweeet FX for free. Glitchmachines, makers of fine tools for sound design and EDM production, have a free bundle that includes a couple of plug-ins that do very strange things to audio. Fracture (buffer effect) and Hysteresis (delay effect). I am assuming regarding Hysteresis, because I have only tried Fracture, and there was basically no way I could get it to sound anything less than extreme. I was trying it on some vocal phrases, just for fun seeing if I could maintain intelligibility while still having Fracture process them, and....not quite. A word here and there perhaps.

Funny, isn't it? The same clients would probably think it's totally awesome if you had a 50-year-old hardware compressor racked up, or a similar vintage guitar or drum kit in the studio. But software processors with a 20-year-old UI are yucky. The Sonitus fx suite code is part of the IP that BandLab purchased, and as you noted, it's still signal processing powerhouse, so there's no reason other than time and resources that these FX wouldn't get the facelift you (and I) would like. I would use them more if I didn't have to squint to see them. Also, if there were some way that they could be made into PC modules, hey, why not? And thanks, personally, for reminding me that they are there. I frankly haven't explored them much because of their tiny UI's. But when I tried the dbx compressor preset I was pretty pleased with it.

Did you watch past the first 5 minutes of the video? The first part of the video was solely a comparison of Leslie spin-up and slowdown. The drawbar settings were all different on the various instruments. I found the video in general to play pretty loose in regard to settings, which are so critical with Hammond emulations. As much as I like AIR's DB-33, their distortion modeling is pretty poor, and is what likely accounts for your perception of "static" in the sound. When I want a distortion sound with it I just use an external effect, problem solved. Tonewheel organs seem to be a tough thing to model, and IMO, AIR do a decent job. Just be careful with the distortion. The ability to use the Leslie as a separate FX module is a nice bonus. After that, I like the CollaB3, although it's not as fancy as some of the others. You can compensate by using external FX.

Oh, forgot to mention, in my list o'cheap and cheerfuls, Initial Audio Reverse is a nice does-what-it-says-on-the-tin plug-in. Yes, we all know how to do what it does without the help of a plug-in, and yes, I rebelled against dropping a dime for it because of that, but in the end, it's a great timesaver and encourages me to use a cool effect that I might otherwise blow off as being too much hassle. You tell it how often you want it to reverse, from 1/8 measure up to 4 measures and it does it. $10 They also make another plug-in, SolwMo, that half-speeds your audio, also $10.

My personal suggestions from the current crop of deals, for anyone who doesn't already have them: Hybrid 3 for five bucks is obviously the standout deal. Vacuum Pro turned out to be a sleeper, I think I got it in order to also get a license for Ozone Elements or something, but I use it second only to my AAS packs. The vacuum tube oscillator thing might seem gimmicky, but it just sounds really phat, good basses and synthwavey things. When I get stuck for a synth bass, it's there. $10 Xpand!2 for $15 is all you need for working out arrangements before loading up your "real" sounds, and I've used its sounds in final mixes. When I hear the sound in my head and need to get it down fast without getting distracted looking for the perfect patch, this is it. W.A. Productions' Sphere Series Bundle Crossgrade is a heckuva deal at $9.90 for 3 plug-ins. The Sphere Compressor was a PB freebie a while back. An adequate compressor, IMO, versatile. Achilles heel is non-scalable UI. However, if you snagged it when it was a freebie, you qualify for the upgrade to the bundle, and the Sphere Delay and Sphere Quad are off the dang hook if you're into EDM production or psychedelic sound warping. I'm not sure how much verification goes into whether you already own one of the plug-ins. I did, but at no time did they check for verification of that. Might have been in my PB account. They do suffer from the same squinty unscalable UI syndrome, though. I've been thinking about Glitchmachines' Convex, which is on sale for a tenner until tomorrow. How many glitchy plug-ins can I acquire before I figure out how to use Break Tweaker? It's $9.

I have been chinscratching the past few days about Sonivox Vocalizer Pro for $10 and this seems like a good excuse to just get it. The thing is I want an actual real vocoder, and I have read at least one review that said that it wasn't one, that it was a really cool vocal processor that could get vocoder-ish sounds. Also, Sonivox are kind of....ugh. I've downloaded the trial for it, and for this hugely complex processor, what's missing? A manual. So far I can't find any documentation for it. It looks pretty powerful but what good is it if it just sits there like an alien artifact? The point in paying for a commercial vocoder is to get something I don't have to be a wizard to figure out. So far I put it on a vocal track and it sat there killing all output until I clicked on some piano keys on the UI. Can't figure out how to route MIDI to it. Not inclined to. Too bad I already own every Soundspot plug-in I want. BTW, for anyone looking for an under 10 euros/dollars plug-in in order to side load the Reason freebie, Soundspot Cyclone is a certified monster for bus use, especially when I put it in Mid-Side mode and start processing them a bit differently to mess with the stereo image. Try that and stand the fsck back, jack, 'cause it sounds huge and ear-tickly. Quite sexy UI, too. It has that Bioshock look like their Overtone EQ.

It is commonly counseled that for best DAW performance, we should go into our computers' BIOS settings and enable Intel Turbo Boost and disable Intel SpeedStep. This is because while the stated purpose of TurboBoost is to increase the clock speed of the CPU cores under load in the name of performance, the more vague purpose of SpeedStep is to adjust clock speeds for the sake of performance and power saving. Since power saving schemes are usually the bane of DAW performance, it would follow that disabling this SpeedStep is the way to go. Well, short form, not on my Dells, not at ALL. If you have a Dell, at least try enabling SpeedStep (making sure your Power Plan calls for minimum processor state of 100%). My main system is an Optiplex with an i7 3770, base clock of 3.4 G that Task Manager always reported as running at 3.39 with my power scheme that nailed the clock to 100%. It's a retired business desktop that was probably designed to sit next to a project manager's desk and be really fast at doing PowerPoint presentations in 2013. Dell is notorious for locking their motherboards down so that there is no possibility of overclocking. They sell business machines. Lots and lots of them, and they work. They have a reputation for working and lasting forever, they don't want to blow that. They're sort of the Volvos of the PC industry. But I read that even in Dell's original sales literature, they said that my Optiplex could go up to 3.6 GHz in Turbo, so I wondered how. Turns out the magic button is enabling SpeedStep, along with having a Power Plan that nails your maximum and minimum processor states to 100%. My processor now cruises along at a steady 3.67 GHz, and I noticed the difference immediately on first reboot, before I even checked to see if it changed the clock. Maybe it affects other things, since I use the onboard HD4000 graphics. 280Hz doesn't seem like it should be a big difference, but maybe when it's spread across 8 virtual cores? Whatever, I figure why not get every bit of performance I can? I've been monitoring the clock speeds, and SpeedStep has not caused it to drop at any point, it just sits there idling at 3.7(ish). My other Dell is a Latitude 6410 (the LatitudeWithAttitude), the model with the i5 and separate nVidia Quadro chip. It also never got up past its rated clock speed, but I enabled SpeedStep and the results were even more dramatic, probably since the system is even more challenged running DAW software. There is little you can do to stop a Latitude from throttling its CPU anyway, even if you set your Power Plan to nail the CPU to 100% it will override that. I had been planning on dropping an i7 in the Latitude, but now that the i5 is clocking higher, I'm going to wait a bit. As for how this applies to other proprietary or generic motherboards, I don't know. I'm just here to say that reflexively turning off SpeedStep may be robbing your system of performance.

Hey, let's not go crazy, next somebody will be asking for double-clicking on the image of the EQ on a regular Console strip to expand the full-size EQ without having to open the ProChannel.