Starship Krupa

One thing about the Sample Tank installation process that has always been iffy is whether the downloaded install packages (in .zip format) are going to install okay. They seem to have gone through the library and cleaned up many of the corrupted archives, but I just finally got Miroslav Philharmonik 2 installed via a combination of letting Product Mangler do its thing and then downloading some of them manually from the My Products page on their site. As I said before earlier, due to confusion on my part, in the year I've been using this product, I had only installed the Miroslav Philharmonik CE version that they started giving away a while back. There's just so much content that comes in this package, including plenty of orchestral sounds that come with Sample Tank itself independent of Miroslav Philharmonik, that it was easy to miss the fact that the full package was missing. It pays to double check all of this. If you really want to make sure that you're able to use all of the vast sea of content that you paid for, open the ST 4 UI and IK Product Manager side by side. Click on the Sounds page to show what all packages you are licensed for. Some of them install when you run the full ST 4 MAX installer, some don't. For instance, the ST4 MAX install includes the Billy Cobham and Terry Bozzio Drums packages, but not the Neal Peart and Hugh Padgham ones. Who knows why. Fun, though, to finally get it all installed. I hadn't even worked my way through auditioning the content that I had installed, and now I feel like I've doubled it. The Mojo Synthesis series is particularly interesting. I do know that some work with a duplicate file finder is going to be worthwhile. Most of Sample Tank 4 MAX' own orchestral sounds (and there are plenty) are lifted directly from the Miroslav package, so there ends up being a certain amount of overlap, if disk space is a concern. There are also some packages that I didn't want to install, but the MAX installer did it anyway, like the various grand pianos that take up a bunch of space on the drive. I already have a superb sounding sampled grand.

What choice would that be? Looking at IK Product Manager, I have fewer choices than most installers of this type. I get to select what I wish to install and where I want them to store the installation files, and whether I wish to authorize the software after installation. I guess that last option is for when you want to install hundreds of gigabytes of samples and patches on your computer but not actually use them for anything. This is not something I believe I'd ever do, but I guess it's nice to know it's there in case I change my mind. There's a checkbox for "allow selection of custom path for sounds installations (sic)," which allows me to choose an installation directory, and that's nice. If, I ever wish to move them, however, the only option IK PM offers is a reinstall. Since I've no wish to go through that process with so many large libraries when I want to move something, I've had to get good at the process of figuring out where the sounds were installed, which files need to be moved, then telling Sample Tank, Syntronik, SampleTron, and Miroslav Philharmonik where I moved them. For existing installed products, it allows me to de-authorize or reinstall. No uninstall. I guess they believe that it happens more often that people break their installations than it does that they try out a particular bit of soundware and decide they would rather have the disk space than the sounds. What's missing is the option to select which parts of Sample Tank 4's vast collection of soundware to install or omit. By this I don't mean the add-ons, but rather which of the categories of sounds from the core program I'd like to omit. For instance, let's say that I've got my acoustic piano sounds covered by another product (in my case, Meldway Grand). It would be great to be able to leave that category of sounds out of my Sample Tank 4 installation. It would save a LOT of disk space and unnecessary browsing with their notoriously obtuse patch browser.

That's because most Pro Tools users, if you gave them the choice of what formats to install would probably be baffled.

I feel like a dunderhead, admitting this, but IK Product Manager can be a confusing beast, and yes, it's not 100% clear exactly what content comes with ST4MAX2. Today I was browsing through IK Product Manager and noticed something: Somehow I hadn't installed all of the extra Syntronik 2 instrument libraries and Sample Tank construction kits that the MAX license entitled me to. Somehow I thought it had, both Syntronik 2 and Sample Tank 4 have tons of Syntronik instruments and construction kits, enough so that I didn't even notice that there was about 50G of content left to install. 5 Syntronik instruments, Electric Piano Bass, Clavitube, Bionic Drums and half a dozen of the EDM construction kit add-ons. I discovered this by clicking on the "Sounds" tab and scrolling down. I guess clicking on the button to install Syntronik 2 on the "Software" page omits a lot of the stuff that is available individually as soundware. Makes sense now, but I guess it got past me the first time around. Maybe you're not as clue-challenged as I and you've had all of your Syntronik and Sample Tank libraries installed from day one, but if you're not 100% sure, click on that "Sounds" tab and scroll slowly all the way down and make sure. There's a LOT of scrolling to do to get to the bottom. It's a good thing that IK eliminated the download timeout penalty....

Yeah, remember the iZotope Music Production Suite 5.5 glitch a couple of years ago where there was a "secret" url for what was supposed to be a crossgrade/upgrade? If you went to their site via the url and paid your money and checked out, you could get it for something like $125. At first I thought "glitch," and that it would be found and corrected within a day or two, but then it went on for what, 2 or 3 weeks? And we were posting about it here, and I took it over to VI-Control and people over there hit it hard, and iZotope never made a peep. You'd think that at some point someone would notice that a LOT of people were getting a product upgrade that they shouldn't have qualified for. The "glitch" was quietly removed and then a few weeks later another one popped up. Yeah, right. I think that fake glitches can squeeze a little money out of cheapskates like me who wouldn't buy the thing at its usual price anyway. And since they're glitches, they don't pi55 off the high rollers who paid the regular price (because they don't haunt deals forums) and they don't devalue the software. Also, when a "real" upgrade rolled around and was quite fairly priced, I snagged it just to get a couple of extra licenses for Stratus and Symphony. So now I'm part of the gravy train. Why shouldn't I upgrade, I only paid $125 in the first place....😏 The buzz is real. A certain number of people who missed the sale will read all of the psyched comments by the people who did get it and think "I GOTTA have that." After all, is someone who paid $125 for a $500 suite going to say anything except "holy carp, I never thought I would own MPS 5.5?" It's kinda like giving free licenses to YouTubers but we're the influencers. We get it cheap and rave about it just like they do. A glitch price turns off any thoughts about "is this really worth it?" It's kind of ironic, because at least in my case, the product was something I'd never cough up for if it hadn't come cheap. So glowing reviews by someone who doesn't think the product is worth what they usually ask for it.😄

Okay, I checked and it does indeed unlock both TR5 and TR6 versions. I probably missed it because of my practice of keeping all of my unused T RackS plug-ins in a folder outside of my VST3 folder. When I get a new license, I move them over to VST3, and I must have moved the TR5 versions over rather than the So, heads-up for all you other T RackS freebie grabbers: I went through and tried all of the recent ones I thought might also have TR6 licenses and found some surprises. Apparently if you acquired your TR5 license within a certain time frame, it will also work for TR6, so here are the recent freebies that I found to have TR6 licenses. Classic Comp Dyna-Mu Quad Compressor Space Delay Tape Machine 440 White Channel The last 4 were the ones that surprised me. I don't remember having heard about TR6 when those licenses were being given away.

Hmmm. I shall investigate further. The recent White Channel giveaway unlocked both of them.

Redeemed serial number, it is of the expected quality. Curiously, it's the T RackS 5 version. Not that that makes any difference to me, although I am curious to hear from the glitchers who snagged 6 MAX whether there's any noticeable difference between them when using the processors as individual plug-ins rather than in the T RackS rack.

Is that the belief that a certain piece of gear or software will bestow magic upon the user, allowing them to produce work of the same quality as their heroes? For me, if I'm striving to get a "sound," I find comfort in knowing that any limitations I have are my own and not in the tools I'm using. Like when I first got serious about playing drums a dozen years ago, I went on Craig's List and bought a vintage Slingerland kit (see "Krupa") and restored it. Once I had that kit, I could relax and not be concerned that my "Asian firewood" CB700 kit was holding me back, that all I had to work on at that point was 100% my playing and with a drum kit, tuning). I knew intellectually that I had gotten my dumpster rescue kit sounding pretty damn good, but getting a 1970 Slingerland kit removed all doubt that there was nothing except practice between me and sounding good on the drums. Same with my audio software: if my output doesn't sound as good as the music I like to listen to, well, I need to hone my skills, because I have top tier software, same stuff the pros use. Got a nice Focusrite interface, too.

I would imagine (because I haven't hung with younger music producers lately) that there's still an old gear mystique. There's a strong impulse in musicians to want to use similar gear to what our musical heroes used. The suspicion that it shortens the path to sounding like them.

I guess I read the bit about "the end of a fade out" and it threw me off. As I said, I had trouble parsing it. Nice that your suggestion helped.

This is an 1176 clone. Honestly, how many compressor plug-ins do I already have? On my system I count 30 of the damn things, and that's leaving some out that call themselves "dynamics," plus I have at least a dozen high-quality channel strips and multi-fx that include compressors. Oh, and in Sonar, you get four ProChannel compressors. Then half a dozen more MB compressors. I have ones that work like optical, VCA, FET, pure digital ones that don't emulate anything, compressors up the kazoo. Half a dozen brainworx and brainworx OEM's. Four each from IK and Melda. About 25% of my collection of compressors I don't know if I've ever even opened their UI, they're part of suites like Ozone and Neutron. I don't know how many more I have licenses for but haven't bothered to install, like the Native Instruments ones I got with the Music Production Suite and Komplete Start. Multiple of my compressor plug-ins I'm convinced are versatile enough to emulate any piece of vintage hardware and most software compressors. The compressor I actually reach for most often? MCompressor, which is from a free bundle. At the next sign of misbehavior, I'm ready to bin this thing. It already needs to have the PACE service running, I don't need UAD's own gimmick eating up cycles.

I'm having a hard time parsing this. From reading it, I can't make out what the issue is nor what the proposed solution is. You get a "pop" sound at the end of exported tracks when you use effects, and you don't hear it when you don't use effects? Can you post a small section of audio that demonstrates the issue? None of the songs I've ever exported contained a pop sound at the end. And I use multiple effects, both on individual tracks and on the master bus.

Yeah, a plug-in rescan triggered it to download and reinstall UAD Connect after I had uninstalled it. And it proceeded without asking or waiting for my approval. So, let's see....this plug-in makes it possible for them to install unwanted software, software that has the purpose of monitoring the user's system. How is that not malware? It's a good plug-in, but just how much crap is someone willing to put up with in order to use an 1176 clone?

I got a set of MDR-7506's (I believe that's the model you meant?) from a free box at a yard sale a year and change ago. The earpads were pretty much shot, which is probably why they were in the free box. Upon first listen, I was very disappointed in these "legendary" cans. Shrill and no bass. But I went ahead and ordered replacement pads, and whoa, I understood what the fuss was about. These are the pads I bought: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07N6GL2PG The gel feels great and the fabric has shown no signs of deterioration, which is the weak point of Sony headphones. So I'd suggest trying a pair of these pads rather than buying a new set of cans. I think my pads just weren't sealing well enough.

Unfortunately there is no way to change those colors at present. I suggest that you make a feature request in the Feedback forum. That way, I and others who would like to either be able to change the colors, or at least have fixed colors that are more legible can comment and let the developers know that this feature is important to us. BTW, congratulations on getting a drum map and drum grid working. I know that it's not an easy thing to do the first time. I find it worth it, as I like programming beats on the drum grid, with the kit piece names and M/S buttons. There are also some cool tricks you can do with the "mapping" part of a drum map. I have a map that lets me program beats using a single map that can drive a dozen different synth instances. I did this in order to be able to use single hits from synths that don't have full kits. If I didn't use a drum map, I'd have to program each synth on a separate MIDI track, which would be a clumsy process. Also, if I decide that I want to switch to a synth that does have a full kit, all I have to do is change maps rather than having to merge data from multiple tracks into a single track. I'm a fan of programming using the drum grid and the mapping feature, but I think that the process of setting it all up, especially until the user is familiar with it, is needlessly obscure, to the point where few users bother with it.

Ahh, by clicking in the Ruler. I didn't know that.

I can't seem to find them in the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog. Exactly what names do these go by?

So "set Now=From" moves the Now Time to the beginning of the selection. I guess the use for this is that you can move the Now Time without clicking in the timeline and losing your selection.

I don't understand this. What is "set Now=From?" I'm always up for a useful key bind, and I'm curious as to what this indispensable function or command is. I seem to have dispensed with it all of these years, so much so that I can't even figure out what it is from context.

Hmm. My guess is that the "core isolation" driver may have some fixes applied to it that have nothing to do with core isolation. Really strange that Cantabile could use the other one and Sonar could not. Thanks for posting the solution.

Certainly, but they will also be for Sonar users who didn't buy anything from the old Cakewalk company.

Are you referring to the Snap To Scale feature? It's not in the most obvious place, but it does make it so that all notes you enter will be within the scale you set:

Your "idea" is that there are people who want to use Sonar but they don't because in order to use it they would have to pay for a BandLab membership? Did you just now figure this out? If so, congratulations, it will help you to understand a lot of things, because it applies to most other commercial products and services. You will find it to be true about anything that costs money to use. Many people will elect not to use it because they don't want to spend the money. They may not earn enough money themselves or there are other things they would prefer to spend their money on. For instance, I would like to take an airline flight to France and stay for a month at a nice hotel, but I don't because it costs money, more than I wish to spend. I would like to have a brand new automobile but automobiles cost money and I already own one. I would like to eat in a nice restaurant every night, but instead I choose to prepare my own food and eat at home because meals cost much more at nice restaurants. You probably have some things that you refrain from doing or owning because they cost money and you don't wish to spend money on them. The people who make Sonar are in business to make money. They're not in a contest to see how many people they can get to use their DAW. They make money by selling memberships to BandLab, which include the right to use Sonar. BandLab memberships are more attractive to some people because they include the use of Sonar. There are even people who pay for a BandLab membership who use only Sonar and nothing else included with the membership. If Sonar didn't cost money to use, certainly, more people would use it, but BandLab wouldn't make money from it. They would lose money, because they would still have to pay the people who develop and test Sonar and for the servers and bandwidth to host downloads.☹ The companies who make Waveform, Pro Tools First and Luna let people use them for free because they act as advertising and encouragement for people to buy other products that the companies sell. In this way, they make money indirectly. Cakewalk by BandLab provides name brand recognition for BandLab, but BandLab have decided that it doesn't provide enough to justify continuing to develop it as a free product. It now has a similar role to Waveform Free and Pro Tools First; it is a good demo for the features of Sonar (it got you interested in it🙂). Hope this helps....

I don't see this "often," and who knows, it may just be that the OP's do read the replies, and then failed to acknowledge that they did. While we're on the subject of forum behaviors, one of my least favorite is the one where a question is asked, then an answer is posted by someone who is not an "established" forum participant, then the exact same answer is posted by an "established" user, after which any ensuing discussion completely ignores the post by the non-established user. I call it New User Invisibility Syndrome. BTW, since there was a recent poster bemoaning the fact that he couldn't find a way to legally obtain Z3tA, and I mean this guy was distraught that he couldn't get hold of his hero's favorite soft synth, I decided to give it another try to see if I could see what all the fuss was about. I didn't quite catch why it's so revered. It does those 2000-2010 club anthem sounds really well, but that's about all I could get out of it. If I want that sort of thing, MASSIVE has it covered. Matters of taste and all. Maybe I'm just not as passionate about specific virtual instruments. Not that I don't have my favorites (Hybrid, Chromaphone, Ultra Analog VA, XPand!, Syntronik, Soundpaint), but if I suddenly couldn't use one of them for whatever reason, I wouldn't see it as something that would prevent me from getting my ideas out. Is there a synth, or synths, with such a unique sound that no other synth can approximate it?