Starship Krupa

I found a 723 page PDF listing all of the content that comes with ST4 MAX v2.

Yeah, it can be confusing with all of the downloadable soundware. In typical Melda fashion they kinda just toss you in the deep end. The installer does let you choose whether you want to install the really humongous MDrummer/MSoundFactory add-on libraries. The only ones you must install to get most of the functionality of them are the "Essentials" libraries, which are 3.1GB for MSoundFactory and 1.1GB for MDrummer. Not so bad for virtual instruments of this type. Huge ones like MonasteryGrand, MeldwayGrand, AnalogEmpirePadsStrings, MDrummer Studio and DrumEmpire can be left out, which is a good thing, because they total about 130GB. I have the MeldwayGrand installed because it's the best sampled grand I've heard, and the other MSF libraries because I have room for them, but I don't bother with the MDrummer ones. The new Pads & Strings Analog Empire is really nice if you like huge pads. MDrummer is an unwieldy beast, so much so that I haven't used it on anything. Someone on their forum characterized it as a DAW in and of itself, and y'know, I don't want or need to learn another DAW just to do fake drums. Vojtech has teased a simplified look for it similar to a traditional drum machine, so you never know. If you ever get the urge to mess with it, click on QUICK SETUP, then Drum pad mode, which is a button labeled in small print just below the RHYTHM GENERATOR button in the upper right. That will bring up a kit selector and a set of drum pads, it will start to look like a normal drum machine, and you can play the parts of the kit with the usual MIDI controller keys rather than triggering one of the built in loops. With MSoundFactory, I find the instrument browser to be needlessly obtuse, so I collapse the useless "Categories" pane and click on All and choose from the thumbnail browser. Another tip for MSoundFactory: don't neglect the global presets up at the top. Download the user-created ones, there are hundreds of them and many gems in there. Also, each instrument has its own presets, make sure to check those out. As for the extra cruft installed with the FX plug-ins, a big part of the way MeldaProduction plug-ins work is shared code. So the installer puts a bunch of libraries in ProgramData and AppData to support that. Not my favorite thing about their products, but it does seem to result in very low resource usage when they're in operation. Whatever. Some people say they avoid the company's products entirely for that reason. Since I, too, have MComplete and have all but a few installed, none of it's redundant.

I'm not worthy!!.😄 What intrigued me the most to start off with was the headphone correction models included. Really? Don't see anything in that huge collection of processors and instruments that interests you enough to install it? Well, like Brian said, MTurboReverb is a top-of-the-heap plug-in, the equal of anything I've heard, the only one that can touch the Exponential Phoenix/Nimbus/Stratus algo. The Brichamber model is my favorite. The Meldway Grand sampled piano (for MSoundFactory) is the best of its type I've heard.

Agreed, although hit your Kontakt libraries folder with a duplicate file finder and you might, um, free up some disk space. Sample Tank/IK Multimedia libraries can be moved around, but pretty much only for individual instruments. You can move your Syntronik 2 library, your SampleTron library, your Miroslav Philharmonik and your Sample Tank library fairly easily. During installation go into Product Manager's settings page and check the box that tells it to allow installation to different folders. That makes it so that whenever you install something, it will ask you what folder you wish to install it to. If you set it up during installation, it makes it easier later. Each of the sections you see on your Sounds page launches an installer for that package. Some of the sections will also install content that's in other sections. You only get to select an installation folder for the section, so choose wisely, because if the product you're installing also includes products in other sections, they'll all wind up under the same folder structure as the main package. This goes for everything, including Sample Tank 4 MAX. When you launch it and it asks you where to install it, create a folder with the name of the product you're installing and then choose that folder. If you do this, you'll be able to drag and drop individual components later. But with the ST 4 MAX sounds installation, the bulk of it's going to install under one folder. That's because Sample Tank 4 MAX and most of its extra content (but not all, as I learned) is considered a single instrument, along with Syntronik, SampleTron, and Miroslav. You can install the leftover add-ons that don't install with the ST 4 MAX installer to their own folders as well if you want to manage their locations. Where it becomes more difficult is when you've used the MAX installer option, complete with the multiple celebrity pianos and drum kits, and decide that you don't want to clutter your system with certain individual add-on packages. The MAX installer puts them in the Sample Tank 4 folder structure. This means that there are folders for each one in the Instruments, Library Info, Library Resources, and Samples folders. This is true for all packages. Some of them also put stuff in Multis, Patterns, and/or Sets. Removing or moving a component requires opening those folders and then either deleting or moving the components to a similar folder structure elsewhere. It's not impossible, but it is a chore. So if you're auditioning something and not sure you will keep it, it's best to install it to its own subfolder rather than just the top level IK Multimedia folder. Then of course you'll want to go into Sample Tank's settings and tell it where the content is. It might sound scary, but it does work.

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.