Starship Krupa

ASIO4ALL is for people who don't know about ASIO2WASAPI.?

I consider them to be an elite company. Chromaphone is a poll-topping synth. Thanks for the Humble Bundle link. Gonna haveta see if there are enough soundpacks I don't already have to justify the $20. I know I don't have Caffeine, Urban Trip, and Hop Riffs.

Cakewalk comes with a pretty decent sounding amp sim, and there are tons of freebies out there, including free versions from IK Multimedia and Native Instruments. Plugin Alliance has a free version of its bx_rockrack. So try out as many different amp sims as you wish, get a feel for whether you like them or not. As far as soft synths, there are multiple free ones out there, and I heartily second the suggestion to try Cherry Audio's Voltage Modular. A|A|S' Swatches will give you a good idea of whether you like their thing (I do), and in and of itself has 700 fully-usable synth patches. Oddly, considering that I have licenses for multiple top quality amp sims, Voxengo's free Boogex is the first one I reach for when I want one (although it's not always the one I end up using). There are a couple of topics on free fx and instruments:

Cakewalk Inc. ceased to exist almost 7 years ago. None of its products is supported any more. BandLab now uses the old company name to market some current products, Cakewalk, Cakewalk Next, and Cakewalk Sonar, but they are BandLab products, supported by BandLab. However, there may be other users of Dimension Pro and Rapture on this forum who can try to help. Good luck.

I've not had the Realtek ASIO driver cause trouble just by being installed, as long as I don't try to use it in Cakewalk. Unfortunately I can't read the story that Latency Monitor is telling because I can't see the screen clip Cobus posted. They've got plenty to chew on with all the info I posted anyway. Those Dells are battlecruisers compared to any computer I've ever owned. On my i7-6950X system, Sonar's Performance Monitor shows one tiny blip every now and then.

IMO, the best reference tracks are the ones that I think sound the best. Unless you're doing the near-impossible these days, which is inventing a whole new genre, there must be commercial tracks out there that sound good to you. My favorite ways to acquire music these days are Bandcamp and CD. This is because I can rip CD's to FLAC, and Bandcamp allows download in FLAC format. Gotta have my lossless. Personal product recommendations: I use MCompare to referencing, which you can get right now for about $13 if you sign up for MeldaProduction's newsletter and use a referral code (PM me if you want one, we're not allowed to post them publicly). If you go this route, for an extra $5 or you can also buy the "pro" upgrade for the MFreeFX bundle in the same purchase. 37 very useful plug-ins, not only FX but analysis and other utilities. You can use MAnalyzer to compare your overall tonal balance with commercial releases. Also fully-functional in the free versions, but the upgrade unlocks some nice (but not essential) features. The sale is only on for another 5 days, but you can download and try MCompare for free if you want to see if it's worth the $13. Just do it quickly if you're interested.

The thing to do is try it and see. I'm not into "theoretical" performance tuning. IME, leaving hyperthreading on is the way to go. On my lower-end systems, I've had projects that wouldn't even play back once I disabled hyperthreading. We all have different ways to challenge CPU's. For some it's multiple soft synths, for others, a multitude of mixing FX, and for plenty more, both. Try it on your most complex projects and observe the difference.

Your new system is indeed a war machine, but your original system has high enough specs to run audio at low latency and no dropouts. Even using the term "enough" in this context feels odd. These Dell Precisions are built to be workstations for scientists and the like. They are deliberately integrated to the highest level. I suggest running HWinfo64 to get a complete picture of what processor(s), video card, RAM, etc. it has installed. If it's all stock, then it will be an nVidia Quadro. I can't see your screenshots from LatencyMon, so I can't comment on that except to say that what you're looking for is the driver that's causing it to go into the red. Go into Device Manager and disable your onboard Realtek sound CODEC as well as the nVidia HDMI sound device if you're not using them. Pete Brown is a Microsoft engineer and Cakewalk user. He maintains a guide to tuning Windows systems for DAW use: https://aka.ms/Win10AudioTweakGuide In your Windows Defender settings, be sure to exclude from realtime scanning any folders having to do with Cakewalk, plug-ins, and sample libraries. That would be the Cakewalk program folder, projects folder, VST3 folder, and wherever you're storing your VST2's. One favorite of mine is using MSI Tool to set as many IRQ's as possible to use Message Signaled Interrupts. In the process of using it, also check to see if any of your PCIe devices are sharing an IRQ. I found out that my GPU and Firewire card were sharing one(!), and moving the FW card to the next slot down helped with glitches and pops at lower latency settings. Even though IRQ issues are supposed to be a thing of the past, it's still best they not be shared if possible. On most systems, you'll want to pay attention to the USB controller, but on mine, since I use Firewire, that's the most important. Another one of my favorites is using PowerSettingsExplorer to adjust Processor Performance Time Check Interval. I think I'm currently using 1500mS whereas the stock setting is 15mS. Many go as high as 5000mS, but I figure that cranking it up to 100X the stock interval is enough. The last time I tuned my systems I sorted out both of those things and saw a noticeable performance improvement in Cakewalk in regard to latency, etc. Where are you getting that information? I've owned multiple PreSonus interfaces and their driver installers have never installed anything other than their own ASIO and WASAPI drivers. As mentioned earlier, for some oddball reason they will allow you to install drivers for PreSonus interfaces you don't own, but that's never caused an issue that I'm aware of.

Hmm, duplicate post syndrome....

Wow, I thought these would never be sold new again after the announcement. Odd bundle, both R2 and R4 included even though R4 is fundamentally R2 2.0. The only thing the R2 license would be good for would be as another seat for the R algorithm. Warning to Mac users: do not get these if you're interested in having plug-ins that are Apple Silicon native. Instead, Stratus (and Symphony) is currently on sale for $19 from a variety of sources and is still in active development. Gotta say, although I have 2 licenses apiece for R2 and R4, the R2/R4/Symphony verbs have never made their way into my rotation. I thought I might be able to use them to get the famous Cocteau Twins wash, but I haven't been able to do it so far.

No snark intended, but Mac users are also more used to having to crack open their wallets regularly to pay for their tools. I'm sure they skew more affluent.

Nor design philosophies. Waves' stuff is mostly designed to be immediately useful, with all controls front-facing. Melda's stuff is mostly designed to reward deep dives. Generally speaking. They both have plug-ins that are the other way around. Waves have become more Melda as Melda have become more Waves. In the past several years, Waves have come out with things like H-Comp, the Meta series, etc. which are deeper than things like the Renaissance series, and Melda have come out with their "devices," which have more skeuomorphic UI's and front-facing controls.

I assume that this is a Juno 106-alike? Mixcraft Pro Studio 10 came with Cherry Audio's and that is one great-sounding soft synth. I see that it can be had for under $20 so I wonder how AIR's version compares. I tend to like their synths.

Yeah, gotta remember that pro studios don't geek out over plug-ins the way that we do here. Waves make solid products that are well-known, respected, and established. A studio has a Waves subscription, my imagination says they'll have a collection of plug-ins that the pro engineers who come in will find sufficient to their needs. If I were going to go into a pro studio to mix, I'd probably bring my iLok in case they didn't have Phoenix or Nimbus (unless I could find a reverb in the Waves catalog that I liked as much as Phoenix/Nimbus/Stratus or they had an actual Bricasti) and that would be it for mixing plug-ins. Could I assume that they'd have Trackspacer?

No, I wouldn't. In the 10+ years I've been using their stuff, I've never had a bug or a compatibility problem that wasn't taken care of within the first year of a plug-in's release. And, speaking theoretically, if I were to buy this bundle for $75 today, and then 5 or 6 years down the road ran into trouble that updating would solve, I'd wait for a deep sale and buy it again rather than spending $240 on WUP. You don't spend 3X the purchase price of a new car to have the old one fixed.

One caution, about XPand!, Cobus: it might disrupt this part of your workflow. I and others have found that sometimes, the XPand! sound winds up working better than something from one of our "fancy" synths. Y'know, I wanna use Chromaphone or Analog VA just because I paid more for them, but sometimes XPand! just has it in the context of the whole song.

Nah, it's only 4-track multitimbral. But it's pretty lightweight, multiple instances don't challenge the resources. It's a virtual ROMpler like TTS-1, so there's not much the plug-in needs to do in terms of number crunching, it just has to play back audio and throw some FX on if you want. It's pretty old these days, which helps it to be resource-sippy. It was believed that AIR would never do anything to update it, but a couple of months ago they announced a public beta of a VST3 and Apple Silicon compatible version. I've been testing the Windows VST3 and so far it runs solid. They screwed up the installers, they don't install the presets in the right location, but that was my first bug report, so it'll likely be okay by the time they go full release with the new revision.

I do like MeldaProduction, but I don't believe that every one of their plug-ins is the best at what it does. Past the FreeFX bundle and MEssentialsFX there are lots of gems (MDrumLeveler, MPowerSynth, MRhythmizer), but there are also plenty where I prefer other companies' products, plenty where I can't find any use for them at all, and plenty that I think are needlessly complex, to the point where I've given them many tries and given up trying to fit them into the rotation (MDrummer, I need a drum machine, not a drum DAW). They are not everyone's cup of tea. Sometimes not even my cup of tea.? Overall, what I dig about MeldaProduction's stuff is the amazing depth most of them have, the underlying tech, and most of the company's business practices. Documentation being a glaring exception. The ones I recommend are ones I think most people will find usable. For the most part, snag those two bundles I mentioned and you've got the best of what they have to offer. Past that, pick and choose, and if you want the inverse of a subscription, get MTotalFX, MSoundFactory, or MComplete. New goodies every year until the company or you passes from this mortal plane. As for collections of IR's, I thought that was the easy part with convolution reverbs. Aren't there extensive free collections of them kicking around the netz? Like I said, not much experience with convolution 'verbs.

Oh, absolutely. Apologies if I came across as too argumentative. That graphic is interesting and pertinent. Just tossing my .02 in there. If I were putting together a collection of plug-ins, Trackspacer might be my first purchase.

I'm looking at the IR browser on MConvolutionMB right now and it looks like the same list of files.

Maybe not the best ever, but if someone needs/wants what Trackspacer has to offer, it's a false economy to wait 4 months to see if it might drop $10. According to that graph, it went as long as 7 months between sales last year. Trackspacer does the task it's made for so well and so quickly that I consider it buyer's remorse-proof. I wouldn't want to be without it for a single project, even though I have a couple other plug-ins that mimic its functions.

As I said I'm fascinated by the doings of companies, especially music equipment ones. I have every book ever published about the history of Fender (which is actually quite a few) and have read plenty of others from the library. A misstep I see over and over again, when missteps are made, is when differently-clued management assume that what works in one business will work in another one, or all of them. It happens over and over. A company is bought or in some other way gets new management, and the new management doesn't understand the specific market, tries to apply general business school principles or things that worked great at the last company they managed. It even happens with different divisions in the same company. One of the brands that Gibson killed (or at least failed to resuscitate) in the Henry Juszkiewicz years was Slingerland. Some of it was done well, they were aiming for the high ticket American made segment (a la Gibson guitars), and they tooled up for accurate Slingerland hardware, good shells, by all accounts they were excellent drums. But then when it came time to get them in stores, the people at Gibson didn't understand how things work in the high end drum world. For those who don't know, high end drum sets have long been almost a custom product. Since the parts are interchangeable, and the finishes varied (and the stores more specialized), stores stock a few examples for the floor, then the customer orders what they want. The shells and mounts are usually from one manufacturer, but bass pedal, hi hat stand, throne, heads, about half the kit effectively can end up being from multiple sources. Different finishes, wraps, all of this makes high end drums custom affairs. It's as if when you went to buy a guitar, it was customary for you to specify what brand and model of pickups, tuners, and bridge, and then the dealer would order everything, put it all together, and phone you. But Gibson apparently tried to sell Slingerland drums like they were used to selling Gibson guitars, where a Gibson guitar dealer is expected to purchase and keep in stock a variety of different models in different finishes. More cash up front to the manufacturer, more risk for the dealer. So if you wanted to be a Gibson/Slingerland dealer, they'd expect you to buy a whole bunch of product up front, which if you were unable to turn around and sell, you'd end up taking a bath on. With the presence of Ludwig and DW already in that market and willing to play by the established rules, you can guess how well Slingerland drums, a brand that had already gone through a decline and extinction and was attempting to make a comeback, did in the marketplace. Or just look for Slingerland drums from that era. There are very few. You see someone playing Slingies and you're looking at a vintage weirdo like me. I have worked at large and small companies who made software for consumers and businesses. What I wonder about this "taking over the world" thing and its encroachment into music software is who is telling makers and sellers of music software to try going subscription (especially the so far rare cases of subscription-only)? Are they veterans of the industry (by which I mean the industry that markets software to musicians)? Are they people who came up at companies with mostly business clients? I think Adobe pulled it off because they were able to leverage Photoshop. If you do pre-press and/or want to sell your photos, you use Photoshop. Which makes it kinda B2B, sort of. I think that if they hadn't been able to leverage Photoshop they wouldn't have been successful, I don't know if they'd even have tried. Which is why I always raise the point, when people say words to the effect that the software industry is headed subscription-only: if that's true in the consumer market, then who's been able to pull it off? Waves tried and backed off, even Avid tried and backed off. I think there's not just one software industry. There are programs that are purchased and used by both businesses and individuals, but those are different markets with different use patterns, different expectations, different accounting needs, etc. It's easy these days to know who is buying your product, what their buying habits are, how often they use your product, etc. One obvious thing to do is ask them. I always like the opportunity to participate in a poll by the companies whose products I use. Every company already has their users' email addresses. If the product is a DAW and the user has use analysis turned on, then the company can know how long between exports their users go and draw some conclusions based on that. If they go a few weeks between renders they're probably not a pro studio. 2 simple questions: "If program YYY and future updates were made available via subscription, how likely on a scale of 1-5 would you be to take advantage of it?" and "If program YYY and future updates were only available via subscription, how likely on a scale of 1-5 would you be to continue to use it?" 2 questions and they'll know which way the wind blows.

My fascination for how companies do what they do is piqued by Waves' story. It is kinda sad to see how they've alienated so many once-enthusiastic customers. Half a dozen years ago, it was so common on the Cakewalk forums for people to recommend a Waves plug-in that I had a snarky comment about it in my sig. If someone was having a problem with a mix, the first solution that came to mind was using a Waves plug-in. It was so widespread that I got eye-roll-y about it. That is some excellent mind share. Now they don't ever seem to get any love at all. Nobody has anything good to say about the product. It's almost as if people don't like to admit that they use anything by Waves. I've only ever snagged their freebies, and there are fewer of those still installed than not installed, but Berserk, Magma Lil Tube, MetaFilter and Silk Vocal are really good stuff.

Clapclapclapclapclapclap. Keep coming back.

Spectral Plugins has closed its doors and released its 3 products as freeware. There's Spacer, a very well-regarded reverb/delay multitool, Pancz, a sound shaper, and OCS-45, a cassette lo-fi processor. As with any such situation, I suggest acting quickly and saving the downloaders. We don't know how long their site will be up. Regarding the manuals, they seem to be in .PDF form on their site and open when you click the "?" in the plug-ins' UI's. I suggest opening them, then saving the .PDF's locally. Same reason, no idea how long the site will be up. You'll notice that they want an email address to download them, saying that it's for their newsletter, but I kinda doubt you'll see much news, since they've gone on to other things.