Shane_B.

I've used a few but most I only ever try out then never use again. I love downloading the free synth's and tinkering with them. I've used a few on recordings but most I never touch again after trying them out. I leave them on my system so I know which ones I've tried and which ones I haven't. They take up very little room. I have all my free stuff in a single folder and point Studio One and CbB to it and that's how I keep track of them. And I never install things that require an install.exe. I only use them if they have a .dll I can drag and then quickly delete if it gives me any trouble. Here's a list w/links of free stuff I use on almost every project: Auto Double Tracker (Best used as an FX Send.) Bass Professor Mark 2 Blue Cat's Free Chorus, Flange, and Phaser. There are more free synth's out there than you could ever use. I've used several on recordings to fill in for what I couldn't get out of the included synth's with CbB and Studio One but I can't recall their names. I got 99.9% of the free synth's from Plugin's 4 Free.

There's definitely some nice new features. I like how you can draw strumming patterns on midi chords. I do a lot of rhythm parts with acoustic and it's really hard for me to record acoustic in my crappy room. There are a lot of great acoustic guitar samples out there, some free. I'm anxious to give the new strum drawing feature a try with it. I also really like the new Loudness Export settings but they screwed up and made it only available in the Project page. It needs to be in the Song page too. They also have a new proprietary dithering algorithm they made and they claim that you should use it for making MP3's. That's the first I've ever heard anyone claim you should use dithering to make an MP3.

They are notorious for this. Try running an external hardware loop through one of their interfaces. ? There's tons of video's showing people at Presonus doing it. I thoroughly RT*M, many times. Asked for help on their forum, from them, nobody had any input on how to make it work other than RTFM. Turns out you have to disable the software mixer in their Universal Control software that they force you to run for the drivers and it is not in any manual anywhere. I was just about to return the interface thinking it was defective when the search algorithm on YouTube made some obscure tutorial video pop up from a guy who could barely speak English. "Step #1, turn off the virtual mixer in Universal Control.". Boom. Problem solved. I'm really glad you go it figured out although it took so long! Took me almost 3 weeks of trying before I finally gave up and was about to return the unit.

I have one of the longest running threads on their forum about the 666 error. I started it May of 2015. Been trying for literally YEARS to get this fixed. A lot of people have. Up until right now they completely denied it existed. Up until like literally 30 seconds before the update was released if you've been following the current thread over there on page 1. Unreal. I'm glad it's fixed, but it's still unreal. Well guys. CbB's running great. Studio One has been exorcised. 2.5 decades of complaining and my job is finally done. I guess I'll say my goodbye's and go slither off in to the woods and die now. LOL!

It's live now. I just installed it. So far all I see is automation in the Project page. No changes to metering or anything like that, that I saw at first glance. Took like 20 seconds to download. It's around 200Mb.

Is this an "Update" or an "Upgrade"?

That makes me wonder now, Melodyne has always been clunky and unpredictable for me. I see now in CbB that it is not a DP VST. I wonder if it would work better if I turned off DP in S1's audio settings. I guess I'll give it a try and see. If a VST is capable of DP, does it use it even if you have DP turned off in audio settings? IOW, does DP have to be turned on in the host for it to be activated at the VST level?

There was something funky about that O8A deal I got. I actually think they just gave me O9A and didn't upgrade me. I bought O8A and literally a few days later they released O9A. I stewed on it a few weeks and finally got mad enough to write and ask if there was anything they could do about it and they gave me O9A. It shows I have both full versions in my account directly from them and that I paid $0 for O9A. So I can't complain. I mean, I'm cheap but I'm not that cheap.?It's worth what they are asking for it. I got an email on Friday saying they had something new coming soon. We'll all probably be upgrading to O10A next month ... or forced to subscribe, in which case I'll be using O9A for the rest of my days.

I did some digging this morning. S1 doesn't tell you if it's a DP VST but Sonar does. They both tell you if it's VST2, or VST3. I have them both set to DP in audio options. I guess I've never looked at a VST and said, "You don't support DP, I'm deleting you.". Hah. FWIW Melodyne doesn't use it, according to CbB and I'm sure not getting rid of that any time soon ... ?? It is interesting though. I thought all VST3's by default used DP but the free stuff from Blue Cat is VST3 and CbB shows they are not DP. I also thought VST2 was 32bit only but CbB shows a lot of them as 64bit. But I do admit, it's been a long long time since I dug in to this stuff so I'm probably wrong. If memory serves me correctly, I had a discussion about this a very very long time ago with, I think, Jim R.? IIRC the only time you'll actually hear a differences is in effects like reverb in the tail of it as it's fading out and only at volumes you would never listen to. At least more than once because you'd blow your ears off. LOL. But I say, if it works, and theoretically it makes all the math's/audio better even if we can't hear it at safe levels why not use it? I could absolutely see it making an audible difference in a large project with a lot of VST's going. There was a time when processing power was limited and I had to turn it off for latency sake, but I've had it on for a very long time now and see no performance issues. I'm kind of surprised it's even an option now, especially in S1 because you can't choose which dither to use in it. It uses Triangular with no noise shaping which is what I always thought sounded best to my ears and what I always used in Sonar. Sonar never specified if it used noise shaping with Triangular though. That said, I turn it off now and use Ozone 9 Advanced. Never had to deal with any of this shtuff when I recorded on a Tascam 4 track and mastered on to my Dolby B HXPRO cassette deck. *sigh*. ?Of course, I could have used Dolby C, but when played back in cars which I've only ever seen B supported it sounded too harsh. So I guess there were those kind of technical decisions to be made there too. Oh well. What do ya do. ?

I've been wondering about that. I already own the advanced versions of some of the software the MPS4.1 upgrade came with. I wonder if I would be able to sell the ones I already own since I upgraded a second time? When I upgraded from O8A to O9A they left O8A in my account. I did have both on my system at the same time until a couple weeks ago. I uninstalled O8A just to get rid of it in my plug-in list and to see what would happen. I never actually used it before I upgraded to O9A. O9A seems to be working fine without it but I hope it's not one of those situations where if I ever have to set up a new DAW I have to install O8A then install O9A. So far I'm still using the same system and haven't had to reinstall since the original purchase installation.

That's odd, it's totally opposite for me. They are not pinned by default and I wish they were. Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you mean. S1 shows you if they are VST 3. IIRC it looks like 3 slashes next to the name? Not sure. I only install VST3's now unless I'm forced to do otherwise.

That must be Jimmy Durante and Karl Malden's love child.

That's the 3rd mouse button. It works for a lot of thing. I use it to scroll web pages more smoothly.

The only thing that really threw me off and delayed the install was the licensing process wasn't clear. I got 3 emails all at once from JRRshop after I paid them. Two gave me a serial and the 3rd said I had to follow a link to enter a license but it said the license had to be manually created and I would have to wait for it to arrive. The license was actually the serial in the other two that came instantly with the one telling me I'd have to wait. I waited a while and nothing came then lost patients and tried the serial in the link where it asked for a license and it worked. You are right, there is some excellent software in that bundle. I was focused on just getting Nectar 3 and RX 9 and didn't really look at everything else until I went to install each one. I don't see me having a need for Stutter Edit 2 but I will absolutely use everything else that came with it. I'm glad they turned me down when I asked if I could just get Nectar and RX 9. ??

Same here. In fact, I just uninstalled all of my Melda stuff and reinstalled it 64bit only. I was in a panic state, sweat dripping down my forehead, glasses were getting all steamy, hands trembling out of fear none of my projects would ever open again. But so far so good. I wonder if iZotope is all 64bit now? I'm installing my new purchase now and never got the option to install 32 or 64. It just made me jump through 6,000 hoops to allow myself to even install it. Then when I started it just went off and did it's own thing. I really didn't have much input in the matter except for C.C. info. ? Edit to add: RX 9 Advanced must be enormous. It's taking for-ev-er! Like, OMG.

I've been meaning to contact you about that. We must start working on a My Flurona cover! BaBa BaBa Ba, Ba. BaBa Ba BaBa Ba, My Flurona! ?

Ah! It did. It took off another $3 bucks. Thanks. That makes sense. I just got it and I'll start downloading everything. All this registration stuff scares me. I hope it goes smoothly.

Good news. I finally got through to iZotope via their chat option. They checked my account and said I was eligible for the upgrade to MPS 4.1. Then a few minutes later I got an email from them confirming I did qualify for the MPS 4.1 Upgrade bundle and they gave me a 20% off discount on it. The problem is, it's still more than if I buy it from JRRshop. Now that I know I can buy the MPS 4.1 Bundle I'll get it from JRRshop. With the group code they automatically applied I can get it for $169. Even with the 20% off coupon iZotope gave me it comes to $223 from them. Honestly, if I hadn't known about the deal you showed me I would have thought $223 was a great deal. There's a lot of great software in that MPS 4.1 bundle. I'm a happy camper now. ??

Studio One's is frustrating as all get out. Especially when you switch from using it on tracks and use it in the editor. You lose a bunch of functionality in the editor with their 'smart tool' and I haven't ever figured a way to get it to work like in the track section.

A while back I was on a big kick to transfer all of my tracks out of my old Sonar projects and import them in to Studio One and revamp them all. And the reason for that is, I never could get Sonar to run stable enough to actually finish anything to the point I was truly happy with it. That's not an issue anymore but I never dreamed that day would come. LOL! Anyhoo ... I never kept track of what I actually got transferred, got busy, went on to something non-music related, forget everything I did. Now I have a ton of duplicates, GB's of wasted space, and basically have to start all over if I want to use Studio One because I can't remember what I did where. I remember now what happened now that I'm typing this. Something happened with Studio One and it couldn't find Dimension Pro. I tried to fix that and couldn't and gave up and that's when I stopped, but never kept track of what I did transfer. I was just planning on doing it all at once and it didn't happen. Then out of the blue one day during a Studio One update, Dimension Pro started working again and has been working ever since. I still use it, Rapture, Z3ta, Session Drummer 3, TTS-1. Z3ta can be used as a guitar FX and you can get some really unique sounds with it. They are all very usable and still hold up to this day imo. I dread the day SD3 stops working. I'm so used to how it's laid out and I use it in everything.

I haven't gotten a response from iZotope yet. Instead I got an automated message saying they are backed up and it will take a long time for them to get back to me. I looked at that bundle link you posted and it is great, but, it says it's an upgrade. I don't own any version of Nectar or RX. I'm not sure if I will actually be able to register Nectar 3 Plus and RX 9 Standard if I buy the 4.1 Upgrade Bundle because I don't own a lower version to upgrade from if that makes any sense. I can't seem to find a clear answer on that. When I added the code at JRR it didn't work, but when I looked at the bottom it says group code was applied already. The price even without the code is more than fair if the bundle is something I can actually use. It says you have to upgrade from a previously purchased bundle. All of my software in my iZotope account shows it as solo purchases, not as bundles, so I really don't know what I can upgrade too. My purchase history only shows O8A and O9A but in the portal it shows Neutron 3 Advanced, O9A, and Tonal Balance Control 2. TBC2 doesn't come with O9A, it's a separate purchase, so that makes me think maybe I did buy a bundle and it's just not showing as one. Melda for example gives names to the bundles and lists everything clearly that came in the bundle in my account. I don't know if that's how iZotope does it or if they separate everything out. Seeing how software is non-returnable they really need to make this more clear as to what you own and what you can upgrade to. And like you, I get a lot of offers to upgrade Ozone 9 Advanced to .... Ozone 9 Advanced. It's a giant cluster.

I've seen scanning software that will convert sheet music to midi. Here's one program. You take a pic with your cell or use a flatbed scanner, load it in, and it converts it to a midi file. Don't know how accurate it is but I'm sure there's something on YouTube about it.

The kicker about that deal is I already have most of the stuff in that MPS 4.1 bundle. And to add insult to injury they offer it to me for $279 then raise it to $499 when I click on the information button or put it in my cart. Jerks! ?

I explained the cluster I keep seeing regarding upgrades and offered them the Diamond bundle sale price for just Nectar 3 Plus and RX 9 Standard. I think that's a fair price considering they want to give you Nectar 3 Plus along with 10 other plugins in the Diamond bundle and it normally sells for $2200 dollars. I was nice about it and explained they didn't offer a holiday sale price of any kind for those unless they were in a bundle and I already owned all the high ticket items in those bundles. That said, I can live without both, but it would nice to have RX9 Standard for cleaning up my old analog masters. Nectar 3 Plus would be great too but honestly, it looks more or less like they just automated a sidechain for you. I could do what it does with Melda's AutoDynamicEQ sidechained if I really tried. But I struggle wrapping my head around all that sidechain stuff.

It's pretty crappy for sure. No matter how I try I cannot get the nut to stay tight on the DI jack/strap peg. I keep forgetting to use Loctite or something similar. We used nail polish at work. It was cheap and when people saw it, it made a nice conversation piece. Hah. I used it and some of that fabric medical tape to patch a blown speaker at a band job one night. It worked for several more jobs until we got it in to get fixed. Probably would have lasted forever. No, I should never go there. LOL! I put on 15lb's over Christmas because of my wife encouraging me to let loose for a while and have some pie and cookies. I am furious. It doesn't take much for me to put on weight. I think I have a food allergy to carbs. Seriously. I've only ever eaten at The Nazareth Diner on 191. Old fashioned home cooking type stuff. Stopped there many a night after band jobs. That and Key City Diner in Phillipsburg NJ. Very interesting places at 2:30am ... ?