Brian Walton

Amazon prices do fluxuate. Right now it is $56 in the US for the MX500s. I can imagine the foreign market is a bit different. That drive around $60 is good, you can get it for less or more as it is a limited supply product. They fairly frequently go out of stock with that model. Pretty hefty price swing multiple times in a day, but I'd expect that fluxuation over a week or two from what I've seen historically.

His video for the giveaway announcement you can make out a dry/wet knob for a split second on the screen he is looking at. While that doesn't always mean reverb/delay.....I'm actually thinking you are likely on point.

Yes, yesterday was the last day.

if you have IKM Max you should be avoiding this forum....just GAS for things you don't need. ?

Simon - if you only have one single IKM product...well sir, you are doing it wrong. Visit this forum more often. Things I've gotten for $5 or less over the last year just by visting this forum and making a purchase or jump through hoops to get the serial EQual Tape Echo Classic Clipper Amplitude SVX Amplitude Metal T-racks - ONE Black 76 Limiting Amplifier Model 670 Compressor Seriously all 2020....from this forum..... for under $20 total (digital magazine purchases in some instances), and at least half of them just plain free. And I'd also add IKM also has other free plugins/vsts that a deal isn't needed for. 2GIGs is a lot for one plugin certainly, but I think my post above suggests anyone getting in on just this deal is late to the party. What if I thought the same about the Model 670 COMP I got nearly a year ago, then the next and the next...and forfitted all of that becuase I didn't think it was worth it. Outside side of needing reverb, I could mix a whole track with those tools alone.

True, but if you have some combination of VST2 and VST3 installs and multiple VST install path messes (like I do) I think I'd get frustrated hunting them down on my machines. I think that method would also require re-scans to make them work as you activate them - across each DAW. I'm thankful I basically only use one DAW, but can certainly see the merits of that approach if you run a bunch of them.

That is correct. The only positive here is that you install all of it once, use the plugin manager to hide everything you don't own, then as they send out freebies (or you make purchases), you are not having to reinstall anything. You just put the serial number in the IK Manager, go to your Plugin Manager in Bandlab and remove the recent addition from the excluded list - you don't even have to run a VST scan again which is always an annoyance. Given all the free ones over the past couple years, this method has surprisingly saved some time and effort on installs. Otherwise, yes, it would be annoying.

Did you check the line item below Equal (bonus) of perhpas $5....?

Yes, zplane's decoda. I'm aware of the ARA2 and Melodyne, but as evidenced by the fact you have to actually own Melodyne to get features like the drag audio to create tempo map or drag audio to create midi (which doesn't work all that well), means Cakewalk is fully dependent on the end user buying Melodyne to do it. While I have v4studio, I spent hundreds of dollars to get it. And have 5elements which annoyingly can't co exist. However, I'd imagine the majority of users of a free DAW likely don't want the investment in that piece of software. I know I basically never use it and actually bought it for the "Cakewalk" added functionally I described which frankly have not worked at the level I expected them to for software that's retails for something like $700.

WUP is a scam. The only reason anyone should pay for it is if the plugins break and you can't fix them without WAVES support. They make good sounding plugins with fickle install and authorization methods and treat paying customers like potential criminals with a single authorization. I have a pile of them, but have worked towards replacing them in my projects as I don't want to rely on them or have to repurchase when a plug-in that should work fails to. Every single new version has broken something on one of my machines. I do not have a single other plug-in manufacturer with such a poor track record.

I think they might want to attack this feature add in stages. Going off the deepend right off the bat with The chord markers (easy update), Chord Creation with midi patterns (easy update), global changes across all midi tracks (fairly easy), Read midi notes played to extract and dispay a chord (not all that difficult), Read Audio tracks to extract chords (ala Coda)...basically a product in itself to do it well, global changes across audio and midi (some sort of Voodoo only Studio One has tackled from what I gather) all combined in one update would be a long term project we would have to wait a long time for. Even changing a note only on the midi side isnt' super simple as it has to figure in the voicings you migth be using on different tracks, otherwise you end up with chord vociings jumping around in ways you didn't intend. Not rocket science, but above the easy pick the chord and voicing on a single track type of update. I'm glad to hear they are giving some thought to this feature. I've said for years this is what Cakewalk needs to help beginners make music, and give more advanced users and easy way to get ideas down and compose. Scaler 2 is one of the benchmarks I'd look at in this area. Get functionality like that to integrate into the interface (so you see a nice big chord change view through out the track) and have it work across tracks without bogging down the system with instances and you have next level tool sets. Yes, the wave form audio manipulation would be wonderful, but realistically that is going to be a long way down the road map to do it really well. And I think the proper thing to do would be stages of development that can be released over time.

Not a fan. But yes, I use it Used the authorize to the computer method for a long time. Got a new ilok 2 for less money than you will ever see one sell for at an Estate sale and then started authorizing to it. You have to install the iLok liscene manager to a computer even if you don't use the physical ilok so you can transfer the seats to the computer, cloud account or to a physical dongle. I must have 30 products by now, some of which only allow one authorization (Exponential Audio). If your computer dies and your seats were tied to the computer you will be down and out until the manufacture desides to reset your seats unless you pay for ridiculious coverage. Same deal if the ilok itself dies. the authorization and transfers between systems is fairly solid, but not perfect. I wouldn't expect frequent issues, but when they do arise you will likey get mad and wonder why you paid money for it. It is also annoying to have to have an ilok account AND an accoutn for the actual maker of the plugin. This is the case with virtually all of them. Authorization to the computer is "risky" from a harddrive failure perspective, and transfering to another computer is an annoyance. I don't like it, but it is a requirement to use a certian set of plugins. The izotope model isn't half bad where you can authorize to an ilok device and also authorize mutiple times to an individual computer. This allows me to use the ilok on the go with computers I don't use frequently and tie a seat to my two primary computers that I use all the time. Giving up a USB port for the ilok is annoying. You need to research the products you have or want to buy. There are some products that only will authorize via a physical ilok (and version 2 or above) and not the comptuer based ilok authorizaiton method. Do your research before diving all the way in.

Same thought on my end, other than my question is would I ever even use Drumazon? Seems unlikely . Only use Quadravox a couple times, but out of the three - seems like maybe for another Ilok seat for it. Pretty sure Reason Rack lets you install on more than 2 machines.

"Larry's forum on Cakewalk" @1:03 yep ?

A bit like Sonible's proximity eq.

Audiority Echoes t7 for a better price than they have listed for the november/black friday current sale. ? Nothing other than that is likley to tempt me at anything other than close to give away prices. I've gotten pleny of deals this year and the "needs" are well covered I think.

They gave away H-Comp. I don't know if it classifies as big, but it is both legitimatly useful and has a modern UI. Not some esoteric or antiquated plugin. The sibilance pluign they gave away was also good, but that one is very limited use type of effect.

I didn't get Abby Road Saturator. I recall Berzerk Distortion - which has to be the polar opposite spectrum And a reverb I'll never use. H-Comp and a bunch of worthless One knob this and that. Don't think saturator and the MDMX were free, they were just released around they time they gave us other stuff. edit: https://www.synthanatomy.com/2019/12/waves-intros-abbey-road-saturator-mdmx-versatile-distortion-plugins.html

Door seems pretty wide open to me. He basically has "muti-effects" for a few instruments and vocals. Compressors Channel Strip Thats it as far as I know. Saturation (since he is known for"rock") would be a possiblity. . or a Keys and Synth multi-effect to add to the signatrue bundle.

Well I have the same "setup" as you and think the UI is "just" right. All the tracks can zoom horizontally and vertically making them microscopic or huge. The Console view has various width settings so you have have narrow strips if you want to see more tracks in a view. Scaling the UI is really only needed if you are dealing with a higher resolution and larger monitor where you would be losing detial of fonts as you blow it up. On two 24s this isn't an issue at all, and is basically optimized for that kind of setup. I don't follow ProTools, but I actually don't think it scales and is a complaint in the community for 4K users that don't want everything to look tiny.

I use two 24 inch monitors with Cakewalk at 1920x1080 and think it is a good size with this setup, I wouldn't want it smaller and it wouldn't really want it smaller. Many people use it on a single monitor, and while the trend is towards larger monitors - however, the vast majority of monitors in use are less than 24 inches - you can bank on that. If you buy a 4K monitor and run it at 4K kind of resolution, the DAW becomes smaller in certain respects...you might want to check this post, I have a feeling this is the type of thing you are looking for, which already exists with the right monitor and settings.

They bought them but didn't actually integrate them. About the only change was to the UI where they put in small type "an izotope company" ? It is frustrating as I think Izotope has a good model...but all of the Exponential stuff is treated like an outlier and obviously they could give 2 ilok authorizations but they choose not to. Not sure why.

I own a number of channel strips. And the ones you have mentioned are either not in the ball park in terms of functionality or they are far more expensive than my stated $25 sale price. I have VX-64 = not even close Not going into all the details but Omni has multiple compressor types, saturation types, deeper editing, solo functionality, MS processing, advanced routing/reorder of effects, in addition to all the usual suspects and they were built to sound good with each other on a broad range of sources. The point being it actually has versatility built in instead of having to go to a bunch of different plugins. Though yes, I tend to not use Channel strips as my workflow. However, I know plenty of pros that do and combine them with other things. The whole point is efficient workflow for professionals and those that come from an actual analog multi-track world are used to using say the same EQ type across the majority of tracks. When time is actually money, I think you would be surprised how common they are. Omni-Channel with the right set of ears is really powerful. Neutron is great - but the versions with that level of functionality cost many times more than that, McDSP uses ILOK so it is in the same category as WAVES in terms of customer treatment, Slate again many times more expensive (and ilok). The TBaudio 5501 would be one to mention if it actually went on sale...but as it is...ends up being much more expensive. And I won't go into detail, but there are also some things it needs to improve on in the sound department. A melda channel strip would be so outrageously convoluted that no-one other than a hobbyist that likes to fiddle would use it. So I'm still looking for reasonable priced alternatives that actually compete with what Omni brings to the table. I've looked and I don't believe it exists. There are some good channel strips on the market that simulate consoles but then you are stuck with a compressor type that is only good on some sources and garbage on others. I don't think Omni is the best thing since sliced bread...but I don't think there is a good alternative that is in the same price point and meets the requirement of not treating customers like garbage (limited authorizations, etc) People have been asking FabFilter to make a channel strip for years now. I think they are afraid of lost revenue for their other plugins that would result.

The exponential audio plugins do not have the same "rules" as the rest of izotope plugins....thus my comments above regarding IF they would just use the Izotope licensing it would all be a no brainer. As it is, I literally had to buy each plugin twice.

Yes