Brian Walton

Izotope's machine learning with the Mastering Assistant isn't exactly snake oil. It works plain and simple. AI/Machine Learning is and actual thing and they have created a tool that makes judegements and adjustments based on what humans did with source material. Is it perfect to get the sound you want every time? Of course not, nor is sending it to some human. In this respect, you are sending it to someone elses ears...a virtual compilation of thousands of recordings that came before it and it is giving you and output that reflects that. It is arguably the representation of far more sets of experience than your average ME that a normal person can afford. It still has a ways to go to be perfect, but that is no different than any ME I've ever met, and I know a number that have worked on Grammy winners.

It says it needs an internet connection. Is that to run the program on a daily basis, or just the install?

As a professional photographer/videographer few thing irk me more than a vertically shot concert on a cell phone. Unfortunately the ticket prices don't even put a limitting factor on admittance of these individuals. In their defense somewhere along the way a tipping point occurs and at the rate they pay they should be allowed to do anything they want. ?

He puts on very good shows. However, there isn't a musicain alive I'd personally pay $150 for outside of a private event to see play.

nope

I just checked the songs forum (not a place I frequent on a regular basis here). Sending an IM on this might be poor form, but you do seem to have far more posts on the first page than anyone else. If your goal isn't self promotion and to teach youngins about composition I think you could take a different approach. Every piece is in a different thread. You could easily create your own thread with multiple pieces in it. If you seek to educate providing some sort of documentation on the chords, scales, time signatures, composition ideas along with your work would provide far more value than just a recording. If I posted a bunch of classical recordings (Bach, Mozart, etc) and said here you can learn from this, it would look like a joke. In this context your posts offer the same thing, albeit I wonder if you consider yourself among these greats? I wouldn't be one to send an IM such as you have stated, but I tend to agree with the assailant based on what I'm seeing. Do you think people complain about particular individuals posting too many deals in the deals section? Nope, because that provides value. If you think your posts are providing value from an educational standpoint, I'd suggest you step back and think about what could be done to add real value to a less accomplished musician. Your music is clearly very technically competent and you are accomplished in a number of ways, I'm not convinced your posts provide the education you seek to achieve as they are currently presented however.

"the biggest advance in music technology in decades" does not seem like a statement made in reality. Recording "in the box" Modeling Sampeling Software emulation of complex hardware systems (think AXE FX, Kemper, Helix) All come to mind

I'm betting this isn't true. He has been around for quite a few years. These price points are fairly new. It isn't until recently the sales feel somewhat frequent. With periods of no sales you have to imagine he still needed revenue. The average customer isn't paying retail on any plugin, but you can be assured some do. And certainly have over time.

But as an added bonus he doesn't require Waves Central and doesn't have crippiling install authorization schemes. (already own all of these, the Wall is the only one I think is generic feeling/sounding, but works fine).

Mic bleed is a legit concern with each of these. Never heard a closed back pair that even gets close though. Only use close backs for recording quiet sources with sensitive mics, and for the drummer so they don't have to compensate with damaging volume.

650s need a headphone amp to drive them. They also sound "farther away" and more laid back. (Think farther rows back at a concert). I like both, but personally think more sources sound good on the 599s. They are a good balance between in your face and not "in your head" agressive. 650s feel more distant, which is great for some music and not quite right for others. Other thing would be how are you driving the 599s, if you are not using a headphone amp, you might see some difference across the spectrum...but some sources will tend to be bright and if you compensate with darker headphones, other sources would end up being too dark sounding. I also prefer the comfort of the 599 style, the 650s while above average in comfort feel a bit "bigger" and always there on my head. Glad to hear you don't have to find a different hobby/passion.

If you don't enjoy listening to music with 599s then honestly you should forget about music and find a different hobby, that is my honest opinion. And yes $110 is worth it.

Yep, I got them during that period. Looks like it was May 2017 according to my order info for ~$75 after taxes, then got a $3.59 refund after pointing out said price drops. A good value at that price.

I purchased mine from a deal posted here prob a year or two ago. They are ok for closed back phones, sound a bit tiring over listening sessions and I'd never use them for "enjoyment" agree the bass is not hyped but feels pretty accurate (I also had the bass hype concerns based on I have no interest in KRK monitors). Had some M50x and got rid of them (price wasn't worth keeping them around since I used them in a similar fashion). I'd say I prefer the M50x s a bit, but was not worth about double the price I got the 8400s for since they were not going to be used an any critical application for myself. I use them for closed back tracking, but strongly prefer 500 or 600 series Senns for actually listening to music by a large margin. We live in good times in the headphone world. Good quality can be found for pretty resonable prices. Honestly I'd prob remove the link or delete the thread though .

I'm going to counter that with he should be looking at Sennheiser HD599 or similar instead. If his DT990s are legit (not fakes) then the ATM50x are not going to be percieved as less harsh. Senn has a more gentle but accurate presentation.

I never use my Waves E - Channel strip Not that it isn't decent, but something like the Omni-Channel just provides so much more at a similar quality level. The Waves SSL bus compressor is above average though. I hope someone other than WAVES develops something as good as the Omni. The SSL Channel Strip is basically a dime a dozen these days.

Over 3+ years is a pretty long mission, and backup drives are not that expensive. If this is actually "mission critical" then that implies money is made with such machines and services, thus you are in a better position than most to afford to upgrade over that time. As was pointed out by others, not doing anything also carries a risk. I was scared about the update as well a long time ago, (would my far more expensive I/O hardware stop working with the lack of drivers)? So I waited until others took the plunge, I was not an early adopter in the update. Plenty of risk staying where I was though.

JST do allow ilok host machine authentication but not all ilok products do from other manufactures. and the dongle itself isn't the only issue with ilok.

You missed the months and months of advertisements noting that upgrading to Win10 for Win7 uers was free for an extended period of time? It has been known for a long time Win7 would no longer get support and they offered Free updates for a very long time.

Nope

I read the "article" on the JST site about ilok misconceptions, disagree on many levels. No thanks, won't buy it even if the price drops to $30.

Generally agree with this other than one of the recent releases that had significant problems with some audio drivers, with show stopping noise. Outside of that, I don't recall major issues, but honestly not sure how that one got to actual release without catches.

Out of all the updates I've done for the actual releases I don't think more than 2 of them have actually worked without having to reinstall the app manually. It is a problem they really should work on to get a better user experience. It happens across the 4 machines that I use, so I don't think it is a personal problem.

It is a little unclear what the DAM application will actually be, if they do come out with it, or if it will just be an extension of the trio of apps. I'll buy it even if it doesn't really meet the need. I can't imagine they will release something on capture one level, and therefore it might just be something useful for seeing affinity project thumbnails which other dams don't read properly. My fear is they will look to match Lightroom instead of aiming higher ala Capture One. Will be good for the average user to have another choice and perhaps get C1 to re-evaluate the pricing model. Both On1 and Luminar are ok, but neither feel really mature yet.

Yes, they recently ran one and it also was extended due to them winning Mac App of the year for Publisher. With the upcoming 1.8 release (likely 1st of the year) I'd be surprised if they don't at least do a 20% off sale then as well. That being said this is software that is actually worth the full retail price and then some. It really is the best value on the market even at the normal price.