Brian Walton

The "pro" version of my theme is now updated for 2021.04 If you use the other themes you could export the Channel Strip Selections assets from this one and import them in the others. https://drive.google.com/drive/u/3/folders/1AAfZyUQm1Mfid8pdp5F4qDqEdWC55k92

Yeah, I had done restarts yesterday, but it wasn't until more switching today that it seemed to accept the updates. Now on to modifying custom themes!

Thanks. I had changed themes and done computer reboots yesterday. Today I swtiched about 10 different themes and it finally took.

I tried that a few times, doesn't reveal the new buttons. Thanks

Even using the stock themes doesn't seem like the new Selection buttons are showing up:

I actually have a true story that I think actually tops that one, but I don't think he needs more attention than he already has. It really amazes me his creations reached such mythical status. A business model and personallity that was effectivly the polar opposite another famous boutique builder.

Def grab this (pay what you want including $0) https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/126561-500-affinity-designer-vector-pain-brushes-pay-what-you-want/ And if you search through this forum section you will also find a whole mess of free brushes and things. https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/forum/11-resources/

I only have some of the content (most is actually 3rd party created), but each I tried was certainly high quality. Lots of free brushes on the internet if you look around if you just want to expand the tool set: https://www.brusheezy.com/free/affinity-designer

You might not have a need for publisher layouts, but if you buy publisher you will then be able to use studiolink to switch bettween the 3 apps more or less instantly. That is helpful even if you don't touch the publisher side if you do any cross vector/photo work. Note not every feature is still there when you do that, but most are....might consider running the demo to see if it woudl be worth the extra $25 to gain that.

Real Wrecks are way more dynamic and harder to record, It makes them super expressive in a great players hands, and a bit painful in those with less control. This is assuming someone isn't using an express and cranking the gain - those are a lot more forgiving. Yeah, I don't care what anyone else uses...boxes are just tools. In fact you look at something like a Wreck...basically no-one has them. Yes, there are some major players with them, but a lot of them went to I'll say lesser known guitarists they never want to part with them. I'm a HUGE fan of small amps. Trainwreck (by JM) has been working on a low watt Wreck design for a few years now, I'd expect we will eventually see it come to market and I look forward to that. Yep, Kimock used Boogies for a while. By the start of 2000 he was using a Dumble ODS pretty much all the time. THen they sky rocketed in value and he started using Two Rock on tour and kept the Dumble for home/studio. Give him any high headroom clean amp and you are going to get fantastic tone from him. Also helps that he frequently plays gigs without monitors after really careful stage setup, so you get more purity of tone coming from the Amp.

I usually don't encourage spending...but these apps really are a great value for those that dabble in this space. I'd agree on the snappyness of Affinity over Corel. Corel has some deep features and tools, but it has a bit of the old code problem that also plagues Adobe as they continue to develop. Both are really nice products....Affinity is just an insane value and I'm excided to see how far they take it as it gets developed. Corel feels like a "I"ve arrived, now what?" product as it has been developed for so long. Many of the updates (which you have to pay for) from say 2019 to 2020 felt like refinements of what were already there, instead of "this is worth many times more than the cost of Affinity suite new" Affinity isn't perfect. But at the price to get pro grade tools, I can't fault them.

Honeslty pretty hard to answer. Both are very capable products. You can certainly achieve similar results with them, but can depend on how you like to work. I personally ran into some install issues with Corel and think that is a draw back for me (finally got them to work - or I think they still do as I haven't opened them in a while). But ran into issues with both 2019 and 2020 across multiple machines. I never dived in super deep with Corel but it felt feature rich on the surface and training materials both in house and other people using it seemed sparse (perhpas becuase of the cost). Use affinity all the time and Corel collects dust, but I don't think that is becuase of feature sets, I know affinity products better and I also just expect them to continue to advance where Corel is an amazing - but niche market. I think Affinity likley has a stronger future due to the fact I see them continuing to gain a larger market segment beuase of the price to quality ratio. Corel is great for those that want to stay in the Corel echosystem, I think Affinity tries to bridge the gap for Adobe (or former Adobe users better).

I've been very fortunate in the access I have to world class amps. I have access to the amp Kenny called the best amp he ever built bascially any time I want thanks to being close friends with the owner of it. This also opened doors to testing and demoing tons of valuable amps and gear. I've had both a wreck and dumble side by side on the same stage. Honestly when you get into the Kemper type of thing, the tone itself can be pretty hard to tell the difference in a mix for many amps. We percieve real amps differently as we are not used to only hearing them recorded, we get to hear the actual sound it produces which is worlds different when you are talking about an amp like a Wreck. I've tried no less than 20 "dumble" pedals and still own a couple. Depends on the sound you are after. I think the Ethos does a good job on the clean channel of getting the EQ curve and shape out of the amp. I haven't played a single pedal that I think has a really pleasing "saturation" characteristic on that front though. But then again, as far as overdrive, dynamics and harmonics....the Wreck is where it is at. Dumble is way overrated on that front not just hte pedals, but the real thing. The clean tones are heavenly though....ala Steve Kimock.

While this is true (and the same thing and more can be said about Wrecks), the reality is the core circut always has some base charactaristics. I've played a few of them, and while they are all different there are a bunch of similarities. My statment about them not souinding or responding like the real thing has nothing to do with those differences, it is about the core response of the techology as well as the reporduction of harmonics and distortion. I've heard and played clones of the amps as well, and those can be closer than the modeler, I've heard some that are even pretty much spot on. And A/B'd them with the exact same cab. Copies don't sound like the real deal becuase of limitations in the technology, not becuase of variations between amps. These are also simulations made by FUCHS, not Dumble and his stupid gooped up circuit boards.

I like Chandler as well as it is so unique and has some variety. I don't think it is quite on the level of the Fuchs ones. For context I have first hand experience playing through and recording both a real Dumble ODS and multiple Ken Fischer made Trainwrecks....the amps that inspired the Fuchs concepts and of course then the plugins. Now they don't sound and respond like the real thing, but honestly absolutly close enough for the cost of these things. Now the Train has WAY more gain on tap than any Trainwreck I've ever played, but if you set it up right - it can given some "wreck" like tones for sure. And the ODS....well I love a Clean Dumble sound (I'm not a fan of the super over drive/compressed "dumble tone") and the knobs and tone controls are honestly surprisngly familar as they are manipulated. Brainworks knows what they are doing, and while they don't sound and respond exactly like the real thing.....I'd argue it is likley easier to get quality recorded tones easily with them than it is with the real thing. A 30 watt Wreck through a vintage ampeg with green backs (owned and selected by kenny himself) puts out way above 100db (my db meter was indicated over 120db) not even cranked all the way up.....and to get the richness and harmonic 3d effects with Microphone placement of what the amp really sounds like.....a lot harder than you would imagine. There is a rawness to it that no emulation does though, all the emulations end up sounding like a tame recording but with that ball park of "tone."

Yes, the videos are very good expecially if you already have an understanding of other software previously. Most of the website tutorials are about how to use a certain tool or a certain fuction, not necessarily the context or a series of actions to do something. They have a youtube channel as well as had a number of artists do hour long video sessions of different aspects of the work that can provide some direction and inspiration. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQZN-kIrZUQyoTnexM3jJAw If you have access to LinkedIn Learning/Lynda.com there are 2-5 hour courses on each product that gives some good overview as well. A number of good regular contributer channels pump out content every week too, there are lots, but here are a few examples that are very much committed to making regular content: https://www.youtube.com/c/AffinityRevolution/videos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCKx8mAHiFus-XYQLy_WnaA https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOnLUmyPHr2rayOHVHWsHVw

I'm not an expert on the store front, but I'm quite sure there are limitations in getting it through the Windows App store that I read about at some point. And I've seen a couple people complain about buying in the Apple store vs. the Affinity web shop (delay in roll out of a version perhpas?). So I'd suggest doing research before buying it anywhere other than Affinity's own website. Highly recommend trying Affinity Photo then. The general layout and shortcuts will feel very similar. The learning curve is far less switching from Photoshop to Affinity than any other pixel based editor I can think of. It certainly isn't a clone and you will have to look up how to do certain things, but they clearly used the concept of Photoshop as the base and I think it was a wise move. And if your version of photoshop is that old (CS6 still runs on Win10) then I think you will also see a number of performance improvements using Affinity as it is built on much more modern code.

I have one of the Ampeg suites for Amplitube 5, but then I tried a couple of the PA ones, and honestly thought they sounded/felt better and the foot print hit is basically nothing compared to what AT5 takes up. I got PA for both sound quality and efficiency. Haven't tried out this one yet though, but they clearly make some good stuff. I don't think the Ampeg was worlds better, but trying the Fuchs ODS and Train, got me sold on trying other PA Amps as those offer something very different than anything in the AT5 package and the quality vs foot print is unmached from anything I've experienced on the Amp Sim front.

Indeed, I gave the free ones a shot both when I was starting out as well as testing for others (I teach Photography and photo editing) to get started in the game. Great for free, but also not really aimed at a beginner. So it fits in a odd spot. Capable of professional results, but a professional wouldn't want to use it due to the time wasting to get there. It is basically aimed at the really advanced hobbiest with plenty of time on their hands, and a firm understanding of post processing in my mind.

RAW Therapee can produce good results, but if find it is clunky and takes way longer to adjust a photo than other paid applications. Many of the tools are needlesly complicated and the interface isn't ideal. That and Darktable are top of the heap for free programs. I use Capture One, but it is also the most expensive product on the market.

Affinity does not offer a real RAW processing program/ DAM like RawThereapee. It does have a RAW development module but it is for one off photo processing (just like Photoshop handles it). It is more of a Photoshop alternative than a LightRoom alternative. The usefulness as a replacement for Inkscape will likley depend on your needs. Affinity really comes into its own when you own and use all 3 apps, since swtiching between them is seamless (if you own all of them). No doubt the sale will be up for a couple of weeks. The bigger question will be if it is more than a month or two months.

They haven't settled on one. Previously when they ran a deal like this it was actually set to end before the 90 day free trial offer, but they extended it. At these prices, hard to go wrong. You can authorize it on as many machines as you own, and thus far all updates have been free (I'd expect that to eventually change).

I'm betting the full version has more than double the IRs...as this one only has 3.

The UA Ampeg stuff is the exact same as the PA, made by the same people. Only difference on this one is it is a stripped down version. I have the SVT3 Pro which I got for the versatility, but the V4-B is my favorite sounding one for recording, it just works in the mix without fuss unlike anything else I've tried.

Any "bass" type of source would be ripe for processing with this. It would be like running any source though a bass amp, simple as that.