bitflipper

You know how they put all that useless crap on display in the checkout line at the supermarket? They're hoping you'll make a dumb impulse buy just because you're bored waiting in line. Ooh, a flashlight that's also a keychain! I could use that. And it's only $7.99! Well, today I was using DDMF's Plugin Doctor when it popped up with a notice that an update was available. So I popped over to their site and found myself at their own impulse-buy rack. I saw a product called ChordDetector. Ooh, that could be handy. And it's only $15! The idea is that you play a wav or mp3 and it shows you the chord progression. Sounds reasonable. I mean, Melodyne can do that, right? A potential timesaver at band practice. Problem is, this thing just flat doesn't work. I gave it simpler stuff to analyze, such as an unaffected acoustic guitar file. It made no difference. C | Bbm | E | Bbmaj7 | C#m | Gm just ain't a thing. Not in my universe, anyway. And that was my own composition, so I knew the chord progression was Em | G | D. I feel like I just got home from the supermarket, proud owner of a flashlight that's also a keychain. One that doesn't light up and won't hold keys.

AKA the first annual "Please Come Back, We're Sorry and Won't do it Again" sale.

RE: Bruno Youtube says it's turning the audio down by 48%, and that the original had a loudness of 5.6dB. That's not -5.6dB, but +5.6dB, meaning 5.6 dB louder than their preferred target. Contrast with this video, which YouTube did not turn down. Listen to the crispness of the drums and guitars, and the clarity of the vocals.

That's how I'd do it. If you want to make it permanent and get rid of the plugin, freeze / bounce with fx applied. Channel Tools can also adjust the relative volume of left and right, if that's the main objective.

Clever workaround! I wouldn't have thought of that. I've made no secret of being an Indiginus fanboy, but have to admit the articulations are limited. But for budget $59 instruments it's to be expected that there might be some limitations. But for just 20 bucks more, have a look at the Slide Lap Steel from Orange Tree Samples. It makes it easy to bend up to a target note. Even when playing more than one note you can make each note conform to the scale. Both it and the Slide Acoustic, which has the same capabilities, are currently on sale as a bundle for $129.

I normally greet all dynamics processors with a big yawn and treat claims that any of them does anything magical with great skepticism. I long ago settled on a couple compressors for everything and haven't ever wished there was something better. But I gotta admit this one's piqued my curiosity. Seems this would be best suited for the master bus, since it's only in the context of full-range material that LUFS makes sense as a leveling reference. I can't imagine, for example, that it would be particularly useful on a vocal or bass track. Only one way to find out: I've downloaded the demo. Kudos to Aaron for offering a 30-day uncrippled demo. I have a question for Aaron - what's the music used in the demo video? I like it.

Just add random pitch and tempo modulation to your finished track. It will be original. Nobody will want to listen to it, but it will be original.

30+ years experience with ANSI-C and you have to provide your own wand.

So it's a multi-band exciter? (um, sorry, "harmonic processor"). Ed, you need help.

I don't normally buy sampled synths - after all, cajoling your favorite synth into making a sound you hear in your head is half the fun. But for $27.50, hmm. And like the old joke goes, with 17,000 presets there's gotta be a pony in there somewhere.

You win, Bovinator. Tightest wad of all time, I think. (Now watch Larry come along and claim he paid $0.50 for it using discount code IAMACHEAPSOB.)

I just installed a new beta this morning, so can confirm that yes, development remains ongoing!

It's standard practice across the entire software (and hardware) industry to keep new versions under wraps until they're officially released. Companies will tell you it's about protecting proprietary advantage, but it's really the same reason a band's rehearsals aren't public - you want to show the world the finished product, not how the sausage is made.

It's about time a jury ruled correctly on one of these cases. Ever notice that none of these cases have ever been brought by the presumed aggrieved party? They are always filed by either freeloading relatives of a deceased artist or by a legal firm retained by Warner or Sony. Except for The E*****. D** H****** is a litigious jerk. (Redacted so I don't get sued.)

Not me. However, there is some validity to the concept of LRC panning. The main message is you shouldn't be afraid to be aggressive in your panorama. A 10% adjustment may sound great while you're mixing, especially if you're using headphones. But out in the car or on your living room hi-fi it's going to be too subtle to hear. Instead of a nice wide mix it's semi-mono mush. I prefer a modified LRC approach, which is to place almost everything into one of 5 positions: L100, L50, C, R50 and R100. Footnote: people recommending LRC are assuming all your tracks are mono. While mono tracks are easier to mix and make for wider-sounding mixes, in practice you're probably going to have to work in some stereo tracks as well. That can be especially challenging if you're creating music entirely from synths and samplers, which all too often insist on being stereo, dammit!. A mix made from all stereo tracks can counter-intuitively sound more like wide mono if you don't handle panning properly. Fortunately, Cakewalk comes with a tool for panning stereo properly called Channel Tools. Even better, grab the panner from Boz Digital Labs.

I haven't used references in years. Best reference is to listen to lots of well-made records on your monitors. Over just a few hours, you will subconsciously acquire a sense of what a well-made record sounds like on your speakers. It's a real phenomenon. I had originally read about it in a book on psychoacoustics, but can't remember now which book it was. I believe it's a real thing. It could even explain why some people insist that you have to "break in" your speakers, which I believe is nonsense.

Try switching to a different USB port.

And here I thought *I* was the biggest tightwad around here. You skinflints probably wouldn't be interested, but if you're willing to part with five whole bucks, Iron Pack #5 is the best of the collection, imo.

Surely that video can't be that old, can it? I mean, I was in my 50's when I first saw it...oh.

...with nothing but the drum beat. This was harder than I expected.

When I was in my teens and twenties, I took pride in my John Kay impersonation. When I sang "I like to dream..." all the shiny was stripped from my throat after the "I". Now my voice sounds like that all the time. Some say it has "character", when they're trying to be charitable. Wish I'd been kinder to my vocal cords in the early days.

The overarching theme here is that Melda could be your one-stop solution because they offer GOBS of plugins - but not all of them are necessarily best-in-class. Anyone looking for a single vendor to switch from Waves to will be frustrated. Everybody knows my opinion of Waves the company, but I have to admit that nobody else offers the same breadth of products with consistently high quality. Some have the quality but not the breadth (e.g. FabFilter), some have breadth but not the quality (e.g. Plug & Mix). You really have to take the buffet approach when building your toolkit. Semi-related rant...a lot of users moan about Melda's UIs. Voxengo often gets called "ugly". Many also complain about ValhallaDSP's utilitarian look. To those whiners I say man up and invest the time to learn what these products can do. Nobody's gonna critique your mix by saying "I can hear that you used some ugly plugins". /rant

That was a good demo, Simeon. Unfortunately, I was not moved to make the purchase. Those variable slides are great and something my current nylon libraries don't do. But I couldn't justify $69 for just that one feature. There also doesn't seem to be polyphonic legato. I also don't like that fret noises, legato and sustains are all separate nki's rather than being keyswitched articulations. The instrument does sound really good and the vibrato sounds natural. But I'll be sticking with Renaxxance for now.

How many of these have you used? I was surprise at how many of them I've owned or used (Kustom, Shure, Electrovoice, Echolette, Selmer, WEM, Bose). I just kept thinking that somebody's garage had a lot more room in it for awhile.

I'm partial to nonstandard percussion, so I actually use these a lot. Stomps make an interesting substitute (or layer) for conventional bass drums. I like to layer finger snaps and handclaps and run them through a delay.