bitflipper

I've been flipping bits since 1973, and this is the first time I've heard the term "bitness". A good word, though, as I instantly knew what it meant. I use "wordlength" when talking to techies, "bit depth" when talking to musicians and audio engineers. btw, whether or not a plugin is 64-bit is a flag (isX64) in the registry, along with other flags to indicate whether it's a VST, VST3, ARA-compatible, or a synth. Also the number of inputs and outputs and a whole bunch of other stuff I've yet to decipher,

Yeh, I literally can't count how many times that has come up in conversations with musicians. But I get the analogy. That's why I drive a 1969 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow. Sure, I'm still paying it off, but it kept me from buying a Pacer in 1973. </Tongue_In_Cheek> Spectrasonics does take a bit of a haughty attitude. You may know that I write software reviews for SoundBytes, and in that capacity have been fortunate to deal with many top-tier developers. Out of all of them, only Spectrasonics demanded a pre-publication copy of my review. And then sent me detailed "corrections". I remain a Spectrasonics fan, though. As you point out, Eric created many of our favorite patches on 1980's-era hardware synths. My main synths in those days were the Jupiter 8 and Juno 106, so I was a fan of his even before I'd ever heard his name - when I saw him demo Omnisphere at NAMM 2008. He's a great presenter who exudes infectious enthusiasm for synthesizers. I wanted to buy it then and there, but it would be a couple more years before I made the plunge.

Like most here, I have a pretty extensive collection of synths and VIs. Some definitely get used more than others. But is it because they are better or simply because I know them better? Whatever the reason, looking back at their usage over the years there have been two clear favorites. 1. Omnisphere 2. Zebra2 Synthmaster is also very good, and versatile. But I only use preset libraries with it (there are a lot of them and they are cheap and high-quality). If I want to program something from scratch, it'll always be Zebra. I've done some from-scratch patches with Omnisphere but sheesh, it's deep. Zebra's a lot easier. (But for ease of programming nothing beats old-school Moog or Oberheim emulations. I often recommend the free OBXD to people who are just setting out on the synthesis learning adventure. I also have the Cherry Audio emulation of the Oberheim 8-voice, also easy to use and currently only $29. But good as they are these synths don't meet your criteria for an all-in-one solution.) If you want one all-encompassing solution you'll find everything you need in Omnisphere. Sure, it's pricey, but you could easily spend far more on multiple synths and still not cover as much ground.

I love the current tempo map and consider it a huge improvement over the old format. My projects often look a lot like Jeremy's example above, with many tempo changes that are precisely aligned with specific transitions. The only way I can think of to possibly improve on it would be to make it transparent and moveable, so that it could be overlaid atop any track or automation lane. But I'm quite content with the way it works now.

I am almost sold on Unify. Almost. Whenever I watch a demonstration video for any musical product, I try to imagine myself using it. Does it fit with my composition style, my genre preferences (assuming I have a genre; I'm not sure I do) and recording workflow? I was not able to see myself in those vids. I do use split keyboards, so I get that part. But I only do that in live performance, where I often have to jump from one patch to another mid-song. But in the DAW I still see every part and every track as a separate puzzle piece. I don't even use Kontakt multis. Maybe Unify will help me step out of that mindset, I dunno. Vastman is certainly enthusiastic about it, as is my old friend lawajava. Testimonials from people you respect musically can be more effective than any ad copy.

My name is Jimmy and you better not wear it out...

This is why I avoid using the auto-gain feature on compressors. It usually ends up causing more effort than it saves.

Or just drag the length of the MIDI clip out to wherever you want the render to stop.

Only Noel can answer this definitively, but my assumption would be that from the engine's perspective a frozen track appears identical to any other audio track. The only difference is that the original track is preserved and linked to in the frozen track. That linkage should not impact performance, as it's only referenced when you un-freeze. Not enough to notice. It's just a bit of addition and multiplication happening there. Nanoseconds. No. See above. Reverb, of course, can be very CPU-intensive. But how many tracks are routed to it won't significantly add to that. Fortunately, there'd be no benefit in doing so. Though not unheard of, it's rare that in the real world separate mics would be used for each violin. There is, however, an advantage to playing each violin separately as you're recording, assuming you're not programming notes directly into the PRV. Playing them separately simulates the tiny timing differences and vibrato between individual players in a section, adding to the overall thickness. You could also pan them slightly to simulate the width of a physical string section. If you really want to go all out in realism, give one of the virtual players a squeaky chair, another one a cough. But I wouldn't bother. When you use a well-recorded ensemble sample you get all that anyway, with no effort.

I was in Frankfurt in 1970. You wouldn't have happened to have been at the Deep Purple concert at the Hunderthalle that year, by any chance? Or the ELP concert the following night? I was based in Munich but had made a road trip with my bandmate up to Frankfurt to see those performances. It was ELP's second gig, before their first album had been released, but I figured if the band was half as good as The Nice it'd be worth the trip. They exceeded expectations.

In 1967 my Dad wanted to come to a gig and film the band. We were playing the Peppermint Lounge in Omaha, the second-most prestigious gig in town (read: psychedelic lights and girls who put out). I refused to let him do it. How could I possibly remain cool on stage with a parent and his 16mm movie camera? I was such an insecure dork at age 16. That footage would be priceless today.

Max, are you freezing the fx on those tracks, too? I'll second Mark's suggestion about bouncing tracks and archiving the originals. That'll guarantee that those tracks will require minimal resources like any other audio track, but you'll still be able to un-archive the original tracks if needed for editing. But you'll have to archive the originals so they don't remain cached. If you're still losing performance after freezing/bouncing, take a look at your memory usage and see if it's going up with each bounce. There could be a memory leak with a plugin (or even conceivably - though unlikely - within the CW engine itself). Try bypassing all fx to make sure your issue actually has to do with frozen tracks. With the global fx bypass on, any CPU snappy enough to, say, play a modern video game should be able to play back 1,000 audio tracks with ease.

Reminds me of a Dimitri Martin joke... "I think they should put pies on the front of trains, so when they hit something it's at least a little bit funny".

In a recurring nightmare I find myself unexpectedly on stage with a bunch of players I've never met before, we haven't rehearsed anything, and there's a packed house waiting for us to start. Then I realize that my gear is still in the van. Preparedness is the best defense. If I know I'm going to be challenged, e.g. a difficult or fast part, my secret weapon is Starbucks Iced Mocha. Because I don't normally consume much caffeine, that quickly winds me up into high gear. My brain is moving so fast that I mentally step back and just watch my own fingers moving, seemingly of their own accord. It's a marvelous Zen state.

Make sure your USB ports have been exempted from being powered off automatically. This is a common cause of suddenly losing connection to USB-connected interfaces and MIDI controllers. Open Device Manager, scroll down to Universal Serial Bus Controllers. There will probably be a bunch of entries. Right-click on each of them, go to Properties -> Power Management. Make sure the "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" option is unchecked. (If there is no "Power Management" tab in a device's properties, that just means it's not a port and you can skip it.)

I've always wondered why these performances sound so good, given that they're made in a tiny space. Well, first of all the space isn't really tiny, it's just made to look that way (see the second video, which is rotatable in 360 degrees). Pack enough bodies into any space and it's going to be acoustically forgiving. But mainly it's about audio guys who just really know what they're doing. And having players that don't require a lot of corrective surgery in post.

The true meaning of Black Friday hit me last night...it is the weaponization of FOMO. And because we're all friends here, I feel comfortable confiding in you without shame that I, the cynic, the skeptic, the experienced user totally fell for it. The ability to spend money late at night under the influence of cannabis wasn't selected for during 4 million years of human evolution. I saw a Kontakt library that I've wanted for a long time, saw that it was on sale, and bought it. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Long story short: the library is mundane, duplicates stuff I already have, and sounds like a ROMpler from 1986. The sale price was triple what I would have paid for it had I been able to try it out first. Next year, I will be wiser. Yeh, that's the ticket. Next year I won't fall for it again.

Amen, brother. I recently bought a plugin that I already owned and have never used. Still haven't used it. This will likely be the third Black Friday in a row where I haven't bought anything. I just can't think of anything I really need, regardless of price. That includes both software and hardware. Too bad you can't buy motivation. I'd pay full price for that. Wisdom, though, I'd wait for a sale.

Not seeing these prices (e.g. shows $200 for Cadenza Strings). Is there a discount code or do we just drop your name?

So it's a blank file? Sorry, couldn't resist. I only have a couple of their instruments, but they are quite good and a bargain even at regular prices.

This is why I chose long ago to not be a pioneer when it comes to mass-market software*. https://www.pcmag.com/news/all-versions-of-windows-are-vulnerable-to-a-new-zero-day-exploit Short version: a bug in the Windows installer lets malware do anything it wants to your system, and Microsoft can't fix it without breaking the installer. * No, being a beta tester for Cakewalk does not contradict this philosophy. Cakewalk cannot ruin my life beyond alienating me from my family on Thanksgiving.

I've always thought there might be shortcuts for this but never bothered looking it up. This is why I still read the forum after 33 years using the Cakewalk PRV.

One could make a case that once you've figured how to do everything you need to do, you're done. Time to get back to making music. Then one day you see a button and think "hmm, I wonder what this does?" and just like that, you've disappeared down another rabbit hole. After you've found your way out of the hole, you can go back to happily making music again - but now with a new trick up your sleeve. At least, until the next rabbit hole. Rinse and repeat.

You bestow upon me a frightening responsibility, Mr. Jones.

Skaka has become my go-to shaker maker for when I don't need all the bells 'n whistles of the likes of Shimmer Shake Strike. Ridiculously easy to use, I'd been looking for something like it for years. Just noticed it's been updated since I bought it at its introduction, with 10 new instruments added. So thanks for the post, Larry. I essentially just got a new percussion instrument for free.