bitflipper

You need to venture out of the basement more often, Doug. We're all upstairs, (usually) discussing grownup stuff. Ask Ed, he knows.

I guess that's one advantage of Ozone as a plugin over the standalone exe, being able to place other processors after it. Still, for as long as I've been using Ozone (c. 2007, IIRC) I can't recall ever touching the output fader. Another benefit to using your method of mastering in Cakewalk is that when doing an entire album you are able to easily create gapless CD masters with crossfades between tracks. Although I've successfully done that with CD Architect, it was more trouble than it was worth.

Also consider using the standalone executable of Ozone. I haven't done it in a while, but IIRC it was quicker than creating a new project. It can also serve as a VST host, so you can add in other non-iZotope plugins if needed.

Thanks for the votes of confidence, Grem, Bapu and Kenny. I'll keep this friendly gaslighting in mind next time you report some spam or personal attacks.

We have a local chain here that manages to survive on band rentals and lessons. It's a place I used to hang out at in the 70's, trying out every new keyboard. Once they even let me MIDI every synth in the store together so I could play them all at once. I once played an outdoor festival that they sponsored, during which I blew out my PA speakers - they replaced the speakers at no charge for better ones (18" JBL D130s). But I have to admit that the last time I went there was 3 years ago, to pick up an SM-58 on the way to a gig after mine broke. (Yes, it is possible to break a 58 if you're especially talented at breaking things.) Once they're gone, the only remaining retailer will be Guitar Center. And I will never shop there again after my stolen-gear fiasco.

Heck, I miss the old way of buying a damn t-shirt. With no more clothing stores nearby anymore, I have to get stuff from Amazon. That's a crapshoot - you never know what you're actually gonna get.

Hold the SHIFT key down while dragging a node up and down. It locks the x coordinate, the same way you can move MIDI notes up and down in the PRV without jiggling left/right, or drag an audio clip in the track view into another track without losing its place on the timeline.

You might give Fiddle! from Bolder Sounds a try. I haven't used it myself, but everything I've gotten from him in the past has been pretty good. One difference I hear from my traditional violin instruments is that it's recorded very dry. Downside: needs full Kontakt.

It's a process. And, on a professional level, a specialty. It can indeed be daunting at first. Best advice is to get the best-sounding mix you can get without any mastering. Once you're good at mixing, mastering will be much, much easier. A really good mix won't require much finalization other than a volume boost and maybe - maybe - a smidge of EQ.

VST3 implements a more formalized directory structure for plugins, so all you really need to specify for them is the vst3 root directory, usually c:\program files\common files\vst3. The other scan paths are for VST2 plugins, which have no standard for where they or their dependencies are stored. So yes, it's not uncommon to see separate entries for VST2 and VST3 versions of the same plugin, assuming you installed both.

Bingo. This is how it usually pans out: you address the instrument that's causing the excessive peaks rather than trying to fix it in the overall mix. And, as you observed, it's quite often the kick drum that's the culprit. And yes, a compressor and/or limiter on the drums or kick track is the usual solution. Don't worry that shaving a couple dB off the kick might lessen its impact. There are ways to make sure the kick remains impactful even when peak-limited.

https://media4.giphy.com/media/KB8uPfGQTmm3YsgoXb/giphy360p.mp4?cid=ecf05e47sacvqwzb8forz3vi70mood3998seobygnp6evfi5&rid=giphy360p.mp4&ct=v

Speaking of cool controllers, check out the gesture controller shown here starting at around 3:00 (skip the rest of the video, it's sleep-inducingly boring).

btw, my amp did finally arrive today. I might not have known, though, because they just dumped it at my back door. Fortunately, my grandson noticed it when he was sneaking out for a bong hit. I'd have thought they'd have required a signature. At least they dumped it at the right house - what a nightmare it would have been had they left it at the neighbor's.

That wasn't because of the new VST3 version. Those problems affected VST2, too. And Trilian, as well as Omnisphere. Fortunately, Noel came up with a fix.

Exactly. Which synth gets the data is determined by the MIDI channel/port alone. Assuming your MIDI data does not contain commands that only VST3 supports (e.g. per-note pitch bend), then it should react exactly the same as its VST2 counterpart. That goes for Omnisphere, too. VST3 can have multiple MIDI inputs, so if you made use of that feature (assuming Cakewalk supports it) you'd not be able to, say, swap out the VST3 version for the VST2 version.

So the NRPN events show up in the automation lane and the Event List, but they are not actually controlling the synth?

I'd guess probably not, since you're usually quantizing to a musical interval, not ticks. An eighth note remains an eighth note regardless of how many gradations there are between them.

I don't have a barn. Does a garage count? Although I've seen no evidence that virtual instruments get better with age. I just checked the Audio Modeling website to see if they have demos available. I saw no obvious link, but on my account page it does have a category named "trial/evaluation" that suggests they do. It might be worth contacting them to check. They're running a sale through August, btw. Note that the violin I've been talking up has been discontinued, superseded by Version 3, which I don't have. I can only assume that it's even better now than when I got it. Still trying to decide whether to upgrade - $90 for the solo strings bundle (violin/viola/cello/bass). I have all four, but really only use the violin regularly.

Which instrument are we talking about? Spitfire has 8 or 9 pianos. I ask because they have different conventions for different families of instruments, e.g. Kontakt-based, LABS series, Abbey Road One series. [EDIT] Nevermind, I figured out you're referring to the "Cinematic Soft Piano" for the LABS player. On my machine the main DLL is called "LABS (64 Bit).dll" and is located in \program files\cakewalk\vstplugins. Which should already be in your scan list. The LABS samples (that don't need to be in your scan list) are in \users\{user_name}\Spitfire\Spitfire Audio - LABS. All of the many LABS instruments' samples are in the same place.

Everybody's scan list eventually ends up being a bit messy, if they are compulsive instrument collectors (guilty!). I've got eight directories in mine, even though I go to a lot of trouble to keep my plugins organized. I let the installers decide where to put FX plugins since they're small, and only worry about where sample libraries go due to their size. I have lots of Spitfire stuff here and have never had to alter scan paths to accommodate them. Spitfire does give you the option to override the default destination, although it's common practice to place any files that are user-editable (e.g. presets, Kontakt instrument definitions) in %appdata%. That's a Microsoft requirement, being the only file location where the user is guaranteed unrestricted read/write/delete access. (btw, %appdata% is not in my scan list. The Spitfire Audio folder there contains only settings and installation files, no instrument executables.)

What's that you say? Not all Guitar Center employees are dedicated sales professionals anxious to meet your musical needs? I'm shocked. Next you're gonna tell me some of them don't know what they're talking about.

I'm impressed. How did you ever find the time to become creative and flexible with all those instruments? Heck, I didn't even know what "Bartok Pizzicato" was until it appeared in a string library, and still I had to look it up.

It's not just Musician's Friend, and it's not just UPS. Still waiting on an amp from Sweetwater via FedEx that was supposed to arrive last Friday. Watching the tracking page has been, um, entertaining. In one leg, my package took 3 days to travel 17 miles. It has spent one or more nights in at least 8 different states. Fingers crossed it doesn't finally arrive and is damaged.