mettelus

Not sure if you are new with Melda or not, but to re-iterate Brian's point (both above and below), updates to plugins are free for life and if you own a bundle that a new plugin is included with you get those for free (the Complete Bundle includes everything, both past and future). Melda put a lot of forethought into the modularity of their plugins so there is a lot of commonality between them. Cross talk/awareness between plugins exists to a certain level, but that would be awesome if beefed up over time. Some get hung up on the "look" of the GUI, but as far as processing power their plugins are top notch (the fact you only need to buy them once is a huge perk that is very rare in the software industry... making money from onboarding new customers is totally different than milking your loyal base, which tends to be the norm). My problem with this is I tend to see new things "in passing" but then never delve into them deeply enough to remember what they were. More than once I have had a few months pass before I realized what the new stuff was exactly (shame on me, really).

+1, the real issue with EQs is they are great for removing frequency content, but fall short for content that is vague or not even present. Pianos unto themselves are incredibly versatile due to their designs so they can be a good choice to fill gaps in other stringed instruments. When you have two different pianos in play you pretty much have all the bases covered! For almost 20 years, I left the original (not a great pickup by any means) pickup in the neck position on my main when I replaced the bridge with a PAF Pro just because when those two were melded together it had a dramatic effect on tone that you could not get from either solo. When I went with a Super Seven Switching design I shifted them to D Activator Neck/Bridge... although there is versatility in the switching setup, the tone differences are not as profound as when the PUPs "don't match." The best "mismatch" I can get is with the neck coils in a parallel configuration and the bridge coils in series (then the two HBs in series... my "default"), just because those PUPs sound so similar. Every guitar that has separate tone/volume knobs per pickup since I have left the neck stock, but beefed up the bridge to get that effect back (that PAF Pro is now in the bridge on a 335 and is jet black, so the guitar looks like it has a hole in it instead of a pickup at a distance).

You can get some nice results with layering. There are quite a few A/B-style Kontakt libraries that focus on melding two instruments in this way (two different instruments typically for the A and B). One weird epiphany I hit on several years ago was recording a vocal track. I didn't quite like a condenser take, but then didn't quite like a dynamic take either. I ended up testing runs with both mics simultaneously and layering that result similar to the OP, and the results were far better than I anticipated. It was much simpler to work with the content I wanted from each mic that way. Decades ago, I used to run two very different dynamics at once (live) through mixers (they were literally taped together) so I figured the dynamic/condenser combo wasn't that far of a stretch from what I had already done long ago and was worth the try.

Never heard of them, but that is a bit over the top. Another thing to bear in mind with ANY internet/international company is who they are and where they are located. If something falls into litigation and is based in a country that doesn't care (or if they have NO assets in the country filing the lawsuit - ByteDance does have TikTok (for now)), it can be a dead end even without them forcing the the user to sign an agreement. International litigation and enforcement can be a very slippery slope, so always be careful with whom you do business with.

In addition to this, not all consumer units have the same grade of shielding internal to the unit. Another thing to check is any wireless/electronic devices in the vicinity of the controller (even cell phones). Consumer grade products vary with the shielding they have internally (some shielding designs are much more expensive). As you step up into "non-consumer" products that can get intense... imagine a piece of gear the size of a package of hot dogs that costs $50K.

Not sure if this affects anyone else, but it seems certain VST3 files cause Scaler 3 stand alone to either hang or crash. It is listed in the known issues for Scaler 3.1. For me the solution to this (I was getting an unresponsive GUI in stand alone mode) was to simply rename the "C:\Users[NAME]\AppData\Roaming\Scaler 3\ Scaler 3.settings" file. Although there are clean install instructions at the bottom of that known issues page, renaming that one file solved it (I assume that file records the VST scan, but not sure).

Below is a pretty good, quick overview video that is embedded at the top of this page. One thing that is not mentioned is that oversampling is by plugin (not the overall DAW), so it allows higher detail processing internally. In many cases this is not overly noticeable, but in situations with older, lower-quality samples going in this can have a very audible result. This also depends on what that plugin is actually processing/doing. As mentioned, bear in mind that oversampling adds stress to the CPU. Since he showed Melda plugs in that video, I think that most of their plugins now support 1024x oversampling (which is crazy high). I don't think I have ever used anything over 8x, with 4x being the most common choice if used. Many plugin vendors have oversampling embedded into them, so it is certainly not required to put it on the DAW to achieve this.

I think this is the real differentiator. Even before AI, I would typically bucket folks into "live" or "studio" (aka, post production) bins. DAWs just made post-production simpler and more accessible, and AI will streamline that process, but (good) live performance will always be at the top of the pecking order IMO. Shifting gears a bit... back in the day, a student that turned in a paper that seemed out of character could be checked for plagiarism (Google helped with that). AI tools just make that checking harder, and is not "creativity" but sheer indolence. Even lawyers have been caught doing this; turning in court documents that reference non-existent case files. Paying someone to be lazy goes well beyond my level of tolerance, but some instances even cross the line into legal ramifications.

+1 to this, also check your Master Outputs are correct. There was a similar post recently where that was the issue. I am curious now if you run IKM TR5 in stand alone mode to different outputs (i.e., why would inserting a VST(i) cause the Master Outs to change)?

This was sort of mentioned above, but any registration associated with the TH line should be done through Overloud (support link here), not Cakewalk. Have you tried reaching out to them directly? Overloud was one of the few vendors who bent over backwards to support the SONAR refugees during the great Gibson debacle (even unlocking the Cakewalk-specific plugins for us). Their support team is top notch... I recommend reaching out to them directly and explaining your situation. You most likely have an account with them already if you registered TH3, but your situation is one I am sure they are aware of (the Cakewalk-specific versions "vanished"). Of the few times I have touched base with them, issues were resolved in less than a day with a single email.

Boy, I admit "white pine" stuck out to me initially, but then I thought, "Alder is one of the softer hardwoods, so is white pine really that far of a stretch??" I have played with enough unseasoned white pine over the years, that I tend to think of that rather than the times when I have pulled seasoned white pine out and realized how hard it had become. Thanks for posting that video (very nice)! If you hadn't posted that I might have blown off "white pine" without even thinking about it @Rain I am glad things averted disaster! When I saw the SG comment that just made me cringe!

^^^^ Being new this step probably tripped you up (it does for many). Like a few other drum instruments, Session Drummer comes up with no default kit loaded... sure the GUI is there, but the kit is actually empty (no sounds). Just to reiterate the obvious, MIDI itself is simply note data (cannot hear anything without a virtual instrument to play those notes). Most virtual instruments let you click on the GUI (either virtual keyboard, kit pieces, or even a play/preview button), so you can test the instrument before you get into composing.

It does Because of the fuller sound a piano produces (multiple strings per note), this "trick" can be used to fill out otherwise thin VSTis. Same notes on a piano (essentially layered), but at a significantly lower volume (and maybe tweak the attack to match the instrument you are embellishing, or just use a "soft" piano). Pianos are very versatile to add frequency content without being obvious when desired.

+1 to the end product is what matters. Frequency masking is your friend in that case, as the louder (original) piano track will get more focus by the listener. Another thing you can try in a track bleed scenario is make a copy of that piano track, phase invert it, and knock the gain down to match the bleed part on the vocal track. That should cancel out most of the bleed (may need to adjust timing on it a smidge), then you can bounce both those 2 tracks to a new one and use Melodyne as previously.

Can you explain this a little more, please? At first read this came across as "audio ducking" to me, where one audio source is compressed to allow the other to be heard. If this is the case, that is not controlling the MIDI on the other track but rather the audio via a side-chained compressor on the audio output (the input to that side-chain is the controlling track, which is your case is the guitar).