mettelus

The wood that was used by Stradivari was unique (from the Little Ice Age). This page has a quick summary of it, but there are other sources for this same topic as well.

Keep focusing your editing in the PRV. MIDI data captures note pitch, on/off data and note duration basically. If the VSTi (instrument) you are using has legato functionality, then overlapping notes will sound smoother, but that is dependent on what is playing the notes (not the MIDI data). If the durations are simply too short, you can elongate them in the PRV (drag the right edge out). For the robotic aspect, there are "humanize" functions (which may be hit or miss), but you can also turn off "snap to grid" and nudge notes to your taste. This is a common technique with guitar chords, since the pick doesn't hit each string at the same time (that sounds insanely robotic for a guitar), but rather a slight delay between them. Piano is the same in that the slight delay between notes is what the hand is actually doing. Don't have notes always landing perfectly on bar timing if you want it to sound realistic.

That USB is just to output from the unit (and edit parameters in the unit from a PC), it is not an audio interface. Per the manual "8. USB Jack The USB jack connects the RP500 to a computer and provides two purposes. First it is used to provide communication between the RP500 and the X-Edit editor librarian software. Second, it is used to stream four channels of audio (2 up / 2 back) to and from the computer when using the RP500 to record with the included Cubase LE4 recording software. Refer to the RP500 Software Installation Guide and Cubase LE4 online documentation on proper setup for this use." I have a couple predecessors and they function the same way. Are you trying to record events or use for hosting? For just hosting, a better bet is to get a decent PA system that can house the channels you may need. For recording, you could either take output from that (which will limit post-production drastically), or get an audio interface with enough channels (but would require some PA-like system anyway). Just so folks can understand your situation, what are you looking to do?

In addition to bouncing clips, which will create new clips of the size being used in the project, the easiest way to clean up things afterwards is to do a "Save As..." of a project and put it into a new folder. Check the "Copy all audio with project" and only audio in use by that project will be put into the new folder (the original files you started with will remain in the original folder which you can either archive or delete as the situation requires). For your situation, I would make a copy of your original folder first just in case, then open it, delete all content but one song, do a Save As for that song and close it (do NOT save the original project when closing). Rinse and repeat until all songs are in their own separate folder/project.

There is definitely a learning curve with everything new, that is for sure. SOP sat sort of idle for me for a long while until I forced myself to open it first when I sat down; some of the nuances in work flow are not obvious. I would suspect JRR will get more numbers for sale, but there are sales off and on anyway for SOP upgrades. The cheapest is typically before the next version hits.

Wow, were you logged in? The "upgrade from any professional" is $149.95 everywhere... even places like GC/MF. JRR just has the bonus discount.

Upgrades for Studio One are typically every 2 years, with a free (.5) version in between, so on a per annum basis is relatively cheap (even compared to some plugins). For those that came on with the SONAR debacle (SOP3), there have been a lot of updates (the majority of which hit by SOP5). I never looked into Sphere though (another option), since I have plugins to cover what I need beyond what SOP provides. SOP6 wasn't as impressive as 5, but covers everything before it. This particular quote has more impact than some realize, since updating decades-old code to conform to time now is not an easy task. The folks who started SO came from other DAWs, so they knew how to do it, but didn't need to deal with the coding hurdles from modifying existing code. I have only been able to bury SOP from third-party plugins, but even now that is difficult since it isolates offenders better without crashing the app out. As with everything, it is better to test run apps before getting excited about sales on things. If it fits your needs, then it is a good candidate to put on your radar. If you are not going to use it, it will probably fall off that radar on its own anyway.

Google makes money from people that pay them to promote products or by pointing you to videos laden with ads. If Google is not making money, they don't care much otherwise unfortunately. At least they mark paid promotions (today), but I did a simple search the other day that had 4 pages of them before legitimate hits! You have to be creative on keywords to get an accurate list more and more as time goes by.

Worst case scenario (if the VSTi outputs audio) is to route that to an AUX track and record it real time. There have been situations over the years where fast bounces do not function properly. Freezing should also work but sometimes backing out of that to edit performance has lost VSTi settings for some (always back up files before destructive edits just in case).

You can (sorta) future proof videos by simply saying this is how you did it, but the installer may change in the future (for things you can predict). Users can always search for the product name online at that point, and there is no guarantee they will remain available either. In 50 years, if someone happens across it, they may just see it as a quaint history lesson ?

I would recommend getting familiar with Standard before worrying about Advanced. Unless you actually are going to use the Advanced features specifically, Standard probably covers over 90% of what you will need long term.

Just to clarify, are there two guitars on that track (rhythm and lead)? If so, that is the primary hurdle due to frequency overlap, but time-based FX (delays, reverbs, etc.) tend to cause the most grief trying to separate things. If you hit a wall with it and want another to take a shot at it, shoot me a PM. I will not have time to sit until this weekend though.

This plugin requires a buffer that is base 2 (64, 128, 256, etc.) so won't function in StudioOne unless locked into one of those. I didn't worry about it when that error message popped up since it was free, but is worth noting for folks (there are three DAW settings that will cause it to fail, but I forget the other 2 offhand).

I forget now, is the original Z3ta included with CbB? In addition to the synth (instrument), that can also be inserted as an FX (can run the LFO on the incoming signal), which may be any other possibility. The automation lane mentioned above may be simplest though.

It didn't occur to me till I read this thread... wasn't Waves initially a HW-based FX system? I had to chuckle @bitflipper's comment about a case study... Harvard Business Reviews are rife with companies that buried themselves due to bad business decisions (some of the better ones are required reading for MBA's). In fact, one professor started his first class by saying, "I should be sitting on a yacht in the Caribbean, but my father ruined the company..." Turns out, that company had a stranglehold on mechanical switches for aviation (wouldn't trip under high g's), but when electronic switches were introduced he refused to adapt and weight (one of the driving factors to make anything go airborne in the first place) drove him out of business. Those who adapt to customer needs and change tend to excel, those who cannot tend to fail. DSP has long since matured, so there are not a lot of "new" things out there to begin with, yet some perpetuate products that were fine decades ago.

I cannot remember offhand exactly which, but MS and Adobe both had free text-speech readers. I think Google also has one embedded in their book reader app (forget the name now). Pretty sure they were all mobile apps as well (for hands free) rather than computer. Not used any of those more than in passing, and they will only work on certain file formats (by app). Capturing that would be another hurdle.

One thing not often mentioned with the Chord Track is you can also adjust both existing audio/MIDI to conform to changes made to the chord track (conform loops, adjust key, etc.). This was one reason I was skeptical with the EZKeys excitement. I gave a couple demos (grand pianos) a try, but bare bones they were lackluster. I ended up grabbing Scaler 2 instead. Melodyne and SO are more joined at the hip than anyone else I know of, why shifting audio around with the chord track is pretty seamless. The Projects page is another noteworthy feature for mastering and album compilation.

Another bit of sage advice... I think most of my wasted time (musically) falls into this bucket, especially for things I have and almost never use. It does have "somewhat" of a benefit in that after I have wasted that time, I will follow up with playing sans computer. Time is the one finite resource that we can exchange for many others (money, education, amusement, etc.) but can never be exchanged back. Tell that to a kid and they will give you the deer in the headlights look, so for them I often caveat that with "once you hit 40, that will make more sense to you..."

How many of the VST variants from MComplete did you install (that could be over 400 right there if you did them all)? Melda is good for GAS relief (especially FX). Every time something new (or "free") gets touted, I take a pause and think about if I already have it. Sage advice here... the enjoyment of how you spend your time is what matters most... I have spent many hours just playing without recording anything and never once felt like I wasted my time.

Therein lies much of the real challenge. Another point to keep in mind is that stem separation often defaults to five stems (some let you dig deeper). A "trick" here (especially if you want MIDI to drive a VSTi), is that the "audio quality" of that temporary stem can be destroyed for the sake of MIDI extraction. Example, aggressively removing harmonics, reverbs (high end), and inserting audio microscopes on fundamental frequencies. Audibly this now sounds like crap, but has very defined transients and frequencies for Melodyne to extract MIDI better (bake the changes into that temp stem so the CPU doesn't freak if you do an entire stem conversion). Even then you are going to need to edit the MIDI (velocities will be way off, but relative velocity might be good). For audio->midi conversion, aggressive EQ (always do this on a temp copy) can be your friend.

Side comment, since this was touched on and not sure what the OP is pursuing... There have been so many advances in things in the last decade that relying on an accurate MIDI file is almost a thing of the past, primarily because of Melodyne. In the old days the MIDI tracks would often need to be routed to an external VSTi (although using TTS-1 to initially separate it was a good choice) and you were totally locked in to the (in)accuracy of the MIDI creator; but nowadays you can run an original commercial copy through track separation (iZotope RX or Steinberg SpectraLayers) and then drag/drop those stems on a MIDI track to let Melodyne convert them. There is often a lot of touch up required afterward (further track separation, VSTi inserts, error corrections, etc.), but you also have the advantage of having the original commercial copy in the project to work against (I leave it as track 1 and mute/unmute as needed), and since that was your source, all tempo/key changes are retained in the audio->MIDI conversions (shift+drag clips to new lanes to preserve timing positions).

In addition to the above, tracks default to listening to all MIDI channels (MIDI Omni). When you start working with multiple MIDI tracks it is good practice to also set the input and output channels to specific numbers (1 through 16) so that they are paired accordingly (match output of intended source # to input of intended receiver #). You can also see that in the Track View (inputs/outputs) when the view is set to "All." It is difficult to easily trace MIDI routing in Cakewalk, so assigning channels will help you when you return to old projects so you can get back into the swing of things quickly. Another thing to consider when working is the Input Echo being activated or not. When off it only plays back what exists in the track already rather than also from input sources. Your "wavering voices" track already has MIDI data in it that it will play with the Input Echo (speaker icon to the right) off. Edit: Just noticed the bold quote at the bottom of the OP!

That would be a reason for sure. The pandemic put an end to "open mic" nights in this area, but we had a few bands that would set up their gear and let others use it. Not a lot would participate in that (so the band played most of the time), but it was awesome for playing a few songs and then going off to just socialize. Very laid back bunch of folks in one of those bands (Pat Martino gave the guy who ran it a guitar when he was recovering from a bout with cancer), but I am not sure if such a thing is really that common. I am in the boonies here, so most folks know each other at events like that.

+1, oddly enough I think I have used the Red Compressor more than any other compressor as well. It has a minimalist approach to it very much akin to a guitar pedal. There have been a few really nice apps that went to freeware at EOL. Riffstation is another useful one that comes to mind. Fortunately I downloaded that version when it was announced... I found out when updating software last year that the paid version cannot register itself anymore so the free version quickly solved that issue.

Can you expound on this? The only thing that comes to mind for me is that the installer used to not have options to unselect VST2, etc. But installation paths are choosable. As with most anything, directory junctions can bypass "set" installers so you can just let them go to defaults after the junctions have been made. I only get concerned for this with large installs, and Melda is by far one I do not care about (I own the MCompleteBundle, and the VST2 and VST3 folders are 21.2MB each... they are files updated per cycle). The sound packs are the only things HUGE; the plugins themselves are pretty lightweight. One benefit with the GUI that most do not consider is that it also makes the plugins less CPU-intensive. I totally stunned a guy once (sort of related to this) by saying "Are you interested in [making music] or playing a video game?" After that shock sunk in I said, "People who want to do things are unstoppable and focused.... they use the tools on hand and do great things. Those who don't really want to do things will find excuses or semi-related busy work to rationalize getting nothing done."