mettelus

But.. but... they include Guitar Rig 6 LE! What a weird "bundle" that is. Wow... A replacement neck is $679?? Don't but the guitar in pieces.

Check your sound devices. HELIX added a "HELIX" output sound device to my machine during the firmware update. I went into Windows sound options and disabled that device to bring things back.

The HELIX Floor update was 30 minutes (firmware). Native is a software update, so went fast. The firmware update did not overwrite patches, so the new ones will only get installed with a factory reset as @simon mentioned above. Be sure to backup first, and then you can then move patches/setlists with HX Edit.

This update was truly massive. I didn't read the release notes till after the update... "IMPORTANT! The 3.50 update process may take 30 MINUTES OR MORE TO COMPLETE. This is totally normal, as it includes significant improvements to Helix Core and thousands of IR files." 30 minutes was about right. I never had a firmware update take so long in my life. Good timing since I put 10s back on my main guitar earlier this week after using 9s for a few years! I just got done kicking the tires on the update for a few hours and it is rather nice. I spent most of my time playing with amps and the Dual Block IRs (I pretty much focused on that feature) that I didn't have time to go through all the new stuff (yet).

Very nicely written OP there Helene. Merry (early) Christmas!

I just learned an interesting piece of trivia. The first person that came to mind was Tom Scholz for "hell no" to keyboards; that was sort of the claim to fame for Boston. Then I just saw from this site: "Boston’s beginnings go back to 1969 and a band headed by guitarist Barry Goudreau called Mother’s Milk. Vocalist Brad Delp and drummer Jim Masdea were joined by a recent MIT graduate, Tom Scholz on keyboards. The band didn’t last, but its members spent time in a homemade recording studio in Scholz’s basement recording demo tapes in hopes of making a new start." Never knew that, but makes more sense in a way. For me personally it is more about how everything fits, as with all things, rather than the instruments used.

I was just looking up "Friggin in the Riggin" a few days ago and there was a version with Muppets (scenes from Muppet Treasure Island as the video). I was rolling, but not sure how the person who posted it got away with it... had like 680K views!

Mick has had hip issues for a long time, so I was always astounded by what he endured to just perform, let alone all that he did. I have nothing but respect for him. For the 40 years he has put in, he definitely deserves to remain a band member.

True, Melda forces the 32-bit versions to mitigate people not knowing which version they need. They are installed but not in my scan path (and too lazy to delete them each update).

I got one of these a few years ago for Kontakt libraries and use it for temp projects as well. Never had any issues with mine either.

Holy cow, I didn't even know they made electric stings that heavy! Those are heavier than common acoustics (on the low end), and a 25.5" scale to boot... You could go bow hunting for wild game till the lighter guage comes in ?. Definitely adjust that truss rod.

I feel for you. That is nuts. What is nuttier is that THEY recommended you bypass their own protocols to get another channel! If they suggested that to you, then they obviously realize the system is broken. Or... On a side note (possibly related)... Google took a hit from advertising losses last quarter, so there may be an underlying cost-cutting measure you are competing with. If they shave off costs from enough little guys, it helps their bottom line. Since they owe you money, I would suggest filing an FTC complaint. FTC does not respond to or investigate one-off complaints, but if enough complain about the same thing, they do. If what you are experiencing is affecting many, I would consider researching that variable, but be wary of them taking down any video on such since they own the sites.

This really should be the case, but there is no revenue stream from a "one and done" scenario. iZotope has traditionally marketed $250/year for updates. Many plugins have been "complete" for years and are still useful/functional. Audio DSP has been mature for a long time, so there is not a lot to add to things that were focused to begin with.

Many force you to install VST2 and VST3 versions as well, so I have "dupes" from that. A funnier topic would be "What plugins do you own that you never friggin use?"... that one would drive a large spike in the GAS bubble.

Have you tried rendering your MIDI file as an audio file? MIDI is simply note data, so a player is needed to make the sounds. Windows will do this, but "audio" effects need to be done to audio, and will not work on MIDI data. My hunch is that PowerPoint is simply handing all the data to the player. Alternatively, you could edit the MIDI file prior to using it with PowerPoint (depends how much editing you are doing in PowerPoint).

I am not sure why, but opening those sites always makes me cringe. The Les Paul style was one I had never owned, so I grabbed a kit from StewMac last year (they are back on sale again). The issue with Gibson's is that modifying them devalues them, but one can customize a kit to their heart's content. Many of these are simply the finish, and the kits come unfinished. The only non-kit parts I replaced were to install a roller bridge and Super Distortion in the bridge position. With a little elbow grease and patience (with complex finishing can take a few weeks to complete), they become one-of-a-kind.

That is my concern, TBH. UJAM Carbon was either a freebie (or dirt cheap) a couple years ago, but I never took to it. The sounds are sort of baked in, so you lose the flexibility of tailoring the sounds a bit. This is my bigger concern for VSTis that are "too focused." For VSTis, the articulations and samples that it comes with could be everything, since you can used those (clean) samples to feed any FX chain you choose. I have not used Heavier7Strings in so long that I forgot how complex that VSTi is. I do remember playing with that a few years ago and when you expose all the key switches, it is nuts. Probably the nicest thing is what you will want to tweak most is right on the UI, but they were very thorough with what they did. Pick attacks, muting, harmonics, doubling effect, sensitivity of each string (rare to see this one), and the algorithms they used to replicate realism are all impressive. If you expose the key switches like they did with Cubase, you can manipulate the engine as easily as they did in their videos. I need to put a full controller back on this system to get full use out of it manually, but as I was playing with that again this morning, I realized how much I appreciate what they did. I think they have a trial for it, but I cannot seem to find it (maybe need to create an account). Again, that one is overkill for chugging, but if you get into composing leads and want to use a VSTi for those, it will work in that regard as well (plus has the sampled low end). Quick edit: Once I found the trial version I remember the raucous the audio insert caused! The VSTi didn't go silent (as most do), but had an annoying wave file of people cheering. I think that was removed, but the trial is still the same it was 5 years ago (posted 25 OCT 2017).

Honestly, I would try transposing to start with and not worry for a new VSTi (I think you can do everything that one is doing with what you have now). You really have two hurdles... one being able to make the sounds (however clunky), and then streamlining your work flow to make it easier each time. My guy feel as you go, you are going to settle into a workflow focus. If the low end is going to be important down the road (I suspect it will be), getting a VSTi with samples of lower strings that you find easy to use will be your sweet spot. I would hold off on the "VSTi focus" and try what transposing will do for you for the time being. It is worth waiting, focusing on how you work, and then making one purchase you will use for years.... especially if that one VSTi can "do everything" for you.

Gotcha, someone did a Melodyne recording a while ago... riffing one string, then used Melodyne to change all of the notes. It worked. That is an option to get lower registers, but is quite clunky and not fast (especially when you want to edit). Inside a DAW you can record power chords and split them into clips and transpose to get the same effect on a full chord. When not straying too far from the original samples, they are not too bad. Going that route, you could work with chords (as clips of the proper length) and copy/paste those around as needed during composition.

They would both be overkill for chugging for sure! What you have now I bet would be sufficient, so it may be more work flow. Is there something you want to do that you feel you cannot achieve with what you own now?

How are you planning to build tracks? Are you working in a DAW? Because of the FX you can add inside a DAW, I am not sure if the VSTi would be as critical. In stand alone mode, VSTis have different FX included. For chugging, you could use a free VSTi and put a better FX chain on it and it might suit your needs. When focused inside a DAW, you can make your own FX chain regardless of VSTi. As long as the output from the VSTi is clean, you will get the same tone. A couple ways to think about what you want... if VSTi focused, you can save presets and be DAW-independent; conversely, FX chains would make you more VSTi-independent, so could focus on work flow, MIDI routing, etc. That said, for metal (which often wants the meaty low end), Ample Sound's Hellraiser (9-string), and Three-Body Tech's Heavier7Strings would be my two choices for metal work. The Hellraiser only has the bridge pickup sampled, but if I were to choose only one VSTi, I would use that, since it can be fed clean into any FX chain you want and has the most notes available. Heavier7Strings is built for metal work, so the interface and sound engine actually have switches right on the UI to play 5th/octaves (i.e., one-fingered power chords). The FX chains internal to both are very usable even from the presets alone. Both of those go on sale during the holidays. Quick edit: Both have a lot of key switches available, but Heavier7Strings has some very specific to metal (pick attack, mutes, harmonics, etc.). They do their demos in Cubase, but when you are sitting at a DAW, you can drive Heavier7Strings to do a lot of cool stuff.

That was very interesting. The end made me chuckle (tackle box for speakers, pickups and pedals)... not sure the tackle box idea would work for a pickup... that would make for one heavy guitar!

Jason sent me a reply with the same video that @MisterX posted above bookmarked at 308. as well as the pdf link @abacab posted (section 1.7.2 of https://www.amplesound.net/en/Guitar_Strummer.pdf). So, we did get the gist of everything. He also said that if there are other specific questions to reach out to the Ample Sound support team.

During the Guitar Pro 8 discussion, there was a video about LoopMIDI in there I took a look into. This video embellishes that a bit and discusses how to work with Guitar Pro 8, but allow the sounds to be played by 1) Ample Sound standalone app, 2) Cakewalk by BandLab, and 3) Studio One 6. That discussion also went into where to get free *.gp files, and there are several. The one I used in the video came from https://www.theguitarlesson.com/guitar-pro-tabs/. If you link them to Facebook or Twitter, you can download right away, but if not, you need to wait for 20 seconds each time. Studio One 6 was a bit interesting in that adding an instrument doesn't have the same options as adding a controller, but you can set LoopMIDI to be the input to a controller even if that controller is not connected. Go figure. I hope this helps some folks.

I shot off a quick message to Jason asking him to chime in if he has a moment. Rather than chasing our own tails, he would be able to give a more defined focus on how to do this.