mettelus

Yeah... don't install that, it is a waste of time and a pain to delete. If you need a zip utility that the OS cannot do for you, 7-Zip is still free.

This is actually a very good deal. I have not seen this drop for a couple of years, and Corel does this for "last year's version" to promote upgrades going forward. Painter is the hardest one to on-ramp into (except for when it appears in this promotion), and has the most expensive upgrades as well (typically $150, then drops to $75ish). AfterShot Pro has been a $20 upgrade forever (one time), and VideoStudio Pro/PaintShop Pro are typically coupled together for around $50 upgrades (each year). For those that do not own these versions already, $30 for them is a great option. With the features included in these versions you may never need to upgrade them. Caveat to this... the newer versions of Painter and PaintShop Pro are fairly memory intensive (recommended 16GB of RAM for Painter IIRC) and take longer to load than older versions (especially if you have addons/plugins), but have had some nice features added in the past couple of years. It is also recommended to have a stylus input for these if you want to get the most out of them (a mouse will do a lot of things, but the precision of a stylus will make use a lot easier, especially for freehand drawing). Quick Edit: When this dropped in 2020, it basically only included Painter 2020 and CorelCAD 2019. The AfterShot Pro, VideoStudio Pro, and PaintShop Pro were added, but CorelCAD dropped. I have actually gotten some decent use from CorelCAD from various decking projects, but got that 2020 bundle because the minimum on-ramp into Painter at that time was $225 (for someone who has never owned a copy).

Thanks for the confirmation. I seem to remember you saying the free version was still posted online.

OMG, that is SO perfect!! "Hey, honey, guitars are like shoes. Make sense now??"

Not sure if this was posted previously, but wanted to see if someone could verify. I popped open the paid version of RiffStation and it asked me to register. I typed in info, and it doesn't seem the buttons are working (i.e., finally disconnected from the server?). The fix was simple, I downloaded the free version (twice) a while ago, so simply uninstalled the paid version and loaded the free version in its place. I seem to remember someone (@abacab?) saying the link to the free version is still available, so this is more an FYI to those with the paid version if they didn't download the free version yet.

Thank you! Not gotten to test this out yet, but installed the updates.

I use the free version of Macrium Reflect for imaging. I only image the O/S drive every couple months. All of the data drives, and data on C, I backup with xcopy and robocopy batch files. Upside is those run quickly after the first pass, but the downside is you have to specifically exclude junctioned directories or they will drill right into the other drives and backup files already backed up elsewhere. Macrium Reflect stops at the junction points (and my C drive is riddled with them), so the images are roughly 110GB and take roughly 15 minutes to restore.

My reason for junctions has been to keep my OS drive small for imaging purposes. In most cases (samples and other related content), they work without any issues. When they are in a program/dll path is where they can get flaky (break on installs and uninstalls), but Melodyne caught me off guard. Oddly enough, Melodyne worked fine until I scanned plugins, so the detail of that plugin path having a junction in it took it offline on me. It wasn't until I specifically asked about that junction on the second bout that I got the, "Yeah, don't do that." It is the only plugin in that folder that fails though (when junctioned).

Sage advice... this is just what I need to practice ? Wait... does it matter if the notes are in the same key though??

I never really thought about not understanding Klaus Meine till the karaoke scene in "Role Models." When I saw "Last night was shaking and pretty loud" I had that "oh!" moment. Not sure he can be faulted though, since his German accent is thick. Enunciation and singing do not always pair well. I am still not sure if I know all the words to "Smells Like Teen Spirit," but a classmate was singing that in college and my reaction was "those lyrics don't even make sense!" Wierd Al's version pretty much sums up my opinion of that one...

This is more of an FYI, but I junction big folders to get them off my C drive. I had done this with the C:Program Files/Common Files/VTS3 folder a long time ago, but Melodyne 5.2+ has issues with this. It will run in stand-alone mode, but not inside a DAW. Because of this I updated Cakewalk to verify errors thrown. I had to chuckle afterwards... to fix the issue in Cakewalk is simply to manually "Rescan Failed Plugins" No muss, no fuss. In SO5 it is significantly more painful (suggested solution is to move most of the settings folder and piecemeal repair that) - it works, but not simple at all. A quick shout of appreciation @Noel Borthwick for how elegant the repair is inside Cakewalk, as well as the additional failure popup (Cakewalk throws 2 at you). Some programs do react adversely to directory junctions (Adobe and Corel specifically), but Melodyne 5.2+ does as well, so do not junction the VST3 folder. For those who do not know junctions, it is probably best if you forget you read this.... [Jedi hand wave]... "This is not the thread you are looking for."

Caveat to that above video... I remember downloading the audio in that way back when and the frequencies were not accurate (high end at all), plus the guy is talking over them. A better test to try for yourself is to add MOscillator (part of Melda's FreeFXBundle) to an empty audio track, wear headphones to isolate each ear, and adjust the frequency in the upper right of the GUI. You can further isolate by panning MOscillator to only one ear (helps when one compensates the other). By default, higher frequencies have less power, so volume will drop off as frequency increases, but you will reach a point where you cannot hear it regardless of volume. I am not sure how the real test is run... i.e., which frequencies and dB level for used for each tone for an actual "hearing test"... I think jacking up 14KHz to 120 dB is probably cheating!

Is something that will get us all if we live long enough. The curve at the 1:55 mark is the average for high-end roll off. I am still above the curve but the OP made me realize there have been situations where I wish I had hearing aids so I could take them out ?

The sounds are not the greatest in GP, but some are recoverable with certain FX. Best bet is to compose and use the file to feed a VSTi that is adequate (i.e., edit in a DAW). A lot comes down to your preferred work flow. There are a truckload of good free VSTis out there, some only need proper FX applied to make them more than adequate.

GP was historically $99 for long stretches, so bear that in mind as well. I initially got it to create/edit inputs into AmpleSound instruments. As mentioned above it has its own idiosyncrasies, but is useful for what folks have said already.

Gives you that old American muscle car feel... "Don't stop, don't steer." 143 mph without brakes isn't the smartest idea... plus the first rock in the road that gets hit is going to make the ride even more exciting.

LOL, all the time. Very appropriate post since a couple days a song went through my head, and I am singing the damn thing making lyrics up for the tune. Without the lyrics you cannot even look it up. I am pretty sure the first three words are the title (also the chorus), no music with the first use... "I am [third word sounds like ah-mean, two syllables]." No friggin' clue what that third words is. Tried to look that up and finally realized I shouldn't be singing anything I don't know the words too anyway ?

Not sure if this was ever shared here, but at the start of the pandemic Mike offered refunds for people economically impacted. I forget the exact details of that now, but it was definitely one of those "above and beyond" moments.

Hi Jason, I just wanted to drop a huge kudos to you guys for something seemingly trivial, yet impressive. I do not come into the forums as much these days, but was just going through emails and got one directly from Yao about the Erhu release. It has been a couple years or more now that I had mentioned sampling the Erhu after I spent some time with a gentleman in a park in Beijing. I am not sure if the email was a coincidence (I have a truckload of filters to keep my inbox clean), but that email went straight to my inbox, so I was sitting here looking at that and thinking, "Huh, ain't that something?" Not only did you make the library but let me know. THAT is just incredibly impressive! Just in case this is a coincidence, take credit for it. I love you guys anyway ?.

OMG. The first 5 seconds made me laugh. I have never seen a dog do that before.

For basic tasks I feel this should be the goal of any software. The manuals these days are not always the most user friendly and some are just plain massive in size, plus a new user might not even know the proper term for what they want to do (so cannot look it up anyway). YouTube videos that are short and to the point have closed this gap in some ways, but they are not often the most searchable, and people tend to meander when making them (playing back at double speed helps, but still... scripting productions has fallen by the wayside due to the ease of post-production). Case in point (manual size)... I was looking at upgrading DaVinci Resolve for 4K+ video work, so downloaded the manual first... 3625 pages! Applications where you need to invest 100+ hours just for basic functions need to rethink GUI, include interactive help features (which can be toggled on/off), or even enlist a new user and watch them use it to see what they want to do with things they are looking at. Some actually do this, but it is not very common. Melda is another example (non-intuitive features)... very powerful plugins, but once you go into Edit screens, not everything is intuitive or goes way too deep. MDrummer has a randomization setting buried in the settings (on by default) that is a nuisance... If someone is building a track by firing off MIDI blocks of bars (pretty common), they are probably not going to want those MIDI notes to randomize as they are working in a live playback scenario.

Meh, barring future OS changes that can break existing versions, a lot of perpetual software on the streets today is more than adequate for years to come. As time goes by, the "new features" embedded into software gets less and less enticing. There is a very valid point with GUI (simplicity) and being "user friendly"... when opening a powerful program to do its most basic function, it shouldn't require a lot of effort to do this; but this is where many applications fall short.

Since you posted this in your edit... everyone is an indefinite (singular) pronoun, which takes a singular verb.

The reviews say the pickups are good, which is sort of surprising but great news for this model (335s are the hardest pups to change than any other guitar). Same price I got mine for 20+ years ago. Only issue I have ever had is the head is so big it wants to dive down with a normal strap so need one with more friction to prevent that.

Even with the speed advantage of SSDs (especially reads), a 7200 rpm HDD is perfectly fine for audio, so you can mix or match to your taste. The only real issue with SSDs is that when they go, they tend to catastrophically fail. I did have my C drive throwing odd errors and imaged that back to a larger replacement without issues. In hindsight I was lucky it didn't simply die, and I have never yet had an SSD fail. Conversely, HDDs typically give you a heads up well in advance that they are failing (often noise from excessive seeking), and are more "permanent," provided they are not near powerful magnets. I keep one HDD in the machine for data and images. All data from the other SSDs on the machine is also synced to an external HDD. Bottom line, neither are "bad," but it is good to know the pros/cons of each so you can tailor your backup strategy.