mettelus

After seeing all the numerous threads over the years of people struggling to perfect tracks, gain audiences, etc., this news piece shows it exists everywhere. Anecdote first... when in high school I saw a portrait that a girl had done of an elderly man's face for a competition. It was so detailed that it looked like a photograph and even had the pores in his nose. What shocked me most was that it was done in watercolor. Amazing talent. To contrast this... news article from yesterday... "Mondrian painting could be auctioned for more than $50 million" Just makes me wonder how the folks who walk up to a wall with a crate of spray paint cans and do realistic murals feel when they see articles like this...

From my perspective, the defaults Rebelle comes with are adequate; there is quite a bit of versatility in how brushes can be adjusted for each paint type. As some paints are thick, the paper won't affect much, but it could with water colors or thin applications. The additional items can also be purchased later on as well if needed.

Rebelle 5 was a $50 upgrade IIRC, so this is a great deal. Rebelle got its start with watercolor, so its realism is incredible and pretty much the best out there... the water content and bleed is crazy accurate (blowing on the canvas, drying it, etc). It expanded beyond watercolor over time, and has a significantly less RAM requirement than Painter, but I have shifted to Painter more due to features I use often (picture-to-painting, cloning, color tinting, etc.). Rebelle is more of a realistic painting program where you have a canvas and a truckload of tools to paint with. As with all things, check out the trial version if interested; and this is another program that a stylus gets the most out of, even more so than Painter IMO because the brush angle in Rebelle can be critical to paint application (it is that realistic).

"She" will never run out of breath, screw up her dance routine, grow old, or have to suffer from plastic surgery woes either! 100 years from now she can still look the same and sing whatever genre is en vogue then. If only Disney had thought of this, we might be attending Minnie Mouse concerts, and she would already have decades under her belt ?

I think you answered your own question and spent the rest of your post confirming it ? If the internet exploded and you never got another update ever again, CbB as it is now will exceed your needs. As with most complex programs, focus on what you want to do and learn that; it is easy to get overwhelmed/frustrated to try to learn too much at once.

I agree with this. You will probably be asked to go through an edit cycle after submission, so I would recommend thinking about your hours for initial delivery and cost/hour for editing (this will also make them think about edits since they will not be free). Definitely scope out the work you need to do and be reasonable with the delivery aspect, and agree with them on an editing rate fee, and get that in writing. In the government contracting realm, "firm fixed price" for R&D is a recipe for disaster. For companies unfamiliar with this, they can end up footing the completion on their own dime, hence the cautionary advice. As they are easy to talk to, be open and honest in discussions with them. Trust your instincts.

Unfortunately, Corel is pretty good about stripping older versions off web sites. I cannot find the trial version for 2022, but 2023 has a trial version available. For those that have never had Painter before, that would be an option to try it out before buying... you would want to check brush performance on your system for sure. There are also a lot of videos online showing it in action. Some features are similar to PaintShop Pro, and some brushes are common with Particle Shop (this is typically a freebie with PaintShop Pro, but someone could confirm if that is included).

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.