mettelus

With being new, importing and tempo mapping audio might be more of a challenge. Joe's recommendation of using default instruments would allow you to do much of the work in the MIDI realm. The Studio Instruments that come with CbB cover most of the bases (soft synths), so you can sketch out a lot of material fairly quickly once you get the hang of things. The other advantage to MIDI is you can replace the soft synths the MIDI is driving at will, so sketching with something that doesn't sound "perfect" can be resolved later on (even collaborating with others can be helpful for this, since you may not own a soft synth you would prefer but someone else does). Working with MIDI, the Piano Roll View (PRV) will become your best friend. Drum beat creation is simpler there, and many of the editing tools allow you to modify your work as notes, rather than as printed audio (which can be trickier, depending). For composition, MIDI tends to be quicker in some respects, then you can flesh out audio tracks as the song structure takes shape. There is no defined method to do things, so play around (and ask around) with things you specifically want to achieve. Many of the folks here have been around for years, and it is incredibly rare to not find someone who can answer a question. Sometimes it is as simple as knowing the term to search for. Another resource that came to mind that you may find useful is a tutorial set from SONAR X2. It was called SWA Complete SONAR X2 and was made freely viewable on YouTube (9 hours of stuff); and the vast majority of it is applicable. Unfortunately, the chapters have no titles, but ShellstaX (from the old forums) posted them here. The nice thing about those is that they are structured by topic, so they are in more bite-sized chunks.

Does the track sound okay and just "look" flatter? If you expand the height of that track, there is a zoom on the left edge of the waveform section. You can expand the waveform visually there (I forget what it defaults to, but you can click and drag the displayed dB level vertically). As far as mixing, yes it is same as any audio track. In fact, most just add FX to that track without "printing" it first to allow them to adjust the MIDI performance. This means the soft synth needs to run each time to get its audio output, but may be preferred depending on the situation. In cases where the CPU is getting taxed (some soft synths are CPU heavy), you can also "freeze" a track which is similar to what you just did (makes an audio file from the MIDI/soft synth and disables the soft synth to free up the CPU).

AAX... What dat?? ?

I just ran through the mechanics, and part of it may be in how you are setting up/recording the instrument track. Try this and see if it works for you... Right click in the left pane of the Track View and select "Insert Instrument..." (this "instrument" is the soft synth I mentioned earlier) In the "Add Track" popup, it defaults to TTS-1 as the Instrument, and Omni as the input. Leave those as is for now, but expand the "Advanced" area at the bottom and choose "Split Instrument Track." What this does is separate the instrument into its MIDI (input) and soft synth (audio output) components. Select "Create" to close that. TTS-1 will open and you will have two tracks, the audio output (icon with MIDI port and keyboard) and below that the MIDI track (icon of only a MIDI port). The Arm (Record) buttons in those tracks are independent, so can record the audio, MIDI, or both. Arm both tracks and play the keyboard to ensure you have sound from the TTS-1. Hit the Record button on the transport (at the top), and record a bit. You should see the upper track recording an audio waveform, and the lower (MIDI) track light up after the first note is played. Stop the transport. That upper track is recorded audio, which I think is what you were seeking? If that works... You can delete the clips in the tracks of what you just recorded (select the clip contents and use the delete key to delete them). Next select your MIDI track from previously (the one you asked about earlier with no audio), and shift-drag (shift preserves the timing ) that MIDI into the lower instrument track (the MIDI track). Arm the upper TTS-1 (the audio) track only, then hit the record button on the transport (top of window). As it plays the MIDI, the audio waveform will record at the top. Play it through till the end, and stop. That top track is now an audio file.

Just to make sure (I am not sure how new you are so do not take offense), MIDI data is simply note information (no audio), so to be able to hear it, you will need to output that MIDI track into a "soft synth," which takes in MIDI and outputs audio. That soft synth is an important middle man to the process. When you record MIDI, that is all you will get (MIDI), but you can then bounce that information to another track (with it being played by a soft synth), which will create an audio track of the performance. You can also create an Aux Track listening to the soft synth, which will allow you to record the soft synth output (real-time). When you record MIDI, you can use that to drive any soft synth (so you can change just the instrument on the synth without affecting performance), so "just recording MIDI" is not a bad thing. Did you use an "Instrument Track" when you recorded your performance, or were you listening to the keyboard output? Based on what you are doing you may want to research "instrument tracks" to get a better feel for how they work.

Frequency masking is what you are dealing with (when sounds compete in the same frequency, just a couple dB advantage in one will make the other(s) lose focus). You do not need to be overzealous with this, so in a live situation a few dB might do the trick. You also might not need to HPF, when a -6 dB shelf may suffice (depending on lower end mud from the guitar), or you can use a combination. Dynamic EQs (where you can lower guitar frequencies based on what the bass is dishing out) is another option, but this is not a must. As far as the "90Hz"... if you jack up the Q on a parametric EQ, this will give you an "audio microscope" that lets you find where the meat of an instrument begins (by adjusting frequency of the "microscope"). Depending on how you are set up, this can vary, but is where you want your shelf/HPF to cut into the signal. As far as the mixing part, if you have 10 minutes this video from 2010 runs through a lot of mixing information in nice detail. It is Dan Worrall doing a promotion for FabFilter Pro-Q, but what he discusses can be done with any plugins. He actually discusses both of the above in the first minute of the video.

Yeah, that was what I was alluding to initially... you would *think* their own media division would actually write a review of the program rather than link some old feature. But then again, the "review" for SO is also just a bunch of links (4 pages of them), with the newest being May 2019 as well.

Um... that "Read our full review here" link for CbB is a link to an article from 21 May 2019 titled "Cakewalk by BandLab adds support for ARA 2 in latest update"???

The Windows/Installer folder is a protected folder, so will not typically be on people's radar. I do images monthly, so as that image file began to grow, I took a closer look at the C drive. I use junctions quite a lot (not a solution for this particular folder), so after the Windows/Installer folder crept up above 20GB, I began researching in more detail. Because of the particular status of this folder, I wanted to give folks some insight on what I have found to be the most elegant solution (leaving it in place, but identifying what is in it and why). There is some info for this folder online, but solutions such as moving the contents is not elegant since you need to move them back for certain installs/uninstalls and you cannot readily identify what programs the files are for. Creating a junction actually breaks the ability for some (msi) installers to work, so that is messy as well. The simplest path for me was the following: First, how big is it? Although you can show/hide protected folders in Windows Explorer, this becomes a pain doing it each time. I use TreeSize Free (run as administrator), and in that application Home->Select Directory->C Drive. The tree defaults to biggest to smallest, and expanding the "Windows" element will probably have the Installer folder listed at the top. I saw a post of a person complaining theirs had gotten to 90GB, but 20GB was enough for me. When all was said and done, mine is still at 12.5GB, with DaVinci Resolve being the biggest offender (at 1.42GB). Second, what is in it, and why? There is a utility specifically focused on the Windows/Installer folder called PatchCleaner. This has two useful functions. First is the obvious one that it will find orphaned installers and allow you to move them to another location (another drive is preferred). Although this gets some, it barely put a dent in what was in there (a mere 200MB for me). However, when you run that program, in the upper right there is a "details..." link next to the "files still used." That pops up a list of what is in the directory by owner, so clicking the top of the "File Size" column twice, you can get a listing of the files largest to smallest. If you click on a file, the "Product Details" in the lower right will help clarify what it belongs to, and you can decide from there. The eye-opener for me was that numerous upgrades had duplicate listings, some not only for the program (old version left in place), but for their additional content (duplicates, but tied to different versions). From there I went in and uninstalled previous versions of things I never use anymore (Corel was the biggest offender for me, but there were others), but there seemed to be a common pattern of upgraded items having more than one file in the list (whether it be the previous version's installer, or duplicate content files). Not all programs put hefty files in the Installer directory, but those that do are the ones to be aware of. I didn't go beyond files smaller than 300MB in size, but the ones bigger than that got scrutinized. I hope this can be of help to some folks. I have 530 programs installed but try to keep C drive images to 100GB or less. When images start creeping above that, I go into create junctions, but junctions do not work on this particular folder, and this folder won't be obvious to most unless you actually go looking for it.

Wow, I guess I haven't checked for a while; I had 6 things to install/update but found out you can do them all at once (yay for that app updates). 12.1GB of LABS stuff (so far)... this has really grown since it all started.

Back in the hands of the people who care most is never a bad thing... This is all new to me, so I have no knowledge of history but been having a lot of fun with things. Odd turn of events for me... are you familiar with Reallusion? Corel (of all people) had "Crazy Talk" (LEGACY product - you do NOT want this, since Cartoon Animator 4 has everything it does) in their store, but that made me go take a look at Reallusion. The 3D stuff (iClone and Character Creator) piqued my interest, but found out quick that I needed to learn Blender to make props. Not necessarily terrible, but certainly not a quick path to anything. After a couple weeks of this I went back to look at their 2D Cartoon Animator 4 in more detail, and looks like they stole the bones (literally, they added the same bone layouts) from MOHO for their last upgrade. I did not get the LEAP (hand control) package (yet, but their 50% off sale goes through 4 JAN), but did get the bundle with the Face3D tracker, and that little gem is awesome (tracks your face on a webcam to record animations). They are constantly making it easier and easier to just create on a computer... just made me respect the Disney animators of old manually flipping through frames, when today you can do what took them months in "real time" and lip sync audio to boot. Unreal what you can do these days...

I am glad I decided to steer clear of Waves way back when. Just reading these threads gives me a headache trying to understand them at times.

Back when the MPB/MPS all started it was around $400 to upgrade from a standard product. $335 is a great deal if you don't own anything. The yearly upgrade cost is often $150ish for those that own the most recent version.

You do get more discount for more, but the rate of the discount drops off dramatically for doing so. I posted this last year (to the day), showing how the discount works. It also does not take into account the member discount if you already own AS products, so be sure to add things to your cart while logged in.

I tried to purchase Realivox Blue through APD a year ago and got the out-of-stock after checkout. I wrote them and they said they did not carry the product (at that time) and refunded the purchase. It is possible they never picked Realivox back up. I ended up getting that directly from Realitone. Only option would be to write APD and see what they say.

I still cannot get into using Blender seriously, so cannot do justice speaking to it (again, this is just something I do for fun). From a 2D animation perspective, the way flash was structured (vector-based) made a lot of sense using key frames and letting the engine move objects between key frames. Moho seems to simply be an embellished version of flash, where the bone structure limits the motion to the joints defined, which streamlines the process a great deal. For me, a lot of the appeal comes down to ease of use. Investing hundreds of hours to properly use software that has a fairly rudimentary output is not high on my appeal list. Everyone's goals and opinions of things are different, so running the trial would be the best recommendation. The tutorial manual is almost as big as the user guide, and the stock projects they load (can shut them off) when you open the software run through most of the program nicely.

I picked this up a couple months back and was initially confused why SmithMicro was emailing me, but they also own EscapeMotions (Rebelle 3, Flame Painter 4, etc. ) from the Humble Bundle a while back. Moho 13 comes in two flavors (Pro and Debut) which are currently $239.99 and $35.99 (40% off), with the primary differences being animation resolution and duration. You can also trial Pro for 30 days if you just want to play with it. The software defaults to new stock animations being loaded, which is actually nice to see what the software is capable of. As I am new to using animation software, I did a bit of research beforehand, and Moho gets a lot of kudos for its bone structure modeling. Below is a one of the better comparisons where she walks through tiers of software used in the animation industry (she doesn't use Moho, but mentioned it). The high tier is professional with a hefty price tag, Moho falls in mid-tier, and Blender (free) is probably the best in the lower tier. Moho Pro will import Blender objects, but I have found this hit-or-miss, especially if the object is too complex. I was hesitant to mention the first pass because I had not really used it, but there is a good chance this will go on sale again for Christmas in case anyone is interested. For ease-of-use, this has been fun to play with and animates between key frames pretty much identical to the way flash does (for those familiar). The tutorials are nicely laid out with their own manual, and there are a lot of videos online discussing Moho specifically if interested.

Hmmm, this is sorta reminiscent of the SONAR Platinum Lifetime offer... I hope it doesn't end the same way.

Another point with this is that the MB (multi-band) aspect is the primary difference between some of the free FX and the paid-for FX. I many situations, a MB version isn't required for the desired result, so one can get a lot of mileage out of the MFreeFXBundle.

Presonus and Celemony have been developing hand-in-hand, and the Chord Track there is built upon ARA2. IIRC, I tested their Chord Track prior to updating Melodyne and the Chord Track was fully functional in Studio One Pro even without the Melodyne counterpart in place. Although that functionality leverages ARA2, what is necessary to make it functional seemed baked into SOP. Someone might be able to clarify if this is an accurate assessment or not. Working with groove clips is not quite the same IMO, since a piece (including all MIDI and audio) relinquishes "chord control" to the chord track. There can be a lot of editing going on in the piece without needing to worry about the clip structure for the chord track to function. It is not the initial setup of a chord track that is the hurdle, it is inserting key changes into a nearly completed piece that is.

You know it is getting bad when portions of sound tracks between different films sound identical ?... then suddenly realize "same composer."

There are quite a few articles about shucking these drives. I was reading an article the other day and *think* it said they are a generic WD Blue (white label) inside, roughly 1/3 the price of an NAS drive. Note: I cannot find that specific article offhand, BUT there is an image of a pin that needs to be covered with tape (or similar) to disable the feature that disables power to the disk. Some older power supplies will not recognize this and the drive will not power up. Just beware of that if wanting to shuck one of these. This link keeps coming up trying to find what I read, but it does not show the pin in question above. This link has more detail of the process, but still doesn't show that pin. Quick Edit: It is at the 2 minute mark in this video.

Interesting that some new items won the entire year.

If you can, the first step I would recommend is a destructive noise reduction pass with Adobe Audition or iZotope RX (can trial either one). Once signal-to-noise has been expanded you can mix it like anything else. EQs are not surgical enough to do what those other two will.

More a bystander's perspective, but also to show appreciation for the folks who take the time to post in this forum (especially details with issues they are having). Years ago, the posts that stuck out the most for me regarding issues and complaints were Waves. This led me to steer clear of them and nothing since has changed that perspective. The disparity between good and bad posts has been significant from an outsider simply reading posts.