mettelus

PreSonus pulls old stock like many other companies, so this sounds like an error. Once a new version is released, most companies that officially sell it are not permitted to sell the older version.

MDrummerPacks are not installed via any installer, they are imported into the appropriate plugin libraries. This file is an ".MDrummerPack" file but there is a somewhat simpler route to assign the download folder by running a plugin that can use it ... open that plugin, then from the Menu(upper right)->Download and Install Products. The first field under settings allows you to set the download to folder (good to put it where you backup files to). Leave the rest alone, since they are how you have the program setup already. If downloaded separately, it is installed similarly. The second item in the Menu list with the plugin open is "Install MDrummer Pack"... choose that, navigate to the file location, then let it import and restart the DAW. It is still one file 60GB to download, and took 7 minutes to uncompress onto my sample drive. The samples themselves are 57GB on disk; some of the ancillary files are settings, layouts, etc. Quick Edit: It appears that the vast majority of the drums are acoustic.... Dry, Dry not sticks, Experimental, Metal, and Rock big. No new percussion samples.

Damn, I saw this email and thought 60GB?? This is ONE FILE... so for those of you who have a small C drive, be sure you have the free space to put it there or you may need to redirect your download folder elsewhere. In the immortal words of Hook... "Bad form."

Was wondering why my unread deals posts were suddenly bleeding over into page 2! Welcome back!

With Corel I have only used it with Painter, and left Painter on the default settings (Wacon-compatible device). I haven't needed to adjust anything, and it even shows pen-tilt which is hit or miss with other programs. I am also using the newest (3.0.4 Beta drivers) with the tablet. Even in programs where the tilt wasn't working best, the pen presser didn't seem to have issues. There is a fair amount of tweaking you can do in the Pentablet software, but I have not needed to change anything for Painter to work. I need to go back and check the Escape Emotions (Flame Painter 4, etc.) stuff using the new drivers, since I just installed those when this Humble Bundle hit. Edit: I went back and checked apps quick and check the following apps with the Deco Pro: Painter 2020 - no issues noted. Pen tilt is displayed in the cursor itself, so is the best program for response that I own. Paint Shop Pro 2020 - brush tilt/rotation are not automatic, so can notice this with flat brushes. Photo Mirage - no issues, but is also only a glorified mouse there. Flame Painter 4 - no issues, but again a glorified mouse. Rebelle 3 - was an update (3.2.5) to Rebelle 3, that went belly up on me twice so I backed out to 3.2.1. Rotation/tilt does best as a "Microsoft ink device," but you need to exaggerate tilt to get that rotation (seems you need to tilt roughly 30 degrees to change rotation accurately, then it will stay in that orientation until you tilt the pen 30 degrees in another direction). Again, would only see this on a flat brush.

+1, oops... just to be clear there are a LOT of options out there. My apologies for neglecting to mention that the wheel is an "optional feature," but after I searched enough that feature went into the "must have" bucket (that and no pens with batteries!). The reason for me was fairly simple - changing brush size is my most used task (possibly for most people). Anyone who has ever suffered the pain of keypressing [ and ] in Photo Shop to change a brush size can relate to that not being anywhere close to the tactile control/precision of a wheel for the same task. It is a smoother transition and no fumbling in the GUI, just watch the brush cursor to gauge size, twiddle the knob and continue. Only two XP-Pen tablets have the wheel, Deco Pro and the Deco 02. There are cheaper versions without the wheel to be had... you can use the pen to operate the GUI same as a mouse (tablets can be set to cover the entire GUI, just the drawing area, or an area of your choice). Since my monitor is ultrawide, hitting the tiny GUI buttons with the pen is also painful, so I set my tablet to the drawing area with the bush and color windows exposed on it. All that said... there are a lot of tasks you can perform with just Painter and a mouse (anything not requiring pixel-precision or smooth curves basically). When you get into things like using tracing paper and trying to follow lines, drawing smooth long curves, using brushes that have flat tips that you want to rotate easily, or wanting to take advantage of brushes that "quish" fatter as you press harder, the mouse is going to show its limitations.

@Mesh, also to save you a bit of research time since I just went through this regarding drawing tablets. There are two variants of drawing tools, drawing tablet and drawing displays/monitor. The difference is the tablet is a glorified mouse (you use the computer display), the other is essentially a computer tablet where you draw on the display. Wacom and Huion dominate this market, so I spent a lot of time researching. Initially I was frustrated since few videos show that a drawing tablet HAS a cursor... so I was wondering "how do you know where the freakin pen tip is?" but they are identical to a mouse, but they can also sense pressure, tilt, and have extra buttons (on the tablet part). In my searching I ran across XP-Pen who is the "low end" variant of Wacom. Reviews of the Deco Pro had numerous comments such as "closing the gap," "90% of Wacom's features for less than half the price," and such, so I shifted my searching into the Deco Pro specifically since it has a wheel and touch pad inside that wheel in addition to the other 8 buttons. Because of this, your non-drawing hand can have access to almost anything you would be using your mouse for. Brush size is default for the wheel, and the touch pad makes scrolling about simple, but you can customize all of the controls to suit your needs. After I had finally determined I certainly did not need the "display," the size was the last factor. After checking how I really draw on paper, the Deco Pro small is the same size I draw in anyway (I anchor the heel of my hand, and you cannot got outside of the drawing boundary anchored). After using it, I confirmed that is the case, and even labeled as "small" it is actually pretty large (the drawing area is 9"x5"). Lastly, batteries are a definite no-go for me, and most tablet pens seem to not have batteries (yay) and come with extra nibs. The Deco Pro has a textured surface, so you get the resistance of drawing on paper, and the nibs are designed to wear so that tablet remains unscathed. It comes with 8 extra nibs, and after 3 months I do not even notice any wear on the first (but I tend to paint with minimal pressure). Well damn... XP-Pen also only sells direct, and I just hopped on their site. They have a 15% off sale that started, so the Deco Pro small is $84.99. One of the more complete reviews and showing you the nuances of how the tablets work in is the video below.

+1 to the above. This deal is definitely capable as is and a great value. The tablet is something to seriously consider at a later date, since drawing requires precision and motion/pressure detail that a mouse cannot provide. The tactile "pencil on paper" feel will make a smoother transition (for freehand drawing of details), but there are also numerous things you can do with just a mouse.

To add insult to injury, there is another copy of brushes at C:\Users\[user name]\AppData\Roaming\Corel\Painter 2020\Default\Brushes That is also where the 2021 is at (C:\Users\[user name]\AppData\Roaming\Corel\Painter 2021), which is why it makes me think the brush packs themselves are loading each version they can be used in. It also seems the cache drive has nothing to do with this, and incredibly odd that those brush packs seem to randomly install in the main directory on "some" drive. I am still surprised that Google didn't return any hits about brushes installing in odd locations.

It is actually called "Scratch Drive" and is listed under Edit->Preferences->Performance. Near the bottom is a drop down that only lists drives. Mine was default to C:\ initially. Is it pointed to your audio sample drive there?

Thanks guys. I was looking for this issue online and not seen anyone mention it, but it using that drive made me assume it was linked to the cache setting. It may be a side effect of the brush packs themselves since they are for all versions, and 2021 is out on the streets. I just found it odd they used the cache location rather than side-by-side with where 2020 installs. In fact, there is a 2021 brush folder there, but they went on the cache drive. Oh well, moving them didn't affect 2020 in the slightest. I actually do not like they have brushes separated by Painter version anyway. My C drive is only 250GB, so I am pretty strict on pathing with temp files. This Painter cache seems intended as a pagefile (not seen it used yet), but every other program has a temp working directory. That is far easier to consolidate and purge them as needed. Upside, I ended up getting an XP-Pen Deco Pro (small) to use with Rebelle 3, but that needed special setups to get full use from with Escape Emotions software. On Painter 2020, the Deco Pro just works without any configuration changes. It even shows brush tilt with the cursor which is a nice feature.

I set my D drive for caching and suddenly brush folders showed up on it (when installed). Same folders are where they should be so I moved contents over. Not sure if this is associated with a Painter 21 predeployment or something. There was an install record for Painter 21 on that D drive (deleted it), and also a Painter 21 folder where the brushes should be. Not had any issues of recurrence of running 2020 after. I am not sure if this is a bug in the caching feature, and couldn't find any reference to this online. Anyone else seen this?

The mud issue may also be coming from low end that really shouldn't be passed into the FX chain (and especially to time-based FX). A HPF is common to use on instruments early in mixing to remove that low end. Same principle to dial in till you hear it bite, then back off a smidge. This is also why reverb on the bass/kick is not common, or needs special consideration.

rbowser had a nice generic walk-through from 2006 that is still applicable. The comment about reverb giving the perception of far away is valid. How he talks of setup is good, especially for beginners (with sends/busses). No real "rule of thumb" with that part. He hints at using other reverbs (on other reverb busses), but doesn't go into that detail. Being sparing in reverb usage is a good guide (depending on genre). Comments like "dial up till you can barely notice it, then back it off" is often good advice for anything front and center. Other than that, no real "rules," but be mindful that reverb is like a "frequency smear." If you go overboard, you will often negate any EQ you took the time to do prior (i.e., the mud). For this reason, any time-based FX should be last in the signal chain in most instances.

IRL, the effect of reverb is also highly dependent on source placement in the space. A few feet off center can change the dynamic dramatically. Whispering walls are an interesting effect which result from curved walls as in rotundas. Concrete stairwells have a fun effect in them as well. Because of placement, reverb will not sound as natural on a mix as it will a source, and the off center portion ups the computing power, especially when taking into consideration a room the is not a "box." IRs for different placements in the same space are not common to find. Oddly enough, digital recording centers on dry mixes and faking the space after the fact, but many studios and halls are sought after specifically for their reverb character. The issue with those is cost and editing options being limited.

Melda's stuff doesn't have the curb appeal, but they definitely cover the bases of most things out there. It made me step back and think for a second... when the 50% off bundles hits, MCompleteBundle is roughly 1100USD, which is about 10USD per plugin (just over 100 of them). Actually, roughly 1/3 have free single-band processing versions (MFreeFXBundle), so is more like 15USD per plugin; not too shabby with the free upgrades for life behind them. iZotope has been consistent with upgrade pricing, and it seems after the acquisition of Exponential Audio, they are putting less in their core products and pushing reverbs as additional content. Paulo may be on the money about them just getting around to putting an iZotope GUI on the front end of them.

These two links give a rundown of new features in PSP 2020. https://learn.corel.com/blog/introducing-the-new-paintshop-pro-2020/ https://www.paintshoppro.com/static/psp/docs/products/paintshop-pro/2020/psp2020-version-comp-matrix-en.pdf I am not sure if anything was "more intuitive" though (I jumped from PSP 5 to PSP 2020).

What an odd link anyway. Everything is the full word except "studio"!

Some applications can also tap into the UEFI directly, the most concerning I have seen is Corsair's cooling app. That set my CPU target to 5.1GHz, and the system started cycling the cooling system like a jet plane ramping up and down. I disabled the app, but left the drivers installed to prevent recurrence. It is good to check the UEFI from time to time if things seem odd. I ended up locking mine at 29% OC, and that is actually displayed on the splash screen at startup (ASUS MB). I am not sure if other MB do similar, but is nice to verify. If it is simply the Turbo mode doing its thing, I wouldn't get worried for it unless the system misbehaves. Systems spend a lot of life at relatively low CPU usage, so that mode allows the machine to shift gears as needed.

I think the only thing not current is the Sound Forge Pro 13, but that (of course) pops up an ad when you first use it to upgrade to SFP14 for $149. One oddity I noticed after installing Spectral Layers Pro 7, was that the "Vstplugins" subfolder disappeared in the Steinberg directory. IIRC, that was where AAS defaulted to installing its VST2s. Everything that had been in there had a VST3 version, so I didn't lose any sleep over it, but it is something to note. I didn't realize it had vanished till I was trying to add that VST path to Samplitude. FYI for anyone who has the Independence Pro libraries from earlier... Independence Pro will recognize you have them, but try to install them (again) in a "MAGIX" subdirectory, if you do not go about it a specific way. This video was useful to load them up again cleanly.

Isn't that everything now? Am I missing a quicker alternative or do you need to drill into each VST to know what version it is (or keep the most recent downloads)?

Quick bump to to point out what Sidney mentioned above. The current Samplitude X5 Pro Suite offer also includes Convology XT Complete (all of the IRs). It also includes Spectral Layers Pro 7, so is a good bang for the buck deal, especially since it is not an upgrade or anything.

This also includes Convology XT Complete (not locked to Samplitude), which I noticed was listed in another thread. That has like 5 or 6 GB of IR files (the engine is free, the IRs are not), so get the IRs with this package too.

Sharke posted an interesting solution in the old forums that used a vocoder to control and enhance crowd interaction. On my cell now, so fat chance I can find that link offhand. IIRC, that was using a small group and generating a stadium crowd from it. http://forum.cakewalk.com/m/tm.aspx?m=3146538&p=1 Damn, that link is almost 6 years old already.

Whew, good thing it endured hanging without breaking its neck. But... how is the air quality??