mettelus

Ozone was iZotope's original product and pretty much their flagship product as well (I just realized the CEO interned at Cakewalk while at MIT from a video interview he did). The upgrades "from any Advanced product" has always been there, but the situation years ago was that first Advanced product used to be a few hundred dollars to hurdle. On-boarding with the flagship for $150 is actually an amazing deal. As far as reaching the point of diminishing returns, you may have already just done it. Going from no Ozone at all to Ozone Advanced (which allows you to use individual modules on tracks) is a quantum leap. Upgrades are starting to include more "improved features" and additional software one may already own versus "new features" already. However, an upgrade to the newest Music Production Suite (or whatever they may rename it) may be the only other "quantum leap" left for you.

For those that do not know, the Easy Store is the Best Buy specific version of the WD Express. During sales, these seem to end up being cheaper and more highly rated than the Express counterparts. I got the 10TB a while ago for this same price and like the fact that is runs off a wall wart rather than bus powered like the portable drives tend to be. Real life throughput ranged from roughly 10MB/sec (for truckloads of small files, like Adobe directories), to >250MB/sec (for copying large files like images). Average was roughly 100MB/sec to copy over 5TB of drive material (using robocopy). Not very loud at all, and goes to standby when not in use (and not sure if that can be over-ridden)... so this is not a good sample drive choice, but for backups it is on par with expectations.

An IR essentially defines the reverberation characteristics of an environment (guitar body, room, et. al.), so it can turn the dry response of a lackluster environment/instrument into something more realistic. It would not change the timbre of the underlying source, so it won't "convert" electric string impulses to acoustic strings, make old strings sound new, etc.; but it would bring life to a piezo pickup so it could be blended to sound more like an acoustic recording. To use them, you would need to load them as the profile in an IR Loader FX or Reverb FX that can import them. If you do not have such handy, MeldaProduction has a free MConvolutionEZ. That is part of their MFreeFXBundle, so might as well get that while you are in there.

I checked out the new features of O9 and N3 and didn't find anything earth-shattering in either one. Issues I read here with O9 resource usage deflated any GAS even more. O8N2 was probably the biggest leap in feature set IMO, but I still use O5A for EQ matching guitar tones to saved profiles (I believe O9 restored the ability to save the EQ profiles again, but not totally sure). Packaging Goove 3 and reverbs requiring iLok into MPS3 was actually a turn off for me, since it came across as making up for lack of product. iZotope is pretty consistent to attempt $149 per year from everyone already bought into the current suite. Regardless, JRR also has the upgrade from MPS1/2 for $199, which is $167 (and change) with GROUP just so folks realize there are a slew of upgrade paths with iZotope.

Yeah, that is a great deal especially since it is not an upgrade. Only thing that leaves me scratching my head is "boxed" doesn't say anything about "media" that I could see... I wonder if they are shipping a box with a redemption code in it (not like we have seen that before )? I just checked and that is roughly 6GB in download size. In case that does require downloading, a word of caution to folks... be sure to save your downloaded files... they are set up to charge you again if you need to re-download them (or something like another $8 to be able to download again for a year). They use the same CleverBridge CW used to (why I was wondering about this "box").

Lawsuit litigation is almost always ALL about money (ambulance chasers are the prime example), so unless someone has raked in a truckload of money off a possible infringement, no lawyer is going to take on a case to get $100 out of someone. Ironically, a lawyer makes a presentation leaving out that key factor. There is a large disparity between theory and practice going on here. The "Down Under" suit was probably the saddest example... the guy who owned the rights to "Kookaburra" didn't even realize till he saw it on a trivia game show, and it destroyed the life of the person in question (literally). An interesting comment a guy made years ago about his adult daughter who was getting into issues was pretty stark... "I cannot be held liable for her actions, and you cannot get blood from a stone." That pretty much summed it all up in a nutshell. Criminal prosecution, yup; civil prosecution, waste of time/money.

Reminded me of helping a lady who was struggling reading print off a product a while back. She was pretty distraught by it, so I asked if she had a cell phone. Sure enough. She never considered using it. Other thing that saddened me is several people saw her struggling and no one even tried to help ☹️

Quick feedback - The activation portion of the purchase can be streamlined greatly by entering the activation codes all on the same page one after the other. Then link your email/account and get the registration codes all at once. After one-offing the first two, I checked that and you can do them all (just copy/paste, add code, repeat). Flame Painter 4 - That is linked to your email account, so I didn't get another copy (thought I would be giving that away). The only extra particle set is the elastic over the generic Flame Painter, but it it does include a bunch more brush tips. It is a bit of a pain to install them, since it seems you need to be on that particle system, then File->Import Brushes... and drill into the appropriate folders downloaded (you can highlight the first, shift-click the last and import an entire folder this way). I forgot to mention the "flowing" brushes earlier, which are nice to emulate fabrics. "Elastic" is basically linking the brush contact points to the center, so has most use in things that are radially focused (stars, glimmers, etc.). Linear and Fuzzy particle systems are not included. Amberlight 2 I have not gotten to do much with, but defaults to a generic setup (the first in the teaser video). I simply added a key frame at slide 36, moved some of the fields and let it render out. However, each frame took roughly 10-15 seconds to render (on an overclocked i7-8700K), so that stuck out like a sore thumb... I need to revisit this since the default may be a little overzealous for what I was envisioning. It seems to be more motion-based rendering of particle fields to create video effect, and that default setup had some pretty populated fields. Rebelle 3 requires the papers (the downloaded zip files) dragged/dropped onto the GUI, then restart the application, and they are then available. That application is probably the most realistic paint application I have ever seen. The colors actually leech into the paper and stay wet (unless you dry them), so the color diffuses to concentrate at the edge, and new colors will bleed... very realistic to real-time use of water colors. I didn't delve into it too deeply, but time can be your friend or enemy using this based on your point of view/input method. You do have control over the water content in the brush, and the "dry" tool shifts the picture so that all wet spots have a cyan layer over them. Brush tip controls replicate Photoshop... [ decreases tip size, ] increases tip size. A quick comment regarding input from above... Rebelle is also layer based (same as Flame Painter), so for "speed and precision" purposes, I default to scanning pencil sketches as the base layer into programs like these. That layer often is ultimately removed, but a real pencil and real paper (and real eraser!) tends to work for me the best for the sketch phase. Even with touch/stylus I never seem to get the same results in an application. For the painting part, applications have the advantage, since undo beats anything you can do with a real painting, especially water color that bleeds realistically like Rebelle does. Quick edit: Forgot to check, but Rebelle also allows you to save as Photoshop (psd) files, so there is nothing preventing you from saving/opening files between Rebelle, Flame Painter, and Photoshop. Also... Rebelle is not only water color... it also does acrylic, pastel, pencil, ink pen, marker, and air brush. Pastels and the paper texture is another nice realism it has.

Audition helps best if the noise is fairly consistent and you have a places in the recording that are "just noise." For a recording that long, you might need to split it into multiple clips where the noise is fairly consistent throughout the clip duration. For each clip, you would want to highlight a section in the timeline that is only noise and then "Capture Noise Print" (Shift-P), then click in the timeline so that nothing is selected and "Noise Reduction (process)" (Ctrl-Shift-P). I would start with the default settings on that confirmation dialog and see how it works. You can also capture a noise print off the Spectral Display (if is it only high frequencies, or such) and remove it similarly. Additionally, you can also highlight the section you want to remove noise from in the timeline to apply the removal process to (saving you splitting the recording), but I am not sure how intensive the process would get with that entire file open. You may need to save it as a copy first to test that out. You may also want to save frequently or reduce the number of undo history it tracks (my version is older, so I cannot adjust this). Working with a file that large may start consuming RAM on you otherwise.

Edit: After looking at that again, it reads as a "plugin for PhotoShop." The file types Flame Painter saves are fpa (flamepainter), psd, png, jpg, bmp, and tif. The actual connector program is very specific and sort of funny... Flame Painter 3 will connect to Photoshop CS 5+ (IIRC), but Flame Painter 4 only connects to Photoshop CC. The connector only mentions "PhotoShop" that I saw, and it shows up as a menu item similar to Studio One<->Notion (both apps need to be open). I am not sure how useful it truly is, since a guy demoing it said to remember to save before using it or you could inadvertantly mess up layers. After I saw that, I wasn't as excited about it. Saving/exiting, then launching/opening won't get that issue. For either program, it is best to create a new layer to work on.

I picked up Flame Painter 4 during the holidays, which comes with 3 of the 6 brushes (all I have with it), and it is pretty useful. It works similarly to PhotoShop in that it works with layers that can be saved/opened back and forth with PhotoShop (or automatically if you have PhotoShop CC via their Flame Painter Connect). The brushes are probably the most intuitive I have seen, and was the only one I could find readily that does realistic flames. The add-ons for that alone are $19.99 each (minimum). Amberlight 2 looks interesting. That teaser made me wonder if there is enough control of the generation to use for video composites. One of the scenes in that teaser video ended on almost a phoenix. Rebelle 3 is probably beyond me, but it did remind me of one of the most impressive paintings I ever saw... some kid won an art contest with a watercolor of an elderly man's face probably 30 years ago now. It had so much detail in it that it looked like a photograph, even including the pores in the man's nose. I just gawked at that thinking, "Seriously? I didn't think you could get this precision with water colors." I only ever thought of water colors as the little plastic blue box kits we had as kids. The teaser video is more achievable for me (I remember dripping water everywhere when I tried it too ?).

Still safer than trying to sample your own, they spit, bite, and kick quite a bit. If you transpose them up a few semitones they might sound like your ex. But don't try sampling your ex and transposing down... they can spit, bite and kick too.

Quick comment - Melda's plugins typically have a lot of loaded presets, and anyone in the community can submit more (you can download community-generated presets from the preset page, but be wary uploading unless you intend to - they warn about banning people from doing so if they upload too many nonsensical presets). *Most* plugins also have an "easy screen" by default, which includes the primary parameters important to the plugin. Unless you need to fine-tune something, it is often easiest to find a close preset and work on the easy screen (that will cover most use cases, probably 90% or better). The edit screen exposes the whole gambit, so that can definitely be intimidating; however, if you start with a close preset, you can also easily see what elements are being used in a given preset and tweak from there. Not all plugins fall into the Easy Screen/Edit Mode layout, but most do.

Try disabling the "stutter" module, which is on by default in most of the presets. There is a lot of functionality in the plugin (and you can use it less heavy-handed) besides the stutter feature. It is linked to the transport, so samples are in musical time and can be used in varying ways (it basically captures sample slices on the audio feed then manipulates them per the algorithm used). Unless doing EDM, you will find most of the presets overzealous. The manual is worth reading for that guy, especially for the controls that have rate variation to them. That GUI isn't as intuitive as one would hope.

In the plugin manager, it doesn't tell you the version, but if you highlight one in the plugin browser, it displays the version at the bottom of the plugin browser window. For what I have installed, they are: PX-64 Percussion Strip - v1.9.2.40 TL-64 Tube Leveler - v17.9.3.29 VX-64 - v1.9.4.40 IIRC, they were just point variation differences between the ones that were in the excluded list. I am not sure that there is any difference in form/function to the excluded versions, but it would take someone from Cakewalk to answer what the build difference is.

Interesting timing on this thread... BIG ouch with this one: https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/11/americas/piano-fazioli-smashed-movers-intl-scli/index.html If you get one, they are not recommended to be moved for recording sessions. "A spokeswoman for Fazioli Pianos told CNN the company could not comment further because of a "strict internal rule" on protecting clients' privacy." - WTF??

I forgot to mention the presets, and couldn't help but laugh that the OP did I agree with Wibbles post above... since you already own Z3TA+ 2, that one is deep enough that you can start with grabbing patches and tweak/dissect them at will. Silly things like how oscillators are synced (and how many of the 6 you use), waveform mangling, and signal splitting can change a lot... and that is just on the oscillator module. Ironically... the oscillator sync was one of the primary arguments (and wins) for Aux Tracks... depending how the oscillators are synced, the same performance can sound totally different each run... it was very easy to lose the "damn that sounded good" take before Aux Tracks were introduced.

Maybe one day Spitfire will catch on that people like me who cannot demo get feedback from forums like this...

At current architectures, 80TB would take 5 days to clone at real-world speeds. I am having a hard time seeing a consumer market for these. A defrag would be rather painful too. The whole thing falls into "just because something can be done, should we do it?” category. For the data miners of the world, these would be a dream, but still constrained by speed. Sort of reminds me of failed optical drives years ago.. the density was better at the time, but the thoughput was terrible...then magneto-resistive films came online and the optical dream died. Writer got smaller and the reader was no longer inductive. Areal density doesn't mean as much when the data rate isn't there.

The layout of synths is pretty similar, so from a "sound design" perspective, understanding one would be an agnostic venture. For "tweaking presets," that is an entirely different animal. Case in point... if you open Z3TA+ 2 and then initialize it, that is a nice reality check to "so how do I create the sound in my head?" If this is really your intent; again, the chosen synth is not as paramount as understanding its guts. This is a nice walk through of sound design from scratch with Z3TA+ 2 from way back when. The concepts in it are universal, and the work he does is just scratching the surface on the guts of what is available (he only walks through very specific targets). As for "tweaking presets"... a massive portion of that comes from Cutoff and Resonance with pre-existing patches. Modulation Matrix adds a lot to the mix as well. Bottom line... it depends if you want to invest the time into programming from scratch (that often thwarts most out the chute).

@yeto, did you get AmpleSound's strummer working? The answer to your OP is yes, but that is both manual and painful. A VSTi with a strummer is a better bet, and AmpleSound is a good one.

I can wait for feedback from the trailblazers. Too much hype for something like this makes one wonder, especially when so many wonder what exactly it is.

The disabled ones are older versions, yes. I looked at them once and the ones I had visible already were newer. I forget the details offhand, but it would make sense to have the newest active for all users.

That little blip of "Audio now follows chord track" at the 43 second mark also stands out (I don't think that was mentioned in the OP video). I have T8 and T10, but could never get into the work flow of it (particularly the FX insert layout), but Traktion continues to include a lot of features that composers have been requesting for a long time. Drag/drop arranger track, chord track, task specific layouts, etc. are huge for composition. There are so many times that I commit audio to a key, then want to either change key or the chord progression "at will" and that is not always the simplest task to perform in many DAWs.

I get a little worried when I see opaque finishes and no mention of what wood is used. The first one I saw on their listing with wood type listed (solid ash) was $249. Anyone see what wood the OP is made from? Flip side... 20 years ago I got a Kramer Focus for the kids for $75 on a recommendation (could get all 4 colors for $250). That guitar came set up properly with only the pickups recessed (was even in tune). Pickups not the best, but certainly usable. I believe Gibson ended up buying them out and that line vanished. Bang for the buck that one was impressive (no gig bag though, came in a box). There are certainly viable inexpensive guitars out there, especially if you enjoy fiddling with them.