mettelus

+1, not only that but Luke shot me an email response immediately about the error with the bundle offers in the user's account section, and it was fixed the next day (last Friday). I am going to download this now to check out that MCCGenerator... that could make certain automation lanes a thing of the past.

Some apps always install to default locations and do not even give you an option, although it is worse when they give you an option and do not honor it. I have gotten into the habit of letting apps install where they want, then making a junction afterwards to where I want them to go (move the original folder, then junction where it came from). Saves me remembering what installed where that way too. I keep a batch file for each junction, which is also a handy reference if adding another sample drive... I have done this once and made the process far simpler to restore the machine (break the junction and point it to the new location). Interestingly Adobe and Corel have both broken junctions on subsequent installs, so I have had to redo the process a couple times. These were easy to spot with apps pinned to the taskbar, since they suddenly go blank due to a bad link.

Hey Mike, I caught the last two of these (caught the comping the other day), and they are very well done. Nicely focused to the "task at hand" and using CbB with the perspective of a new user in mind (the free 3rd party usage was such a nice touch). The straightforward workflow explanation is exceptional IMO.

Oooh... now can do a cover for

To add to this... insurance companies are fine and dandy about taking premiums from you and it is not until you submit a claim that they show their other side. A video is the easiest way to catalog things, and good to get SNs as you go. Although many do not require a "detailed catalog" of property for loss, that can also very much work in their favor when a claim is submitted. They will dispute, require proof, etc. With cell phones, a video with narration (and witnesses) is good to make and store where it cannot be lost. Also, read the details of any property policy... although they may say "do not require declaration of most items," there is often a clause in there requiring declaration of specific items (jewelry, electronics, musical gear, etc.). If in doubt, call them and clarify this, and also keep a record of who you talked to, when, what was said, etc. In potential legal issues (should it come to that), the person who comes to the table with the most documentation often wins. Also, some states have pretty liberal small claims court limits, and you do not need a lawyer to pursue one, just go to the courthouse and file (with the information you compiled above).

Fleer Someone had mentioned last year that new users would find a lot of limitations without all of the packs, so I just updated to Ultra from Pro myself. I am suddenly thankful for their download manager (it is actually nicely done), I just set it to download only and walked away from it. There was no way I was going to manually download all of that one by one, since I was missing almost everything. BIAB keeps hitting my radar, then falling off each year (third time's a charm?). I need to set aside time to actually make something with it this year. Maybe I will stick to the plugin and force myself to use that.

Back of the bus bucko... I was here FIRST. {Off topic... wait, the first comment was too :)] I am onboard with the UI bashing though, this thread reminded me that Kontakt is the one with no UI border... you have to resize it via the hotspot area in the lower right. I didn't get Kontakt full till last summer, and a UI where someone tries to cram everything onto the same page where the user has to scroll through loaded instruments makes me wonder if NI even knows what tabs/pages are. I cannot fathom someone trying to use it before the UI could be rezised. That UI could use some serious (post-2010) love. Part of the OP issue is that Library makers don't make it clear on their product which versions are required (but they are getting better about is). It would help others to change the OP title to something like "Please specify which version of Kontakt a library requires" but it will scroll off the screen by tomorrow anyway.

IF you have the old machine up and running, you can also "start fresh" and copy the preference pages manually from the old to the new (or even screen capture them). Some settings you will definitely not want at default values (MIDI Playback "Prepare using:" buffer, Audio Record Latency Manual Adjustment, etc.). As some things have changed or been added, it is a good opportunity to review things and find out what they actually do for you.

Side note to this comment... some VSTs do not allow you to specify the installation folders, and Steinberg is where they can likely end up. That folder is good to have included "just because." Searching for where something really installed will always work, regardless.

I totally forgot about these. Thanks for the reminder!

Just caught this. Click on "download," on AmpleSound's site. They have 3 free instruments there: Cloudrum, Lite Martin acoustic, and Lite P Bass. They are still very usable, but not fully functional.

Quick update on the Particle Shop piece. I am not sure how/why I got on a Smith Micro mailing list, but quickly discovered the brushes in Particle Shop are child's play in comparison to Flame Painter 4. Never heard of it, had to Google it... it is owned by "Escape Emotions" it seems, who has it on sale... but it is also listed by Smith Micro at 50% off (till December 2). The stock brushes are way more capable, both in function and how the brushes themselves work (very sensitive, motion based). Only 3 other brush sets exist (120 additional brushes) for far cheaper than Particle Shop, but those need to come from Escape Emotions as far as I can tell (I am not sure of the relationship between the two companies, TBH). It has a demo which won't let you open files, but you can drag files into it... just cannot save. Flame Painter saves/opens Photoshop files, so it is easy to add layers and effects, but my version of Photoshop is old enough I cannot use the connect feature and need to save between the programs. Once completed, Photo Mirage works beautifully to animate the flames. I only tried the combination out for about 30 minutes so far, but it has a surprisingly effective workflow to it all. None of this was on my BF radar at all, but I am not going to complain about it.

I just checked again and shot them an email myself. It seems to be related to the new site layout, but most who would see it would also recognize it (I hope). iZotope on the other hand.... LOL (good grief)

Yep... the MCompleteBundle was a bit cheaper a couple years ago solely due to the 4 new plugins included. I was hinting more to the point that if you own a bundle, you will get the new ones that are added to it in the future at no cost. Weird side note... I like the look of the new web page, but when I signed in there were suddenly offers there for bundles... and comments of "get X more plugins with this bundle." They may be counting MCompleteBundle as an single plugin, but I need to email them about that one. iZotope will sell you the same plugin as many times as you want to buy it, but Melda has always blocked you from doing so (one ethical practice that always stood out amongst the rest).

These are very good plugins, and keep getting better. I got into an interesting conversation with newer musicians, but the bottom line was to the effect of "gear is expensive, requires care, tuning, storage and more skill to use and especially record properly... plugins are often far cheaper, never need tuning, "record" cleaner, can be adjusted after recording more easily and can be stored in far less space... it really comes down to what you really want to achieve, and how much you want to spend." I jumped onboard with AmpleSound last year because I needed a 12-string acoustic, and hate tuning them... even at FULL price, AG12 was $500 cheaper than the cheapest real 12-string I would have bought. Also, for those interested, it is difficult to detemine % savings as you add plugins to your order, so I just updated a chart I made last year. The break point is at 3 plugins, and is pretty consistent regardless of "which" ones you choose. Note: The NON-sale version of this graph has the same curve, and is slightly steeper for the first part (0%, 16%, 33% for the first 3 versus 20%, 33%, 46% when on sale); but the second part is only 12% lower (more expensive) than the sale prices (basically, best "bang for the buck" is 3 in either case, but missing a sale will only cost you 12% more if you miss a sale cycle).

I am not sure if that Corel popup is the task or the service, but I have the services set to manual (required to use the apps), and the tasks disabled. I believe they are the tasks. For the Services... type "Services" into Windows Search/Cortana, sort by name, and scroll down to "Corel License Validation Service ..." There are two with different text for the ... Right click one, select "Properties," and set "Startup Type" to Manual (in the middle). Repeat for the other. This will only start them when launching a Corel application, but they will run until the computer is reboot. For the Tasks... type "Task Scheduler" into Windows Search/Cortana, click "Task Scheduler Library" in left pane, sort the right pane by name, and right click->disable each of the "CorelUpdateHelperTask ..." items listed (is also two in there).

Man, that sucks. I hope you get resolution to it. Definitely do the pawn shop thing. I am not sure what the laws are there, but here pawn shops are required to put a 3 week hold on merchandise before they can actually sell it. Caught me off guard, but is a good practice... they put gear on display, but has an "available date" on it. Even if they do not have such, it is very likely that whomever stole it would take the entire list to a shop to see how much they could get. A shop "should" be able to recognize the same list twice in a few days.

That is good to know. I don't often see things unless they pass through this forum, and should probably check out humble bundle more often "just because." The name alone wouldn't have gotten my attention, but the examples on their page sure did (the surfer one is probably the most impressive). For $1 that is definitely a no brainer. Without someone chiming in and saying what it is and why its cool, the name recognition can fall short for a lot of products. The brush packs for Particleshop are NOT cheap, even bundled... and I only saw the bundles in the app itself, which only shows 12 of the included packs per set. As far as I can tell, the best of the packs (like Fabric Fantasy) are not bundled, only separate. Not the best marketing out there, and is $24.99 for roughly 15 brushes per pack. It is a bit difficult to find clear information on the web on them as well...

This is the time of year to add a bundle to your cart and see how much credit you get for previously purchased plugins. The bundle prices keep creeping up year to year; but if you own them, the new plugins added to it are free.

Just to clarify, there is no way to play non-Uebershall loops in their player, correct? I got their Soundtracks stuff a while back, and seems their player will only use their own libraries, but wanted to verify that.

Hold the phone... wasn't the Professional Crossgrade from another DAW $199 last week? That link has it at full price ($299)! This time of year is when the Professional Crossgrade typically gets cheapest (and sometimes can pick up Notion 6 if lucky). I was expecting to see the Crossgrade at $149. I just checked PreSonus quick and the Crossgrade there is still listed at $199.

Corel had a sale that "ended" last night (and missed the deadline on), but when I added PhotoMirage to my cart at 1 AM it came up even cheaper! The sale is still on, with bigger discounts, so is worth sharing. The link is here. I have had VideoStudio Ultimate for a few years now, which is a nice lightweight video editor (sale is $49.99 versus $99.99). That program typically updates early in the calendar year, and I wait till the upgrade goes on sale. I was actually interested in PhotoMirage, which is another lightweight editor to add motion to a picture (coverts to a video or gif file). That is on sale for $34.99 versus $69.99. The interesting side-effect is that it is bundled with ParticleShop & WinZip 23. I had never heard of ParticleShop before, which is a dynamic brush plugin for Photoshop, Lightroom, Corel, and "some other graphics programs." I was having more fun with ParticleShop after buying PhotoMirage, and it was included for free (the 11 core brushes are not bad at all, but apparently they get more revenue from the brush sets than the program - and there are a truckload of them). ParticleShop is a plugin, so I had to Google to find out where it embedded itself into Photoshop on me.

Sforzando is a free sfz player (the format used by Dimension Pro and other instruments). The engine to it is the ARIA player, and there are more free libraries people have made for those. I like Sforzando for a couple simple reasons, it will tap into installed programs that have the sfz file structure, and shows you which keys are mapped for a given sound bank. Not all keys are mapped for some instruments, so it is a royal pain to find which keys truly have sounds associated with them. Sforzando itself includes some free samples (scroll down that page to the Sforzando section, and is the "Sound banks for sforzando" link on the far right). Additionally, the ARIA Engine has many sound sets that are also free. On to the paid stuff... You can also buy sample libraries which also use the ARIA engine (Garritan is probably the most popular set, with Personal Orchestra 5 being the most well rounded version). Please note: If you buy any VSTs, be sure to check the deals section or ask folks there... the best deals are not always from the company, and some deals are at ridiculously low prices, especially this time of year. Lastly, with all of that said, Kontakt is considered the best sample player, but many free libraries require the full Kontakt player (be sure to check this on each library), which may be cost-prohibitive depending on what you are trying to achieve. Edit: Spitfire Audio LABS is also a nice freebie. They put out a new instrument each month, and have enough out now that you can browse what they have done to date. They have a few string libraries already. You just need to sign up and use their audio app to download them. The playback engine is not robust, but you can easily add FX to the tracks you play them in.

Yes, the CbB update cleared it for me.

Yes, this is Win10. It pops up when the toast "Opening Project: Creating UI..." comes up when launching CbB via double-clicking a MIDI file. Ironically, acknowledging it opens the project, UI is loaded properly, but the audio engine is offline and cannot be started (in WASAPI shared mode). The Output of all tracks reads "1-". If CbB is already open (launched as Adminstrator), doubling clicking a MIDI file does nothing. Changing Driver Mode has no effect. This is version 2019.05. Update: I just updated to 2019.09 and it cleared itself with no other changes.