mettelus

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.

Win 7 Ultimate's counterpart is Win 10 Enterprise (or Educational). There are some parts of the Win 7U OS that cannot be accessed in Win 10 Home or even Pro. Because of this I never upgraded my old Win 7U machine. It is imaged and disconnected, so Win 7U will be happy on it until the machine gives up the ghost (probably around 2040).

^^^^ circling back to the OP, that would be the "answer"

I still get chuckles watching that video, especially for his side comments, but that is definitely a recommended video for just about anyone to see at least once. His point about checking plugins for upsampling (to determine the "lazy" programmers) as a valid one. SONAR/CbB introduced 2x upsampling; but for lower sample rates, that may not be enough to prevent the "grains of sand" (i.e., crap), from showing up in the "hear-able range." His explanation is nicely done overall, but I am surprised at times that internal upsampling by plugins doesn't come to the fore more often. IMO, that is a good litmus test for a digital plugin to be "valuable" or not, especially those that can cause aliasing issues. You also mentioned this when you posted this video previously, but Melda has 16x upsampling capability in all of their plugins. I am not aware of any other vendor who has gone to that level of detail with plugin design (is there another vendor that does this?).

Depending on FX used and their accuracy, you might get a little more precision from a mixdown; but if simply converting a rendered file, you won't get anything new/better. As for ... ... technology has surpassed the capability of human hearing for a long time already. Unfortunately, people tend to focus on the technology side versus its application (the listener). Just because something could be recorded at 128-bit/384 KHz, doesn't mean a listener would know or care. 44.1 was chosen because it exceeds human hearing, and no one's ears have gotten any more capable. As we age, hearing deteriorates even without loudness damage (ironic that musicians tend to do this intentionally) ... for the longest time I forgot where I had seen this, but it was on an episode of "Brain Games" Another interesting test is to use a brick wall EQ (or steep as you can get) as a HPF, set it way high initially (well over 10KHz), play a tune and see how low you need to drop the threshold before you can identify the song. It is more fun as a party trick but is an eye opener for where the crux of music is located.

Thanks for the response. He has a checkup tomorrow for shots so I will quiz the vet again. Most vets default to domestic short/long hair unless it is an obvious breed. The ”self-domesticating” comment about that breed does stand out because that is exactly what he did. The pellets are what get used in pellet stoves, so they are carried at Lowe's, Home Depot, and the like. Be sure to get soft wood pellets, they are roughly $5 for 40lbs. Even pet stores try to overcharge for them, but Lowe's here carry them right inside the front door. That 40lbs bag lasts roughly 2 months for three cats.

It is interesting you posted those pics, since I had a stray kitten show up wanting to move in (stood outside crying till I let him in) a couple years ago that looks very similar. Do you know what breed that is? I was told it is a Dragon Li, but I am having a hard time believing it since he shows up half a world away from where he "should" be (body is long, tail is short, sways hips when walking and is dense like a rock). Mine has shorter hair, and the stripes turn into spots down his back, but I have never seen a cat like him in my life. I have not seen a potential sibling or parent to him around here either. I had a vet check his hips early on and she checked him out and said "Nope, that is just the way he is." He was about a year old in this pic, camping out on the fridge. The hair there isn't his... oddly enough, this guy doesn't shed and has no undercoat. Quick comment for folks who do not know this... Soft wood pellets (not hard wood) make exceptional cat litter. They absorb the smell of urine and expand when used, so cleaning is typically just the crap from the box till the pellets have been consumed (then throw the entire pile of dust out and start over). Clay just stinks (even scented), and keeps stinking when disposed of. I have had numerous people say they didn't realize I had cats till they saw them because the house doesn't smell. I just chuckle and tell them the litter market is a sham. Soft wood pellets end up lasting 6-8 times as long for the same price to boot.

I would also ask this, since you can do just about anything with post-processing these days.

Undo is preferred method. If that doesn't work and slip-editing doesn't either (been bounced), the original audio will still be in the project folder unless you intentionally deleted it. You can always fall back to that.

This is more a side comment as a bystander over the years for many plugin discussions... I tend to read posts just to take mental notes of software/companies, especially the ones that tend to pop up more frequently with issues. Overall, I have steered clear of those, and wanted to let the folks who take the time to explain "why" with their opinions that it has been (and continues to be) appreciated.

+1, I have the ASUS ROG MAXIMUS X HERO (WI-FI) (previous version) in this machine with an i7-8700K. Back then it was pretty much splitting hairs on performance above a certain level, so deciding was based more on the feature set on the board. You can easily disable hardware without issues, but depending on what he will be doing, an i9/64GB of RAM could easily be overkill for audio work. You have to be pulling some fairly hard-core VST(i)s to require that, which is hard to imagine with someone starting out (it would save money initially to only get a pair of 16GB (32GB total) and see if he actually uses it - then could add another pair later). Audio is not overly stressful to a system, but video work and gaming would be (why MB manufacturers to not target the audio market). Also, for either of those he will want to get a dedicated graphics card (but shouldn't need it for audio only).