mettelus

Cactus and Tezza already hit what came to mind for me, but I did want to reiterate the comment about lesser playback mediums. Cell phone speakers can be brutal, but are a good analysis tool.... It will collapse a track to mono and point out poor crossover band choices, but won't reflect bass well at all due to speaker size. However, it is a good litmus test for a mix, and potentially how your song could be heard/shared with others. Try listening to the mp3 in your OP on a cell phone speaker and see what stands out to you.

Just checked here to confirm and not seeing that either, just the current Sonarworks offering.

In 2011, I put a 240GB Patriot Wildfire in my old Win7 2600K machine. That particular drive had a few workarounds to load firmare into, and ran hot (internally it had no throttle, so things like installing DimPro that would uncompress a massive zip and then install it would Blue Screen it out). To do that particular install, I needed to either unzip it manually first, or set the temp directory for installations to another drive (HDD). In late 2017, I got a 500GB 850 EVO "just in case," and benched it with Samsung's utility... the Partiot actually outbenched the 850 EVO. Being paranoid, I swapped them after cloning and threw the Patriot into a drawer. Before I did, I checked cells on the Patriot, and none had gone bad. Early in 2018 I got this new machine, and I pulled the 850 out of the old one to be a data drive. I threw the Patriot back into the Win7 machine, and it booted right up. I do not use that much at all (it has a DVD ROM, so I only really use it to make ISO files of old CDs/DVDs), and other that the standard don'ts, that drive spent a lot of time run hot as the system drive (and with the pagefile online was sometimes over 90% capacity). The only thing I would be concerned with now is that some newer technology (quad-layer) may not be as reliable/fast as less-dense media. Bear that in mind as "How did your SSDs fair?" may not be an apples-to-apples comparison - and some drives are no longer available. Samsung's have ruled the roost for a while now, so for a SATA SSD, the 850s have a lot of technical reviews to fall back on, and are still available. NVMe is a different beast, so look at reviews of things before making a purchase, and make sure your machine will support it... I read a review long ago where a person put a SATA III SSD into a SATA II connection and couldn't figure out why he wasn't getting a performance jump from it.

Maybe misinterpretation... It could mean XLN will be vaporware soon.

Interesting comment regarding 430.4 in there... since that is within one cent of how this was released (39 cents flat IIRC). Because of how it was released, it does sound odd in 440 tuning, but is much easier to record in 440, then adjust the master down. Overall, the ability to tune instruments relative to each other is what is important. There has to be some standard, for better or worse, and with the digital age one can adjust *most* things willy nilly (even if done post mastering, which is simpler for real orchestral instruments). When things are not in tune with each other is when they stick out like a sore thumb... How it gets printed/released is up to the artist. These videos are all over, but when talking 8Hz... that low doesn't have that kind of resolution (even small errors compound quickly via doubling the error), and the graph he flashed briefly showing that is not even the strongest pitch. One would also expect a bit more from a scientific argument than a whole number this day in age. [Stupid aside] Stack tolerance is my prime choice to needle engineers. 100 level courses all speak of +/- error and how errors carry through calculations, but it is incredibly rare to see that +/- value ever included with precision measurements when selling a product anymore.

Have to chime in or I will forget to download! I didn't realize these existed until around Christmas, but these guys keep pumping out some of the most usuable freebies that exist. Simple, functional, and relatively small footprints.

Sounds like they are off to a good start. The social aspect and getting others involved is the biggest win if the owners can achieve that. Sadly, younger people tend to think of "social" as "online media" rather than "interacting with a person face-to-face," so the 45+ doesn't surprise me too much. Playing instruments seems to also be slipping away, so hopefully they will be able to chip away at both of those issues. The biggest hurdle is getting folks involved in what is going on, so the "everyone I've met has been kind" is a huge plus. Kids will tend to be shy but want to participate, so it takes people doing things with them to get them involved (karaoke tends to be simpler for them). Even with open mic nights here, a lot of the fun was people wanting to sing certain songs and the players doing the best ad-hoc renditions they could. [Aside since I mentioned karaoke] Karoke bars are actually a business model in China, and they are laid out so that each group gets an isolated room to eat/drink with its own system. I have never seen anything like that in the US yet, but is an idea for folks who really want to participate but really get stage fright too. There is also the subset of people who do not have gear at home, so the only time they can participate is in a place that allows them to touch gear (you see them in GC and the like, but GC isn't overly social for this). If they keep focusing on social and participation in a laid-back environment, word of mouth should kick in pretty nicely for them going forward. Things that fell apart around this area were when "laid-back" disappeared... it is amazing how people back out of social events when "not fun" enters the picture (yet this seems to surprise those who made it not fun in the first place for some reason).

Does "NONE" actually work now? "NONE" always used to mean "OMNI," which is exactly what the OP doesn't want. By default, Cakewalk takes all MIDI channel inputs to a track, so setting the channel to something the keyboard is not sending "should" work. Also be aware there is a preference setting to "Auto Echo current track" so if that is enabled and the Addictive Drums track is selected, it will auto-echo. I leave this off by default so that I manually echo tracks and know what is going on. Aside (just in case) - If a VSTi is enabled for "MIDI throughput" you can send it MIDI notes, and they will pass through into other VSTis listening to the same channel (or OMNI). This may also be an issue when using another VSTi... with that enabled, AD could also be getting MIDI notes even though you are not expecting it to. Just for clarification, it seems the OP is recording audio (not MIDI) from the Micro Korg? If true... worst case is you can go into preferences and disable MIDI input during that part, but the above "should" work. I am not sure what is going on with the "second question" in the OP, I have never seen that one before, but it is certainly odd... is the kick on its own MIDI track? and if so, is the channel the same as the others? If the MIDI is all in one track, it could be a mapping issue in AD, but not sure how that would get triggered. It seems that if question one gets resolved, that there is no need to mute AD.

What did you think of the place Geoff? The "sound-proof" on the rehearsal pods is a bit hard to believe. I am so remote that the closest thing that used to be around here were open mic nights where a band set up their gear and let anyone who wanted to use it. The guy who ran those got sick about 10 years ago, and another took his place for a while he recovered. Unfortunately when he recovered the closest place he ran them in shut down, so I haven't seen anything remotely similar in years (and nothing to the level of what the OP is promoting). Pat Martino actually stopped by and gifted him a guitar as he was recovering, which was an incredibly nice gesture.

MStereoSpread is worth a mention in this set. For mono signals it is good at adding stereo width to things, but will also collapse back to mono properly. The other three have options elsewhere, but MStereoSpread is fairly unique in what it can do. The teaser on that has a nice overview of the plugin.

M4 is roughly 6 times slower than M2, especially if you are doing a long clip. M2 will do an entire 3-minute master track in roughly 10 seconds, but takes about a minute in M4. Some of this is due to all of the spectral modification utilities added to M4. It may not actually be hung up, just taking forever. Cakewalk "not responding" could simply be waiting for M4 to finish its thing. That benchmark was on a 2600K, and only M4 was loaded on this 8700K with no noticeable improvement. I have asked Celemony about this a couple of times and they always say "a little longer," but a better solution would be to either create a "light" mode for M4 (so it only processes as M2 did), or allow for previous M2 users to use both versions on the same machine (which was stripped by relinquishing the M2 license during the upgrade). Neither of these seem to be on the plate, so keeping M2 "in tact" on another machine by keeping it offline is the only workaround that I know of.

Another thing to check is digital noise from wireless mice and keyboards. Mice in particular can cause issues in some environments.

I have been running the D'Addario Balance Tension strings for a while, but shifted from 10s to 9s last year partly due to a forum discussion but mainly to a funny event. I could not get the 10s to palm mute cleanly (a lot of harmonic leakage), so tried 9s for the first time. There is such a massive difference between those 10s and 9s as far as harmonics, sustain, and bending. 9s will palm-mute insta-dead and bend like putty in comparison, but have less sustain and are harder to pull harmonics from -- the difference in tension is significant on 25.5" scale.

I am with you about not wanting to re-wire the house. The grounding is my real concern, and you can ground that specific circuit to your equipment. The house itself should have an earthen ground on it to the breaker box (can ask the person who did the work to verify), but I am not sure if the GFCI is really grounded. In some older homes I have seen them run earthen grounds through walls to ground individual circuits (copper wire to metal stake outside the home). My concern is that the GFCI circuit may not really be grounded, but just replacing a 2-prong outlet with a 3-prong (with no functional difference other than another hole). The electrician who installed that should be able to answer what they did... just so they don't BS you (installing a GFCI with no ground may be a code violation there), ask them "where is the ground on that GFCI you installed, and how is that a common ground for the house?"

Sorry, I should have been more clear. By "cross-communication" I was referring to having multiple instances of the same plugin on several tracks and being able to compare audio side-by-side within one instance. MMultiAnalyzer does have this, but would be nice to have across the board.

That wire is definitely an antenna, but make sure you know where it really goes before playing with it. The rest of the wiring in the house can be acting similarly to your environment. Since your house is of the older 2-wire style, it would be worth your time to go through the breaker box and verify circuits (I *hope* you are not fuse-panel, but you could be). Heavy appliances with motors (refrigerator, AC units, fluorescent lighting, furnace) and things you turn on (vacuums, microwaves) can all be feeding back into the house itself. You can control most of those, but the ones that kick on automatically (refrigerator and furnace) are ones you may want to check for feedback. *If* the refrigerator being on/off is a noticeable difference, that is one appliance you may want to make sure is offline when recording. It also made me wonder with the GFCI comment... where is the ground on that running? If connected to a 2-wire circuit, it may still not have a ground.

I wholeheartedly agree with this. Chandler has done a lot of awesome tutorials, but most stay on the start screen (not his specifically, but in general). Most of Melda's plugins go far beyond that screen, and AFAIK there is only one tutorial on multiparameters, which is one of the most powerful features. Ironically, many people purchase plugins based on curb appeal rather than processing power (and complex GUIs can actually limit audio processing capability from the CPU hit), so Melda is a little downplayed in that regard. The only feature that I feel is lacking is the cross-communication between plugins of the same type (ala FabFilter and iZotope). Just to inject a little reality here for spectators ... From a practical perspective, plugins are akin to instruments; i.e., it is easy to buy something "new and flashy" with the expectation that things will drastically improve. It is far better to master plugins you own than to be on a constant quest for something better, and included plugins are more than adequate in the right hands. After our Gibson debacle, I wanted a minimalist plugin set that was not locked to any DAW, so I can pick and choose which DAW I use with a familiar set of tools. This is not to say that is a fit for others, by was my reaction to that event.

One big plus is that they base plugins on a common design, so you won't shift from one to another and be totally lost. When I got this new machine I didn't load anything but Melda and iZotope, so the fun learning game is when a new FX gets touted I go searching for how to do that with Melda. Flashy plugins that have a steep upgrade cost have serious competition. Some of those suites would pay for Melda's Complete Bundle during their 50% off sales... Difference is you pay to upgrade the other guys, but Melda gives the upgrades to you. I am still on the iZotope upgrade train, but Melda takes care of most everything else... VSTis... those are a different story...

Interesting read about Intel's move to keep Thunderbolt 3 royalty free. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/03/thunderbolt-3-becomes-usb4-as-intels-interconnect-goes-royalty-free/?amp=1

Best answer to your own question. ? Make a list of what you want/don't want and give Jim a call. You most certainly can build your own, but it is up to you if you want to deal with the research to find all the components, build, and tweak it. If you do go that route, steer clear of anything pre-fab from a big vendor (HP, DELL, etc.) and get Win 10 Pro. FWIW, Jim built Noel a machine a few years back and did trouble-shooting through one of the holidays IIRC. Noel posted a rather nice review of all that Jim did on the old forum, but I cannot find that post offhand. This forum has always been a trusted source of advice for me over the years. It is pretty common to see folks first ask "what are you trying to achieve?" rather than blindly sell you something.

MXXX has a wild "wow" factor to it, but in practical application I haven't used it as much as I thought I would. MXXX Core would be easier path for some to nit-pick at extras with the Eternal Madness deals. Regarding the 50% off bundle deals mentioned above; when I got mine, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Melda gives a % credit for things you already own. I assume this still holds true, so keeping plugins you own now will benefit you when the 50% off bundle deals hit. The subscription model does not count towards those 50% off bundle deals... AFAICT, once on-board it seems you need to ride that to the end. With a little patience and one-offing things during the Madness Deals, things end up being more cost-effective in the long run to getting the Complete Bundle. Disclaimer: I cannot check the "credit for previously purchased plugins" anymore, but that should be easy to verify by adding the Complete Bundle to your cart and see what they give you credit for. I assume that still holds true, since Melda is very good about not selling you the same plugin twice (they are about the only company I know of who won't).

In order to use the onboard sound (Realtek), you may need to go into W10 Device Manager, go down to "Sound, video, and game controllers" and specifically right click on the SoundBlaster and "Disable Device." Having those driver in play will confuse Windows. Do not uninstall it... W10 will just re-install and re-enable it on you. As mentioned above, both WASAPI "shared" (I also agree this is best choice) and ASIO4ALL will work in CbB for audio playback, but they will not for recording audio. I have run both of these modes for mixing, and recording MIDI and they work fine. These will both conflict with the SB drivers if you do not specifically disable that device. I would also go into "Sound" in the Control Panel, highlight the Realtek, then "Properties" in the lower right. In the "Advanced" tab, set it to "24-bit, 44100 HZ (Studio Quality)," and make sure that both "Exclusive Modes" at the bottom of that tab are unchecked. CbB should default to 24/44.1 unless you changed that, so the RealTek should "match" and not have issues playing back through the RealTek. ALSO... some applications will seize the audio drivers and lock bit-rate on you, so when working as a DAW, be sure to open the DAW first (if you must multi-task), but I highly recommended that you only run the DAW if working in "DAW-mode." As someone who first came into this forum 15 years ago for essentially the same reasoning as the OP, as much as you want to fight a "real" audio interface, you will find that futile (for recording audio). If working with only MIDI and audio playback, both WASAPI and ASIO4ALL will suffice if using CbB.

LOL, that is a good summary of things. As I am playing with T10, I realized that I got this new machine about 10 weeks after getting the T8 deal and never installed it on this computer. While plying with T10, I tore into Collective and Biotek seriously for the first time, and I really like those guys. Turned out, the T10 demo comes with the versions I owned from T8, so they authorized. Long story short... I *assumed* that both of these were locked to Tracktion but found out that regardless of what installation path you choose, they install to C:\Program Files\Steinberg\VstPlugins. Once I added that path to VST scans in SO4 and CbB, they pop up for use. ? I am still having a very difficult time clicking with Tracktion's workflow, so will see how this plays out; but the two things I really wanted (Collective and BioTek (1)) from this demo I realized I already had. Just a quick FYI for folks, since I have never had the Steinberg plugin path in my VST scans... It won't hurt to add that path if not already done. AAS is the only other verdor I have that seems to install a duplicate there, even though I told it not to.

That is a good deal. For those who are not familiar with iZotope, their deals often have "from any advanced product" as a pricing option for bundles and such. This is a good opportunity to get into that pricing bracket if not there already.

Another endorsement for Jim. He has been a member of this community for a LONG time, and streamlining PCs for music production is his forte (all of the bullet points in the OP). He is great person to touch base with if not outright buy from, since he will cater a system to your specific needs. He ships his machines with the unnecessary Windows apps disabled and optimized for music production specifically. As far as "power, speed, memory"... an i7-8th generation CPU with 16GB of RAM is one of the more cost-effective builds these days. Just in case you have need for more RAM going forward, getting two 8-GB RAM sticks initially will allow you to double RAM to 32GB by only buying two more (i.e., you can still use the initial 2 purchased that way). In my experience, 32GB was overkill, and 8GB isn't enough once a project gets into the mixing stages.