Simeon Amburgey

I have also been using SampleTank 4 MAX and like @Craig Anderton the library download and installation is not for the faint of heart. Once successful I recommend saving the installation files on a separate drive in case you ever need to install them again. SampleTank 4 SE is a nice way to get started at this price however and you have the option to upgrade to the larger libraries in the future. There have been no issues using it with the latest version of Cakewalk; you have settings that help you customize some of the streaming and sample memory options to tailor it to your individual system.

YES !- This was the technique I was trying to remember. I tried backing up to DVD several years ago and something must have happened to the DVD-R Drive as some of the discs I burned would not read in other drives and such so always verify the backup you burned on another drive just in case. Also the bank deposit is a good idea. A favorite YouTube channel I watch sometimes EposVox has done a lot on some offsite Synolgy (I think that's the company) offsite NAS drives as a backup (he has them at someone else's house) Thanks for all the responses, keep em' coming it is very helpful not only for me but information we should all put into our toolbox.

Absolutely! and that is a whole new spin to this issue . We were complacent enough with spinning platters and multiple terabytes and now with Solid State drives it ushers in a whole other layer of complacency we need to really be aware of and all the more reason to start good data management habits and routines.

I would be one but as a paraphrase "to him who knoweth to backup and does not do it, to him it is...well you know." Yes, I am one who tends to be a little scattered and very unorganized and as you mention this has caused me to take a very hard look at changing that. I am also reminded of your thoughts on doing an IronClad Backup referenced here: http://forums.musicplayer.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/2653514/Ironclad_Backup_by_Craig_Ander It is something like I said know we should do but like flossing it is hard to really get into the habit. ? Thanks so much!

As I am sharing this the words of @Craig Anderton are singing in my ear but did I listen? Well it's not that I didn't want to or knew that I needed to, it was just that I never thought it would actually happen like it did. I was about to get a very important wakeup call. I had a Project Archive consisting of many years of my personal work as well as my clients on a 2tb Seagate Free Agent USB 2.0 external hard drive. Needless to say I would always brag about how long I had the drive and kept putting more and more of my files there for safe keeping; then it happened. I noticed that things were not running as smooth as they used to and that the drive was all of a sudden not being recognized when I booted into Windows, I went through the normal sense of concern and tried different USB ports, etc. but nothing. I then went to the extreme length of opening up the Free Agent enclosure where lo and behold I discovered the 2tb drive attached to a SATA to USB interface. I removed the drive and connected it to an open SATA port and tried again. This time Windows was a little slower but then ChkDsk came up and looked like it found the problem with the drive and booted as usual with the formerly entombed USB drive now showing. Wow, that's great I thought so I shut things down and then proceeded to re-connect the drive to the USB interface. Now when I tried booting to Windows again all I got was spin, spin, spin...nothing. So I went through the process again; removing the drive and attaching it to the SATA port and tried booting into Windows. This time there was a little whine from the drive and me staring at a black screen with no ChkDsk, no Windows, nothing, just a cold, empty feeling inside. I then realized I might be looking at losing years of not only my work but clients as well. needless to say I was very concerned. I then stopped to consider my options. I did have some success in the past messing around with DOS and one case long ago restoring a Master Boot Record but I felt this was a little more serious so I took a shot and called a local computer system builder near me and they said they would give it a go. Well as you can see from the picture things went great after a lot of prayer and waiting (the process of scanning the defective hard drive, recovering and copying the files to a new drive took the whole of an entire weekend). The were able to recover ALL of my data and transferred it to another drive. One thing they mentioned was it was good that I did not try to continue attempting to recover things on my own as it could have resulted in further damaging the drive. Why am I going into all of this detail? I just want to be a friendly reminder that if it spins, it can die and die at the moment you least expect or want it too. I am hoping to come up with a better strategy and workflow so i do not have to lose any sleep at night wondering if today will be the day I will lose everything. So if your hear a tiny voice during your tracking sessions, it might be myself or Craig reminding you IT"S TIME TO BACK UP! ? I would love to hear other users experiences and backup solutions that are working for you? Best regards from someone very grateful as the story could have been a lot different.

I posted this in an earlier thread but thought I would share it here as well. Really discovering this fun instrument.

The initial release versions of SampleTank 4 made me take a hard look at how my audio PC was performing and actually helped discover a lot of potential issues that were causing me to take some unnecessary hits performance wise. Just spent a lot of time using Latency Mon and some other tools to help pinpoint my particular issues. Here are some additional things I found on top of those I mentioned in an earlier thread. Possibly failing external USB 2.0 backup drive Making sure my USB 2.0 and 3.0 drivers were current Isolating my Presonus Studio 6|8 on its own dedicated USB Root Hub Looking at overclocking and CPU power settings at the BIOS level Not trying to do too much such as video recording/capturing which pushed things to the very edge CPU wise ?. This afternoon I had possibly my best experience yet with ST4 and captured a little of the fun I was having. Just started noodling with one of the Rhodes patches and thought; "Hey, I need to capture some of this". I hope you enjoy. I want to do a more detailed walkthrough and I am more confident than ever that it will be very soon.

Hello, I have been a PreSonus interface user many years and ECHO Audio (may they rest in peace) before that. I am currently using the Studio 6|8 which is a very nice interface. I am however looking into what other options are out there to give me a little more performance in regards to latency, etc.. I am not sure if I am just hitting a ceiling with my current i5 3570k setup but it never hurts to learn from other's experiences. I know that RME (The BabyFace Pro in particular) have a history of best performance but looking for something a little more affordable. I have heard MOTU's audio drivers are high performing as well. Thanks for sharing.

* Sorry; Monetization was turned on by mistake on the earlier video * Thanks for any additional thoughts or ideas.

It was Cubase ? As @scook suggested renaming the DLL caused it to be removed from contention . I still would like to figure out a way to give Voicemeeter’s virtual audio ports priority when I am doing screen recordings and Live streams. I just want to find a solution that will give me the best performance. Here is a short illustration of what I am looking at: Thanks as always for all of the help!

Is there a way to prioritize what is recognized on the top of the list? I sometimes use Voicemeeter when I do live streaming or screen recordings to help me route audio sources to my video capture devices, it uses the Studio 6|8 as its source and I select the Voicemeeter drivers inside of Cakewalk and as with the Low Latency driver that can cause issues. Thanks again!

@Craig Anderton, if you have a Microsoft account then your Windows 10 product key/activation might be associated with that. They added this during the initial Windows 10 release period where you could upgrade free.

Well after working through some of my computer issues, I thought I would have some fun and put a short demo/preview together. This is a little rough and I want to do a more in depth playthrough/review in the near future but thought this would get the ball rolling. You can check it out here: Looking forward to being able to make lots more music and inspiration with SampleTank 4. Thanks everyone and have a most Joyous Easter (Resurrection) weekend!

Thanks Kevin, Found it, I got confused with view Resources and that threw me off. The utility does seem to make things a little clearer as you do not have to drill down through the tree. I knew that was there I guess I just got lost in the forest because of the "trees"? .

@scook, that solved that issue but you know what they say about when you start to uncover what’s under that rock? It seems that there are darker forces that might be at work as I noticed a lot of srvchosts and a major system idle process that is pegging my CPU to 90 - 100%. Oh brother ? Well I am at least learning and finding solutions. thanks again!

Yes! Great idea, Inwill give it a go. So I will see if I can get it to the ASIO driver for my Presonus Studio 6|8. Stay tuned...

That looks really interesting.

Yes, It allows you to see what devices are connected to what USB Device, Root Hub, etc.. Very helpful and confused as to why Device Manager does not have something like that? I tried looking at the show devices by connection and by resources but it is very confusing while this is just straightforward and easy to understand.

I have been puzzled with this for a while. So I am not sure I fully understand how this setting is implemented. I feel a little embaraased as I have used Cakewalk for quite a while . It seems that no matter what I try and change the dropdown to it always reverts back to what you see in the image above; is this normal? Looking through the help notes as well. I am also looking at possibly just deleting and restoring my AUD.INI and see if that sort of resolves anything. Thanks for helping me understand.

I have been really struggling as some of other users of late to pinpoint sources of latency and conflicts , especially when USB devices are involved. I currently am using a PreSonus Studio 6|8 USB 2 Audio Interface and just having some really annoying crackles when working with the latest update of SampleTank 4.04. I was wanting to make sure that the PreSonus was on a dedicated USB channel and found this utility that provided a clear and straightforward view of how things were connected. You can see that there is a lot going on but I was able to get the Studio 6|8 on its own by sort of trial and error connecting and checking the tree: You can learn more about this utility here: https://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtreeview_e.html#download I now actually believe it is a SampleTank 4.04 issue as I tried the project and loaded it down with a lot of heavy memory VSTs (Trillian, Kontakt (running NOIRE), Addictive Drums, etc) Hope it helps?

Well I am hoping to publish some unboxing and tests to share my experiences. Of course I can only use one (or two ) of these so there might be some left to give away. I am also trying to reach out to Kensington as well to see if they can send me a couple of their trackball products. Many years ago I went through so many different kinds and now just trying to do a reset and hopefully my experience can help my other musician friends and colleagues. One thing I am working on is researching how Eye Tracking can be used to work with Windows and DAWs in particular. That would really be interesting. Thanks again!

Thanks for all of the replies and feedback. I just received this from Logitech and am excited to try these and see how they do? The vertical mouse and Ergo Trackball are particularly intriguing.

@craigb, one additional question; how is your desk/workstation arranged as far as the placement of keyboard, mouse, etc.?

So is that some type of gel squeeze ball, like a stress ball? I also think part of my problem has been the placement of the input devices and like you said getting caught up and not taking breaks (especially video editing) is rough. Thanks so much for the feedback.

The past several months I have been dealing with some issues especially wrist (carpal tunnel) elbow (cubital tunnel) , fingers (nerve injury), etc.. I guess the years of messing around with computers and various types of mice, trackballs and touchpads have started to take a toll. I am looking into doing some research and study about different input devices and interfaces (possible even some eye tracking). I wanted to ask the group if you could share some of your experiences and what you have found helpful. Thanks so much.