Alan Tubbs

This is where a hardware compressor/limiter helps. I generally record thru a RND Portico II channel. The compressor gets fast. Not 1176 fast but enough to damp vocal pushes. A gentle slope afterwards. That works to firm up most signals but not so much that there is nothing to work on in the box. An 1176 will still be able to light switch on/off the envelope or the slow changes wrought by an optical limiter.

As I understand it the chip shortage killed the mk 5 and needed a lot of them. I was hoping to review it but instead they are offering the 6 now. I’ll return to this thread after I run some first tests with it. If and when I get it. I have high hopes.

Sonitus compressor. The graphs and knees show you just what is going on with the volumes.

NI charges 3rd parties (say Heavyocity) a fee so that their libraries run on Kontakt free. That is part of why they are expensive. Free libraries run on the paid version. your best solution is waiting for the the twice a a year sell by NI and get the paid version. Or buy their hardware if you need a keyboard: they come with the cheap version of komplete. Spending $200 to get the most used sampler isn’t outrageous, unless you don’t want or can’t to make the investment. But Kontakt comes with plenty of instruments and more free ones are out there. I use it on every project. Latter better synths or effects shouldn’t overwrite older ones. If you don’t mind re inserting the newer plugs into older projects you can delete the free ones. But is shouldnt come to that. if you need a sampler, it is the best bet. The other synths etc are good and Komplete covers most forms of synthesis except they’ve recently dropped FM. But for my money Arturia’s Pigment covers the other forms of synthesis in one synth and I picked it up for $100 a couple of months ago. But NI is a great long term investment. It took a few years for me to splurge on Komplete, but once you are in their universe it is relatively cheap to upgrade. Every other year I upgrade Komplete for $100-200. It includes a lot of effects too, the whole range. You can do complete projects with only the cheapest version of Komplete. NI also has certain Libraries for Kontakt for soundtrack underbed production that I always pick up. It isn’t terribly expensive long term when done over years.

If you registered it you should have it under your account.

Great bit of software that was simple to use. At that time I thought cake should have invested in it, adding on sonar features, eventually. But they crabbed on p5 to sonar, instead,

No. I use it mainly as a keyboard. Sorry. I’ll look into your integration when I get some time. Eight knobs gone to waste.

I’ve been happy with my Native instruments A49 control keyboard. The cheaper, non lite version. 8 knobs and a nice keyboard feel. 49 keys is a minimum. Less than $200 when I got mine. Good quality. I had a Novation 25 and keys went dead. Doesn’t mean they all do but just passing that along. They fixed it when I wrote directly to them. But I had to send the unit to Austin.

Too bad. I don’t use drum synths that much, but AD pretty good.

Doesn’t Cake still come with addictive drums? That is what you need. I never really know what is still included with Cake.

The ns systems (ns 10s etc.) were designed as proper pro monitors including their accompanying amps. But they got sold as bookshelf speakers for the home. Didn’t harm the sound. I put four on the ceiling of a small live theater for sound and they worked fine, even for the bass (this was in the analog days and LPs were limited in the bass). It was for theater, not a disco.

I was going mention the 500 series but I haven’t kept up with those releases. I do know that Rupert Neve has a 500 series of his 1073 but you are talking 2 grand. good hunting.

I replaced a 45 year old matched Yamaha monitor (for my ns 500 10 inch speakers) with a used hafler p1500 transnova. I was used to the relaxed mode my system had reached but the hafler with the ns 500s is a lot more forward, a bit different in the high end (the ns 500s have beryllium (sounds like elvish gem) tweeters. A bit more strident, which is not something totally bad, since it can point out problems. But like everything else musical, the harder and longer you listen the more you hear.

The warm pultec is pretty good. It is not precise but you have digital eq for that. The warm tracks pretty close to the real thing. In an Austin studio with a pair of originals the Grammy engineer could point out different eq slopes he could hear and then I could. He works with the pultec sound everyday. Pretty good for a tenth of the price. Does add some mojo, too,a d thickens the sound with a transformer goodness. And the dueling slopes are different than most eqs. I think Heritage has some 1073 neve style eqs. I’d buy audioscape eqs in a sec but don’t think they have standalone eqs. Api had some 1000$ eqs, but I heard they were kinda weak. Not so many clones for eq. As comps and pres.

Just add solved to the title of your post. And document the fix, if applicable.

Scook answered your second question. About the metronome, clicking on the icon opens a menu. You have to carefully go over everything. One thing that comes up is the vol of the instruments used for clicks. Fool around w the instruments and vol at the bottom of the menu.

Usually one uses the master buss. That is working Inside the Box (ITB), and one wants to pass all audio through it. however, some or many work with their DAW thru a mixer or summing mixer. The original idea for this was back before we had 64 bit mixing and native up sampling. The 24, 32, 48 and 54 bit mixing engines many pros felt didn’t provide enough information unlike analog summing. Today many use analog mixing just to integrate external hardware. I have about 6 different analog processing channels to record into. With my Summing mixer I leave my channel strip and combinations of pres, eqs and or pres hooked up to record into and analog mix out without messing with the patch bay. I don’t do it because I’m dissatisfied with Sonar’s mix engine. however, I can hear the transformers driving in my RND Orbit when mixing. Even just a stereo out. If you ever want to hear what a good, musical transformer can do to add some excitement to your mix, try an Orbit. Much better than any saturation/distortion plugin in my opinion.

Ever since I got a free copy of plasma in computer music I’ve just “gotten” Cakewalk DAWS. Cakewalk by Bandlab continues to be a natural fit.

I didn’t edit the editor.

If you are using asio drivers they are limited to a single driver. You can choose an alternate driver, but not two. even if you use woman the different interfaces can lose timing.

B rock was a major contributor for Sonar back in the day. He made some good stuff.

Plug the DX audio input into your interface audio input and record that. The DX is an external instrument and gets recorded just like a voice or guitar.

The super synth Pigments 3 by Arturia is for sale for $100. Great deal on a dual engine synth that does sample playback, granular, a new harmonic (additive) engine, virtual analog wavetable along with FM facilities. The biggest difference between this and the falcon or synthmaster supersynths (other than price) is the faceplate. Very visual and easy to understand.

What are you going to do when your soft synth doesn’t work anymore? Alchemy was my main synth but is no longer viable. I’ve updated my computer and my rapture and pro as well as dimension won’t work without work. always convert your midi to audio and you won’t loose your song. Even if you switch DAWS.

That is a good deal for a pro level Neve 73. I’ve used some heritage units and they were all bang for buck. If I needed another pre I’d have my card out.