Things You Like About CbB

[Tim Smith]

 

On another subject, something I only recently began to do was check "hide Related VST2 Plugins" Located in Edit>Preferences>VST Settings

I don't like having two of anything in my scan lists. It is convenient  CbB colors the plugins in the list to identify what they are. If I have a VST3 plugin with a VST2 twin, I will either opt not to load the VST2 or I'll hide it just in case the VST3 is somehow acting up and I want to go back to VST2.  The older plugins generally install to c:\program files\(x86). The more recent somewhere in c:\program files under various alternate files. Voxengo has a file, Steinberg has a file that curiously other plug in vendors use as a shared location sometimes. Spitfire LABS gets kinda heavy if you loaded a lot of those sound banks, so I put that location on another drive.

I must have 4 different Kontakt selections. Several have multiple outputs in K5,  Kontakt 6 has NO designation calling itself version 6 which can be confusing.

CbB plugin scanning is one of the best around. You just have to get it set up right and point it to the right places. I can scan and use a few of the instruments in Mixcraft 9, but the flipside of that is I get annoying QuikQuak pop ups for a few of their payed plugins by that company. I was going to just buy them, but for what they are I think they are pricey.

Having the ability to use plugins in other DAWs isn't something that usually works. I suspect the ones that scan in Mixcraft were free to begin with.

-Tim

Edited January 9, 2022 by Tim Smith

[Quick Math]

14 hours ago, Shane_B. said:

That's odd, it's totally opposite for me. They are not pinned by default and I wish they were. Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you mean.

S1 shows you if they are VST 3. IIRC it looks like 3 slashes next to the name? Not sure. I only install VST3's now unless I'm forced to do otherwise.

Yeah my bad, you're right. They are not pinned by default, and I wish they were, too.

[Quick Math]

14 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

I would like to see this information. How do I do it?

If you go to the plugin browser and select a plugin then the information is shown on the bottom of the browser window, well if it's docked it's not a window but you can see the information like "VST3 stereo double precision" 

For example, some Cakewalk plugins and Voxengo plugins like span are double precision, also TDR stuff, DMG, Sonimus, and TBProAudio are usually double precision iirc.

I'm away from my computer so maybe I can post a screenshot later.

[Shane_B.]

On 1/9/2022 at 8:50 AM, mikannohako said:

If you go to the plugin browser and select a plugin then the information is shown on the bottom of the browser window, well if it's docked it's not a window but you can see the information like "VST3 stereo double precision" 

For example, some Cakewalk plugins and Voxengo plugins like span are double precision, also TDR stuff, DMG, Sonimus, and TBProAudio are usually double precision iirc.

I'm away from my computer so maybe I can post a screenshot later.

I did some digging this morning. S1 doesn't tell you if it's a DP VST but Sonar does. They both tell you if it's VST2, or VST3. I have them both set to DP in audio options. I guess I've never looked at a VST and said, "You don't support DP, I'm deleting you.". Hah. FWIW Melodyne doesn't use it, according to CbB and I'm sure not getting rid of that any time soon ... ??

It is interesting though. I thought all VST3's by default used DP but the free stuff from Blue Cat is VST3 and CbB shows they are not DP.

I also thought VST2 was 32bit only but CbB shows a lot of them as 64bit. But I do admit, it's been a long long time since I dug in to this stuff so I'm probably wrong.

If memory serves me correctly, I had a discussion about this a very very long time ago with, I think, Jim R.? IIRC the only time you'll actually hear a differences is in effects like reverb in the tail of it as it's fading out and only at volumes you would never listen to. At least more than once because you'd blow your ears off. LOL.

But I say, if it works, and theoretically it makes all the math's/audio better even if we can't hear it at safe levels why not use it? I could absolutely see it making an audible difference in a large project with a lot of VST's going. There was a time when processing power was limited and I had to turn it off for latency sake, but I've had it on for a very long time now and see no performance issues.

I'm kind of surprised it's even an option now, especially in S1 because you can't choose which dither to use in it. It uses Triangular with no noise shaping which is what I always thought sounded best to my ears and what I always used in Sonar. Sonar never specified if it used noise shaping with Triangular though. That said, I turn it off now and use Ozone 9 Advanced. 

Never had to deal with any of this shtuff when I recorded on a Tascam 4 track and mastered on to my Dolby B HXPRO cassette deck. *sigh*. ?Of course, I could have used Dolby C, but when played back in cars which I've only ever seen B supported it sounded too harsh. So I guess there were those kind of technical decisions to be made there too. Oh well. What do ya do. ?

[Xoo]

16 minutes ago, Shane_B. said:

But I say, if it works, and theoretically it makes all the math's/audio better even if we can't hear it at safe levels why not use it? I could absolutely see it making an audible difference in a large project with a lot of VST's going. There was a time when processing power was limited and I had to turn it off for latency sake, but I've had it on for a very long time now and see no performance issues.

There are (were?) a handful of plugins that are very unhappy when using DP.

[Shane_B.]

54 minutes ago, Kevin Perry said:

There are (were?) a handful of plugins that are very unhappy when using DP.

That makes me wonder now, Melodyne has always been clunky and unpredictable for me. I see now in CbB that it is not a DP VST. I wonder if it would work better if I turned off DP in S1's audio settings. I guess I'll give it a try and see.

If a VST is capable of DP, does it use it even if you have DP turned off in audio settings? IOW, does DP have to be turned on in the host for it to be activated at the VST level?

 

[Tim Smith]

I don't notice the difference between VST2 and VST3 much if we are talking 64 bit. 

VST3 64 made some improvements to the way audio was handled in and out of the plugin in terms of channels. I never used the capability so I wouldn't know. I don't generally stream multiple audio channels out of my plugins.

Maybe some improvements to control and automation. Once again, I seldom see the need to automate a plugin. I believe VST2 has a bunch of that capability already. CbB plugins can all be automated in the PC.  GUIs are bigger in VST 3 plugins or can be.

To condense, the differences are not differences I have really minded much other than the larger GUI. I never use the seat memory in my car either. Tech is great if you use it. If you don't.............

[Xoo]

4 hours ago, Shane_B. said:

That makes me wonder now, Melodyne has always been clunky and unpredictable for me. I see now in CbB that it is not a DP VST. I wonder if it would work better if I turned off DP in S1's audio settings. I guess I'll give it a try and see.

If a VST is capable of DP, does it use it even if you have DP turned off in audio settings? IOW, does DP have to be turned on in the host for it to be activated at the VST level?

 

Dunno - might be, although I don't know if ARA uses the application's DP settings.