23

[Nathan]

…but a reverb to stand up to the SDX recordings would have to be good. Could TT pull that off without too much of a price hike.

As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve not touched any of the FX in SD. If they spend money in this area, it’s wasted on some users (but I’m old-school, I still use TC and Lex hardware outboard with my DAW).

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SD2.3, NYII, C&V, MC, MF, ED, Latin Perc, Twisted, Pop, N1H, Electronic, Classic, Funkmasters, Rock Solid, Blues, Indie-Folk.

[Nathan]

ORIGINAL: Staley

Hi

Here is my wishlist regarding future Toontrack releases:

Superior 3.0
– Reverb plugin integration
…

But SD has got reverb -real reverb, the way proper drum mixes are made! I only use synthetic reverb on (eg) a snare if I want a particular effect. Don’t you use the ambients? Wasn’t the “room sound” the point of some of these SDX libraries?

(I haven’t actually got round to using anything beyond the pans, routing and level faders on my SD mixer).

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SD2.3, NYII, C&V, MC, MF, ED, Latin Perc, Twisted, Pop, N1H, Electronic, Classic, Funkmasters, Rock Solid, Blues, Indie-Folk.

[Nathan]

ORIGINAL: Xplora

Tombour mentioned the nag screen. And yes, bug response is a lot better than the big DAWs, however, bug response is simply fixing a program that should work already. It’s actually sign of a broken program, and is likely tto make up a substantial part of the additional cost of Tools or Cubase. THey fix it before it goes to market (LOL yeah right, but thats the theory behind it? )

Bug-fixes tend to get released with the next paid version, I find that highly unacceptable.

ORIGINAL: Xplora
My point is simply that Reaper IS small time, and treating Justin like the second coming is highly misplaced trust. If you can’t afford the integrated hardware/software path, they are probably the best, but honestly, the time you’d save with integrated solutions is probably worth it. I would only need to save about 20 hours over the life of the product (have a think about how you get paid for your time) and I’d probably be able to justify a proper Protools extravaganza. I’m not earning that much cash, but time is money.

I’m no fanboi, I’ve waded in in the past using my commercial licence as a bludgeon -justification for demanding changes/fixes (professional user, professional service?).

Until PT9, I’ll be blunt here, nothing would be worth spending more money on than REAPER for what I wanted, how I work. PTHD and a DD console would be good, but we’re talking some serious money, and my main line of work is live sound, not the studio.

I use PT in professional facilities, but I cant stand the wet lettuce that is LE . If I need PT compatibility, I’l charge enough so I can use HD (and an operator for arranging & editing) If I don’t need PT compatibilty, REAPER actually does everything I need (more stable than some HD essions too). If it does the job, the client is happy and I get paid, then that’s all I need. It might not be as capable as HD and it doesn’t have the “compatibility”, but it more than serves my needs (not all my wants yet, but that’s next).

In short, I don’t care about REAPER’s perceived social standing. I use what works for the job in hand, and if that’s REAPER then I’m happy to use it. With REAPER, Drumtracker and SD, I’m acheiving better results for much cheaper than with outsourced jobs.

…So, back to SD.

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SD2.3, NYII, C&V, MC, MF, ED, Latin Perc, Twisted, Pop, N1H, Electronic, Classic, Funkmasters, Rock Solid, Blues, Indie-Folk.

[Nathan]

At the risk of taking this at a 90 degree tangent, remember there are only three or four of them. They’re obviously not going to be ticking off the features on everybody’s personal wishlist. I want VCAs, I want fader graticules in dBs, I wantproject management features so bad I’ve drafted-out the design brief for a 3rd party developer to write a module for me. I have to accept that my requirements obviously don’t correlate with either Justin’s or the userbase’s, and I’m well down the queue.

I’ll happily settle for the bug response reaction-time of Cockos over that of the “leading brands”. Nobody’s perfect, but I feel catered for more with the “handbuilt in SF” software company.

I’m not quite sure I follow your monologue on the nag screen, what point ae you making here? I believe  you should pay for a licence, especially when you’re trusted and given as much leewat as you are with REAPER…

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SD2.3, NYII, C&V, MC, MF, ED, Latin Perc, Twisted, Pop, N1H, Electronic, Classic, Funkmasters, Rock Solid, Blues, Indie-Folk.

[Nathan]

ORIGINAL: Xplora

ORIGINAL: planetnine

Well your copy protection doesn’t stop the pirates, but it sure does create a terrible customer experience for many legitimate users. I came across someone who has a cracked SD yesterday. I hate it when people don’t pay for what they use.

I suppose there isn’t an answer, without it you wouldn’t get the revenue to keep the company producing the products.

REAPER isn’t copy-protected, but it didn’t stop me buying a commercial licence. I don’t know if that business model actually works for Cockos, but it makes it much less stressful and time consuming to install.

You make a first-class product Toontrack, but I did get fed up with the hoops I had to jump through while installing. Just keep the libraries coming in and I might forget the pain .

>

Reaper isn’t in the same league as Toontrack as far as professional quality product goes. Toontrack can appear in a professional production and be right at home – Reaper’s developers have given the false impression that they are interested in user feedback. I’m truly of the opinion that they are simply implementing changes that they want, steal the ideas of the userbase for direction of featureset improvement, and charging people for a program that would otherwise be freeware. The sheer arrogance of the developer team confirms that Reaper will always be a toy DAW compared to Cubase or Tools. That makes me sad because they have a lot of deluded users worshipping them. I use Reaper because it is less frustrating than Cubase who charge more money than I will pay for a DAW. That doesn’t make it a better platform. Just a cheap one.

I’d better tell a colleague of mine that he’s cheapening the image of Abbey Road by using it there. I bet he didn’t realise it didn’t fit in when he rescued an orchestral session there with it (it was the only app that correctly created the tempo mapping he recently needed in a hurry).

Don’t spend a lot of time on the REAPER development forum then, I guess..?

If it does the job, that’s all that matters to me. There are idiosyncracies and there are still growing pains, but early versions of PT were pretty horrible (why we used Logic with PT hardware 😉 ). I’m really sorry it traumatised you as a child. Now get over it and make some music. It’s only a DAW; it only makes up a small part of a grown-ups studio. 🙂
 
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SD2.3, NYII, C&V, MC, MF, ED, Latin Perc, Twisted, Pop, N1H, Electronic, Classic, Funkmasters, Rock Solid, Blues, Indie-Folk.

[Nathan]

you can run REAPER on both platform.

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SD2.3, NYII, C&V, MC, MF, ED, Latin Perc, Twisted, Pop, N1H, Electronic, Classic, Funkmasters, Rock Solid, Blues, Indie-Folk.

[Nathan]

You added an “X-Drum”, an eXtra drum to the original kit. If you “Right-Click” and drag that kick, you can reposition it, but that won’t make any diference to sound or stereo panning, it’s merely a pictue. For that you need to delve into the micophone assignment and find your feet in the mixer screen.

 For a kit with a double-kick to look tidier, you need to find a session in a library that has on as default -I think some of the metal libraries have them.I think what you are trying to do is easily accomplished in SD with the appropriate libraries.

Spend some time with the manual and go through the tutorial videos on the toontrack site. It took me a week of reading, watching and fiddling until everything had clicked and I started getting confident. There’s a lot of useability under the hood.

Hope this is helpful…

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SD2.3, NYII, C&V, MC, MF, ED, Latin Perc, Twisted, Pop, N1H, Electronic, Classic, Funkmasters, Rock Solid, Blues, Indie-Folk.

[Nathan]

It’s not Windows, its the machine you put it on. Don’t expect a mass-market machine like a Dell to stand up to the quality of a Mac. With PCs you do to an extent get wat you pay for.

I handbuilt my current DAW, using Intel CPU on Intel board. Quality components, reliable RAM, sensible setup, rock solid machine. Most of my software issues are down to the one flakey component in the studio (ie me). Far more reliable than the last three Macs I’ve worked with, I’ve just not crashed it in two or three years.

Windows is ok, it just runs on some poor machines, and some people stuff the OS with so many dodgy, conflicting applications that it’s surprising they don’t fall over more often.

Each to their own, let’s not use this forum for a platform slanging-match, I’ve been using both long enough to know there is good and bad on both sides.

Now, play nicely…

>

SD2.3, NYII, C&V, MC, MF, ED, Latin Perc, Twisted, Pop, N1H, Electronic, Classic, Funkmasters, Rock Solid, Blues, Indie-Folk.

[Nathan]

ORIGINAL: notstewart

Thanks Jim!
That is something I didn’t check.
Compressor settings for attack and release are confusing to me as far as which instruments need fast attack and vice versa.
Therefore I usually just play around with ratio and threshold.
I’m assuming that if the kick needs a slower attack, then bass probably does also, would that be correct?

Perhaps what I should be asking for is recommendations for a good book (or website) on mixing (with strong reference to using compressors and EQ), any suggestions?

thanks,

Paul

Look on the SOS website for their compression explained articles…

With kick drum, the idea here is to emphasise the “click”, the transient of the beater htting the drum.

You want to use a fairly fast compressor or plugin and set its attack parameter to a value of between 5 and 50ms. This means that that the click will go through the comp unaffected before it reacts. Set the release between 40 and 100ms, and the ratio to around 4:1 for starters.

Loop a section of kick and lower the comp threshold until you see about 6dB of gain reducion happening and listen. The volume of the kick will be reduced a bit, but it will be a bit more clicky. Use the comps gain or makeup gain control to bring the kick volume back up to its original perceived loudess (prob about 4-6dB). Toggle the bypass button and compare the kick with comp engaged and disengaged. There should be a noticeable difference in definition.

Try adjusting the attack parameter and listen to the click sound and the oomph dis/appearing. Try altering the ratio and the threshold for more extreme “squashing”. Play with the release (esp at higher compression levels) and listen to the sustain of the drum change.

You might find the kick “cuts” better at a “clickier” setting when part of the mix than actualy sounds right in isolation. Use it alongside EQ (esp boost at 5kHz) to find a natural, but defined sound that works with your song.

This can work with bass guitar and other instruments to change the dynamics of the sound. Once you know how the comp works and how it is worked, you won’t need to “remember” settings, you’ll just fiddle with the attack for definition and the release for sustain and (along with your ears) you’ll shape the sound you want.

Hope this is helpful

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SD2.3, NYII, C&V, MC, MF, ED, Latin Perc, Twisted, Pop, N1H, Electronic, Classic, Funkmasters, Rock Solid, Blues, Indie-Folk.

[Nathan]

ORIGINAL: vincenizzzle

^^what he said. drums are percussive not tonal…

Heh,try telling a timpanist that 😉

They do have a tonal element, and people do tune that tonal element in interval such as fifths.

Remember also here jbraner, that godprobe is not letting ReaEQ find the note, he’s just using it as a tool along with his ears, to isolate one dominant tone. The ReaEQ plugin just happens to display the chromatic note as well as the frequency at the centre of any filter you happen to be waving around.

With drums, the overtones aren’t always interval harmonics; there are obviously tonal properties, otherwise a tom set couldn’t be tuned from “high” to “low”, but there can be be difficulty in distinguishing the dominant tone and with imperfectly (unevenly) tuned heads, the tone(s) will change with time after the hit. This is why drums are called percussive rather than tonal.

Hope this is helpful.

SD2.3, NYII, C&V, MC, MF, ED, Latin Perc, Twisted, Pop, N1H, Electronic, Classic, Funkmasters, Rock Solid, Blues, Indie-Folk.

[Nathan]

ORIGINAL: Scott

Or, they could offer iLok, C/R, Name & Serial, phone activation code method, etc. and maybe everyone would be happy…well, no, there are those that don’t want any type of copy protection at all…

Well your copy protection doesn’t stop the pirates, but it sure does create a terrible customer experience for many legitimate users. I came across someone who has a cracked SD yesterday. I hate it when people don’t pay for what they use.

I suppose there isn’t an answer, without it you wouldn’t get the revenue to keep the company producing the products.

REAPER isn’t copy-protected, but it didn’t stop me buying a commercial licence. I don’t know if that business model actually works for Cockos, but it makes it much less stressful and time consuming to install.

You make a first-class product Toontrack, but I did get fed up with the hoops I had to jump through while installing. Just keep the libraries coming in and I might forget the pain .

>

SD2.3, NYII, C&V, MC, MF, ED, Latin Perc, Twisted, Pop, N1H, Electronic, Classic, Funkmasters, Rock Solid, Blues, Indie-Folk.

[Nathan]

Download a copy of Shortcircuit and load your sample sets into that. You don’t get multi sample per velocity level and random smaple trigger like SD, but you could load in 127 samples of left-hand and 127 of right-hand playing for each articulation.

I used shortcircuit for drum replacement before I switched on to SD (and drumtracker). It’s a free download.

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SD2.3, NYII, C&V, MC, MF, ED, Latin Perc, Twisted, Pop, N1H, Electronic, Classic, Funkmasters, Rock Solid, Blues, Indie-Folk.

[Nathan]

And when you find a preset you like, go into the effects and work out why it works. Presets are a great “inside view” into some of the methods of compression and EQ.

Sometimes trying presets can be a good way to find something new or surprising -you’ll find a process you’d never think of applying to an instrument.

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SD2.3, NYII, C&V, MC, MF, ED, Latin Perc, Twisted, Pop, N1H, Electronic, Classic, Funkmasters, Rock Solid, Blues, Indie-Folk.

[Author]

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