221 thoughts on “General Software”

  1. (Stupid question alert…)

    When using iTunes (mac) to write meta tags into your tracks, which is the better section to install your keywords?

    INFO > COMMENTS
    or
    LYRICS

    I have been putting them in the LYRICS section on my mp3’s, but it may make more sense to use the COMMENTS area, so you could embed them in the wav files?

    Where’s Emmett’s tagging software!!! 🙂

  2. I have a question regarding Logic Pro 9. I reinstalled it about 2 months ago, and now just about every time I open it I have to go through all of the plug-ins that have been on there, whether I am using them or not. Most of these are trials that all have expired and I have chosen not to renew.
    I went into the AU manager and disabled them, but they are still showing up.
    Any suggestions?

  3. Just wanted to make everyone aware of this new synth –

    The Synthix

    I have the other xils lab one the poly kb2 and honestly its the best anologue synth Ive ever had ( virtual but so good for the first time i forget ) I havent bought this new one yet but may do at some point – the ex auturia designer to me makes the best synths bar no one now. Hes made three and they honestly to me knock the socks off the auturia stuff.

    http://www.xils-lab.com/

  4. AUDIO PROBLEMS WITH MAC OS 10.6.8

    If you use MAC OS and you haven’t already updated to 10.6.8,
    you may want to hold off. There are reported problems with audio dropouts and crashes.

    I updated a few days ago and began experiencing crashes on audio playback in DP7.
    I fixed the problem by replacing the current AppleHDA.kext file with the one from 10.6.7, using Time Machine.

    http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20075185-263/workaround-for-audio-problems-with-os-x-10.6.8-update/

    If you haven’t updated, save yourself the hassle.

    Who knows what joys Lion will bring? 😆

    Michael

    • good advice , i feel like everyday my comp is working ok and last time i did a major upgrade i had such a stress of problems, i think at times like upgrades i have to remind myself of when i used to use an atari ste and look at my mac now and go wow its so powerful and great, do i need the upgrade ? its fine….leave alone for now, until everyone says its essential or some software demands i have to .

  5. Can anyone suggest a decent steel guitar and fiddle plug-in that really captures the nuances of the instruments? It’s the two basic elements that I am lacking when writing country tracks, and have not been able to find either. Thanks.

  6. I always seem to have trouble with the question “Who does your music sound like?”.
    I write in various styles, and am influenced by many.

    Is anyone using a program/app (like Shazam for the iphone) that can take your track and pop out some “sounds like” Artists? Something that can possibly identify certain aspects of my song and show possible matches?

    It’s hard to keep up with the technology sometimes, and thought I would throw it out here. 🙂

    Thanks.
    JD

  7. My God, Albino 2 has got to be one of the most useable synths ever created. I find myself searching for sounds for hours on end using my more up to date software, then i switch to Albino and voila! it fills the hole perfectly. No need for these modern complex uber presets.

  8. Just got my copy of Computer Music Mag and thought I would mention the freebie sampler on the cover disk . It’s called Synapse and it’s from Camel audio (and no I don’t have any connection with these people). I was just blown away by some of the sounds in it.
    Happy composing
    Cheers
    Ian

  9. this offer has to be had if you like the sounds

    i bought the synth poly kb as i am in love with its anologness its so lushous

    ive just seen for 25 euro he is selling a scalled down just player of the synth…

    ive never enjoyed a synth more than this…honestly

    its made by xavier who used work for atruria and he went it alone to start new company

    ‘xils labs’ – i just looked at site and saw the player for 25 euros. i think the guy needs

    support being a new company so has done the mini player for so cheap – you can download a free version of the full synth to test out – if you have ever liked anything anologue
    i guarantee this knocks the spots off anything youve heard – ever…ive all the aturia stuff etc
    and it does not come close to this….not even close…from lush pads strings to amazing leads
    seeing this for 25 euro is unbelievable. please do check a free download of full synth and you will see the light…

    for the record it sounds like im flippin from there, im not….ive honestly never had a vst so close to my heart. it warmed it and for a vst to do that, well it was a first. ive had real anolog, inc a yamaha cs60 and that was the love of my life, sadly she gone ! but this is actually better and i never thought i would see vst make that leap.

    http://www.xils-lab.com/pages/PolyKB-II-Player.html

  10. I wonder if anyone can help me –

    I am not sure I should post it under software but I cant think where else this subject lies.

    I have uploaded tracks to pond 5 and also musicloops, in both cases they turn my lovely sounding wavs into mp3 i think in 64kpbs.

    They have interference, esp on the highs, and I think thats why i am not selling much. The wavs sound really great but my stuff on sites sound really really poor.

    I have listened to other peoples and lots of theirs sound much much better than mine – they dont have the distortion i am getting on my tracks. I would love it if someone can point me in the direction of whats going on ? I am not driving the tracks into distortion, they dont clip at all during the bounces and like i say the wavs are fine.

    I know that if i listened to someone elses i would prefer to buy theirs as its not distorting like mine are, is their something i am missing – do i need to limit it and reduce the output or something – put into another program and re-wav it or something bizzare ?

    thanks if anyone can shed any light on this as its really doing me in.

    • Maybe try bouncing it as an mp3. This way you are doing the conversion right out of the box rather than having them do it. Not sure if it will make a difference but it’d be my first approach to the problem.

      • yes i have been bouncing the tracks as mp3 64 bit to check them – they have been ok.

        what i cant figure out is why some peoples tracks are remaing ok on the sites, maybe they are better produced but my wavs sound fine.

        i am using logic.

    • @adam I feel your pain, Its the one thing that really bugs me. 64 kpbs should be redundant by now as most people have faster internet access. now. Anything thing with high frequency content that is even moderately limited will be compromised.

      To help

      1. Try use a separate mp3 encoder using Lame. (better codec) I use Snapper
      2. Dont max out your mixs to 0 dbfs. Always leave 0.2-0.5 db headroom.
      3. Make mp3 from 24 bit masters.

      In saying all of this sometimes it still sounds like c***p. If its any consolation I had a track on a site that used 64 kbps that sounded terrible. All the top end was gone and swishing like crazy. It was the best seller on the site for a couple of months. Go figure. Sometimes depending on the music (pop/rock mainly) it just sounds terrible no matter what you do. Fortunately the client listens more to the music than the sound quality.

      Also dont bounce out tracks from logic as mp3. Import wav into iTunes and see if this better.

      Try a few of the things I have suggested and see does it help, if not get back it might be something else.

      • Thanks dennis – thats really helpfull.

        please may i pick your thoughts for a min ?

        i really want to sort this out – saying that it really could be that people are better producers because some people, not all, are getting a great loud sound and clear out of the tracks on say pond5 for instance, not all, but some. i wonder whether its protools ?

        the way i upload is uploading a 16bit wav which then gets converted to a 64k file and the fun of the distortion begins !

        1. Try use a separate mp3 encoder using Lame. (better codec) I use Snapper

        i have downloaded lame and put it onto itunes and hear great things, i will use this to make the music loops mp3 files.

        2. Dont max out your mixs to 0 dbfs. Always leave 0.2-0.5 db headroom.

        i have tried this and with even more extreme settings but when it gets to pond5 sorry to me today pond 666 ! it distorts.

        3. Make mp3 from 24 bit masters.

        i will try this for the musicloops site – i did not know that makes a difference, thanks.

        i am still at a loss to the bass problem though. i really wish there was a definative answer as to why some peoples files sound clearer, it could be that they are being very careful what sounds they add whilst composing knowing its converting to 64k, i have begun this practise, i bounce a bar early stages to 64k and if say the hats are getting crunchy then i will look for other hats to replace them.

        thanks dennis for the input. it really is mainly the hats which get the painful sound but also any other highs. i do hope in the future we can move to 128 – i know that the price of home drives are cheap now so hopefully these mega storage ones will also become cheap for the libraries and understand how its a right pain for us, our tracks in wav form sound great and we check them, we have to play a game around what translates at 64k compression and compromise what we are doing for it.

        • “it really could be that people are better producers because some people, not all, are getting a great loud sound and clear out of the tracks on say pond5 for instance, not all, but some. i wonder whether its protools ?”

          No it’s not protools, whatever DAW you choose won’t make a difference in this. DAWs don’t sound different, the only thing that will sound different between them is their stock plug-ins. The perceived loudness comes from what type of instrumentation you have going on along with how you use eq and compression. A mix that has instruments covering the full spectrum (especially in the mid-range) will sound louder. If you’re having certain frequencies causing problems after the transition to mp3 then you might want to work out those problematic areas with eq.

          As for the loudness, I wouldn’t worry about as much as clearer is better. Oh and use Dither when bouncing!

          • @Musicman. Spot on. I would suggest looking around for some non Logic plugins. I dont suggest going and spending thousands. I posted a link earlier in the thread to some crazy Waves deals going. The Native bundle deals from all manufacturers now are really good.

        • @adam. Yes at pond5 you have no control of it. I think 128 is acceptable TBH. Audiosparx for one use this and only occasionally does it really stick out.

          I have done tests too with problem tracks and TBH no matter what I did it never fixed the problem, it just lessened it to an extent.

          You can also try and use a really steep lo pass filter to cut anything above 9-10 k. Audacity is a freeware audio editor for the Mac that does a lot of cool things like this.

          I wouldn’t compromise the Master wav file just because it affects the mp3 apart from what I posted earlier about levels etc.

          Musicloops is different because you do the conversion for them. I would mix my Master 24 -44. Import into Audacity and then do the filtering whatever. Save it as the ” musicloops wav to mp3″ Convert in itunes using lame and see does it help.

          As i sad earlier sometimes it doesn’t matter what you do it still sounds awful.

          Protools is as good or bad as any other DAW out there. Sound quality wise it just the same. BUT over the years it has become the defacto standard for mixing and the quality of TDM plugins was much better than native mainly because a lot of plugin manufactures were TDM/RTAS only. McDsp/Soundtoys etc. That has changed nearly all plugins now are native multi-platform plugs.

          I say this because a really good multiband compressor limiter over your mix buss can really solve a lot of these issues.

          The inbuilt Logic stuff is great BUT not in the same league as some other non Logic plugs. I personally swear by McDsp stuff. check it out. It may make a difference. They are doing great deals now on all their bundles.

          Hope this helps

          • thanks dennis. yes i do use a limiter, ive a great sonnox limiter which i can recommend as pretty good and does job well for me – at music man – ive never dithered, well dithered about right and wrong in my life ! but never dithered any music, i thought it was only for converting 24bit to 16bit ? am i wrong in this respect ? should i dither a 16bit bounce out of logic and will it help preserve the files conversion down to 64 bit, thanks guys !

              • thanks guys for the input

                i will def be trying the lame encoder out for the ones in musicloops , i was unaware of it until a few days ago and people rave over it so i think thats going to deliver results. its funny becuase if only these sites would use 128 i really would be a happy chappy, i mean – i put these two hundred tracks up – i like them , there ok , the wavs sound perfect, i listen to all my tracks and i am unhappy !!! if only they were at 128 i would be happy, i would go down the coffee shop now for a break sit down and think, nice weeks work, sounds great lets see what will come of it now.

                i watched a great program called dagenham wifes last week about women strikes in the70s and their demand for equal pay. it was fantastic. i think we should all go on mass strike !!! remove all our tracks from all libraries or at least threaten to… till we get our equal bit rate rites 128 and not a penny less. ok joking but i just feel a bit down at listening to these crunchy files, it feels like i am asking someone to take a leap of faith to buy it and see when they download it that it sounds normal.

                re dithering – last night i did 2 tracks dithered – i used four diff 16 bit sony sonnox dithers and then switched off the sony and tried also 3 presets on the logic dithering

                i uploaded 7 vs of each of the two tracks.

                sadly thats no answer for the problem – it has not helped – i checked all of them and they sound the same – for moments ive sat there going ohh that ones diff but then a and b ing they appear the same – the files tend to distort for moments in diff parts of track, i guess the bit rate coding is a little diff each time it gets uploaded.

                for the moment my thoughts are that the best files that i hear that have no distorting are either run through some kind of converters at the end – ive no idea what they may be. i know if u make a record and go to a mastering house they sort things right out and think their 64 k would be ok. maybe some of these people have these skills…

                or my other answer is people are so aware its going to become 64 k their entire writting process holds this as the most central importance, bouncing after 1 min, if it does not dist at 64 k carry on etc till they have a good 64k file.

                i really am still at a loss for this. if i find out more i will post as i have not given up, i am sure people do know the answer, and it could be that its just simply tracks not good enough god knows, its just very frustrating. im not going on strike as i fear i will be the only one ha ha. i really hope i find out by the end of the weekend how to do it !

                also if anyone knows a tutorial or of the settings for lame into itunes please let me know , lame is new to me and having opened it there are only a few controls and not sure what to do, goggle didnt have any tutorials i could find.

                thanks.

                • hi guys

                  i mainly sorted my probs with the 64 distorting problem

                  1.you IN ALL NEEDS must bounce in realtime…try it bounce offline and listen to the 64k then bounce in real time and listen….you must always always do this…i did not know this was so.

                  2.i used waves L3 suite on the main output and that helped me lots tho sure there are others similarly good.

                  3.always test the track every twenty mins . bounce a bar at 64k if your gettin a problem, just remove the problem, put a diff hi hat sound in or whatever causes this prob at 64k.

                  im getting 90 per cent improvement now and am really happy about it all now. not a perfect world i know, but hey workin in a call center of in the supermarket isnt either so i will work around the 64k prob. hope this helps. cheers.

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