So far I have tried a number of fx chains in via ProChannel and have been very impressed in (1) what they do and (2) how easy it was to use them. Also, it was great to see that feedback is given for chains that referenced (1) non-existing (on my PC and/or in my scan path) and (2) problematic plug-ins.
Guitar Rig 4 does not trigger the Missing Plug-in placeholder dialog box. Thank's to scook's very handy VST Inventory program, I located Guitar Rig 4 and 5 (3 was already scanned and registered) and copied the dlls to an existing folder in a scan path. That was followed by a manual plug-in scan (w/o a reset). FX chains referencing Guitar Rig 4 worked. I still need to find my activation codes and do proper installations though, to get them out of demo mode (if I want that).
Cakewalk Boost 11 Vst Plug Inl
To alleviate confusion, go through the plugins one-by-one and just delete the FX Chain presets (there is a folder with them) that reference missing plugins. Without the reference plugins, they aren't of much use, since it is very hard to replace the plugins if you don't have a reference installation with the original plugins included.
What makes this more confusing is that the FX Chain will load, and the project will play, as if everything is okay. You don't realize the FX Chain is broken until you either open it and see the (Missing Plugin) or try to open that plugin to adjust parameters.
ALso, it's hard to build many FX Chains from the included plugins, because they don't ship much beyond basic plugins with the DAW (Sonitus:FX, 2 Channel Strips, a Tube Leveler, a Limiter and some ProChannel Modules). SONAR Platinum would have shipped with like 25+ Plugins (or so).
Another great thing about LoudMax is that it still receives updates on a fairly regular basis. The updates often include performance optimizations and improvements to the limiting algorithm. It will work in any digital audio workstation that hosts VST or AU plugins and you can even use it as a real-time effect in WinAmp.
W1 Limiter by George Yohng is a freeware emulation of the L1 Ultramaximizer ($49) by Waves. Even though it is one of the oldest plugins on the list (released around 2010), W1 Limiter is still under development and is expected to include real-time metering features in the final version.
Both plugins consume barely any CPU resources and are highly recommended for tracking and less demanding limiting tasks. Unlike LoudMax, W1 Limiter offers direct control over the release time parameter, which might be beneficial in some situations. An adaptive release switch is also included for setting the plugin to fully automatic mode.
Cakewalk Sonar is now being given away for free. Even if you have no intention of trying Sonar, it will give you some nice Sonitus plugins that work in Cubase (except for the compressor that has a weird chopped effect on my own pc, maybe a buffer issue). These plugins are old, but the reverb, delay and eq are still nice to have as a freebie. Ed p.s. apologies if posting breaks any rules. Just wanted to let Cubase users know of some free plugins. Moderators remove if needed.
Another tremendous upgrade is built-in Melodyne pitch correction with ARA integration on a track-by-track basis, meaning that you don't have to transfer voice clips to and from the plug-in; you can do it all live. We first saw this with Presonus Studio One, and both Apple Logic Pro X and MOTU Digital Performer 8 integrate Melodyne-like pitch correction. Either way, I'll gladly take it here, as I never got my head around Cakewalk's older V-Vocal plug-in. In essence, Melodyne lets you map out and edit pitch on a piano roll-style window, complete with a pencil drawing tool. Built-in pitch correction at the sample level is a completely different animal than basic automatic tuning, and it's great to see it built into SONAR X3; Avid Pro Tools still lacks a similar facility, even in Pro Tools 11 (which we haven't reviewed yet).
The home screen lets you arrange just about any combination of the track view, track inspector, score view, piano roll, and event list, and lock it so that everything is on one screen, similar to the way Logic Pro works on the Mac. Four shortcut keys (C, D, B, and I) toggle the four main elements on the display on and off. As before, you can create extra screen sets, letting you arrange the various interface elements, windows, and plug-ins across multiple monitors, and then calling up each one with the corresponding numeric key.
Unfortunately, once you begin to dig deeper into the interface, and especially with regard to MIDI editing, MIDI plug-ins, quantizing, and hardware configuration pages, you'll see practically the same dialog boxes you would have seen in Cakewalk Pro Audio nearly 20 years ago. There's still way too much "Windows 95" underneath Skylight. It all works well enough. It just looks dated, complete with white dialog boxes and the old Windows system font. And targeting tiny Up and Down buttons for numerical values is never fun, especially with the touch screen.
As before, you get a full version of Dimension Pro, Cakewalk's multitimbral workstation synth plug-in that covers all the bread-and-butter sounds you'll need for most productions. But now you get the full version of Rapture, a stellar virtual analog synthesizer packed with excellent-sounding presets and tons of knobs. TruePianos delivers a decent, if not spectacular, grand piano imitation. And on the mixing side, SONAR X3 Studio and Producer both include a set of 19 Nomad Factory Blue Tubes FX plug-ins, which deliver classic analog emulations, including a new limiter that's a big improvement over Boost 11, which I never liked. Tone2 BiFilter2 is a new, comprehensive analog and digital stereo filter. Overloud TH2 and Breverb carry over from before, and they remain excellent guitar amplifier and reverb plug-ins.
Other features: There's a per-track arpeggiator, which is something I wish every DAW had. The mixing board looks sharp and also works well for the most part, although again, you need plenty of screen real estate to see enough of it. Finally, there's Gobbler, SONAR X3's new integrated cloud backup and sharing solution. You get 5GB free with SONAR X3. It's pretty simple; you click G at the end of the day, and it backs up the entire project to the cloud. The one downside I still see on the composition side is the Staff view; its feature set for editing notation and lyrics is significantly behind what you get with Cubase 7, Digital Performer 8, and even Pro Tools (which got a huge boost back in version 8 thanks to a Sibelius-based engine).
Otherwise, I've never had any major issues working in SONAR. SONAR X3 contains enough built-in instruments to act as an excellent, self-contained studio program from start to finish. For example, I put together a chill-out style track using nothing but instruments and plug-ins that come with the program. I didn't feel at any point like I needed to use third-party plug-ins. Thanks to ProChannel, I was able to add some warmth and tube-style saturation to many of the tracks, as well as polish off the entire track as a whole. I've also scored many computer and mobile games over the years using earlier versions of SONAR, so I was familiar with the program to begin with. But now I feel like I could stay entirely within Cakewalk's environment and not be at a sonic disadvantage.
Oldskoolverb features 18 different reverb presets, ranging from small drum rooms to school gyms, and five extra reverb modes. These modes are where things get very interesting for a free vocal VST plugin.
However, mixing vocals can feel like a chore, especially if you don't have the right plugins. Of course, if you're on a tight budget, you may not be able to afford the vocal plugins you see all of your favorite mixing engineers using.
Ignite Amps PTeq-X is an emulation of one of the most iconic vintage passive program equalizers of all time. With this free vocal EQ plugin, you get all of the renowned characteristics found on the original piece of hardware with all of the benefits of working in the box.
The top-end sounds absolutely phenomenal, allowing you to boost hard and get serious air without your vocal ever sounding harsh. You can also cut in the mid-range with very musical curves, gently scooping out boxy or unnecessary frequencies.
Analog Obsession recently updated the plugin for a sleeker look, though they also gave it improved "circuitry," an input gain control, and an input and output link feature. Plus, it's far less intense for your CPU, allowing you to put it on multiple vocal tracks without bogging down your session!
While DDMF's Colour EQ might look like your average parametric EQ, there are a few things underneath the hood that make this EQ a serious workhorse. Beyond the parameters you would expect to find on a standard EQ plugin, you get an additional Q parameter that provides unique filter shapes.
You can choose between Type A, which scales the bandwidth, or Type B, which creates resonant peaks to give you the formant filter effect. Trying to dial in these types of filters with your everyday parametric EQ plugin would take a bit of work. However, with Colour EQ, it's built-in for you.
The GUI is excellent and super easy to scale to size. Simply click and drag the bottom-right corner to make it bigger or smaller. It's strange to us that this kind of flexibility isn't standard on all plugins, but maybe DDMF Colour EQ will lead the pack into new horizons!
The Klanghelm DC1A might just be one of our favorite free compressor plugins for vocals and everything else. You can use this on anything to add tone and dynamic control. It's one of the most effortless analog-style compressors we've had the pleasure of using.
While the signal path in Kotelnikov is oversampled, the transparency is unmatched. You can seriously reduce your dynamic range without losing any of the punch or tone of the dry signal, which is hard to say for most compressor plugins. This kind of characteristic is great for pop, rock, or EDM vocals, which often require heavy compression. 2ff7e9595c
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