Pat Waara

Here's my recent plugin story. I bought VSL's Big Bang Orchestra libraries just before the holidays. I started to use them on a track, and everything was working fine until I saved and tried to exit Ableton Live 11. I got an error saying, "Undo cannot be deleted." Clicked OK and Ableton closes. When I reopened the project, I got an error saying that Live had unexpectedly quit and asked if I wanted to recover. Said yes, made some edit, and then I could no longer save the project. The project was lost. I tried many work arounds, but none did the trick. I searched forums, tried dozens of experiments with no leads other than it was only VSL BBO that was not working. Tried VSL support, but didn't get any follow up (this may have been because I used their chat feature, which doesn't seem to work.) This went on for six months. I tried VSL support again using their email address and got a response. The tech mentioned that it could be related to the eLicenser they use. He recommended downloading the latest, run maintenance, and try again, which I did. Viola! It worked. I can now use my BBO libraries again. I went back to all the forum posts I could find where people had the same issue and reported my results. I hope it helps them too. Moral of the story: The problem isn't always where you think it is.

I just watched Paul Davids demo the Expressiv MIDI Pro 2 MIDI guitar on his YouTube channel. All I can say is, "Holy sh*t!" This thing looks amazing. I've tried a couple of different MIDI guitars over the years, but the false triggering and the finickiness of the them left me wanting. (I'm not as clean of a player as I would like to be.) Not only does it appear to track well, but it has a bunch of controls on it (e.g., XY pad and a joystick) to manipulate other midi devices such as pedals or synths. It's pricey at 2990 Euros, but given what it is, it's probably worth it. Here's a link to their website https://www.rorguitars.com/ and a link to Paul's YouTube video If anyone gets a chance to actually try one themselves, please post your comments and review here. If I had an extra $4000 lying around, I would buy this thing.

Thanks for all the feedback. I think these monitors deserve to get used as intended--on a stage with a band. While I might be able to get some use out of them in my studio, I would much rather take whatever money I can get for them and apply it to an SSL UV8. That I would put to daily use versus the monitors which might get used sometimes. I'll try the local Craigslist first. If I don't get any takers locally, I'll put them up on eBay. I think they go for $500 new. I'll see if I get any takers at $400.

Oh, a Cakewalk thread. I, like RABid, was a Cakewalk user for a very long time. (I think I started at 3.0 on floppy disks.) Also, like RABid, I bought the lifetime subscription only to have the rug pulled from underneath me. I was furious! I wrote the most scathing email to Gibson that I could utter without being arrested. Even after Bandlab picked it up and promised to continue development, I thought it wise to see what else was out there. After looking at several possibilities (I am Windows only), I settled on Ableton Live. I could not be happier. It completely changed how I use a DAW. It took a bit to get used to, but once I figured out the concept of Sessions vs. Arrangements, my productivity improved exponentially. Live became a composition tool as opposed to a recording tool. Using the Session view to build the parts and actually hear them before dragging them into the Arrangement view was mind-altering for me. Of course, Live has issues, just like any piece of software, but relative to Cakewalk, it is far more stable. Cakewalk would crash on my multiple times per session. I've been tempted to try out Cakewalk again just to see how it is today, but honestly, I don't have time for that.

I had the good fortune to win a brand new CAD GXLLIEM4 in-ear monitor system. For those who don't know, it's a four channel in-ear wireless monitoring system. The thing is, I don't perform live anymore, let alone with a band. (Pre-Covid, I would do the occasional open-mic, but that's about it.) Does anyone have any creative ideas on how to use it in the studio, or should I just go ahead and sell it on Ebay? Here's a link with more details. https://www.cadaudio.com/products/gxliem-series/gxliem4

Well, my Latch Lake 3300 is complete and set up for action. You all weren't kidding. This thing is a beast. I think I could do chin-ups on it. It adjust quickly, is super sturdy, and holds my L22 with ease. Mic stands don't usually elicit excitement, but I'm actually excited to put this to use. My first foray will be recording some acoustic guitar for a song I have in the works. Thanks for all the advice and following along with my little adventure.

Just a quick update to the mic stand story. The seller, to her credit, made good on working with Latch Lake to send me a new base. No haggling; she just did the right thing. Karma points to her. After an unusually long delay being processed at USPS, it appears that the base is now on its way here and should arrive sometime next week. Let's hope it arrives safe and sound, and I can put it to work. (What was it I was going to do with it again?)

I'm currently trying to work things out with the seller. It looks like the base wasn't shipped. I talked to Latch Lake via email (very helpful and responsive), and the base is shipped in a separate box and is quite heavy. I think the seller thought she had a complete, new product and sold it as such, but actually only had 2/3 of a product. A base alone plus shipping is going to be around $340 ($170 + $170). I'm sure the seller is not going to be happy. She seemed genuinely concerned that I didn't get the base and was going to call Latch Lake. (Latch Lake mentioned that they had gotten such a call, but hadn't called her back yet.) I haven't heard back from her yet. Fingers crossed that it all turns out well.

The mic stand showed up today, but alas, as I feared, it did not fare well in transit. It arrived without a base. The box was broken and taped. It likely fell out in transit. I hope to get it resolved quickly.

Oh, I missed Kuru's question on the Sphere L22. First, I haven't had enough time with it to give it a thorough review, but, that said, what I've seen from it so far, I like a lot. The mic all by itself without the modeling is an excellent mic. Well constructed and solid. It sounds good all alone. Add the modeling, and you've got yourself a mic locker worth envying. Now, I have no experience with the expensive mics it is emulating, so I cannot comment on how faithful the emulations are, and frankly, I don't really care. I just want a mic that be tweaked to suit my needs. So far, it has served well in that regard. I've been swamped work-wise lately, so I haven't had time to do the recording I would like to do. What don't I like? Well, not a dislike, but a bit of a pain is the calibrating required before each recording session. The levels on the mixer or interface need to be set identically so that the modeling can work its magic. I have mine plugged into two channels of my SSL SiX. The other annoyance is that it requires two inputs, so on my SiX that takes up my two SuperAnalogue channels. That makes recording both guitar and voice simultaneously problematic. I don't do that very often, so it hasn't been a real problem. Also, there is a talkback channel that I could use for vocals, but I'm not sure how well that would work given that the talkback channel is heavily compressed, and I don't think it's adjustable. I enjoy Dr. Mike's writing regarding the Townsend. I still want to go back and read all the articles, but so far I've only gotten to the latest one. Not to hijack my own post, but a question for Dr. Mike: What's your take on using any processing before recording? For example, the SSL 2 has the 4K switch. Would that break the emulations? Same question on using compression on the way in. Will that detract from the emulations?

Perfect. Thank you for the recommendations. One of the problems with living in Maui is that heavy things like this are expensive to ship here. Most places were charging $175 in shipping for the Latch Lake 3300. But lo and behold, I found a brand new Latch Lake 3300 on ebay for $645 with free shipping to Maui. I decided to jump on it before it got snatched up, or I lost focus and moved on to the next shiny object. Hopefully, it will arrive intact and fully functional. (The other problem with shipping here is that things get beat up in the mail.) I'll report back once it arrives if anyone is interested.

Hey Everyone, I am getting really frustrated with my cheap boom mic stands. I have a Townsend Sphere L22, which is a great mic (I'm still learning it), but it is HEAVY. Every time I use it, my boom starts sagging like a...well it's sagging. Does anyone have a recommendation for a boom mic stand that can hold up a heavy mic and is quickly and easily adjustable. I pretty much just mic my voice and guitar (mostly acoustic) these days, so I don't need it for overheads or anything like that. I would love to be able to grab it and adjust it with one hand. I did some Googling, but nothing leapt out at me as hitting the sweet spot. Your suggestions are greatly appreciated. ~Pat

Hi everyone, I am purchasing a new computer (it should arrive on Monday), and I'm wondering if anyone has any tips and tricks for transferring the way too many plugins and music software to my new computer. My assumption is that I must first unlicense all my plugins from my current computer then relicense them on my new computer. I have about half of them tied to my computer hardware and the other half on an iLok. The ones licensed on the iLok I assume will come over with the iLok. I have most of my samples on a separate SSD and most of my recordings on a separate HDD, so I should be able to just plug those into my new computer. Any tricks on when reinstalling the software to use those samples to find them on the SSD? I'm looking forward to my new computer, but I am not looking forward to moving everything over. That is always a tedious task.

Thanks, guys. Kuru, as you may remember from my DIY vocal booth, I can pretty quickly set up a space for vocal recording. What I'm trying to do here is tame some of the reflections I get during mixing and mastering. It's honestly not that bad right now. If Home Depot had any panels in stock, I would buy a few just to experiment. I don't think they ship their panels for free, which is what I would like to hang from the ceiling. Oh well, one step at a time I suppose. Nathanael, unfortunately Home Depot doesn't carry Corning 703 and shipping is prohibitively expensive. Sometimes studios go under here, so I always keep my eyes open on Craigslist. I may score some panels that way.

I'm hoping to tame some of the reflections in my "studio" space. I see that Auralex is now shipping free through Home Depot, so I thought this would be a good opportunity for me to place some acoustic treatments on the walls and ceiling. Here's the thing--I live in Maui and adhesives will not work. All adhesives will eventually degrade and fail. My walls and ceiling seem to be a little thicker than your standard drywall. I'm not sure why (I'm not the original owner), but even a stud finder has trouble finding the studs. My question is: What can I use to hang treatments on my walls and ceiling that doesn't use adhesives, but won't be too damaging to the walls and ceiling in case I have to remove or move them? I've read suggestions using T-pins, but I don't think I could press them into the wall. I'm hoping some of you may have come up with creative options that have worked. If you have any good ideas, let me know. I'm all ears.

After I get some more experience with it, Mike, I will gladly report back. I will most likely start a new thread for it. Hopefully, sooner than later.

Thanks for the feedback, Kuru and Mike. Sometimes you just have to stop a second, take a step back, and think about what you're doing for things to clear up. Mike, your advice is spot-on about not setting the 2+ input to 0. I'm not sure what I was thinking there. (Again, pause, step back, think.) It now seems obvious to me that I need to set the input gain on my SiX such that, with the faders at 0, that my meters are reading about 0 dB for the given recording source. I can then set the gain on the 2+ such that they also read about 0 dB. At that point, I should have a nice clean signal going into my DAW. I had confused myself by reasoning I did not want the effect of two mic preamps in my signal chain, thus keeping the gain low on my 2+ would minimize its impact, which is not true. However, I went to the source and asked SSL about the mic preamp when using the line in. This is what they said, That makes me feel better about the signal chain. The gain staging question came up because I recently purchased a Townsend Sphere L22. It works by recording a stereo signal from a front and back mic. There's a calibration step where you need to have the front and back mic at the same level, so that means I need to set six levels (three on channel one and three on channel two) to match the levels. I was getting some weird behavior trying to match the levels which made me trace my signal path and gain staging. I think I've got it all straightened out now. Thanks for the help and feedback. Once I get some more experience with the Sphere L22, I will likely make a post about it. It's been reviewed to death, so I will probably focus on how it has helped me personally with my recording. (Spoiler alert: so far, so good.)

I've been having some weird level problems with my recording setup (input levels seem inconsistent between sessions), which make me start thinking about my gain staging, particularly, between my SSL SiX mixer and my SSL 2+ audio interface. I have the mute/bus B sends going from my SiX to the inputs of my 2+, and the inputs of the 2+ have the line button depressed (on). My original thinking was I wanted to minimize the effect of the mic preamp in the SSL 2+. so I set the gain levels of the interface to 0 (completely counter-clockwise.) I have plenty of headroom in the SiX gain knob and channel faders to feed a strong signal to the 2+. Now I'm wondering if this is the best setup. First, does anyone know for sure if turning line level on the 2+ bypasses the mic preamp? I don't think it does. Second, should I have some gain level on the 2+? When you have multiple gain stages in your signal (e.g., instrument input, mixer gain and fader, audio interface gain, DAW gain), what is the best balance between each of them? My thinking was keep each stage as close to unity you can and get a strong signal, but what is unity on the audio interface, for example. Is it 0 (completely counter-clockwise) or at the mid-point (12 o'clock)? Any advice and guidance is greatly appreciated.

Ok, to closeout this thread, here is the JBL subwoofer in its final location. Tidied things up with new cables and mounted my monitor on the wall so it wouldn't be so high. The sub sounds good. It's not overpowering, but definitely fills out the sound nicely. I've been listening to some older mixes and now with the sub, I would have mixed them differently. I plan to rework a few of my more recent songs, maybe even make an EP out of them, so it will be interesting to listen to them in this new context. But first, I need to re-record the vocals on all of them. That, however, is the subject for a different post.

A quick update on the sub. It turns out our local music store had them in stock. (I am really starting to love that place--friendly, knowledgeable, and internet prices. Only partially open now due to Covid, but you can order by phone and pick up outside.) The sub turned out to be way bigger than I had anticipated, so it wouldn't fit in either place I had picked out. I rearranged my studio space and found a place in the left corner that seems to be working well. It's only temporary for now as I need to get some cables for it to be neatly placed there. I also ordered a couple of extra cables in case I decide to move it to the back corner where it could also work. For now, though, it sounds pretty good. I am definitely hearing some things in some ambient tunes I like that I just never heard before. The overall sound upgrade is significant. Once I get the appropriate cables, maybe I'll share a photo. The cables should be here in about a week. There doesn't appear to be an easy way to switch between using it and not. The closest I think I could do to get the effect is set the crossover to external and turn the volume all the way down. Other than that, I think you would have to change cables. Oh well, it's probably my best sounding setup, so I'll use other systems to listen to mixes.

Thanks, guys. The sub has to be relatively close to my mixer because, as I understand it, the L&R monitor outs from my mixer will go into the sub, and then the L&R outs from the sub will feed my LSR305's. The reason I'm leaning toward the JBL LSR310S is that it was designed to go the the LSR305's and LSR308's. My goal of adding the sub is to hear a better representation of the low end in my mixes. I don't think I can get it here on the island, so I want to make sure it is at least feasible before I order it. (It most likely be shipped parcel post due to its weight, which means it will take at least a month to get here.)

A recent question over on Ronan's Recording Bootcamp group on Facebook got me thinking about adding a subwoofer to my mixing speakers. I currently have a pair of JBL LSR305's. I was thinking about adding the JBL LSR10S; however, I don't have a great place to put the sub. The photo below gives you a basic idea of the layout. The only real place I could put the sub is behind the speaker on the right. This would put the sub against the wall and on the other side of the desk from me. Is that feasible, or will it create more problems than it solves? I may be able to squeeze it under my desk on the right. That would put it right under my right ear. Would that be a better or worse placement? Also, a meta question, what's the difference between this forum and Dr. Mike's forum? What questions or topics should get posted in which forum? Thanks for any guidance you can give me.

I will always check my mix on my cell phone, with and without earbuds. That is where the majority of people listen to music now. (55% the last I read.) It nearly always makes me adjust the low end to balance between my high-end headphones and the phone speakers.

Thanks for the comments everybody. I'm no carpenter or craftsman. The only tools needed were a circular saw, a drill, and that handy-dandy pocket hole jig. The square and clamps helped, but were not required. The key to making the job straight-forward was using the butcher block top. That took most of work out of the job. So, as my friend said after seeing the project, "Maybe you actually write some songs now." Sometimes I think these projects are convenient excuses to avoid struggling with my songwriting and recording issues.

I hope people find this interesting and useful. If not, moderator, you know what to do. I recently ordered a Novation Launchkey 49 mk3 keyboard that coincidentally showed up at our local music store Bounty Music on my birthday. (Happy birthday to me.) I knew I wasn"t going to have room on my studio desk for it, so I set out to build myself a keyboard drawer for my new MIDI controller. I couldn"t find anything suitable ready-made, so I tried to build the simplest, cheapest keyboard tray I could with it still looking decent, and it had to be strong enough to hold my monitor, mixer, and assorted desk items. The breakthrough was when I came across a butcherblock top at Home Depot for under $100. It was 50â³ x 25â³ x 1.5â³. Checking the specs on Novation"s website, it looked like it would fit no problem. (Originally, I was going to get the Launchkey 61. More on that later.) I ripped the board so that one side was 13â³ and the other was 12â³. This would allow for 12â³ drawer slides to be attached to the moving piece and leave room for the back and sides. The Launchkeys are only about 10.25â³ deep so that left plenty of room. Next, I cut the back and sides. I would have preferred to use birch like the butcher block top, but they only had popular at Home Depot. I left about a 1/8â³ overhang on the back and sides. I also had to cut the drawer board down to accommodate the slides, the vertical boards, and the 1/8â³ overhang. Now with everything cut, it was time to stain. I would have preferred a natural stain/poly, but for whatever reason, since COVID-19, our Home Depot doesn"t have much a stain selection, so I ended up using a pecan color stain/poly. I put on three coats of stain and sanded between coats. This part took the longest of the whole project. The next part was to drill the pocket holes to secure the vertical boards to the top. I bought this Kreg Pocket Hole Jig that worked like a charm. I didn"t get any pictures of me actually using it, because I was dodging rain showers during the whole project. I had also cut a round hole in the back of the vertical board for USB cord going to the keyboard. Now all the boards were cut, stained, glued, and assembled. Now I all I needed to do was install the drawer slides. Attaching the drawer slides was a snap. All I needed to do was attach the drawer part to the smaller board. No need to even measure since they were the exact size of the sides. Then clamp the slides onto the vertical boards. All there was to do now was insert the sliding shelf into the rails and voila! Once I got the keyboard tray onto my desk, I realized that there wasn"t going to be room for my Ableton Push2 and the tray. That"s when I decided to go with the Launchkey 49 instead of the 61. Now there was room for the Push 2 and Launchkey 49 on the tray. The only issue is the Push 2 is a solid 12â³ deep, so I needed to cut another hole in the back for the cords. I hastily did it before I went to pick up the Launchkey, but it"s not quite right. I need to rout the hole a little higher and longer, but for now, it works well enough. All in all the project took me half a day and under $150 for everything including the pocket hole jig. Hopefully, you find this useful. I also posted this on my website at https://patwaaramusic.com/building-a-keyboard-tray-for-midi-controller/