8PM

Here is a song utilizing Pro Tools Structure and Native Instruments Kore Player. Structure is freaking amazing !!! The more I dig into it, the more it does. I've loaded my EXS Libraries into it, which had come from my previous Akai, EMU, EXS, etc. samplers. It's really cool to be able to do all the processing in the box as opposed to the old days of routing to physical outputs to be routed to the counsole, etc. I tracked the guitars thru my Boss and Dunlop pedal board. I then applied Digidesign's Eleven plugin to the raw tracks using Audio Suite:

ScrewMaker: 8PM

And reviewed here:

8PM-ScrewMaker's Mid-Evening Crisis

The Kore Player is pretty neat. It loads many of the NI patches from their various products via Kore Soundpacks, collections of patches from things such as Absynth, Massive, etc.

And the price is awesome, like $60.00 bucks for libraries and the Player is without charge:

NATIVE INSTRUMENTS : Products : Kore Line : KORE PLAYER

NATIVE INSTRUMENTS : Products : Kore Line : KORE SOUNDPACKS

There is also a Free Kore Soundpacks Compilation available for download:

NATIVE INSTRUMENTS : Products : Kore Line : KORE SOUNDPACKS : FREE COMPILATION VOL. 1

Thanks.

Pro Tools 8

Well,
I downloaded the update this week. I like it. I like it a lot.

Those who have known me for a long time, know that I was not a PT fan, at least as far as the software is concerned. I have always had their hardware and plugins as a few of my Digital Performer rigs were with TDM hardware, AudioMedia cards, 001 etc.

PT was just lacking in the "music production" part of things. Things like groove quantizing audio.

With PT 6.4 things started getting useful. Stable Reason/Rewire support=Sweet !!! It was far more useful then what my other DAWs were doing.

Then 6.7 & 6.9. Yummy.

PT7. WTF? I was seeing many useful things from Logic being borrowed.

PT7.4.2. Blamo. I find I'm in PT a lot of the time. I really dig Structure. Really dig it.

Back in my racks of MIDI gear days, I would pre mix/program all my synths and samplers so as to virtual track. Back then it was easier than tracking out and separating several pieces of MIDI gear.

Then Reason came along. Wicked. It was not very stable with my other DAW. When I used it with PT, much better.

Anyways...

PT8 is, ahem, maybe like a real hard decision maker if one were to only have one DAW. Logic beats it mostly for the bang for the buck with all the other useful bundled apps. It would be hard deciding one or the other. But not as easy as it used to be. LOL.

For the record, I've used Digital Performer since '94ish. Logic since '00 and PT since '04. Reason since the day it shipped.

I still feel like all of them are important for what I do. PT is just making it really hard to use the others sometimes. It's ergonomics are very gnarly.

Anyways...

Thanks.

MainStage

Hello All,

I'm using MainStage with a MOTU 828 for a guitar rig. This has more or less (mostly more. LOL) replaced my old ART Rig which was replaced by my POD PRO Rig.

With MainStage on my laptop, I can configure all kinds of guitar patches. I also have some keyboard patches in there too.

I don't use amps unless it's live. Then, I prefer a Roland JC120 with a Marshall 1960A wired in stereo with my processors feeding the power amp inputs on the JC which then power the 1960A.

On the back of the 828 is a footswitch input. This input can execute keycommands, when closing and opening the switch. I have it execute an arrow down, which pages through MainStage patches. I do not use the up.

I only use a few patches and this works nicely for me.

I run the guitar into a pedal board with Dunlop and Boss pedals into the Mic/Line Input One on the 828. The pedal board has Boss Compressor, Turbo Overdrive, Graphic EQ (for solo boosts), Phaser, Flanger, Chorus and TU12 Tuner. Also a modified Dunlop Dimebag Wah and Volume pedal (for swells and tuning).

Sometimes I use my regular Dunlop Wah, a BOSS DS1 Distortion and TU2 Tuner also

It's pretty gnarly.

Thanks.