Disqus - Latest Comments for alexleonard

Re: Chocolatey Software | One Commander 3.4.38.0

Alex Leonard — Fri, 02 Aug 2024 04:30:17 -0000

Chocolatey is now at 3.87.1 - is there some way this could be updated in the choco repository?

Re: Reason and Rack Extensions are finally getting high-def UIs; here’s how it works

Alex Leonard — Tue, 18 May 2021 01:14:26 -0000

https://www.reasonstudios.c...

Not looking likely that I'll see any of my most desired workflow improvements. Faster search is good, but I really hope they've added search-as-you-type for instruments/effects/players. Other than that, I don't really see much in the way of general workflow improvements :(

Re: Five Of The Best Apps For Remote Collaborations

Alex Leonard — Wed, 12 May 2021 03:06:44 -0000

Oh I'd also suggest that a major con for Soundcloud is the awful sound quality

Re: Five Of The Best Apps For Remote Collaborations

Alex Leonard — Sun, 02 May 2021 05:23:25 -0000

Wandler looks like a great tool, but the pro pricing seems a bit over the top for what you get. And the track count to GB ratio seems a bit skewed. I know these services thrive off the gym membership model (people sign up and keep paying monthly for something they don't use a huge amount) - but I really think they're missing a trick by not offering pay-as-you-go pricing. If I'm working on an album and need to get feedback, I don't really want to sign up for something that's going to cost me every month. Of course you can unsubscribe when you're finished - but I think it's a mental barrier to people using it on a once off basis.

Re: Reason and Rack Extensions are finally getting high-def UIs; here’s how it works

Alex Leonard — Fri, 30 Apr 2021 05:11:53 -0000

There's also a feature request regarding SysEx: https://answers.presonus.co...

I've upvoted that. It does look like over the course of S1 V5 they've been slowly improving the functionality for working with external hardware, so hopefully it'll get added soon.

Re: Reason and Rack Extensions are finally getting high-def UIs; here’s how it works

Alex Leonard — Fri, 30 Apr 2021 05:08:40 -0000

Ah I see. Yeah I haven't really done much with the midi end of things in Studio One, at least I've only worked with it in a very basic way. I know they did just launch Articulation support in 5.2 (https://blog.presonus.com/i... but I'm guessing that is only one of a longer list of features you need.

I'm definitely happy to stick to doing my production in Reason, but can't see myself going back to mixing in Reason. The S1 workflow is just far better for mixing tasks. Probably worth keeping an eye on S1 in case they do add the features you're looking for.

I see there is a feature request in for MIDI List editor:
https://answers.presonus.co...

So I'll upvote that :)

Re: Reason and Rack Extensions are finally getting high-def UIs; here’s how it works

Alex Leonard — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 03:20:22 -0000

Well I'm glad to hear I dodged a bullet with Cubase then. I suspect they've struggled with bloated legacy code. Studio One had the benefit of a fresh start, unhampered by old baggage.

As I've only been using Studio One for mixing, I can't really speak for its piano-roll editor functionality - but I'm sure if you look up some comparison stuff you can find some more info. Plus they have a free version without VST support so you can test out the piano roll

https://shop.presonus.com/S...

Also, if you are interested in switching to Studio One, you can contact them about cross-grading. You just show them your receipt for Cubase and they knock 25% off the price: https://shop.presonus.com/S...

I did that by sending them my Reason receipt.

I definitely recommend checking it out to see how it compares with Cubase. I'm really happy with it after 1.5 years usage.

Re: Reason and Rack Extensions are finally getting high-def UIs; here’s how it works

Alex Leonard — Thu, 22 Apr 2021 05:17:22 -0000

Well said. Yeah, I absolutely love that they have taken such a different tack from the others. It really makes it unique, and, as a creation tool, indispensable to me. I've waited with baited breath each update, hoping that there'd be a longer list of smaller workflow tweaks and there have been some, but they've always fallen well short of what I had hoped for.

On the other hand they've generally managed to surprise me with each update with things I didn't know I wanted :D The whole Players functionality was a huge boon and for things like that I can definitely forgive them some of the workflow oversights. But I can't help but feel that they probably lose some potential converts with the slightly clunky way things are now.

I will, once again, be keeping my fingers crossed that the R12 full announcement fulfills some of my wishes!

Re: Reason and Rack Extensions are finally getting high-def UIs; here’s how it works

Alex Leonard — Thu, 22 Apr 2021 04:53:36 -0000

I definitely have no issues with their skeuomorphic design. It feels natural to me, and there's very few other DAWs where you have such flexibility of cross modulation and routing. I think the design works very well when you take this functionality into account.

Re: Reason and Rack Extensions are finally getting high-def UIs; here’s how it works

Alex Leonard — Thu, 22 Apr 2021 04:48:00 -0000

I really hope Reason 12 brings a lot more than high DPI. Sure it'll be nice, although won't really impact me that much.

When Reason started supporting audio files and added rack extensions, I decided to dump Cubase and do all my mixing in Reason. I thought it would be enough. After a few years of using it this way I got frustrated with the lack of workflow features and switched over to Studio One (I would have gone back to Cubase but upgrading to Cubase 10 or whatever it was at the time from Cubase 5 was effectively the same price as buying a brand new license - you lost a customer because of that Steinberg).

I've been mixing with Studio One for a full year now and can't see myself ever trying to do my mixing/mastering work in Reason again. I love Reason and how it works for production stuff, but it's just missing too much workflow functionality for me to view it as a serious full-featured DAW.

* No version control - so you have to manually save multiple V1.01, V1.02, etc files - and with audio always being stored in the file, this is extremely costly on space storage.
* No keyboard shortcut customisation - this is extremely annoying - especially when jumping between DAWs.
* No sort of track freezing functionality - you can bounce stuff but you can't 'unfreeze'.
* No folders or grouping or VCA functionality - this affects both the console and the sequencer.
* Better VST management - if you want to disable VST plugins you have to manually click each plugin you want to disable, then confirm and then do the next one. Doesn't sound so bad but when you install UAD plugins you get them all installed and authorise your purchased ones, so I've got dozens of unauthorised UAD plugins cluttering up the effects section and it'll take a long time to hide the unusable ones.
* No markers - seriously? I can't think of any other DAW that doesn't have markers and the shortcuts to jump between them.

* No customisable fade types

There's more than that too that I just can't remember right now. I know they're focused on delivering a creation powerhouse, and Reason is great for that. But it feels like a huge oversight to not include better workflow features. I'm sure this is a bugbear for a lot of users.

Re: Akai Force 3.0.5 is huge: new macros, MIDI multis, linear arrangement, Ableton import, more

Alex Leonard — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 00:59:10 -0000

Is it still unable to stream audio from disk?

Re: Maschine+ standalone is here – so what can you with it? Details from NI…

Alex Leonard — Wed, 09 Sep 2020 02:50:02 -0000

On the Compare page it says "No of samples that can be loaded: Unlimited", so it must be streaming from the SD in that case right?

https://www.native-instrume...

And then it talks about groups, scenes and patterns, each of which are limited to 64 in standalone mode. Not sure what that means in terms of concurrent audio streams.

Re: Maschine+ standalone is here – so what can you with it? Details from NI…

Alex Leonard — Wed, 09 Sep 2020 02:16:08 -0000

This definitely looks very interesting. However neither the specs nor the videos mention how many tracks/parts there are. Any idea on this?

And can you stream audio from the SD slot?

I bought an Akai Force and returned it as soon as I realised you couldn't stream direct from the SSD - everything had to be loaded into the paltry 2GB of RAM... (and as I do a lot of ambient stuff, I often have long background ambience/field recordings I like to leave running)

Re: KORG have new hybrid/analog mixers, made with Greg Mackie and Peter Watts

Alex Leonard — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 01:58:52 -0000

Is there any more info on what the USB actually does. Really doesn't sound like it has audio interface functionality, which is a real shame. This would be a clear winner against that new Tascam if they gave you a full 24 channel audio interface

Re: The 5 Best Note-Taking Apps for Android

Alex Leonard — Sat, 16 Nov 2019 02:23:10 -0000

I would highly recommend Standard Notes. It's the only note taking app I came across with end to end encryption, meaning your notes are completely private and can't be used for data mining.

Re: The “cost of living” in Spotify streams

Alex Leonard — Sun, 03 Nov 2019 12:10:48 -0000

Ha! I definitely agree about getting stuck in and practicing the craft.

That said I don't own an iPad, rarely eat out, and I don't play the guitar 😉

I just included a miscellaneous range of prices of things for reference, and purposefully used a generic cost of living website to get average prices.

I think it's clear from this though that just working hard at your craft isn't really going to cut it. I know plenty of very good musicians who've worked their asses off for years but can't earn a living from music.

Re: The “cost of living” in Spotify streams

Alex Leonard — Fri, 01 Nov 2019 03:07:36 -0000

Thanks for the correction! Post updated.

Yeah, I think most people don't realise how little independent artists get from streaming, and this way of explaining it seems to really help people understand. Although now I catch myself converting every purchase to streams - which can't be healthy 😕

Re: The “cost of living” in Spotify streams

Alex Leonard — Thu, 31 Oct 2019 14:22:49 -0000

No, that's incorrect. Radio stations pay rights collection agencies who then provide royalty payments to the artists whose works have been performed.

The same thing goes for commercial businesses, bars etc - they pay (or should pay) to the relevant rights collection group who then distribute royalties accordingly.

And of course radio/public broadcast stuff is different to streaming on demand, as ultimately the listener doesn't have a choice in what they hear (other than changing stations or sending requests).

Of course there are plenty of cases of record companies/A&R paying or giving favours for songs in their catalogue to be promoted, but that doesn't stop royalties being owed on the broadcasting of those songs.

Re: The “cost of living” in Spotify streams

Alex Leonard — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 10:36:16 -0000

Thanks for sharing your story - I think one which is likely repeated by many struggling musicians around the world. And yeah, they say touring is the thing to do, but it's not like you can magically pick up decent paying gigs just like that - it takes connections and a LOT of work to get regular touring options.

It's crazy, saddening, and maddening to think that 100,000 plays a month is only coming out at $125.

Re: The “cost of living” in Spotify streams

Alex Leonard — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 03:28:21 -0000

Yeah it's all a bit depressing really. And without a doubt I pursue music-making out of love for it. Sadly I don't anticipate to make a living from it. I'm lucky enough to have saved up some money from years of web development work such that I can take some time off and focus on music for the next six months or so, but I suspect next year I'll need to go back to coding...

Re: The “cost of living” in Spotify streams

Alex Leonard — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 03:24:35 -0000

The figures for the major labels may be somewhat different - whatever deals have been made between them and the streaming services are unknown I believe. What goes from that major label to the artist is then down to their contract.

Unlike independent artists/labels, the major labels have the bargaining chip of having a huge catalogue of music that the streaming services want access to, in order to make their service appealing, so it is possible that they've negotiated for higher rates. But I'm just guessing.

I think at the root of it is the issue with the pooling approach for dividing up payments. The new system proposed by Deezer would be much better for smaller artists and feels like a more logical approach: https://www.deezer.com/ucps

But even if Deezer adopt it, it won't have much impact unless more streaming services take this approach (I don't believe Deezer's market share is very big)

Re: Streaming music is coming to DJ software, but one step at a time

Alex Leonard — Fri, 29 Mar 2019 06:28:04 -0000

Or you could actually buy the digital download from the artist to support them. Using something to download tracks from Spotify is no different to torrenting the files. The artist isn't getting paid.

Re: Behringer Crave synth: vintage bits, all the extras, $199

Alex Leonard — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 02:31:37 -0000

Good to hear these sorts of questions being asked. I hadn't heard about that and knowing the working conditions in which these "surprisingly" cheap things are made is important.

Re: Behringer Crave synth: vintage bits, all the extras, $199

Alex Leonard — Mon, 28 Jan 2019 01:22:26 -0000

You might want to say "tribute" instead of "clones". Don't want Behringer suing you because they're afraid people will think they're unoriginal and just blatantly copying / ripping off old designs 😉

Re: Streaming music is coming to DJ software, but one step at a time

Alex Leonard — Thu, 06 Dec 2018 02:28:33 -0000

Or... You could support the artists whose work you're playing and buy the download..