Pyro discussion anyone?

Since it seems a bunch of us snagged Pyro with our X-Mas credit I was wondering what all everyone is doing with it and what it's capable of. I got it for tagging, burning and to use instead of WMP for my personal music library but I'm seeing that it does a bunch of other stuff. 

Just looking for ideas and insights on my new virtual toy.

Hope everyone is having a happy and safe holiday season. Cheers.

lol... scientist. ;-)

Anyway, I'm not sure if it was the best decision but I did need something to do that kind of thing and it was $20 so figured I'd snag it. It's 32 bits though which I only realized upon installation. Not sure if that'll cause weirdness. :-/

There is a pyro forum, but not much activity there. I have it and I use it. I actually like it better than Nero. I use it to break up long recordings into separate tracks and you can actually use all of your VST plug-ins (with some exceptions) in the bin. 

Hi, Dave. Yeah I figured the Pyro forum wouldn't garner many replies. Hoping it might be an easier solution for digitizing my old tapes and stuff so being able to use VSTs will be cool for mastering. Wonder if R-Mix will work with it.

Also hoping it will be an easier option for ripping the audio from CDs of old shows so I can then snag the good stuff and toss them into Sonar. 

I took my 20 dollar coupon and bought a Pro channel plug-in instead of the Pyro. I got the Expander gate. It was the only one I did not have. The Coupon made it 29.00 instead of 49.00.

I have a much older version of Pyro. Never got it to work right. I use Nero and Easy CD creator. Let us know if you run into any issues beepster. If it works well I just may pick it up. The version I had was kind of buggy.

That Sucks Beep, I have been in that position way to often. This is the first time I have updated in years. I still have my version of Pyro. Maybe I will go load it and get the update. 

What you might do is take a run over to Izotope and get there free pdf on mastering. While it uses Ozone for the examples you can substitute the modules for some of cakewalks plugs. when you read about stereo widening use channel tools and check it out with the free vst Gonio 3.

http://www.kvraudio.com/product/gonio_by_ukm 

I use the meter all the time to check the stereo Image. It is a great companion to channel tools. It allows you to see what channel tools is doing.

reading through the guide will give you a better understanding of how to use Cakewalks stuff. I got my list of free VST plugs that I like too.

 

Oh and thanks for the link. I'll check it out. I've got a bookmarks folder for Mastering stuff that I've been trying to fill up. It's currently pretty sparse.

Pyro is better than Audio Creator for doing CDs.  I never figured out how to edit in AC.  I use Sound Forge instead.  But Pyro can make quick CDs (I use it for comping CDs, mp3s and old vinyl.  Easy to adjust volume between tracks.

@

AT I'm confused here I have Pyro Audio Creator. I picked it up with one of those CW sales earlier this year. It seems to be a decent product and as far as I can tell it does what its supposed to do. I had a version of Pyro many years ago and could never get it to work. So what is better about Pyro. Also my version is 1.5.2. I did not have to update it either.  

I use Pyro and think it could do more and a few things better but what software doesn't have that need?

I use for:
1. Ripping
2. Burning
3. Simple editing
4. Recording web stuff
5. My favorite is the encoder - set up as many as you like and DOD a file. E.g. I share demo mp3s with my band and will typically reduce the file from whatever it is to 128khz. It automatically saves it to the same folder.

Well, because I have the M-audio 2496 which doesn't allow "recording what you hear" I have my audio out routed through a little 4 channel mixer and back into the card.  This way I can use Pyro's editor to record what is playing.

Beepster, Audacity needs a physical set up, it can only record "as you hear" ie from the web if the sound card has that facility.

Cheers,
Jerry

I have a version of Pyro. I never could get it to work. 
It always said I didn't have a CD/DVD drive/burner.
Funny because that's what I used to install the damn thing with.
After way too many hours with tech support and other avenues I finally gave up.
Of course Cakewalk wouldn't refund my $40 because it had been opened.
I believe it's Pyro 5 if anyone wants it just PM me and it's yours.
Best of luck but by far the worst software ever put out by Cakewalk.

I ate that loss and invested in CD Architect.
It may have cost a couple of bucks more but it's in a whole different league.

I wonder if Cake would consider sending me a check for that $20 Christmas gift and help me offset this over priced coaster I bought from them.  

Mike
 

John,

the older pyro (5?) was a ripper/CD burner.  As I recall it had slip editing in the CD track and you could do fades etc.  Also track naming/numbering.  VST support was added and it came w/ basic Cake effects.  It was a good commercial product (I used to see it in Best Buy, etc.) and that is what I used it for.  The best thing was it had a quick song envelope so you could (kinda) match volumes which was important when I was burning home comps from albums, CD and mp3s.  SF was more involved for that.

Pyro AC is a multi-module "all in one""  comercial product and does more.  I've never figured out the editor part of it, not worth the time since I use SF for that process.  I've never really dealt w/ Publisher, which is the same in other Cake products I guess.  My website wants more money per month to do html inserts and I'm cheap - esp. when there are free sites I can link to.

The burner, encoder etc. work well, and the tagger is very nice if you have a "file" from vinyl you need to name - or your own stuff.  Worth it just for that, tho I don't know Nero etc. since I mostly use SF.  Pyro et al is just more convenient for non-pro work at times.

Also, I guess you need to have your interface running when installing.  My Pyros have always defaulted to the computer speakers instead of my interface and I never found a way to change that.  It might be different w/ AC but I don't have that on my music computer, only this internet/writing one which has nothing but the realtec card.

Whew!  that is a lot for a program I don't use that much.  I'm sure it is pretty good, but not up to SF (w/ all the cost differential there).  I've asked Cake several times to "Pro" Pyro and hook it up to SONAR for editing, etc.  However, they've never followed my advice.  Imagine that.  I also wanted Ford to make a flying car - not happening either.

;-)

@

Cool, Steve. I actually looked at downloading a vid from youtube for the first time acouple weeks ago and couldn't find the option... then when I googled for an answer I saw a bunch of people freaking out about how they disabled that function. 

That would indeed be where I'd be getting most stuff from. Hope that wasn't permanent. If so I'll have to physically route things which sounds annoying.

However there are other places/things I'd like to snag stuff from so that's cool... within the law of course. ;-)