bitman
Unrelated question: What are you doing albums for?
 
Do you have a deal to fulfill or is this just to annoy relatives and crushes with?
I ask because we all need motivation.

I'm not actively pursuing a deal for a few reasons. First, I'm not in a position where I can support/promote an album properly. Second, after 20 years of doing stuff for labels, it's really great to be able to just do whatever I want. An album like Neo- where every cut is different is a record label nightmare.
 
So, I do the albums for several reasons. I need vast quantities of library music for the corporate and educational videos I do, and a lot of those come from remixes of material from the albums (e.g., mixes without vocals). So in that respect, they're like raw material from which I can mine soundtracks. It's like having soundtracks in the bank.
 
Also, songs will often develop in the process of testing software, writing articles, etc. and I just take them to their logical conclusion. My articles on techniques etc. are about 70% my projects and 30% other peoples' projects. Finally, there are quite a few people who like my music (go figure), so I post what I do on craiganderton.com and my YouTube channel. If I start gigging again, I'll have merch but I'm seeing what would be involved in selling USB memory sticks with the songs, artwork, lyrics, maybe even some of the loops and such. 

I've known quite a few professional musicians with solo careers. I've asked just that question. Why do you do it? They are not really famous and few people buy CD's anymore. They don't have big expensive tours and all of them are making less money today than they did ten years ago, yet they toil on. The two most common answers are a) It's all I know how to do, and b) I still have something to say and I have to get it out.
 
Last year I finished a two year project helping a good friend write a 700+ page about his life on the road with his brother. If you read that book you would never take up music as a profession, unless you were just born to be a musician. Birds have to fly and fish have to swim.

ampfixer
Birds have to fly and fish have to swim.

Agreed...and to add to that, even if there was no practical or monetary reason for me to continue making music, I would do so anyway.

Anderton

bitman
Unrelated question: What are you doing albums for?
 
Do you have a deal to fulfill or is this just to annoy relatives and crushes with?
I ask because we all need motivation.

I'm not actively pursuing a deal for a few reasons. First, I'm not in a position where I can support/promote an album properly. Second, after 20 years of doing stuff for labels, it's really great to be able to just do whatever I want. An album like Neo- where every cut is different is a record label nightmare.
 
So, I do the albums for several reasons. I need vast quantities of library music for the corporate and educational videos I do, and a lot of those come from remixes of material from the albums (e.g., mixes without vocals). So in that respect, they're like raw material from which I can mine soundtracks. It's like having soundtracks in the bank.
 
Also, songs will often develop in the process of testing software, writing articles, etc. and I just take them to their logical conclusion. My articles on techniques etc. are about 70% my projects and 30% other peoples' projects. Finally, there are quite a few people who like my music (go figure), so I post what I do on craiganderton.com and my YouTube channel. If I start gigging again, I'll have merch but I'm seeing what would be involved in selling USB memory sticks with the songs, artwork, lyrics, maybe even some of the loops and such. 

Uhg - you have purpose. I'm so jealous.
 
Thanks for replying. 

You have purpose too...self-expression. Don't underestimate what you learn about yourself in the process of making music, and how it affects your entire being.

Thank you Mr Anderton.
 
Returning to the pre-mastering process: is there a reason to not use the 64 bit mixdown engine? I  searched the forum, but nothing showed up.
 
John

Anderton

ampfixer
Birds have to fly and fish have to swim.

Agreed...and to add to that, even if there was no practical or monetary reason for me to continue making music, I would do so anyway.

This is me. :-)

Week 136: Sonitus Presets - Yes, We Can!
 
I'm posting this on Thursday, because I'm going to be travelling all day tomorrow and hate to miss deadlines. Actually I was going to do a different type of tip this week (how to get a great blues harmonica sound), but didn’t have time to post the audio example so I’ll do it sometime after I get back. Meanwhile, let’s solve a long-running SONAR mystery: managing Sonitus presets.
 
Those who listen with their eyes sometimes dismiss the Sonitus plug-ins, but those who listen with their ears know that these venerable effects are unique and extremely versatile. However, saving presets can be confusing. If you use the VST header to save presets, they end up somewhere in the bowels of the scary registry—good luck sharing them or moving them to a different computer. (This is the kind of thing that only scook knows how to do, because he has some kind of powerful flashlight that allows him to see into the darkest corners of the registry.) Then there’s the Sonitus preset manager, which is actually quite cool once you figure it out.
 
But I ran into a problem where I couldn’t save presets or create new banks (not helped by the documentation not showing how to create banks correctly, although I eventually figured out that part). It would look like presets were being saved, but if I removed the plug-in and re-inserted, none of my shiny new presets was listed.
 
So, of course I did the standard procedure of going to the forum, and creating a thread called “MAJOR SONAR BUG!!!!!!!!!!! SONITUS CAN’T SAVE PRESETS!!!! SWITCHING TO REAPER!!!!” Three minutes later Cakewalk’s elite Forum Monitor SWAT Team appeared, analyzed the problem, added a patch to the Command Center, and all was well.
 
Ok…I made that up. What really happened is I contacted The Cakewalk 24/7 Express Support Help Line (code-named “Google Search") and within a few seconds, found out that you either need to a) run SONAR as Administrator, or b) fix permissions for the preset file.
 
SO WHERE DO THE PRESETS LIVE, ANYWAY?
 
The Presets created using the Sonitus Preset Manager live in C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared Plugins as .ini files. They include the name of the Sonitus effect, e.g., FxModulatorDX.ini. If you need to fix permissions, right-click on the file, choose Properties, and under Security, enable “Full Control” permissions for everyone.
 
HOW DO YOU CREATE A BANK?
 
When you want to save a preset into a new bank, click on the Presets button and choose Add Preset. Click in the “Add to Bank” field and type in the name for the new Bank. Give the preset a name, click Add, and now the preset manager will show the Bank with the preset you just made.
 

 
However, we’re not done yet: click on the Presets button, choose Preset Manager, and click on Save. Now your new bank and preset will be written to the .ini file. (Note that while you can open the .ini file in Notepad and see parameters and such, that’s not recommended. Make any desired changes within the Preset Manager.)
 
If you want to keep the original factory presets, rename the original file - for example FxModulatorDX_old.ini. That way the plug-in will load the new FxModulatorDX.ini presets, but you can also import the old one if desired.
 
A COUPLE COOL FEATURES YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED
 
If you call up a preset and modify it, you can update the stored preset by clicking on the Presets button and choosing Update Preset (this also lets you see the preset name, which otherwise isn't visible in the plug-in). You still need to Save using the Preset Manager to make any changes permanent. 
 
Also note that you can have two different Setups, i.e., two variations on the same effect or different effects entirely, as well as copy one setup to another if you want to try out some tweaks so you can compare the two without altering the original preset. If you update a preset as described above, you can update based on either setup. Also note that you can export individual presets, Banks, or if you click on “Available [name of plug-in] Presets” in the Preset Manager, you can export all presets and Banks for that effect. Remember to save after importing something.
 
SO WHY DOES THIS MATTER?
 
Because the Sonitus effects are wonderful. As just one example, the Modulator can do true though-zero flanging that really does sound like tape flanging, dual-voice resonators where you can vary one voice smoothly over an octave range (almost like a variation on portamento), and even some lofi effects—like the sound of a trashed speaker, a bad boombox, or a warped record…as well as add vibrato to a “flattened” Melodyne note.
 
Over the years I’ve created a bunch of presets for various Sonitus effects, and they are an essential part of my SONAR toolbox. Here are just a few of the ones I’ve created for the Modulator.
 

 
These plug-ins may be from 2003, but Ultrafunk—the Norwegian company that created them—got it right. Ignore these plug-ins at your own peril.

Anderton
...good luck sharing them or moving them to a different computer.
 
Over the years I’ve created a bunch of presets for various Sonitus effects, and they are an essential part of my SONAR toolbox.

Thanks for another great tip, Craig. Any chance you're willing to share some of these? You know, for testing purposes.

telecharge

Anderton
...good luck sharing them or moving them to a different computer.
 
Over the years I’ve created a bunch of presets for various Sonitus effects, and they are an essential part of my SONAR toolbox.

Any chance you're willing to share some of these? You know, for testing purposes.

Stay tuned...there's a reason why I didn't show the bank name. All will be revealed at the appropriate time.