I am fairly new to the SoFo products, altho I have many of them now and have "all my eggs in one basket" so to speak...my only experience with vegas is VV3, and that version I happened on in it's much later stages...how long has VV3 been with us...? I'd be curious if anyone knew about the other "flagships" as well: soundforge, CDA and acid...and their "history"...just curious...

I've been using strictly SOFO apps and am pretty familiar with them all. I've been using Vegas since v1.0, Acid since v1.0, Sound Forge since v4.0 and CDA since v4.0. VV3 was released somewhere between Nov. 2001 and Jan. 2002, I have some pre-beta releases going back to October 2001. What would you like to know?

Nothing in particular...my experience with music software has been Cakewalk and now SOFO, and various noteware progs...I mean, I've messed around with computers in work spaces off and on since '85, but never had my own until '98, and then I wanted to see what was out there for music stuff...seems like it could be an interesting treatise...

Well, before I jumped on the SOFO band wagon, I think I tried most everything out there, which included Pro Tools, Logic Audio,Cubase, Cakewalk, Cool Edit Pro, Dart Pro, Samplitude, and SAW. Everyone of these programs, I spent a week tooling around with them, to get a feel for the program to to see if it would meet my editing and recording needs. It took me almost the entire week on each, just to do simple things, that I had been doing for years prior working in recording studios. I think it's pretty bad, when it takes me a week to learn how to do simple edits when I am familiar with all the terms and have also been an instructor in the recording field for 5 years. When I first installed Vegas Pro v1.0 on my system, I spent 2 hours with the program and after that I felt comfortable that I could do anything a client asked me afte. Ask anyone who uses SF products, what the best feature is they like and you'll get a unananimous answer of a "USER INTERFACE THAT IS VERY INTUITIVE". In contrast I almost chose to go the Steinberg route with Cubase, I spent a month learning that program, and I knew more of using each program after the 2 hours of using Vegas.

I always still check out the other software programs, just to see what's going on. I recently just downloaded Cubase SX. I spent 2 hours with it, and I still can't figure out how to put an "Insert" on a track, although I've heard it does it. That's usually the problem, all the other programs have all these great features, good luck trying to use them.

BIG time appreciate it "Rednroll"..! always great to hear from those who have been thru it all on a daily basis, or whatever experiences with this stuff, and share that with us...! invaluable...

Sorry? I have respect for your comments normally but saying, "I recently just downloaded Cubase SX. I spent 2 hours with it, and I still can't figure out how to put an "Insert" on a track, although I've heard it does it" suggests to me that you just weren't trying...

Select a track on the screen, and then click on the 'Inserts' tab on the left. You'll see 8 effect slots that you can click on and select an insert effect from the drop down. I thought it was fairly intuitive, personally...

Just trying to help out - I have V4 and SX and I love them both.

Mark

Actually I did find it after that post, but it was located under the "Edit VST Channel" icon. I don't see an "inserts tab" like you described anywhere, but there is a "bypass inserts" button, it could very well be something I'm doing wrong. I did try, I actually went to the help menu, but unfortunately the Demo version doesn't come with help file support unless you're connected to the internet. The point being, is that you have to "dig" and find something simple, which should be pretty obvious for anyone first using the software.

I need "obvious"...

You mean "Edit VST Channel" isn't obvious to everyone? "VST"...everyone on the planet knows what that means off the top of their head don't they? Virtually Stupid Tendensies...Vicious Studio Talent....Venonmous Snake Teeth...Vibrant Stereo Technology...oh hell I give up. And additionally the word "Edit"...now is that something I normally do to the Audio?...or is that something I normally do to a channel strip? I didn't think I was doing any editing, I just wanted to insert a compressor into a track.

Maybe they should just label channel inserts something logical...like maybe "Insert"? LOL!!!!

i used a crack of V2.0 for the last year before deciding what software to buy for multitracking. 2.0 was great, so i just bought Vegas 4.0 and am rather disappointed. the automatable efx are cool, but i am having lockups on a regular basis, never did with V2.0.
Also getting clicks and digital grunge when opening/closing processing windows.
Programable efx busses click and pop like mad...even using the simplest SF reverb plugin. audio files mysteriously disappearing from my veg files...weird.
INPUT MONITOR: great idea, but it sounds like digital robot voice when i use it.
all the singers who have been coming here hate it. it just sounds "funny".
and it has been problematic to use, but with much tweaking and work, have gotten it to function, it just sounds odd to my ears. there are more bugs...but i'm tired.
It's still an awesome program and i hope SF helps us out in the fixes.

red i totally agree I also OWN just about every software out there including pro tools 5 the only reason i got SX was for 5.1 yes its all good ! but my time is to valuble to learn some software that just is so difficult to use i allways seem to go back to vegas i even took vegas 3.o project to acid 4.0 to mix 5.1 and the prodject was done in no time at all but sence 4.0 came out i,m in engneers heaven i just wish i could bring loops in with transfering to acid Vegas 4.0 works perfectly for me!!!

PeterVred - didn't you follow the advice in the other thread , to check out other posts on the subject that have exhaustively covered the problems. Tt was pointed out that the are some know issues that are being addressed.

Those problems are specific to *some* people, not all, and are not part of the program design.

Maybe there is some leftover crack-related code in some DLL somewhere that is clashing with something ? (Just joking, SF apps are well contained, and don't spew spurious files into various system directories like many apps do).


geoff


geoff

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you about SX...

I'm wondering if you're looking at the same screen I am. :-)

I think I know what the problem might be. If you have loaded up one of the templates like '24 Track Audio Recorder', then it's possible you are not seeing the 'Inspector'. If all you see on the left of the screen is the track list (similar in format to Vegas' screen) then this is the case. You need to open the Inspector on the main project screen by clicking the leftmost icon at the top of the screen next to the red 'activate' button. It's the icon with an eye looking at a vertical rectangle. If you hover the mouse over the icon a pop up will say 'Show Inspector'. I have no idea why this was closed on some templates since the Inspector is one of the most useful things in SX, and is essential to working efficiently.

Once this is open you should see a whole bunch of information related to the currently selected track: volume, pan, inputs, outputs, inserts, equalizers, sends, etc, etc.

Click on the inserts tab as I noted above and you should be up and running. As you have noted, you can also access the effects, etc, through the mixer (Edit VST Channel button) or, more easily, by opening the 'Extended Mixer' view (click the topmost icon on the left edge of the mixer - looks like the Show Inspector icon turned through 90 degrees). Then click the little down arrows at the top of the mixer to select the view (the arrow at the far left selects the view for all channels, or you can select each channel's view individually).

If Steinberg really released the demo with the Inspector closed by default then they're shooting themselves in the foot - I would say this alone makes SX as easy to use as Vegas.

I hope this helps, and sorry for the long message...

Mark

Or maybe you ARE seeing the inserts tab and didn't realise it! Next to the Edit VST Channel icon and the Bypass Inserts icon is another icon (like a cutaway corner with a down arrow). Click it, and all will be revealed. All the tabs in the Inspector work like this.

Mark