Learning curve is bringing me down

[mojobone]

Might be a good catch, there mewman. Plug-in latency compensation only works with plug-ins that report their latency, and not all of 'em do.

[sgs4u]

Sept 29, 2008, 8:14am, mojobone wrote:Might be a good catch, there mewman. Plug-in latency compensation only works with plug-ins that report their latency, and not all of 'em do.I have a couple of plug-ins w Logic that severely hamper timing and latency. The adaptive limiter(a kind of compressor) is the worst culprit. If I have one of those in line (especially on a master strip), and I'm still trying to export midi to devices not in my computer, it's terrible.

[mewman]

Yeah Steve...I find that the Adaptive Limiter and Linear phase EQ, especially, cause a huge amount of latency even on my EXS instruments in Logic. I avoid there use on the individual instrument channels and save them for the summed stereo channel or master strip. That way I can just hit the bypass button for quick edits.

[normbowler]

When hard gets hard, try easy.I have a pretty nice Pro Tools setup in my home studio. It will do anything I want to do, and my mics, preamps and monitors are good enough that I can do broadcast quality.I also have two "quick and dirty" environments -- Cakewalk Kinetic 2, a simple software studio, and the Boss Micro BR, a simple 4-track digital recorder. In the last couple months, I have used my quick and dirty stuff 10 times as much as my Pro Tools setup.Yes, it's about making perfect music and competing with the big boys and girls; but it's also about the juice and flow and love and what happens when the ideas are coming. I recommend "recharging" by doing something simple and fun musically. Also, because a high-productivity environment unblocks you mentally, you may find yourself gaining musical insights that you can take back into your demanding project.Here's a specific pointer -- Boot up your orchestral samples, but start a new project and limit yourself to only a few sounds, like pizzicato viola and slow-attack arco cello. Write and arrange something just for that, and try to do it in 90 minutes or less. Don't overtweak the mix, maybe just some gentle compression and a hall reverb on the master buss.You'll have fun, you'll learn some of the capabilities and limitations of those specific patches, and you might make something musically interesting. And even though you're not tweaking the bits on the specific project that's daunting you now, you'll be learning and growing.food for thought.nb

[georginasaint]

Hi, yes I experienced the same thing when I got my new set-up. Daunting is the word I'd say. It shows in my "submission history" - a gap of about three months where I had very few submissions. But then it picked up again and now I have a very lovely to look at 7 forwards in a row, all done on my new setup. But took me 3 months to climb the hill. I am still in infancy with knowing how to use all this stuff but I just did whatever I could do quickly. I didn't tweak my EW instruments at all. I still don't. I think they sound good enough out of the box to at least get started. I want to add that I compose in a very different way now. I used to write at the piano with a pencil that seems a lifetime ago. Now I often let myself be guided by the sound of the instruments. Don't be hard on yourself! Give yourself the time and space you need to take it all in and people on this thread have given you some great tips about doing something simple to start. I just did a flute tune to start with a bit of string backing. Since then it's turned into something I've been able to submit. So take it easy - it's a process. And use the forum to help you through! Let us know how you're doing!Georgie

[ncc1701]

Just want to say thanks for everyone's input here. As usually happens, just focusing my thoughts to articulate the question was enough of an impetus to get me started on finding solutions. It's uncanny how many of the little subconscious decisions I made after my original post were exactly what someone else suggested, sometimes just minutes later. (Maybe it was Steve's tapping thing at work subliminally??)Anyway, I had a tech session over the phone with Sweetwater at 6 a.m. today, which may continue later, and I've started working on a new piece that's not geared toward any listing in particular - it's just something that I like, and that lets me try new things with the EW instruments, and I'm actually really excited about it. Now I can't wait to get into the studio to see what else I can do with it next. (Sigh) I love this forum.Kathleen

[mojobone]

Always a good idea to play with new technology before you try to work with it. I love my Pod X3 Live, but I'm glad I didn't try to gig with it for the first three months-it's an amazing feat of engineering, under relatively simple control, but so flexible that it requires some serious thought and study as to how best to deploy all that firepower.