KVR Audio

LawrenceF · Post by **LawrenceF** » Thu Sep 01, 2011 3:41 pm

Steinberg is funny.

Ask for the Sequel 3 demo on 8/31. Get an email link.

Decide not to install it yet since it's 1.7 gb and my laptop Bootcamp partition only has 1.5gb of free space.

Get an automated email from Steiny the very next day (9/1) saying...

How do you like Sequel 3? You've now spent about 10 days with Sequel 3. As this is the last message you'll receive from us, we'd like to say 'Thank you!' for using our software.

You've now spent 10 days with Sequel? I haven't even installed it yet. This must be part of the new automated customer relations program.

dgkenney · Post by **dgkenney** » Thu Sep 01, 2011 3:51 pm

LawrenceF wrote: You've now spent 10 days with Sequel? I haven't even installed it yet.

Make sure you don't have the time stretching algorithm set to auto.

Dan

LawrenceF · Post by **LawrenceF** » Thu Sep 01, 2011 4:22 pm

dgkenney wrote:Make sure you don't have the time stretching algorithm set to auto.

Dan

What I should have said is "I haven't even downloaded it yet." Let alone activated it and launched it, put a demo license for it on my dongle.

If I can even find my dongle.

MountainKing · Post by **MountainKing** » Thu Sep 01, 2011 4:25 pm

Any infos on how many tracks are supported?

I can't any info on this at steinberg.net.

Support for multi-timbral VSTi?

dgkenney · Post by **dgkenney** » Thu Sep 01, 2011 5:19 pm

LawrenceF wrote:
What I should have said is "I haven't even downloaded it yet." Let alone activated it and launched it, put a demo license for it on my dongle.

Wow...so it's really intuitive. Nice job Steinberg.

I'm afraid of it. It looks like one of those things with enough "toys" and at a price point that if I get bored I buy and then 6 months later look at it and say "what was I thinking."

Dan

LawrenceF · Post by **LawrenceF** » Thu Sep 01, 2011 5:24 pm

Well for $60-70 if you use loops it's something you can launch to make a quick song for your grandson or whatever and import the result into PT or whatever to finish it. Some of the loops aren't bad.

You can import those songs into Cubase directly but otherwise (at least up to v2) they didn't make it very easy to stem out tracks for that kinda thing. You had to mixdown every track one at a time. So it works better as an "alternate source of inspiration" for Cubase users since you can just load the Sequel song directly and keep working on it.

Downloading now. If the new synth is any good it might be worth an upgrade just as another source to fire off some quick midi loops to audio tracks or something. With hip-hop especially, you can "mash up" various loops and make the rapper guys happy pretty easily.

Anyway, a 3+ hour download just to demo isn't all that user friendly. Not sure why Steiny doesn't break some of that up into logical chunks, application and content. At the least you could be finding your way around the application changes or whatever while the content downloads.

dgkenney · Post by **dgkenney** » Thu Sep 01, 2011 5:32 pm

LawrenceF wrote: Downloading now.

I'll be interested in your assessment when you have had some time to play.

Dan

LawrenceF · Post by **LawrenceF** » Thu Sep 01, 2011 5:58 pm

Will do. I have v2 already and the most disturbing thing about Sequel is that basic clip editing - splitting, duplicating, etc - is way better than Cubase, more like Tracktion. Other than that and the dockers it generally falls way short in almost every other area. The new beat track thing looks mildly interesting though.

I'll report back later tonight after I get a chance to play with it. I may even do a short YouTube.

LawrenceF · Post by **LawrenceF** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 2:38 am

Ok, had a chance to play around with it so I'll give some general impressions.

It's still a really, really basic DAW but there are some neat little tricks in the new version.

The pitch envelopes are pretty cool although they (apparently) don't do cents. It also has audio quantize and free warping, something some larger DAWs don't have yet.

The arranger / performance functions are pretty much the same as in Cubase but maybe laid out a little better graphically. You probably won't find things like that in Mixcaft and some others in that price range.

The beat track thing is nice, as I suspected a much better workflow than in Cubase. Everything (Beat Designer + GAO) is docked underneath arrange so it all stays out of the way.

Again, as relates to the competition for this range you probably won't find anything like it. There are 8 pages of 16 pads there (128 pads) and the graphic design is pretty well done.

The new mixer is ... well... coloful but still kinda "meh". Too much wasted space but at this level you want "big and easy" I suppose so they got big and easy for noobs. One kinda cool thing there is the name fields don't truncate the text, they scroll horizontally when you hover the mouse. Like all Steinberg DAW's you can forget about moving mixer channels around directly.

The media broswer is the same as in Cubase, even though a tad different graphically, but it works *so* much better here being docked. It's actually better than Cubase's Media Bay that disappears when you touch something else. Cubase users who pooh-pooh docking should play with Sequel - and the same media database - and they'll probably change their minds about that.

Once again, it stays way more out of your way. Same tools, better design.

They also slipped REVerence verb in there with some nice impulses. The reverb on the demo tracks sounds really good. I'd be surprised if any entry level DAW had better verb than Sequel now. On the down side, the comps and EQ's are really limited and third party plugs seem to be limited to VST3 I think. None of my plugs showed up there and I couldn't find any setting to point to VST2 plugs.

No clue what the track limits are if any. I doubt anyone using it will be mixing 100 tracks though.

As to synths, it has Halion SE but it doesn't appear to do multi-out. But again, comparing it to it's direct competition I think it may be best in class at that price. Not great, but pretty good.

I'll pass on the upgrade because I have no real need for the software and it's hard to know if I'll just be mostly buying the same samples and content I already have again.

Anyway, I'd give it a high score (in proper context) for what it is. I demoed Mixcraft and didn't like it all that much but it seems to have intentions of being a full fledged pro DAW so the direction is a tiny bit different from this which has no such intentions.

I like the UI way more than Cubase's but of course it's not 1/100th of the DAW Cubase is so... it won't impact power users at all. Probably make a great XMas gift for the young ones though.

LawrenceF · Post by **LawrenceF** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 4:18 am

Here ya go. Before I uninstalled I took a demo song and removed everything but the lead vocal track and randomly dropped in some midi loops around it, so all Halion SE.

The plugs don't allow digging way in with EQ so the mix is what it is. It was fun though...

http://theaudiocave.com/mixes/Sequel.mp3

Uninstalled.

dgkenney · Post by **dgkenney** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 11:00 pm

Thanks, Lawrence, for giving us a closer look. Seems like a nice intro package for someone wanting to explore audio production as well as a good "loop painting" type program for existing DAW users. Wouldn't be surprised if I grab a copy somewhere along the way.

Have a great Labor Day weekend.

Dan

BTW you song was fun. WIll there be a sequel?

Bronto Scorpio · Post by **Bronto Scorpio** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 11:04 pm

dgkenney wrote:WIll there be a sequel?

LawrenceF · Post by **LawrenceF** » Fri Sep 02, 2011 11:25 pm

dgkenney wrote:BTW you song was fun. WIll there be a sequel?

I don't think so.

Anyway, Cubase (and Sequel's) master pitch and transpose / pitch track make using loops really easy... kinda like Acid. You need never worry about what key a loop is in (assuming it's properly tagged) because it will always transpose to fit whatever key of the song you drop it into.

Works especially well with midi loops.

In some other hosts you find yourself mostly auditioning loops that are already in the song key and/or transposing other things every 30 seconds just to hear it in the right key against the song.

So that alone makes Cubase and similar very good with "musical" loops.

lockheart · Post by **lockheart** » Sat Sep 03, 2011 12:03 am

dgkenney wrote:
Bronto Scorpio wrote:"Sequel turns you into a producer..."
Everytime I have to read something like this Cthulhu kills a little kitten

Cheers
Dennis
What would you prefer? Something like, "Reaper turns you into an Audio Engineer."

Dan

LawrenceF · Post by **LawrenceF** » Sat Sep 03, 2011 12:16 am

I should have probably also mentioned that Sequel Projects (*.steinberg-project files) will also load directly into Studio One, if you have that DAW and your great-grand nephew has Sequel or whatever.

Just tell them not to use any of Steinberg's audio loops in their songs since they're in a proprietary package and they won't transfer to anything but Cubendo... and not even then if the license for whatever bundled package it came from isn't on the Cubase users dongle. Or they'll have to manually bounce any tracks using them.

Midi loops will just make midi tracks in S1 so that works ok.

So for the other 2 guys here using S1 fulltime

maybe useful.

Steinberg Sequel 3: VST support plus new drum and performance features