KVR Audio

LhaastDaiz · Post by **LhaastDaiz** » Tue May 19, 2015 2:34 pm

You can make a performance test with more than 4 tracks. From the Mulab website:

---

MuLab 6 can work in 2 modes: Free mode (MuLab Free) and unlimited mode (MuLab UL).

Both MuLab modes are fully functional, but the difference is that when you cross one of the limits of MuLab Free, then you enter demo mode and you'll regularly hear a soft noise.

For example: You can use ReWire in MuLab Free, but only in demo mode i.e. the soft noise will be there from time to time. So MuLab Free has a double function: It's a nice free musical tool and at the same time it's a demo version to try out all features of MuLab UL.

http://www.mutools.com/info/docs/mulab/ ... sions.html

Mojo42 · Post by **Mojo42** » Tue May 19, 2015 3:13 pm

@LhaastDaiz:
Ooops thanks for this information. I have got the version with the noise sound, because I`ve heard it yesterday, when I tried the software. Cool, then I will make my performance test first. I`m quite curious what will happen

Cross your fingers for me.

doctorbob · Post by **doctorbob** » Tue May 19, 2015 3:47 pm

Hi Y,

Don't forget our good friend REAPER as well for a non-bloated DAW which is very stable with all sorts of VST's. Most people report being able to use loads more VST's and plugins with REAPER vs Cubase etc. Also the stock plugins, whilst not pretty GUI-wise, are very good sonically - 60 days evaluation from download, thereafter you should pay the cheap fee (but it continues in full mode anyway, no demo mode or nasty noises or reduced facilities!). Not the easiest to jump into - but, doesn't spray itself all over your discs nor the registry, so getting rid is a breeze should you want to. Right and Left mouse clicks are all position/item sensitive - so if you try it, remember, point at something and right click to get a menu!

dB

PS. I have nothing to do with Cockos - just think it's a pretty good DAW (Mac and PC), and is cheap too.

z.prime · Post by **z.prime** » Tue May 19, 2015 3:51 pm

doctorbob wrote:REAPER as well for a non-bloated DAW which is very stable with all sorts of VST's. Most people report being able to use loads more VST's and plugins with REAPER vs Cubase etc. ... just think it's a pretty good DAW (Mac and PC), and is cheap too.

+1 that. I originally used Cubase (through SX 3). I switched to REAPER and on the same computer could use 2x the number of plugins; I did an A/B comparison, it's much more efficient. Some things are clunky to work with, but overall REAPER is a very good DAW. The way it handles audio, to me is #1 of any DAW I've used... very natural.

Taron · Post by **Taron** » Tue May 19, 2015 3:53 pm

Hm, Reaper is almost twice the price of Mulab from what I see and it looks quite a bit more complicated than Mulab, too. I don't know how deep you can go in it and about the freedom it offers not to depend on VSTs, but I know how far I can go with Mulab and that it's worth every penny for sure. I'd be curious about a direct comparison, though... I might well be wrong?!

Ah, Yvonne, hi, you can freeze a track "manually" by just "Render Selected Parts As New Sample". The cool thing there is that you can freeze any number of tracks at once that way. It then shows up on the Right side bar under "Samples". Then you just drag and drop it into your composition as "pitched sample" and that would be all.

You'd mute the tracks you've sampled, of course.

Asio4all was my first nightmare and just like Asio itself, it made my system highly unstable.
What are your computer specs, if I may ask? (processor, operating system)
However, I have a pretty good feeling that Mulab might perform a bit faster. I'm most curious about your feedback!
Luckily it's rather cheap and you have direct access to Jo, the developer, no brickwall of customer service you might find at Steinberg or any of those big folks.
The forum section about Mulab on KVR has a whole bunch of nice artists frequenting it besides Jo, so you'll most certainly find great support, and that includes me, of course!

One more thing about freezing tracks... I've never tried that until right now just for you and it works just fine. I think, that's actually pretty cool to do far more than just freezing tracks, haha...I might try to play around with that some time in the future.

Let me be the first to congratulate on buying Mulab, though! Great choice!

Mojo42 · Post by **Mojo42** » Tue May 19, 2015 5:15 pm

Hi guys,
thanks for showing so much interest for my DAW problems

For to answer all at once:
- I have bought Mulab because:
I have made my performance test right now and that was really quite interesting because, I have loaded all instances I have made already in Cubase, I used PG-8X, I added 3 automation tracks (loudness and panning), I added 5 effects (!!!) just for fun and for look and see what will happen, I put an compressor on the master channel and the wonder happened: No stuttering at all!!!!!!

And on top: I tried this all on my very ancient and very bad PC (not on the laptop which is the better pc from the both I own).

This means: Thanks Mulab I can go on with my OSC project, I even mostlikely can add more instances, I can use automation, effects and so on and the best of all: It seems that I can work on my pc and don`t need to ruin my back, my shoulders and my eyes in using my laptop

This is like Christmas for me and so of course I will try to finish my OSC entry now

@Taron: Thanks again for all your tipps, I will need them

Concerning Reaper:
Yes sure. I probably will buy it later somewhen, but for the moment I needed a cheap DAW which is fully functional and most of all as easy that I can handle it most fast and so I chose Mulab, because I was able to work with it from the very first minute and you see that my performance test couldn`t have got better results.

As a final conclusion: Damned not only this muting of tracks was because of Cubase, but also the high CPU usage was because of Cubase. Wow this are really intresting news.

Okay I will have to make my experiances now with my brandnew DAW (

) and hope that everything will run smooth up from now. There is enough time left for finishing my track if no new problems will appear.

Thanks to you all for helping me to solving my problems most fast

That`s why OSC rocks

Cheers
Yvonne

penguinfromdeep · Post by **penguinfromdeep** » Tue May 19, 2015 5:24 pm

Good luck and great to see happy ending to this story!

wagtunes · Post by **wagtunes** » Tue May 19, 2015 5:27 pm

Okay, this has me extremely interested right now.

I too have been having a bitch of a time with Cubase (having to reinstall it at one point) and already own MUX Modular.

Questions:

Is MULab a standalone unit? In other words, can I use it as I am currently using Cubase to load VSTs as well as MUX modular itself (which in itself loads other VSTs)?

Can I, in essence, use it as a DAW as I use Cubase?

Finally, if so, is there an upgrade path for MUX owners? I've read the sales page but am not quite sure which package I'm supposed to get.

I really want to chuck Cubase if I can but don't want to get something that either won't really take its place (Cubase still is quite powerful) or won't work as intended.

Any info on this will be greatly appreciated.

Of course if you think I should just start a thread I will but if I can get my answers here that'll save a lot of time on everybody's part as well as keeping the sub forum clean of unnecessary threads.

Thanks.

Mojo42 · Post by **Mojo42** » Tue May 19, 2015 5:39 pm

Taron wrote: What are your computer specs, if I may ask? (processor, operating system)

Ooops sorry I have missed this:
My ancient pc:
- Windows 7 64 bit although originally the 32bit version would be needed for my pc, but this was not available at the online shop when I bought it. I have ordered the 32bit version but they have sent me the 64bit version, I simply tried the 64bit version and it worked. But of course this can also cause the one or another problem I have since I try to produce music with my pc.
- AMD Athlon(tm) Processor LE-1640 2.62 GHz
- RAM: 2,00 GB (1,75 GB usable)

Laptop:
- ASUS
- Windows 7 64 bit
- Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2450M CPU 2.50 GHz
- RAM: 4,00 GB

Do you need more information?

You see both are not the "Ferrari`s" among the PC`s but the laptop isn`t that bad and so I already wondered why I have got such massive problems in music production. After my performance test with Mulab I have to assume that Cubase was my main problem *ugh*.

Mojo42 · Post by **Mojo42** » Tue May 19, 2015 5:56 pm

wagtunes wrote:Okay, this has me extremely interested right now.

I too have been having a bitch of a time with Cubase (having to reinstall it at one point) and already own MUX Modular.

Questions:

Is MULab a standalone unit? In other words, can I use it as I am currently using Cubase to load VSTs as well as MUX modular itself (which in itself loads other VSTs)?

I don`t know exactly what you mean, but you can use it like you use Cubase. It has the advantage that you don`t need to install VST`s. You simply select them from the folder among your own data where you have saved it. For example: PG-8X is saved among my own data in a folder called: "Synthesizer" and with Mulab I can load it directly from this folder.

wagtunes wrote: Can I, in essence, use it as a DAW as I use Cubase?

Yep

Don`t know if it has got all the feature Cubase have, but the most important features are easy to discover on the first glance. Simply try the Demoversion

wagtunes wrote: Finally, if so, is there an upgrade path for MUX owners? I've read the sales page but am not quite sure which package I'm supposed to get.

Yep. Check this out here:
http://www.mutools.com/shop.html

wagtunes wrote: I really want to chuck Cubase if I can but don't want to get something that either won't really take its place (Cubase still is quite powerful) or won't work as intended.

Yes Cubase is very powerful, but who says that Mulab isn`t. In fact I don`t know if it is as powerful as Cubase. Maybe check out the internet for comparisons. It is at least as powerful for to produce a track in a short time and it runs without problems on my ancient pc and this is powerful enough for me

wagtunes wrote: Any info on this will be greatly appreciated.

Of course if you think I should just start a thread I will but if I can get my answers here that'll save a lot of time on everybody's part as well as keeping the sub forum clean of unnecessary threads.

Thanks.

Well, it`s anyway silent at this thread because all are busy with producing great OSC tracks, we can fill the emptiness with interesting DAW info I guess *I hope*.

By the way: If you buy one license you can use Mulab on as many pc`s you wish. No Dongle is needed!!! You don`t need to install it and you even can open it up directly from an USB Stick. I already love it although we (Mulab and me) are first "married" since yesterday

Give it a try

EvilDragon · Post by **EvilDragon** » Tue May 19, 2015 5:58 pm

Taron wrote:Hm, Reaper is almost twice the price of Mulab from what I see

Reaper has two price tiers:

$225: full commercial license.
$60: discounted license.

You may use the discounted license if any of the following is true:

You are an individual, using REAPER only for personal use.
You are an individual or business, using REAPER for commercial use, and the yearly gross revenue does not exceed USD $20,000.
You are an educational or non-profit organization.

So actually, Reaper is cheaper than MuLAB. And it can also be installed portable and ran from USB stick, too.

Taron · Post by **Taron** » Tue May 19, 2015 6:03 pm

wagtunes wrote:Okay, this has me extremely interested right now.
Is MULab a standalone unit? In other words, can I use it as I am currently using Cubase to load VSTs as well as MUX modular itself (which in itself loads other VSTs)?

Can I, in essence, use it as a DAW as I use Cubase?

MuLab is standalone, yes! Yes, it shall be your new DAW!

I've been using it from the moment I stumbled upon it. I used to be on Nuendo, Cubase, Reason mostly until I encountered MuLab.

wagtunes wrote:Finally, if so, is there an upgrade path for MUX owners? I've read the sales page but am not quite sure which package I'm supposed to get.

I'm sure the website will clear that up and if it doesn't just go on the mulab forum here and boldly ask!

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=79

Taron · Post by **Taron** » Tue May 19, 2015 6:06 pm

Mojo42 wrote: Do you need more information?

No, that's perfect! Your laptop certainly has plenty of might, so that should have no troubles at all. Your PC is probably somewhat in trouble, but when I started using MuLab my machine wasn't even that strong, so.... I shouldn't be surprised that you're having a good time now!

I'm very happy for you and am looking very much forward to your OSC song!

wagtunes · Post by **wagtunes** » Tue May 19, 2015 6:11 pm

Mojo42 wrote:
wagtunes wrote:Okay, this has me extremely interested right now.

I too have been having a bitch of a time with Cubase (having to reinstall it at one point) and already own MUX Modular.

Questions:

Is MULab a standalone unit? In other words, can I use it as I am currently using Cubase to load VSTs as well as MUX modular itself (which in itself loads other VSTs)?
I don`t know exactly what you mean, but you can use it like you use Cubase. It has the advantage that you don`t need to install VST`s. You simply select them from the folder among your own data where you have saved it. For example: PG-8X is saved among my own data in a folder called: "Synthesizer" and with Mulab I can load it directly from this folder.

wagtunes wrote: Can I, in essence, use it as a DAW as I use Cubase?
Yep Don`t know if it has got all the feature Cubase have, but the most important features are easy to discover on the first glance. Simply try the Demoversion

wagtunes wrote: Finally, if so, is there an upgrade path for MUX owners? I've read the sales page but am not quite sure which package I'm supposed to get.
Yep. Check this out here:
http://www.mutools.com/shop.html

wagtunes wrote: I really want to chuck Cubase if I can but don't want to get something that either won't really take its place (Cubase still is quite powerful) or won't work as intended.
Yes Cubase is very powerful, but who says that Mulab isn`t. In fact I don`t know if it is as powerful as Cubase. Maybe check out the internet for comparisons. It is at least as powerful for to produce a track in a short time and it runs without problems on my ancient pc and this is powerful enough for me

wagtunes wrote: Any info on this will be greatly appreciated.

Of course if you think I should just start a thread I will but if I can get my answers here that'll save a lot of time on everybody's part as well as keeping the sub forum clean of unnecessary threads.

Thanks.
Well, it`s anyway silent at this thread because all are busy with producing great OSC tracks, we can fill the emptiness with interesting DAW info I guess *I hope*.

By the way: If you buy one license you can use Mulab on as many pc`s you wish. No Dongle is needed!!! You don`t need to install it and you even can open it up directly from an USB Stick. I already love it although we (Mulab and me) are first "married" since yesterday

Give it a try

Thanks Yvonne. Last question.

With Cubase, I had to download and install special drivers for my Axiom AIR 49 keyboard controller in order for everything to work correctly including the hypercontrol.

How does this work with MULab? How does it recognize my keyboard controller? I'm assuming there has to be some kind of installation procedure. From what I am reading online (limited info) it appears that with some keyboards, MULab auto detects them. Just not sure if this is true for all keyboards and I'm not finding any special drivers for MULab like I did for Cubase.

Taron · Post by **Taron** » Tue May 19, 2015 7:28 pm

I just bought the Akai mpk88, which is my first ever midi controller after literally 26 years of using my trusty old Korg M1.
Setting it up for MuLab took some digging, but it's actually super easy, once you know. But you need to know a few things about your keyboard. For example, if you have transport controls, which can switch modes from MIDI/MCC to Ctrl, you have to switch those to Ctrl in order for MuLab to pick those up as shortcuts, which is where you link up your transport control (rewind, forward, play/stop, rec). After having figured that out there were no problems at all and it's kinda magical to me still.

Sliders and knobs are setup via a midi learn solution in Mulab that is also quite brilliant. It's all under Map Midi controller. Only slightly weird thing is that if you want to control a whole mixer strip, you have to do that in the "Project > Edit Project Midi input Controller Mapping". I'm not aware of any automatic mapping for keyboards, but somebody else might jump on that.
Let's just say, there's no trouble of hooking up all your keyboard features as far as I can tell. I also love that you can automatically tell the value range you want a controller to handle.

One Synth Challenge #75: PG-8X (Jasinski Wins!)