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Happy holidays all!

Gift shop has closed. Thank you everyone, I hope you find many uses for the impulses.

Hi Bill, thanks for letting us know. We can provide a theme to help address that before long.

LOL It's funny because it's true... But there are much more black metal bands in Norway than in Finland which is "general" metal country: Apocalyptica, Amorphis, Children of Bodom, Nightwish, Impaled Nazarene, Stratovarius, Stam1na, Korpiklaani...

Bob contributes all kinds of useful info and insights in my forum over at Harmony Central, he'll be a great addition to the shiny new Cakewalk forum.

Welcome Bob. I think decades ago I bought one of your style packs for BIAB.

Hey Bob when you get up and running and have any questions let me know. We both have a similar background. I started with the old Atari and a rack of modules. And I play both solo and as a Dou. I still have all my old midi files and the good news is you can open those in Cakewalk and if they were GM they will play just like they did in 85! There's no need for 2 computers as you can just export your mix to a wav ( or MP3) Live, I use Stereo wav files played back using Win Amp on a very small Net book. I control Win Amp with a Stealth foot pedal system. I use Win Amp because it's the only player I am aware of that STOPS after each song plays.

You can reply to this topic directly and provide feedback for improving the forum! Please use the Feature & Ideas forum to share your ideas for improving Cakewalk by BandLab software. Thanks in advance, we love getting feedback!

I would like to record directly into a Matrix Cell sometimes. Now I record something in a track first, drag it to the browser and then drag it to a Cell. I would like to setup my patterns in Matrix first and then afterwards make the recording in the trackview. Happy holidays Cheers 😎

Hi. My name is Bob "Notes" Norton and I just downloaded Cakewalk - but I haven't installed it yet. It's a gig day and I don't do involved projects on gig days. I chose "Notes" because in the pre-www days of the Internet, we conversed with the usenet/newsgroups and on the alt.saxophone group there were already two people with my name there. My sister's business partner called me "Notes" so that was easy to distinguish myself from the 'imposters' Call me Notes or Bob, either is fine, but I've had the "Notes" so long, I keep it around. I'm a professional musician and have been for decades (Sax, flute, wind synth, guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, & vocals). I'm currently in a duo, I make my own backing tracks, and I also write aftermarket style "disks" and fake "disks" for Band-in-a-Box and have done so since 1992. I have played in just about every venue a musician can, from seedy 'dive' bars - to show clubs - to singles bars - to cruise ships - to yacht & country clubs - to 5 star hotels - to being the opening act in concert for major headliners and more. I was in a band that almost had a record deal, but couldn't get the money thing to work (the label didn't want to pay enough for our management's calculations). I've done a lot of MIDI sequencing, mostly in Master Tracks Pro but MTPro doesn't work well in Win10 and never will because it's orphaned so I figure I'll have to learn to use Cakewalk. I tried a demo of Cubase (LE) but it kept crashing two of my computers so I gave up on it. I'll install Cakewalk as soon as I get a chance . I live in South Florida and it's a busy gigging season now. I'm still sequencing on an old XP computer and using a flash drive to get the results to a modern computer. I liked MTPro because it has great editing features and with no audio commands and a pure MIDI environment the work flow was quick. Every editing dialog box was accessible with one click in a drop-down menu with no little arrows for sub menus and sub-sub menus. But those days are gone so I need to evolve with the times. I've done audio recording in Audacity and PG Music's Power Tracks Pro. I like PTPro OK for the limited audio that I use, but I don't like it's MIDI editing functions. There is no control over groove, I'm hoping there will be in Cakewalk. People in other forums have indicated that there is. The website of my duo is http://www.s-cats.com and there is nothing to buy there so I don't think it's considered spam. My Band-in-a-Box website is http://www.nortonmusic.com. I'm just posting these for people who are curious. If this is considered spam, please let me know and I'll delete. I like many different types of music, from 3 chord blues to symphonies. Genre doesn't make as much difference to me as to whether I like the music or not. I have no idea why I like some things and not others on an emotional level, but just go with it. I've played classical, rock, pop, blues, jazz, salsa, soca, reggae, folk, country, and quite a few other forms on stage, and I find that the more genres I learn, the better I get at the ones I already know. After I install Cakewalk, I'll probably start by asking a few Cakewalk Newbie questions and I hope the seasoned users are kind and patient with me. If I stay with Cakewalk long enough to get good at it, I'll be happy to return the favor to anyone who hasn't climbed that ladder as high as my then current level. And if any user has questions about things I already know and can help with like wind synthesis, saxophone, basic MIDI sequencing, or whatever, I'll be happy to help. I'll probably visit this forum sparingly at first and be more of a lurker, as one can learn by lurking, but eventually I hope to make a lot of friends here. I'm sure there are friends from the Band-in-a-Box forum that I already know. There it is, probably TMI but my new computer types so well I just couldn't stop Bob "Notes" Norton

Will we eventually be able to do searches of the old forum here? In other words will they archive the old forum so when we do searches it will not only search this forum but the archives of the old forum? I remember hearing someone saying that was the plan. I hope eventually we will be able to do that instead of having to go back to the old forum and searching both forums. I wonder how long the old forum will be around? People are still posting there

Scott - I'm sure this has occurred to you already, but Bandlab has 5 million new users. I'd bet at least a million of them have never seen a DAW before, so might be time for a new book.😉

Very nice Jesse.

Hello Bob... awesome intro you wrote!

Welcome Bob! -- Scott R. Garrigus - http://www.garrigus.com * Cakewalk SONAR Video Tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/user/ScottGarrigus?sub_confirmation=1 * Author of the Cakewalk Sonar and Sony Sound Forge Power book series: http://garrigus.com/?PowerBooks * Publisher of the DigiFreq music recording newsletter: http://www.digifreq.com/ * Publisher of the NewTechReview consumer tech newsletter: http://www.newtechreview.com/

Welcome, Bob. I might take you up on the offer of basic MIDI sequencing tips. I have virtual string and horn software and many times in reviews I get the "those horns (or strings) sound fake". I take this as quite discouraging as I put so much time into the arrangement and all they comment on is the "fake sound". Granted, my software programs aren't the most sophisticated (Garritan JABB 3 for the horns and Native Session Strings Pro for the strings) so I really need tips on how to make them more realistic, if you can sometime. I'm also a real sax player (and clarinet) but at my advanced age or 63 and with asthma it getting harder to blow the horns. Anyway, I don't want to make this all about me but I'm glad you joined not only to make a new friend but looking forward to any help you can give on your rather impressive list of expertise. I'll help you with anything I can but most of these other guys have more experience with at least this version (used to be Sonar PLATINUM) so they'll probably get to you first. John B, 😀

A song I recorded, produced and played on from a few weeks back. All done in CbB. Hope everyone likes and if you don't -MERRY CHRISTMAS to you anyway! All the very best to everyone in CbB land. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3vJFEgSEmg&ab_channel=AbsoluteMediaDesign

Bob: "Those in the coda of life..." I hadn't realised I was enjoying my final movement! 😖😝

Yes thanks Phil and Merry Christmas to you!

That's cool, because I'm digging the orange.

Merry Christmas Jesse!

That's awesome Phil, thanks a million! 👍

Beautiful, Jesse! Merry Christmas to you!

Bob welcome to Band-in-a-Box, no wait, that's the wrong forum! Welcome to Cakewalk by BandLab (CbB) and the new Cakewalk by BandLab forum. I'm looking forward to your insights. No one else has mentioned it so I will, if you're interested in midi or audio loops you can use the media player built-into BandLab Assistant to listen to loops of both types. If you find any you like the download is free.

Haha! And man, they can all drink. We toured with Nightwish a couple of times and when an Australian can go "yeah, you guys win" you know they're serious! 😂

Closest so far. Apparently, "B.A.P.U." cannot be an acronym. It would have to be written without the full stops/periods = = => BAPU I really need to get out more 🙄

Thanks John... i had to do something similar about 1.5 years ago when a friend asked me to digitize a 3-3/4 tape recording and my tape deck is only 7.5/15 ips... i think i slip stretched it to twice it's length then using radius mix to transpose -12.... i'm gonna try that next as using loop editor will be much more tedious as I must chop it into smaller bits for the editor to accept it. making it more difficult is i really don't know what/how the original clip was created.

I do have a couple of things up on Bandlab (link in sig below), mostly to get a feel for how to use the site. Funnily enough, one is a classic rock song where I'm playing bass, rather than the kind of things I'm known for most (guitar and vocals on heavier music) but that's where Bandlab is pretty fun - you get to expand your palette a bit. It's a bit of a shame my schedule is so ridiculous these days because collaboration is a lot of fun when I have free time. I think there's talk of thowing up stems from our next album for a song or two and getting people to do a remix or guest parts, which should be cool. Who knows, it could be so good I put myself out of a job! 🤣

Hi Bob, Welcome to the group. Your mention of MTPro takes me back. I used to have it on the Atari ST and when I moved to PC, I went to Cakewalk Pro 9 and found it to be the closest in concept to MTPro. Even though Sonar has changed quite a bit over the years, you'll get acquainted with it real quick. All the best! Dave

Hey Bob, I have found that the best way to learn new apps is to just dig in and and try to what you want, then google what ever stumps you. I then write it down in a little note book, but I rarely need to go back to the note book 'cause writing it down seems to increase the chance of it getting it in long term memory. You'll find everyone here wants to answer your problem no matter how trivial, unlike many other forums where a simple question can get you some not so easy to understand answers just to belittle your question. ie...Google> Cakewalk how to activate ripple edit and the answer magically appears. Otherwise ask here and you will always get good answers and answers to things you thought you knew, but dang if there ain't someone with a better way. Good Luck

I am a church musician (mostly now). Not a good organist but a good vocalist. I use CbC to add interesting accompaniments to my organ playing. For example an arrangement of "Thus Zarathustra" which I used as a prelude for the Sunday of Daylight savings time. I also develop instrumental backing tracks to many of the church choral works. I produced a backing track for brian Reidingler's "Coventry Carol" for a recent advent service. I feel like a rock star sometimes when I have the click track sent to me while conducting the choir. I get many compliments from the congregation because of the variety of styles and accompaniments. Before that I was using Sonar to produce backing tracks for my wife and I when we were singing pop music in local resturants . I developed 100's of duets for Sop and Baritone and even a bunch of trios when one of my students was available. The flexibility of CbC (or Sonar) is what made this such a valuable tool.

Welcome Bob. I don't play the Sax, but it is one of my favorite instruments to listen to.

What about the Software forum, especially the Resources and Utilities thread that I used to Moderate along with Elffin?

Welcome Bob. Another old timer here, both in using Cakewalk Sonar and age. I really like the new look of this forum. I think that you and any new member should have an easy time exploring the layout. Happy music and Happy Holidays. 😄

If you want to explore an alternative to Winamp for this, Foobar2000 also lets you stop at the end of each song (in Preferences | Playback check "Stop playback after the current track" and uncheck "Reset the above when stopping"). AMB

I thought it stood for Ball Achingly Persistent Unfunnyness.

I think it's like W.A.R. in baseball. It doesn't really mean anything, but certain sports writers like to think it does. B.A.P.U. is sabermetrics for musicians.

Hello and welcome Notes! That's a lot of info 🙂

Thank you all for the warm welcome. I know I'm going to like it here. I'm gigging every day until (and including) Christmas, and if too much family doesn't get in the way after that, I plan to do a disk image of my hard drive and then install Cakewalk before the next gig on New Year's Eve. Then the Cakewalk fun begins. I probably should have waited until after the tourist season to get started with this, but I got a new computer, put my other music apps on it, and while I was at the Band-in-a-Box forum, I read some nice posts about Cakewalk and decided to go for it. My uses will be for two main things: Making backing tracks for my duo. I sequence them in MIDI, entering the parts mostly in real time from start to end. Drums first, then bass, and whatever comp parts I want to add. I always leave out the most fun parts for Leilani and I to play live on the gig (we don't want the machine to have all the fun). I could use Audio but I've been making MIDI tracks for the duo since 1985, before audio was practical, and I like the consistent sound with my earlier tracks. I have a half dozen sound modules and a couple of hardware samplers. I use a MOTU MIDI Express 128 to route the sounds to the best module for each part, combine the synths in an old Samson 12 channel mixer, route to another computer via AUDIO->USB interface, make a WAV file and rip to a 192k mp3. My work flow and use on stage can be accessed here http://www.nortonmusic.com/backing_tracks.html Making aftermarket styles for Band-in-a-Box. The recording is the same, except it's all done over one chord root (C). Depending on the style, I'll record a long sequence with variations that I plan to import into BiaB. The variations might be for situations like a V7 chord leading to the I for the next A section or the ii of a ii V7 I progression. BiaB takes car of the transposing, and there are handles in the BiaB StyleMaker that will let the specialty patterns appear in musically appropriate situations. Sometimes I use Band-in-a-Box while making my duo backing tracks as a starting point or for the 'mule work' (background comp parts) if there is an appropriate style. This is entirely song dependent. Some of PGs MIDI styles have quantized drums so I'll be very interested in Cakewalk's ability to turn them into something that has a groove. MTPro has a change filter that works well. I'm not opposed to learning a new way to do this. I don't do much song writing, everything I've tried I'm not happy with. Most is either too simple or too complicated and definitely not hit material. Oooh and the words, I can't believe how corny I can be ;) But on the gig, I love to improvise and am a bit of a solo hog. The duo fits me fine for that ;) I went duo because clubs and private parties were all downsizing and a duo can make more per person around here than a bigger band. I love to play music, but I have to pay my bills too. Leilani and I were in a 5 piece band at the time, and we lost a bass player, then a drummer and was out of work for a couple of months total while breaking in the new. So I bought a 4 track Teac reel to reel and started making backing tracks. Then came a keyboard with a sequencer followed by my first computer (Atari ST) and after trying a couple of sequencers I settled on Master Tracks Pro. I used it on my Mac Classic II and when it came out for Windows 3.1 I switched to Windows. The duo with the woman who is now my wife is great. We keep all the money, we can travel and go wherever we want, we both have strong work ethics, we collaborate well, and we really have a lot of fun on stage together. When I met her she was playing in another band and we became each others' groupies. My band broke up, hers was about to, and a pianist friend asked if we wanted to do a light jazz and some pop trio. We were in. Jazz doesn't pay around here though. We've been in a few groups up to 5 piece since then, but the duo provides the most stability. We haven't been out of work since our second year as a duo. We have close to 600 songs mostly for the adult audience (45 to those at the coda of life) and found it to be a good niche for business here in South Florida where there are a lot of yacht clubs, country clubs, and retirement developments. The list consists of mostly Baby-Boomer pop, with some newer songs that appeal to that audience, some country, reggae, soca, calypso, Latin American, and whatever they ask for if we can cover it. This is all probably TMI for most, but I'm going to make some new friends here, and I hope to learn more about you all as well. Notes

Hi Bob and welcome! I remember you from way back in my early days of using BIAB! John

My recommendation to anyone using ANY new software is to first explore all the menu's and poke around finding things. I think a common mistake is to jump right in and try to get any work done before you have actually figured out the basic layout. A huge help with CbB is the HELP module which will show up on your right in the browser window if you select it from the "Views" menu. It's at the bottom of the list. Now when you hover the pointer over anything on the screen it will tell you what it does. If you need some simple tutorials on using MIDI see my signature for the link to my website where I have an easy to follow basic guide to midi posted.