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How is Cakewalk by BandLab free? What is the BandLab business model? What is the difference between Cakewalk and BandLab? Is Cakewalk by BandLab any good? These are questions I am asked quite frequently, and in this video I am going to answer them all!

Since I have UAD and Slate and now this one along side Empirical Labs' Arouser I'll have to do some comparative analysis (someday). Although I may not be pro enuf to tell the difference.

Hi folks! Many of you have had trouble setting up devices to control Cakewalk. In this video I hope to ease your frustration! WATCH HERE: https://youtu.be/K7x30ZmO5V0

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I'm a PRO at CRASTINATING!

Here's an image that I use privately with EVA 01 Flat. I'm just putting it up here to show off an idea that came to me when I noticed that the Tools Module had an expanse of blank space below the first 4 tools. I use the F5-F8 keys to switch between tools (and to switch tools' functions) while editing, but have always had issues with memorization. This has resulted in a slow uptake for keyboard shortcuts. It's one of the reasons that I lobby for tooltips and context menus. I tend toward being a mouse jockey.

I’ve used Cakewalk since the mid nineties (Cakewalk 7 when it was just a MIDI sequencer without audio recording) and it’s been my experience that for whatever reason, its always had an image problem and recognition as a top line DAW. Gibson put the final nail in the reputation coffin by the way it managed the product and despite the excellent development by Bandlab and that it can easily hold its own against all comers today, (as it could in the past pre Gibson days too) now it needs to combat the additional stigma of being a free program with all the implications that that baggage adds to its reputation. Were it open source as well as free, I think it would take on a much broader appeal. At one time or another I’ve owned every DAW available on the Windows platform (except SaDie) and Cakewalk has been the equal of any of them. Sure on a feature by feature basis there’s always something another DAW has that seems to be the most desirable feature at the time but generally speaking Cakewalk has always been the business. Apple’s dominance (or at least the perception of it) in the Professional Multi media space has hurt Cakewalk’s standing due to its PC only position and despite the calls to add Apple compatibility, its just never been feasible either financially or technically (It would need to be rewritten from the ground up for Apple). The DAW market just isn’t big enough to generate the sort of income that could recover the investment. A few years back one of our prominent users who now prefers Studio One, wrote extensively on the subject of DAW sales and its not the vast pool of wealth we might imagine. He didn’t publish any confidential info as he was no doubt bound by non-disclosure agreements but nonetheless his message was clear. The DAW market is just this tiny corner in the vast ocean that is the music/entertainment industry. At this point in time Meng’s vision for Cakewalk and how it’s tied to Bandlab removes any likelihood of it becoming cross platform, nor do I think it needs to. It obviously fulfils his need and how he purposes it to be now and how it will be going into the future. For now be glad that such a remarkably capable DAW continues to be free yet developed extensively and continually by a dedicated team some of whom can claim decades of working with Cakewalk’s code.

Cherry Audio PS-20 Polyphonic Synthesizer just announced. It's an an ultra-realistic, polyphonic, hot-rodded tribute to Korg's renowned MS-20. $24.33 https://everyplugin.com/ps-20-polyphonic-synthesizer.html

Why care? I'm not aware of anything that Roli makes that I consider "Professional". Cakewalk has been getting the job done for me since it came on floppy disks. I'm not going to be negative about other DAWs (I have owned and worked with several others) because they are all AWESOME. When I first started recording, cut and paste was done with a razor blade and Scotch Tape. All of the DAWs available today can do things that were impossible to do even in a million dollar facility back in the day. I like them all but am partial to Cakewalk; not because it's free but because it is most comfortable for me. I think the work that The Bakers have done with Cakewalk since it was acquired by Bandlab is remarkable. It gets better practically every day. So as long as the owner is happy and continues to distribute it I will keep using Cakewalk. And I will continue to not care how it is perceived by the "Professionals".

We have needed registration since the SONAR days. Nothing has changed. It allows us to know how many users we have and keep the software up to date. As of releases this year, activation is completely automatic and once you have signed in to your BandLab account (from within Cakewalk) there is no manual intervention required anymore. It should automatically refresh itself whenever needed without needing any user intervention or the need for BandLab assistant. Most other products require registration or worse, dongles. I think our system is as non intrusive as it gets for modern software. So I'm curious why you perceive this as being risky.

that's my second nature

For some context MixBox at $50 is based on the sale which is only on the Crossgrade plus a previous customer loyalty coupon (so basically a deal for existing/loyal customers stacked) based on this: "Customers that have purchased at least 5 T-RackS processors, T-RackS 5, T-RackS 5 SE, T-RackS 5 Deluxe, T-RackS 5 MAX, Total Studio 2 MAX, iLoud Micro Monitor, iLoud MTM, & Lurssen Mastering Console will get an additional $/€ 50 automatic coupon applied at checkout" So it seems we kind of get it both ways with "you don't give good enough deals to existing loyal customers" but also "see? look how low the price went, you should wait" which to me seems at best lacking context and at worst possibly a bit misleading. We could have been justified in removing that coupon for this promotion. And the $25/$50 T-RackS deal is not a typical deal, it coincides with our 25th Anniversary celebration. So those examples taken out of context can give you an impression that might not be 100% accurate or will take much longer to reach price-wise than is being implied.

Your genius is wasted here.

Advertising dollar gets the attention. Also, people are more comfortable thinking the paid software has a better guarantee. For me, Cakewalk is better than ever and the outlook is amazing!!! Thanks to BandLab and the bakers for the fine work!!!

Been waiting for this one.

I also received a (non canned) reply regarding the multiple instances in Cakewalk issue. So AAS are definitely looking into it.

You’re Young.

You can press Ctrl+Shift+C to copy a merged version of all current layers. This means you can edit a multi-layer graphic and copy and paste directly into Theme Editor without having to do a layer merge down first. This has saved me a lot of time and I wished I'd learned about it 12 months ago.

I guess not. To me personally, $70 sounds like a lot for a plugin. The danger with IKM is buyers remorse. IIRC, MixBox didn't get re;eased than long ago. Neither did Space Delay. But they priced them really high initially. I think $150 or $99 .. and now I picked up Space Delay for $20.. and could have picked up MixBox for $50. It's a little nuts.

It might be a good idea to rephrase that. Paulo's euphemisms now include 'strumming'.

Bears repeating. Computers do what you tell them to, not what you want them to.

SD3 Kits are MASSIVE! Oh, they would LOVE me sitting in on a board meeting!

I have heard that Larry will become the new spokeperson for IK Multimedia, alongside Peter. Is that just a rumor?

Regarding legato.cal. It's working (or not working in this case) as it always has; it only works as expected with monophonic melody lines. As-written , it is not capable of handling chords. All it does is go through the event list, sequentially, and set the end of each note to match the beginning of the next (with or without a specified gap). In the case of chords where the start of the 'next' note in the 'sequence' is the same as (or close to) the current one, you naturally end up with a note that has little or no duration. It might seem like a simple thing , but it would take a lot of additional logic to recognize and handle chords properly, and this is challenging in CAL because of the way it processes MIDI events in strict order of start times. EDIT: I realize I'm way late to the party, and some of this may have been covered already, but while I'm at it... Regarding copy vs. cut behavior, I think it's debatable whether this is a 'bug', per se, but consistency in behavior when including space in the selection would certainly be helpful. Regarding Audiosnap, it certainly has its share of issues, but in this specific case the problem is self-inflicted by having the Follow Option set to 'Measures' instead of 'Autostretch'. The 'Measures' option make Audiosnap immediately try to 'fit' the clip to the project at measures based on the clip tempo map. If you just want the whole clip to stretch proportionally as changes are made to the tempo, you need to choose the 'Autostretch' option before enabling Follow Project. I understand the OP's wish to have Cakewalk be as solid as possible, but 'bugs' are often addressable by changing one's workflow slightly or just having a better understanding of how things actually work vs. how one might expect or prefer them to work. As such, it's not usually helpful to immediately ascribe 'buginess' to a something that doesn't work as expected before running it by the forum as a simple question: Is this expected, or am I doing it wrong, or is there a better way or a setting I can change to make it work the way I want?

For me analog sound is overrated. If I actually created something like Spire how many people would say it's not analog enough other than a DAW forum when you mention what you used. I've got enough compressors, eqs, from PA. I just might waste $15 on another synth as I push my way to using presets forever.

Echo & The Bunnymen - Lips Like Sugar:

Bunny Wailer - Ballroom Floor

https://batsbrew.bandcamp.com/track/neon-blues Neon Blues: this is the only song on the new album that was directly influenced by the Covid Pandemic. The name of the album is Elemental; Neon is the 10th element on the periodic table of elements; Neon blues is the 10th song of the album. The 1st half of the song, is to represent the lockdowns, the social pull back, the fear of the future, the heartbreak of the relentless wave of bad news… the 2nd half represents the pushback of science, the battle against the virus, the struggle to get back to a fully functioning society. The Battle is not won yet. Hence the vibe of the song is both sad and hopeful at the same time. album here: Bandcamp: https://batsbrew.bandcamp.com/

It's a good song with a solid mix, nice work for only three hours!

When clips move, it's usually due to tempo orwhether the track and clip are set to musical time or absolute time. Try making sure the track is on absolute time.

Yeah, just shoot them an email and they’ll do a prompt reset. Per, Sampletekk’s head honcho, is a straight up guy, no worries at all.

These sounded great too Simeon, although I'm sure your playing helped I can see I'll likely grab something from these at some stage as well! Very good point on the libraries having a different feeling to them and drawing different things out of us. That's why I don't mind owning a few, as I feel that way with them too Thanks

Is SD3 an IK product now?

Here is a playlist covering many of the Sampletekk pianos I have reviewed in the past, enjoy. So some of these are from some Audio Plugin Deals and other promotions but this might help give you an idea of the sound of these.

I'm a little late to this party, but I'm glad I made it! It seems like you're more polished but raw at the same time. I like this song as much as any you've posted, and I can hear the confidence in your performance quite easily. You really know how to make the most of your equipment, and you've helped change my direction from time to time. Kudos!

Yay the youngster in the chat room is on clean up detail! No excuses young whipper snapper! Get to it now!

Congratulations. Now you are grown up by chance.?

Oh well. Have bought so much on sale IK stuff over the years (other than Total), that there’s no way I can make this worthwhile… without trying to sell a bunch of stuff. Other than this compressor, there’s literally nothing I don’t have that I have any interest in. I figure within a year though, they’ll have a better deal on the compressor itself. Edit: I guess the only thing that might make it worthwhile is if I thought IK would continue to bring new plugins into the Total framework….free of charge.

It might be a good idea to rephrase that.

Make sure you are not in "Offset" mode. This mode applies an offset to what is already set on the fader's or automation. That's my only idea.

I don´t count years anymore: Jäääääpaaa.?

After all you said previously about IK and their upgrade pricing, I thought I was gasping for air after I read that! lol

OH MY!!!! Place Total Studio Max in your cart and go to Check out and it discounted to $299.99. What a Surprise ?

ORCHESTOOLS | STRINGS update 1.0.2 | fixes and new funcionalities - can utilize now articulation maps through MIDI channels check it out: https://musictop69.wixsite.com/orchestools/forum/_news/orchestools-strings-v1-0-2

This song is just for fun. No social observations or pontificating. The subject of this song finally got the girl of his dreams to say that she loves him. Now he wonders if he should commit to her. His friends think that she is crazy for loving him. Hmmm!?! It was my intent to create a small venue, open jam type type of feel to this song. You might find that the style is rather loose (understatement not intended). Anyway, I hope you get a bit of a giggle from this attempt. As always comments, crit.'s, suggestions, etc. will be appreciated. Thanks! WHAT WAS I THINKIN'? https://www.soundclick.com/artist/default.cfm?bandid=963481

https://soundcloud.com/bemused-2/fragments Illustrating some of the new pianos on Pianobook - Claustrophobic Piano and Midnight Upright. And Echoes Guitar also from Pianobook. Plus atmos from the LABS instrument Tundra Atmos. Dedicated to the musician Harold Budd who passed, from Covid 19 complications late last year.

Part 2 of the Warp series using Cherry Audio's Polymood (Polymoog) and New Eight Voice (Oberheim's infamous Eight Voice) Arturia's OBX-A and the (Moog) Modular All mixed in Cakewalk by Bandlab Warp 2 Thanks for listening.

Warp 1 In answer to your question yes Warp 2 is being composed as I publish this. Thank you to all who listen for your time and your ears it is appreciated. Synths used Cherry Audio's Polymood Arturia's Modular V (Moog), Jun-6 V OBXa V, Captured in CbB, mixed in CbB using all stock Plugins except for Boz Digital +10dB Compressor Overloud's Breverb 2 and Polyverse Wider

Only went to court and this happened when i got home...... i guess its a classical mix bag of composition music haha.... Hope you like it, i had fun with the release ....