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Slowly but surely, we are beginning to change the way people view this DAW. I’ve personally seen the interest generated by some pretty big names in the industry. It’s just up to everyone involved to share the news and show its worth. I’m personally dedicated to seeing this DAW prosper and get the proper respect it deserves.

Just want to say it's nice to have disagreements on here and it still be respectful. This place is pretty cool.

To celebrate their partnership, Native Instruments and iZotope offer Hybrid Keys by Native Instruments and Ozone Elements by iZotope for free. The offer ends on May 31st. (You will need to register a user account at Native Instruments and iZotope in order to download and activate the software.) In addition to the free software, all interested users will also receive a $25 discount (using the code iZotopeNI2021 at checkout) for both online shops. The vouchers are not valid for products already on special offer and can be used through june 30th. https://www.izotope.com/en/alliance/ozone-elements-x-hybrid-keys.html

Free Rock MIDI Drum Grooves: 28 MIDI rock grooves All in 4/4 9 tempos, ranging from 68 to 145 BPM Arranged for Toontrack EZdrummer & Superior Drummer, XLN Audio Addictive Drums, Steven Slate Drums, NI Studio Drummer, I-Map and of course General MIDI All recorded live by Magnus Brandell, of course not quantized Totally free of charge https://oddgrooves.com/product/straight-ahead-groovin-rock-lite/ They also have LOTS of other free MIDI drum tracks!

Thank you for all your tutorials @Robert McClellan. I am trying to watch and learn from every one of them. Also Thanks for other people with great content like @Xel Ohh , @Creative Sauce, @AdK Studios and @John Vere You're doing an amazing job. I hope you'll get more subscribers, not slowly but surely. 😊

Some sounds from Hybrid Keys are available in the free Play Series Collection but I think this is the first time it has been free as I didn't have it installed - Analog Dreams was free a while back

Well...that's was highly informative

It just comes with three cabinets unlocked. The others have to bought as an add on. Not sure how I feel about the fact that both they have now two parallel 'shops' for add-ons: - The rig libraries - The Cabs Think I'm done putting money in TH-U until there come real great offers on bundles.

Reason Studios announces Reason 12 Reason Studios has announced today that Reason 12 is coming later this year. The new version, which will arrive about two years after the release of Reason 11, is set to bring many new features and a much improved user experience, Reason Studios says. According to the developer, one main goal for Reason 12 was to improve the Rack experience. To achieve this, they’ve made the user interface high resolution. Reason Studios says that you’ll be able to zoom in and out fit your setup, and they claim that all 3rd party Rack Extensions will be high-res ready on the day of the release. That’s pretty big news, and it has the potential to bring a significant improvement to the user experience. Reason 12 will also feature an all-new Sampler, which will be a significant upgrade to Reason’s current sampling capabilities. The new Sampler will cater to library playback and ad-hoc sampling, and feature „new ways to play your samples“, the company says. We’re curious what those will be! To bring it all together and ensure a smooth workflow, Reason Studios has also given the Combinator a complete overhaul. The developer says that they’ve implemented many user requests, such as more CV inputs and controls, as well as easier programming and more patches. The goal is to let you build Combinators that feel like new devices. You can create custom interfaces using your own images and custom panel sizes, and build your own set of macro controls. That sounds very nice! Last but not least, the new version of Reason will come with a new sound bank that takes advantage of all the new features. It’ll also include an improved browser, so you can find your stuff more easily. The weekly Reason+ packs will also make use of everything that’s new in Reason 12. Release date According to Reason Studios, Reason 12 will be released on September 1st, 2021. Reason+ subscribers will of course get access to the new version immediately when it arrives. We don’t have any pricing information at this point, but that’ll arrive when the release date nears. https://www.gearnews.com/reason-studios-reason-12/

There's a pretty simple solution that at least worked for me. 1. Keep your data (projects and customizations) off of your system drive, which you should be doing anyway. 2. Image your hard drive that contains a Windows 7 OS, program files, and Sonar (or CbB or whatever). Then clone the image so you have two copies. 3. Wipe your hard drive and install Windows 10 OS, your plug-ins, and the latest version of CbB. 4. Try it for 30 days. You will have little, if any, trouble loading your projects into CbB+Windows 10, editing and saving them, and loading them into Sonar+Windows 7 later if needed (assuming you're not doing anything that would be incompatible with Windows 7). 5. If you like it, keep doing what you're doing. If you don't, restore the Windows 7 image. At least, that's what I did, after waiting about 2 years to move from 7 to 10. I still have the Windows 7 image sitting around somewhere...I ended up finding Windows 10 better in several ways. As to the constant security updates, unfortunately the people planning attacks are becoming ever more numerous and more persistent. OS companies have to keep on top of things, on a virtually daily basis. This is true of the Mac as well. The only truly safe approach I know is either never to go online after you know for sure your system hasn't been compromised, or not clicking on anything that touches the world outside of your computer (but I'm pretty sure that applies to any OS).

Slowly but surely, we are beginning to change the way people view this DAW. I’ve personally seen the interest generated by some pretty big names in the industry. It’s just up to everyone involved to share the news and show its worth. I’m personally dedicated to seeing this DAW prosper and get the proper respect it deserves. Thank you Sir for invaluable contributions in relation to building awareness of the capabilities of cakewalk by Bandlab . Your contributions are surely appreciated by so many persons who you have touched with your teachings. Keep up the good work and continue to do what you do. Glenville

Regardless of how well your DAW is going, if you want a specific plugin that's written to be heavy on the resources because it needs to be (think amp modellers, sample libraries, physical modelling, etc.) then old hardware is going to be the bottleneck between you and your creative vision. Can you work with ancient hardware? Sure - I was using a laptop with 8GB of RAM on a dual core CPU for ages and doing huge productions on it. Did it suck? Yes. Yes it did. It involved a bunch of extra work that just isn't required from a more powerful machine that may not support an OS anymore. But I got the job done, albeit much more slowly. It's not a dark future, it's just how it is. Don't be surprised if one day Justin and co. turn around and go "look, this is stupid supporting a 20 year old OS that's been abandoned because we can't run X language to draw the UI efficiently on a modern interface" with REAPER. Every dev needs to make a decision as they go along for their own sanity and the ultimate stability of a product. If you're always looking behind you trying to maintain compatibility with some long dead OS, it's asking for legacy bugs, bloat and problems as it goes onward. Apple is probably the most brutal with this. "Right, here's our new OS, all of this old stuff doesn't work now. Good luck with the new versions if/when they arrive." Eventually people stopped supporting CP/M, DOS, Win 9x, etc. with their software. You're seeing 32 bit software start to disappear in favour of 64 bit. What I'm saying is you might have choices now, but as systems change, devs will need to keep up or their software will be left behind too, and those choices will diminish. Even if a host might be compatible, your choice of plugins will eventually start to shrink before you're forced to find a host and OS that supports them. If you're happy with doing basic stuff, with stock plugins, sure - have at it. You can certainly make good music with stock stuff in any current DAW, but if you require certain things to do your job in a professional situation, those limitations can mean the difference between doing it in a week as opposed to months with workarounds. I don't believe this. Win7 is an abandoned OS. If you want to use this for anything online, then the risk is only going to increase as the years go on, vs. a currently updated OS. If you rely on any plugin that uses a company that does online authorisation (and there's many) then you're stuck 'walking that path without a bodyguard" if you use Win7. The other thing is this is all kind of irrelevant to a point with CbB anyway. You download it and set it up online (like most software), sign up and into your Bandlab account, and you can choose to be online or not. So long as things are kept current to around 6 months - and there's offline auth too - then there's really not a lot of difference between this and SONAR X1, other than the devs wanting to be smart about what bugs they chase. Additionally, imagine having to write spaghetti code to work around something in a discontinued OS that was already fixed 10 years ago in the currently supported OS? Or finding some obscure bug that's only a thing that appears because of this old OS? Wouldn't you rather they focus their time on making the best CbB they can? And getting people to keep the app current takes the wild goose chases out of the process of tracking down new bugs. Something may have been fixed a year ago which people on an old version may be complaining about "this stupid buggy software has X issue and the devs suck!" whereas it actually may have been fixed since then. Keeping it all current mitigates that. Bottom line is this: I don't care what you use, ultimately. That's your choice - as it should be. (And I'm aware that's a lot of writing to say "I don't care" 🤨). All I'm saying is while you may have choices now, things change and if you're able to deal with those limitations that you're giving yourself by sticking with something old, have at it! You can definitely make great music on a Windows 95 machine if you really want to. Or tape machines for that matter. But speaking as someone who does need fairly powerful hardware to run the specific things I do for the work I'm being paid to do, I'd rather hop on board with the way things are heading and work out a path forward rather than watch the world inevitably shrink around me and have to come up with contingency plans and workarounds. It's just not a good way to run a business.

UPDATE 17-May-2021: Cakewalk 2021.04 Update 1 (build 27.04.0.175) now available We're pleased to announce the 2021.04 release! This release integrates BandLab library access directly within Cakewalk, introduces a new Tempo track and Tempo Inspector, PC2A T-Type Leveling Amplifier ProChannel module, automation enhancements, Arranger enhancements, lots of other enhancements and optimizations, and over 80 bug fixes, all in keeping with our goal of making Cakewalk as reliable and enjoyable as possible. Thanks, The Bakers

I just checked my iLok account. All my VI Labs pianos, including the Ravenscroft, have 3 authorizations. Soft (PC) authorizations are supported, so you don't need a physical dongle.

Fixed

"Hello, we are NI.. we give you free what was free"!!

Bill would of agreed with that statement.

That's always the first thing I look for in a mix. Ugh! There's nothing worse than fake ones.

If a $1600 tree in the forest falls to $49, was it really ever worth $1600? Perhaps, when sales are over they should announced that prices have been jacked 30x. "We've increased our prices 3000% temporarily."

And one of Slate’s best plugins for sure.

Note: this is included if you have TH-U Premium (previously TH-U Full)

Looking on the site it appears that Reason Studios no longer sells the Suite directly. Everything that used to be in the Suite seems to be now subscription-only. Maybe the Suite will always be available through stores, but anybody who wants it might want to consider getting it now

This was one of my early piano reviews and still a favorite.

It might also be worth mentioning that companies cease support not out of disrespect for older customers, but because support resources are limited. With a free DAW, it's unrealistic to assume a company can support multiple operating systems. With paid DAWs, if they're cross-platform, the service nightmare is exponential, which makes it even less likely they'll have the resources to support all types of customers. Windows systems continue to multiple into different permutations. You can have a rock-solid, 100% stable system but then something as seemingly trivial as a graphics card driver update can wreak havoc. I image my system drive a lot - then no matter what happens, I can at least get back to where I was. [Edit] IMHO the biggest danger in never updating is more about hardware than software. If you have a computer that's several years old and the motherboard or the CPU dies, you may not be able to find a replacement. At that point, you're basically going to have to start over from scratch with new hardware and new software. We've de-evolved from component-level repairs, to board-level swaps, to system replacements.

Hi folks, thanks for your help in making this a great update. Update 1 has been officially released. Head to Help | Check for updates to download the final build.

Jimi Hendrix - third stone from the sun:

Shocking blue-Venus

"Scoville Count matters not to Straummy" ~ Straummy (2021)

For all of the hard work Noel and the crew put in on this program , all at no charge to me, well... I thank them every day and twice on Sunday.

me, and the crew are still trying to find our way but if you could tell me what is right or wrong with this I would inform the crew, thanks baby https://www.soundclick.com/music/songInfo.cfm?songID=14250585

To compete with IK's launch I presume $49 - no extra discount https://www.jrrshop.com/slate-digital-fg-stress

Very easy to use. Can't go wrong with it.

I want to take the time to thank Freddy for letting me contribute to this fine song. As Freddy noted, I made a few changes based on your comments which were spot on, especially about the timing flaws of the rhythm guitar. As for the panning of the guitars, I used Frampton's live album "Frampton Comes Alive" as my template for live recording, which has a rather wide soundstage. It really depends how close to the stage the listener is. To me, the star of this song is Freddy's voice, which is so resonant that it is a pleasure to work with. And, his lyrics are consistently well thought out and socially pertinent to our times. Here's to the future!

The Reason Studios rep on this forum https://forum.reasontalk.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=7523102&start=25 says any purchase/registration after May 1 is good for the free upgrade to 12. Scroll down and look for user MattiasHG. Also note that he said "Yes, if you happen to find a Reason 11 Suite that, too, will be upgraded to Reason 12 if you register it during the grace period." So I might take that to mean that no more "Suite" SKU's are going to resellers.

Thank you very much Mark. Your comments are very much appreciated and thanks for both the kind words and suggestions. Lynn has already sent a Re-Mix which I have posted. It sounds to me that most if not all of your suggestions were taken by Lynn. I hope this sounds better. I'm very glad that you enjoyed it! Hi tom! Thank you very much for the very kind words and suggestions. Your comments are always insightful!! Lynn is the master mixer and I have posted his re-mix. Hopefully, it will have earned that second thumb 😉. Thanks again! Hi John. I am glad that you enjoyed it and I hope it brought on a bit of a smile or maybe even a giggle. The suggestions have been taken and Lynn has made some revisions which have been posted. Hopefully, this virtual aural gig will now be a little closer to a live gig. Thanks again! Hello Jack. Thanks for listening and also for taking the time to comment. It is much appreciated. Hopefully, your suggestions have been addressed in the revision. Hey Wookiee. Thank you my fine furry friend. We very much appreciate the comments. I'm very glad that you liked it. Hopefully, it gave you a bit of a smile. As to the 1% ----- it would be nice if they could at least pay a living wage and their fair share of taxes.

It's a taped purple supersaw synth!

I thought you did some fine work on the keys in this one - nicely done. You did some interesting panning in this as well.

Thanks Larry! You da best.

Based on what I can glean out of your dump file, it's crashing in the kernelbase after doing a bunch of stuff related to the WD Desktop App. I'm guessing that's what's likely having an issue. Also, make sure you get the latest Cakewalk build (175) as that has had some changes to the error handling that are not as aggressive as the previous release (build 144).

Yay, best net mag in da biz!

sounds like contention between mycloud and fileexplorer. if you disable/pause mycloud does it still happen?

What audio interface are you using? Does it come with native ASIO drivers. If so, then use that and completely uninstall ASIO4ALL. If you’re using onboard sound, still ditch ASIO4ALL and use WASAPI Shared driver mode.

Thanks a lot for your themes, i like the M-Blue Flare Theme.

It is not only the hardware that can be a bottleneck, there is also the operating system and the DAW that need resources (some a lot!). That's why there can be so much difference in performing the exact same task with the same plugins in 2 different DAWs. Believe it or not, even if the plugin does the same processing in every DAW, there may not remain the same amount of resources for the plugin, because the DAW (or operating system, background process, ...) has eaten up too much. IMO it is a dark future! 😄 I am aware of this and there is no bad in this! But there is not only black and white, I mean it is quite a different how long older things are supported by different developers. I just don't like those ones like Apple that throw the past that quickly! Often it would not be required! Whether a developer writes spaghetti code that is a habit and it has nothing to do with the problem to be solved (e.g. supporting an older version). I am not aware of many old bugs fixed by a new OS, but I am aware of a lot of new issues with a new OS (version). 😆 No, without joke I am convinced that a new OS or new OS versions introduce more new issues than what they solve. Most of the time they only bring new features that only a handful of people really use! I don't want to offend the Bakers, but IMO there are some really great features in CbB/Sonar that would need some love (I like this saying, it's copied from you 😉). In the last 5 or more years they introduced so many cool features that are not really finished (AudioSnap, Drum Replacer, ...), i.e. where you have to use workarounds from the old gurus to be successful. I am not talking about "obscure" bugs, but of evident behavior issues. There is some truth in what you say here and I surely respect your choice! On the other hand it is my belief that it is also not a good way to run a business with throwing away older resources too soon and follow all the rage! I prefere a good balance of both!

Boa noite ficou muito top tema parabéns

TBH in other Cherry Audio VSTis I found similar especially when I had a mechanical drive in my laptop ( recently replaced with 2TB Samsung EVO 780 SSD, so not a prob much anymore ). The main reason for it was the number of VOICES used in the preset/sound: EG drop that from 8 to 2 and see how you get on. Yes might affect the sound, but in some cases not too dramatically

You can now get for free hundreds of free patches on the official Vital forum submitted by users. Each months submissions are rolled into a single file. And there are patchs from Nov '20 to April '21 https://forum.vital.audio/t/may-2021-free-patch-sharing-thread/6730 You will find some duplicates between months. But just show all presets and delete the duplicates. These new files are put in the Vital documents folder and then imported/ converted. You can then delete the file from docs.

Whenever I see my friends (I have quite a few facebook musician friends or when it comes up in conversation) asking what DAW they should get, I always recommend Cakewalk. I make it clear that it's a legit, completely unhindered DAW for free... so it'd be pretty senseless NOT to try it, or even use it alongside another already paid DAW. I think that in and of itself is pretty effective, to be actively recommending it as individuals whenever the topic comes up as word of mouth will always be powerful. I want it to be as popular as it can to keep the support ball rolling!

Cakewalk is professional DAW. How do I know? -I have used it exclusively for the past 16 years to record, mix and produe music - professionally. Back in days some clients asked why I don't have Mac and why does that Pro Tools look so strange. Most musicians don't care - I could mix their songs with Notepad or hex editor and they'd be happy. Once when Windows crashed during recording session I was told to get Mac. Still no Macs here. I have lost one or maybe two mixing sessions in the past 20 years because I did not have Pro Tools HD. PC+Win10+Cakewalk gives you 2x performance with 0,5x money compared to Mac.

I too have gotten into the habit of freezing my synths as my track count increases. Seems to work for me. I look at it as it is a small price to pay for all the power in CbB