John Vere

Thanks @azslow3 for the tip. It seems stupid to keep a whole DAW installed just for stem separation. I just bought Mixcraft on sale as a good alternative DAW. I like it a lot. It has Stem Separation but compared to Next it’s almost useless. Very underwater sounds on all tracks. Your explanation of the different source models makes sense. I read that there is basically this one open source AI that any developers can use. Which explains why in Next it uploads and downloads the files. I will definitely check that out because this is a tool I’m finding very useful now for backing track creation.

Seems the mistake you are making is you are starting the mixing process before you have finished tracking. When collaborating you want project you share to be bare bones. If it is just midi then use VST instruments that are free so everyone can obtain them. Or freeze those tracks. You should not be using effects during tracking. Musician don’t need glamorous sounding backing tracks. As matter of fact just the opposite is true. You can save any Cakewalk project as a midi type 1 file and it will open in most DAWs. Some are better than others but generally the song will open and the midi tracks will be titled with what VST you used. I’ve even collaborated with Pro Tools this way. If some of the musicians are not savvy to using a DAW you get them to install Cakewalk and help them get it working. Then back at your studio you freeze all the midi instruments and add few tracks ready to record to. and send that to them. All they need to know how to do is arm the track and set levels. I have a portable laptop I lend to my band mate all the time for this. As long as the tempo is maintained all you need back from them is the stems. I’ve never observed any time drifting on a 4 minute song. Then there’s the version of the project that will be used for the final mixing. But that’s not the one you pass around. Keep those simple. Best to use midi if possible to make file transfer easy. But these day even 48/24 audio files don’t choke the internet too much.

Another way I test things like this is open it in another DAW. I am testing a bunch of Demos right now and most of the top DAWS support ARA. Example Mixcraft, Studio One and Bitwig. The demos are free to use for a month.

I just learned the other day that adding tags is a waste of time with You Tube. I used to spend a lot of time adding the maximum amount of tags thinking this would help people find info on the internet. I believe those videos have “Cakewalk ripple editing “ in the tags but it obviously doesn’t seem to work. Glad it helped but you gave me a good title for a future video! I’m holding off on putting out anything about Sonar just yet. I’m hoping they will make official videos like the seem to have done for the Bandlab App. .

I do this a lot. Often I need a count in or often after you drags audio file to the timeline to extract the tempo you then need to drag everything to be on the grid. This I have demonstrated in a few videos. But really it’s as simple as activate ripple editing for all. Then CTRL A to select all and drag the whole project to where you want it. If it’s only going to be everything to the right of the cut then make sure to choose that setting in preferences editing. Then when you make the split everything on the right is selected automatically. If it was locked to the grid make sure to choose an appropriate snap setting. Make sure to turn off Ripple when done. I think I demonstrate this in a few videos , try these https://youtu.be/HCOt74rENRg?si=w1j0-NhWsPk1aHBG This is Number 2 in a 3 part series but I think it’s the one that I show splitting up songs if not it’s in part 3 https://youtu.be/EceLttY9dAw?si=IquFY_z-TUiVRpQb

I just rebuilt last November. I generally do my audio interface then install Cakewalk and then activate all my plug ins. And it seems that you probably need to activate Melodyne when installing it and before opening Cakewalk. So maybe your fix will be uninstall Melodyne. Open Cakewalk and do a full scan and check that Melodyne is gone. And then re install Melodyne and then open Cakewalk and scan. I don’t really think reinstalling Cakewalk changes anything unless you do a 100% clean install.

Actually the Halion is one of my least favourite of the GM players. If you look on my You Tube channel you will see I demoed all the different players and played a midi file through each and then compared the sound quality. The Halion was down the list. Example the guitar patch sounds like a Dobro? I just installed the Cubase 12 and I see it still sounds the same. There’s a few free sound fonts players I demonstrate in the video that work fine.

I think I demo this here.

I think I covered this in detail in one of my tutorials but the workflow I use starts with midi velocity. Example I only use 2 different Bass VST s. Ample p bass on most and I have settled on the velocity set at 106. So that is the starting point. Then the VST is set at 1.0 on its volume control. I leave track level it unity. This usually gives me about-3 db on the bass buss. I will then adjust to around-4.5 depending on song. But for my backing tracks this is set in stone. I too use AD for the drums and I built a kit and saved the preset. I do swap out snare drums but once again I start with the kick and snare velocity is never over 110. This way it always puts out about-3 db on the Drum buss. And then I dial in around-4 db depending on song but backing track this is set in stone. Definatly invest in the You Lean loudness meter it is a huge time saver with the paid version to be able to drag and drop individually tracks as well as your export mix.

Warning- I’m being attack in another thread for calling it a demo. But I can’t help but think of it otherwise. To me a Demo is what you have when you can try software but you haven’t bought it yet. It will expire if you don’t buy it. Im also demoing a bunch of the most popular DAW’s. Each one is different but all have a similarity in what they can accomplish. There’s just one deal breaker that is interesting and that is none of them so far use a smart tool! I find it now prehistoric to have to manually switch tools for midi editing. But none of them are subscription only. Most have different levels at different prices. I see no signs of needing re- activation. In the end Cakewalk/ Sonar has the best workflow for midi editing bar none. Problem I have right now I hope they fix is all the themes except Mercury have dark PRV. So for me Sonar is crippled. I’m still using Cakewalk in the meantime.

I don’t know why you choose to defend a company that you are not even an employee of . I am only stating what I observe buy being in the middle of Demoing 10 leading DAWs. They all allow saving so far. I haven’t gotten that far with all of them. It will take a while. Some like Cubase give you 2 months. They can call it what they like but Sonar is just another demo along with the rest. To me a Demo is software you can try out but you don’t own it yet. And I can compare different experiences between all of these different companies with what it takes to acquire the demos. Most require you create an account and register to access the demo. Bandlab was the only company I had to actually pay them something up front to demo their products. I don’t mind this because I support Cakewalk. I’ve had a free ride for 7-8 years thanks to them so $15 is a bargain. But that’s me. I’m not sure how Joe Public would think.

Does the stand alone version work. Did you re register the new computer on Celemony web site? Do you own your copy or was it the demo? The demo expires after a month.

Yes I know that, it’s a early access release. The point is that you can’t help but look at it as a demo seeing as how it is the full version with either a time limit or a crippled save or export function. That is standard of most demos. I have 10 different DAW demos loaded up right now including Sonar. Sonar to me is in demo mode because I haven’t bought it yet. I can’t think of it as anything else under those conditions. The only difference between it and the rest is I actually had to pay to demo it for more than 3 days.

Funny you should mention that! Often my financial advisor goes over my small collection of stocks and points out ones we should ditch and then asks me if there’s anything I was interested in? Next visit I think I’ll get him to check out if Bandlad is listed. I was certainly smart 12 years ago when staring at my brand new iPhone I bought some Apple!

Exactly but that was fine for a freebie but now it’s not.

In a way your paying $15 for a 1 month fully unlocked demo of 2 DAWS and some perks you might not be interested in.

Absolutely as well as have all the details attended to like the info on the web page. Tutorials and fancy promo videos press releases to the industry, unveiled at NAAM. They either have a brilliant plan that has yet to be revealed or they just don’t think things through. I have now been on all the major DAWs web pages and Bandlabs sites will need a lot of work if they want to look good out there. For almost a year the main thing you see is “Coming Soon”. ?? That’s unheard of elsewhere. I want to see Price and a demo the rest is exactly the same boring promo all the web pages have which I doubt anyone reads, I don’t, it’s all promo marketing speak and you rarely see what you want to know so on to the demo. I guess Cakewalk is the demo! What a confusing mess I feel sorry for any one who might have been interested.

I remember in the early 80’s I think the only drum machine was the Roland Comp Rhythm which used all analog stuff. I had one and we did a few bar gigs and it seemed absolutely no difference to the same crowd that was always there. You had to guess at tempo and figure out what a Fox Trot was. But that was the day we realized we got paid the same $400 for the weekend with one less person to share it with. The rest is history.

Cancer has removed more people from my life than I think old age has! But in amongst the sad stories are many of my friends and family that beat the *****. There’s a new treatment now called immunotherapy that has brought back at least 5 people I know. My son in law lived 10 year longer than his excepted time by simply eating only real food no alcohol a few reefers staying active and playing his LesPaul. And repeating the words I am not ready to die so FU cancer. But I 100 % understand the importance of a tight drummer. I played bass most of the time in real bands and there’s a huge difference when you have that unmistakable groove that only happens with a good drummer. The whole reason I ended up learning about midi was I just couldn’t stand playing with bad drummers. And possibly the punters wouldn’t notice the drummer was missing but it would just suck to have to go the canned drum route. But for me it’s that or stay at home which is the worst of the 2 evils

I’m working on a research project of looking at all the other DAW available to us. One thing becomes very apparent is that every one of those so far I’m demoing have very good official tutorials. Bitwig has them totally integrated into the software. Those companies obviously understand the importance of top quality tutorials to get new users up to speed in a hurry. It made me realize why Mike would focus on Sonar again. Probably didn’t get the stats from making Studio One videos. Cakewalk was free and had no official videos. So wide open market. Studio One is one of the more expensive DAWS and it has a lot of professional videos already. Majority of his subscribers couldn’t afford S1. So stats probably were dropping rapidly. You can make money on You Tube but it’s a stressful fight to maintain those stats. So back to Sonar which is yet to be seen how big the user base will be. But for now it will bring his stats back up. But really Bandlab will need to make proper tutorials to compete as like every one says. Now it is no longer the best free DAW. It is just another DAW and I’m finding some very good stuff out there in DAW land.

It was at least 20 seconds on my old machine but now about 10 on the new computer. I read where it has to load something into memory first.

Ya it’s a bit deceptive because that era the USB ports were never midi. They were for firmware updates and like in your case software patch managers. What is cool is this old stuff never dies!

I’ve abandoned it anyway. No time to waste on it. I was only interested in the Stem separation anyway. I just found a much better alternative. Mixcraft. I haven’t looked at it for years. Check out the demo. So far only thing missing is a smart tool. It has Ara for Melodyne and does 5 track stem separation. A download midi file not only loaded up instantly it sounds really good. Sonar has no GM player now. It comes with some really good plug ins. It has a store where they list 100’s of plug ins with a lot of fee stuff listed. Early days but so far I’m impressed. Only $120 too. I got a lot done in no time with out opening the manual. I think this one’s been overlooked and it’s just seen some major updates. I tried Studio One yesterday and the GM player has gotta be the worst of them all . It’s sort of like Cakewalk but it’s also $500. Out of my budget. Cubase is way out of my budget. I’m also going to look a few of the others just to see what is up. Some are very reasonably priced. Its 2017 all over again but things have improved at lot since then.

Not sure if it’s the same as my Korg 05r/w but you can’t output audio from each instrument from the analog outputs. It only outputs the stereo mix. So not sure why you are crashing Cakewalk? Obviously by its vintage it’s a 5 pin midi connection. So what are you using for your midi interface? You basically would have to record each part in a separate pass and mute the other sounds as you go. Personally because there’s much better sounds available with VST instruments to me I don’t think it’s worth the bother. Korg even has a VST version of this series. I only like to record the full instrument sounds they are way better quality than Combi mode which is on par with Cakewalk TTS-1 sounds.

I'm not sure why people keep saying " Everybody is going to subscriptions"?? That seems a misconception. I just was researching for the video I just made and I visited at least 14 other DAW websites and only Pro Tools was a subscription. All the more popular DAW's are all cash sales. Most have a few options starting with basic versions at affordable pricing. What is shocking is the sticker price for the top tier versions of some of them. You can bet that the marketing folks at Bandlab have been studying those same pages I visited and using that as part of making the upcoming decisions on pricing. So please stop overreacting about this. WE DON'T KNOW YET! And if it really concerns you why not send Bandlab a Email or use the "contact us" feature on the web site. Posting here might get a little notice from a few Cakewalk staff members but they have no control over this and it might even be doubtful Bandlab listens to their opinions. It is a good time to voice your concerns and it's great to share those with all of us, but that won't be heard by those who count.