Matthew Carr

Absolutely! As a software dev myself I would really not want this task - tons and tons of effort to produce something that will undoubtedly come in for criticism along the lines of either 'it's not exactly the same as before!' or 'it's basically the same, why have you not spent all that time on adding features!' 😒 Haven't had a play yet myself, but from what I see it's looking good and the inevitable snags are being picked up and being resolved quickly - let's not forget this is still an 'early access' build to get feedback, so there will be improvements to come. Bitmaps can add eye candy, but for many reasons are not how modern UIs are composed . This update is essential to support Sonar going forward. Nice work Bakers!

Hmm.. Restarted CbB, now don't get the API error - back to being saved in Bandlab with the CbB project name rather than the name given in the upload dialog

The whole export to Bandlab seems a bit underdeveloped - or I am being a bit dim!! 😁 I try and do the same operation as above and now I get the dialog I suspect this is because: 1. The selection I am uploading as a 'Test' is always being uploaded with the CbB project name (DX7 Master Set List.cwp), not the name 'Test' as given in the upload dialog 2. The upload is being considered as a revision to the CbB Project name, rather than a New Project - despite the 'Upload as New Project' option being checked 3. The API Call can't find the project to revise as I deleted it from within the bandlab app. So now, I'm stuck - I can't export any sections of this file to Bandlab... 😒 Can only imagine this is because I am trying to export sections of a CbB project rather than the whole project - If this was the case for whole projects then surely these issues would've been picked up by now...

Been playing around with the export to Bandlab feature, as thinking of using it more Hit a few issues though, anybody had the same or have a solution? When exporting a section to Bandlab, I use the dialog options as shown below, however: The new project is always created in Bandlab with the name of the CbB project, not the name entered in the upload project dialog box! If I only include an audio patch point in the selection to be uploaded, then the upload complains that uploaded Bandlab projects cannot be empty (despite the empty tracks option being selected). If I export the same selection as an audio file to disk, the audio for the patch point is exported If I include a track with audio / midi data as well as the patch point in the selection, then both tracks are exported to Bandlab and the patch point track includes the rendered audio. I guess it can be hard to work out if a patch point has audio, so maybe the easiest option would be to change the dialog above to 'The export may not have audio data, do you want to continue?' rather than a 'Computer Says No' dialog... or just don't show it at all if the include 'empty tracks' option is set Bandlab Upload Dialog:

Seems unlikely, but this is what I get when I visit the site to download the control center in order to install the plugin. Think I'll err on the side of caution... how many plugins (and install managers) do I actually need, lol!

Thanks for the responses, and sorry for the late follow up - have slowly been changing things around and believe the issue came down to a dodgy USB cable, Gah!!...😡 The new build is working well now, so I'm a happy chappy!

I had something similar. I went to the menu option 'Help' \ 'Sign in to Bandlab' and after signing in, cakewalk authorised. I've just signed out, and no issues with auth

I'm using a Behringer XR18 as my audio interface... might be worth trying it on some other USB ports though, so thanks for the idea!

Hi, Just built a new PC rig around a Ryzen 9 7900 (64GB Ram, 4TB SSD, Windows 11, Behringer XR18 as Audio Interface) Latency Mon is all fine, but I find I'm getting awful crackles and pops - this screenshot was taken when playing a simple project that was crackling My experience is that crackles and pops are normally DPC Latency issues, but this has me a bit stumped. The strange thing is even if I knock the Asio buffer upto 2048 I still get the crackles.. Anyone have any experience, or suggestions? Have done all the usual: No wifi, Ultimate performance plan, disable onboard audio, reinstalling ASIO drivers etc My ancient previous rig together with the XR18 worked without a flaw, was just a bit slow to open large projects.. Thanks in advance! Matt

If you are planning to go live on a stage with a laptop/pc you need the right software setup, or be prepared to deal with some fraught times It's not free (or particularly low cost), but gigs got a lot less stressful for me when I moved all my VST hosting over onto Gig Performer. You might find it does everything you need as it has vst hosting / memory management / setlists / and midi and audio playback - think there is a demo version you can try out for a while to check it out. And no, I'm not affiliated in any way... just have been down the road of using Cakewalk live, and it I wouldn't really recommend using it as a VST host. (My current setup uses both Cakewalk and GigPerformer, as I wanted to keep Cakewalk as the playback device rather than loading backing files into GigPerformer)

The last post was the post above from Harley! Sounds like his problem was a driver issue, but if you want a great free guide to optimising a windows laptop for live performance, a read of this produced by the guys at GigPerformer gives some good advice. The Ultimate Guide to Optimize your Windows PC for the Stage I'd also really recommend: - If at all possible, keeping a separate, dedicated setup for your live performances - that way you can keep it off the internet (mostly) and avoid updates until they've been tested on your home rig. - Bouncing your midi down to audio - unless you modify vst params used in the backing track on the fly. With 250 songs it's a pain, but will use a lot less resources. - Never have wifi enabled when playing - so very often the cause of dropouts

I really can't get my head around what Deskew are trying to achieve here. Can you imagine buying a dell laptop on sale from Amazon, you take delivery and turn it on, then a pop-up appears saying you can't download any firmware updates until you pay the difference between the price on Amazon and the Dell website? This is essentially what Deskew are asking for... absolutely crazy! It's a real shame as I've been an evangelist for this app - if you play live with VSTs it's the best solution, period. What is weird is they seem to realise they are pissing off customers who bought on a sale from PA, but don't care. I've bought version 3 and 4 in full from PA in the past, but now I'm a second class citizen and expected to stump up more cash for V4 which I've already purchased? Not exactly an inviting offer is it... Really hope they've got their sums right, it's a very niche product which is excellent at what it does, so I hope they continue to survive and do well... pissing off paying customers doesn't sound like the best approach, but hey, what do I know?

Something that always felt clunky to me was midi routing - especially if opening a project on a different PC. It always seems like cakewalk just assigns a number to each midi device in the list of devices, and stores routings based on that number. If that list is different when you open a project, devices get a different number, then the routing in the project gets corrupted... maybe that's a simplification, but it fits with the observed behaviour. I've just adopted a load of workarounds and learned to deal with it these days - but it drove me mad when first using cakewalk. It's probably a hangover from how Windows handles USB devices, but I'm sure this could be improved. Best approach is probably something like studio one (or GigPerformer), where virtual external devices are defined and used in the project, and then mapped to physical devices. If the project is opened on a PC with different midi hardware (or the midi devices connected has changed), the midi routing stays the same in the project as it's all defined using the virtual devices - if needed the mapping between a physical and virtual device can then be updated in one place. Far better than having to trawl through tracks to try and find/fix routings that have been corrupted... +1 For being able to route midi to multiple locations Dare we mention staff view??.... 😅 I know it's now a comedy statement these days, but I use it extensively and if we're talking about 'Clunky'....

Probably a common sentiment. I want to stay with Cakewalk Sonar as it's what I'm familiar with.. but it really does depend on the pricing. The free updates and new features were lovely while they lasted, but obviously couldn't continue forever... so now we'll need to see how Bandlab value Cakewalk against the competition, and if us old timers who have paid for the product previously get any kind of accommodation. I totally understand the comments about being two different companies, and it would be completely justifiable to start from scratch, but if that happens then personally I'd have a good look round at some of the competition... Having said that, we have to be thankful that Bandlab kept Cakewalk alive, and has continued to invest in it... and has one of the best DAW forums around (which, actually, counts for a lot!)

This technique will work fine for any tempo based effect (reverb, delay etc) as the final signal is a mix of the original signal + the latency delayed signal from the vst. In a reverb or delay effect, where the signal is being delayed anyway as part of the effect, the impact of the latency delay may not be noticeable. If you were using an overdrive effect for example, then the final signal would be a mix of the original signal + the delayed overdriven sound - which may not be what you want.

Real Time Performance is not the same as processor performance - so a vst (or hardware) can still cause issues even if the CPU monitor looks fine Video below is rather long winded, but explains the concept if you're not familiar

@pulsewalk You have the lead developer responding to your request with an invitation to provide a personalised investigation of your issue. Can you imagine any other DAW providing such a service (and for free as well)? 🤯 As Noel stated you don't need to include any audio files in the first instance, so hopefully no copyright issues, so would be great if you can send your project to the bakers - you'll benefit, and other users may benefit if the bakers uncover a bug that can be fixed.

@msmcleod has given you your best option: One project with all the mixed down audio and using the arranger feature is definitely the best way to go if you want a smooth experience and be able to move from one song to another without pauses . Add MCI controls to stop playback just before the end of each section, and map the stop, start, next arranger section and previous arranger section to your midi keyboard and you'll have a working setup far better than having to manually load project files between songs... If you're using VST instruments for sound generation it gets a bit harder, esp if you have different sounds for each song coming from different vsts. In that case, you could try creating a track folder for each song in your setlist, add instrument tracks setup with your vsts for that song to the folder, set the audio output of the instrument tracks going to a patch point audio track also in that folder, and set the output of the patch point to go to your audio output. Then you can automate the patch point track to only be active for the current song - in that way you'll have a folder of vsts that can only be heard for a specific song when you play your keyboard. Of course this means you'll end up with a lot of instrument tracks - which are all creating audio when you play midi in - which could overwhelm your computer depending on the number of tracks and vsts used. Personally, I tried something like this approach but as each song needed a specific set of patches using different vst it became too complicated and I ended up buying software specific for live use (www.gigperformer.com). Some might consider it expensive at $149, but it takes away all the pain of using VSTs live, is easy to use and understand yet super configurable - and is rock solid. I have full confidence in my setup now that just wasn't there when trying to push Cakewalk in a direction it's not really meant for, and the lack of stress before a gig is worth it! For just backing tracks and hosting vsts, gigperformer will be enough, but my setup is complicated so now I have a cakewalk project with arranger sections to do playback of my backing tracks / dmx / notation and midi PC to outboard gear - including a midi PC to gigperformer to switch to the correct rackspace of VST instruments for that song. Works great, and was worth the effort / cost to set up.

Be prepared to put in some significant effort, but it's all possible and works well. For weekend warriors the standard seemed to be DMXIS, but to me that's a bit old in the tooth now and the hardware is discontinued. I used a free program (Q Light Controller plus) v4, not the beta, which lets you define your fixtures, functions, and create a virtual console with buttons & sliders for controlling scenes & functions. Once built, the virtual console console can be triggered by Midi so you can use a midi track to push buttons on the virtual console to sequence the lighting to a click or backing tracks. I even went as far as creating a drum map with the mappings from midi to virtual console... yes, it took a long time! 😅 You'll need some piece of hardware to generate the DMX. In my case I already had ethernet in my rig, so chose an Artnet to DMX node similar to this, although QLC+ supports various USB devices as well. Good luck!

Mix Recall is great feature which I use a fair bit, so glad to hear there could be improvements in the pipeline

I use an XR18 as my interface, the lowly brother of the X32, and I have absolutely no issue with it at all - it's a superb piece of kit for the money. Latency is as good as any usb interface (unless you want to spend big bucks on RME), and you're getting 18 in (with physical connections) / 18 out (over usb), built in DSP, a mixer with eq / compression / noise gate on each channel, and 6 busses (for outboard gear or IEM mixes) - perfect for a small band. I deal mainly with live sound, so there may be interfaces with better pre-amps etc, but for my purposes it's great. Being able to record on 18 channels simultaneously is just great for recording live sound. The x32 is 2 x XR18 with more (physical faders, more busses / fx slots etc).

Good outside the box thinking! Although in my case I prefer to use the timeline and have arranger sections for each song (just to easily see where they are on the timeline) as there are other tracks with midi events happening for external gear as the track plays - plus I can also display midi data in the staff view while the song plays, giving me a leadsheet that follows the click track 🙂

One of the biggest issues with using a laptop is DPC Latency, and it's hard to find reliable data on whether a particular laptop is affected. A laptop with good specs can be rendered useless for audio work if thermal management or some other driver introduces large DPC latencies - it's much more prevalent on laptops than desktops. https://www.notebookcheck.net/ has tested this laptop, and it seems it could be ok as the drivers causing issue are network drivers (prob wireless) which can be turned off when doing audio work, and power settings probably haven't been optimised for audio work. Having a personal recommendation for the model you're buying, or better still a hands on test, would be my preference before splurging If you do end up buying it, an update here on how you find it would be great to help others.. 🙂

For anyone reading, AZSlow3 updated AZController so it can move to named markers in response to a midi message (and he even provided a preset which would prevent moving to the marker if the transport was playing) - absolutely perfect! 😄

Hi @azslow3, Thanks for suggesting a couple of ways to approach this. I think the second option of adding a "<current state text>" option would be the most elegant implementation, although I understand this involves development effort - so you'll need to take a call as to whether you personally think it's worthwhile 🙂 I've made a post on your forum to continue the discussion, as this topic is now a discussion about AZController rather than Cakewalk,,, https://www.azslow.com/index.php/topic,603.0.html