Tezza

With laptops, it's mainly the hard drives (or lack thereof) that cause problems for most users. Chuck at least a couple of SSD's in there and your good to go. Even 1 ssd for OS and a 7200rpm for recording will be fine. If you can only run one hardrive in your laptop, I wouldn't be bothered with it. The factory hard drive might be 5400 rpm which is the pits for music production. You might be able to get a caddy for it and swap out the DVD drive for a second hard drive. The beauty of upgrading the hard drives is that if it doesn't work out and you think you might need a laptop with a bigger processor, you can always put the old hard drive back in your current laptop and move the hard drives with you to your new laptop.

Are you using a native 64bit system? ie are all your plugins 64bit or are you also using 32bit plugins alongside them.

These 2 statements are not really compatible, I'll have to look into this, perhaps I am left brain dominant.

I just see a grey shoe with Green/Aqua laces and linings. I can see some pink coloring around the edges. I am also not very left brain dominant. What is the scientific basis for this test? If you know it's really pink then some might see that.

EQ? Run the fly out EQ over it and do a sweep across all frequencies with a bit of a boost, find the frequencies you don't like by boosting them, then when found, take out the frequencies to taste. Add a broad Q in the lower frequencies to give then some warmth. Any compression on it? You can smooth the attack of the strings further through short attack times on the compressor, longer release times. I'd do these things before adding reverb or fiddling with volume changes.

When I was playing out regularly on the east coast, just acoustic guitar and vocals, romantic jazz style, my vocal pitch was faultless, many people thought it was a radio playing or recorded music until they saw I was there. That was because I am a good singer but more importantly, my voice was well practiced and warm. If I stop singing for a length of time, it takes about a month to get back to that level. It's impossible to get back to that level before that, it's just how long it takes me to warm up, regular practice for a month. I can't push it or it will cause my voice to go hoarse and it will be painful. If my voice is warm, I won't hesitate to pick up the guitar and sing a song in public, if my voice is not warm...no way! At the moment I can do scratch vocal tracks but that's it, to finish off the vocal tracks on my projects will require some sustained work on the vocals but I know it will come. If you want to improve your vocals, you can cup your ear and sing into a wall at close range, 6-12 inches or so. That can increase your awareness of pitch, rebounding your vocals off the wall. The breath has to come from your stomach, your diaphragm, your stomach should be tight. It's like wrestling a beast, powerful air coming up from your diaphragm and being mediated by your vocal box. You also have to know the different modes of your voice and do the necessary range exercises within each mode. You should also be able to mediate different frequencies in your voice while you hold a note, literally run an EQ over it manually in your throat, while maintaining the same pitch. Taking even a few singing lessons from a qualified teacher no matter how old or hopeless you think you are can improve things greatly. I don't buy the "I can't sing" thing. That's like me saying I can't play the clarinet, I can't, but that is only because I haven't done the proper training and exercises for that instrument. The voice is no different, it is like any other instrument. If you don't do the correct training or exercises for your voice, it will never sound good. People have different genetic qualities that may allow them to sing with a greater range or sensitivity or tonality but everyone should be able to sing in pitch within their range. If you can't do this, it is because you haven't done the right exercises or practiced your instrument in the right way. Get a teacher to show you the basics, you can't do it online, you need a real world teacher because that teacher has to see how your breathing and be able to tell what is happening with your voice in real time while you sing. Tell you what frequencies to mediate and improve the tone of your voice as you are singing. Why would you spend a bunch of money on pitch correction software and invest so much time in learning how to use it, yet not spend any money on a singing teacher to learn the basic exercises nor undertake the necessary training to master control over your own voice? My first singing teacher was a large woman, an opera singer who also played piano, she was in her 50's and was Italian. I remember my first session with her, it was such an eye opener. She was quite strict, we would do scales on the piano in the different modes and she would mark off what my ranges were and expected improvement! She would get me to hold a note really loudly and then walk around me poking me in the stomach and grabbing my neck, shouting instructions to get rid of frequencies and tones she didn't like. I never realized I could have so much control over my voice. If you buying pitch correction software for yourself because your vocals sound crap, STOP! get a friggin decent singing teacher first!!!!!

That's good to know Scook, so that means CbB is 64bit native, plugins and all? Excellent if that is the case. Perhaps that may contribute as to why I do not find some of the bugs and instability that those who are using Sonar alongside CbB do. Why still have the bridge in CbB then. Cross compatibility with Sonar 32 bit plugins? It has always been my belief, I think from past experience that bridges increase instability, using 32 bit plugins in 64bit for example. I have a quite few 32 bit plugs installed on my system from other audio applications etc and also DX because I have Vegas Pro which uses those. As a result when I look at available plugins under CbB, it lights up with all of these. I have more plugins available under CbB than any other DAW. However, I only use the 64bit ones, nice to know the DX plugins are also 64 bit.

I have always been like this as well, whether video or audio programs, if they are 64bit then I use only 64bit plugins end of story, I don't care if they have a bridge. It's easy to become addicted to some 32bit plugs but if you look, you may find a 64bit version of that plug or a different plug that is similar that is 64bit. I wish Cakewalk would move to 64bit only or at least provide a 64bit only version. That's the norm these days.

Do you mean "shared duplicates" or just duplicates. If it is just duplicates, this can be done by converting the clip to a groove clip in the inspector, then you can drag it across and it repeats itself. Or you can just select the clip and then right click and in the menu select "Groove clip looping".

+1 yes please!

Yes as Craig says, the problem with Melodyne is that you just get the Essentials version which has limitations. Essentials is offered with so many DAW's now it isn't funny but it is not a solution to professional pitch correction. The upgrade path can be expensive but they do have sales occasionally. The annoying thing is, when people talk about how great Melodyne is, they are always talking about the most expensive package. There is also criticism of Melodyne as well, that it is not as transparent as something like Waves Tune. If you are a waves plugin user and you want pitch correction for vocals mainly then I think Waves Tune is a better option, it is MUCH cheaper as well and you get the full version, no annoying crippleware. I think it is stronger for DAW's to have their own pitch correction if possible, some do, some don't. It is a real shame that Roland have consigned V-Vocal to dust and there are no options for Cakewalk to integrate it's own pitch correction.

Definitely going to try that one.

Just to clarify, does this happen on projects that you started in Cakewalk, ie have only ever been in Cakewalk or does it happen on projects that may have been created in Sonar and then transferred to Cakewalk.

Can the bakers put V-Vocal in the new recipe?

So how do they achieve a valid separation of results, what do they play the file back on? If I save the different images in Photoshop and Photoimpact with no editing at all and then export those images and then look at the exported files, they will be the same, they will null. Still doesn't change the fact that the images will look different when opened in these two programs. I don't accept at all that the difference I hear is a placebo effect or in my mind or as a result of the GUI differences. I've been a musician for quite some time and have very sensitive ears to these sorts of things, my ears tell me there is a substantial difference (not small) in what I am hearing. I think the GUI might come into it from a practical point of view, everything is bigger and easier to operate in Cakewalk, Studio One I always feel like I am fighting with little boxes. Also, saying that people cannot tell the difference between music created in whatever DAW is not evidence that there is no difference. If someone sent me 4 different songs completed in 4 different DAW's I probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference because there are so many variables in completed projects, reverb EQ, compression, panning etc. However, a person who has worked only in Pro Tools for example might be able to determine the Pro Tools one etc. Perhaps if I were sent 4 different audio files recorded in 4 different DAW's I would say they all sounded like CbB because that is what I would be playing them back on. I am transferring projects between DAW's, not a problem, just some audio stems, midi files and a bunch of chopping. When I play the projects back in CbB they do sound better and easier to mix, I can pinpoint necessary EQ changes quicker. For me it's like if you have bad vision and you put glasses on you can suddenly see everything a lot clearer which makes the whole process of getting good sound out of a DAW easier. I guess one test might be to listen to the songs in the songs category of the different DAW forums. One thing I noticed straight away coming to this forum that piqued my interest was that the songs in this forum sounded so much more clearer and more professional than the other DAW forums, at least for the style of music that interests me.

Something I don't understand about null tests, what are they actually doing? They are saying that the wave forms are the same? So if I record something in 2 different DAW's, we look at the frequecies contained within the wave files and they are the same therefore the sound is the same. What does that have to do with the actual sound you hear as a result of that information leaving the wave file and going through the DAW's audio engine? I can have a digital photograph or video, put it in 2 different applications, so it is the same in all applications, therefore what I see should be the same? It isn't. Different applications process that image file differently in Photoshop the image will look different to say Photoimpact. The same video looks different in Vegas video than say Davinci Resolve. Same file information but different images.

I am not a fan of Studio One's interface at all, It really puts me off the product, nevertheless, I have v3 pro and got the email. One thing I will say for Presonus (and have said on their forums), they are great with their newsletters, there is always some tit bit of info or freebie or discounts or announcement or something. I have about 12 added plugins in my Presonus account but I only use the ones with easy authorization, I don't want USB locks and registering and authorizing with all these different agencies. Don't know what the announcement will be, hope it is more than Nektar control, but it makes things a little exciting!

Interesting, not sure if I would get one though, with the jack problem, I just take the old one out, sandpaper the contacts and retention the lugs by bending them with pliers or hitting them with a hammer, fixes that problem. I only replace them if the separators are loose. That design looks like it might be hard to get the cable out.

This is what I found also, Studio One sounded digital to me whereas Cakewalk sounds clearer, beefier, deeper and more analog and that's before you even start using the stock plugins. When I use the plugins it gets even better whereas the Studio One plugins for me didn't sound as good, they added an almost plastiky sound to my stuff. My VST instruments and the amp sims sound better too, again, clearer, more depth and presence. I have 100% confidence that if what I am creating in Cakewalk doesn't sound good, then the fault lies elsewhere. This is important because you can put a link in the audio creation chain to rest and then move on. Since getting Cakewalk I've upgraded my electric guitar from a Fender Squire to a MIM standard. Now it sits in nicely quality wise with the other instruments, so nice that I can also put that little annoying problem to bed. On the weekend I am upgrading my Acoustic to a better model with a B-Band system. I notice these upgrades in quality easily in Cakewalk. Shouldn't really talk too much about this though, it only results in DAW wars, the "it's all in your mind" brigade and the null police coming after you. So I will just say that for me, I really like the Cakewalk sound engine a lot for my music. Perhaps other DAW's might suit other peoples needs. On another thread, someone asked me why I switched from Studio One to Cakewalk, that is a really long topic to answer, don't know when I will reply to that one but I think there are lessons in there for Cakewalks marketing department because they seem to miss a lot of unique features that Cakewalk has on the Cakewalk advertising splash page.

Interesting, I don't understand the Pro Tools and Avid being separate, they should be the same? since Pro Tools is owned by Avid. Avid don't run any other DAW as far as I know. These figures are pretty much what I would expect, almost uncannily backs up my argument, EM crew going ballistic, followed by Musicians/Songwriters, followed by Engineers. Definitely would be worth chasing up to find if there is any difference now with CbB. I am not on Facebook so cannot do.

My imagination is both entertained and offended since I cannot unsee what I know was there.

I am switching to Cakewalk from Studio One or have almost completely switched.

I really wanted Cubase to work for me, but I just didn't connect with it at all. I couldn't get it to work on my UR44 despite it coming with the UR44, the only questions I found from others who couldn't get it to work were unanswered and when I placed my questions they were also eventually unanswered. Wheres the rewind button? Spent some time with it but couldn't understand how it was routing my UR44 and the onboard effects that are supposed to integrate directly in Cubase. I didn't like the way the windows worked.

See if you can get this direct monitoring working first, that is mixed in the unit itself, you do not need to press monitoring in your software, that should be off. There is also an advanced switch on those units, on the back,i think that needs to be set to "on".

I think that direct monitoring button needs to be at about 12'o'clock, the more to the left, the more you will hear what is coming in from the XLR mic input, the more to the right the more you will hear what is coming back from the DAW. I think it works this way on your unit. It's not like a volume knob, it is a mix knob. You juggle that with the output volume which gives you the overall volume of both.