mark skinner

Paul , for several reasons I like it too.. You've definitely got a Dire Straits guitar tone going on . I Really liked the piano at the start , it Immediately took me back to a 70s song by Traffic that I haven't thought of in years. "Low spark of high heeled boys" That was a great song with a great feel that took me back to a really good time. Thanks .. mark

The reality and quality of the instruments and vocals were Incredible! That was a great and great sounding composition. I've been playing with tablas a lot lately , I love the busy but relaxing sound they bring. Enjoyed it .. mark pm time?

Hey Willie , I ran into an add yesterday in my local towns Craigslist from someone wanting to give Cakewalk /Sonar daw lessons (for a fee of course). You might could post in the musicians blog in your local Craigslist , or put up a flyer in your favorite music store and find someone willing to give hands on help. It just might be possible to find someone who doesn't kill and eat you.. mark

I use an old Art Tube mp preamp on quieter instruments , but still have use my interface preamp to get a decent sound and levels , even though the Art output is pretty high . Seems kinda pointless using it but mine is valved and I can get clean or warm tones from the Art. mark

Very cool suggestion about the "whisper" tracks. I'm almost ready to start vocals on a new one , definitely going to try that . Thanks .. mark

Thanks David for that info. I just used it to find the bpm on an imported drum clip. mark

Great work on the keys , loved the chord structure and especially the breakdown when the muted trumpet comes in. Vocal harmony was fantastic. You hit me with Steele Dan several times in this one. Nice and uplifting , Great job .. mark

Tom , Thanks for posting this. I'm starting a new one that really needs some better sounding natural sounding acoustics. I really need to Stop and spend some time on experimenting with the sound , instead of feeling rushed and just jumping in and start recording. You made me exhale a little slowly and start thinking again. mark

Hey , Thanks for the input so far. To Tom , yeah the cello didn't come in until that point . I guess I should have just said featuring Mandolin. The cello was added as an after thought after everything else was done. Seems like everything I've been posting (that I think is worthy) has cello in it . I guess I really need to spend more quality time with it. To Gary , 2 of the 4 Sonar 7 drum loops I used , had a really sub sounding kick , the bass guitar was pretty thin , so that's probably where the deeep stuff came from. As far as the bass sucking sound , if it was mainly from the short break it may have been from the reversed reverb on the acoustic. If not , Iv'e been told several times that my bass sucks .. mark

Keith , For me this was a major improvement over the already great last version. The backing vox made a big difference . Although I liked the phased lead vocal in the last version this one sounds much better and a little more up front. I thought the midi guitar sounded good and the right tone for this song. There were a few spots like right at 3.03 where the faster triplets could use some individual volume adjustments to make it sound more convincing , but I don't know if it would be worth the trouble . It sounded good playing back thru the bandlab site . You didn't use the bandlab app to record this did you ? Enjoyed it again. mark

Here's another instrumental featuring mandolin and cello. Although it's buried pretty deep the slapped acoustic was my favorite part to mix. There was a lot of bouncing and reversing to get the backwards reverb on the slaps the way I wanted. All suggestions welcomed especially concerning the mastering stage. Thanks .. mark

I've never tried it but it might be worth a shot , sending the guitar audio (from what ever you're using) to th3 and see what happens in something like the Randall "clean" amp.

Gary , I have absolutely No suggestions for any improvements. I was blown away by this performance.. mark

Great timing for releasing this one ... Enjoyed it. mark

Keith , I thought the vocals were Superb as well as the guitar work. That was a very Scary song. mark

Yeah , I think you created some real sounding space without leaning hard on reverbs. It did sound like a small room but not like a padded up room you're recording in. I agree with Douglas on the center guitar volume , I believe I would pan it slightly to the right and lengthen the reverb tail . I did feel like I was in the room with you , it's hard for me to get that much realism. Enjoyed it Thanks .. mark

Sounds like you're on your way to becoming a guitarist. I loved the spoken instead of sung vocals , Very smooth. I ran the light .. mark

AZSlow , Thanks a lot for your reply's and help. Looks like I've got a lot to learn about midi and mapping in general. I work better under pressure .. mark

I think I'll get some training on the act controller first then try out the AZSlow options. Looks like there is a lot of helpful stuff at AZ. One thing that is confusing me about the Act set up is touching a button first while doing midi learn then moving the hardware knob button or slider. If I wanted to map an "undo" function , what would I touch without a dedicated undo button in CbB ? If I knew a way to build one I would have done the first day I downloaded CbB. Thanks mark

I recently picked up a M-Audio oxygen 61 in a trade. It's an older one without the drum pads or the Auto mapping button. I would like to use the transport , record , and especially Un-Do functions from the controller when I'm recording with it. I've watched some conflicting videos but nothing pertaining directly to CbB. If someone would point me in the right direction , I would appreciate it. Thanks .. mark

You can right click on an empty spot in your main tool bar section. In the "options" drop down , you can choose Open or Collapse modules on start up. I don't remember it effecting anything except the help section on my screen .

One of the earlier threads on "updating the assistant" recommended uninstalling it from the control panel before even trying to update it. I have had 0 problems since doing it that way. mark

Valerie , sounds like a tremendous amount of work went into this one , I especially liked the bowed sounding instrument coming in just before the half way point. Sounds like a killer track for a vr game or video. I really liked this , it was quite a change from what I usually listen to. Very Impressive ... mark

Mike , I recently sped up every track on a new song after I tried recording a vocal track. It was easy for me because I knew my bpm. First thing is slip edit the beginning of your song until it goes to all the way to the beginning of your time line on the left (if it doesn't already) Second go to the very end of your song. Note where it ends on the time line , slip edit it to an even number if you want to. Right click your "edit" tool and choose "stretching" . Change your bpm to a faster one. Now grab the very end of your clip and slide it back to the same spot you ended on before changing the bpm. The slip tool changes to a different looking one when you choose "stretching" If you don't know your bpm , I guess anything would work if you increase it and use your ears. Minor changes aren't even noticeable with the new elastique pro stretching in CbB. Good luck ... mark

Very Dreamy arrangement , The bass guitar and the interweaving instrument harmonies Made the song for me .. Great feel and groove , I really enjoyed it . mark