Harddrive

As people have said, once you get used to the routing protocol, the X32 is a phenomenal piece of kit.

My 80s synthpop tribute band is about to make the transition from analogue to digital with a better in ear monitoring setup. Having each grouping in Bandlab sent to individual stereo pairings, being able to apply dynamics within the desk mix also to sweeten the output and hopefully soon optimise the mix via the PA is gonna be great.

Harddrive

I'm thinking of upgrading my mixer, currently a Yamaha MG16 to a Behringer X32 Producer. Reason is that seemingly the X32 will give my band a better set of mix, effects and monitoring options and seems also to be infinitely configurable and controllable via MIDI.

Questions:

1. How controllable will it be via MIDI? As my duo used Playlisted songs, which have individual audio tracks mixed down in the Console View, can these tracks be sent via USB individually to the desk and the mix be reflected and controlled either on the screen or on the desk surface?

2. As each song loads, will the mix on the desk move or save as that song mix setting as each song loads?

3. I will need to send a mix of each song to a pair of outs to feed our in ear monitoring. Within that, I'd like a click track for musicless areas of songs where the keyboardist of soloing. Is this possible?

4. Do all individual inputs and outputs on the X32 appear in Cakewalk as options?

Many thanks. Big investment but I need your opinion before I make the leap

HARDDRIVE

Is it the track itself that is corrupted? Does it open on its own okay with any effects and plug ins loading too?

Have you tried a different track at position 11?

HARDDRIVE

I use CbB live with my synthpop duo

My partner is totally self contained, using three M-Audio USB keyboards to control the vast array of VST synths in Reason. 

I have CbB running in Playlist Mode with Sets 1A, 1B, 2A and 2B on my desktop.

I have recorded multitrack versions of songs which are mixed but not finalised into two track. If and when my partner plays whatever he does, I split the track and mute the part so he plays in with the mix. It works pretty well save for some problems with drivers sometimes when my laptop boots. I also have part backing vocals recorded by me minus the harmonic part he is singing. 

I also dedicate a track to controlling my TC Helicon Voicelive Rack (mutes, programme changes, effects assignments). I have my Roland AX Synth playing via wireless MIDI through CbB to play sounds on my own Roland FA06 which is fully loaded with the extensive soundsets and in 16 channel mode. I can play either the layered sounds on that from my AX or the AXs soundsets (although Roland have pissed many off by not having a dedicated laptop based editor). Finally, I have a MIDI track assigned to control our lighting rig - LED pars, moving heads, lasers and haze machine - via the DMXIS VST plug in. It takes a lot of time, patience and dedication, but it's worth it.

We recently took the whole rig onstage at a local festival and it was excellent. My partner and I gig twice or three times a month. The audience love it but aren't much aware of the hard work that goes on to create the event. They also don't know that all that spectacular event is created by freeware.

I started my journey in programming with Breakthru, moved onto a QY20, then Cubase for Windows 3.1 and finally Pro Audio 9. I've had Sonar 3 and Sonar 8 and just 'evolved' with CbB which ticks all the boxes and is firstly easy to manipulate and easy to mix with. If Cakewalk fixed the annoying traits like stop indicators it wwould be fabulous.

HARDDRIVE

I get this all the time. Sometimes my curent song doesn't finish and just keeps scrolling and doesn't load the next song. Press spacebar (of as is, the footpedal) and the song itself stops and rewinds to the beginning. Cue faffage trying to get rid of this song and cue the next ons.

I have tried identifying the errant artefact in Event Editor. Sometimes it doesn't identify. One for the team in future is to have a hard stop and advance as mentioned above

HARDDRIVE

17 hours ago, Lord Tim said:

We'll be running an isolated stage monitoring system via CbB once we get properly back out there eventually, but certainly for clicks and backing synths first up.

How are you finding your machine dealing with the stage heat and humidity? I've got no doubts about CbB's stability on a well set-up machine, but things get pretty toasty for us sometimes!

Not much of a problem with heat. Last night's gig was v. hot. It's okay - I am running it from a decent windows laptop

The only problem I am finding is that apropos of nothing, the input and output listing seems to want to reconfigure itself and we get in the rehearsal studio having to completely reset our sound. Then, at the gig, the original settings are restored resulting in an on the fly adjustment during the gig. Massively frustrating because really, we should have everything on the desk at 0db and balanced

HARDDRIVE

8 hours ago, Cactus Music said:

Isn’t it great to be back on stage!  Not only am I playing live again I’ve already been at 3 great festivals. 

It is. We played a pub tonight and had it literally bouncing. The festival though was epic.

HARDDRIVE

Hey up all

Anyone with any doubts about the capability of this platform to deal with what is needed in a live situation - I can testify it's excellent. This is us last weekend at Gosport Waterfront Festival high up in the listings supporting the headline acts. My rig (closest) has a songfile running selected from the Setlist whilst my very capable partner has his own Reason-based sound arsenal running seperately but he triggers start and stop from a previously mentioned footswitch (thanks to all on here for that one!) I'm remotely driving my Roland FA06 wirelessly via a Panda MIDI dongle from the AX Edge (the wireless audio can be problematic) but it's all being dealt with by Sonar with ease. It's also driving the outboard effects and tonight we are back in a local hostelry with it hooked up to our DMX lighting system. All done by Sonar. Who needs Protools?

Once again, thank you to all for your timely advice and encouragement on here.

HARDDRIVE

On 5/19/2022 at 5:17 AM, tecknot said:

Hi Harddrive,

Did you say you are on Windows 7?

Kind regards,

tecknot

Yes

Strangely enough, the bloody thing cleared itself soon after. Hate random, unaccounted for errors

Thanks everyone for your help

harddrive

Problem out of nowhere.

Was using CW last night - no problems. Go to start it up today and it seems full of bugs.

I have my external gear connected to my laptop via a powered multiport USB device hidden in my mixer rackbox. This includes:

Roland FA06

Voicelive Effects

Lexicon MX200

DMXIS lighting controller

Panda wireless MIDI dongle

Go to load songs and the MIDI boxes for these are not ticked. I tick them and sort them so they correspond with the controlling MIDI tracks in CW and shut down the applet and then the program hangs and seemingly stays resident in Task Manager. It doesn't want to be 'ended' either (Cakewalk always has a problem with this it seems) and when I restart and try to reconfigure MIDI again, it tells me there isn't enough memory. This is crap as I have a top end windows laptop running a very stable and unloaded W7 and resource wise the machine isn't even breaking into a jog.

What could be wrong? Do I need to reinstall? 

Thanks in advance

harddrive

Just realised - in my description above I omitted to say that the mixes in BLS are put into individual busses then into a Master (with a mastering compression across it) and to another bus.  Both stereo mixes are sent to a 4 in 4 out Behringer interface to two separate stereo channels on my desk. Some mixes have more than one harmony than my mate can join  in with so he takes one, whilst I have mixed the others down in the track. All of this goes to one of two busses on the desk (vocals and music) then to the master. The vocals send and return my outboard (PCs and CCs controlled by aforementioned MIDI tracks in BLS) and out to the speakers from the desk. The desk also sends to our IEMs too.

HARDDRIVE

Brilliant to see everyone using different methods of work. Unless you possess a blisteringly fast Mac-based rack system running Protools with a confident spod on the controls I think we are muckling by as best can be. 

Our rig takes an hour or so to set up and about 45 minutes to 'ready to ship' out into the car park. I find myself looking out into the punters dancing and singing along and saying to myself 'if only you knew what is actually going on to make this stuff!

And still venue proprietors and landlords pull a face when you tell them your going rate!

HARDDRIVE

16 hours ago, Noel Borthwick said:

Tip for using it live. Turn off dropout detection. This will let the app keep running even if it runs into a potential dropout condition. Much better than stopping playback!
Set this to TRUE in preferences | configuration file.

Gig tonight - but will definitely look at that next time I have my gear out for a tech refresh

HARDDRIVE

38 minutes ago, InstrEd said:

Nice set up

Cheers InstrEd.

Taken some time to get it all right. Bloke I work with knows his stuff and can provide his part of the deal with his extensive Reason knowledge and array. And he's an 80s synth aficionado too, which helps. I short, it wasn't difficult slotting him into the Bandlab Sonar rig!

HARDDRIVE 

11 hours ago, Lombardi said:

I'm interested in the specifics of your application of Cakewalk by Bandlab for live gigs.  Are you using the Playlist and if so, how well does that function?  Are you using audio backing tracks (a mix) or the entire project file?  Is there a lag time in loading each song?  Are you using vst plugins to process live audio (voices, guitars, etc..)?  Where does the footswitch come in?  Is it a midi controller?  I have tried the PlayList in the past without a whole lot of success.  It was rather cumbersome when it worked and quirky regarding opening and closing files and eating up screen space.  Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Bill

 

My rig is a fairly decent Windows laptop with a fast setup (it never breaks a sweat to be honest) which I got custom built by Novatech in Portsmouth UK. On it I have BLS which is connected by a single into three USB splitter. The songtracks are all individually track recorded mixes of 'my version' of songs, mixed and mastered as best on phones then better optimised in the rehearsal studio with the PA we use and so that it sounds okay on the IEMs we use. All the mixes have VST plug ins such as compression and EQ (the presets shipped with BLS are pretty good, TBH, just need a few tweaks to sweeten in places on either individual tracks or on busses) My buddy has a Mac running Reason and three controllers and has his sound arsenal split and spread across them.

The USBs connect to firstly my Roland FA06 (which is stuffed with the Axial updates), to the footswitch (which, thanks to the kind folk on here is programmed to send a 'spacebar' command for my buddy to start the songfile) and to my 'desk', where it splits further to control my Voicelive, Lexicon MX200 and a DMXIS lighting 'dongle' which has it's own VST plugin in BLS.

The songs are as said, all multitrack audio. I have MIDI tracks sewn in which control the effects (PrCh, CC for on/off), my FA06 (PrCh), and the notes in the DMXIS assigned VST Plugin which changes pre programmed scenes (strobes, lasers, hazer, moving heads, washes)

Songs are stacked in different Play Lists as sets. Load a song, the next one loads behind it ready for a spacebar from the footswitch. The mixes we have are engineered to drop out the synth sounds my buddy is playing and that usually is basslines and obviously drums. I play the odd song on my Roland AX Synth. Unfortunately, because the MIDI on the AX Synth is via Bluetooth I am currently and sadly not using the synth engine in it (the radio TX/RX is pretty shit also) so I am thru-ing a track to play my FA06 which gives me 15 layered patches on Ch1 anyway. I link this via a PandaMIDI remote.

It sounds complex - it is. But the effect is good and  although it's fun setting it all up, the audience love it. The only snags we have had recently are drunk customers and people wanting selfies, mid song. A while ago the firmware in the DMXIS dongle threw a six but that was fixed the next day with a clean out and reinstall

Any other Qs, please fire away

HARDDRIVE

My band is back on line now and about ten gigs in, happy to report that Bandlab Sonar handles everything superbly. Multitrack audio mixed with plugins, midi to outboard and synths, interface with aforementioned footswitch and driving the whole MIDI to DMX lighting rig. Really chuffed with it. Some excellent gigs too.

2022 diary now filling up too.

Thanks Bandlab Sonar and thanks to lot for your help.

HARDDRIVE

1 hour ago, John Vere said:

That's great news. Which footswitch did you end up getting? 

The cheap triple one for starters. So far it hasn't broken!

I will look at the other one soon however

HARDRDIVE

Used Cakewalk in a live setting successfully on Saturday in our first gig since the pandemic lockdown. We raised £1100 for NHS Staff Charities too.

It breezed through multiple songs with multiple tracks controlling the lighting, effects and my synths without dropping a stitch.

Really pleased and thanks for all the positive responses to my queries and questions. The footswitch one worked a treat!

Onwards and upwards.

HARDDRIVE

I sometimes get critical hangs on my Cakewalk which results in me binning the program, but it stays resident in Task Manager preventing a restart of the App.

This is only remedies with a reboot. 

It used to happen with Sonar 8 as well

HARDDRIVE

18 hours ago, bdickens said:

EDIT/ SELECT/ ALL will show you where there is data beyond the end of your song.  Split all the tracks where you want it to end and delete everything past that.

Tried that.

There still seems to be something sat at the original song length which denotes song end, whereas if I have excised some bars and shotened the song, the song still rolls onto it's original length.

This never would happen with SONAR 8.

Who do we lobby on here to get this looked at as a 'fix'?

HARDDRIVE

I have this too.

I've edited tracks so that they are like the true song in structure and length, and I still have a period at the end which runs in silence until whatever event is at the end is passed. IN Event List, I cannot see this. It seems like there is some pre-programmed song length set in there which cannot be rearranged. Even pulling the green markers does nothing.

Anyone help?

HARDDRIVE

3 hours ago, bdickens said:

You

It could be related, as I get the:

Quote

‘This program is unresponsive, do you want to wait or close it’ situation.

Any hints or tips are helpful. 

HARDDRIVE

43 minutes ago, bdickens said:

Please start your own thread. Hanging your completely unrelated topic onto another thread causes confusion.

Who are you addressing here?

HARDDRIVE

45 minutes ago, bdickens said:

Pro Audio 9?????!!!!!!

Started this journey on Pro Audio 9. Strangely, I was using Cubase for Windows, back in the day.

HARDDRIVE

I have had an ongoing problem with SONAR (as was) and Bandlab Cakewalk hanging and 'staying resident' in the Task Manager requiring a reboot. This has happened on multiple machines.

Anyone any idea?

HARDDRIVE