Feral State Sound

2 hours ago, Jon Sasor said:

The release notes for 2019.01 are live now, you can check them out at: https://www.bandlab.com/products/cakewalk/whats-new

Updated and all good here, very good actually. Thank you!

What's new is in this 2019.01? 

On 1/10/2019 at 7:27 AM, Amicus717 said:

Hi folks,

This project happened rather suddenly, by my standards. I really enjoyed my New Year's Eve experiment of creating a piece of music fast and without thinking too much about it. So, I tried a similar thing on Sunday evening -- just sat down and wrote something, not stopping until I had something basically complete. And "The Soldier's Hornpipe" is the result. I just had a fragment of melody that I fleshed out and then created the basic sketch, which evoked for me the image of Colonial-era soldiers on the march.

The basic foundation of the track took four hours on Sunday, and I revisited it both last night and tonight in order to give it more polish. In total, about 6 hours of work - so far. More work is needed, as I consider this a preliminary sketch, and I actually intend to expand the music, as well as improve and add more detail. I must admit, I am surprised at how much I am enjoying writing stuff using this damn the torpedoes sort of approach. I tend to be my own worst critic, and sometimes do a great job derailing my creative impulses. Kind of nice to just get stuff down, and not worry about whether it's good until the dust settles.

Anyway, I'd be very curious to hear any feedback on this one, if folks are so inclined:

Libraries used...

Strings: Albion ONE and 8Dio Anthology

Brass: EastWest Hollywood Brass

Woodwinds: Vienna Symphonic Library

Percussion: Native Instruments Symphony Series, Vienna Symphonic Library, EastWest Hollywood Percussion

Ethnic/World: Era II Soprano Recorder

Thanks a lot folks!

Rob

PS: I am interested in hearing about things in the music that people both like and dislike. Any critical points or comments are greatly appreciated. I've already noticed a couple of points that somehow escaped my notice when I exported the audio - a glitchy recorder note in the final section, and a discordant note when the recorder and (I think) a tamtam strike interfere with each other at the key change modulation.

 

 

It sounds great! Congratulations!

I have been using CBB 2018.11 without a single crash after weeks working on a large orchestral project with tons of VST synths and FX plugged in. I could not have said the same with the Roland and Gibson releases.

Please keep focusing on stability and fixes instead of shiny new features.

Thank you devs!

#Long live CBB!

Hey folks!

I am updating the CBB Slant page since it is a valuable resource for newcomers. Any contributions are welcome! 

https://www.slant.co/topics/1835/viewpoints/56/~best-daws~cakewalk-by-bandlab#recommendations 

4 hours ago, Noel Borthwick said:

Plugin Manager is not really being maintained these days and it hasn't been updated in a very long time.  We plan to ultimately depreciate it from Cakewalk. Its only provided for legacy reasons.

The only reason you need to ever use it today is for creating plugin layouts. Everything else and more can be done much more efficiently directly within the Cakewalk plugin browser tab, including scanning from preferences.

What is the reason you still use plugin manager?

I am not a coder but Why not to get rid of most part of legacy code that it is not maintained? 

On 1/7/2019 at 5:58 PM, Alex H. said:

I am having the same problem since the latest update... Kinda weird for sure. I have reported it but I only received a workaround: Try file/New/Blank Project. It seems a problem related to project templates, even the default ones.

A shame 🙈

Doing further testing I have noticed that it happens 60-70% of times if you have hidden the screenset module. If you show the screenset module and load any of the screens, the tracks are shown. Nevertheless, this is only a workaround and that is a bug that must be fixed.

21 hours ago, Stephen Ajewole said:

For some reason, when I add a midi track it won't appear in the sequencer view but only in the mixer. It's kinda weird, do u guys know how to solve this? Thanks! 

I am having the same problem since the latest update... Kinda weird for sure. I have reported it but I only received a workaround: Try file/New/Blank Project. It seems a problem related to project templates, even the default ones.

A shame 🙈

I wonder if the "Give What You Want Model" will last forever... Will there be payment addons through Bandlab Assistant while the core program remains as a free host? Not much info has been published on this topic and in few months is going to be a year since the first CBB release.

Thank you.

On 1/1/2019 at 1:36 PM, Starise said:

I have been around Cakewalk products for a long time and mostly used SoundCloud and YouTube as my main online exposure /storage mediums.

I am posting this thread as a way to bring us new players in Bandlab up to speed. Also please send me links to the Cakewalk crowd on BL.

I recently uploaded my first tune to Bandlab here-  A Man I Cannot Be  though I was involved with a stem kind of thing a few months back. Since then I've never really figured it all out completely. Almost seems too simple on the surface, but when you get into the stems it then gets a bit confusing. 

One thing you might want to know that I have found out is BL only allows 12 individual tracks to be uploaded. My song was 15 tracks so no go. My intention was to  export the individual tracks and see where it went. A few annoyances I encountered while using BandLab,  Within 5 minutes of my upload I had a post from someone who wanted to sell me loops. It was the only post I had. 

Secondly- When I launch the BL app it ALWAYS tells me there is an update for the app. I have clicked my win 10 setup to download. Launched again and get the same message. Same thing is happening with CbB in the BL app. I am up to date, however I get a reminder to try the latest version of CbB.

Are you using BL for finished tunes or as a way to collaborate? BL seems to be both things, however my initial hunch is it's more about open uncontrolled collaboration which leads to the next question. Can I control who collaborates with me? When I was involved in the my BL experiments a few months back I didn't know what it was and I unknowingly put a tune up. That tune came back with someone's ideas ion it which frankly were horrible. I mean, I don't expect perfection from a work in progress. I get  there will be rough tracks and all of that. This was really bad, like someone took a child's tape recorder and sang off key into it, then added it to my track.  This didn't give me a very favorable impression of the BL experience overall.

What have your experiences been? Is there anything you could share which would make the BL experience better for those who are at least intermediate at mixing and playing?

BL is a work in progress social network... Nowadays it is full of wrongly catalogued songs and people trying to sell things or trying to spam you with their songs. Nevertheless, it has some unique and promising features: integrated mastering, online DAW, unlimited storage, "Patreon" like capability, "forkable" songs and, of course, a full featured premium DAW for free. 

13 minutes ago, Stephen Ajewole said:

There was a interview that I've seen on reddit of one of the guys who was with Gibson at the time and when he was asked about the bugs he said something along the lines of "people don't get drawn in by bug fixes, they get drawn in by new features". I'm new to this daw, but from what it seems, Gibson focused more on adding new features to draw people in rather than making the programme more stable. Here's the thread to see what I'm talking about

 

The time has proven that Gibson were completely wrong with such decision since Cakewalk has been loosing users since the X1 days. Yes, people wants new features but polished ones and only followed by a solid core functionality. I agree with Bumbleebee in this part: 

"If Bandlab just took what’s already there and fixed it, it would be a great product. Get rid of the annoying popups, consolidate the menus, finish the tab view, finish the matrix view, improve automation, give the console an update, add some proper MIDI tooling, improve audiosnap, speed up the GUI, and integrate a decent audio editor, add AAF support. Now you have a product that will give any DAW a run for its money no matter the cost."

I can mention two of these:

- The Metal Factory Studios, Spain: https://metalfactorystudios.com/

- Aeonix Productions, Singapore: http://www.aeonixproductions.com/ 

Cakewalk seems to appeal Metal/Rock guys \m/ 😂

Another guy complaining about Cakewalk:

This one is different, since it has been done by a long time Cakewalk user. I am starting to think that the previous owners (Roland & Gibson) did very little for improving the software. Bandlab seems to be pushing the things in the right direction.

Here another pretty fair review:

Everybody love the Prochannel! 

1 hour ago, CosmicDolphin said:

I thought it was pretty fair and balanced and raised some good points. I tend not to be a user of some of the thnigs he didn't like so much though.

I agree with you, this guy seems nice and from my point of view his review is very impartial. Let's stop the "fanboysm" with the software and let's face reality. 

1 - Is Cakewalk the best free DAW in the world? Yes, no doubt.

2 - It has tons of unfinished features? Yes, it has... Video support, score editor, matrix view, audio editing, midi editing etc.

3 - Not being cross platform is a problem? Yes, it is for some people.

4 - Is the new owner fixing and improving the software? Yes... somehow. There are frequent updates but also there is no commitment of doing a much needed overhaul to the program from Bandlab. The same happens with the "features & ideas" section.

5 - Can you make music professionally with Cakewalk? Yes you can, as you can do the same with REAPER, Studio One, Pro Tools and all the others.

I have contacted Sonic Scores and they told me that they have talked several times with Bandlab but suddendly the conversations stopped. What is going on @Meng?

8 hours ago, Gswitz said:

Also remember Linux Ubuntu studio. This is a free low latency build. I have used it on a USB ssd to make 16 track recordings.

I cannot use all my VSTs on this and that is the point. Linux is not a viable option for me now.

Happy end of the year to all!

On 12/24/2018 at 5:09 PM, Starise said:

I am beginning to write notation for groups. I needed a program to use for that. As someone who prefers creating in a DAW in real time, the idea that I could export to Notion from Studio One appealed to me. I DON'T like writing notes in one at a time in any program be it midi or notation. CbB has some notation ability which maybe I should investigate more. I believe it is very rudimentary though. Would get the job done on a simple project. 

For those looking at notation option there's also a decent marriage between Sibleus and Pro Tools. Maybe better in some ways than Studio One/Notion. Never used that setup personally. You don't need rewire with Studio One though it has the option. You can use another built in protocol that makes transfer easier to do. 

In my opinion, the strongest DAW  notation wise it is Digital Performer but it is not widely used and the Windows version still has issues. Pro tools + Sibelius, Studio One + Notion and Cubase + Dorico also seems interesting but... If we have to use two different programs for doing decent notation editing We not to use CBB + Musescore for 0$? Nevertheless, I hope some changes on the CBB staff editor, even the REAPER staff editor is much more powerful. 

Hey Bandlab team!

Now that we have a new forum I wonder if you plan to keep the Cakewalk by Bandlab website as a little part of the Bandlab website or If you plan to create a new dedicated webpage since the old site still is online.

Thank you!

I plan to make some covers on Bandlab. Let's start with The Phantom of the Opera:

If anyone wants to collaborate please PM.

2 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

Oh, no kidding! When I first downloaded CbB, which was just a few days after the announcement, I exported raw audio stems from my previous DAW of a couple of projects I had been working on for months, using my favorite plug-ins.

I decided to just fiddle around with Cakewalk using as many of the included plug-ins as possible and try to get a decent-sounding mix.

....and was blown away by first how quickly I was able to surpass my efforts in the DAW I was so familiar with, and second, by how capable and great-sounding the ProChannel modules were.

I still have and use my specialty FX like MAutoAlign and Gatey Watey, and my "cheaters" from iZotope, but those ProChannel modules stopped dead my search for an 1178 clone, and I had already snagged the CLA2A when it was a freebie a couple of years ago. The QuadCurve EQ pretty much replaced my use of MEQualizer.

And that's not to mention the Sonitus DX FX, which sound great. The only issue I have with them is that they look kinda homely, but as far as sound , operation, and features they are great. Multiband compressors are few in the freeware world and the Sonitus DX one is a treat.

I can't live without the ProChannel. I am doing MIDI work 99% of the time and using those plugs also 99% of the time. I have Waves Gold and others but the PC it is just at my fingertips. I hope the devs do not forget this wonderful feature. 

9 hours ago, mkerl said:

I like Cake as it is. Nuff said.

Ok, recording directly in Matrix cells would be great, like in Bitwig or Live. But after all, Cake feels great. And works even better.

BTW, Bitwig is Linux, too. But you can't really compare Bitwig with Cake. 

I own S1 too, but I don't need it. And don't really like it.

When I had to change, I think Cubase is the competitor. Another Option is  Ableton Live. 

Great idea on the Matrix view! You should post it on the feature request section.

Why don't you like S1? Now it is pretty similar to CBB. Cubase is a beast, no doubts, but I don't want to pay for updates every year. Ableton Live it is not for me I guess.

5 minutes ago, Mandolin Picker said:

Continuing to use Cakewalk after SONAR was pulled. Looked at REAPER, and while it is not intuitive it is rather powerful. For me, the fact that they now have a Linux version is a huge plus. I really only use Windows for music any more, having switched over to Linux for most everything else. At some point Windows 7 and 8.1 will no longer be of use (and I really do not like Windows 10) and so I will be switching over to Linux for everything at that point.

I would like to switch to Linux also but it is not possible since I rely on ton of third party VST.

I am also having problems with Waves plugs in CBB. In my case with the latest V10 version and I have to reset all parameters on the Cakewalk plug-in manager to get all plugins properly working every time I install a new plugin. That is really annoying and I haven't received any response from Waves Support. On the other hand, the Bandlab support team told me that they will investigate the issue.

7 minutes ago, Phil Balliet said:

Anyone ever try the Harrison Mixbus 32c? I know there's a trial, never tried it but I think it looks really cool.

I have tried that DAW a little bit and while it is very good for mixing "in the box" I didn't find it useful for composing music. I don't know it is implemented yet but during my testing it lacks a proper PRV. The audio and MIDI editing were basic at most.