msmcleod

Speaking of the tools not being perfect, I was messing around with tempo detection at the weekend. I took a song I did with my daughter, which was originally done in Band in a Box (using RealDrums / RealTracks for drums & guitar, but MIDI for piano, organ & bass), and dragged in to Cakewalk for recording the vocals. It was recorded at 120bpm. I took the stereo mix, and dragged it to the top of the track view - Melodyne detected a constant tempo of 60bpm. However, using audio-snap to derive a tempo map showed the tempo fluctuating between 118 and 123 bpm constantly throughout the song. So the tools are definitely far from perfect.

Yeah, the gamer keyboards with real key switches are awesome.

Check your Preferences under File->Audio The default is C:\Cakewalk Projects\Audio Data You probably want to copy over the picture folder too: C:\Cakewalk Projects\Picture Cache

Bet sure to copy your Global Audio Folder over too, as some older projects may have their project audio stored there from when before the "Copy all audio with project" option came about (or maybe wasn't checked when you saved). What I did recently, is go through all my old projects (some as far back as Cakewalk ProAudio 7) and save them all again as CbB projects. I kept a copy of the old projects as they were, but only the converted projects are now in my main project directory. I found a far more reliable way of loading old projects was to create a new project (based on the "Basic" template), drag the old project in from the media browser, and then save it with a new name. Dragging in from the media browser has a number of advantages: It's more tolerant of any issues with out of date/missing plugins etc The master bus, preview bus & metronome are present as with any normal CbB project The ProChannel is enabled and available on all audio tracks

I don't think there's any ARP editor in Cakewalk. From what I gather, the .ptn files are rhythm only versions of .arp files. There's some more discussion on the old forum, along with some links to tools that will allow you to create your own ARP's: http://forum.cakewalk.com/Importing-ARP-patterns-m2716317.aspx

I think I spent maybe £7 ($9 US) on my studio PC keyboard. I wanted one that was narrow, but had all the keys, and I wanted more traditional (electric typewriter) shaped keys rather than the button style keys many laptops have nowadays. It just happened to be £7. I got two of them: one for my bedroom PC, and one for the studio. Don't get me wrong, I like/use a decent quality keyboard when I'm coding - but for the studio, the one I have is more than adequate. If you're using your PC for stuff other than just music, then I fully understand getting something more high-end. But if it's just for Cakewalk, and hitting the odd keys (which for 90% of the time for me are limited to R, W, Spacebar, CTRL +Z and CTRL+S), then I don't think it justifies paying more than $25 for one. FWIW I've never had a keyboard go wrong on me due to normal wear & tear (with the exception of the membrane keyboard on my old Sinclair ZX81). Coffee & Coca Cola have been the death of a couple though.

%APPDATA%\Cakewalk\Cakewalk Core\MiniDumps

If you install this: https://archive.codeplex.com/?p=midireroute , along with two MIDI loopBack ports (https://www.tobias-erichsen.de/software/loopmidi.html or https://www.nerds.de/en/loopbe30.html) You can use this to route your USB MIDI IN to two loopBack OUT's. You'd then set loopBack MIDI IN 1 to be your MIDI IN in Cakewalk, and loopBack MIDI IN 2 to be your MIDI IN on Finale.

I was using this in anger yesterday - I've now got mappings for 96 plugins for my C4 🙂 During the process, I added a few enhancements to make life easier (and much faster) when doing the mapping: The plugin list is now colour coded per type (VST2, 32 bit etc), similar to how Cakewalk shows them in the browser The currently selected plugin is now shown in big letters at the top Keyboard shortcuts have been added for the knob "ring" display types, so after clicking on knob: L = Level; P = Pan; F = Freq; S = Switch ; B = Boost/Cut; R = Spread Keyboard shortcuts have been added for the EQ VPot drop downs, so after clicking on knob: Q followed by key 0..9 = Q[n] C followed by key 0..9 = CoarseFreq[n] N followed by key 0..9 = FineFreq[n] G followed by key 0..9 = Gain[n] E followed by key 0..9 = BandEnable[n] Same download URL: http://msmcleod.co.uk/cakewalk/C4Mapper.zip

I got the Samplitude Pro Suite X3 way back, because it also came with Sound Forge Pro 11.... and it's one of the reasons I didn't upgrade to the Pro X4 Suite. SoundForge is now at version 13, and they're still selling the Samplitude Pro X4 Suite with SF v 11. I do use SoundForge, but I hardly use Samplitude - it's a good DAW, but I've got CbB set up more or less how I want it, and it's one of the few DAW's that support the Mackie C4.

Try re-scanning your VST's. It may be that you've updated Kontakt and CbB hasn't re-scanned since?

Forgot to say... you can also do this (from the Cakewalk reference manual page 223): Creating friendly names for MIDI output and input devices You may find that a name you make up yourself for a MIDI device is easier to remember or more descriptive than a device’s original name. The friendly name for a MIDI device is the name you will see places such as MIDI track Input and Output menus, and the Controllers/Surfaces dialog box, if you enable the Use Friendly Names To Represent MIDI Devices check box at the bottom of the MIDI Devices dialog box. To make up a friendly name: 1. Go to Edit > Preferences > MIDI - Devices. 2. Double-click the name of a device in the Friendly Name column, type a new name, and press ENTER. 3. Select the Use Friendly Names To Represent MIDI Devices check box. 4. Click OK

Cakewalk just returns what Windows tells it the name is called, which is in turn taken from the drivers. Are you using MME or UWP as your driver mode (under MIDI/Playback and Recording in Preferences) ? I've found the name changes depending on which driver mode you're using. Personally, I've never got UWP to work reliably for me, with half the ports missing (probably my old MIDI interfaces) so I always stick to MME for MIDI.

Is the output to your sound card within Cakewalk boosted at all? At zero, it should be the same as playing through your sound card at full volume.

Set it to the master bus in the MackieControl dialog (under the Utilities menu):

I found the StarTech usb interfaces are the best for Windows: https://www.startech.com/Cards-Adapters/Serial-Cards-Adapters/1-Port-USB-Serial-RS232-Adapter-Cable~ICUSB2321F They're a bit more expensive than the generic USB->Serial cables you get from eBay, but (a) they work and (b) you'll get support from StarTech if there's any issues. AFAIK they do both RS232 & RS422. I'm pretty sure the d8B is RS232, but best to check.

Yes, by using project templates. Create a new project with the way you want it set up, then save the project as a template into the project templates folder. If it's in the projects template folder, it will then appear on the start screen. I always save mine starting with an underscore, so it's first in the list alphabetically.

Nice. A friend of mine played with them a few years back. He said they were down to earth, and overall great guys.

It's extremely difficult to dumb down any complex bit of software. Any feature rich application is going come with a learning curve. Lenses do go some way to mitigate this. I did at one point suggest that the installer ask you what level you're at so it could automatically apply the default lens accordingly... however you can bet that there would be a bunch of haters out there complaining that you can't do this, that, and the other just because the lens has hidden it and they didn't know that. To be honest, I don't see Cakewalk being any more complicated than ProTools, Cubase or Studio One. There's probably more ProTools videos out there than anything else, and I don't think Cakewalk is that much different to use. The last time I used ProTools, I pretty much hit the ground running (and that was before the YouTube explosion on tutorials). It was certainly closer to Cakewalk than Cubase... mind you I was still using SONAR 8.5 at the time. I find the CakeTV videos to be not much more than a taster, mainly for marketing, although the BandLab ones I think are enough to at least get you recording something. The ChernobylStudios tutorials are straight and to the point. They don't go into a huge amount of detail, but cover the important stuff. I would say they're the best to get your started. The StreamworksAudio ones are more comprehensive, but obviously a bit longer. The Groove3 "SONAR Explained" videos are by far the most comprehensive, but at five and half hours long it's a lot to take in. I managed it over two weeks of lunch hours in the office. I would add though, having used SONAR for over 20 years, I thought I knew it pretty well. I probably only knew 20% until I watched the Groove3 videos. It's well worth the time and investment.

Once you've imported the .ins files to your master.ins, you need to associate them with a MIDI port/channel (or a range of ports/channels), then assign the port & channel for your MIDI track. Only then will the instruments show up:

DELETED - wrong thread!

Another update to the C4Mapper... There were compatibility problems saving MackieControl.ini, mainly due to it being a 32 bit application. Running it in XP SP3 compatibility mode helped, but the behaviour seemed to be inconsistent, and I shouldn't have to expect people to mess around with compatibility settings. So the changes/fixes: Now a native 64 bit application, to fix compatibility issues affecting saving Fixed an issue with "EQ Param" selection not being remembered Fixed an issue with parameter mismatches if the parameters weren't in order within genericpluginparams.xml Same download URL: http://msmcleod.co.uk/cakewalk/C4Mapper.zip

I guess the best way to rule out CbB is to run it standalone and see if the problem still persists.

Sorry to hear that Mesh. Thankfully I managed to kick the habit years ago. Was never a fan of B&H though, Marlboro was my poison.

The problem is if you have duplicates in your account, the cap doesn't apply. Having two separate accounts (one for my laptop, one for my studio pc), means there's no duplicates so I can have a cap of $240 on each account. With duplicate products, I get no cap at all. The pricing structure is so unclear, I've no idea whether this would in practice make a difference once all my plugins are out of their current 1 year free updates - i.e. do I effectively get a cap of $480 ? But given that they're asking in excess of $1000, I'm not convinced. A breakdown of what I'm paying per product would be nice! [Edit] - I totally missed the current WUP before a transfer. Thanks for letting me know. I'll update my original post.