Colin Nicholls

Everything looks normal - the engine is running; all recorded stuff is playing back (audio, vst, midi); I just can't hear my guitar as I play along. The blue Input Echo light on the track lies to me...

Well it's happened to me at at least once in each of the last three sessions... and it always develops some time after starting a new session, i.e. I've never had it not work once during a session. I've always been able to correct it mid-session by Run/Stop the audio engine.

Looking forward to comparing results on my system, on which I also have a 6i6 available as an alternative. Nice!

There is definitely something strange going on in 2019.09 with Input Echo on an audio track suddenly not working.

The use case is this: I'm working in my project, rehearsing a guitar or external synth part, and suddenly I realize that I can't hear the instrument. So far it's always been an audio track on which I've got Input Echo manually enabled. (Either to hear the FX bin, or just because.)

Using the mouse, I toggle the blue Input Echo button back and forth with no success. I have to Run/Stop the audio engine (in the Transport module) before Input Echo is restored.

I will try to work on steps to reproduce, but in the meantime, if other folks have observed this, or have advice, please add to the thread. Thanks.

2 hours ago, studioguy1 said:

Is the initial link in this forum always the most recent updated one?         I am assuming it is, but then, assumptions tend to get me in trouble.  Thank you if this is too obvious.  I love this daw and try my best to keep everything up to date.  When I am convincing others about switching, it is always convenient to have the latest tutorials.

The very first entry in the PDF is "New Features" and it takes you do a chronological list of enhancements in each version. It contains up to 2019.09 so far.

TLDR: Yes

46 minutes ago, Jeremy Jensen said:

The worst part of this feature is that it makes it way harder to use the timeline zooming (is that what it's called?) where you click in the timeline and drag up and down to zoom in and out at a certain point.

I agree that it has made it harder to do that style of timeline zoom, and I'm not a fan of the >S< cursor although I get why it's there.

On the other hand, that pull-down technique is pretty clumsy and I've started getting used to the Alt-Scroll zoom as an alternative.

Can you post steps to reproduce? And describe the problem more precisely?

Is it that "trailing pedal-ups" don't seem to get recorded?

On 10/22/2019 at 3:19 AM, petemus said:

The driver IS available separately (if I'm not completely wrong here):

https://customer.focusrite.com/support/downloads?brand=Focusrite&product_by_type=431&download_type=all

Open the Software container, and there it is, for you to download...

    -Pete

 

 

I see what you're saying, now, Pete. Thanks for persisting 🙂

3 hours ago, msmcleod said:

Confirmed there is an issue with Insert Time & time signature/meter changes. [..]
We've got a fix, and it'll be in the next version.

 

Thanks, Mark. You guys are the best...

Steps to reproduce:

• Unzip the CWBUG_InsMeasure_Simple.zip to extract the .cwp
• Open the .cwp in Cakewalk By Bandlab (2019.09.70)
• Place the Now time on bar 166
• Observe: 7/8 time sig. change on bar 170
• Select Project->Insert Time/Measures
• Insert 4 measures at bar 166
• Observe: 7/8 time sig. change is now on bar 171
• Expected: TimeSig change should be on bar 174 (4 bars later in timeline?)

CWBUG_InsMeas_Simple.zip

Note - I left some MIDI clips at various points in the timeline to make navigation easier but it does not represent meaningful musical content per se.

Thanks for checking this out, @Promidi.

I can reproduce the problem in my project. Here's an animated .gif showing the simplest example:

Things to note:

• I have a time signature change from 4/4 to 7/8 at Bar 170.
• I'm inserting 2 bars (of 4/4 I hope) at Bar 166.
• After the insert, the 7/8 time signature change is at Bar 171, not Bar 172 as expected.
• The markers moved correctly.

Comment: I'm an old-school guy who thought you needed to SELECT ALL TRACKS to make Insert Measures work. I've since found out that this is no longer true, so please excuse the extra steps in the movie above. The end-result is the same, even if you leave the tracks initially un-selected.

Additional info:  When I insert 4 measures, the 7/8 time sig change is still only advanced 1 bar.

I'll work on reducing the complexity of this project but still reproducing the problem.

4 hours ago, petemus said:

The driver IS available separately (if I'm not completely wrong here):

https://customer.focusrite.com/support/downloads?brand=Focusrite&product_by_type=431&download_type=all

Open the Software container, and there it is, for you to download...

    -Pete

 

 

At least for me, this is not the case. Just Focusrite Control, for either Mac or Win.

1 hour ago, Promidi said:

If you log on to your Focusrite account, you'll be presented with the correct version applicable for your audio interface.

Yeah, I did that. I'm offered the download for Focusrite Control 3.4.4. I'm sure that if I installed it, it would install the actual driver with the updated version number.

Sorry for the confusion. In my case, at least, I'm getting very good performance with the older driver and no incentive to update it, although I probably will at some point.

Yeah, so my simple project needed some actual content in it, after which, the Insert Measures action worked as expected. So, I can't reproduce the problem - yet.

So this doesn't explain why my more complicated project did not work as expected when I inserted measures into the timeline. More investigation on my part is required.

I'm only seeing 3.4.4 on the download page - but that's for "Focusrite Control". Is the driver a different versioning number?

Appears so. I think the driver version I'm using is 4.36.5.612.

(Note: Ripple Editing is not relevant in this context)

In my project, I selected all tracks and chose "Insert Measures" from the Project menu. I specified 8 measures, and checked ALL the options to slide Markers, Tempo and Time Signature changes.

The markers to the right of the insert point moved appropriately, but the Time Signature change did NOT. I ended up with my 4/4 measures of recorded data sitting in a project location with 7/8 time signatures.

Of course, I didn't immediately notice and carried on working. So my project is a bit of a mess now.

I then tried to duplicate this in an empty project:

This time, even though ALL the checkboxes were selected (see above) the Time Signature change was respected but the MARKERS to the right of the insert point did not move:

I haven't noticed this problem in earlier builds and I'm currently running 2019.09.

Anyone else experienced this?

SONAR was shipped with a limited (or special edition) version of TruePianos that contained only the Amber module, if I recall correctly. I also had the "full" version from way before SONAR started bundling it. But if you have your installers and your password/activation code safe, you can re-install the full product.

If you no longer have the full installers or your activation code, well, yeah, you might be out of luck.

Personally, I'm using Pianoteq STAGE instead of Truepianos these days.

It's a valid Use Case.... try submitting it to the Feedback forum and get it on the list of possible enhancements. The developers have been very good about adding minor workflow improvements in recent updates, it might make the cut.

You mean, convert multiple tracks into a single track with take lanes per original track?

@Chuck E Baby has already explained this as well as I could, but hopefully you will all forgive me for adding a link to my own post where I describe the process of changing meters of bars in the middle of a project timeline...

Blog Post: Timeline Editing in Cakewalk, Reloaded

It seems appropriate. Good luck, @Christian Jones !

What is your version of Windows? What audio IO hardware are you using?

I've taken a break from Polar Blue and I'm using Boston Flowers as my daily driver for a bit. It's real nice, thanks again for this.

5 hours ago, Chris Hall said:

I really like the included guitar modeling vst. Then I accidentally unlocked the demo for the full thing for 2 weeks and fell in love.

When it ran out I tried to buy it via the links but I guess that software doesnt exist anymore - just their newer, different stuff. And they're crazy expensive.

Can I buy the one from Cakewalk still? I wrote a bunch of songs with those and now they sound bad

This exact thing happened to me.. I thought I'd unlocked TH3 to the "Post-Gibson Hiatus"  version, and found tons of cool stuff in there. Some time later I went back to use them and found the "Unlocked Cakewalk" version was actually pretty limited, and no option to upgrade to the full TH3.

The newer versions aren't the same, and, yes, are crazy expensive.

I discovered I could upgrade my Guitar Rig 4 (can't remember which SONAR edition this came with) to the latest version 5 for not very much, and that's what I'm currently using.

I agree, though... the full TH3 looked and sounded very nice.

IT DEPENDS.

Seriously, there is no "right way". I have used compressors before and after EQ before and after reverbs... it's all about the end result you are trying to get.

I could think of a few critical takeaways from FX chain building:

The most important thing to "get" is that compressors color the output differently depending on how hot their input is. So gain staging - setting the audio level at each step in the chain - becomes important.

Try putting an EQ before a compressor and then compare with after - you'll get different results (let alone if you don't pay attention to gain staging). What is best for your particular application will depend on what you're trying to do.

12 minutes ago, Jeremy Jensen said:

I actually 100 percent agree with this. It's getting kinda frustrating in the timeline, to be honest. I was excited about the timeline selection when I heard about it, but, in practice, it's something I would rather just have the ability to turn off. Not a dealbreaker, obviously, but it would be nice.

I added a second ruler to the timeline and found the extra space made a difference to my ability to click in the timeline area and get the expected results.