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https://www.musicradar.com/reviews/tech/cakewalk-z3ta-2-490547 Like friends, soft synths come and go, but only a few will be there for you year after year. In this sense, Z3TA+ is a firm ally of ours. It's been that way ever since the first version, programmed by René Ceballos of rgc:audio, debuted in 2002. A few years later, Cakewalk took on rgc:audio, and in 2007 gave us Z3TA+ 1.5. After that, though, it looked as if Z3TA+ was going nowhere, until v2 was unexpectedly announced a few months back. While the interface has had a significant functional and aesthetic makeover, the synthesis architecture hasn't changed. Z3TA+ 2's most distinctive feature remains its oscillator section, featuring six wavetable oscillators with waveforms ranging from analogue favourites (saws, squares, etc) to grungy, harmonic-laden affairs. There's an eight-voice unison mode, oscillator reset/sync and typical pitch controls.

1. No 2. Yes, see http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/Z3TA/Whats-New 3. Yes As with the original z3ta+, it is a straight up synth and not sample based, as was Rapture and Dimension Pro. The original creator of z3ta+, Rene Ceballos, was hired by Cakewalk after they bought rgc:audio. Rene went on to design Rapture and Dimension Pro for Cakewalk. Later on Z3TA+2 was designed by the Cakewalk team after Rene departed, inspired by his original design.

If you try Voltage Modular from Cherry Audio, you can have your cake and eat it too! The VM Core + Electro Drums comes with 551 presets. Plus 105 modules... on sale now for $99. Fun stuff! 😎 https://store.cherryaudio.com/bundles/voltage-modular-core-electro-drums Even the free version of VM comes with 130 presets to play around with! https://store.cherryaudio.com/bundles/voltage-modular-nucleus

I haven't gone FabFilter yet, but I do have iZotope's Music Production Suite. I need to dive deeper into it. A lot to swallow at once! I was just playing around with Insight the other day and watching videos on it to get a better feel, and that is an amazing tool!

I've arrived in the middle as far as creating patches go. I like using presets to get an initial sound that I like, then knowing my way around the synth well enough to tweak the patch into something with my own take on it. I used to think starting from "init" was something I should be doing more often, but I find it tedious to start from scratch. Probably a result of the Roland and Korg ROMplers I grew up with. Editing on hose tiny LCD screens and button pushing had me mostly using presets. Patch design can be very time consuming, and easily turn into a rabbit hole in productivity. I will say though, that Phase Plant, Pigments, and Vital are so intuitive that they are very inspiring to work with. I like the fun factor! I have not seen a sale on Vital yet, but the free version is the full deal. The Plus, Pro, and subscriptions just add preset and wavetable content. I bought the Pro version quickly after trying out the free version mainly to support the developer. It's not that expensive and I liked what I saw, so I want him to keep doing it! 😎

UJAM has collaborated with PreSonus to integrate their virtual drummer and virtual bassist with Studio One. 😎 There are video demonstrations of these features available online. I just don't happen to have links handy at the moment. Not at my main PC. For virtual drummer you get piano roll integration: With Virtual Drummer version 2.1 we introduced an exclusive PreSonus piano roll integration for Studio One users running on version 4.6.2 or later! The names of styles and drum-elements are displayed on the keys of your piano roll to help you find the right styles and drums faster and easier for your track. The scale range of the styles and instruments are highlighted with a red line at the left side of your piano roll now. You can also use the Presonus Sound Variations View to create your drum tracks. For virtual bassist you get PreSonus Chord Track and Key Track Integration: With the new Virtual Bassist 2.1 update we will provide Studio One users running on version 4.6.2 or later with an exclusive PreSonus chord and key track feature! Descriptions of styles and phrases are displayed on the piano roll to help you find the right styles and phrases faster and easier for your track. The play range and the style/common phrases are divided in red (general key switches) and blue (play range) on the piano roll. The chord track feature in Studio One automatically follows the chords and automatically changes the MIDI notes for you. We recommend using the “Follow Chords” toggle above the “Key” menu on the user interface. When Studio One interprets a wrong chord, the “Follow Chords” feature will correct it. Of course, the chord track feature will also work with turning off the “Follow Chords” toggle . Note: Changing styles or common phrases won’t influence or change the chord tracks, but the harmonic input. Not all chords that are possible in PreSonus Chord track, are recognized in our instruments. The closest interpretation will then used.

I would say that this is something that the devs of Vital, Pigments, & Phase Plant definitely got right! As compared to another recent allegedly state-of-the art synth, Massive X.

Spotted the "L" word! 😉

Pretty much the way it is now. All the cool kids want fancy eye candy to inspire them. They don't want their Dad's plugins... Blame it on Smartphones!!! 🤣

I think Cakewalk would attract a lot more buzz by integrating a sampler than by reviving a dinosaur like Z3TA+2. An integrated sampler is one of the essential features these days of the leading DAWs. 😉

Why would they do that when there are far better free synth plugins available today! 😉 The only people that probably care bout Z3TA+2 are former Sonar users, and they most likely already have it. Don't get me wrong, I have it and think it sounds great, but haven't opened it a long time.

Correct, except possibly for MPE users.

I have UJAM Solid, and from the virtual drummer 2 user manual, there are multi outputs described, although I have never used them:. You can choose to send any Instrument and Ambience Channel either to the Master Section (default) or to an Individual Output that will be fed to an Aux bus in your DAW. This way, you can use the full multi-channel mixer functionality of your DAW with Virtual Drummer if you want to go deep, or just route individual signals into special effects processors. The order in which Channels are sent to the DAW is fixed as follows: Master Kick Snare Clap (VD HOT only) Tom HH Ride Crash Overheads Room The exact setup of a multi-output Virtual Drummer will depend largely on your DAW, so we recommend to check out the corresponding instructions in your DAWs user guide. Usually, what you have to do is … Instantiate a multi-output version of Virtual Drummer. This usually happens when selecting it from a menu of available virtual instruments.

Chord track is probably still on the to-do list, but probably not very high up. The devs are likely getting to the most requested feature requests first, as time and resources permit. As well as prioritizing the easier ones first as well, i.e., the "low hanging fruit". In the meantime, go check out Scaler 2. It's probably the most feature rich plugin for sketching out chord progressions, and much more. Then just drag them into your Cakewalk tracks! Of course, you would still need workarounds for visualizing the chord changes in the Cakewalk timeline. See the Scaler 2 details here: https://www.scalerplugin.com/ The other DAW related stuff like an updated staff view is a different challenge. Probably another huge uphill climb. That's been on the to-do list since way back in the Sonar days. As far as feedback here goes, I think that Noel and the other devs would need enough information from users to first develop a defined feature request "scope" for what is needed in Cakewalk, before even getting started on this. I think the lack of feedback here probably implies that this isn't the highest priority for the majority of CbB users.

Oh no, he didn't! Start speculation on the demise of Cakewalk again, 3...2...1...go! 🤣

Read Urs Heckman's (u-he) comments about CLAP in that u-he link https://u-he.com/community/clap/. It's essentially an effort to unseat VST3 with an open plugin standard. With the possibility of a few other goodies in the implementation. There is more, so the quote below is just what is most relevant to musicians...

As far as I am concerned, Cakewalk is still the best in the biz at opening or previewing MIDI files, especially GM...

I like the UJAM basses the best, followed by the UJAM drummers. Great for jamming! The guitars maybe not so much, but are interesting... YMMV... The Toontrack stuff is awesome, especially with how the EZbass or EZdrummer can match up with an imported clip!

Just FYI, but the BandLab CEO committed to keeping the Cakewalk DAW free forever. It's posted on the legacy Cakewalk forum if you are interested...

It's very cool that Cakewalk gets these incremental updates on a regular basis, for free! By contrast, Studio One 6 is dropping soon, meaning that the current Studio One 5 will be forever stuck where it is, with no more bug fixes. 😢

Hey Reid, enjoyed the groove! 👍

Edited the OP today to add that Vital v1.5.3 is now available for all Vital users. Previously, the Early Access was for Pro and subscription users only.

Never mind. I could not get it to run without installing BattlEye Anti-Cheat. Uninstalled... 😢

Same here. I picked up a cheap crossgrade to Studio One Pro back when Gibson dumped Cakewalk. Then Cakewalk made a great comeback. Stuck with both now LOL!

That's why I use only external displays with my laptop. No laptop screen suits my eyes anymore, except for maybe checking email when traveling. At this point I am still fine with 2x 24" 1080p screens.