Robert Bone

Some Play issues after updating, are caused by things left behind from old versions of Play. I went around and around for many many hours, helping a friend diagnose Play issues crashing Cakewalk following an update to Play, and after getting EastWest technical support involved, using Team Viewer for them to have access to my friend's computer, he found and deleted some leftover old file from an older version of Play, and as soon as he did that, all the issues went away. When we logged into my friend's EastWest account on their web site, and went to support, the option was available to get into an online chat session with technical support, and then we gave them remote access to the computer, using Team Viewer, and they quickly found and fixed the old file, by simply deleting it. If you are going to try using their tech support, I suggest you download and install Team Viewer, as they wanted to use that to have the remote access into the computer, to look things over. By giving them that access, it save a bunch of time, so well worth it. Bob Bone

As far as lag goes - make sure your project doesn't have any effects loaded into the project, where they are meant to be used during mixing, rather than when recording. These kinds of effects would include things like convolution reverb or anything using linear phase processing. You can quickly test the above out, by simply temporarily bypassing all effects in the project - just hit the letter 'E' on your computer keyboard, while in the project, and it will toggle either on/off the bypassing of all effects. After you see if this makes the lag go away or not, you can turn the effects back on by simply hitting the letter 'E' again. This is one of the Cakewalk keyboard shortcuts. SO - if your lag goes away when the effects are bypassed, then at least one of the effects you have loaded into the project are causing the lag, and you can resolve this in a couple of different ways, though you will still need to figure out which of the loaded effects are causing the issues. If you reply to this post with a listing of all of the effects you have loaded into this project (only the ones in the project, NOT a list of all of the effects in your plugins folders), I can tell you which of them are causing issues when used during recording. Once the effect(s) has/have been identified, there are a couple of ways of resolving this issue: 1) Simply power that effect 'off' in your project, until you are done with your recording, and are ready to move on to mixing. Once you begin the mixing process, you will want to crank up your ASIO Buffer Size way up - to either 1024 or 2048, which will provide enough room for these kinds of effects to process things properly. Lag does not matter when mixing, because you are only doing playback, and not trying to sync notes you are playing to tracks you already have recorded. 2) You could also simply swap out that effect(s) for different one that is similar, but does not require a large ASIO Buffer Size to process signal through it. For example, if you have a reverb effect that is a convolution reverb, there are lots of other reverb effects to choose from, that are NOT convolution reverb, and swapping out the convolution reverb for a regular reverb effect will still give you the ability to hear some reverb while you are still in the recording phase of the project, without causing lag. Again, once you move on to the mixing phase of the project, you could swap out the replacement reverb, and load back in the convolution reverb, (also adjusting your ASIO Buffer Size way up, to either 1024 or 2048). Pretty much for the rest of time, you want to keep your ASIO Buffer Size small during recording, like 128 samples or less, and then when mixing, you will want to set it super large, like 1024 or 2048, and you will need to make sure that buffer size is properly set anytime you switch from recording to mixing, or from mixing back to recording. It is just the way things work best. Please note that if you make your ASIO Buffer Size too small, that too can cause some issues with audio, so you can start at 128 samples, for example, and if that works OK, you could try dropping it down to 64 samples, and if that works, you could even try 32 samples, but just understand that the smaller you set it, the harder your computer has to work, and at some point it might get too small, and cause audio issues. I suggest either 128 samples or 64, (I tend to use 128 when recording), as they are small enough to where you won't hear any lag, but not so small as to where the computer has to work so hard it causes audio issues. I hope the above helps you understand a bit better - about how to set the size of the ASIO Buffer for recording and setting it differently when mixing, and also I hope I have explained about how certain kinds of effects can cause problems with audio if they are meant to be used only during mixing/mastering and not during recording. Please list the names of all effects plugins that are loaded into the project you are having these issues with, and I will take a look at them and let you know if I see any issues with them. Thanks, Bob Bone

If there was only one instance showing up in Device Manager with the Show Hidden Devices option, then there aren't any 'ghost' entries. The automatic installation occurs when devices are "class-compliant" - and Windows will automatically download and install the drivers for the midi controller, meaning you don't have to go through a manual installation of any drivers for that controller. As to what would cause a lack of memory failure - I do not know, but will let it stew in my brain for a bit, and will do some digging in a couple hours, when I get some time. Maybe I can get lucky and find some info to help you with this issue. I will circle back in a couple hours and see what I can dig up. Bob Bone

If the midi controller doesn't seem to generate midi activity in Cakewalk, but the midi controller can trigger sounds when running outside of Cakewalk - (triggering notes from a stand-alone synth), then it could be that despite seeing the controller in Cakewalk as a valid midi input device, that Cakewalk's internal mapping to the device's USB port has changed, such as if the controller was plugged into a different USB port. You can easily test this, by deselecting the midi controller from Midi Input Devices in Preferences, clicking Apply, restarting Cakewalk, and then selecting it again as a Midi Input Device in Preferences. (it might be possible to do this without the restart of Cakewalk, I am a little foggy on whether or not I did that when I faced this issue in the past, but it only takes a minute to restart Cakewalk, so no harm in doing that). Bob Bone

About 2 months ago now, I helped a friend with this issue, and after a LOT of effort to diagnose and fix, it turns out it had been the result of leftover file remnants of some old version of Play, that were causing the issues - as Play was updated, the old residual 'stuff' tripped the crashing. After I had exhausted all options I could come up with, making sure all was at current maintenance levels, checking for Windows corruption, doing an Install In Place of Windows 10, looking for and trying various things to try - pulled from the internet, etc., the issues were finally resolved after getting into an online chat with EastWest technical support. We did a Team Viewer session, and the tech support guy was winging around in my friend's system, looking at all kinds of stuff. Eventually, he found and deleted, some manner of old leftover version of some file from an earlier version of Play, and whatever that was that he had deleted, once it was gone, everything worked flawlessly again. I am sorry I do not know exactly what the support guy deleted - but hopefully, with some digging, you can find out if there are any old leftover files from an earlier version of Play, and remove them (or even rename them so you can recover them if desired), maybe this will give you a solution. If you can't find any old Play files to try to rename/remove, I suggest you login to EastWest account online, and try getting into a support chat session - that took a total of maybe 20 minutes and fixed the issues. If you DO go that route, I suggest you download and install Team Viewer, (remote Windows session software), as that enabled them to quickly find and resolve the cause of the issues. Bob Bone

Here is the Signal Flow, from the Cakewalk online doc: http://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=Cakewalk&language=3&help=Mixing.07.html Bob Bone

EGGGGGZACTLY! Yup - I absolutely LOVE track templates, and in addition to setting up one for every drum kit I use, I also have some standard ones for individual synths with specific presets, including associated audio and midi tracks and settings, and some commonly grouped instruments I use with Kontakt - like Piano, Strings, Bass, and Organ. It is nice to have all the levels, tracks, sounds, and assignments set up and brought into projects as needed, with just a couple of mouse clicks. I also have some standard Project Templates set up, that I can quickly select from and launch one, when I get some noodle running around in my head, and want to capture it in some fashion - prior to it evaporating from my brain. These would include the whole raft of stuff connected to a Battery 4 drum kit or AD2, as well as a few flavors of instruments - all done to speedily get me up and running in a pre-fab project to record my noodles. (I often tap out odd-metered rhythms on the steering wheel when out and about, and will launch one of these noodle templates as soon as I get back home, before my brain switches to another channel). Life is SO much easier when levels are saved with already reasonably set output levels - so rather than having to do identical gain staging anytime I load the same Kontakt piano, I will - (ahead of time) - get the desired one loaded up and its output volume dropped down in the neighborhood of -18 dB, and then save it in the same folder as it would normally come from, with a new name - (nothing fancy - I just add "00-GS", without the quotes, to the front of its original instrument name). That way, whenever I want to open the folder for that piano, to see the available instruments to choose from, any of the ones I already set levels for show up alphabetically at the top of the instrument list, so I see those first. I just LOVES Me those Track and Project Templates in CbB. Bob Bone

Your symptoms sure seem to me like devices were saved in their projects with Cakewalk associating them to particular USB ports, and then, later, some USB device(s) got shifted to a different USB port, and that then resulted in Windows having NEW internal associations of what devices were in which ports, and thereafter, Cakewalk's internal mapping was not the same for your Keystation 88, and that would be why it looks dead in the water to Cakewalk, but plays fine outside of Cakewalk (like if you launched some stand-alone synth and played notes on the Keystation 88, and they played). I always have my USB-connected midi devices connected and turned on when I boot my computer, so I do not know if it changes things internally if connected devices are power up in any particular order, in case that is another way the internal mapping in Windows could change. (I do not know one way or the other if this makes any difference). Moving USB devices to different ports has been a giant scary no-no, with regard to Sonar/Cakewalk, since I can remember. I always keep the same midi devices plugged into the same USB ports, for that very reason, and I have literally taken pictures of the back panel of my computers, over the years, as a picture record of which ports were used, and what colored cable went where. Some folks make up little tiny labels and tape them next to each of the ports, so they know what should get plugged in where. Others make up a little hand-drawn picture or chart, showing which devices are plugged into which USB ports.... When a USB-connected device DOES move to a different port, a 'ghost entry' can be seen in Device Manager, if the option to display hidden items is checked. So, there would be 2 or more (depending on how many times a device was moved to a different USB port), entries - one darker one, and one or more fainter ones (ghosts). It used to be that Windows would run out of room in whatever little construct it used to keep track of that stuff, and folks would have to go on a search and destroy mission, to first be able to see those ghost entries, and then delete all but the dark 'active' listing for each device in Device Manager...... I believe the renaming of TTSEQ.INI was intended to reset some of Cakewalk's parameters, (such as the active devices and such). Cakewalk creates a brand new TTSEQ.INI if there isn't one in place when it starts. I don't use that technique - I tend to be very careful not to move USB-connected devices around, and if I find that I have done that, I tend to put things back where they belong, and then restart Cakewalk, and that usually takes care of it. I also have my picture of the back panel of the computer, or a little chart I created for myself, to know where things are intended to be plugged in. SO - sometimes, even though the NAME of a midi device might show up in Preferences, and be checked as Active, you can't tell from that if that underlying internal mapping has been altered by some USB port shifting, because no matter what port it is plugged into, its default-name would look the same in Preferences. I am sorry that I don't recall more of the 'how to fix it' info - this is something that literally only happens a couple of times in many years for me. Perhaps someone else can explain things better, or have some clear and precise method for resolving your issues (assuming they are indeed caused by a change in the internal USB device/port associations Windows creates). Or, maybe I got it all wrong in the first place, and none of the above has any bearing on what has happened to cause what you are going through. On Thursday, I can spend some time, trying to test the above, and will try to help you get your issues resolved, if you are still having these issues at that point. There MUST be a way to get this fixed for you. Bob Bone

One slight addition to the notion of why it is suggested to do all the Gain Staging with faders set to Unity and left alone at that point. If you look at a fader, they are purposefully created so that the closer it is to Unity, the more precise the adjustments are, as the fader is moved. In other words, the scale of movement is quite different, near Unity, than it is if you look at, say, -30 dB. SO, it is generally recommended to get all your Gain Staging set while leaving the faders at Unity, so that when you DO start to use them to actually adjust relative volumes between tracks, very precise adjustments can be made. They build them this way for that very reason. Bob Bone

YUP - there is but a single version of Noel. (I suppose he gets updates, but he is still version 1, as far as I know) hee hee Bob Bone

Just to be clear - I am NOT an audio guru - I am a keyboard player that does his best with the music production process. All I can do is tell you what I do. I do try to confirm things I write about, but still sometimes get things wrong. I suggest looking at some articles/videos about the topic of Gain Staging, which is the process of managing gain through the path of the signal from the input at the top of the channel strip, through the output at the bottom of the channel strip. Here is a pretty good one, from Sound On Sound: https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/gain-staging-your-daw-software It also helps to have an idea of how signal flows through Cakewalk. Here is a link to that (the basic flow through a channel strip is from top to bottom): https://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=Cakewalk&language=4&help=Mixing.07.html Gain is the level of the input signal and volume is the level of the output signal, for a gain stage, and the term Gain Stage refers to every point along the signal path, where the gain can be set, so Gain Staging is the process of setting/managing gain at each gain stage along the signal path. This is true as well, through each effect in an effect chain - each effect has an input gain, the effect processing, possible make-up gain, and output, and on through the next effect om the chain, etc. Gain Staging is best done in a top-down fashion, following the signal path. Basically, I want to end up with a clean mix, with no clipping or noise, so I try to properly set gain at every point along its path ( If the signal is too high, it can cause clipping, or not get the best result from an effect (even if not clipping it can be too hot for best results when going through an effect), and if the signal drops too low, I may have to add a bunch of gain back in, which can introduce noise. (not like back in the analog/tape days, because the digital noise floor or balance of signal to noise, is just amazing these days in the digital world). I start with faders at Unity, and I leave them alone when setting gain staging. They control volume after the signal has already gone through any channel effects, and they are most precise within the vicinity of unity, so I do not involve them in gain staging - they are for balancing relative volumes of the different channel strips. . start by looking at the loaded instrument's own main output volume - this is often set really hot, so I start by dialing that down in the instrument, if needed, sometimes by a bunch - to get it down to somewhere around -14 to -15, and then dropping it down some more with the track gain knob, to get it initially set to about -18. This usually leaves me plenty of room for using additional mix buses without bringing the signal too high by the time it gets to the master bus. I do an A/B (before and after) comparison of what affect an effect has on the signal, by turning that effect off/on and making sure I haven't either raised the signal or dropped the signal, as a result of going through that effect. The earlier gain is set properly, the better, (meaning as high in the signal chain as possible), and that starts at the instrument output volume. If you try to manage gain using your faders, you are too far down the signal chain, as your faders come in after your signal has already gone through and returned from your effects. Others can do a far better job than I, at explaining the above, I also haven't had any coffee yet, so apologies for any confusing or ignorant statements above. Bob Bone

Here is the doc on the Smart Tool, if that is of any help... https://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=Cakewalk&language=3&help=Tools.04.html#1229754 Bob Bone

While the UI massively changed from 8.5.3 through the Sonar X* versions, and now Cakewalk by Bandlab, there have been countless fixes and improvements since then, and as others have noted above, whatever functionality has been moved or altered, once you adapt, you will learn to fly through things anew. At the very least - I urge you to provide detail on what exactly is frustrating you, and the more clarity the better, so that folks here can guide you through how those tasks are accomplished in Cakewalk by Bandlab. Your choices are: 1) Continue to use Sonar 8.5.3 2) Use one of the Sonar X-series versions 3) Learn to use Cakewalk by Bandlab's altered ways of doing things, for those activities currently frustrating you 4) Move off to some other DAW I COMPLETELY understand your frustration - when Sonar X1 came out, there were MASSIVELY negative posts put out about the UI redesign. It was a similar issue when folks had to switch from Word Perfect in DOS to Word in Windows - in that many/most of the countless keyboard command shortcuts to do things either went away, or were modified to become menu/mouse commands. What I can tell you, is that there were overwhelming numbers of folks who expressed a common admission to adapting to working in Sonar X1 - that once they quit trying to make/force it to work like 8.5.3, and instead put that effort into adapting to the changes, that life became much easier for them, and it cut WAY down on their frustration levels, as their productivity soared. There are some amazing new features since 8.5.3, and if you let the forum community help guide you through whatever it is that is currently aggravating you, I think you will come to like working with Cakewalk by Bandlab. And, as noted in another post above, there is no issue with having 8.5.3 AND Cakewalk by Bandlab, on you computer at the same time - they will live happily alongside each other. (If I recall, the Plugin Manager from 8.5.3 changed over to be replaced by one of the Sonar X versions of it, and if that is indeed correct, then the Plugin Manager from Cakewalk by Bandlab may similarly replace the 8.5.3 version, but that was not, and should not be, an issue for you). Bob Bone

In Kontakt, you can route output of each loaded instrument too its own stereo output channel. What I do, once I have loaded up to 4-5 instruments in a single instance of Kontakt, is to run one of the batch functions (available via drop-down menu in the Output Section), which is a function to clear out whatever is in the Output Section, and then it creates a separate stereo output channel for each loaded instrument - and properly assigns them in the same order as the instruments were loaded. Please note that when it does that, it mashes each instrument name into its associated stereo output channel name, so after running that batch function, I then double-click on each output channel in the output section, giving each a cleaner looking name, like Piano, Bass, Organ, Rhodes, etc., instead of the mashed up names it gives them. It just takes a minute to rename the resulting output channels, and is easier on the eyes, to see reasonable names at a quick glance. Bob Bone

I do agree that using one's ears is a critical part of the whole music production, from start to finish, however I have seen many sources give -18 dBFS as a good target peak for digital audio recording. From a Sound On Sound article on Gain Staging: "If you take the sound with the highest peak levels and set it so that it peaks at between -12 and -18 dBFS, you shouldn't run into problems with plug-ins or summing on the mix bus". In any case, I initially set instrument volume and gain to a target of around -18 dBFS for my digital audio recording projects, without involving faders at that point. (Avoid using faders for initial gain staging, because they affect signal after the plugins, and by adjusting instrument volume and gain, you are setting appropriate levels for sending signal to the plugins). Bob Bone

Some VST instruments really peg their preset volumes way louder than they should be - there is no standard, so from one instrument to the next initial plugin instrument volume can be all over the place. Lots of plugin authors like their presets to sound 'punchy/loud' and they are set to initial values that are way too loud. Whenever I load a plugin instrument or live instrument/mic, I always set the combo of the plugin output volume and the assigned/associated audio track(s) gain setting to a peak of around -18, so that I have lots of room to work with. Bob Bone

The fact that Cakewalk is even still among us is an amazingly kewl and welcomed thing, but add on top of that 1) it is free and 2) they are REALLY pouring it on with continued development of features and maintenance. AMAZING! Bob Bone

You should paste %appdata%\Cakewalk\Cakewalk Core into the address bar of File Explorer, and it should take you directly to a hidden folder, in which you should find TTSSEQ.INI Bob Bone

Kontakt is the king daddy of samplers, and there are all kinds of libraries available for it - lots of free ones too. As was noted above, the free Kontakt Player will give you a good idea of the quality of sounds available for it, and well worth checking out. Bob Bone

Seems like if that was the case, I would expect to have seen all kinds of posts about it, whenever new Cakewalk versions showed up. Bob Bone

I suggest downloading and installing the most current Bandlab Assistant version. https://www.bandlab.com/download/assistant/windows Bob Bone

Yup - I concur - lean and mean on the boot drive. For many years now, I have moved my user folders, off to a separate drive (Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, and Videos), and I also customize any plugin content (when possible), to also have it located to any drive other than my boot drive. When I relocated my user folders, I went to the Properties of each of the folders, and clicked on the Location tab, and had already created a Users folder, with a Robert sub-folder, and Windows then moved the content of each folder to its new home. Please note that others use a technique where they create a soft link or Junction, to point Windows at the new locations for moved user folders - I just do it with the Location tab in the Properties dialog box for each folder. SO, on the boot drive, in addition to Windows, I leave AppData and ProgramData alone. Because not too much gets written to the boot drive at that point, it stays quite stable on its used space. Bob Bone

I have the Samsung 960 Pro 2TB drives which spec a bit faster on writes. They are all screamers. Bob Bone

If not something in the freeze/unfreeze logic, perhaps it gets confused if there are synth additions and/or removals while stuff is frozen. Could that be possible? (Because my computer has the horsepower and memory, I never really bother to freeze anything, so I have not played around with freezing). Bob Bone

I splurged and bought 2 NVME drives, one for boot drive, and the other for Komplete 11 Ultimate and other sample libraries. Both are Samsung 960 Pro 2 TB NVME drives. The new motherboard actually supports a 3rd drive, but I do not need one for the foreseeable future. CRAZY fast drives, though. Bob Bone