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Robert Bone

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Posts posted by Robert Bone

  1. On 7/18/2020 at 8:09 AM, John said:

    Hi Robert.

    I took a look at my setup and in the PC header unless I run my mouse over the preset menu those two icons are not shown.  Mouse over and they appear. 

    Also be sure you have PC presets in (Local Disk C:\ Cakewalk\Cakewalk Core\ProChannel Presets).

    I have presets, and in my initial post, I included a picture of the preset box with the folder icons - I do not see those if I mouse over.

  2. Howdy, this is quite perplexing.

    I have Sonar Platinum installed, for years, and have the up to date Cakewalk by Bandlab installed, as well - CbB is my DAW, and Platinum only remains because it gives me access to the bundled plugins that came with it.

    This issue actually occurs on my system, in both Platinum and CbB, but from this point forward in the thread, I will only discuss it as I experience it in CbB.

    When I open ProChannel in the Track Inspector, for a bus, I should have the following appearance, at the top of it, where I can click on the little folder icon at the right side of where a loaded preset would have its name displayed, and navigate to where I have a bunch of ProChannel Presets to pick from:

    image.png.9dd54f18ebc204ca15e24a960f6bf6e1.png

    The above image is from the documentation, and in the image, 'B' is the folder icon I should be able to click on, to load a desired ProChannel Preset.

    On my desktop computer, I do not see either 'B', or 'C', which are the Load Preset icon, and the Save Preset icon.  Per the documentation, all I have to do is to hover my mouse in preset name display window 'A', in the image above, and Cakewalk should then make the Load Preset and Save Preset icons/buttons visible, and functional.  I can neither see or get the functionality of either Load Preset or Save Preset.

    Anyone have any ideas on what I need to tweak in order to get this functionality back?  I would like to load ProChannel presets in my projects, and it works like a charm when I remote access my friend's laptop and open ProChannel on HIS system.

    A befuddled, but eternally hopeful, 

    Bob Bone

  3. 1 hour ago, Paul Bush said:

    Hi Robert yes I`ll try that easy sollution thanks , thing is my friend who needs the midi file isnt on bandlab and he says his DAW doesnt recognise the bandlab files  ... cheers PB

    Well, midi files, with *.mid are what you get if you drag a midi track's clips from Cakewalk to your desktop, so that shouldn't be a problem, for your friend. 

    As for audio tracks, you can export each track, or the whole mix, and select Broadcast Wave as the output file type, and that track or those tracks, will be able to be read by your friend's DAW, as well.

    Another choice for exporting audio, whether each audio track separately, or the whole mix, is the *.omf format for the output file(s), which is supposed to be an open file format that all the major DAW software should be able to import.

    Here is a link from Cakewalk doc, on exporting .omg files:

    Export OMF Files from Cakewalk

    And a link from the doc on the different file formats:

    Export dialog file formats

    And, one more link for exporting midi - this is the set of links returned in a Google search, for exporting midi from Cakewalk,  with videos and pages you can review:

    Google search results for "Cakewalk export midi"

    Hope the above addresses your question/issue,  and if not, just post back, and I will try to better help you, though I am heading to bed now, but will keep an eye out for any additional posts from you. :) zzzzzzzzzzz

    Bob Bone 

  4. 2 minutes ago, tonemangler said:

    Interesting topic. I use AD2 and when I'm happy with the programming and am ready to start mixing I bounce all elements into individual audio tracks. If individual cymbal hits are needed just solo them in AD2 and record. Personally, I just adjust the cymbal levels within AD2 and then bounce all cymbals and ride onto a stereo audio track. This approach works for me because I prefer to have all my virtual instrument tracks bounced to audio before I start mixing in earnest. I keep all midi tracks with notes referring to instruments and patches and delete all VI's.  Cheers.

    Paul

    Yup - I like to bounce all MIDI tracks to audio before starting mixing, as well.  I am thinking that having the SSD5 cymbals routed to their own audio output channels would give the option for individual processing, so might be nice to have.  I will give it a whirl anyways, to see how it goes.  :)

    Bob Bone

    • Like 1
  5. 30 minutes ago, Billy86 said:

    To have more control over the cymbals , I’ve thought about creating two channels in Cakewalk. Call them OH-complete and OH-cymbals. Maybe bring the SSD5 OH “out”  into each of them separately and then you could EQ/mix them separately at the high-frequency crossover where the cymbals shine. Maybe it’s just me, but the SSD cymbals seem to disappear in a rock mix.  I’ve also taken to creating my own cymbal channel and inserting one-shots .wavs to supplement.

    Hmmm... that spurs a thought on a workaround that could be easier: you can add one-shot samples in SSD, and I believe it creates a channel for that sample.  If you did that with cymbal samples, maybe that would give you dedicated cymbal channels to work with. 

    I think you reawakened the nub of a thought that I briefly had dance in front of my brain for a fleeting moment the other day.  :)

    No reason a 2nd instance of SSD5 couldn't be created, as a custom kit, with each cymbal routed to its own audio output channel, and nothing in the kit but the cymbals, and maybe some additional percussion kit pieces, or addditional toms, as long as you didn't have more kit pieces present between both instances, where you ran out of available note numbers.  But even with that, you could always incorporate an additional MIDI channel for that second kit (though that would be a bit of an editing PITB (pain in the ....).  I would think that perhaps an additional MIDI track might be warranted, I dunno, I am not awake enough yet, for such lofty thinking.

    Potential complexities aside, I DO believe the addition of a 2nd instance of SSD5 and a custom kit for the cymbals to be routed to individual audio output channels sure SEEMS to resolve that issue (mind you, this is one a single cup of coffee).

    If I get amped up enough, perhaps I will give that a go - setting up a 2nd instance and a custom kit for just cymbals, for the SSD5 kit I built the maps and templates for, and see if that would work.  Drum Maps can point to multiple Output Ports (different soft synth instances), so a single drum map could easily handle doing that.  I just need to get my musical buddy to get me set up for a Team Viewer remote session, so I could give it a go.  This might require a fresh full pot of coffee, but if I get enough time today, or in the next couple of days, I might just give this a shot.  Could be kewl.

    I like the idea of the additional control over individual cymbals, though technically speaking, SSD5 did that to best approximate/recreate the approach to how actual real acoustic drum kits would have mics set up, but why not improve the process - move drumming forward a little, new horizons, and such....

    Tally Ho!

    Bob Bone

  6. I agree on wishing we could have the extra control for each cymbal, but I think they just view it as trying to faithfully recreate the sound of how regular acoustic kits are recorded.  I look at it like, why can't we improve on it, by adding that same level of control to the cymbals?  Oh well.

    Glad you are all set.  :)

    You mentioned having AD2 - do you have the drum map for AD2?  If not, here is the link to where you can download it:

    https://www.cakewalk.com/Support/Knowledge-Base/2007013364/Setting-up-a-Drum-Map-for-Addictive-Drums-2-in-SONAR 

  7. Howdy - I posted this in a post earlier, but thought it would be good to add it here, in case anybody wanted to save themselves some work.

    I created a custom Drum Map, for all the note mapping data for the Cutya Kit, from SSD5-5.  Along with it, I created a Project and Track Template.  The templates have a track folder, an instance of SSD5 with the Cutya drum kit loaded, and that instance of SSD5 has each Mixer kit piece channel routed to use a separate audio output channel.  Additionally, in the template track folder (both project and track templates), there are 2 midi tracks (one main midi track, and a 2nd for click track midi data, if desired).  There are also audio tracks for every audio output channel coming from the SSD5 synth rack instance, and a number of buses (Drums Master, Parallel Compression, Kick, Snare, Hi-Hat, Toms, Ride, Cymbals, Percussion, OH, and Room), and I set up gain staging for all kit piece audio tracks, and the buses, to be set to approximately -18 dBFS.  The buses for Kick, Snare, Toms, and Percussion have sends that go to the Parallel Compression bus, which has some parallel compression dialed up - which can be seasoned to taste, or removed, as desired.

    I did assign track icons, and track colors, which will persist if you open a new project, using the project temlate.  For some reason, bus colors do not persist when inserting the track template into a project.  I did choose a different color for the 2 midi tracks, to make it easier to see them in the track folder, because of all the audio tracks.  In the Project Template, I also have the Master bus set to a different color than the other buses, for the same reason - to make it stand out better as the Master bus.

    I hope folks with SSD5 find the components I created useful.  Even if you don't like the other choices I made in what I set up, at least the drum map will have saved you a bunch of typing.  :)

    In the Dropbox folder I uploaded (link will be below), I also put a 2 text files.  One contains the mapped drum note numbers and names, which you might find easier to read than if you tried to read them in either the Drum Map Manager, or if you open Step Sequencer and you see the note names there.  (the text boxes containing the note names are pretty narrow, and cannot, to the best of my awareness, by widened, so if you open that text file, you will see them all listed vertically, at full width.

    The 2nd text file, contains the list of components in the folder, and instructions for where to place each of the components (templates, and drum map).  I also included a shortcut that uses a standard variable that will automatically resolve to your user's AppData\Roaming\Cakewalk\Cakewalk Core\Drum Maps\ folder, which is the location Cakewalk stores Drum Maps in.  Just double-click on the shortcut in the Dropbox folder, after first copying the drum map file, and then you can simply paste it into the Drum Maps folder the shortcut takes you to.

    I did not create shortcuts for the templates, as lots of folks these days, move those to different hard drives than C:. but the instructions in the text file tell you where to place each of the 2 templates.

    One last note about the gain staging.  Some of the mapped kit piece note numbers, are different  variations of 'hits' for a given kit piece, such as Tambourine Tip, Tembourine Up, and Tambourine Down, or Ride Bell  Tip, Ride Bow Tip, and Ride Bow Shank,  etc.  For at least those kit pieces, those variations can vary by as much as 8-10 dB, so addressing that with gain staging alone, is not possible.  For such variations in volume, you wil have to control it with either velocity editing, and/or by volume automation.  Just be aware of that.  I tried to strike a reasonable balance with what I set up.

    HOPEFULLY, the above will be similar, for other kits to be mapped, so I hope I can save folks some typing, and some time. :)

    I think that should cover it, except the link:

    Drobox folder with custom components I created for SSD5 Cutya Kit with split audio output channels

    Bob Bone

    • Like 1
  8.  I am going to create a new thread, to post the link to the Dropbox folder I uploaded, with the components I created for the SSD5 Cutya kit, in case anybody else wants to download them.  Hopefully, I won't catch too much flack for my track color choices, or my gain staging.  Perhaps the not having to build it all themselves will temper the comments :) hee hee

    @user390096 - are you all squared away now, on accessing the other channels in the SSD5 Mixer?

    Bob Bone

  9. Howdy @Billy86 and anyone else.  Sorry it took so long to circle back to this.  I had a great many things that got in the way.

    I have uploaded a folder with the custom drum map, project template, and track template, I created for the SSD5 Cutya Kit, splitting each mixer channel, to a separate audio output channel.

    In the project and track templates I created, I created a track folder, with a main MIDI track, as well as a MIDI track for click, and audio tracks for all the kit pieces.  I did set gain staging to around -18 dBFS for each of the audio tracks, though for at least 2 of the kit pieces, the Ride Cymbal and the Tambourine, multiple note numbers with different variations, have pretty good sized volume differences, so since all Ride Cymbal note numbers go to the same audio output channel, additional mitigation of volumes needs to be done, either with velocity editing, and/or automation.  There may be other kit pieces that have that issue - I did not pay any attention to note number mappings I would rarely use - I just went with the most likely used note number for a given kit piece.  You will see what I mean when you start programming up MIDI data for this drum kit.

    I also set it up for parallel compression of the Kick bus, Snare bus, Toms bus, and Percussion bus., using Sends and a Parallel Compression Bus.  There are a number of buses set up, as well, and those will all be inserted into the project from either the Project Template, or the Track Template, though when inserting from the Track Template, the bus colors do not persist, so they will be the default Cakewalk color for buses.

    I also uploaded a text document with the note mappings - might be easier to read then the shortened visibility in the text boxes of either the Drum Map Manager, or viewing the drum map note names in the Step Sequencer.  Place this text document anywhere you want, on your hard drive.

    Please read the Text document in the folder, because it has instructions on where to copy and paste the different uploaded custom components in the Dropbox folder.

    Enjoy - sorry if you don't like the track colors.  Change as desired.

    Here is the link to the uploaded folder in my Dropbox account: SSD5 Cutya Kit Custom Drum Map and Templates for Cakewalk

    Bob Bone

  10. 2 hours ago, Billy86 said:

    That's super generous, Bob! That sounds like a ton of meticulous work. Thank you! I've yet to do a drum map, so I'll have to the start to at least see what the end product is supposed to look like. :) I like building a drum track in EZ Drums, then dragging it to a MIDI track and pointing it to SSD VSTi, with the SSD5 map configuration set to the EZ drum map that's included. Let's see what kind of routing knots I can tie myself up in!!

    Particularly interested in this: "I just went through the exercise of splitting the Cutya Kit to all separate output channels, and I built a custom drum map in Cakewalk for it, and setup a Project Template and a Track Template, complete with additional buses (Drums master, kick, snare, toms, cymbals, OH, Room, parallel compression)..." 

    Are you saying you were able to route the cymbals out separately from SSD5 mixer, which gave you access to direct those cymbals into the additional cymbals bus you mention in the bolded text above? 

    Well, it turns out I was sleep, when I typed up that post, and my brain blurred things a bit - those buses and nuanced drum mappings were from a Kontakt drum library, called Studio Drummer, and so I will try to now correct my earlier mistakes of description.

    There are bunches of nuanced drum note mappings in SSD5 Cutya kit, though they do differ a bit, from what I had posted earlier.  The SSD5 drum kits use a different method for avoiding that famous machine-gun sound that older drum sample libraries had.  Rather than using a different set of samples, for a Snare Left and a Snare Right, like is done in the Kontakt Studio Drummer, the SSD5 drum kits use an approach they call 'stacked', or 'stacking', which they claim does a better job of representing the sound of repeated snare hits, or toms.

    The 2nd correction I need to make, is in my description of the buses - the buses I listed, and that you quote above, were from that Kontakt Studio Drummer kit.  The SSD5 kit does not have cymbals split out from the OH and Room mics, and I am sorry for any confusion.  I had been up working on stuff until 6 AM, and even though I then slept until around Noon, I was still a bit bleary and blurry when I wrote that other post.

    The SSD5 approach to having the cymbals handled through the OH and Room mics IS the most realistic way of presenting cymbals, because that IS how real drum kits have microphones recording the cymbals.

    I think the SSD5 kits, particularly the Cutya kit, and their handling of the cymbals using OH and Room mics, sound realistic, and that is way kewl.  I have other drum synths and libraries that do allow for cymbals to be routed separately, but the SSD5 approach works fine for me, so I don't bother with the other ones.

    I am trying to wrap up some stuff so I can upload the drum map and templates - quick as I can, I will

    Bob Bone

  11. 3 hours ago, Billy86 said:

    Yes please, Bob!  Do you know if one would have to do what you did on the one kit on a kit by kit basis in SSD5?

    Yes, because different kits have different configurations, though for the stuff that is the same, you can reuse any of those note number row entries in the custom map.  For instance, one kit may have different percussion instruments, or perhaps none, and one may have different number of cymbals, or different number of toms.  But, basically, and hopefully, they went with standard note numbers for standard kit pieces.

    So, hopefully, all the note number mappings for all their kits, would use the same note numbers for the kick drum, and the high-hat, for example.  I wouldn't understand if they used different mappings, except for any kits that are set up to map to general midi specs.  The Cutya kit does not conform to the standard/general midi note mapping specs.  

    But again, even if a kit differs from what I built, for the custom drum map, you could use my drum map as a starting point, and figure out what is the same, and what is different, and then you could simply adjust the delta (whatever is different), to map to the other kit, and that should save a load of time. So, I would suggest starting a new project, using the Project Template I will post, as that has what you would need, to start with, then change the drum kit in the SSD5 instance in the Synth Rack, to whatever kit you want to map, then I would suggest opening the Drum Map Manager, and enter a new drum map name in the text box, and click the Save icon just to the right of that text box, so that you save it under the new name (that way, you won't risk overlaying the map I built for Cutya), and then start comparing the mapping of those notes against the mapping of the kit you want to change the map to match.

    I also have a text document I built, with the Cutya mapping, and that might be easier to use for comparison, than using the Drum Map Manager rows, as the text boxes for the Names aren't wide enough to display the whole names of the mapped notes.  I will post that text doc as well.  What I did, was to have Cakewalk running at less than full screen, by double-clicking on the title bar (top) of the Cakewalk window, and that way I could open the text document and keep it on the right side of the screen, so it wouldn't keep disappearing every time I clicked on a row in the Drum Map Manager, and I simply would copy the text for a given row, from my text doc, and paste it into the apprpriate row in the Drum Map Manager, and that made things go a lot quicker, plus it was easier to see the info in that text doc, to make sure I had it all correct.  You will see, when you open up the doc and the Drum Map Manager......

    Also, I set the gain-staging for everything to around -18 dBFS, just to let you know.  (confession time).

    I am about to get into some other stuff for a couple of hours, but then I will circle back and post what I set up for the Cutya kit, and you, or anybody, is free to use and hopefully like what I built for it.  We are all on the same team - one planet, one people, as they say.  :)

    Bob Bone

  12. 8 hours ago, Dave G said:

    I noticed that, up in the track view area where the track bars are, some of the areas along the right are shaded (gray) in patterns, some areas more than others.

    I used to think that was because of the amount of data (i.e. notes, events) in a certain area, but it doesn't seem consistent.

    What does the shading indicate, and why are some areas shaded more heavily?

    Could you please take a screenshot of what you are referring to, and post it here?  It would make it easier for me to know precisely what you are asking about.  (it is early, and I am out of coffee).  Windows comes with a Snipping Tool, which you can use to capture a square/rectangle that you drag around the area you want to capture, then you can copy and paste it in a reply, to this post.  You can find it in the listed apps on the left side of the tiles if you hit the Windows Start Button, under Windows Accessories. :)

    Bob Bone

  13. There is a slider at the bottom of the UI mixer screen, that you can slide left or right, to expose the other mixer channels.  :)

    I just went through the exercise of splitting the Cutya Kit to all separate output channels, and I built a custom drum map in Cakewalk for it, and setup a Project Template and a Track Template, complete with additional buses (Drums master, kick, snare, toms, cymbals, OH, Room, parallel compression), set up the parallel compression, and gain staged every last bit of it.

    There are something like 70 or so, drum note mappings, for an absolutely incredible number of nuanced variants, I mapped them all.

    WHEW.  If anybody wants that custom drum map, and the project and track templates, just let me know, and I will upload them to Dropbox and post a link.

    Bob Bone

  14. 1 hour ago, NealClark said:

    I understand all about the C++ run time libraries as I worked as a software developer for more years than I care to remember. I will take a look though just to make sure everything is as it should be. The odd thing is that if the libraries weren't correct then these errors would happen all the time. But they don't. As I mentioned previosly it's all a bit random at times.

    Kudos for your development work - I put in 38 years in IT, in multiple roles.

    Anyways, for an error related to a missing runtime library to manifest, a specific call to a routine from that missing library would have to be made, and that could depend on particular logic paths being processed.  These runtime libraries may not be invoved with what is going on, with your crashes, but they are a common reason for crashes in plugins that are not widely reported as crashing.

    The nice thing is that by comparing the libraries installed, with the list in the post I provided earlier, installing any missing ones, and testing out the loading and use of the plugins that had been failing, you can pretty easily find out if that fixed the issues, or not, but in any case, it is good to have those runtime libraries installed.  And, it is not a difficult thing to go through the steps to make sure all the runtime libraries are installed.

    Bob Bone

  15. 4 hours ago, NealClark said:

    Thanks for the Info, much appreciate the help, I will check those out.

     

    Sure - those runtime libraries are needed, because applications that are written in Visual C++ call routines that are release-specific for the runtime libraries those applications were calling, when they were compiled.  Then, when they run, they require that same version of runtime library to be present, and crash, with an Address Exception, if that specific runtime library is not installed on the computer. 

    That is why there are so many of those - they can all be installed right alongside each other, and in that post I put the link to in my earlier reply, I list the runtime library links in oldest to newest order, so you can just march down the list to install any that aren't already installed on your PC.

    Please post back, after you install any missing ones, and try loading and using those synths that were failing before.  :)

    Bob Bone

  16. Howdy - a common cause of one or more plugins failing in a VST Host, such as Cakewalk, is that one or more of the Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Redistributable libraries are missing.  If this is the issue, it is fortunately pretty easy to confirm, and to correct.

    I built a post, a while back, with the direct links, in order, of each of those runtime libraries, and you can compare the list in that post, against which ones show up as installed on your system.  To see which ones are installed on your system, open up Control Panel, and click on the link that says Uninstall a Program.  That will bring up the list of installed programs on your computer, and just scroll down until you start seeing a bunch of those runtime libraries in that list.  Then, compare those against the list in the post I will post the link to, below.  Install any of those runtime libraries that are missing, and when you are done, see if that corrects your issues with plugins causing crashes.

    Here is the link to the post I built (Please note: you need to install the x86 and x64 runtimes):

    Post with links for all available Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Redistributables

    Bob Bone

  17. 2 hours ago, Fwrend said:

    Great free info here from a musician - Glitch Free

    I have never gone through the disabling Nagle's Algorithm, or the Spread Spectrum - maybe check LatencyMon's post-monitoring report, to see if you have things in your system causing DPC Latency spikes that would interfere with the streaming audio processing that DAW software uses, such as Cakewalk, before embarking on disabling those two sets of settings.

    Bob Bone

    • Like 1
  18. 19 hours ago, marled said:

    I agree that XLN is a prime example for that, but I had such problems with other plugin providers, too! But I cannot remember which ones! 😄

    AD2: I like it and use it, too. But as one said before, there is a lot of processing in their presets and I prefer to do the processing in the DAW (CbB) by myself! I don't like those over-defined presets, because they often conflict with the rest of the mix. Yes, they sound cool when you run the drums on its own. But as soon as you add several other tracks (bass, guitars, synths, ...) they get your mix too busy!

    The 2nd thing that I dislike in AD2 is that many of their drum instruments are too roomy. If you listen e.g. to their snare track only, then it is very quiet, i.e. the snare goes mainly thru the overheads and room mics. This makes it very difficult to mix when you want to increase or decrease the snare, because you also affect other components and the sound of the snare. And if you want to choose your own room and reduce the room/overhead on some instruments, then the sound is quite weak (snare, toms). Regarding roomy the worst for me is the kick, because until today I have never managed to get the more natural sound that I want (that is very easy to achieve within NI drum kits).

    I agree on the processing - I too prefer to control that from the DAW, and also concur on kits like AD2 that sound great played by themselves, but often have to be tweaked a lot, to get them to sit in the mix.  I find the Native Instruments kits in Kontakt libraries to be absolutely amazing, and have generally switched to using those, as firstly I get more output channels available to split kit pieces to their own audio output channels in Kontakt, the sounds are amazing, and the mapping is at least on par with AD2, and quite possibly even provides more midi note choices.  (the Kontakt Studio Drummer library, for example, has notes mapped from note number 22, all the way up to note number 105, and includes note numbers mapped to things like Hi-Hat fully closed, 1/4 open, 1/2 open, 3/4 open, loosely open, and fully open).

    Addictive Drums 2 also has a bunch of notes mapped, if you use their AD2 standard mapping in the Map Window. 

    One additional comment on the kits in AD2 - a single kit, such as Studio Prog, when you pull up the kit in the AD2 instance, offers perhaps 20 different variations, which are all displayed in the kit window, so even if you have a small number of kits, there are still lots of those variations to pick from.

    Here is a link to info and links for downloading a drum map and project template for Addictive Drums 2 for Cakewalk:

    AD2 setting up a drum map in Sonar (Cakewalk)

    Bob Bone

    • Like 1
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