John Sandlin

On 6/16/2021 at 10:54 PM, Morten Saether said:

Reorder multiple tracks simultaneously

You can reorder multiple tracks simultaneously by dragging in the Track pane. To do so, select the tracks that you want to reorder, then hold down the SHIFT key while you drag any selected track.

Excellent !

One think I think is missing from the Cakewalk workflow is the ability to move more than one track at a time to reorder them.

We can move one track at a time now, up and down in the track list. If you select several tracks, when you try to move the group, only the one you got the up/down arrow for actually moves. All the rest stay put. We need a modifier, like CTRL or ALT to move all the selected tracks together. They would maintain their relative order of the selected tracks, but you could then slide the set as needed, up or down.

So I did find a partial solution - Control-Shift while drawing the automation will hold the amplitude constant. Of course you have to draw to that amplitude first before pressing Control-Shift - so there is a short bit that is going from 0 to the amplitude you want (like the beginning of my picture in the previous post), but it will hold constant from then on. Another reason to have blank space at the beginning of a track so there is room for that.

I've been learning to create automations for adjusting a VST instrument parameter. I open the automation lane for the instrument and can draw in a nice curve (saw, triangle, sine, etc.) and have the automation nodes map to snap to points. I want to add other constraints to my curve such as the amplitude of the effect, or a range of the amplitude. As an example, modifying the pitch (for vibrato) or volume (for tremolo), I can use a sine curve snapping to a nice 1/8th or 1/16th note and get a really cool sounding effect (this would be for a VST that doesn't offer these effects - this is a rather hypothetical example I chose to teach myself how to do these automations). But my curve has a rather freehand looking amplitude - I can't seem to draw a straight line.

So my question is, does Cakewalk have a way to constrain my curve to a specific peak values (positive and negative). I'm suspecting not but hoping for a pleasant surprise. I've searched the Cakewalk Reference Guide and tried to search the discussions here (and got 140+ pages of results). I do actually like the results I'm getting with the freehand wanderings, but I can envision a time when I want a clean or exact result. I'd consider an LFO, but I don't think that ties directly to the tempo map the way locking the automation nodes to the snap grid.

23 minutes ago, synkrotron said:

So, going back to my original post, I also asked the question, "Is it just while it is in 'development'"

Let's go back to that for a moment.

Mke, the BandLab representative at Winter NAMM 2019, stated emphatically during more than one interview that the Core product Cakewalk by BandLab will ALWAYS be free.

Plans can change, but that is the corporate line as of now.

9 hours ago, pwalpwal said:

that's rather a generic "Have You Tried Turning It Off And On Again?" "solution"

My response was always "Yes. That's the first thing I did. Then I did it twice more to be sure. Then I unplugged all the cables and plugged them back in again. Five times. Then I did a Google Search for it. And read through fifty supposed solutions. Now I'm calling you.

2 hours ago, scook said:

Yes, ASIO support

That one is kind of critical.  Yeah. Use Chrome for sure.

What I've read is that using Chrome instead of other browsers for the BandLab Cloud DAW is that they are using features of Chrome to do things that the other browsers do not have.

7 minutes ago, Starship Krupa said:

Wait, I thought everybody did this.

It's one of the first things I do when I get a computer, kinda like downloading my favorite browser.

Disable onboard audio, download drivers for audio interface, download VLC, Firefox....

So there are audio people who leave that thing turned on in their BIOS.

All this time I've been reading these posts from disgruntled audio people complaining how this or that Windows 10 update switched their HD Audio back on and thinking "wow, I wonder how Microsoft manages that?" Every so often I'd been checking my one system that I upgraded to Windows 10 to see if they had somehow circumvented the laws of physics, but no, not so far.

For those of you who leave them turned on when you are going to go into Device Manager and disable it anyway, why, pray tell, leave a spurious audio interface enabled on your studio computer? Do some BIOses not allow you to disable them at a hardware level?

It's the primary reason I stopped using my gaming computer as my DAW workstation ages ago. Turning on the entire DAW experience to hear in game sound was a bit overkill and clunky, actually.

Would a tempo map like this do what you want (use Alt-Shift-5):

Would this be similar to what you're looking for: http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=1965558

Big screens and dual screens are fine and dandy. But when they get so big that I forget why I was looking at that side of the screen (or other monitor), they've gone too far.  What were we talking about... ?

Some older versions of SONAR did have an initial authorization setup. But if you kept the email you got with the code and the serial number,  you'll be good. Those with hard copy Floppy or CD-ROM will probably have that pair of numbers in the packaging. If you have a version that needs the authorization number and wrote down that number (if it didn't come with one), you can install it. If you don't have the original serial number or authorization number for those that need one, you will have troubles. Look in the www.cakewalk.com pages for your account information. Some of the newer packages kept that information for you.

I made it a habit to keep all my registration emails for various software packages "just in case" I needed them again.

43 minutes ago, Cactus Music said:

Well from what the OP said this was what I was assuming.  They said there's nothing there and that's more or less what you get until you load a project.  I'm assuming they load up , get the start screen but then choose nothing and close it.  We won't know until the OP responds,, been a day. 

Yeah, and that would be the older SONAR (at least the X3 and Platinum) experience too. Here is X3 after closing the start screen:

I do miss having PCI slots. My gaming pc has a nice gaming PCIe audio card - but that isn't the same as a proper audio interface for music work. My DAW workstation doesn't even have PCIe slots (it is an Intel NUC). So a good USB Audio Interface is where I'm at now. The good news is this looks like a nearly future proof setup. The bad news is the bucket of PCI and soon PCIe cards that I have that have nowhere to live!

11 minutes ago, Cactus Music said:

Actually when you open Cakewalk it looks like this until you open a project.  Should see the start screen however but I have that disabled. . 

Right, but a fresh out of the box install will show the template picker - so until you go in and actually disable the start screen, that will be how it opens. Of course you can manually close that, but it should be relatively obvious you can do the NEW or OPEN a project bit.

OK, maybe I took the newbie comment too literally...

Another thought that occurs is maybe your initial VST scan is hanging. What you should see is something like this one:

You should see a "picker" to choose what kind of project you want to open. When you choose one of those, you'll get a more traditional looking SONAR-like window.

 You might be looking at the First Page of the BandLab Assistant - it will have the word Library underlined probably. It looks like this:

You'll see a tab on the right that says Apps. You want that:

Notice the big green button with the word Install. You want to click that.

So Alt-Shift-5 pulls up the Tempo curve. You could redraw (very carefully) the curve on the intro to give it a rubato mapping.

2 minutes ago, Keni said:

I have often found this to happen when anti-virus programs are running. Have you tried disabling any such before downloading?

 

The only AntiVirus I have is the one built into Windows. I worked on the second (albeit after a reboot) try for me. I might try that next update, though.

I've noticed that sometimes the download bar doesn't track the progress well. I've probably aborted in progress downloads thinking it had crashed. Try once to leave it for a good length of time and see if it does actually finish. 

I started a download, thought it had failed - and it may have, so I rebooted the system so that the BandLab Assistant wouldn't have any unfinished business causing troubles and started a new download of Cakewalk. Then I left to run some errands and when I came back, there was the prompt to install (or authorize Admin mode, or whatever the window said that I can't at the moment remember). It installed fine, then.

I think that unless you're going to create sheet music from recorded MIDI (or converted audio) that it is best to not quantize at all. You can use Tempo mapping to get the transients and nudge things that need help, but mostly just leave it when you can so it still sounds human.

1 hour ago, InstrEd said:

I'm glad it was a good show for Cakewalk and Bandlab. I'm just hoping they do something with Rapture Pro and Z3ta2 and don't let them fade away. 

I'll second that! I was close to getting Rapture Pro as a Christmas gift to myself at the end of 2017, I also think Z3TA+ 2 would need to be on my wish list now, too.

15 hours ago, Michael Fogarty said:

sorry for all the questions. I was told a few months back by some member that I am out of luck and this can't be done. Glad I ran into you. Thanks.

The folks out of luck are the ones purchasing SONAR new since the closure by Gibson. If you already had SONAR and just need to reinstall, then you can. Which is good. I just converted my workstation from Windows 7 to Windows 10 and was able to get SONAR installed still (Because I want the Platinum "extras" that I did originally pay for). It all came out fine using the same steps scook outlined. 

I got one of those T-Shirts. Of course I did use the TIP JAR feature to do so. I also got an "old school" coffee cup.

(Edit to add: I don't see the TipJar now so I don't know if it is still there)