David Baay

Adding via the Synth Rack continues to work fine here. Are you inserting as a Simple Instrument or separate audio and MIDI tracks? In any case, check the MIDI/Audio I/O routing of the track(s) being created when you insert the synth, and all the usual stuff (input echo is enabled on the MIDI track, keyboard/audition function in the synth UI shows output signal, etc.).

Double-clicking on a track header maximizes the track height, effectively pushing other tracks off screen. Double-click again to return it to the original height, or hit F to fit all tracks vertically. If they really got hidden somehow, hit Shift+H to show all tracks.

46 minutes ago, Corrado Prizzi said:

Yes, cheating like hell, but what isn't when sequencing. I'd say this is the most fun I've ever had playing keys.

Yes, I can see how that might be both helpful and fun. I'm a pretty decent self-taught keyboard player, but I still can't solo fast without hitting lots of 'wrong' notes.

+1   to just bringing a copy of the project over the new machine.

But to answer the question... the effect of FX inserted directly in the FX bin of each track should be applied to the exported track so long as the Track FX and Automation boxes are checked in the export dialogue.

But FX on buses to which the track is sending or outputting won't be included. To get those, you would need to solo the track, export with Source = Buses, and select the Master or some upstream bus that collects all the output from that track and its sends. But keep in mind that many FX (especially dynamic FX like compression)  won't behave the same when only one track is active.

Typically you would either export tracks without bus FX or export buses as 'stems' that include all the tracks and send FX that route that bus. Trying to do anything in between will not generally give the desired end result of having the sum of the exports sound like the Master bus.

On 8/17/2019 at 7:34 PM, craigr68 said:

I insert it into the master track, typically set ceiling to -1.0 and threshold around -10.

I've always thought the way 'Threshold' controls typically work is counter-intuitive, and not usually helped by the way the functionality is described.  A simple way to think about it is that the Threshold is simply an input gain control, and by lowering it, you're amplifying the signal until the peaks start to run into the Ceiling.  So by setting the threshold to -10dB, you're essentially boosting the whole signal by 10dB right off the bat.

Here's how the Adaptive Limiter's help file puts it:

"Only the signal above the Threshold is limited; all signal below the Threshold has a constant gain change that is controlled by the difference between the Threshold and Ceiling."

So if you just want to limit the peaks  without boosting,  leave the Threshold at 0, and lower the ceiling into the existing peaks. If you want a little boost (typically the goal of Limiting), start with a less aggressive threshold.

The way I typically use a limiter for a final Master is to set the Ceiling it at -0.3dB (as suggested earlier to void overs with MP3 compression or problems with D/A converters in consumer devices that behave badly at the limit), and push the Threshold down until the reduction meter shows the peaks are getting knocked down by maybe 3-5dB, and not continuously. Depending on the source material, and your loudness goals, you can push it harder, of course, but I usually just want to be able to bring the level up as high as possible without noticeably losing dynamic range or having the peaks sound 'crunchy'.

If  I were sending a mix to a mastering engineer, I might take the same approach, but set the Ceiling at -6dB, and only lower the Threshold to where the very highest loudest peaks are getting knocked down a couple of dB. 

Hey Chuck, FWIW, any time you run into sync problems like that, it can help to have 'Set Now Time with Full Restart' enabled in Track View Options.  The trade-off is that moving the Now time during playback will sound a little glitchy (i.e. not 'gapless').   Basically, it's the equivalent of quickly stopping and restarting  the transport when you move the Now time.

54 minutes ago, markrounds said:

The issue is only when you have a count-in measure enabled.

Yes, I understood that. Just tried it, and the issue is readily reproduced here as well. I'm guessing the Bakers will get on this pronto. 

Try increasing your ASIO buffer size. By default, Cakewalk uses this buffer size for offline processing (i.e. non-realtime), and some synths don't render properly with very small buffer sizes. If it works to increase the real-time buffer, you can set a non-zero value for BounceBufSizeMsec=0  in AUD.INI, and Cakewalk will use that value for all offline processing. I keep mine at 20  (960 samples at 48kHz).

Interesting that Melodyne are able to reproduce it. I would have thought there would be many reports of this on the forum if it affects all installations.  I use Melodyne mainly for MIDI extraction, and have probably never tried to record with pitch-correction enabled; I'll have to give it a try.

A similar thing has been known to happen with both audio and MIDI recording...  new clips are laid down a measure late in the timeline when count-in is enabled. I've never experienced it myself so have always suspected it was related to interoperability of certain audio interface drivers with Cakewalk. If you're using WDM driver mode, maybe try switching to ASIO or vice versa.

BTW, what sample rate are you running? If it's 88.2 or 96kHz, possibly some subroutine is not accounting for the doubled number of samples in a measure vs. more common 44.1 and 48...? Just a thought.

17 hours ago, CosmicDolphin said:

have 900+ plugins

Are there any that you use in every project?  Related to this, it also occurs to me that if you're using project templates that originated in some ancient version of SONAR, you might want to build some new ones from scratch starting with the Blank or Basic project template. The same might go for old track templates that you use frequently, especially anything complex like a drum template that includes the synth, multiple outputs, aux track with routing and plugin for parallel compression, etc.

The fact that you've experienced this so consistently across many versions of Cakewalk/SONAR and (presumably) many PCs with different O/S and interfaces, while many others experience it rarely or not at all suggests you're consistently doing something procedurally or with project content that precipitates the problem.

I've generally only encountered this kind of thing with specific soft synths or FX plugins that don't 'play nice' with Fast Bounce. Sometimes it can be fixed by increasing  the real-time ASIO buffer size which is used as the default 'chunk' size for offline rendering when BounceBufSizeMsec=0 in AUD.INI. Or you can set a non-zero BounceBufSizeMsec= value (I keep mine at 20). In other cases, the synth/FX plugin may have an offline render mode that has to be set in its UI.

Another problem I've encountered in the  past involved FX plugins that don't clear their own internal buffers on stop, and 'spit' some noise when playback is restarted.  This would sometimes manifest in exports as well. I haven't run into that issue for a while, but one setting that might be relevant would be "Always Stream Audio Through FX' in audio Playback and Recording preferences. You might also look into enabling Plugin Upsampling  (or disabling it if already enabled) for any plugins that you find are consistently causing a problem. 

Bottom line: If you have a project that does this consistently, save a copy of it and start removing  things until to find the trigger - most likely a plugin.

Sounds like conversion to Groove Clip didn't happen for whatever reason. Does the clip have beveled/rounded corners? Check the Groove Clip section of the Clip tab in the Inspector with the clip selected to see if 'looping' is enabled, and make sure the 'Beats in Clip' value is correct (should be 4 for a single measure of 4/4).

FWIW, I almost never lock anything. I add descriptive filename suffixes to periodically saved copies of a project as it evolves so that original recordings and progressive  edits can always be recovered from an earlier version. 

Others who upgrade their machines frequently and/or have a long history with Cakewalk and do extensive customization of their configurations might have more involved processes, but here's the simplified version:

- Install drivers for audio and MIDI interfaces.

- Install any legacy SONAR plugins/content you might have access to through the old Cakewalk Command Center that isn't part of CbB.

- Install CbB.

- Install and authorize all 3rd-party plugins (this is typically the most time-consuming and painful part)

- Copy your projects folder to the corresponding location on the new machine.

- Make music.

If you've done a lot of customization of the configuration on your old machine, you can consider copying some things over (e.g. aud.ini, cakewalk.ini, ttsseq.ini, master.ins),  but for optimal performance and stability, it's probably best to go forward with a default setup, and reset preferences as you encounter them.  I usually only transfer some very specific aud-ini settings, and migrate my master.ins (MIDI  Instrument Definitions for hardware synths). 

I also bring over the Cakewalk Content folder because it contains decades of custom and archived content. I keep it in a non-default location so I also copy the relevant branch of the Windows registry to the new machine, but that probably wouldn't apply to you.

There are also procedures for migrating plug-in layouts and presets;  I don't generally do a lot of customization in that area so I don't bother.

So long as you keep the old machine around, you can always refer back to it, and migrate additional content/customizations as needed when you find things are missing or not working as expected in the new environment. 

15 hours ago, Noel Borthwick said:

We could try and expose UI to select the pre fader send behavior...

I've always enabled LinkPFSendMute for more intuitive behavior since the performance space and control room are one and the same for me, as is probably the case for the majority of users. But since changing the default would foul up users who have come to depend on it being disabled, giving access to it from the UI would be helpful, if only to help make users aware that the option exists.  It might also be helpful to explain the use case for having it disabled in the Ref. Guide.

Like me, I think Klaus thought you were talking about locking the PRV.  Clip-locking is a property of clips, and clip properties are only accessible from the clips pane and the Inspector. So, no, you cannot change clip-locking status from the PRV.

I would think Bandlab Support should be able to help you get access restored if you know what the original e-mail address was.

When zoomed out, the Clips Pane will usually show pretty clearly where 'clumps' of MIDI data exist unless it's extremely sparse. MIDI clips will usually only have long stretches of no data if they were recorded in a single pass in real time; parts entered in the PRV will usually end up in separate clips when there's more than a measure of empty space between events. It might be worth taking the time to split and trim long clips to eliminate 'dead air' and facilitate arranging

No, this is not currently possible. You could limit what notes get passed to the synth using a Drum Map so that only notes in the scale make sound, but then you wouldn't be able to easily go outside the scale. You'd be able to place the notes in the PRV, but you wouldn't hear them until you modified the map.

You can get the desired effect in Cakewalk by routing the output of the MIDI track to a Drum Map that only passes notes that are  within the scale. I do this when composing for a music box so that I won't use notes it can't play.

Enter an RPN Kind of event, and change the Data value to 0. When you save the change, it will end up reading as Pitch Bend Sensitivity. Cakewalk does this with other commonly used control events like CC64 which presents as '64-Pedal (sustain)' for ease of recognition.

'Concrete Limiter' and 'PC4K S-type Expander/Gate' modules were available as paid add-ons before the shut-down.  I thought Cakewalk owned them, so not sure what the obstacle is to bringing them back.

Yes, 'Zero Controllers when Play Stops' (mentioned in the list) in MIDI preferences  will do that with synths that use Modulation and/or Expression to control volume (the classic example is Garritan/Aria Player). If you don't want to disable the setting, adding Modulation (CC0) and Expression (CC11) events with nominal values at the start of the track for Cakewalk to ' search back' on will take care of it.

It's hard to see exactly what's going on with the screenshot cropped so tightly, but  my first guess would be the track scale is maxed out. Double-click the scale between the tracks pane and the clips pane to zoom out fully.