Glenn Stanton

the physical cores are generally responsible for IO activities, so it makes sense that the setting needs to be the physical cores. the "virtual cores" are simply some variant of a hyperthreading model to timeshare the physical core (since most software steps, RAM access, and IO activities take much longer than a thread swap, the manufacturers figure they can get away with that approach). Intel definitely seems to have a better handle on this than AMD but at about 2x the price for the equiv CPU... couple of other notes - most times a single core affinity is assigned for the OS as well network control, so if you have the option to set the core 0 to not be used by the software (sometimes this is the park control, or elsewhere...) this can help avoiding issues with unresponsive UI etc. (disclaimer, 8-9 years ago i spent 6 months working closely with Microsoft, HP, Intel, and SAP, and the MS SQL product team on optimization of SQL Server and physical IO for solving the record locking and concurrent disk IO issues for a 25K concurrent user SAP test POC) (and it's ok if none of that makes sense 🙂 )

the nff files are create by Melodyne - in a separations folder (either the global one, or per-project depending on using the UI or the region FX). these are the individual blobs you see in the UI. once rendered they're (supposed to be?) cleared, but sometimes i find them left over when close a project and forgot to render the track. finding the newest one and/or largest (sort of like organizing by alphabetical-height order) you can play it (assuming youo've set your media player to recognize nff files for audio playback) and it might help. all that said - it sounds like you got things sorted...

one possible issue - it's now a single screen with 4.6M pixels (500M/sec) versus two screens with 2.3M pixels (276M/sec), and your display hardware might be challenged to deliver that performance on a single screen. also the 32:10 ratio might be a challenge for some software if you run it full screen. i know the Izotope products newer versions struggle with "normal" settings...

it might be something you could identify in the Melodyne separations folder - presumably they're cleared or updated when rendered so sort by date or even their presence might be what you need. since they're usually some arbitrary name, you may need to listen to some to figure out what the track is.

i've been using the articulation map feature and the AAS strum-2 VST - just taking regularly performed chords (piano, ripchord, chordz, etc) and just adding articulations (downstroke, upstroke, palm mute, arpeggio, etc) and it seems to work pretty well. i've attached my own articulation map in case it's useful. as a note, to get a really tight sounding performance requires lots of small articulations - i've broken the map down into strokes and arpeggios so you can have things like an upstroke which then evolves into an arpeggio on the same chord notes because you have two articulation tracks slightly overlapped. dunno if that is the right way to do it but it leads to some fairly realistic effects. AAS Strum 2.artmap

lot of ideas on archiving here as well: How did you organize your archive? - Cakewalk by BandLab - Cakewalk Discuss | The Official Cakewalk by BandLab Forum

this might help

no, for the audio from the instruments. MIDI you need to use a synth or plugin with MIDI thru/out to route per @Promidi Aux tracks, patch points, and busses are the audio paths.

definitely do not use a cheap usb stick. 🙂 spring for a well-known named product. for some reason the waves license files are doing something to the stick to prevent copying and re-use - and i've had 6 or more "cheap" ($10) usb sticks break over the course of a year. got a nice $30 kingston and not a problem in over 8 months...

you need to "insert" the key signature, either by setting it in the beginning of the project initially, or at specific measures. Cakewalk - SONAR X2 Documentation - Setting the Meter and Key signatures https://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=SONAR X2&language=3&help=Recording.05.html

i generally use busses - reduces overall sliders to move and and groups of instruments can be controlled easily. grouping the busses and tracks can also add some additional control but i find if i want to adjust an individual track in the group, then i have to disconnect it (using keystroke or mouse-menu). if i use a surround buss to send things to, i can also do some adjustment for positioning that a simple pan will not. even in a stereo field. aux tracks - can do the same for grouping, group effects, pan, etc. tracks folder in CwB are just for organizing and being able to hide/unhide easily. if i'm using track folders to package up a group of instruments, i leave the aux track outside the folder, so, like my buss approach, the main sliders to play with are visible and the tracks are tucked away...

so maybe having the synth/instrument articulation track respond to the external (or virtual) controller key switch? if for example, using the BBCSO Discover with "Flutes", if i have my articulation map for the track set to "Flutes", then as i'm performing, the key switches i use are applied as articulations in the articulation track?

if the key/mode selection in the MIDI track could be "marked" /"evented" where needed - perhaps in the "chord track" or a "key/mode track" (i'm trademarking that one so be prepared to pay me 2¢ every time it's repeated 😉 ), that would be very handy. i think at this time it's global for the entire track, but much like a tempo change etc, having the ability to mark/event in the key/mode... yep.

dude! how can you make popular songs without using the default preset that your synth came with? what? next you're gonna want to eliminate vocal tuning! <just kidding around here> actually this is an excellent (and possibly a simple to implement) idea!

also, wondering out loud, if maybe track templates are a better option for this effort - small groups, single instrument, etc in 50 or so (well-named) track templates and a single master template they could plug into with the associated aux and/or busses. this way the initial template is very light, and you're only adding tracks as you need them which can include an enabled synth instance (also named). as a note, this is how i construct my own templates - i make a large "source project", but then i save the individual tracks (or groups like drums) as track templates. this also exports all the related aux tracks and busses. to validate, in reverse, i then start with a blank project and drag in the track templates to verify the new file matches the large "source" project. it's very nice that the track templates build the aux's and busses as well. the only caveat i have so far - the buss colors for some busses (like my reverbs or delay busses) have generic colors, and sometimes the instrument groups as well. for my templates (only 70-80 tracks and busses) reapplying the colors is only a few minutes, but would be nice to have retention of colors... people could then construct their own templates from there, for example, if you do a lot of string quartet with a french horn and oboe accompanist, so your "personalized" template would contain the track templates for each of the strings and the horns. no need to remove/disable/archive a bunch of instruments i would not need to get to that template 🙂 instead construct by addition... edit: another thought - with track template approach, other people could use the master template and create track templates and share them to build up the orchestral product "library"...

if you open a file while holding the shift key down, it will ask if if you want to load a plugin, one at a time. and it works when opening from a "new from template" or new from the start screen...

for a while the HD were much less expensive than SSD, and for archiving, a cost effective option, i've noticed in the past 2 years though they're rapidly going up in price - presuming that SSD manufacturing is taking over the market and so less HD are being produced... definitely use multiple disks and clouds if you can to keep archives- as @abacab mentions, an SSD can drop dead and recovery is much harder than an HD with only a head positioning issue...

maybe something akin to a stripped down band-in-a-box where you can write out chords, customize the instrumentation with some specialized notation, and it can generate the necessary midi and controls to have either other midi tracks or auto-generated chords, etc without all the heinous complexity of the BIAB application... 🙂 example you could set up your "stock" configuration - bass, drum, guitar, strings, horns, etc and using NN or common chord names, + plus some specialized bits Cm9 {b.d.g} which only plays the bass drums guitar on the Cm9 for that measure or until next chord, or some strum bars, or etc. or even tab and the related articulations...

in general, i leave the CW folders as-is. i create C:\Program Files\VSTPlugins; C:\Program Files\Steinberg\VSTPlugins; C:\Program Files\Common\VST3 and the equiv in the x86 folder. i've found that these folders allow VST installers to put them in these places and i don't have to fight them in the registry, INI files, or elsewhere... i have 9 or 10 folders in my VST scanner, and i periodically run the VST inventory app which dumps a CSV of all my folders configured in CW so i can check for any outliers - 32 vs 64, duplicates, etc. i keep copies of the installer files on my backed up cloud folder so i have them should i need to reinstall, and when newer versions come out, replace the backup version. lastly, keep a PDF etc of the product license(s) with the installers so i have the keys, codes, activations, purchase receipt etc all handy... this has proven invaluable many times over years when upgrading machines, OSes, etc.

a cable that you directly connects the SSD drive to a USB port. i use Samsung 850 SSD. very reliable and fast. using a HD 2.5 - Western Digital (WD). and i use the same cable as the SSD since it's enough power for the 2.5" HD. i have powered USB/FW drives from 30 years which are mothballed at this point...

i have a personal O365 subscription which comes with the 1TB... even with a bunch of old projects etc i still have plenty of room... the key is to make sure you clean up the project before it's archived so you're not wasting space or increasing the file count without actually needing to. file count is important since it does impact the performance of the disk access and of course not all apps can handle large file counts in a folder properly...

i do file organizing by : artist, project, and songs (or other material like podcasts, videos, etc). note: video content is kept in a separate folder - only audio is stored on the project disk. and since i don't do a lot of video post-production lately, it's not a big deal. once a project or song is "finished" (are they every really?) i bounce everything to clips, try to clean up unused wav files, versioned project files, picure cache, separations, etc, so it's as neat as possible. then it's ready to archive. i keep active projects on the project disk, and when archiving i remove the active project or song folder and the final backup on the archive disk and like @John Vere, i periodically disconnect the disk and start a new one when it's full or every 2 years or so to avoid possible disk failures. from the project folder, i use FreeSync to copy new/updates (project file, audio, midi, mastered wav and mp3, etc - i exclude the Melodyne transfers, separations, and CwB picture cache, and other temp folders) to the OneDrive folder, and also copy at the same time to the archive disk, so it's backed up to OneDrive (1TB is about $7/month). non-project/instrument content files (DimPro wav etc) are backed up to Google Drive (changes here occur very slowly). this way the archive and OneDrive get copies of the active projects, and the Drive gets updated content. the reason for the sync is to avoid access conflicts with the OneDrive and Google services which will try to backup your files even as you use them... (not a good feature)... as a note, i do something similar for the VST and related program folders so i don't worry i'm missing any of those. this runs about once per month or after significant changes like version upgrades etc.

https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-awards/sos-awards-vote-now CwB is on the list of DAW products to vote for!

agreed. i use a DI box, or one of my amps has an effects loop and a separate DI out so i can use the amp for effects and the DI out from the preamp. what i don't have is a "reamp direct box" which sets the output from the DAW signal to the correct impedance to match a guitars... so when re-amping (re-effecting?) your amp / effects see a signal level and impedance which mimics the guitar output. there are probably some simple circuits which could mimic the impedance and level, using R circuits, and/or transformers... i generally just output low volume from my IO unit which has a very high output impedance. on my amp i use the aux in as that expects the higher levels.

i'll record both a clean signal and effects since it's nice to have the clean performance in case you want to leverage it for MIDI or add other effects, etc.