Glenn Stanton

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.

I have used MME when i'm on a machine with a low end audio interface and nothing else seems to be working. so i'll scan the interface and select whatever it can support - but i'll set CwB to 24 bit on all files - 16-bit will fit into a 24-bit file 🙂

i have an older Q802USB which uses either the ASIO4ALL or WASAPI. works fine. i have the UMC-1820 which has it's own specific ASIO driver from Behringer which also works very well.

on the ASIO4ALL - you need to go into your configuration settings (the ASIO panel) and make sure it's enabled for your audio interface as sometimes there are several audio interfaces listed. as a general rule for myself - i (in device manager) disable all audio interfaces i'm not using to avoid potential conflicts.

On 11/4/2020 at 9:44 AM, Peter C said:

Amazing really but...but....but......is there a  danger that if we all start using AI as the easy way out - which I guess it is - that all our vocal tracks will start to have that horrible vocal similarity which (IMHO) afflicts many current chart hits????  

 

too late 🙂 all your vocal tracks are belong to us! you will be assimilated!

in general, the native meters in the "red" do not necessarily indicate clipping etc. so if your RMS level is good and you're seeing peaks in the red, you're probably ok. of course you can calibrate by running a sine wave and testing the levels and seeing if you're able to identify where you have clipping due to RMS being too high.

from: https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/establishing-project-studio-reference-monitoring-levels

also: if you want to check voltages etc. https://vintageking.com/blog/2016/07/calibrate-converter/

i'd suggest using a K-level meter or similar (i use) Izotope Insight. but i also use a master limiter (Waves L3 or Cwb PC Limiter) set to -1db peak and maybe 2db gain reduction max. this provides a decent level and still retaining a lot of dynamics even with the occasional limit getting hit.

i updated - first select the update option on the web site, second, run install using wave central, third re-authorize as the licenses are on the license cloud and you'll need to assign them to your OS or USB key etc., finally re-run your CwB VST scan to update. worked fine and so far no issues with the plugins (i've used/tested about 20 or so).

i was able to vote - you need to use the search field below each topic. then select from the list. if you use "Cakewalk" then Cakewalk by Bandlab comes out first on the list... you do need to sign into KVR to vote...

perhaps something inspirational. could just be an advertisement for roofing companies...

something fun to make up lyrics to. write your own. remember halloween is just around the corner. or perhaps the upcoming election is scarier?

wE'RE gOING tO dIE-Bus A.mp3

also, if you updated to v12 recently, you'll need to install them and authorize them. simply selecting update on the Waves site will not do it and it will move your licenses back on the license cloud...

couple of quick checks - anti-virus excludes CbB? no Google BackUp or OneDrive (etc) cloud sync on your audio folder? both of these can easily cause problems when you have files and temp files constantly changing... i turn off all syncing and have my AV (Defender) exclude CbB EXE (which in turn ignores the associated files in use by that process)

along those lines of cloud storage - i have the OneDrive and Google Drive clouds set up on my disks, but i only synchronize the project content into those directories so the cloud services don't mess with active files. then once i finish my project work, running the FreeSync app mirrors the new/updated content into the folders and i let the background cloud sync processes go to work... since it's mainly deltas once the new content is uploaded, the sync to cloud only take a few minutes. i think 1TB of OD and 1TB of GD are about $18/month total. really old stuff (>10 years) i just keep on removable drives stored away...

3 hours ago, Teegarden said:

I assume you refer to this review Admiral Bumblebee Cakewalk review which is two years old...He doesn't include CbB in his current DAW comparison charts. Many of the issues have been improved since. Anyway, a good list of topics for the bakers to check what still could be improved from that list!

i think that besides some OS bias, the review is quite good, and he's not wrong - the previous owners of cakewalk desires to market things, and simultaneously restrain the development team, has resulted in playing catchup for modern producers. His comparisons to other products should help jumpstart the team's ideas for next generation capability, i imagine that @Noel Borthwick has already read this review and talked to the CbB product owners about a roadmap 🙂 

ultimately 2.1 - it's really only a stereo field L-R. the center LFE channel is unused in my work and so, translation on other devices will require the same due diligence as any stereo output - masking, phase, etc all need to be checked. there are a number of ambisonic-style plugins which would provide a means of changing spatial relationships but the risks to stereo-only devices is effectively the same... https://www.ambisonic.net/

may use the surround features? i like to use a 2.1 surround setup where the LFE is ignored. this way all tracks and busses going into a surround buss can have their width, depth, etc positioned. for example - i have a mono or stereo track feeding into a stereo buss, the separate busses feed into a surround "instruments". i could simple for from the track to the instruments buss to directly position it or add another buss (if say i have a pairs of acoustic guitars left and right comped which also need positioning in the surround space). tweaking the HF to changes it's apparent vertical position...

yeah, there are a lot of challenges to versioning...  (ignore the DAW specific bits)

http://www2.grammy.com/PDFs/Recording_Academy/Producers_And_Engineers/PTGuidelines.pdf

https://www.grammy.com/sites/com/files/delivery_recommendations_for_recorded_music_projects_final_09_27_18.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Naming_conventions_(music)

https://musicbiz.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/MusicMetadataStyleGuide-MusicBiz-FINAL2.0.pdf

https://www.grammy.com/sites/com/files/folder_definitions.pdf

couple more:

https://www2.grammy.com/PDFs/Recording_Academy/Producers_And_Engineers/DAWGuidelineShort.pdf

http://aesnashville.org/PDFs/NARAS/DAWGuidelines-OneSheets_v1.pdf

https://www.waves.com/ways-to-better-organize-your-daw-mixing-sessions

tracking worksheet:

http://aesnashville.org/PDFs/NARAS/Session-Doc.pdf

you practically need someone acting as a librarian and archivist to manage this 🙂 just in case all the engineering and creative duties aren't enough 😉 

that said, i think in these links are some really decent ideas which if condensed for the "small guy", could be useful and made consistent enough for a broad base of people to collaborate without going nuts (or too late for that? lol)

On 9/10/2020 at 10:16 AM, paulo said:

If I were the mixer, I think I'd start the next mix by dropping the Dim Pro vocals - not really working for me.  Press that mute button and it's already better.

thanks! my "vocalist" is there as the antagonist, so she can sing out of key and make people uncomfortable even if she's a vocal snippet!  LOL

thanks to all on the feedback, like the green goblin, i took it back to formula to get the levels adjusted...

49 minutes ago, DeeringAmps said:

Maybe its just my ears, but I feel like the eq on the master isn't right; maybe a bit more "air" on top and some
gentle broad cut 1k-2k maybe? or lower?

The rhythm guitar seems to dominate and live in its own space. I'd try and tie it all together a bit more.

Just my nickel98, take it with a grain of salt....

tom

thanks! the lead in the early parts is deliberately muted in the HF and volume as it's supposed to be backing the vocal (to be recorded). agreed, the rhythm is a bit high - i'll probably add some additional instrumentation to blend it all better, right now it's only 5 tracks total...

On 10/1/2020 at 1:59 PM, scook said:

The audio signal from a soft synth and a pre-fader patch point have the same routing (cf. the signal flow diagram).

 

one thing i noticed - the surround panner is missing in the diagram on the surround section box... probably needs an update... @Noel Borthwick 🙂

http://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=Cakewalk&language=3&help=Mixing.07.html

versioning like this:

or perhaps more granular using "mix scenes"?

or some combination of the two?

depending on the material, you could use the "process effects" to shorten the length of selected notes (say you have 20 notes) and reduce by 50% (etc) to eliminate an overlap (esp for percussion, bass, and triggered effects) where the shorten length is not obvious for impacting the sounds.

i have the UMC1820 - it's very nice and the drivers support pretty low (6ms roundtrip) latency although for mixing you would want that way higher. preamps are good, and has decent headphone levels. it can extend to an ADA8200 8ch using the ADAT optical, and i'm using a optical to RCA (cheap on Amazon) to output the optical SPDIF clock to my internal 1010LT and 66 cards. i can't run all 20ch or so using native drivers, but can using ASIO4ALL. i do wish they had the 8 XLR on the front though... currently i breakout the back panel XLR out using some low-Z over ethernet boxes i made, but it would make patching easier if they were on the front.

definitely recommend the UMC1820 for low cost and generally good performance.