Will.

Hey team. 

I've been extremely busy lately, currently working on a project for radio. I was playing around the Mono and Stereo button, also creating my own stereo channel with two patch channel going into a third as a single channel. This give me the option to - not only create a stereo to mono field but it also acts as a width field, which sounds awesome. It's a method i use a lot. 

This got me thinking - what if we split the mono/stereo button into two separate mono buttons with each having its own pan knob underneath it on one individual channel/track? Now, I know this sounds like the "pro tools" Mono/Stereo Concept, but with the' two seperate buttons and their pan knobs, it acts as a width/widening effect too, and more control. 

It will allow you to take a mono track and pan it 20%L and 20%R (creating a Width effect on mono tracks) or Hard left and Hard right creating a stereo track. 

Concept: 

Two individual left and right Button/Knobs for Mono to Stereo and two pan Knobs to isolate the channels in each field. 

😕Don't know if I am painting this idea fluently right now. It's in my head though. 😐

Let's brainstorm. 

On 8/11/2020 at 6:51 PM, TH said:

1. After update, Cakewalk fails to fully launch.  Worked fine prior to update.   
   Instead, it starts to launch, displays the usual app screen, checks for plugins, identifies the usual, then the app closes completely. 
   It doesn't appear in task manager.
   Until I resolve this,  I'm totally dead in the water... So, any ideas are greatly appreciated. 

2. When I attempt to launch from BandLab assistant, the same thing happens - but the initial app screen freezes and a Windows error notification is displayed: 
   Access error. Bandlab Assistant can not open C:\program files\cakewalk\cakewalk core\cakewalk.exe,  Try to run app as an administrator

3. If I attempt to launch Cakewalk from app folder above in 2 as Administrator the same thing happens listed in 1 above. I am the admin for the laptop

4. I refreshed activation - no change
    
5. I changed name of folders for 3rd party Plugins to remove paths from cakewalk configuration - no change 
    
6. Rebooted after each change listed  above  before each attempt to re-launch - resulting no change
    
7. I completely uninstalled Cakewalk  (through the BandLab assistant), then BandLab Assistant and and related programs through Windows Apps, then rebooted, and reinstalled Bandlab Assistant, Cakewalk, and other programs, rebooted again, no change. Exact same outcomes

Win 10 Home 2004 19041.388
Dell XPS 15 9570 - on TB16 Dock
Intel Core i7-8750 CPU 2.20GHz
Ram 32 GB
Presonus AudioBox USB 96
Launchkey 49 MK2
Voicemeeter Banana

 

Just update all your windows Netframe - especially the "3.5" version. 

2: Disable your anti-virus and see if the problem remains. 

3: Try moving all your plugins folders out from Cakewalk. There could be an old VST causing your problem - especially those that was compatible with "platinium" such as "Concrete Limiter, L-phase plugs, some of those old 32bit channel CA-2A compressor? I promise you now it's not Cakewalk. 

Third day working 5 hours straight, each one -  works fine so far. No annoying audio dropouts - that's the first thing I always check for.  Every other update -- awesome stuff. 

Great job. 👌

On 7/23/2020 at 8:45 PM, Morten Saether said:

Classic Creative Suite audio effects

The Classic Creative Suite is made up of powerful and easy to use Cakewalk effects including Alias Factor, Classic Phaser, Compressor/Gate, HF Exciter, Modfilter, Multivoice Chorus/Flanger, Para-Q, and Tempo Delay.

 

Channel Tools plug-in

The Channel Tools plug-in provides easy and powerful channel processing for gain, Mid-Side decoding, delay and stereo panning.

Channel Tools is ideal for enhancing and adjusting stereo separation for stereo tracks and full mixes.

 

Great to have these visible again. 👌

Awesome seeing the Channel Tool again. Would love to see an update on the UI's of these though. It's extremely hard to use them from a far on a bigger screen/monitor. 

Maybe a resize option for now on all UI's?

Great job on the updates team.👍

On 7/24/2020 at 9:43 AM, reevant said:

Well I spoke too soon.  It worked for about 30 minutes or so.  Then it froze, went belly up and now I cannot get a Vienna Smart Orchestra to work.  It might play a few bars the crashes Cakewalk big time.  It seem to actually lockup my pc for a minute or two.

Strange. It works fine by me. 

Disable your firewall, reinstall it and see how that works.

Try these steps too. 

2 hours ago, Josh Wolfer said:

Film sound. When I'm working on music production, 6dB is fine. 

On fx tracks I have to muck with the gain in all sorts of extremes. And for Dialogue, on intimate scenes I may have to boost really quiet breaths to an unnatural level in order to make them sit with the scene intensity. 

I do all sorts of leveling with clip gain. 

Oh -yeah! I see your frustration now.

9 hours ago, Josh Wolfer said:

This is exactly the work flow I'd like. Exact same thing as Adobe Audition. I'm getting use to the selection and drag method in the second response, but it's still messy. And still limited by +6dB gain. I find that when I'm really working with film sound editing, there are many times that I need to boost a portion upwards of 12dB, so I end up dragging it up to 6dB, bouncing the clip, and then doing it again. It's just not efficient. 

And of course when I bounce it, I'm committing all the other clip gain changes. Which makes me start having to split the clip into multiple sections as to just affect the portion I want to, which then leaves split clips everywhere. It's a lot of added chaos for which there is an easier solution

I on the other hand find the +6db boost to be just fine for me. I never go above +4db boost, well that I can think of ever done - probably has to do with my mic placements.  

Why don't you try and cut the desired section, normalize it or gain by +6 than boost it with Automation. It's never good to boost higher than +6db, but than again - I don't know your setup and of course preferences.  What I can advice is, try to  keep it within the "humanize" spectrum, like a +3 or even +6db less than what you prefer to have set. Let the compressor with Automation on it balance things out for you with a human feel by not boosting that high?  ✌️

I still think this needs a slider or knob popping up on the area selected, instead of the dragging down method.  

On 7/17/2020 at 6:02 PM, razor7music said:

Yes, I'm an IT professional by day, but thanks for the clarification. I think that will help folks reading your post that aren't familiar with the difference. Personally, I don't want Windows downloading an update while I'm working on a project, so I do the updates manually.

What are the current thoughts on ver 1909 working well with CbB? Ver 2004 seems to have some high bar hardware requirements to install. My DAW didn't pass, so I don't have to worry about that one.

Thanks for the post.

With 1909 there were a lot of issues with Windows 10 updates running Cakewalk. Most older vsts constantly required you to a dotNET update manually. throughout the entire build of 1909 - which still remains a flaw in the build itself.

The 2004 for me personally? I find it to be heavily hungry on CPU and RAM, which also requires a 32 GB hard drive space alone for installation. So, you need to run an i3 5th gen' or higher to eliminate some of that sluggishness it will bring if you have a less powerful machine. I've been a program insider for Microsoft since 2016. Visually wise, the 2004 is great with fewer issues than 1909.

Which brings me to say, Cakewalk ran it's best on the 1809 build of windows. I didn't have any problems with it - also probably because I didn't find any problems with that version build of windows.  

I also have to add - I was doing all BETA testing on an H81M Msi motherboard, i7 3rd gen CPU, with 8GB ram before I did all necessary updates or upgrades on my studio machine to CbB and Windows. Since I bought this machine 3 years ago, I had to get an extra 8 GB just for the 2004 to run slightly smoother on the "BETA TESTING" machine. 

Thoughts: 

1909 build: Irritably flawed! I've reverted back to 1809 on my studio machine running Cakewalk before the new 2004 build was launched.

2004 build: Highly recommended! I find the 2004 build to have eliminated the use of "Jbridge" on certain plugins being used in Cakewalk. 

With all this being said. Certain outdated hardware attached also leads you to run problems. Therefore always update your equipment drivers too, before doing updates.

I'm running Windows 10 2004 build on my studio machine with Cakewalk 2020.09 update without any problems so far. 

9 hours ago, razor7music said:

Hmm. Not sure all the major W10 updates will play nice with CbB. I typically wait until I've read comments from this community before I do major W10 updates.

Well, there's a difference between a "Major upgrade" and a recommended cumulative update of your current windows build - not so? 😑   

Update and Upgrade (aka "Major") see the difference? We upgrade to a newer version and "update" a current build version you're running - meaning, if you're current version is 1903 you'll constantly be doing updates. If you want the new 2004 version of W10, that's an upgrade.  

On 7/14/2020 at 5:51 PM, MikePal said:

So now I am back-with the same M-Audio interface with an updated 64bit driver for use in my Win 10 PC with 16 GB ram 

 

 

The M-Audio interface, is your "sound card." Just plug it into a USB port on the computer you're owning now. No need to reach for your pockets to buy an extra unnecessary Pc/Mac at all! Just download Cakewalk - it's literally all you need. 

Ps: Windows 10 should pick up your drivers by itself. If not - update your windows drivers and cumulative updates. I'm stressing on "dotNet3.5." This version of Net frames seem to be a highly important to most hardware and plugins. Think of it as a "Jbridge."  

3 hours ago, Nigel Mackay said:

Matrix is meant for live performance. You initiate columns as and when you feel like it. You go with the flow.

I hear you. This is where I find the Arranger to be more advanced. I've been close to 4weeks at it hours at a time and found that the "Arranger" for me works best. 

I can easily draw in crossfaders/envelopes, automation, effects and so much more "LIVE" with the arranger than the Matrix and this is what's confusing to me. 😢

For me they're same. I don't know, maybe I need to watch more video's on the Matrix to understand it deeper.

Hope to get a more light on this here too. 

Hey family, how is everybody doing?

"Question time" and this is making me feel stupid, but first . . . 

Recently I have taking some time of mixing to spend more time with the family. Well, my hand was forced anyhow - by taking full advantage of the pandemic, unless it's a really important client. This led me to start plying around in the MATRIX window, which I don't normally do - and the newly ARRANGER window. 

QUESTION: Aren't they the same thing, with one just being more flexible and advanced ("Arranger") replacing the other one? 

On 7/9/2020 at 4:27 AM, tonemangler said:

Hello all, with the latest update does OVox Vocal ReSynthesis by Waves now work within Cakewalk? I wanted to buy the latest version of OVox when it first came out but there was a disclaimer on the Waves site that said it caused Cakewalk by BandLab to crash. In the release notes of the latest Cakewalk update it states that the issue was fixed, but I just wanted to know if anyone has successfully used OVox within Cakewalk.  Also, I read in a post somewhere that the Melodyne 5 update caused a Cakewalk project to crash, however it seems to me that that was an isolated incident, unless others have had the same problem? Thanks for any info on the topic.

Once you have all recommended updates of your windows build installed, it should runs smooth. It was never a CbB issue - but a windows update issue, especially not having the dotnet3.5 installed. 

To help you with some other issues - go here. 

https://discuss.cakewalk.com/index.php?/topic/16404-solving-known-issues-please-try-this/

Guy's let's not turn this thread into a political debate about plugins - please.

Keep the peace. Begging. 

13 hours ago, Trensharo said:

You may like cheese, but I'm pretty sure you will choose gourmet over commodity if both were offered to you.

 

 

Lol! Why would you insist and assume that we have the same taste in food, when I've already said we have different taste in "cars, food and clothing."🤣 That will always be the reality.  I love the Sonitus delay, you dont - AKA  "different taste." Every mixing engineer has it's own taste in plugins. I'm not agreeing, nor am I disagreeing on the free plugins. Reason for that is . . . There is better plugins, but than there's not too. Again, it's about taste. 

15 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

I stand corrected! Thank you.

For some of the reasons both you and I have stated: in many categories there are plenty of free and cheap alternatives, so why not when they get the job done? Someone downloads Cakewalk and wants to start right in working with it, they have some very good tools to work with that may look a little dowdy. If they or their clients are discerning enough to care about the UI, they are discerning enough to download other plug-ins to use in their place. Nobody forces anyone to use the stock plug-ins with the UI's open while paying clients watch.

Also, some of the functions they perform are still not so common, such as the surround compressor and surround panner/encoder. Feature-wise, W.A. recently put out something called the Sphere Compressor that has a very similar feature set to the Sonitus Compressor.

Since you are so adamant that many better free and cheap alternatives exist, and I love free and cheap plug-ins, please turn me on to some of your favorite freeware 5-band multiband compressors, surround compressors, surround panner/encoders, and 6-band versatile EQ's. Even a "far superior" delay would be welcome.

Although I think AIR's keyboards and synths are good bargains when I can get them for under $20, I am much less impressed with their FX. Last week I tried a trial of their Vocalizer Pro, which attempts to emulate a classic vocoder but is lacking in a couple of crucial features. First, it can't do the basic vocoder task of accepting an external carrier (you can only use its internal synth), second, despite appearing quite feature-packed and complex, it has no manual. Whatsoever. I am now patiently waiting for the trial to expire so that I can hide its existence from my iLok control panel. The UI was pretty, though, it looked better than a Las Vegas casino at night.

I'm also quite interested to read or watch some of those consistently mediocre "particularly in more recent times" reviews of the Sonitus fx suite because I'm relatively new to the Cakewalk scene and apparently didn't get those memos.

I'll direct you to a couple of articles written about them just a year ago in Sound on Sound by Craig Anderton:

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/cakewalk-sonitus-effects

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/cakewalk-sonitus-plug-suite

And a video by Scott of Chernobyl Studios, who is well-known for pulling no punches when he has something critical to say about Cakewalk:

 

@Starship Krupa Try out the TL - 64 -Tube leveler on vocals and tell us what you think about it. Try all 3 hidden plugins. 

Lazy to type now so I will drop a link on how to get them, if you haven't got them open yet. I think it's the first 3mins of the video.

On 7/8/2020 at 8:24 AM, Trensharo said:

 

On 7/8/2020 at 8:24 AM, Trensharo said:

I would not use Sonitus Delay, when you can get free Delays that are far superior for literally nothing.  I consider that decreasing the quality of my work for no good reason.

 

The thing with this statement is . . . If it gives you a better feel of a 80's chorus effect and depth on drums, vocals or guitars with a second reverb, chorus and delay within your chain - why wouldn't you want to use them? I mean, mixing goes both ways. What sounds "ugly and degraded" can sound pleasing to the listeners ears, and what sounds "clean and beautiful not so pleasing." There's no right or wrong way in sound creation - only taste. We all have different taste in food, clothing, and cars. 

23 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

If they got a UI update and were included in VST64 form (which we know already exists, because they used to sell the package separately for $19.99), then that's another incentive to download and try CbB. It would come with a dozen or so FX and instruments that could be used in any DAW (and would have Cakewalk branding).

This is another reason to why I think this need to be considered, other then "clients asking unnecessary questions all the time."  Generating capital and gaining users, it's every brands number 1 rule. So, I'm sticking with my request -- a facelift will be a benefit. I think you've phrased it very well. @Starship Krupa

4 hours ago, reginaldStjohn said:

Probably better asked in https://discuss.cakewalk.com/index.php?/forum/8-feedback-loop/ forum.

How do I move this thread to there?

It is in the feedback loop forum. 🤔

2 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

Funny, isn't it? The same clients would probably think it's totally awesome if you had a 50-year-old hardware compressor racked up, or a similar vintage guitar or drum kit in the studio. But software processors with a 20-year-old UI are yucky.

This is so true. I never understand the concept of it, because no one question the PT. stock plugins.  I use the Tube Leveler on lead vocals often, The Vocal strip VX 64 for it's Deesser and Doubler  effect. There's a come back in a few genre's making their way up the charts again the past couple years . . . and that's the "Mid 80's" Pop, Rock and Disco Vibe,  the others include the 90's RnB, HipHop and House/electro-house (The Daft punk Vibe) with a modern feel.  So these plugins come in handy to bring out that feel. 

How is everyone doing? 

This tread will be on a long forgotten item and request on the stock Sonitus plugins. Can we get a new modern look on it? It is still great plugins, although many might feel otherwise. I still use the Compressor, Phase and Delay on an everyday mix. I use the Sonitus compressor first in my fx chain, followed by other manufactory/brand plugins with a favorite compressor at the end of my chain -- to create a limiting effect on Vocals. I use the Sonitus delay 80% in all my mixes to create a chorus effect on guitars, vocals and snare drums, or to give the drums that slap room effect. Reason why I'm requesting an update to its UI - clients keep asking me why am I using old plugins in their projects. Now I have to explain to them, the why and the "what feel/sound" I get from using them. They still sound great. It is just really embarrassing to keep getting asked that question.  

So please, can we get that make-over to it and bring them to a modern look? 🤞

W. 

I'm writing this thread to help anyone with some system problems especially our veterans. I've read all over the site how users struggle with some issue's directly related to CbB and others not. So here's a few tricks and tips to help.

1: Try to keep your system up-to-date every week. Windows 10 has a scheduler build-in for you to set this feature automatically. 

 2: Download all recommended cumulative Visual C++ (especially and i'm stressing, "dotNet3.5") updates for your windows build manually. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hjoOnybmpg

New Netframe Available: Download latest Netframe 5.0.2 here

Best Solution: Download the "All-in-one Runtimes" pack here. https://www.itechtics.com/net-framework-versions-offline-installers/

3:  How to check your windows build for windows 10 users: Go to your search bar, type in "WINVER" and press enter. This will pop up a little window with your current windows version.
For "windows 7" users: Go start and type in "CMD" or check out this link    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmiMXHsziPo

4:  Download and install your motherboard's "Live Updater" app from your manufacture's website. Go to their website and search for "Live Update app" trust me, this will help you tremendously - if not solving all your problems.  

5: Make sure you have the recommended system specification, to run CbB fluently. 

6: Make sure all your plugins are compatible and that all your analog gear drives are up-to-date. 

7:  Check your system for faulty hardware and disks. Optimize your hard drive and if possible - upgrade to an SSD disk. The faster your hard drive is, the fewer issues you'll have. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toLYV7th0L8

8: Check all your USB hubs. This might seems unrelated, but it does affect your system's performance. Especially if it's not plugged into the correct port. Make sure USB 2.0 hubs are plugged into the 2.0 ports, and all your USB 3.0-speed hubs/devices are connected to your 3.0 ports. 

9: Try not to use the color tracks if you don't have enough RAM or at least a 5th Generation CPU or higher installed, as this consumes a lot of graphics and characters causing known and unknown performance issues within the DAW. 

10:  Try and render/bounce every virtual instrument track to a waveform before mixing. Use oversampling only when you're happy and satisfied with the end result of your mix.
Some of these tips and tricks might be outside your systems capabilities, especially if you are still running windows 7, with the new Cakewalk Updates from 2020. 04 and later.

Unfortunately how this works is as follow. When ever windows release a new update, does not matter which DAW you use - it has to keep up with windows update. What worked in a previous release might not be compatible with the new update. It's engine constantly has to be altered/modified/update to stay fluently working or at least lessor problematic with the new Windows update. Though this being said - feedback from users is always helpful and that is why it is highly recommended to keep the "User Analytics" box ticked under preferences. 

I hope this will help a lot of users. I also want to say I don't work for Bandlab - I'm a user like everyone else. It just happened to be that I have dealt with some of these problems some time ago in the past, and have found some recommended solutions that works.  

W. ✌️

2 hours ago, Noel Borthwick said:

@Marc Bleuwart This is not normal behavior. How large is the project? Can you share the project file with us so we can try and reproduce this?
When this happens do you lose mouse control - i,e can you continue to open menus in Cakewalk etc or is it just the transport that is blocked? 
Do you have console view open?

On 6/15/2020 at 2:24 PM, Marc Bleuwart said:

Hello,
I don't know if this issue is specific to 2020.05 version, but I encountered this  bug:
When track pane is horizontally zoomed to the max, and project is playing, User Interface become unresponsive and it is impossible to stop playback, nor by the keyboard, nor by mouse.
This is not project specific, the only way to stop playback is to wait the end of project or to kill cakewalk application by the task manager.

Kind regards, Marc.
 

@Marc Bleuwart This could be due CPU overload. Out of virtual memory, over sampling, a plugin that is not compatible, slowing down your system (iZotope, Lurssen) or windows update issue. I can't stress this enough - I've literally had this issue before. 

On 6/14/2020 at 2:17 AM, msmcleod said:

This might actually be a thing...  I recently upgraded from an i5 to the equivalent i7 on my "bedroom" desktop.  This PC is completely up to date with 1909 updates (2004 won't install, but that's another issue....)

Now my Studio PC is an exact clone of this machine (even down to cloning the BIOS chips so they have the same serial nos), but I've not cloned the drives for a month.

I upgraded my Studio PC to an i7 this afternoon, but haven't yet imaged the drives with the new updates, and the difference in UI performance is very noticeable - i.e. the Studio PC is much more sluggish than my other PC.

 

To give you even a more greater experience, download your Motherboards "live updater app" from the manufactures website and update your drivers through it as well. I'm a "Program Insider" for windows, so I'm running the 2004 build before it's released to the public. It's a bit heavy on CPU and RAM - This you can actually feel. Something I have never experienced before, and I'm talking about slow or sluggish, it literally feels heavy.