User 905133

Interesting. It sounds like you found another solution!! The important thing is that you have a custom Workspace that works for your workflow and takes into account all your other UI elements (and your three monitors). Congrats!!

I saw your post and wondered what you meant by hidden--unavailable to Cakewalk, collapsed, covered up by something else (such as other tabs in the MultiDock), etc. When I was teaching myself how to use Workspaces, I created a minimalist Workspace--one with the least number of views possible. From what I can see, the Browser functionality is required. "No Views" Workspace: Collapsed Browser: So, if you want Cakewalk to have no Browser functionality, I am not sure you can make that happen. But I'm wondering if by hidden, you mean collapsed. However, if you mean totally not visible when you switch to a Workspace, I wonder how you tried to hide the Browser via a Workspace. For what its worth, I have a Workspace without even a collapsed Browser showing. It seems I docked the Browser in the MultiDock and then Xed the Browser tab before creating the Workspace. That Workspace was a full screen Console View on a single monitor, but to verify the method works, I took that Workspace, put the Console View at the top and the Track View at the bottom. Then I hit B to toggle the Browser's visibility, docked it in the MultiDock, Xed it out, and then created a new Workspace and saved it with the name "No Browser." There might be other methods, too. Caveat: sometimes things work on my PC that others can't do (and vice versa), but maybe this method will give you what you want--a Workspace such that when you select it, it doesn't even have a collapsed Browser. FWIW, I had everything in the "Load from Workspace" section checked, but it should also work if I have Theme unchecked.

Thanks for the reply. It actually happened again, several times. It is a legacy VSTi (E-Mu's Emulator X, version 3). It used to get successfully inserted most of the time (90%) and worked flawlessly each time it was successfully inserted. Approx. 10% of the time I would get a notification that it needed to be reactivated from the standalone version, but I would usually just reboot Cakewalk, insert it again, and it would work (that is, without re-activating it). So, I will try a few more things--running the standalone version, reinstalling it, checking vstscan.log for possible issues, etc.

In-app update with an open project and using Download Now -> Show Folder -> updating from the shown folder was uneventful (went smoothly) while pretending this was my first time updating from within the app. Note: The following is from an expected VSTi crash. However, either there is no "No" option in the crash dialog, or the dialog needs a way to scroll down to see it. On second thought, maybe the "Preview" button is really the "No" button since pressing it closed the crash dialog and Cakewalk. UPDATE: Not sure why I got the above in the crash dialog the first time, but it was corrected on a second crash:

Nicely done!! I know my front lawn garden attracts all sorts of pollinators, including many different types of bees. Not sure if any of them are honey bees, though. Different types of bees (and wasps, too) seem to prefer different flowers. Your video has inspired me to do some research to try to find which flowers are favored by honey bees!!! UPDATE: That was easy! It seems that they like Echinacea, Black-Eyed Susans, Sunflowers (all of which I do have).

There may be other methods, but one way is to use Workspaces. For example, here are the Console View Modules for the same project using different custom Workspaces: [images deleted since the OP mean the Control Bar, not the Console; see below] Another option might be to select "None" as your Workspace. There are probably other alternatives.

Just a footnote in case you are ever interested in more than using IRs to simulate the acoustics of an amp/cabinet. A few years ago simulated IRs were used live in a performance space to reproduce as much as possible the acoustic space of the legendary Cistern in the State of Washington. Yes, I know its beyond the scope of a primer, but some people interested in using IRs might find it interesting. There's a basic, non-technical description of how it was done in the press release for Pauline Oliveros' 80th Birthday Celebration.

Yesterday I started sketching some ideas for a new tune. As I have done before, one-by-one I inserted a new software synth and immediately split the track so I could input some midi data (via a usb keyboard). I didn't notice any new issues, but am willing to give it a try if I have some steps that don't work the way they used to. Having started out with Cakewalk for MS-DOS and having used MIDI tracks routed to hardware synth modules, I find that having separate midi tracks and routing them to soft synths is about as basic as you can get. However, I can understand with all the changes over the years it can be a proverbial thorn in side to keep the original functionality and at the same time integrate new complexities. If you want to get rid of split tracks, can you please do it in such a way that preserves the ability to create MIDI tracks (just as we have always been able to do), the ability to route them to (a) hardware, (b) software, and (c) both hardware and software, the ability to have MIDI data play and record software and hardware synths that generate audio, the ability to control audio FX and MIDI FX, etc. Thanks.

I have used the Install Now option, it works for me, and it works consistently for me. There are many things in Cakewalk that can be a problem if people don't pay attention to what they are doing (e.g., pressing buttons with hands on auto pilot--brain not engaged). If the goal is to make Cakewalk "newbie-proof," maybe instead of getting rid of the "Install Now" option, there could be an overt warning that the project has been changed instead of relying users' keen power of observations (the asterisk).

First of all, there are several distinct processes here. None of my observations pertain to the Open Folder option. As for the Download Now / Install Now option, FWIW I ran through a number of partial in-app update cycles on my laptop this morning. I got consistent results. When a project was not changed and I used the in-app update process, after after doing download and then install from the blue toaster message dialog, Cakewalk closed itself and started to update. (Note: to do several test runs, I said "No," to the UAC dialog.) However, when a project was changed,** Cakewalk did not close itself, but instead gave me the "close app" dialog. [**for this test, I added an audio track] I can see where there can be some confusion though if users don't pay attention to what they are doing. I only did it twice, but when I switched Workspaces, that did not cause the project to change (i.e., no asterisk denoting a change after the name of the file) and I did not get the "close app" dialog. Since the Workspace currently used when Cakewalk closes gets saved (but not as part of the project), that could confuse someone into thinking that a project was messed up. Again, I am not claiming any of this is a bug. The choices made by what I consider to be a smart algorithm make sense to me. However, it might not be "newbie proof."

If this is a response to my comment, I am not prepared to say it is bug or not. I would leave that up to the devs. I just reported my observations. It is possible there are some set of circumstances that trigger the dialog and some circumstances that don't trigger it. I did not do my usual testing of various scenarios to be able to narrow down the conditions. It might be that some of the times I got the "close the app" dialog were with the in-app update function AND I had a project loaded. At least two times I did not have the dialog when I updated from a fresh boot of Cakewalk. I do not doubt that your first experience with the in-app update happened and it caused you issues, and that you learned a lesson. BTW, there was a point where it seemed all my in-app/toaster message update efforts were met with the "close the app" dialog. Personally, if the developers have built-in some smarts (enough to know whether or not it is safe to just close, install, update, and restart when I choose "Install now," I wouldn't not consider that a flaw, though I understand the two different paths can be confusing. I have had plenty of hardware and some software that "knows" if some state exists and either proceeds or gives a dialog/warning based on that state. To be clear, if you had a project loaded and had changed it in some way, and the in-app updater did not detect the change, that would certainly indicate a flaw to me.

Footnote: Sometimes the download/update process will close Cakewalk and Cakewalk will install/restart. Other times it will give a "close the app" dialog prompt. I assume that this can be confusing to some people. But I inferred (rightly or wrongly) that the process was smart and detected whether or not it was safe to update/reboot.

@Noel Borthwick Thanks for the improvements. Looking forward to going back to my own system of friendly names but now with the L|R|L+R feature. BUT: See addendum. Thanks also to @John T for starting this thread and to everyone who addressed these issues both here and in the Early Access thread. ADDENDUM (2021-07-14): Unfortunately there is no going back--Cakewalk insists on not allowing users to use the port names of their choice. In case its not obvious, although the automatic port numbering as a prefix is gone, there's now an automatic suffix added.

Solved?

Until the element in the base theme is fixed, can you tweak it? ** I seem to recall The lines are part of the image where I painted the colors here: Here: I doubt you can get the data perfectly centered this way, but maybe the off-centeredness of the BPM can be minimized with an optical illusion. **On second thought (based on some tests), the placement of the data seems to be so far off, no amount of custom editing can create the illusion of being centered.

I did not think it came across in any sort of negative way. From all the posts I have read, you come across to me as very respectful of others. So, this: was also intended as being respectful (not sarcastic or negative in any way).

Hmmmmm. The way you worded it, the OP makes sense (what the request is for, that is). Since the record meters show what is coming into Cakewalk, a post-gain record meter wouldn't change the recording. So, I assume the concern is about Mixing. If so, wouldn't placing any metering plug-in as the first plug-in in the FX Rack reflect the results of the gain fader but not the volume fader? (I just tested it with Boost 11 (as an example) and the input meter is post gain even with the Boost 11 Power Button set to Off. )

You had to mention The Mothers!!! Now "Status Back Baby" is stuck in my head. ||: Doo dooo, doo dooo, doo dooo, doo dooo, doo dit' dih doooooooo :|| etc.

I have zero experience with EW Play sounds, but if they don't have a way to detune the pianos, but they do respond to MIDI PB, perhaps you can insert a small PB at the start of the 1/4-tuned track (assuming you don't use PB within the music itself). Never mind, I just found a manual for EW Pianos on line. Not only do they not use scale files, they do not have "control codes" for PB. Its a long shot, but a 2008 article at Sweetwater mentions an Advanced Properties window. Also, an online Play 6 Manual references a Tune Knob. Not sure if you can do that with your version of Play and those specific pianos, but maybe. BTW, the manual I found does reference PB in a section on "Different MIDI Modes." Good luck with that.

I can relate--I have aging eyes!!! I have even started to use Microsoft's built-in magnifier!!! My fingers already know the open and close short-cuts without my brain having to step them through it!!!

Is the display set to anything larger than 100%?

Possibly a typo: Start screen, maybe?

My bad, I called them FX bins, not the FX Rack. The alto sax is an Eb instrument; the tenor is a Bb instrument so the transpositions would be different. I never played the baritone sax, but the internet says it also uses the treble clef (and is also an Eb instrument).

For a fuller discussion of this issue, see

I think this problem and alternative solutions provides a good example of a number of things. To help sort things out for myself, I broke down the method that I used yesterday (which worked--one of several possible solutions) and tried to make a visual representation that supplements the discussion of options, midi flow, etc. both in this thread and the second thread the OP created. (I elongated the final note in the C major scale example to illustrate the result of the Transpose MFX plug-in on both (1) the chord analyzer MFX plug-in [midi data coming from the FX bin FX Rack in the midi track] and (2) MeldaProduction's MTuner plug-in [audio data coming from the FX bin FX Rack in the TTS-1 soft synth track]. Track 1 has a series of three MFX plug-ins. The first chord analyzer shows the midi data before the transposition (Transpose MFX). The second chord analyzer shows the midi data after the transposition. So, the C played in Track 1 gets transposed to an Eb [aka D#]. The staff view of track 1 stays the same (the C Major scale example). The MTuner plug-in in Track 3 's FX bin FX Rack shows that the audio for that sustained C is played as an Eb/D#. If this helps, great. If not, just pretend you never saw this.