User 905133

I know you said you are " . . . not interested in addressing or having feedback . . . ." However, you do not seem to be just writing notes for yourself, you are proclaiming what you think is wrong with Cakewalk in a public forum. Perhaps I am the only one customizing Cakewalk's visual elements to accommodate a vision impairment, but for me the Theme Editor is a blessing. Likewise, I have found the customizing abilities of Lenses very helpful in organizing Cakewalk workspaces--from very easy to see what's there (simple/basic) to cluttered, but I know where everything is (advanced). I have only recently started using the Theme Editor, but even with lowering my monitor's resolution (i.e., making everything bigger thereby taking up more space), I have found I can change the control bar to make it work for me. See examples below. For some people, tweaking track icons might be helpful. For others, different customizations might be helpful. For my eyes having the names of tracks based on type (MIDI, Audio, etc.) in different colors is more efficient.

Thanks for mentioning this plug-in. (Is it the one below?) I have never used it before, but I am wondering if it is "safe" to use in the new Cakewalk (on a 64-bit system)? [Are DX FX problematic and should not be used?] Thanks.

This thread was started in an attempt to find a solution for a specific set of circumstances. Is there a thread of a more general nature (here or elsewhere) to discuss such things as noise, noise floor, performance, etc. of MOBO sound chips, PCI sound cards, firewire and usb external audio devices, etc. (i.e., not opinions on specific devices, but more along the lines of (1) what to look for if changing/selecting audio devices and (2) factors to consider in deciding (a) to change and (b) to not change. 2 images showing approx -130db noise floor deleted from ancient post

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COZzsTwDghQ Chambers Brothers - Time Has Come Today [Decades before "More Cowbell" became a "meme!"]

TY for the retro-link.

Just to clarify: I had sent a PM. "I am assuming the suggestion of using separate tracks for your per track CC data didn't help." was a reference to that which I thought would elicit a public clarification. It didn't. My bad for mentioning that. It will be utterly confusing to anyone reading your reply if I try to reconstruct the whole interaction because the narrative will have overlapping time frames. So I will delete that from my post.

Non-Problem/Solution content and OT aside deleted

Having paid quite a bit over the years (multiple hundreds of USD, maybe more), this thread has made me realize that I need not be jealous of people who are now able to get Cakewalk for the cost of setting up an account, downloading the software, and updating it periodically--I have some wonderful softsynths and many FX plug-ins that I have acquired as part of my Cakewalk/SONAR purchases!! 🙂

Thanks for raising the issue. It prompted me to play around with the step sequencer to make make drum patterns. As a tool for entering midi data into tracks based on visually tidy measure/beat/step divisions, I can integrate it into my workflow. As you noted, it might not be the easiest tool to enter notes of different durations into a single track since that seems to require changing the number of steps for each different duration. Although the "traditional" method of music notation (staves, notes heads, stems, rests, etc.) is a few centuries old and some might say "outdated," it is somewhat logical and can be learned with a not-too-steep learning curve. However, to change note/rest durations in staff view, you would still need to change settings using the data entry tool. Sorry the step sequencer doesn't integrate well into your workflow., but I am glad you pointed me in its direction.

This might or might not be useful info to you; just thought I'd mention it in light of your comments. If you still have "ancient" *.wrk files, they should open in the current Cakewalk by BandLab (mine do). With SONAR a few years ago, I re-did some of my old midi -> hardware tunes. I tweaked them a little bit, including sending then to softsynths and re-orchestrating them. It should be the same with 2019's Cakewalk. As scook noted, BandLab--the web-based software--and Cakewalk by BandLab are presently two very different things. I for one am very glad SONAR/Cakewalk has been rescued from becoming orphaned / legacy software. I still have 8.5 and X3 on my current PC (Win 10), but have been enjoying updating my personal knowledge base along with reinventing old performance modalities and "ancient" tunes. Below: 1997 WRK File (MIDI) opened in 2019 Cakewalk [image from 3 years ago deleted to reclaim space]

Having started with Cakewalk for MS-DOS, having updated a number of times since then, and having stumbled onto the new and improved Cakewalk by BandLab in June, I am able to use almost all (if not all) of the Cakewalk plug-ins I purchased over the years. I have also been able to use many of the free plug-ins I have acquired. Some 32-bit plug-ins have been problematic. I had 8.5 and X3 installed on my current computer; so when I installed the current version of Cakewalk, those plug-ins successfully migrated properly. If you have the original media (CDs/DVDs/Downloads) that include 64-bit versions, from what I have seen others report, you can still install those. Fortunately for me, I still have hard copies of my serial numbers--including ones from before the older ones were migrated to the newer Cakewalk Command Center. Perhaps you printed out yours and still have them somewhere in case you no longer remember your password for the Command Center? Hope you can figure out a way to get your old plug-ins installed. I have really been impressed by the new Cakewalk software and the support that is available via the internet. Steve Addendum: By the way, one of my favorite plug-ins from ten-twelve years or so ago was the version of z3ta+ that included z3ta+ FX. I was very delighted to find that those (the synth and the FX plug-ins) successfully migrated to the new Cakewalk and were immediately available to me. So far, they have worked for me quite well. Again, hope you can get your old plug-ins working.

Different problem, then. In that case, recording the note data and looking at the midi events won't show anything useful. Thanks for clarifying.

reference to PM, additional question of clarification, and possible suggestions deleted

One source of stuck notes might be the midi data itself--e.g., sustain on with a missing sustain off, note durations that cause the note to hang, etc. If its still a problem and you haven't looked yet, possibly check Views > Event List.

First, congrats on solving this, at least in this case. Second, there is much value in undoing something and redoing it in order to try to trigger a reset/change! I learned this several months ago when trying to problem-solve an issue with the mysterious black box known as Windows Sound. The Windows Sound Troubleshooter could never find the problem, but sometimes just running the troubleshooter MIGHT solve the problem (not always). Flicking a switch turned out to be a much more consistent fix for the problem I was having--no need to power down, reboot anything, etc. Third, if there's an easy way to see what usb device is associated with what port, I'd be interested! (Something simpler and quicker than looking at the properties for each port and keeping a personal list of manufacturer ids, device ids, etc.

Question of clarification and possible options removed.

Not urgent; just thought it might be handy to have internet and file linking abilities from Note Browser. Thanks. [image from 3 years ago (showing the CbB Notes Browser with an internet resource and a local file) deleted to reclaim space] Reason for withdrawing feature request: In another thread, someone posted links to a couple of third-party note-taking tools that might be more useful than implementing the suggestion above. Also, there are other Cakewalk features, tweaks, improvements, etc. that would be more of a priority.

Update 2: I played around with all sorts of positional settings--floating, tiling, cascading, dragging, docking/undocking via via menus, screensets, lenses, full screen/F11, etc. and got stuck in a mode where the step sequencer was a separate window and any time I went to it, it occupied the entire workspace underneath the control bar. I think because the step sequencer was its own window, I could not dock it anywhere. Eventually, I got it back to the way it was when I first tried your steps, and it always seemed to remember when it was docked or undocked. Maybe someone with more experience than me can replicate the steps. (I learned quite a bit about the extreme flexibility we have in positioning stuff in our Cakewalk workspaces!)

I test drove the step sequencer years ago and have not used it since. Since your list of procedures is straight forward, I gave it a try--in part to refresh my memory about the step sequencer. I tried several things (such as locking the clip and locking the step sequencer. In all cases when I got to step 5, the step sequencer was undocked. Update: I was doing something wrong. On step 2, it did not open docked, so I manually docked it. Sorry, I am not familiar enough with the step sequencer to know how to make it dock on double clicking.

post removed; could have been misinterpreted

Very useful to know the subtractive debugging steps you used and how it led to your solution. Congrats on finding that.

After your post, I found MS XML Notepad. I was responding to the "one long string of data!" comment. I would not edit the file directly; for me the XML Editor is just a way to make sense of the file--to see what's there. I would follow scook's excellent advice.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

Early in 2018 I had a similar problem and only found out Cakewalk was alive and well about 6 weeks ago or so. Personally, I feel it would have been nice if BandLab had reached out more directly to those of us who have been long-time Cakewalk/SONAR users (instead of letting us stumble on it).* However, all of the BandLab links I got just now from a Google search mention and lead to Cakewalk by BandLab. So far as I know, it has been that way for the past month or two (at least since I found it). The Google Search for just "Cakewalk" here puts as number 1 the old Cakewalk (circa 2108) and has outdated information. Cakewalk by BandLab was number 2. In the popular press, I have heard all kinds of things about Google's search engine. I am not at all sure how it works, but maybe more people need to search "Cakewalk" and click the Cakewalk by BandLab link so it will raise to number 1. I am not sure if the new owners of Cakewalk can ask Google to change it. Well, they can probably ask (and might already have done so), but I am not sure Google responds to those kinds of requests. From what I have seen in the news, their go-to response is something like--"It's algorithm-based" to avoid the appearance of bias. I can't speak for anyone official; just sharing some of my experiences. Hope you can get the new and improved Cakewalk working; I have been enjoying re-learning it (including z3ta+ pre-2 and Dimension Pro, from previous purchases). Steve *BTW, back in 2018, the only thing I found after the announcement of BandLab's SONAR/Cakewalk acquistion was the web-based BandLab app which was not what I could use for my own personal needs.

Irish Rovers - "The Unicorn Song" Does anyone need the connection to "Cover of the Rolling Stone?" Hint: http://blog.jivewired.com/2015/06/misunderstood-lyrics-cover-of-rolling.html