Jim Fogle

@Starship Krupa My history with Cakewalk is using Music Creator 2, 3, 4 and 6 (I also have 6 Touch but never installed it since I don't have a Windows compatible touchscreen device). The Sonar Reference Guide (SRG) was not included with any of the Music Creator products or as a downloadable file since Music Creator was a consumer product and not part of the Sonar family. I discovered SRG when it was included as part of the free download of Sonar Home Studio I acquired through a magazine. So the Cakewalk Reference Guide (CRG) is as new to me as the DAW itself. Like you I am elated the Cakewalk by BandLab Reference Guide is available as a download and is revised with each update. As much as gets changed from update to update, @Morten Saether has his hands full keeping up with the updates. Kudos to him and the developers! Unfortunately, in my eyes it is a much better reference manual than reference guide. The short GIF videos @Morten Saether creates for the forum release announcements provide much more how to use guidance than the guide. The guide provides much detail but little how to.

I strongly disagree with this statement, especially if applied to audio production beginners and hobbyists. One issue is terminology. The 1,712 page Cakewalk Reference Manual has a 14 page glossary! The glossary is filled with gems like "xRPN = RPN and NRPN". Who has ever heard of a groove clip outside the world of Sonar or Cakewalk by BandLab? Of course that's even if you know the DAW has a pdf reference manual. The Cakewalk Reference Manual is NOT part of the Cakewalk by BandLab download and is not available through the BandLab Assistant; not even as a checkbox selection on the add-ons screen. You don't think 16 pages of pc keyboard shortcuts is a little too much, a little intimidating? If that doesn't indicate the complexity of the software, nothing I can say will. Having said all that I will say I am extremely grateful to creators that provide a guided tour of the software with video tutorials. Each and every video has been very informative. However the issue soon will be one of organization with some videos providing an overview, some feature specific and the quantity increasing everyday until it will soon get to the point where newbies won't know where to start. I think the Groove3.com videos are worth purchasing just because of how well they are organized and how the series was planned from beginning to end. I very much believe the Groove3.com videos offer the perfect organizational template for anyone making Cakewalk by BandLab videos to follow.

Happy Holidays back at you Jesse!

With the DAW pulling the load of supporting NKS then you would not be restricted to using only hardware with NKS support built-in to obtain use of the features NKS offers. Per the link I provided above, One example is plug-ins that follow the NKS standard will automatically map their controls in a consistent manner no matter what hardware controller you use.

Jesse, I think I get what you're shooting for but it's not my cup of tea. I think the lyrics have a good story to tell but the song format doesn't hold my interest. Even though you CLEARLY state this is an experimental song I hope you'll try again with a more traditional song format.

Ah the power of television! I wonder if the story would have ended differently without the presence of the camera. While I was in the military I stored my music equipment with my brother. All my equipment was stolen while stationed outside the US. I came back on leave and tracked down the shells of my drum kit in a pawn shop. Even though I was able to recite shell serial numbers by memory my drums were not returned because my brother did not list the serial numbers on the original police report. I was awakened about 3 AM by the sound of metal on metal bashing into each other. I look out my bedroom window to see a big wheels 4 X 4 pick up truck spinning wheels in my front yard. The truck drove OVER my car to get into my front yard. I turn on the porch light , run outside with a camera in hand and take pictures. I took pictures of the truck, the license tag and the (drunken) driver hanging out the window giving me the finger. Police never found the truck or driver. Because of "privacy" concerns would not tell me where or to who the license tag was registered to. When I pushed the issue with the police I received three moving violations in three months. Went to court and beat all three. I'm not a fan of the police and the power they wield.

It's working for me on the East coast in North Carolina

Being burgled is traumatic on several levels. I'm sorry for all that have suffered the experience.

A light snow is falling as a husband and wife are Christmas shopping at a busy shopping mall just before Christmas. The wife suddenly notices that her husband is missing and, as they still have a lot to accomplish, she calls him on his cell phone. She says, " Where are you, you know we have lots to do." He replies, "You remember the jewelers we went into about 10 years ago? Remember you fell in love with a diamond necklace? I couldn't afford the necklace at the time but said I would get it for you one day?" "Yes, I do remember that shop." she replies as tears begin to flow down her cheek and she chokes up …. "Well I'm in the guitar store next door to that."

TBPro Audio mvMeter2 https://www.tb-software.com/TBProAudio/mvmeter2.html Thanks to @LittleStudios for originally sharing this link in another thread!

@LittleStudios, Thanks for sharing the link. It looks like an awesome metering tool.

On a more serious note, I'm not sure how to take the comment. Has the ProChannel library expanded?

@Starship Krupa, Excellent thoughts. Having the Cakewalk Reference Manual in HTML format likely would work for those devices that support HTML but I'm not sure all e-readers do. One of the reasons I suggest EPUB is because the specification supports intelligent page reformatting which allows each page to be reformatted based on display size and resolution. It also follows handicap ease-of-access visual recommendations for those with visual problems. One of the issues I have with pdf files is the page formats are fixed at emulating a standard sheet of paper. Page formatting "breaks down" when you increase font size or otherwise magnify the page for viewing.

Cakewalk by Bandlab (CbB) requires activation through contact with the Bandlab website over the internet at least once every six months. In between those times internet access is not required. Another consideration is program updates have been released about every two months. Each update has included many stability and reported issues fixes. Internet access is needed for the BandLab Assistant to manage activation and updates. The BandLab Assistant (BA) desktop download manager does not need to run all the time but you do need to run it periodically so updates can be applied and activation kept current. Perhaps connecting to the internet and running BandLab Assistant once a month is a reasonable option?

I am in the process of setting up a new computer with 64 bit Windows 10 build 1909 installed on a M2 256GB primary drive. I added a 4 TB hard disk that I partitioned into two 2 TB secondary drives. My hope is to install as little as possible on the primary drive. However I'm not comfortable using soft links. Are there alternative ways to install CbB that minimize the amount of space used on the primary drive?

Another excellent video. Thanks for taking time to demonstrate why you suggest -12db RMS for an average track gain setting.

@Zhi Ying(Geroniny), Thanks for your response. I'm looking forward to hearing your music once you post a link in the "Songs" forum section: https://discuss.cakewalk.com/index.php?/forum/30-songs/

Another possibility is to use a patch player like Sforzando. It is an insert VSTi that plays soundfonts or acidized wave files . https://www.plogue.com/products/sforzando.html Here is a link to many free patches: https://www.plogue.com/products/sforzando-banks.html

You might want to give the Creative Sauce video tutorial a view. or

@Freyja Grimaude-ValensI'm not understanding your suggestion can you clarify or elaborate in more detail? Maybe you can can post a screen shot of how the GUI presently looks and a mock up of how the GUI should look after your request is implemented?

When it's "hidden", someone finds it and asks what's this then it is much easier to reply "a function that is no longer supported". When it's out in the open, more people will ask what is this . When the response is "a function that is not longer supported" then more questions like "Why not?", "Why not take it away?" or "Why not hide it?" are asked. If you want to leave the functionality available to those that know how to use it and make practical use of it this way sort of hits the sweet spot. By the way, Reaper supports Lua and Python scripts and there are some online classes that will guide a person in how to write scripts. I took one of those classes out of curiosity. When I first asked about Sonar's scripting capabilities in the old forum a few members told me CAL existed. In the hands of a creative programmer that has a burning desire for a new function CAL makes sense but for a non creative person like me, not so much.

The CA-2A maybe present but excluded in Cakewalk by BandLab. Try navigating to Utilities > Cakewalk Plug-in Manager. Select the "Show Excluded" button on the bottom left. Look in the "VST Audio Effects (VST)" and "VST 3 Audio Effects (VST3)" sections. Use the "Enable Plug-in" button to enable any excluded plug-in you desire. Here is a link to a YouTube video that provides step-by-step: https://youtu.be/CNX2TzX4nAs

What player are you using to host your virtual instruments? Some players, the TTS-1 included with Cakewalk by BandLab for example, are polyphonic and multi-timbrel so they can receive multiple midi channels, play multiple instruments and have multiple outputs. However many players accept midi from one channel, play one instrument and have one mono or stereo output.

Colin, I assume you have V-Vocal as a result of a prior Sonar product. Do you know if V-Vocal is available on its own?

PG Music released the 2020 edition of Band-in-a-Box for Windows earlier today (11-30-2019). Some features everyone might like include: New tempo and pitch shifting software. Multi-riff feature allows multi generations of instruments at the same time. Almost all RealDrums have notation transcription. Equalize tempo wizard allows varying song tempo to be adjusted to a fixed tempo. New harmony wizard. New content includes 202 RealTracks including choir vocals, More midi only styles and 15 midi SuperTracks. RealBand features essentially follow the Band-in-a-Box features however it remains a 32 bit program. The DAW plug-in has been enhanced with additional settings, auto harmonize wizard and ability to read or write more settings with the Band-in-a-Box program. New for 2020 is the Loops-With-Style PAK 1. Per the website: New release sale prices last until December 31, 2019. https://www.pgmusic.com/bbwin.packages.htm