Jim Fogle

@marled Thanks for taking time to create this thread. I found your observations, test and results very informative. I have no practical experience using pitch shifting so this thread likely saved me a lot of time and grief sometime down the road. Again thanks for thinking of other users! One question if I may, how likely is it that others have as many pitch shifting tools in their toolbelt as you do? I have five that I know of, the two that are included with Cakewalk, the one in Audacity I didn't existed until I read this thread, Melodyne Essentials and one that is standard with Band-in-a-Box. I was not familiar with TB_VoicePitcher by Toneboosters. I found version 3.1.8 at the KVR marketplace: https://www.kvraudio.com/product/tb-voicepitcher-v3-by-toneboosters

I thought I'd throw in a link to the product: https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/hammondb3x/

The Sonar & Cakewalk by BandLab (CbB) Resources and Utilities Content thread presently resides in the former Sonar forum which is archived, locked and can no longer be maintained or updated. http://forum.cakewalk.com/SONAR-Cakewalk-by-BandLab-CbB-Resources-and-Utilities-m3392713.aspx#3472457 Some of the hyperlinks are broken as they point to other sites where content has been removed or the site itself is gone. Other links to content like Themes are obsolete for current and future updates of Cakewalk by BandLab. As Cakewalk by BandLab advances the number of useful links in the archived forum will continue to decline. I realize the thread was maintained by volunteers and there may be little or no desire to continue the effort but it would be REALLY nice if a similar thread could be started in this forum. Any discussion or thoughts?

@Joe DunCbB is an abbreviation for Cakewalk by BandLab. Somehow you mistook the "B" for a "D".

What about this idea, modify the program so the Start window can present a selection of lens in addition to a selection of project templates? As I understand it, lens display or hide global features like control bar modules. How about an "Explore Audio" lens, "Explore MIDI" lens, "Explore Loops" lens, "Explore More Features" lens.

@Some Guy, right on! Agree again! Spot on. Disagree a little. With the Start Window enabled, the first step is to load, or not load a project template. The default template selections are "Empty Project", "4-Track", "Basic", "16 Track", "Guitar Amps" and "Vocals". No project templates for midi, loops, mixing, introduction or tutorials. What's a beginner to choose? When you do not load a template the next step is a blank page, menu bar and control bar. For a new user or a beginner what's next? If you load any template how does a newbie know where to start?

@Some Guy Please describe what "F/OSS package" means. I am not familiar with the abbreviation and am unable to figure out the meaning in context. I really don't know. Thank you in advance. @Joe Dun, I agree with your thought in principle. However some issues are: how to simplify and the definition of simple is different for each potential user. There are solutions to how to simplify and, as suggested earlier, lenses is one tool available. Another idea is to expand Preferences to enable or disable features but each opens another rabbit hole. Lens are not intuitive but are a feature to new users must recognize to use. Expanding Preferences means someone must decide the defaults. Other tools that can be used to simplify each have their own obstacles. The second issue is more problematic though. What is simple? It greatly depends on the intent, knowledge, skill and experience of the user. Here are some examples: A person familiar with live sound likely would have a high comfort level using the console view and possibly using some effects but may not have a clue about what the matrix view or how to use the piano roll view. On the other hand for three middle school students that want to record some tracks to place on YouTube everything is new. Another thought. What kind of knowledge and how much knowledge is needed to create simple lenses? While the steps to perform the task is pretty straight forward how does anyone decide what to leave out and what to leave in? I don't know enough about Cakewalk by BandLab features to know what is simple, what is intermediate and what is advanced. I think the video tutorials show us a good path to follow. First come up with multiple intents, starting points, or objectives like: what's needed to record and playback audio, what's needed to record and playback midi, what's needed to create and playback beats, what's needed to add features back into Cakewalk by BandLab. Strip down the GUI to whatever it takes to answer each question. Create videos and sample content new users can use to learn how to use the software. Simple is difficult to define and will prove hard to achieve. What I'd like to see is a group discussion that will agree on a limited number of how-to-use the software objectives. I think everyone will be surprised at how spirited the discussion will be.

Do you have a production that is giving you headaches in terms of mixing and you might be on the lookout for a different point of view? Mix Challenge is a great way to hear your songs as others might hear it. Are you a good songwriter, but not that good in the mixing realm? Maybe you're looking for a possible mix engineer collaboration but you're not on a timer/rush to do a mass-online shootout? Then the Mix Challenge might be the right place for you. And the best part of it: it doesn't cost you anything. The Mix Challenge is constantly in need for new material to work with. For this, we started a Song Pool as backup initiative to always have a track at our disposal at the start of a month, or respectively the start of the next Challenge. Ideally, this pool is always filled with 5-6 mix packs to choose from. Unfortunately, the Song Pool has run dry. If you have a production to mix, please get in touch with us via our contact script: https://mix-challenge.com/pages/contact.php More information here: https://mix-challenge.com/pages/campaign/song-pool.php

I updated from V5.1.0. There was a notice that an update was available so I clicked on the update button. I received a "Update failed" notification window but the window also included a download link. I used the Quit button to stop BandLab Assistant then clicked on the download link. BandLab Assistant downloaded, installed, opened and is now V5.1.1. The download link is appreciated. I like the idea of the refresh activation button.

If you're not familiar with it, you may want to check out the magazine, Tape Op. The magazine is bi-monthly and is available in digital and print formats. The print format is available only inside the US. The magazine has a twenty plus year archive available but you don't have to purchase a subscription if you don't need archive access. The basic subscription is free. https://tapeop.com/subscriptions/

RealiDrums by Realitone. Fills that automatically adjust to fill-in the 1, 2, 3 or 4 beats left over in a bar. Slidebar control of pattern complexity. Minimal EQ needed to set in a mix. https://realitone.com/products/realidrums Oh, I forgot to mention, presently on 50% off sale for $149 US. Uses Kontakt or included free Kontakt player

@Tin Ear You nailed the description of what NKS compatability offers. However, one nitpick. The "S" in "NKS" stands for standard not protocol. Below is a link to a MIDI.ORG article with a description of NKS, video links and a link to the Native Instruments developer portal. https://www.midi.org/articles-old/native-instruments-native-control-standard-nks @JonnyS Wonderful suggestion!

@Corruptinator I think artificial intelligence has a bright future in audio recording (tracking), live sound, mixing and mastering. All parts of audio production has consistently attracted newcomers but have a steep learning curve. AI is great at assisting newcomers obtain acceptable results so they will remain interested long enough to invest in the time, experience and monies needed to achieve remarkable results. Think about the products ToonTracks and Izotope offer. EZMix and Nectar provide skills in the form of presets. Cakewalk by BandLab offers ProChannel presets. They are more than a convenience, they are learning tools novices can use to obtain acceptable results while gaining experience.

Steve, 144 is the largest setting Windows will let me use. That works for me. Now the laptop can be across the room and I can see the metronome. Thanks to techknot for suggesting the "BigTime" window and scook for the excellent Windows tip!

That is a visual metronome but, I made the font as large as it will go and it still isn't as big as it should be. I changed the default Ariel font from it's default font size to 72 and the visual metronome still only takes up less than a third of the screen.

Discussion on Github indicates it needs a training data set of isolated sources to accurately provide stems. It has some pretrained models but more are needed. Truthfully I don't see where it would add value to Cakewalk.

A large, visual metronome could be useful for live recording too. A good idea.

@Mad Musicologist You can access your Sonar online account here: https://www.cakewalk.com/My-Account/Login Once you've logged in you can access "My Products" to download products and retrieve serial numbers or registration codes. You can also download the Sonar Command Center software management application to manage the installation of newer products. If you do not have an online account you will need to use whatever Sonar installation media you have on hand. Since Pentagon is a plug-in accessory you'll need to install a software package that contains the Pentagon plug-in. Once it's installed you can uninstall the package and keep the plug-in. Another point of concern is if the plug-in is 32 or 64 bit. It will need to be 64 bit to work with Cakewalk unless you use bit bridge or Jbridge.

@CosmicDolphin Good observation and great suggestion.

One way is to hover your mouse cursor over a user's name. A pop-up window has selections to message, block or find other content the user has posted.

@User 905133There's a good chance the pc does not need to be recycled. I recycle the pc as part of my uninstall process to make sure no "program fragments" remain in memory. Since ram is dynamic memory it is flushed when the pc restarts. Just an extra precaution I take. I'm glad you didn't need to. When a program fails it is running in ram and the failure is in ram so I want to make sure the failure does not remain in ram.

My BandLab Assistant refused to update when I clicked on the update button. On multiple tries it either ignored the button or closed down when the button was pressed. Having said that I've had similar issues in the past so I uninstalled the old, downloaded and installed the new. When I ran the V5.1.10 BandLab Assistant (in Administrator mode) a permissions pop up window appeared with two check boxes. One checkbox was checked by default while the second was not. I checked them both. I don't remember what the permissions were. Use Windows Control Panel to uninstall BandLab Assistant. Restart your computer (to flush memory). Download, install and run BandLab Assistant.

Nested folders has my support.

There should not be an issue using a fresh install of BandLab Assistant. Your description reads as though you may have received a corrupted download of BandLab Assistant. My suggestion is to uninstall BandLab Assistant, download and install a fresh copy.

Hi, I like the song, your vocal and the mix. Reading through the thread I see some suggestions were made and followed. I think the mix is right about where it should be. I didn't hear anything that I thought needed changing. The frequency balance, panning and dynamics sound pretty good to my ears. Thanks for taking time to give your thoughts on the the lyrics. The visual aid of a rose sitting in the dark helps me understand where you're wanting the song to go.