Starship Krupa

For what value of the variable "to prepare?" Your practices are your practices, but I am a stickler for testing my setup before taking it "out," as in my guitar and amp or drums and hardware before playing a live show, mixer, amp and speakers before bringing the PA to my friend's wedding, and so on. Because with live/multi-person studio work, it's not a matter of if something will go sideways, it's which thing will go sideways. Extra cables, extra strings, extra mics, I'm such a nut I used to carry fuses for every band member's amp. It sounds like you don't turn that laptop on very often, did you check to make sure the battery and power supply were okay, that it would even boot? You've surely been tuned in long enough to know that CbB needs to either phone home or do the offline activation dance at least once every 6 months. That process is pretty much our only cost of using the license, but pay it we must. As Noel refers to, all companies want to know how many people are using their software. With programs you pay for, that's easy: how many licenses did we sell? They can't just count downloads, because I am sure there are many people who download Cakewalk, try it, go WTF? and never touch it again. There is software that does require that you be connected to the Internet whenever you use it, Cakewalk is not that. It only requires that you connect to the Internet once in every 6 month period, and that connection doesn't even have to be the system where you're using it now that it has the offline activation option. I'm sure it sounds like a high-handed lecture or blaming, but friendly advice from a (music and software industry) veteran is the intent. Not your fault that Cakewalk wasn't ready to go, rather that in your case, remembering before you take it out after a long inactive spell, checking Cakewalk's activation status is now something you need to do. You don't have to pay money for licensing fees, but there is a cost in that you need to be aware of the activation status. If that cost is unacceptable, then perhaps another DAW solution would be better. In any event, in the spirit of having a backup in case of (corporate) failure, acquiring and learning another DAW (as you are doing with Studio One) is an excellent step. Having one single tool be mission critical when companies go out of business (see Cakewalk, Inc.), spin products off, quality goes downhill, whatever, is not best practice in a time when so many options are available. You might find as many have that Studio One works better for you overall and Cakewalk becomes your backup DAW. Win-win in any case.

It doesn't have such a mode. The "solo" and "mute" button supplied by Duckbar was, I believe, to be able to solo or mute the entire track, not just a single band on the EQ. You need a 3rd-party EQ to get that feature. Fortunately my favorite one, MEqualizer, also happens to be free to use, along with 36 other plug-ins in its bundle: MeldaProduction FreeFXBundle.

The HX Stomp is an audio interface with a USB connection and has an ASIO driver. That is how you should be using it, if you are, then you've got the concept right. So what is happening is that you are recording your guitar using the HX Stomp as an audio interface going into your computer via USB at the settings you described. If you monitor yourself on headphones or speakers while you're recording, it sounds great, but when you monitor it through Cakewalk or listen to what you record, it sounds poor by comparison. First, we need to know more about what you mean by "low quality." Is there noise, distortion (the bad kind), off kilter tonal balance (muffled or shrill highs, boomy or thin bass) or something else? Are you seeing a good strong level for input, or is it very low or too loud? I'm not directly familiar with the HX, but with most audio interfaces, it's possible to send too hot a signal to their analog-to-digital convertors, which will result in bad-sounding audio. You want a healthy signal in the middle of the range, but not so hot that it slams your A/DC's. There are many different ways recorded audio can sound that fit the description "low quality," so we need to know exactly what it is.

Many are using Scarlett 2i2's with Cakewalk, so it's likely that your issue is solvable. Windows 7 is an older OS and not officially supported by Cakewalk by BandLab, but it usually works fine, there have been no Windows 7-specific issues since official support was dropped. None that I know of, anyway. Taking a wild guess, it sounds as if your interface's audio driver somehow got corrupted. My suggestion is to go to Focusrite's site, download whatever the latest Windows 7-compatible driver is for the Scarlett and reinstall it. Then see how Cakewalk gets along with it. A Focusrite Scarlett should be able to use its ASIO driver, and the native ASIO is the one you should use with Cakewalk. If you used the default installation choices, your project folders will be in C:\Cakewalk Projects. You say the "stems" are there, I presume you mean the raw audio files from tracking? Each project has its own folder in the following form C:\Cakewalk Projects\<project name>. At the top level of the folder there should be a file <project name>.CWP and a folder called Audio, which is where Cakewalk puts recorded and bounced audio files per project. Is the .CWP file for your project missing? I mean if you browse to that folder in Windows Explorer, not in Cakewalk's Recent Projects list. A project may be missing from Cakewalk's Recent Projects list and still be perfectly intact as long as the .CWP file is retrievable.

I'm a big Ctrl-Alt mousewheeler and would be happy to see it working in Drum Pane. When I work with drums in the PRV, I have a choice of non-persistent instrument names or non-functioning wheel zooming, so I just leave it on piano keys and try to remember which key corresponds to what drum/cymbal/whatever. The least of 3 hassles: board tape-on-controller-keys.

@ilir bajri, thank you so much for doing this. I'd also like to add that I really like your demo pieces.

Specifically, what aspects of my Control Bar theming contribute to the crispness 'n' clarity? I'd like to know what I'm doing right. One thing I do as I go through the button and tab images is rather than just altering the hue, I pixel edit them to eliminate the native edge blur. I was concerned that this might have a negative effect, such as introducing jaggies, but it has the effect of giving the images greater legibility, to my eyes.

Fab. This description eliminates Save/Ok/Import, too, which I guess was possible anyway for flat images, I just didn't know. My most-used are probably Alt+A to select all, followed by Ctrl+Shift+B to zoom to that selection.

Here's an image that I use privately with EVA 01 Flat. I'm just putting it up here to show off an idea that came to me when I noticed that the Tools Module had an expanse of blank space below the first 4 tools. I use the F5-F8 keys to switch between tools (and to switch tools' functions) while editing, but have always had issues with memorization. This has resulted in a slow uptake for keyboard shortcuts. It's one of the reasons that I lobby for tooltips and context menus. I tend toward being a mouse jockey.

Robert Smith, Level 62

It's a testament to how much I love the way my A|A|S soundpacks (and Objeq Delay and Lounge Lizard Session) sound that I'm willing to give them so much slack. With the last major update, the UI's of any of the plug-ins started to take about 3 seconds to load the first time, which may not sound like much, but in the context of a mix session, this is on a project that only takes 4 seconds for the whole thing to load in Cakewalk. 3 seconds is at least 3X longer than I should be staring at my DAW waiting for a plug-in UI to appear. This slow UI load happens in both Cakewalk and Mixcraft, it's with all of their stuff, Player, Objeq Delay, and the Sessions, and it's new behavior.

"could result in a slight disruption in playback" When I tried to enable it, the first project I opened emitted a rapid series of loud pops and then Cakewalk went silent until I restarted it. Is that what they mean by "slight?"

But y'know, for heaven's sake, it also says "Cakewalk by BandLab released: Learn More." And if you click on that "Buy Now" button it takes you to a statement by Noel about Gibson's halt to Cakewalk, Inc. operations. Apologies to the confused, and I understand that English is not the OP's first language, but it's hard not to learn about Cakewalk by BandLab once you get to the old company's website. This forum also has a search function, and these questions have been asked and answered many times.

What does the Cancel button do, exactly? Does it revert your plug-in's settings to how they were before you last opened the UI?

The reply is the best way, because it will bump the topic to the top.