Starship Krupa

No, but I've had the Audacity to check out the LADSPA. 😄

So it's very similar to MAutoalign in that respect. 😄 I love MAutoalign, it's part of my drum recording templates for my overheads. Unfortunately, my overheads are spaced far apart in a Glyn Johns/Recorderman configuration, so it has a hard time. After all, according to my understanding, since the different elements of my kit are at different distances from these mics, MAutoalign can't completely figure out what "in phase" is. Is it for the snare, the kick, the ride cymbal? I need to experiment some with the pre-filtering so I can narrow it down to snare, which is where I center my mic distances. As it is, I just do multiple samplings and pick the one that sounds best, although I suspect that what I'm getting is a slight Haas effect😄. If it sounds good, it is good. It works as advertised on close mic'd acoustic guitar, though. The Nugen Aligner manual suggests doing the analysis from a single drum hit, which gives me the idea that at the beginning of a drum session, I should play some paradiddles on the snare for about 10 seconds to give MAutoalign or Aligner something easier to digest. And it occurs to me that it's sad that I should be picking up MAutoalign tips from another company's documentation.

Seven very detailed themes and counting over here! They each even have custom color presets! Link's in my sig! Enjoy! You'll love my custom buttons and iconography, really! 😄 (I work on themes while I'm waiting for musical inspiration to return, so that gives you some idea of how much time I spend waiting for musical inspiration to return) The thing about the Start Screen, for those of us who use it, is that it's the first thing we see when we start the program. So having it look nice and tidy and welcoming and inspiring is important. For much of the music world these days, and this includes me with the electronica I'm currently into, the DAW is the instrument. How much attention do guitarists put into the look of their instruments? And why? An instrument (or any other creative tool) should inspire you to pick it up and use it. If the first thing we see when we go to start a new project is a screen with our fine-tuned template projects, but with ugly generic icons that we've been unable to change, it's less inspiring. It's like having a cluttered workspace. Another reason is that it's basically just really fun to customize your stuff. Car, clothes, home, whatever, people love to put our personal stamp on the things we use. It makes them more "ours." Theme Editor is (obviously) one of my favorite features of Cakewalk for this reason. People aren't good at searching, I guess. I resigned myself to that a long time ago, but bonus: being a black belt in search engines makes me look way more knowledgeable than I really am. And BTW, although I consider myself a Google ninja, I have a lady dog of a time with the search function in this forum. Raising the dead thread means that at least new forumite Tree did do a search, but instead of finding the more extensive ongoing thread over in Tutorials, they found this one.

Ha, I found it on Zzounds. The ad has a bunch of good hi-res screenshots. It's interesting to see various features before they were rolled into Sonar. https://www.zzounds.com/item--CAKPROJECT5

WASAPI Shared allows other programs and the OS, for example system sounds (which you should have disabled on a DAW system anyway) to jump in and use the audio system, and to do this, it sits there waiting to get input from them. WASAPI Exclusive lets the program that has focus have exclusive uninterrupted use of the audio system, so it gives full attention to that. ASIO also gives exclusive attention to the program using it, and goes one better by bypassing the Windows audio subsystem for even greater efficiency and purity of audio playback.

Yes. That's a sure sign that you selected the FL Studio ASIO wrapper, which is basically ASIO4ALL. ASIO4ALL used to be pretty useful, but with the advent of WASAPI, it's needless, and Cakewalk doesn't like it, so the devs put in a checker. Plain ASIO4ALL will trigger it, the FL Studio ASIO will trigger it, and the Magix ASIO driver will trigger it. Probably others. They're all ASIO4ALL with just the logo changed. Your problems are surely down to using WASAPI Shared. The preferred driver is the Focusrite ASIO driver, and after that, WASAPI Exclusive.

Cakewalk should run just fine on that system, when properly configured. And it's not about what's "at fault" your computer or Cakewalk, it's a matter of getting them to play nice together. If the other DAW's work fine on your system, Cakewalk should also, and it suggests that we need to look at how Cakewalk is configured. Some things we need to know in order to help you: What model of Focusrite interace? In Cakewalk's Preferences/Audio/Playback and Recording, what driver mode are you using (WASAPI, ASIO)? By "what else is running on your system," I think b meant "open Task Manager and check to see if there are any weird processes."

Pity Cakewalk hasn't gotten these particular features: "DS864™ — digital sampler A flexible, easy-to-use, multi-format digital sampler with ample manipulation capabilities and pristine audio fidelity." "VELOCITY™ — drum sampler (LM4, WAV, AIF) The multi-timbral drum sampler provides 18 polyphonic voices with up to 32 velocity-layered samples." "Cyclone™ DXi — groove sampler A 16-part, ACID™-compatible groove sampler, composition tool, and loop editor."

So that you could presumably export your work from Cakewalk to the other DAW when you want to do lasso-y things and then back into Cakewalk? That sounds like a lot of trouble to go through. The kind of tool you're talking about is something that I've only ever seen in pixel editor programs like Photoshop. If it's a huge deal for you, you can search and try to find another DAW that has it (as I said, I've only ever seen it in paint programs and the like), or just get better with the one that's in Cakewalk. Some things that make it more versatile are first and foremost, selecting with the right mouse button instead of the Select Tool saves a LOT of switching back and forth, second, the Ctrl and Shift keys follow the Windows conventions for selecting and excluding multiple elements. So if you want to select 10 clips in a track, select the first one, then hold Shift and click on the last one and both of those clips and all of the ones between them will be selected. Similarly, if you mess up and select a note or notes that you didn't mean to select in the Piano Roll, you can use the Ctrl key to remove them from your selection without having to start the whole selection over again. Right mouse button, get good with your modifiers, and your selecting workflow should get pretty quick. As with many things in the venerable and powerful Cakewalk, it improves with practice, and maybe it won't be implemented exactly as you would do it, but the way is usually there.

It's very useful in Cakewalk if you record audio. Cakewalk's playback engine streams every audio file in a project, even if it's in a track, lane, or clip that is muted. So if you have a project with multiple audio takes you wish to save for later comping or alternate versions, the only way to keep those as part of the project is to move the clips they are in to tracks that you then Archive. Less to do with freeing up memory; it can sure cut down on the amount of disk i/o that Cakewalk must perform. Especially if the talent being recorded is take-happy. I recorded a friend of mine who did over 20 takes on drums, which since I mic my kit with 4 microphones meant that every time I hit Play, I was rolling 76 audio files I didn't need to be rolling. This is why I (and others) have requested that the Archive function be made applicable to Lanes as well as Tracks. That would preserve the convenience of keeping multiple takes available for comping and allow the playback engine to breathe easier.

MediaHuman Audio Converter is my go-to for doing any kind of audio format conversion. It works in batch mode, just drag and drop the file(s) you wish to convert into the window and hit the button. It's freeware.

According to the release notes, nothing has been addressed in this regard. And by golly, we now have yet another "sure fire" way to do it. The thread on the current site (in the Tutorials section) is a wonderful collection of "that didn't work for me but I found a way that does," always referring to someone else's method that works every time for the person who posted it. It's one of the great mysteries of Cakewalk, up there with "why does Cakewalk create a spurious clip at the end of my takes if the last take is shorter than the previous ones?" No one knows exactly how Start Screen assigns images to templates (and even regular projects if you don't choose one in the Notes browser), why for some it's critical to overwrite the previous file and for some it's equally critical not to overwrite the previous file, why sometimes the default icon is a nice vinyl record and other times it's a screenshot of the project at some point. Some think it's using certain magic words, others are just as sure that making an offering of the image you wish to use in the correct location is the trick. So far it has resisted some very determined attempts to reverse engineer a 100% effective method, and I'm beginning to admire it for that.

Whoops, how did I miss the update? Sweet, lots of new features covered. As always, thank you Mr. S for this invaluable resource.

I'm wondering about this, too. Did a couple of searches, couldn't find anything on EastWest's site that refers to compatibility or lack of it with any DAW, and here's a thread from this site with 48 replies, nobody saying anything about trouble using it with Cakewalk. Of course, plenty who hang in the Coffee House/Deals section no longer use Cakewalk, but still, these things don't usually stay quiet: Please, @jkoseattle, elaborate. I don't know if the Cakewalk devs know about any problems with EastWest's Opus player and it seems like they would want to.

That is a great video. I was expecting an onscreen tutorial, but it's a little slice of life, a guy composing at his (presumably) computer. The composition of the video, the lighting, it looks great and creates a mood. Your facial expressions and body language really tell the story, the viewer doesn't need to see the hardware you're using. The nearly empty studying desk taking the center of the shot makes the viewer consider the possibilities: does he have it set up so that when he takes the laptop over to the "school" desk he's not distracted by having his controllers and gear? Did he recently graduate? It's more interesting than if you had your head in the center covering up the view of your working environment. The editing is good, too. I like the subdued lighting, it tells the story of "it's daytime, but he likes to keep the drapes drawn for lower light while he's creating." It also goes well with the chilled beat you're making. And I have to say, relatable: you go from a facial expression of "I have this chord change, how can I come up with a good beat?" through getting excited playing the drums on the pads, and then finally letting your groove loop while you have a snack and move to it. That is pretty much how it goes around here. If I can dance to it at the end, and still like listening to it while it loops, I know I have a keeper. Really, I love this. Well done.

Okay, so you're trying to set it up so that you're feeding it both the carrier and the modulator. This is "Case 2" in my tutorial, and I'll recap: To do that, you need to insert TAL Vocoder on a bus, then use sends from the carrier and modulator tracks to the vocoder plugin. Pan the carrier send (usually a synth sound) hard left. Pan your vocal phrases track's send hard right. For this operation mode, the vocoder should only be on the bus, and you shouldn't send your audio to the bus itself, but rather to the plug-in. The plugin's input should show up on the send menu's list of available destinations. It looks like you're doing that part correctly. Sometimes you need to crank the levels of the sends to get good results. Too low a modulator signal can result in no modulation, and all you'll hear is the unmodulated carrier. Get it good and hot. Use the Gain knob or a gain plug-in like BL Gain to boost the level if you need to, Hope this helps.

Yeah! Sounds kinda like Atlanta Rhythm Section.

Nice, reminds me of REO Speedwagon.

Very nice. I like the voice you use on it. You do it in a style that is a tribute to Lennon without sounding like you're trying too hard to mimic him. I don't think there's anything at all wrong with your singing voice. It's got a cool Dylan/Petty/Knopfler wheeze that I wish I could call up without sounding like a caricature. You may have clammed a note in one of the changes, but hey, isn't that what overdubs and comping are for? When I started doing lead vocals, I hated my voice as many people do at first. I was working on a song and did take after take after take, I think I got it up to 24 takes over a few days. I never thought to record it in phrases, no, I wanted to spit the whole thing out in single takes. So I was going back through all of these to try to find a good performance, or maybe two so I could comp them, and because I started with the first take, I noticed that about halfway through, I started to nail every note. For a laugh I pushed up the faders on the last 10 with no backing and it sounded fantastic, 10 of me singing in unison. That's when the Beavis and Butthead lightbulb popped over my head: well, duh, my pitch and enunciation, breathing and stamina started to get better because my singing ability, like with any other instrument, improved with practice. This is probably obvious to most people, but it somehow escaped me until I heard it. I don't know what I had been thinking, like I should be able to just sing, right off the bat, with no woodshedding? And why force my untrained voice to sing the whole 4-minute song in one straight belt? Why have an unnecessary challenge? No idea.

Ha, I wonder if Peter was lurking the loss leaders topic. 😄

In agreement with all of the above (except not a fan of MDrummer, I tried the lite version and it just wasn't for me). I got MTurboReverble in the Essential bundle, and it's the only reverb I've tried that can touch the Exponential ones, Phoenix and Nimbus. I could happily mix and master using only my Meldaproduction FX, no compromises. I think his stuff appeals to a certain type of person who appreciates great engineering and a sense of excellence. Also those who agree with him that there is no need for modern software FX to be constrained by the limitations of vintage hardware. Not that his stuff doesn't sound great, it certainly does in most cases. Once I realized what he was doing with the core and shared modular code, I was hooked. I've never seen anything like it. He can make an improvement that propagates to the entire line of over 100 plug-ins without having to touch the code that's unique to each of them. It's the way that every developer should be doing it, but he's one of the few, and the only one doing it at such a scale. And it's all bug-free IME. For stuff that gets new features as often as his does, this is amazing. The depth of the products, you could take just one of them and spend a week figuring out all of the under the hood stuff with modulators and multiparameters. And of course you don't need to do that to get perfectly good use out of them. I also dig his personality, he's a character, and dedicated to his own way of doing things. The fact that he's personally engaged with the user base is great, and I'm charmed by the way he'll tell someone who makes a feature request "I don't really have the time to do that, maybe in the future," then said feature shows up in the very next release. I was the beneficiary of exactly that when I requested a tap tempo for MMetronome. Yes, he added a feature to one of the FreeFX Bundle plug-ins by request. He's had some blind spots, but seems to be moving past some of them, if the new pretty device graphics in the Turbo FX are an indication. I've hammered him about my frustration with the documentation, even suggested that he set up some way to have user-contributed tutorials and cheat sheets, but still no go. He said that he doesn't have time to teach someone about compressors, to which I said, fair enough, but what about your FX that are unique and that people can't be expected to already understand? I have MDrumLeveler, for instance, and I'm sure that it could be more useful if I understood how it's supposed to be used.

This. Even though the Vocal and Percussion strips are VST and usable in other DAW's, I forget that they are there. It may be my odd blind spot/prejudice regarding multieffects (I'm told that I'm not alone in that), although I do love me some BYOME and TRIAD. The Sonitus suite is a sore point because they do have some good sounds in them. Their UI's just offend my visual sensibilities. Too small, not so easy to get around in due to that. And the color scheme and overall design just tells part of my brain that they're not "up to date." As well as the fact that they're DX and therefore can't be used in my other DAW. The only time I use anything in the ProChannel other than the Quadcurve EQ is when I want an 1176 or LA/2A type compressor or console emulation. The Quadcurve is so good it's managed to bump MEqualizer out of the top spot.

I suspect that the 3rd-party ones that used to be available were vetted by people at Cakewalk, Inc. before they were allowed to ship. It was probably part of the agreement that allowed them access to the API. You can't ship your PC module until we've had a chance to wring it out. I'd of course love to have access to more PC modules, but I realize that BandLab's Cakewalk dev staff is probably way too small to be able to vet 3rd-party PC modules. One that used to be available, even shipped with SPlat, that I'd love to have is Boz' Panipulator. It's a freebie on his site, and I have politely requested an installer for the PC version, but he's never answered. Shoot, just making it available would increase traffic to his site, and I think our recent thread on the success of loss leaders shows how valuable a good freebie can be for a developer.

Oh, sorry, heavens, I didn't mean to admonish you (I would not wish thinking like I do on anyone 😄). I was sort of playing to the semi-imaginary audience. I knee-jerk react when I see what I think is someone drawing a broad negative conclusion about humanity based on a small sample or anecdote and I thought I detected that: see, my brain is definitely wired to detect and react to "threats." 😆 In truth, the sunny-side up thing is me rebelling against my own internal misanthropy. 🤨 The only truly good advice I have is that anyone who has the Meldaproduction FreeFX bundle, upgraded or not, next time you're feeling blocked or just feeling curious, take a sound source and go through the 30 or so of them that are actually sound FX and browse some factory presets. If you've paid for the upgrade, hit the button to download new presets. Just check them out whether you think you have any use for them or not. I suggest this because it took me years to get around to doing it and when I did, I discovered some interesting tools I hadn't realized I owned. They're easy to forget about when you have 30-some other FX in the bundle. The comb filter, MComb, is, in particular, an amazing device. MPhaser is also great. MTuner is the best I've seen, even does pitch-to-MIDI conversion.

Orange Frappe, Racing Green, Midnight Blue, Nickel Mint, Blue Ice, Yellow Submarine, EVA 01, Tungsten RS and foster theme Logical have all been updated with various tweaks for attractiveness and consistency. I'm always updating them and improving them, and I don't always announce when there's a new version up, so check from time to time for surprises. As always, they're at Dropbox. Be sure to grab the associated .CLR files to get the complete experience. They do wonders for the gridlines in Track View especially. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ax7xeox3a5t003v/AABtPXXXSOxwJAkOH-fbyHRfa?dl=0 And as always, I love hearing from people who use them, any comments are welcome, even if there are things you don't like.