Starship Krupa

What examples are you thinking of here? I ask because the only subscription-model software I use is Cakewalk, which has a charge of zero, so I'm not familiar with how it's played out elsewhere (Adobe for instance). I do know that Cakewalk/SONAR failed financially as a seat-licensed product and its quality (no idea about market share) has flourished as a free subscription-licensed project. In theory, the biggest pitfall of seat-licensed software is that, due to the need to attract new and upgrade licenses, development becomes focused on new features that will induce people to buy them. It would be nice if what really drove software purchases was how less crashy the latest version is, but it just doesn't work that way because people aren't savvy enough software shoppers. Companies aren't going to come out and say "the last two releases were bug-laden monstrosities, but we fixed that without adding any new major features and now we would like you to pay us more for the new version." The fact is, under the seat license model, there is a powerful incentive to direct coding resources at new features and not at fixing bugs. Programming hours cost the same no matter what they are doing, so do you listen to the complaints of people who have already bought the program and spend your hours fixing them, or do you add new features and try to get more people to buy it? You point out a potential pitfall of the subscription model where there may be less incentive to improve the software if the company perceives that the revenue stream is captive. As I say, I have no real world examples to look at. I have seen quality suffer under the seat license model, but all of the payware software licenses I own are seat model. From what I understand, Pro Tools has become less bug-ridden since they started pushing subscriptions. I don't know about Adobe products. Did you have specific examples in mind where the quality of the product seems to have suffered?

Well, I don't have any of those except for (most of) the 2015-2016 ones! I definitely don't need to have all the shiniest new toys, my favorite soft synths are my AIR Hybrid 3, Xpand!2, Boom, and Vacuum Pro. I don't think Hybrid 3's code has been touched in half a dozen years, probably the same with the others. I am a big fan of how older plug-ins were coded for a world with slower processors and less memory. Hybrid is much less likely to bog down my system than say, Chromaphone. But I don't know how long they can remain my "go-to's" given that AIR show no signs of updating them to have scalable GUI's. I like the sound quality and configurability of the Sonitus fx that come with Cakewalk, but I never use them because their UI's are cramped. And I don't even have huge screens. But the debate isn't about utility, we were talking about these companies trying to market their aging software as if it were the latest hottest stuff. For instance, iZotope seem to understand that even though the Exponential reverbs are some of the best-sounding reverbs money can buy, they can't market them as they might be able to if they gave them face lifts. I just paid $34 for 2 licenses each of R4 and Nimbus. 5 years ago they would have gotten more than 10X that (although not from me).

Updated with 2021.12's new Archive button, as well as many other art changes.

Updated with 2021.12's new Archive button, also many small artwork changes.

Good idea.

Perhaps, but how much software do you use that hasn't been updated since 2006?

OH, nice auto-censor from the forum software!

The last time we did this dance, it wasn't just a size change, we had an entire new button, wasn't it? Anyway, I don't recall having to force TE to change a button size. My brain is now 60 years old and I'm probably using that storage for something like remembering the names of the actors on The Dick Van ***** Show.

If you didn't customize any Archive buttons, nothing to worry about, Cakewalk should recognize it as a default image and pull it from TTSImage.DLL. However, if, like me with my round buttons and fancy rollovers (which have not seen a public release yet), you've customized the Archive button image, you have a bit of work to do. The new image is 176 pixels wide where the old one is 110 pixels wide. Theme Editor won't let you paste a 176 pixel wide image into your old theme's 110 wide spot, so you can't just run your pixel editor, add a few cells and paste it in. You must make room for it by removing your custom image and letting Theme Editor replace it with the 176 pixel wide image. So how to do that without losing your customizations? Open your custom theme in Theme Editor. On Track View | Track Pane/Archive, right click and select Export/Theme Item. Save the image to a handy location. After saving the custom image, right click on it again in Theme Editor and select Remove. Theme Editor will automatically replace it with the new "Mercury" 8-button default image. Open both your saved custom image and the Mercury 8-button image in your pixel editor and customize away. You should be able to copy and paste your 5-button image onto the new 8-button one and then customize the remaining 3 buttons if necessary. After you've made the 8-button image look like you want it to, you can copy it directly from your pixel editor and paste it into Theme Editor Track View | Track Pane/Archive, or save it (as a .PNG) and import it, or whatever method you like. Save your theme and it should be ready to go with the new subfolder-enabled version of Cakewalk I'm sure there are more streamlined ways to do this, these steps are the more fool-resistant version.

I turn to it when I otherwise get creatively blocked. Toss a junk food movie up on monitor 2 and open Theme Editor and Paint.NET. Even in cases where it is procrastination, at least there is a productive result, and it always makes Cakewalk more fun to use. I've also found theming to be useful for shining light into the nooks and crannies of Cakewalk that I haven't yet traveled in my usual workflow. If I'm going to bring some theming to Matrix or Step Sequencer, I need to know how they work, what the buttons do. As a result of this, I'm using Step Sequencer more often. Still can't quite get my head around Matrix, but I plan to try some more.

No, I meant for when you have a customized Archive button, as a few of mine do (those round buttons in EVA01 and Yellow Submarine for instance). I figured it out, I'll work up a recipe and post it. Theme Editor fights you a little bit on it....

Ah, thanks, I was wondering why I was seeing glitches with this. On my system, once the Archive button starts acting weird, , even switching to Mercury won't fix it. I have to exit Cakewalk and restart. What is the recipe for updating themes?

I managed to get it down to this by using float/close and hiding the audio scale. Not everything you asked for, but maybe better? I think I could have gotten it even tidier by using a Workspace. I sometimes use Cakewalk on a 14" laptop, and it helps a lot to make use of the D key, as well as Shift-D. I never really need to see the Track View and Console simultaneously, same with Piano Roll. Tap of the D key, the other view takes over. As mentioned earlier, I and B take care of the Inspector and Browser. I just minimize them when I'm not using them, but the Inspector is really handy on a small screen for when I want to see ProChannel without opening Console View, as well as its usual functions of changing clip background colors, etc. If you get cozy with Workspaces, you can switch between this and the full enchilada at will:

Most of them may be used in other DAW's, with a notable exception being the ToneBoosters FX.

Remember when this was the holiday freebie some years back? Gift horse and all, but way underwhelming considering such freeware gems as mVMeter.

I finally put a folder on my desktop called "A|A|S Wipe" with shortcuts to all the cruft folders. Remember to check your Program Files (x86) folder locations for such gems as 32-bit VST3's and even weirder Digidesign Pro Tools plug-ins. Some iZotope installers load those up.

I think it's over in tutorials. Originally written with A|A|S in mind, then I decided that rather than only complain here, I'd send them a personal email outlining the issues. This was not very long before they entirely eliminated all the redundancy in their installer, and started offering the usual options of AAX/VST/VST3, so I like to think maybe it influenced their decision to cool it. Since they're Canadian, they probably had no idea that anyone was inconvenienced by it and felt just darn awful. I kept that in mind and used my California mellowness. "You guys are awesome, your software blows my mind, but there's this one bummer..."

Cool! I live in Alameda, which is where the Matrix movies' VFX are done, and some of the exterior set-based action sequences. The freeway set may still be decomposing out at the former Navy base, Alameda Point. (Prior to What Dreams May Come, we were known for being the home of Skippy peanut butter, creators of the first "stable" peanut butter, as well as Listo, who invented the grease pencil/China marker) Last year, Keanu was spotted getting a cone at the Baskin Robbins in the shopping center a few blocks from my place. It made the local paper. Alameda has a real small town vibe. Keanu could sit on a bench and enjoy his cone without being hassled. https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/keanu-reeves-apparently-spotted-in-alameda/

I liked the sounds in Swatches. The flute sounds kind of synth-y, and the guiro (not my #1 orchestral instrument, really) sounds like a cat yakking up a hairball, but the rest are excellent. As with any A|A|S soundpack I don't have the synth for, they have a lot of reverb baked in.

And of course, this means another edition of Swatches, it's now up to 584 patches.

This will probably not be a popular opinion, but I think the forum improved after the crossover to the new server. The old one had some great info (I still glean stuff from it today), but it had too much of the "if it's crashing or otherwise not working, it's YOUR fault" vibe that product forums sometimes take on. It also still had plenty of folks who were righteously wee-wee'd off about their recently purchased "forever" Platinum licenses. They felt poorly done by, and I sympathize. Nobody knew then that with Cakewalk by BandLab, the program may well be better than it would have been had Gibson kept Cakewalk, Inc. on life support. The fact that none of us have to invest any money, or if we did (I did 20 years ago), we probably agree that the payoff is worth it probably has something to do with it. With payware, there is an emotional investment and a desire to help the company keep the coins rolling in so that they can stay solvent. With Cakewalk, if someone says "that's it, I'm giving up, going with Studio One," that's really nothing, except good for PreSonus. I freakin' love CbB and like to help people use it, but if someone thinks that one of the other DAW's works better for them, good for them and I hope it helps them make their music. Still no time for trolls, though. Express your frustrations as politely as possible, then please be gone. I've seen something happen here that is almost unique in my 30 years of experience with online forums: topics that start as flame bait turning into useful discussions, with or without apologies. That is freaking weird. And it's really the best revenge on a troll. "Sorry, we'll just use your flamebait as fuel for a discussion that might help someone." Here's to my forum beratnas (sorry, just finished the last book of The Expanse saga)!

Oops, you are correct. Thank you. Glad you find right mouse button select so useful. It would be nice if there were some way to emphasize this in the documentation. Learning to select with the right button is, IMO, almost essential to getting fast with Cakewalk. My MIDI editing speed was like a glacier until I figured out this technique. It's not as big a deal in Track View, because the Smart Tool switches to select mode pretty easily, but for Piano Roll, wow, what a difference.

I wouldn't bet on that! Theme compatibility seems to get broken about once a year. But as long as yours is based on Mercury, the recipe is simple: open it in the current version of Theme Editor, then save it. The issue is that new graphical elements are added, and doing this adds them to your existing theme. Doesn't the Mercury Piano Roll already have a white background? Or do you mean that you didn't want the black key rows to be shaded?

Mr. Liu seems to be The Reanimator in that regard. Still, useful information for people browsing the forum.

If you click through the incompatibility window, SONAR themes will load in CbB. The newer graphical elements will be replaced with Mercury graphics, so if your theme was based on Mercury, there would be no issues. Just save the theme using the current Theme Editor and you're fine.