Starship Krupa

I'll also suggest that if the current release continues to work well for you, save the installer. It's my understanding that the devs will address issues with running Cakewalk on Windows 7, but they no longer test new releases with it.

A dodgy feature for something that calls itself "Black Box." Surely by this point someone has created a plug-in that does nothing but add a 3dB boost, wrap it in a mysterious GUI with a needle level meter. What was that thing that iZotope used to give away for free years ago? "Neutrino" or something like that. It didn't induce a level increase, but neither did it do anything else. They no longer offer it, I notice. Gain Match is Lord Shiva the Destroyer of Illusions. Great way to reality check myself with my master chain. The track sounds amazing, it's breathing, it sparkles, it shakes, I can hear the detail, stereo image extends to the corners of infinity....and then I gain check it....

Okay, when I was first trying to do this, I saw this on p. 606: With the Smart tool, hold down the CTRL key and drag to insert two nodes at the selection boundaries. I tried it, and was expecting it to work as stated, the nodes would be inserted as soon as I released the mouse button. Making that selection, then dragging in the top half of the lane does the trick. I shall inform Mr. Saether.

Yes, just a link with "click here for current Cakewalk for BandLab support" would surely save a few lost souls. It's always a reminder that some people just use software without paying attention to corporate machinations. Hard for a geek like me to grasp. Cakewalk by BandLab still has no Wikipedia entry. I was working on one for a while.

Thank you so much, this will save me a lot of time. I like to bring effects in and out. I'm going to try to find wherever this is in the documentation so that I can bookmark it.

BTW, I just noticed that one of your plug-ins is Gain Match. Believe it or not, this little mother eats up more than its share of audio engine. I wouldn't have thought so given the seemingly simple job it has, but even when it's not in analyze mode, it chews the cpu. It's a cool idea, and the plug-in works well, but when I want to use it, I let it do its analysing and then switch it off and use BL Gain set to the difference in levels Gain Match detected.

I thought I saw or read somewhere that there's a quick way to make a standard 4-node automation segment. By that I mean a flat segment with double nodes at each end so that the flat part may be dragged up or down, like for toggling a parameter or muting or whatever. It was something like drag to select the segment you want to do this on, then a modifier key and a click or drag to automatically create a line segment with two nodes at each end. I've combed the Reference Guide and documentation, searched on the forum....am I imagining this?

Wow, I just looked, and it's pretty dire. 4 years after most of the content on the site became obsolete, this is what I get when I search "Cakewalk on Google. Cakewalk by BandLab does show up, but it's below a Google review for a local dog walker: I can imagine a confused person seeing this and thinking "huh, I thought it was free, but here it says 'free for 30 days.'" Those links to support and to demo and purchase SONAR really need to go. Knowing this isn't the place requires knowing that the company Cakewalk closed down, sold off the IP, and then the product was renamed "Cakewalk." The average person can't be expected to know that. How many shuttered companies still have functioning websites up 4 years after they closed the doors? It's time to narrow it down to just the download and licensing server(s) and take the rest offline. Or put in those html codes that tell Google's spiders not to index. Especially in matters of support, I've seen this trip people up over and over. At least just make the support email address forward to the (hardly) new support staff.

Which I use in every MIDI project and love, especially since visibility was increased with dark PRV's. But I agree with the OP, that it would be nice if the colors of the notes changed to match the foreground color as well.

There are plenty of tools and options that don't have anything to do with Track View, so each view gets its own menu that pertains to the view. This makes it easier to find the tools that affect the view I'm working in. I've got the Console open on my second monitor, I don't have to go back over to the main window to change console settings. I advocate for having the Main Menu contain only things that pertain to the entire project and move the Track View specific ones down to the Track View menu, kind of the opposite of what you're suggesting. Overall, rather than asking to have the program features reverted to Pro Studio 9, I'd suggest asking how to get the current tools to work similarly. Cakewalk as it is now is a hugely configurable monster.

Ooh, I like this one.

PRV and Console is a good combo. In some situations, depending on what I'm doing, it's just good to be able to see what's going on.

Oy, this one, too. My brain has decided that Cakewalk already has this feature, so multiple times a day, it's "Replace Synth, then sit and stare at the screen waiting for the UI to open until I remember that it doesn't work that way." It's like having a rock in my shoe. Who ever replaces a synth without immediately opening the UI to either edit it or choose a patch? Some instruments, like Kontakt, SampleTank, and Syntronik, have no instrument selected when instantiated. Many others have something like an annoying plain triangle wave (Hybrid, Vacuum Pro). Please reply if you agree. The way these things get attention is to stay at the top of the pile.

AAARGH! Why can't I stop doing this? It's become more than once a day. Bump'd. And while we're at it, replacing a plug-in, be it synth or effect, should absolutely default to opening the UI.

This would be nice. I'm a big fan of setting my clip backgrounds so that they can be distinguished in PRV, but having the note colors distinguishable would be even better.

Yes, nested folders are HUGELY welcome.

To say the least. Tactic is, for me so far, the most accessible of Glitchmachines' instruments. There is much value to be had in just using the preset beats. And because of the randomization controls, they don't have the sameness that can set in with other drum machines' stock rhythms. Try setting up an arp with a synth that's good at it like Hybrid or Chromaphone, then let it run while you browse the presets. I don't yet know if it's the samples they supply or the processors in the plug-in itself, but they have some amazing 3-D effects going on, with beats appearing all over the place (the fact that I'm running it through R4 probably doesn't hurt).

F5-F9 select the various tools. However, bigger issue, you may be doing what I was doing for a long time when I started using Cakewalk: you're using the Select Tool where you would be better off using the right mouse button. Try it. Hold your right mouse button down and drag a selection. No need to switch tools, it works no matter what tool is selected.

One thing I can say is be sure you have Windows Defender's realtime scanning excluded for your Cakewalk projects folder, your samples folder, and your plug-ins folder. If you have realtime scanning enabled, Defender reads and scans every file that is accessed by a program. In your case, over 100. Cakewalk streams every audio file in a project regardless of mute state, unless they are in Archived tracks. That's a lot of unnecessary malware scanning every time you hit play.

Would like to say: I got it and am browsing the presets, and it is, of course, worth at least 10X the ridiculous price of $5. Even if I never delve that deeply into it, just the presets are amazing. It seems strange to push this thing when most reading this can get it for under $5 with existing PB rewards credits, but hey, it must be told. I had a hunch that it was Gltichmachines' answer to Break Tweaker (a favorite of mine). And by that I mean "sample-chewing drum sequencer." This one has randomization built into its (multiple) sequencers. Along with the usual Glitchmachines "FTL-capable spaceship control panel" array of controls. I'm not even halfway through the presets and I can hear that there are some great breakdowns in there. It comes with the usual collection of Glitchmachines' excellently produced and curated samples, or load your own. I'll be trying some vocal and dialog samples just to see what happens. Like Break Tweaker, it does its own thing, it doesn't respond to MIDI notes, it turns on when you hit play on the DAW. @abacab or anyone else into rhythmic sound mangling, or who wants a messed-up sounding drum machine, just get this, don't even pause to think about it. Every Glitchmachines plug-in is, safe to say, unique, so no worries about duplicating something you already have. Caveat: As with all Glitchmachines plug-ins, you may ask yourself "how do I work this?" But the question is really "where does that highway go to?"

IME, you can't do better than Exponential Nimbus, currently on sale for $9.99 at Pluginboutique and JRR.

After demoing them, I bought 2 licenses for each. Came to $33 and change at JRR with the GROUP code.

IK Multimedia SampleTank 4 CS (also add Syntronik 2 Free) delivers a lot.

Last year was so deep and crazy that I'm still working on stuff I got a year ago. I will be upgrading my reverb collection with Nimbus and R4 for $9 per license, gonna get 4 so as to have them both on my iLok and laptop.

Most of the instruments in the Freeware Instruments Thread have been at least vetted for compatibility with Cakewalk. Since this thread leans toward the orchestral, my favorite free orchestral instruments are the Orchestools ROMplers, which they also offer in SampleTank 4 format.