Starship Krupa

I know that Chromaphone gets the lion's share of love, and it is indeed a great synth, but I recently picked up Ultra Analog VA-3 and like it better. Chromaphone sounds "colder" where Ultra Analog VA sounds "warmer" to me. So I encourage anyone considering buying an A|A|S synth to try them both (they have fully functional free trials).

Absolutely worth it. I'm very leery of "exciters," but I listened to a song done by someone here on the Cakewalk forum and noticed a real ear candy sparkle to one of the elements. Asked them about it and they said it was the Vitalizer.

I was pleased to find that Libbyapp from my local library has Beat. Now to wait until this issue comes out....

If you're exclusively using virtual instruments, samples, and loops to create your music then, no, you don't even need an external interface. WASAPI Exclusive will get you decently low latency and good sound with just your system's built-in audio CODEC (invariably Realtek, they seem to have the market for onboard hardware audio CODEC's completely monopolized). I don't know what the problem is with getting an ASIO driver for Realtek's CODEC's. There's nothing inherently wrong with the hardware, it's even capable of doing 192K/32, 7.1 channel, S/PDIF (if the board manufacturer implements those things) but that lack of an ASIO driver is a big deal for audio work. Why no programmer has come up with one is a mystery. Realtek shipped one for a while, but it was so buggy they pulled it.

It's certainly against the forum TOS. Dropping a fiver or finding a way to read the issue via a library membership is a small enough consideration to give Beat and A|A|S. And for those who think they have everything A|A|S, they usually come out with multiple new soundpacks in between these freebie deals, so at least check and make sure. Their stuff is so great.

Updates to NI Access always make sure that the NI hardware support services that you've disabled a dozen times because you own no NI hardware get re-enabled. So there's that....

(shoots for Deals forum, hits rim)

I've received many (sincere I hope) compliments, but since the topic seems to have gone toward the wah wah WAHHHH..... I was in Bath, England, in a small lightly populated pub one afternoon. Was chatting with the barman, a young chap, mentioned that my (proto grunge Faith No More-ish) band had just finished doing a demo in a studio. He showed interest in hearing what was coming out of San Francisco at that time (1990) and asked if he could play it on the pub's sound system. Joy! Halfway through the second song, a grumpy pub owner appeared and ordered him to turn it off, snapping "this isn't a heavy metal pub!" Well, it wasn't a heavy metal band either.... As for people's reactions to my music in general, well, I've always tried to remember that I make it so that it sounds good to me, that my own tastes have always been outside the mainstream, and that if anyone else at all likes it, that's a bonus. Even if someone's just pretending to like it, that's nice, that they like me enough to care about my feelings. The best/funniest times have been when friends have come to shows or listened to tracks out of a sense of duty, and I can tell that they are genuinely surprised that they like it. 😄 And @User 905133, I'd take the "good driving music" to be quite a compliment.

It would be great for those times when someone posts to a music forum saying "I got these tracks from a band who recorded them in their rehearsal room, no possibility of recording them over again, so I need advice on how to salvage what they gave me." Followed by five replies suggesting they re-record the tracks.

Except for.... The inexpensive 5-pin-to-USB interfaces on Amazon are fine, just don't be tempted by the under $10 black ones. Avoid this type (the one with the body that's black with rounded corners and usually has a staff/clef symbol on it that typically goes for under $10). This type (the one with the clear window with activity lights that typically goes for $15 or so) is fine. I know the above from (bitter, in the case of the <$10 one) experience. With those, it's common to experience dropped notes and stuck notes. The slightly more expensive one has been solid as a rock for years. The only hitch I ever ran into was that the MIDI hardware spec calls for a diode across the input to any MIDI device. This was originally part of an optocoupler, but I think optocouplers have long since been superseded by less expensive solutions. Most manufacturers probably just stick an LED across the input in case there's any legacy equipment that still expects to see a diode drop. Of COURSE I wound up with one that didn't have the diode, and OF COURSE I had one of the very very few pieces of MIDI equipment that insists on having a diode drop across whatever it plugs into or it petulantly refuses to operate (this would be the famous Rockband keytar that doubles as a MIDI controller). I solved this by soldering a diode across the input myself. The Rockband keytar is the only device I've ever heard of that won't work unless it senses the diode drop, probably uses it to know to turn of the wireless connection and use the MIDI port instead. In other words, unless you need to plug in a Rockband keytar, you should be fine.

That would be using whatever cable/connector the hardware unit has available. If it's 5-pin DIN, then you need to plug it into a MIDI interface, either built into your interface (most PreSonae have them), or dedicated. If it's USB, then straight into a USB port. If you're trying to choose a controller based on which type of connection it uses, then it depends on whether your interface includes 5-pin DIN. If it doesn't, then a controller with its own USB connection would be necessary. The advantage to the 5-pin DIN MIDI connection is that you can use it to plug bits of MIDI hardware into each other without the need for a computer (what MIDI was originally intended to be used for).

If you have an interface that has its own ASIO driver, then use it. There's no reason not to. If you are basing an interface purchase on whether it has its own ASIO driver, yes yes, a thousand times yes, only get one that comes with ASIO support, and by that I don't mean ASIO4ALL.

I go with Intel myself, mostly because it's what I know. You can put together a killer system for that amount of money. My system (see specs in sig) can do the tasks you mention without getting anywhere near breaking a sweat, and it's years and processor generations older than what you're going to get today. Heck, I could put together a good system for half of your budget! Do you have an audio interface? If not, that's really the critical component and the first one to decide on.

I'd say it's time to get busy looking for a suitable freeware replacement.

Try some Shift+D as well. I agree that it would be nice to have buttons for those functions on the UI.

Very doubtful. Who knows, it may start working in a future Sonar release as the result of a different issue being addressed. Your best bet is to find a replacement for one of the three pieces of software that are not cooperating. If it were me, that would be Poise. Speedrum Lite works with Cakewalk by BandLab.

Rhetorical question, probably, but I think I can at least speculate. Pricing: users don't know what is meant by "affordable." Affordable relative to what? Will there be a subscription option? If so, how will the cost of updates be handled for people who choose a perpetual license over the subscription? All of these questions are still up in the air. The "much better" is well earned, but pricing and licensing is still a mystery, and we know that it's still being worked out and you can't make any guarantees. Everyone has to trust that you're industry veterans and smart cookies who know where Sonar fits in the marketplace and what you should charge for it. Another element might be residual uncertainty about investing time and effort into a freeware DAW. Cakewalk by BandLab has been too good to be true for 6 years now. Many adopters wondering what the catch was, maybe thinking aha, here's where they get us. Lastly, the people who use CbB LOVE CbB. Maybe they're not as sure they'll love Sonar as much.🥰

I am all for squeezing the last bit of usefulness out of older hardware and software. It's standard practice for me. My current main system is built from donor, eBay, and Criag's List components. The only things purchased new are the RAM sticks and the Firewire card. But at some point, it becomes more trouble than it's worth. Stuff that used to work fine stops working fine. You can get refurbished Dells on Amazon for under $200, fully capable of running DAW software, Windows 11, etc. Mini PC's as well. You can do a TON of stuff with free software, but there IS a certain ante in hardware. It's pretty low these days, and then you can run the wheels off of whatever you get for another 10 years.

That would be nice. "Kids these days" have been said to be ignorant of the charms of forums, in favor of more ephemeral means of getting and offering help. This of course leads to the same questions and issues being addressed ad nauseum.

I've gotten good sounds from SONIVOX Harpsichord. Currently $5 at Plugin Boutique: https://www.pluginboutique.com/products/2013

Get Cakewalk by BandLab while it's still available and free. Install it next to SONAR X1 and you will get the best of both. X1 hasn't been supported in well over a decade. Cakewalk by BandLab is still in active support. Why am I always the one who has to say this? What is the value in trying to help people get these antique versions of SONAR to work? There is no reason to be running SONAR X1 at this time.

I suggest you try the things discussed in this topic.

Me, I don't know exactly what was included in the sale. The tone of your post seemed as if you have some anger toward BandLab. Did I get that wrong? Promises and indications made by whom? Official representatives of BandLab? What were the promises? In my memory, BandLab employees haven't made many promises in this forum, especially not specific ones. The most they ever say is that they are working on something or other, but even that is not definite. In any case, I like to go on whatever has happened, vs. what might happen. So far what has happened is that Cakewalk by BandLab is still free to download, register, and use, the company has announced that it intends to replace it with a new, improved program called Sonar that will cost money to license. Cakewalk by BandLab will continue to function as it does now, but at some point in the future its registration servers may be taken offline. They haven't said how much money they are going to charge, nor have they said when any of these changes are going to happen. Since I've been paying attention (6 years) BandLab haven't made any dikc moves (IMO), although I will say that I was really happy that the hard-timeout pop-up ad for Sonar that affected offline launches of CbB was dealt with in speedy fashion. 😏

They didn't buy Cakewalk, Inc. They bought a bunch of stuff that Cakewalk, Inc. (by then an extinct company) once owned. That stuff included the code and trademarks for a number of products, including SONAR. If they had been forced to also take on the old company's legal obligations, the deal would probably not have happened, and there would have been no Cakewalk DAW for the past 6 years. Any agreements and obligations like warranties, debts, upgrade plans, whatever, became null when Cakewalk, Inc. was dissolved. That's how liquidation goes. The SONAR Platinum lifetime upgrades license was an agreement between two parties, and one of those parties ceased to exist over 6 years ago. BandLab may decide to do any number of things as a courtesy to people who had agreements with the old company. So far those things have included 6 years of keeping the old company's licensing and download servers running, and issuing their rebranded version of SONAR with a free license. They have no obligation to continue to provide free licenses for products they make with the SONAR (or any other) code. These are not legal technicalities or "some hedge lawyer thing." This is the way the world works, and decisions about whether to buy such things as lifetime upgrade licenses must take that into account. Companies fail, especially in the music industry. FL Studio users are gambling that Image Line will be around for as long as they need them to be. I'm pretty confident that whatever the fee is for the upcoming Sonar, it will come as a pleasant surprise to those who remember SONAR Platinum costing hundreds of dollars. BandLab's costs to produce and distribute Cakewalk/Sonar/Next are way less than when there was a Cakewalk, Inc. with multiple tiers of management, marketing department, legal department, centralized headquarters with maintenance, lease, reception, utilities, and so on. The Bakers were doing it lockdown style before it was hip.

Try this: https://dnyuz.com/2024/01/13/their-songs-were-stolen-by-phantom-artists-they-couldnt-get-them-back/