Starship Krupa

Last night I decided to put my money where my mouth is and created a song using nothing as audio sources but JST Frat Gang Vocals samples. The rest is courtesy of my plug-in collection. These include FX from Freakshow Industries, Glitchmachines, Unfiltered Audio, W.A. Production, Cableguys, Audiomodern, and Native Instruments. It's true what they say that these days all you need is a sample pack and FX to make a hit record. Plato's Cavemen: "Delta Beta Glee."

It's a test of your loyalty. True loyalty needs no "rewards."

I guess because so many people couldn't do Spring Break this year? Fratboy sample pack begs for the application of Freakshow Industries FX to it. Freakshow, Glitchmachines, Unfiltered Audio, daddy's brought you a lovely dinner. BYOME, MISHBY, Cataract, remember that everyone needs to eat, and some friends from W.A. Production might show up at the party. Instant Delay and Dumpster Fire get to go first because they're the littlest.

This young lady has made one of the best video tutorial/reviews on Palindrome, the sounds she gets tend toward my tastes, which is always nice in a demo:

What kind of stuff do you find interesting? I'm sure we all have multiple licenses floating around. My extras tend to be things that were time-limited freebies, so maybe if there's something you missed....

Any Glitchmachines instrument is worth $12 even if you never stray from the presets. A few years ago I bought Cataract sort of by accident on deep discount. I hadn't gotten back into drone/industrial/ambient yet and for some reason I thought it was more like Sitala and Speedrum. I think I just saw "sampler" and snagged it. Now of course I love it. Palindrome has the coolest looking interface ev-ar, but it's also in my experience the hardest one of their samplers to get my head around. It takes your sample, represented by the purple dots, on a trip around the purple lines. The lines are in certain shapes; you can use either the preset ones or create your own. Traveling to each quadrant takes it to different parameters and morphs it with the other samples. As with most of their stuff, it's not the sort of thing where "I have this sound in my head and I'm going to create it step-by-step," it's more "I'll drop a few cool samples in here and see what happens." And yes, you can drag and drop audio clips directly from a Cakewalk audio track to the Palindrome UI, so way easy to set your samples up using CbB rather than trying to futz with them in the Palindrome UI or external audio editor. It also comes with a library of over 350 samples you can use wherever you want. If I have a complaint with any of Glitchmachines amazing products, it's that I don't always want to make a sound that "grinds," and it takes some effort to use the cool features but keep it more ambient and less industrial. They obviously love metallic, dissonant tones. I do too, sometimes, but what I like best about this type of software are the rhythmic and psychoacoustic possibilities. Also, I don't always want to completely obliterate my original sample. I find it easier to get that kind of result with Unfiltered Audio's stuff and MRhythmizer, but if you're doing sound design, it's the journey, innit? I bought Palindrome just for the UI when it was $10. Irresistible:

Yes, a custom "Lens," when it was called that, is a good thing to do. The thing about lenses/workspaces is that every time I've tried to make one and use it, at some point I wind up looking for a feature, not being able to find it, forgetting I'm using my custom workspace, and getting ready to submit a bug report. 😄

I just want to say here that this is one of the things I love about this forum: despite the unhelpful troll-y nature of the OP, the discussion mutated into this helpful, long, thought-provoking thread that's now gone on for 6 months. It's like going to a wrestling match where one guy pins the other one and instead of going on and beating on each other, they start talking with about the difficulties of being pro wrestlers and reminiscing about how things were back in the day when they were getting started, how the rules have changed, etc. 😂

What a headache to get this thing installed/registered/authorized! Part of my confusion is the variety of installation and authorization programs that IK has: there's IK Authorization Manager, which has worked fine in the past, just put in the serial number and I'm done, then there's the new IK Product Manager, which is supposed to let me "Register, Download, Install, Authorize....from one central location," and which has only ever worked for the "Download, Install" parts of the process for me. Then there's the Custom Shop, which is somehow involved in the process. Even though they are pushing this all-in-one Product Manager, the instructions say to install Amplitube Custom Shop, which I already had, and do "Restore My Purchases." Which I did after my usual lengthy digging process to figure out where they had moved it to this revision, and which joyfully tells me that it has restored all my purchases. I go to my usual location for reading my serial numbers, the My Products section of the website, and there's no serial for the Triple Rectifier, but with a bit more digging inside the plug-in UI, it's in there. I think the biggest issue that tripped me up was that I wasn't sure where to look to confirm registration and installation. The serial doesn't show anywhere that I can see. There's no confirmation that this specific new amp model has been installed, just the blanket notification that my purchases had been "restored." Most software/product installers show some indication that the software is installed and ready to use.

Dropping support for 32-bit DAW's saves a few megs of disk space right there, as they never made that optional. I sent them a polite plea to cool it with the redundant installations a couple of months ago. I detailed how much needless redundancy there was and fawned about how I love their products. Maybe my communication helped. And I do, the soundpacks are fantastic, and I got the ObjeqDelay freebie at PB. Just amazing stuff, both the instruments and FX. Couple of things about whether or not to update: if like me you don't have any of the full instruments and you're using the Player, the soundpack/Swatches sounds have been updated along with the new version of Chromophone. The patches don't sound exactly the same, they use the new engine and have been redone to make use of the new capabilities. They sound bigger and deeper. Also, they typically update Swatches to include samples of whatever soundpacks came out since the last revision. It all works a treat on my systems, although what I think is a resource leak is still there in lesser form. It now takes a lot longer to manifest. And fortunately it only happens when the plug-in is actively playing back, so unless like me you fall asleep at your workstation with your latest ambient drone looping away (a good sign for that genre), you probably won't see it.

Well, you turned me on to the fact that I can select multiple plug-ins in the Browser.

This fan of John Coltrane's "My Favorite Things" endorses your request.

It's just not a Coffee House topic until someone makes a hidden dig at the mods.

OMG, you've saved my 60-year-old Ableton bacon. And now it becomes apparent to me WHY there's no rewind/RTZ button on their transport. Probably 20 years ago, when Live! was created, when its purpose was, uh, live performances only, in a live performance there is no rewinding. Raises the question in my mind whether FL Studio has non-loop playback and recording modes as the default like most DAW's. I started this topic with tongue firmly in cheek, so I hope you're exaggerating. I know the feeling though. One of my favorite mental playtoys is "what am I doing this for?" Which is odd, I don't remember making a conscious decision to take making music "seriously" at any point. Even when I was at the right age playing genres that were starting to explode in the music scene (80's-90's grunge-shoegaze), I never maintained any illusions about making a living playing music. So I go through the process of reminding myself that if I were into model railroading (as one of my musical heroes, Neil Young is) I wouldn't be asking "what am I doing this for?" Simple answer: because it's fun, I like playing with trains (or in my case, drum kit and guitars), I have made lifelong friends through doing it. Same with participating in online forums. My last three girlfriends I met via some combination of online forums and the music scene. I do have the impulse to want to share my music with other music lovers. There's a lasting thrill that comes from people connecting with it. Even if it's only a handful of people. I'd be happy to put my music up on Bandcamp or Soundcloud or BandLab Albums and get five comments telling me that my ambient music helped them relax, or that they could relate to the lyrics in my rock songs. It would probably be the same with a cool Lionel train layout. I'd want to show it off to other enthusiasts and especially young kids, to see that wonder that I remember when I saw these amazing train layouts. Unfortunately, starting in the '60's music equipment (and now software) marketing has been mostly ignoring making music as strictly a hobby for one's own enjoyment, in favor of selling the rock star/hot producer illusion. This contributes to the idea that my hobby has to be "going somewhere" to have value as a pursuit. Also, I just turned 60 last month and I know intellectually that continuing to do creative pursuits and hobbies is good for keeping the aging brain nimble. What I'm getting at with all this is that I think we all wonder why we're doing what we do and that it's good and natural, even necessary to consider that and maybe that it's changed since we started doing it in our teens or 20's. Revisiting that (as I'm doing by writing this) can help relight the fire. One more thing: for me this is a hobby (I don't know if you're a pro or not). It's okay for me to walk away from it (or dial it back) for a while to whatever degree and let the batteries recharge. If the hobby is something I'm "meant" to be doing, my interest will come back. I just make sure not to liquidate the tools I need to start back up. At one point in my life, I pretty much stopped playing music at all for half a dozen years. I was all about woodworking and vintage home restoration. But music inevitably pulled me back. 🤣 I am pleased to say that in all my years of being a plug-in 'ho, I've only had this happen once. I help avoid it by keeping all of my installers archived, that way I can quickly find out if I either own a license or demo'd it and decided against. And heck yeah to having enough gadgets that I can go into the toy chest and pull out ones I entirely forgot I owned. It goes directly against the whole "does this bring me joy" concept (which I don't discount), but it's not a bad thing to have something sitting around waiting for me to delve into it when inspiration has otherwise taken a hike. Especially these days when "delays" can be incredibly feature-packed. My "delays" folder has ObjeqDelay, Hysteresis, Sandman Pro, Sphere Delay and at least half a dozen other one-of-a-kinds.

Okay, I think I need to add some definitions. Browser: the multifunction window that's docked to the right of the Track Pane by default. It may be collapsed, relocated, or closed entirely. Displays a list of plug-in category folders (among other things). Plug-ins may be dragged and dropped from this window on to tracks in the Track and Console views. Plug-in names that show up in this view may be edited and relocated to one or more category folders via a right-click menu. FX Rack and Insert Synth Menus: these are flyout menus that appear when the "+" sign is clicked in an FX rack or when the user is choosing a synth in the Synth Rack or Replace Synth dialogs. Cakewalk Plug-In Manager: accessed by going to Utilities > Cakewalk Plug-in Manager. Among its other functions, this allows you to organize your plug-ins into folders and categories for display in the Browser and FX Rack/Insert Synth menus. Now. If I use the functions in the Browser to customize my layout, the next time I install a plug-in that doesn't have a category string that Cakewalk can use to put it in a category, Cakewalk will display the category "Uncategorized" in the Browser with the new plug-in in that category. Then I can select it (or multiple ones) and use the right click menu to move it to another category. However, if I've used Cakewalk Plug-In Manager, unless a new plug-in has a category string that matches one of the category names I'm using in my layout, the plug-in won't show up at all in the Browser view. This is a pain in the rear for someone who tries out as many plug-ins as I do. The Cakewalk Plug-In Manager allows for greater versatility with folders as well as drag-and-drop organization. However, it's basically a separate program that must be launched, then you do your work, then save and close. The developers have said multiple times that they consider it a dead end and want to move its functions to other areas of the program. I don't want to become dependent on it for my workflow. As far as inserting plug-ins, my only complaint about the flyout menus is that depending on sort criteria, the list can scroll off the bottom of the screen and require moving around by clicking on tiny arrows. They don't respond to mousewheeling.

I'm working on the next version of Racing Green and am having a hard time identifying one certain image. I want to change all of the QuadCurve EQ grids, and I've finished all of them except the one that shows when a Console strip is narrowed. Thanks!

Another endorsement of Process Lasso here. Some have accused it of being snake oil, but that's in regard to its claims about what it does in its default behavior. What I like about it is its ability to kill processes that won't stay down when killed in Task Manager or even Process Explorer. Even the difficult ones that respawn immediately, like Xbox Game Services and Apple Mobile device support, you tell PL that they're not allowed and it's like putting out a mob hit in the movies. I once watched Process Lasso deliver a beatdown on Apple Mobile device support that was epic in computer terms. I had it set to kill all three components, which if any of the other Apple service see that one of their fellows is offline, they will start it back up. Process Lasso just kept hammering away on all three of them until for whatever reason, the Apple stuff gave up. The Apple stuff would respawn in a matter of microseconds, and this went on for about 45 seconds, so an eternity in computer time.

Archiving of take lanes is a feature that has been requested by me and others, mostly due to the fact that muted or not, in playback and recording, Cakewalk reads every file referenced by a clip in a project, including clips in muted lanes. I'd like to keep multiple takes for possible future remixing, but without the overhead on the audio engine of streaming them all. I can wind up with 10 takes of my drum kit, which amounts to 40 files the length of the song. So a song with 12 tracks, 4 of which are drums and the rest individual voices and instruments, can end up streaming 50 files depending on how many takes of the other instruments I have. Sometimes I'm not 100% sure which takes are going to work best until I get a halfway decent mix put together. Right now I solve this by moving the unused takes to other tracks and archiving these tracks into a folder named Archives, but, y'know, extra steps.

People don't seem to realize that a search function even exists. This forum has been going since December 2018 and we still get "Can I use my SONAR plug-ins with Cakewalk by BandLab?" "Will my SONAR projects work in Cakewalk by BandLab?" etc. 🤦‍♂️ Forum search engines often befuddle me, which is odd considering how good I am with Google. In this one, I have yet to figure out the syntax for searching for ALL terms in my query or a specific string. Everything I try ends up returning results that are as if I just entered the words at random.

Sigh. I think it was originally supposed to work the way you expect. According to earlier versions of the Reference Guide, Quick Groups were supposed to work on Take Lanes. Just as with tracks and buses, where we are able to select multiples, then hold Ctrl and whatever operation we perform (such as mute, solo or delete) would be performed. I can't find it in there any more, so I assume that the decision was made to alter the documentation rather than implement the feature. It's still confusing because you can highlight multiple lanes but it doesn't mean anything. Remove Empty Take Lanes is fine for just that, deleting empty lanes, but I'd like to be able to do it in one step across multiple tracks. Since I record live drums, I wind up with 4 tracks, often with a useless take or two. In order to get rid of those takes, I have to perform what I think is too many steps. Open all the lanes and delete them one by one? Delete the clips and then Remove Empties? Does Quick Grouping work for Remove Empty Take Lanes?

Double post

Which part of my experience? I'd be happy to further clarify. My issue with using the Cakewalk Plug-In Manager to do my custom layouts is that when I install new plug-ins that are "Uncategorized (which means that the developers didn't set the "category" string in their vst code), those don't show up in the Browser. My issues with making my own layouts using the Browser itself are that it's clunky. To do anything, one must right click and work in a menu. No drag and drop, no renaming from the Browser itself. I'd like to slow click on a plug-in name to rename it. I'd like to drag a plug-in from one folder to another. Something I just thought of: I'd like to select multiple plug-ins (using Ctrl) and be able to either drag them to another folder or to an FX rack. Wouldn't that be slick?

@Colin Nicholls, do you have a single link that points to all of your custom themes? I want to recommend them, but I can only find links to the individual ones.

If you're using one of the factory themes (Mercury, Tungsten), look closely at the small icon to the left of the instrument's name. It's different for each type of plug-in, VST2, VST3 or DX. If you use one of @Colin Nicholls' themes or my own Racing Green, they feature a more differentiated set of icons in this location which Colin created and kindly allowed me to use. Each icon also has its own color, making it so that you don't have to squint to see right away. And I do recommend using a custom theme if you can find one you like. A good theme can make Cakewalk easier on the eyes, more inviting to use, etc. I chose green because my eyes "relax" better with it. I go back to the green-on-black monitor days and still like that color combo. His themes (and mine) also feature more contrasting colors for the names themselves, which is a themeable item.

Oh man, I love my MRythmizer. This is so very temptatious. Thing is, I haven't figured out how to make much use of their MB thing. Well, as I say, if it is a good idea, it will still be a good idea tomorrow. Note to the Meldaproduction upgrade policy h8r: here's an example of something I'd pay €25 for that Meldaproduction would credit me for having spent €50. It's not always best to avoid buying from dealers. Also, I notice that Gross Beat is on sale for $49 at Pluginboutique. Makes me wonder about the timing on this. Meldaproduction puts their version on sale for half that.