Starship Krupa

Yes, thanks, that's what I want. The information box obscures the information I most want to see when I'm using it. It's too minute for me to read, and it covers up the numbers on the Timeline Ruler. I already know how to turn the Aim Assist line on and off. I want it there, but not obscuring the Ruler numbers. (I guess I need to watch the tl in my posts)

Cool, thanks! I guess I need to install AutoHotkey in order to try it? I'm not familiar with the program.

I just tried setting the global lens to none, and the issue went away. Whether it comes back, we shall see. And to answer Mark's inquiry, I have "Track View Control Order" unchecked.

No, this is not part of an "arranger track." That belongs over in the Big Feature Request pen with the Chord Track and other big things. This is a small feature request. I just want to be able to change the color of individual markers. Same markers, just with colors that can be changed, like we have other things whose colors can be changed. All fun, no tears, no feature creep, no fists and yelling over "how DAW X does it," just a color picker added to the current properties. If we are good and do not fight in the car while coming home from getting our color-y markers, maybe they will consider our Big Feature requests.

Thanks for taking the trouble to help ease my confusion, Lynn. I get that it's supposed to mimic "taping over" previously recorded material, what I don't understand is what happens to the underlying WAV files that are getting "erased." I know the clips go away, I've seen that in action, but what about the actual recorded data? Is it a destructive process? Okay, so it is to avoid hassle, for people who, once they nail a take, they know they are only going to want to use that last one, and don't want to retain any previous takes for comping purposes or anything else. And it is, as I suspected, a dangerous thing to turn on, because you yourself have accidentally "overwritten" stuff that you had intended to keep. Tradeoff between convenience and safety, I suppose. One of the reasons I wasn't sure about it is because in most cases I do wish to keep a few previous takes for possible comping (I'm not an accomplished enough player and singer to expect full-length flub-free takes with regularity and certainty), and the extra trouble of culling unwanted clips (one click per take if I just delete the whole lane) is worth it for safety purposes. I'm absent-minded enough that Overwrite mode would make quick work of any previously-recorded material, so much so that after having it on for a couple of hours, all of my lanes on every track would have been replaced by howls, screams, and swearing. By "erase unused tracks," I assume you mean deleting lanes (and the clips in them) containing unwanted takes. What do you mean by "flattening" a track? Cakewalk has a way to flatten a comped track, where it moves the various clips that make up a comped track into one lane, but it sounds like you're working with full takes in this situation, not comped ones.

In your examples above, wouldn't Comping mode also give you the exact same results as Overwrite mode? One thing is, you mention this is while you have Auto Punch engaged, which I only turn on when I'm punching in. You have it set to Mute Previous Takes, thereby nullifying Sound on Sound's main characteristic, which is allowing you to play or sing along with the previous take(s). In my experience, where you would experience a whole lot of difference with Overwrite mode vs. the other two is if at any point in the tracking process you manually stopped the transport and restarted it. Then Overwrite would start acting like like The Reaper. No, not REAPER, but The Grim Reaper, in that whatever you had recorded previously would now be done away with as the new tracking advanced. In the initial tracking process, Overwrite acts just like Comping mode, and it will happily stack take after take into new lane after new lane as I let it loop away. Overwrite creates new empty lanes, and it treats empty lanes just like Comping mode does, it records into them. Where Comping mode differs is that if there's already a lane there with data in it, Comping mode politely creates a new lane for it and leaves the existing data alone. Overwrite seizes the lane for its own and plows through whatever was there. They also differ in that when tracking stops, if the last take is shorter than its predecessors, with Comping mode the previous takes will be split into two clips along the right edge of the last take. Sometimes other unfortunate things will happen, and there used to be more of them and they were worse, but then some of them were determined to be bugs and those were fixed so it's better now.

Mark, if you also don't quite "get" Overwrite mode, I definitely feel better about my own confusion. And looking forward to your findings. It's not lost on me that the first person I've seen who seems to have experience with overwrite mode says that being in that mode by accident caused them to lose data.

Was this just with a single project? In my case it was, a project I have been working on for over a year, so lots of deletions and undo steps.

I love the Aim Assist Line, in the absence of marker tails/vertical rulers, it is one of the tools I always have switched on to help me line things up, see where my clicks are going to land when I have snap enabled. My enhancement request is for the position readout part of it, and the most basic enhancement would just be the ability to turn it off. I wouldn't mind it, might even find it useful if it didn't obscure the timeline ruler numbers, thereby rendering it worse than useless to me by making it so that I can never be sure exactly where the Aim Assist Line really is. Because the numbers in the Aim Assist Line readout are so tiny, and their size fixed, I have never been able to read them very well, especially when they are crowded in amongst other ruler elements. Because the numbers go all the way out to the very last tiniest measurement, the digits cover up the digits on the timeline ruler that I would normally rely on. So what I wind up with is "indecipherable blob obscuring my timeline ruler numbers." Even when I tried adding rulers to try to get the thing into clear air, it just popped up yet another display, right on top of the other rulers' digits. I've tried different colors, but as long as the line is legible in the Track view, the readout will obscure my ruler digits. It might be nice to be able to change the size of its numbers, but what I really want is the ability to make it stop, go away, leave me in peace. Either that or let me position it above the digits, in that grey empty space where only the playhead ever goes. Its numbers, if allowed to float up there in uncluttered space, might become legible to me.

(I have a feeling I may not be the first ever to request/suggest this, but here goes) I would find it very useful if color were one of the Marker properties we could edit. As in this screencap from another editor: Notice I have one color of marker for the start of an event and another for the end of it. Where this is especially useful is when defining the classic sections of a song, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Solo, etc. When I have used this feature in other DAW's, I use a color each to indicate these sections. Makes it easier to spot which marker does what. Make all your tempo change markers one color, etc. I find the ease with which track and strip colors may be set to be a big help in sorting out what's what in Cakewalk, and being able to do something similar with Markers would be great.

I've been doing my first heavy-duty comping with Cakewalk, trying to learn as much as I can about the tools and behaviors, and I ran across something that I've used when comping in the other DAW's and NLE's that Cakewalk just doesn't have, which is a way to set vertical guides (or rulers). In most the other programs I've used, these were part of markers. Every marker you set has a "tail" that runs all the way from the timeline ruler at the top to the bottom of the last visible track. Observe: This allows the user to visually align various objects and events. A marker (or ruler as they are sometimes called) such as this may be placed off-grid, so that for instance, if one has audio events that do no line up to the global grid they may turn off snap-to-grid, set a marker by ear, then turn snap back on and still have this line to use for lining things up to. In the capture I'm using above, I have an off-grid automation node, which could line up to a syllable in the vocal or some other audio event. To make this happen, Cakewalk's current marker system would be enhanced to have these "tails" that could be switched on or off, or there could be another type of marker in addition to the ones we have now. I like the former option, because it would make for less timeline ruler clutter and merely be an enhancement to an existing feature rather than a whole new thing to get used to. In use, it eliminates a lot of zooming in to examine and place events (and zooming back out), as well as a certain amount of turning snap off and on, depending on implementation. It also provides more visual indication of sections of a song, or whatever else one uses markers for.

That must mean that you sometimes use Overwrite mode. I have been trying for a long time to find someone who uses that mode so that I can ask them (you) some questions. A large part of my confusion about the mode comes from trying to figure out recording modes from the Documentation page, which is vague and contradictory on the subject. Even with the Reference Guide, which is much better, I still can't quite figure out how it's supposed to work and why I would want to use it instead of Comping mode. I can't figure out if it's supposed to be a destructive mode or what. When I experimented with it on audio, I think it created full WAV files just like the other modes, but deleted some previous clips using rules that I couldn't figure out. Is that the way it's supposed to work (I don't mean the not being able to figure out the rules part, obviously)? If that's how it's supposed to work, I guess I would want to use it in cases where I want to record new information but don't want to have to delete the old clips before I start? Or where I know ahead of time that the last take is going to be the keeper and don't want to have to delete the previous takes? It just seems like a big and dangerous thing to have around just to avoid having to select and delete some clips. If it is destructive, and deletes and crops the WAV file after the recording is done, again, seems dangerous just to save what is now very cheap disk space. There was once when I was testing it and some very strange behavior happened, but I think that was a bug, not a feature. There are probably other reasons for using it that I just don't see, or maybe I don't understand how it's supposed to work, so if you can fill me in, please do. I want to make full use of the program. Every other time I've brought it up, if people even answer at all it's to say that they never use the mode.

The Roland Virtual Sound Canvas appears to be a current product. So, no need for BandLab to offer it, unless by "offer" you mean "include for free with Cakewalk." If we're talking 3rd-party programs we'd like BandLab to put into the Cakewalk package, I have a list of those. Since PluginBoutique seems to put most of the AIR stuff on sale for next to nothing, maybe they could license some of their stuff, although there may be pre-existing agreements that would preclude it. XPand!2 and Hybrid would beef up the package for starters.

How about that, eh? Different colored markers would make those verses and choruses and all easier to see at a glance. And really, if you've not used markers with tails or rulers in an NLE, they really do come in handy. I will prepare a feature request, cross my fingers, and make do with the tools I have available in Cakewalk.

Indeed you can. That's the Grid, and yes, without it, there would be no hope at all. It's static, like an overlay of graph paper. What I'm talking about is a single (or multiple) vertical line that the user can place along the timeline to mark a place where they want to line up multiple events. And it would be persistent, yet deletable or movable, for each project. Almost exactly like the Markers in Cakewalk, but with a line that extends all the way down the Track space so that the user can just pop over to it and drag things up to it, put automation nodes on it, etc. Here's a cap of what I mean in another program. I have grid snap off because the event is not on the grid, I placed the marker by listening to the song and hitting a key. But since I have this nice line, I can set an automation node right smack where I want it. Or I could drag a clip with a musical cue right up to it or whatever.

At Parts Express. If these are similar to the Sondelux cans they closely resemble, aka the Samson SR850, they sound amazing for the price. They're my main mixing and listening cans these days. My Samsons have cloth earpad covers, where I see in the photo that the Talents appear to have textured vinyl, which may account for the difference in standard price. I only just now noticed it, so I hope the sale is good until midnight at least. I'm tempted to buy a pair just as backups, even with the $6.95 shipping fee, you can probably also find an item or two at deep discount on their site to help spread the shipping fee out. Wow, I just spotted the PreSonus HD7's, which look even closer to these than my Samsons, down to the details on the earcup vents.

Or something like this. Your very own keytar for under $20! I actually own one, got it at Salvation Army for $9. Nice velocity sensitive keybed with a ribbon controller on the "neck." The SONAR by Cakewalk is dead, long live the Cakewalk by BandLab. BTW, was it part of the Focusrite contest that people had to register for the forum and make at least one post? Because I'm seeing a lot of "one post wonders" lately.

Hmm, I've seen the thing where Track Folders won't open or close, but it was only on one project, so I wrote it off as a glitch. I also experienced stuff like Take Lanes not expanding along with it. Then I'd click around until I found the magic button that would jar the whole deal back into whack. That was usually expanding a collapsed Track or Folder or similar. Then "poof," working fine again for a while. It went away for good after I deleted a bunch of unused takes. Lenses you say? The global lens or the one for the track headers?

Yes, but not just clips, all sorts of things. Automation nodes, future edits, punch points, etc. All of them become so deliciously....alignable when there's a line I can stick there to align them to. If I were to create a motivational office poster about it, it would say "You Can't Say 'Alignment' Without 'A Line.'' Or something. Perhaps Cakewalk lacks such a feature. Gosh I hope not. Feature request time if it doesn't. This is what I had been trying during the aforementioned krakensturm. Between the time I posted and you answered, I figured out that it works much better if I have the Snap Intensity cranked all the way up to the far end of Extreme. It gave Aim Assist some biceps. The Ref. Guide (aka "revised standard version") refers to an "option called magnetic snap" (sic) that has strength settings low, medium, high, and off. Maybe it was like this in SONAR? In Cakewalk, this corresponds to Snap Intensity and has a variable setting from Light to Extreme. I couldn't find an "off," but Extreme seems to be the closest equivalent. Seems odd that "Extreme" is the new "Off." That dadgum Aim Assist line, though, some prankster put this rectangular readout on the thing right on top of the information I'm most interested in, which is what measure and musical subdivision my cursor is at. The readout apparently can't be suppressed, nor can its type size be increased to something my eyes can make out, and it insists on reading out whatever the Transport meter is set to all the way out to the last digit, so I can know exactly what "tick" my cursor is located near (were I able to read it of course). Since the Aim Assist wiggly blob sits right on top of the Time Ruler, it renders both of them useless, and I've always had to go by either the big display on the Transport module or the smaller one above the Track headers. I never knew there was a unit of musical subdivision known as a "tick" until I started using Cakewalk. To me, that's what you check roadies for before you let 'em on the bus (hey!).

As a veteran of other DAW's and video NLE's, I'm used to being able to align clips and other events to either the tails of markers (in programs where the markers are designed with tails that go all the way to the bottom of the track window) or to resettable vertical rulers. So far, I haven't been able to find either of these features in Cakewalk's documentation. The Now Time indicator and the Aim Assist Line are nice things, but have a couple of problems each, the first of which is that there's only one each of them, the second that they move, the Now Time indicator is used for other things (such as keeping track of the Now Time), and the Aim Assist Line's job is to flit to the nearest snap point and hover there like Tinkerbell as far as I can tell. Which is handy, but I find that there are other things that can distract the Aim Assist Line. Is there such a feature that with Cakewalk's richness and depth of features I have somehow missed? If, as I fear, not, how do the rest of you folks go about doing things like aligning the start edges of 4 clips that are buried in the 3rd Take Lanes in Tracks 20-23 with the finish edge of a clip in Track 5 and then two days later punching in a MIDI keyboard part at the same start point that will be recorded on Track 30? And then go in and automate a filter res open and close that peaks exactly at our aforementioned point of interest? With vertical rulers/marker tails, it's easy. You plop down a nice vertical line that comes in a choice of colors, then you line everything up to it. Without them, I am finding it to be like trying to thread a needle blindfolded. While on a sailboat in a gale. With a recently-unleashed kraken trying to steal the thread and needle.

Thanks for posting the answer you found, mdiemer. It's a good reminder to me to always check to see if a sample player or synth patch or whatever is using its own reverb so that I can decide whether to (usually) turn it off or leave it on. I almost always dial in reverb by using a single plug-in on a single send bus because I like the retro and gluing effect (and because I haven't learned how not to get my reverbs all piled up if I put them on individual tracks😉). Built-in reverbs are usually not as good as the ones I have available in my VST folders and they clutter things up.

In every way except that, Cakewalk by BandLab blows its doors off, and I could get you most of the way to the functionality of the bundled stuff with freeware I know about, and even further if you give me $50-100 to play with and can wait a few weeks for things to come up on sale at Pluginboutique.

Hey, thanks! Now I'm wondering how my clips could have gotten partially muted without my having invoked the Mute tool. I suspect that it has something to do with me having been using the Smart Tool, which can morph into many different implements depending on what and where one is clicking. Maybe since some of my clips wound up on top of one another in the mayhem, maybe some muting was applied automatically? Is that something that happens?

I had some comping issues, stuff going on with grouped clips being dragged around by accident and somehow wound up with a few clips that have their audio muted for certain parts of them. I've tried messing with clip gain, but that didn't help. It seemed to come about due to dragging edges around, clips overlapping at some point, and happened while I was untangling the mess I had made by forgetting I had a whole bunch of grouped clips in my take lanes while I was editing. What is this and how do I undo it and just get it back to a normal bit of audio in a clip? Here's a link to a screencap of it on my Google Drive: Clip with a hollow center As you can see, the silent part of it shows a full waveform, but sort of with the center hollowed out. I couldn't find any reference to this condition and how to cure it in the online or reference manuals.

No, Cakewalk installs alongside Sonar Platinum and any plug-in that works with Sonar Platinum will work with Cakewalk. The way you do it is just keep your working installation of Sonar, install Cakewalk, which won't affect your Sonar installation, and then you can use either of them. And they'll both be fully-enabled with Session Drummer, Melodyne, every last 3rd-party and Cakewalk supplied plug-in. Of course be prudent as you would with anything involving your working studio and wait until any time-sensitive projects are finished, just as you would with any major software install. Hundreds of people have made the upgrade with no trouble other than sometimes needing to go into Preferences and tell Cakewalk where the Sonar VST's are installed. If you run into any problems with Cakewalk, you will be running a program that is in active development with active tech support rather than one that has stopped development and has no support. (please, the sticky, the sticky, ease their confusion)