Starship Krupa

I suspect that when a company has to decide whether to spend resources on being compatible with some advancement in technology, we see more than the usual number of products being dropped. We saw it happen in the past few years with multiple plug-ins due to Apple coming out with their own processors and then announcing that the backward compatibility layer was going to be removed. So do we keep updating this plug-in that seems to have run its course or do we drop it and come out with an improved version? iZotope dropped a bunch of stuff in the past couple of years. Break Tweaker, half a dozen Exponential reverbs, Iris 2, Trash 2. I suspect that was the choice there, do we invest in updating these oldies for Apple Silicon or just retire them? Tough noogies for people who want to keep using them on their Macs, but take it up with Apple.

I know what the Style Dials are. I described them a couple of posts ago. What nobody seems to be able to tell me is what "the reported issues when trying to use [PX-64, VX-64, and TL-64] directly" are. I've used PX-64 and VX-64 myself from the point when I discovered them and posted the recipe for enabling them. I did a forum search for VX-64 issues, unstable, problems and found one post from 4 years ago where someone was having trouble and when they removed VX-64 from the project their troubles vanished, but one single person from 4 years ago doesn't make for "known to be unstable." Their issue may have been an interaction with another plug-in in the project, sometimes plug-ins don't play nice with each other. If it were "known to be unstable," why would BandLab have included it with Sonar? Even hidden, they're part of the fancy plug-in chains that make up the Style Dials. Wouldn't the problems show up when using those, too? If there are problems we should raise the flag and get the devs to fix them. They can change whatever needs to be changed in the plug-in code or Sonar code.

This. If your system can run Windows 8.1, Windows 10 should run at least as well if not better. For the most part, you shouldn't expect projects that you save in Cakewalk by BandLab to open in 8.5. Projects saved in SONAR 8.5 should open in CbB, though.

You can try making sure that logging and sandboxing are turned off.

Well, what you're seeing is an anomaly that the vast majority of users never run into. I've been on the Cakewalk forum for 6 years and this is the first time I've seen anyone have trouble with it.

Which I've not only never experienced, I can't seem to get anyone to tell me what they are.

It seems to be much missed by the people who used it. I don't know the timeline, but maybe Cakewalk, Inc. pulled the plug on it before 64-bit became a must-have thing?

Hmmm, I Googled "80004002" and it seemed to point to a program or .DLL not being able to connect to some network socket and not finding it. I wonder if the SSL plug-in (or some other) is trying to "phone home" to check its update or registration status and throwing that error for whatever reason. Or as you suggest, it can't access some resource on the disk.

You are correct, sir. I was told that VX-64, PX-64, and TL-64 act as the back end for the Style Dials, which I guess makes the Style Dials basically FX chains with nice simple UI's. In one of those "independent researchers" moments, Craig Anderton (SoS column), Mike Enjo (YT video) and I (on the forum) all revealed the recipe for getting them to appear in CbB within days of each other. Craig probably already knew, and Mike and I were likely both just poking around in Plug-In Manager and found these 3 things that were excluded.... Something I've noticed: the .DLL versions are different between the ones installed by CbB and the ones installed by Sonar. That is if you right click on them, select Properties and then click on the versions tab. Maybe they put a bit of code in them to flag SONAR Artist (and CbB) to exclude them. What are the issues people have been seeing with VX-64?

That's not the error message that Cakewalk throws when it can't find a plug-in. If that's the case, then the user should see a pop up listing the plug-ins that couldn't be found and then the plug-in's name will be in parentheses in the FX rack. And yes "80004002" is the number of the error message, which if you submit a ticket to Cakewalk's support staff, you should supply. If your other tracks are as loaded with plug-ins as your vocal track, I can see why you might mistake 80,004,002 as the number of plug-ins Cakewalk is trying to load (j/k). As far as whether Cakewalk limits the number of plug-ins you may use at one time, I don't think that it does, but of course you will be limited by the amount of memory your system has. I'm with the others, 11 plug-ins on one vocal track is at least twice as many as you should ever need. The 3 that are bypassed are still eating up memory, too, and you can probably safely get rid of that second (bypassed) instance of CLA-76. Don't worry, most of us did that when we were new. Not sounding right? Throw on another effect plug-in! Also, when I use de-essers, I put them first in the chain. I haven't heard about any stability issues with VX-64, if there are it seems like an odd decision on Cakewalk's part to bring it back.

When installing Cakewalk and Sonar, installing Grooveplayer isn't optional, but I suppose it it possible for Grooveplayer to have something go wrong during installation. You can check that by running Plug-In Manager and looking for Grooveplayer in the list of installed instruments. If you don't see it, check to see if you can see it when you select "Show Excluded." The usual "track is making no sound" suggestions apply, such as making sure that nothing that is solo'd is preventing the track from making sound.

Cakewalk by BandLab is free, Cakewalk Sonar requires purchasing a BandLab Backstage Pass membership. Make sure you've downloaded and installed the correct product.

Sounds pretty cool. Those fills and rolls and stuff are not easy to program from scratch. Impressive. I'm a drummer and the drums sound realistic enough for contemporary styles. So many live drum performances these days are gridded after being played that the lack of imperfections in the timing isn't as much of a giveaway as it used to be, and if it's going to be a loud, busy rock mix, the instruments that you do play live will help cover for that. If you haven't already done so, nudging velocities at random spots can help further the illusion of a live drummer playing. I'm not versed enough in post-hardcore to say for sure, but the one thing I might adjust would be to use a snare sound where you can hear more snare wire. That's just a personal thing, I do not like the pank-pank snare sound. I loved The Police, and Copeland's drumming, but that damned clanky steel snare detracted from their sound (to my ears). I play an Acrolite (aluminum) and tune it deeper and wetter, but I don't play post-hardcore either. Since your drums are canned, you can change out drum sounds at will. It all depends on how it sounds in the mix, though, and personal preferences and traditional sounds for different genres. What you have here should work fine.

I meant the source code. Source code isn't 32 or 64 or any bit until its compiled.

Well, if it was in Project 5, then it means the code is probably in BandLab's possession. There is hope.

'strewth, I understood REAPER users better once I slammed the Melda Kool-Aid. I don't think I jump into threads about other products and try to p1mp MeldaProduction substitutes, though. Do I? I'm blinded by the light (revved up like a deuce, etc.), so it's hard to know. I sure don't recommend their stuff for everyone. Except the FreeFX Bundle. Too useful. As you put it, I like to appear smart (if not actually being smart), so the endless hideous complexity of most of Melda's 5hit appeals to me. "Gawd, I must be genious, I understands the MoldyProductions."🤪

Thanks to the MEGA sales of old, I have almost the entire Unfiltered Audio line, which is great stuff. Of the rest, SPL Vitalizer is great, elysia mpressor and alpha master are great, and Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor is very nice. Lindell TE-100 is....interesting, but in my post-Plugin Doctor life, less so now that I can duplicate its mojo-ridden curves with just about any parametric EQ. That leaves about 30 more that....have the best skeuomorphic graphics in the business? 🙄 But I never paid for any just for the sake of getting them, I got 'em for free using $20 no minimum vouchers. 'cause what the heck. If someone else wants to mix on my system and can't get their head around the MeldaProduction UI, I can point them in the other direction as it were.

It takes work to understand REAPER, but I ask: what useful enterprise does not require work? To comprehend REAPER one must understand that a track may be anything you can wish or imagine. An audio track, a MIDI track, a video track, a bus, a send, a submix, an aux track, a warm Summer afternoon, the memory of a lover's kiss, the idea of true brotherhood, or even the idea of ideas themselves. A track may contain matter in all of its states, gas, liquid or solid (plasma support is expected before the next dot release). It may contain light, sound, vibrations of all frequencies. Infrared! Ultraviolet! A track may be routed to a bus, or another track, a bus routed to a track, another bus, and any of them may be routed directly to the user's soul, and to the collective soul of all living creatures. REAPER is the yin, the yang, the alpha and the omega. It is the first DAW you should try and the last you'll ever need. REAPER! REAPER! REAPER.

Praise be to their licensing and upgrade policies! Praise!

REAPER is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful DAW I've ever used in my life.

Mixcraft Recording Studio has just been updated to 10.5 (with built-in stem separation) and is on sale for $59. You can subscribe to BandLab Backstage Pass for a year and get Sonar and Next for $105.

Best sounding virtual grand I've ever played. If you want it, though, you might hold off until MSoundFactory LE comes up in an Eternal Madness or periodic 50% off sale. It comes with every MSoundFactory instrument, which includes Meldway Grand. The Monastery Grand that comes with the free MSoundFactory Player ain't no slouch either.

No personal experience with it here. First question: do you mean BandLab the online and mobile device DAW or Cakewalk by BandLab, the Windows desktop DAW that is the focus of this forum? If you mean Cakewalk, there's no reason it wouldn't work. It requires sidechaining, which works splendidly in Cakewalk. I use Trackspacer, the product it seems to want to compete with and it works great in Cakewalk. As others have mentioned, it's always best practice to trial software before buying, if you can.

I agree with this (maybe not ALL of them). IME, the bugs usually come down to host-specific issues. My guess is that Saverio doesn't test in a wide variety of hosts before he ships. He probably doesn't have a QA staff, and his site has no invitation to become a beta tester. If nothing else, a beta program would allow him to check compatibility on a wider variety of hosts before releasing. I bought his latest offering, which claims to produce similar results to Oeksound Soothe, and it doesn't work in Cakewalk (yet). There's really no excuse for this; Cakewalk is a free DAW. And I'm sure he could easily get NFR copies of any DAW he wanted from the manufacturers. It took me a matter of minutes to find out that it crashed in Cakewalk. That said, he does seem very diligent about fixing these problems. Doing it before he starts selling the plug-in would be a great idea.

If I wanted to do this, I'd probably go with the second option, automate the reverb mix (or send if you are using the reverb as a send effect on more than one track) on a single track. Which is not to say that your first method isn't valid. It does seem like it would be more complex. Another way to do it might be to split your track into clips and put the clips in two different tracks as necessary, but I still think automating the reverb depth is the way to go.