Misha

Hi Folks. I have a tech issue I can't solve. Midi loop packs.... unfortunately many (if not most) "packs" sold have MIDI loops scattered on timeline. Meaning, they don't start on bar #1. That means software like EZkeys will not recognize them properly. I searched for a tool to batch convert midi files to start at Bar #1, but found nothing. So I went with my neanderthal way, batch opened multiple Midi files in Cakewalk (on separate tracks), moved individual files to start at bar #1 (in two packs I dealt with they were scattered on timeline) and exported files one by one as SMF.... It's ok if there are 20-40 files. But larger packs would take me hours... Can somebody recommend a tool (if one exist), or a more intelligent way to do it in bulk in Cakewalk? Thank you!

Noel and team, First, I want to thank you for your dedication & for the progress Cakewalk made in the past few years. Love Cakewalk! Coming from world of arrangers to computer recording, I would really like to see a true Chord Track implemented. To be able to drop a melodic MIDI phrase to the track and so it follows the progression and tempo map of the project. I believe competitors such as Cubase and StudioOne had this for quite some time. It is "kind" of available now in Cake, but not quite it. There are a couple of plugins that would allow for dynamic re-chording, but process is complex and unintuitive. In my mind, if made, right, this would make a mega feature for Cakewalk users. Thank you for considering.

A proud BIAB user of 5 years. One of the best music tool discoveries since Cakewalk You would think it would do what I want to accomplish with MIDI phrases? Surprisingly not. Well.. .not completely true. I looked into it. It has a "tool" but it is very convoluted and buggy, it was not specifically designed for it. And it doesn't have a Media Browser to audition these MIDI phrases. So you kind of doing it "blindly". Some MIDI libraries have great phrases that I would never be able to play on keyboard, but to use them in existing composition would require a lot of elbow grease. ---- Until Cakewalk bakes Chord a Chord track, I am on a quest to find a middle man solution in the form of a VST that could do that. The technology/logic of hardware arrangers is ancient, not sure why I am having a hard time of finding a VST that can do similar inside of DAW.

User 905133, Don't I mentioned physical arrangers as a case study only. Just a concept I am trying to achieve in Cakewalk. With so many MIDI VSTs, there must be one which can do this stuff. Thanks.

1) I am talking about MIDI clips that I can audition in Cakewalk Media Browser YES 2)onto a MIDI track 3)Not audio, but MIDI transposed according to a Midi (block) chord track that sits on another MIDI track. 4)so it can be routed to a sound producing synth (Kontakt, Halion, etc.) ----------------------------------------------------------- I came to computer recording from hardware arrangers such as Yamaha arranger keyboards & Yamaha modules such as QY 70/100. To explain this in simple terms... These arrangers had a library of melodic & rhythmic parts that were made into pre-made styles. But also, these arrangers allowed to assemble a fully customized style by threating these phrases / lines that made up a style just as midi clips. You would simply make your style by combining and re-voicing almost any parses from the pool (of all styles). With exceptions of combining phrases with different time signatures and a few other insignificant nuances. There are plenty of plugins that will follow a MIDI chord track (Scaler, Kontakt, Halion and many many more) However I am not familiar with any that can take a midi clip placed on the MIDI track (of the Cakewalk) and transpose it automatically according to a MIDI (block) Chord track that sits on another MIDI track (in the Cakewalk) I hope that clarifies what I want to achieve.

Will bump this with two more items. Does anybody know if this was the latest Chord Track request thread, or was there another, bigger thread? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Since Cakewalk doesn't have in house Chord Track at the moment, maybe somebody can suggest a VST that can be used in similar manner with flexible routing. Idea is to drop a midi clip from Cakewalk's browser to a track, so that follows/transposes these clips according to MIDI chord track that sits on another track, without surgeries, except maybe for length of the clip. Thank you.

msmcleod, Thank you for extensive reply! Looks like there are many hoops to jump through. Not exactly the workflow I was after. A musical friend, who uses Studio One, says that with their "Chord track" you just drop that melodic midi loop and you are done. It will follow chords, etc. I do remember quite a few people requested Chord Track for Cakewalk time ago.... I wonder if it is planned / seriously considered? I guess only the Chief baker Noel would know

Thank you for the reply! "A chord track has been requested but does not yet exist." I do remember that request... I believe I vote for that. Maybe somebody can suggest a workaround., as I do have a MIDI chord (block chords) track available. Perhaps there is a way to tie it with melodic MIDI loop? Thanks.

Hi Folks. I have some melodic MIDI loops that I want to use in Cakewalk. My average composition is audio tracks and imported MIDI chord (block chords) track. Is there a way to make these MIDI loops transpose / follow chord changes according to my MIDI chord track within Cakewalk? Thank you.

Will, Thanks for trying! I gave up on Izotope plugins about a year ago. In my view, they are just resource sucking leaches, compared to most others, except for their older/legacy plugs. My main plugins are from Fabfilter. Noel, Thank you for replying! I was just about to post to topic and got your reply. I freed about 100gb from the hard drive and HD icon at resource monitor is not lit any more. For "disable dropout detection" You mean: Mask Dropout detection = True? My final thoughts on this is that all most USB bus only powered interfaces do not work well with larger projects. I have tried 4 and had same issue on all 4. The 5th interface Original (rev1) Arturia Audiofuse was a "Rosetta Stone". Because it can run bus power only and with external AC. Running Audiofuse without external power supply at highest buffer gives same "Stopped audio engine 01". As soon as I plug in the AC cord, all issues go away. I picked up MiniFuse, thinking that it is a newer interface that should take the load well. I guess not. I am not sure of true Thunderbolt bus powered interfaces, perhaps they get enough power to pull heavier projects.

L. Tim. Yep, this is the most ridiculous one I have ever experienced. Bouncing did nothing. I even tried saving as Cakewalk Bundle which copies files, so there is no shared / cross related issues. Kevin, Yep I tried that too I had an issue with previous interface (Apogee one). Larger projects, even at 2048 would cause buffer overflow, making interface stuck and sound distorted. The only way to solve that except for relaunching Cakewalk was to lower the buffer to make interface heal. Current interface is from Arturia Mini Fuse. I experienced same issue: A dropout has stopped the audio engine (01)" with Yeti Pro, Motu M2, Apogee One and now with newly released Arturia Mini Fuse. The only interface that worked smoothly ever for me is/was Arturia Audiofuse - the original that was released in 2015. It might be that all these interfaces I have issues with are under powered. Only original Arturia Audiofuse uses external power supply, all others are USB power fed. Original Arturia Audiofuse, would light up that "drive" icon in Cakewalk's Performance monitor, but will not cause Audio engine to stop. --- I will try to free up additional 100GB on the main drive today and check if Samsung has a firmware update for it. Other than that I am out of the ideas. I have tried all solutions mentioned in Cakewalk documentation regarding Stopped audio engine 01, Sweetwater Cakewalk guide regarding same thing, Power plan set to Ultimate. Nothing spikes in Task Manager. Plenty of resources. Must be some kind of glitch possibly with Hard Drive handling Cakewalk or not enough power (by design) of those interfaces, that do not use external power supply.

Thanks for replies. David, I have over 100GB free. Samsung 980 Pro SSD HD is not old (and not overused). L.Tim: "A dropout has stopped the audio engine (01)" Same code I was getting for few years on different machines. ---- I should have been a little more clear. It is not that I can't tinker with projects that have "A dropout has stopped the audio engine (01)" , I can. But during mixing / adjusting plugins, or when just playing, it could stop a dozen times during single session. Also for the test described above I had Asio at highest 2048, safe mode on. Cakewalk-latest, Windows up to date, interface firmware/drivers latest. I sincerely doubt it has to do with hardware. The track in question, plays fine by itself.

Hi Folks. For quite some time now, I was having issues with dropouts. Specifically: "A dropout has stopped the audio engine" - My biggest Cakewalk nemesis. The things I have tried to resolve this in the past few years would probably not fit into the page and I will spare you of these details and try to get to the point. My recent project was pretty heavy with all kinds of plugins / synths and was giving me the dropout thing, stopping audio engine. For the test purposes I decided to test the actual limit my computer can handle and compare my working project with test project. So I created another project within same Cakewalk session. I started with 5 audio tracks and slapped 3 FX plugins on each (some that have look ahead function). Everything was fine. Then I duplicated all 5 including events and FX, everything was running smoothly. Then I increased amount of audio tracks (with audio data) to 40+ with at least 3 plugins each. And it was running fine(!) So I switched back to my main project (same Cakewalk session!) and started deleting things. 1) I deleted all synths 2)Deleted all Midi tracks 3) froze all remaining tracks. Issue of dropouts persisted. Then I: 4) Deleted all plugins from the buses and tracks. Issue remained (!) Then I started to delete tracks one by one, just for the sake of the test and BiNgO! Single muted frozen drum track was causing Hard drive I/O overload!!! A Project with 40 not frozen audio tracks and over 120 Plugins (!) runs fine and one with 5 audio tracks and NO plugins causes overloads. How can that happen? If I delete that drum track, it would not overload. One can say, sure, just get rid of that track and live happily ever after. But this is a long running issue. How would I know next time which specific track causes this? Is there a reasonable explanation for this situation? Kindly let me know. Attaching a screenshot of the project. When/if replying, kindly keep in mind that this test of two projects was run under the same Cakewalk session. Thank you. P.S. Both projects are 44.1kz / 16bit. The hard drive is SAMSUNG 980 PRO 1TB PCIe NVMe Gen4 Internal Gaming SSD M.2.

No use for Melodyne. Please turn off that specific spam toast. Very annoying.

msmcleod, Thanks for trying, but no luck. bdickens, Well... This is pretty cool piece gear which is made well, and has a decent headphone preamp. It was probably never meant for heavy duty stuff. However, I believe it should handle heavy projects with "large enough" buffer. This is a secondary interface, so it is not crucial, but I would like to try to find a solution. ------------------ When this tripover happens, it sounds like... listening through shattered glass. Not your usual suspects like pops / clicks. I do not experience these . Attaching a short clip of what it sounds like. Maybe it will give a clue to someone. P.S. In most cases 2 types of plugins give me that outcome. Izotope and Lurssen mastering console, but not limited to. Izotope plugs are notorious for overloading system. Lurssen also has similar issues. But these are not the only things that trip Apogee One to that shattering sound mode. cake.m4a

bdickens, Brilliant. Why didn't I think of that? ---- Anybody else please. Hopefully someone who understands why it is happening on tech level. Thanks.

Hi folks. I asked similar question before, but perhaps rephrasing it will get me going in the right direction. One of the interfaces that I use for sketches is Apogee One. Here is the issue; when I mix a larger project with all kind of Vsts, I get a *drop out/ Stopped Audio engine" occasionally and that is expected. What is not expected is when "Stopped Audio Engine" occurs, interface output becomes severly distorted. I hear everything through a very loud hiss type noise. It continues to be like that on stop /play... The only solution that I found is changing buffer on device up OR down, that somehow refreshes the driver and playback resumes normally. This does not happen with my recording interface of different brand... I mean it might also not handle the VST load and I would get a "Stopped Audio Engine", but it would snap back to normal playback, without me tinkering with buffers or anything else. Just transport Play/Stop will cure it. Apogee One does not "cure" by itself. I have 2 Apogee One units. Same behaviour. I use max buffers 2048 plus Safe mode is on (I tried with Safe mode off, makes no difference). I patiently waited for driver update for a long time, which finally came out couple of month ago. It did not solve the issue. Apogee has no desire to look into it. Any clues how this can be solved without changing buffers back and forth? Thank you! while in a

Hi Folks. Trying to use Stream Deck to program a few macros +transport in Cakewalk. I can easily use included streamdeck software to program hotkeys in other software I use, but for some reason I can not do same in Cakewalk. The simplest example would be to shortcut a spacebar for Play in Cakewalk using Stream Deck. Just nothing happens when Stream deck hotkeyd spacebar to button is pressed... Before somebody suggests a 3rd party sideshowfx plugin...I was wondering if there is something simple that I forgot to check or uncheck to make Stream Deck work within Cakewalk for simple macros/shortcuts? Thank you. ---------------------- SOLVED! I had to run Stream Deck software as Admin.

Sure, that is a valid philosophy. However, in this particular case, I am talking about a simple backup that would allow me to retain same workflow for a couple of years if something that is "pushed" will break that workflow.

bdickens, I am sorry, I feel it is a poor answer to this topic. With another question I asked, you suggested as an ultimate solution to the problem is "tweaking" PC, where question specifically mentioned that I do not want to "tweak" the PC, beyond what was already "tweaked". BTW, after extensive testing with other DAWs, the issue was using VST3 versions of plugins I used in Cakewalk. Problem went away after I switched to VST2 No tweaking. I am more into having fun with music, instead of digging down in technical issues. The sole purpose of "preserving" Cakewalk version that is stable and does everything what I use it for, is to have enough time to either adopt to Cakewalk or look for something else, but so it is not time constrained, if some adopted - pushed updates will interfere with my workflow significantly. I think that is reasonable.

sjoens, +1 I had a version on my second setup that "required" updating. So that is that. But I acknowledge there are many variables. My best "preferred" way would be to archive a version that I think does everything I want, and be able to install and re-authorize without updating , in case things go south and keep it that way until either a compromise solution is found or OS makes it impossible to launch.

I am not worried about Cakewalk shutting down. Actually I think Bakers are doing fantastic job... However, I am worried about... if I feel the progress is too "fantastic" - way beyond my humble needs and some particular features & workflow that I use get demolished or changed to something that I completely dislike, it would be a time constrain and in a way a lottery to backup projects and switch to something else if the update to Cakewalk will be "required" to run with any other reason than significant OS changes . No other music software that I have would "require" me to update in order to run. Authorization / protection-yes, but I do not believe the requirement of updating the actual software to run is enforced... Not that I can recall.

Thanks Scook. Not clear at all: "Additionally, back end changes to the BandLab cloud may periodically require the software to be updated to remain compatible." Compatible with what (what?)? My computer? I think this statement is very "foggy". I can still install my Sonar X1 from ages ago without any "clouds" or "requirements". And have it same way as I bought it . While I am a fanboy of Cakewalk, this forced "authorization" -> "required update" part does sit well with me. This authorization/demo thing had been specifically mentioned by a few prominent reviewers outside Cakewalk forum . Judging by the statement in the link provided, I am assuming, a previous HD image might not authorize older version and it might happen that I will be forced to use "brand new" version with whatever items or "features" I will not be comfortable with in order to have access to my projects? Correct? That is my concern.

I have read this thread, which goes into some specifics on topic of: "Can someone explain me why "free" DAW can revert itself to Demo Mode?" I might be getting old, or this is just my workflow, not sure, which one of two Having used Cakewalk for over decade and a half, I think it has pretty much everything I need. My workflow for the most part as far as DAW part goes remained mostly unchanged in over 5 years. What I am worried about is that if Bandlab changes something, it seems there is no easy way to go to prior version and keep it that way for "x" number of month or years, until either adopt to changes or have time to find and learn suitable replacement. So a thought about having over 200 projects in Cakewalk makes me a little worried. I understand that nobody has a crystal ball to see the future.... Here is my actual and straight forward question. I use Macrium full HD backups. Assume I backup everything now with current release of Cakewalk and in 2023 I decide that I no longer like where Cakewalk is heading, will I be able to authorize that 2021 version, without updating Cakewalk for at least 6 month? P.S. I understand that Windows can have updates that can impact functioning, but lets assume it does not. Thank you.

I think I figured this one out..... well at least the cause of my frustrations. VST3 was the culprit! Changed out plugins used in the project to VST2, problems are gone. Everything runs smooth. I do not know "why" and unless there is a simple fix, I do not know if I want to know "why" VST3 plugins were acting up. I see no difference in final result. So will stick to VST2 for now. Thank you everyone participating in this discussion!