Billy86

Oh, okay. Had found an old forum post thru Google from some years back that said otherwise. Thank you!

See the photo please. I have four "Simple Instrument" synths in a project -- 1 EZ Drummer, 2 EZ Keys and 1 Addictive Keys. I've dragged the MIDI out of EZ Keys 1 (a piano) and put it on a MIDI Track "ADK MIDI" to drive the Addictive Keys VSTi in track 4. I've muted the EZ Keys, but want to keep it because I want to be able to access its MIDI data if I need to make a change moving forward. I'd like to freeze it to take the load of CPU, but the freeze button on the track and in the Synth Rack seems inactive. I click and nothing happens. The same is true for the other EZ instruments; I can't freeze them. Should I be able to? Interestingly, I AM able to freeze Addictive Keys, as shown. The only difference I can tell is that AD Keys has an external MIDI track driving it, whereas in the EZ Instruments, the MIDI is contained within the VSTi. NOTE: There's also an instance of Kontakt as you can see (so, I actually have 5 synths), where I'm using Strummed Guitar. It, too, has an external MIDI track associated with it driving an instance in a multi-rack, and I can freeze that VSTi as well. So, if it has an external MIDI Track going into a VSTi, I can freeze it, and if I doesn't have external MIDI going into the VSTi, I can't. Is this how it should work? I can ARCHIVE all the EZ Instruments, but that doesn't "unload" them from CPU the way freezing does, is that right?

Thanks for the suggestion! Also, I was wrong about the Toontrack Hybrid Harp. You CAN access each instrument that comprises this hybrid instrument separately. So it essentially has a number of different and discrete instruments, including two Harmoniums. See the vid:

Saw that and wondered if the instruments that make up the hybrid instrument could be used separately, but I don’t think they can.

What a great clip! John’s expressive hamming for the camera gave me a nice chuckle to start the morning. We all need that now.

Thanks for the note, Andres. I'll check it out!

I’m interested in the sound of this instrument. Also sometimes called a melodium. Sound wise and functionally, kind of a cross between an accordion (the use of air bellows to generate sound) and a mini pipe organ. In a larger version, their also called pump organs— Neil Young plays a pump organ on his Unplugged album and it sounds really cool.

Thank you for the information. Lots to check out!

I’m using a fader port 1 as a control surface, but I’m interested in a KorgNano to have more controllers. Can I use them both at the same time, or if I switch to the Kong unit would I need to abandon the fader port controller? I’d like to be able to continue to use the fader port’s automated, longer-throw volume slider.

Wow. Something from a year ago that seems to be desired. Just ran into this issue and wished I could nest a folder inside a folder. Please and thank you, Bakers.

Thanks for the help! I think I've got it with this explanation, and with this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUlooITi3Eg. This is probably the best at explaining how Focusrite Control works that I've found. The direct monitoring part comes at about the 9 minute mark. This helped me: In Focusrite Control, "think of each output having its own individual mixer" which you can set up how you want, based on what you want to hear.

I can’t figure out how to direct-monitor my input on the Focusrite Scarlett 4i4 Gen 3 interface, so I can record with what they claim is zero latency. I’ve read the online documentation and the Manual. They tell you it can be done, but not HOW to do it. I’ve watched every video I can find, and I’m still lost. My previous Scarlett had the direct monitor/DAW playback mix knob on the front; this is now controlled by Focusrite Control software, but I can’t figure out how to route it inside Focusrite Control. Thanks for any help.

What you want to do is create a bus (name it GitFX or whatever makes sense to you) and in the send module of each track, select that bus, and control how much of the signal you want to send to that FX bus with the rotary dial. You can add reverb or whatever FX you want in the GitFX bus’s FX bin. The FX bus will be routed to the master bus by default.

Thanks, Craig. I’ve been thinking about trading in a Novation Controller for a NI keyboard and would be interested because there seems to be mixed reviews on how well they integrate with CbB.

To have more control over the cymbals , I’ve thought about creating two channels in Cakewalk. Call them OH-complete and OH-cymbals. Maybe bring the SSD5 OH “out” into each of them separately and then you could EQ/mix them separately at the high-frequency crossover where the cymbals shine. Maybe it’s just me, but the SSD cymbals seem to disappear in a rock mix. I’ve also taken to creating my own cymbal channel and inserting one-shots .wavs to supplement. Hmmm... that spurs a thought on a workaround that could be easier: you can add one-shot samples in SSD, and I believe it creates a channel for that sample. If you did that with cymbal samples, maybe that would give you dedicated cymbal channels to work with.

Thanks so much for this @Robert Bone. I can appreciate the time this takes. I look forward to diving in!

That's super generous, Bob! That sounds like a ton of meticulous work. Thank you! I've yet to do a drum map, so I'll have to the start to at least see what the end product is supposed to look like. :) I like building a drum track in EZ Drums, then dragging it to a MIDI track and pointing it to SSD VSTi, with the SSD5 map configuration set to the EZ drum map that's included. Let's see what kind of routing knots I can tie myself up in!! Particularly interested in this: "I just went through the exercise of splitting the Cutya Kit to all separate output channels, and I built a custom drum map in Cakewalk for it, and setup a Project Template and a Track Template, complete with additional buses (Drums master, kick, snare, toms, cymbals, OH, Room, parallel compression)..." Are you saying you were able to route the cymbals out separately from SSD5 mixer, which gave you access to direct those cymbals into the additional cymbals bus you mention in the bolded text above?

Yes please, Bob! Do you know if one would have to do what you did on the one kit on a kit by kit basis in SSD5?

The OP has a point. I’m working with SSD5 right now. Routing out and having individual tracks for each out is pretty straightforward. It doesn’t help with the cymbal situation. The issue is there’s no Dedicated out channel for cymbals in SSD5 that I’ve found. Controlling them is a matter of mainly using the overhead outs where the cymbals primarily live. Using the ‘Instrument master’ (top left) and the velocity control (top right in the GUI) increased to the 80-90 range feeds more signal in the OH and provides A relative volume boost. try boosting the volume levels of the various mic controls (particularly the volume level on the OH mic) on the crash cymbal GUI you show, and combine that with Juicing the velocity control. I’ve found I can barely hear them at the default settings. With some tweaking, mine are sounding a lot better.

One of those PITA things... So, every time I open a project, I get a popup that says a silent bus has been detected. I've had them before, and they're always wrong. In this case, it's telling me my Drum Bus is assigned to a silent hardware output, but it's not. It plays fine. The drum bus is routed to a submix (it contains everything but vocals), which routes the the master bus and then hardware outputs (Focusrite 4i4). Simple, no problem. There's not an issue, but I get it every time; no big deal I supposed, but it's one of those nags you don't really need every time you pop open CbB. Why is it doing that, and how do I "fix" it... I say "fix" it because nothing appears to be wrong? Thanks!

Hi C.A. Would you mind marking SOLVED in the subject line? Others may not be weighing in, but this info/solution could really help others in the future searching this sorta thing!🙂

In case anyone missed it, Native Instruments (ie: Kontakt, etc., etc.) is running a Summer Sound Sale. Log into your account to see what deal you might qualify for. I my case it would be Komplete 12 for $199 vs $599. Happy shopping... or gear lusting! https://www.native-instruments.com/en/ Billy

“There are separate track managers for the track and console view as long as the "Keep track/console views in sync" option on the track manager is un-ticked.” Wow. Wait. What? I’ve fought with this Issue for a while. I hide a folder of stuff in track view and would love all that stuff to be hidden in console view to free up screen real estate. Never understood why, if I had things hidden in track view and had Keep track/console views in sync, those same elements would not be hidden in console view. Isn’t that what keeping “views in synch” means? If the views are controlled completely separately, what is the point of “Keep track/console views in sync“? I’ll give what you suggest a shot, Bill.

I recognize the PRV icon. You can dock the PRV in the multi-dock and have quick access to it. Not sure what the other two items are. I have a second monitor, so I drag things over there to get them out of the way.

“Blend out”? Do you mean close? Click the X.