azslow3

Thank you for the clarification. Have I understood that right that if I start BandLab Assistant and it goes online, Cakewalk will not revert to the demo mode during next month? I mean is that "6 months" are counted from the last contact with the service or there are some "fixed dates"? In case the later is the case, please display that magic date somewhere. So if I want the computer offline let say tomorrow, I can be sure it will not revert to the demo. With pushed Windows updates I prefer to switch off the internet and check that everything I need is working before doing something important next day. And I guess I am not alone. PS. @Mike. Some of my servers have uptime more then a year, I also have servers running OS more then 8 years without updates. Old CCC had an option to revert. I have not found such in the Bandlab Assistant. I keep up to date my home computer and online computer games on it, but I am not so quick with at least partially serious staff. @Noel. I am a bit confused by your second argument... If I have installed Cakewalk using Assistant and it has authorized what I have installed, how can I get a virus from some mirror? If someone manage to initially authorize without Bandlab service and you catch him half a year later, I think it is "too late" for virus injection prevention.

Well, the feature idea can be direct Pre-FX Volume automation with real-time waveform change. Plus the separation of Post-FX volume automation and the volume slider (so they sum and not fight each other). Also automation clips... Some DAWs have that and in some situations that is cool 😉

I do not know current situation with "A". "S MK1" works with Mackie compatible plug-ins. "S MK2" does not work with Mackie, current implementation (for other DAWs) are OSC based. It is known that NI has unlocked "switch to NKS in the current track" method. That is working in other DAWs and possible to make for Cakewalk.

That is good in theory, from http://www.aatranslator.com.au/ So at the moment reasonable results can be achieved using: Cakewalk -> OMF -> (AATranslator) -> AAF (or target program own format) or Cakewalk -> CWP -> (REAPER) -> RPP -> (AATranslator) ->AAF (or target program own format) The second approach can preserve more information. REAPER has free demo and AATranslator provides test conversion service. So anyone can try how good or bad that works.

I guess you mean "Pre-FX". You can insert any plug-in without processing with automatable volume as the first in FX bin and automate it. For example the "Output" of empty FX chain.

If MME works for you, that is great. It is better to spend time making music than tuning latency and MIDI tolerates higher latency then let say guitar (voice is the worse). Just do not hesitate to try other modes if you start to feel you want a bit faster response.

In your original screenshots, you set the interface to "WASAPI Shared". That gives worse latency possible, even on lower settings. Some interfaces have good latency in "WASAPI Exclusive" and/or "WDM/KS". The only problem is that you can not get Windows audio (Youtube, etc.) when the DAW is running. Many interfaces have best latency in ASIO mode. For example latest Realtek chips (I do not know if your notebook has such). Note that I had to install Realtek original driver first and DELL specific on top of it to make my XPS work correctly while showing Realtek ASIO panel (somehow DELL has forgotten to include required module). These chips in ASIO mode beat in latency many low end interfaces. I have not measured reported 6ms RTL, but the latency is definitively lower then with VS-20. Note that ASIO not always gives lowest latency. F.e. latest Behringer interfaces do better with WDM/KS. My old M-Audio Firewire has approximately the same latency with both, but "WASAPI Exclusive" is worse. At the same time a cheap tablet rocks with "WASAPI", can not work with "WDM/KS" and hardly usable with ASIO4ALL. So the best mode is particular interface dependent. Periodically I get huge MIDI (!) latency from different devices (e-drums, DP). Interesting that I had no such problem with MPK Mini. Rebooting the system was helping. The reason is still unknown (that problem is rarely reported, but people hit it from time to time). PS. What can not influence the latency is the File System buffer size. Under some condition it can produce cracks/pops, but it is technically completely unrelated to the latency.

+ VSTi is technically the same as VST with MIDI input. If I remember correctly, Cakewalk has always supported that. In fact in old Sonar versions it was tricky to allow MIDI input for normal FXes (f.e. Guitar processor), it had to be declared as VSTi using a "hack". But since VSTi by definition accepts audio in/out, it can be used as an FX.

Can someone explain me why "free" DAW can revert itself to Demo Mode? And even in case that is a secret, is there any hint inside the program about WHEN that is going to happened next time?

That is a mythos Apple has managed to spread. I agree, when you have a new Macbook and run Logic or other Apple staff on it, that works in general smoother then on Windows. That is logical, they produce one specific hardware and run own software on it. Windows has to deal with thousands of different hardware combinations. But when it comes to practice... Read REAPER problem on 5k HDR Macbooks and saga how Justin tries to solve that, without success till now. Software on my mothers iPad is more buggy then software on my no name Android tablet and I was surprise Apple lovers in fact know all that bugs. "Lost" files? Sure! A colleague has asked me to help with his wife's Macbook. After some update, she no longer could run any program nor could she find own files. It was not so easy to find quite tricky manual fix (obviously known and not rare), but I have managed that. Web and Video out of the box compatibility? Not for long... Another colleague has asked for help, the sites he likes no longer work in Safari, many videos are not working. Apple fix Safari and Video versions to Mac OS X version. Want up to date browser? Update the OS! Some Macbooks have wlan problem in our institute. All Windows, Android and Linux devices are working fine, but these Macbooks have to be wired. I still have no idea why. Finally, some colleagues have switched from Macbooks after they was failing exactly one month after the end of warrantee. "Normal" laptops have 3 years, but Apple... just one! Not to mention latest "too thin" Macbooks problem... but tss.. Apple does not like that

The man is smart and does many good things, but... He prefers Apple over Windows and so he has problems with many things but he does not have problems with dropped "legacy" features nor with single company eco-systems (apple, presonus). Not my style. Also he use huge resolution monitors (only?). And as the result I was unable to finish reading his review with (latest) Firefox, these ridiculous big screenshots which "jump" on there own (why?) .

That dialog serves just one purpose, enable some control over Cakewalk from keyboards/DPs which have no DAW controller functionality. For example if you have Digital Piano with 3 pedals, that assignment allow you to use up to 88 commands when let say left pedal is pressed. That is great feature I was missing in REAPER when I have switched. I have missed it so much that I have re-created that functionality there (till AZ Controller is written for REAPER). But specialized controllers are working throw specialized route. That has many advantages, including multi-functional buttons and combinations, feedback, etc.: Generic Surface is the simplest to learn and support all MIDI events (f.e. SysEx as on some MMC capable controllers). But it has fixed list of available operations Cakewalk ACT MIDI allow all commands from "General Bindings" page in preferences and simple one modifier combinations. But it does work fine with MIDI CC messages only (Note off are "leaking" in stock version) and implements fixed number of physical controls (8+1 buttons, 8+8 knobs or sliders) AZ Controller is most tricky to understand and configure from these 3, but it has no limitations (has feedback, OSC support, etc.) So there are several options how to configure the transport buttons, but MIDI assignments in the keyboard shortcut section is not the way to go in this case. At the moment I do not like NI: They have declared NKS (in part of common switching presets and light guide) proprietary and are not going to change that They are selling TFT monitors and LEDs as accessibility tool... (at least they have plans to change that with A, but for some reason that has not happened last months). If they fix at least issue (2), I can try to support S 2 and A. Technically that is possible (with AZ Controller).

Since that is a new forum, I re-post what I have written on the old one: There is user created preset for AZ Controller: http://www.azslow.com/index.php?topic=458.0 I can not say what it can since I do not have the device. Buses are in a separate section and require explicit switching, as in Cakewalk GUI. I do not know if that is already implemented in mentioned preset, but it is definitively possible to add if not yet there (you can ask the preset creator, do this yourself or ask me... but please use the last option only after you have the device and ready to test the result).

Most people have no problems getting transport to work with any MIDI device. As long as the device is really MIDI. NI has decided to drop MIDI for controlling part in S 2 keyboards. I do not know how it is with A. If MIDI from transport buttons is working, it can work in Cakewalk (it theoretically should, but not sure in current firmware/future or with extra NI bridge...). Generic Surface, ACT MIDI, AZ Controller. Any from these 3 plug-ins can do the trick for any MIDI device (AZ Controller also can do this with OSC, so for S2, but no one has done that so far). How hard can it be? At most deleting not existing devices in Windows device manager, deleting 2 files in Cakewalk and spending 10 minutes with documentation. Definitively manageable in 3 decades... Ableton is a nice program. But there are not many people which use it instead of Cakewalk/S1/Cubase/ProTools/REAPER/etc. Ableton has specific workflow targeting specific purpure, people use it in addition to conventional DAWs (when they need related functionality).

For me, that is the only problem in this well made forum.

Please change red (and alike) color for text (topics , etc.) to anything else.