PopStarWannabe

So far I've only scratched the surface of the said Cakewalk synths, looking through presets, learning to play with the cut-off, adding effects, changing envelopes, etc. And now I wanted to dive deep, learn programming. And I don't want to invest time in, say, learning the waveshapers in Z3TA 2 and one day wake up and find out that it stopped working due to a change in Windows 10, or who knows, because it's not supported anymore. Also, I compared presets of new, expensive synths from YouTube presentations to those in Rapture and Z3TA 2 and the former seemed more... clear, more vivid, more spectacular, dynamic, etc than the latter. That's why I was wondering if the old Cakewalk synths are capable of yelding simliar results.

I have bought these synths back in the day but never made any music with them. I just fooled around. Now I picked up making music and would like to know if these are still functional and sounding comparable (quality-wise) to the more flashy and expensive VSTs out there (Native Instruments, U-He, Arturia, etc). Or do I have to write them off and spend new money for something actual and more modern sounding? Please advice me.

There are (older) plug-ins that don't support MIDI Learn. For those plug-ins Cakewalk has created ACT. On paper it should work perfectly, just like MIDI Learn. I last used it in Sonar and it was very problematic and difficult to use. But maybe BandLab have updated it and it works perfecty now. Check it up in the manual.

I understand, but I've run installers from other companies and none trigerred the firewall. Since other companies did it, why hasn't Band Lab too written their Assistant code in an unsuspecting manner ?

I've done a clean install of Cakewalk on a clean install of Windows 10. After I downloaded and ran BandLab Assistant a Windows Defender window popped up saying "Windows Defender Firewall has just blocked some features of this app". I had to click Allow, to allow it to comunicate on either Private or Public Network or both. Otherwise it wouldn't run further. I've chosen Private Network. This is dodgy. Why has it happened?

Neither am I. I selected "Send me one email per day" yet I am not receiving anything, although myself and others have posted in that thread. It worked perfectly until a few weeks ago. I was receiving notiications and emails.

I checked the Date Modified of the FX Chains presets: September 2013. So they are the ones included in Sonar X3. Except the mastering ones: August 2015.

Yes, you're right. I remember now the difference. However, please respond to my question if you can. In my oppinion, there are neither FX Chains presets nor ProChannel presets that were created from scratch for CbB. What I saw in those two folders were inherited from a Sonar X2 installation that I have on my computer.

Yes, there are FX Chains for the ProChannel as well. These are .pcp files (clicking Load Preset at the top of the ProChannel will open a window). The ones for the track bin are .fxc files. The reason I am asking is when I try to load a preset, in both cases a folder opens which contains a lot of presets which are clearly inherited from a previous Sonar instalation, since they contain plugins not included in CbB. Folders are named FX Chain Presets and ProChannel Presets and are both under ...Cakewalk Content > Cakewalk Core. I was interested if there were any presets created especially for Cakewalk by Bandlab, made only from the included plugins.

I mean Sonitus, Boost 11, TH3, Breverb 2 (for the tracks' bins) and PC76 U-Type Compressor, QuadCurve Equalizer, Softube Saturation, REmatrix Solo, Style Dial FX, etc (for the ProChannel) ? In the documentation there is reference to these collections http://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=Cakewalk&language=3&help=Mixing.37.html but they're built from plugins not included into CbB.

They should just put them back officially. I mean... they do work. If they provide functionality for the style dials, it means they also work as themselves.

Ok, ok, I get it: they are there. But officially they are NOT there! So this means I was 50% right! 😀 Skook explained it all: they are there but have a different function: as engines for the Style Dials. However, his explanations prompts a new question: From what I gather from you guys, they are in a perfect state and working well, so why doesn't BandLab officialize them? Why didn't they officially include and announce them in a release? Do they want to give them a new look in the future and sell them?

I have chosen to hide All Signatures. I can't find a way to bring them back.

Is this link (which describes all the included plug-ins) up to date? http://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=Cakewalk&language=3&help=Plug-ins.1.html I've had some argument with a user claiming he had found VX-64 Vocal Strip, PX-64 Percussion Strip and TL-64 Tube Leveler "hidden" (excluded in Plugin Manager) in newer releases of CbB.

That is the real life: you must have had an old install of Sonar. Are you 100% sure that BEFORE you installed Cakewalk by Bandlab there had never been an install of Sonar on your system?