Jerry Gerber

I hope you turned on the snap on the control bar..I just tried it and it's working properly. Finally, after years of neglect the notation editor is repaired.

Uh-oh. Someone ought to punish me. I puntificated one too many times!

Well, Michael, that really is good news, thank you for sharing that with me. I know there are many people in this world who are motivated by other things than money and profit. If what you say is true, and I have no reason to doubt it, that's great for all of us. I too choose to write music that I want to write after spending 12 years writing soundtracks that paid very well. I couldn't justify the reward (financial) for the musical and intellectual compromises I had to make. So I understand very well when a person can, and does, decide to involve themselves in a labor of love. What drove me away from Sonar was one thing: The snap function in the staff view. Now that its been fixed, I have "fallen in love" with Cakewalk again. My 1.5 years with Digital Performer made me realize how superior Cakewalk is in so many ways, and I've come to believe it is the most under-rated and under-recognized DAW on the market. More power to Bandlab for keeping such a great DAW available not only for free, but still fixing bugs and adding features. Best, Jerry

Thanks msmcleod, I'm just learning the Arranger section so it may be user-error. I am figuring it out... Jerry

Thanks for listening David. Yes, Dune is the only synth in this movement. Jerry

I'm finding that when I open Preferences-Themes, Cakewalk takes quite a while, about 30 seconds, to open the Themes dialogue box. It's always been instantaneous in earlier versions I've used. This only happens right after I open CW for the first time. Any subsequent attempts to open Preferences-Themes is instantaneous, as expected.

I am having same issue, renaming doesn't work and the dialogue box gets stuck. The dialogue box in the arranger track seems very buggy. Cannot change colors. I have to undo to get it to disappear. Even when I minimize Cakewalk to write on this forum, the arranger dialogue box doesn't disappear. Nuts! I was hoping to learn this new feature quickly but too many bugs to even try to use it...I have a fairly new machine with Intel graphics card. DXdiag doesn't show any problems.. Section Type must be defined, I think that was the issue...

I'm having issues with the arranger track. Maybe it's my error? I cannot rename tracks and the arranger dialogue screen gets stuck. The only way to remove it is to undo everything. Am I missing something? When I click on rename, nothing happens... I think I have to choose a section type first, then it seems to be working.. Is this correct?

Hi fellow Cakewalk musicians, I had planned on spending the year writing vocal music. I started the year writing two pieces, and then the pandemic hit. Since it's impossible to bring singers into the studio to record (I'm in California which is currently seeing large increases in cases and deaths) and I'm not keen on trying to set things up remotely, I just canned the idea and started a new instrumental piece that doesn't need players or singers. Scored for VSL Orchestral Cube and Dune (softsynth). I hope you enjoy listening! PLAY

Thanks!

Hi, Does anybody know which folder Cakewalk stores the workspace files? Thanks, Jerry

Not sure what you mean. I just opened up Z3TA-2 and Breverb and they work fine. I paid for those separate from Sonar. As far as the other plugins that come with Sonar I am still using the Sonitus plugins. After completely uninstalling Sonar, and reinstalling Cakewalk, the Sonitus plugins are also working fine.

I think Cakewalk, particularly the new version about to be released that fixed the long-overdue problem with snap in the staff view (which I've tested and works great), will be sufficient and I won't need to use Sonar. After Gibson destroyed Sonar, I backed up all of my Sonar installation files, put them on a CD and put them in a safety deposit box in the bank. But now, I doubt I'll need them. By the way, I don't quite get how Bandlab is giving a $400 program away for free. I could understand it if they were just making it available, but the fact that they are fixing bugs and adding new features makes me wonder. Nobody gives away such sophisticated software for free, well, almost nobody. Do you think they'll start charging for it soon (which if OK with me) or is there some catch somewhere? I do notice that the end-user doesn't really have a copy of Cakewalk, there's no .exe file to hold onto. Best, Jerry

I fixed it, but a little differently. I like to keep my DAW lean and thin. Any program or files I don't use eventually get removed. So I uninstalled Cakewalk (current version), uninstalled Sonar and reinstalled Cakewalk. Everything is working fine. Sonar doesn't need to be installed, but if shared files are removed that causes the issue. By reinstalling Cakewalk, all the shared files are restored. Thanks Scook..

Hi, Tonight I installed Cakewalk, everything's working fine. I then proceeded to uninstall Sonar Platinum, and now when I open Cakewalk, I get two messages: 1. Database Error--Database connection failed. Assigned plugin categories and names will be unavailable. 2. Database Update Failed--The database update utility failed to run. Please verify that Cakewalk is installed correctly. What shall I do? Thanks, Jerry

Problem solved. I downloaded the latest version of Cakewalk and now it's fine. I was using the last version of Sonar, I know, I'm a real holdout. Until this sync issue, I was having no issues at all with Sonar, so I didn't bother to upgrade. Jerry

Thanks Max. I've never seen this problem before and have recorded with Dune many times. I prefer to render the entire sequence at once, but I may try your suggestions if I cannot resolve this. I wrote the company that makes Dune, maybe they'll have an idea. I also tried inserting a brand-new Dune track and I copied and pasted all the MIDI data to the new track, but this doesn't resolve it, I thought maybe the track might have gotten corrupted, but that's not the case. I also tried restarting the DAW but this doesn't work either. I'm stumped, at least so far. Dune seems to missing the tempo change entirely, and then it tries to catch up a few beats later, but of course this doesn't work because it's already out of sync with the rhythms of the other instruments and the tempo of the sequence.. Yeah, Dune has been my favorite synth for years. It has incredible sounds and is fairly easy to program from scratch. Thanks for the comments about my music, glad you enjoy listening. Jerry

Hello, I have 36 MIDI tracks and 1 softsynth (Dune 3, a VST plugin). When I playback the sequence everything is perfectly in sync, even with lots of meter and tempo changes. But when I render the sequence to audio and play back the audio file, there's a certain point (at measure 95) where the softsynth begins out of sync. I've tried recording right from that point in time, but the problem still happens. Here's what I've tried: 1. Turning off delay compensation on the plugin (no go) 2. Moving a cc7 240 ticks earlier than the note that has the problem (no go) 3. Moving a tempo change, which occurs right at measure 95 back to m94 beat 4 clock 240. (no go). Anybody know what might be causing this? I've not seen it happen in all the years I've been working with softsynths that are synced to tempo.. Thanks for any help! Jerry

https://enchantmentathamilton.org/20200601ForTheLongestTime.mp4

Hi Bjorn, When I set out to compose a piece, I have a few parameters. Is this going to be a standalone piece, or is it going to be of a larger piece, i.e. a symphonic movement, a piece in a set of songs, or a set of piano works? Then I decide, very roughly, approximate length. When I begin composing, I start with either a motive or melodic phrase, a chord or chord progression, a rhythmic pattern, or even just an instrument or two. There's no one way to begin a piece. After I've written maybe 25-50 measures, (if it's going to be a longer piece) then I evaluate whether the piece is going to "fly", meaning I commit to writing it till the end, or I abandon the idea and begin something else. I'd say about 25% of the time I abandon the idea. I am a strong believer that form and structure evolve directly from content. I haven't analyzed what the form of this particular piece is, I compose intuitively and build up structures based on what I've already written. form follows content. I strive to ensure that the "seams", or the "joints" are not audible. The goal is to create a piece which has autonomy, a sense of inevitability and structural cohesion. I have to understand emotionally and intellectually what I write. If there's any confusion at all as to what I mean, I rewrite, rewrite and rewrite. Sometimes I'll write a section and think, "no, I don't want the piece to go in that direction", and I delete that section and begin again from that point forward. That happens a lot. A composer has to be two things: He has to be his own fiercest critic and his most passionate supporter. You can't just be one or the other, it must be both! Thanks for listening Bjorn! Jerry

One thing I've noticed with the upcoming new version: Even when the global snap is turned OFF, the snap function still seems to work in the staff view Hmm? Is that by design?

Yep, I noticed that too. As soon as the new version is finalized I'm going to download it onto the DAW. I'm hoping it will be as stable as the final version of Sonar has been on my Windows 10 machine. (even though the lack of snap in the staff view drives me nuts).

Why, thank you very much Mark. I am glad you appreciated my piece! All done in Sonar (before it was Cakewalk). Best, Jerry

I'm working on the ending of the 1st movement of a new symphony, hope to have it done by the end of August...