Jerry Gerber

Thanks for listening Gary! I post my pieces on 4 different music forums and this forum is the only one that gives me any feedback or comments. I have no idea why. Jerry

Hi Larry, Thanks Larry! Glad to know someone listens to my work. I didn't mention minimalism, the guy who wrote the article for Tokafi music webzine wrote that! Best, Jerry

Thanks Larry, David, Nigel and Kurt for listening, much appreciated! Jerry

Produced with: Vienna Symphonic Library Orchestral Cube Softsynths Massive, Rapture and Tera Roland XP-30 synthesizer PLAY From the CD Number Eleven: The Path Tokafi : "...The eleventh in a series of orchestral albums using entirely sampled instruments, it brings together elements of Classical era-writing, late Romantic orchestral music and American minimalism with a cinematic sensibility. The record not only demonstrates the powerful and masterful application of sampled instruments, but, at least as importantly, showcases Gerber’s versatile and emotive writing." www.jerrygerber.com

Produced with: Vienna Symphonic Library Orchestral Cube Softsynths Massive, Rapture and Tera Roland XP-30 synthesizer PLAY From the CD Number Eleven: The Path Tokafi : "...The eleventh in a series of orchestral albums using entirely sampled instruments, it brings together elements of Classical era-writing, late Romantic orchestral music and American minimalism with a cinematic sensibility. The record not only demonstrates the powerful and masterful application of sampled instruments, but, at least as importantly, showcases Gerber’s versatile and emotive writing." www.jerrygerber.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDrB6VFX2sc

Thanks a lot! Wow, a nearly 2000 page reference manual. Wonderful to have nearby! Jerry

I started using Cakewalk in 1991. I've also worked extensively in Digital Performer and have spent time learning Pro Tools, Reaper and Cubase. Yes, I am biased. My bias is that I want to focus on music composition and production and have the software perform reliably and have it allow me to work the way I work without too many unnecessary keystrokes. I also put some emphasis on aesthetics, and for my eye nothing beats Cakewalk in terms of how it looks on the screen and the incredible flexibility in arranging it to look how you want. I've produced 15 albums with CW, soon to release #16. I've composed many songs, short pieces, 11 symphonies and 4 concertos with CW. The only trouble I had was when it went through an extensive re-vamp some 10 or more years ago. It became unstable and had a lot of bugs so I worked in Digital Performer for about a year and a half. When Gibson dumped CW and Bandlab picked up the pieces everything started to get better again--bugs were getting fixed promptly, new features were being added and so I switched back to CW. Here's what I think is really excellent about this DAW: 1. The event list is color coded. I spend a lot of time using the event list and it really makes it easier on the eyes to be able to choose the color for specific types of events. The font is a reasonable size too, some event lists are too tiny on other DAWS. 2. The instrument section lets you define in detail your instruments, articulations, cc numbers and other functions. When working with large sound libraries this is really useful. 3. The staff view finally got the snap functions corrected and is good for composing in SMN (standard music notation) if you know how. It's weakness is that it doesn't display tied or dotted triplets correctly and never has, but it's no big deal for me because I do all my scores in Sibelius and it's easy to correct them at that point. Because the staff view is laid out more like an arranger's pad than a 8.5x11 sheet of paper, it's much better for larger orchestrated works. Another weakness of the notation editor is it's not possible to export using .xml if you have more than a certain number of tracks. I get better results exporting with .mid (type 1). 4. CW handles VSTs extremely well, I have no problem with playback or recording. For the past couple of years I've had no crashes due to VSTs. 5. Recording and editing audio is where CW really shines in my experience. Recording is simple yet powerful, editing audio, particularly volume envelopes is very easy and precise, very powerful feature made easy to use. 6. Workspaces are fast, there's no delays caused by graphics issues when changing workspaces. I won't name names, but this is not true for other DAWS I've tried. Learning any DAW takes time. You have to really want to learn it well, and spend the time at the computer and reading the manual to get the most out of a DAW. This is true regardless of which one you choose. As far as value is concerned, you can spend many hundreds of dollars for the other DAWs if that's what you want to do, or you can get a DAW that is equal or better for free. Even if Bandlab started charging $500 for CW, to me it's still the best value. Here's one more of my biases: I am a trained classical composer and songwriter. I am not a sound effects person, and my mixing and mastering skills are honed specifically for my music and my music only. Everyone uses their DAW a bit differently depending upon what they are trying to accomplish and what they are best at. So choose carefully, because it does take a lot of time to learn another software program as complex as a DAW. Jerry p.s. After reading more carefully the OPs post, I realize I just wasted time on a guy who has come across as utterly insincere, who has already made up his mind and is looking to vent his frustrations. I thought I was being a "good guy" by helping a beginner! In any event, if someone reads my post and learns something about CW all the better, I doubt it will be the OP who is playing little mind games with us...

Hey Bjorn, That was really enjoyable. Just the mood I wanted to be in. The visuals and music work very well, very contemplative and relaxing to watch. Thanks for posting! Jerry

Thank Larry. She's a wonderful composer with an original voice. I had never heard of her, probably because I am working nearly exclusively in the electronic music domain and not in live performance so I haven't been keeping up with what's happening in that scene.. Jerry

Thank you David!

Thanks Larry! I went to AllMusic to hear the piece you recommended but even after I turned off my ad blocker it still says I have an ad blocker! Hmm....

Glad to hear it! Thanks Tom..

A vocal piece from the album In Praise of Poets PLAY

Thanks for listening Bajan Blue and Tom!

Hi Mark, Yes, I am attaching the .cwp file to this post..I'm curious to what is found. Thanks, Jerry Oboe Concerto 3.cwp

Yes, the tracks I am hiding ARE archived and muted. But I just tried un-muting and un-archiving them and saving the file. The bug remains, the 1st 8 tracks are still showing up after saving, and reopening the file. Hmm....I have no idea why only the first 8 tracks don't remain hidden while the other 11 tracks do... I find so few bugs in CW that I forgot how to submit a bug report. Do the people responsible for bug fixes read this forum or is there a particular place I should send a bug report? Thanks, Jerry

Yeah, I thought of that too, maybe something particular to the project I'm working with that is causing it...

Hi John, I looked at what you suggested and used the track manager to hide all my MIDI tracks, only leaving one audio track and an audio master bus unhidden. I checked (and unchecked) Keep track/console visibility states in sync. I then saved the file and reopened it, unchecking the option to open the file with a workspace. No go. Bug still present. The first 8 midi tracks continue to show up even though they are hidden, along with the remaining 11 midi tracks. This must be a bug. I don't know what else to try. Again, out of 19 midi tracks 11 remain hidden as desired, but the 1st 8 midi tracks keep reappearing and I have to re-hide them each time I open the file. I originally hid the tracks using the right-click option of hiding tracks. But either way, whether I hide them that way or with the track manager it doesn't matter. The track manager shows all MIDI tracks are hidden. I save file and reopen it. But the first 8 midi tracks are now visible and the track manager reflect that state by showing the 1st 8 MIDI tracks as checked. This is most likely a bug. Thanks for responding! Jerry

Ha ha! People ask me all the time about performances but it's just not my thing. I am a studio musician and composer and that's where I love spending my time and energy. Performance is a hassle (even more complicated in COVID times) , I did it when I was younger but now I am completely content to compose and produce recordings of my pieces. Thank you so much Jimbo88 for listening and commenting! I am glad you enjoyed the piece.. Best, Jerry

The synths used in the oboe concerto are Dune and Zebra, my two favorite all-time synths. Thanks for commenting and listening Wookiee!

Thanks John, I'll check out the track manager later this morning.. I h;ide tracks by selecting them and right-clicking to get the context menu and then I choose "hide tracks".

My DAW is also a fully dedicated machine, nothing but music production takes place on it.

Did that. It's almost certainly not a workspace issue because I tried saving the file (with tracks hidden) and they don't stay hidden upon reopening whether or not I check "apply workspace". It's probably a bug. I tried checking and unchecking every workspace option and it doesn't matter; hidden tracks don't remain hidden when I re open the file. Or, to be more specific, some hidden tracks do remain hidden, but some do not.

I don't think that's it. I don't use screensets and I made certain I saved the workspace with all of the tracks hidden. I'll check to see if there's a workspace setting I might have overlooked..