GreenLight

It would be so very time-saving to be able to select a default preset for each and every VST plugin.

The preset would then always be the default loading state when a specific plugin is instantiated.

Please consider it for the new and flashy soon-to-be Sonar.

On 12/31/2023 at 1:46 PM, Bristol_Jonesey said:

Have you got Zero Controllers When Play Stops checked?

I will check my current setting and get back to you.

Although I thought that setting only concerned MIDI messages?

Thanks for your input!

Hi fellow Cakewalkers!

Has anyone else experienced problems with SuperPlate v5.4.1 (current version)?

Occasionally, I get loud reverb tails/bursts from the plugin, when it should be silent. Yesterday it happened just as a project finished loading, which was a bit disconcerting.

Unfortunately I haven't yet been able to reproduce it consistently, making it hard to both report and fix. 🤔

21 hours ago, Tomo SZN said:

Holy crap, this is it. I've been having this weird audio dropout issue for over a year now where sidechaining (usually kick to bass, as is the most common use lol) has been causing the audio to crack fizzle and then dropout while the transport continues

////////

I just replicated it again with Kilohearts and Fabfilter's compressors as well. Glad I finally found the culprit, absolutely devastated to find out this has been an unresolved issue for years though.

Fantastic that you can repro it! 👍 You can actually contribute to getting the problem fixed once and for all.

To quote Noel (from two posts above yours):

"The take away from this is for problems like this its very important to try and get a repro and send us a dump/project."

1 hour ago, TEN_K said:

That's an example see the randomness of it the 3rd note is no where near snapped correctly but the previous and following notes are fine its so frustrating. The amount of time it takes to repair just a small section makes me just want to give up. all the inspiration goes out the window and its just not fun anymore. LETS GET THIS RIGHT THIS IS MUSIC AND SHOULD BE FUN RIGHT?

If you can reproduce it and record it as a short animated GIF (with for example LICECap) then I'm sure the Bakers will fix it. 👍

I've reported numerous bugs and every one with a clear repro has been fixed. 😃

On 9/23/2023 at 1:51 PM, John T said:

Have noticed a behaviour change with the new update.

Previously, I had auto crossfade on all the time, which is useful for my workflow, but I could use S (or ALT+click) to split a clip without it doing a crossfade, which is also useful for me.

Now having auto crossfade on also crossfades S-splits. Is there a way to get the old behaviour back? Switching auto crossfade on and off is slowing me down quite a bit.

I just noticed this new behavior as well (it's mentioned in the release notes under "Misc" as "Inconsistent AutoXFade with split clips"). Even if it's a small feature change, I think it's a pretty "big deal" workflow-wise that the Automatic crossfade  setting now also affects split operations and I think it's good to spread the word.

It's potentially a huge time-saver! But I can definitely see a use case where it would be good to be able to directly perform splits with and without crossfades, without having to toggle Automatic crossfades first. Maybe two different keyboard shortcuts would be something for the new Cakewalk Sonar?

14 hours ago, Jorge Tata Arias said:

I confirm that version 5.4.2 beta VST3 works fine and that the issues have been fixed!

Muchas gracias for the information, Jorge! Sounds great. 😃👍

Loving SuperPlate here, btw, brilliant for massive and dreamy synths... especially the 240 algorithm!

3 hours ago, gustabo said:

Just got an email from Soundtoys:
 

 

Great news, thanks a lot for the update, Gustabo! 👍

Has anyone tried the 5.4.2 beta? Did it fix all of the issues?

I've only installed SuperPlate VST2 yet, and didn't dare to update any of the VST2 plugins, nor have I installed the VST3 versions... Don't wanna disturb my current production spree!

On 7/9/2023 at 6:18 PM, shane said:

Thanks Noel--- almost every SoundToys VST3 plugin in version 5.4.1 causes "audio gap" on playback as I posted about here at about a minute of playback. 

The VST2 equivalent has no such issue that I've been able to reproduce, and I've been trying for a few days now.

Just to follow up - did you (or anyone else) send a detailed repro to Noel about this?

9 hours ago, Traveler said:

I have Soundtoys VST3's installed but I only use them in my test project for creating effects. VST3 makes it convenient when opening several plugins on the screen and bypassing them to hear the difference.

VST2 is my goto in every other project until Soundtoys can get their VST3's to behave. 🙂

Good to know, thanks.

I asked because someone on Gearspace (someone from here?) reported issues when Cakewalk auto-replaced VST2 versions of plugins with VST3 versions (which it is configured to do by default). I'm not sure if the problem was that the VST3 versions were buggy or if it was that the presets were not migrated correctly during the VST2->VST3 replacement.

4 hours ago, Traveler said:

SuperPlate VST2 version 5.4.1 works 100% in my system. I haven't tried VST3 because of the problems with other Soundtoys plugins.

Brilliant, thanks!

So if you avoid installing the VST3 versions, everything is smooth sailing as usual with the SoundToys 5.4 package?

So is the new SuperPlate working well in Cakewalk as a VST2? (If yes, what version?)

I have been hesitant to buy it until people confirm it's working well...

17 hours ago, Noel Borthwick said:

Agreed that these should be native functions. At some point we also intend to replace CAL with a modern scripting language. We're a small team and as you might imaging juggling two full DAW's has been a challenge the last few years

It's certainly not dead!

In a recent thread about Cakewalk workflow & usability tips, @Promidi shared information about his very extensive usage of CALs. And if I remember correctly, I think it was @Heinz Hupfer who had some impressive CAL workflows as well.

Update: But I agree with @Mark Morgon-Shaw's earlier comment that several of those smart CAL features could/should be part of the standard MIDI tools.

6 minutes ago, Jesse Jost said:

Yes. We are "Cakewalk" as an independent brand within the BandLab Technologies group. As Cakewalk, we have just announced two products: Next and Sonar. 👍

Yes, I got the two new products part, but didn't really realize the "going independent brand" part.

What kind of effects do you foresee this corporate change to have on your operation and business, going forward?

10 minutes ago, Noel Borthwick said:

Chris, Cakewalk is a division of BandLab Technologies and a corporate decision was made to have us operate independently under our own brand.

Ah, that you now operate independently under Bandlab is a brand-new reorganization thing?

22 hours ago, Noel Borthwick said:

>>"Annual" means no expiry / no deactivation after one year,   just no further free updates after the year, right?

Exactly. We were one of the few companies offering this model even in the SONAR days. How it works is you either pay for 12 consecutive monthly subs OR you purchase a one year subscription upfront. In both scenarios the last months version is permanently unlocked for you and you own it.  This is essentially no different than buying an annual version of the software outright. Many people who dislike subscription are unaware that we always did this.

I think the model you mentioned is great.

But I think it's important to consider why many people misunderstood the message. I think it is/was due to semantics. "Annual" feels like a very ambiguous word for what it is, it implicitly implies an annual subscription payment. If you'd call it "including 12 months of updates", that's immediately a lot clearer even if it refers to the same thing.

I am also one of those who prefer single payments to subscriptions. (That's what I was taught as a kid, how to be an economical consumer: always keep all your recurring costs to a minimum.) For non or semi-professionals especially, there are several problems with music software subscriptions in addition to the ideological ones: what if you go on vacation? What if you're just not using your tool for 5 weeks? What if you get a divorce/dog/get severely sick and are unable to produce for 3 months? Who wants to pay for that time? There's a reason gyms love subscriptions... 😉

Anyway, as a long time user I'm very excited by the further development of Cakewalk! 😃 And I would be really happy if the new Cakewalk Sonar implemented a competitively priced model of "single payment with 12 months of updates included- last version permanently unlocked". Even if it was called a "subscription"... 😉

On 6/3/2023 at 1:47 PM, Lord Tim said:

For me, aside from keyboard shortcuts for a lot of stuff, there's 2 main things:

Track Templates - who wants to go through the boring grunt work in setting up basic track and bus structures every time?

FX Chain Presets - these are great.

The more things I can do to save me doing boring set up work, the better.

Great input! I use both, but not enough, I think...

I'd like ProTools style import of tracks & buses from other projects... would be useful when you realize "I'd like that sound from that project".

On 6/3/2023 at 3:08 PM, Promidi said:

• Convert channel aftertouch to poly aftertouch., Add controller ramps (up, down or up then down).  Convert controller linear ramps to curves.  Change a contour of a controller curve
• Create a controller linear ramps between first and last selected events. 
• Convert a series of notes to a single note and pitch bend (to convert to legato) - this only works with GM/XG modules and TTS-1.
• Use a slider to move a split point between notes.
• Position the now pointer to the nearest measure, but of offset it by how far the left marker is from its nearest measure. (good for capturing notes that start start slightly before a measure when copying and pasting).

Many of these functions I have made as buttons on Studioware Panels.

Really cool! Did you program all those yourself?

A lot of the controller stuff you list that you do with CALs I'd love to have implemented in Cakewalk as "automation style" envelopes but for controllers...

3 hours ago, Jeff Bowman said:

Getting an Elgato Streamdeck was one of the biggest upgrades to my workflow.

I'm terrible at remembering keyboard shortcuts. Now I don't have to.

I've been looking at the Streamdeck... looks really nice. What kinda stuff do you do with the shortcuts, transport?

1 hour ago, Promidi said:

CAL (Cakewalk Application Language) allows one to write code to manipulate existing MIDI data that is in your Cakewalk project.

CAL also allows changing of selection markers and the now cursor.

It is not applicable to audio data.

Oh, sorry, I probably worded it weirdly.

I know what CAL is, but I wondered what your CAL scripts do specifically?

7 hours ago, Promidi said:

Self created CAL script and Studioware panels.....  (because they still work in CbB)

What do the CALs do? *curious*

It would be great to get a thread rolling with peoples' personal workflow/usability tips for Cakewalk. This could be anything: external controllers you use, special settings or features in Cakewalk that you use in a special way, a favorite pet that somehow enhances your inspiration (ok, maybe not that one.... then we'd all have to get a hamster?) or something else. I'm sure there are a lot of great ideas out there! 😃

My personal two workflow staples are:

1. Custom keyboard binding: ALT + X for "Start/stop audio engine"
   I run CPU heavy projects all the time and I don't want my CPU to max out during all the breaks when the project is not running. I use this constantly.
    
2. Custom keyboard bindings: numbers 1-7 for setting snap grid size to whole note, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32 and 1/64 note
   Also a complete life saver for all audio and MIDI editing. Also onstantly in use for me.

I could fill a whole topic of my custom keyboard shortcuts... 😂

13 hours ago, sjoens said:

I've been hitting the global echo button 2x to get the "always on" one to go off with the rest.

Thanks for the input!

Very interesting: as you say, clicking on the control bar button "Input Echo" two times, will actually dim the input echo button on MIDI tracks even when in "Always on" mode. But unfortunately it doesn't seem to work as expected, at least not in my scenario. Cakewalk still echoes MIDI data on that track, causing some kind of MIDI loop, which causes the arp on the Moog Subsequent 37 to continuously restart from the beginning, which is not my wanted behavior.

I just realized that as a workaround, I can just place focus on another MIDI track before playback to avoid the MIDI echo loop.

The setting "Always Echo Current MIDI Track" is brilliant in its convenience and something I always want enabled.

But for example, for the arp on the Moog Subsequent 37 hardware to work properly,  it requires that MIDI input is turned off in Cakewalk. And the only option is to turn off "Always Echo Current MIDI Track" entirely. It would be much more convenient to be able to disable MIDI echo for individual tracks instead of having to turn it off entirely.

Thanks for considering it!

On 5/1/2023 at 10:54 AM, Robert Hale said:

I am  trying to learn everything I can about latency.

I recognize that each person's computer represents a different set of conditions. My keyboard tracks are ok because they have a softer start. But guitar is very noticeable because it has a sharp  moment  when I pick the strings. I'm using Windows 11 and a Behringer UM2 with latest software loaded.

Does Cakewalk support a test where I can get the delay down to un-noticeable? (For example,  play the click track  from headphones to mic and see the delay?) If not how do you do it?

What other suggestions do you have for latency? Thanks to all responders.

I take it you're monitoring external instruments via VST effects?

If yes, you have to try the enabling the setting "Override automatic plug-in delay compensation on live inputs" in the Control Bar. (This button is called "Live Input PDC Override" in the manual, see p367.) It will make latency a lot better when monitoring external inputs!