John Bradley

It'd be helpful if *everything* in the Export dialog retained it's state from the last time you used it, at least within the same session and project. In particular, the start-end times. And that includes the settings in the MP3 dialog. Tedious to keep re-entering the same info every time I re-export the song.

Of course. View | Show/Hide Fret Pane (menu at the top of the staff pane)

That one's been in there for years, at least in my experience. To recreate: have enough tracks in a project such that a scrollbar appears in the 'tracks' pane of the Console View. Scroll all the way to the right (might not be necessary, but that's where I always am when this happens). Add a track (regular, aux, doesn't matter). The scroll bar disappears. The new track is slightly visible on the right edge of the pane, but mostly cropped off. No scrollbar, so no way to move it into the pane. Touch the track/bus divider bar, scrollbar reappears, all works as expected again.

Me too! Luckily I'm old so it doesn't come up that much these days.

Just for the record, it appears Blue Cat Audio's Oscillosope Multi is the thing I want. Live scope from multiple tracks, zoom in and measure time deltas, etc. Costs $49, which isn't ideal, but isn't outrageous, either. https://www.bluecataudio.com/Products/Product_OscilloscopeMulti/

I use BUN files to copy projects to a second machine that has a different file directory structure. Question: If I zip up the project folder (including the per project audio and other subfolders) and unzip it somewhere else on the target machine, will it work? That is, does the CWB file reference its audio files relative to the directory the CWB file is in, or does it use absolute file paths?

You need to use the Mute Tool. (Yeah, there's a Mute Tool. It was a surprise to me, as well.) The way "mute previous takes works" has been bothering me forever, to the point where I don't use it. I just manually mute the most-recent take by using the M button on the take lane, in order to avoid using the Mute Tool. But that's the way it is.

Anyone know of a plugin that will let you view the waveforms of multiple tracks simultaneously - live VST synths, not frozen - for the purpose of synchronization? (Like, a kick drum and a kick sample.) I tried Melda's MultiAnalyzer, and it came darned close to what I wanted. Plunk an instance on each track or bus, and all of them talk to each other behind the scenes. But after capturing some multitrack audio on its oscilloscope there is no way to zoom in on it, nor a way to measure the delta in milliseconds between the various peaks. Unlike a real oscilloscope.

🎵 And a Partridge in a V-S-T...

Largely broke, so anything over $50 was a non-starter. Downloaded and demoed a bunch of stuff from Baby Audio, Fuse Audio, WA Production, Overloud, and decided I didn't need or even want any of it. At least not at the moment. The deals weren't so great that they won't come around again. Wound up buying Nomad Factory '80s Spaces from Audiodeluxe ($19), as it at least filled a hole in collection. Got the UVI Digital Synsations as a freebie. Hadn't realized that the UVI thing was mostly a sample-playback thing ala Syntronik, and probably will never use it, though the Ensoniq VFX sounds are pleasing. Also picked up 2getheraudio's Rich DRUM because I demoed it on a track I was working on and I liked what it did sufficiently that I 'needed' it. Wasn't on sale, beyond their normal "it's ostensibly $50, but pay what you will" pricing. Only thing I wanted that I didn't buy (yet) was the WA Productions "Ascension 1.5 + all the patches in the world" bundle for $40 at Plugin Boutique. Would've loved to pick up Tantra 2, but even at half-price ($99) it's overpriced for my limited uses.

I don't understand NI's thinking. 50% off everything except KOMPLETE itself. It's great that they have a sale on the update/upgrades - though not a full 50% - but never (as far as I've seen) on the getting the product to begin with. I'd think they'd really like to have another Upgrade Cow they could milk for annual updates, but at $599/$1199/$1599 to get on the train in the first place (he said, switching metaphors midstream), that ain't ever going to happen. iZotope, they understand how to rope 'em in. I won a free copy of Breaktweaker years ago from SonicState. But because I 'bought' one of their products, they gave me the too-good-to-pass-up pricing on one of their bundles, and I've thrown many hundreds of dollars at them augmenting and updating that bundle since.

According to the email they sent out, offer ends October 5.

Same here. I have a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 which is the only thing Cakewalk uses. In the Windows "manage sound devices" control panel, the only output device I have enabled is the Realtek chip on the mobo, for 'computer sounds'. Everything else (most notably the Focusrite) is 'disabled' as far as Windows is concerned. To my mind, letting Windows touch your pro audio device is just asking for touble; give it a throwdown device it can muck with without affecting your work. Wish there was a way to disable some of them (nVidia High Def Audio) in Cakewalk as well, so it stops asking me "hey, a new audio device, wanna use it?" whenver my monitors wake up, but that's another matter entirely.

Excellent. After years at V6, and never finding the magical $99 upgrade to either V7 or V8, they've finally made me an offer I can't refuse. The $199 upgrades they'd been offering were too expensive for the (to me) limited usefulness of the somewhat more esoteric things they've added since V6. Only ones I wanted were the Mellotron and the Emulator II... But those plus the SQ-80 for $149 (and some other stuff thrown in for good measure), now we're talking!

FWIW, I played around with the VST2 versions of both the regular and Mk2 versions and decided they were somewhat 'iffy' and unpredictable in their behavior. Stopped trying and wrote it off as a learning experience. But that was a year ago. Don't know if they've been updated since then, but CbB certainly has been, so maybe they work better these days.

I use custom menu layouts for my Effects and Synth insertions, with everything sorted and arranged the way I like. It would be handy if one could have a specially named folder ("NEW" or "UNCATEGORIZED" or whatever) to which new VSTs would be added automatically when they're discovered during the scan. Or maybe an option to just have them added to the bottom of the list, not in any folder. The details aren't important. As it stands, whenever I download a demo or whatever I have to manually add it to my menu layout, which is slightly annoying. Moreso because (previous feature request) there's no indication in the various 'source' lists in the menu editor (e.g. "VST3 Instruments") which entries already appear 1 or more times in the menu layout being edited, and which are orphans.

Thanks @marled - that's the sort of info I was looking for. Sorry to hear it's still not working entirely correctly; hopefully CW / Celemony can work it out at some point. (I haven't made the leap yet. Looks like I'll continue on, un-lept for now.)

Good to know. Thanks!

Back when Melodyne 5.0 was released there were a fair amount of people complaining about it not quite integrating perfectly with CW in various ways, enough that it scared me away from upgrading at the time. Has that all been worked out by now? Does Melodyne (Studio) 5.1 work flawlessly with the current release of CW, or is it still a bit on the iffy side? Much as I'd like the new features in v5, I don't want to drop $150 to have something that works worse than my current v4 (i.e., 'perfectly').

Macrium Reflect free edition does everything I need. Scheduled backups, full/differential/incremental backup, verify image after backup, keep the last 'n' backups, etc. Even lets you restore an image to a new, larger SSD without reinstalling everything. It's good, and it's free.

Call Me The market has spoken. Back to the ‘80s stuff it is! Note: I cheated a bit and dropped it from D to C#. The last note of the bridge (in the original key) requires hitting an E5, and while I can get to Eb5 (briefly), I’ve yet to find the amount and location of electrical shock required to make an E5 come out of my mouth. Could have stayed in the original key and ‘fixed’ the note in Melodyne, but a subset of the mix serves (in theory, at least) as a backing track for my band, so I need to be able to hit that note live, too. --- Drums: Session Drummer 3. Running my normal setup. 6 outputs (kick, snare, hat, toms, crash, ride). A BREVERB send on each. A “shell comp” send on the kick/snare/toms (BOZ Manic Compressor doing the grungy squashed parallel compression thing). A “cymbal comp” send on the crash and ride (ProChannel PC76 comp doing instantaneous (0ms) 8:1 compression to smooth them out). All going to a drum bus where a AudioDamage Rough Rider 3 (freebie!) does some additional parallel compression on the whole kit (mostly has the effect of boosting the reverb tails on the snare hits) and an Ozone 8 Vintage Limiter adds loud. Bass: IKM's MODO Bass, P-bass model, direct out, running through a Blue Cat Axiom dual amp chain, one of them fairly fuzzy and the other not so much, plus a little room reverb. Synths: An Arturia MINI provides the 8th triplet pattern that runs through the whole song. (The retriggers are happening in-VST, the actual midi in CW is just a series of held notes.) There’s an OP-X Pro II playing a high clavish part on the 2s and 4s starting after the first chorus, though it’s pretty well hidden in the final mix. An Arturia B-3 organ briefly enters for the bridge, and then leaves again. It is not hidden in the mix. The solo is done on another Arturia MINI, running through a Valhalla Supermassive and a BREVERB. Finally, in the repeating choruses at the end there’s an Arturia Prophet playing a single note (D) on quarters, which has a Valhalla Delay on it. Guitars: Three of them. Guitar 1 is playing the distorted, held chords in the R side, Guitar 2 is answering with the clean chorus high stabs in the L. Guitar 3 is provides the little lead bits (right up the middle) that occur during the interstitials and the bridge. All three recorded dry from my old Strat, running through Blue Cat’s Axiom. Vocals: The lead vocal (verses and bridge) is single tracked and run through a Nectar 2 (gate / de-esser / compressor / saturation / harmony / EQ / limiter). The harmony module is doing the two-voice unison thing, panned l/r, with time & pitch variation for fake double-tracking. After that there’s a pair of EQs that get switched in/out via automation to correct for tonal differences between the different takes. There’s also a Valhalla Delay adding a subtle 1/8th triplet echo, and another BREVERB. The other lead vocal (choruses) is double tracked for realsies. Each track goes through a Nectar 2 (same chain as the verse vocal, yes, including the harmonizer), into a Valhalla Delay running in Dual mode, doing 8th triplets on the L and 1/4s on the R side, and into a BREVERB (preset: Late Colour) which is where the really late and odd-sounding echo is coming from. Backing Vocals: Three vocal ‘lines’ (they just say “Call me” at different pitches in answer to the lead vocal) , each double-tracked and panned l/r to varying degrees. Those go to a bus where iZotope’s Vocal Doubler (freebie?) does what it does, and a BREVERB (preset: A Capella Vox) adds quite a bit of sloshy wetness. Melodyne Studio 4: Big heaping slabs of it. As usual, a GW MixCentric and Ozone 8 on the master to add a little bit of 'magic' and loud, respectively. --- Previous Releases: Take Me Down to the Infimary • Harder to Breathe • Dirty Laundry • Paradise by the Dashboard Light • Ashes to Ashes • Lies • Enter Sandman • Wanted Dead or Alive • Too Much Time on My Hands • Are You Gonna Go My Way? • Blue Monday '88 • Fame • One of Our Submarines

Take Me Down to the Infirmary Harder to Breathe Here’s a pair of songs I recorded back in March 2020, when we were all going to die for some reason or other. My memory is hazy, but I believe it had something to do with a gigantic swarm of twelve foot piranha bees... either that, or the entire planet was in imminent danger of being eaten by an enormous mutant star goat. Whatever it was, it was darned terrifying, of that you can be sure! Sadly, none of that panned out and we’re all still here. They don’t make global disasters like they used to, though of course the beatings will continue until morale improves. ---liner notes--- Take Me Down to the Infirmary – Cracker (cover) It’s the What the World Needs Now guys, with a lovely little country ballad. Not a whole lot of secrets hidden in the sparse mix, but here’s a breakdown, just for the record. Drums: Session Drummer 3, ‘Motown’ kit. Running a simpler version of my normal setup. 6 outputs (kick, snare, hat, toms, crash, ride). A BREVERB (900ms plate) send on each. The snare has a BOZ Manic Compressor doing some heavy parallel compression to beef it up. Each track has some ProChannel comp/eq/tube processing to fluff the sounds up a bit. No limiting on the overall drum bus for a change. Bass: IKM's MODO Bass, ‘70s P-bass model, using the built-in amp sim plus a bit of direct. Percussion: There’s a tambourine sample being triggered by TX16Wx (version 2), which I find superior to version 3, at least from a UI perspective. A BREVERB (500ms Room, damping at 3.5kHz) to give it some space. Synths: none. Guitars: Three of them. Guitar 1 is the acoustic in the left side. Recorded from the piezo output, going to Blue Cat’s Axiom (no amp modelling, just an impulse to make it sound mic’d), iZotope Neutron for some compression, EQ, and exciter, a 2getheraudio ST3REO for stereoification, a BOZ Pan Knob to move the whole mess over to the left, and a BREVERB. Note that I put the Pan Knob before the BREVERB rather than just use the track’s built-in Pan control so that the reverb isn’t panned. Guitar 2 is the electric on the right side. Strat going into Axiom (Twin Reverb model, no fx), eq’d fairly dark (whether on the guitar or in the amp, I don’t recall) a Pan Knob to move it right, and a BREVERB using the same Bright Dream Room preset as on the acoustic. Yes, I could have had a single BREVERB and had both tracks send to it, but I prefer going this route because I like to freeze the tracks with all their effects. Guitar 3 is the lead, done in BIAS FX. Was transitioning over to Axiom around this time. Strat into a compressor, dual-amp config (Duo Verb & Tweed Deluxe), and another compressor. Then a Pan Knob (guess I recently bought!), a BREVERB (Hall), and an Ozone 8 Maximizer. Vocals: The lead vocal is single tracked into a TDR Nova for de-essing, then a Nectar 2 chain (gate, de-esser, saturation, compression, eq), followed by a BOZ T-Bone just to roll off the highs a smidge, and another BREVERB (Full Short Plate). Backing Vocals: There are two tracks of backing harmonies that come in on the “Let me sleep” at the end of the first verse, and hang around until dropping out on the final verse. There's a Nova (for de-essing) and a BREVERB on their bus. There are another 4 tracks of vocals ‘oohing’ the chords from the first chorus through to the last chorus. Four-part harmony, albeit not especially complex or interesting. Basically serving as a sung B-3 organ, but easier to transport. Melodyne Studio 4: Big and brassy, Vegas style! Tokyo Dawn Slick EQ (free version) on the master 'Music' bus to thin out the mix a bit (-2db at 520Hz), giving the vox a little more space. A GW MixCentric and Ozone 8 on the master to add a little bit of 'magic' and loud, respectively. Harder to Breathe – Maroon 5 (cover) What’s this, a ‘new’ song!?! (It came out a mere 18 years ago.) Things to listen for: I love how big the choruses come in, compared to the sparse verses, especially the Floyd-esque swirling organ and the falsetto harmony. Also, dig the ‘lonely guitar player’ solo which is quite different tonally from the original. You can actually hear it, for example. Drums: Session Drummer 3, ‘Motown’ kit. Running a simpler version of my normal setup. 6 outputs (kick, snare, hat, toms, crash, ride). A BREVERB (‘MiniDrum’ preset) send on each. Varying amounts of ProChannel comp/eq/tube on each to make them decidedly un-Motowny. Ozone 8 Vintage Limiter on the drum bus for extra loud. Bass: IKM's MODO Bass, ‘Japan Bass’ model, using the built-in amp sim set slightly crunchy, plus a bit of direct. A touch of BREVERB (‘Heavy Room’) to put a little air around it and give it a bit of width. Percussion: Tambourine, a shakey egg, and a stick hit, each on their own TX16Wx. Also, there’s some percussive breathing during the breakdown and bridge – that’s just me, on a microphone, trying not to hyperventilate. Synths: An Arturia B-3 organ comes in during the choruses. It’s got a lovely slow swirlyness to it courtesy of the built-in Phaser, Chorus, and Leslie. Guitars: Three of them, each using an instance of BIAS FX. Guitar 1 plays the crunchy riff on the left side. Guitar 2 enters in the chorus, on the right side. Brighter, less crunch, different voicing. Guitar 3 is the lead: drive pedal, dual ‘plexi’ amps, tape delay (all in BIAS FX), followed by a Phasis for some some slow stereo motion, and a big ol’ BREVERB (Hall, 2 seconds, 5K damping) to make it downright soggy. Vocals: The lead vocal is single tracked into a Nectar 2 chain (gate, compressor, harmony (2 voice unison, panned l/r), saturation, FX (distort, chorus, delay), EQ, and limiter). A BREVERB (‘Modern Plate’) follows. Backing Vocals: The aforementioned falsetto harmony runs through a copy of the same Nectar 2 chain as the lead vocal. It also drops down to a regular harmony on the last line of the first chorus, but otherwise it stays up in the hurt-me area. A second track comes in for the various ‘Woah-oah-oh’s and whatnot, as well as a fine impersonation of a European police siren at the end of the bridge... not that you can hear it in the final mix, but it’s there! Finally there’s a third vocal, unaffected (other than some reverb) that harmonizes with the lead vocal on the “is there anyone out there ‘cause it’s getting harder and harder to breathe” bits. Melodyne Studio 4: You betcha! Ozone 8 on the master for limiting and whatever else it deemed necessary. Previous Releases: Dirty Laundry • Paradise by the Dashboard Light • Ashes to Ashes • Lies • Enter Sandman • Wanted Dead or Alive • Too Much Time on My Hands • Are You Gonna Go My Way? • Blue Monday '88 • Fame • One of Our Submarines

Possibly the guitar tracks were in the headphones when you recorded the vocals, and that bled into the microphone. That's always a danger, especially if you're not using closed-back headphones. Though if that's the case, it's not a huge problem. Stick a gate on the vocal track to mute it when there no actual vocals happening. Or not -- the quiet guitar on the vocal track will get lost in the mix anyway. Plenty of examples of instrument bleed on the 'isolated' vocal tracks of many Huge Pop/Rock Hits.

Yep. My 'throw down' system (where I play with all the demos and whatnot, and wouldn't be a huge disaster if I had to format and reinstall) is a i5-9400F @ 2.9GHz with 16GB of memory that I put together last year for $700 (including a $200 graphics card, for gaming). It's a 6-core, no hyperthreading CPU, and it's almost certainly faster than the 10 year old machine I do all my work on... ...though without benchmarking it'd be hard to know. Both machines handle everything I ever throw at them.

Almost anything you can buy today will be more than adequate. (Within reason: a 1.3GHz Atom-based tablet with 2GB of ram isn't going to cut it. But any reasonable laptop or desktop with 8GB ram and an SSD of some sort will get you there.) I'm still running a 4-core i7-950 system with 12GB of ram that I built in 2010 (upgraded from win7 to win10 at some point), and I'm able to put together projects with 30-40 tracks of content (audio + fx and VSTi's). Yes, I freeze most of the tracks, but that's not a very big limitation. Just be sure to get an audio interface of some sort (Focusrite Solo is a fine choice). Running a DAW on the onboard Realtek chipset that most machines have is just begging for 'hurt-me' problems.