mettelus

A few other nuisances with Corel:

1. The installers/uninstallers are scripted to break junctions (although the 2023 versions seem to not do this).
2. They cram pretty much everything into the C:Windows\Installer directory (where many installers "disappear to"), so much so that I only leave the last two versions installed. Even identical content packs show up as discrete yet duplicate entries (and Corel's apps are the biggest hitters in that folder).
3. There is an upgrade "trick" for each program to carry things forward into the next version that is unique to each app. This is not as straightforward as it should be, although some are simpler than others.
4. The advertising pop up can now be disabled pretty seamlessly, but that used to be a problem child too.

What is said and what is fact are quite often two different things. That is the only point here. When someone has a self-interest in what is said, it often reflects in what they say. The legacy Cakewalk servers are still online, so taking the activation server offline for CbB would support a self-serving reason.

Also beware that the website often defaults to a value higher than the minimum required. In this case it pops up as $35, when you only need to spend $30 to get the complete package.

No, you are.

18 minutes ago, Jeremy Oakes said:

All the others don’t work/cannot be activated. 

That statement is not true. The bakers didnt say it, YOU did.

8 minutes ago, Jeremy Oakes said:

There is only one installer for CbB that can be activated, and this by the internet . All the others don’t work/cannot be activated. 

I am still running 2022.06 and when people complained about the new 3-month activation window and the program being "disabled completely," I went in and manually re-activated it 2 weeks ago without issues. Spreading disinformation (regardless of how often it it is done), does not make it fact.

Windows has also absorbed some functionality that was previously only available through 3rd party apps. The Snippet tool (Win-Shift-S) is another handy one that people used Snagit for... when you want very precise snippet of what is on the screen.

@prey I forgot Jonathan had chimed in on this thread years ago to help someone out with your same issue. If contacting support doesn't resolve it for you, you can also PM him directly.

As long as you are going by full semitones, Process->Transpose will work as long as you have "Transpose Audio" checked, then can choose the algorithm you want.

Unfortunately, this only allows whole number semitones (not cents), and it has a bug that will not allow you to type in "-", so to get negative values you need to actually use the down arrow. Normalization has the same bug for text entry in the dB field, but then a warning says numbers need to be from -INF to 0.0dB, but you cannot type a "-" in that field.

Meh, is almost always a deal... I only remember one oopsie with an update so far. Once you have the MCompleteBundle, these updates often give you more to play with.

I always install everything but the AAX versions, so the quick cleanup removed 264 plugins this go round, then reinstalled everything in less than a minute. Gotta appreciate installers that can get everything done that quickly.

The 3D effect is not overly difficult to achieve with shadowing and transitions on objects, but that can vary with the programming language used for the GUI.

The quickest fix for this in most cases is to purge the "Picture Cache" subfolder in the Cakewalk Projects directory. That will force all cwps to redraw the waveforms when opened and it has an internal limit to it that can can stop waveforms from being redrawn when that subfolder fills up.

1 hour ago, treesha said:

just curious what other products you know cache renderings

Pretty much any media application that has undo or auto-save functionality will have this. Most that can be opened in stand-alone mode will have these listed in preferences. Ironically, the caching eats up disc space (which may or may not auto-purge on close, but the path should be selectable/listed in preferences), but the undo levels eat up RAM in most cases and I have seen some apps default to 250 undos. I always set undo levels to 10, and if I go past that threshold I will close out the file without saving and open the last saved version. Cakewalk defaulted to 100 or even 250 undos (I cannot remember now), which is why "saving often" was the common trick to make the app run more smoothly.

High level, the media apps to check preferences on are DAWs, wav editors, graphics programs, video editors, etc. Some even go so far as to create an "auto preserve" file, which is a duplicate of the file you open before you start working, so that if you save a mistake you can still back out of it. Even apps with smaller files tend to do this (Word, Excel, etc.) but you don't notice that as much as the ones that work with massive (audio, graphics, video) files.

9 hours ago, prey said:

Yeah neither my Command Center nor my legacy My Products show a 64 bit option or download. Just my serial & registration numbers and links to older updates . Not even the 32 bit shows a download.

Quick question here... DimPro is listed there however, right? IIRC, it is only one download that is a combined installer, so it asks you during installation which version you want (32-bit or 64-bit). SInce you installed from old discs, the 32-bit version is all that was in that installer. If you have DimPro registered and listed there, there should be a download link as well. That combined installer also includes the multisamples, so is rather massive (roughly 3GB), but the app itself is only about 15MB, with a 7MB patch for the 1.5 update.

The link to Contact Cakewalk Support is at the bottom of this post.

DP 1.5 is the last version, but there is a 64-bit variant. If you registered it, there should be a copy of the installation files in your old Cakewalk account (or use the Cakewalk Command Center to download it). IIRC, the library files are identical, so you should only need to install the 64-bit application (and possibly point the multisamples folder to where the 32-bit app installed them... be sure to hit F5 to refresh the program listing if that is required).

If you didn't register it, reach out to the bakers so that they can add it to your account for you. I am not sure if the registration site is still active or not.

I never really gave much thought to the name (I like the name Rebelle too), but it is also a product versus the company (Escape Motions, try and figure that one out). Rebelle is a relative youngster (started in 2015), and was really focused on fluid flow and blending at first (watercolor) although they quickly expanded the media available. I know Humble Bundle ran the entire Escape Motions software suite with Rebelle v3 (where I first picked it up), but the only thing I found useful was Rebelle 3 and Flame Painter 3 (only came with 1/2 the particle brushes). The only two apps that have been updated since are Rebelle (now 7) and Flame Painter (went to 4 the very next year), but if that ever hits Humble Bundle again it is definitely something to consider. I suspect AI generation will probably be the next focus (Corel already has a 3rd-party plugin offering), but both Painter (with Particle Shop) and Rebelle (with Flame Painter) can go pretty much head to head in most areas. The only niggle I have with them as a whole (Rebelle<->Painter) is even though they will save in PSD format it is not consistent/reliable, so I only trust bouncing layers around between the two.

1 hour ago, 53mph said:

So far, I don't even know who they are beyond the name FUGA. They have not responded to my counter dispute, and they have not even supplied the name or the piece or artist. YouTube says the piece has not been made publicly available.

It is quite possible that FUGA may be the entity directly involved in this, i.e., there is no "artist." There is certainly no shortage of questionable ethics practices that have landed corporate leaders in prison, and I would suspect a script/algorithm at play here more than an "individual." If you want to pull the thread on this one faster, I would notify YouTube that you plan on filing an FTC complaint due to past reports of FUGA and intend to have the "digital trail" examined by someone with the authority to delve into both FUGA and YouTube to find out exactly how this occurred and the mechanisms they used to achieve it with the intent of making it not happen again (to anyone).

YouTube is definitely subject to US laws and infringement. I am not sure about FUGA with its EU HQ, but the question more pressing here is "How can YouTube allow an 'undisclosed entity' claim ownership of a work when the actual owner comes forward to refute that?" You at least deserve the artist's name, but if it is FUGA as a whole, that ball of yarn will unravel in short order. What you are experiencing is very similar to people who are getting their work stolen to feed AI learning.

7 hours ago, 53mph said:

I had hoped there were only good folk in this shaded corner of the web.

Your situation is just plain crazy and I hope you get it sorted. Just to the above comment, bear in mind that anything published to the internet can be seen by anyone. People do not even need to be members to take things not requiring a log in, so even the songs forum here can be an open market to people filching things. Without a digital trail it is hard to pursue recourse, but if you can get the name/identity of the "artist" that took it, then it is easier to focus resources toward that end. The FTC doesn't pursue "one off" situations, but if they start getting inundated with complaints against the same source, they will. It is worth reporting this once you have enough information, so that it is at least on record and can bubble up in due time if it continues to progress.

Windows has a lot of functionality that is baked in that few use or know about. I happened across the CTRL-ALT arrow keys by accident one day on Win7 (screen rotation) and that one would really mess someone up as a "bad keystroke." Those might be disabled by default in Win10 (for good reason), I just tried them and they don't take on my machine, but it was a funny way to screw with people who walked off without locking their laptop way back when.

If you are running an older version and like the app it is worth considering the Pro upgrade. The VST plugin (I think this was added in 2019?) is an interesting feature that let's you generate tracks from inside a DAW with less hassle of using BIAB stand-alone. I picked BIAB up in 2020 but didn't really take to it; however, it definitely has a lot of merit, especially to someone new. It actually has a lot of features you wouldn't even think about until you come across them (like recording your own chords to use in song templates and such). @Notes_Norton has done a lot in that area, so he could speak to that far better. Even the music games it has would be very beneficial to a aspiring musician.

The Separations folder starts to kick the oldest items out when it hits its internal limit. If it has never been manually purged, and you use Melodyne, it will not be empty.

If Melodyne edits are not rendered/bounced before saving a cwp, you will also see the cwp file grow in size, since the cwp is storing the edit information to pass to Melodyne when the cwp gets opened.

On 2/3/2024 at 7:32 AM, Soundwise said:

While this new amp emulation is a step in the right direction, it might not add anything new to your existing tool-set. Make sure to demo it first.

This tends to be my sentiment with a lot of amp sims and ITB focus over the past few years. I finally got around to upgrading to TH-U a couple Christmases ago, but have barely touched it or downloaded any of the content for it (even the free monthly stuff). It is one of the areas where I actually wanted a hardware focus with an ITB "option," since sitting in front of a computer monitor to play guitar is not my cup of tea. A lot of amp sims are not introducing new amp/cabs, but more settings on existing ones and not something I would pay for. There is very little that cannot be programmed (with almost any amp sim) "as they sit today," so paying someone to tweak my amp for me is not overly appealing (mainly because you are not forced to learn how to tweak an amp).

I ended up with the HELIX Floor/Native combo (which was a free app when I got my Floor); but I must caveat that with I spend significantly more time not in front of the computer, although Native is a far easier way to tweak programs. One thing that has bothered me over the years is that Carvin amps were never modeled... but when that bubbled back up a few months back and I started digging deeper, I got a chuckle when I found out the "Legendary Drive" in the HELIX is the emulation of the Carvin Legacy Drive (and reportedly uses almost 25% of the DSP processing all by itself and is the heaviest DSP user internal to the Floor).

2 hours ago, Grem said:

Yep. 

Very grateful for what I have, but I have allowed some of my skills to get rusty. I was fixing my cup of coffee this morning and thinking about working on my guitars, and doing this and that to a few of them. But then said, I should just go up there and start playing, cause it doesn't make sense to fix something I can't play. 

So I came and sat down, drank my coffee and started looking at this dang forum!!

I am going play now.

Yeah, this one strikes a chord similar to what @bats brew had said very early on... if you are not focused, it is easy to get distracted by something else. Just being in front of a computer has been the antithesis of being creative for me, so the only hardware I specifically purchased over the last several years has been to prevent/free me from sitting in front of a computer, specifically a wireless system and a HELIX Floor. Even if the signal is going ITB, I and can be standing anywhere and walking around, which is far more natural for me than watching a computer monitor.

Another disadvantage of a DAW, is people start to focus on doing everything solo (because they "can"), which isn't always the best path. I tend to be much more creative with real-time feedback and interaction, but that isn't the case for everyone.

[Stupid side comment] Reminded me of a nice anecdote when I typed the above... one company had a funny presentation of social interaction and used ants and cockroaches as the example... put 2 ants together, and their combined output is more than double; but put 2 cockroaches together and their output starts to plummet fast. One guy looked at me and asked, "So, is he implying we are all cockroaches?"

Go into Windows Sound Settings, then Sound Control Panel in the upper right. Right click the Solo and then the "Advanced" tab at the top. Be sure both options in the "Exclusive Mode" section are unchecked. Also, be sure the sample rate/bit depth on that Windows screen for both playback and recording match what you assign within Cakewalk.

That said, be wary about using the Solo as the default device for general sound playback... the first application that uses it will lock the bit rate/depth on it, so it is very easy for your browser (or any app) to lock it to a bit rate that Cakewalk cannot use for your current project and shifting its settings can be problematic because it is already "in use."

Bottom line, Windows is the ultimate "gate keeper" for devices, so if Windows locks it out on you, Cakewalk cannot do anything to change that.

1 hour ago, treesha said:

Hi Charles, not a dumb question because the folder can get large. On windows, mine is  - c/users/(name)/documents/celemony/separations. I hadn't emptied it in a while and its 1.17 gb!

Yeah, you want to check the Separations folder. Unless you changed the settings inside Melodyne, that folder defaults to 10GB.

Ouch, that makes things a bit trickier depending on how complex the project is. Corruption is certainly not heard of. Reconstruction can be a royal pain to drag/drop tracks between projects but is an option. Other options like bouncing entire tracks to a single clip or even exporting the project as stems can reduce clip "count," but will in turn make them HUGE (even silence has "size" in that case) as well as other potential issues.

If you start trying things like that be sure to save the cwp with a new name so you always have the original to fall back on. Hidden tracks seems the most likely, but if that is already a dead end for you, I am at a loss on what is most efficient to address your situation.