Craig Anderton

On 4/3/2024 at 10:31 AM, Quinellipe Zorn said:

"This is the weirdest, softest rollout of any software I have ever seen, bar none."  

There's stiff competition from Windows 11

4 hours ago, Wookiee said:

Interesting video I watched about Dolby in general for music, basically they could not see the point,  as 90% of consumers listen on low price ear buds not capable of the Dolby needs.

FWIW if you're talking Dolby Atmos, it can render to binaural audio that works well on headphones and earbuds. Of course, it doesn't have the impact a full-blown surround system with a bunch of speakers. However, with so many people listening on headphones, Atmos mixes are a step up. There's a sense of fullness and space you don't get with stereo. 

Lately I'm posting both Atmos (headphones only) and Stereo (speakers or headphones) mixes on my YouTube channel, like how labels put out mono and stereo versions of the same record during the transition from mono to stereo. The Atmos version gets more clicks.

What people seem most upset isn't about the Artst/Pro/+ split, but that Professional users can no longer buy the addons they bought in the past. The only way to get the addons is through a subscription.

On 3/28/2024 at 3:03 PM, CSistine said:

But the fact that with a cancelled subscription you lose all vs. with a purchase you may still have your last version usable is the crucial argument! But YMMV!

It depends on the company. But there are also niche reasons for subscriptions, like collaborating on a project where you don't share the same software. You can subscribe for just long enough to complete the project. For example, you can buy a perpetual license for Pro Tools Artist. Then you work on a project with someone who uses Pro Tools Studio, and uses features you don't have. You subscribe to Studio for a month or two, and then drop the subscription when the project is done. 

I believe companies that offer perpetual and subscription options will always have the best model. A big advantage of that model is you can subscribe for a year, but if you find you really love a program, then you can buy a perpetual version. 

The sense I get from people is that they'll refuse to buy a subscription if it's the only option available. Hey, I'm still using GIMP instead of Photoshop . Paradoxically, I think more people would buy subscriptions if perpetual licenses were also available, because then they'd have a safety ned.

FWIW, when subscriptions first started appearing I did an analysis of outright purchase + paying for updates compared to subscription costs. After several years, it turned out to be more or less the same because updates were less expensive than an initial purchase.

The main advantage of a subscription was you had new features immediately instead of having them rolled into an update for which you had to pay. So, a lot of the decision-making process involves how often a company updates their software, and whether you need those updates. Cakewalk has a very good track record in that respect compared to, for example, Pro Tools.

FWIW, Cakewalk is one of the few programs whose MPE implementation handles MIDI guitars with MPE mode (Zivix Jamstik), not just Mono and Poly modes. This is essential for using MIDI guitar with multitimbral instruments.

I know, I know...I'm probably the only person here who cares about this. But it's an example of Cakewalk being on top of some things that are missing from other DAWs.

On 3/24/2024 at 11:35 PM, Pathfinder said:

Guess they just haven't had enough time yet? Really?

Perhaps another possibility is that Bandlab has bigger fish to fry at the moment.

2 hours ago, Pathfinder said:

I don't claim to be a big business guy, but I don't get the, backend issues and extra $$$ cost if you , say, sell a perpetual license and subscriptions. It has been stated a few times so far.

Here's an example. I did a preset pack for the Line 6 Helix. Subsequently, Line 6 came out with an update that improved many of the cab sounds. I made the changes for my own use, then approached Line 6 about offering a free update to people who had bought the original pack. They had no problem with the idea, but the company they were using to fulfill orders simply had no way to modify a system designed to sell things to new customers to a system designed to give free updates to existing customers and a different version than it had offered originally to new customers. I ended up including the revised presets with my downloadable Helix book.

I ran into the same issues with Sweetwater Publishing about offering periodic, free updates to my eBooks. To their credit, they modified their order processing to give users with previous versions free updates, but it wasn't a trivial undertaking. I believe they're still working on how they can modify the system to sell significant updates (e.g., like going from v1.0 to v2.0) at half-price to owners or previous editions.

I figured it would be easy to do...wrong. Despite Sweetwater being a technologically hip company, it took them quite a bit of effort to bulletproof the system.

On 3/19/2024 at 8:33 AM, pwal³ said:

copy the studio one model, sub with extras/all or standard license for that current major version 😘

Not just PreSonus - also Universal Audio, Avid, Waves, and Native Instruments, among others. It seems the industry is going in the Burger King direction - "have it your way."

The beauty of software is that the Bakers can tweak the model easily over time. Also, I can vouch from personal experience that making backend changes to accommodate different purchasing models can be a nightmare. 

IMHO the Bakers are doing a fine job of nurturing Sonar and keeping it alive and growing. I don't think there's any question they deserve compensation not only for their current efforts, but for the work put into the program while it was free. It seems the only question is what form that compensation should take.

13 hours ago, Mr No Name said:

If that was the marketing strategy it would make me come across as observant, that was the impression I got from it being in pastel colours, 

I'm involved in graphic design. It's important to remember that graphics, like music, is a fashion industry. Pastels have made a comeback in recent years, especially for websites. They're traditionally associated with sophistication, but one of the main reasons for using pastels is they retain impact because of the difference you can create between the original hue and the whiter/paler variations that create pastels.

Technically, pastels start with a base color and add white. So, designers can determine how much contrast they want between elements by how much white they add. Fashion-wise, this is also a natural progression from the "dark look" that was prevalent for so many years and added black to base colors.

I don't know Cakewalk's motivation for going in a pastel direction, but it looks to me like they're aiming for 2023/2024 more than women and children.

On 3/9/2024 at 4:51 AM, Heath Row said:

To me releasing or half releasing or whatever it is they have done, and only having 2 subscriptions I mean memberships

To be fair, when Cakewalk introduced the "membership" label, it was because the software was rent-to-own. Even though you paid monthly, eventually you would own Sonar outright. At the time, "subscription" meant you paid or the program went belly up.  I think subscription still has the same meaning today.  They wanted to differentiate between the two.

I've noticed companies that tried to go subscription-only (most notably Avid and Waves) went back to offering perpetual licenses as well as subscriptions. UA, PreSonus, and iZotope - who are all doing very well - offer subscriptions and also offer perpetual licenses.

The reality is that subscriptions benefit some customers and perpetual licenses benefit others. Offering both increases the potential customer base.

I would highly recommend that Cakewalk learn from the mistakes of others, they've already done the R&D

3 hours ago, John Vere said:

Basic versions only do single monophonic conversion. Good for vocals, Bass and lead Guitar lines. 

Actually, you can generate polyphonic MIDI guitar parts with Melodyne Essential by dragging the audio into a MIDI track and choosing Polyphonic Decay for the algorithm. 

What you can't do with Essential is edit polyphonic audio prior to converting it into data. Also note that pitch bends don't translate. But hey, it works!

Although perhaps not relevant because so many buses are involved, don't overlook Cakewalk's offset mode. It's a feature every DAW should have, but few do.

I think a lot depends on what you mean by "remixing." Is it working with raw tracks from the ground up and making major changes, or just moving faders and some effects around? 

When I need to do inter-DAW transfers, I usually save out either the raw audio or the processed audio (effects, automation, etc.) as individual files, then import them into the target DAW.

I think Cakewalk is smart to give plenty of advance warning. You have time to save up, or even explore other free programs (e.g., Audacity) in case it turns out the new Cakewalk doesn't work with your budget. Or, maybe Next is all you need anyway.

Most importantly, it's not like the old version stopped working. You can keep doing your thing until the new version comes out, and then you can decide whether it fits your needs and budget. And, every day that goes by without the new version being introduced is another day you can keep using an excellent DAW for free. 

One could argue they started the teaser campaign too early, but that's better than too late and catching the user base off-guard.

On 1/28/2024 at 10:54 AM, Will. said:

There's NO "secret effect."

+1,000,000

IIRC AmpliTube is one of the (many) amp sims that doesn't respond to program changes when loaded as a VST3. The VST2 version should work. I believe this has something to do with changes in the VST3 spec, not Cakewalk or AmpliTube. 

11 hours ago, Glenn Stanton said:

it seems "clean" but it does have "something" which lately just seems to be working well for me.

Yes! The original was one of the few compressors with a pulse width modulation-based design. It's super-fast. I thought it was weird because it didn't have an attack control, but then I realized that it didn't really need one in the conventional sense.

These "perfect" vocal sound videos rub me the wrong way. Are they about your voice? Your mic? Your music? Your input levels? Do they even talk about how much the optimum attack time relates to the musical genre?  (And if they really all are describing how to do a "perfect" vocal, wouldn't they all recommend the exact same technique?)

I hardly ever use compression anymore, I use gain/clip envelope DSP to take out peaks, and add a little limiting. I do this with Cakewalk, Studio One, and Pro Tools. But I would never be so arrogant as to say it's the perfect way to record your vocals. It's the perfect way to record my vocals. Here's an excerpt from a tip I wrote for Studio One about Why I Don't Use Compression Anymore, but it applies 100% to Cakewalk. In fact. I first wrote about this technique in my book of Cakewalk tips.

Replacing Vocal Compression

Compression keeps vocals front and center by restricting dynamics, so the soft parts don’t get lost. But there’s a better option. Gain Envelopes and normalization allow tailoring vocal dynamics any way you want—without attack or release times, pumping, breathing, overshoot, or other artifacts. The sound is just as present and capable of being upfront in a mix as if it’s compressed. However, the vocal retains clarity and a natural vibe, because gain envelopes and normalization have no more effect on the sound than changing a channel fader’s level (fig. 2).

Figure 2: A typical vocal, before and after using a Gain Envelope to edit the level for more consistency.

Even better, while you’re editing you can also tweak mouth clicks, pops, and breaths in a way that compressors cannot. I’ve covered using Gain and Event Envelopes before, so for more info, check out the video Get Better Vocals with Gain Envelopes. Also, see the blog post Better Vocals with Phrase-by-Phrase Normalization.

I’m not the world’s greatest vocalist by any means, yet people invariably comment on how much they like my vocals. Perhaps much of that is due to not using compression, so my voice sounds natural and connects more directly with listeners.

The bottom line is I don't like the sound of compression. But other people do. That's why the best thing you can do is play around with compressors, limiters, DSP, and find what best communicates your vocal sound in the way that fits your music. 

/rant

19 hours ago, sjoens said:

I've always wondered why converting stereo to mono increases volume. 

It's just addition. Creating mono from stereo requires adding two signals together. If both signals are flirting with maximum headroom, adding them together will exceed the available headroom. 

19 hours ago, sjoens said:

As is, another editing step is required to bring it down if it's too much.

I think a simple solution would be as soon as you invoke a convert-stereo-to-mono command, the stereo signal's gain would be reduced by 6 dB prior to adding the two channels together into a single channel.

9 hours ago, William Copper said:

So, maybe a better answer is: if there is not any routing in use, the bounce is unchanged

...unless you're bouncing a stereo track to mono.

If a stereo file uses all the available headroom, bouncing it to mono will cause clipped peaks. You need to lower the stereo file's level prior to bouncing to mono. The image on the left is prior to bouncing to mono, the image on the right is after bouncing to mono.

1 hour ago, Sal Sorice said:

I had a bad stick of RAM wreak havoc on my system about a year ago.

This ^^^  And SSDs aren't perfect either, with some better than others. What you may be seeing is the dying gasps of a storage device. Things getting worse the more you use the system may also mean the issue is thermal-related. Have you dusted off the insider of your computer and cleaned dust off the fan blades lately? Are the fans still rotating? I know, stupid questions but you never know.

It seems like Superplate may be an issue...check out this thread. One of the replies said he's experienced problems with it if the latency is too high or too low.