Craig Anderton

If you don't need the specificity of Mark's CAL script, there's always the Process > Deglitch menu (aka "the MIDI guitarist's best friend"): BTW Mark - good job on the sampled piano!!

If you're all in on Native Instruments (e.g., you own Komplete) then one of their S-series controllers would be ideal. However as a pure MIDI controller, it doesn't have deep integration with CbB (like transport and mixing) like it does with Cubase, Live, and Logic (no Pro Tools, Studio One, or Cakewalk). Nektar used to tout Sonar support for their Panorama controllers, but don't any more.

When you see the dropout notification, click on Help and go through the recommendations. That always solved dropout problems for me that didn't relate to latency.

First of all, you're very welcome! Second, I am familiar with Cakewalk, but prior to this morning I had never considered what would be needed to preserve mutes when transferring between projects. My "default" is assuming something is possible, but that I just haven't figured it out yet. Sometimes it's an easy solution, sometimes it's a workaround, but it's important to remember that any DAW is a collection of tools. All the applications you can implement with those tools aren't even close to all being documented (e.g., using the Loop Construction view for varispeed, adding truly human expressiveness automatically to MIDI drum parts). Granted, some things are indeed impossible, but it's surprising just how much is possible. Also, this discussion has solved an issue for me: What to write about for my next Sound on Sound CbB column I'll dig into this further and see what is an is not possible. I've haven't paid much attention to the instrument transfer issue, but Mike has been helpful in documenting the limitations, so any solution will have to be a workaround. But...a workaround is always better than nothing.

Yes, what I meant was combining the two into a single command might not be that hard if all you had to do was glue them together with virtual epoxy...

Any plug-ins need to be dragged over for a track. Unlike the clip and automation data, they don't go along for the ride when you copy the data. Parent track volume and pan settings do go over as well, but not parent track solo or mute status - odd, given that it's preserved for takes. Hmm... I think a "copy track" command that copies everything about a track, including clip data, has been requested a lot in the past. It seems the raw materials are there, what with track templates and what I talked about above where copying a parent track copies take lanes, their status, and automation. It seems combining the two would get you pretty much where you wanted to go.

I was thinking in terms of track folders. Take Lanes are actually easier to deal with, and you can do exactly what you want. 1. Drag across the Parent track. If the Take Lanes are muted, it will seem like there's nothing to drag over, but drag over that region anyway. The Take Lanes can be visible or folded up, it doesn't matter. 2. Copy and paste to the second instance (although this also works with drag and drop, if you drag over the parent track). 3. The Take Lanes will come along for the ride, AND preserve solo and mute status. As a bonus, any automation will be included as well. I'm pretty sure that solves your problem. [Edit: at least for audio; I haven't really checked out MIDI yet, but will do so if there's interest. Also, track folders don't work this way but I suppose you could cheat, and put the tracks from track folders into take lanes prior to moving, then drag back into a folder after moving.]

See the post above yours

You can do it easily if you open up the two projects in a single instance of CbB. Make sure that under Preferences > File > Advanced, "Allow only one project at a time" is unchecked. There are some really cool aspects to this. First of all, with audio you don't have to render clips so they start at the beginning! Select the entire track, or drag over the entire track to the beginning (even if there isn't data there), and copy into the second instance - all the clips will end up where you want them. You can also copy/paste multiple tracks. Or if you want the copy to start at an arbitrary place, select the track, drag across the timeline, note where the now time is, place the now time in the same place in the second instance, and paste. (However with MIDI, you do have to slip-edit the beginning of the first clip in a track so it starts at the beginning.) You can also drag effects from one instance to the other. And if you use the "old school" method of inserting instruments into the FX rack, you can drag instruments over from one instance to another as well. You can't drag over or copy a track folder, however, you can select all the tracks within the folder and drag or copy them over. Then you can create a folder and put them inside. I wrote about this as a "Friday's Tip of the Week," and included it In the original "Big Book of SONAR Tips," as a response to those who complained that SONAR didn't have something like Studio One's scratchpad functionality. I thought it was a reasonably good workaround, but the reaction was so negative about "oh, everything has to be a workaround in SONAR, you suck " that it was one of the few tips I left out of the CbB book. However, the main points are in one of my archived Sound on Sound columns. Although the technique is awkward when you're trying to run multiple projects simultaneously, for copying clips and effects from one project to another, it's extremely effective. Maybe it's time to write a column specifically about transfer techniques from one CbB project to another, and include an updated version of the original "sandbox" article.

Would OMF work for the audio, if you converted the takes to WAV files?

The Medium size will allow access, maybe you could make something else smaller to compensate. However, you can also have an alternate snap value. Normally snap uses the global snap setting. But if you hold down N while specifying a different snap setting, in your case 1 sample or whatever, then if you HOLD the N key while dragging data, the clip or note will snap to the alternate setting. It's important to hold the N key; pressing it momentarily turns snap on and off. Another option is to toggle between the two settings by typing Ctrl+Shift+N. This lets you use two different snap settings even with the snap module set to its smallest size.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

Sonar deserved a better fate...and it got it!

And each one is best for a certain application! What I like about the scook Matrix View method is you can have other loops in there for inspiration. My method is good when you want to have LOTS of repeats. The Chuck and Groove Clip methods are fast.

Here's the closest I've come to the "D" shortcut in Ableton Live and Studio One: 1. Copy the loop, then place the cursor at the end of it. 2. Call up Paste Special, then specify the number of repetitions you want. 3. Click OK. Note that you can also copy to a different track if you'd like.

The new version is a major improvement of over X1, especially in terms of speed and reliability. I think the easiest way to deal with the internet issue is to turn on Windows Defender, connect when there's a new update, download it and update, then disconnect from the net and disable Windows Defender.

You might find this article helpful. It's how I matched Sonar's tempo to a song in order to do a cover version.

Glad to hear it, sorry if I was being presumptuous. I've just known a few people whose depression lifted after finding out their thyroid wasn't functioning properly, so thought it was worth mentioning.

Maybe this is the article you mean... I always start a song with MIDI-based instruments because that makes it so easy to vary the tempo, which makes finding the optimum tempo easier.

Get your thyroid checked. Can't hurt, and could help. Many people automatically assume depression is triggered by events, but there can be biological causes. Another possibility is allergies but those are wicked hard to track down. If there's a thyroid issue, fixing it is easy, and will make a difference.

Thanks much! The mixes on Simplicity were easy, because there were so few tracks. The more tracks, the harder it is to get a good mix. This is why sometimes stems can be helpful within individual songs. I'm working on a song with massed vocals, there are around 12 tracks of background vocals. Of course once you get the level right, you can group them - but sometimes it's easier just to do a premix. It's sort of like "permanent freezing"

Unfortunately, there are no "language police" in the audio industry to make sure everyone's on the same page. And then there are terms like "loop": A piece of repeating audio A sustaining region in a sample Live looping Patching in a daisy-chain fashion And then manufacturers like to choose different words for the same thing, I guess just to appear different...

FWIW I don't disable my internal sound card because sometimes I need to run multiple programs (e.g., ASIO audio program, Vegas, and a screen capture program). It's difficult (and often impossible) to aggregate interfaces with ASIO, but Windows' native drivers can do so. This means I can run some programs with Windows drivers, and the main program with ASIO. The internal sound card output goes into two inputs of the PreSonus 192 interface, which I can then monitor via the interface's associated mixer software. Here's an article with more info on aggregating interfaces.

I used to use an SM58 for vocals. When Gibson acquired Neat Microphones, I had a chance to work extensively with their condenser mics. Now I wouldn't go back. For my voice, what works best is: Singing back from the mic - the perfect distance is the distance from the tip of my thumb to the tip of my little finger, with them outstretched as far as possible. This alone may solve your distortion issue, although as alluded to above, check for gain-staging issues in your signal chain first. Having the mic slightly below mouth level when singing to pick up more "chest," and slightly above for narration. Small diaphragm for singing, and large diaphragm for narration. The secret ingredient: a Pauly Ton pop filter. The damn thing is incredibly expensive ($300!!!), but worth every penny in the time it saves not having to fix vocal issues. All the vocals on my Neo- album were recorded with a dynamic mic, all the vocals on Joie de Vivre! were recorded with a condenser. You'll hear the difference - with the latter, the voice is much more forward, present, and distinct. For Neo-, I had to use a huge amount of high-frequency lift to attain the same kind of intelligibility. That alone tended to cause distortion if I wasn't careful.

The best answer depends on whether the song was cut to a click, in which case the process is simple, or not...which is a whole other can of worms. In many (most) cases, CbB can use Melodyne to create a tempo track. It simply involves dragging the source track up to the timeline. You may need to change Melodyne's algorithm, depending on the source track itself.