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There is a v13.06 version of MCompare (at least that is the version shown in the plug-in I have installed) Pretty sure if installed from the regular download it automatically goes into demo mode MeldaProduction support is pretty good.

Maybe it was Music Creator 6 Touch. DAWs newer than SONAR X3 and products released after 2015 have Cakewalk Command Center compatible installers Older products with downloadable installers such as Music Creator 6 Touch should be in your old Cakewalk account.

CSC is not bundled with CbB. Here are the synths included with CbB. To use synths bundled with old Cakewalk products, run the installer for the old product. SONAR X3 and older have an advanced install option to install plug-ins without actually installing the DAW. For products newer than X3 use the Cakewalk Command Center and select the appropriate installer. Simply copying the CakewalkSoundCenter.dll is not enough. A complete CSC installation has quite a few files and registry entries.

yes

No, C:\ProgramData\Cakewalk\Cakewalk Core contains the master files used to populate the user directory %appdata%\Cakewalk\Cakewalk Core when holding SHIFT while starting CbB (a.k.a. partial personalization). The metronome folder in "Cakewalk Content" is redundant.

By default the audio metronome files used by CbB are in %appdata%\Cakewalk\Cakewalk Core\Metronome Holding the SHIFT key while starting CbB will restore these and any other files missing from the user directory.

It depends on what is meant by "close it." If the application was closed using the X in the upper-right, this only closes the UI. The application still runs in the background. There should an icon in the notification area which, when clicked, will re-open the application. To shutdown BA either right-click on the icon in the notification area and select Quit from the context menu or click the gear in the upper-left of the application UI and click the Quit button on the settings screen. There is an option on the BA settings screen to prevent it from running on start up too. It is normal for the application to show several threads in the Windows task manager while running.

It may be easier to use a plug-in dedicated for this task. I believe they are referred to as reference plug-ins. The only one I have is MCompare. Unlike track data, plug-ins may be stored in track templates. Moreover the configuration of the plug-in is maintained. An instance of MCompare may contain up to 4 audio files for comparison and I am able to create a track template and have its setup saved in the template. I am sure others work the same. The plug-in has a demo and like all Melda plug-ins is part of the 50% off sales cycle. MeldaProduction also has end of year sales so there may be additional opportunities to pick it up on a discount soon.

The status of StudioWare has not changed since this post from 2009 where Noel wrote

Normally, a plug-in is scanned one time. If plug-ins are getting scanned more than once (and that appears to be what is happening), it is because the "Rescan Failed Plug-ins" and "Rescan All Plugins" are enabled. These should only be enabled for one-time use under special circumstances like the process described above. If these options are checked, turn them off.

If you choose to open a ticket with support make sure to detail exactly how the plug-in fails after selecting the Enable option during its scan.

Don't have the plug-in and it has been a while since I have had a commercial plug-in throw a scan error but they are rarely fatal. When I did receive scan errors, I always enabled the plug-in and never had a problem using them. If you already selected "Disable Plug-in" to get the plug-in back open the VST Settings section of preferences select Manual Scan from the scan options drop down enable "Rescan Failed Plug-ins" click the Scan button after the scan disable "Rescan Failed Plug-ins" reset the scan options drop down to its previous setting

Yeah, that was my thought too. The email address is support@cakewalk.com If a ticket is not open, it might be time to open one.

Can only help with No, the instruments are not Windows VST plug-ins.

The offset mode toggle is in the mix module Once enabled, quick group the tracks to change the selected tracks by the same amount BTW most links to old SONAR documentation may be modified to point to the current help by changing the product reference in the url. For example, https://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=SONAR X2&language=3&help=Automation.13.html upon replacing SONAR X2 to Cakewalk like this https://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=Cakewalk&language=3&help=Automation.13.html returns the current help page

I just downloaded TAL-Reverb-2 from https://tal-software.com/products/tal-reverb and confirmed the plug-in does work in CbB. To install the plug-in I opened the install_TAL-reverb-2.zip and copied TAL-Reverb-2-64.dll into C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Vstplugins\TAL ignoring all the other files in the zip. C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Vstplugins is the default scan path for CbB and I like to create a folder for each plug-in manufacturer just to keep things a little more organized. The dll could be copied to any folder and used in CbB as long as the folder is in the VST scan path. This path is set up in preferences. In this example, there is no need to add C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Vstplugins\TAL to the scan path because it is under C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Vstplugins. The scanner looks in every folder under the paths setup in the scan path. Care should be exercised when adding to the scan path. For example, do not add something like C:\Program Files as this will cause the scanner to open dlls that are not plug-ins which can crash the scanner. Once a plug-in is added to a folder in the scan path, the VST scanner needs to run for the DAW to know about the plug-in. This happens soon after the plug-in is added as long as "Automatic Background Scan" is set in scan options (see the preferences link above to review scan options). If the scanner is not set to "Automatic Background Scan" the scanner must be run before the plug-in will show up in CbB. After scanning, where the plug-in appears in the plug-in list depends on the plug-in layout selected. Read about the plug-in browser here. By default, CbB uses the "Sort By Category" layout. VST2 plug-ins like TAL-Reverb-2 have no category tag as this is a VST3 feature so the plug-in is in the "Uncategorized" folder. It may be moved to another category. Here is the help page about how to categorize plug-ins. Here is the help page on how to add plug-ins to a project.

It shows $99 for me. I have V Collection 6. Not sure it is worth it especially since I have MTron Pro and XILS 3/4.

The best way to get plug-ins from an older CW DAW is run the old installer select the 64bit option select the advanced install options select the plug-ins from the advanced install pick list This insures the plug-ins and supporting files are installed correctly. The reason copying a DX plug-in does not show up in the plug-in list is because it must be registered using regsvr32. To register a dx plug-in navigate to the folder containing the plug-in dll open a command line window as administrator enter regsvr32 thePluginName.dll This registration step is performed automatically by the installer and is one reason to use the installers to add plug-ins. Some other reasons to use the installer are some plug-ins have supporting files and registry entries which may be missed when copying from a previous installation.

FWIW, the master.ins containing the instrument definitions is stored in the user directory. This directory is version specific but it is possible to copy the file from one user directory to another. The master.ins for X3 is in %appdata%\Cakewalk\SONAR X3 Producer (or whatever flavor of X3 is installed) Copy the master.ins from the X3 folder to %appdata%\Cakewalk\Cakewalk Core If there is some reason to preserve the master.ins in %appdata%\Cakewalk\Cakewalk Core rename it before copying the one from X3.

Dropout notification enhancements were added in 2019.09 Make sure notifications are enabled in preferences

BandLab Assistant is required. It is used to activate and update CbB. It also provides access to BandLab the Chrome-based DAW and the BandLab loop library which may be used in BandLab and CbB. BA does not phone home until it needs to reactivate the software or when asked by the user to perform some task. CbB has a 6 month activation which is refreshed when updates are applied or by BA as needed. CbB itself contains an analytics module which may be disabled in preferences.

Not clear if the OP uses a master bus. If not, this is the first thing I would add to the project to prevent surprises like unexpected results from exports.

Here is a similar thread It is best to install the full version of the most recent version of SONAR prior to installing CbB. To do this now, uninstall CbB using BandLab Assistantthen install SONAR. If installing SONAR Platinum/Professional use Cakewalk Command Center. Then re-install CbB.