I use Audacity? Why? Cakewalk does not contain a wave editor. Should it? I can't even pull up a wave page in Cakewalk to make cuts or paste phrases into bars. What do I do with Audacity? I copy, cut, paste, manually quantize lyrics to a midi beat. I pitch correct single words or phrases, using midi comparison, bend or cheat. I'm a poor singer, with a voice that does not pass the test, so my goal is a completed song, with a voice that is tolerable, fixed if not potent. I copy whole vocals for accompaniment and change pitches into 3rds, 5ths, and 7ths,for harmonies or take the whole thing down an octave and fix sibilance. I'm a vocal fake. That's what music is today and I need the tools to accomplish this.
Cakewalk has a lot of wasted space in it's window structure. It's been changed from a workable original state as it evolved through it's rebranding and DAW development. DAWs have been relying upon plug-ins to add flavor to the mix, but something was lost from the original design.
Why does the pen disallow the writer to move the midi note around and simultaneously, why doesn't it also behave without an audible response? Why are the tools on a separate window instead of inside the piano roll view, or the staff editor? Why isn't there a full sized audio wave editor? Why do effects have to be applied to whole tracks and not words or phrases? Why isn't the tools I have highlighted in the image below included included in the piano roll editor and the staff editor? What happened to combine tracks, such that it is no longer simple as right clicking and clicking combine for selected MIDI tracks? Why is mix-down so complex?
It also too bad that both external and internal system syths can not be used at the same time. Also all DAW software brands on the market fail to disclose just how soft synth instruments are set up and implemented within their program structure, so for me, being old-school, I have no use or understanding of the need and use of VST instruments. You can't apply what you are not grounded in. The irony is that usually when I master a technology, I do some pretty innovative stuff with it.