Andres Medina

Right, not sure if CW ever dimmed the other tracks while soloing?

I get the greyed out only when archiving tracks, on the archived track itself.

... but just noticed that if you move a note in PRV by clicking and then slowly moving the mouse, the snap to grid seems to be disabled temporarily. Not sure if this is intended behavior or not.

Working as expected here.

Check this article included in the documentation: https://legacy.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=SONAR&language=3&help=EditingMIDI.16.html

2 hours ago, tom_jg said:

I realized that in every project all tracks beside midi tracks become greyed out when I solo one or more tracks. Is there a way to also get the midi tracks to get greyed out?

mmm, I don't get the greyed out audio tracks when soloing. Neither the midi tracks...

It seems to me that your buffer size is too low. 

In my system, any value under 128 click and pop.

256 is just fine, good balance between low latency and sound stability.

I have had that same problem. I got help to sort it out. One of the proposed solutions would work for you.

See this thread: 

2 hours ago, Larioso said:

Are you aware of this setting in Aud.ini?

"

VideoEngine=<0 or 1>

Boolean

1

This variable goes in the [Video] section, and specifies the default video engine. For example:

[Video]

VideoEngine=1

The values are as follows:

0 = DirectShow engine

1 = Media Foundation engine

"

 

Then you can use the offset settings available on videotrack.

- but have not tried this if any instability or so

 

I felt Media Foundation worked so well, so made preview videos with 8s black frames as start instead, to get frames into timeline.

Thanks! Yes, it was posted somewhere before, as the old Direct show is able to offset the video. But is the old engine...

I already have a workflow of converting the video in an external video editor and adding 5 secs of blank at the beginning to get room.

56 minutes ago, iNate said:

The Object Editor can be expanded to different sizes, including one that shows everything on one screen.  Umm, it can be undocked and moved to wherever you want it.

The problem with your suggestion is that it is too isolated to a niche personal preference.  For most people, it will increase the number of button presses or clicks while setting up projects because they will constantly have to exit out of the text field when adding tracks.  That involves either clicking out of it or an additional <ESC> button press.

In most DAWs the add track dialog allows you to specify the type of track as well as the number of tracks to add.  Simply adding a track via a mouse gesture (like double clicking in the track header section) adds an unnamed track of the last type explicitly created. That's the assumption I run with 😛

I have Studio One 6 Professional and there is a pretty sizable feature disparity in Studio One's favor when compared to Cakewalk - in the realms of both audio and MIDI.  I've always held the belief that Cakewalk would have been [in 2018] where Studio One is [now] had they kept focus on developing the core product instead of bundling plug-ins, sample packs and virtual instruments.  Most people who have gone there won't be itching to come back.

Cakewalk is more comparable to the Studio One Artist SKU, at this point.

I know it's cliche, but REAPER is not my cup of tea because I can't stand looking at it, and theming doesn't do enough to remedy the chronic lack of design effort being put into that application.

And I don't think editing video should be that important in music production/composition software.  Basic Video support is good enough, for those composing to video.

Yes, Reaper seemed poorly designed to me too. Specially the menus and the audio configuration - very odd.

Studio One has a slightly different approach by separating certain tasks into modules (recording - playing live - mastering- etc). Not what I need, but very user oriented. So far, would be my second choice of DAW right now.

Regarding video, I consider moving a video clip a very basic feature, and currently is not implemented.

To add a bit more info and context to the video implementation thing:

Out of curiosity I downloaded the trial versions of Reaper and Studio One.

Overall I was surprised to see in practice how good is CW! it really is outstanding in several areas beyond workflow, and the amount of features is amazing. 

Regarding the video, I can confirm that CW is sadly still a small step behind, as both Reaper and Studio One has the ability to just move the video track around, and add some basic video editing as well. I wouldn't expect CW to really handle video editing at all: just the basic capacity to move the video over the timeline will suffice. It makes the workflow unnecessary complicated, and anyone using video in their projects certainly will benefit of it. 

11 hours ago, Lord Tim said:

I do definitely agree that the video part of CbB needs an overhaul, but I think that falls a little outside the scope of a lot of what we're talking about here, which is refining the existing tools to get rid of the real (or perceived) stumbling blocks when using a function or performing an action.

Video view.... yeah, that's going to need more than a little tweak to get it on par with a lot of modern DAWs. I've scored stuff to it, and it's worked, but the moment you need to step out of some very tight restrictions, the wheels fall off pretty fast, unfortunately. And when we think about the percentage of users who would put that as a "priority feature" for their work (which I am one of those users), it's quite small compared to more general stuff that would benefit more of the userbase I think.

Yes, I understand that video may be not the main use for the majority of users. Agreed.

Regarding functions, I think video handling is a function of the software that has to perform an action, and right now force users to use external software and several workarounds to perform a very straightforward task: move the video over the timeline. That seems to be cumbersome.

If I recall, this was part of a long discussion about the difficulties to implement that. That's why I was surprised to see it solved and working in Studio One.

Well, there is one huge improvement in the workflow of CW that can be made, as requested in this topic: the handling of video.

Just checked the Studio One 6 version, and wow, you can move the video around as any audio clip - you can insert multiple video clips in the same timeline - You can perform basic editing of the video itself.

This area has been a weak point in CW. Of course you can make workarounds to adapt, like editing the video outside CW, but it is really nice to just do the basic things inside the DAW.

Note: it took me one hour to insert a video in Studio One. Still I have no idea where the audio of the video is hidden! Of course it's not their fault or a lack of intuitiveness, it's just a whole different software!

6 hours ago, Mark Morgon-Shaw said:

 

Thanks! Very cool. A step ahead from our CW current Arranger Mode. I like it!

10 minutes ago, mettelus said:

I have mentioned this long ago, but the resources to do such are significantly less now. I have taken a new user, sat them down at my machine and watched/asked them what they were thinking or trying to do. Even simple things such as selecting a clip... what do they want (or most likely want) to do with it? Are right-clicks functional throughout the GUI, or a help pane that focuses on options specific to a selection when the user is moving around (and tracks any user-made keyboard shortcut changes)? Some things very much are intuitive, others are most definitely not. Even asking a new user (not us) is going to be hit or miss since you may get only the one thing they remember, but an experienced user watching a truly new user actually use something and struggle with it is an eye opener. The experienced user will know the how/why to things to interpret issues, but the new user will demonstrate what they are.

Years ago I posted a "Hidden costs to owning a DAW" in another forum. The more obvious ones were computer, audio interface, hardware, VST(i)s and the like, but the one that stood out for some was the "time investment," where one may have to invest hundreds of hours to get proficient. Shaving 90% off that time investment would be HUGE for new users, especially when younger generations are going to gravitate to the simplest and cheapest solution that fits the bill for them.

Besides being a music producer, I'm also a guitar player, and occasionally guitar teacher.

It wouldn't occur to me that a newcomer to the guitar could be able to understand or execute a Ab13 9b chord intuitively or just learn it from seen me play it two times. It takes hours and hours of hard work to master an instrument. And in a way, I think a DAW is also an instrument that has to be learned and practiced. There are no shortcuts to this, I think, no matter the software or the company producing it. 

The natural learning curve to learn and master anything is being regarded as software malfunctioning or bad design. And I would add that any software, at least until now! - is made by humans, are we are imperfect, and it has to be expressed in all we create, including software.

Anyway, the amount of work put in CW over the decades is just amazing.

12 hours ago, Keni said:

Thanks for helping to track this one down. I posted a support ticket with a bug report earlier. I hope that is the current procedure? I forget...

Between the bug report and this thread (I know The Bakers always keep an eye here) at least they’ve been made aware of it’s existence. This isn’t a show stopper and with all that’s currently happening and on the horizon, I don’t think this too high a priority. Itchy though it is...

 

Yeah, I don't remember either! 

Hopefully it will be adressed  at some point!

9 hours ago, Larioso said:

I think a good project manager could take care of that.

Cubase had something where you could rate with stars 1-5 among project files and such, to keep track on which state they are in. That's how I used it anyway, embryo, tracking, mixing, mastering

As I recall some ability to create own categories as well.

Embed all that stuff into one project I can sense loads of bugs ahead - different tempos in one file and such.

How many use MixRecall in Cakewalk/Sonar today?

- It has some of that altering with different versions.

- but not as deep to complete arrangements

 

I just sense bugs, and never used it. Stability is number one.....

Good point. I wish I remember which DAW had it... I heard Hans Zimmer talking about it in a Master Class. I think it was Cubase but you are familiar with it and seems to lack this one.

11 hours ago, Keni said:

 Isn’t that what workspaces was created to do? 

 I don’t use them myself so I’m not very knowledgeable on their abilities and limitations .

Not quite... workspaces allows you to "filter out" modules, functions, etc to declutter the UI. 

This other function allows you to create different versions of your music inside the same file. Steinberg Dorico has it - but this is a notation software, not a production tool as CW -, and is really nice to work this way: each piece of music is independent from the others, you just "recall" it with one click.

Someone mentioned "scratchpad": not familiar with, but sounds like the feature I'd like to get from CW.

8 minutes ago, Keni said:

I'm glad that you found the problem on your machine as well. So I know it's not completely me...

 

But it doesn't fix here. I followed your recipe to the letter and the problem remains the same...

 

Not a fix here for some reason...

Thanks for sticking with me though...

Interesting... I just noticed that if they're all on A type and I click N, only the track clicked on goes to N the other two go to S type! So it seems to be the same type of issue from either the S or A type, ctrl-clicking on the N type causes all tracks other than that clicked on to skip the middle option...

 

Sorry to hear that! Yes, something is not working properly, and the way your system behaves is not normal.

Hope this tests help the developers to understand what is going on, as it seems definitely to be a bug somewhere...

There is one that I know has some DAW that frankly don't know which one is:

The ability to create multiple independent "Flows" - Versions, built into the same file.

I mean, configure your VST's and try 4-5-6 different sketches with different tempos, Time Signatures, Arrangement Sections, etc.

Very handy for the composition process. Right now I have to save each Draft as an individual separate file (Project XX v1 - Project XX v2 - Project XX v2 with horns - Project XX v3 incomplete but promising   ...    

Yes, the problem seems to be in the modules set as default (this is configured by right clicking the name of any module-set modules as default for Tracks). When the Console Emulators are loaded as default, they misbehave. And it seems to be a bug.

When added later, they work properly.

This is what I did to make it work properly:

1. Insert 3 audio tracks
2. Delete all instances of Console Emulators from ProChannel
3. Save this as your Default Modules
4. Delete all audio tracks
5. Insert again 3 audio tracks
6. Add any Console Emulators 
7. Try Ctrl+Click - it should work just fine

After this you should always add your Console Emulators after inserting the audio tracks, not as default.

4 minutes ago, Keni said:

OK... Let me see if I understand. I should add audio tracks and remove the emulator (it's already defaulted in when I add the track, then add the emulator and try that... Going there now. Will post in minutes...

Right

Ok, I did a few additional tests:

I got the same error as yours only if I create a new audio track and that track has any instances of Console Emulators already created (I guess this happens when the default audio track is setup with this module by default) - in this case it should be definitely be a bug!

If I insert a new audio track with no instances of Console Emulators and the I add those, the behavior is normal, no errors.

If I delete the default instances of Console Emulators and insert new ones, the behavior, again, is normal.

I think this explains why your error is not replicable by other users?

Could you try and verify this?

I'm a huge fan of Cakewalk/Sonar, as paid products or free ones.

The workflow is spectacular, and you can do almost anything you want. I keep discovering features or new/better ways of doing things.

My worst times were when it became unstable, That is a nightmare when in the middle of a project. But it was worked out and now in the rare occasions that I get crashes almost all the time are plugin related, no CW related ones. And the customer service has been beyond fantastic in helping solve problems, both for CW related errors, or external plugins errors.

I remember an audio engineer friend of mine trying to export a OMF file from Pro Tools, and being forced to pay a lot of money for that functionality, that Sonar had for free (and still has as free CW/Bandlab, btw)

I use Steinberg Dorico a lot for notation and it's really great at that, but it's really hard for me to use the VST section (that is in reality a bonus for a notation program).

I tried Cubase for a while and it was not a good experience, although not necessary their fault, but the learning curve thing. And I was never able to run a video at all!

I guess nowadays there is a tendency to assume that the software that makes the work for you is "user friendly", skipping completely the training that any complex task using software requires. Music production is complex. Recording is complex and difficult. So is mixing, mastering, singing, playing drums, you name it.

Cakewalk is really a HUGE software and it has taken me years to master it to some degree. 

Finally, I personally think that this software was rooted in a particular moment of time and technological advance - perhaps filling the gap between analog recording and digital recording- that inspired certain design that has further developed across decades. But the roots seems to be in a transfer from the analog paradigm into the digital world, which I think was very successful.

I wonder how it would look and work a completely new DAW, designed from scratch (as Next seems to be) nowadays.

Dorico changed the notation game by designing their software from the point of view of the musician and their needs and workflow, not the software developer, and the result is great.  Seems like they put the talent of the software designers to service the talent of the musicians, and that I appreciate a lot.

I see. I tested the same module in the tracks section of the console.

It worked as expected too, using both Bus and Channel versions.

Are you sure you are Ctrl+Clicking while selecting the Types? And are you sure you have all your tracks selected before doing that?

I've done both mistakes before!

7 hours ago, Keni said:

Well, It's not the issue anyway. They are all correctly selected as Channel Console Emulators but the problem persists in every project I try...

... you say Channel Console Emulators: in fact they should be Console Emulator BUS. You could double check this.

I get the same malfunction that you describe when using the Channel version.

---

The online documentation explain this: 

Controls

There are two versions of the Console Emulator module:

Console Emulator Channel. This version is designed for individual tracks.

Console Emulator Bus. This version is designed for buses. It contains the same controls as the Channel version, except it does not have a Trim control.

 https://legacy.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=Cakewalk&language=3&help=ProChannel.10.html

Good point indeed!