MarkP

I've created MIDI parts for a brass section in which trombones play in harmony most of the time. This is conveniently done in CbB by putting the parts together in a single clip. A problem arises however when the parts are in unison. At such points I entered just the one note but, because two voices are replaced by one, the power of the overall sound falls noticeably, just when it should focus. I have found that I can double the sound, by entering a second note a semitone sharp and dragging it down on top of the first in the piano roll. Tests with TTS-1 and my ESQ-1 show that this works, even when the two notes differ in duration. There are clearly two voices and staggered note-off events seem to apply intelligently to single voices rather than to both. That's encouraging, but the editing remains messy.

To make editing clearer I suppose I could separate parts on to different clips, lanes or even tracks, maybe just at the points where unison is called for, but before I go through all the parts and do this I wondered if there is a better way - is there a recognised 'best' way to handle unison? I am concerned that later, as I try out different virtual instruments, I might run into unexpected effects and have to re-edit; I am not confident note-on and note-off events would work the same way with all plugins.

4 hours ago, Noel Borthwick said:

Cwp is a  more modern format that supports backwards and forwards compatibility which is how we are able to pull off making changes to the format so easily while still retaining project file compatibility.

IMHO you've done a great job with CbB.

3 hours ago, sjoens said:

Similar story here with a 1992 Ensoniq SQ'2 & Home Studio 9.

When you think about it, Cakewalk still does the same MIDI stuff it originally did.

This is true. I was still somewhat surprised to see all my old program names there on the tracks, and even my original notes preserved in the Notes tab of CbB. There is a template I used when creating new songs that is still usable with CbB today. I had completely forgotten all this stuff but Cakewalk hadn't.

You're right about keeping media up to date. I've moved my old files a few times over the years, generally as I've upgraded computers, and after the experiences of the last week I've also resorted to the low-tech solution of keeping programs in a big .ods spreadsheet with a sheet of notes about sysex headers and footers. As long as bytes exist, I should be all right.

1 hour ago, michheld said:

While you are talking about the past I get some strange thoughts: Any ideas how to convert Amiga-Soundtracker files to midi? 😉

That's all new to me. Have you seen this?

31 minutes ago, lychee said:

OMG! me who thought I was one of the oldest guys on this forum, you just showed me that this is not the case.

Even your headphone is almost as old as me. 😅

 

I was only a nipper when I got those headphones!

1 hour ago, JoeGBradford said:

Glad you found Mike's videos useful. I've learned so much through them and he has a great presenting style

Agreed, a good style and very informative.

46 minutes ago, John Vere said:

Welcome to new decade. I bet your keyboard has a ROM  COMS battery in it. Even my Roland 505 needs that replaced every decade. I need to do it again soon. It still has all my patterns I programed in 1985 in it. My Yamaha 01v digital mixer is the same. They are usually the 2022 like computers use ( and Snark Tuners) 

Thanks! Yes, reading up on it, it seems that the battery must be long dead. As soon as I can find someone competent I will get it replaced. I know it requires soldering and I don't trust myself to do that. Good to know your old stuff is still alive and kicking too.

46 minutes ago, RBH said:

It's one of things that makes Cake a standout. Backwards compatibility all those years ago.

Absolutely! I had zero expectations about backwards compatibility.

I downloaded Cakewalk by BandLab a couple of weeks ago and I am astonished at what it can do. Granted, it's been about 20 years since I last did any digital music recording (using Cakewalk Home Studio, as it happens). The advances between then and now are about as amazing as they had been between then and the 1980s, when I did a  bit of work in recording studios with 2-inch tape machines. The whole world of VST effects and instruments alone has changed everything.

Anyway, I managed to get my 1987 Ensoniq ESQ-1 working with CbB, even to the point of opening twenty-year-old .wrk files in CbB and finding them already set up to play the ESQ-1 again, after I'd loaded its instrument definition, which I don't think I had to change at all. I also found a pair of AKG headphones I bought in 1974 that still work too.

I have to say that the videos by Mike at Creative Sauce were crucial to how quickly I got to understand CbB.

The only tricky part of getting everything back the way I left it at the turn of the century was reloading stored ESQ-1 programs. I originally stored them on audio cassettes, later transferred to .mdx files about 1999. None of my old MIDI software now runs on 64-bit Windows 10, so I had to search around for something that would at least let me try sending stuff to the synth. I settled on Bome Software's SendSX in the end. It is clear and straightforward to use. The mysterious .mdx file format, once I could inspect the contents in SendSX, turned out to be standard MIDI codes, but the sysex headers and footers were oddly messed up for some reason. With a bit of assembly-style code-breaking, and reference to the appendices of the ESQ-1 manual, I figured out where the program data began and ended, and simply appended the sysex headers and footers that should have been there. Instant success! The ESQ-1 thought for a moment about what it was receiving and then lit up with all my old voices. So not only was I able to get old songs into CbB, I was also able to get them to sound right on the ESQ-1.

There is a problem in the ESQ-1 that is causing it to lose internal program and sequence data every time it is switched off. This I can live with, as the programs can be safely stored in the 80-voice EEPROM cartridge, and the sequences are better off in CbB anyway. I suspect the problem is more than a flat battery, as I am not getting a battery warning at start-up. Unfortunately the engineer who last worked on the synth (Phase Engineering, in Sydney) appears to have retired to the mountains.

I had the same problem, and reports of runtime error 217 at 0051CF9. I found that the inability to hear other sounds was due to selecting WASAPI Exclusive in Preferences>Audio>Playback and Recording. Selecting WASAPI Shared solved that problem, but I still get the runtime error on exiting Cakewalk.

PS: It seems the two problems were unrelated. I believe the runtime error was caused by the old SQ8L plugin. Removing it from the Synth Rack stopped the error.