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[CLOSED] Cakewalk 2020.10 Early Access


Morten Saether

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[CLOSED] 2020.10 Early Access installer now available!

[UPDATE 30-Oct-2020: Cakewalk 2020.10 Early Access 3 is now available]

We're pleased to announce Early Access for 2020.10! This release introduces Articulation Maps, which are a universal way to deal with expressions/articulations in VST instruments or hardware MIDI instruments. Other enhancements include in-app activation/refresh, ARA/Melodyne algorithm picker when converting audio to MIDI or performing tempo extraction, Clips pane drawing and scrolling optimizations, project template enhancements, and much more, including over 40 bug fixes. Please note that the ARA/Melodyne algorithm picker is a pre-release feature and will only be visible if you are running a beta of the upcoming Melodyne 5 release.

We'd love for you to check it out before we drop the official public version. This time we're also providing an easy rollback installer should you need to quickly revert to the last public release for any reason.

Please note that Early Access installers are update installers, which only update from a specific version. To install the 2020.10 Early Access build, you must be on the latest public release of 2020.09. The 2020.10 Early Access build can be downloaded and installed from within Cakewalk by going to Help > Check for Updates, then clicking the Download Now link in the "Early Access Available" toast notification.

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Download Cakewalk 2020.10 EA installer

Should you need to revert to the 2020.09 release, you can download the Cakewalk 2020.09 Rollback installer.

If you haven't already done so, please read about the Early Access Program before participating.

Thanks again for your participation!
The Bakers

 


 

2020.10 Highlights

 

New features

Articulation Maps

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Articulation maps are a universal way to deal with expressions/articulations in VST instruments or hardware MIDI instruments that may be controlled by various methods including:

  • Note “key switches”
  • The velocity of a note
  • Control change events
  • Grouping of patches across different MIDI channels (e.g. legato strings patch on ch 1, pizzicato patch on ch 2, etc.)

If you work with sample libraries and virtual instruments, articulation maps are sure to improve your MIDI and articulation/keyswitch workflow.

Recreating a convincing performance with sample libraries and virtual instruments can be a difficult task. The process is made somewhat easier if the sampled instrument includes a range of performance articulations, which is commonly controlled via “keyswitches”. These are used to trigger different sample layers that contain the various performance options. Cakewalk's support for articulation maps make it easy to work with articulations and keyswitches.

Articulation maps provide a much simpler way of switching articulations, without having to manually edit MIDI events in the track. All articulations appear neatly at the top of the PRV instead of spread across the Notes pane, which helps you to better visualize and edit the articulations and keyswitches.

When recording, you can focus on the actual performance — getting the right notes, rather than building expression into the performance — then use articulations to add expression after the basic performance has been recorded. Adding articulations as part of the editing process is often easier than trying to play keyswitches in live via your keyboard.

Articulations do either, or both, of the following:

  • Trigger new MIDI events (create ‘MIDI Events’ in the Articulation Map Editor)
  • Alter existing MIDI events (create ‘MIDI Transforms’ in the Articulation Map Editor)

Articulations that are added to MIDI and Instrument tracks are automatically applied during playback.

Cakewalk includes a few general-purpose articulation maps that let you experiment with the feature. You can create your own articulation maps, or download maps for orchestra libraries and virtual instruments.

Cakewalk can import Cubase expression maps, so you can get started quickly by downloading maps for popular instrument libraries such as Vienna Symphonic Library, Garritan, Kontakt, etc.

For detailed info, see the attached PDF.

Articulation Maps.pdf

 

In-app activation

You can now activate Cakewalk directly from within the app, without requiring BandLab Assistant. Cakewalk must be activate once every 6 months.

When starting Cakewalk for the first time, if the app has not yet been activated via BandLab assistant, you will be presented with a BandLab sign-in dialog box. After signing in, Cakewalk will automatically activate itself. You must use your BandLab user name in the sign-in prompt, not your email address. Please note that sign-in is completely optional and only used to activate Cakewalk independently from BandLab Assistant. Sign-in currently does not support Single sign-on. If you do not have your BandLab username and password, please use BandLab Assistant to perform activation.

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Activation will occur automatically when launching the app if it is in the “grace period”, the period that begins when you see the timeout toast notification asking you to sign in to BandLab to activate soon.

Under normal circumstances, activation will require no manual user intervention going forward, beyond the initial sign-in. 

Note that an Internet connection is required  for performing activation as described above but not required for general Cakewalk usage. Offline activation is also an option, which requires use of BandLab Assistant to submit an offline activation request

You can force an activation refresh with the Help > Refresh Activation command.

 

ARA/Melodyne algorithm picker (pre-release)

When converting audio to MIDI by dragging an audio clip to a MIDI track, or performing tempo extraction by dragging an audio clip to the time ruler, you can now select the desired algorithm.

Note: The algorithm picker will only work on Melodyne 5 and higher.

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VST instruments can use custom instrument definitions

Some VST instruments do not expose their patch list, either because they are emulating a hardware device and solely rely on MIDI bank select/program changes, or in the case of library hosts such as Kontakt, they have no fixed list of instruments - in other words its up to the user to choose their instrument mapping.

You can now use any instrument definition with a VSTi from a new drop-down menu in the Patch Browser dialog box (click Patch Browser in the Inspector).

If < default for instrument > is selected, then the patches are retrieved from the VSTi as normal, otherwise the patch list is taken from the selected instrument definition.

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Enhancements

Application memory footprint has been reduced (dynamic VST Plug-in Buffer sizes)

In prior versions of Cakewalk, cached plug-in buffers would be allocated at a size of 32K samples irrespective of the audio buffer size. This gets quite expensive when you have a project with hundreds of plug-ins especially with plug-ins having multiple inputs and outputs.

Plug-in buffer sizes are now dynamically adjusted to be based on the audio buffer size rather than an arbitrary max limit. This makes a big difference in projects running at low latency buffers.

 

Relative resizing of selected tracks

You can resize all selected tracks to the same size, or by a relative amount, by using the following modifiers:

  • SHIFT+drag resizes all selected tracks to the same size
  • CTRL+drag resizes all selected tracks by the same amount relative to their current size

 

ARA updates

Cakewalk supports the latest ARA SDK from Celemony.

 

Adjust split point on a single Take lane

If you have several clips in a track with a common split point, the Move Split Point tool always moves all the split points together.

To move only the split point on a single lane, hold down the ALT key when using the Move Split Point tool.

 

CTRL-click Duplicate Track button to specify settings

To specify settings when duplicating a track, hold down the CTRL key and click the Duplicate Track button image.png.

 

Allow track FX bin to be bypassed via control surfaces rather than just individual FX

In addition to individual effects, entire track FX Racks can now be bypassed via control surfaces.

Passing an FX index of -1 (65535) will bypass the entire track FX Rack.

The Mackie Control surface has been updated to use M1+Select button to toggle track FX Rack bypass.

 

Update installer has option to launch Cakewalk

When installing an update from within Cakewalk, you can now choose to automatically launch Cakewalk after the installation completes.

 

New Project File dialog improvements

The New Project File dialog box (File > New) now lets you specify folder paths, tempo, meter, bit depth, and sample rate settings for the -- No Tracks or Buses -- option (previously named -- Blank Project --).

 

File Stats improvements

When starting a new project from a project template, the File Stats window in the Notes Browser now start the Editing Time and Revision counters at 0.

To reset the file stats, right-click in the File Stats window and select Reset File Stats.

 

Early Access Notifications

Cakewalk now presents a toast notification when an Early Access build is available. Early Access builds are completely optional, providing access to the next version of Cakewalk before its official release. There's a good chance you're reading this as a result of an Early Access toast! 

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Optimizations

Clips pane drawing and scrolling optimizations

  • Major optimizations to clips view drawing to eliminate redundant drawing of clips.
  • Projects with tracks containing many Take lanes with muted clips now draw and scroll more than 20x faster.
  • Scrolling with Display Muted Takes In Parent Track enabled now has almost similar performance to having that option disabled.
  • Waveform drawing is now optimized for faster drawing.

Note: The Display Muted Takes In Parent Track option now defaults to OFF for new installations.

 

Bus pane optimizations

  • Drawing and mouse handling in the Bus pane has been optimized to prevent audio glitches and late buffers

 

Bug fixes

Stability

  • Crash on insert of Track Template
  • Crash on Delete Hole of project
  • Crash closing project after loading track template containing VST3 synth
  • User reported crash when looping audio clip
  • User Reported Crash with the Play List
  • Crash when displaying dropout toast message
  • Intermittent crashes in Arranger Track
  • nullptr crash in Staff view
  • Adding ProChannel Track Compressor on surround bus crashes

UI

  • CTRL-click Duplicate Track button should bring up duplicate track dialog
  • Hidden Clips can be edited in Track view
  • Mute Tool operates on hidden clips in Track
  • Select Tool selecting invisible muted clips when Display Muted Clips In Parent Track is unchecked
  • Scrolling view left while dragging note causes PRV to fail to Snap By
  • Center on Now Time with Keyboard Zoom only works if Mouse Zoom is set to Now Time
  • Sluggish Scrolling in project
  • Enable/Disable Read Automation shortcut not working
  • Replace Synth can fail to rename track
  • Unexpected changes to track input when using MIDI transformation synths
  • Hiding icons in Synth Rack causes alignment error
  • Enabling MIDI Out on some synths causes all synths to appear in MIDI Input picker

Arranger

  • Section Rename can unexpectedly run into Browser
  • F2 Rename on Section Headers does not always work
  • Section Rename could occasionally hang the application
  • Section menus would occasionally not dismiss resulting in multiple menus being displayed
  • Setting now time in arranger during playback doesn't respect the Set Time During Playback click behavior
  • Clicking away from Rename of Section causes Windows "ping"
  • Arranger not automatically fixing overlapping sections in some circumstances
  • ALT+mouse wheel zoom unavailable in Arranger track

Misc.

  • Moving mouse over Bus pane causes audio glitches and late buffers
  • ARA projects redundantly saving document controller state for deleted items in undo history
  • Projects created using Cyrillic characters in the audio file names, fail to load on a system using a different language pack
  • Cannot enter the "ö" character using a non-English keyboard layout in Lyrics View
  • Ripple Paste not always working after cut
  • Clip fails to split during existing fade if Auto Crossfades is enabled.
  • Slow Cakewalk startup time when using MackieControl.dll
  • Export Audio doesn't work when exporting from a surround bus
  • Improve handling for "Blank Project" in File > New


 

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Awesome work on the updates guys.

Can't wait to test this out later. 

I see "Mouse Wheel Scroll" for Insert audio FX from the FX bin has not been updated. So clicking is currently still the only option going through plugins. 

Great job on this release though. We're moving places.  

Edited by Will_Kaydo
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I like the articulation maps, too!  I'm getting ready to test it out now, but I've already discovered one thing about this release; 1. I open the app and the start menu comes up  2.  I choose any project from it and the project opens  3. I close the project  4. The start menu appears, but the background (rest of the app) disappears.  5.  I choose a project from the start menu and everything disappears, even the MIDI symbol in my task tray.  Everytime, with any project, even blanks.  The simple work-around is to minimize the current project and open a new one before deleting the first project.  I.E.  I have to open a second project before deleting the first project or the entire program crashes.

Two versions ago, this began, and I sent in a crash dump file officially, which was acknowledged by CW.  This is not terribly annoying, just an irritant.  I'm still looking forward to and expecting a fix eventually.  This may not happen to anyone else, so I'd be curious to know if it's just me.  Again, thanks CW for your continual improvements!

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2 hours ago, Lynn Wilson said:

I like the articulation maps, too!  I'm getting ready to test it out now, but I've already discovered one thing about this release; 1. I open the app and the start menu comes up  2.  I choose any project from it and the project opens  3. I close the project  4. The start menu appears, but the background (rest of the app) disappears.  5.  I choose a project from the start menu and everything disappears, even the MIDI symbol in my task tray.  Everytime, with any project, even blanks.  The simple work-around is to minimize the current project and open a new one before deleting the first project.  I.E.  I have to open a second project before deleting the first project or the entire program crashes.

Two versions ago, this began, and I sent in a crash dump file officially, which was acknowledged by CW.  This is not terribly annoying, just an irritant.  I'm still looking forward to and expecting a fix eventually.  This may not happen to anyone else, so I'd be curious to know if it's just me.  Again, thanks CW for your continual improvements!

@Lynn WilsonIts normal for the project to close and the start screen to come up. I'm not sure what you mean by "The start menu appears, but the background (rest of the app) disappears. " I don't see anything abnormal here.
What crash are you referring to? Are you still seeing a crash? If so please send me a link to the fresh dump file with this version and I'll look into it.

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Excellent work on the articulation maps.

Can I make a couple of small requests. 

On the Articulation map Editor, when using the "Add from MIDI" button under “articulations”, to add articulations, is it possible to keep the button in listen mode after pressing a key on your MIDI controller (using "cancel" to stop listening).  That will make it much quicker to add multiple keys in one operation.

Currently , one needs to repeatedly press the "Add from MIDI" button after each key press on the MIDI controller.

Is it possible for the MIDI chase function search back for the most recent articulation map and apply the events therein..

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Wonderful articulation maps implementation , so easy to edit and at the same time so deep and logical, thank you so much. Would be great to also have a non-modal articulation editing window in the future so you could use MIDI learn without a MIDI keyboard just by clicking on Piano roll notes or notes within a VST instrument.

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51 minutes ago, Noel Borthwick said:

@sreams glad you are seeing noticeable improvements. Curious in what specific area you saw this - is it larger projects or just something that previously had issues?

I have some recent projects that have 10-12 tracks of drums with 5-6 takes (clips are linked). Navigation was always quite slow, especially after comping/editing. I checked one of these projects just before installing the update and then again after install. Significant improvement. I also have a client who sometimes brings me 60-80 takes of his lead vocal. This can really bog things down. This should help with that quite a bit, I'd assume.

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1 hour ago, Noel Borthwick said:

@Lynn WilsonIts normal for the project to close and the start screen to come up. I'm not sure what you mean by "The start menu appears, but the background (rest of the app) disappears. " I don't see anything abnormal here.
What crash are you referring to? Are you still seeing a crash? If so please send me a link to the fresh dump file with this version and I'll look into it.

What I mean is:  normally when one closes a project the project goes away but Cakewalk doesn't close.  The background (screen) remains, and the start menu appears just like when you start CW.  In my case, the screen or background goes away though the start menu stays.  When I select a new or old project from the start menu, it just disappears and I have to restart CW to change projects.  I mean it just totally closes down.  I'm getting the idea that this problem may be unique to me, but I'll send you a fresh crash dump to investigate.  I have NO other complaints with CW,  Thanks, Noel, for listening.

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I don't yet know about any of the other features but I'm grateful for the do not display muted clips option in track. A Good step in that direction.

...now to add an option to hide ALL clips from track while lanes are displayed! That will Really make my day!

 

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I think I have found a couple of issue with the articulation mapping. 

The MIDI chase is not always playing the correct articulation when playback is started mid note or mid articulation map.  It reverts to one of the previously set articulation maps until a new articulation map is encountered.

If a MIDI track has its MIDI channel defined in the MIDI track's inspector, the articulation map should ignore the MIDI channel as set in the articulation map and should be over-ridden by the MIDI channel as defined in the inspector.  Of course, if the MIDI track's MIDI channel is set to "none", then the MIDI channel as defined in the articulation map should be used.  (This is the way standard MIDI events work)

Cut, Cope, Paste and delete Special should have "articulation sections" in their respective dialogue boxes.

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10 minutes ago, Keni said:

Is There an explanation of typical uses for midi articulations? Is it something I've never done before or simply another way of using something I already do?

 

Thanks.

Keyswitches - some (many) orchestration (and sometimes others ) patches have multiple articulations (Sustain, spiccato, Pizzicato, etc) keyswitches with are set by sending unused lower or upper keys on the keyboard.  Articulation maps provide an easy (and a named) way to program these and have them display (and send) in the PRV on a single track.

Previously, we have to either put the notes in manually (With out any names) or use a separate MIDI track for the keyswitches and make a drum track for the names

There was a video that Cakewalk posted that showed a real world use for this
 

 

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