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back to cakewalk after (looks at watch) 20 years?


Mike Ve

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Hello all!

New to this forum, just wanted to introduce myself. 

I am a guitar player, bass player, singer.  I started out on a win95pc running cakewalk 3.0?  Cakewalk and my korg 05rw was my introduction to the world of computers + music.  I do a lot of midi: write all my own drum, bass, key, guitar parts - in midi in the piano roll.  (I record my guitar and bass in audio). 

Years ago I strayed over to flstudio as I liked the piano roll better.  A few days ago I read about gibson/bandlab/cakewalk/free!  Couldn't be more excited.  I have so been missing sysex and ability to save/recall my guitar presets instead of keeping notes! 

Setting up my template I'm encouraged by seeing a LOT of functionality that I did not have in fl... track templates, the mixing buss is more intuitive, etc. 

Haven't figured out how to easily copy/paste midi clips... I know cw is geared more toward a linear midi track while one of fl's strengths is it's ability to easily create small sections and string them together.  Any advice there would be welcomed!

Bandlab: thank you thank you thank you for saving cw and making it "great again"?!  I'll assume the end game is to go back to something paid and I'm onboard with that assuming "the operation is successful ie my transplant"

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Welcome to the new forum :)

Just to let you know, I still have Win XP in my machine (dual boot), with Cakewalk Professional 3.0 for Windows, and Korg O5R/W (among other synthz). I work back and forth among Win7 and XP for I work more efficient using Cakey 3 to lay some raw MIDI sketch.

I don't use FL, so I'm not sure to give you advice there.  I hope you enjoy working with CbB. Feel free to ask whenever you have questions, we have many helpful members here to share their knowledge about CbB. Again, welcome to forum.

James

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Cakewalk is considered one the most fully featured DAWS for midi editing.  You’ll figure it out in time that most of what you need to do can be accomplished. I have a similar background to yours and still use my 05/RW for big fat synth sounds. It was by “ band “ for about 13 years.  

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51 minutes ago, James Argo said:

Welcome to the new forum :)

Just to let you know, I still have Win XP in my machine (dual boot), with Cakewalk Professional 3.0 for Windows, and Korg O5R/W (among other synthz). I work back and forth among Win7 and XP for I work more efficient using Cakey 3 to lay some raw MIDI sketch.

I don't use FL, so I'm not sure to give you advice there.  I hope you enjoy working with CbB. Feel free to ask whenever you have questions, we have many helpful members here to share their knowledge about CbB. Again, welcome to forum.

James

right on.  I don't use any outboard gear these days as kontakt pretty much does everything i'd ever need but from time to time kind of regret selling it.  some great sounds in there for sure and with the 4 dif sysex libraries it could cover a lot of ground! 

 

45 minutes ago, Cactus Music said:

Cakewalk is considered one the most fully featured DAWS for midi editing.  You’ll figure it out in time that most of what you need to do can be accomplished. I have a similar background to yours and still use my 05/RW for big fat synth sounds. It was by “ band “ for about 13 years.  

I hear ya.  I know it will do all that fl will do(and more)... but workflow differences will get in the way for a while.  that said... I think ultimately cw has more things going for it overall and hence i'm here.  as I recall the staff editor is amazing too... and fl doesn't have that at all so... will have to re-familiarize myself with it.

thanks for the replies gentlemen!

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21 minutes ago, InstrEd said:

Yep,😖 don't get us started......................................................

 

34 minutes ago, Larry Jones said:

Please don't talk about the staff editor... 😎

 

well... from the perpective of someone who doesn't write a lot on the staff and when he does he writes rhythm notation... and in the context of comparing to "no staff editor at all"... I bet it's going to exceed my expectations.  Can't you use sibellius as a plugin anyway?

 

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2 hours ago, Mike Ve said:

Haven't figured out how to easily copy/paste midi clips... I know cw is geared more toward a linear midi track while one of fl's strengths is it's ability to easily create small sections and string them together.  Any advice there would be welcomed!

Check out the Matrix View. When you do, you'll first think I gave you bogus advice but as you work with it, and realize you can record into audio tracks and do other cool tricks, I think you'll find it's a useful alternative to "drum machine song mode"-type MIDI editing. If you've worked with Ableton Live, you already know most of how it works. Have fun!

 

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31 minutes ago, Craig Anderton said:

Check out the Matrix View. When you do, you'll first think I gave you bogus advice but as you work with it, and realize you can record into audio tracks and do other cool tricks, I think you'll find it's a useful alternative to "drum machine song mode"-type MIDI editing. If you've worked with Ableton Live, you already know most of how it works. Have fun!

 

thanks I will give that a shot tonight.  I like stringing together and repeating clips at the start of a project.  Later I almost always go back and individualize the clips into a big long linear midi track for realism... but at the start it's nice to just get something in there and get on with the form of a song.  just thinking out loud here I guess but I hope the matrix might offer that.  will go do some research.  thanks for the replys everyone!

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2 hours ago, Mike Ve said:

well... from the perpective of someone who doesn't write a lot on the staff and when he does he writes rhythm notation... and in the context of comparing to "no staff editor at all"... I bet it's going to exceed my expectations.  Can't you use sibellius as a plugin anyway?

Hey Mike! I meant my comment as a joke, but I guess it was an "insider" joke for those of us who watched or took part in this thread (and others) on the old SONAR forum. It started on an angry note and continued for 40 pages. I don't write notation, so none of it ever mattered to me, but a lot of users were deeply immersed in it. They probably still are, which was kind of what my joke was about: Don't get those people riled up again!

Welcome back to Cakewalk, and best of luck to you!

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Speaking of staff view, I like this comment the best!

http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/3148750

"We frequently (annuallyish) investigate Staff View improvements, or even an overhaul. It's not "dead" nor "abandoned." It has just been "deferred" due to other priorities that impact a larger group of customers. Don't lose hope. We understand there is room for improvement and intend to tackle it eventually. Our new release model will allow us to budget time and resources more easily, so it's more realistic now than it has been in years. Thanks for being patient."

Bill Jackson
Product Manager
Cakewalk

 

And followed by this...

http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/3148782

"In the spirit of being totally honest, though... I will admit that there are no current developments to the Staff View in progress."

Bill Jackson
Product Manager
Cakewalk

 

Edited by abacab
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There actually was an attempt to get another developer involved, who had serious notation expertise and would have been a good fit. But this was around the time of Momentum, which I think was being prioritized. Besides, Gibson was on shaky ground financially. 

It's all water under the bridge of course, but prior to being shut down Cakewalk had gone quite far along a possible path of improving notation. The opportunity no longer exists AFAIK, but Bill was not being disingenuous when he said it wasn't "dead" or "abandoned." 

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I too  am a guitar player, bass player, singer,  started out on a  Win 3.11 pc running cakewalk for DOS, I was using cubase(xp version) but my pro sound card died a few years ago, been using Cakewalk by Bandlab a 2 or 3  weeks now I was able to export the midi's from cubase and import them and the audio i recorded in cubase into cakewalk with out too much trouble

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Welcome Mike. You wont fine a better place to get to know Cakewalk and those that use it.  20 years is a long time and it will take a little time to learn all the changes. But we just got  an updated user manual.  I think you will find it very useful. 

Have fun and ask any question. This forum thrives on answering. 

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1 hour ago, Larry Jones said:

Hey Mike! I meant my comment as a joke, but I guess it was an "insider" joke for those of us who watched or took part in this thread (and others) on the old SONAR forum. It started on an angry note and continued for 40 pages. I don't write notation, so none of it ever mattered to me, but a lot of users were deeply immersed in it. They probably still are, which was kind of what my joke was about: Don't get those people riled up again!

Welcome back to Cakewalk, and best of luck to you!

hehe, love it.  sure... throw insider jokes at the new guy.  reminds me the time they sent me looking for the 'board stretcher' at the cabinet shop when I was 16!  Tis all good.  yes, lets not get anyone's feathers ruffled on my first day!  cheers

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1 hour ago, Robert Keefe said:

I too  am a guitar player, bass player, singer,  started out on a  Win 3.11 pc running cakewalk for DOS, I was using cubase(xp version) but my pro sound card died a few years ago, been using Cakewalk by Bandlab a 2 or 3  weeks now I was able to export the midi's from cubase and import them and the audio i recorded in cubase into cakewalk with out too much trouble

midi is pretty translateable thankfully.  I've got years of recordings going back to cakewalk bundles... but I'm more interested in moving fwd.  excited to play w it this weekend! 

 

56 minutes ago, John said:

Welcome Mike. You wont fine a better place to get to know Cakewalk and those that use it.  20 years is a long time and it will take a little time to learn all the changes. But we just got  an updated user manual.  I think you will find it very useful. 

Have fun and ask any question. This forum thrives on answering. 

thank you john.  I was actually feeling pretty comfy w it last night.  got some tracks setup, made some track templates... got ezdrummer going to dif console channels... played around with a midi loop... set some loop points.  I will play a bit this weekend and see if I can get the hang of copy/paste tracks and such.  organize my vst/vsti. 

thank you for the warm welcomes everyone!  look fwd to bugging you with stupid questions!!!! ;)

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14 hours ago, Mike Ve said:

look fwd to bugging you with stupid questions!!!!

There are no stupid questions, :D but be sure to check out the reference guide on the "Cakewalk by BandLab" menu at the top of this page. 👍

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