2021.12 Feature Overview

Morten Saether · December 15, 2021

Introduction

The 2021.12 release introduces support for nested track folders, localization updates, various enhancements and optimizations, and over 50 bug fixes, all in keeping with our goal of making Cakewalk as reliable and enjoyable as possible.

Please note that in order to automatically keep your activation status up to date, Cakewalk will renew your activation status whenever a new version of the application is installed and run for the first time, and when you sign in to BandLab from within Cakewalk. If you have never signed in to BandLab from within Cakewalk, you will be prompted once to sign in.

The following highlights are intended to provide an overview of the more significant changes. Please also refer to the new features section of our documentation for more detailed information on the features.

Please give us feedback on this release. We hope you like it!

2021.12 Highlights

Support for nested track folders

To improve track organization, Cakewalk now supports nested track folders. A nested folder is a subfolder that is contained within another parent folder. Nested subfolders allow you to organize tracks more logically. For example, you can have a "Guitar" parent folder that contains "Electric" and "Acoustic" subfolders.

To only move tracks into another folder, drag one of the tracks or select Move To... from the context menu of one of the tracks.

To move the entire folder, drag the folder itself onto another folder, or select Move To... from the context menu of the folder.

If a track is in a folder, selecting Move To Folder >New Track Folder will create a new sub-folder at the same level of that track.

Note: As with the top level folders, any empty folders (i.e. specifically, folders containing no tracks) will ALWAYS appear below those containing tracks.

Tip: When changing the color of a track folder, hold down the CTRL key to apply the same color to all child tracks within the folder.

New behavior when dragging tracks/folders

Dragging a track to the left side moves it out of the folder.
Dragging to the right side moves it to the bottom of the existing folder at the target location (i.e. same level as the track above).

Tip: While dragging, look at the left edge of the drop indicator - it will be exactly at the folder depth the track will be placed at.

Expand/collapse track folder modifiers

SHIFT+click on folder +/- to expand/collapse entire folder hierarchy of the folder you clicked on.
CTRL+SHIFT+click on folder +/- to expand/collapse all folders in project. This is convenient if you want to quickly expand the hierarchy to search for a track, but then want to collapse it all.

A note about nested track folders and track templates: The Save as Track Template context menu is only available on tracks, not on folders. If you want to save a track template with subfolders, you must right-click on one of the tracks within the subfolder. A track template cannot contain empty folders.

Localization update

The French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese and Russian versions of Cakewalk have been updated.

Misc. enhancements

Upgrade to VST3 SDK 3.7.3
Upgrade to ELASTIQUE SDK 3.3.9 (contains fixes for ELASTIQUE stretching)
Upgrade to latest ARA 2.0 SDK

Behavior changes

In order to accommodate screen readers, the TAB key is no longer bound to "Tab to transients" by default. You can re-enable this function again in Edit > Preferences > Customization - Keyboard Shortcuts; bind the TAB key to AudioSnap Go To Next Transient Marker and bind SHIFT+TAB to AudioSnap Go To Previous Transient Marker.
The Archive button is now a tri-state button in order to indicate if a track folder contains a mixture of archived and unarchived tracks.
- Note: If you use a custom user theme, you must update the Archive button in Theme Editor (found under Tack View > Track Pane > Archive) in order for the Archive button to display correctly. In the meantime, switch to the factory Tungsten or Mercury theme. The previous Archive button image has 5 states and is 122 pixels wide. The new Archive button has 8 states and is 176 pixels wide. The button states are the same as the Mute Tri-State button (from left to right): Normal | Normal Down | Normal Hover | Selected | Selected Down | Selected Hover | Disabled | Tri-state.