Mystery of Pentagon I?

[Johnbee58]

I'm in the process of re organizing my Plugins and I came upon one called Pentagon I.  It doesn't work.  It says it may not be installed properly.  I've never used it so it doesn't matter much and it's not in the menu where I would move it from.  Should I just delete it?  Is it a relic from the past that is obsolute?

Thanks

🙂John B

[scook]

Either run CbB as administrator or modify the registry. Users need full control over HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\rgc:audio software\DXi\Pentagon I. Here is an image showing the process in regedit:

[John Vere]

Yes it’s not anything you would need unless you did use it in the past. It’s certainly falls in the obsolete category.
What I do with unwanted plug ins is use the plug in manager and  the Exclude option. Go through the different types and exclude the ones I’ll never use. 
That way the plug in is still installed and harmless but it won’t clutter up your lists in Cakewalk. This gives me the option to re try a plug in again down the road. 

[Terry Kelley]

I still use Pentagon. It has some great presets. Yes, I fully expect Cakewalk to implode one day and take half the block with it but for now, what the hell.

Edited July 2, 2022 by Terry Kelley

[John Nelson]

Ah yes, Pentagon I "Performance- Oriented Synthesizer ".

Those old synths were fun but all things change.

 

[scook]

15 minutes ago, Terry Kelley said:

It has some great presets.

Then there are the presets using the Valleys simulator.

[John Vere]

You can never have too many synths! 

[bitflipper]

In defense of Pentagon...it was, and still is, a great way for beginners to learn about classic subtractive and wavetable synthesis. It was actually fairly sophisticated for its time, with features that weren't common in other early software synthesizers (e.g. oversampling, formant filter, polyphonic portamento, user-loadable waveforms).

The only reason it's "obsolete" is that Microsoft made it so when they started locking down the registry for security purposes, breaking many products' installers.

[abacab]

14 hours ago, John Nelson said:

Ah yes, Pentagon I "Performance- Oriented Synthesizer ".

Those old synths were fun but all things change.

 

Ahh. Great book! I still have that sitting on my bookshelf, right next to Sonar 8 Power.

[Bristol_Jonesey]

On 7/1/2022 at 4:07 PM, scook said:

Either run CbB as administrator or modify the registry. Users need full control over HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\rgc:audio software\DXi\Pentagon I. Here is an image showing the process in regedit:

I had and still have exactly the same problem with Pentagon

I modified the Registry settings as shown above but it will still never open properly

I do have some older projects that use several Pentagon patches which I've mothballed in the vain hope there might be a solution someday

[sjoens]

I have both DXi & VSTi in the same folder. Full permissions granted.

Inserting the DXi into a fresh empty project gives the warning. Inserting the VSTi crashes CbB closing it. Same for SPlat.

The DXi will load in 32 bit Sonar X1-X3 but they don't even see the VSTi.

[msmcleod]

I got it working by:

1.  Running CbB as administrator inserting the synth, then closing CbB - note that I only ran it as administrator this one time.  

2. Adjusting the registry permissions for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\rgc:audio software , giving Full Control to all of the users - i.e., you need to click on each user one by one and give them Full Control.

3. Run CbB as a normal user and insert the synth.

 

[Xoo]

2 - you should be able to use the All Users/Users group rather than one by one.

[scook]

I created the image above in 2017 for this thread http://forum.cakewalk.com/How-do-I-get-my-Sonar-X1-Pentagon-I-to-install-correctly-PLease-m3661844.aspx

The earliest reference I found to changing the registry was in this thread from 2015 http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.aspx?m=3163595&p=5

IIRC, I figured out the registry entry using Sysinternals ProcMon.

[sjoens]

Thanks.

Running Administrator & Registry edit works for DXi but not VST2. 

Curious why VST2 doesn't work in any version of Cakewalk.

FWIW rgc:Audio Square I VST2 works w/o any "hacks".

[scook]

17 minutes ago, sjoens said:

Curious why VST2 doesn't work in any version of Cakewalk.

I don't have the VST to test.

It is a 32bit plug-in.

If it has any registry entries that need modification, they would be under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node look for an "rgc:audio software" folder.

17 minutes ago, sjoens said:

FWIW rgc:Audio Square I VST2 works w/o any "hacks".

Then it is not trying to write to a protected area of the registry.

When Pentagon was released, users had full control over HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\rgc:audio software\DXi\Pentagon I. The permissions for this area of the registry changed with Vista requiring the user to run the DAW as administrator or modify the registry. 

 

[abacab]

The only rgc:audio Pentagon that I have installed in my system is the DXi version, located at: "C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\Shared DXi\Pentagon I\P1DXi.dll". It's version 1.4, copyright 2003.

And Pentagon is working here, with the exception of certain"Simulator" settings available in the UI. I don't recall having to jump through any hoops to get it installed, it just came along for the ride when I installed Sonar.

I mostly stopped using Pentagon years ago. I can understand the need if you have old projects that call for this one, but there are better synth options out there today.

For a decent paid, not free, virtual subtractive analog synth with basic one page controls I would recommend eitherTone2 Saurus 3 or Waves Element 2.

Saurus 3 can be had for $69, and Element 2 is currently on sale for $29.

[scook]

The 32bit VST format was a separate purchase.  The purchased version also included the DX format. 

The 32 and 64bit DX format were bundled with some versions of SONAR for years.