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CbB 2022.09 Early Access


Sander Verstraten

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3 hours ago, Esteban Villanova said:

Anybody else thinks that development has become slow? For a long time updates have been small bug-fixes, with the ocassional feature. But nothing like the first couple years.

I'd like cool new stuff to come at a faster rate, but I don't think Cakewalk is falling behind. The first couple of years were a "target-rich" environment, where they had a many-years-long list of deferred bug fixes, code optimizations, and feature additions that had already been put into the pipeline.

I'll go with "working on something big." For instance, it's been made pretty clear to the devs that the best feature they could add to give the program better uptake with the dance music segment is a built-in sampler. That's a pretty big job. Or maybe it's something else like the vaunted "chord track," or one of the existing areas of the program known to need some love like Staff or Matrix. Or better UI scaling.

Anyway, I think they harvested a lot of low-hanging fruit, and now it's going to be something with a longer initial development cycle.

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3 hours ago, Esteban Villanova said:

Anybody else thinks that development has become slow?

Yes the pace has slowed down, a little. I am kinda of glad they are not interested in introducing new features just for the sake of adding new features (that would attract different/new customers). Get and keep the core program going strong. 

 

4 hours ago, Esteban Villanova said:

Do you think they lost part of their team

You never know. Maybe they did, but I doubt it. They guys that stuck with CW have been around a while. If they wanted to go somewhere else, they had that opportunity when Gibson bailed. But they came along with Bandlab (Noel & Morten). 

5 minutes ago, Starship Krupa said:

they harvested a lot of low-hanging fruit, and now it's going to be something with a longer initial development cycle

I think this is probably the best answer right here.

CW for many years was the leader in DAW development. They were the first and only DAW to embrace and implement true 64bit. They had audio stretching long ago with Radius. They had the Pro Channel. They had Take Lanes and Comping long before others did. Some of the features that CW had for years are just now being introduced into the industry standard DAW!! 

I just can't see the DAW going anywhere from here except to become more stable and bug free. Almost all DAW's do everything as it is!!

1 minute ago, Sander Verstraten said:

Maybe they'll integrate Z3ta+ 2 into CbB

That! ^^^^^

I loaded up Z3ta the other day and got lost in the presets!! That thing still sounds great.

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22 minutes ago, Sander Verstraten said:

Maybe they'll integrate Z3ta+ 2 into CbB

Why would they do that when there are far better free synth plugins available today! 😉

The only people that probably care bout Z3TA+2 are former Sonar users, and they most likely already have it. Don't get me wrong, I have it and think it sounds great, but haven't opened it a long time.

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6 minutes ago, Esteban Villanova said:

I hope they integrate a sampler BTW, one of my most wanted additions.

I think Cakewalk would attract a lot more buzz by integrating a sampler than by reviving a dinosaur like Z3TA+2. An integrated sampler is one of the essential features these days of the leading DAWs. 😉

Edited by abacab
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1 hour ago, Grem said:

I loaded up Z3ta the other day and got lost in the presets!! That thing still sounds great.

^^^
It is indeed a great, solid synth.
IMHO it more than holds its own when compared with most soft synths.

I think the main reason it doesn't get more love is that they stopped selling it.

If they ever brought it back to market and added MPE** support that would great but not holding my breathe.
**maybe I could do that with Unify.
 

Edited by TheSteven
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18 hours ago, Sander Verstraten said:

Maybe they'll integrate Z3ta+ 2 into CbB

I only have Z3ta+, not Z3ta+ 2, so I have some questions about it. 

  • (1) Can Z3ta+ 2 function as an FX unit (i.e., process audio passed into it like Z3ta+ can with the fx version)?
  • (2)  Does it have at least as much programmability as  Z3ta+ (e.g., modulation routing/control)?
  • (3) Less importantly, can it handle (load and play) Z3ta+ patches (original and the massive number of third party patches)? 

If so, or if these could be added to the CbB version, I agree that it would be great to have as part of CbB. Might also be nice if it had sampler functionality, was multi-channel/multi-timbral, and had the low CPU draw of E-Mu's Emulator X3.    

Edited by User 905133
fixed typos
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2 hours ago, User 905133 said:

I only have Z3ta+, not Z3ta+ 2, so I have some questions about it. 

  • (1) Can Z3ta+ 2 function as an FX unit (i.e., process audio passed into it like Z3ta+ can with the fx version)?
  • (2)  Does it have at least as much programmability as  Z3ta+ (e.g., modulation routing/control)?
  • (3) Less importantly, can it handle (load and play) Z3ta+ patches (original and the massive number of third party patches)? 

If so, or if these could be added to the CbB version, I agree that it would be great to have as part of CbB. Might also be nice if it had sampler functionality, was multi-channel/multi-timbral, and had the low CPU draw of E-Mu's Emulator X3.    

1. No

2. Yes, see http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/Z3TA/Whats-New

3. Yes

As with the original z3ta+, it is a straight up synth and not sample based, as was Rapture and Dimension Pro. The original creator of z3ta+, Rene Ceballos, was hired by Cakewalk after they bought rgc:audio. Rene went on to design Rapture and Dimension Pro for Cakewalk. Later on Z3TA+2 was designed by the Cakewalk team after Rene departed, inspired by his original design.

Edited by abacab
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2 hours ago, User 905133 said:

I only have Z3ta+, not Z3ta+ 2, so I have some questions about it. 

https://www.musicradar.com/reviews/tech/cakewalk-z3ta-2-490547

Like friends, soft synths come and go, but only a few will be there for you year after year. In this sense, Z3TA+ is a firm ally of ours.

It's been that way ever since the first version, programmed by René Ceballos of rgc:audio, debuted in 2002. A few years later, Cakewalk took on rgc:audio, and in 2007 gave us Z3TA+ 1.5. After that, though, it looked as if Z3TA+ was going nowhere, until v2 was unexpectedly announced a few months back.

While the interface has had a significant functional and aesthetic makeover, the synthesis architecture hasn't changed.

Z3TA+ 2's most distinctive feature remains its oscillator section, featuring six wavetable oscillators with waveforms ranging from analogue favourites (saws, squares, etc) to grungy, harmonic-laden affairs. There's an eight-voice unison mode, oscillator reset/sync and typical pitch controls.

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Thinking about this again, just realized that the original z3ta+  is now 20 years old! 😲

Almost as old as Absynth that was just retired by NI after 22 years.

If you are looking for an oldie subtractive-hybrid synth with some interesting waveshaping chops, take a look at the Surge XT synth. Based on the original Vember Audio Surge that sold for $180 back in 2007. https://www.musicradar.com/reviews/tech/vember-audio-surge-22113

Now an open-source project team is currently maintaining and updating this oldie as a free and open source synth. An FX plugin version is also included. For Win/Mac/Linux:  https://surge-synthesizer.github.io/

Surge is back, XTended and open source!

Thanks to the generosity of @Kurasu (owner of Vember Audio), Surge has been open sourced and lives on GitHub. This page you're reading right now. Yup! This one right here. It's a part of the surge-synthesizer GitHub project.

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6 hours ago, abacab said:

Thinking about this again, just realized that the original z3ta+  is now 20 years old! 😲

Almost as old as Absynth that was just retired by NI after 22 years.

Okay, and? The electric guitar is even much older, so do you think it is not worth anymore?

When I look at the latest NI "synths" (if you can call 'em like this, "play series"), then I really prefer their older stuff! Sounds much better in my ears!

6 hours ago, abacab said:

If you are looking for an oldie subtractive-hybrid synth with some interesting waveshaping chops, take a look at the Surge XT synth.

That's a great idea, I like Surge XT! It is one of the better synths available nowadays (even if its roots are far older as you told us).

I think the idea "what's new is better" is a very stupid phantom of these days (and was ever since in all so-called advanced civilizations) . Look around in this new world! Regrettably I see more worsening than improvements in almost all areas (and I still hope it is not going on like this ...)!

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20 minutes ago, marled said:

Okay, and? The electric guitar is even much older, so do you think it is not worth anymore?

I think software gets accounted for in something more like in a "dog years" equivalent, than hardware does in actual years.

Some software ages well, some does not. The Surge XT project really shows what can happen if a retired soft synth is open-sourced by it's owner, and then picked up by a loving, dedicated team of developers!

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2 hours ago, marled said:

Okay, and? The electric guitar is even much older, so do you think it is not worth anymore?

When I look at the latest NI "synths" (if you can call 'em like this, "play series"), then I really prefer their older stuff! Sounds much better in my ears!

That's a great idea, I like Surge XT! It is one of the better synths available nowadays (even if its roots are far older as you told us).

I think the idea "what's new is better" is a very stupid phantom of these days (and was ever since in all so-called advanced civilizations) . Look around in this new world! Regrettably I see more worsening than improvements in almost all areas (and I still hope it is not going on like this ...)!

Software is a different beast than analog hardware.

Computer Based Synths that are 20 years old had a pretty heavy wall they were up against with computer power and functionality.  I'm not going to suggest they didn't make some cool sounds (they certainly did) but it isn't really comparable to guitar hardware (tube amps, etc).   

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