Using cakewalk as multi tracks in live band

[acewhistle]

I have been using Cakewalk in a live setting to play multi tracks ,and at first, it was great.

But I am finding quite stressful now to jump from one song to another as it is not giving me that smooth transition I want on a live band and always fiddling in front of a laptop instead of enjoying the moment.

So I am wondering if anyone has got tips for me like, can I trigger it using a midi controller pedal, are there another settings that I should know to trigger the actions I want it to do, and etc.

Many thanks

 

[msmcleod]

The old way of doing things live with Cakewalk was playlists.  This is still a convenient way of going through multiple songs if each song is a separate project.

For seamless transitions however, I'd recommend creating a new "live" project from the exported audio from each project - i.e. one project that contains all of the songs.

There are several advantages here:

1. The stress on the system is far less, as it's dealing with just audio.  This enables you to have a raw audio tracks for backing, and add soft-synths to other tracks to play real-time.  
2. There's no loading time between songs.
3. By marking each song using the Arranger, then using multiple Arrangements to define different set-list orders, you have total control over the song order - all within a single project (vs having to save different playlists).

Also, inserting an MCI command in a MIDI track with "pause" as the text will cause Cakewalk to pause playback at that point.  You can then hit the spacebar to continue playing.  You can position this command either at the end or beginning of a section, or half-way through a song - whichever suits.

Within Keyboard Shortcuts in Preferences, you can bind commands such as Next/Previous Arranger Section, Play/Pause/Continue etc to MIDI events so you can use an external controller to control Cakewalk. Basically anything that can be bound to a key, can be bound to a MIDI event.

[JnTuneTech]

In my live setups, I have always had a small MIDI keyboard that includes basic transport controls, as well as a standard hold plus one other controller (pedal) input. With that connected to Cakewalk, I use it to stop & start the transport, sometimes even record live, as it's fairly easy to reach over and press a button, once my project is loaded and I'm ready to rock.

It also helps to have that same type of MIDI controller if you say, play guitar and use Cakewalk to be your amping solution in small venues, with a good sound interface and no overly complicated mixes, you can use the extra pedal input on the controller to change up your guitar FX, etc. -I use mine with a volume-style (Roland EV series) pedal that I most usually route to control a wah in my guitar FX. -Then, I also use the regular keys, hold pedal, for small keyboard accents live on some tracks.

As @msmcleod points out above, using playlists & MCI commands can be a great way to have less interruptions in your set, and do follow the advice to mix down everything not needed to be interactive for best results. Then I always test my sets, see if any glitches show up - just like band practice  it helps a lot. Sometimes, I will mix chunks of a set as one single project too.

There are a lot of ways you can use pedals, buttons, and other various triggers to run Cakewalk & various plugins, and these days plenty of choices of controllers that won't get much in your way on stage. -I still have to use the screen to make sure things are loaded up & ready, even with a Mackie compatible control set there are still some steps you will just have to have the screen & mouse close by for, that is sometimes the only big drawback!

Edited February 28, 2023 by JnTuneTech

[Matthew Carr]

@msmcleod has given you your best option: One project with all the mixed down audio and using the arranger feature is definitely the best way to go if you want a smooth experience and be able to move from one song to another without  pauses . Add MCI controls to stop playback just before the end of each section, and map the stop, start, next arranger section and previous arranger section to your midi keyboard and you'll have a working setup far better than having to manually load project files between songs...

If you're using VST instruments for sound generation it gets a bit harder, esp if you have different sounds for each song coming from different vsts. In that case,  you could try creating a track folder for each song in your setlist, add instrument tracks setup with your vsts for that song to the folder, set the audio output of the instrument tracks going to a patch point audio track also in that folder, and set the output of the patch point to go to your audio output. Then you can automate the patch point track to only be active for the current song - in that way you'll have a folder of vsts that can only be heard for a specific song when you play your keyboard.

Of course this means you'll end up with a lot of instrument tracks - which are all creating audio when you play midi in - which could overwhelm your computer depending on the number of tracks and vsts used.

Personally, I tried something like this approach but as each song needed a specific set of patches using different vst it became too complicated and I ended up buying software specific for live use (www.gigperformer.com). Some might consider it expensive at $149, but it takes away all the pain of using VSTs live, is easy to use and understand yet super configurable - and is rock solid. I have full confidence in my setup now that just wasn't there when trying to push Cakewalk in a direction it's not really meant for, and the lack of stress before a gig is worth it!

 For just backing tracks and hosting vsts, gigperformer will be enough, but my setup is complicated so now I have a cakewalk project with arranger sections  to do playback of my backing tracks /  dmx / notation and midi PC to outboard gear - including  a midi PC to gigperformer to switch to the correct rackspace of VST instruments for that song.  Works great, and was worth the effort / cost to set up.

[msmcleod]

5 hours ago, Matthew Carr said:

If you're using VST instruments for sound generation it gets a bit harder, esp if you have different sounds for each song coming from different vsts. In that case,  you could try creating a track folder for each song in your setlist, add instrument tracks setup with your vsts for that song to the folder, set the audio output of the instrument tracks going to a patch point audio track also in that folder, and set the output of the patch point to go to your audio output. Then you can automate the patch point track to only be active for the current song - in that way you'll have a folder of vsts that can only be heard for a specific song when you play your keyboard.

This could be a real issue with larger sets with a lot of VSTi's.

Personally, I don't use Cakewalk live, but what I have done is sampled all my hardware / software synth sounds so I can play them all on my SMPro V-Machine ( a ridiculously underpowered hardware VST host).  

Unless you need real time control of multiple synth parameters, using sampled versions of your sounds is far less resource dependent and you can get away with one VSTi (the sample player), and use program changes to swap sounds as and when needed.

The downside is the time taken to sample all your synths.  As a indication, it takes me on average a full 24 hours to sample 128 synth sounds using SampleRobot.  There's about an hour or two's worth of prep to be done before-hand, but after that I can leave SampleRobot to do the rest automatically.
 

5 hours ago, Matthew Carr said:

 

Personally, I tried something like this approach but as each song needed a specific set of patches using different vst it became too complicated and I ended up buying software specific for live use (www.gigperformer.com). Some might consider it expensive at $149, but it takes away all the pain of using VSTs live, is easy to use and understand yet super configurable - and is rock solid. I have full confidence in my setup now that just wasn't there when trying to push Cakewalk in a direction it's not really meant for, and the lack of stress before a gig is worth it!

Using something like GigPerformer or Cantable would be the other route.  Cantable certainly supports MediaPlayer tracks for your backing, so I'm sure GigPerformer has something similar.  As both of these are specifically tailored to live use, they may be better options.