Han van Litsenburg

[Han]

I have started to re-opened a number of recordings from my old band, which i would like to mix again. In the old files there were some plug-ins that didn't exist anymore, but there were three that were still working; the vocalstrip, percussionstrip and the tube leveler. In the properties I could find their location, but I cannot bring up another instance of the plug-ins, neither can I in a new project. I tried to add the paths into the scan window in preferences, but it won't show up. Does anybody have an idea as to how to accomplish this?

Thanx,

Han

[User 905133]

I remember some discussions of these older plug-ins.  Not sure if this post will be helpful, but since I found it, I thought I'd mention it.

On 9/15/2020 at 8:57 PM, Starship Krupa said:

It's funny, it reminds me of how CbB comes with TL-64, PX-64, and VX-64, but in order to use them, you have to go into Plug-In Manager and take them off the Excluded list.

Its a long shot, but it might be worthwhile to see if they are in the excluded list.

Another thought: If they have been scanned but are just not showing up in the browser, could they be hidden by a plugin layout file.  Again, a long shot, but might be worth looking into.  I defer to others who make more use of these plugins, the plug-in manager, etc.

Edited July 29, 2023 by User 905133
to add another tought

[Han]

It took a while to figure out how to get it of the excluded list, but IT WORKED! This could be my goto place when there is a problem. It's not that I can't live without these plugs, but having them and not being able to use them drives me crazy. And I find the vocalstrip a quick tool to play around with.

So I thank you very much for your help!

cheers,

Han 

[John Vere]

It’s odd that the default is to put them in the excluded list. We call them the hidden gems.  Seems strange to include a free plug in then hide it from all but a tiny group of users who accidentally found them.

Edited July 31, 2023 by JohnnyV

[User 905133]

6 minutes ago, JohnnyV said:

It’s odd that the default is to put them in the excluded list. We call them the hidden gems.  Seems strange to include a free plug in then hide it from all but a tiny group of users who accidentally found them.

I can imagine several possible reasons why they would be migrated by CbB for previous Cakewalk/SONAR users and excluded by default.  Not sure that its worth trying to find out the rationale or making an issue of the decision.  I'm glad that Han was able to enable them.

[Han]

I have used Cakewalk for so long that I knew they existed. But the exclusion list I totally forgot about. Thank you guys for the help! 

[Starship Krupa]

They are included because they are part of the "back end" to the ProChannel Style Dials.

@JohnnyV: SONAR Professional, the version of SONAR that Cakewalk by BandLab most closely resembles, included the Style Dials, but not Vocal Strip, Percussion Strip, or Tube Leveler. Nor of course did the versions below it on the feature list, Artist and Home Studio, all of which had the Style Dials.

I suspect that anyone who bought SONAR Home Studio, Artist, or Professional back in the day would have been able to use Plug-in Manager and enabled them just as we do. Unless they came with a hobbled version of Plug-in Manager, which I doubt.

I stumbled upon them years ago when messing about in Plug-in Manager ("hmm, Show Excluded, what does that do?") and wrote up a tutorial for how to enable them. Others have done so as well, notably Craig Anderton in Sound On Sound, Mike Enzo in one of his Creative Sauce videos.

People pointed out that since using them isn't "officially" supported, they could have been taken away at any point, but they're just regular VST's (they work fine in other hosts, I've tried it), and we always back up our VST's, don't we? 😉 Also, if they had ever been eliminated, seems like Style Dials would have stopped working.

PX and VX are really nice plug-ins that for some reason I tend to forget about, so thanks for reminding me. People ask about the best de-essers, vocal doublers, compressors, expanders, EQ's, saturation and all that, but those are all right there in those plug-ins. Cakewalk, Inc. only allowed full access to them in the Platinum package, so they must have considered them to be premium.

Maybe I have some resistance because in the back of my mind I think they're supposed to be only for the program material in their names, but obviously, they'll work on any program material. 🙄