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CA-2A


Jerry Freese

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FWIW, the "downloader," BandLab Assistant, performs the same functions that Cakewalk Command Center did for the last SONAR series: installation and activation.

BA has two additional functions -

  • it provides access to BandLab's web-based DAW and
  • acts as a front end to their loop library which is accessible to both the web-based DAW and Cakewalk.

That's it. There is nothing else happening "behind the curtain."

While there is no charge for the software, BandLab owns the software and this is how they have elected handle licensing it to users.

Even if one wanted to stay on an old Cakewalk product, there are updates and bug fixes to the shared utilities that would be beneficial. It was common for Cakewalk support to recommend users install demo versions of newer versions of SONAR even if they had no plan to upgrade just to get the updated utilities. This still holds true,

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On 11/16/2019 at 9:03 PM, John Noizz said:

I was about to say that here xD, this plugin is really really good, and the best part is that is FREE! recommended!

Problem that I have with this is that it t doesn't seem to have any "makeup gain" and diminishes the signal quite a bit. Am I missing something?

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24 minutes ago, Jerry Freese said:

Problem that I have with this is that it t doesn't seem to have any "makeup gain" and diminishes the signal quite a bit. Am I missing something?

These units don't have a makeup gain.  If you need more Gain turn the gain up.  As you reduce the peaks, you will hit a point where it has a reduced overall output.  

The CA-2A works in a similar fashion.  However the Gain on the CA-2A seems to add quite a bit of saturation if you crank it where the Leveling Amp can stay cleaner at higher gains.   In this particular respect, I like the Leveling Amp better

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On 11/18/2019 at 10:13 PM, Brian Walton said:

These units don't have a makeup gain.  If you need more Gain turn the gain up.  As you reduce the peaks, you will hit a point where it has a reduced overall output.  

The CA-2A works in a similar fashion.  However the Gain on the CA-2A seems to add quite a bit of saturation if you crank it where the Leveling Amp can stay cleaner at higher gains.   In this particular respect, I like the Leveling Amp better

In the CA-2A peak reduction controls the amount of compression and gain controls the post-processed output level. I would call that make-up gain.

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2 hours ago, Jerry Freese said:

In the CA-2A peak reduction controls the amount of compression and gain controls the post-processed output level. I would call that make-up gain.

You are correct.  Depending on the settings, there might not be the clean headroom desired for normal make up gain with the CA-2A.  It can add a lot of saturation when used as Output gain.  I do agree that the Level Amp could also use an additional output clean gain if you need to really compress something.

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