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New Synth/Sampler - Help!


davet

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The struggle to get the old Sonar/Cakewalk suite of virtual instruments to work has finally worn me down. I'm ready to move on.

It appears that SampleTank 4 is the best bang for the buck at the black Friday price of $150.00.  From the tutorials I've watched

it appears to work a bit like TTS in that you launch an instance of the plugin, then assign a midi channel to one of the instruments

in the SampleTank instrument browser. Is this correct?  If not please set me straight.

TIA,  

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If you don't mind detailing your issues with trying to get the included synths to work in your projects, I am pretty sure us forum folks can help guide you through whatever is interfering with them working.

Can you please explain how you bring them into a project, and what steps you go through to try to get them to work?

And, as far as pretty much any soft synth works, they nearly always (and might actually be always), respond to midi channel 1, by default, and if you do not assign a midi channel to a midi track that is connected to a soft synth, Cakewalk will also default to using midi channel 1.  But let's start with taking a look at the steps you currently go through to try to get one of the included synths to work properly in a project.  :)

Thanks, 

Bob Bone

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Oh - SampleTank 4 is pretty good, by the way, and $150 seems like a decent price for it.  I believe Kontakt 6 is also available on sale at the moment, from Native Instruments, at $199, if memory serves.  Kontakt and EastWest Play are the two heavyweight sample-based synth engines out there, but SampleTank 4 is also pretty good.

But, let's see if we can't get your Cakewalk instruments that you already have working for you, as a starting point.

Bob Bone

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Robert,

Thanks for the reply. Work flow with respect to virtual instruments goes like this;

Right click to insert a new channel/ instrument. Instrument dialog appears, select the the instrument (ie Roland Groove Synth) set as a single channel, it appears.

The Groove Synth GUI opens I click in the instrument window to select the sound I want - and wait. Nothing happens, then suddenly the list appears, then drops away.

Click again and wait - same behavior.

Load Dimension Pro the same way. The GUI box appears but it's blank - nothing in it.

Load TTS-1, GUI appears then I get an unhandled exception error.

I have Superior Drummer 2, Trilian and a very old version of NI B4. They all load up perfectly as do the Cake SI instruments. After setting some parameters all work as expected.

BTW, the session I'm testing in is 44.1 - 24 bit. Cake V2019.09

So, I'm not opposed to tweaking to get things working. But some stuff is just stupid and not worth the hassle. 

Thanks for the reply about Sampletank. :>)

DaveT

 

 

 

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Sounds like maybe you have software (Windows, audio interface drivers, plugins), or maybe even the BIOS, that are not up to current maintenance levels.

What Windows edition (Home, Pro...), and version, and build are you running currently?

What is the make and model of your audio interface (if you are using one), and what is the current driver version on your system, for it?

Bob Bone

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Bob,

Win 10 Pro, patched with the latest updates, HP Zbook G3 with latest BIOS, RME UCX in USB mode with the latest driver. Firmware on the UCX is is one revision back, in that it's not the current one available from RME. 

I figure if that old version of the B4 will run on this system just about anything else should.

Thanks for the reply,

DaveT 

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Is it possible your antivirus/anti-malware software could be interfering with things?  (easy test is to temporarily disable that software - just long enough to see if things work better when it is suspended - turn back on as soon as you finish testing, and don't go surfing while it is suspended).

For whatever the worth, I have my Cakewalk paths excluded (white listed) from my antivirus software, as everything is scanned when it gets downloaded anyways.

Also, just for grins - try running Cakewalk with the Run As Administrator,  just to see if that has any impact on things.

Bob Bone

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Bob,

I do run Malware Bytes, so I'll disable it and try again. I also run the PC as the Administrator, but what the hey - I'll try running Bandlab that way.  Whitelisting

in Malware Bytes is another option. I'll post back tomorrow with the results.

Thanks,

DaveT

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11 hours ago, davet said:

Bob,

I do run Malware Bytes, so I'll disable it and try again. I also run the PC as the Administrator, but what the hey - I'll try running Bandlab that way.  Whitelisting

in Malware Bytes is another option. I'll post back tomorrow with the results.

Thanks,

DaveT

Hi - I meant to choose the Run As Administrator option for Cakewalk, to see if it made any difference.  This option is different than simply running a program from a Windows user account that happens to be an Administrator account.

Run As Administrator assigns a higher level of 'execution privileges' than you get when launching a program from a Windows user account that is of type Administrator.  (I think Microsoft could have made it less confusing, but well, they did not).

And, curiously, does Dimension Pro run OK in stand-alone mode?

Lastly, is there anything in the unhandled exception error message, that identifies where the error occurred?  (does it fail in Cakewalk, or does it fail in a plugin?)

Bob Bone

 

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Bob,

Yeah, I did right click on the Cakewalk Icon and select "run as administrator".  Didn't help.

So I disabled Malware Bytes, that didn't help. I checked the paths in the VST Manager to see if I had c:\program files (x86)\cakewalk mapped. Nada.

But what I did find after running TTS-1 and it crashed was something called Teleport Server 32 bit in task manager right under the Cakewalk application. See Photo.

The only reference I can find in Cakewalk to a server is Bitbridge in the VST preferences. Don't know if TTS-1 and the like are 32 bit in Bandlab/Cakewalk and

bitbridge is serving them up in 64 bit Cakewalk?  I checked the properties of the Dll's in question in both c😕program files & c:\program files (x86)  but didn't find anything

that identified them as 32 or 64 bit. Next step would be to compare the file size, dates.

Dimension Pro standalone: I don't see an option to run it that way in the programs list.

I've attached a .jpg of the TTS-1 error message.

Questions? Keep them coming. :>)

Davet

 

 

 

teleport.JPG

TTS-1 error.JPG

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Bob,

Pretty sure I've narrowed this issue down. I can load up TTS-1, poke at it with a mouse, change some stuff in the GUI. But as soon as I hit a key on my MIDI keyboard it blows up.

I can recreate this behavior with a Roland Juno-6 and a simple Roland MIDI controller. I've looked at my MIDI settings, changed MIDI cables, don't see anything out of place.

Not sure what else to do.

Later,

DaveT

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  • 2 weeks later...

If you need a VSTi to replace TTS-1, I have found that XPand! 2 works pretty well, and it's $5 on PiB right now.

I also recommend Kontakt over ST4, simply because a lot of IK Multimedia's practices with the lack of upgrade paths, non-permanent sound pack expansions, and no native ASIO drivers for their hardware or native ASIO support for their standalone software, and outright killing off ST3 CS from access to new customers have made me unwilling to give IK my money.

Also, it's a lot easier to build your own ad hoc bespoke sample libraries with Kontakt.

Edited by Freyja Grimaude-Valens
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Freyja,

Thanks for the info. I figured out yesterday what the problem is. I've been loading VST instruments from the "Add (or insert?) Instrument Track" in track view. This doesn't work (at least in my case) for TTS-1, Dimension Pro and Roland Groove Synth.  Works fine for Superior Drummer 2, Trilian, all the SI instruments and NI B4. Switched to loading TTS-1 (and the other suspects) in the Synth Rack, works perfect.

I opened a case with support about this, they have responded and I've provided the fix as outlined above. I know the "Add Instrument Track" used to work so somewhere

along the update line it got broken. 

DaveT

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