John Vere

The release notes: February 28, 2024 2024.02 What's New UI refresh Sonar has been completely refeshed with a clean new UI. The UI refresh is an ongoing effort and will continue to be updated in future releases. New dark and light color schemes Sonar includes several color themes, including Dark, Dark Gray, Light, Light Gray, Tungsten, Mercury, and Cosmic. Additional color themes will be added in the future. Support for enhanced display scaling Improves rendering and reduces blurriness, particularly for font rendering. Enhanced display scaling may sharpen graphics and make text easier to read. Improvements will be most noticeable when using large, high resolution displays (such as 4K) and with Windows display scaling set higher than 100%. Per plugin enhanced display scaling for VST plugins. New Quick Start screen Open a recent project, open an existing project, create a new project from a template, download and open demo projects, preview projects, update the app. Project preview Preview projects from the Quick Start screen’s Local Projects page if you have exported a designated preview file. Configuration backup/restore Save and load backups of your Sonar configuration settings. Cakewalk Interchange Format (CXF) The Cakewalk Interchange Format (CXF) is a Cakewalk cross platform inter-app project file format, used to exchange projects between Sonar and Next. CXF files exported from either application can be opened or imported in both apps. CXF is a transitory format only used for exchange. It is not intended for archival storage or backing up since the format can change at any time. Cakewalk ZIP Format (CWZ) The new Cakewalk ZIP (.cwz) file format is intended for backing up projects, and is also useful for moving Sonar projects from one computer to another. Cakewalk ZIP is recommended over the older Cakewalk Bundle (CWB/BUN) format, because it does not compact the audio data, and therefore supports AudioSnap clips. Track Manager enhancements The Track Manager lets you configure which tracks are visible in the Track view and Console view, and you can create per-project presets to quickly show specific sets of tracks. Per-track spectrum analyzer display in the Console view and Inspector. ProChannel Concrete Limiter module ProChannel Concrete Limiter is a transparent look-ahead brickwall peak limiter. It is designed to reduce peak levels without coloring the sound. VX-64 Vocal Strip VX-64 Vocal Strip is a multi-functional plugin that combines a series of effects specifically optimized and streamlined for vocal processing. Combining compression, expansion, equalization, de-essing, doubling, delay and tube saturation in one convenient plug-in, VX-64 Vocal Strip is designed to make it fast an easy to enhance any vocal track. Project Start and End markers The Project Start and Project End markers define the playback range and the export range when exporting the entire project, and can also be used as Snap to Grid landmarks. Automation smoothing when recording Automation smoothing now also applies to recording automation in real-time. Specify the default automation curve type for drawing automation envelopes Offset mode enhancements To make it easier to visualize if a track parameter has an offset applied, Sonar shows the parameter value in an amber color when Offset mode is not active, and the parameter tooltip shows the offset value. In-app hang detection Sonar can now detect hangs and save a minidump file, which allows you to easily submit minidump files to Cakewalk support for analysis. Optimization for Intel processors Improvements to reduce CPU load when streaming silence with certain plug-ins that generate denormals. Double-click to expand/collapse docked windows (MultiDock, Inspector, and Browser) Toast notification when a control surface is disabled on launch Sonar now shows a notification if you start the app while a control surface is disconnected. External Insert ports now persist in track templates Audio port assignments for the External Insert plug-in are now persisted in track templates. Assignable key bindings to quickly show/hide tracks in the Track view and Console view Create sends by dragging effects to channel strips (audio track, instrument track, aux track, or bus) Additional snap landmarks New Snap to Grid landmarks include Arranger Section Start Time, Arranger Section End Time, Project Start Marker, and Project End Marker. Create tracks routed to aux tracks or patch points The Add Track menu now allows you to create tracks that are routed to a new aux track or patch point. Deleting a tempo in the Tempo Inspector sets the focus to the next tempo in the list Press F2 to rename markers in the Markers view The meter scale for Instrument tracks changes from a MIDI scale (vertical piano keys) to an audio dB scale when the track is frozen Remove all crossfades in the current selection with the new Track view Clips > Remove Selected Crossfades command Ability to select all tracks/buses in a control group The new Select Tracks/Buses in Group menu command on the control group context menu makes it easy to automatically select all tracks and buses that have controls that are a member of the current control’s group. Once selected, use quick grouping to adjust all tracks simultensously. Clicking Sonar logo in Control Bar opens Quick Start Screen Preview Bus is now a project-wide setting Preview Bus and Synth output assignment is now applied across the entire project rather than per view. Preview bus assignment can now be managed directly from the bus/mains/aux track context menus or directly from the main Project menu. An aux track can now be designated as a preview bus. Report bugs via the in-app Help > Report a Problem menu command Specify default synth for use in Add Track flyout menu Set via synth track context menu or Synth Rack menu. Quicker access to plugin settings The plugin toolbar now has a Settings menu button that provides direct access to Enhanced DPI scaling and plugin upsampling settings. Friendly names for plugins (set in the Browser) are now displayed in FX racks Note: This will apply to new instances of the plugin. Existing ones will still show the actual plugin name. New instances will show the friendly name. Track Scale Zoom is now quick-groupable You can now zoom the waveform or MIDI notes in all selected tracks by holding down the CTRL key and dragging up/down in the track scale. New plugins coming soon - to be announced. Cakewalk Product Center Cakewalk Product Center allows you to download and install Cakewalk products from one central location. Simply sign in with your BandLab ID and password and begin installing your connected products. Stay up to date with the latest features and fixes.

Exactly, as I said, operating systems are boring. So far since XP each new version has involved a learning curve that will annoy most people for a few minutes each day until you get used to it, but it can also annoy others to the point that they refuse to upgrade. So it kinda comes down to being patient as well as a fast learner. Ya, my car doesn't have an ignition key anymore. It has a dongle that the battery can die suddenly. So after being very annoyed at this absolutely absurd change in my life, I took a deep breath and then I made sure there's always spare batteries in the car now. Old people have to be adaptable to change and I don't miss my Atari's TOS operating system. I most certainly don't miss XP. W7 is sort of still usable and W11 only looks different than 10. I wonder if someone gave me a 1924 Ford Sedan If I could get it started? Probably. Ten years from now a teenager would be asking were the dongle was!

There's a real good reason most of us never have any problems. A quick visit to Mr. sjoens profile and you will see pages of posts which most all have the word "Issues" in the title.

I just opened Home Studio and it has everything working. But then I won't touch a 32 bit plug in with a ten foot pole these days. For that I have an old W7 laptop and it's only to play one old project that used Warp Delay. Open that project in W10 ( or 11? ) and Cakewalk will crash. You should edit your title because I would not be pointing the finger at CbB just so quickly.

https://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=14648201

Exactly. Cakewalk notation view is more for using as an alternative to PRV for composing basic midi driven music. It is by no stretch a full featured scoring app. Just like the Video feature is very basic as well. Use proper dedicated software for those tasks and then use Cakewalk for what it is designed for.

Same here after I read this I tried it. It works fine. Possibly some contamination of the encoder? I use Gold Wave for MP3 as it has all the options as well as it retains my preferences which Cakewalk doesn’t. Pretty rare I need MP3 anyways as the music streaming websites all want Wave or Flac now.

Cakewalk by Bandlab is Sonar Platinum! Didn’t you ever realize that? And the new Sonar is just the latest version of Cakewalk by Bandlab. And paid or not, we all got free updates up until now. You didn’t if you ignored what was going on and stayed with Splat. The vocal strip is found in plug in manager under Excluded. I think they chose this because it’s old so is use at own risk. Seems to work fine last time I tried it.

Far as I can tell software works on all OS up to a point. When was W7 discontinued? I have the exact same version of Cakewalk on W7, W10 and W11. There’s absolutely no difference in the way it works. The only difference is every computer is obviously a newer faster more powerful computer. operating systems are the most boring part of all things computer wise. I’d even be oblivious if my computer was a Mac. I just don’t like the mouse.

pilot error. You create a Task and Run it. Note that this is per- project and not global to all projects. For that you create a pre set like you see I have chosen at the top.

Honestly the only real solution is to use a controller that has a sustain pedal input. Especially if you are an actual piano/ Keyboard player. The difference is in accurately capturing a real musical performance vs creating music mechanically by using software manipulation. If you are a good musician then the best recording will be the former and having a good instrument is critical to achieve proper results. This is the easiest approach. Otherwise you have to learn a lot more about the software It takes a lot of time to learn to use the tools to alter a pour quality recording and polish it into something that you are happy with. What is the make and model of your keyboard? Possibly there’s an alternative way to make it sustain.

These videos will explain everything you need to understand to use midi. https://youtu.be/YJlI6U8Rqa0?si=S0Ufs1p4MpMNLlcv https://youtu.be/rVWeMsPZ-hc?si=x4pjeMyariIJcAue There’s many more on my Tutorials playlist https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7YqVth30eGsURWrKGeu-fFyg3ETjF-Ox&si=z5zY8h6W-uij_zvw

There’s no reason to have to do that It looks like you were trying to use the Bandlab assistant which was discontinued a while ago. You can use the CPM or just download the full installer from the web site. No need to use the offline method. You just log in to the Bandlab website using your username and password and that activates Cakewalk. Cakewalk by Bandlab, Cakewalk Next and Sonar are all products owned by Bandlab. That hasn’t changed. Just the activation system is now changing.

You should definitely turn in a crash dump report. There’s been a few things about the new update reported already. You can send them the files

@treesha Ill just toss in that re installing software rarely fixes anything. Think about it. The installer either worked or it didn’t. And most software stores all the associated files which often are not erased properly. Did you run the checks I mentioned? I’ll put my money on system issues.

If you need more info these videos are about using tts-1 as well as midi editing https://youtu.be/pwEMq67Zn3s?si=8i84uF3480IfxI2D https://youtu.be/cyJUN2OdmBY?si=CAhJ2SotkpPcM6H_

Are they called Stool Samples?

Thanks I didn’t know that but it makes sense because bitbridge is for VST’s. there wasn’t much info available about it. And what info I did find said 32 bit. And of course plug in colour in the browser shows as either 32 bit or DX. I guess the giveaway is Band in a box installed it in the 64 bit VST folder. But I’ll add a comment to clear that up, not that anyone reads the comments in YouTube.

the SI instruments are owned by Bandlab. This is why they were always included. With the TTS-1 gone they are all that is left. But we are told the plans are to bring back a few of the old plug ins most of us still own and use for new users to purchase or possibly they will be included for free in top versions of Sonar which was like it used to be.

@T Boog Melodyne is to me the best upgrade to Cakewalk beyond anything else. Pitch correction is just one of many ways it can edit and clean up and audio track. Especially once you get to the top 2 versions that can edit chords. Have you ever accidentally hit a wrong string in the middle of an otherwise perfect take? No problem. Just highlight the bad chord, open Melodyne and move or delete the offending note. And fixing the timing of things like harmonies. And you can use the levelling tool to make every word the same volume.

Have you run any diagnostic tests on your system? I had weird stuff happening last year about this time and turned out my C drive was acting up. I ran Samsung Magician app which showed the read and write speed was way down from spec. The drive was a 250 GB Samsung SSD. I bought 2 x 500 GB drives for $50 each and used the Magician app to clone my C and D drives. Man did things perk up! Turns out it’s not how full a SSD drive is, it’s how many times it was written to. Writing and deleting stuff kills them. So music and video editing is a monster. But after I got stuff running I reformatted those old drives to use as back ups and they are OK again. So win, win. Long shot but just another one of those new things I learned about the care and feeding of a modern day PC. Oh and Melodyne working fine here on latest Cakewalk. Here's a few tools I like to have on hand. https://semiconductor.samsung.com/us/consumer-storage/magician/ Best tool for cloning drives as well as diagnostics https://www.resplendence.com/latencymon Not just the Latency Monitor but also grab Why so SLow https://www.ccleaner.com/speccy Speccy which gives you a total overview of your PC even temperatures.

The dumb thing is nowadays C drives are huge. So why would you not use it as intended. Also swapping out C drive is now very easy using transfer software like Samsung Magician. So even if you presently have a small C drive it costs under $50 to upgrade to a 500 GB or about $100 to a 1 TB drive.

Well looks like you found a legit bug. I read this( thanks for your kind support) and I just so happened to have been using my Laptop which as you see in the first screenshot I hadn't bothered to update yet. You can see the option is working correctly as well as the TTS-1 is still the default. So I updated to the last update ( probably a mistake) and now as you say the box is not clickable you just get brackets. So @msmcleod @Noel Borthwick looks like the dude who was told to remove TTS_1 from the list also damaged some other code in the add track dialogue. First shot is before update. Then after update

Exactly. I remember back in 2004 when I first started using Cakewalk and I tried the TTS-1 back then and decided it wasn’t for me mostly because the bass and drums didn’t sound very good compared to my Korg 05R/W I think the SI instruments were the first new members of my digital band. We often get posts on the forum here from people who are not at all interested in trying other instruments. I think it’s just over their heads to work that way. They are used to using midi players. My most viewed Cakewalk Tutorial is the one about the TTS-1 There’s a bigger fan club than one can imagine. I’m already getting comments from people who are upset.

Uninstall ASIO4all. You don’t need it. Windows comes with a proper native driver now since W10. WASAPI. Asio4all was from a bygone era. It is not ASIO anyway. It is a wrapper using old WDM mode all of which is old tech.