Bass Guitar

Yes @Glenn Stanton I’ve noticed that too but with Google Chrome. So the activation issue might not be something that Cakewalk can avoid. So that brings us back to why we need a licensing option for those who depend on their software to earn an income. This same issue has also happened with S1. They have an optional subscription plan and some of those people are having trouble. I bought a full license so not a problem for me.

Im just seeing threads started that the poster is complaining that out of the blue Sonar asked them to sign in. At very inconvenient times. In theory you should never have to do anything until your membership expires but seems not to be the case for everyone. Staff mentioned that they are working on a solution.

I don’t think this is possible. The ASIO control panel rules the buffer setting. At least that’s been the case for every audio interface I’ve ever used. The OP screenshot shows a fairly large buffer setting already. It seems like that’s not the issue anyway. I’ve always used 256 as my default buffer and will lower it only on the rare instances where I use TH U live when recording. If I get audio glitches at 256 then there’s a hog plugin involved. I freeze the offending Synth or if it’s an effect I Bounce the track.

Nothing to do with features. I am speaking about the topic we cannot discuss. A professional cannot show up with a paying client sitting there while they attempt to open the software. It won’t open because of a glitch in the authorization process. This is not me but there has been quite a few posts about this. I have also seen this complaint in another Daw forum that has a subscription option. It is why one very popular Daw dropped the subscription only option. The other situation is with live shows where there’s no internet and your Daw decides that it is time to re authorize. Sure it’s up to the user to prepare ahead of time to avoid this issue but it’s a situation that won’t happen if you use software that you own.

Sonar is simply not finding it Open your VST settings and then add the location and rescan.

Do you have a punch in set somewhere down the line? That’s the first thing I check cause it’s always the problem.

Go to Sweetwater and open the filters and scroll down to see the options for in/out. From there you can compare all the choices available for that configuration. There’s lots of 4x4 interfaces. But it’s not clear if that is what you need? You mentioned sending your tracks out to a mixer? Possibly you then need additional outputs? 4 is pretty minimal. I made this video almost two years ago featuring 2x2 interfaces but most of the brands also have lots of in/ out connections. The main point is that when you ask for recommendations all you will get is a handful of people telling you what works for them. That’s a very small part of going about your research. Even watching all the dozens of reviews on YouTube is only to be taken with a grain of salt. This is because each person has different needs. You need to make a list of the features that are important to YOU! The inputs and outputs are definitely important. 2 headphone jacks? Add that to the list and you’ll quickly eliminate 3/4 of the choices. I used Sweetwater for my research because they list the majority of lower priced consumer products. Beyond that you are adding zeros to the price. I also recommend that once you’ve chosen the one you like before you buy it go to the manufacturer website and make sure that they have updated drivers and also see what the free goodies are. You might choose one interface over another just because it was $40 cheaper and then find out the other one came with $300 worth of software. If all the pictures on the Webpage are Mac computers be careful about the drivers. We call them Mac-centric. In the end I bought the SSL 2 mostly because all the reviews said it had the best pre amp in that price range. It is a disappointment because the headphone volume is way too quiet. And I don’t really hear any difference in the sound quality. I mostly use my Zoom L8 because it has the best drivers and lots of connection options. I want to use the Motu M4 but sometimes it craps out and is distorted. It seems it’s related to the USB power.

And it does green screen so I can put myself in a first class recording studio to impress viewers! And it’s absolutely free! Unlike Sonar which is not actually free. The word free means you are free to use this forever without strings attached. Real free software like Audacity, Handbrake, OBS studio, Waveform, VLC media player, WinAmp, Foobar and on and on can be downloaded. Installed and will work forever without having to be Nagged or re authorized. I call anything other than that a Demo. A temporary use app that might stop working.

I watched the video you posted. There’s no dialogue so I had no idea what it was about? There’s little text boxes but they are very brief and they are too small a font to read , kinda like Sonars new graphics 😬 At least I see what you’re trying to do. It seems the workflow that I think you are using would be very time consuming. I know you are tired of me still recommending the method ( posted in my video)! that is pretty much standard for all You Tube Creators. But it is really a fast way to produce content which you can do in real time. Example is that video took less than an hour because I just opened OBS studio, open Sonar and the other apps and started talking into my Mike. I usually take the time to write a script but its is not going to stay posted. I shot the raw footage and dumped it into Vegas. Clean it up and Render. Not sure what you mean by OBS GUI? I’ve never even noticed it? Remember it is not a video editor it is a video / audio mixer. Its job is to access all your cameras, your computer screen as well as mixing all available audio sources.

I use the Free Ample P bass lite. Yes seems like it was recorded ( the samples) possibly using a Tube Amp so it definitely has a fuzzy sound. But in a mix it sounds pretty good to me. Other things come to mind is that you are creating way too much sub bass. Open the Pro Channel EQ and the fly out spectrum graph. That or Span.

OK so that’s a possibility why the OP had no sound from the Loopback. Software mixers are great but they add another layer to the audio system. With my 6i6 I often had to reset to the factory defaults to get my audio back. Anyhow he’s got it working using yet another layer so we’ll leave it at that.

Hey @Will. question, seeing as you have the Focusrite, Do you have to set up anything special in the Control app? As in there’s a mixer channel for the Loopback that can be muted etc? At no point has the OP confirmed that they tried the same settings as I used and had no problems. The clue that it could be the Focusrite mixer app is they are claiming that they can’t get audio out of Sonar.

Didn’t anyone read my post? It worked fine for me with both “Motu Loopback mix “ as well as “SSL2 Loopback Mix. “ They show as input options in Audacity as well as all other Audio apps. Sonar is using ASIO and Audacity is using WASAPI. In your screenshot of Audacity Im not sure if one of those translates to that choice. Im using the Audio settings found in Preferences not that shortcut you are using. Sorry my only Focusrite is a 1st generation 6i6 so no Loopback. It is possible that there is something in the Focusrite control panel GUI that needs setup.

@Starship Krupa. @David Baay Yes I get your point but I sort of draw a distinction between helping users use and learn the software and troubleshooting crashes. I too have always found helping others users will teach me more about the software. Im on 3 Daw forums currently. It was one thing that the company never released any official tutorials during the 6 years of free Cakewalk. I see in the Next sub forum the AI assisted staff replied that this was coming soon. Notice how the hundreds of YouTube creators disappeared overnight the minute Sonar went subscription. They won’t have that sort of success anymore because all the other Daws all have official tutorials made by Staff members. Here’s hoping that over time Sonar will become better supported by Bandlab and see some marketing to put it back on the map.

I was curious. First, I love Audacity always have. It has the by far best Stem Separation tool. Its free without annoying authorization or nag screens! 😁 I opened Sonar and played a song. While it was playing I opened Audacity and went into preferences. Take note that Audacity does not support ASIO for some weird reason. So I always have it set up to use WASAPI and 48 / 32 floating. The only change I made was I selected the Motu Loopback mix as the recording input. I was not surprised to find that it worked flawlessly. Loopback Mix is were it accesses the Windows sound mixer. Both my Motu and SSL2 work like this. My Zoom is a bit different in that you Choose the Master output as your input which basically loopbacks the Outputs from channel 7 ( Daw output 1/2 ) and 8 ( Daw output 3/4). Here you see that ASIO is not an option . Here you see that Loopback is available as an input source. Here you see I chose Loopback Mix as my input Here you see Sonar playing a song and Audacity is recording it. I tested playing a VST instrument live and as expected that also works, but of course you need the input Echo on. I used Cakewalk for live performances using VST pianos and organs. Just another thought. I have no clue where this is on Windows 11 but in sound settings for W10 you could chose that apps take exclusive control of the Audio system. I always had that turned off. I think there's also a setting in Sonar but I can't find that either ( platinum).

The OP does make a valid point about support. I figured that most replies were AI generated because after a few months of submitting issues the response was always exactly the same. That’s just fine as it seems to be the way things are going now. My issue was never resolved. They gave up. I gave up. I appreciate the offer by a forum member who was willing to help , but personally I don’t think anyone should do that for free. Bandlab is a multi million dollar company that most certainly can afford to pay real people to answer questions. It is my thinking that the generic responses are limited to standard issues users might encounter. But anything else will stump the AI. Just for laughs try it yourself.

I think that Cakewalk is now officially dead. A few people have mentioned that it is still working but the deadline was Sept 30. # 4 The X series is the ultimate backup plan for me because as I said in the video Bandlab still has the option to shut down access to the Cakewalk Command Centre. I own a license to X 3 and that was the last version that doesn’t require any on line activation. I have it installed right now and I don’t think I would use it for anything other than accessing old projects. It’s not really useful as a modern daw to me compared to the others I own. Way too outdated. X1 was absolutely the worst version of Cakewalk ever , but I actually think the new Sonar is a close second!! ( Just kidding) So if I ever do rebuild a new computer down the road I might not have access to Platinum. But I am always optimistic that by then they will give up on the membership only plan and I’ll be able to purchase Sonar in a normal way.

FYI You’re in the wrong sub forum. This is the now abandoned Cakewalk sub forum. There’s a new sub forum for Sonar. To me it seems they quickly offered the free version to help people transition to a paid membership. They no sooner put it out and then announced the end of life for Cakewalk. People all act like this was a big surprise but they had said that this day would come over 2 years ago. Sure not everyone reads this forum so I guess they were unaware. The free version we were told may or may not be a permanent option as well. The free version is definitely not suitable for everyone especially if you’re relying on a Daw for semi professional work or using it live. You have choices- 1- Pay for Membership 2- Switch Daws 3- Use Sonar Platinum ( my personal choice)

The other thing that makes it better for me was cranking up the saturation a bit.

So it would be one of those that absolutely requires the Command centre to authorize. The Command Centre has a Download folder and all the executables will be there after you install them. but back in 2017 during the time Gibson shut us down and we didn’t know what was going to happen a few of us tried to use them independently. Seems to me it doesn’t work. This why we are at the mercy of the kindness of Bandlab now. My current computer is hopefully going to last me well past the days when all that will matter. I find I always move on to different plug ins anyway. I open old projects and replace the olds ones with new ones.

Heres' the location. As you see I only have the drivers for the 3 audio interfaces that I use. All else is banished. Simply delete the folder. Common drivers that are installed with music apps are Steinberg, Magix and FL studio. They are supplied as well intentioned options for people using those Daw's who don't have an audio interface. If you are using an Audio interface then for Sonars sake you need to remove them. The problem is that on start up Sonar looks to see what ASIO device is connected and these will then confuse Sonar. The place to check that something is wrong is in Sync And Caching timing device. Even though your Focusrite is checked in the other audio set up tabs, if there is one of these drivers it might show as the "Recording Latency Adjustment." that's obviously going to throw things off in your syncing of new tracks. This is not a bad feature as Noel pointed out. The fact this happens is actually a good feature. Example I just was using my SSL2 interface in another Daw. I needed to switch to my Zoom L8. I had to close the Daw and then it was mad because it didn't automatically switch to the Zoom. You have to go and set that up. I think all my other Daw's as well as Video apps behave this way. To take the screenshot for you I opened Sonar and it had already switched to the Zoom all on it's own.

Bandlab has been kind enough since they bought all the Cakewalk intellectual property rights, to put all our legacy products we bought from Roland and Gibson on their own servers and make them available. They really have no reason for this other than customer service. If you have lost your legacy account password cakewalk support will help you recover it. The day might come when Bandlab decides to discontinue this service. They even went to the trouble of updating the Command Centre so make sure you get version 1.1.8.1 ( ? I think that’s right?)’ So all legacy products are still available but you would be wise to download everything to a safe place as well as take screenshots of your activation and registration information. I did all that in 2016. I found many of these Sonar X series and Platinum plug ins and instruments all work in other Daw’s. After all, you actually bought and own them. Even the Studio Instrument collection can be used on any Daw. But software from the Platinum era is tied to the Command Centre so the day someone pulls the plug we will be hooped. Isn’t the vocal and drum strip still included with new Sonar? It was on the Excluded list so you had to access it in the plugin manager.

As far as I can tell those are exclusive to Sonar. The 3rd party plug-in’s usually have the Brand name visible in the GUI. VST2 is a long way from being obsolete. I wouldn’t worry about that just yet. I’ll most certainly be dead.

I try and stay away from discussion of audio and Daw’s because there are way to many different opinions about it. But for what it’s worth my opinion is very simple. You purchase a brand name Audio Interface that has all the right connections , features and controls that suit your needs. In my case one feature is now Loopback. The other most important thing I learned years ago, is you should always use the latest version of ASIO drivers from the manufacturer website when using a DAW. All other ASIO drivers that don’t belong to a hardware audio interface should be completely removed from your system including the Registry. Take note that this is more a Sonar issue than it is with other audio software. Loopback. Theres 2 different types of audio Loopback. External and Internal. External is when you connect the output of your audio interface back to an input using a patch cable. We use this to test for the accuracy of our reported latency. Example when using Oblique Audio’s RT utility. Internal loopback is where the audio remains digital. Then it makes it available as an optional input to all applications that are designed to access ASIO multi channel audio. Im not dead sure of where it accesses the audio but it seems it would be involved with the Windows mixer. So to answer your question it most certainly is available in ASIO mode. Im not sure it is actually available in other driver modes because I’ve never checked. And a heads up, Just because a Daw includes a generic ASIO driver doesn’t mean you should or have to use it with that Daw. Example Cubase includes a Generic driver that becomes an option when I set up Cubase’s audio system. But I always choose my audio interface driver. Removing FL ASIo driver will not have any effect on using the Daw. You are always better off using your interface’s ASIO driver.

I don’t really care about colour but I find it has become very hard to see icons and stuff that was not a problem before. It is not a Daw for old farts like me. That’s fine. I’m not exactly sure what bugs they might have fixed but so far after 3 months I have not found anything. Im actually pretty amazed at how much is actually still there! It’s only a few little things I have been missing like Workspaces and the Add Tracks dialogue. This is more about wanting to own my software than about colour. I will most certainly be first in line for a permanent license. But we are censored for taking about this.