msmcleod

The issue with recording using an on-board Realtek device isn't the Realtek chip itself, it's the other circuitry on the motherboard surrounding it. If not designed with recording in mind, it can leave it susceptible to interference from other parts of the motherboard.

I've had had interference from USB/serial devices (e.g. moving the mouse) and also the power supply when using a laptop.

Motherboards with separate line/mic inputs tend to perform better with the line input, but to my ears its still lacking on some motherboards.
 

19 hours ago, Maestro said:

Yep.

Violin Multi.artmap 3.5 kB · 1 download Violin Multi.expressionmap 36.08 kB · 1 download

The import is definitely not changing the notes, it's the difference in base octave setting that is causing it to display differently, but the note is the same:


 

6 minutes ago, Maestro said:

It definitely does.  I just imported them again, and my setting was the same as yours out of the box.  All of the Cubase Expression Maps imported with the Key Switches transposed UP Two    Octaves in Cakewalk by BandLab.

I am not talking about the "Remote Key" in Cubase Pro (whichi Cakewalk does not import, anyways).  I'm talking about the actual note assigned in the Key Switch.   For Violin Tutti it's C0 in Cubase, and when imported into Cakewalk, it's C2.  For Bass Tutti it is C5, and when imported into Cubase it's C6.  Repeat this for all Expression Maps imported.  I have 159 Expression Maps on my machine.  ALL of them import this way.

I can create an Expression Map for anything and when imported into Cakewalk, the Key Switches all get transposed up two  octave.

Cubase:

(Note Edit in Progress)

Can you attach an example expression map, so I can take a look?

1 hour ago, sadicus said:

For VSL, So far only found :
VSL_Big_Bang_Orchestra_Expressionmap_v.2.0.zip
VSL_Epic_Orchestra_2.0_Expressionmaps_v.1.0.zip

This is a good tutorial. Does Cakewalk AM Editor have the "Chromatic" setting like this video?
Soundiron | Tips & Tricks - Setting Up Expression Maps In Cubase
 

 

Cakewalk doesn't have the chromatic setting - but for a case like this, I find it quicker to use the "Add from MIDI" button and just play the keys in:

1 hour ago, Martin said:

Hi Mark,

have the (old) Tascam DM24 mixing console which has a Mackie HUI emulation.

When I try to use it with this Mackie Control Surface for Cakewalk by Bandlab,

my console displays some MIDI Framing error, and freezes, I have to switch it off and on to do anything.

Most of the time Cakewalk freezes at this point as well.

Do you have any idea what the problem could be ?

I have tried the same with Cubase, and there the HUI emulation works just fine with my DM24.

Sorry, can't help much here as a don't have a DM24.

The MackieControl.dll HUI mode was developed using the HUI mode of the Mackie MCU  & the HUI mode of TouchDAW - both which are emulations themselves, so it's quite possible there's some incompatibilities with other hardware that is also emulating a HUI in a slightly different way.

We're working really hard to get to the bottom of this issue, but we're having problems reproducing the problem.

We think it's related to monitor setup and DPI settings, so if you are seeing this issue, please let us know:

• What version/build of Cakewalk you're running (you can find this out on the About screen)
• What version of Windows you're using
• How many monitors you have connected to your system
• How those monitors are arranged (e.g. main monitor on the left, 2nd monitor on the right), and which one is your main monitor
• What the resolution and DPI settings are for each monitor (e.g.  1920 x 1080, DPI 100%)
• What graphics adapter you're using.

For example, my system is as follows:

Cakewalk 2020.10 (Build 075)
Windows 10 1909
Monitor 1 (main monitor, left) 1920 x 1080 DPI 100%
Monitor 2 (right) 1920 x 1080 DPI 100%
Intel Graphics 4000

If you're having this renaming issue,  please send your version of this information to @Ben Staton and @Jonathan Sasor so they can look into it further.

12 hours ago, Steve Harder said:

Midi note number is an objective piece of data that we can hold onto while we work through the process of importing Cubase expression maps or creating our own from scratch.

Each sample library may assign a different midi note number to C0.  So C0 is subjective. 

Being able to determine what midi note number was assigned by that sample library to C0 will give you the objective data you need to understand what is happening in the articulation maps you build or import.

This is exactly why the Articulation Map Editor shows the actual MIDI note number is shown in square brackets after the C0, C#0, D0 etc..

Every piece of software has a different definition as to what C0 actually is.

9 hours ago, Maestro said:

Importing these into Cakewalk, it seems like it transposes all of the Key switches up two octaves, which is unfortunate.  it means the end user is going to have to edit    every articulation map and move every KS note down 2 octaves.

Not sure why it does that.

It definitely does not do this.  The MIDI note is a number between 0 and 127. This is translated exactly from the Cubase expression map to the CbB Articulation Map.

The fact that something shows as C2 in Cubase and C0 in Cakewalk means nothing.

This is simply down to how you've set your base octave in preferences:

Whitesea Studio did an interesting video comparing one of those cheap mic's with a U47 - AFAIK the NW-8000 / BM-800 are basically the same mic rebadged by 1000 different companies:
 

He also did a follow up, using EQ to try to match them:
 

Just now, aidan o driscoll said:

I wonder will this be sorted out with new ver of Sparkle which I reckon is on the way? So upgrade might do the trick.

By any chance are you having similar issues with NI Electric Sunburst & NI Strummed Acoustic? Quiet heavy on a system I reckon vs other Kontakt products?

All of the NI Stuff has always been relatively slow in loading for me - there's a tonne of samples involved that need loading. But all of it runs rock solid.

You might be able to tweak how much is loaded from within Kontakt itself, but I'm just using the defaults.
 

1 hour ago, aidan o driscoll said:

Did JBRIDGE ever come with SONAR? i am a longtime user with Sonar Plat installed also but not used so as to get my PLAT content for CW BL

BTW I also notice that NI Electric Sunburst & NI Strummed Acoustic are glitching also OR slow to load when switching patches.

My spec BTW is Core i5, 16GB Ram, hybrid Sata Drive, Audient Evo 4 I/F

 

As a matter of interest SPARKLE is a 64bit plug? So why does it need JBridge or even works better with it I wonder?

I also have Carbon which seems fine, but that got a sort of major v2 type update which sparkle didnt get? So I wonder is it a wait for next ver of Sparkle other than buying JBridge

 

No, jBridge is a 3rd party product: https://jstuff.wordpress.com/jbridge/

Although JBridge is primarily for bridging 32 bit plugins to 64 bit hosts,  it also supports:

64 bit plugin -> 32 bit host
64 bit plugin -> 64 bit host  (which is what I'm doing with Sparkle)
32 bit plugin -> 32 bit host  (which gets around the memory limit per process)
 

The most common options are defined in the Track View Options menu:

As far as Markers, Tempos and Meter/Key go, these are automatically selected with the time range... however by default, the drag/drop operations and cut/copy/delete/paste operations won't take these into account  (unless you're ripple editing).

The cut special / copy special / delete special / paste special operations allow you to check/uncheck which of these you want to include / exclude, e.g. for "Copy Special" / Paste Special:

 

In addition, you can also further filter out your selection by using the Edit->Select->By Filter dialog:



The cool thing about the Event Filter dialog, is that you can save your own presets.
 

9 hours ago, aidan o driscoll said:

Just trying sparkle in CW now.

Getting alot of glitching right out of the box. And even a sort of distortion.

I thought it might be buffering issues .. so changed these on my Audient EVO 4, still happening.

Closed CW and tried in Ableton and in Reason ... no problems, playing perfect.

So what could it be in CW I wonder?

 

I got this too - using the "Load using jBridge wrapper" totally fixed it for me. I get perfect playback at a buffer size as low as 32:

Of course, this is assuming you have JBridge installed...

I bought VG Iron, VG Amber & VG Sparkle as a bundle when they first came out. I added VG Silk & VG Carbon later.

They're all really good, but I probably use VG Sparkle  & VG Carbon the least. 

VG Sparkle is pretty much a chord riffer, which it does very well... but for me to find use for it, I'd like to see everything from VG Silk incorporated into it (i.e. the bass notes & arpeggiated notes), but with the VG Sparkle sounds.  I'd like to see the same in VG Amber too.

Until they do that, for me, NI Electric Sunburst is my go to for that type of sound. 

VG Amber / NI Strummed Acoustic are pretty much on par IMO, and I'll quite often use both in the same project doubled up.

3 hours ago, Nigel Mackay said:

The ones at r-koubou don't import. No error message. Nothing happens.

Yeah, I noticed that... we'll be releasing a fix for that shortly.

7 hours ago, Maestro said:

I'm going to wait until this gets out of EA, as I'm having a ton of issues getting Cakewalk to reliably trigger the Key switches for Miroslav.  The Expression Map I built for Cubase works properly, but the Cakewalk Articulation Map does not function identically.  Half the Articulations do not trigger.   I did built the Cakewalk Articulation Map from Scratch (it's not an imported Cubase Expression Map).

Some Key Switches trigger, but others do nothing.  The sample player doesn't seem to be the issue, as it works properly when Cubase uses a map to switch articulations in the same manner.

Ugh.  I built the entire Philharmonik 1 and 2 Solo and Ensemble Strings Articulation Maps (from scratch) before I noticed this issue ? 

@Maestro - can you post (or PM) a small project that demonstrates this so we can get to the bottom of it?

Just now, John Roynon said:

I am having problems renaming sections when working with the arranger track. At first I thought it was only happening when I double click on a section name to change it. However I also have problems when using the drop down menu. I click on section to rename it. It lets me type in the new name but when I hit return it just hangs. The program locks up and no other features work. The only way out of it is to close the program and start again. I have discovered that CTRL S will save the current status but this is happening without warning. When I reopen the project I can rename sections but if I do any other editing and come back to the arranger track to rename sections it happens again.

@John Roynon - is this still happening for you in the EA release?  Some work was done to remedy this in that release.

3 hours ago, brandon said:

 

Thanks for the link above - however it states  "Another way to integrate mastering into your workflow is using the drag-and-drop functionality in the Tree View. Head to ‘Projects’ click the track you want to add a revision to, drag the track over the existing version and drop it in. Next you will see the save screen pop-up with mastering options to choose from: Automated, Manual or Off".

 

I am at a loss as to what the 'Tree View' is and where 'Projects' are if anyone is able to enlighten me?  In the Projects folder on my hard drive there is nothing in any of the songs individual folders that allows me to click on and send it for mastering.

 

Thanks in advance.

You first need to export your Cakewalk project to BandLab using the Export Module, then log in to BandLab via your browser to access the project that has been uploaded:

 

Once you're logged in, click on your project, e.g.:

Next, select the menu on the right to master your track:


 

This is no longer available with CbB, as BandLab offer their own free mastering service.

Re-installing SONAR Artist through the Cakewalk Control Center should make this available again.  I can't recall whether a custom install will allow you to only install the LANDR export utility, but it might be worth giving it a try.

Normally we recommend installing SONAR first (to get all the included 3rd party software), then Cakewalk by BandLab afterwards as it updates some shared components, but in theory, the SONAR Artist installer should leave any newer shared components alone.
 

FWIW, CbB articulation maps are for the most part like Direction expression maps.

The attribute type expression maps is closely linked with MPE (MIDI polyphonic expression), as it relates to adding specific control information on a per-note basis.

When we come to implement MIDI 2.0 & MPE within CbB, we'll look at implementing a similar feature for per-note articulations at that point.

There is actually a way to emulate per note articulations using the transforms and the input filters, but it's messy as you have to create a separate articulation for each note, and you end up with a separate articulation lane for every articulation/note combination.

There's a couple of collections of Cubase expression maps in github:

https://github.com/r-koubou/ArticulationMappingFiles
https://github.com/mvy/symseries-exprmap
 

I managed to upgrade to 20H2 using the media creation tool, and selecting the "Keep my files" option... which deletes all your program files (and all your stuff in ProgramData), but keeps your "personal" files intact. Copies of your program files / program data are in the windows.old directory, so it's easy to copy stuff over (e.g. VST's that don't have an installer) if need be.

I got about 1/2 way through re-installing programs before a reboot refused to boot again.  I've gone through this procedure TWICE this week (so wasted around 30 hours).

The second time around I was running sfc /scannow before every reboot, just to make sure no installation had screwed anything up.

The last time it failed was just after installing Antares AVOX 4.  I seriously doubt that would have caused the issue, but it was rebooting fine up until that point.

So now I'm back to square one having restored my 1909 image yet again.

I'm gonna re-enable system restore the next time I try this, in the hope I'll be able to rollback the state if this happens again, but I'm very close to losing all confidence in these Microsoft upgrades.

When you say time code, do you mean the time code display within CbB itself ?

The "Pause" key (next to scroll lock)  puts CbB into low CPU usage mode by reducing the UI refresh rate.

Pressing pause again will take it out of that mode.

This is likely you're issue - make sure the master fader is set to Bus 1:


 

At one point I moved all my projects into MS Sourcesafe, and later SubVersion to give me version control. But to be honest, the extra hassle of checking out projects / checking them back in far outweighed the benefit of the very few times I needed to go back to an earlier version of my projects.

My current solution is just to use cloud storage. I have a couple of batch files which copy my CbB project directory to and from a directory that is synced to the cloud. 

It's important that the sync directory is different from your actual projects directory to avoid the cloud client app accessing project files at the same time as Cakewalk (although an alternative might be to just manually run the cloud client app).

I run the download script when I start up (once the cloud sync has finished), and the upload script when I finish a session and wait for it to upload everything.

This has a few advantages:

• I have a backup of my projects in the cloud
• The cloud storage gives me access to previous versions of files
• I decide when a project gets synced
• All my Cakewalk projects are in sync across all my PC's.
• I've always got access to my previous version in the sync directory.

The disadvantages:

• The initial upload to the cloud took ages... but it was just a one off.  Delta updates only take a couple of minutes at most.
• I've got two copies of my projects on each machine, which takes up disk space
• When working on another machine, I might forget to run the batch files to copy the latest to my project directory.
• The annual cost of cloud storage... not a biggie though for the piece of mind.