msmcleod

I had a project that was leaving Cakewalk active as a background process in Task Manager. I've narrowed it down to Overloud TH-U. Using TH-3 instead seems to solve the problem (luckily I'm using a patch that is in both versions). Has anyone else seen this behaviour?

I can't see myself ever wanting to use this - it just looks like an alternative GUI for a sound browser. I find this new product a strange one to release... IMO AD2's biggest competitor is SD3, which is an amazing product. I'd have thought they would want to release an AD3 to bridge the gap.

Coming from a traditional tape recording background, I still find it tempting to record as loud as possible. This made sense when tape was noisy and we needed to minimise the signal to noise ratio. The thing is, in the digital world this is probably the worst thing you can do, as you're completely destroying any headroom and severely limiting your dynamic range. If your mixes sound good, but they're quiet, then that's probably a good thing. 24 bit digital recording has a huge dynamic range, but this is extremely limited if everything is close to peak. If you need it louder during mixing, turn the volume knob on your amp/monitors up. Now obviously when you get around to distributing your music, you don't want it that quiet, hence all the advice on mastering. I'd treat mastering as a separate process. Take your "quiet" mix as a stereo pair, put it in either a new project in Cakewalk, or use an audio editor such as SoundForge or Audacity and use something like Ozone to master it. For interim mixes (i.e. when my project isn't finished, but I want others to listen to it), I'll quite often temporarily stick Waves L2 on the master bus and wack it up as far as it'll go without "pumping" (you can use Cakewalk's Boost11 as an alternative).

The nanoKONTROL comes with software to define what CC messages it can send out. Each set of CC mapping is known as a scene. You can have up to four scenes.The "Scene" button on the original nanoKONTROL is used in conjunction with the cursor buttons to go from one scene to another. To be honest though, I'd keep things simple and ignore the scene button for now and just go with whatever it's configured to as is. You need to get Cakewalk to "learn" the CC mappings for each of Cakewalk's operations: I found some old instructions here (it's really difficult to find ANY information on the original nanoKONTROL !): https://web.archive.org/web/20180227221018/http://untidymusic.com/midi/setting-up-nanokontrol-sonar here's a video about ACT:

MMcL Mackie Control #1 is the one you should use. The XT is only for the Mackie Extender, and the C4 is for the Mackie C4. Note: All the instructions in the original MackieControl.chm help file still apply - the pdf just covers the extras included in the MMcL version.

The Set button on the NanoKONTROL2 doesn't seem to send anything to Cakewalk at all in SONAR mode, so I couldn't "capture" it. It must set some internal mode in the NanoKONTROL somehow. Once you press "Set" The left / right buttons navigate between existing markers. On my latest version you can use Cycle + Marker Right to insert a marker. Note that this only works on the NanoKONTROL 2 - the NanoKONTROL Studio doesn't recognise it for some reason. I did a fix a while back for the NanoKONTROL Studio, which can now use the Scrub (labelled as "Scene") button as a shift for the track banks to switch between tracks & buses. I should be able to do a similar thing with the NanoKONTROL 2 using the Cycle button. I'll let you all know once something is a available. I do need to be careful with these modifications though, as I don't want to do anything that will break "normal" behaviour. Nearly all functions operate on the pressing down of a button, so they react immediately. I was lucky with Cycle in that I could react to the releasing of the button instead (as it's not really a time-critical operation). So you'll notice now that it doesn't switch loop on/loop off until you release the Cycle button. Whilst it's down though, I can use it as a shift key for other operations, and it won't act as a normal Cycle button if you've pressed any other buttons whilst it was pressed.

Bear in mind the two serial ports are not MIDI ports, and do not send/receive MIDI data. They use their own communication / handshake protocol. You'll need something to translate the MCU MIDI protocol (or whatever protocol you opt for, e.g. CC #7 + MTC commands), and the communication protocol the D8B understands. DocBradley's source code has some code to do this translation - I'm not sure how complete it is though, but from what I can tell it does at least get as far as the handshake and sending out/receiving fader information. If I was to approach this, I'd use a raspberry PI 3 with 2 x USB to Serial converters, and 3 x USB MIDI cables. The MCU protocol requires each bank of eight to have it's own MIDI IN/OUT ports, hence the 3 USB MIDI cables, and the 2 x USB to Serial converters to talk to the D8B. Of course you could bypass the raspberry pi altogether and use serial ports on the PC, and use a MIDI loopback device. However, finding USB to Serial devices that actually work in Windows 10 might be a challenge. The StarTech stuff is usually solid, but it's pricey. Also I've found writing software that writes to the serial port is more tricky in Windows 10. Doing low level stuff like this is a breeze on the raspberry pi.

That *should* work, though to be honest I've not looked at that functionality. It could just be the Cakewalk command is out of date. The SDK goes back to Sonar 2 ! Leave it with me, and I'll see if I can get it working. [Edit] - By default, the pressing the Marker button switches to marker navigation mode. M1 + Marker inserts a marker. Obviously there's no M1 button on the nanoKONTROL 2, so I'll change it so the Cycle + Marker inserts a marker. The latest installer with this change is here: http://msmcleod.co.uk/cakewalk/MMcLMackieControlSetup.zip

All my machines have hibernate turned off. It's pretty easy to do just run powercfg /h off from an elevated command prompt: windows key + X, then select Windows Power Shell (Admin)

This is by no means the best out there, but is perfectly usable, much better than something like TTS-1, and a bargain at current price of £4 / $5.22 : https://www.pluginboutique.com/products/1837-Orchestral-Companion-Brass They also do woodwind and strings versions for the same price.

You can, but unlike the nanoKONTROL 2 it doesn't use MCU mode. You'll need to set it up as an ACT Midi Controller within Preferences/Control Surfaces, then select the "ACT Midi Controller" from the Utilities menu and use the Learn function to assign the buttons/faders/knobs.

Apologies for another update so soon, but I managed to fix some issues that were bugging me for some time: All faders now reset to zero on closing a project, or closing Cakewalk It now shows "No Cakewalk Project Loaded" rather than "No SONAR Project Loaded" For the Korg Nano KONTROL 2 (which I use in my vocal booth): Cycle + Rewind = Go to Start; Cycle + Record = Undo You can get the installer here: http://msmcleod.co.uk/cakewalk/MMcLMackieControlSetup.zip  Full list of changes here: http://msmcleod.co.uk/cakewalk/MackieControl-MMcL.pdf NOTE: No need to uninstall if you've installed it already - just run the new installer, and it'll replace the old one.

My latest version has all of Azslow's changes plus a few extras specifically targeted to the Nano KONTROL 2 and the Nano KONTROL Studio. You can get the installer here: http://msmcleod.co.uk/cakewalk/MMcLMackieControlSetup.zip Full list of changes here: http://msmcleod.co.uk/cakewalk/MackieControl-MMcL.pdf

Is 1366x768 your actual native monitor resolution? I'd understand if this was a laptop, but this seems awfully low by today's standards. If your screen picture doesn't look sharp, this could be your issue - in which case, try increasing the resolution if it'll let you.

Normally the cursor not moving is due to scroll lock being off. Pressing the scroll lock key normally fixes this. I'm not sure what's going on with automation, though - unless you've somehow disabled it?

You might want to take a look at this: http://d8b.adamdbradley.com/ His source code is here: https://github.com/docbradley/d8b-controller It might give you some insight into how to interface to the D8B via the serial ports.

Ironically, my TX81Z is the first hardware synth I've had die on me, well I say die, it's output is really distorted. I've just not got around to narrowing down the issue (I'm guessing it's the D/A converter(s)). You can do this, but it involves sampling far more velocities. I normally sample 4 velocities, but for some sounds I'll go up to 6 or 8. You can even sample different modulations (like mod wheel, breath control etc) but it takes forever to sample, and results in very large instruments. For the reasons mentioned earlier, I wouldn't even bother trying to sample a synth that was reacting to so many different controller types. I use the VL card in my MU100R, or my VZ-8M for my wind synth or SY77 with breath controller. That's one of the reasons they're still in my rack... but to be honest I don't get much use out of them. Like I said, it is possible to sample them, but you have to sample the synth at every possible combination of controller setting. It's just not worth it IMO... especially since I've actually got the synths!

I've had this issue recently, and narrowed it down to an old 32-bit plugin (RedShift Pickup Replace). Cakewalk appears to shutdown, but is still active in Task Manager. If I kill it in Task Manager, I can start up again. What I do now, is bounce the track then delete the plugin, and save the project. I still have to kill Cakewalk in Task Manager for one more time, but subsequent sessions are fine.

Same here.

Ah yes, Craig Anderton's book. Well worth the money. Here's the link: https://reverb.com/software/learning/craig-anderton/3292-ebook-the-huge-book-of-cakewalk-by-bandlab-tips-by-craig-anderton

As far as I can tell, the Pro Box supports MCU for all 24 channels. It's a combination of hardware / software. The hardware part connects to the 25 pin D socket on the back, which AFAIK is the only way to get control of all 24 channels. You might be able to construct one yourself using something like a raspberry pi or an arduino (though I suspect an arduino might be too slow for this).

I've uploaded a new version of my MackieControl.dll. Latest changes: It now comes as an installer/uninstaller, so no more copying over the original Cakewalk version There are now 3 separate instances available, so you can now use up to 3 sets of Mackie hardware controllers to independently control Cakewalk The original Cakewalk version is now left in place: the new versions appear as separate control surfaces Key Presses can now be bound to the function/footswitches Additional bindings for modifier keys for bounce to clips, bounce to tracks, saving as temples, audio export and more... You can download the installer here: http://msmcleod.co.uk/cakewalk/MMcLMackieControlSetup.zip A full list of features can be found in the PDF: http://msmcleod.co.uk/cakewalk/MackieControl-MMcL.pdf

This could be tricky, as each move of the fader or VST parameter would go through potentially hundreds of steps. Not every adjustment is immediately going from one setting to another. So you'd end up with hundreds of undo steps which would eat up your RAM pretty quickly (or become slow if written to hard-disk). I suspect this is one of the reasons Mix Recall was introduced. Using Mix Recall you can take a snap-shot at various intervals, and revert back to any one of them at any time. More info is on page 605 and also 1078 of the reference guide: https://bandlab.github.io/cakewalk/docs/Cakewalk Reference Guide.pdf

I've got a stupid amount of MIDI modules/synths: Kawai K1R, Kawai K1 Yamaha TX81Z, TG500 x 3, MU10 x 3, MU100R, SY77 Roland D110 x 2, U220, CM64 x 3, MT32, D550, JV1010 x 3, JV2020, VariOS Korg Wavestation SR, X5DR, NX5R x 2, X5D Casio VZ-8M x 2, CZ3000, CZ1, VZ1 Evolution EVS-1 Alesis D5, SR16 SMPro V-Machine I sampled all the sounds I liked from most of them (which took me literally months), and now I hardly ever switch them on. The only two that get any use is the X5D (a great live workhorse) and the SMPro V-Machine, which can play the samples of all the rest. Apart from that, I do everything in the box nowadays. I still have some of them "wired up" in the studio though. so I can always go back to the hardware synth and edit a sound / re-sample if I really need to.

The MIDI card won't give MCU emulation, but it looks like it does something similar. I suspect you'll have to go down the AzController route for this one. The manual has some info on it (a bit vague though): https://c3.zzounds.com/media/D8B3.0_OM-6bcdb34a9f0362313e1d9f6ab0304b6d.pdf It seems to be mainly aimed at MTC / transport control, but it does mention faders.