msmcleod

What I tend to do, is after installing I make a copy of the Cakewalk folder within C:\Program Files\, and keep them there for each version eg: If there is a problem with an update, I simply run the Cakewalk.exe within one of the older backup directories.

Craig Anderton wrote a post on his tips blog, explaining the pros/cons from a resource view when using a single synth in the synth rack vs separate instrument tracks: http://www.craiganderton.com/tips.html (scroll up from the bottom to the "180713 Multi-Timbral Instrument vs. Multiple Instances—Which is Better?" article). The general gist of the article is (for Kontakt anyhow): Multiple instrument tracks: CPU processing is spread evenly across the CPU cores Memory usage is higher than a single instance A single instance of a synth with multiple MIDI tracks feeding it: All processing is done on a single CPU core Memory usage is lower Some VSTi's can make use of more than one core (e.g. Omnisphere), so these pros/cons might not always apply. Note that CbB's internal "Plugin load balancing" only applies to VST effects, not VSTi instruments, so this setting won't make a difference here.

MIDI tracks CAN be routed to the synth rack. Some soft synths can have multiple audio outputs, because they are multi-timbral (including TTS-1). Multi-timbral means they can play more than one sound at once, by listening in on more than one MIDI channel. When you insert a simple instrument track, it always gives the synth a single stereo output. However, when you insert it with: Simple Instrument Track unchecked; and either: All synth outputs (mono) or All synth outputs (stereo) checked This will create separate audio tracks for all the outputs available. In this case, you can route MIDI tracks to the synth on the rack using the MIDI channel on the MIDI track to determine which sound it will play, and which audio output it'll end up on. The advantages are: You only have one instance of the synth loaded, saving resources You can apply effects separately on each audio track The downside is the instrument's audio tracks & MIDI tracks are now separate, which means you've twice as many tracks to wade through, and you need to be aware of which MIDI track is associated with which audio track. This multi-timbral behaviour still works even if you insert it as a simple instrument track. The only difference with an instrument track is that you've now only got a stereo output, so you can add different audio effects separately to the different instruments. So for your example in Kontakt, you could load Jay bass and it'll be assigned MIDI channel 1. But if you then also load "The Gentleman" piano, it'll be assigned MIDI channel 2. If you insert a MIDI track outputting to channel 1, it'll play the bass. If it's set to channel 2, it'll play the piano.

I don't think a 5400rpm hard drive should cause any issues for audio, if that's all it's used for. In the past I could easily record / playback 24 tracks of 24 bit/44.1Khz audio off an old IDE hard disk on an old P166 with 2 x Yamaha DS2416 PCI cards. Simultaneous recording of up to 16 tracks was no issue. What might start to cause issues is if: You're also dynamically loading samples from that drive during the performance Your audio drive is the same drive Windows is installed on Due to only having 4GB of RAM, it's using the page file on the same drive during audio recording/playback. IMHO the page file is likely to be the main issue here, so upgrading to at least 8GB RAM would be my recommendation.

Cakewalk will only re-scan a plugin if thinks the file has changed. Have you got a virus scanner, or cloud sync app scanning that plugin directory? It sounds like something may be changing some file attributes. It may be worth making sure your plugin directories are excluded from any scans.

It may be, but it only ever happens in Cakewalk. I've never experienced it in any other DAW. Like I said though, it's a minor irritation. It takes less then 20 seconds to switch the audio engine off/on and it's back to working again.

Anything under C:\Program Files requires admin rights. I put all my 32-bit VST's in a separate directory, and add this to the VST folder list in preferences. In other words: create a directory C:\VST Copy the DSK Electrik GuitarZ directory there Add C:\VST to your VST folder list in the VST Settings area in CbB preferences Rescan

I have done that, but usually as a means to an end. By that I mean, say I've got a MIDI part in an old project that was originally written for a hardware synth, I might feed that to an existing instrument track. But I'd usually just end up dragging the MIDI on to the instrument track if I'm happy it fits in. For other projects that were exclusively written using my old Yamaha XG module, I'll use a single instrument track with an XG VSTi, and feed all the MIDI parts to it. Again, this is usually because they're unfinished and it's easier to pick out the parts and use them in other projects if needed.

I use instrument tracks almost exclusively. Even if a VSTi is multi-timbral, I'll usually opt for having separate instrument tracks and accept the overhead of having more than once instance of the VSTi running. My reasons are: I can easily swap out one synth for another on a per track basis I only have to worry about one track instead of two and I can freeze them separately if needed.

I get that buzzing noise fairly infrequently. And it's on a Scarlett interface also. I'll get it maybe once or twice in an 8 hour session, but then it won't happen for a week or so. So it's not often enough to be a big issue, just a mild annoyance. I've not managed to find a pattern to it, as it happens on the smallest of projects and may or may not happen on bigger ones. ASIO buffer size doesn't seem to make a difference either. I've got a modest spec machine: Win 10 on a 3rd gen 3.4Ghz i5 with 16GB RAM. When it does happen, switching the audio engine on/off fixes it for me.

There's always this: https://www.dskmusic.com/dsk-electrik-guitarz/ The youtube demo on the page is not very complimentary - you can get much better results. Alternatively, you could try some of these soundfonts: https://freepats.zenvoid.org/ElectricGuitar/clean-electric-guitar.html There's quite a few sf2 players around, e.g.: https://www.dskmusic.com/dsk-sf2/

Can you provide some details about your setup? e.g. PC specs, audio interface and whether you're using ASIO, WSAPI etc?

Really good free guitar VSTi's: Acoustic Guitar: https://www.amplesound.net/en/pro-pd.asp?id=7 Electric Guitar: https://impactsoundworks.com/product/shreddage-3-stratus-free/ In both cases, the paid versions offer more articulation options, but the sound quality of both free versions are top notch.

Yes, by making it into a groove clip:

If you use SI-Bass, remember to transpose +12.

Anyone who has been on tour in a band starting out will know that this contains SO many truths....

I guess it depends what you define as a product. As far as I'm concerned, CbB is the same product as Sonar - it's just a newer version that has been re-branded. It's really not that different from when Pro Audio 9 was followed by Sonar 1. I'll bet that over 90% of the code was the same. The only difference with CbB is that it's now published by a new company. When CbB came out, I suspect that over 99% of the code was the same as Sonar. After all, the only real changes were a few splash screens and the bug fixes that were meant to go into Sonar 2017.11. It's fairly common for companies not to support older versions of their products. Is Excel 95 abandonware, even though Excel 365 is available? I'd say no. Excel 365 is just a newer version, and the company doesn't support the old version... and why would they? They're not going to backport every bug-fix to every previous version.

It's worth mentioning, I don't actually use drum maps myself. I've got a bunch of CAL scripts to do it for me from back when drum maps didn't exist!

The main benefit for drum maps is to be able to easily switch from one drums VSTi to another, where both have completely different note mappings (e.g. the snare is D1 on one VSTi, but it's G3 on another). Having each drum part on a different MIDI track doesn't really solve this problem (you'd still need to transpose the note to trigger the correct drum), however what it does do is allow you to mix and match different drum VSTi's if, for example, you prefer an AD2 snare and a EZDrummer kick. However even if you do stick to all your drums on just one MIDI track/VSTi, most good drum VSTi's support separate audio outs for each drum (or drum group, like cymbals or toms). If you freeze the VSTi, you'll end up with separate audio tracks just like you've recorded real drums.

Synthmaster has a bunch of Keith Emerson/ELP patches in their "Nori Ubukata Historical Synth Giants Vol. 2" set. [Edit]: Here's a link to a demo of the sounds:

The last two Melodyne updates (4.2.0 and 4.2.1) have broken this functionality. Basically Melodyne now forgets its default detection algorithm, so when you try the drag/drop it causes Cakewalk to crash. The 4.1.x version that ships with Cakewalk works fine. A workaround for the newer Melodyne updates is to create a Melodyne region fx first, re-select the detection algorithm in Melodyne, and then drag the audio clip to the MIDI track.

Perhaps he means the ProChannel ? I don't get the red/green thing though, unless it's some custom theme thing.

I was just thinking this myself last night. I export all my unfinished projects as .mp3 into a preview directory so I can easily go through them to see if any of my ideas will fit into anything I'm currently working on. There's a few of them I wished I could fast forward through to get to the various sections.

The Focusrite 2i2 should run fine at a buffer size of 256. I run mine at 64 with no issues, and my machine is a much lower spec (although it's an Intel not a ryzen) Is Windows using the Focusrite as it's sound device? It may be worth setting Windows to use the internal sound device so that only CbB is using the 2i2. It may also be worth deleting AUD.INI from %APPDATA%\Cakewalk\Cakewalk Core (whilst CbB isn't running). Sometimes this can get corrupted, so deleting it will force CbB to create a fresh version.

Sounds like you've got a lense enabled. If you select "none" from the lenses dropdown (in the menu bar, over on the far right) can you see the tracks again?