JnTuneTech

I still use a few analog tools with analog patching - when bringing in XLR balanced to a mic-level input that may not be very adjustable, there are adapters for that. Especially if you are worried about some kind of input mismatch on the level that might overload something. In the picture is one of a pair I have used for years (together with an XLR gender change adapter), on and off stage, mostly just to extend unbalanced cable runs with less RF interference, but also just to match the levels without so much input switching involved. -Since this one is passive, it does roll off the high frequencies a bit, sometimes a DI box with adjustable response can sound better. Lots of choices.

I tend to agree (on several points..) - mainly that treatment, including a good FX chain can be the part that gives life to samples, but is best when adjustable. -Simple things like SI Drums - you can't change the flat samples, noisy ones are noisy already, so that's tough. -Even with TTS-1 - if you forget that the default for patches is to have reverb send at 40 (and that reverb is rather "canny" to me), then without adjusting things, you will think it all sounds cheesy. -Start with drier sounds, add FX, play with stereo in the mix, and many basic sample sets will work better than you might think.

Yeah. Something about the "..Watched a ton of youtube videos and read forum posts.." part left me thinking it was a bot-created post, probably to get hits going from the Amazon product link. -Certainly didn't seem to have read the other zillion posts about ASIO4ALL. -And when I bring up the OP - I could swear I hear dogs barking somewhere (blatant Terminator reference) - but maybe that's just me... Anyway, I think your first post answer was as helpful as can be, for all that it's worth now!

Yes, I think the drift here is to use a smaller device for external VST control already. (I have the BCR2000 as well, but it's a bit clunky, and not small though ?) I think a lot of folks already do this as well, and there are many modern products out there, and more every day. Some are super expensive (SSL, etc. - yikes!), and some are cheap plastic built for failure... but I digress! - Both the OP and I have the X-Touch Mini. That one has the same type of 8-knob - button layout as the older Behringer BC series (so as to easily map the MCP options), but with only 1 row of rotaries & "VPOTs", as well as 2 rows of buttons, 1 fader, and a layer switch to assign things to 1 more alternate set of parameters. Besides the issue of getting either ACT or something like the AZ Controller set up for each individual's system and tastes, I am still always hoping to find some logical way of addressing things starting with some sort of logical "common" set of parameters (yes, I know azslow...), so that I can switch between similar plugins without so much setup disparity. -And, I am still learning these options myself, as most of it is buried in reams of text documentation and setup screens, so it's a learning in progress, to be quite clear. One of my experiments, with either (or both) the Cakewalk ACT customization or the AZ Controller plugin, will be to take similar use plugins, starting with several "typical" (I know, I know...) EQ VSTs, and see if I can define a list of most common functions (EQ band, Q, level, - master i/o level, what have you), that I most always will start from, so that I can always assign those to the same rotaries on each VST template. The goal of course, to be able to minimally control several similar plugins with the same layout on the controller, leaving extra & plugin-specific controls for the mouse. -I know this concept is nothing new at all, but I have a lot of things to learn, and I want to concentrate on achieving it within Cakewalk first as much as may be possible currently. One other consideration - the current small-factor controllers have little or no labeling capability on the device itself, and for me that increases the multi-mapping learn curve. -I have to admit, I can only even type text still using a lot of hunt-and-peck, so that is my particular curve limitation. -I guess on the X-Touch Mini, there seems to be some room between rotaries & buttons that might be something I could apply a custom label strip to, but I'm not sure yet. But anyway, @Glenn Stanton -yes, getting the right type of controller is probably first, and then for me anyway, almost more important is trying to find some common programming setup(s) easily enough that I don't give up!

-I apologize, and I can only say that when I was answering the OP, I was stating my own knowledge and experience. -This entire thread is one I am currently bookmarking, in fact, as between the info herein from you & msmcleod, much of which is new to me, I have a lot to learn by trying some of this out. -I in fact have both the X-Touch (full) and the Mini, and as yet have not had full experience with using your AZ Controller, nor even the customization of the built-in ACT in Cakewalk lately. -Again I apologize, and @Bassfaceus I do hope you re-read through this as well, as it does look indeed like there are many good options to try here. I know I will be trying some of it out soon on my own system. And certainly, @azslow3 - I would not wish for you to stop responding with your valuable information & assistance (i.e. don't "shut up" !) ?

Not specifically something I know of. Perhaps someone else reading this may offer some other perspective, some kind of MIDI CC to keyboard input mapping app perhaps? I wish I could help more.

In that scenario, you may also want to check: If you use a bus in Cakewalk - whether or not the gain is changed there (or anywhere else in the path). On the RME side - whether or not the gain is changed there by FX if you have enabled "EQ + D" in the Fireface USB driver preferences, as well as the above mentioned hardware mix monitoring levels - does the level of "Software Playback" to your choice of monitoring output match your "Hardware Input" monitoring level? -Most of this you can use your ear for, of course, but also remember that the metering at the hardware level (TotalMix or the front panel) may be the most useful for troubleshooting the actual levels coming out at the end. If this were for studio calibration or something more serious, I would suggest trying the old fashioned method - putting a test tone through the chain, and using the metering options to validate the gain staging. I used to have a console with a built-in tone generator, just for that purpose. -In this case though, you could probably just find a synth or similar sound source, to create a steady pitched output with no modulation, and input that on one of the hardware input channels, and follow the levels through to the end, to check for parity mismatch. -Again though, in this case, maybe you are just curious - but it's up to you, experimenting can be fun, and lead to other creative discoveries, again... IMHO.

Yes. As mentioned in the beginning. -Unfortunately though, there is no "fine" control that way, as you have found. I have no idea if that is possible.

With the RME interfaces, you have a lot of fine tuning options, that are up to you to set before it gets to Cakewalk. Not the least of which is how the input/output routing & respective volumes are setup in TotalMix - the RME hardware mix controls. -So, for instance, if your TotalMIx direct output signal path is set to a lower volume than say, the DAW channel output(s) you use to send Cakewalk playback to your speakers/headphones, of course Cakewalk will sound louder, because it was set that way. - And that is just one example of settings that can affect the relative volume of outputs you describe. This subject can in fact be confusing for anyone, at the outset, since it's sometimes hard to remember that the hardware outputs of most sound devices have their own mixer, which takes understanding, before connecting it to a DAW. I suggest familiarizing yourself with the RME mixing & setup functions (you would need to anyway to set initial microphone levels, headphone impedance matching, etc.), and then you may understand better the relative volume levels of the audio paths you set - it will really help you to do all that before you assume just connecting something in Cakewalk will just automatically be balanced or preset. And, you can try experiments to figure out how to get what you want , save mix settings, and so on - the RME documentation is all there (though I admit some of it is a bit dry!), and eventually when you get comfortable with the options, you may even find some great creative audio routing and even processing options with the RME audio hardware & Cakewalk together, Give it a try!

Yes, and you have explained it quite well. Also, from what I have seen, your work on controller mapping software has been very helpful, thanks for that. To what I said earlier - there are ways to establish and use basic standards. Otherwise, we wouldn't have a long list of manufacturers and instruments in Cakewalk who participated in the MIDI 1.0 GM & variations of initial standards, and things like MIDI CC1, 7, usage etc. would not have been (and still are) widely adopted as standards. And although I don't know the entire story, obviously Mackie (or the company they once were) managed to push a hardware & MIDI mapping standard set that still exists today. From what I have read of the development of MIDI 2.0 specifications, that is something that the newer guidelines are hoping to give more possibilities for developers to create and build out with modern capabilities. And I for one, am also hoping so. @Bassfaceus - I definitely understand what you mean. And even though the X-Touch seems to be a fairly decent piece of hardware, and I even happen to be fine with drilling into the manuals, or downloading configuration apps & all that entails, I too just wish some of these devices had an easier way to use what I consider basics - at least baseline control definition sets, with plugins, because I too prefer to twiddle knobs more than dragging a mouse... And by now, MCP is so behind modern system & software designs, but sadly, none of the other frameworks for that kind of stuff has come out on top. -Definitely frustrating, and it can't be helpful to DAW developers either!

Well, I would have to agree to disagree there. For instance, if a standard set of primary control functions (like in GM) could be proposed, and adopted by major parties, even at a basic level (VST common development, etc., as was done within VST2 using program change integration that matched MIDI standards), these things could be at least allowed to function with less user intervention. A DAW could support plugins that, when queried by a USB 2.0 MIDI device driver (and vice-versa), would respond to that request with the available mapped parameters, and then even present an interface to allow matching acceptance, and further customization if desired. It is possible. As it stands, and has for many years now, yes, there are still disagreements with communication standards for control of musical devices beyond note triggering, but much of the technological issues that were present in the early days have been removed with increased bandwidth, and now two-way interactive communication standards have a much better chance of working going forward, I think. -Unfortunately, it will be some time before any of us may benefit from that, so until then, there's old protocols like MCP, and apps that include MIDI learn functions, which still always have to be set up manually to get going. -Ah well.

-Indeed, and that's being kind! MCP doesn't seem to have been updated since it was set up long ago. I can only hope MIDI 2.0 gets going soon, and manufacturers & software designers can go forward with using some of the 2-way configuration specs proposed, so that things like these control surfaces and plugins can work much better without as much manual intervention. -As to wishing more control parameters & display characters were available, seriously agreed, but if there is no standard and you have to manually program each connection for each controller to VST pairing, this type of control setup will always be clunky. With my X-Touch use in (originally SONAR) Cakewalk, I got more use out of it after having found a button panel overlay that specifically matches the naming of the functions in the settings dialogs. I find that most of the MCU clones use slightly different naming for the extended functions, maybe for avoiding licensing or copyright issues? -Well, I will have to try out that C4 mapping utility, see if that helps any - thanks!

Sometimes Kontakt takes as much maintenance as that Setter, for sure! (That's all the snark I can muster...) I recently re-set up my Kontakt stuff (after finally removing K5), and I had to spend a lot of time setting up the desktop standalone library paths, rescanning... (as I use a custom library destination) - which in reading the support site info, is recommended before using the plugin versions of the big NI apps. Even then, the desktop app still takes a long time to even show anything is working after double-clicking the icon... My plugin version of K7 seems to load normally though. -Doesn't sound as though this update is relating to any of that, AFAIK.

I don't have my production PC in front of me at this moment, but if I recall correctly (and it has nothing to do with sharing anything special!) - here is what I know: -So, the Behringer support site is where I found the X-Touch Mini editor app, it is free. It allows you set different MIDI channels, CCs - response types, etc. and LED actions for almost all the rotaries, buttons, and the fader. By customizing I meant: - The default settings in the Cakewalk Mackie Control Surface leave the full LCD support off - since many controllers have no LCDs, and it also adds to the bandwidth that goes over the USB-MIDI connection. -If you go into the Cakewalk help files for using the Mackie Control Surface setup as a control surface, there is a better explanation of the options in there.

The big difference between the big X-Touch and the Mini, is that only the Mini can be customized. While they both offer Mackie Control Protocol (MCP) support, most plugins aren't controlled so well by that - in my experience. In my setup, I use both of those controllers, and mostly only use the full X-Touch for a control surface - it works well for me with Cakewalk (and a custom button overlay) in that regard, selecting the default Mackie profile. -I also customize the settings a bit to use the full LCD support, and I've never had any bandwidth issues so far. For the X-Touch Mini - I downloaded the CC mapping app for it, and created a few maps that load in seconds, and I use that to match the VST CC mappings available/assignable in many of my VSTs. -It all still leaves a bit to be desired, but it gets me a lot of the hands-on flexibility I wanted, and even with some synth control mappings as well. But yes, the big original X-Touch is just a modern MCP surface, and not customizable. Fairly solid though, not so many cheap plastic parts as some of the others I have seen.

That particular instrument is a good example - some plugins didn't provide automatic migration methods from VST2 to 3, and that is beyond Cakewalk to account for. -Although for the OP, it seems a group of similar plugins don't all behave the same, which is indeed frustrating. -John, FWIW, all my Addictive drums kits transferred to VST3 by using the manual method, -save/export the kit in the old version to your presets folder, then import that preset when in the new version.

The primary difference I always encounter between track outputs & track sends, is remembering to choose the post or pre fader source, and panning levels, on a send. And though it's mostly an analog specific holdover, for me track sends generally involve no other processing point options along the way to their output destination. But in digital, that really makes no difference, especially if your destinations are the same type.

I have had Rapture (and most of the SONAR add-on tools) running with no issues in CbB for quite some time now. However, I did originally put it all together by starting with an X1-SPLAT upgrade, and eventually adding CbB alongside. I now mostly use Rapture Pro, as it basically seems to be the combination of everything from CWSS (which is only 32-bit) thru to all the pro versions of Dimension & Rapture, including some of the quick "instrument" GUI knob add-ons that were in CWSS. All of it uses the same sample locations & library functions, and with a few exceptions, most of the add-ons that were offered back in the day all still work. -The only thing I am lacking today is one that gave me a big set of envelope preset curves which I found quite useful, especially for ADSR synth-style programming. If you have all the serials, installer downloads, and have authorized everything, all those versions should still work, but as mentioned above, perhaps you have an issue with MS VC++ install versioning, or just a bad unrelated project glitch, as it all seems to work nominally with current versions of CbB for most of us.

You can search and find many related posts here already, as this is often discussed. -One thing I will say personally, is that I have never found Cakewalk itself to have a significant impact on use of boot drive space. -If you already have issues looking at the space on that SSD, then it would be wise to replace that with a larger drive, -for all your computer needs going forwards. And that being said, once Cakewalk is installed and configured per your needs, most all of the functions that require large amounts of space will usually wind up being associated with your own data and other related programs (such as sample libraries for plugins, etc.) - not Cakewalk itself. There are many options available for dealing with that, and it's just up to you to set them as you install those things. I have also found that if you do have size constraints already on your boot drive, without specific workarounds you will in fact have more problems going forwards with installing plugins and other resources beyond Cakewalk itself, and some of those may not provide much flexibility, so then you still have figure out a workaround, or just get a bigger boot drive. -In any case, there are many options, do some searches on that topic here, and you will find much discussion already laid out!

Anybody remember some of the pedals this recent AmpliTube set features? I still have a Morley wah and their opto-volume pedal on an old, mothballed pedal board I built in the 70's. The EVO-1 pedal drove me nuts, and eventually I opened it up to see what the heck it was doing inside, lost half the oil, and it never worked again! I still like the wah pedal, and volume of course was quite functional... I even used to have a great 70's Morley Man T-Shirt (and hair that went with it), it probably became a grease rag for working on cars & such, I remember wearing it to shreds. -I suppose these types of plugins are great for re-visiting the past, virtually, but I'm not so sure I would use them over anything else that can be done with typical amp sim fx already. Neat GUI recreations though. -I still can't imagine wanting to re-live using the oilcan echo though, and man, that thing was heavy IRL!! ?

Do the jerky screen draws occur outside of CbB as well? I would try running Windows Task Manager, Processes - (show all if needed), and while the problem is occurring, click the column sorting on CPU usage, and see if any of the spikes show up in concert with the freezes, and find out detail on what processes are causing that. -If that works at all for you. Maybe you've already done that? I say that, because I have a similar problem with my laptop (whenever NVIDIA drivers are updated in my case) that I stop by shutting down the background process (and removing it from startup) that causes it. Maybe you have something similar going on.

I didn't catch that particular episode, my family had just returned to the States after 3yrs in Germany... But I picked up on that show about a year later and probably never missed it much, until about '76... I admit, if you look at the covers I do in Cakewalk, I am still stuck in that era more often than not! Casey Kasem & AT40, -and actual radio, -wow. Happy 4th!

Yes, with a multi-channel audio interface, it can work old school that way. -Now I remember putting SMPTE LTC on a track for the super 8 film projector of my film audio school project - just the same way... to sync film with an audio mix, before Cakewalk days... Lighting automation can work the same way! Just for reference - in case it isn't obvious, but you can't change the Cakewalk tempo, or the relative start frame & match of the LTC track (unless you need some offset), after you make the hand off to the lighting designer, or lights won't match. You can continue to adjust the mix if needed though.

Unless I am reading things wrong (it's been a long time since I put on the AV lighting hat), it sounds as though you are being asked to create a mix with SMPTE LTC alongside - as a master (not slaving Cakewalk to it at all). If so, as @OutrageProductions mentions, you get a timecode generator. I know one of my clients has a dedicated hardware unit for that buried somewhere, we used to stripe broadcast TV segments when needed... years ago. There are software SMPTE code generators out there, I've even seen a free Web app (Warning: I have no idea if the site is safe, but have seen users from other forums say they've used it..) https://elteesee.pehrhovey.net/ - which will generate a file for you, as well. I know some other DAWs have transport to LTC plugins, but I would think lighting just needs a solid time reference provided bound to your audio mix. Not necessarily to follow timing, just position. The starting frame would be the most important. Then the other consideration - are they playing/lighting your audio one track at a time, or in a sequence? For the latter, you would need a timed playback mix of all the program material, with one continuous SMPTE timecode reference. -In my experience anyway. -Apologies if this doesn't match your actual need.

You are on the right track though. Probably is a plugin load issue, if it starts in safe mode. -It's up to you to troubleshoot from there. -One thing I usually do, is make sure you have a backup of the original, then copy the project and work on that copy -such as trying the option to delete vsts. I would also make notes on which plugins you delete, and add them back slowly, -that type of thing, until you find what crashes the project. -Also, keep the notes for reference in case you need to change any other Cakewalk settings and projects to avoid the issue again. -It's trial & error, but if you can find the bad element & remove it from Cakewalk, you can also usually open the original backed up project, replace the plugin with something else - for instance. -Lots of choices, but at least you can still open the project in safe mode - keep at it!