Amberwolf

Good; at least I got some of it across. I'm still trying to figure out how to express some stuff in it; I have ideas but as usual keep dozing off trying them out (and sometimes remember what I was doing when I wake up, sometimes not till much later). Any technical feedback about it? (sound, mix, timing, whatever) If I know about problems I can try to fix them, and I always learn something in the process. No, mine was apparently a "spontaneous combustion" of "asbestos mastic" that they used in the 50s to glue linoleum tiles down; apparently after a long enough time chemical stuff happens with that that can start a fire. The city fire inspector said it has happened to multiple houses built the way this one was. This thread over on Endless Sphere is my "blog" about the event and subsequent things over the years: https://endless-sphere.com/sphere/threads/end-of-the-world-beginning-of-a-new-one-the-life-of-amberwolf.49550/#p1684189 The worst part was not the loss of the stuff itself, but the loss of all four dogs and my "safe place" to retreat from the world (I'm autistic and don't deal with stress (or a lot of other things) very well, so I have to have somewhere to "hide" when I can't handle it (nearly every day i reach that point sometime. Dogs are often like me, so I get along with them better than people (we understand each other), so having them around helps****). Then going thru the "gareki" left after the fire to find things that could be saved, the slow rebuild of the house over a year by the landlord while looters stole things I'd managed to save out of the high-fenced yard and sheds, moving back in and sorting thru all that to move it back inside, etc. The feeling of how everyone else regarded what was left after the fire as trash, where to me they were still memories and part of my life...that's what "gareki" means to me. I remember a fire that killed some firefighters near Yarnell, was it that one? (another musician friend lived near there at the time and was threatened by it). **** Since eventually I won't be able to have a real dog, for whatever reason (age, invalidity, space, budget, whatever) I've been working for decades on a project to design and build a robotic "emotional support wolf" (you would never guess but wolves are what I really am interested in, but they are wild and not pets (had a wolfdog once; they're not dogs either), so I am building what I would have if it weren't unfair to the animal in question). It'll be open source so anyone can build themselves one, or modify the design to build a different kind of animal; whatever it is that makes them feel safe. https://endless-sphere.com/sphere/threads/robotics-project-snuggles-the-wolf.122280/

I recall from ages back that there's something called multiclient that some drivers have and some don't. Assuming that's still applicable these days, then if your midi port driver isn't multiclient, only one program can use it at a time. YOu may have to use a loopback midi driver**** to connect CbB to Midiox, then MIdiox can direclty use the hardware port. ****(there are a number around; I use Loopbe, but if you have MIDiox then you probably already have MIDIyoke)

I doubt there are very many people here making money off their music / studio. Or at least, not many actually doing studio work with it for other people as a regular company kind of thing, even if they're selling their own music. I suspect most are like me, just doing it because they'd go nuts if they couldn't, even if no one else ever listens to any of it.

I haven't used their shopify site either (couldn't cuz it's borked for me). I bought the Ethnic Female Vocals pack on their $5 sale right from their main site, and right now am making this song using them: https://amberwolf.bandcamp.com/track/gareki

And to uninstall any of the generic ASIO drivers like ASIO4all, etc.

is it possible the base octave is wrong on the map? (if the maps have that as part of their info, as opposed to just what's in the main program settings)

Took a few tries, but it finally worked, to record the bend-fail tracks via VB's virtual audio cable. Because WDM/KS just won't play without cyclic pops (less frequent the larger the buffers are, but even at max they're still several times a second), I had to use WASAPI, which for some reason doesn't work with my Avid Fastrack Pro USB (WDM/KS and ASIO do, normally I use ASIO, but the VB cable isn't available with ASIO). So I can't hear the output while it's playing / recording, and have to switch back from WASAPI to ASIO to hear what's happening in the recording, listening to the whole thing, then back to WASAPI to retry various things to fix glitches, then back, and forth, having to "argue" with the audio reassignment dialogs that come up multiple times during each switchover to leave all the routings alone. So now I've exported the whole thing and reuploaded it as 01-11-25: 010625 000001 300045p (and I made sure it worked first, this time :lol: )

This is a real problem I have NEVER seen before. If I freeze the Rapture MIDI/Synth track, with realtime or fast bounce, it screws up the pitch of notes following a bend by rebending them further as if it were adding up all the bends along the way in some wierd way. Same happens if I export audio. If I bounce them to a new track, realtime or fast, they're missing a bunch of notes, *and* none of the automation (bend or mod wheel) is rendered. But if I just play it back, everything is perfectly fine. WTF? I guess I'll have to use a virtual cable and send the synth output to the input of another track and record it realtime.... Be back in a few minutes to let y'all know if that worked.

Ok, that's wierd, didn't listen to it till I posted it, but the pitch bends are broken on the rapture CS80 and it leaves the note bent down and then the next bend bends it further. Working on that.

The latest version is all that's actually on the Bandcamp link. I left the pre-spoken-word version up on the soundclick link but it's now missing many edits so go for the link in this post for all those (it's much better): 01-11-25: 010625 000001 300045p -- converted bass arp to midi notes and edited them to fit the rest of the song parts, modulated delay on bass to cut out unncessary repeats. Added pitch bends and modulation to CS80 lead to better match vocals. Many small timing and volume edits. EDIT: Ok, that's wierd, didn't listen to it till I posted it, but the pitch bends are broken on the rapture CS80 and it leaves the note bent down and then the next bend bends it further. Working on that. So the version up there now is kinda broken. I have tried with both the music and the "cover art" to make something to convey the sadness, the disheartening dismay, of seeing your home destroyed, the things you live(d) with treated like junk and garbage. It's a feeling I know very very well, from the housefire a little over a decade ago. I am still figuring that out (how to express it), so this is the beginning of that. I am hoping that those that listen will tell me if it induced any emotion, and if so, what. If it isn't doing what I wanted it to, I can work on it more to try to fix that. On the artwork I tried to use the google imagefx thing to create this, but it just didn't listen to me. I ended up having to composite multiple things from that and elsewhere, using the ancient PaintShopPro6, to get something resembling what I want. It's still not quite there, either, but it's close enough for now. Hopefully it also helps convey the emotional side of what Gareki can mean to someone. I chose the "pup" for it's resemblance to Hachi, whose loss in the fire hit me worse than any of the others. The wolf I chose for it's pose; there were others with face-on facial expressions that said it better but they did not have the dejected body language I was after; this was the closest I could come. Previous edit notes I seem to have missed posting here include: 010625 000001 300038m - assorted edits, added elven phrase " This garden you created, this forest you gave life to, is, and always will, be my home." It was the closest thing I could find in what i had to some of what I wanted to say. I have enough words in the assorted phrases in there that I could say more if I knew what all of the individual words actually mean, and the grammar to be used with them. (if I find time I suppose I could research that, as I'm sure it's documented out there somewhere, assumign these phrases follow those rules--presumably it's from Tolkien's Elven, but I don't know, the Shymer documentation doesn't say).

Yes, they emailed that out after sending out the overly dramatic first email titled "we are closing down (enough)". 😒 (BTW, I find it strange that there is no "rolling eyes" emoticon. Then again, around here maybe it just got worn out and fell off the page?)

A couple of flashing siren lights like on a forklift ought to do it.

We had that happen long ago when I was a kid living in a literal "little pink house" in rural texas.... IIRC mom fell thru the floor next to the bathub into the crawlspace under the house. Landlord never came to fix it; we just had a piece of plywood over it till we moved.

I don't know of a way to do it in SONAR or CbB, but there is a program called VSTHost by Herman Seib that has a function in the menu Engine - Send Sysx file to browse for and send a .syx file. Details are on page 85 of the PDF manual https://www.hermannseib.com/english/vsthost.htm https://www.hermannseib.com/documents/VSTHost.pdf It's not a quick easy one-key thing, but it's there. If you are willing to setup a system-wide keyboard macro program, you can use that to capture a key-combo that would trigger this function without you going away from Cakewalk to do it. I know there's at least one thread about assorted keyboard macro type software around here somewhere with good info on those. Been a while since I used it but I think MidiOx can do the sysex file send too.

If you sign up for their emails you can get their coupon if you want it, but you might or might not be able to actually use the site well enough to buy anything. (the site is too broken for me to be able to access to try it out). FWIW, I can see why they hate shopify; I can't use the site at all (any browser), all I get is this for a login page at: https://deals.functionloops.com/account/login

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Same here; anything that requires an activation (other than a one-time serial / etc input). Long ago got tired of things suddenly deciding they need to talk to daddy before they will let me use them when I'm in the middle of something. I really prefer ones that have no installers, but just let me unzip the files into my plugins folders. I found so many free (VST mostly) plugins over the years that I have at least one of just about every type of sound emitting or processing plugin; some of them are not very good but others are good enough for my stuff. (some of hte not very good ones are useful for destroying sounds in various ways :lol: ). There are only a handful that I actually use regularly, many of those came with one version of SONAR or another. But I do collect sounds (samples, loops, etc) to hack apart to use for various bits, sometimes to build entire projects from, sometimes just to accentuate them, sometimes somewhere between. Most of those are free, too, but I did skip some groceries over the holidaze and buy a few of the super-cheap bundle sales, so I have fresh meat in some of my latest projects on http://amberwolf.bandcamp.com

A quick google for https://www.google.com/search?q=where+is+the+bandlab+installer+saved brings up a few hits, like this one; don't know if any of them are right (or current)

I usually just do CTRL-A to select all, verify that there's enough additional timeline selected to let everything fade out and not be cut off at the end, then choose the export function. In my version the What You Hear preset in the export dialog includes everything that comes out of the hardware outputs in the buses, so it sounds the same as what I hear when listening (hence the name). The format and bitrate and bitdepth chosen depend on my use for the file, but primarily I just stick them on Bandcamp and Soundclick which work fine with 44100 / 16bit wav files, so most of my exports use that. (if I need an MP3 later, I just use LamedropXP to convert the above file)

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Gareki (rubble, debris, remains) https://amberwolf.bandcamp.com/track/gareki 01-10-25: 010625 000001 200034j -- some rearrangements, chord changes, many timing edits, many clip/note edits, added intro. This one uses the Z3TA2+ synth for the bassline, Rapture for the CS80 synthhighs, driven by MIDI I either drew or played in. A lot of audio bits using Functionloops vocals, BlackOctopus' Funky Indian Rhythms and Ghosthack's Shymer for most of the percussion bits (though there's a lot of snipping and shifting of the pieces down to individual hits). Still work in progress, lots of stuff to add for accents, transitions, contrast, etc. Edit 1-10-25 Added artwork I have tried with both the music and the "cover art" to make something to convey the sadness, the disheartening dismay, of seeing your home destroyed, the things you live(d) with treated like junk and garbage. It's a feeling I know very very well, from the housefire a little over a decade ago. I am still figuring that out (how to express it), so this is the beginning of that. I am hoping that those that listen will tell me if it induced any emotion, and if so, what. If it isn't doing what I wanted it to, I can work on it more to try to fix that. On the artwork I tried to use the google imagefx thing to create this, but it just didn't listen to me. I ended up having to composite multiple things from that and elsewhere, using the ancient PaintShopPro6, to get something resembling what I want. It's still not quite there, either, but it's close enough for now. Hopefully it also helps convey the emotional side of what Gareki can mean to someone. I chose the "pup" for it's resemblance to Hachi, whose loss in the fire hit me worse than any of the others. The wolf I chose for it's pose; there were others with face-on facial expressions that said it better but they did not have the dejected body language I was after; this was the closest I could come. 01-09-25: 010625 000001 200030i -- assorted edits 01-10-25: 010625 000001 200034j -- assorted edits 010625 000001 300038m - assorted edits, added elven phrase " This garden you created, this forest you gave life to, is, and always will , be my home." 01-12-25: 010625 000001 300064s -- Fixed some wierd stuff that happened to several percussion sections' fades (somehow they got "faded in" as clip fades with the end of the fade several clip lengths *past the end of the clip*. I've seen this now and then over the years and I still have no idea what action I have done that causes this; it should be impossible. Many small timing and volume edits to percussion, bass, etc., to tighten up sections. Replaced a bunch of percussion right after and within the first break to change the impact of the section. 01-12-25: 010625 000001 300072v - more timing edits, cleared out a bunch of bass arp notes to make room for things to breathe. 01-16-25: 010625 000001 300082x - Fixed more of the percussion between the intro and the break-in. Added strings accents to bassline and counterpoint to short synth "solo" break near the end, using SI Strings Detache. 01-17-25: 010625 000001 300090z - Sculpted percussive transitions, cleared certain percussions to make room for things to breathe. 01-20-25: 010625 000001 400096A - intro timing tweaks; added mournful wolf howl accents under vocals 01-21-25: 011925 000001 000007 gareki pt2 - https://www.soundclick.com/amberwolf/?more=14929045 the barebones just barely started version of Gareki Part 2. For the moment it still has the same vocals as Part 1, until I work out all the changes to come. It's worth listening to, even if you just think of it as an alternate version instead of a second part. 01-27-25: 010625 000001 500128H extended slower feel - Gareki Alternate Version #2 This is a slower hopefully more emotional version, on soundclick instead of replacing the bandcamp version, especially while it's still experimental. https://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=14934398 Added a retro 80s versoin https://amberwolf.bandcamp.com/track/gareki-i-retro-80s-version Based on this advice https://discuss.cakewalk.com/topic/83416-if-i-should-wake-wip-looking-for-feedback/?do=findComment&comment=583948 I removed all the posts about various edits (consolidating them into the original post) except for those discussing stuff with other members. (I'll do the same in all my other threads). I can't actually delete the posts so I just made them all "." and nothing else, best I can do. To not add more wasteful posts, this one also includes a major revision of the track, making for a bigger slower feel, with hopefully more emotion. Less of the "funky indian percussion" loop sections, more handbuilt stuff from individual sounds, some new sounds, etc. The previous version is still there, after the end of the "new" one. (the previous one still has the wolf sounds under the vocals, I'm considering removing them there and leaving them only in the newer one before it...what do you think? I left the Bandcamp version alone, and added this one on Soundclick since it is likely to need significant refinement before adding to BC as an alternate version. 010625 000001 500128H extended slower feel - Gareki https://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=14934398 EDIT 01-28-25: 010625 000001 500146M Further refined the extended version, same link. Many many changes, added sounds, mix changes, timing edits, etc. EDIT 01-30-25: Considerable further refinement of extended version (at same link above), also posted to bandcamp here https://amberwolf.bandcamp.com/track/gareki-ii-alternate-version-cinematic-feel

Ok, here's some brand new luck for you: https://amberwolf.bandcamp.com/track/gareki (rough WIP, but maybe by the time you can walk around again it'll be done)

Reading manuals is daunting and boring, for anything (hardware, software, etc). I don't learn sequentially very well; I do better when I jump around; I am not as bored with it, though I often have to back up a step and learn something else first to understand what I just jumped into. I have a habit it took a while to get into of either randomly clicking on a topic and reading a page or few, trying out the things it talks about in whatever random project I have open or recently worked on,, or searching for whatever word pops into my head and clicking one of the results that comes up for that, and doing the same as with the other option. This especially helps with things I really don't understand, or can't really get into, but that I have to learn anyway. (like the programming / etc I have been struggling at learning for years, for my wolfy-robotics project).

You can use a joystick for MIDI easily enough; there have been several programs / drivers for doing that. If you can assign the joystick functions you want to transport controls it would do those things. I never looked into using one for mouse / keyboard control, but I'm sure there's options for that, too. Combining them...might take more doing, but if both "drivers" / programs can recieve the joystick inputs and you can just disable anythign you don't want that one to do, it should still work.