Amberwolf

Since we have no information on what "the engineering file" is, or what is in it or how it is setup, we can't really answer anything directly. But if the file uses plugins, you can test to see if it is a plugin in the file by opening in safe mode, by holding the Shift key while you open the project.

It's probably to keep the fur out of their dressings. That's what they always tell *me*, anyway.

Could be a plugin, or a graphics driver. Safe mode is holding I think the shift key while opening the project . EDIT, yes: https://legacy.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=Cakewalk&language=3&help=Dialogs2.096.html#:~:text=Note%3A Safe mode is activated,the SHIFT key is pressed.

What happened just before the problem started? Was anything new installed? Were there any updates (including automatic windows updates, or trhose for *any* other software on the machine, drivers, etc)? Any new hardware? Any system changes of any kind? What specific steps have already been performed for troubleshooting, other than the two listed?

Even though there's no lock icon...is the lock (data / position) checkbox active when you doubleclick on a clip to see it's properties? If it's not active, what happens if you lock it, then Ok to the properties dialog, then reopen the properties dialog and unlock it, then ok to the dialog again? (in case it's a "stuck" property flag that is set but the clip doesn't "know" it's set, so you're toggling it to ensure it's not set...something that shouldn't happen, but....). If it weren't that bouncing the clips to new clips then works, I'd wonder if it was possible there is a quantize setting engaged that's preventing slip editing except to whatever that's set for. I don't know of such a setting at clip level in my ancient SONAR, but perhaps the newer versions have one. AFAICR, clip ends with just bottom bevels are just slip-edited to that point (vs top and bottom bevels that indicate the end of a loop of a grooved (looped) clip). If all the "broken" clips are slip-edited ones, best guess is somethign went wrong with the slipedit data somewhere behind the scenes. IN that event, bouncing them to new ones is probably the only fix. If you (like me) save every version of edit along the way as a new file, you could also go back to an old enough version that has the original un-slip-edited clips and copy/paste them into the current file, if you need any of the data that was in the hidden part of the slipedit.

I'll second the Tarilonte recommendation--they're all out of my budget but if I had the money I'd get most of what he makes. I have a multi-cd (dvd?) East West Sampler set from many years ago, which includes reduced-sample-set versions of a number of world instruments in Gigastudio format, and they sound nice enough, but not knowing how to actually play the instruments precludes me being able to use them realistically (though not from using them at all; my results just sound "different" ) . It does have some instruction on how to setup and use some of the instruments, like the HurdyGurdy. But the Tarilonte stuff *sounds* pretty far beyond the EW stuff I have. I recommend looking at these; I have them (but have barely begun to explore their potential). Some have stems for each loop or phrase, so that you can use just the specific instrument you want, or be able to use parts of one loop separately or cut in/out some of it (like having the bass percussion not start until after the tops have been going a bit during an intro, etc). : https://blackoctopus-sound.com/product/deep-india/ https://blackoctopus-sound.com/product/deep-india-vol-2/ https://blackoctopus-sound.com/product/kv-balakrishnan-mystical-indian-percussion/ https://blackoctopus-sound.com/product/funky-indian-rhythms-by-kv-balakrishnan/ https://blackoctopus-sound.com/product/cinematic-indian-loops/ https://blackoctopus-sound.com/product/divine-vocal-mantras-spiritual-indian-chants/ (some came in this bundle, IIRC https://blackoctopus-sound.com/product/indian-south-east-asian-holiday-bundle-10-packs-for-25/ ) This one is also useful https://www.ghosthack.de/ultimate-indian-percussions and this is good for much more than the haunting vocals in it https://www.ghosthack.de/shymer To hear what an amateur can do with them (meaning a real musician could do much better) with a few hours' work, you can check out these tracks: This one uses bits from Ghosthack's Shymer set, along with bits from assorted other Ghosthack (mostly their free ones, but some stuff out of the Ultimate Cinematic Bundle) and Cymatics libraries (mostly their free ones) and some percussion hits from older stuff that I don't recall the names of. It has three separate short segments which each share some sounds, but showcase others: https://amberwolf.bandcamp.com/track/if-i-should-wake This one uses some of the various free Cymatics percussion, vocal, and instrument pieces, along with other stuff I built out of various things. https://amberwolf.bandcamp.com/track/a-peek-over-the-wall This uses primarily vocals from BlackOctopus' Divine Vocal Mantras,, plus various percussion, vocals, and instrument snippets from Ghosthack, Cymatics, and BlackOctopus, along with Z3TA2+ and SI Strings, and other bits from olde assorted libraries. https://amberwolf.bandcamp.com/track/less-like-a-whisper This one uses some of those EastWest sounds, mostly wind and string, here and there as accents. The main instruments are Z3TA2+ and SessionDrummer3, though the Taiko rolls are from the EW sounds. https://amberwolf.bandcamp.com/track/the-skaergaard-intrusion This also uses some of the EW sounds, mostly the taiko rolls; I don't recall which other bits were, background accents though. Main instruments were Z3TA2+, SD3, SI Strings, Rapture. https://amberwolf.bandcamp.com/track/ookami-no-kari-no-yume-wolfs-dream-of-the-hunt

Is there a lock symbol on the clips? If so, the Lock Data function may be turned on for them. You can select them, right click on them, and turn that off.

On my ancient SONAR, it's all stored in the programdata folder: C:\ProgramData\Cakewalk\Studio Instruments\SI-Bass Guitar\Patterns

Just curious--what do these look like? (not a problem I've run into yet) EDIT: Nevermind, as I was typing it up (distracted in the middly by JellyBean wanting to play), the screenshot above got posted. :oops:

BTW, depending on what options exist in newer versions of the plugin manager, you may have to select the option to rescan existing plugins for it to check to see if they're still there. If it's not even checking for that, it isn't likely to remove entries for missing ones. FWIW, I despise that category 3 type--I don't want anything on the system other than the actual programs that are doing the work I need done. Anything else is just one more layer of crap to break and keep me from using the things that do my work, and one more layer of crap between me and getting them to work again. Same thing with "authorization" and "licensing" programs. If plugins or software has those, then regardless of how "good" they are, or cost (even "free"), they're not worth the heartache they're going to cause me at some point, if not immediately. I have not had *any* program using one of those schemes that did not have a serious problem at some point, causing me hours, days, or weeks of grief trying to get it fixed, usually with little or no help from the company that supplied it or made it--and for some of them that were no longer around, it wasn't even possible to fix, especially the ones that require their servers to be working and accessible to even use the program. So...I pass on all of those. Just give me files I can unzip into place and run directly, or stick in my VST/etc folders to be scanned, etc., and I'll be much much happier.

What driver are the other working programs using? What are their settings? Do any of them have exclusive access to the driver(s), and if so are any of them running (even as "inactive" TSRs) while using CbB? That could prevent CbB from accessing the drivers to get sound in or out. Are any of the drivers set to allow exclusive access in the Windows sound control panel? You might disable that if so, and see if it makes a differenc.e Keep in mind that ASIO, per Steinberg's limitations, can only use a single audio device at a time, so if you have separate in and out devices, you can only use one of them at a time in any program that is set to use ASIO. To use separate devices for in and out, you will have to use one of the other driver modes, to allow you to select multiple devices at once. If you are unable to select multiples, then first uncheck both inputs and outputs for the current driver(s). Then you can try selecting multiples; if there are any that won't let you do that, it means those drivers are written in some way that prevents access to them while the others are being accessed, which you'd probably have to take up with the hardware manufacturer. Regarding the crashes, I would guess that you have a driver called ASIO4ALL installed. It isn't a "real" ASIO driver, and is known to cause various problems. Uninstalling that completely may fix the ASIO issue, if you have a real ASIO driver to select instead. (many devices do not, and use ASIO4ALL as a "wrapper" to talk to their *real* driver...but the way ASIO4ALL works is talking to *all* audio drivers on the system, which isn't helpful when trying to access a single device, and is part of the problem).

What plugins (synths) have you already used, and what tech issues did you run across with them? (this may give us a level of experience to start the help with) FWIW, I use audio phrases and loops in my projects on http://amberwolf.bandcamp.com (some of the most recent of which have some similarity to the styles of the artists you mention) to give me the "world" sounds I'm after, since these also give me the playing style and expertise of those instrument-players (whcih I don't have and will certainly never have time to learn for all of these :lol: ). Most of mine have been the free packs from various places like Ghosthack, Cymatics, Black Octopus, etc., but I've bought a few on the holiday sales for very cheap (90%+ off!) that have enough more to be worth it, many variations, and of course I can cut, chop, stretch, squish, retune, etc., any of them. I do this partly to save frustrations with "tech issues" (including authorization and licensing-server failures, and all that stuff), and though it does place limits on what I can do with the stuff I have that would be lessened if they were the instruments instead, that has made me learn some other things and make some stuff I wouldnt' have otherwise even tried. It also gives me access to vocals, since even if I could sing (see Back to the World for an example of that problem), I don't have the right kind of voice to make any of the sounds I want.

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It should be essentially the size of your RAM, since your entire RAM state needs to fit into it, and it has to ensure there is always enough reserved space for this to happen without any intervention (user or otherwise).

Something like this almost happened with the original ATX way way back when; I don't recall why it went the other way. At some point, to make certain kinds of advances, one has to break legacy-compatibility. I dislike it even more than the next person 😉 but that's just the way things are. You can only "hack" so many things onto something else before some kind of major revamp of the system becomes necessary to improve it. There are good technical reasons to avoid wires whenever possible: --radiated noise / RFI. Shielded wires can help with this, but it increases their cost and complexity. Changing currents in the supply wires create changing radiated noise, which can be made worse by faulty / insufficient caps on the devices to filter the induced noise from operating the fast-switching high-current devices around the board(s). --every connection between any one thing and another is a potential failure point, and every one adds resistance. Eliminating the cabling eliminates every connection between the wires and their contacts at each end, and the wires themselves, reducing down to just the contacts in the inter-board connectors, and the PCB traces, and the solder connections between those, all of which would exist in either case. Then there's the cost of making the wiring harness and qc'ing it, and connecting it to the boards. Then the cost of replacing hardware that is damaged / destroyed by incorrect wiring in the harness itself, or mis-assembled connectors, or user-error.

If you don't mind another program running, you can use Herman Seib's VSTHost to pass midi to/from the Kronos port. It's not *totally* straightforward, but once you figure out the necessary routing, and save *all* the possible ways there are to save the setup from it, it can recall automatically when started, and you should be able to set it up to start with windows so you don't have to remember it. Side benefit is it also is a VST host, so you can use it to host external plugins or synths if you have any need for that.

It may not even be a preset--it might be an option, or a global effect, that is meant to help emulate some analog property.

The first thing I tend to think of whenever I see your username is "epic trigga". No idea what it would mean, but...there it is. FWIW, I started with used well-worn analog tape decks (open reel 1/4"), in the 80s, with "toy" keyboards and such (sometimes opening up the backs of the keybaords to touch different parts of the PCB to make it make noises other than those intended; I didn't know enough electronics to actually modify stuff, but I knew from accidents with radios that this could happen with audio circuits and fingers). In the (early 90s? late 80s? whenever the a500 was first available used) I went to the amiga and Trax (which sucked) and Bars&Pipes (which was great), but by the mid-90s was forced to a Windows machine, and picked Cakewalk v3 because it was easier and more intuitive to use than the other one that was on Synthony's demo computers (Cubase? dont' remember), and just about everything could be done with a keyboard with only a few things being easier with a mouse, whcih made everything faster to do. Been using CW, then CWPA, SONAR, and Project5 since then. (still ahve the others but the older SONAR is what I'm still using--I'd consider the newer SONAR if it weren't subscription-only, and had a permanent *completely offline* license system like the old one, so that once activated, I'd just be able to keep using it just like it was right then forever, and if I had to reinstall (on any machine) I just use the same key as that one, so I could still use it no matter what happens to Bandlab/etc, just as the Bakers made sure we could do with the old SONARs). I'm a bit better at the production side of things nowadays, but I'm not sure that my actual music is any better than it was then. (still have boxes of probably unplayable reels and cassettes, and a few DATs I wish I had a machine to play; if there was a mostly-automated way to get those into the computer and onto Soundclick I'd stick it all up there for "posterity"...or maybe archive.org would be a better place).

What other plugins and instruments are on all the tracks and buses feeding that one? Some plugins generate noise as part of their function; it may be so low you can't even hear it but still be able to see it in an analyzer view. Is input echo on for any track? General input noise can also do that.

If it's a ground loop issue, then a workaround is to get one of those old adapters for plugging a grounded device into a two-prong outlet. You're suposed to then run the wire from the adapter to a ground somewhere else, but in your case you can't do that because it will cause the hum. The ground is a safety feature to prevent electrical shock. I expect that you probably won't have an issue with that, but you should be aware that without a ground the risk exists if certain types of failures happen inside the power supply. Like this kind of thing https://www.amazon.com/JACKYLED-Listed-Grounding-Adapter-2-pack/dp/B06XTHWYPK though I don't know anything about that specific one (I have a couple ancient ones kept in a drawer for various things, including stuff like this). If you have a multimeter, you can test if the HA-adapter connects the neutral of the ac side to the - side of the dc out; this could cause the hum. Can't do much about it beside replacing it with a different one that doesn't do that.

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Welcome--I know your name from somewhere...did you used to frequent the old newsgroup ages back?

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Just to be sure, is that really only 2gig, or 2terabyte?

What do the midi tracks feed? if it's external hardware gear, or external software, you would have to record those as audio tracks within the program with the midi tracks first, and then you can export those. If it's internal software (vst, etc) then the other advice already give on this thread should work.