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MIDI learn is not the same as ACT in the Cakewalk DAW. I was referring to generic MIDI learn, which is not DAW specific, and could be used in any DAW and with any keyboard. A quick way to get up and running with MIDI using 3rd party MIDI instrument plugins with your keyboard. ACT is Cakewalk specific, and is for setting up the Cakewalk DAW to respond to a controller. It's a bit more work to get ACT setup, but it can learn MIDI CC's in a similar way. Here is the knowledge base article to get started, if that is what you want to do: https://www.cakewalk.com/Support/Knowledge-Base/2007013008/Configuring-the-ACT-MIDI-Controller-Plug-in

Is it really worth $143.20 with the code? For an EQ? I got Kontakt 6 full version for less...

Good stuff; +1 ? I didn't know about that last one, even after 20+ years with Cakewalk/Sonar! And I had forgotten about a couple of the others. Did know about the Melodyne audio > MIDI conversion, but it had never occurred to me to use a vocalization to create an organic MIDI instrument part. Such as Mike demonstrated with vocal > violin part. What a great idea!

Or get IKM MixBox and you can make just about any instrument sound cinematic! ?

Or get AAS Chromaphone and some reverbs... very little disk space needed for that.

That pretty much sums it up. The load times aren't so bad now that all of my samples are on an internal SSD, but still noticeable. And some of the presets are setup for your sound design, by listing in their comments if they only use a basic oscillator, such as saw, triangle, square, etc. Suggest starting with one of those presets if tweaking is your plan. But some of the sounds are fantastic, and are much more realistic than many emulations. Mainly because the oscillators were sampled from the real synths. The filters are modeled, and you do have control over those, as well as full control over envelopes and LFO's. Also includes a nice "MixBox style" FX rack, as well as a cool on-board arpeggiator.

MIDI learn is a function of the plugin software, not the keyboard. ANY controller should work for learn, regardless of the brand. MIDI controllers send a unique MIDI CC# (in the undefined range) for each control being activated, that the plugin can remember as you map them. Depending on the keyboard, there may be a keyboard setup mode that lets you assign specific CC's to specific controls. (The undefined CC’s you can map yourself to any assignable parameter on your synthesizer/instrument plugin.) Reference: https://professionalcomposers.com/midi-cc-list/

I picked up Liquid Rhythm a few years back on a good deal. It has a unique way of creating your own rhythm patterns, that can be saved. I was able to use this to trigger Addictive Drums for the audio output, while muting the internal LR drum sounds. ? Instead of buying loops, you can create your own patterns with this.

Me too! I bought an extra serial just to get in on the IK Group Buy last year. Which worked out quite well... I bagged MODO Bass, MODO Drums, and the Hammond B-3...

Not free, but $55 at Plugin Boutique... In seconds deCoda will tell you the key, tempo, chords where the verses and choruses are and more. https://products.zplane.de/products/decoda/ https://www.pluginboutique.com/products/6057-deCoda

I have heard that some laptops might never be fully compatible for real-time audio, based on some online forum posts I've seen. Probably best to research up front before you buy one, in order to locate a model that others use with success. Apologies for saying that, but it is possibly true. I build my own desktops, and the BIOS is usually wide open for tweaking with them. On the laptops I have owned, many BIOS items are locked down or hidden. That's probably just part of the problem, but some vendors have optimized their hardware for other priorities than real-time audio, as well as for reduced heat and power consumption. A computer that is more than suitable for gaming or video editing may not be good for real-time audio, which is actually more demanding. Gaming and video editing are not actually real-time processes. They can buffer as much as needed to keep things flowing. See my next comment about that for audio... Regarding real-time audio, I will mention that the fastest CPU on the planet is going to have issues if misbehaving drivers can tie it up so that it's unable to keep the audio buffer full. One strategy may be to set your audio buffers as high as possible, to see if that minimizes crackles and pops. This may not be acceptable for actual use, but as an exercise which may provide some insight.

Same here. I have 1,000+ plugins, so I'm more inclined to reach for my IK Multimedia Total Studio Max stuff than PreSonus. I already had acquired a lot of plugins (and DAWs) before I bought in to Studio One Pro, so their proprietary plugins were not that interesting for me if I couldn't use them elsewhere, so I rarely ever touched them. But for someone just starting out that picks up Studio One Pro to begin with, you pretty much get everything you need to get started without having to spend more money to build up your studio kit! So S1 Pro's a really good deal for newbies!

Yes, you could use automation in your your Cakewalk tracks to tweak the sound, but that is usually more work than actually playing the part the way you want it to sound. If you would rather play the part, read the user guide for your instrument to see if it offers a feature called "MIDI learn". Usually the setup process for MIDI learn is as simple as (1) activating the MIDI learn mode in the instrument plugin, (2) in the plugin GUI, select the knob or control you want to use with the mouse, and (3) move the physical knob or fader on your keyboard. The plugin will then remember the MIDI CC # sent by your keyboard for that knob and you will have remote control over that specific function in the plugin. Then just repeat the same process for each keyboard control you wish to assign. Done. That works with just about any MIDI controller keyboard, and is a function of the instrument plugin software, rather than Cakewalk. So the only catch is that those assignments are made on an instrument by instrument basis, and are not global. The other stuff that you read about HUI (and possibly other protocols) usually pertain to DAW control, such as transport and channel mixers, etc., and are not specifically about instrument plugins. That is another can of worms, but many times Cakewalk will respond to available keyboard transport controls if you experiment with different controller definitions in the controller setup page in Cakewalk preferences.

Have you tried the built-in step sequencer in Cakewalk yet? It should be able to trigger Sitala or any other sampler plugin that you have. And anything you do in the sequencer is also reflected in the piano roll view for your track, so you already have your MIDI.

Any MIDI keyboard controller with velocity sensitivity is compatible as far as playing notes with the keys. The big question is really how much manual setup will be required to ALSO get the buttons, rotary knobs, and faders mapped. There are really two modes to consider for mapping those controls: DAW mode, and Plugin mode. Some keyboards have pre-made templates for DAW compatibility with select DAWs, where you can physically switch the mode back and forth. This allows using the same controls such as the faders differently in each respective mode. So they might control the faders in DAW mode, and maybe map to macros in a virtual instrument when using plugin mode. Or you can just manually map some of the controls to the respective MIDI CC that you wish to control remotely (generic MIDI). As far as Cakewalk goes, that is probably your easiest option, because Cakewalk generally does not have modern dedicated keyboard hardware support from any manufacturer. The only exception I'm aware of is the Roland A-PRO series keyboards (ex: A300-Pro) that works directly with the ACT plugin in Cakewalk. That was designed when Roland used to own Cakewalk. Other MIDI keyboards can be mapped with ACT, but it takes some trial and error and a bit of patience to get things partially working with that. Others may have more recent experience or ideas to suggest. I guess I just lost interest in using anything other than a plain MIDI keyboard with Cakewalk. To play keys with. That just works. Edit: some virtual instruments have great MIDI learn functions. If you use that you can generally pick any controls on your keyboard to control an instrument plugin. That way you don't have to pick up a mouse when you are playing, just turn a knob to tweak a filter or envelope.

I ran the product manager and got an update to the EZkeys software player.

Lurssen is very nice! I'm not quite sure how they do it, but this seems to actually do a very good job, especially for somebody like me who is not a mixing/mastering engineer. I did a side by side with Ozone Elements and I got better results faster with this!

Me like!

Also, just mentioning here that "DPC latency" and "audio latency" are two completely different things. Make sure that you understand the distinction between the two issues, and that the solutions that you follow relate to the correct issue you are trying to remedy. DPC Latency is strictly about the CPU and how well your PC is setup to handle Deferred Procedure Calls. Which can then cause your audio buffer to miss samples (crackles and pops) if the CPU is locked up with a long running DPC from another driver. When a solution refers to something causing "latency", that is usually referring to "audio latency" (a delayed signal), which is the delay caused by the actual signal processing of audio in the PC, from the time an audio signal goes into the PC, gets processed, and then is sent back out of the audio interface. Apologies if that distinction was already understood, but it's something that a newcomer to PC audio (anybody else reading this thread looking for answers) might not be familiar with.

Plus the F'em dev is Wolfram Franke, formerly with Waldorf...

Me too! Figured $124.50 was a good buy to get out of the perpetual loser club, LOL!

I agree. What I did was probably way overkill. There is probably a more surgical approach to resetting the PreSonus Hub. I had to make it lose the plugin's false "Activated" status, so I could activate them from scratch. Then all was good! One part that I left out was that PreSonus Hub had been working fine, then it was zapped by a Windows Feature update somehow (think it may have been version 2004).

I don't think Halion Sonic SE comes with any content unless you are running Cubase Elements.

I recall having some issue last year some time with actually getting them activated. PreSonus Hub had apparently thought they already were activated, but they actually were not. I forgot what I did to refresh the activation, but it worked finally! Here is what I did to get it working on my system (This may not apply to your system, but maybe provide some clues):