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I guess we need to first determine if this is actually A-list gear.

Don't know the deal with that particular plugin, but there are 3 other oldies hidden by default in CbB.

Not the lowest price ever, but not bad if you need a good virtual ROMpler! 2500+ sounds covering 29 instrument categories, not GM, but 4-part multitimbral. Light footprint, with small sample library about 1.5GB. https://www.producerspot.com/product/xpand-2 https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/1-Instruments/64-Virtual-Instrument/1560-Xpand-2 *Free iLok account and License Manager required.

And not free, but currently on sale for $14.99 is the AIR Xpand!2 virtual instrument. This used to be part of Pro Tools, but is now available as a VST instrument for all! It has 2500+ presets that cover 29 categories of instruments. Not GM, but it is 4-part multi-timbral, so it's a bit of a virtual old-school ROMpler synth. Good for getting started with sketching an arrangement because it covers nearly everything. It sounds good, but the sample size is rather small. The whole thing is like 1.5GB. So Xpand!2 is pretty much a no-brainer for the price! https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/1-Instruments/64-Virtual-Instrument/1560-Xpand-2 As far as freeware instruments go, there are not really any complete high quality band or orchestra instrument collections. So if you are expecting that, you will either need to pay up, or assemble your own collection from free bits and pieces.

And be sure to check the growing collection of free instruments from Spitfire Audio, aka LABS. https://labs.spitfireaudio.com/#category=&search=&new=true Spitfire Audio is a leading provider of professional sample libraries. If you install the free Spitfire Audio App you can access all of these.

Hey, before you spend any money, you may want to review this thread started by a forum member. Freeware Instruments. There are quite a few good suggestions posted here by forum members!

Did you have Platinum installed BEFORE installing CbB? That's the correct way to get all of the Platinum goodies into CbB. TS64 is showing up here for me in CbB as a VST2.

Those settings should not have any affect on the actual sound, other than more or less latency or dropouts. The sound generator source would be exactly the same.

Special pricing $107.40 - Regular Price $179.00 https://www.tracktion.com/products/f-em

You have probably hit a limitation with that Microsoft thingy. You can buy a lifetime license for the Roland Sound Canvas VA (GS/GM) plugin for USD $69 through the Roland Cloud (free version). https://www.roland.com/us/products/rc_sound_canvas_va/

Did you manage to get that download installed?

Keep the Tardis rolling, Doctor!

Goody two shoes!!! ?

I got all of the above for my birthday a few years ago. Have always had "the best of" and various Beatles "anthologies" on hand, but finally decided to get a hold of the actual album format themselves, as the digital remasters. I like! But the most interesting thing was in comparing "Let It Be" with "Let It Be... Naked". Very revealing. But I like them both... Hell, it's still the Beatles, right? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_It_Be..._Naked

I think that using the "Guest" network for any potentially untrusted devices in your network is a good plan. In my Netgear router, for instance, there is also a feature called "Network Isolation" than can be enabled. This puts the "Guest" network devices into a mode where they can only see the router and internet, but no other devices on my private network. So I connect my mobile phone and Roku streamer to my guest network in isolation mode. I don't have any internet of things yet, or Amazon Alexas, but they would also go there if I had them. The biggest potential problem that I see with "Amazon Sidewalk", is that they have had these tiny low power wireless transceivers "hidden" in their connected devices for a while. So they are just now announcing it, as they enable this feature, allowing your Amazon internet connected device to "bridge" to a new low power wireless mesh network (Sidewalk) of nearby public devices. This low power network operates independently, and completely out of control of your private network router and firewall. Note: if you are using the "Guest" network in normal mode, rather than isolation mode, this only uses an alternate SSID and login credentials, so you don't have to share your primary credentials with guests. But in most consumer scenarios, those guests will be using the same physical network and address space as your primary network (meaning they could see all traffic) unless your router has another way to place then on a different subnet. ?

Seriously, don't overlook this part. It may yield some important clues.

Two methods: 1. Log into Cakewalk Command Center, and locate your download there. That will download, install, and activate it on autopilot. 2. Alternatively, access your old "my account" at the legacy Cakewalk site. It should have all of your registered Cakewalk programs and serials available for manual download. You would need to use both the serial number AND registration code. And like John just said, Dimension Pro must be running in administrator mode to activate with this method. Something to do with a required write access in the Windows registry. You don't need admin access to run normally after activation.

I'll probably hang with my current version of Waveform for a while. It does everything I need it to. I like what the Tracktion dev team is doing, as they are a very small team with some nice chops and a unique and refreshing approach to DAW design for musicians. But my biggest gripe with the company is that they are YEARS behind in editing and updating the Waveform User Guide. The latest version 2021-v2 that I looked at was still stuck at "work in progress". While the getting started info and the UI changes seem to have been updated, many of the screen shots in the chapters look like they are from the old Tracktion 7. And most of the new features from Waveform 8 on are not covered at all. Chapter 38 is still titled "New in Waveform 8". Then it has a summary list of the new features, followed by the disclaimer "The above new features will each be explained further, in greater detail, in an upcoming revision of this beta user’s manual." Waveform 8, 9, & 10, have come and gone, and we are now on v11.5 and still no new feature updates are covered in the User Guide. SMH. ? In all fairness, when I complained to support, they directed me to the video tutorials that cover the new features. And they said they had engaged their former author to get the manual revised. But that has been a while. Still hoping...

Bottom line is that Waveform has added a few features that have been on the Cakewalk wishlist forever. Most negative comments I've seen relate to a dislike of the Tracktion UI. Admittedly, it can appear strange and intimidating at first glance. It is different, but it really is very simple and intuitive once you spend some time with it. Under the hood lurks a powerful DAW with tons of customization available. And it's not nearly as ugly as Reaper! ?

My Tower of DAW (in no particular order): Cakewalk Studio One 5 Pro Ableton Live 11 Suite Tracktion Waveform 11.5 Pro

And the Chord Track:

And this is pretty cool! Retrospective recording uses a buffer that captures your input, even when you are not actually recording...

And the Waveform Drum Sampler, based on the Multi Sampler

I don't believe those are bass virtual instruments, but are FX plugins.