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Please excuse any over simplification here, or repeated info from earlier posts. I am trying to make this statement as complete and brief as possible. There are two different things related to recording virtual instruments that need to be understood, since a virtual instrument uses two tracks, one for MIDI input, and one for audio output. You can record either or both, and the setup will vary depending on what you need to accomplish. 1. MIDI input. Record the MIDI data that you perform via a MIDI controller set to the track input. MIDI has no sound, it is essentially only note and controller data. Note: if you are playing back a MIDI file or MIDI loop pattern (often included in drum instruments), you already have the MIDI data. So there is no need to be concerned with recording any more MIDI for this instrument. However, if you are performing the MIDI part in real-time from an external keyboard controller or MIDI drum pads, you may wish to capture the MIDI from that performance, for further editing, etc. This here excellent video covers the MIDI recording for a drum virtual instrument. It is queued up to begin at 6:45 in the video (Adding Instruments), but you may want to view from the beginning. Mike is a great tutor! 2. Audio output. To capture the audio output of a virtual instrument, if that is what you are trying to do, is a bit different. Scroll down to "To record Audio Only". You will need to insert an additional audio track for this purpose, as it will be explained here: https://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=SONAR&language=3&help=SoftSynths.27.html

MixBox rocks!!!

Good advice. I was comparing it to TS3, which I do not need at this point, as I have all of that content that I want. Someday Comprexxor will be $20. I can wait (said with hands and wallet shaking).

Is SD3 an IK product now?

So straight up, this new T-RackS module is $69 with the $30 IK discount auto applied in my cart. The TS3 upgrade is still $299 in my cart, so if I just want the new module, $69 is not a bad price!

The times that I have experienced this not working correctly were always due to bugs in the plugin. But often the actual most recent parameters were saved, but the preset name might be missing from the plugin GUI. This would be frustrating if it had been a while since I opened the project and couldn't remember the name of the sound. It would play the saved sound correctly, but any tweaks I had made to it would disappear as soon as I reloaded the preset to get the name back. A workaround for this might be to open the project, then immediately "save as" the preset in the plugin as a new patch name, in order to preserve your tweaks.

Yes, very common, but it's not the soft synth doing the remembering... The plugin host (DAW) should remember all current plugin states any time the project file is saved. In fact I often "bank" (no pun intended) on this feature instead of actually saving a preset in the plugin.

So, overall I'm not into AIR bashing. I still think that I got a great deal for the collection. But overall, I'm just disappointed that they don't do more with their existing portfolio of virtual instruments. So much potential... ?

I don't have P5 currently installed. Maybe this weekend I can try it again. Currently running ASIO, with Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 G3 on Windows 10 20H2.

AIR has been a great value (bang) for the buck! However, I continue to be conflicted about their customer and technical support practices. It would be nice to see them re-establish a respectable presence in that regard.

I guess that the latest fixes are for OS updates only. So much for progress with promised improvements to user interfaces...

Maybe hire a real castanet player?

If you load up the AIR instruments in Akai VIP 3, you can leverage the VIP preset browser with extensive tagging, and their unified environment. The AIR instruments also have factory patch maps included so that they are plug and play ready with VIP 3. Note: VIP 3 supports VST2 plugins only, but the AIR collection meets that requirement. There have been a few deep sales for VIP recently, so don't pay full asking price. Because development seems to have halted on VIP... still no VST3 plugin support.

+1 This has always been a neat feature with Cakewalk! Not sure how many other DAWs are this user friendly regarding the handling of old versions of projects?

+1 for Xpand!2. And the other AIR synths and keyboards Hybrid 3, Vacuum Pro, Loom II, Velvet, and DB-33 are good too, but could just use a scalable GUI and some modern browsers. Although, now that I have IK Hammond B-3X, don't think DB-33 will get much love anymore. But it ain't bad, just not even close. I found Strike great fun to play, but encountered too many difficulties trying to export. So uninstalled it. Transfuser has had GUI issues and crashes sometimes, so I rarely bother. I have Structure installed, because using it as a ROMpler for some good quality off the wall samples I don't have elsewhere is occasionally useful. Especially in the 'World' category. But for roll your own types, building your own presets has become difficult, as you can no longer enter text to label anything in Structure. I suspect this broke sometime in Windows 10.

I think you could accomplish what you wanted by loading VIP multis in order, from the playlist feature of VIP. Switch the multi, and a new set of instruments quickly loads. VIP multis can contain up to eight VSTi (VST2) instruments, with added 3rd party insert plugin effects (VST2). Save your favorite multis to a playlist and go. Keyboard splits and/or layers with the eight instruments are available. Any of your instruments in the multi with an internal arpeggiator/sequencer could provide the needed groove. VIP itself has no sequencer, but VIP can run as a VST plugin within your DAW. So you could add a drum machine track to your DAW and sync with VIP. And I have instant access to over 20,000 of my various VST2 instrument presets in the VIP browser. So maybe AKAI is leaving it for dead? I don't know, but the current asking price for VIP is a no-brainer!

This is true for Studio One. I believe it's the save that bites you, not just opening, but it wouldn't hurt to be careful. Always use a "copy" of a project in testing any new software version, in any DAW. New features once saved to a file are not always backwards compatible with old versions.

The Capo feature is greyed out on the 'free' Ample guitar.

Studio One demo.... https://support.presonus.com/hc/en-us/articles/210041393-Studio-One-FREE-and-DEMO-FAQ https://support.presonus.com/hc/en-us/articles/360047170792-What-is-not-included-in-the-Studio-One-5-Demo- Or PreSonus Sphere is $14.95 a month, billed monthly to check everything out.

If you don't know what you need yet, then Cakewalk is probably enough for you now. Cakewalk is a very deep and powerful DAW, that can do most things well. I have been using it for over 20 years. And I also have Studio One Pro, that I picked up when Gibson first shut Cakewalk down. But you will know when the time comes to try something new, when you cannot do something easily that you need to do in Cakewalk. But only you can know what that is, and everybody has different workflow needs, so there's no one-size-fits-all answer to what is the best DAW. Best suggestion I could make is subscribe to PreSonus Sphere for a month or two, and give everything a go. Then decide if it's worth it to upgrade.

WD-40.

Not bad at all. I think that's close to what I paid a while back. It's a fair price for what you get.

For ugliest, I vote Reaper, FL, and Bitwig Studio. ?

There are 3 kinds of people in the world. Those that can do math, and those that cannot.

Last check. Instrument cables. Wake me up when something 'worthy' comes around, LOL!