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2. As far as I know the Cakewalk application is not designed to be networked. Each copy is standalone. Also I wouldn't link any of the content paths defined in the DAW anywhere except to a locally attached drive. But you could share project files with others (not in real-time) over the local network, same as you could with the internet. But that might be slow, and dependent on the computer and network architecture, and is not really a DAW dependency. 3. Not sure exactly what you mean by "fairly old". I have Cakewalk running on a 3rd gen Intel Core i3 dating from 2012. It runs at 3.4 GHz with 2 physical cores. Cakewalk runs well as long as I keep the CPU load below 50%, by minimizing real-time processing by either limiting virtual instruments running in real-time, and/or minimizing the number of tracks. Audio tracks are usually very light on the CPU, and I have not hit a limit with them. You can freeze individual instrument tracks with CPU heavy virtual instruments, which effectively bounces the selected track down to audio. You can unfreeze with one click if you need to make changes, then freeze again. I would say that the faster your CPU and your drives are, the better. Recommend at least 8GB memory. I have tried it on a computer with 4GB, and that gets tight really fast if you load up a few sample based instruments. Bottom line, it's free to try, so why not test it out?!!!

Must have hit a nerve with you. I guess you missed the "winky" emoticon on my post! And Spire on sale now for $129. Fathom on sale $25. We're talking apples/oranges here, bro... And the Fathom developer's not unaware of the competition. In his own words he has stated: https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=482501&p=7544511#p7544511 And later he stated:

If you make a comment like that, you are required to post your latest trance demo, or at least a link to the contest demos that you mentioned...

My stuff is all still there, thankfully. Checked it today after reading your post. Support will hopefully get you sorted out, as you apparently havethe proof of purchase receipts. As far as renting it goes, you do "own" a perpetual license for the use of their software, so it's not actually a subscription/rental ownership plan. If you read the fine print of ANY commercial software license agreement you will soon realize that you do not actually "own" any software, only the license for the right to use it. The syncing that goes on with the online installer is only an attempt to keep your software up to date, and I'm fine with that. One quirk with their activation scheme is that the license gets locked to your machine, and if you make any major changes to the system, it can get de-activated. That is usually solved with a simple re-activation through your account. But you should never see your licensed products disappear from your account!

Did you run the XLN Online Installer? It checks all of your products and updates/repairs them as necessary.

I'm going to venture a guess that it's probably not going to be, or at least not anytime in the near future. The Cakewalk Sonar devs under Gibson attempted a Mac crossover, and got as far as an alpha version, before it eventually got killed. I assume that the realization under the Gibson/Cakewalk business model at the time (need to achieve a return on investment) was that it would be difficult to sell a $500 DAW into the Mac market against mainstream pro DAWs with established market share like Logic Pro X, that Apple is practically giving away for $199.99. And it would probably have been a very expensive project for Cakewalk to reach cross platform compatibility in a full stable release. One of the strengths of Cakewalk/Sonar is that it has always been a Windows only application, in that it is very tightly wrapped with Windows internals, and optimized for them. A lot of that native Windows compatibility would need to be coded from scratch and replicated to run in the Mac. In my opinion, an app should be coded from the beginning as cross-platform, if that is desirable, because completely re-writing it down the road could prove to be a huge burden on time, budget, and resources.

Here is a brief overview and discussion of the Fathom UI (video queued to begin at the Fathom topic at 11:52 min):

Here is a demo track made with Fathom Synth from the Fathom tutorials website: https://www.fathomsynth.com/tutorials

It is a very good sounding synth, and is a must for those into designing a sound from scratch. Great value, and under constant development, keeps getting better! Zillions of possibilities due to the flexible modular, route anything anywhere architecture, and the loads of oscillator, filter, and modulation options. Oh yeah, and wavetables... But it might be a bit overwhelming for a beginner. There is a free mono version to try out! Downloads available here: https://www.fathomsynth.com/download

Here is a list of the BandLab brands: https://bandlabtechnologies.com/ And in case you are wondering, Cakewalk is covered under the BandLab brand. There are several articles mentioned here about the acquisition. https://bandlabtechnologies.com/brands/bandlab/ So Cakewalk is slowly gaining visibility on the BandLab home page, and it looks like the long term plan to put the pieces together seem to be in play. The most recent article from May 2019 (2019.05) mentions ARA2 support, and the ability to publish stems and mixes to BandLab cloud directly from Cakewalk. https://bandlabtechnologies.com/press/8657-cakewalk-by-bandlab-now-supports-ara2

For just the MIDI part, you can insert 16 MIDI tracks, followed by inserting the multi-timbral instrument on a new track. You would just route MIDI track 1 to the instrument's MIDI ch. 1 in the track header/inspector. Then assign MIDI track 2 to the instrument's MIDI ch. 2, etc. and so on. Match up your MIDI channels from the MIDI tracks with the respective instrument slots in your instrument plugin, and you should hear the desired sound when you play the respective MIDI track. For the audio part, if you inserted the instrument as a simple instrument track you probably only got a single stereo audio output. In that case you would do all of your audio mixing within the plugin's mixer. If your instrument supports multi audio outputs, it is possible to insert the instrument with all audio outputs showing, hopefully with an output for each slot in your instrument visible in the DAW mixer. Some folks may find this view cluttered, with both a MIDI track, plus an audio track for each channel in the mixer. You can hide, or name and color code things in the DAW mixer to keep them straight. When you get a setup that works for you, be sure to save as a template, so next time is plug and play!

Here are over 60 free 3rd party, modern, 64-bit VST plugins. Select the ones that you like and combine them with the excellent bundled Cakewalk Pro Channel, and you should be off to a good start! Melda free FX bundle (34 free VST plugins): https://www.meldaproduction.com/MFreeFXBundle Blue Cat's Freeware Plug-ins Pack II (7 free VST plugins): https://www.bluecataudio.com/Products/Bundle_FreewarePack/ Voxengo free plugins (15 free VST plugins): https://www.voxengo.com/group/free-vst-plugin-download/ Tokyo Dawn Labs (4 free VST plugins): https://www.tokyodawn.net/tokyo-dawn-labs/ Klanghelm (3 free VST plugins, including MJUC jr, variable-tube compressor): https://klanghelm.com/contents/main.php

Structure is a 5 part download. One .exe file, plus four .rar files. Once all files have been downloaded into the same folder, you just run the .exe and it unpacks and installs everything. About 37 GB total. Tip: make sure that your AIR products are activated in the iLok License Manager BEFORE you install them. You will need available disk space to hold the download files in your download folder until the install is complete, plus you will also need the equivalent disk space available concurrently on your sample drive. After the install, you can move the downloads to an archive location, or delete them as you wish. So no, it is not like the SampleTank 4 install. That was painful!

In general, most DAWs are missing some features that others have. I cannot speak for Pro Tools and Cubase, as I have not used them, but I have and like Studio One Pro and Ableton Live. For example, Cakewalk does not have the chord track, scratch pads, or sampler of Studio One, and Cakewalk does not have the highly functional clip launcher (session view) and integrated sampling of Ableton Live. These tools make alternate types of workflows easily accessible. Not saying that you can't make professional music in Cakewalk, as you most certainly can. Especially if you are recording and mixing audio, or working heavily with MIDI. Cakewalk is my first choice for a MIDI sequencer. But if I was scoring for film or TV, and recording live orchestra, I would probably opt for Cubase. But there is a reason that there are so many DAWs out there, and that is that everybody has different needs. Sometimes the same individual may have different needs depending on the type of project in hand at the moment, and various feature sets may make specific workflows faster. That said, you will probably be most efficient by fully knowing one DAW forwards and backwards. Then if you still find a certain task difficult in your DAW of choice, you may find that a second DAW has solved that task in a much more time saving way. DAWs are tools. Just use the tool works! There is no such thing as being unfaithful or disloyal to your favorite DAW. It won't hurt to learn or use more than one!

No, only AIR Xpand!2 and AIR Structure are multi-timbral. The other AIR synth and keyboard instruments are not. If you want to put the AIR Xpand!2 library (approx 1.5GB) on a secondary drive, you can explore the use of Windows directory junctions and symbolic links. This essentially places a shortcut to a new path at the location that the application expects to find the original content folder. I agree that Hybrid is very good synth, as well as Vacuum Pro and Loom!!! Having those 3 gives you wavetable, virtual analog, and additive synths, with shedloads of good presets. But these are pure synths, and not sample based, so do not really fit in with the OP asking for bread and butter instruments.

Oh well, hope the BF sale starts on or before 11/22 (when the freebie deal expires).

Good idea to try logout/login. That worked, after I logged out completely from the PreSonus account. My session must have been hung up on something. Thanks!

FREE FOR A LIMITED TIME - (Offer ends Nov 22 @ 11:59 PM) Follow these steps to redeem: Register for an account at https://www.e-instruments.com/ebass-promo Grab the 100% off coupon code from your E-Instruments account Come back to this page https://shop.presonus.com/E-Instruments-eBass-Complete-Bundle Add the eBass Complete Bundle to your cart Do not add any other products to your cart. Click the "Have a Coupon?" link in your cart Enter your 100% off code. Complete the purchase to get your free bundle

Redeem the coupon now and add the freebie to your account. Then download/install after you upgrade S1. The disclaimer on the PreSonus download page says:

I got the error with Firefox, but the account got created anyway. Nice bass! But has anybody else noticed the eBass Classic Pick download is missing from the PreSonus site?

Yep, every time I get the urge to drag my Roland JV-1080 rack out the closet and hook it up, I just open Xpand!2 instead.

Arturia Software Center, Native Access from Native Instruments, and the XLN Online Installer all show good examples to follow for download managers. In addition to simplifying the download/installation process for the user, the biggest upside is that a manager makes it simple to tell at a glance if you have all of your content installed, as well as if anything needs updating. A manager could also make it more attractive for a customer to try a trial or demo of a new product, if you know that it can be easily installed/uninstalled with a couple of clicks. That might be a big plus for IK marketing!

I think starting with TTS-1 makes sense from an economical and workflow sense. Then replace select sounds as needed with better sample playback instruments per track as your time/budget/inclination will allow. Another inexpensive instrument for tune sketching that is usually available for a few bucks is the AIR Xpand!2 ROMpler with 2500 sounds. It is 4-part multi-timbral. So far I am happy with SampleTank at the moment, as you get a fairly complete sample library for simple bread and butter needs out of the box. The downside is that there is no market for 3rd party expansions. But my sample library needs are modest at this point, as my main interest is with synthesizers. If you want an open-ended sample platform with many 3rd party libraries available, Kontakt is the way to go. Everything from free to fairly expensive library expansions are available. But it appears that the initial factory library that ships is lacking some useful bread and butter. So be prepared to spend some additional bucks getting everything that you want. So far I am only using the free Kontakt Player from NI, but I will probably upgrade at some point. Resistance to GAS is futile!!!

Yay! All hail the King!!!

eBass Bundle for Studio One (for the Presence XT sampler) - normal price $99 (free is better!) Up to 9 articulations for detailed expression Left hand position control True legato mode Noises and special FX Performance pre-sets for real-time performance Production pre-sets to access all articulations via key switches Sound FX pre-sets include dedicated amp setttings Music loops provide authentic bass phrases 24 bit, 44.1 kHz eBass Classic Finger: 1.37 GB eBass Classic Pick: 1.36 GB eBass Vintage Finger: 1.30 GB eBass Vintage Pick: 1.04 GB Requires Studio One 3 Prime, Artist or Professional Review from Studio One Expert: