abacab

That is an interesting thought for those that had lighter versions of Sonar most recently, and a bit of incentive to at least give CbB a try if they had an old Producer edition lying around. The spreadsheet referenced in this thread assumes the baseline of 64-bit plugins supplied with the Producer or Platinum versions of Sonar only. It is not intended to take into account the plugins supplied with lighter editions of the DAW, or the 32-bit variety. You can research the Cakewalk edition releases in the press release archives, where the edition differences are often discussed. For an example see this page for a description of what the Sonar 8.5 Studio lacks as far as the Producer exclusives: https://www.cakewalk.com/Press/Release/1142/09-15-09-Cakewalk-Announces-SONAR-8.5-Producer-and-SONAR-8.5-Studio-Now-Available The archives are available for the years 2003-2017, and the years are linked on the right side of that press release page. For the Sonar update history and what was added to Platinum from 2015-2017, see the "What's New" page at Cakewalk: https://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SONAR/Whats-New#start For the feature comparison of the final versions of legacy Sonar Platinum, Professional, Studio, and Home Studio, see this page: https://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SONAR/Versions

Windows audio and your DAW will both play through your AudioBox if that is the only audio interface enabled on your PC. Doing so will also make setting up the driver mode much more straightforward in Cakewalk. But you really, really, don't want to be monitoring your DAW through your on-board PC audio output!

As far as I know, any 64-bit plugins from any past version of Sonar should work fine in any of the newer versions of Sonar or CbB. Sonar 5 was the first 64-bit version. I don't use many 32-bit plugins these days, so I can't report on which ones do or don't work anymore. But many of them should work via Cakewalk’s BitBridge technology. https://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=SONAR&language=3&help=Dialogs2.064.html

I doubt that you will ever get MME to perform well for recording or using anything in the DAW real-time. ASIO is the preferred driver mode for pro audio. I would disable your Realtek audio, and use the AudioBox exclusively. Are your speakers connect to the AudioBox outputs, or to the computer's on-board Realtek audio jack? I'm asking this because you said you only get sound while using MME. This PreSonus page indicates that the interface is ASIO compatible: https://www.presonus.com/products/AudioBox-USB/tech-specs And these images show the 2 main outputs on the AudioBox that you should have your speakers connected to: https://www.presonus.com/products/AudioBox-USB/media

This compilation might be useful for those wishing to use their Sonar plugins with Cakewalk by BandLab. This spreadsheet shows the plugins bundled with Sonar from Sonar 3 Producer to Platinum, and which version of Sonar they were available with: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qNsnKBASsnsALygDDQSQ4jFW6yhZIJZcIpfwH-6qgy0/pubhtml?gid=0&single=true

That's because I used the Google Docs "Publish to the web" feature, rather than sharing the doc. Any updates that I make to the doc online get updated to that link within 5 mins. So it is a "live" doc. I can also pull a download version from it in several formats, xlsx, ods, pdf, html, csv, etc.

OK, this linked document has been updated with a few needed corrections. To the best of my knowledge it is as correct as it will ever be now! Change log 7-22-2019: update - Session Drummer 3 - new in 8.5 update - Breverb - new in X2 update - Strum Session 2 - new in Platinum update - Melodyne (3rd party installer note) add - Addictive Drums (3rd party installer note) - new in X3, updated to AD2 in Platinum

Sent the .xls file via PM, it's only 19kb.

That was me. A couple of years ago I took an older version that @MUDGEL had been maintaining, and then updated and posted it. I'll see if I can get you a copy. There's probably some way to share it.

X3 did not include V-Vocal. That ended with X2, so you would need a copy of that X2 version of Sonar. Here is a spreadsheet showing the plugins included with Sonar from Sonar 3 Producer to Platinum: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qNsnKBASsnsALygDDQSQ4jFW6yhZIJZcIpfwH-6qgy0/pubhtml?gid=0&single=true The other bundled plugins from X3 will continue to work with Cakewalk CbB, so it's a definite plus to have that installed!

Deal is still on. Good through July 22nd.

Just do it!

Sonic Scores, the developer of Overture 5 has released an orchestral library for Kontakt and the Kontakt Player, that appears to be fairly complete. Amadeus Symphonic Orchestra - Sample Library https://sonicscores.com/amadeus/ Click on the features tab to see the list of instruments included. Audio demos are available on the Audio Demos tab. It was developed to integrate with their notation program, but since it is a Kontakt instrument it should work fine with all DAWs and notation software. Normal retail price is $149, but is $99 for Overture 5 customers. I haven't tried it yet, but it does look interesting! The user interface was created by Indiginus: http://www.indiginus.com/amadeus.html

Yes, in my opinion Addictive Drums 2 is better the Session Drummer. Cakewalk added AD2 to Sonar as their premium bundled drum plugin. Plus you can buy new kits and patterns at the XLN website. Cakewalk also provided an AD2 drum map and track template for Sonar, which is very useful for setting up a song template. It still works in CbB, and you can find it here :http://www.cakewalk.com/Support/Knowledge-Base/2007013364/Setting-up-a-Drum-Map-for-Addictive-Drums-2-in-SONAR Session Drummer is useful for some things as you can drag your own samples directly onto the kit pieces in the UI and trigger them. But I still think the drum kits and samples are much more realistic and configurable in AD2. Addictive Keys is just pianos, but is more realistic sounding than the pianos in TTS-1. TTS-1 is very useful for setting up tracks or track templates for a song, but you will probably want to replace certain TTS-1 sounds in your song at some point. That can easily be done with the piano for example, by inserting an instance of Addictive Keys in your project, and then re-routing the MIDI track you had assigned to the TTS-1 piano sound over to the Addictive Keys. The same thing goes for any other TTS-1 instrument sound you may later wish to swap out later. Some TTS-1 sounds may work fine in the mix, but often some lead sounds tend to stand out as not as good as many new sampled instruments. TTS-1 is especially useful when you are opening a multi-track GM song file in Cakewalk, as it can automatically assign the instruments in the GM song file to individual parts in one instance of TTS-1. There are not many other DAW/plugin combinations that can easily do that.

These are all great suggestions! I am going to put in a plug for Synth1 from Ichiro Toda, and the Synth1 Librarian from Neutrino Sky. You can customize the Synth1 color scheme and panel size if the stock version is not to your liking. https://www.kvraudio.com/product/synth1-by-ichiro-toda https://www.kvraudio.com/product/synth1-librarian-by-neutrino-sky Here is a zip bank with 14,000+ free presets for Synth1. You WILL need the Synth1 Librarian to manage and search these presets! And you can show/hide the Synth1 UI with one click, but it is not necessary to have it open to audition presets, as the librarian provides a wrapper for the synth. https://veryrandomstreams.blogspot.com/2012/03/over-10000-free-patchessounds-for-free.html

That's one beautiful song! And the vocal style fits perfectly with the arrangement! Well done!

For synth tracks, Eventide Black Hole is becoming my favorite reverb for the bus!

Likewise!!!

I was going to suggest testing with another kit selection. Perhaps some samples have issues in the particular kit you were using. A Review of Addictive Drums 2 https://www.warpacademy.com/addictive-drums-2/ "Addictive Drums 2 employs round robin operations when handling sample playback." "A whole bunch of drum hits with different nuances are grouped together and are triggered either randomly or sequentially, this is where the real beauty in Addictive Drums 2 lies." Future Music - Round Robin Sampling "How does Addictive Drums 2 incorporate round robin sampling and other multisampling techniques?" https://www.pressreader.com/australia/future-music-9629/20160114/283841507414196 EDIT: You can also turn on/off alternate sample hits in the "Kit Piece Selection" of the AD2 Edit Page. See page 20 of the user manual.

I'm a noob with VCVRack and racks in general, but I have had a working synth setup with some basic default modules in VCVRack, starting with the MIDI-CV input module, through VCO, VCF, ADSR, MIXER, and finally the AUDIO-8 output module. Baby steps, ha! Thanks to @scook I've also successfully added the Surge Modules to my library. Then first new project - swapped in the Surge OSC, the Surge Biquad (filter), and the Surge ADSR for the respective basic modules. Then I tried the Surge WTOSC (wavetable). Good fun! Many more options for sound shaping with these modules than the basic VCVRack VCO and VCF. Good times. I think this could become a very deep rabbit hole, so I will try hard to resist temptation to dig further!

The VST2 crashed immediately after unfreezing and then opening the plugin UI and trying to play a new preset. Same exception error that @paulohad. No problem with the VST3.

I will try this to see if I can reproduce the error.

I bought Sektor on sale recently, and so far no crashes yet. I haven't tried freezing it, but I will follow up here if it does crash. Fyi, I am on Windows 10, so that might make a difference too.

A better option would be going for a custom built DESKTOP audio PC. Windows laptops can be used of course, but there are sometimes compromises and issues with using them for a DAW, especially with the typical off the shelf consumer laptops. They can be slow, and configured mainly for extended battery life and lower heat output, rather than raw processing power. Getting a laptop suitable for serious audio work will cost more than a very good desktop. Something to consider is whether you really need the portability factor.

I think I have that same Mac Mini model. I originally purchased it for my Dad to use for online banking. Then it hit end of life when the MacOS couldn't be updated due to the hardware, and the hardware couldn't be upgraded, etc. Then his bank started to block his out of date Safari browser. Then I couldn't find a current version of Chrome or Firefox that would install on that version of MacOS. So I swapped it out with a new ChromeBox. That's really all that was needed for getting online with an up to date browser. Now that Mac Mini makes a great paperweight. I suppose I could find some use for it, but I haven't decided yet, LOL!