Canopus

I picked Ignition Keys, as I wanted something that would run in Kontakt 6. During checkout there was a message saying that the voucher code only can be used once.

I’m not sure what you mean by “SONAR X3 Platinum”. As far as I know SONAR X3 only came in base, Studio and Producer versions. The Theme Editor was released with SONAR Platinum 2016.07, so if you indeed have SONAR X3 and not SONAR Platinum, the program won’t read user theme (*.sth) files and you’re out of luck. The obvious remedy is of course to download the free Cakewalk by Bandlab and its optional Theme Editor and start theming: https://www.bandlab.com/products/cakewalk

I think you can safely let Softube Central install the VST3 version without any further actions. As I said in my previous post, the VST3 version has nothing to do with ProChannel. The only thing you have to make sure is that a working VST2 version is restored after each Softube update. At this price I’m seriously considering buying Passive-Active Pack myself, but the deal lasts until April 12th so I have a few remaining days to think. Should I buy it, the only Softube ProChannel module I’ll be missing is the TSAR-1R Reverb. Until that one turns up with a big discount, of course.

Yep, for anyone using Cakewalk the thing with the Softube Passive-Active Pack is that it includes ProChannel-modules. There is one problem though; as far as I know the last Softube installer that worked with ProChannel was version 2.5.46 from June 2022. Later versions unfortunately make Cakewalk crash. Softube has acknowledged the problem, but have yet to come up with a solution. Of course, it’s possible to run the latest Softube installer and have the VST3 version of the three plugins being installed, and then manually copy the VST2 version 2.5.46 back to the plugin folder (provided you have the plugins safely stored away in some backup folder). ProChannel currently only supports VST2. I don’t have the Passive-Active Pack, but I do have Softube FET Compressor which also has support for ProChannel. It also shares the same problem, so after every Softube update I have to overwrite the latest version of the VST2 with version 2.5.46. Bummer, but it works.

Well, thank you, sir. The price you mentioned surprised me, so I went back to my AAS account and noticed that the upgrade price from Tassman to CV-2 has been lowered from $59 to $49 this afternoon. Still a tad too much according to me, but definitely a step in the right direction.

I’ve got its grandfather AAS Tassman, with the modules firmly mounted on a black brick wall with Phillips screws, so I don’t need no darn CV-2. Gee, they really knew how to make GUIs in those days. Lots of presets as well. However, Full Magnifying Glass required. As an owner of Tassman I’m actually offered an upgrade to CV-2 for $59 $49. But no, I'll wait for the $9 deal at Plugin Boutique. After all, that's what happened to my Objeq Delay.

Installed! I mean – Pre-ordered! Pre-order before release May 16 and save up to €20/$20. And for those living in the EU, VAT is included.

(That's odd. When editing a post a new one gets created. Never seen that happen before.)

Sounds interesting. Almost as if Cakewalk by BandLab will be marketed as Cakewalk SONAR in the next release. Or, maybe Cakewalk SONAR by BandLab. Or, maybe I've just had too much coffee this morning.

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True. However, accidentals may happen.

In the nineties a colleague of mine wrote pi with a ridiculous number of decimals on a big window of the office room we shared (whiteboard marker, not permanent). We then challenged ourselves to remember more decimals day by day, and, of course, to remember more decimals than the other. I can’t remember exactly how many decimals we reached at best, but it was well over thirty. He was slightly better than me, but I’m proud to say that twenty-five years later I still remember the first two.

déjà vu noun dé·jà vu ˌdā-zhä-vü -ˈvᵫ 1 b: a feeling that one has seen or heard something before

Interesting. I have two desktops attached to holders under of my table top and have no place for a regular drawer. That thing would be the perfect place for me to store pens, papers and USB sticks. It seems to be currently unavailable on Amazon but I’ll keep the link.

Yeah, I’ve made all my latest iZotope purchases from third-party resellers so my memory might be fooling me. Seems like I’ll have to continue doing so until I can get my hands on that $15,000,000.00. Let's hope it won't take long. The email seemed very trustworthy, though.

An upgrade for me from MPS 3.1 to MPS 5.2 seemed to be $199. However, when going to checkout (I had no intention to buy, I was only curious) I noticed that iZotope, despite being a US company, now have started to add local VAT for foreign customers. In my case that adds a hefty $50. Yes, VAT is often quite substantial on this side of the pond. Most European developers actually include VAT in the sales price on direct sales, at least within Europe. That way it’s easier to accept that the price in EUR and USD often nominally is the same despite the difference in currency rate. But obviously not so when buying directly from iZotope. Oh, well. They can keep it. Edit: I just noticed I’ve got an email from a “Mr. Rogers”. According to the mail “The World Bank Group and IMF have approved $15,000,000.00 compensation payment in your favor for your unsuccessful transactions in the past and present. [...]”. That’s quite a lot of money, although I apparently have to cover the $210 online account opening fee myself. Hm, maybe I can afford the upgrade to MPS 5.2after all despite the VAT?

Printed books covering fast evolving software is definitely a thing of the past. As for BandLab, the best you would find is most likely SONAR X3 Power! by Scott R. Garrigus, but it was released back in 2014 and of course does not contain any of the enhancements made to SONAR Platinum and Cakewalk by BandLab. The book you mentioned is even older. Like it or not, but there is most likely too little demand for printed books nowadays to make such a project economically viable. I had SONAR X2 Power! myself in the bookshelf until I realized it was time to put it in the recycling bin. If you need more up to date material on paper, one option would be to load up your laser printer with three reams of paper and print out the Cakewalk Reference Guide PDF manual. It was last updated in January 2022 so it’s not as up to date as the online documentation, but it’s more current and thorough than all printed books available on the subject. But unless you’ve got unlimited time and patience at your disposal, trying to delve through 1,042 pages of reference material, I would say that video tutorials are currently your best option if you ever want to get into making music with Cakewalk. They are of course free on YouTube and most that are available are referenced in the Tutorials sub-forum. There are also some third-party tutorials that you can purchase and download from sites such as Groove3 or Udemy, but the last one I’m aware on Groove3 is only covering Cakewalk SONAR Platinum ($15) and the one on Udemy Cakewalk : A Complete Guide was last updated in 2021 ($35, not downloadable). And, of course, if you still got questions after all your reading and/or watching, post your additional conundrums in this forum.

I’ve got every MIDIpak (and ADpak) in AD2. When I search for “tambourine” on the Beats tab I get six matches, five of which are located in the “Indie Rock” MIDIpak. There’s a note saying that they should be used with the Indie ADpak. When I use that kit it all sounds pretty tambourinish to me. But hey, what do I know about tambourines?

Yes, great videos as always, Simeon. I noticed that the upgrade price from HALion Sonic 3 to HALion Sonic 7 Collection (which is what the direct successor now is being called) is the same as if you only have HALion Sonic 3 SE (which came free with Cubase). I find it strange that Steinberg doesn’t acknowledge the current owners of the paid product in any way. But to be fair, an upgrade to HALion 7 from HALion Sonic 3 is pretty affordable and there doesn’t seem to be an upgrade path for owners of HALion Sonic 3 SE. One main advantage of the new releases as I see it is the larger GUI, which previously was pretty useless small. Hopefully Groove Agent, which has the same useless small GUI, is next in line for an update.

No, I’ve got different instrument on each track so that doesn’t matter. But yet again, the idea was to reduce the manual interaction by having Cakewalk display the GUI of the instrument attached to the selected track automatically.

Thanks for your comment. In fact, I already have a dedicated button on my MIDI keyboard/controller called “Inst” that’s supposed to open the instrument on the current track in Cakewalk. And it does, the first time. But if I change selected track and click “Inst” once more, nothing happens. However, my thought was to reduce the mouse-clicking/button-fiddling to a minimum by having the option to display the instrument on the selected track automatically, as a function built into CbB, and having that option possible to bind.

A feature that I’d love to see is an option to have the VSTi associated with a track (if any) to automatically open its GUI when that track is selected. In my workflow, I can easily switch to the next or previous track in CbB using dedicated buttons on my MIDI keyboard/controller. But in order to see the instrument I’ll also have to stretch out for the mouse and click the tiny track header icon to make the GUI visible. This is something I think could be made more streamlined. And better yet, to be able to toggle that behaviour on or off through MIDI CC and/or keyboard shortcuts. Well, I can dream, can’t I? As for anyone afraid that this should impact performance, the ongoing transition from HDD to SSD storage along with faster graphics (even integrated ones) should over time make it a non-issue. Also, it would only be an option to be turned on by those that wants it. Edit: I think this feature is missing in Cubase as well, but present in both Logic and Studio One.

The Fade tool only works on Audio tracks. On Instrument tracks I would use Automation, having the filter set to the default Volume parameter. For even more options you can check out this old thread.

Fun fact: FL Studio is written in Delphi, which is the modern successor of Turbo Pascal. Well, that, and a lot of assembler as well. As for CbB I'm pretty sure it's written in Microsoft C++.