Larry Jones

You can probably go back to NOT selecting a time range before you export. Obviously a stray node (or something) got inserted way the heck out to the right on your timeline on this particular project. If it happens again, you'll know what to do.

I saw an episode of the Netflix series "Song Exploder" (a show where they pick a recording and document its evolution from first concept to finished production). The artist in this episode was Dua Lipa (25-year-old multiple Grammy winner), and in the first ten minutes literally everyone they introduced was identified as "co-writer." Later we meet her choreographer and her "vocal producer," who coaches her through the recording of the final vocal track. There were at least five co-writers and an even larger ensemble of producers, helpers, advisers and so on. Maybe the kids don't need forums, because they have a floating in-person forum surrounding them through the entire process, with everyone making suggestions and sharing ideas more or less continuously. When I was starting to learn my craft, such as it is, there were some songwriting teams consisting of two people (Gamble and Huff, Lennon and McCartney), and of course I knew about the Tin Pan Alley writing teams of the 1930s. But pop songwriting seemed to me to be primarily a solitary occupation, one person alone in a room with a guitar or a piano. So I found this level of group participation a bit odd. I guess the younger generations are more generous with their songwriting credits, or maybe they see the craft as a more collaborative thing. Good for them. Their productions are amazing, although the songs themselves seem a little, shall we say, unfocused. Oh -- the computer screens in the background seemed to show they were using Pro Tools, a traditional DAW.

Watch your back, man. Those Microsoft death squads are everywhere.

First, try selecting the correct time range for your export. This will quickly eliminate the possibility of something way down the timeline adding a crazy duration to your export. If you want to bounce instead of export... To mix down (bounce) audio tracks 1. Set all volume, pan, effects, and automation settings just as you want them. 2. Select the tracks or clips you want to mix down. 3. If you are using effects on the tracks and want to mix the effects down at this time, select the whole length of the longest clip plus an extra measure for the reverb or effects “tail.” 4. Click the Track view Tracks menu and choose Bounce to Track(s) to open the Bounce to Track(s) dialog box. Your mixdown will end up on whatever track(s) you select. But if there is a phantom event way out on the timeline, the bounce will take just as long as an export, which is why I suggest you select the correct time range and do an export before trying anything else.

You can turn on Snap by clicking on the grid icon in the control bar. If you don't see the control bar, press C on your keyboard. If you still don't see the grid icon, right click in a blank place of the control bar and select modules. Then activate the Snap module.

The loops can be found in the Bandlab Assistant. Sounds|Loops|Packs|Steve Jackson Drums. You'll find it. You have to do some precision editing to make them work as loops. Good luck!

Two things: I replied to your question above, and you seem to have replied to me, but my own reply doesn't appear to be there, so WTF? [EDIT: My post seems to have returned. It wasn't there when I first looked. ?] The other thing is recommendations. I have only used Session Drummer (which I don't think you can buy these days) and Addictive Drums. I like 'em, especially AD, but there are so many options out there you should probably look on a more drum-oriented forum, or else post a separate request on this forum. And of course you can always edit the Bandlab drum loops so they work. They sound pretty good and they're free, so why not? Good luck!

Of course this will work, but when something is presented as a "loop," I expect it to be ready to, you know, loop.

Are you using this thing? Try deleting it from wherever you've got it inserted. See if that stops the crashing. I can't say how to fix it, but there are other compressors you could use.

I can verify that the loop you're trying to use is not the right length. I tried the one I think you're using, and it doesn't loop smoothly no matter how I slice it. Maybe someone smarter than I knows how to use these Bandlab drum loops, but it looks like they're just not correctly made -- or at least this one isn't. Sorry, Arthur. For what it's worth the loops in SI-Drums work, if you can find something there you like. I've been using third-party drums for so long I didn't know loops could be so bad.

Sound on Sound dropped your column, the other mag never got back to you, Bandlab doesn't want to sell the big tip book... To me, these represent a great loss. The curiosity that leads you to report on the stuff you report on, the clarity you give to otherwise arcane concepts and your experience in the industry -- who knows why no one wants to compensate you for the great work you can do and have done? Maybe because of your association with the DAW disaster of Gibson you are considered damaged goods, no longer to be trusted?? As for polls showing little interest in Cakewalk, or your own tracking showing poor readership on the Cakewalk articles, I'm gonna put that down to the Cakewalk user base being smarter than the others, and not so much in need of how-tos and tutorials. We've still got some brilliant and helpful folks here on this forum, but I miss seeing your occasional posts, even if they're just hoverboard remarks. Which, by the way, THERE WILL NEVER BE A WORKABLE PRODUCT. PS: Can you make it so the Music Player forum works on mobile devices, specifically my damn phone?

Earlier in this thread @Michael Vogel made an oblique reference to a post by @Craig Anderton of a couple years ago in which he hinted a that he knew some of those real world statistics but couldn't divulge them because, IIRC, they were compiled by a company that made its living selling such stats to marketers, so the info was proprietary and privileged. Maybe Craig will jump in here and clarify. But to me, the numbers didn't matter then and they don't matter now. Cakewalk is a massive, powerful recording studio-in-a-box that does everything I need it to do and is capable of making recordings that would be competitive in any setting. It might matter if I were a freelance producer for hire, but I work in my own project studio and I don't need my software to get any particular recognition from others. I'm guessing the majority of us use Cakewalk in much the same way. Who cares what non-users think?

That was quite the rabbit hole.?

You need to go back-and-forth first.

Cakewalk and the Bandlab app are two completely different animals, with different goals and different users. The overlap between the two groups of users is so minimal that I would not recommend adding a Bandlab app forum here. Very few Cakewalk users would have the experience or knowledge to help out the Bandlab app users, and from what I've seen there is not much chance that technical help would go the other direction, either. Adding a Bandlab app forum here would just bring in thousands (?) of users who are (for example) making beats on their phones and are not the least bit interested in producing 40 orchestral tracks or putting together music with traditional rhythm sections. Since we were required to set up Bandlab accounts, I have gone to the site and poked around, and it was like an alien planet, where the natives did not know R&B from Folk, and didn't care. Just my opinion: Bandlab the app should have its own seperate user forum. (For the record: I have always thought that Bandlab (the corporation) expected the phone users one day to migrate to Cakewalk and Cakewalk users to start collaborating with each other through the Bandlab app, but during the pandemic I started making music with friends around the country and I told them they could get the app and make their tracks that way, but they all downloaded Cakewalk instead, and we share tracks with Dropbox. I don't know what incentive would get mainstream musicians and singers to switch to Bandlab when Cakewalk is so full-featured and flexible.)

Arthur, You can find the "Snap" controls on the Control Bar at the top of the Cakewalk screen. (If you don't see the Control Bar, press "C" on your keyboard.) The default location (on my system) is near the left end, just to the right of the "Export" module. There is a little "waffle" or "grid" icon. Click that to turn Snap on or off. Make sure the switch to the right of the icon is set to "Snap to," NOT "Snap by." Beneath the on-off icon is a button with a drop-down that lets you select what value you want to snap to. From your post I think you'll want to right-click that button and select 1/1 (Whole). Now when you put your pointer on the timeline and click, the cursor will snap to the beginning of the nearest measure. If you have downloaded the Cakewalk Reference Guide from this website, you can read all about Snap starting on page 410. Good luck!

Thank you. Yes, I saw that readme. It just says "If you're using already one of the named interfaces without any trouble, there is no need to install this driver." Since the OP was setting up a new computer, I assume he did not have any driver installed, so the logical one to use would be the newest one, right? Note to @Tom Ham: Did the 4.59 driver work for you?

I don't own any Behringer stuff, and I'm not a coder, but I suspect good drivers are harder to make than good hardware.

The only documentation I found on the Behringer website is a PDF "Quick Start" guide, and in there I can't find where the manufacturer makes this recommendation. May I ask where you found it?

Build 155 appears to be Da Bomb. It fixed a crashing issue I was having, and a few problems I've had for a long time. I recommend the OP update to the latest production version and then follow John Vere's link above to the Early Access Update 1.

Weird conversation.

@Heinz Hupfer I don't know what AZ Controller is, and I don't have programming skills, but I'd be game to try anything that would restore the function of my Nektar LX-61+.

My LX-61+ has lost most of its DAW-control function. I didn't use all of it, but the transport controls were helpful to me...until they stopped working. I've found no new driver available, so I reinstalled the original driver and set up the controller again, but no love. I assume changes to Windows and/or Cakewalk have broken the connection, and I'm lucky to have the MIDI controller so at least I can trigger soft synths.

Even without the OP, we've had a good discussion, and some of us have learned something.

Plus 1 on this suggestion. It's a quick and dirty (and easy!) way to get a usable mix when you're overdubbing, without going to all the trouble of setting up a separate cue mix. You can further customize this by going into Preferences and changing the amount of "dimming" the Dim button does. This allows you a little bit of adjustment to the levels of the tracks that are not soloed. But (1.) a separate cue mix is the "right" way to do this, and (2.) if you're recording your bass at a good level and you still can't hear it, then your other tracks are probably too loud.