David Baay

In addition to Nudge, there is also Process > Slide or you can enter a number of ticks in the Time field of the Event Inspector with a '+' or '-' in front of it to indicate you want that offset added to or subtracted from the the current position of each note.

Technically, it should probably be possible to to bounce only real-time audio input with Fast Bounce disabled, but it seems Cakewalk will not give you the option if nothing in the selection has existing audio or soft synth source to render. I found that you can fool it into giving you the bounce dialog by recording a short clip of any source, and muting that clip or muting the take lane. Then bounce as usual with Fast bounce disabled, and Live Input enabled. That said, since the bounce will have to be real time in any case, you might as well just set up aux tracks to route and process the left and right signals as desired, arm the final target track, and record it.

I'm most impressed that Ramona was able to pull off that piece on a 2-1/2-octave, unweighted controller. Bravo! ;^)

Ah, sorry. the routing probably reset to default when I loaded a drum program to replace the 3rd-party one I didn't have so I could hear what was going on. Still, the multiple aux tracks and sends seem unecessary.

I don't really get this. Is it just that you want a sort of 'minihost' version of CbB that just hosts VSTis with recording capability, and nothing else? Or is there something here that CbB actually can't do with reasonable simplicity?

I just looked at this again, and I have to say the routing for drums seems unnecessarily complicated. You have an SD3 output track named 'Kick', but it's actually getting all SD3 output because you haven't set individual outputs in the SD3 mixer. Then you have that going to a patch point that feeds two Aux tracks, one named 'FX' that outputs to a reverb bus, and one that outputs to the Drums bus with a send to the FX track. I think I got that right... ? Why not just have one track that takes the SD3 output to the drums bus, and then put a send on the drums bus to the reverb bus?

Not a problem here, but I don't have all your plugins so that would be the place to look first. Start disabling/removing anything you're not sure is compatible with Dim Pro based on past projects.

Bravo! My inner drummer wants to hear the rhythm of the spoken lyrics synced a little more tightly with the music at some points, and a melodic vocal chorus of some sort could help take it to the next level, but overall super-enjoyable. Thanks for sharing. But, hey Man, just look down there. You're flying! Like... how cool is that!?

Yes, you don't need Groove Clip Looping enabled if you are going to paste copies, and vice versa. After enabling Groove-Clip Looping, and verifying/correcting the Beats in Clip value, you can just drag the edge of the clip out to create iterations.

Yes. You might also want to check out the documentation on other soft synth insert methods and options: https://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=Cakewalk&language=3&help=SoftSynths.04.html

I don't really understand the question. Every version has been graphical since Cakewalk 3.0 Pro for Windows 3.1, and the GUI has looked essentially that same since SONAR X1 in 2010. VST2 was introduced during a time that I wasn't doing much with music, so I'm not sure exactly when Cakewalk first supported it, but I would guess SONAR 1 or 2. And anything with VST2 support should be able to run the Garritan ARIA Player.

FYI - Was browsing the new features section of online documentation, and noticed one of the first new CbB features in 18.04 was the dark PRV for Tungsten: https://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=Cakewalk&language=3&help=NewFeatures.53.html My guess is they made a mistake with the highlighting at that time, and will need to fix it. Or you can likely fix it yourself with a little effort, using the Theme Editor. I've used it to modify a few things, and it's pretty straightforward if a bit 'fiddly'. You gotta really love messing with UI artwork in general or be really irritated with some aspect of the default themes to justify any major effort IMHO. ;^) I bet if you wait a little while, somebody who see's this, and is a whiz with the Theme Editor will jump on it.

Yes, either drag the soft synth to an empty area of the Track pane below existing tracks or insert by Insert > Soft Synth. I believe that inserting synths in FX bins of audio tracks is still supported for compatibility with legacy projects from ancient versions of SONAR that used that method exclusively, but it's not the prefered method now, and can contribute to issues like this. EDIT: If nothing else, using the conventional MIDI Track > Synth Rack > Audio Track routing will make troubleshooting easier if there's still a problem.

Yes, not two 'tracks' per se, but two paths. If a bus that you send to (from a track or another bus) at 0dB (i.e. same as the output volume) has no FX on it, and the Gain/Volume on the bus are at unity, you're effectively creating a parallel copy of the signal that will double the amplitude of the sum (+6dB) on the Master.

So you haven't had any luck moving synths to the synth rack? To confirm where the latency is, all you need to do is insert the synth using separate MIDI and Audio output tracks (or show the MIDI tab of a Simple Instrument track in the Inspector), and watch the meters when you play. MIDI track meters are always metering the ouput even when the track is armed to record. So if there's actual MIDI latency, you should see a a delay between hitting the key and seeing the MIDI meter react at essentially the same time as the audio meter. But, as Steve said, its far more likely that you'll see both the MIDI and audio meters register immediately, and the delay in hearing the sound is audio latency. Also possible, but highly unlikely, is that there's actually a delay in the synth's reponse, which would be indicated by a delay between the MIDI and Audio meter reponse. And, finally, it's also possible that your MIDI controller keyboard or port drive has a problem. Watching the MIDI IN indicator of the MIDI Activity monitor that Cakewalk places in the Windows System Tray by default will help with that.

Sounds like you've started using a project template from a 3rd party. All buses that output to Master are effectively in parallel with the direct signals from the Outputs of tracks that have a Send to that bus. A parallel compression bus is just a bus with a compressor on it. As such, parallel compression has always been possible in SONAR/CbB. Some drum synths have built-in parallel compression, but a plugin is not going to add a bus to a project.

Set now time where you want the change, and Project > Insert Meter/Key Change. The new meter persists until you enter another one to change it back. If you have long series of regularly alternating meters you can copy/paste special with repeats. Or you can use the Meter/Key view.

Are you saying the VSTis are inserted in the FX bin of the track? If so, try removing them, and inserting by dragging from the browser to the tracks pane or by Insert > Soft Synth, which will put each of them in the Synth Rack separately with audio output going to independent synth audio tracks via their Inputs rather than via the FX bin.

Yeah, I sort of figured you were looking for a more advanced routing and bussing setup than track templates could accomodate. And you would still need to move your clips from their original tracks to their template tracks. So you might as well be moving them to a new project where everything is already set up.

No, project templates can only be used to start a new project; they can't be applied after the fact in any way. But copying the tracks over to to the new project started from template should be as easy as opening both projects' track windows side by side, and dragging tracks/clips to the new project.

So long as you don't re-save the project with the clips gone, the last saved copy will still have them. And even if you did re-save, the actual audio files themselves will still be in project's audio folder, unless they were all recorded in the current session and never saved...? Check Edit > History for evidence of a Delete, Crop or other action that you can undo. Otherwise it's probably just a display issue of some sort. Try opening the last saved copy of the project withouout closing the current one, and if everything is there, you can abandon the current one or Save As with a different name for further investigation.

So just to clarify, for a VST instrument for example, you set the associated audio track/s gain so it's peaking around -18dB? Or do you lower the fader the on the synth audio track? Note that Bob said he sets the combination of instrument Output and audio track Gain to get the desired input level to the track. Ignoring live hardware inputs for the moment since they aren't affected by track gain, and this thread is about soft synths, the Instrument output level will be determined either by a fader/knob in the synth GUI, or - as I described earlier - by the MIDI track Volume. Gain is the knob at the top of the track Inspector or the fader labeled 'Gain' in and audio/synth track header (when showing Mix or All controls). Note that on a Simple Instrument track that hasn't been split into separate MIDI and audio 'Synth' tracks, you have to use the Audio tab of the track Inspector to access audio Gain. Usually when people say 'fader' without any reference, they mean the output Volume fader. What Bob and others are advocating is to get the input Gain level (what you see when an audio/synth track is armed for recording) to some nominal value like peaking at -18dB), and then use the output Volume level to control the level of that instrument in the mix. There is no fixed rule for where to set the track Volume fader to start. The more tracks you have, the lower each one has to be for the sum to stay under 0dB on the Master bus with Gain and Volume controls at unity (0dB). In a DAW, buses effectively have unlimited headroom at the input so, if you want, you can control the summed level by simply pulling the input Gain on the bus down, and not worry about the fact that somewhere in the DAW's floating-point math inner workings, the summed level is theoretically above full scale. But in order to get a good feel for how it all works, it's a best practice to pull your track output Volumes down to keep the sum peaking under ~6dB at the input to the Master bus. More food for thought. I would suggest you close your browser at this point, and go play with all the controls in Cakewalk to see what they do. ;^)

Good to hear. All's well that ends well, right?

If a VST's default output level is consistently lower or higher than you want with audio Gain and Volume controls at 0dB, start by adjusting the MIDI Volume fader. This controls the synth's Master Volume with CC7 (or channel volume of a multitimbral synth if the track has an output CHannel assigned). By default, the MIDI Volume fader is disabled as indicated by parentheses around the default level of 101 (see the MIDI tab at the bottom of the Track Inspector in the case of a Simple Instrument track). When you move it, it automatically becomes enabled, and that value will be sent to the synth to initialize its output level every time you start playback. This is especially important with hardware synths that may have their volumes left at some other level by a previous project or alteration from the front panel. Softsynth states are stored in the project so that won't happen, but it's still good practice to set that initial volume to have a reliable starting point. Conversely, if a MIDI volume control was inadvertently enabled at some point, you can double-click it to reset the value to 101, and then right click and choose 'Disable Control'. Then you can control the synth's volume from its GUI. Also, be aware that if two or more tracks point at the same synth/channel, and both have their MIDI Volume faders enabled, the highest numbered track will have the final say in what that level is, as Cakewalk process the track volume messages (and other MIDI controller messages like Pan) from top to bottom.

Key+ is working with clip playback, but not live input here. Weird because it's not a synth function; it's just the track transposing the MIDI note number. Works if you put a virtual or physical MIDI cable between the track and the synth, but not if you insert a pass-thru drum map. Somehow Cakewalk knows where the MIDI is going when is stays inside the app, and is not honoring key+ in real time. There is at least one reference to it on the old forum, and I vaguely recall running into it myself in the past. 'Pitch' is working here with both playback and live input, but it's an Arp function so the Arp has to be enabled for it to work at all.