Glenn Stanton

in the past, if i had left my keyboard off, launched CbB, and then realized it was off, i would switch it on, wait a minute, then check preferences to see if it was checked or not. most times it would be checked unless i inadvertantly closed the warning about no midi device etc... Sonar seems to handle it for me - if the device is in preferences and it's off, it will be unchecked, when i turn it on, wait a minute, then see the device is checked, and i'm good. so even without opening the preferences, if i forget, and turn it on, then wait a minute for the things to be recognized etc, it just works. glad you have yours working now.

true, but if they only get around to offering the perpetual license in late 2025, when you could switch to it, why wait? and as a subscriber you'll also have the actual weight, as a paid user, to promote the conversation about perpetual licensing to keep the sales and marketing team up at night... 🙂

no need to wait, you can join up at bandlab and start using Sonar today.

first check - any things you're using - FX, VI etc that are "demo" products? very often if they're in demo mode the author does random (or timed) dropouts so you can "test" before buying. or you forgot to authorize / activate. sometimes these also get reset during updates so anything you updated - check the license / activation status.

i fixed several of my apps (not just my DAWs) because something in the last Windows update screwed up some runtimes - when my Sketchup Pro crashed, it launched a lookup for the error code and apparently was widespread enough that they had detailed steps on reinstalling the MS runtimes. after that, everything was stable again.

things to check - OS is up to date? CW is up to date? drivers for audio etc are all up to date? you took time to read up on some optimization steps (google it) to get more power from the older machine? you turn off network while using DAW? you only run one DAW at a time? using WASPI and you have disabled all the Realtek audio stuff via device manager (disable not delete or it will reinstall itself).

simply - using your phone (smartphone) with an sound level meter - will suffice in many cases, and set it up about where your head is. my preference (and what i use) is a sound level meter which has weighting options (mainly use A and C) to compare. i also use a tripod to hold it in place and a boom mic to set the headphone levels (initially, so i don't have to move things, but later i just stick the meter into the headphones if i'm only check those - i have several brands & models, so i have several profiles setup for them).

bluetooth also (as a network protocol) will increase the number of system interupts vs hardwired (which being USB will use interupts as well, just not nearly as many). it's one of the reasons to turn off wireless communications when working - esp with low latency modes.

it's a very old app and 32-bit in a 64-bit world... 🙂

one critical piece to all of this - ears vs meters - calibrate your system. run a pink noise -12db mono in CW/Sonar - no effects anywhere - verify your CW/Sonar meters are all showing -12db including the H/W meters. next up - set your monitors to your preferred listening level at your listening position, with this -12db pink noise - i set mine to 75db - all my speakers, headphones, mono speaker, tv etc all produce 75db from the CW/Sonar feed - usually i have to adjust the various bits in my Windows listening chain to get the right values. then use your media players etc - and set them to output 75db (not changing the Windows volume, just on each app). mark the position on your system knobs, or make notes, take a photo of the positions etc etc so you can quickly return to your settings. once you're done, whatever source is playing the -12db pink noise, you're getting 75db at your listening position. not a perfect calibration because different sources have different frequency responses, so you might after some experience tweak those devices slightly to your ears - but not right away - you need to let things "bake in" for a bit. now you'll find it much easier to set your levels in your master. as bit noted - some media services set levels regardless so making your stuff overly loud can result in lower volumes and squashed sound because of their limiting/compression etc they'll apply. and if you want it louder (so it's "sounding better") turn up your volume knob on your system. 🙂 when you're done hyping yourself, reset the position of your volume control. it also helps to do the opposite, turn things way down to see what is coming across or not. also, a low level (-20db for example) noise track can help to identify what is coming across or not as a preliminary static mix.

i use the Plogue Art sforzando (sfz) for SF2 etc. it's free, fairly current (last update in 2024) and works great. pretty light weight.

where are you measuring the LUFS? on the final FX of the master before the H/W? (with the H/W level set to 0?) if your master buss is set to 0, the H/W output is set to 0, and the meter is the last thing before the H/W, then your readings should be consistent. then the next step is: how are you exporting? what export settings are you using?

in Sonar - 2024.08-MEM (build 019, 64 bit) i have auto-save set to 5 min or 50 changes. editing a 3 min vocal with 5.4.1.004 - i'm not seeing an auto-save until i hit 50 edits. even a mass tweak on all blobs to center pitch 50% (to test) did not cause the auto-save. some something else may be causing it - check for modulation effects and auto-anything which causes the file to get "dirty" (asterisk by file name) can be triggering it as well. note: in my track i also have a de-esser w/ lookahead and compressor. but nothing is triggering it.

a quick visit to the SO, PT, Logic, Audacity, etc forums (and perhaps the KVR support forums as well) will give you a comparitive perspective on the state of modern DAW software, and the sheer number of bugs, faulty "new features", and poor integration of OSes and the myriad of hardware options, supporting services (like backup software/services) and in general, the sensitivity those products have to incremental OS changes (CW & Reaper not withstanding). i scan over those forums regularly. not to bias here too much. i'm glad i'm using Sonar. YMMV.

the other thing to check is owner - the owner should be able to do anything to the folder unless it's owned by the system. so in the security properties you need to get to a lower level - under the advanced settings - you'll see the owner setting: click on change and add your account. then go to the effective access tab and lookup the access rights for your account: if after this change you still cannot remove the read-only - you may have some other system level issue or some policy setting set on a machine you are not the admin of...

as Terry noted it's a hit or miss with V-Vocal. i had it working "ok" on Windows 10 and CbB a few years ago (as trying to recover some old projects), but just gave in and solely using Melodyne now. and decided on the cry-now approach for spending money and got the Studio version - multiple tracks, fully polyphonic etc. it's very handy to load both a rhythm track and the target vocal when trying to enforce the right key signature etc to adjust the vocals against.

running great. the only "glitch" i had was the time cursor did not show as reset to the beginning although it started playing, and when i moved the screen to the left (to see the beginning) the time cursor was doing what is should. only happened once while jumping around manually setting it at various spots in the song. so it was more of a screen refresh than an execution problem.

you can use ctrl +alt + mouse wheel to enlarge or shrink the waveform image. then enlarged

Ozone 7 had a real issue with display resolution - you had to get it in some odd setting for it to work right. Ozone 8 partly cured it, and Ozone 9 seems to not have the display resolution issues. Ozone 10 and 11 have basically static-sized controls on sizeable windows and are plugin only. i think 11 looks better with the dpi enabled but ymmv

and a PC with the IO rates / paths / etc to actually utilize it. ~2.3gb/s sustained for 2000 tracks at 48/24?

you'd want to check - i don't think the ilok dongles can be connected to 2 separate computers at the same time. but the second solution seems like a possibility as it's a switched solution vs simply extended.

if they're simply MIDI or simply an audio format supported by CW, then it should be possible to import, much like any other MIDI or audio file. however, some companies use proprietary compression (i.e. cannot simply open as a zip or tar or gz) on these type of files to wrap / bundle the files and prevent their use by other programs.

EQ = EQ, Limiter (maximizer) = Limter 🙂 the master buss EQ would be to do some overall gentle tweaks - e.g. a bit more high, a bit dip on low mids (usually some mud there), and a bit of LF boost (all 1-2db but could be more or less). the master buss Maximizer (limiter) would be to set your peak limits and to overall increase the volume (and there are other features there as well for setting the algorithm, upward compression, clipping, transients, stereo independence, mono mode, codec preview, and dithering.

just follow the instructions - basically export a request, copy it to a machine with internet access (using something like a USB stick), process it, copy the result back to the USB stick, the import the response.

so you're not seeing this kind of layout? maybe the you have reduced the track view display too much? maybe select another screenset to determine if there is some setting you tweaked.