Glenn Stanton

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.

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.

i use the built-in gain control on the audio track. and for each track i set the volume slider to -6 as my starting point, then set the gain to roughly have the signal peak at -12 to -6 depending on the instrument, the frequency band it occupies, and it's role. these feed my busses which are by default set to -3. in general, if i'm careful, my non-limited master ends up around 0db maybe +1 (yellow). then i add in my master eq and limiter/maximizer (typically Izotope Ozone 11 EQ + Maximizer) set to -1db peak, and in my Izotope Insight, starting at -16 LUFS without vocals, and then around -14LUFS with vocals, and integrated LUFS around -14.5 to -14. depending on the song i may go to -12 or for something softer -16. one of the first tools a mastering engineer reaches for? their ears. second, the volume knob. oddly enough, if it's not loud enough, they turn up the volume control🙂 after that, then they may reach for the other tools -- EQ, dynamics, limiting etc to shape it.

if you have access to your products on the https://legacy.cakewalk.com site, you could use the old email and the serial + registration/authorization numbers. i don't think the registration on your PC requires the old email to function in terms of responding to an email. EXAMPLE:

the compatibility mode is for EXE (app) not DLL (plugin). if you have the 64-bit SONAR plugin - maybe run the installers in Windows 7 compatibilty and as admin

it's more for aligning clips than changing the timeline. likely you'd want to insert a meter change to accommodate or change the timing of the clip to be more aligned with the tempo / meter / measure positions. http://legacy.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=CakewalkSonar&language=3&help=Tempo.14.html failing that, my original statement of using a marker instead to explicitly declare the location would work even if the crtl-up/down doesn't deliver on odd positions outside of the measure/beat positioning.

Next could be a candidate for IOS like iPad. the only trepidation i would have for Cakewalk would be the amount of support needed by iPad owners (in turn robbing us of Sonar and Next on Windows/Mac support) if you check out some other DAW (DAW-like) products, you'll find their forums are full of iPad issues because of hardware versions, IOS versions not working with the hardware versions, IOS versions not supporting features that 2 weeks ago were working and now are completely dropped or changed, etc etc. having Apple rule your platform kinda sucks in 90% of the cases...

@RexRed if you have all your project content in a folder (like Cakewalk Projects or whatever you chose to keep your stuff organized in): 1. right-click on the top parent folder and select properties 2. select the security tab 3. select "to change permissions, click Edit" edit button 4. select "Users (devicename\Users)" 5. check the "full control" and "modify" checkboxes (this will give users of which you're one full control over the project folders and subfolders) 6. press "Apply" if there is an option to apply permissions to all the folders, subfolders, files etc make sure it is checked and OK. 7. go grab a beverage as it may take a while to process... 8. reopen the folder properties and if read-only is enabled, then uncheck the read-only attribute, select "apply changes to this folder, subfolders, and files" and press OK 9. go grab a beverage while the read-only is removed... NOTE: this will not hurt your content and project files HOWEVER if you also have applications run from the same folder, then the permissions could adversely affect those (most times no, but sometimes developers do weird things) - so make sure this is only the content and project files folders and not the applications. NOTE: all this could be for moot if somehow you have a disk dedicated for your content and projects (like i do) and the inherit permissions is set to on (default), and you're restricted at the disk drive level. in which case i would apply the user permissions to the entire drive (which is what i did) to avoid anything at the top of the drive restricting you.