Glenn Stanton

if you open a file while holding the shift key down, it will ask if if you want to load a plugin, one at a time. and it works when opening from a "new from template" or new from the start screen...

for a while the HD were much less expensive than SSD, and for archiving, a cost effective option, i've noticed in the past 2 years though they're rapidly going up in price - presuming that SSD manufacturing is taking over the market and so less HD are being produced... definitely use multiple disks and clouds if you can to keep archives- as @abacab mentions, an SSD can drop dead and recovery is much harder than an HD with only a head positioning issue...

maybe something akin to a stripped down band-in-a-box where you can write out chords, customize the instrumentation with some specialized notation, and it can generate the necessary midi and controls to have either other midi tracks or auto-generated chords, etc without all the heinous complexity of the BIAB application... ? example you could set up your "stock" configuration - bass, drum, guitar, strings, horns, etc and using NN or common chord names, + plus some specialized bits Cm9 {b.d.g} which only plays the bass drums guitar on the Cm9 for that measure or until next chord, or some strum bars, or etc. or even tab and the related articulations...

in general, i leave the CW folders as-is. i create C:\Program Files\VSTPlugins; C:\Program Files\Steinberg\VSTPlugins; C:\Program Files\Common\VST3 and the equiv in the x86 folder. i've found that these folders allow VST installers to put them in these places and i don't have to fight them in the registry, INI files, or elsewhere... i have 9 or 10 folders in my VST scanner, and i periodically run the VST inventory app which dumps a CSV of all my folders configured in CW so i can check for any outliers - 32 vs 64, duplicates, etc. i keep copies of the installer files on my backed up cloud folder so i have them should i need to reinstall, and when newer versions come out, replace the backup version. lastly, keep a PDF etc of the product license(s) with the installers so i have the keys, codes, activations, purchase receipt etc all handy... this has proven invaluable many times over years when upgrading machines, OSes, etc.

a cable that you directly connects the SSD drive to a USB port. i use Samsung 850 SSD. very reliable and fast. using a HD 2.5 - Western Digital (WD). and i use the same cable as the SSD since it's enough power for the 2.5" HD. i have powered USB/FW drives from 30 years which are mothballed at this point...

i have a personal O365 subscription which comes with the 1TB... even with a bunch of old projects etc i still have plenty of room... the key is to make sure you clean up the project before it's archived so you're not wasting space or increasing the file count without actually needing to. file count is important since it does impact the performance of the disk access and of course not all apps can handle large file counts in a folder properly...

i do file organizing by : artist, project, and songs (or other material like podcasts, videos, etc). note: video content is kept in a separate folder - only audio is stored on the project disk. and since i don't do a lot of video post-production lately, it's not a big deal. once a project or song is "finished" (are they every really?) i bounce everything to clips, try to clean up unused wav files, versioned project files, picure cache, separations, etc, so it's as neat as possible. then it's ready to archive. i keep active projects on the project disk, and when archiving i remove the active project or song folder and the final backup on the archive disk and like @John Vere, i periodically disconnect the disk and start a new one when it's full or every 2 years or so to avoid possible disk failures. from the project folder, i use FreeSync to copy new/updates (project file, audio, midi, mastered wav and mp3, etc - i exclude the Melodyne transfers, separations, and CwB picture cache, and other temp folders) to the OneDrive folder, and also copy at the same time to the archive disk, so it's backed up to OneDrive (1TB is about $7/month). non-project/instrument content files (DimPro wav etc) are backed up to Google Drive (changes here occur very slowly). this way the archive and OneDrive get copies of the active projects, and the Drive gets updated content. the reason for the sync is to avoid access conflicts with the OneDrive and Google services which will try to backup your files even as you use them... (not a good feature)... as a note, i do something similar for the VST and related program folders so i don't worry i'm missing any of those. this runs about once per month or after significant changes like version upgrades etc.

https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-awards/sos-awards-vote-now CwB is on the list of DAW products to vote for!

agreed. i use a DI box, or one of my amps has an effects loop and a separate DI out so i can use the amp for effects and the DI out from the preamp. what i don't have is a "reamp direct box" which sets the output from the DAW signal to the correct impedance to match a guitars... so when re-amping (re-effecting?) your amp / effects see a signal level and impedance which mimics the guitar output. there are probably some simple circuits which could mimic the impedance and level, using R circuits, and/or transformers... i generally just output low volume from my IO unit which has a very high output impedance. on my amp i use the aux in as that expects the higher levels.

i'll record both a clean signal and effects since it's nice to have the clean performance in case you want to leverage it for MIDI or add other effects, etc.

I have used MME when i'm on a machine with a low end audio interface and nothing else seems to be working. so i'll scan the interface and select whatever it can support - but i'll set CwB to 24 bit on all files - 16-bit will fit into a 24-bit file ?

i have an older Q802USB which uses either the ASIO4ALL or WASAPI. works fine. i have the UMC-1820 which has it's own specific ASIO driver from Behringer which also works very well. on the ASIO4ALL - you need to go into your configuration settings (the ASIO panel) and make sure it's enabled for your audio interface as sometimes there are several audio interfaces listed. as a general rule for myself - i (in device manager) disable all audio interfaces i'm not using to avoid potential conflicts.

too late ? all your vocal tracks are belong to us! you will be assimilated!

in general, the native meters in the "red" do not necessarily indicate clipping etc. so if your RMS level is good and you're seeing peaks in the red, you're probably ok. of course you can calibrate by running a sine wave and testing the levels and seeing if you're able to identify where you have clipping due to RMS being too high. from: https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/establishing-project-studio-reference-monitoring-levels also: if you want to check voltages etc. https://vintageking.com/blog/2016/07/calibrate-converter/ i'd suggest using a K-level meter or similar (i use) Izotope Insight. but i also use a master limiter (Waves L3 or Cwb PC Limiter) set to -1db peak and maybe 2db gain reduction max. this provides a decent level and still retaining a lot of dynamics even with the occasional limit getting hit.

i updated - first select the update option on the web site, second, run install using wave central, third re-authorize as the licenses are on the license cloud and you'll need to assign them to your OS or USB key etc., finally re-run your CwB VST scan to update. worked fine and so far no issues with the plugins (i've used/tested about 20 or so).

i was able to vote - you need to use the search field below each topic. then select from the list. if you use "Cakewalk" then Cakewalk by Bandlab comes out first on the list... you do need to sign into KVR to vote...

perhaps something inspirational. could just be an advertisement for roofing companies...

something fun to make up lyrics to. write your own. remember halloween is just around the corner. or perhaps the upcoming election is scarier? wE'RE gOING tO dIE-Bus A.mp3

also, if you updated to v12 recently, you'll need to install them and authorize them. simply selecting update on the Waves site will not do it and it will move your licenses back on the license cloud...

along those lines of cloud storage - i have the OneDrive and Google Drive clouds set up on my disks, but i only synchronize the project content into those directories so the cloud services don't mess with active files. then once i finish my project work, running the FreeSync app mirrors the new/updated content into the folders and i let the background cloud sync processes go to work... since it's mainly deltas once the new content is uploaded, the sync to cloud only take a few minutes. i think 1TB of OD and 1TB of GD are about $18/month total. really old stuff (>10 years) i just keep on removable drives stored away...

i think that besides some OS bias, the review is quite good, and he's not wrong - the previous owners of cakewalk desires to market things, and simultaneously restrain the development team, has resulted in playing catchup for modern producers. His comparisons to other products should help jumpstart the team's ideas for next generation capability, i imagine that @Noel Borthwick has already read this review and talked to the CbB product owners about a roadmap ?

ultimately 2.1 - it's really only a stereo field L-R. the center LFE channel is unused in my work and so, translation on other devices will require the same due diligence as any stereo output - masking, phase, etc all need to be checked. there are a number of ambisonic-style plugins which would provide a means of changing spatial relationships but the risks to stereo-only devices is effectively the same... https://www.ambisonic.net/

may use the surround features? i like to use a 2.1 surround setup where the LFE is ignored. this way all tracks and busses going into a surround buss can have their width, depth, etc positioned. for example - i have a mono or stereo track feeding into a stereo buss, the separate busses feed into a surround "instruments". i could simple for from the track to the instruments buss to directly position it or add another buss (if say i have a pairs of acoustic guitars left and right comped which also need positioning in the surround space). tweaking the HF to changes it's apparent vertical position...

yeah, there are a lot of challenges to versioning... (ignore the DAW specific bits) http://www2.grammy.com/PDFs/Recording_Academy/Producers_And_Engineers/PTGuidelines.pdf https://www.grammy.com/sites/com/files/delivery_recommendations_for_recorded_music_projects_final_09_27_18.pdf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Naming_conventions_(music) https://musicbiz.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/MusicMetadataStyleGuide-MusicBiz-FINAL2.0.pdf https://www.grammy.com/sites/com/files/folder_definitions.pdf couple more: https://www2.grammy.com/PDFs/Recording_Academy/Producers_And_Engineers/DAWGuidelineShort.pdf http://aesnashville.org/PDFs/NARAS/DAWGuidelines-OneSheets_v1.pdf https://www.waves.com/ways-to-better-organize-your-daw-mixing-sessions tracking worksheet: http://aesnashville.org/PDFs/NARAS/Session-Doc.pdf you practically need someone acting as a librarian and archivist to manage this ? just in case all the engineering and creative duties aren't enough ? that said, i think in these links are some really decent ideas which if condensed for the "small guy", could be useful and made consistent enough for a broad base of people to collaborate without going nuts (or too late for that? lol)

thanks! my "vocalist" is there as the antagonist, so she can sing out of key and make people uncomfortable even if she's a vocal snippet! LOL thanks to all on the feedback, like the green goblin, i took it back to formula to get the levels adjusted...