Jim Fogle

My first time listening to your songs. Nice sounding mix.

@User 905133, The Install Banner operation has been consistent for me. I mention if there are issues because another user mentioned he has experienced issues. The Install Banner first displays before the Start Screen displays (I have the Start Screen display turned on in Preferences). So I clicked on the Open Folder button before any project was loaded. The second time I went through the process the Start Screen was displayed when I selected the Install Now button. My chief complaint is I don't think the Install banner should disappear if a user selects the Open Folder button, the File Explorer window opens (which changes focus away from the Cakewalk GUI), the File Explorer window is closed (which changes the focus back to the Cakewalk GUI) and the Install Banner is gone. My contention is a new user may not know which file is the newest when the folder is opened; especially if they do not have the detailed view selected in File Explorer so the file dates show. A new user may not realize the files in the folder are update files. A new user may not know they need to manually run one of the files in the folder to update. Finally, a new user may think, I goofed and need to go back. But when the user returns to the Cakewalk GUI the Install Banner and Install Now choice is gone! It's easy to panic anyhow; why make it easier to panic than it needs to be?

I returned to Cakewalk to discover the installer was not accessible once I selected the Open Folder banner option, I navigated to "Help" > "Check for Updates". I downloaded the installer a second time and the "Open Folder" / "Install Now" banner appeared again. This time I selected "Install Now". Cakewalk updated just fine with the installer running from inside Cakewalk. Interesting side note, even though the percentage numbers indicated the installer file downloaded a second time, the download folder only has one copy of the file. What happened to the second download file? My thoughts are: The banner should not close when the Open Folder option is selected. I interpret "Open Folder" to imply the selection is a view only selection. In this instance a user should be able to change focus from Cakewalk to the download folder, return to Cakewalk and the banner remain in place. The Install Now option should be removed if that option is known to cause problems.

Installing updates from inside the DAW is new so the time to highlight limitations and discuss the feature is now, before it gets set in stone.

I'm hoping they get a lot of users that are new to Cakewalk and new to offline DAWs. But to keep them the software needs to be user friendly. My thinking is if some thinks installing an update is complicated they will think learning Cakewalk is frustrating.

I hope this is an area under development and I have highlighted some limitations. I don't think inside the DAW updates is user friendly for newcomers. I appreciate @John T and @John Vere comments. They have helped highlight some of the limitations of the present way of updating from within the DAW.

Not everyone has their computer set up to show dates. See my image above for an example.

Then the Cakewalk installer doesn't follow best practices. When you select the "Install Now" button the program updates.

Foe me "Open Folder" is an invitation to open a folder, not install an update. When I selected the "Open Folder" option and a Windows Explorer window opened I saw some files. How am I supposed to know which one to run? I don't want to come across as argumentative. Little things like this can throw a new user an unexpected curveball and be a frustration.

Not that anyone is aware of. There really is no need to convert them as Cakewalk and some other DAWs can us DX. What 32 bit VST plugins do you think should be converted to 64 bit format?

When I opened Cakewalk a banner indicated an update was available. After the update downloaded another banner appeared. The second banner gave two choices, "Open Folder" and "Install Now". I selected "Open Folder" and a Windows Explorer window opened. When I closed the Windows Explorer window and returned to Cakewalk, the second banner was closed. My expectation was the banner would remain open and I could select "Install Now". Why does the banner not stay open until either the "Install Now" or the "X" button is selected?

@dubdisciple, thank you for correcting the typo. I hope my remark didn't come across as smart or sarcastic as that was not my intent. Sometimes I don't see the forest for the trees. In this instance the typo drew my attention enough I did not understand your question. That's why I asked for clarification. I'm glad to discover the issue is resolved.

I like the idea more now than I did when I first saw it three years ago. The advantages are distinct and easy for me to see at this point It offers a place to store music files, accessible to desktops, tablets and smart phones, collaboration opportunities and idea generators (loop content). As Cakewalk continues to integrate the Bandlab eco system it's only going to become easier to share resources between both systems and enjoy the strengths both offer. Like you, the idea excites me more than the real thing. But, I'm excited and I didn't think I would be.

And even though the storage and playback is free there are NO commercial interruptions; Hallelujah!

Please excuse my ignorance. What is the Star screen? What are you selecting that opens old Cakewalk pages? What is supposed to open when you make a selection?

Your best bet is likely to stay with the current version of Audacity that you are already using and not update to version 3. If you've already updated to version 3 then you can uninstall version 3, download and install the older V2.4.2 from Fosshub here. Having said all that, the new owner stated the data collection information in the privacy text was poorly written and misunderstood.

Nice little ditty. I enjoyed it and your pictures very much. I lived close to Folly Beach. I miss the sounds of the coast sometimes. One thing I don't miss is in the summer time you could just about set your watch by the daily thunderstorms; start at 4:30 PM and end a few minutes before 5!

Now that the Bandlab online DAW works inside my browser of choice, Firefox, I've made some opportunities to play with it. I really like the simplicity of the GUI and how intuitive many of the commands are to use. I'm actually surprised at how well I do like it. For small projects the GUI is great. The track colors really pop off the screen. One concern I have is I can't envision how well the Bandlab GUI would translate to a large project Part of that is because I haven't played with the Bandlab GUI enough to envision how all the screens (Console, Step Sequencer, Piano Roll View, etc.) would look in the Bandlab GUI. I think it would be real interesting to see what some of the Cakewalk Theme Editor gurus could do with this idea.

One point made earlier is the Undo history includes both editing and mixing moves. What if the user could choose which Undo history to follow; editing Undo, mixing Undo or both Undo? The user could select similar to the way snap or loop settings are turned on and off. Look at it from a new user or beginner viewpoint, who is going to know from the beginning @GreenLight's rules for Undo?

@Bruno da Costa, Generally speaking BLX files are topographic files and not native to the audio domain. Cakewalk is developing built-in tools that provide easy access and use of the parent company's online collaborative platform, Bandlab.

Thanks for the update on the update! Nice to see all the changes in use.

@David Pollock, Select a track. Open the Track Inspector view. Select the MIDI tab. The track MIDI inputs and outputs are located in the bottom, left section labeled In/Out. They can be viewed and changed from this location. You likely find one track where the input or output are not set as you desire.

When I clicked on the link I received a notice (from Google Drive) the file can not be previewed and a second notice (from Google Drive) the file can not be scanned for viruses. I downloaded anyhow and copied the installer to my desktop. When I ran the installer I received a notice I did not have administrative privileges to run the file. I also received a notice Windows Defender was scanning the file. After the file scanned, it began the install. I was glad to see the optional applications remain available for selection. I was notified I have the current update and the installer closed. I did NOT right click and enable administrator rights so I'm not sure why I received the notice but the installer still ran. I was surprised Windows Defender initiated a scan. That hasn't happened to me during a download or install in a long time. I hope this is helpful.

@Greg Steel, Greg, Your feedback regarding nvda is enlightening. However I fear it is misplaced and will be overlooked. May I suggest you repost your nvda feedback in the Cakewalk by Bandlab forum section. There your post may obtain more views and receive better feedback regarding possible solutions.

@Sander Verstraten Bandlab Assistant doesn't have a progress bar during download but does during install. My first time install of Bandlab Assistant took about 45 minutes. The installation is quick. The more you use your computer the longer the initial download takes. After multiple attempts I finally just started the download then walked away from the computer. Sort of reminded me of the "good 'ol days" when I use to leave the computer connected to the telephone modem overnight to download a new version of Netscape.