Jim Fogle

Craig Anderton has composed two TTS-1 articles for Sound On Sound magazine. The first appeared in the June, 2005 edition and the second appeared in the January, 2019 edition. +++ June, 2005 +++ and +++ January, 2019 +++ They are a good refresher course. I purchased the pdf files for both.

I get the idea of bundling free VSTis with a free DAW. It's a good idea. BandLab has some unreleased VSTs. There have been hints some will be released in the future, I hope so. As Cakewalk gains a larger audience perhaps developers will approach the Cakewalk staff about bundling opportunities. That is one of the nice things about attending trades hows; it provides opportunities for ideas to be shared and presented informally. The BandLab Assistant already has the mechanism to offer additional applications through the add-on screen.

Einstein, Thanks for the video. Your workspace makes a lot of sense for what you do, make beats. I sure do hope that someone comes along and gives the name of the space you forgot the name to at around 6:10 (see screen shot below) Also, you said you've been using Cakewalk by Bandlab for about 2 years. I must admit I'm still learning the program and find the Help module ... well, very helpful. For people like me that are interested in using the program to learn about beat creation it would be very helpful to place some of your main thoughts into a pdf file and making the pdf file available in the description section below the video.

@Einstein Essibu, I didn't know BandLab has +3 million users. I totally agree with your thought that all BandLab users are potential Cakewalk users however there maybe some obstacles those users will need to overcome. The first obstacle is many BandLab users are mobile based while Cakewalk is computer based. Bandlab is accessible anywhere a smart phone can obtain an internet connection. Cakewalk users are locked into using a computer. The second obstacle is Cakewalk is exclusive for use on a 64 bit Windows computer. Users with Chrome, Macintosh or Linux based computer operating systems are out of luck. Users with 32 bit Windows operating system are out of luck. Now for some good news. One of the first enhancements was to the BandLab Assistant to support the exchange of "BandLab Interchange Files", or blx, files. This enables a user to import or drag and drop a BandLab project into a Cakewalk project. Import BandLab Project was also added to File > Import > BandLab Project. Cakewalk's Export module supports a partial or full export of a Cakewalk project from Cakewalk to BandLab with some restrictions. The export to BandLab feature is fully described here: Export to BandLab . That leads me to believe there are plans to find ways to encourage more interaction between the two platforms. More good news. Both the TTS-1 midi software sound module and the four virtual instrument Studio Instrument suite are available for download through the BandLab Assistant Cakewalk add-on selection screen. Cakewalk automatically selects TTS-1 if no midi device is selected in Cakewalk midi output preferences. That allows a user to easily and quickly hear acceptable sounds while composing using midi. The Studio Instrument suite of strings, keys, electric bass and drums are good sounding virtual instrument learning tools. I am thrilled to have both midi virtual instrument tools in my toolbox. In addition to what's included with Cakewalk, as you've seen there is a huge amount of virtual instruments available for free or low cost. Finally, the midi and audio loops created by BandLab staff is available in BandLab Assistant and can be imported into Cakewalk.

Here is a series of six YouTube videos demonstrating the free Cakewalk Drum Replacer ARA Region Effect add-on. Original link provided by forum moderator scook.

@Einstein Essibu, Very interesting video about your process to make beats in Cakewalk by BandLab. I hope you will make more. Your text boxes help a lot but you need more text boxes. When you are using the control bar or browser it is difficult to see what you are doing. I never could clearly see how you have your tracks set out. Zooming in would be helpful. Again, I hope you will make more videos. It is unusual to see beat making videos in Cakewalk by BandLab.

@Mike Morris Welcome to the forum. I've subscribed to your YouTube channel and look forward to seeing your videos. Am I correct in assuming the majority of your videos will focus on audio recording and mixing? Do you plan to include anything about working with midi or audio loops to create track content?

Welcome!

Per Google Translate:

@Olaf has a lot of feature requests and has taken time to present his feature list as poll questions that provide forum members the opportunity to easily indicate support for or against each feature request. That is admirable and his work and ideas are appreciated. While reading and considering his requests sometimes the "canned" responses do not accurately represent my thoughts. I noticed though the forum software does not provide a way for poll questions to be discussed. I would like to be able to respond to a poll by having the capability to ask follow up questions or suggest a modification to the feature as presented.

@Olaf, Thanks for using the poll feature so forum members can vote their preference of choice for each feature. I've voted!

@Kurre, I'm writing this on a 13 year old, entry level Dell laptop. This laptop was one of the last Vista laptops and was eligible for upgrade to Windows 7 so it became one of the first Windows 7 laptops. When the upgrade to Windows 10 was first announced several years ago the Microsoft update wizard blocked the upgrade stating the hardware was too old and not supported. I tried again last month. The update went through and the process was easy. Since the Windows 10 update I've been impressed with Windows 10 and how well this laptop works. My point is if you have the ability to upgrade to Windows 10 I believe you should. Windows 10 works better than Windows 7. On a related note my vote for an alternate version of Cakewalk would be for a return of the 32 bit DAW. Windows 10 can be installed 32 or 64 bit but 64 bit is the default install. I believe the 32 bit DAW should be available as long as a 32 bit operating system is available.

I don't know which feature addition I'm looking forward to learning to use better, the Arrangement Track or Pro Module presets. But wait, there's MORE! Per output Instrument tracks, the VST3 bug fixes and audio driver immediately updates. All wonderful.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Cakewalk by BandLab. Thanks for introducing yourself. Here's wishing you great success.

How about +++ UVI Workstation +++ or +++ Plogue Sforzando +++?

I thought the Drums On Demand product giveaway was thoughtful and generous. At first only mailing list subscribers were included in the giveaway but the next day they opened the giveaway to everyone. I was able to purchase a $60 US song construction kit (multi instrument loop package) for $10 US. Unfortunately it seems their generosity was abused by some people downloading multiple selections. What is it they say, "No good deed goes unpunished". Years ago Drums On Demand provided Cakewalk with a sample song construction kit for distribution with Music Creator. That is how I became aware of Drums On Demand and their loop packages. I've always wanted a complete package to play with and now I have one.

BandLab is a music conglomerate with music stores, instrument manufacturers, social music platform, magazine, music hardware and likely other music related things I've overlooked. BandLab has shown an interest in anything related to music. BandLab saw an opportunity to obtain a mature and full featured DAW for pennies on the dollar of what it would cost to create a similar product from scratch. Along with the intellectual property BandLab was able to retain some of the team, the old website and the Cakewalk name. Finally, Bandlab gained instant name recognition from the Cakewalk audience.

@Deric Love, Perhaps you can receive more responses if you ask your question in a new thread; it's a little off topic for this thread.

The introductory and walk through videos lead me to believe that is an awesome looking, well designed and most importantly, great sounding multi-timbrel VSTi. All the instruments seem to be instruments I can use in my music. While I'm sure the software instrument is worth every penny of the $189 US price Fluffy Audio is asking, the price is beyond my pay grade. For those in need of a piano, Fluffy Audio is offering their "My Piano" acoustic upright virtual instrument for $10 during this pandemic. https://www.fluffyaudio.com/shop/mypiano/

@sarmad, Thanks for taking time to respond to my questions and comments. Please explain how you would like for Cakewalk by BandLab to handle external fx plugins. Shouldn't your interface handle external hardware routing?

It's a no for me. I think it would be hard to get everyone to come to a consensus agreement about how the feature should work, what the feature is and why it's needed.

I looked back at the webpage and saw this note was added: That's too bad. The quantity of choices to choose from dropped from about 16 to 6. The selection I chose, Band On Demand: Country Kit # 2, is one of the choices removed.

The R8 drum pads are internal sample triggers., the keystrokes are not intended to be exported outside the R8. You assign drum patches to each pad and can then play the pads in real time during R8 track playback. I believe you can also record keystrokes to create a drum sequence. There use to be a Zoom Yahoo music group and a Zoom user forum. I was the owner and moderator of the Zoom Yahoo Music Group. I deleted the group because of a lack of activity. The Zoom user forum moved to Facebook at the beginning of 2020.

+++ THANKS +++

@Robert Bone, one solution might be the use to modify the existing guitar audio through a plugin that uses impulse responses to modify the audio into 12 string audio. Check out this discussion: You might also want to check out @msmcleod's post on using IR: