Jim Fogle

@rasure, WAHOO! ☺️ And I thank you so very much! I can not express how much I appreciate your generosity. If you don't see I've visited the forum for awhile it's because I'm learning my newest tool. ?

@yeto, Per the Rapid Composer website, Rapid Composer is available as a VST and as a standalone program. Use the VST as an insert in Cakewalk by BandLab. Another choice tidbit from the website if you're more comfortable using the standalone program: Generate the midi then drag the midi to a track in CbB.

@mark skinner The video was posted by Sean Devine, https://seandivine.com/about-sean-divine/ Judging from his website his preferred daw tools are Pro Tools, Cubase and Logic Pro. His YouTube channel has more than 89,000 subscribers.

I assume this offer was taken faster than lightning. If not, I'd love to volunteer to give the license a good home!

While I agree in principal with the idea my thinking is remembering settings for every VST instrument could quickly become cumbersome and difficult to manage. Some users seem to have many, many VST instruments. Just throwing an idea out but would settings remembered by software (Native Instruments, 1KMultimedia, etc.) developer work?

One person known primarily as an arranger is Jimmie Haskell, http://www.jimmiehaskell.com/about-jimmie-haskell.html. Another famous arranger was Dave Bartholomew, https://www.rockhall.com/inductees/dave-bartholomew. Last, one person well known for his arrangements was Tommy Newson with the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, http://www.legacy.com/ns/tommy-newsom-obituary/87687489 I think it's interesting that many arrangers also produce. If you've watched any episodes of the television show, Songland, you'll notice it appears there is as much time and effort spent on arrangement as on crafting words.

https://ledgernote.com/columns/music-theory/song-arrangement-tips/ There are a few forum users that create fantastic song arrangements. I'm hoping they will chime in with their thoughts about the content of the blog article as well as some ways they've found that Cakewalk by BandLab can assist with song arrangement. I'm a beginner and have no formal music training so my thoughts reflect my background. Song arrangement is going to greatly depend on genre, mood and setting. A rock song will be arranged differently than a big band standard will be arranged differently than an orchestra score. Happy songs are typically arranged in major keys while sad songs are in minor keys. A song will be arranged differently for live play (where resources MAY be limited) than it will for studio play. What do you think?

Hello @Rick Lang and @mgustavo, In addition to this topic and the one in the Feedback Loop, have you considered submitting a support request here: https://help.cakewalk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=360000025633 BandLab Technologies and the present group of developers really seem to be devoted to fixing issues, making Cakewalk by BandLab more stable and user friendly. The more information they have to work from, the better the program will be for everyone.

@martins How does the program know what to do when the button is pressed? Does this change make a hidden button visible?

Hi Pete, Welcome to Cakewalk by BandLab and to the forum! Unfortunately I don't have an answer for you. However, I can suggest you may get more views and responses by posting your issue in the Q & A forum section here: https://discuss.cakewalk.com/index.php?/forum/12-qa/

Per VST or effect would be much better. Not all VSTs or effect use controllers in the same manner. A good number of controllers are not assigned in the midi standard but are used in VSTs or effects.

Especially when stability and reliability are the focus they presently appear to be. I had not thought about the developers don't want to encourage a user to sit on a bug by offering a workaround until it was mentioned in an earlier post. It makes perfect sense. As mentioned, each time the question gets asked someone can respond by posting a link to this thread.

The problem is most people won't know they need this suggestion until they need to roll back. By then it may be too late. I'm not a programmer but it would seem that the CbB installer could execute a bat file or something similar to automatically create a backup of the Cakewalk Core folder prior to starting the update.

This thread is a nice idea. As much as the "how do I roll back to a previous version" question gets asked I won't be surprised when someone suggests this thread becomes a sticky note. I wish it could be copied to the "Frequently Asked Questions" and "Tutorials" sections.

@paulo Once you have created a mini dump file by following the instructions in the link @Larry Jones provided, you will need to open a support request so you can provide the dump file to the Cakewalk developers. If the mini dump file is a large file, you can store the file in the internet cloud with one of the services like Box, Dropbox, App or 4Share. The cloud service will provide you with a link to the file. You will copy the share link to the support request. If the file is relatively small, you can attach the mini dump file to the support request. Open your support request here: https://help.cakewalk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=360000025633 In the future if you want to submit another support request you can navigate to the same support webpage by selecting the "Cakewalk by BandLab" tab at the top, left of each forum page and then selecting the second option, "Support Center" and selecting the "Submit a request" link in red font at the top, right of the webpage. Here is a link to a thread the chief developer started with more information about mini dump files. BandLab and the developers appear to be making a big effort to make the application more crash resistant and stable. They need us to assist by providing crash data when it happens. Your follow through can make DAW life better for all of us.

Perhaps but that is a pretty broad label to apply to all users. It is also a narrow vision statement to follow while trying to broaden the user base. What about users that want to create primarily with midi or loops? I took my time to read the review and absorb the thoughts that were presented. While not wanting to review the review I will say I think the review is worth reading as two critical issues were brought up. Stability is critical for obtaining and retaining users. The review was published in December, 2018. Even before then, Cakewalk developers have concentrated on making the product more crash resistant and stable. Still, there remains more maintenance work to be completed before Cakewalk will be as stable as it can and needs to be. The review also points out that much of the product feature set seems to be unfinished or incomplete as though the developers had great ideas but marketing did not allocate the time needed to properly implement features. From different things I've read in this forum, the old forum, third party forums, etc. I believe there is some truth behind this sentiment. Hopefully, BandLab will continue to let the developers work not just on fixes or new features but will also allow time for the developers to revisit some of the existing feature sets and tweak as needed. I've bookmarked the site as I want to look deeper into what Admiral Bumble Bee has said and continues to say.

@pwalpwal, I agree with you that the developers have not added support for an additional controller protocol in some time. But we shouldn't overlook or dismiss the body of work performed in the past. A lot of time development will broadly focus on different areas. The focus may shift as first audio is the primary focus, then the main focus may move to midi, then gui and so on. Just because there has not been any recent Sonar controller protocol developments does not mean that future controller protocol development is not desired or planned. We've already seen a Cakewalk poll asking forum members to vote and help set development priorities.

Forum member @CosmicDolphin and I have been conversing about an idea he originally suggested in this thread January 03, 2019: CosmicDolphin's idea is for users to have the capability to select the size of the character font used in the browser "Notes" tab window. Presently the browser "Notes" tab window character font is one size while the window is in focus and a smaller size when the window is out-of-focus. The out-of-focus character font size can be too small to read on large or high definition screens. Allowing the user to select character font size would enable the user to choose a font size that fits their unique needs. I would like to see a font size button added to the "Notes" window. Clicking on the font size button opens a drop down menu. A suggested location for the font size button would be next to the existing "File Stats" button. The screen shots below demonstrate what I'm saying.

@azslow3 My main reference is the HUI Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_User_Interface_Protocol I originally became interested in the subject after reading about the release of the Novation SLMkIII controller: https://novationmusic.com/keys/sl-mkiii

@SomeGuy, I am not familiar with the abbreviation, NLE as you are using it. Will you define NLE as you are using it? Thank you in advance!

I apologize my first response rambled. I was in a hurry. I intended to remove the memory reference but failed to. That was said in error. slartabartfast made the point I was trying to make; the larger the data set the audio engine can handle the more accurate the resulting audio will be.

Mike, I don't have a controller so implementing HUI will not directly affect me at this time. Traditionally, Sonar\Cakewalk has embraced controller protocol support. HUI appears to be a comprehensive controller protocol that is enjoying new popularity among manufacturers.

@Chuck E Baby, I agree "common task" was a poor choice of words. Manage markers would likely be a better way to state it. On the other hand your response makes a good case for having a marker delete button in the Marker module. I find it more difficult to remember how to perform a task I rarely perform than task I frequently perform. While you may not notice the delete button whenever you don't need it, you will immediately notice the button is missing when you want to delete a marker, don't immediately remember how to delete a marker and there is no delete button. The three buttons across the top of the Markers module are "previous", "next" and "add". The "add" button has a "+" (plus or add) symbol in the bottom right area of the button. Divide the bottom half of the button into two, equal halves and place a "-" (minus) symbol on the bottom left area of the button and you have a multi-function button with easily identifiable functions. I've got to admit, I seldom disagree with your thoughts but in this case I do.

@SynthManDan, Thanks for taking time to update the thread. I'm really glad to read your issue is resolved and the program is working smoothly for you.

@Jake I have a difficult time assimilating information. I consider myself a perpetual beginner so I am always looking a videos that reinforce my knowledge. I like that your video doesn't dwell on installation or setup. I also like that your focus is more on midi rather than audio recording. Two slices of information that would help beginners and users new to Cakewalk by BandLab are the availability of the virtual midi keyboard and what steps are required to make the TTS-1 the default midi sound module. I hope you will consider slowing down the speed words are spoken in your sound track. Listen to the soundtracks of commercials to get an idea of a speaking cadence that allows the listener to absorb the message. Here is a useful rule-of-thumb: one printed page equals about 1 minute of dialogue. I think you may find that speaking at a cadence doesn't add time to a video but does increase comprehension.