Starship Krupa

I have heard anecdotally that nVidia GPU's can play better with DAW and NLE work than AMD. GPU development has been driven by gaming use for so long that I think that performance and stability in multimedia creation applications can be neglected. nVidia seem to have begun to pay attention to this market in recent years, with their "studio" drivers and NVENC video encoder. I recently experimented with comparing renders in Vegas Pro using MAGIX' own encoder vs. the nVidia one. Rendering a 2 minute project that had no VFX, all it was was editing some scenes out, took about 15 minutes using the MAGIX encoder. When I tried the same project but switched to the nVidia encoder, the project rendered in under a minute and was about 2/3 the file size of the other one. What an improvement. And this is with my not-cutting-edge CPU and GPU. Many years ago I used to run the 32-bit build of Mixcraft because the 64-bit version didn't have the same performance on my system. The 64-bit version glitched and crackled under any kind of processing load. Imagine my surprise when I switched from my AMD GPU to an nVidia GPU (of similar age and spec) and suddenly the 64-bit version ran better than the 32-bit version. I could crank the latency lower and use more plug-ins. It could very well be that I could try a newer AMD video card, or just tweak the settings, and find equal performance to a similar nVidia card, but my past experiences have made me into an nVidia loyalist. I like to game, but I don't play the latest bleeding edge titles and performance and stability for my audio and video creation software is more important.

Never assume that someone else has reported the issue. Other people experiencing the same problem may all be making the same assumption.

I'm actually not a Serum user, but I've also experienced similar with other companies' factory presets. A|A|S for example, like to drench their factory sounds in long-tailed reverb, and I noticed on my older lower-spec laptop that if I just turned off the reverb and used a 3rd-party reverb that they could play all day at lower latency without causing clicks and pops. This was one of my motivations for buying Chromaphone and Ultra Analog VA licenses: I wanted to be able to turn off the reverb. Otherwise, using the soundpacks with A|A|S Player would be fine, as I seldom do any patch editing in them other than turning off the reverb. I can't blame manufacturers for baking so many FX into the factory patches. I noticed after I installed the most recent version of MinimogueVA that it sounded kind of unexciting, then it occurred to me to put the simplest chorus, kHs Chorus on it to give them some stereo width. Bang! It started to sound uh-MAY-zing. So I've become used to factory patches being made HUGE through (over?) use of FX, despite the fact that I often disable them in actual use. Maybe Xfer switched to a reverb algo that's more expensive in terms of processing power. Def. let them know if turning off the reverb makes the problem go away.

Was this bundled with SONAR at some point? I don't recognize the name. Ugh, company going down and activation that no longer works is something I realllllly hope doesn't become an issue with the software products I've invested in. Even the ones I've gotten for free. So far, it hasn't been a problem; even SoundSpot registration is still being supported by Plugin Boutique. Seems like you've even been more diligent than some about hanging on to your serials. I hope you find a solution.

Indeed, I originally mentioned that but then deleted it 'cause I wanted to keep things brief. Does it look like every Serum user is having these bad glitching problems, though? Even with the very best BETA team in the world, if a soft synth is causing a problem, but only a small percentage of the team is seeing the issue, and the developers are also among those who aren't seeing it, it can be a challenge to get the problem fixed. Even if the symptom is worse than glitching on complex patches.😉 The ones who are having issues need to speak up on that forum and keep doing so, make sure that the developer doesn't forget about it. Sometimes it takes being a bit of a pain in the A|A|S (so to speak). (when I first saw this topic title, my mind distinguished between "bad" glitching, and "good" glitching, and it made me wonder how Glitchmachines, Freakshow Industries, and Unfiltered Audio manage to test their products, like "it obliterated the sound completely" is a goal with a lot of their products, not a defect. "Actual behavior: source audio sounds wider and richer while retaining its character. Expected behavior: audio should sound like it passed through a tesseract and was inaccurately recovered.")

LOL. Great way to put it. When you mentioned it, I thought "maybe drop $35 on a used i7-4770" and then I read the first several XFer forum posts and thought "maybe this is one of those developers who doesn't optimize and test enough on Windows," and THEN I saw: "I'm getting the same thing on my M3 Max MacBook Pro...." "Not enough gun" is not the issue. I see in the system requirements that he doesn't even have a minimum processor requirement. Released too soon?

Any of the systems you linked to should be more than capable of running Cakewalk smoothly. I'm running it on an i7-6950X system, which is kind of old, but it works great. I also have an nVidia GTX1070 graphics card, which is also old and outdated hardware. It runs any game I want at Ultimate graphics settings. The games I play are not the latest, but they are graphics heavy, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Elder Scrolls Online and so on.

The power of a good loss leader.

I think that a lot of websites are set up that way.

I can use them in other hosts. They were available for purchase separately, weren't they?

Setting aside the issue of whether the Cakewalk dev team would be able to write an OS in their spare time, I have no interest in using a DAW that required me to boot a proprietary single-purpose OS in order to use it. Less than no interest; I would be repelled by such a product and consider it inadequate for my needs. I use Windows to run my apps. What I want is software that runs well in Windows. I often have multiple programs running at the same time along with my DAW. I also have no complaints about stability issues with the DAW's I use now. As a matter of fact, I'm pleasantly surprised that they are as stable as they are, given the tasks they do.

I think that this question can't be answered without first clarifying the term "high definition MIDI." Sonar records and plays MIDI events. I've always assumed that it records and plays back whatever types of events are defined in the MIDI specification. I don't know why it wouldn't. Compared to recording and playing back audio, MIDI is (pardon the expression) a snap.

Dumpster Fire is one of my favorite sound design destroy FX, and it's now on sale for very little. Also Backmask, MISHBY, and Pocket Dimension. https://www.pluginboutique.com/manufacturers/277-Freakshow-Industries The newer Vaporware series FX aren't included, but they're pretty inexpensive from their website: https://freakshowindustries.com/vaporware I've demo'd the Vaporware FX and liked them, but dangit, I already have too many FX, even creative ones! My only complaint about their FX is the lack of dry/wet controls, although with their schtick, I understand it as a design choice. They make things that rip sounds apart and reassemble them, they don't make things that add subtle flavoring.

Just hold the Ctrl key while dragging it around and it will prevent the venus flytrap behavior. As for opening maximized or whatever, experiment with the "D" and "Shift+D" shortcuts. They may help get you where you want to go.

There is no special procedure to add instruments or any other type of plug-in. They are not added specifically to Plug-In Manager, but to your computer system as a whole, where multiple host programs may use them with a bit of configuration. Most plug-ins either come with an installer program or written instructions to place a .DLL or .VST3 in a certain folder. Once the file (or files) are in the folder(s) the DAW (Cakewalk, Sonar, or SONAR, or another) will scan the folders for the presence of .DLL or .VST3 files and automatically add the plug-ins to Plug-In Manager and the plug-in browser. The folder for VST3 plug-ins is standardized per the VST3 specification as C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3. You may find the locations that Cakewalk products scan for plug-ins in Preferences/Files/VST Settings. The .DLL file for a VST2 plug-in must be placed in one of the locations listed there. If you click on "Instrumentos de VST" and "Instrumentos de VST3," you may discover that you do already have some instruments installed. Hope this helps.... P.S. In the future, you may get a faster response if you ask questions in the Q&A Forum. This forum is for Cakewalk staff to post answers to questions that users ask most frequently, although plug-in installation can be a snag for ANY VST/VST3 host. 😀 There is no user of VST host programs who has not had a problem, at least minor, with installing plug-ins.

Yeah, the only reason you'd want to focus on one or the other depends on what kind of material you're working on. If by some weird twist of fate I were coming up with a soundtrack and needed to get it done fast, I'd head straight for The Orchestra Essentials. It also allows you to use the individual instruments, which are kinda exquisitely recorded, but like I said, it's sort of restricted as far as articulations. You have to pick the articulations you want in separate instances.

I have them both, and on the basis of how much I liked The Orchestra Elements, I ponied up for The Orchestra Essentials when it was on sale. They are both fine instruments, but I don't think they can be compared. They have different intended uses. Berlin Free is of the more common type of library, it has multiple instrument sounds with multiple articulations and the composition is entirely up to the user. The Orchestra Elements is more notable for the stacked arpeggios that allow you to one-finger or chord these huge cinematic sounds. The Orchestra doesn't give you access to articulations until you go to the next level. So one is not "better" than the other, they have different uses. For your criteria, the Berlin Free Orchestra wins, but The Orchestra Elements is worth having around for quick inspiration.

Something I must applaud them for is that the VST ID remains the same, so you don't have a situation like Kontakt, where each time they come out with a new engine, it's Kontakt 6, then Kontakt 7, then Kontakt 8, all of which are different instruments as far as your DAW is concerned. It's still just Soundpaint. The result of changing the ID every time is that in order for older projects to load properly, you must keep all of the previous versions of the engine installed. Right now I have 3 versions of Kontakt Player installed, and it's going to be that way until I'm sure that I have no older projects that still use Kontakt 6 Player. Seeing as that I have a LOT of projects that might have used whatever version of Kontakt, that's a "foreseeable future" timeline. I'm not sure what the upside of changing the ID is for Native, as Kontakt is great about opening older libraries. It makes for more hassle for people who upgrade, they have to leave the clutter of multiple old versions laying about, and it's not as if the older ones have features that the newer ones don't (as far as I know). Why can't it just be "Kontakt?" Or even have the option of a DLL for the new one that gives the ID of the older one, which some companies do. Native are not the only ones guilty of this (corporate bed buddies iZotope are in a close second place for me), but they're the ones who bother me the most due to the size of the packages I have to leave around, as well as the hassle of reinstalling all of them when I build a new system.

These days, it's dang near only mag in da biz....

Disagree thoroughly. Before the devs introduced the renaming options described in this topic, I would have agreed with you, but as it is now, just the fact that it's possible to give them whatever name(s) you want puts them near the top of the list of DAW's (any audio programs) that I'm familiar with. I even have my first two inputs named as Mic/Inst and the remaining six named Mic/Line to remind me that I shouldn't plug a guitar directly into inputs 3-9. Or do you mean the way that Sonar presents the list of inputs if you don't use the renaming feature? 'cause yeah, I never had an issue with it until I started using CbB. The pushback I got from people on the forum when I inquired as to why it was so garbled was a sight to behold. Ranging from the usual "it's not a problem for me, therefore it's not a problem at all" to those who swore up and down that it wasn't even possible for it to be any different because Cakewalk was displaying the names the driver supplied. Which of course raised the question for me: if it wasn't possible to take the set of text strings supplied by a driver, analyze it, and present it in a format that made more sense, then why did every other audio program I had ever used do it?

Pepsi Syndrome

My first thought was "cool, I'll get Battalion." 🙄 Just have to wait....

Do you have the full ST MAX 4 v2 suite? I think you'd find some gems in there, especially with Syntronik 2 and all its add-on libraries, and SampleTron 2. I've spent hours just auditioning the sounds in SampleTron2. It's not just Mellotron, they dug up weird stuff like the Optigan, Talentmaker, and other obscure nuggets. Actually TBH, I've found the 3 instruments/libraries other than the SampleTank ones to be the most interesting and inspiring. The exceptions to this are the later add-on libraries like the Mojo Synthesis collection, Extraterrestrial Sax, Bionic Drums, Malletopia/Malletension, Alternate Keys, Spaceport '77, Beatmachines, Clavitube and so on. I found out the suite comes with over 5,000 MIDI patterns that you can access by clicking on the pattern icon down at the bottom, the inverted "V" thing. I had some stoopid fun by using the patterns with instruments they weren't intended for. Guitar strum loops with nasty sounding synth leads, hip hop loops with the cathedral organ or string sections, etc. Or fire up Bionic Drums and go through some of the celebrity drum loops. Billy Cobham rips it up on the Bionic kits and Neal Peart punishes a CR-78, it's as if the legendary Rush drummer sat in with Kraftwerk. I've overlooked these features, despite having had SampleTank CS since it first came out 5 years ago.

I know that lots of people bought this suite in the past year. I also know that it can be hard to figure out just what you need to install and what you can skip. The options about where to install everything can be confusing too. I wrote up my insights and install procedure in the hope that other people can get the most possible enjoyment from this amazing package.

Many people have picked up this amazing package in the past year or so, either when it went on sale back in late 2023 or when it was released more recently as a Humble Bundle. The installation process can be confusing, knowing what to install and where to install it. It's easy to end up with duplicated content and wasted disk space. It's also easy to miss some of the included add-on libraries, which is some of the best content. I wrote up my installation procedure in the hope that it will help people get more use from their purchase.