Starship Krupa

So you'd back me up on my feature request that Cakewalk be able to read VST3 presets and import them into its own preset system. I don't remember if I wrote it up and posted it. Steinberg defined default locations for VST3 presets. PA are one of the few plug-in companies who use them. The path for factory-supplied ones is Documents/VST3Presets/<manufacturer>/<product>

When I record in Cakewalk, it's always in Comp mode, and 95% of the time with looping enabled. Cakewalk has a feature where at the end of recording, it places splits where it thinks you'll want to make edits. I have never found this to be useful for my needs. Rather, it results in a lot of splits in odd places where I don't want them. This is especially true for MIDI performances because Cakewalk truncates the beginning and end of takes at first note on and last note off, then assumes you want a split at those points on all the other clips. Example: Sound on Sound mode, on the other hand, leaves the clips alone after you're done, no automatic splits: My feature request is simply that we be allowed to turn off automatic clip splits when recording in Comp/loop mode. Both for MIDI and audio.

What kind of software product would be for people who use samples? A soft sampler or a librarian?

Glad you got it sorted. Not sure why you would be using SONAR Platinum at this late date. Cakewalk by BandLab, especially for an owner of a SPlat license, is so much better.

It sounds like it's a matter of adjusting that gain knob on the interface. Too hot and you clip the input of the interface's preamp, too cold and the level of your recorded sound will be needlessly low, losing a lot of the benefits of digital recording. I have a Behringer C-1, it's not the worst Chinese LDC you could have bought. I put it in the "punches above its weight" category. Fine as a first mic, esp. if you got a deal on it. I've used mine on guitar amp and on voice. Never tried it on megaphone, though. And yes, recording, especially audio, does mean you're going to pick up a new skillset. A good thing is that what you learn doing it yourself can translate into being a better customer of professional services if you decide to go that way at some point. I think it means taking a similar approach to how you'd learn an instrument. Don't expect to be a virtuoso right away and remember that the pros make it look easier than it is. ? Oh, and help is plentiful on the internet. ?

So try another flavor.

Another alpha compressor lover here. I bought it because elysia mpressor is so good, and because White Sea Studios gave it a rave review. It looks intimidating at first, all those knobs and switches, but the thing is, you don't have to use all of them. Stick to what you know, attack, release, threshold, and makeup gain and leave the rest turned off until you've got some time to play with them. Tip: it comes with 22 presets. You can access them via the "VST3" menu in Cakewalk's plug-in UI. This goes for many other PA products as well. Other tip: I think there's a tuner that goes for $5 somewhere on PA's site, I used it for order padding.

Thanks, it looks like the current term is "Hardware Outputs." I shall alert the appropriate authorities. On my Firepod, I have 5 stereo pairs available as outputs, and I use 4 of them. Only one is controllable by physical knob, so I'm real cozy with the controls on Cakewalk's hardware outputs. The reason I'm digging into this is that I want to write up a tutorial covering the related topics of loudness metering plug-ins and audio export. In my first several months working with Cakewalk I had issues with getting exactly what I wanted from the audio export process (and still every couple of weeks there's someone posting that they're getting unexpected results). I wanted to understand what was going on, and a problem with that is that helpful people on the forum are best when we're presented with an ultimate goal so that we can give the person asking for help a set of steps to follow. We're not as good with "I'd like to learn more about what's happening during this process and what my different options are." I finally got enough info to figure out that "Entire Mix" meant "what's coming from the Hardware Outs." Which alerted me to the fact that for better flexibility and control I needed to start making my audio exports from a dedicated bus rather than the "Master" bus or the output I used for driving speakers.

Well, here's what it says: Kind of meter: What it measures Record: The level of the instrument listed as an input for the track you are monitoring—the track must be armed to enable the meter Playback: A playback meter measures the playback level of any pre-existing data in the track you are monitoring, either before or after the track faders, depending on what display options you choose Main outs: The level of the signal output by each main out. Buses: The level of the output signal the bus is sending back from the effects. Here's what I have in Console View: So I guess I can assume that the documentation means "Hardware Outputs" when it says "Main outs?" Okay, now I'm trying to parse "The level of the signal output by each main out." Is that more "the level of the signal coming from each Hardware Output?" And "the level of the output signal the bus is sending back from the effects?" That seems to cover only one use scenario for buses, that being effects send. I think a bus meter (if post fader) indicates the level of signal coming from the bus, whether there are FX on it or not. I'm trying to straighten this out so I can submit it to Mr. S for amendment.

I'm trying to get a better understanding of signal flow and metering in Cakewalk. In the documentation (both online and in the Ref. Guide), it refers to "Main outs." https://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=Cakewalk&language=3&help=Mixing.15.html What are "Main outs?" Does it mean the hardware outputs?

I wrote them years ago and got no reply. I suspect the issue is with the plug-in, though. I think they're supposed to tell the host whether they're able to do the 64-bit thing. I keep the 64-bit double precision engine turned off these days because it seems to have an unpredictable effect on certain soft synths I use. I go with individual plug-in oversampling.

Ah, don't be too concerned about all this. Just import the color preset, type a name for it into the name field and save it. Use a new name, not the name of one of the stock presets. That's it. The .STH files are independent of the color presets. If you want to get a deeper understanding of how theme colors relate to custom colors, there is a section in TYLIP about it. Thanks for the wishes about vision issues. Fortunately, corrective lenses take care of it when I have a good prescription (although optometrists have a hard time with my prescription for whatever reason). I hope that the information shared here helps you (and anyone else reading) to have a more visible DAW.

I think I ran into this issue when "64-bit Double Precision Engine" is enabled in Cakewalk. CbB now comes with the ProChannel CA-2A module, so if I want the LA/2A type of compressor, I use that.

The only issue I've seen anyone have with importing color presets is that after you import one, the name field is blank. So you must type in the name you wish to use (Racing Green or whatever) and save it. The preset will not be saved until you type in a name and save it. They don't overwrite anything, and you can delete them later. For other reference, the Color Preferences dialog doesn't warn you when you are about to overwrite a preset, so take care while experimenting that you don't overwrite any of the stock ones if you want to keep them. So if you come up with something you like and want to save it, make sure you type in the new name before you save the preset. I don't like this (I think that any dialog should warn you before you overwrite), but Color Preferences is very old code. Not likely to change. As a last resort, if you run into trouble with custom colors (which I really don't think you will), there's a button for "Defaults All Colors." P.S. I have a memory that one of the people here did a special high visibility theme, but I did some searching and can't find it. He used larger type on his Control Bar buttons and I think they were black-on-yellow. Can't find it, though.... My own vision issues are those typical with aging (nearsighted, farsighted, astigmatism, I've got them all). More contrast always helps.

Are you looking for themes for Logic and Studio One, or Cakewalk themes that look like those programs? There is one Cakewalk theme that gives Cakewalk similar colors to Logic's defaults, there's a link to it earlier in this thread. I don't know of any Cakewalk theme that looks like Studio One. If you want themes for the other DAW's, Google "Logic Pro themes" or "Studio One themes."

@Sridhar Raghavan Glad you got it sorted. Cakewalk seems to be hard coded to look for its themes in that one location. I agree that all the folder locations should be changeable from within Preferences. I ran into issues when I added a second SSD to my laptop and tried moving my Cakewalk resources to it. You may wish to report your experiences and make suggestions in the Feedback area of the forum. Further tips: If you plan to start doing some theming, the most valuable resource (other than patience) is Colin's Young Lady's Illustrated Primer To Theming Cakewalk. It's the product of years of trial-and-error observation and reverse engineering. While many colors can be changed, in order to alter button images you'll need to get good with a pixel editor. I, too, have vision issues, and two of my themes, Racing Green and Midnight Blue are very contrast-y and address several areas where I have trouble with the stock Cakewalk themes. For instance, I make my button images as visible as possible, including extra effects for the rollovers. You may not find them entirely to taste, but they may give you some ideas. Colin's Mercury RS and my Tungsten RS incorporate a set of "standard" button image changes that he and I prefer. They may make good starting points. Investigate Color Preferences. Go to my themes download folder and download the custom color preset for Racing Green and try it out. The color of the grid lines in Track View can only be changed using Color Preferences, and mine have more contrast than the stock selections.

It may seem a small thing, but for people like me who like to sketch out ideas using Xpand!2 or TTS-1 and then experiment with different synths, it'll really help stay in the flow.

One day with the program and you already "need" to change colors and fonts. And since you're unable to install any custom themes you are "convinced" that it's "buggy behavior" that you've uncovered in "the Cakewalk code." Yet you're not aware that a custom Cakewalk theme can't change anything about the fonts, neither typeface nor size. Only colors and the look of many of the buttons (and some other art). Although it's surely impossible that you overlooked something when reading and attempting to follow the directions, I'll sum them up here for others' sake: assuming you chose all the default paths during your Cakewalk installation, the folder where you should place themes is C:\Cakewalk Content\Cakewalk Themes. The behavior you describe suggests that the person installing them either neglected to move the .STH files from the .ZIP archive (although you say that you do see them individually) or placed the .STH files in the incorrect folder. Important note: the .STH files must not be in a subfolder of C:\Cakewalk Content\Cakewalk Themes. If you check those conditions and find that all is in its place, the next step is to contact official Cakewalk by BandLab support. You'll find the link in the menus at the top of the forum window.

Neat. My chances of pulling that off, hmm....I'd probably find it easier to just exclude C:\Program Files\Cakewalk from my backups, then wait for my C: drive to fail, thereby affording me a clean start and, with luck, the ability to restore my key binding.

It's a very narrow, specialized use for me: dialog samples. I use them on every ambient piece. If it weren't for that one single use, this thing would be superfluous to me. For that one use, though, it's brilliant. And who knows, maybe it'll find other uses.

It can be confusing at first, but each of Cakewalk's Views has its own menu pertaining specifically to that View. This is because the different Views (except for Track View) may be floated outside the main window and because the main menu would be hopelessly cluttered if everything were in it. The main menu tends to have commands that apply to the project or program as a whole.

It's in Cakewalk's Preferences. Preferences/Audio/Playback and Recording. There's a pull-down selection box for Driver Mode. Choose WASAPI Exclusive and 99% of your audio problems should magically vanish. Of course if you want to record audio from a mic or instrument, you should get an external interface.

Unless you are a Cubase or Nuendo user, there is no impact. Existing plug-ins, hosts, and developers of them will continue to be compatible with the VST2 spec. As for anything that came with SONAR Platinum, if it works, it won't require further support. There's no company called "Cakewalk" any more. There's BandLab, which bought Cakewalk, Inc.'s products. That's all they bought. They didn't buy the company. The only connnection is that BandLab produces a DAW that's based on Cakewalk, Inc. code they bought from Gibson. They call it Cakewalk by BandLab. That's just a name. They're under no obligation to support Cakewalk, Inc.'s customers. They do, as a courtesy, keep the old Cakewalk, Inc. licensing servers running. I hope this clarifies things.

They were initially 32-bit, but the developers at Cakewalk worked overtime to make sure it was taken care of, and now they are 64-bit.

Oh, it's GOING on the lead vocals for your cover of "Strawberry Fields," isn't it? ? Perfect tool for nailing that sound. It has a good doubler preset. I'm diggin' it pretty good on dialog samples. Mine come from watching movies and TV shows on my computer and capturing with Audacity, so they start out way too clean. I highpass way up (of course), then bitcrush, then add some widening and delay for trippiness' sake. I think of dialog samples as slightly sour ear candy. They should be grainy enough to stand out from an otherwise glossy electronic mix, but have the effect of a surprise treat. This plug-in has pretty much everything I use to do that, with a few more tricks beside. This is one of those things where I'm sure I could nail every sound in it by using 3 or 4 other plug-ins I already have. There's a comprehensive quiver of most-used sample processing tools in one container. If I wake up tomorrow and still think it's a good idea, I'm getting it.