Starship Krupa

Sri, I'm flattered that you chose my themes as a starting point! I think they're good references for deep-diving, because I've changed so many things from the defaults. With Racing Green, especially, almost everything that can be changed has been changed. BTW, I suggest you open a new thread to describe your adventures in theming. I think it would help others to learn from what you're doing; they're more likely to see it if you have your own thread.

Maybe you're thinking of something along these lines? You may be happy to know that the Export Audio dialog is one of the most recently renovated features of Cakewalk. It seems to be the direction things are headed. For people who prefer lighter themes, we hope that the menu appearances will be made a Preferences setting:

I kinda had this experience at first ("oh lord, she's using ASIO4ALL and a 32-bit version of Supermassive and she can't get her VSTi to load because she's trying to install the 32-bit version and getting confused between Program Files and Program Files (x86)"). But in defense of Lorene's style and what I think she's trying to teach (not that she needs any), she bills it as "Learning Cakewalk WITH Lorene." And I think she means it exactly that way, she refers to what she does as "Cakestumbling." It's a TV show of a woman with a sense of humor having fun teaching herself how to use a DAW. I've comforted frustrated newbies by saying "don't worry, I made all those mistakes while I was learning?" (ASIO4ALL, check, 32-bit plug-ins, check, VSTi wouldn't load because I had the path wrong, check). It won't sink in as much as seeing someone make all those mistakes and keep trying, and even keep smiling and laughing at their own frustrations. The message I get is "don't be put off from trying this because you're not a 16-year-old techno wunderkind or a computer or studio veteran, don't be afraid of looking clueless, it's still fun even if you screw something up and have to sort your way out of it." Picked up a valuable trick from her: using Arranger Track to analyze the structure of someone else's song (she used her old band's song as an example). This is something I am struggling with right now and I can say this IS a technique I will try, at least once or twice. I try to promote the forum wherever I can, YouTube, Facebook, whatever.

This isn't important for me. Perhaps when I say "replace effect," you're thinking of replacing an effect like this: With something like this: But when I think of it, it's more like replacing this: With this: As you can see, Dumpster Fire has no control that maps into "HAMMING," choice of celestial body emulation, or choice of dimension. Nor does SILO have parameters that match up with "DentureTentacle" "Magic8-ballSpikes," Magic8-ballVintageShockmount" or "AlchemicalDisks." I'm with b and Kevin, when I swap out FX it's when I'm trying a different approach. Even if it is a compressor or EQ, I'll probably be trying a different type. Character vs. precision or whatever.

A great deal on a really nice mic. I have a pair of them I use for drum overheads.

I've never wanted to put my takes into separate tracks, does it not work properly? The first thing I'd want to do would be to drag all the takes into one track! I always have "create new lane" selected, so if you want to know what happens when I set that just look at my screenshots up there. I think I tried turning it off once years ago just to see what would happen and that was trippy. Figuring out which mode and options would get me the closest to the results I wanted was tough when I first started using Cakewalk because the documentation hadn't been gone over in quite some time, and there was no Reference Guide.

Bespectacled geek girls make my rockin' world go 'round.

Good heavens, searching? My muscle memory for Ctrl-Shift-A is locked in. Up there with Ctrl-Z when it comes to wearing shiny spots on the keys. Followed by Ctrl-Alt-F. I use it as a preventative before various actions, especially inserting Time/Measures. It's like looking both ways before crossing a street. Binding it to a single key is a good idea at this point. "~" is not otherwise taken in the Cakeverse. You are not alone in this. I've called up many a context menu in other programs by right-click dragging. It's so essential in Cakewalk to get friendly with that right mouse button select. I didn't twig this at first and spent way too much time switching to the Select Tool to avoid trouble. Now that I have the hang of it, I don't crave left button lassoing. I do wish that tools other than Smart and Move would let you set the Now Time by clicking in the "whitespace" at the bottom of the Clips Pane.

Would you say that it's gotten better in that respect in recent years? I mean with the Shift modifier and the customizable Smart Tool. Those two together allowed me to really take control of comping/editing.

"Need?" All I can say about that is that it makes using Cakewalk more difficult for me and others. How about "want?" ? What happened this time around was that someone in the know finally told me why Cakewalk does this: it's taking a guess at where you want to make your edits. Previously, I couldn't tell whether it was a bug or a feature that gets in my way. Now I know that it's a feature that I would like to be able to turn off. I keep bringing it up because that's how things get noticed, and how I can tell whether it's important to other users. If nobody else cares, I drop it. Try replacing a synth in the latest EA build and watch what happens. Joy! I like being allowed turn off features that I don't wish to use, look at the change made to the Smart Tool to allow users to switch it in and out of Speed Comping mode. I used to get in big trouble with the Smart Tool when comping. The ability to turn off the numeric display on the Aim Assist was an early one that helps me greatly every time I work in Track View. Cakewalk's ability to reconfigure to suit individual workflows is one of its greatest strengths.

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."