Starship Krupa

Yeah, it doesn't display the name of the preset, and you can't scroll through presets using the arrow buttons either. I thought that Plugin Alliance products were a pain to deal with due to seldom having integral preset systems, then I discovered that no, my PA plug-ins do have presets, in locations that are fully-compliant with the spec. It's just that Cakewalk's preset manager doesn't recognize them. I know that the Cakewalk bakers are proud of how VST3-compliant Cakewalk is, how about implementing this part of the spec?

The Reference Guide is such a great resource, for users novice and veteran, and as far as I know, the only way to get it, or even know about it, is to come to this forum. I suspect that a majority of new (and maybe veteran) users are not going to immediately come to the forum (if ever) once they run Cakewalk by BandLab. There are multiple helpful links on the Help menu, I suggest adding one that launches the user's default browser and goes straight to the Reference Guide. This way everyone will have access to a 1700-page book on how to use Cakewalk, not just those who venture to the forum.

https://support.izotope.com/hc/en-us/requests/new Has two buttons: "email us" and "Connect with us via social media." I would choose the former. ? Can't blame 'em for trying I guess.

No prob. It's the one just to the left of the word "LEVELS" in this shot. Good luck!

1176-alikes have bit me on the booty in years bygone due to inducement of yucky distortion noise when using those very fast attack settings. I had an experience where I was trying to figure out how I had messed up my DI'd bass recording and it turned out that my mistake was running it through an 1176 to even it out. I hadn't solo'd it while setting up the compressor, and then I kept hearing this krrrrkkk sound down in the bass when I put on my headphones. Like a rubbing voice coil, not musical in any way. Even now that I know a lot more about compression I tend not to use attacks below 2 or 3 and that's when I'm really trying to shave an initial transient off something, like a cymbal ping. A compressor whose attack time range starts at a tenth of a mS and goes all the way up to 1.2 mS is not a thing that I easily find uses for. I know I'm peeing into a windstorm of "no way, I'd be lost without my trusty 1176-alike." I fully admit that it's my own lack of experience and skill with them that prevents me from understanding the charm, but I have other options which seem to suit me better. If anyone wishes to enlighten me I welcome it. The usual sources seem to speak in generalities that leave me thinking "well, yes, I get that they can do that, but so will my other compressor that allows me to dial in 5mS and a 5.1:1 ratio if I want to, and it has a threshold knob. " For that matter, I rarely find a use for that other famous flavor, LA/2A emulations. I use my T-Racks 670 for things other people would probably use an LA/2A for (glue and bus leveling), and a versatile precision compressor like MCompressor or MModernCompressor for things that other people would probably use an 1176 for. I used to long for a decent dbx 165 clone, but now I have elysia mpressor which is all that and a side of fries. It rules the danged school on snare and kick at least.

Probably this one: https://discuss.cakewalk.com/index.php?/forum/7-instruments-effects/ But it sounds like it didn't actually have anything to do with Cakewalk as such, so who knows. Glad it was resolved. I'd not expect anything more useful than a cute cat picture from a company's Facebook page.

Cool, I wasn't even aware that Mixcraft had implemented this. Is it official, or do you just go to the mixrez folder and start editing?

Please understand, I didn't initially suggest that Console knob moves be included in the global Undo. If there were a separate queue and menu item for "Mix Undo," that would be just fine with me. The thing to be aware of, It's not all about intentional, strategic moves and wanting to try something then back out of it. It's also (maybe moreso for me) about reversing accidental mouse and wheel movements, which are easy to do. I'm tired, I want to scroll the Console View, and I accidentally roll the wheel while my cursor is over a fader or send knob. Yikes! It doesn't have to be part of the main Undo, that can stay as it is. I would prefer an option that would include mixing moves in the main queue, but witnessing the reaction that the idea provoked in @Noel Borthwick, I stand behind a separate queue 100%. Being used to having those moves included in the other DAW's I use, I take it for granted, but for people used to something different, it doesn't make sense to impose it on them. If the menu were in Console View, all the better.

Until such time that this feature is implemented, one suggestion is Meldaproduction MLoudnessAnalyzer, a freeware plug-in. Then put it (or whatever meter you prefer) in the Multidock. You do this by clicking on the window icon in the far left upper corner. At this point, your meter plug-in will float on top of everything when Cakewalk has focus. If you need to see Piano Roll or Console on a second monitor, drag their tabs out of the Multidock.

Perhaps the Star Screen is waiting in the sky and would like to come and meet us. Probably thinks it would blow our mind, though. I say let the children use it.

I want to post some musings about the concepts that are behind my themes. I'm also interested to hear from other .STH Lords about what thought processes go into your theme creations. I get the idea that, given the polite lack of enthusiasm shown for my "novelty" themes, EVA 01 and Yellow Submarine, most of the regular posters in this forum have a hard time imagining why anyone would use such "loud" themes. They do get more appreciation on Facebook. There are a few ideas behind them. First, it's a fun challenge for me, to try to capture the feel of a pop culture icon such as the Yellow Submarine. It's taken my themesmanship to a new level. The fist theme I saw that included pop culture references was @Colin Nicholls' Steam Punk, which lit a big lightbulb: a theme doesn't have to solely be about usability, it can also be fun. Steam Punk is a fun theme, it creates a mood. Second, EVA 01 was designed not only with the pop culture source in mind, but also to inspire alertness and focus (which I've been told by a Facebooker that it does). This is a different intention from most themes, where the idea seems to be that the UI should fade into the background. But I don't always want it to fade into the background. When I'm working late at night on EDM, it kind of puts me in the mood to make the bangin' festival beats. Which brings us to.... Third, and this is something that only occurred to me after I got started, if someone's using Cakewalk to play live, a brightly-colored contrasty theme like EVA 01 makes everything more visible, and, if they are projecting their laptop screen so that their moves are visible to the audience, well, that's more visual excitement and coolness. It looks so unusual. I think that Cakewalk with EVA 01 looks more exciting than Ableton Live. As far as I know, the only other DAW that even has the feature of skinning is REAPER. Care to share what thought processes go into your own themes?

Working fine over here, but I downloaded v.1.0.1 anyway.

I posted this solution in this thread, 3 weeks ago. Have you tried it? Look in Program Files/Common Files/VST3 to find the Presonus VST3 Shell.vst3 folder. Rename it to "Presonus VST3 Shell". Start Cakewalk, and the plug-in will be available.

Nice channel strip, 2 compressors and you also get the EQ and console emulation.

Finally, for those who have been waiting and wondering , it's happened! My latest garish theme based on an animated movie! This time The Beatles' Yellow Submarine. Original post is updated with the download link.

KVR are having their Developer Challenge, which they do every few years. It's a competition among audio software developers where anyone who wants to can submit audio software (most are plug-ins, but there's also soundware and apps) to be judged by KVR members. The rules are that it has to be newly-developed and that it must be released as freeware. So far, there's one big standout for me, FKFX Influx. It's a rhythmic processor that includes distortion, filtering, stereo image manipulation and other effects. I ran through some presets when I first got it and was very impressed. Tonight I clicked on the images where the parameter curves are drawn and found it to be similar to Stutter Edit's spline curves. You drag nodes around. I voted it 5, my top choice. People into drum loop mangling, such as @abacab and me, of course, will like this. The design and programming skills on display are definitely at pro level. The process of getting the extra presets is a little beggy, you have to go to their Facebook page and they hawk their Patreon account in a couple of places, but once you're set, the plug-in itself is excellent (at what it does).

The Freeware Instrument Thread was probably where @abacab had in mind, but whatever. It'll get seen by people who are interested in such things, which is what's most important.

It seems like it's past time for Cakewalk to be able to manage (or at least list) factory-supplied VST3 presets from the Preset menu in the upper left hand corner of the plug-in properties window. As opposed to from deep within the VST3 menu. I've been poking around a bit, because I noticed that some of the plug-in manufacturers were supplying presets but that very few were showing up. I went to Steinberg's page to get the word and found out that the spec for preset location is well-defined in the spec, and that several manufacturers of plug-ins have actually been following it. Some VST3 plug-ins are able to load their factory supplied presets from that menu and some aren't. When I say "presets," I'm talking about .vstpreset files that are installed in the correct location(s) per the VST3 spec. All of them that I've found, however, are able to load them (when they exist) one at a time to the tune of 4 mouse clicks deep into the pull-down VST3 menu. I haven't figured out what the difference is between the ones that I can load via the Presets menu vs. the ones that are only available via the VST3 menu. I even have Whatever, it seems to me that if Cakewalk can take me straight to the correct folder via the VST3 menu, that it's not a big ask that it find those same presets and make them available in the Preset menu. Also, not as big a deal, but it would also be nice if Cakewalk could respect the part of the spec that says to store user presets in Users/$USERNAME/Documents]/VST3 Presets/$COMPANY/$PLUGIN-NAME/. That could make things easier when using multiple hosts.

I am in favor of this and any other enhancements to the plug-in Browser.

Yes, it is our friend "Bounce To Clip(s)," renamed to Clip Bounce for the reason you mention. "Bounce To...." is too ambiguous. I happened to notice at some point that "Rename" was in the right-click menu for Custom module buttons and set about making my own shorthand. You'll also notice that I have a button called "Render," which is File|Export|Audio. It's interesting how we check out each others' Custom Modules to see what we consider to be the commands we want to have a button-press away. I have a "Track Mgr." button because I noticed it in one of Colin's theme screencaps. Rename was a good friend when I put a Zoom To Fit Project Horizontally button on there; it's now "Fit Width."

The thing is, "for sidechaining" is not a criterion that I've ever used for choosing a compressor to buy. It's not that tough a job, any compressor that does sidechaining will do the jobs that sidechaining is usually put to. For me, the one with the fastest and easiest access to all parameters is the "best for sidechaining." To me, that's like shopping for refrigerators based on which one makes the best ice. It's the other compression tasks that make a bigger difference. My best answer to your actual question is no compressor is worth buying if all you want to do is ducking/sidechaining. The ones that come with Cakewalk will do it just dandy. If you want a compressor that sounds good on a particular type of program material, or on the widest variety of program material, that's where you can get some good opinions.

I don't remember what I paid for it, if anything, but man, oh, man, it's useful. There is nothing like it for getting hi hat out of a snare track or snare out of a kick track. A deceptively simple idea: a gate with its own built in low (and high) pass filters so that the gate only affects frequencies above (or below) where you set the filter. The thing with seemingly every other gate on the planet is that you have varying amounts of control over the detector. You can filter out whatever you want from the detection circuit, but when it comes to the gate itself, they don't allow control over what gets gated out. It's a ghost note preserver, and I play a lot of ghost notes.

Another one of my based-on-an-animated-movie themes! Travel back to Pepperland, 1969. The first rock 'n' roll record I ever owned: The Beatles' Soundtrack to Yellow Submarine. An odd confluence of events resulted in children of my generation (the one they never talk about between Baby Boomer and X) being exposed to, nay, immersed in the most psychedelic music of The Beatles' career. We get the title track featuring every child's favorite Beatle song and favorite Beatle on lead vocals, but then the record morphs into a 5-song EP of things that crawled from Apple Corps basement. It sounded to me like a record made up of those weird songs you'd find on the flip sides hit singles that only started to be cool after you listened to them half a dozen times, but then once you did, they were sometimes really cool. I could go on and on about the movie itself, lunchboxes, plastic submarine models and whatever, but I'll just say that it had a huge impact on my 8-year-old self and leave it at that. Download it here.

Found another place where Console View / Background #1 is used. There's a border/background in the Tempo Track Inspector:

I finally got around to checking this one out and I want to thank you for snagging it. It's very helpful for those who create themes using colors other than black for Global / Sizing Bar Background. I ran afoul of it while doing the original version of Racing Green, which had a lighter color for Sizing Bar Background. For intents and purposes, if your Sizing Bar Background isn't black or close to it, make Track View Menu Bar Background the same color or your Track View Panel will look like it has sloppy joints between it and the Browser and Inspectors.