Starship Krupa

This forum is for Cakewalk by BandLab.

I can't afford Omnisphere, so I use Hybrid 3. It's about 1/100th the price.

You can still exchange your dollars for gold if you want to.

I'm now on day 2 of trying to punch in an organ part, an 8 bar chorus, one-handed block chords. Loop recording multiple takes of MIDI has been a fraught process for me since I first tried it with Cakewalk, but I figured I have a lot more experience with the program now, so I'd give it a try. This is a screenshot of part of the results of this attempt. I'm not going to talk about the territory around this clip looking like the aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg, that's for another time, after the combatants have had a chance to heal. I just want to focus on this one clip, which is indicated inside the red ellipse: This clip is part of one of a dozen or so takes. It's in a "selected" state. none of the other lanes are solo'd, but the track itself is. Over in the Inspector, you can see that I've set the foreground to orange and the background to blue. My issue with this clip is that I can't get it to play sound no matter what I try. "K" or right-click to mute/unmute, no go. Soloing the lane, nope. It. Just. Won't. Sound. There's not another clip on top of it or underneath it, I know to check for that. It's just sitting there by itself, with notes in it that won't play. I can play the onscreen keyboard and my MIDI controller and it makes a sound, I can un mute the clips in adjacent lanes and they will play, but just not this one for whatever reason. Notice it looks weird for a non-muted clip in the Mercury theme: the background is correct, it's the light grey that indicates a selected clip, but the MIDI data/events are plain white. In its selected state the data should have the foreground color. Unselected, it should obey both color settings. If I hit "K" to mute it, it takes on the look of other muted clips, but in its (supposedly) un-muted state, the color ain't right. Any ideas, what may have caused this, did I put it in some known locked state by accident? This is unfortunately characteristic of my life with MIDI in Cakewalk: it usually goes smoothly (except for the weird loop recording/clip behavior), but about 33% of the time I lose an hour or more to "this one thing," which is sometimes a MIDI track and a synth track that have stopped communicating and nothing I do will bring them back together so I wind up saving the synth's settings as a preset, then deleting it and adding it back, or somehow during the process of recording and editing I end up with an extra clip entirely overlapping and hiding another clip, or I can't get the editing cursor to grab the edge of the clip or change to the tool I want, or something that brings my project to a halt while I untangle the ball of yarn. It could be 100% pilot error, but I'd at least like to know what I'm doing wrong.

That's strange, as if there's some spurious automation. Are you using an external control surface?

I've been writing up a list of suggestions for beginners, and I think defining a goal is important. What am I going for with this? That's why the pop culture vibe works for me: I want it to look like the dashboard of a sports car, or a favorite album cover, or an anime franchise. Picking something that already has a color scheme that I find appealing. Along with that comes defining half a dozen colors and making a note of their hex numbers. Racing Green is comparatively easy in that regard, it's 3 shades of green, Tungsten dark brown, and black. It was once I got away from my menus being light text on a virtually black background that things got way stickier. If your menu images and borders are light grey or dark, you can choose a single contrast color and be done with it. If on the other hand your menus are purple, blue, or yellow, then you need to find a color that's readable on that, which ain't always easy. You always want to have that list of colors at hand for when you find yet another UI element that needs to be changed to fit your theme. Otherwise, you wind up eyeballing it, which can result in inconsistency.

TBProAudio make a freeware loudness meter that is a powerhouse, dpMeter5. There's also one in the Meldaproduction FreeFX Bundle. I'm trying to understand this process. When you say you tried using the "W" feature, do you mean you tried to write automation for EQ and Maximizer parameters in real time, but your computer couldn't handle it? It sounds like you're doing might also be accomplished with track freezing? Maybe not, I'm not sure exactly why you need to take the files outside Cakewalk then bring them back in to do this.

(note: I'm not using the metronome and there are also 0 count-in measures set, so I'm pretty certain that's not the issue) Scenario is that I'm trying to punch in a chorus, recording a sustained block chord organ part to MIDI. The chorus begins at measure 19 so I set my punch-in to 19:01:000. Chorus ends at measure 29, so I set my punch-out to 30:01:000 to give myself a bit of overlap if necessary. I'm also looping it, and set my loop points to 17:01:000 and 30:01:000. Starting early so that I can drop into the groove and ending late in case I need to overlap. What's happening is that I start playing, but my playing doesn't start getting recorded until I get a full measure into the chorus. What I suspect is causing this is that I'm playing sustained notes and am rushing (see "not using the metronome" above), so starting them before the punch-in. Although I can hear notes sounding, my note-ons aren't getting recorded; it's not until I lift and go to the next chord that it sees note-ons. Sound likely? If that's the issue, let this function as a public service announcement: when punching in a MIDI performance, set your punch point a quarter note or so ahead of where you think you're going to start playing so that sustained notes don't get lost.

Perhaps not though, I have a memory that it was completely eliminated a couple of years back and then was returned for the Smart and Move tools after protests from the userbase. I don't remember why it's only for those two tools, of if there was a reason.

Something that has long bothered me is how when I have View/Show Clip Outlines enabled in the Piano Roll View, there would be shading for clips, but no indication where one clip left off and the other started. By accident, I discovered a way to tell clips on the same track apart from each other. It may be obvious to others, but it took me 3 years of using this program to stumble on it, so maybe not everyone knows. First, ain't this lovely? That's a single track with the clips showing up in different colors. Great for working with linked clips or just to know where one leaves off and the other starts. How to do it? It's the Inspector. Just select the clip you want to color, open the Inspector, click on the "Clip" tab at the top, and choose a Background color. The background color you choose for each clip will show up in the Piano Roll View. That's all there is to it. It may look a little different on your screen depending on whether you're using a custom theme. My themes use dark backgrounds for selected clips. I hope this helps someone, it's really helped me with keeping track of clips in the PRV. It also helps distinguish them in Track View. Foreground color will change the color of the data, or events in the clips but only in Track View.

They do look effn' cool, and that's a good thing for when someone's looking over your shoulder and wondering what that intriguing DAW is. Not surprising for someone as into CbB theming as I am, I'm really into how visuals can be inspiring, and this does it. For anyone wondering how to set their colors up, drop into the UI Themes subforum and see what we've worked out with Custom Color sets. Custom Colors is the only way to change the vertical lines in Track View, so it's important and powerful. The standard lines are too faint for my taste.

BTW @Glenn Stanton, I'm kinda interested to hear what "Watch All The Longtower" sounds like. Makes me wonder if you have a song called "Rock From The Third Sun."

I think you mean "set Now Time" in Cakewalk terminology. I'm with you on this. The behavior has changed a bit over the years, but I'm still reflexively clicking down in the whitespace with the wrong tool. I'm not sure what the rationale is for limiting it to the Smart Tool and Move Tool. I'm just as likely (if not more) to want to position the Now Time when I'm using the Select, Edit, and Draw Tools, so why not?

Yellow Submarine has been updated with more fun. More round buttons!

EVA 01 has been updated with round buttons (images are from Yellow Submarine, which has been similarly updated):

Even after having done all this testing and writing it up, there's still trial and error. It just started to bug me that my button images for the FX rack didn't match up. My choice for indicating ACT focus would be a simple on/off "light" rather than changing the appearance of half a dozen different images, but I don't think this was designed with end-user theming in mind. It's great that it went that way.

FX Rack gets my nomination for being the section with the most complexity. In addition to the stuff I already went over, there's also the matter of the bypass and show rack buttons on either side, which add 8 images to the stew pot. There are 4 conditions, which are active (no ACT Focus), bypassed (no ACT Focus), active (with ACT Focus), and bypassed (with ACT Focus). Fortunately, their behavior is consistent across all the conditions, for both the Bypass Plug-in and Show Rack Menu Drop-down buttons. One confusing quirk is the naming of the Bypass Plug-in images: The Bypass Plug-in image is used in the plug-in's active state, with no control surface enabled. When the Bypass button is hovered, it uses Cell 3. When the center of the Open UI button is hovered, it uses Cell 1. When the Bypass button is pressed, it uses Cell 2. Confusingly named,, the Bypass Plug-in Enabled image is used when the plug-in is bypassed. The cells are used same as described for Bypass Plug-in above. All other images follow the above behavior: hover button=Cell 3, hover center=Cell 1, pressed=Cell 2. Fortunately there are no curveballs when the center image is pressed. Of course, if you have a controller enabled, if you press the center, all buttons switch over to the ACT Focus versions. What this means in terms of use of the other images is that you can do things like matching the color of the buttons that appear in the center hovered condition. I just poke around at the buttons and see if anything looks jarring.

I just spent some time (time that I will never get back) with the images and colors in FX Rack. Here's what I found. With no control surface enabled and the effect in its active, non-bypassed state Normal: FX Rack/Name Background cell 1 Hovered: FX Rack/Open Plug-in UI cell 3 Pressed: FX Rack/Open Plug-in UI cell 2 Hovering the Bypass or Show Rack Menu button: FX Rack/Open Plug-in UI cell 1 With no control surface enabled and the effect in its bypassed state Normal: FX Rack/Name Background cell 2 Hovered: FX Rack/Open Plug-in UI Bypassed cell 3 Pressed: FX Rack/Open Plug-in UI Bypassed cell 2 Hovering the Bypass or Show Rack Menu button: FX Rack/Open Plug-in UI Bypassed cell 1 This is pretty much as expected. Things get more complicated when we enable a control surface. Once a control surface is enabled, there is another condition a plug-in effect can be in, which is having focus for the purposes of controlling it with the surface. A plug-in gets focus by having its UI opened, and keeps focus until the next plug-in UI is opened. I'll start with a plug-in that does not have what I'll call "ACT Focus." With a control surface enabled and the effect in its active, non-bypassed state Normal: FX Rack/Name Background cell 1 Hovered: FX Rack/Open Plug-in UI cell 3 Pressed: FX Rack/Open Plug-in UI (ACT Focus) cell 2 Hovering the Bypass or Show Rack Menu button: FX Rack/Open Plug-in UI cell 1 With a control surface enabled and the effect in its bypassed state Normal: FX Rack/Name Background cell 2 Hovered: FX Rack/Open Plug-in UI Bypassed cell 3 Pressed: FX Rack/Open Plug-in UI (ACT Focus) cell 2 Hovering the Bypass or Show Rack Menu button: FX Rack/Open Plug-in UI Bypassed cell 1 When the plug-in has ACT Focus, the behavior changes again as follows: With ACT Focus and the effect in its active state Normal: FX Rack/Name Background (ACT Focus) cell 1 Hovered: FX Rack/Open Plug-in UI (ACT Focus) cell 3 Pressed: FX Rack/Open Plug-in UI (ACT Focus) cell 2 Hovering the Bypass or Show Rack Menu button: FX Rack/Open Plug-in UI (ACT Focus) cell 1 With ACT Focus and the effect in its bypassed state Normal: FX Rack/Name Background (ACT Focus) cell 2 Hovered: FX Rack/Open Plug-in UI Bypassed (ACT Focus) cell 3 Pressed: FX Rack/Open Plug-in UI Bypassed (ACT Focus) cell 2 Hovering the Bypass or Show Rack Menu button: FX Rack/Open Plug-in UI Bypassed (ACT Focus) cell 1 Since these images are used as backgrounds for the text colors FX Rack/FX Name and FXRack/Bypassed FX Name, care should be taken to make sure that whatever image is currently displayed should go well with those colors.

Amendment to this observation: it apparently does have to do with ACT in that the behavior is only exhibited when I have a control surface enabled. So, in a revised nutshell, the images didn't have any effect until I plugged in my controller and enabled it as a control surface. As such, it's a useful indicator.

I have some more information on Control Bar/Menu Button's use in Tools/HUD Module (Large). Cell 1 is used when the Smart Tool or Draw Tool are not selected. This cell should be a color that will contrast well with the "default" white text color. Cell 2 is used on the HUD in that odd case where after you click on the duration menu, it flashes briefly as the HUD closes. It also acts as a "pressed" state button in the case where you have neither the Smart nor Draw Tool selected, but press on it. A brief flash again. Cell 3 is not used. Cell 4 is used when the Smart or Draw Tools are selected (which is appropriate, because note duration is meaningless for tools that don't draw notes). It should be given a color that contrasts well with Focused Track Text. For whatever reason, the HUD uses Cell 1 for the Smart Tool. Cell 5 has the usual Control Bar cell 5 duty of getting displayed when no project is loaded.

Note of caution: I downloaded this and checked within and the newest date on any of the files is August, 2018. This means that the themes will not be compatible with the current release of Cakewalk by BandLab.

The thing is, while everything said here is true, a Ryzen 7 with 16G of RAM and an SSD is more than capable of running Cakewalk. Playback through the onboard hardware CODEC should be fine with WASAPI Exclusive. It's way more hardware than I use, especially my notebook system. There's something else going wrong here that buying an external interface is not likely to fix, although if you're recording guitar and voice, an external interface is essential. It's not the Realtek CODEC itself that's the issue, it's the circuitry connecting to it. You'll sound so much better with studio quality mic preamps and analog-to-digital converters. Definitely look into decrapification. HP is known for loading up their notebooks with tons of stuff you don't need and don't want on your DAW. Also, exclude your Cakewalk Projects and plug-ins folders from active Defender scanning. Resplendence LatencyMon is one of the system tuners' best tools for tracking down what's causing trouble.

A few days ago I suffered a failure on my main DAW apparently due to the system losing power during a disk operation. I know this isn't supposed to happen there are lots of failsafe measures to prevent it, but I wound up in the dreaded Windows Repair loop. All my stuff was there, I could see it from the command line, but just could not get Windows to start up. Finally I submitted to a "reset," where it nukes your Windows installation and installed programs and keeps the rest of your files. Bone stock Windows. One of the first things to go back on was Cakewalk, with the dread that accompanies having around 700 plug-ins installed on my just-crashed system. Fortunately, I keep my iLokables on a physical iLok and my Waves on a USB stick, and most of the rest seems to be trusting that I still have the same computer. So I started Cakewalk and created a simple two chord drone using Xpand!2. Looped it and let it run, and sure enough, about every 8 seconds or so, a big CLICK. No indication from Cakewalk's Performance module that the engine had suffered a buffer underrun. Next stop, LatencyMon: I looked at the Drivers tab, and sure enough, NDIS.SYS was eating humongous interrupt time. I'd seen this before, when I first upgraded my system from 7 to 10. What fixed it was rolling the NIC driver back. Of course there was nothing to roll it back to with my fresh install, so hit Dell's website to get the older driver. Here's the Microsoft/Intel driver that was installed with the reset: When swapped out with this one, from Dell's website: All was well: One theory I have is that these "clicks and pops" that come with Windows updates, and the regular admonitions to disable your network interface whenever you're doing DAW work may be down to network card drivers that are too grabby with the interrupts. So if you're seeing this issue, of course, run LatencyMon, and if NDIS.SYS is causing trouble, see if you can find an earlier version. If you have a Dell or Lenovo or HP or some other brand name, usually their drivers run a revision or two behind the curve. Where Microsoft used to be too conservative with hardware drivers, they now seem too aggressive about pushing out the latest shiny driver. If you have something go sideways, and you haven't just done a reset like I had to, most drivers can be rolled back using Device Manager.

Okay, I found what I think is one important location: Users/<username>/AppData/Roaming/Cakewalk/Shared Presets. The subfolder names are what appear to be GUID's (those 29-digit numbers in parentheses).

Having experienced a catastrophic failure of my Windows installation a couple of days ago, resulting in the need to hit the Windows Reset button, I'm in the process of rebuilding my system, salvaging what I can from before the incident. It would be a great help if I knew where a default Cakewalk installation stored everything. I know that some of it is in AppData/Roaming, which I have access to, and some in the registry, which I can't do anything about. Most intriguing, there's a folder for Shared Presets that, if it contains all the presets I made, would be most helpful. Where else can I look for Cakewalk's settings? In addition to trying to sift through the wreckage, I also want to include them in future backups.