Starship Krupa

A friend of mine is clearing unused stuff out of her place and gave me an original Beats Pill, the little pill-shaped Bluetooth speaker by Beats. I already have an Altec Lansing Mini LifeJacket that I like to use for referencing mixes as well as casual listening, so I'm psyched about this other little guy. The clarity and even stereo image of this little guy surprised me. Given that its 4 drivers are about the diameter of a 50 cent piece, it doesn't have the notorious Beats bass bump.

My first PCi interface was a Soundblaster Live that I got for my pre-SONAR Cakewalk rig back in 2001. I was all excited about it, sprung for a 3rd-party daughterboard so that I could S/PDIF in and out from my DAT machine, yada yada. Then I found out about bit perfect audio processing (as opposed to the Soundblaster, which resampled everything even if you ran it at its native 48K), bought an $12 CMedia 8734-based cheapo card, and made a little daughterboard on perfboard to enable the S/PDIF. The difference it made on transfers from the DAT literally brought tears to both my eyes and those of my girlfriend, whose album I was transferring from a DAT to the computer for CD burning. She had heard the result through the SB Live and was sort of happy with it, but when I played the non-resampled version, she started crying and said that it was the first time she had heard the album sound like that since they did the final mastering. Ever since then I have been a fiend about not having my digital audio go through needless resampling. I know that the algorithms have improved over the last 2 decades, but you're still at the mercy of the CODEC. Even the media players on my computers use either WASAPI or ASIO so as to bypass as much of the Windows mixer as possible. And I hold the opinion that Creative Labs deserved to go the way of the dodo after what they did with the Live. The main chip on it was an excellent hunk of LSI, and if they hadn't crippled it with carp like that resampling business, it would have become legendary. About 15 years ago a friend gave me an old Echo Darla rig, the one with 2 line ins and (I think) 8 outs, because, y'know, everyone would much rather have multiple output channels than input channels. I got it going on a hand-me-down blue Power Mac running Ubuntu Studio. My current computers have PCi slots, so I could try it out, but I'm fine with my Firewire interfaces. I still believe that Firewire was/is a superior technology for A/V use due to the fact that it can transfer and receive simultaneously rather than relying on raw speed. I can monitor through Cakewalk just fine while I'm tracking as long as I disable FX, and you can see in my sig that my DAW system is not the latest rocket sled. I have an old M-Audio Audiophile Firewire interface on my shop computer, a Core 2 Quad, and it keeps up just fine. I have to crank the latency up to be able to mix on it, but it's still holding its own. I suspect that its USB 2 ports wouldn't do as well. I got into Yamaha YMF744-based cards for a while, due to the fact that you could get them to support Yamaha's (also mostly squandered) excellent Sondius physical modeling technology. They could be had just as cheaply as my generic CMedia card and also didn't resample 44.1 streams. A reed player friend of mine was blown (ha ha) away by how good the onboard XG wind sounds were when I played them from my keyboard. The way they articulated with changes in velocity and aftertouch was amazing.

Specifically the Plug-ins tabs. Having to right click and select from a list of categories is excess hassle. Even 3 years in to CbB, I still sometimes forget that I can't just drag a plug-in from Uncategorized to the folder where I want it.

If what you're referring to is how Inspector shows both the selected track and its output bus, did you know that you can click on the right edge and shrink it down to just the track's strip? It only resizes if you have none of the tabs selected. If you select a tab, say Properties, it will show both strips, but in the default view, it's back down to just one.

I've found AIR DB-33 to be much easier on the resources, and it's regularly on sale for under $10.

I did some testing out of curiosity, and yes, CollaB3 is resource-hungry. Unfortunately, so is HaNon B70. Cranking up my latency got the krispies out.

I've not tried it, but Lostin70's has HaNon B70. Let us know if you like it. However, I've been using CollaB3 in Cakewalk since it came out and it has caused no issues. If you're getting audio engine stoppage, it would be nice to know if this is during playback, live note entry, etc. Also, full system specs, including your audio interface and driver mode and latency settings.

Thank you Matthew for your detailed help. I apologize, I misspoke: I'm not double-clicking, I'm right-clicking and Open With.... (I'm the pickiest dork about what music player I use (Music Bee in ASIO or WASAPI). One of those tiresome sorts who will make you put on the headphones and listen for the difference between Music Bee or foobar and Windows Media Player or Groove Music.) You've put me on the right track, I bet I can figure it out from here.

I think I may have misunderstood the original question. To get Cakewalk to shut down, click on the "X" in the upper right corner, just like other Windows programs. Alternately, go to the File menu, and all the way down at the bottom, Exit. Select that and Cakewalk will close. If you wish to know whether it has continuity, set your DMM to the lowest resistance setting and lightly touch the probes to the surface of your monitor. If the readout goes to zero, or within a couple of ohms, it has continuity. If the readout doesn't change, there is no continuity. This shouldn't be an issue because digital audio workstations are poor conductors anyway. The best you can hope for is a built-in metronome.

Nice. Haven't seen a W.A. Production deal in months.

I just acquired MCompare in the Essentials bundle, and was psyched, but I couldn't get it to do the Gain Match thing right off. Seems it needs more study. Gain Match is near instant gratification, so I'm glad to have both. Gain Match is kinda resource-y, so I've taken to getting it set up and then disabling the upstream instance that does the analysis. Alternately, I dial back the gain on the plug-in's output and delete both instances.

Not having it "grovel" for VST's at startup is going to be huge, but I have a question: is there some way to pass it this parameter when Sound Forge is launched by double-clicking on an associated file? More than once that VST scan has brought my workflow to a halt because I launched Sound Forge in that way.

I have from the start of the BandLab era been vocal on this topic. Not going to jump in with anything that's already been said. A thing about this that continues to baffle me is why people seem to think that a bunch of random users on a public forum would be able to answer this. We're not privy to any insider information. Any software company can go out of business. Steinberg, Presonus, MAGIX, Cockos, Tracktion (has done at least once), Acoustica, all of them. When companies go out of business, they sell off their assets. In the case of software companies, their intellectual property (software code base, patents, trademarks) gets liquidated. This is how Cakewalk got to its current favorable status. If BandLab should decide to tank the whole Cakewalk experiment, they will likely liquidate the IP and it will live on. While I feel the pain; who likes to pay for something that shows up a week later as the Pluginboutique freebie of the month? Happened with me a few times. I paid for Ozone Essentials, which today seems crazy, it's being given away left and right. If I had waited 30 days, the $20 I spent on BYOME would have dropped to free with my vouchers. It's all in the game. I got to mess with BYOME for a month, which is a lot of value. And the guys at Unfiltered deserve some of my hard-earned for making such a great bit of software. They deserve more than $20, actually. My take on it, as someone who coughed up for a SONAR license about 20 years ago and then started back up in the BandLab era is that (y)our license fee(s) weren't thrown away, they went to keep the company afloat long enough to survive to be picked up by another company (who is of course delivering on updates in a big way). Also, your copy of SONAR Platinum came with other software that I'd love to have but that money literally can't buy. Now we can collaborate in native format with anyone with an internet connection and a Windows system. I'd say that there are worse deals.

?‍♂️ I somehow missed it. Apologies to both. Ugh, yes, this compounds the issue I'm having. I have a good buddy who is a database master, I'll forward him library.db and see what he can come up with.

That is a bigger pain than having a long category menu, for me. I test out multiple plug-ins every week. Maybe I'll do some spelunking in the registry, see if I can find where Cakewalk is storing these.

I notice that your WavesHell vst3 is version 12.0. The current one from Waves is 12.7. If you run Waves Central, do you get any update notices for your plug-ins?

That doesn't address my issue, which is that the categories list in the menu where I choose a category (or categories) has grown humongous. I haven't had the best luck with that. The layouts I've created with it are initially fine, but things go sideways when I install new plug-ins. They don't show up in the Browser. Also, the utility is on the deprecation list, so I am shy about using it.

As someone who tries out and obtains a LOT of plug-ins, as well as likes to customize and organize his plug-in layout. Now, after 3 years of running Cakewalk I have 56 different categories that pop up on the menu when I'm selecting a category. I guess what Cakewalk does is every time you install a new plug-in that has a new and unique "Category" tag embedded is it adds that category to its list. And that process seems to be a one-way street: I can't find a way to delete categories that I don't want to use. You get the picture. Ever-expanding category list. How do I knock it down?

It's good practice in general to exclude Cakewalk and your project and plug-in folders from examination by your anti-malware software. They aren't going to be infection vectors and virus scanning slows down the read/write process that is vital to Cakewalk's recording and playback.

I noticed that I was too dependent on (or maybe "used to") the Smart Tool, expecting and trying to finesse it into performing the operation I wanted. Now instead of cursing whenever it wanted to draw when I wanted to move or whatever, I just got good at going up to the F5-10 keys. Comping especially became less nerve-wracking with the Edit Tool selected, and the Piano Roll View easier to get things done with the Select or Move Tool.

There's also my current go-to, Speedrum Lite. It's similar to Sitala and Poise. 16 pads, drag and drop from a folder or Cakewalk clip, each pad maps to a note on your MIDI keyboard. Also free. I find Sitala, Poise, and Speedrum Lite to be similar enough to be interchangeable for my uses. I settled on Speedrum Lite because I liked the darker UI and the 16 outputs. They all have their discrete charms. Poise can do multiple samples per pad with velocity switching, which is good for drum kits that have multiple samples per instrument, Sitala can do beat slicing. Speedrum Lite has an attractive, scalable UI. I consider them to be what I'm using while I wait for Cakewalk to get its own sampler. Who knows?

Today's multiple free instruments come from Electronik Sound Lab. They have 8 different freeware instruments, including a variety of vintage drum machine emulations. Their other specialty is atmospheric keyboards, as they make Darksichord and Creepy Piano. They also are now the keepers of one of my favorite ambient instruments, ATMOS, now in version 2. Tracktion have issued WaverazorLE, a lighter edition of their Waverazor synth. Nice graphics on this one. They also have a collection of vintage video game sounds. Sega, Nintendo, Commodore SID. Ironically, I haven't been posting in this thread as much as I once did because I'm getting so many freebies! I don't always have time to make note of them here, so I'm catching up.

Today's batch of freebie FX comes from igorski.nl. They actually have 4 of them, but the one I like is HomeCorrupter. It has 3 functions in it, each of which has its own adjustable LFO. You can reduce the sample rate, bit depth, and the one I found most appealing, "clock speed," which is a slow down effect. An LFO'd slowdown effect is a nice thing to have. It sounds sikk with Dumpster Fire. If I ever start reviewing plug-ins on a more formal basis, I think I should put each of them to the "how does it sound with Dumpster Fire?" test. Except that everything sounds pretty awesomely weird with Dumpster Fire. And that's okay. In the case of Home Corrupter, I put together a sound I called "Dead Souls on a Tilt-A-Whirl" by sticking Cakewalk's own Modfilter first in line, then Dumpster Fire, then HomeCorrupter. The other 3 are not quite my cup of tea, but if you're into degraded sounds, you might like them. One is a delay with a variety of manglers in the loop, the other is supposed to be a reverb, although I couldn't get it to sound the slightest reverb-y, and the last one is a harsh formant filter.

It should come with a warning that users may become disappointed in one or more of their favorite sweeteners. "I put this thing on my drum bus and it makes everything sound so much phatter while also enhancing clarity!" Well, yeah, it jacked up the level by 3dB, thereby hitting a sweeter spot on the Fletcher-Munson curve. That's how that works. It sure saves having to continually turn the effect's output down when I'm auditioning presets. I wonder what it's doing between the time you insert it in an FX bin and the time you see the UI, it takes the longest of any effect I've seen.

I'm sure that many of the original factory presets are indeed the result of a random name generator. My metaphor for Meldaproduction's wacky preset names and sparse documentation is that it's as if I found an artifact from an advanced civilization, and it does certain cool things when I press the obvious buttons, but then if I open a panel, there's all this other stuff that I have no idea how to operate. They're like the TARDIS, maybe that's why geeks like me dig 'em so much. ?