Starship Krupa

Thanks, lads. @Kevin Perry, that's a good excuse to dig into Articulation Maps, which I haven't done since they appeared. @Kurre, I thought that there must be a way to do something like this. Thanks!

I know I got an answer to my question, but I just wanna vent here: I've been wading deeper into the glitchy waters of Stutter Edit 2 and MRhythmizer and this discrepancy between how they and even other DAW's designate note names is driving me nuts as I try to switch back and forth. I can see how NASA screwed the pooch on that unmanned probe by having one engineer calling out a dimension in centimeters and having the probe part built in inches. I set "Base octave for pitches" to -2 to get Stutter Edit 2 and Cakewalk to agree, so I could put in a C1 in the Piano Roll and have it register as C1 in SE2. This got me through my Producertech Stutter Edit course without clawing at my head. Now, if I have a MIDI note that Cakewalk calls "C1," Stutter Edit will respond to it as C1, but MRhythmizer thinks the note is C2. Trying to get my head around this: the reason I can play a middle C on my controller and the sound that comes out will always be middle C in a software piano or organ is because my controller doesn't care about this C-whatever-number, it's just sending the number 60 to my interface, which is passing it to Cakewalk, which is passing it to the synth, which knows what pitch to play when it gets a 60. They speak in whole numbers from 0-127 and that's that. Where it comes unraveled is that these plug-ins are doing something other than playing a note, they're launching their sequences or gestures or whatever based on what note they receive and they label their slots the C1, D1 way. Which it turns out, is not an absolute like 0-127 is. So if I want both Stutter Edit and MRhythmizer to agree, then I guess I need to put that Cakewalk Transpose MIDI FX plug-in on the MIDI track.

Yes, I mean, it's a tool I use for writing songs, certainly. I'm not sure what a "platform" would be. Band-In-Box, maybe? I work out what chords I want to use in my songs by playing them on keyboard or guitar. I guess my material is "pre-written" in that sense. I use Cakewalk as an arrangement tool, though, moving sections around, adding, etc. To me, it's a recording, note entry, and editing platform, and as such, useful when writing songs. I started using Cakewalk in 2018 and I've deleted measures and dragged the clips together to shorten things, probably doing it like Craig Anderton suggests in that thread. I've also used Arranger Sections. But my songs rarely get above 20 tracks, usually more like 12-16. The Arranger Track has been around for some time now and I think it's probably the answer to that feller's question about how to cut a section of a song out with the least disruption. For people who like to compose using notation, I understand that Cakewalk has some shortcomings, when I go that route, I do it Finale Notepad and export/import MIDI. Someone who was clamoring for a chord track described it and I understood it but now I've forgotten what one does, so it probably isn't an important thing to me. They make substitutions and transposition easier? I dunno.

I love their emulation of the MG-1.

I get ya, for sure, it's not like you can use those dump files to figure out what's going on so who needs them? One thing I can say is that although who knows what's going on in your case, Windows 10 loves log files. When I first upgraded my laptop to Windows 10, I noticed that the hard drive light was on constantly. I'm told (and experience bears out) that when you first upgrade your system to Windows 10, you might as well just leave it turned on 24 hours a day until it settles down with whatever it's doing. Being a curious sort, and familiar with diagnostic tools, I used Resource Monitor to figure out that it was writing zillions of log files, and configured it to turn as many of them off as I could find. It was logging everything. I don't even remember how I did it, but there are utilities that allow you to configure it. Also, my policy is that if it's in my Temp folder, it's fair game. Off with its head. Into the trash and emptied. Sometimes things will complain that they're in use, in that case I leave them alone, but everything else is gone gone gone. I'm very stingy with my hard drive space, my laptop has a 220G C drive and that's it. My favorite tool for figuring out what's eating so much space is WizTree. Gives you a graphic representation of file size on your disk, what's taking up the most space. iZotope and IK Multimedia love to leave their downloaded installers laying around, which isn't a big deal on my main system with plenty of storage, but on the laptop, out with it.

Not a huge grab, but I was curious. Global|Menus/View Menu Text determines the color of the description text at the bottom of the plug-in browser:

One for Plug-In Property Page, should you wish to include it. For Preset Name drop-down menu, the first cell in the image is its standard state, the second is what's displayed after the user double clicks on it to change the preset name. It persists until the preset is saved. Whatever color you use for both cells should have good contrast with View Menu Text.

The solution I'd be looking for is how to prevent Cakewalk from crashing. Make notes of what is going on when it crashes, ask here in the forum and/or with tech support?

The description as "unique" is kinda funny. Vojtech himself has said that it's a clone of Gross Beat, of course with extended functionality. Everything in their product descriptions is fiery hyperbole, though. $22 is a great price. If you're into things like Stutter Edit, this covers similar ground, and more.

Thank you so much, John. I do have the one theme that's my "fade into the background theme," Racing Green, but yeah, the "bold" is fun. I find myself switching back and forth between them even during a session, depending on the task at hand. The bold ones seem to be good for initial inspiration, coming up with chords, beats, and basslines for EDM, and then for the more technical tasks of editing, comping, and mixing, I switch back to the soothing green. And speaking of switching back and forth, when I switch over to Mercury and Tungsten, I'm reminded of how much a custom theme (and color preset) can improve upon them by adding contrast. This is especially true in the Track Pane and Piano Roll, where I like to have brighter gridlines and more contrast between foreground and background.

In a nutshell, what I figured out was that those images just indicate which plug-in UI has focus, regardless of ACT. So they should indicate it as such by being lighter or a different colour. It's a useful indicator in cases where you're controlling plug-ins with the computer keyboard or whatever. As you know, once I started fiddling with those images it opened a can o'worms with all the different images. I changed a couple of them, and it was like trying to put toothpaste back in the tube to back out, so I forged onward. It helps to have Amazon Prime Video running on monitor 2.

In addition to multiple adjustments for the sake of consistency and legibility, we've also added more visual whimsy. Here's some more work on the Transport Module: And faders: And what you get if you don't lock your Control Bar Modules:

I've been fiddling about with the images used in FX Rack, and I have a suggestion for an addendum to YLIP p. 38-39, if you care to. Details about what "ACT Focus" means, which is that it's the effect plug-in that currently has Cakewalk's attention or "focus," whether one is using ACT or not. It tripped me up because I thought it only applied when an ACT controller was enabled, but as it turns out, Cakewalk always lets you know (via switching these images) what plug-in has focus. And a plug-in can have focus and be bypassed at the same time. Also, as far as I could tell, the middle cell (or cell 2, "pressed") of Open Plug-In UI (in all its forms) isn't used because it seems to switch over to the appropriate Name Background (ACT Focus) image as soon as I press it. As I say, "as far as I could tell." This is about the trickiest area for sorting out button states. There's enabled, bypassed, focused, unfocused, regular, narrow, plus the hover and pressed states, so I may have it wrong. You must have gone through a lot of coffee figuring this stuff out!

It's very bright.

You are a gentleman and a scholar. Also, I want to especially commend you on your Quadcurve fly-out.

Although I usually prefer darker themes, this one really lives up to the light theme paradigm, much more so than Mercury. How about a Custom Color preset to get those "graph paper" lines into the Track Pane?

Since you seem open to working on your singing and mic technique, yeah, your voice is an instrument that needs regular practice to maintain a skill level, just like guitar or piano or drums. As far as mixing-related solutions, using the Quadcurve EQ in ProChannel, take the green band, set the Q to about 8, crank the gain up to about 10 and then sweep the frequency knob back and forth until you hit the "ugly" frequency. You'll hear it, it will be the once that grates like chalk on a blackboard. Once you find that unwanted resonance, pull the gain down to -3dB and then fiddle with the Q and gain as necessary to tame it. As with all things mix, take care not to overdo it to the point where there's a frequency hole. I do this for every vocal. To my understanding, it's what happens when your voice and the mic (and maybe some room reflections) form a resonant peak. It can be reduced by learning more singing and mic placement technique. Even if you don't have a vocal booth, you can set up your mic in different places around the room until you find the one that is most flattering/flattening. That's how Sam Philips did it.

The "hidden treasures" have some useful features. You can enable them using Plug-in Manager as shown:

Dang, that is a heckuva bundle of sound design for a negligible amount of money.

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.