Starship Krupa

This is, of course, speculation based on the past 3 years of observing the course that Cakewalk development has taken. Speculate is all we can do, 'cause we're not Meng and we're not BandLab employees. If I had billions to mess with, I would probably want to do some things that I thought were just cool things to do, even knowing that they'd not directly make me money. Paul Allen rescued the Cinerama Theater in Seattle just because he thought it was cool and didn't want to see it go dark. 3 years ago there was a great deal of speculation about BandLab's motives for picking up the Cakewalk Inc. IP. My best guesses were that they wanted to add functionality to develop it into an offline front-end to their existing platform and to promote brand awareness. Time seems to point more to the latter than the former (so far, anyway), and as far as I can tell, Cakewalk has earned its keep in that regard. After all, most of the regulars on this (and the old SONAR support forums) had never heard of BandLab 3 years ago. And we're people who spend time at other forums, and online in general. It would be interesting to check search engine queries to see how searches on BandLab have increased, what kind of bump they got 3 years ago. We've not only learned about BandLab's other DAW's and online platform, but the more curious among us have poked around and found out more about the company and its many other brands. It's now apparent to me that just giving people a tool that encourages us to make music is good for their business(es). Whatever, what's most important is that the program has improved from SONAR and continues to improve. Even if development stopped completely, it's a great program that would continue to be great, and a capable and useful tool for some time to come.

Windows 10 has a reputation for taking some time to "settle down," especially in the area of constantly accessing the system drive. You can help things with Cakewalk by accessing the Windows Security Settings and excluding the folders that Cakewalk uses from being scanned by Windows Defender anti-malware. On my systems, I exclude my Cakewalk projects, Cakewalk content, and Cakewalk program folders as well as my VST folders. This stops Defender from doing a realtime scan on files accessed from those folders, which it would otherwise do every time you read a file from them. Other than that, make sure your video and audio drivers are up to date

Someone left its cage unlocked.

Yeah, that's the big drawback to the CWAF Tool, it enumerates everything. Being able to easily get a list of the files used by a single project is something that I have feature requested in other DAW's to no avail. Considering that the information is embedded in each project file, you'd think it might not be that hard to do, but there it is(n't).

Due to my being so out of touch with what Kids These Days want, it's never occurred to me to wish for these things in association with a software support forum. I had no idea that my considering having iMessage, SMS, Telegram, Messenger, and Google Hangouts all on my phone and tablet to be sufficient for my messaging needs was such backward thinking. Heck, now it seems that if I'm not going to adopt every messaging platform that comes along I may as well go back to tin cans and string or smoke signals! Thanks for keeping this old fogey up to date.

I'm finally getting a handle on loudness vs. level (after years of reading primers on the subject), and have set up my loudness metering so that analysis programs like Expose think my mixes are okay. However, I am still struggling with getting the level I want from exports from Cakewalk. I have it set up so that my Master bus goes to a bus called "Mixdown," so that I can do exports from the Mixdown bus. My loudness metering and other final mix analysis plug-ins go in the FX rack of the Mixdown bus. My issue is that when I back off the Mixdown bus fader to the point where its meters (the native Cakewalk ones) are not hitting the red, the resulting exported files are lower in level than I'd like. I usually import them into Sound Forge and normalize to -1dB to get them as hot as possible without chopping the peaks. What do I need to do in order to be able to skip the Sound Forge step? Am I being too conservative with the Mixdown bus fader? Should I be using something more accurate than the native meters?

As far as I know, that is the only way from inside the project. Another tool is the Cakewalk Audio Finder, which you can access from the global Utilities menu as "CWAF Tool."

Also, for improved instrument sounds, AIR Xpand!2 is a favorite upgrade in Cakewalk land. It is on sale right now for USD $4.99 at Plugin Boutique. It has some pretty good sounding drum kits in addition to synth sounds, basses, strings, world percussion, organs, etc.

Staying up to date is a chore with plug-ins that don't have a feature that allows you to check or don't have a manager shell like iZotope, Waves and Native Instruments (not that I particularly like all of them). The rest of them, all I can do is go down my list and then visit the developers' web sites. It can be quite the time sink. Some plug-ins don't even have a feature where you can check their version, but I keep all my installer downloads and can usually go by their dates. At least check the ones you're using in this project.

See my above post, which applies to FX rather than inputs at least (I'm still lobbying for the ability to fully rename inputs). If you create your own category or categories that start with the letter "A" and select Sort By Category, you'll get those categories up at the top. I only have one of these, which is "A-List," and I put my most-used FX into that category (in addition to the usual categories of Compressor, Reverb, Utilities, etc.). As workarounds go, it works pretty well in practice. Instead of scrolling all the way down to Spatial or Tools or Transient Shapers to get my most-used FX in those categories, Sidewidener, MAutoAlign and Imprint, they're all in the top pop-out menu.

Couple of pleasant surprises when I went to W.A. Production to cash in on this. First, I noticed that despite never having spent an actual dime there, I had one of their "chips" that could be flipped for $4 credit (probably from rating and reviewing the freebies I got). I did this, and bought the Mystical Bundle plus Vocal Compressor. After that, I had been given yet another chip, so I cashed it in and got The King 2. Because my order came to $0.90 the order processing algorithm just gave it to me for free. I came out of the whole thing with 5 new plug-ins, plus the monthly giveaway sound pack, having spent just under $11. I guess I got a whiff of what IK Multimedia is like for Larry. ? Moral of the story is that if you're a W.A. Production fan like me, buy your stuff from them direct so that you can rack up those chips. Also rate and review, because that gets you even more credit. The other pleasant surprise was that Screamo, the plug-in I was least interested in from the bundle, turned out to be really cool. I ran a drum loop through it and got an instant "We Will Rock You" drum sound. Each of the plug-ins turned out to be fun and potentially useful. Vocal Compressor on the drum loop on the "Punk Rock Vocal" preset was monstrous. Dodge Pro is way more than just a fake sidechain effect, it has 3 filter bands to go with the volume band, each of all of these independently drawn, with template shapes to start from. I also got around to trying W.A. Production Venom for the first time, and that is a really cool effect. Hard to describe what it does (it has several different modules), except to say that I'm going to put it in my "reverb" category for now. For software industry geeks,this all made me curious so I poked around a bit and their plug-ins seem to come from at least 4 different distinct sources: there's Rahman Fotouhi, the guy who does Instachord/Instascale and Dodge Pro, then there's Re-Compose, which is where Venom and MIDIQ are from, then there are the ones with the SoundSpot-esque UI's like The King and Vocal Compressor, then the Sphere Series and ComBear and PunchyWorm, their single control cartoon Sausage Fattener things. Wherever they're getting them from, they've shown good taste so far.

Why so angry? I thought we were all supposed to family here. I suspected that you wouldn't actually explain it. Failing to be able to outline how revenue will get from point A to point B is not a great way to attract buy-in. I wonder, if it's such an innovative idea that you wish to keep the specifics to yourself, why post about it in public at all? Why not go directly to BandLab with it? Anyway, I'll leave you and your idea to bask in the outpouring of support.

Then what did you mean by ? Unless you have a non-standard definition of "monetize?" It literally means "earn revenue from." I so agree, especially in this case. So although I know how WhatsApp makes money, in the interest of showing how much you understand it, how do you think they/it make money? You said "by the usage of users using the app." Can you please describe the mechanism in more detail? My own professional career in software did indeed end in the '00's, so I assume that for an app (by itself) to make money, it must be supported by sales of licenses, by advertising, or by donation. If it's not one of those then the app can be a loss-leader (like Cakewalk) or accessory to other services that the developer does make money from (like Messenger). As such, the app would be a cost center, not a revenue center. So please either tell us which of those things would be present in your proposal or describe how else you suggest "the usage of users using the app" will translate into funds that can be used to "create new FX/instrument plugins for the DAW and more."

Since BandLab are not interested in monetizing the app itself, I doubt that they'd be much interested in monetizing the app's support forum. BandLab already have platforms where users may publish their music for free and even sell it if they want to, without BandLab taking any cut. They seem pretty firm in not wishing to make any direct money from their DAW-related enterprises. Having someone use an app that is given away for free in and of itself does not, of course, create revenue. It's when the site that the app is an accessory to displays advertising that the owners make money. I wouldn't like having advertising appear on my app's support forum. From an etiquette standpoint, it's just not done. There are even existing plug-ins that were part of the Cakewalk Inc. IP purchase that people like me would line up to pay for directly if we could. The LP Multi-Band compressor is one that comes to mind. So far it's not a priority.

It's impossible to know what features will be kept or dropped in the future, but the Arranger Track is a brand new feature and Cakewalk has a long history of maintaining backward compatibility with old projects. And yes, I too am one of the many who have requested the ability to set colors of individual markers. I'd also like it if it were possible to give them "tails" that extend the length of the Track View and Piano Roll View to make it easier to line up new material with them.

I was playing with screensets yesterday in a project where I had set up my Piano Roll View to display the General MIDI Drum names down the left side instead of the piano keys. Whenever I'd switch screensets, the Piano Roll would revert back to displaying the piano keys. However, it's my understanding that screensets are supposed to be for window layout, not program states and things like that. Is this how it's supposed to work? Is it a bug? Is there something I can do to prevent it from happening? It makes it unusable for one of my main uses of screensets, which is to toggle back and forth between maximized and docked Piano Roll.

Windows has "enhancements" built in that should be disabled for accurate monitoring, and many times, especially if you're monitoring through the onboard CODEC, there will be other software that comes with the PC that is designed to help small PC speakers imitate movie theater sound. You need to find all that stuff and turn it off. Look in the system tray in the lower right corner of your screen. Cakewalk isn't subject to those enhancements if you're running with ASIO driver mode (including ASIO4ALL), and I think even WASAPI Exclusive bypasses them, which explains why it sounds one way in Cakewalk and another with programs that just use the standard Windows drivers for output.

While the Realtek hardware CODEC itself is up to the task, as @John Vere points out, where you run into issues is in plain old just trying to connect something to the input. It's possible, and I've done it, to go from a small mixer like my Yamaha MG10 or Behringer Xenyx to the 1/8" stereo plug that the onboard line-in needs, and get it to work acceptably well, but unless you already have the mixer laying around, you'll pay the same for a mixer that you will for an actual complete interface with similar inputs. And the weakest link of your signal chain will be a plastic-sleeved unbalanced line-level input. So while I don't subscribe to the oft-repeated Internet Wisdom that there's something inherently inadequate about the current Realtek hardware CODEC's (I checked the specs a while back and you can record and play back up to 192K should you wish to fill up your disk quickly), and they're perfectly fine for monitoring, I do contend that the threshold for using an external interface is recording audio, especially with a mic. Recording the output of a synth or sampler, you probably don't strictly need an interface, but by the time you hook up a mic, they'll need XLR, phantom power, etc. BTW, I've not run into the issues John describes with getting tracks to sync, nor has excessive latency been an issue. It seems to work just fine in either WASAPI mode.

4 days and over 30 replies later, do you not have enough information? Nobody can choose for you, you must try them both and make your own decision.

Yeah, you definitely got that lead vocal to pop. It's also nice and isolated frequency-wise, did you use Nectar 3's function for that or Trackspacer or do it "manually?"

I'm with Brian as far as Nectar being the one I find least useful of the iZotope suites. I got in on the recent pricing mistake deal on Standard. It has the usual top notch UI and processing, but so far it hasn't gotten me anywhere I wasn't already getting with good ol' compression, EQ, and a license for Trackspacer. Also there's one of its modules that it assumes I'll always want to have turned on, and while I figured out how to bypass it, I find that annoying. @mibby, I'd like to hear more about what you dig so much about Nectar, in the hopes that it will help me get more out of it. As with everything iZotope, I want to love it because it looks so great and I know they put a lot into making their products useful. One of the things I've always liked about the other Ozone suites is that (despite what I had heard), you can turn on and use each of the processors individually if you like. Nectar seems to lean more toward the pre-configured. I'm sure I can get more out of it. Nectar Elements on the other hand is of no use to me whatsoever, it's like having a handful of Cakewalk Style Dials or Waves One Knobs stuck in one UI. I don't care for single knob interfaces that don't allow me under the hood, and having 4 of them is like a box of bleah. For anyone who doesn't already have any flavor of Ozone or Neutron, they are, even in the Elements configurations are both amazing, stunning, even. Ozone was heartbreaking at first because I had spent months learning mastering processing and just throwing its presets on my mixes blew away my best efforts. But it was also a great learning tool, because I studied what it was doing and kept at it until I could take almost any combination of paragraphic EQ, compressor, and limiter and get results that I liked better. Even if you already have your mixing and mastering chains dialed in, the Elements are killer for making immediate preliminary "playback mixes" that will impress the people who are recording or just hanging out in your studio. Also, I think the current Neutron Elements comes with Visual Mixer, which if you've not tried it, is an amazing tool. Going forward, every time I have multiple background vocals to mix, I'll be putting Visual Mixer on there. I turned myself into the Moron Tabernacle Choir with it. I'll be jumping on this in order to be able to gift the licenses to friends who are just starting out in home recording.

BTW, I've said it before and I'll say it again, although I am a rah-rah for BandLab and the free license, I am also aware of and grateful to everyone (which included me 20 years ago), who made the creation and development of Cakewalk/SONAR possible when it was funded by license fees. While it's true we wouldn't have this happening DAW without BandLab, it would never have existed if we hadn't paid our license fees.

Really, are people down on Cakewalk in the KVR forums? I've poked around there from time to time and it seemed like CbB (as opposed to SONAR, which had a negative rep for being crash-y) had kind of dropped off the radar (so to speak). Fortunately "at all cost" is zero cost for CbB. ? And yes, choosing what works best and going with it is really the best thing to do. Both Reaper and Cakewalk may be tried in full functionality at no cost. And the fun thing when trying CbB is that if you like anything about it, say just the editing, or the recording, or the fabulous mixing, you can use it alongside another DAW. For people using Windows and doing EDM, I think the combination of Ableton Live! for composing and Cakewalk for editing and mixing is unBEATable (sorry). Althoough I must say, this 59-year-old who does make beats as well as using the tape studio workflow, makes his beats in Cakewalk using the piano roll and plug-ins like Break Tweaker.

W.A. Production are running a Halloween Flash Sale (I couldn't figure out how long it runs, so get over there) with such juicy deals as the Mystical Halloween Bundle, which includes Mutant Delay, Dodge Pro, and Screamo, for $9.90, and The King 2 (I'm getting this one for sure), Vocal Compressor (ditto), SphereDelay, PunchyWorm and Instascale, for $4.90 each. This is some Halloween candy right here. W.A. Production are a new fave, don't let the low prices fool ya, they're not another SoundSpot with mostly "nothing special" algorithms tarted up with pretty UI's.

Meldamoonie here, but not a regular user of convolution reverbs. (I'll drop a heads-up here to suggest Meldaproductions Free Bundle fans keep an eye on their website, as we're coming into a time of the year when Vojtech runs one of his "everything half-off" sales, when you can upgrade the Free Bundle for about $25) How does the one in Cakewalk's ProChannel stack up against other ones of this type? To the OP, my favorite reverb for anything is iZotope/Exponential Audio Phoenix Stereo Reverb, which I got on sale for $10. iZotope have now come out with a reverb of their own based on the Exponential algorithms, called Neoverb. I don't know what you consider reasonably priced, but right now it's a $99 crossgrade from any iZotope product at Pluginboutique.