Starship Krupa

I'll chime in and concur with Bitflipper that the issue is probably not that your audio interface (gasp) has no native ASIO driver. It should work in WASAPI mode or even with ASIO4ALL, both of which I have used successfully with Cakewalk in my aging Dell notebook to drive the onboard hardware CODEC. I'm not as anti-ASIO4ALL as some, but if your interface can do WASAPI, it's needless overhead. It's also sort of a sign that the company that makes the interface isn't serious about it being used for high-end work on Windows if it can't be bothered to write an ASIO driver for it. But WASAPI works just fine, almost as well as ASIO. One of the programs that can't do WASAPI and wants ASIO is Ableton Live. They also recommend ASIO4ALL for interfaces that don't have native ASIO drivers. I'm not entirely sure, but I think that one of the things that makes ASIO superior for DAW work is that it bypasses the operating system's processes to talk more directly to the hardware. Microsoft doesn't officially recognize ASIO as a standard, Microsoft technical documents refer only to WASAPI. If your complaint was that you want to get your latency down around 6mS because it's messing with your vocal tracking, I'd say heck yeah, you need to drop a hundy on a better interface. But your system isn't functioning poorly, it's not functioning at all. To use a forum truism, if the Alesis just plain wasn't suitable for audio work, this fact would be well known. Yes, ultimately for the best performance, lowest latency, etc., you want something with a native ASIO driver, especially if you're recording audio. The Scarlett 2i2 is a standard for small studio work. I'm also with Bitflipper that it's probably another process that's eating up interrupts. And it doesn't necessarily have to be a piece of hardware. That Avast utility, for instance, does it stay running all the time, going around checking drivers to make sure they're up to date? It's not out of the question that a program that does that could have an effect on realtime operations like audio recording and playback. Run that latency-checking program and see what it says. Also, run the Sound applet in Control Panel and make sure that the sampling rate settings there are set to 44.1 and not 48, I've seen mismatched sample rates causing problems.

WordStar, Lotus 1-2-3, dBASE, all once had what were considered to be strangleholds on their markets. Perhaps someday we'll be using Microsoft DAW or Google Sounds which will be able to import all of the historical formats.

Updated to add Meter/Key Insert, Delete, and Properties images, various image color updates, added F5-8 keystroke commands to Tools Module. There's also now a Flat version with the menu bar gradients removed for those who prefer a flatter look.

Updated to add Meter/Key Insert, Delete, and Properties images, various color updates, added F5-8 keystroke commands to Tools Module.

Thanks y'all for bringing this up and explaining it. I updated Meter/Key View>Insert, Delete, and Properties for EVA 01, EVA 01 Flat, and Racing Green,and the images propagated to Event List and Markers.

For what value of the variable "to prepare?" Your practices are your practices, but I am a stickler for testing my setup before taking it "out," as in my guitar and amp or drums and hardware before playing a live show, mixer, amp and speakers before bringing the PA to my friend's wedding, and so on. Because with live/multi-person studio work, it's not a matter of if something will go sideways, it's which thing will go sideways. Extra cables, extra strings, extra mics, I'm such a nut I used to carry fuses for every band member's amp. It sounds like you don't turn that laptop on very often, did you check to make sure the battery and power supply were okay, that it would even boot? You've surely been tuned in long enough to know that CbB needs to either phone home or do the offline activation dance at least once every 6 months. That process is pretty much our only cost of using the license, but pay it we must. As Noel refers to, all companies want to know how many people are using their software. With programs you pay for, that's easy: how many licenses did we sell? They can't just count downloads, because I am sure there are many people who download Cakewalk, try it, go WTF? and never touch it again. There is software that does require that you be connected to the Internet whenever you use it, Cakewalk is not that. It only requires that you connect to the Internet once in every 6 month period, and that connection doesn't even have to be the system where you're using it now that it has the offline activation option. I'm sure it sounds like a high-handed lecture or blaming, but friendly advice from a (music and software industry) veteran is the intent. Not your fault that Cakewalk wasn't ready to go, rather that in your case, remembering before you take it out after a long inactive spell, checking Cakewalk's activation status is now something you need to do. You don't have to pay money for licensing fees, but there is a cost in that you need to be aware of the activation status. If that cost is unacceptable, then perhaps another DAW solution would be better. In any event, in the spirit of having a backup in case of (corporate) failure, acquiring and learning another DAW (as you are doing with Studio One) is an excellent step. Having one single tool be mission critical when companies go out of business (see Cakewalk, Inc.), spin products off, quality goes downhill, whatever, is not best practice in a time when so many options are available. You might find as many have that Studio One works better for you overall and Cakewalk becomes your backup DAW. Win-win in any case.

It doesn't have such a mode. The "solo" and "mute" button supplied by Duckbar was, I believe, to be able to solo or mute the entire track, not just a single band on the EQ. You need a 3rd-party EQ to get that feature. Fortunately my favorite one, MEqualizer, also happens to be free to use, along with 36 other plug-ins in its bundle: MeldaProduction FreeFXBundle.

The HX Stomp is an audio interface with a USB connection and has an ASIO driver. That is how you should be using it, if you are, then you've got the concept right. So what is happening is that you are recording your guitar using the HX Stomp as an audio interface going into your computer via USB at the settings you described. If you monitor yourself on headphones or speakers while you're recording, it sounds great, but when you monitor it through Cakewalk or listen to what you record, it sounds poor by comparison. First, we need to know more about what you mean by "low quality." Is there noise, distortion (the bad kind), off kilter tonal balance (muffled or shrill highs, boomy or thin bass) or something else? Are you seeing a good strong level for input, or is it very low or too loud? I'm not directly familiar with the HX, but with most audio interfaces, it's possible to send too hot a signal to their analog-to-digital convertors, which will result in bad-sounding audio. You want a healthy signal in the middle of the range, but not so hot that it slams your A/DC's. There are many different ways recorded audio can sound that fit the description "low quality," so we need to know exactly what it is.

Many are using Scarlett 2i2's with Cakewalk, so it's likely that your issue is solvable. Windows 7 is an older OS and not officially supported by Cakewalk by BandLab, but it usually works fine, there have been no Windows 7-specific issues since official support was dropped. None that I know of, anyway. Taking a wild guess, it sounds as if your interface's audio driver somehow got corrupted. My suggestion is to go to Focusrite's site, download whatever the latest Windows 7-compatible driver is for the Scarlett and reinstall it. Then see how Cakewalk gets along with it. A Focusrite Scarlett should be able to use its ASIO driver, and the native ASIO is the one you should use with Cakewalk. If you used the default installation choices, your project folders will be in C:\Cakewalk Projects. You say the "stems" are there, I presume you mean the raw audio files from tracking? Each project has its own folder in the following form C:\Cakewalk Projects\<project name>. At the top level of the folder there should be a file <project name>.CWP and a folder called Audio, which is where Cakewalk puts recorded and bounced audio files per project. Is the .CWP file for your project missing? I mean if you browse to that folder in Windows Explorer, not in Cakewalk's Recent Projects list. A project may be missing from Cakewalk's Recent Projects list and still be perfectly intact as long as the .CWP file is retrievable.

I'm a big Ctrl-Alt mousewheeler and would be happy to see it working in Drum Pane. When I work with drums in the PRV, I have a choice of non-persistent instrument names or non-functioning wheel zooming, so I just leave it on piano keys and try to remember which key corresponds to what drum/cymbal/whatever. The least of 3 hassles: board tape-on-controller-keys.

@ilir bajri, thank you so much for doing this. I'd also like to add that I really like your demo pieces.

Specifically, what aspects of my Control Bar theming contribute to the crispness 'n' clarity? I'd like to know what I'm doing right. One thing I do as I go through the button and tab images is rather than just altering the hue, I pixel edit them to eliminate the native edge blur. I was concerned that this might have a negative effect, such as introducing jaggies, but it has the effect of giving the images greater legibility, to my eyes.

Fab. This description eliminates Save/Ok/Import, too, which I guess was possible anyway for flat images, I just didn't know. My most-used are probably Alt+A to select all, followed by Ctrl+Shift+B to zoom to that selection.

Here's an image that I use privately with EVA 01 Flat. I'm just putting it up here to show off an idea that came to me when I noticed that the Tools Module had an expanse of blank space below the first 4 tools. I use the F5-F8 keys to switch between tools (and to switch tools' functions) while editing, but have always had issues with memorization. This has resulted in a slow uptake for keyboard shortcuts. It's one of the reasons that I lobby for tooltips and context menus. I tend toward being a mouse jockey.

Robert Smith, Level 62

It's a testament to how much I love the way my A|A|S soundpacks (and Objeq Delay and Lounge Lizard Session) sound that I'm willing to give them so much slack. With the last major update, the UI's of any of the plug-ins started to take about 3 seconds to load the first time, which may not sound like much, but in the context of a mix session, this is on a project that only takes 4 seconds for the whole thing to load in Cakewalk. 3 seconds is at least 3X longer than I should be staring at my DAW waiting for a plug-in UI to appear. This slow UI load happens in both Cakewalk and Mixcraft, it's with all of their stuff, Player, Objeq Delay, and the Sessions, and it's new behavior.

"could result in a slight disruption in playback" When I tried to enable it, the first project I opened emitted a rapid series of loud pops and then Cakewalk went silent until I restarted it. Is that what they mean by "slight?"

But y'know, for heaven's sake, it also says "Cakewalk by BandLab released: Learn More." And if you click on that "Buy Now" button it takes you to a statement by Noel about Gibson's halt to Cakewalk, Inc. operations. Apologies to the confused, and I understand that English is not the OP's first language, but it's hard not to learn about Cakewalk by BandLab once you get to the old company's website. This forum also has a search function, and these questions have been asked and answered many times.

What does the Cancel button do, exactly? Does it revert your plug-in's settings to how they were before you last opened the UI?

The reply is the best way, because it will bump the topic to the top.

j/k: Cakewalk could at least throw a warning dialog if the project length to be rendered is greater than a week. I must wonder, if Alvaro had let it finish, how long it would have taken and what the file size would have been.

Not recommended. SONAR Platinum had hundreds of bugs in its code that have long since been fixed in Cakewalk by BandLab.'s. The behavior you describe is only one of them. Just install Cakewalk by BandLab to the default directory. It won't overwrite SONAR. Your old projects will open just fine in Cakewalk By BandLab, and you'll have access to more features and an overall better optimized DAW. All of the premium content and plug-ins that were bundled with SONAR Platinum will be available for use in Cakewalk. If things go wrong, SONAR is old and unsupported. Cakewalk is up to date and fully supported.

I used the trick from YLIP of setting the background color via the medium Custom Module background. Then I changed some of the module backgrounds to full transparent. It was an experiment in getting away from the Control Bar being made up of modules that are like tiles and more toward the idea of it being a monolithic surface that can be customized, if that makes sense. I don't think the modules need to look separate from each other. I had some fun with the Ripple Edit button, making an oblong transparent cutout for the "off" state. With my purple menu bar, the orange text stands out and helps draw the eye to it One element that frustrated me was the Track view Now Time display background. I guess it's not themeable, and it's a lighter grey. I don't really use it, so not a big deal for me, but when it's enabled, it stands out where I'd like the numbers to appear over the same color as the surrounding element.

Yes!! The cover of Batman: The Killing Joke. It hadn't occurred to me that it might not be a coincidence that EVA 01's color scheme is not dissimilar. Okay, well, thanks to your input, I toned down the Console View by making Background #1 a darker (via transparency) green. No more loud purple in the Console View. There is an intended positive psychological effect here, BTW. The Track View has all the purple/orange, which increases alertness for recording, editing and comping, while the Console View is now more subdued for long haul mixing.

Right, Synthedit. In any case, I'm disappointed in PB for keeping these in the store. The people who are going to get snookered are inexperienced users. PB are usually savvy about getting people interested, with their monthly freebies and sales. Also, I usually trust them to have plug-ins that at least function. It's like any other retailer: if I buy a new guitar at Guitar Center, it's going to be at a certain quality level (at least since they stopped selling Behringer guitars!). They want return business rather than "I bought this crappy axe at Guitar Center, next time I'll shop somewhere else." Or worse, the beginner will decide not to go ahead with the hobby. Which means that the retailer will miss out on future sales when they want a better axe, strings, amp, etc.