Starship Krupa

And I recently discovered that I can drag clips directly from a Cakewalk audio track onto Sitala (and Speedrum Lite) pads.

I've been getting good results from Stagecraft DJ Delay, a filtered delay with a really nice graphical representation of what's going on, including a spectrum analyzer.

I like the Studio One example(s), probably because it's the same thing that I'm already familiar with from Mixcraft: Alpha Sampler is equivalent to Sample One and Omni Sampler is equivalent to Impact. I'm pretty easy to please as far as features, I guess, I'm most interested in having a phrase sampler where I can drop existing audio into the sampler and then have filters, reversing, volume, and trimming. It might be fun to be able to have individual "pad FX" like we now have clip FX.

It is strange that the 32-bit versions still work, and that Digital Synsations works, because UVI use PACE/iLok. If you recently did change your system disk partition, that is likely what has caused iLok to start causing problems. There are programs other than Cakewalk that can host these plug-ins, such as Cantabile. Do you have any you can try, in order to make 100% sure that you need to take the step of resetting your licenses? Also, we want to make sure that resetting the licenses will result in you being able to use your software as you were before. If you must reset your licenses, there is the advantage that both AIR and SONIVOX are now owned by the same company.

And this is not currently possible, to route live audio directly to a sampler in CbB? I know if you say it isn't, it ISN'T, but I'm trying to clarify. I'm relatively new to this, to say the least. Yes, that is "sampling," but that feature isn't important to me. I'm fine with doing my audio capture into a track and then transferring it to the sampler and then controlling if from a MIDI track This illustrates why I've been so keen to try to define what "sampler" means, not wishing to seem pedantic, but it seemed to me that "sampler," when talking about specific functions, can mean different things to different people. I think it might serve the interest of advocacy for this/these feature(s) for people to be more specific about what features they're talking about rather than just saying "we need a sampler." What if the developers added a "sampler" that only allowed for recording into tracks and then importing it into the sampler from there? Or if the "sampler" didn't allow the user to take audio and spread/stretch it across multiple notes, or if it were an .SFZ player/creator? For some people, those would each be what they think of as a "sampler." We did hear from at least one longtime power user who was opposed to inclusion of a "sampler" because he had already invested in large amounts of sample libraries and didn't want to deal with "another proprietary format." I don't think he and I were talking about the same thing. Hmm, this gives me an idea.... To me, Kontakt and Sampletank are sample players that can also perform other operations. They cannot help me in my quest to drop heavily-effected dialogue phrases into electronic compositions.

For those waiting for an integrated phrase sampler, I just discovered that with both Sitala and Speedrum Lite, you can drag a clip directly from an audio track and drop it on a pad. I don't know if everyone else knew that this was possible and I just missed it or what, but this is going to help my workflow in a big way.

Well, this is kind of embarrassing, although in a pretty great way. I was working with pitch shifting some imported audio in CbB this afternoon and reading the Reference Guide. In amongst the various nuggets, I spotted this: "You can drag and drop clips from Cakewalk to another application or to a directory in Windows." Um, say what? I knew you could drag and drop into Cakewalk, but not the other direction. I opened an instance of Sitala and grabbed a clip from an audio track and dropped it onto one of Sitala's pads, and it worked perfectly. Between Cakewalk and Sitala, and I tried Speed Drum Lite and it worked just the same, they already do what I most want a phrase sampler to do.

I would say that when you get to Wave Shell, don't load it, because it looks as if it's a Waves plug-in that's causing the issue. Use Waves Central to check and make sure you have the latest versions of your Waves plug-ins. Cakewalk doesn't just crash like that from putting too many plug-ins in a project and running out of memory. The sign you've got too many plug-ins in a project is that playback will start to have crackles or the audio engine will keep stopping. It's a Waves plug-in or a combination that's giving you this issue.

Have you turned off input monitoring for your kick drum mic? Have you tried disabling plug-ins on the track?

The error dialog says it: iLok can't verify your licenses because you changed something in your hardware configuration. This can happen after changing your system drive (as from a hard disk to SSD) or updating your motherboard. It has nothing to do with Cakewalk and everything to do with how iLok identifies your unique system. For this reason it's necessary to deauthorize any iLok plug-in licenses that are installed on the local hard drive before upgrading your system. I did not do that the first time I did a motherboard swap and had to contact PACE and the companies I had purchased the licenses from to get everything reset. I had the same issue with Waves' licensing at the time.

@Michael Willis has updated his Dragonfly Reverbs and added some interesting ones. Go check 'em out. The Plate one has a "tank" category that I am particularly interested in, as I have yet to find the right spring reverb emulation. (note to Michael, the link https://github.com/michaelwillis/dragonfly-reverb/releases/download/3.2.1/DragonflyReverb-Windows-64bit-v3.2.3.zip comes back with "not found.") This link gets me the file: https://github.com/michaelwillis/dragonfly-reverb/releases/download/3.2.1/DragonflyReverb-Windows-64bit-v3.2.1.zip

Quick review of what's included in each: In the Mastering bundle, Firefly is a nice enough bus compressor, Overtone is great mastering EQ, with way useful mid-side functionality, Percolate is utter 5hite (and it's meant to be a track processor, not a bus processor), Oracle is interesting as a character effect reverb (freeware Valhalla SuperMassive is more interesting), but no way I would use it for "mastering," and the freeware bx_cleansweep knocks Focus into the creek. So you're getting 2 plug-ins that are, IMO, useful for "mastering," although in the case of Firefly, SoundSpot's own Cyclone is a much better plug-in. And a mastering bundle without a limiter? C'mon, they're just throwing darts. If they had included Cyclone and Velo 2, it would be worthy of the name "Mastering Bundle." In the Vocal one, Voxbox does what other plug-ins like freeware iZotope Vocal Doubler does, but I do like its GUI. The representation of what it's doing to the stereo field is my favorite. Propane is a mid-side processor, doesn't do anything that freeware Voxengo MSED does and more. Firefly and Oracle, then KINETIK, which is exactly as described, "KINETIK is a Compressor, EQ and Overdrive in one single easy to use plugin." I've tried it on several sources, and it sound good, but at this stage of my development as a mix engineer, I find myself reaching for individual plug-ins moreso than all-in-ones. I wouldn't throw KINETIK on a vocal, not one I wanted to "pop." For EDM booty-moving, yeah. So, 3 worthy plug-ins. Again, "Vocal Bundle?" Voxbox is the only one that fits the description. Is anyone home at SoundSpot? Verdict: unless you specifically want Firefly, KINETIK, and Oracle, or Overtone, pass. The rest are just clutter. Overtone is worth the fiver. (if you need something to qualify for this month's freebies, SoundSpot, as ever, is a good way to do it, and why I know so much about them ? but you can pick up a Glitchmachine instead)

Aww, I love me some Blue Jay drums! The drawbacks are the inability to pan individual instruments, and stereo outs only. Great sounding kits, though.

I'm not a fan of Nectar Elements either, which is why I mentioned Neutron. Neutron has presets for vocals that sound pretty good. And heck yeah to Ozone's wizard not doing anything for you, that was when I realized I was getting good at mastering, when I could outgun Ozone Elements. ?

Go to YouTube and search for "how to make a vocal pop in a mix" or "how to get my vocal to sit in the mix" or similar and you will find much good advice. Adjusting relative volume (pulling down the other faders in your case) is the first step. Using processing is the next. By processing I mean EQ, compression (and/or clip gain adjustment as Craig does), reverb, chorus, whatever. When new to this, as you are, iZotope Neutron Elements can really help get you started. Some see it as a crutch, I would characterize it more as a shortcut. You can use the presets or the wizard at first, then later, when you understand things better, the individual processors in Neutron are top-notch. The Elements series regularly go for deep discount or even as a freebie or part of a bundle, so watch the Deals subforum on here or keep an eye on Plugin Boutique. Just now they're running a deal where if you purchase anything, you can add MTurboCompLE to your cart and get it for free. PB has many things for sale for under $10, so it's a great way to get a high end compressor for peanuts. Each of MTurboCompLE's modeled compressors has a "Compression" knob that adjusts all the other parameters for you, so it's good for newbies. An epiphany for me when I was first learning this stuff is that sometimes mixing can be counterintuitive. Cutting certain frequencies, compressing dynamic range can actually make an element in a mix stand out better.

I don't agree that "a sampler is a sampler." There are different types of hardware samplers, and that is mirrored in software. Both an Akai MPC and a Fairlight CMI are "samplers," but they have different functions, different vocabularies, and are primarily used in different styles of music. They're so different that for heavy users of one type, the other type isn't on their radar at all. Here in the forum, it's just a matter of advocacy. The developers prioritize new features based on the perceived demand. In the past when the "Cakewalk needs a sampler!" cry has gone up there have been people who said they did not want Cakewalk to come with a "sampler," because they had already invested in Kontakt or Sampletank libraries and didn't want to have to deal with yet another format. To them a "sampler" is something with big libraries for doing orchestration or scoring or whatever. I want to keep it clear that a Kontakt/Sampletank type of thing is not what I'm advocating for (although if someone else wants to, they can go right ahead). I think that an MPC-type phrase/pad sampler is something Cakewalk should have. If it had a way to map and stretch and pitch shift sounds across multiple keys, I wouldn't mind that either, but it's not as important to me.

Excellent. Thanks, John. I see Mike also has videos on "Audiosnap Tempo Mapping" and "Time and Tempo." Something that disappointed me was that Cakewalk really missed the target on detecting the tempo of the clip. It's just 8 downstrokes right on the beat, quarter notes. Heavily reverbed, though, so the transients aren't as sharp as in Mike's video. There are other tools, like Hornet SongKey.

I'm finally getting around to composing with musical samples and loops I've pulled myself from old records. I've used 3rd-party loops, and non-musical dialog samples in Cakewalk before, but this is my first crack at taking a couple of bars from an instrumental piece and looping them, adding other stuff, etc. I've tried reading what the Reference Guide has to say about Audio Snap and Groove Clips and still am not sure what Cakewalk tools to apply to this and how. I've even poked around them experimentally just to check them out, and couldn't make sense of the Audio Snap Palette thing with dragging the beat markers around and all that. It always looked like the ratio of prep work to work saved by using the tool was unfavorable and even then, I couldn't get it to extract anything close to an accurate tempo, I did better by hitting play and tapping my foot and counting. Since then, when I've wanted to put something together I've just continued to use Sound Forge to trim samples so that they loop rythmically and seamlessly, but if there are better ways to do it I'm up for checking them out. My first task is: I have some 2-bar samples from different parts of an old song (same song, so same tempo). The audio in them isn't rhythmically complicated, it's just 4 guitar chord strums per bar, strum strum strum strum on the beat. What I want to do is take those 2-bar sections and loop them and string them together, without changing their pitch. I want to keep them as close to the original tempo as possible, and I want them "on the grid" so I can add MIDI notes, beats, and even play live instruments. So these clips must be able to loop smoothly and the project tempo must match theirs. Using the tools in Cakewalk, what's the best way to go about this? I know how to do it by other means, but I want to try it the Cakewalk way.

Can anyone confirm whether successive purchases will get you your choice of the remaining freebies? The last deal was like that, I wound up with both Animate and Drumazon. I'll pop for another five buck Glitchmachine to get it and W.A. Fundamental Bass. I've been experiencing the discreet charms of W. A. Production's plug-ins.

I just want to keep the distinction between the two "sampler" paradigms, some people know the term applied to both types, some one or the other. Mixcraft also has as an integrated instrument a sampler that is the type where a sample is spread across multiple piano keys. The way they have them integrated is great, very simple, you can send audio to either of them from a clip on one of your tracks, from the media browser, from the loop constructor, or drag and drop from outside the program entirely. They have just enough tools to get their job done, you can reverse the sound, loop it, whatever, so they're not so complicated that they're intimidating, which is an issue I've had with TX16wx. It's so powerful and feature rich that I forget how to use it in between projects, so Speed Drum or Sitala for me.

From what I observe, the sampler market these days is split into two types: the phrase sampler/drum machine type where you drop in phrases and one shots and the type where you have sounds spread across the keyboard, using stretching and pitch shifting algorithms. The first type is usually played/programmed in a style where you trigger the individual sounds as separate elements, the second is used more like an organ, playing melodies and chords. In my memory, this developed as a result of there being two kinds of hardware that did this. Originally the Fairlight, Mirage, etc. were the second type, but could also of course do phrases and one shots mapped to individual notes. Then later, hardware phrase samplers like the MPC came along and became immensely popular in hip hop and EDM production, doing stutters and short loops. Ambient/downtempo people like me would be lost without being able to drop in those breathy phrases and dialog samples from movies, and phrase samplers are great for that. Yes, you can do it as clips in your DAW, but lots of people like to improvise it in real time. As we've been discussing "Cakewalk needs a sampler" in the forum, I've tried to emphasize this distinction, because some people (EDM/hip hop/rap producers) think of a "sampler" as the phrase sampler kind, and others (scoring/arrangers) think of a "sampler" as the other kind, with libraries of orchestral sounds and samples of classic synths. Since the styles of music where they are prominent can be so divergent, to the heavy users of each the "other" type may not even be on their radar, for the arranger types because Kontakt and Sampletank can be used as phrase samplers, so why bother with a dedicated one. For the EDM types, they might just use a loop for their string pads. The second type of sampler user are correct, IMO in the position that since Kontakt and Sampletank and Zampler and the like do it so well and are industry standards, Cakewalk doesn't need one of those. Their workflow is such that they don't really need to be integrated in the same way that phrase samplers are. For example, Mixcraft comes with both kinds of samplers, but the one I use the most is the phrase sampler. It's well integrated in that after you've made clips in a track, you can just drag and drop them onto a sampler pad, or right click and choose "send to sampler." That's huge, not having to go to the step of rendering them to audio first. Speeds up the workflow immensely. Their loop construction module also has buttons and right-click menus so that after you've got your warp slices, you can select them and send them straight to the phrase sampler. The phrase sampler has facilities for reversing, looping or one-shotting or choking on retrigger, trimming, stretching, changing pitch, applying filters, amplitude envelopes, etc. The integrated type also use fewer system resources, because they play clips in the same way they are played in a track. They don't have to be loaded into memory separately. Although they do have the ability to drag and drop external audio files. tl/dr: I think it's important when advocating for this feature to use the term "phrase sampler" to avoid confusion between the types.

Thanks for checking in and telling us about this, @Scott Wheeler. The developers will be alerted, and unless they've already started work on their own sampler, I can't imagine that they wouldn't be interested in talking with you on your API. As with ARA (which Cakewalk has always been toward the front of the herd with), the more companies that buy into these non-Steinberg standards and extensions the better. I'm very interested in what form the integration with REAPER has taken, so I guess in a few days I should download the latest builds of both Sitala and REAPER and check it out. For me, the minimum is dragging audio clips from Cakewalk tracks to the sampler's pads with no intermediate steps or conversions or leaving the app. If I could just do that, life would be so much simpler. If your API allows that, host applications transferring audio directly to Sitala, and it's something that others might start using, it would make for a happy land indeed.

Here's my review of MTurboCompLE: I snagged it the first day, no surprise, and I think that as long as one takes it on its own terms, being a plug-in with a dozen or so modules that are set up to sound like classic hardware compressors, but that don't look and feel or even sound exactly the same, it can be a useful tool. Vojtech, the proprietor of Meldaproduction, has a well-known disdain for the idea of chasing the sound of hardware from an imagined past when everything sounded better because the parts used to build it were imperfect. This is one of the things I find refreshing about the company, they're a good antidote to when I go to Plugin Alliance and see them asking hundreds of dollars for those myriad channel strip emulators. I use a bit of console emulation myself, but feel no need to track down the perfect emulation of some specific board. Nothing wrong with it, it's just not my interest. The classic compressor that I've long been trying to find a good inexpensive emulation of is the dbx 165. There was a guy calling himself de la mancha who put out a most excellent one, but it stayed at 32-bit when the programmer got into other things and folded the company. Vojtech tips his hand about how serious his efforts were to chase vintage verisimilitude with MTurboComp; the information box for the dbx-flavored one says: "We listened to the DBX-160 [sic] and then we forgot about it and came up with the DBMeld 160." Uh, well, okay, if I had paid the full licensing fee for an emulation of a compressor that the developers said they deliberately put out of their minds before designing the algorithm, I'd be a bit bemused by their marketing efforts. So don't expect to be fooled by the emulation. If you think of it in terms of tribute bands, MTurboCompLE is more like one of those outfits that have their own take on the band being tributed, like Koi Division, Dread Zeppelin, or Nudist Priest than it is one of the ones that tries to deliver as close a set to the original band as they can. It's not a good compressor for learning how compression works and what the usual parameters do due to the idiosyncratic labeling and workflow. IMO, the best one for that is their MCompressor, which combines straight-up Attack and Release (in mS), Ratio (expressed as a number followed by a semicolon and a "1"), Threshold (dB) and Gain (dB again) with a very informative graphical display that shows how the compressor is set and what it is doing to the signal. Oddly, some of the models of compressor in MTurboCompLE have their controls labeled in mS and dB and ratio, so it's not impossible. The developer says that he didn't do it because those numbers don't really mean what they say on other compressors. I say, fine, who cares, then, why not just let us use them anyway? It's not like it hurts anyone to believe that we're actually dialing in microseconds and precise ratios. The important thing is that we already know what to expect from "10mS" attack and "8:1" ratio. Percent is fine for Dry/Wet controls. There is already a convention for "meanlingless place markers," which is labeling 1-10 or higher, with no units. In order to really "get" this compressor, I think it's necessary to read the manual, but don't worry, if you're familiar with Meldaproduction documentation, you won't be surprised to learn that the description and information specific to use of MTurboComp fits comfortably on a single page while the other 150 pages (I am in no way exaggerating or stretching the truth, really I wish I were) are generic boilerplate that describes features common to most Meldaproduction plug-ins, like modulators and multiparameters. There's not even the slightest description of what a compressor does. There is no mention of the Ratio control, and Threshold is only mentioned in passing to distinguish MTurboComp from other compressors, ones that don't have the Mighty Compression Knob. I've complained in the friendliest way about the Meldaproduction product manuals in the past. Their ad copy boasts about how their products are the MOST advanced, forward-thinking tools for modern music production, yet the comprehensive instructions on how to use all this power to, y'know, make music, seem to be missing. Go to their site and try to figure out what MSpectralDelay does from reading the ad copy or manual. I know what it does on my system because they gave me a license as a loyalty award. It makes things sound weird in a warpy, filtery, repeaty way, like one of Glitchmachines' delays. This happens to be useful to me in my endeavours, but if there's something else it can do besides scroll presets hoping to happen upon the perfect "glurtch" it's lost on me. MFreeform Phase? No idea. It's not a "phaser," at least. MFreqShifter? MSpectralPan? MWaveShaper? I don't know what they're supposed to do and the documentation is no help. Trial and error. Another thing that distinguishes this product from other compressor plug-ins and some hardware units is that nowhere are we given access to knee shape or RMS time. With MTurboComp, we do get precise bar graphs for input, output, LU, and gain reduction as well as a very detailed animated histogram (also common to all of their processors) that can be configured to plot all of these things and more. Pls. see pps. 2-151 of manual. I'm sure there's a description of setting it up somewhere in there. To extrapolate from the crumbs offered by the manual, MTurboCompLE for the most part seems (I'm guessing, there is no canonical way to actually know) to combine Ratio and Threshold controls into one bigger knob called "Compression," and the idea is you put this thing on your track or bus, pick a compressor model and if the stock settings need to be tweaked, you hit the attack and release controls, but stay away from ratio and threshold and instead use the big "Compression" knob. You can watch the meter to see how much gain reduction you're getting. On some of them you can get at the ratio and threshold, but they're labeled as a percentage, but a percentage of what, they don't say. How do I dial in a 4:1 compression ratio? No idea. Do I need a calculator? 5mS attack, 150mS release? Nope, no help. The really cool feature is that MTurboCompLE's Compression knob sort of has MCompare built into it, so while you're dialing more compression, the plug-in is calculating the makeup gain based on loudness. This eliminates having to fiddle with makeup gain manually, and keeps you out of the perceptual sandtrap of louder usually sounding better. It is so humbling once one tries out something like MCompare or GainMatch and realizes that one's skills at improving a track via the psychoacoustic magic of compression too often may have amounted to being over generous with the makeup gain knob. One need not disclose how one knows about this, but one does know about it. This does seem to be a processor oriented toward "using your ears," and I mean that in a positive way. With the gain compensation built in, I think it will allow me to focus more on what effect the Mighty Compression Knob is having rather than fussing with milliseconds and ratios. If I want I can shuffle through 14 different compressor types in a minute, turning the knob back and forth, and choose whatever sounds best. That's how I hope to use this thing. 14 quickie compression solutions that resemble classic hardware units. Fun fun. Another unexpected treat is the inclusion of a 4-band multiband compressor that is said to be based on the 1176. Unfortunately it has no metering beyond the aforementioned bar graphs and histogram, which would make dialing in individual bands kinda fussy. I think part of the issue that some people seem to have with MTurboCompLE is that we've come to expect something different from the company, which is very painstaking signal processing coding wizardry and endless control and configurability. They didn't seem to be overly concerned with precisely emulating the units they say they're trying to emulate; we're mostly supposed to set them up with one knob, and the more granular controls aren't even labeled in the standard way. Those things don't seem very "Meldaproduction" to me. I was expecting to see a dbx with "the industry's most stunningly advanced accurate emulation of the old hardware VCA" and then, if anything, even more control over each compressor parameter. That's not what this is. I guess the non-LE version allows you to assemble your own compressors out of parts of the other modules, but that isn't really the point of good hardware emulation. Nice, but not what vintage emulation is primarily about. This is a Meldaproduction compressor made to sound like vintage hardware, not a vintage hardware emulation with Meldaproduction features included. Hard to beat the price, and, oh, I tried the dbx on my guitar track and it sounds killer, and actually quite dbx-y. -Erik "Starship Krupa" Miller

Who among us has not spent minutes tweaking a compressor plug-in's settings, getting it juuuuust right, and then noticed the thing was bypassed the whole time? Anyway, when I mix, I use my brain, my eyes, and my ears. My brain knows what has worked in the past and we start there. If it sounds like it could use some adjustment, then we make some adjustments. It's like cooking to taste, you start out with roughly the same ingredients and proportions of them that you've had success with in the past and then start adjusting the flavor. To my mind, this is like a cookbook saying "add 2% paprika" instead of "add one tablespoon of paprika." It's not a standard way of measuring that parameter. Especially with a dozen modeled vintage compressors, if I'm turning the knobs and something unexpected is happening, or it sounds like poo, how do I know whether I just don't like that compressor, or it's not the appropriate one for the job, or I'm not setting it up correctly because I can't figure out how to set a 5mS attack, 100mS release, and 4:1 ratio? I call myself a Meldamoonie, I really like my Meldaproduction FX and utilities, but this is kinda chafing me. Doing it "the Meldaproduction way" is fine to an extent, once you get past the FreeFXBundle they're mostly not for beginners. But why put in a needless obstacle to understanding how it works? No doubt it's a fine plug-in, but the learning curve for the advanced Meldaproduction products is steep enough already. I'll take this to the Meldaproduction forum instead of moaning here....

To my dismay, @Brian Walton, the weird "attack and release expressed in %" is actually the case in many of the models. I can't fathom why he would do this. As someone who sometimes likes to set my release time to a division of the tempo of a song, this is especially bothersome. I think I can work with ratio as a percentage, but what a MCompLEteHeadache. I'm a "set my initial parameters to numbers that usually work for this kind of material then tune it from there" kinda guy, not a "mix completely subjectively with my 60-year-old ears and have friends politely tell me that the cymbals are razor blades" kinda guy, so I just want mS, please. These are supposed to model classic compressors but give the user greater control, why reinvent the wheel on the control labeling? Try before you buy on this one to see if you can deal with it.