Starship Krupa

I just wanted to say ? to being able to get one's DAW on without having to lug around a monitor and pointing device like most of us schlubs. Heck, I even have to have one of those gamers' keyboards that lights up 'cause I don't trust my touch typing.

I click on the "+" sign in an FX rack and decide once I see the list that I would rather have it sorted by Category than Manufacturer. So I move my cursor up and to the right to select Plug-In Layouts, then Sort by Category. The the friggin' menu closes and I have to open it again to actually insert the plug-in I can now choose via Category. Why does it close, when (I would assume) the whole reason for opening that menu is to insert a plug-in? I don't open it just to change the sort method. Ever. Never ever. I propose that the menu should stay open to allow me to complete the task I opened the menu to perform. (This happens quite often for me because I am a plug-in 'ho and install new ones all the time, which end up in Uncategorized, or in non-specific-enough automatically assigned categories like "Dynamics," which is supposed to be where I look for compressors, gates, limiters....)

I finally got around to exploring W.A. Production's KSHMR Essentials Kick and I must say that I am impressed with what I'm able to do with it. I'm usually not one for all-in-one mix FX at this stage of my development because I'm still learning how to get those sounds via individual plug-ins. But it's a plain fact, my processing ends up being a pretty standard chain in a standard order, and what these gizmos usually are is someone's taking EQ, compression, maybe a bit of transient shaping and widening, and putting them in one package. Often, some of the presets sound too "hyped" for my taste, as in, initially wowzers, but revisit the mix in a week and wondering why I thought so much low end on my kick drum (or sparkle on my vocal) was a good idea. However, the good presets can give me a target for my own education: can I get it to sound even more to my liking using individual meat-and-p'taters EQ, compression, transient shaping, delay, and mid-side FX? Once I was able to "beat" the Ozone Elements mastering assistant, it felt like a real achievement! Anyway, I put KSHMR Essentials Kick directly on an instance of SONIVOX Blue Jay Drums and walked away from it for a week, and just came back and dang that is some slammin' phat body drums. I decided to try my beat scrolling through all the drum kits in Xpand!2, and it really brought them to life (along with a spoonful of Phoenix Reverb). Just 'cause it says "Kick," don't hesitate to try it on a stereo out drum machine or even a full drum bus. W.A. has three free plug-ins for the downloading. Last time I tried, downloading one of their free plug-ins also qualified me for their montly freebie, usually a (quite good) sample/template/MIDI loop package, but sometimes one of their quite worthy payware plug-ins.

You can also use a loudness matching plug-in such as GainMatch, which I use and can endorse. There's also HoRNet's TheNormalizer. Either may be had for $9. They both work by being inserted on multiple channels. The way they work is that you choose the first track you wish to use as the source, then the other instances will follow it. Also, if you have that many tracks of the same instrument, check into iZotope Visual Mixer. It's free, and I've found it to be quite the thing for panning multiple vocal tracks.

Mark, since you are the nanoKONTROL wizard, I hope you can answer this. I have a nanoKONTROL 2, which is mostly relegated to "start and stop recording when I'm at the drum kit" duty, and sometimes when I want to close my eyes and work a fader. I'd like to be able to control plug-ins with the knobby-slidery bits while still being able to control the transport with the buttony-arrowy bits. Is there a way to do this, and if so, how? I'm willing to manually map controls for individual plug-ins rather than using a learn mode. It's only a handful of plug-ins I want to do this with.

Ohh, my bad, that’s what I get for watching the Grand Prix on the other monitor. I had it in the other direction. ? Yes, that’s silly.

Hmm. Works a treat on my system, but then I have a registered Melodyne Essentials. Do you? I found this functionality via a mouse slip. Imagine my astonishment.?

This is true, but there's an assumption that the people who develop Cakewalk are concerned about "market share" or getting people to switch DAW's as the payware developers are. What if the focus is on making Cakewalk better for the people who use it, whether new users or veterans? People would like to have this workflow available. That's all there needs to be.

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.