Starship Krupa

1. The developers at BandLab continue to take steps to integrate Cakewalk and the other BandLab DAW's. It is possible to start projects in one and transfer them to the other and back and forth, but so far only as audio stems. Plug-ins and automation do not transfer. 2. Not sure what you mean by this. Keep project files on a network folder and launch them in Cakewalk? Cakewalk needs to stream audio files directly from the drive, so network latency would preclude this, if that is what you mean. If you mean keeping a single installation on a network server, I believe that Cakewalk must validate to each local system via BandLab Assistant, and again, loading plug-ins and loops and so forth might be slow over a school network. 3. If you post the specification range of your "fairly old machines," we can answer this question. RAM, processor, processor speed, hard disk type and RPM are most critical. A feature that makes Cakewalk especially suited to the educational environment is Lenses. They allow you to select what elements are visible/available to the user. They can be used to hide more advanced features that would be confusing or superfluous to your coursework. So for instance, if you don't want to see the Inspector, you can hide that, or the Matrix, or many other features that might be distracting. They can be hard to get your head around at first, but quite powerful once you grasp the concept.

Be sure to try the different instruments that are available via the browser in SI-String Section. Some of them may have the extended range that you need. I don't know what version you have, but CbB is actually less resource-hungry than the last version of Splonar. If you post the hardware specifications of your DAW computer (as I have done in my signature), we can tell you whether it's up to the task of what you are trying to do. OS, processor, processor speed, RAM, what kind of hard drive (spinny, SSD, if spinny, what RPM). As for being able to use the plug-ins that came with whatever version of SONAR you own, AFAIK the best way to do that is reportedly to install the newest version of SONAR you have a license for with all the trimmings, then install CbB. At that point, you'll have the best of both worlds, the stability and features of CbB and the bundled software and content of SONAR. Congratulations on your first composition! Next bit of fun is learning how to mix, which I also love and see as a creative process in itself. There are so many resources available these days, here in this forum and on the web, YouTube, etc.

I think you're in for a treat when you sit down with Xpand!2. TTS-1 ain't a bad entry in the "GM player that comes with my DAW" sweepstakes. Xpand!2 will do everything that TTS-1 does and a whole lot more. My only complaint is that my cursor keeps slipping off the preset menu when I'm browsing presets.

You may have covered this already, but I had a bear of a time getting Drum Maps to work, understanding them, figuring out where the commands were to add them to a project, get them to show up in the Piano Roll, etc. My batting average for having it work the first time was ZERO for 6 months. Something always went wrong. I'd bat it all around and think I had it ready to go and then....no sound, or no drum pane, or whatever, and I'd have to go back and fix something. And sometimes I'd have to start over completely. Finally I found the time to sit down with a blank project and the Reference Guide and drill over and over and ask questions on the forum and tried and failed until I finally understood what was going on and how to add them to a project and assign them. My hope is that someday we will be able to set up and assign Drum Maps entirely from the Piano Roll View, but for now, we set them up from the Console or Track View. Those savvy with Track Templates can skip all that hassle, but why is it such a hassle? Anyway, Drum Maps For The Uninitiated would be most welcome, and if it also included a how-to on getting the drum note names to appear on the notes in the PRV, that would be splendid.

AIR's Xpand!2 wins this category by a mile. 2500+ sounds, and it's usually available at Pluginboutique for $14.99, sometimes less if you look around. As far as which sounds get replaced, as with most such instruments, piano and orchestrals will usually get replaced by larger, slower to load instruments down the line. Basses, ambient pads, organs, drum machines, synths, percussion and so forth can hold their own and often stay in the mix.

Worst case scenario: Bandlab announces that they will immediately cease development of Cakewalk and shut down all support of it including the validation server. Everything dark, everything offline, bye-bye. Noel and company are forbidden to release a last build with offline registration. Why I am not troubled about this highly unlikely scenario, off the top of my head: It gives everyone 6 months of CbB working just as it always has, to finish things up, export what they need to export, whatever. And the only crippling in Demo mode as I understand it is that it won't save projects, but it can still export. It also gives a clever anonymous 3rd-party who wishes to try 6 months to come up with their own "mechanism" to get Cakewalk out of demo mode that doesn't require BandLab Assistant contacting the validation server. There's also the most obvious fallback: setting the realtime clock on your DAW computer to fool CbB that it hasn't been 6 months since it last talked to the validation server. So I'm not losing any sleep. BandLab have so far shown no tendency toward treating their customers poorly, quite the opposite as a matter of fact. They have far exceeded expectations. I think it reasonable to believe that if they needed to discontinue Cakewalk as a product that they would do the right thing and create a last version that did not require the BandLab Assistant to validate it.

AARRGH! I hate when this happens. This thread is on page 2 already and none of us has mentioned the obvious. There is of course the IMO pretty darn good sounding Cakewalk SI-String Section that you can download for free with the BandLab Assistant. It has dozens of sampled string sections, both acoustic and synth. Some of the "synth" samples are kind of Mellotronesque if you like that sort of thing, and I do. And as a matter of fact, although I still prefer my Orchestral Companion Strings for versimilitude, if I had already had the SI-String Section I wouldn't have been looking for something else and would probably just now be buying up the Orchestral Companions for $3.99. BTW, @coffincoffee, if what you're starting with is Cakewalk by BandLab, how is it that you also have TruePiano? I thought that was a Splonar goodie?

I use that up and down bow bowing all the time time, just like Sister Ray said. ?

"Cello Sustain Up Bow" is misnamed? Wouldn't surprise me with SONiVOX. It sounds solo-y to me, but I'm not an expert. Most of them are multiples, which is what I usually want anyway. I believe the gentleman requested embiggening? That's a way to get it. Whatever, it's worth 4 bucks, innit?

Pluginboutique currently has SONiVOX' Orchestral Companion Strings, Woodwinds, and Brass each for $3.99. Get the strings at least, and the woodwinds and brass if you want to also use those. All of them have solo and ensemble samples.

You should know that InfoWorld didn't start out as the buzzword-crammed manager's delight that it became in the '90's. When it started in 1978 it was much more of a hippie futurist tabloid. It retained some of that heritage for the first 5 years of its existence. It used to be sold in health food stores. Then it was sold to a larger publishing company and that was all over. My friend Michael Swaine, one of the founding editors of InfoWorld, left to take the helm of Dr. Dobbs soon after. He unwittingly became the lyricist for my most recent song, "Half An Hour Ago...." when I set a Facebook update of his to music.

Because someone a box or two above Zombie Safe in the org chart read an exciting article in InfoWorld about how that was the wave of the future and everyone would be left behind if they didn't start doing it. ?‍♀️ One IT department I worked in back in the '90's, I swear, we fantasized about intercepting our boss' copies of InfoWorld and tossing them in the dumpster before he could read the articles and get any "great ideas." Good lord, do Vice Presidents of IT go through conditioning to have the truism "if it ain't broke don't fix it" removed from their memory?

May I ask which one? I've been a user of PCB layout software off and on for 35 years (PCAD, Eagle). The first program I used ran on an XT with a color card. That's not the case, though, with Vojtech's users. They're not all employees of companies who pay for the computers they use to accomplish a single task. And maybe they're using cross-platform DAW's, but maybe a lot of them are using Logic Pro, which is pretty popular. To look at it from my side, my DAW system is also used for video editing in Vegas Pro, editing and mastering in Sound Forge. It's my main desktop computer. I watch Netflix on it. The computer itself was a hand-me-down. To switch to another OS would mean dumping Vegas and Sound Forge. Kiss those licenses goodbye? If I were a Mac daddy (and I do own an iMac), I would probably be using Final Cut instead of Vegas Pro. So switching OS platforms would mean at least switching video NLE's, and maybe DAW's. More money for licensing, learning a completely new DAW and NLE, which I don't want to do. And the fact is, for whatever we think of it, Apple users do have that emotional connection to their Apple stuff. Apple hires people who labor over it to make it look and feel slick and cool and attractive and hip. We might think that's silly and that what matters is what work you can get done with the device, but from a business standpoint, it's counterproductive to antagonize those users. They're not going to "snap out of it." Not any more than people who like mass-produced pop music are going to stop liking it because of those "why modern music sucks" YouTube videos. I'm not saying I disagree with him. Actually I agree, I'm kind of horrified that Apple would be so stupid and abusive to their developer and user base. I've usually been of the opinion that I really like their products and detest how they treat their users and developers. This seems like a new low, and it hits a group that has stayed loyal to Apple over the decades, even at their nadir during the early '90's. A/V production never abandoned Apple. Now Apple is needlessly messing with them/us. I'm saying that my man Vojtech shouldn't take it out on his user base in public like this. It's mean and bad for business.

Your frustration is unfortunate, but the company you bought the program from went out of business a year ago. There is good news, though. BandLab bought some of their assets and as a courtesy are providing support for SONAR owners in the form of license retrieval. They have also continued to develop the code for SONAR into a superior program called Cakewalk by BandLab, which you can and should download for free now that you have a BandLab account. It will use all of the extra plug-ins that came with SONAR Platinum and not interfere with your installation of SONAR. It has a lot of features that SONAR didn't and runs better. It is not "really, really poor," you and other SONAR licensees are really, really lucky that BandLab are doing what they are doing. Without them your license would be useless and there would be no more development of the program. Get Cakewalk and don't worry about SONAR. You'll be psyched at what they've done with it.

Well, I'm curious about why using the onboard sound caused such a thing. I'm presuming that CbB grabbed either the HD chip or HDMI in the absence of his external interface. I'm using the HD chip right now on my notebook and it's working fine in WASAPI mode. It's an antique compared to Jason's. Dell i5 Latitude. It processes mouse clicks just fine.

For anyone interested, I can say that DB-33 is the Hammond B3 emulation I settled on after much testing, Hybrid 3 is a great synth for electronic dance/ambient sounds, and Vacuum Pro is my go-to for more traditional subtractive basses and pads. The rest I haven't tried. None of them has ever crashed or exhibited any bug on my setup. When I first got back into recording, I tried out a million of everything with the idea that I would pare it down to a smaller collection I could focus on, and all of the AIR stuff has made the cut. The big complaint I've seen from the AIR user community is that development seems to have halted, but in my view, these are musical instruments. They already sound great and I could choose either of the synths and spend a month just learning how to program it. It would be nice if the GUI's scaled. Of course I have to ask, Fleer, why are you dumping your AIEP3 bundle?

I think I got Xpand!2 half a dozen years ago for $1 or less and it's been a workhorse ever since. Got another license for it so that I can have it on all 4 computers in my possession. For sheer number and quality of standard sounds in a resource-friendly wallet-friendly package, nothing can touch it.

This is an oldie. Cakewalk disrespected due to not being listed on some plug-in house's official compatibility list. Here's a list of other programs that I guess aren't "relevant in the market" by that standard: Samplitude, Sequoia, Vegas, Mixcraft, MuLab, Pyramix, Cantabile, Digital Performer, ACID Pro, Mixbus, Waveform, Band-In-A-Box, Goldwave, n-Track Studio, and DaVinci Resolve, to name a few you may have heard of, and there are probably many more less prominent ones. Keep in mind that nobody at iZotope has any more access to CbB download and use numbers than you or I. All they have to go on, probably, is survey data from their dealers and their website. Also keep in mind that like it or not, CbB, as freeware, will be attracting people with little money to spend, at least at first. That iZotope list means that iZotope thinks that people who run those programs are the best investment in terms of rigorous testing in their in-house and beta compatibility programs. Every last little feature will work. And about that, haven't we just seen some work done to CbB in the area of VST preset saving? Issues that had been present for what I understand was a long time? What if iZotope noticed that there were issues in that area that Cakewalk needed to fix and weren't fixing? Whatever, if you go around examining the details of other companies' marketing specs looking for signs that Cakewalk is in danger, you'll probably eventually find some if you look hard enough, so it's probably best not to. ?

Receiving that email tainted my admiration for Vojtech and his products. All of us have probably been around long enough to remember when it was development for Windows that was the grudging afterthought for cross-platform A/V software companies. It was no fun being on the other side with the lagging releases and bug fixes and documentation that said to hit "Command" this and that. I say that if you are going to develop for whatever platform, either suck it up and deliver excellence or have the grace to do what Cakewalk Inc. did and admit that you don't really want to be MacOS developers. Sending out an email like this suggests to the user base (which is something that Meldaproduction relies on more than other companies of their type) that you're playing favorites. I've seen speculation on the user forum about future commitment, and that's no good. Microsoft's most recent major release of Windows 10 made my audio drop out and crackle, just like it did with a lot of users'. The truth is if we use Windows 10 or OSX we are all at the mercy of Apple and Microsoft. Suggesting to your customers that they change platform because one of the companies just pulled a jerk move on developers seems petty to me.

My saturation secret weapon I tend to forget even exists. It can be had for free and hides in plain sight in Meldaproduction's MEQualizer. Dry/Wet, Output, and Saturation are the controls other than the EQ-related ones. I suspect that they include the same algorithm with their other EQ plug-ins, but you can get MEQualizer for free in the Free Bundle. Of course if you don't already have the Meldaproduction Free Bundle, there are many other treats within.

I'm no expert, but I like the sound of my SONiVOX Harpsichord better than any other I've tried, and like any other SONiVOX Single, it may be had for very little money if one is willing to hunt and lay in wait. Reverb has had some great deals on SONiVOX Singles since they started carrying software licenses.

Reafir is part of the free Reaplugs bundle, and I found it quite effective it is once I got the hang of it. It's a little bit tricky at first to get the analysis profile, but just follow the instructions, and if you don't get a good one, try again. I've not used it on ambient noise like wind, but I've used it on buzz, hum, and hiss from microphones and it got them dead quiet without molesting the program material.

I have no wisdom to impart here, but I have been reading this and wondering about Mix Recall. My impulse would be to split the set into project-per-song just because it seems so unwieldy the other way, and I am wondering if one did it that way if Mic Recall can be used across projects. The idea being that yes, there should be an overall consistent sound, but individual songs may need different EQ, compression, transient shaping, etc. The players may switch instruments and so forth. So set up a mix with the most representative song, then use Mix Recall to apply it to the rest of the song/projects, with whatever tweaking is necessary. Is this doable?

I hope that non-destructive normalization comes along someday. I'm of the opinion that as few operations as possible in a DAW should be destructive. That's what freezing is for. Along those lines, I'd also like to see Undo cover everything, including console adjustments like faders, pan, muting, etc. I've slipped with the cursor during a mix and was dismayed to find that my unwanted knob adjustment wasn't in the Undo list.

filo, that's a great deal. Anyone who picks up Xpand!2 for that price (or even the $14.99 price) will be amazed at the sheer number and quality of sounds. I think the list is 2500 or so and don't know if I've made it all the way through auditioning them. Now that would be a nice thing for synth plug-in manufacturers to supply, a file that contains short auditions of each factory preset so that we don't have to go through the process of increment/noodle/increment/noodle to find our favorite sounds.