Starship Krupa

I love the Aim Assist Line, in the absence of marker tails/vertical rulers, it is one of the tools I always have switched on to help me line things up, see where my clicks are going to land when I have snap enabled. My enhancement request is for the position readout part of it, and the most basic enhancement would just be the ability to turn it off. I wouldn't mind it, might even find it useful if it didn't obscure the timeline ruler numbers, thereby rendering it worse than useless to me by making it so that I can never be sure exactly where the Aim Assist Line really is. Because the numbers in the Aim Assist Line readout are so tiny, and their size fixed, I have never been able to read them very well, especially when they are crowded in amongst other ruler elements. Because the numbers go all the way out to the very last tiniest measurement, the digits cover up the digits on the timeline ruler that I would normally rely on. So what I wind up with is "indecipherable blob obscuring my timeline ruler numbers." Even when I tried adding rulers to try to get the thing into clear air, it just popped up yet another display, right on top of the other rulers' digits. I've tried different colors, but as long as the line is legible in the Track view, the readout will obscure my ruler digits. It might be nice to be able to change the size of its numbers, but what I really want is the ability to make it stop, go away, leave me in peace. Either that or let me position it above the digits, in that grey empty space where only the playhead ever goes. Its numbers, if allowed to float up there in uncluttered space, might become legible to me.

(I have a feeling I may not be the first ever to request/suggest this, but here goes) I would find it very useful if color were one of the Marker properties we could edit. As in this screencap from another editor: Notice I have one color of marker for the start of an event and another for the end of it. Where this is especially useful is when defining the classic sections of a song, Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Solo, etc. When I have used this feature in other DAW's, I use a color each to indicate these sections. Makes it easier to spot which marker does what. Make all your tempo change markers one color, etc. I find the ease with which track and strip colors may be set to be a big help in sorting out what's what in Cakewalk, and being able to do something similar with Markers would be great.

I've been doing my first heavy-duty comping with Cakewalk, trying to learn as much as I can about the tools and behaviors, and I ran across something that I've used when comping in the other DAW's and NLE's that Cakewalk just doesn't have, which is a way to set vertical guides (or rulers). In most the other programs I've used, these were part of markers. Every marker you set has a "tail" that runs all the way from the timeline ruler at the top to the bottom of the last visible track. Observe: This allows the user to visually align various objects and events. A marker (or ruler as they are sometimes called) such as this may be placed off-grid, so that for instance, if one has audio events that do no line up to the global grid they may turn off snap-to-grid, set a marker by ear, then turn snap back on and still have this line to use for lining things up to. In the capture I'm using above, I have an off-grid automation node, which could line up to a syllable in the vocal or some other audio event. To make this happen, Cakewalk's current marker system would be enhanced to have these "tails" that could be switched on or off, or there could be another type of marker in addition to the ones we have now. I like the former option, because it would make for less timeline ruler clutter and merely be an enhancement to an existing feature rather than a whole new thing to get used to. In use, it eliminates a lot of zooming in to examine and place events (and zooming back out), as well as a certain amount of turning snap off and on, depending on implementation. It also provides more visual indication of sections of a song, or whatever else one uses markers for.

That must mean that you sometimes use Overwrite mode. I have been trying for a long time to find someone who uses that mode so that I can ask them (you) some questions. A large part of my confusion about the mode comes from trying to figure out recording modes from the Documentation page, which is vague and contradictory on the subject. Even with the Reference Guide, which is much better, I still can't quite figure out how it's supposed to work and why I would want to use it instead of Comping mode. I can't figure out if it's supposed to be a destructive mode or what. When I experimented with it on audio, I think it created full WAV files just like the other modes, but deleted some previous clips using rules that I couldn't figure out. Is that the way it's supposed to work (I don't mean the not being able to figure out the rules part, obviously)? If that's how it's supposed to work, I guess I would want to use it in cases where I want to record new information but don't want to have to delete the old clips before I start? Or where I know ahead of time that the last take is going to be the keeper and don't want to have to delete the previous takes? It just seems like a big and dangerous thing to have around just to avoid having to select and delete some clips. If it is destructive, and deletes and crops the WAV file after the recording is done, again, seems dangerous just to save what is now very cheap disk space. There was once when I was testing it and some very strange behavior happened, but I think that was a bug, not a feature. There are probably other reasons for using it that I just don't see, or maybe I don't understand how it's supposed to work, so if you can fill me in, please do. I want to make full use of the program. Every other time I've brought it up, if people even answer at all it's to say that they never use the mode.

The Roland Virtual Sound Canvas appears to be a current product. So, no need for BandLab to offer it, unless by "offer" you mean "include for free with Cakewalk." If we're talking 3rd-party programs we'd like BandLab to put into the Cakewalk package, I have a list of those. Since PluginBoutique seems to put most of the AIR stuff on sale for next to nothing, maybe they could license some of their stuff, although there may be pre-existing agreements that would preclude it. XPand!2 and Hybrid would beef up the package for starters.

How about that, eh? Different colored markers would make those verses and choruses and all easier to see at a glance. And really, if you've not used markers with tails or rulers in an NLE, they really do come in handy. I will prepare a feature request, cross my fingers, and make do with the tools I have available in Cakewalk.

Indeed you can. That's the Grid, and yes, without it, there would be no hope at all. It's static, like an overlay of graph paper. What I'm talking about is a single (or multiple) vertical line that the user can place along the timeline to mark a place where they want to line up multiple events. And it would be persistent, yet deletable or movable, for each project. Almost exactly like the Markers in Cakewalk, but with a line that extends all the way down the Track space so that the user can just pop over to it and drag things up to it, put automation nodes on it, etc. Here's a cap of what I mean in another program. I have grid snap off because the event is not on the grid, I placed the marker by listening to the song and hitting a key. But since I have this nice line, I can set an automation node right smack where I want it. Or I could drag a clip with a musical cue right up to it or whatever.

At Parts Express. If these are similar to the Sondelux cans they closely resemble, aka the Samson SR850, they sound amazing for the price. They're my main mixing and listening cans these days. My Samsons have cloth earpad covers, where I see in the photo that the Talents appear to have textured vinyl, which may account for the difference in standard price. I only just now noticed it, so I hope the sale is good until midnight at least. I'm tempted to buy a pair just as backups, even with the $6.95 shipping fee, you can probably also find an item or two at deep discount on their site to help spread the shipping fee out. Wow, I just spotted the PreSonus HD7's, which look even closer to these than my Samsons, down to the details on the earcup vents.

Or something like this. Your very own keytar for under $20! I actually own one, got it at Salvation Army for $9. Nice velocity sensitive keybed with a ribbon controller on the "neck." The SONAR by Cakewalk is dead, long live the Cakewalk by BandLab. BTW, was it part of the Focusrite contest that people had to register for the forum and make at least one post? Because I'm seeing a lot of "one post wonders" lately.

Hmm, I've seen the thing where Track Folders won't open or close, but it was only on one project, so I wrote it off as a glitch. I also experienced stuff like Take Lanes not expanding along with it. Then I'd click around until I found the magic button that would jar the whole deal back into whack. That was usually expanding a collapsed Track or Folder or similar. Then "poof," working fine again for a while. It went away for good after I deleted a bunch of unused takes. Lenses you say? The global lens or the one for the track headers?

Yes, but not just clips, all sorts of things. Automation nodes, future edits, punch points, etc. All of them become so deliciously....alignable when there's a line I can stick there to align them to. If I were to create a motivational office poster about it, it would say "You Can't Say 'Alignment' Without 'A Line.'' Or something. Perhaps Cakewalk lacks such a feature. Gosh I hope not. Feature request time if it doesn't. This is what I had been trying during the aforementioned krakensturm. Between the time I posted and you answered, I figured out that it works much better if I have the Snap Intensity cranked all the way up to the far end of Extreme. It gave Aim Assist some biceps. The Ref. Guide (aka "revised standard version") refers to an "option called magnetic snap" (sic) that has strength settings low, medium, high, and off. Maybe it was like this in SONAR? In Cakewalk, this corresponds to Snap Intensity and has a variable setting from Light to Extreme. I couldn't find an "off," but Extreme seems to be the closest equivalent. Seems odd that "Extreme" is the new "Off." That dadgum Aim Assist line, though, some prankster put this rectangular readout on the thing right on top of the information I'm most interested in, which is what measure and musical subdivision my cursor is at. The readout apparently can't be suppressed, nor can its type size be increased to something my eyes can make out, and it insists on reading out whatever the Transport meter is set to all the way out to the last digit, so I can know exactly what "tick" my cursor is located near (were I able to read it of course). Since the Aim Assist wiggly blob sits right on top of the Time Ruler, it renders both of them useless, and I've always had to go by either the big display on the Transport module or the smaller one above the Track headers. I never knew there was a unit of musical subdivision known as a "tick" until I started using Cakewalk. To me, that's what you check roadies for before you let 'em on the bus (hey!).

As a veteran of other DAW's and video NLE's, I'm used to being able to align clips and other events to either the tails of markers (in programs where the markers are designed with tails that go all the way to the bottom of the track window) or to resettable vertical rulers. So far, I haven't been able to find either of these features in Cakewalk's documentation. The Now Time indicator and the Aim Assist Line are nice things, but have a couple of problems each, the first of which is that there's only one each of them, the second that they move, the Now Time indicator is used for other things (such as keeping track of the Now Time), and the Aim Assist Line's job is to flit to the nearest snap point and hover there like Tinkerbell as far as I can tell. Which is handy, but I find that there are other things that can distract the Aim Assist Line. Is there such a feature that with Cakewalk's richness and depth of features I have somehow missed? If, as I fear, not, how do the rest of you folks go about doing things like aligning the start edges of 4 clips that are buried in the 3rd Take Lanes in Tracks 20-23 with the finish edge of a clip in Track 5 and then two days later punching in a MIDI keyboard part at the same start point that will be recorded on Track 30? And then go in and automate a filter res open and close that peaks exactly at our aforementioned point of interest? With vertical rulers/marker tails, it's easy. You plop down a nice vertical line that comes in a choice of colors, then you line everything up to it. Without them, I am finding it to be like trying to thread a needle blindfolded. While on a sailboat in a gale. With a recently-unleashed kraken trying to steal the thread and needle.

Thanks for posting the answer you found, mdiemer. It's a good reminder to me to always check to see if a sample player or synth patch or whatever is using its own reverb so that I can decide whether to (usually) turn it off or leave it on. I almost always dial in reverb by using a single plug-in on a single send bus because I like the retro and gluing effect (and because I haven't learned how not to get my reverbs all piled up if I put them on individual tracks?). Built-in reverbs are usually not as good as the ones I have available in my VST folders and they clutter things up.

In every way except that, Cakewalk by BandLab blows its doors off, and I could get you most of the way to the functionality of the bundled stuff with freeware I know about, and even further if you give me $50-100 to play with and can wait a few weeks for things to come up on sale at Pluginboutique.

Hey, thanks! Now I'm wondering how my clips could have gotten partially muted without my having invoked the Mute tool. I suspect that it has something to do with me having been using the Smart Tool, which can morph into many different implements depending on what and where one is clicking. Maybe since some of my clips wound up on top of one another in the mayhem, maybe some muting was applied automatically? Is that something that happens?

I had some comping issues, stuff going on with grouped clips being dragged around by accident and somehow wound up with a few clips that have their audio muted for certain parts of them. I've tried messing with clip gain, but that didn't help. It seemed to come about due to dragging edges around, clips overlapping at some point, and happened while I was untangling the mess I had made by forgetting I had a whole bunch of grouped clips in my take lanes while I was editing. What is this and how do I undo it and just get it back to a normal bit of audio in a clip? Here's a link to a screencap of it on my Google Drive: Clip with a hollow center As you can see, the silent part of it shows a full waveform, but sort of with the center hollowed out. I couldn't find any reference to this condition and how to cure it in the online or reference manuals.

No, Cakewalk installs alongside Sonar Platinum and any plug-in that works with Sonar Platinum will work with Cakewalk. The way you do it is just keep your working installation of Sonar, install Cakewalk, which won't affect your Sonar installation, and then you can use either of them. And they'll both be fully-enabled with Session Drummer, Melodyne, every last 3rd-party and Cakewalk supplied plug-in. Of course be prudent as you would with anything involving your working studio and wait until any time-sensitive projects are finished, just as you would with any major software install. Hundreds of people have made the upgrade with no trouble other than sometimes needing to go into Preferences and tell Cakewalk where the Sonar VST's are installed. If you run into any problems with Cakewalk, you will be running a program that is in active development with active tech support rather than one that has stopped development and has no support. (please, the sticky, the sticky, ease their confusion)

This. As a veteran of many live stage performances and shows, I definitely have rolloff, and it's never completely quiet, but I keep my ears "tuned" by having close listening sessions with favorite well-produced albums and songs. Later Radiohead is some very well-produced music with deep and wide soundstages, good instrument separation, etc. What others have said about the bass, can't add much except maybe to say if you have synths that are taking the roles of "bass" and "kick," let the kick take the lower end and carve those frequencies out of the bass track, assuming you still have access to the mix and aren't just mastering in Cakewalk. I always remember that I listened to top 40 radio through the speaker of a small transistor radio when I was a kid, and I could still hear all of the instruments on that 2" made in Japan driver. David Essex' "Rock On" sounds killer no matter what you play it on, and most of the song is Herbie Flowers' double-tracked bass. So perception of "bass" doesn't necessarily depend on hearing the booooom, although it should be present when played on a full-range system.

Why? Cakewalk by BandLab is better.

For anyone intrigued by the idea of getting 87+ plug-ins that you mostly can't get anywhere else and heaven knows how many loop and sample packages, I found a place selling the latest single issue for $3.99. https://pocketmags.com/us/computer-music-magazine Oh, and you also get to read the magazine, which, as pointed out earlier, is typically packed with enough interesting and useful information for a year's worth of bathroom breaks, train rides, waiting rooms, etc. This includes tutorials (with videos and downloadable audio files) on the plug-ins themselves. To quote Starsky and Hutch, "Do it."

Great-looking theme! The ProChannel elements especially look fantastic.

The non-destructive normalizing is BIG. I don't understand how normalizing got to be destructive in the first place. I'm used to everything being non-destructive. The adjustable selection is something I would use constantly if it were available. Audacity, Vegas, they are both a joy to use because of this feature. Makes editing go so much faster. In my mind, it would work similar to adjusting the Loop markers. Thank you Mariano.

They're not giving access to the oldies anymore? When I did it, there was a folder kind of tucked away labeled 32 that had some older ones, not all of them 32 bit. When I did it, I got access to all of the plug-ins and utilities that were custom made for CM. I didn't get access to things like Cakewalk Home Studio or Bitwig or whatever one-time giveaways came with only one single issue.

You can use Memorymoon and ME80 wherever you like, and as a matter of fact very few of the bundled plug-ins are locked to Mixcraft. I think the tonewheel organ clone is, but I don't care much for it anyway. AIR's DB-33 is a much superior alternative that may be had for $20 on sale. There is an antique version of Lounge Lizard Session that is also locked, but Dead Duck E-Piano whips its butt as well and is freeware. I have Pro Studio. I love Pianissimo, their grand piano, so just getting that is great, and the Studio Drums can be used in Cakewalk and elsewhere. Another of my favorites is the g-Sonique Psychedelic Tape Delay, which must be heard to be believed. The MIDI recording and editing may appeal to some compared to Cakewalk, and with MIDI it's easy to do work in one and transfer it over. Mixcraft is Rewireable, as far as I know.

Just buying a single digital issue of CM gets you an amazing cornucopia of plug-ins, loops, and articles for under $5. The lite version of Unfiltered Audio's G8 is excellent, so is the Meldaproduction CMHarmonizer, and the issue I bought was something like 3 years ago, so that's tons more content since then. And yes, if one were to try to read the articles from just one issue, it would take a year, the articles are great and would no doubt advance the way I approach recording and mixing if I'd ever get around to reading them.