Starship Krupa

Unfortunately, it appears that Beatmaker, the company who originally made it, has gone under, but ATMOS is my favorite ambient piano, and one of my favorite instruments for ambient music period. The link is to the page at VST4Free, which is still hosting the download. I haven't mentioned VST4Free because it's just a repository and as such doesn't vet the plug-ins it hosts, but it is a hugely valuable resource if you're willing to be adventurous and try out what's there. They will host downloads when a company goes under. The page for each plug-in also includes a place for users to review the plug-in, so you can get a good idea whether it's buggy or worth the time to try out. (Many of the plug-ins hosted at VST4Free are 32-bit. I only use these on a legacy basis, meaning that I don't acquire 32-bit plug-ins. I think I'm down to 3 of them that I use occasionally when nothing else will do the job. One of them is the de la mancha dlm sixtyfive, which is an emulation of the dbx 165a compressor that so far, nothing else I've heard can touch.)

What Bob Bone said is a clue: ACPI.SYS is part of what controls your processors to give your laptop longer battery life. Take it out of the picture and you get performance back. Me, I refuse to believe that there is no way to wrest control of the hardware away from the OS, although you may need the help of Google searches and maybe a 3rd-party utility. I have had good luck with Process Lasso. Rather than having it running all the time, I set it up to kill all the processes that I didn't want running while I'm doing DAW work, then start it before I do a Cakewalk (or whatever) session. The default view is to have its activity log visible, and I still remember this one session where it delivered a repetitive utter beatdown upon the poor Apple Mobile Device Service, which I had excluded. It kept trying to start up, but Process Lasso would have none of it. It went on, every 200mS for about 15 seconds, which is forever in computer time, until the Apple Mobile Device Service just stopped trying.

Yeah, MusicMan, I can't read your screen cap, but I assume from context that it's a folder with AAX plug-ins? I go further and hunt around for possible extra content that the installers may have left around, like convolution files, samples and whatnot. Meldaproduction, much as I love their products, is one for shoveling unnecessary content in with installs. And if you've installed the Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol stuff, be aware that you now have at least 3 software drivers running on your system that are useless if you don't also own one of Native Instruments' hardware controllers.

I just experienced "Cakewalk: The Vanishing" right after inserting an instrument track. Sequence of events: Save project (yay) Insert Instrument Track (simple) Boom, Cakewalk disappears from the screen with no crash, no dialog, no dump file, nothing.

Excellent! The telltale was where you were seeing MIDI activity in the system tray icon but nowhere else in Cakewalk.

Keni, this is a long shot, but I recently had the dreaded "MIDI can talk to everything but Cakewalk VSTi's" effect, and what it turned out to be was a rogue control surface entry. I looked at Preferences/MIDI/Control Surfaces, and for whatever reason, the input device was set to be my MIDI keyboard controller, and so Cakewalk was interpreting all of its keypresses as control surface movements. Once I set that device to be what it was supposed to be (my nanoKONTROL), all was well.

Yes, Gerry, please post the solution, and not just to satisfy our curiosity. There are lots more people who read this forum and don't post and plenty more who will have the same problem you did and search for a solution via Google. It lets the forum serve as a database of issues and solutions.

This. Same with plug-ins that I have authorized via PACE/iLok. I had one experience similar to the OP's, but the next one was careful to just deauthorize or move all my licenses to the cloud before rebuilding my DAW computer. This is critical, for anyone reading this thread, you must do this before changing your motherboard or system drive. I have moved my Waves licenses to a thumb drive so that I can take them anywhere or upgrade my system and not have to mess with anything and it works great. Then, once your DAW system is up and running, you move the licenses back to your hard drive if you want, as I said with Waves, I just leave them on the thumb drive.

At the moment, I would call it a "newly discovered color mapping." In other words, good find. If there is not already such a thing, I would love to have a Google Sheet or some kind of shared document where we could keep track of these correlations, maybe also map some of the terms into "friendlier" names. I spent hours trying to figure out which color parameter affected the text in the Custom Module before I found it in this forum. I'm new to this, both to themesmanship and to Cakewalk itself, but the Theme Editor looks like something that were originally designed to be used in-house but then made into a more end-user friendly tool. It's serendipitous discoveries like yours that led me to that suspicion. It makes better sense when you're designing an overall color scheme for a product that's going to be reviewed by an in-house team before being released to the public, and it explains the obscure naming.

I know why CD's are 44.1, and that's what I use, because I still go by the theory that if my audio files are recorded at 48 and I then mix down to a CD master, they will have to go through a downsample, which costs more in CPU and puts me at the mercy of the downsampling algorithm. My DAW computer has 8 virtual cores, runs at 3.2GHz and barely even notices when I render video. I've read that up and downsampling algorithms are now so sophisticated that this has no effect whatsoever if it even ever did, and who the heck even listens to CD's any more anyway. Yet I cling to my silly notions like an old lady throwing eggshells in her Krups coffee maker. I also do video projects, and when I do, I try to keep the whole thing at 48, because I am off my rocker, no, I mean, DVD's are at 48. I don't know why the standard for video became 48K. Anyway, the sensible answer is probably "it depends on what your eventual target master is." If you'll be making CD's, go ahead and record 44.1/24 and it will give the rendering engine one less thing to think about. If CD's are not a consideration, then it doesn't matter. As Mark (kind of) said, the rate is of no concern quality-wise. The "difference" could be measured in a lab. It's bit depth that we wallow in, that wonderful 24 bit dynamic range. If you really want to experiment with sound quality differences regarding rate, crank that puppy up to 88.2 or 96 and record some acoustic guitar or vocals and listen on a good set of headphones and see if you hear a difference. Some do, some don't.

No, it's a free license, like Cakewalk, I just had to give them the Yahoo email address I use to sign up for things like free software. I suggest that anyone who regularly takes advantage of free offers that require you to give up your email address create an account at Yahoo or GMail or Proton or wherever just for this purpose. And here's a security tip from someone who used to work in IT for a nationwide security company (me). If they make you create an account, don't use the same email, username and password you use for more sensitive activities. Not that the owners of the software companies will do anything nasty with the information, but we can't expect smaller companies to have the same protection against hacking that larger ones do. They just can't afford it. Wells Fargo's security dept. is probably larger than iZotope's entire company. I use a system that allows me to have a unique password at every site, but if you don't do that, you can at least split them up so you have a "banking password" and a "buying toys password." And/or use a different email address. Not trying to put the panic into y'all, just suggesting you maybe ease into doing this in future transactions if you aren't already.

Cakewalk has shown you how to "sacrifice a chicken" to your MIDI configuration to get it to work. From when I first started using CbB, I found out that every so often I will screw up my MIDI configuration in one way or another, usually in this way, where a MIDI input device will work fine with every other program but Cakewalk ignores it, with or without blinking indicator lights. Sometimes it happens when I get too curious and decide to click on one of those numerous mysterious pull-down menus that lurk on MIDI channel strips that usually won't open when you click on them but sometimes they do so I figure why not check every once in a while. Nothing I try will allow me to get MIDI information to flow until at some point, it just starts up again as if by magic. I'll exit the program, restart it, create a new project, add a new instrument track, delete it, add a different softsynth, delete it, delete a marker, turn looping on and off, whatever, and then it suddenly all starts working just as mysteriously as it stopped, and I open the other projects that wouldn't work and they're all just fine too. There is one thing I know and it is this: if your Z1 stops being able to communicate with Cakewalk, exit gracefully, start Cantabile, load up Kontakt, make sure you can play notes, then start Cakewalk and play some notes and see if the problem has been cured.

Thank you, thank you, you have rescued me from the depths of MIDI-no-worki H377! All I did was switch my active Firepod, which I do every 6 months or so to even the wear between the two of them. I usually only use one at a time, with the other one held in reserve in case I need more than 8 inputs or another submix or whatever. During that switchover, Cakewalk decided that Firepod 1 was its new best friend and that it liked it so much it would use it as the In Port for my control surface instead of my Korg nanoKONTROL thereby causing both the nanoKONTROL and my MIDI keyboard to go completely limp and lifeless while of course they worked perfectly outside of Cakewalk.

Good for "referencing" mixes, eh?

Time for a bump to the top. Another of my favorite stereoizer is Polyverse/Infected Mushroom Wider. Said to create stereo from mono without phase issues, man oh man can this effect ever get extreme. I've not tested what it sounds like summed to mono. If, like me, you like having a, uh, wide variety of ways to turn mono sources into stereo, grab it. The UI is pretty cool.

I can't help feeling that there's something I'm missing with it, because obviously the developer put a ton of work into it, the UI is beautiful, it has all these options, there are the people raving about it on YouTube, there are announcements about add-on packs, etc. So I take all that trouble and time to get it to work and it seems like a tarted-up arpeggiator. If I had put in the same amount of time and effort running scales on my piano.... Well, if anyone here sees the white light and can tell me what it is about Instachord that makes intelligent-seeming grown men froth at the mouth, please do. The guy I'm thinking of seemed to know some music theory, so it wasn't just excitement over finally making his synths sound like someone good was playing them. I know I sound down on Instachord, but I wouldn't be disappointed if I hadn't been interested in it to start with, and if anyone reading this wants to try it out, the price isn't too steep. Pluginboutique has the bundle of both Instachord, Instascale, and the 3 preset packs, all for $10. This runs through August 4, 2019.

Heavens, no, you've taken your first good steps toward getting your system working great. Well done so far, I say. Your system is quite capable of doing what you're trying to do, i3, plenty of clock speed, 8G RAM. The original problem you were having was because Cakewalk was forced to deal with two different audio devices, one high-quality and capable of low latency (AudioBox) and the other made for playing back YouTube videos and whatever from the web (onboard Realtek). When you do that, Cakewalk (or any program like it) will revert to the (s)lowest common denominator. For low-latency droput-free monitoring while you record, you should remove the Realtek from the picture completely. In Cakewalk's Preferences, make sure that you are in ASIO mode and that there are no references to the Realtek anywhere. Plug your speakers (or headphones) into the AudioBox. This is the configuration to be in when you are doing DAW work, tracking or monitoring. If you still get dropouts when set up that way, check back here and we can help you sort it. Now, as far as the question of how to still listen to YouTube videos and whatever else happens in programs other than Cakewalk. The solution that I use, because I am one of those "golden ear audiofools," is that I don't use my onboard Realtek at all. I have Windows set up to play back everything, even YouTube videos and the rest, through the nearfield monitors connected to my PreSonus Firepod. Music is very important to my life, and life's too short to listen to it through a Realtek chip when I have a Firepod handy. ? Windows will happily use just about any audio output device that's properly connected to it. In order to do this, just go into Settings, select System, then Sound, then Choose your output device. Your AudioBox should be listed as an option. Down at the bottom of the page there are further, more advanced audio options if you care to mess with them. If nothing else, this will make your YouTube videos sound better when you click on the little gear icon and switch it to "720p." Another solution, the one mentioned by Mark, is to use a physical switching device, or some people use "computer speakers" plugged into the onboard jack for browser sound. You don't have to live with it, as I said, your hardware and Cakewalk are quite capable of doing this without glitches. (I came up with the handle when I joined the Vintage Drum Forum, because I am silly, and a fan of Gene Krupa, and I like incongruities like taking the title of a prog rock/science fiction classic and combining it with the surname of a great drummer. If you complete the phrase, "Starship Krupaaaaa, flying overhead!" it's even weirder to imagine Gene playing drums, flying over your head. Or Gene Krupa dressed in a space suit battling giant insects? It fits my nitwit sense of humor.)

My apologies to the forum, I just tried following my own recipe and now I can't get it to work either.

You do know that Cakewalk is supported software, as in if you have a consistent issue you can open a support ticket with BandLab and someone will try to help you with it? As Lady Fuzztail alluded to, you should focus on one particular issue at a time, such as a project that crashes on trying to open it, take note of the steps that lead to the crash, what type, audio, MIDI, what plug-ins, etc. Without that information, all we can do is guess at things like drivers and incompatible plug-ins, because of course Cakewalk isn't crashing for the rest of us.

Hey Byron, I am actually of the same belief as you, despite not being the world's greatest singer myself. If I hit a bum note I record the line again and either use the new take or comp the line in, but I am also a skilled recording and mix engineer. It's free for me to do that. I enjoy the challenge and it makes me a better singer. It's practical for me to do this, I record my songs for myself, under no deadline, I may put them on YouTube and BandLab someday, I recommend not holding your breath for that day to come. I also play drums, I love playing drums, I'm proud of how far I've come in the 6 years I've been doing it, but I don't think I've ever recorded a take that didn't need at least one kick hit nudged. I could go back and record the track again, play until my arms fall off, but with drums, there's a point of diminishing returns, it turns into a chore, I lose the energy of the early takes, so why not just nudge that one thump? I'm still using my art and skill, just a different skill. But really, this is a discussion among recording and mix engineers, not singers. V-Vocal is a tool for manipulating audio, which is what we do with our Cakewalk. Lots of us record ourselves, but lots of us, me included, record other people too. I made my snarky comment because I grow weary of hearing the same grumpy grouses about the use of this tool. It's not funny, not helpful. People can't be shamed into wanting to be better musicians! We get people who bring us bad recordings. We get singers who go out for one puff or beer too many and come back and blow a note or two. I did a song at my house for a friend who just friggin' hit the wrong fret on the bass track, dropped SuperClam right there and we didn't even notice it until after he left, perfect feel, timing, the guy was a touring pro for years and just fscked it up. I fired up Melodyne Elements and dragged the golden blob up one half step and it sounded great. John Lennon had the engineers at Abbey Road invent automatic double tracking because he thought doubling his lead vocals was a chore, and soon, every pop song had the "chorus/flange" effect slapped on everything. Was it cheating? Heck yes it was. Fortunately it sounded fantastic. Personally I detest the notion that every note that comes out of a singer's mouth needs to be in perfect tune anyway. I think that good singers, like good speakers, vary pitch slightly to convey emotion, and that gets lost when pitch gets over "corrected." When I play guitar, even with chords, I bend notes a little to make the guitar "speak." I do it without thinking. So if I ever use Melodyne, I use it to fix a note that really sticks out, if the singer or whoever drops a serious clam. Other people use it in different ways, ways I may not like, but as a recording and mix engineer I can only force the talent to do another take and sing in pitch to a certain degree. Then what? Kick them out? In this economic climate for studios? People always have and always will show up for recording dates unprepared. Under-rehearsed, undertalented, underfunded, under-whatever. So now we have a little software thingie that makes the singer sound in better tune, who is harmed? I went out to see one of my favorite bands from the 90's on their reunion tour, was blown away by how good they were, everything spot on, vocals perfect. Then I watched the phone videos, and good heavens, I don't think she hit a good note the whole night! Just awful. I don't know if my enthusiasm created a pitch corrector in my head or what.?

Ha, haaa, ya know that joke just never gets funny!

Yes, what Brian said. iZotope have a number of freebies. If you click on Products on the main page and select Ozone Imager and Vocal Doubler you can get those. Both are excellent, not surprisingly. The Vocal Doubler is their advanced take on the "automatic double tracking" effect used by the Beatles at EMI Abbey Road. If you download the trial version of Neutron 3, after it expires you get to keep the rather mind-blowing Visual Mixer. The way this works is you put a plug-in on each track you want to control with the Visual Mixer, and the plug-in controls level and pan. Then the Visual Mixer shows all these tracks on a screen as icons, which you drag around to place in the mix wherever you want. It's the direct opposite of "mix with your ears," I guess, but it's frickin' awesome for songs that have a lot of backing vocals.

I like that idea. I presented the idea of a sticky, but the powers that be seemed lukewarm on the idea, and are probably at Summer NAMM right now anyway. They don't seem to like sticky posts and threads. I really want one for the topic "I have Sonar. What happens if I install Cakewalk by BandLab?" but no go on that one and it seems like I answer that question in one form or other several times a week. My strategy is to start these two threads and see if people are interested. Then if it stays popular we can ask to make it a sticky or subforum or whatever. On the old forum, it seemed like people were more interested in commercial plug-ins, and even some finger-pointing when people would experience crashes, an assumption that freeware licensed plug-ins were more likely to be buggy. People would say "are you using any freeware plug-ins?" if someone was experiencing a crash. So it's good to have a list of plug-ins that are known to work well with Cakewalk. That helps with the uncertainty and prejudice. Cakewalk is free, and has become more stable since it became freeware licensed, as I hoped it would. We should ask about this in another week, maybe? It's a good idea. P.S. I don't know if I'm a freeware expert. Maybe I'm just broke!

The SFZ instrument that got me to start using the format was Sforzatron, which is a sampled Mellotron. Being a fan of the Moody Blues going back to high school, I'm also a fan of the Mellotron, specifically the string sound as showcased on "Nights In White Satin" and "Watching And Waiting."

If you install Cakewalk alongside Sonar, all of your Sonar FX, including V-Vocal, should appear and work just like they did in Sonar. As a matter of fact, the current Cakewalk Reference Guide has a chapter on V-Vocal to support people who upgrade from Sonar to CbB. So, no kluge at all, it should work seamlessly. If it doesn't, post back here and the forumites will help you out.