Starship Krupa

Wait, I thought everybody did this. It's one of the first things I do when I get a computer, kinda like downloading my favorite browser. Disable onboard audio, download drivers for audio interface, download VLC, Firefox.... So there are audio people who leave that thing turned on in their BIOS. All this time I've been reading these posts from disgruntled audio people complaining how this or that Windows 10 update switched their HD Audio back on and thinking "wow, I wonder how Microsoft manages that?" Every so often I'd been checking my one system that I upgraded to Windows 10 to see if they had somehow circumvented the laws of physics, but no, not so far. For those of you who leave them turned on when you are going to go into Device Manager and disable it anyway, why, pray tell, leave a spurious audio interface enabled on your studio computer? Do some BIOses not allow you to disable them at a hardware level?

According to what M posted (kinda James Bond, isn't it?), support@cakewalk.com should work. Dang, 1000's of support tickets. In one way that's actually great news, in another....whoa. (I just hope that very few of them are people wanting help with Sonar X2) Have we passed the test here on the new forum? Can we get a link from www.cakewalk.com? Maybe we can take some of the load off. The link from the Help menu in Cakewalk is pretty fab.?

Do these performances take advantage of the ability of exhibitors to stay after hours? 'cause the cavernous reverb sounds like you used Hall C. ? I wonder if someone has an "Anaheim Convention Center Hall C" impulse I can download for REMatrix. I just looked on the NAMM Show 2019 map, and ?! For those less familiar with the layout, to say that BandLab's booth was in a "prime spot" is an understatement. It's the first one you would encounter as you come in the main entrance toward the Marriott end, the Marriott being the hotel closest to the Convention Center, and also the location of Yamaha's displays and a major food court. Quite a coup to secure that spot.

Awesome use of the cavernous Anaheim Convention Center reverb!

Thanks for the tip on Dragonfly, TheSteven. I must check it out. A freeware favorite of mine is Orilriver, which takes turns with BReverb and TrueVerb on my reverb bus. It has all the controls I want on an algorithmic reverb, including high and low cut.

My man @Steev, I'm looking at you, doodly-dawg. Crack them knuckles and gimme the skinny on the best value in a laptop for my buddy who wants my advice on putting together a music computer. I haven't gotten a budget number from him yet, but his needs are not great. Audio only, no orchestral samples, no Superior Drummer, no big use of soft synths, no zillions of plug-ins. Really, if he ever gets past 4 tracks, I will be pleased and surprised. And don't worry, I will be recommending a Scarlett 2i2. ? So, based on the grand thread o'waggin' weenies, I am leaning toward recommending something Ryzen powered. 16G of RAM, 500G SSD. External 2TB spinny drive for archiving projects. That's all I got so far. As a consumer of processors (all hardware, really), I let the enthusiasts and gamers buy the highly expensive latest ones while I lay back and get the ones that were among the fastest last year and are now good deals. All right, you got it, go.

I'm thinking Deals could go, maybe? ? And did I ever find out that one neglects the current intel of otherLarry at one's peril.... ??

Super-duper metering plug. Nice. The relationship between loudness and level and how one sets up one's meters and whatnots are things that I've not yet 100% grasped and will calling upon your wisdom if you're up for sharing it. Right now I still have to run my files through the Orban program to make sure they're fit for distribution. I need to get to where I can just set Cakewalk up like I used to have Mixcraft set up, that is, where I understand the relationship between what the dancing lights (or plug-in) on the Master strip and the exported file are, but Cakewalk's mixer is (thank heaven) different from Mixcraft's. I'll start another topic on it when the time comes. Neutron is another box of modules, with presets, like Ozone. With Neutron you can change the order of them easily. One of the wizards I think is supposed to identify "honk" frequencies, but it doesn't do much of a job of it. The GUI is typically sex on wheels, all black grey and orange like a Harley, and hold the skeumorphism. In Neutron Elements the modules are EQ, Compressor, Transient Shaper, Exciter, and Neutrino. Of those, I find the first three to be useful. The compressor has three detector modes, a vintage or modern switch, and graphical sliders to filter the detection circuit. The EQ is a good graphical parametric, and the transient shaper strikes a nice balance of capable and easy-to-use. 3 modes and 2 sliders for more or less attack and sustain. It's my current fave transient shaper. As for the other two, I prefer the coloration in the ProChannel. So, no, nothing functionally except for the transient shaper that you don't get with CbB, but if someone were new to compressors, the one in Neutron Elements would be simpler and more straightforward, as well as more versatile, than the 1176 clone in the ProChannel. Some of the presets are pretty nice, I must say, in some cases infuriatingly so, just like with its cousin Ozone. ? Most of them need the threshold on the compressor set lower so that the thing actually starts to compress a bit (or are my tracking levels too low?).

I have no conspiracy theories, no tactics other than to point out logical fallacies and repeat my question. You seem to think that there is some greater danger involved in using Cakewalk due to the fact that it is distributed via a freeware license vs. software that is distributed via a commercial license. Unless I got that wrong, in which case I shall humbly apologize. I am asking you to tell me exactly what that danger is. What bad thing might happen? What are we at risk for? We know your car salesman might hide his "freebies" in the price of the car, the club owner might cheat us on the door, the telephone rep might wait for the next Guns 'n' Roses album to pick up the phone, but what might happen if we use Cakewalk? To use your language, I do not "live in a world" where I accept the vague hints of just any person on a forum regarding the "slipperiness of slopes" inherent in different software licensing models. If anything, I'm trying to be the opposite of gullible. If there's a danger, I want to know what it is! Tell me!

The block of text you quoted was not a response to your question, of course. It was a response to something you said later in the thread. Which was.... I asked you to tell us what, exactly, you thought was at the bottom of that slippery slope. I'll spot you a few and say "further down." Do you have a problem with answers? ? To answer your questions, in order: No. I don't know what getting "plummeted" means, but I'll say no. No, just someone who's tired of people stirring up fear, uncertainty and doubt without talking specifics. No. No. No. Ha, no. No, the programmers and support people definitely get paid, and Cakewalk will make BandLab money, just not as directly any more. Most of the time, yes, unless I am aware of a real danger and have something concrete to warn people about. There ya go, 9 answers, and I didn't even break a sweat.

You're giving examples of gullible behavior that have no relation to the matter at hand. Buying used cars or playing nightclubs or talking to a service rep have nothing to do with using Cakewalk. I know exactly what the dangers are in all of those situations, so I know how to handle them, what choices to weigh. You have implied that there is some danger, or dangers, in using Cakewalk because we don't have to pay money for the license. I'm calling you out here: what is this potential danger?

I noticed that. The tuck-roll shiny vinyl gig bag in the YouTube video still looks great.

The page says that the sale started on January 16, but I don't see it mentioned here, and I didn't notice it until now, so here she is: Save up to 80% off a selection of Air Music's fantastic instruments including DB-33 Organ, Mini Grand Piano, Loom Classic Synth and Boom Classic Drum Machine. All now only £17.95 / $19.99 for a limited time. That limited time being until February 4th. I have DB-33 and it's really good, and the Leslie emulation may be used as a separate VST. I have no experience with any of the others, but IME, AIR's stuff will be well worth the discounted price.

This. Every kick and snare track I've done since then. Gatey Watey on all of them. It's not like I couldn't duplicate what it does with other high-tech gates I have like Unfiltered Audio's G8, but dang, with GW it takes seconds. Threshold, frequency slider, done.

What do you think of Neutron? I got the Elements Edition in one of the loss-leader deals. I use it like I do Ozone. Throw on a preset and then adjust it to my taste. Whatever the wizard is supposed to do, I found it....surplus to my needs. I could see where experienced mix engineers might be somewhat down on iZotope's suites if they consider them a crutch that lead to hyped sounding crappy mixes done by amateurs. Maybe they can be, but so what? They also contain some really great-sounding processors and other tools, and in my observation, iZotope do everything they can to steer their users in the direction of learning how to do it for real. What's at stake? Some kid gets to have fun making a track that they think sounds awesome, dude! And if they try to bring it to anyone serious, they will send them back to their bedroom where they will have to figure out where they went wrong anyway.?

Ah, so you did it like in my second example. Righteous. Are you using that Referencing module that comes with it? That thing looks amazing. It's really great that you can use the modules as individual VST's in the Advanced Edition. I like their Maximizer and EQ, and would like to use them by themselves without all the latency and overhead that the suite induces. John, I am sure with you on their GUIs being great. I believe that a good-looking and intuitive UI is important since we spend so much time looking at them. They should give us a feeling of excitement about the product and iZotope's do. (my old software biz guy kicking in here) I don't mind staring at them while I tune the modules. They're dark, not glaring. I would not mind Our Favorite DAW getting some "work" done in that regard, but then again, the theme jockeys are doing a fine job.

Because....? After all, you are getting what you paid for. The lifetime updates are flowing still. Better than what you paid for, IMO, because there are several reasons that freeware licensing makes for better software than payware, for long-term users. Which suggests that you're pissed off at others' good fortune, which seems rather petty. ? To help you not be so angry about that, consider this: I'm one of the people who got Cakewalk by BandLab for free. Number one, I didn't get to use it until April 2018. Number two, and this is a big one, Cakewalk is a program with a few added plug-ins. Sonar Platinum Suite was a friggin' monster package with a lot of extra software, some of it 3rd party that costs a pretty penny to buy (Melodyne, Superior Drummer), and some of it proprietary than nobody can buy (as yet) and would love to (L-EQ's, CA-2A, z3ta, Channel Tools). And you still get to use all of that. ? There are many instances of payware turning freeware. Back when web browsers were new especially. Netscape and Opera were once payware browsers. I own a license for Opera that I paid for. It is one of the things that happens with software. Companies go under. Companies get sold. Individual products get sold. Key programmers quit. Products are dropped. I was at Macromedia when they bought Deck and subsequently killed it. Number three, hey, thanks, sincerely, for helping keep the operation afloat and paying for the development. It wouldn't be here without licensing fees from users when it was payware. I was even one of them, long ago, now that I remember. I paid to upgrade to Sonar from a copy of Cakewalk Studio a friend gave me, back in 2002 or so. Now I'm pissed at myself! Why should I get for free what I had to pay for....wait a minute.... Number four, try to welcome the new users, because they're going to have good ideas for good ol' Cakewalk, increase the visibility, be fun to talk to, etc. I'm helping out as best I can, some of my praise made it onto the fliers they hand out at trade shows. Number five, check out the new stuff they're doing with the Export to BandLab. You know that's going to turn into Import From BandLab, and at that point, we'll be able to trade projects back and forth over the 'net. Sonar went from being kinda stodgy to Cakewalk being closer to the cutting edge. Not even a year later, it's got a module that's an interface to a social media platform. Dang! Avid has their cloud thing with Pro Tools First and all, and it turns into something you have to pay for pretty quickly, but BandLab so far has put no cap on how much of their cloud space you can use for projects. I'm looking forward at least to just being able to swap stems with my buddy down in Indio. You're getting what you paid for, other people are getting a fraction (a significant one, to be sure) of what you paid for for free. Don't waste anger on that. Heaven knows, it could have been way, way worse.

Curious, what web browser did you use when you typed that? I think that a fun giveaway item at NAMM would have been little tinfoil hats with the BandLab logo on them. Okay, don't leave us hanging, where does that slippery slope lead to? What is at the bottom of it? Rather than this vague smoke, exactly what are you suggesting? I'm a practical man. If you think I should not use this very useful software that I am being offered use of for free, tell me what negative consequences I will suffer if I use it. We've had many conspiracy ding-dongs around with the usual vague stuff about "you're fooling yourself" blah blah blah. Well, if I'm fooling myself and there's a slippery slope and you know more than I do, I'm all ears. Tell me what you know. If you're using Cakewalk, what is your motive in posting this kind of thing? To deter other people from using it? To try to make other people feel uneasy about using it? To appear smarter than other people, as if you have special knowledge of the way the world really works? To get attention? What's your game?

Well then, imagine a similar scenario for BandLab and you'll be well on your way to understanding! What I'm having a hard time understanding is how it is, almost a year after BandLab issued their first, already improved version of Cakewalk, along with a statement to the existing user base about their intentions, followed by nothing but the kind of free updates (stability and speed fixes, prayed-for features) that most long-term user bases would die for, and living up to the statement of intent, we are still getting getting salvos from the Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt Brigade. We beat the poor horse past recognition in the old forum. It's 2019! If there's someone alive, much less a computer user, who can seriously ask the question "how can you make money on free software?" Your web browser, your Android phone, at least half the web servers you visit every day....FREE SOFTWARE. The operating system, Windows 10, on the computer I am using, is effectively free software. Why? It came with Windows 7 installed on it 8 years ago, and Microsoft upgraded it for....free. Windows 10 must have cost a FORTUNE to code! And they say that it's a lifetime upgrade license, too, just like Sonar Platinum. OMG, everyone knows you can't make money doing that! How are Microsoft going to stay in business?

Happy to hear about BandLab's robust presence as well as Anaheim Convention Center's adding a new wing. The last time I attended a NAMM Show, participation was falling off due to the rise of the www as a primary means of product introduction. I was hoping that would be a temporary glitch and that participants would see that there are enough other benefits to appearing in the industry's largest trade show.

Welcome! As mentioned, this topic has been discussed ad absurdum in the old forum. If you can work out how Google can give away their Chrome browser for free, Google Drive for free, Google Voice for free, GMail for free, all they give away for free, and yet become one of the richest corporations in the world, then you'll have solved the puzzle.

Now that I've delved more deeply into performance settings in Cakewalk and Windows 10, your #2 question puzzles me as well, not only for that, but for a couple of other settings as well. There are buffer settings that would seem to have very little "cost" in terms of memory that result in smoother performance. Memory was once a rarer commodity so I suspect that some default settings might need to be updated. When I saw the option for plug-in load balancing, I found it difficult to envision a condition where I wouldn't want that enabled. A few ExtraPlugInBufs seemed to make my system breathe easier. One big thing to consider that I see people failing to ask a lot of time in these discussions is what type of recording you are doing, audio or soft synth? That really affects resource usage. You can get a rough idea of how Cakewalk is using cores on your current system by using Task Manager and Resource Monitor. Right click on your "start menu" button and run Task Manager, then click on the Performance tab, then down at the bottom, click on Resource Monitor, and it will launch a tool that will show you how busy each of your cores are. Click on the CPU tab.

I couldn't tell from the screencap if it was part of a group, but if it's part of a group, and the group is selected, you won't get the Rename command in the context menu.

Yea, lest doom prevail. Is that not the way with all processors of signal, good Sir John? Even the Fader of Level and the Pot of Pan hold danger for those who wield them unwisely! It may have gotten buried in there, but my point, as a user of Ozone and admirer of iZotope's technology was that "Ozone" is a suite of well-integrated tools with a bunch of presets and a couple of wizards. It's not a magic wand, there's no knob for "more Ozone" and "less Ozone," nor is it a Pandora's Box of horrors that can somehow irreparably ruin an otherwise perfect mix Surely a determined fool could do as much harm to a mix armed with no more than ProChannel modules and the Boost11? I was ruining mixes long before I got a license for Ozone, I can tell you that. Pull them faders down! In my lowly version of Ozone, Elements, all I get is the limiter, the spatializer, and the EQ. My guess is that it's their Maximizer (the limiter) that is the cause for concern and calls for restraint. Indeed, that's the element that I find myself tuning most of all, as it's most critical. When I have run the Mastering Assistant, I usually liked its suggestions for the EQ (I've run it and had it come out almost flat, haw yeah), but I like to putz with the Maximizer and the Imager. The wizard never adds any Imager. Maximizer has some settings that I like to tune that deal with transient handling and stereo independence as well as our friend loudness. I've found that it's not too outrageous about loudness though. Maybe earlier versions got a bad rap (no pun). Those who fear the Ozone may be pleased/surprised/unsurprised to know that 8 Standard and Advanced come with a module that I would love to have that's dedicated to referencing your mix against other tracks. Typical of iZotope's stuff, it's got a next-level outside the box idea or two. https://www.izotope.com/en/learn/products/ozone/track-referencing-in-ozone-8-what-it-is-and-how-to-use-it.html

Oh noooooo! Actually, Larry is the mouse hole aggregator. Good reminder to keep an eye on him. It'll be around when it's around. And when it is, He Who Seems To Never Sleep will no doubt be on it. I take this as a good sign. If they're loss-leadering it at B&H, then their loss-leader program must be paying off for them, and they'll be keeping it up. The challenge is getting to be finding $1-$5 things to buy at Pluginboutique. I already own most of the Soundspot FX (much of which is actually pretty useful stuff, nice GUI's) and have multiple licenses for Hybrid 3 and Vacuum Pro.