Starship Krupa

Yes, Sonar is so particular about where it expects you to click for a given action. It's taken me years to get used to all of the different hotspots on the different types of clips in the Track View and I still do it wrong often enough. While you are waiting for your wishes to be fulfilled, here is the safest spot to click when all you want to do is just (for God's sake) position the Now Time: Anywhere inside the vertical space inside the ellipse. That is, between the top of the numbers on the reticle and the top of the Arranger Track. It's actually a decent-sized piece of real estate once you know where it is. If you click between the top of the numbers and the top of the ruler, you get the magnifying glass that I, too never use (I use combinations of mousewheel and modifier keys to zoom in and out). Click too low and you'll get nothing, unless the Arranger Track is open, in which case the Now Time will reposition where you click. If you really need a humongous target, you could even add an empty Arranger Track and just click in that when you want to move your Now Time. Hope this helps. My suggestion (as a gamer) is to spend a few minutes with an empty project and practice clicking along the ruler in that space in order to put it into your muscle memory.

Oh how nice that would be. Especially if they keep the policy of not charging existing license holders for the update.

Its buttons are not programmable at all. It has two that send program changes and then three that send Start, Continue, and Stop. Full disclosure: it's one of those Rock Band keytar controllers. I spotted it at Salvation Army at $6 and noticed that it had a 5-pin DIN connector to go with its two octave full size keyboard. A bit of research revealed that in addition to being a wireless Rock Band controller, these things are also full-fledged velocity sensitive MIDI controllers. You can shift the octaves on it, handy for playing bass parts, and it has a pitch bend ribbon controller. My guess is that there were people on the design team for it that lobbied hard for it to double as a real MIDI controller and got their wish. Kudos to them. It has one potentially challenging quirk in that it expects to see the diode drop from the original MIDI spec's optocoupler. So if your MIDI interface doesn't have that, the keytar won't realize that it's plugged into a MIDI interface. Easy enough for me to solve by soldering an LED across the line in my MIDI interface, but a potential stumbling block in some scenarios. I recently fired up MIDI-OX to find out whether any of the buttons was sending MIDI, and that's when I saw that it was sending these MMC commands. According to the Cakewalk documentation, it looks like Cakewalk is supposed to respond to those when something else in the MIDI chain is set up as the master clock. Despite my doubts about the stability of whatever clock my Rock Band keytar could supply, I tried it and Cakewalk just wouldn't respond. As you say, @Promidi, Sonar can be set up to respond to MIDI note events easily, but I want to use those transport controls. As much as I see MIDI as one of the musical equipment industry's great triumph, and love what I can do with it, it sure has its quirks. If I could find some utility that can translate MMC commands to note events, that would do it.

I go there infrequently. It used to be called "Pro Tools Expert," hence the residual focus on PT. They had one of the earlier lists of freeware plug-ins, so I found them early in my DAW journey and looted their list. Due to the PT focus, many of them were AAX or RTAS only, but there were still enough that were available in VST2 form. I don't check it out much these days, I've found sources of expertise that I prefer.

I have a very simple 2 octave MIDI controller that happens to have some rudimentary controls. 3 MIDI messages it is capable of sending are Start, Stop, and Continue. Is there a way to control Sonar's transport with these buttons? Ideally, I'd like Start to act as the Play button, Stop the stop button, and Continue the pause toggle (or possibly some other command).

I'm not sure which uniqueness you're referring to. Mostly, there are conveniences that I like in some views that I'd like to have in other views, like scroll lock and fit horizontal. Fit data horizontally in Piano Roll would be handy, I think. There are certain keystrokes and operations that should work the same way. There's no reason for the basics of cut, copy, select, paste, undo, zoom etc. not to be the same keystroke(s) in every view. Equivalent menus should be in the same place, same order, where applicable. This last has long been a bugaboo of mine with Cakewalk/Sonar, especially the differences between Track View and Console View. Those two sets of menus look like they come from different programs. One has the "Track" menu, the other has the "Tracks" menu, Track Manager is even under different menus. Then there's the main menu, which is up above the TV menu but holds a number of operations that should really be down on the TV menu (like adding tracks, basically everything in the Insert menu and half of what's in the Project menu belong down in the Track View's own menu). I'm known as the Konsistency Kop due to this in certain circles. There's usually no drawback to checking for consistency, and once something is in place, it's harder to change it without discomforting experienced users. I guess it's just me, but after 6 years, I still get things mixed up as to which menus are where between TV and CV. You can add a new track from CV's "Track" menu, but not from TV's "Tracks" menu. When things are (needlessly, IMO) mixed up like that, it makes it harder to memorize them. And IMO, it contributes to a feeling of roughness around the edges.

An oft-asked question. The bare minimum is 2 mic inputs, no MIDI, must have factory provided ASIO driver. In that category there are multiple options under $100. The one I currently recommend is the Mackie Onyx Producer. It has 2 mic inputs, as well as 5-pin MIDI jacks to go with any MIDI controller. Dedicated headphone volume. Reputable brand, ASIO driver, comfortably under $100. The only thing that makes me prefer my PreSonus Studio 2|4 is that the Studio 2|4 has bar graph meters instead of just the peak overload LED's, which make it easier to dial in a good hot signal that doesn't go over. Not essential, but handy. Noise floor and headroom isn't as big a deal in these days of 32-bit digital recording. You can record it cool and normalize it. For metering, the plug-ins I favor are LEVELS from Mastering the Mix, and (free) dpMeter 5 from TBProAudio and MLoudnessAnalyzer from MeldaProduction. The MeldaProduction one comes as part of their FreeFX bundle, which also includes other useful tools for your task, such as a noise generator and an oscillator (for doing sweeps). The important thing to me was settling on one meter and learning to trust it. This was dpMeter 5 at first, then LEVELS once MtM gave me a free license. They all attempt to combine a bunch of readings into one UI, which made it confusing as hell. The advantage LEVELS has is that rather than trying to put all of that on one screen, it has different screens for different meters. You can switch from LUFs to Peak to Stereo Balance, one at a time. Curious: what headphones are you mixing on? You can tell by my sig that I am a studio headphones geek.

Well, that's what I mean by "command." Something you can add to the Custom module and as a keystroke. Doesn't have to be part of a menu, though that's always nice.

Y'know how we have that lovely command in Track View to zoom fit the extent of the project data on the screen horizontally without disrupting anything vertically? If y'don't know, then next time you want to see your whole project in Track View, hit Ctrl-Alt-F and observe the results. It would be equally useful to have a command to do the same thing in the Piano Roll view. Matter of fact, my brain is convinced that it's already there and I find myself reaching for the keystroke only to remember....wah wah waaaaahhh.

Y'know how in most Sonar views, activating Scroll Lock stops the view from scrolling? It would be reaaaaaaaallly handy if that could also apply to the Event List.

Why don't you ask the ghosts of Ada Lovelace and Grace Hopper? There are plenty of women who understand DAW's better than I (male) do and plenty of men who will never get a handle on DAW's. Understandability of any given type of software has nothing to do with the gender of the user.

Yes, actually, they do, if you're completely unsubscribed from email communications from them (which I don't recommend for this reason, don't you want to know when you've gotten a free plug-in?). Two things have triggered this for me in the past. First when they introduced MSpectralDelay, they added it to every registered user's licenses as a loyalty gift. Second, if you have a bundle and a new plug-in gets added to the bundle, you automatically get the license(s). Since I have MComplete, that means I get at least a couple of new toys a year. They just show up as being available next time I do an install. Another example of the company sort of being the opposite of stingy. Their upgrade prices are always less than you think they should be during a sale, every so often you get a free plug-in, and when doing euro to dollar currency conversion, they round down to the nearest dollar. It's all added up to me getting more than I thought I would for my money over the years, one of the reasons I'm a fan. You might not find a use for every single one of their plug-ins, but there are plenty more where those came from.

This. For mixing and mastering FX I'm beyond maxed out. The things that still interest me are "creative" FX like Glitchmachines, Unfiltered Audio, Freakshow Industries, and the like, and freebies from major houses (like the recent CM T-RackS giveaway). As far as virtual instruments, I have more than everything I've ever wanted, so unless A|A|S is putting the rare soundpack I don't already have on sale for $10, or it does something in a novel way (like Sonuscore The Orchestra), it's freebies only, and very few of those make it through. Unless they're doing something kinda novel, like Sonuscore's The Orchestra, I have all the sample libraries I need. My collection of plug-ins feels like a huge iceberg that I chip pieces from to put in my drink.

The advances in plug-in options (resource use monitoring, oversampling) are a welcome surprise. I can't speak to the improved engine efficiency as CbB was already doing fine in that regard on my systems. Glad to see the developers continuing to optimize performance.

I really doubt that you'll have buyer's remorse about dropping $50 on MEssentialsFX. Once you get a look and listen to MTurboDelay and MTurboReverble, you'll see what the fuss is about. MTurboDelay is ridiculously comprehensive and the Bricasti-alike in MTurboReverble is my go-to 'verb. Better still, while you have time, demo them. I think they reset the demo period counters, so you won't even have to hear the dropouts you'd otherwise get in demo mode.

Somerville Sounds offers their Prototype series for pay-what-you-want. Of the three, I've downloaded and tried Antiquarian Echoes and Meyer Choir. Both are ENORMOUS sounding pad instruments that kind of remind me of Atmos (the piano-based virtual instrument). Antiquarian Echoes is based on guitar samples, although I'd be hard pressed to figure that out from the finished product. I watched the video by the proprietor, Jon Meyer, where he talks about how he created the instruments. I recommend this, because his folksy manner and friendly appearance (the Meyer Choir is based on the voices of him, his lovely wife and their two kids) will not prepare you for the massive walls of cinematic ambient sound that these things generate. Jon looks and speaks like a friendly guy you'd run into at the local blues open jam. His website features photos of old pickup trucks and dusty smalltown main streets. His instruments on the other hand sound like they came out of some spartan loft studio in Berlin. In other words, he's my kinda madman and should be encouraged, so having downloaded and enjoyed his products, I'm going to kick some coins his way in appreciation. He calls them the "Prototype" series, and if this is what he comes up with when he's just messing about, his commercial products must be outstanding.

Today we have three interesting instruments from an interesting independent developer and sound designer in Texas. Somerville Sounds offers the Prototype series for pay-what-you-want. Of the three, I've downloaded and tried Antiquarian Echoes and Meyer Choir. Both are ENORMOUS sounding pad instruments that kind of remind me of Atmos (the piano-based virtual instrument). Antiquarian Echoes is based on guitar samples, although I'd be hard pressed to figure that out from the finished product. I watched the video by the proprietor, Jon Meyer, where he talks about how he created the instruments. I recommend this, because his folksy manner and friendly appearance (the Meyer Choir is based on the voices of him, his lovely wife and their two kids) will in no way prepare you for the massive walls of cinematic ambient sound that these things generate. Jon looks and speaks like a friendly guy you'd run into at the local blues open jam. His website features photos of old pickup trucks and dusty smalltown main streets. His instruments on the other hand sound like they came out of some spartan loft studio in Berlin. In other words, he's my kinda fruitcake and should be encouraged, so having downloaded and enjoyed his products, I'm going to kick some coins his way in appreciation. He calls them the "Prototype" series, and if this is what he comes up with when he's just messing about, his commercial products must be outstanding.

This has been a holy grail sound of mine for a very long time. Sergio Mendes used one on Herb Alpert Presents Sergio Mendes and Brasil 66, on "Slow Hot Wind." Those early Brasil 66 albums have some of my favorite sounds ever. In addition to grand piano he used combo organs, electric harpsichord, etc. If you do manage to track one down, please mention it.

They've come a long way from when the installer forced you to install the 32 bit VST2, the 64 bit VST3, the 32 bit VST2, the 64 bit VST3 AND the 64 bit AAX versions. I used to have a whole routine I'd go through after running their installer or A|A|S' or Native Instruments'. A|A|S was the biggest offender, I'm pretty sure it would drop a copy of the VST2's into any folder with the string "VST" in its name. I'm not kidding, either. I eventually wrote them a nice email message pleading with them to stop. I got no reply, but within 6 months they had stopped doing it. Some of Izotope's older installers will even leave you with the 32 bit RTAS versions of their plug-ins installed. The only real benefit (and not everyone sees it as such) of VST3 is that it dictates an install location for the plug-in DLL's.

Calm down and take a deep breath. The current MPluginManager has a function where you can create an offline installer for your plug-ins. Look in Settings and you'll see where you can do this. Presumably, if you can download things at all, you have at least one computer that's connected to the Internet. So it should work similarly to the old download manager or maybe better because when you copy the install package to your music computer, it will only have the plug-ins you want to install instead of the whole line.

When seeking build advice for a new system, it's helpful to list the specs of your current systems. Processor type, RAM, video, etc. There might be a component such as insufficient RAM or underpowered video that is bottlenecking your system. Also, what program are you using for video editing? If you're getting overheating (and the processor throttling that goes with it), often a good blast of compressed air to the processor's heatsink will work wonders. When was the last time you did a dust removal on your systems? If your video card has fans, hit that with the duster as well. If you're using your processor's onboard video, that may also account for the bogging on your video editing computer. Mark (not "Scott," although he is a Scot) uses an i7-3770 system as his studio computer. Many would consider this an outdated rig, but it works just fine for his purposes, and he's one of the Cakewalk developers.

That is easily and inexpensively remedied. You can get a set of urethane wheels that will likely fit any chair. I got a set for my Herman Miller Mirra (as seen on House M.D. as the chair in front of his desk) just because I didn't want to ruin a cable by running over it with the original equipment hard plastic wheels. Here's a set for $13 on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Replacement-Hardwood-Carpet-Support-Universal/dp/B08XK176F8/ I got the ones that look more like rollerblade wheels, but if I had seen these I might have gone with them. Although the rollerblade wheels are larger diameter, which probably makes for smoother rolling and less likelihood of cable damage.... For the price of a single cheap cable or phone charging cable, I think they're a great investment. And they roll more smoothly. When the Aeron was first released, I happened to go to an office furniture expo in San Francisco. I worked for pre-Adobe Macromedia in the 90's, and their office was near the design centers. As soon as I sat in it, I promised myself that one day, I'd have one. I missed out on the dot com bust, when they were cheap and plentiful due to massive office liquidations. Still check Craig's List from time to time, which is how I snagged the Mirra.

Some excellent plug-ins in that bundle. Unfortunately not part of the "celebration."

Except of course that you'd get to start using the software now instead of waiting until the next sale rolls around.

If you have any interest in MeldaProduction products, this is the first and best deal to get. If ever a product lived up to its name.... https://www.meldaproduction.com/V17Intro Includes 10 plug-ins, including my personal go-to's MAutoAlign, MTurboReverble (yes, "LE," but I never touch the features you get with the regular version), MLimiterX, MTurboDelay, MAutoDynamicEQ, and MCompare. And in true MeldaProduction fashion, if you already have any of these, log in to your account and check your personal price on it. You'll be amazed. If you're looking to eventually level up, the price of any of the higher tier bundles that overlaps with this one will be greatly reduced the next time there's a 50% or 60% off everything sale. At that point, say you are interested in MMixingFX Bundle, multiple of the MEssentials Bundle are in that bundle as well, and you will get a huge discount that's always more than you expect it to be. As always, if it's your first purchase with them, use someone's referral code and sign up for the newsletter and it will knock the cost down to under $70. MTurboReverble alone is worth it, it's the only one I've heard that can match the quality of the Exponential ones.