Starship Krupa

MusicBee. or AIMP. They let me use ASIO and event-based WASAPI to play back my FLAC's and internet stations. Using those drivers for audio playback isn't just about latency, it affects the sound quality (a lot, actually).

Nice. Might be a good thing to link to this in the Tutorials forum.

So I see. The only thing left to do is to contact Cakewalk support.

The OP is having trouble with Sonible's Smart EQ. Cakewalk's Sonitus fx are a different thing. Smart EQ has a special feature, inter plug-in communication. If you put different instances of it on different tracks, they can talk to each other. That's a more difficult thing for a host to cope with because it's outside the VST2/3 spec. If the Cakewalk devs know there's an issue, they can work with Sonible to get the programs to stay out of each others' way. Testing them with another host like REAPER or Waveform would help eliminate or confirm that the problem is specific to Cakewalk.

Whoa whoa whoa, if this is the case, please report it to the devs, per the instructions in this forum. Sonible's products are popular among Cakewalk users and if there are compatibility issues, the devs need to know. Have you tried contacting Cakewalk support and Sonible support to see what they say?

Yes, a full rescan is in order. If the new scan finds them again, it means that the uninstall process left the DLL's in your plug-in folders. Look in C\Program Files\Common Files\VST3 and whatever folder you use for VST2's to see if the zombie plug-ins are still there, and if they are, remove them.

This issue has come up on the forum since the deprecation of support for the Microsoft GS synth. Since TTS-1 seems headed for deprecation (it's getting buggy), I've been looking for GM substitutes. I haven't tried it yet, but this looks promising: https://www.midkar.com/SoundFonts/coolsoft.html

Those are fine products, and there are many Cakewalk users who use them. When the iZotope installers ran, did you choose the option of installing the VST2 or VST3 versions or both? There's usually no reason to install anything but the 64-bit VST3 version of a given plug-in. I sometimes do because I run a couple of non-Cakewalk hosts that don't yet support VST3. There's nothing bad about installing both, but it can make the initial scanning of the plug-ins take longer. Since you've already double checked the vst folder paths in Cakewalk, and you've checked the folders to make sure that iZotope's installer populated said folders, you've ruled out the most common reason for plug-ins to fail to appear in Cakewalk. After that, it could be that for some reason or other, Cakewalk did find the plug-ins but ran into an error while scanning and disabled them. The solution to that is to force a complete re-scan of your plug-ins, and Tom has given you one method for doing that. Scanning options are also accessible from the Preferences/File/VST Settings page under Scan Options. There's a "Scan" button that will initiate a re-scan and a "Reset" button that will discard the information from previous scans and do it fresh. If the first doesn't help, the second should.

This. Back in my pedal building days, aside from my commercial line, I made a few MOSFET boosters for friends. At least one of them went to a studio owner who was having issues with recording a bandmate's stand-up bass via the piezo pickup. The MOSFET booster was the miracle cure. One of the features of the preamp pedal (I used the Jack Orman MOSFET boost schematic verbatim) is a whopping 10M input impedance. Apparently, with piezo pickups, the more the merrier as far as input impedance.

Brave comes with its own built-in crap-blocker called Brave Shields.

This is kind of "over my head," but the first question I have to ask is whether you've enabled MIDI Out on the VST. I know that Cakewalk is capable of sending MIDI back and forth in real time to such external devices as control surfaces, but have never tried exactly what you are trying to do. Given how much of Cakewalk's underlying code goes back to the pre-VSTi days when making music with a computer meant hooking it up to external synths, my hunch is that it should be able to do it. Have you checked in the Cakewalk Reference Guide?

FaderLube is what you need.

For those who want a free dynamic EQ, TDR's Nova is well-respected.

Not sure what you mean. The iZotope Mastering EQ has multiple frequency bands.

I've found Neoverb to be underwhelming, but $26.50 for Stratus is a deal. Best-sounding natural reverb I've ever used, rivaled only by MTurboReverb.

Also directly from iZotope: https://www.izotope.com/en/products/free-audio-plug-ins.html

Scratchy pots is seldom a reason to retire a piece of otherwise functioning gear. Especially if you're thinking of dropping $500 on a replacement. The easy fix is a squirt of DeOxit FaderLube (the green can, not the red can). I fixed many, many scratchy pots with this back when I was doing amp repair. Since the lube in it is thinner than what pots come with, there will be a difference in the feel of the knob, but if the choice is between tossing the unit and opening it up and giving it a shot of FaderLube, I'll go with the change in feel every time. Never had a client complain. Another trick that I used was just to work the pot. They're designed to be self-cleaning to a certain degree. What I do is quickly turn the knob back and forth 20 times. So in effect, the pot's wiper travels across the resistive element 40 times. This takes about 5 seconds and is great for situations where the pot is rarely adjusted. What happens in that case is that the resistive element gets a film on it in the areas that are less often used. Whipping the wiper across the resistive element brushes the crud off. If you do it with your amp turned on, you'll likely hear the pot getting progressively quieter after about 5 turns. If not, then FaderLube is called for, and if that doesn't do it, then the resistive element is likely damaged and replacing the pot is the fix.

My suggestion for people wanting to spend the least amount of cash on an interface is to check out M-Audio's bottom of the line offerings. Reputable manufacturer, full ASIO support. $50 for the M-Track Solo and $69 for the M-Track Duo.

I'll venture that looking for free plug-ins comes "naturally" to the children of professional composers who were DAW users before the kids were even born. ? You're a pro, you've been at this forever, your opinions come from that viewpoint, which is valuable. You don't want or need a pile of bundled plug-ins. But I think a lot of people do. I'm trying to put myself in the place of someone who's new to DAW's and maybe even recording in general. I'm 62 and have musician friends around my age who just never got into it. Sometimes they ask me to help them set up a recording rig. I start with Cakewalk of course, provided they have a Windows computer. Then I spend hours loading up the latest versions of my favorite freeware fx and instruments because otherwise, they won't know what's possible. In order to look for a plug-in, you first need to know that that type of plug-in even exists in the first place. When I myself first got Mixcraft 9 years ago, I was dazzled by the bundled plug-ins, about half of which were available as freeware. In my initial explorations with the DAW, I used only the bundled plug-ins because even they were far past my abilities. There are people who come to this very forum asking about where to get free or inexpensive FX and instruments because they want more than comes with CbB. And this is a forum with huge lists of freeware instruments and FX that are tested and known to work with Cakewalk. There are also the mixing purists who swear that they use only the plug-ins that come with their DAW. That ain't you, and it sure ain't me, but they exist. As for clutter, I've gotten a look at the Sonar installer, and the add-ons are separate checkboxes. So nobody is forced to install anything but the core DAW.

A year or so ago, my machine-registered iLok registrations decided to go sideways. I submitted the reset requests via the iLok manager, which worked in most cases. For the AIR licenses, I had to contact their support staff directly. Take a look at AIR's KVR support forum for how to contact them directly. I much prefer physical iLok for registrations, but on a laptop, there is a vulnerability factor where that dongle is too easily damaged. Fortunately, the AIR synths register just fine to the first generation iLok, so as long as you don't have iLok'd plug-ins (such as the iZotope Exponential reverbs) that require an iLok II or higher, you can get a cheap and plentiful first gen iLok for your AIR synths.

Seems like there's a lot of guessing around this. Anyone try filling out a support ticket? https://help.cakewalk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=360000025633

Just ask the data recovery service representatives who comment on the DIY "how to repair your hard drive" videos on YouTube. According to them, all you need to to is take the lid off outside of a clean room and your drive will be rendered irreparably unreadable forever. That's it, no magnets, no spikes, just pop the lid off and it instantly destroys it.

The issues with this is that new users, especially ones who are new to music production in general, won't know about freebies and how to find them, and won't have "hundreds of plug-ins." Think back to when you started working with a DAW. I'll guess that you used the FX and instruments that shipped with the DAW and little else.