Starship Krupa

I hope you don't mean you dumpstered it. There are always folks who can use old stuff like that. People with older systems and such. (You know how I am about keeping legacy stuff running)

I'd like to see someone (or some publication) do a shootout between the various plug-ins that do headphone correction. Cheapskate that I am, the one I own is HoRNet VHS.

Updated the firmware/OS to the latest? I'm a fan of DD-WRT for my routers. Adds a lot of control and functionality that you don't usually get with stock firmware.

"Let's put our heads together and mix."

The entire post wasn't meant to rebut or even reply just to your post. I just took it as a starting point to sum up my thoughts on the subject. Apologies if it seemed otherwise.

I haven't found this to be true in my case, at least as long as said C drive is an SSD. VSTi's like SampleTank and UVI Falcon that need to load up large samples may make it more of an issue, but even then, everything loads into RAM by the time it's ready for playback. At this point, I don't know WHAT the heck is going on with Chris' rig. The Steinberg is a fine, industry standard interface, and his system specs leave mine in the dust. The various issues point to maybe problems with either RAM or possibly SSD. The other apps he runs are dissimilar from audio software in that their projects don't stream a lot of data from memory. One thing that comes to mind is that as he's doing the things that he does, at first the system is using areas of the RAM that might be okay, but then as RAM use increases, with more plug-ins in memory (Cakewalk also stores its undo states in RAM), areas of RAM that are having trouble start to fill up and cause problems. Or possibly Windows is starting to use its memory swap file in an area of the disk that is having trouble. Similar problem. Running a memory test might flush something out. Running the SSD manufacturer's diag software might also be of value. To fix RAM issues, sometimes all that's needed is to pull the sticks out and put them back in. The contacts can get dirty and therefore intermittent. Reseating them scrubs the crud off. If you're not blowing the dust out from time to time, this becomes more likely. With drive problems, back that sucker up and get it out of there ASAP.

I get the impatience. The people who make my favorite toy have announced there's a new version that will ship "sometime in the near future," but that was 6 months ago. As far as your personal needs go, I suspect that you could be happy with Cakewalk by BandLab in its current state for a long time. BandLab have announced no plans to turn off the validation server. They have also shown a history of not only leaving the Cakewalk, Inc. registration server and product repository turned on (for 6 years now), they even recently updated the front end program for it. Spending money to provide continued support for a defunct company's products, and they are products that are in direct competition with their own. From the start, it's been in BandLab's best interests for people to migrate/update from SONAR to CbB, yet they enable people to stick with SONAR for as long as they like. They've even kept the Steam validation going for people who bought it that way. I've even recently witnessed a Cakewalk developer patiently helping a SONAR 8.5 user on this forum. The idea that they would suddenly kick the cord out of their own Cakewalk's validation server....it would be out of character for them to do it. Yes, they say "at some point" Cakewalk by BandLab will no longer validate, but IIRC, they've also said that about the old Cakewalk, Inc. products. The ill will it would generate just wouldn't be worth it. At this point, BandLab are the company who saved SONAR. Now, after 6 years of letting everyone use SONAR's direct descendant for free, while they turned the dev staff loose on bug fixing like rabid wolves, they've announced a more extensively revamped DAW that will continue the "Sonar" branding and will be payware. This is all fine, they're heroes who are now going to be claiming a just reward. Why anyone would suspect that they would suddenly kick CbB users to the curb, with all the ill will that would generate, escapes me. The loss-leader concept is now firmly entrenched in the audio software market. MeldaProduction (wouldn't be an Erik post without a mention of MeldaProduction, would it?) was an early pioneer, with their MFreeFX Bundle. That package of freebies was (and still is) of incredibly value in my self-education as a mix engineer, and it so solidly hooked me on their products that I now have a lifetime license for everything they will ever produce. Many companies have followed suit, including iZotope and Kilohearts. There will be users who will wish to stay with CbB for whatever reason(s). Custom theming is one near to my heart that I will miss a great deal. Breaking things for people who took you up on the loss leader? I can't think of any audio software company who has done that. It would generate so much ill will. Why would any company deliberately do that? BandLab are smart cookies. The Cakewalk staff have been around the music software industry for a long time and know the score (no pun intended). Sonar is still a product of the same company, BandLab AFAIK didn't get bought up by a different conglomerate with a different agenda. Meng's vision of rescuing SONAR from oblivion is still driving it. Now, part of that vision is having it bring in direct revenue instead of just the brand recognition it's been supplying. Once Sonar ships, the plan is to no longer allow new users to adopt CbB. I suspect that this is partly to curtail the free version from cannibalizing sales of the new version. Fair enough, although I'd love it if the plan were to keep the legacy CbB around as a loss-leader. But they've given a huge advance warning that if you still want the freebie CbB, act NOW. Nothing sinister, ever, in 6 years. I just don't think it's going to start now. As for the licensing cost, I personally suspect that it will be a pleasant surprise. Sonar, as Jon alluded to, will probably get some of the Cakewalk IP plug-ins added back. But AFAIK, it's not going to ship with the huge bundle of 3rd-party goodies that Platinum did. Maybe I'm wrong, but there's been no indication of that. If that's the case, the starting point is SONAR Professional pricing. With the competition not exactly resting for the past half-dozen years, lots more action in the $100 range with Studio One Artist, Waveform, REAPER, and Mixcraft, I suspect something in that neighborhood. Maybe also some kind of subscription model in addition (some people prefer that for various reasons). Waves have taught us about the perils of trying to sell subscription-only to creative software users, so I wouldn't expect subscription-only.

I knew you would dig it most of all. First person I thought of when I found it. I came across it while doing comparative listening tests among my small collection of popular studio cans (see sig). The ones that turned out to be my favorites (AKG K240) kind of surprised me, as they are also the least expensive ones in my collection, at $50 from Amazon. This got me curious as to how they compared in more objective testing and I found that site linked from the head-fi.org site.

What Lynn said. Not difficult to nail with any number of free synths. You'll likely find something similar in Swatches. I'm sure that freeware Vital has something like that, and there are multiple pads in the aforementioned Xpand!2 that can do it. There's a whole category for Bright Pads. Don't neglect the idea of adding your own FX and EQ; an EQ with an "air" band can help bring that iciness out in front.

Lemme know what you think of the plug-in. I was turned on to it by a person on this forum who posted his song. I don't remember his name but his vocals reminded me somehow of Eddy Grant. I liked the song and asked him how he had gotten it to "sparkle." There was an attractive (but not obnoxious) sheen to the mix. He knew right away what I was talking about and said it was due to his application of the SPL Vitalizer plug-in. One of the few brainworx stalwarts I had yet to pick up during a MEGA $25 no minimum sale. How I miss those, they were like getting a Xmas stocking 3 days in a row. Plug-ins instead of Viewmaster reels, though.

Indeed, and I wouldn't suggest that anyone use a program in that condition. It would be putting your system in the hands of an anonymous person who has put a great deal of effort into violating a licensing agreement and enabling others to also do it. Seems....fraught with potential for danger. I've personally cleaned up the results of a friend's son having rendered his laptop unusable due to his use of cracked music software. Since it was the same computer that he was supposed to use for school assignments and entertainment, he was hurtin' for certain. It took me hours to get a clean Malwarebytes test from the thing.

I wonder if brainworx will be issuing it in plug-in form. I freakin' love the current Vitalizer plug-in. It's my favorite pixie dust.

This seems like it could be a...um...vital instrument to acquire.

If "they" don't, perhaps someone else will. Personally, I see little advantage for them to break Cakewalk by BandLab. The only possible upside is to coerce people into switching to the payware version. But people don't like to be coerced, and the ill will this would generate would likely cause a serious backlash. Ask Waves about the dangers of perceived coercion and resulting backlash. Better to have Cakewalk be the 6 year loss-leader that it was, and simply attract people to the new Sonar with look, feel, and feature improvements. I'm confident that for regular users of CbB that the new Sonar UI will be reason enough to invest in a license. I also doubt that they will be gouging for license fees, The existing userbase consists of a lot of frugal (and/or just plain broke) people, myself included, who were initially attracted to the program because it was free. I seem to remember talk of a tiered licensing of some sort. Perhaps there will be a stripper version of Sonar that only comes with the plug-ins that currently ship with CbB, and a premium package that will include some of the Cakewalk-branded plug-ins that once shipped with SONAR Platinum, such as the LP EQ's, full CA-2A, Session Drummer, Rapture, Dimension, etc. The promo picture shows the LP EQ's in use, so there's a possible clue. Re-skinned VST versions of the sonitus fx suite would be yummy as well. There's still Cakewalk IP that BandLab paid for that is (so far) going unused.

I've seen that happen with other VST3's. Sometimes (not always), if the folder has the extension .vst3, Cakewalk won't find it. In the cases I've seen, just changing the folder name to remove the .vst3 part fixed the problem. Since it seems to be localized to Cakewalk (Mixcraft finds the DLL just fine?), maybe report the issue to the devs, post in the Feedback forum?

No personal experience, but opening them in the current Cakewalk by BandLab might work. Tried have you?

https://www.audiocheck.net/index.php Lets you test things like headphones' reproduction of binaural, your frequency range, ability to perceive differences in distortion, bit depth, delay, etc. Take the tests, see if your ears still have it after so many years of hard use. Find out possible flaws in your listening environment. I was pleased with the results of most of the tests, no unpleasant surprises and some pleasant ones. @bitflipper and @John Vere, I'm curious what y'all might have to say about it.

Another great way to free up space on your drive is to right click on the drive's icon in Explorer and select Properties. In properties, there will be a button for Disk Cleanup. Run that process, including Clean System Files. For instance, I just did it on this very laptop and reclaimed 3GB of space. The bulk of the reclaimed space comes from Windows' update's delivery optimization files, which are no longer needed once an update is successfully applied (why they keep the files around is beyond my understanding, but I've never had an issue with cleaning them up). There are also various options in Windows' Settings under System/Storage. Take care here, because it will offer the option to delete everything in your Downloads folder, which you should manage manually.

If your issue is that you want to be able to revert back to the pre-bounced state, just Save As your project under a different name before doing the bounces. That way you'll be able to go back to the state before you bounced just by opening the project.

Need to know: what is your audio hardware device? Onboard sound or external? If external, what brand and model? Troubleshooting takes different paths depending on this. PC specs would also be handy, but the most important factor these days is the audio hardware. Also, what driver modes are you attempting to use? ASIO (if it's a good external interface), WASAPI Exclusive or WASAPI Shared? The remaining options should not be used.

Good sense of intuition there. First: switch over to the Focusrite ASIO driver and see if your issues go away. If they do, then you have your own answer. Second: if your reason for wanting to use ASIO4ALL is to be able to use multiple audio devices at the same time, Windows' native WASAPI Shared will do it easily, and is fully supported in Cakewalk. The introduction of WASAPI made ASIO4ALL effectively obsolete. It does nothing that WASAPI can't do, and WASAPI is fully supported by both Windows and Cakewalk. ASIO4ALL is actually just a front end for the obsolete WDM, it only exists to help programs that don't support WASAPI (like Ableton Live 11).

When you say you "quantized" the tracks, what process did you use? There are multiple ways to adjust drum timing. If you quantized the tracks individually using an automatic process, it's easy for them to get out of sync, because different instruments in the drum kit will have different transients for the process to detect. I've never done it myself, but I think the way to do it is to make a tempo map and apply it to all the tracks. Someone other than I will be able to tell you how to get started with that.

https://www.meldaproduction.com/MFreeFXBundle This excellent free bundle includes (among 36 other useful FX and utilities) an Autotune-like plug-in, MAutoPitch. If you download the bundle and like what you see/hear, sign up for their newsletter and get a 10 euro credit. Combine this with a referral code (if you need one, go to the Coffee House/Deals forum here and ask), and you can upgrade the MFreeFX Bundle to the "pro" version for about $10 total. The plug-ins in their free state work just fine, the upgrade enables some extra features. For 10 bucks, though, very worthy purchase.

They look a lot like the Superlux HD 681 (aka PreSonus HD7, Samson SR850), but with a closed back (which makes them similar to the Monoprice SR Studio). I've only tried the HD 681 in semi-closed, but the sound lives up to the reviews. Quite good for the price, comfortable as well. But I went and made the mistake of trying them against Audio-Technica MT50x's and realized that they were merely quite good for the price. So much more detail was audible with the A-T's. AKG's K240, which all of these Superlux-made cans are obvious clones of, have been selling for $49.95 at Amazon for a couple of months, so if these pique your interest, you could have the original (well, the current made in China revision of it anyway) for not that much more.

Yeah, these lists, it seems like there are always some DAW's left out. It doesn't signify anything to me other than that one person who made a list forgot about them when making it. Some of the ones also missing from this survey: Samplitude, Waveform, Mixcraft, Mixbus, Music Maker, Nuendo, Cubasis (iPad), and BandLab (iPad, Android, browser). Mixbus, Waveform and Nuendo all have MacOS builds, too. MAGIX at one point were claiming that Music Maker was the most widely used DAW in Europe. This comes up in "compatibility" lists as well. Someone's always left off the list, probably ones that the company's QA team doesn't specifically test with pre-release, but they usually also say "any VST-compatible host." If a plug-in chokes Cakewalk, report it to both companies and they'll usually work it out. And if they really test their products on that wide a range of hosts, chances are very good that it and Cakewalk will play nicely together. Something that Cakewalk (as a subsidiary of BandLab Technologies) no longer has is a marketing dept. to stay in touch with other manufacturers and keep the product toward the front of their minds. Maybe some of the marketing people at other audio software companies are even stuck in "Cakewalk went out of business." but who knows how the product is generally viewed. Surely none of them follow the fortunes of Cakewalk/BandLab as closely as we do. I've not witnessed snobbery toward CbB (other than the "I switched to DAW X and never looked back" that all DAW's get) in plug-in companies' support forums.