Starship Krupa

As ever, Swatches has been update to include this, so even if you don't want to buy the full pack, you can still make use of 8 or so of the sounds for free.

While it's good that it's working, and WASAPI Exclusive is a good mode, it's still a good idea to see if you can get the Presonus' ASIO driver to work. You'll get better performance as well as other benefits. Keep posting here and we'll try to help. First item of business is to make sure you're using the latest version of the Presonus driver. Also, in my Universal Driver control panel, it shows what interface is connected. Make sure your Studio is shown there.

I've seen similar issues solved by switching to an earlier revision USB port before. My guess is that it somehow has to do with flow control; the interface's USB port was designed with slower data flow in mind and the newer spec ports either overwhelm it or don't hear from it often enough. Never heard of it with something as recent as the M4, though. Where I have heard of it was in relation to very old MIDI-only interfaces designed during the USB 1 days. The solution for those is to plug a USB 1 hub into the USB 2 port, which seems to slow the communication down enough so that the interface can handle it. The only issues I've seen from having bus-powered USB interfaces were related to what the motherboard and/or OS does to USB ports when the computer goes into whatever sleep is enabled. My very recent Presonus Studio 2|4 will have audio but no MIDI after waking my computer. This despite the usual going into power settings and disabling bla bla bla. I still prefer Firewire for my studio. Firewire was designed from the start for 2-way streaming communication. Looking at the specs you might think that Firewire 400 was slower than USB2, but USB2 was faster in only one direction. I thought I was just being crusty about that until I bought a recent USB interface. USB still feels to me like I'm trying to do audio over a keyboard/mouse port. Heck, as far as I know, none of the interface manufacturers are even on USB 3 (which at least has asynchronous flow control) yet. I'm hoping that my Focusrite Pro 40 will carry me through until true USB 3 or Thunderbolt interfaces can be had for decent used prices. Even the antique computers I tend to run the wheels off of have all had USB 3 ports on them, so I don't know what they're waiting for.

Chiming in because this was just called to my attention in another topic and it sounds like a very useful feature. Sounds like a large number of other DAW's have it, sounds like people making the switch to Cakewalk Sonar might be disappointed not to find it. I do anticipate people who come up with the coolest licks they've ever played during that 2 measure pre-roll to beg for an option to have Sonar record it anyway in case their genius light accidentally comes on. ?

IMO, just liking the post isn't enough if the feature is really important to you. Replying to the topic, with your own reasons why it's important to you, is more likely to get and hold the attention of those making the decisions about how to allocate coding time. And don't worry about necro'ing an old thread, that just shows that the feature is desired by many people over a long period of time. The devs don't have time to ready every post, but they will notice if the same topic keeps rising to the surface. And persistence is not futile. One of my own pet features/headaches was how Cakewalk named and numbered interface inputs, which was DIRE with my old Presonus Firepods. I lobbied for a great long time, others chimed in, and it eventually happened in a very elegant, flexible way. All that you've said about how your hardware recorder had it, about how you researched PT, S1 and Cubase and they all had it, etc., helps make a better case for including it in Cakewalk Sonar (because Cakewalk by BandLab is now feature frozen). AFAIK, the streamlined Cakewalk group at BandLab doesn't have a dedicated marketing person to keep an eye on the competition and suggest/insist that the product include certain new features. This can be a blessing, as it puts quality ahead of questionable "big" feature bloat, but maybe there's a downside as well. This forum is the only way I know of short of making a YouTube video to advocate for features and fixes in the software. Extra points for using the word "clunky" in your post.? (The only thing to leave out is a suggestion that it would be easy to do, because there's no way for us to know that.)

Since I have MComplete I can't check out what of the standard Melda FX it comes with other than MTA and MC. But whatever it does come with, shoot, just because it has the word "guitar" in its name doesn't mean you have to only use it on guitars.... "It only comes with...." or "it only lets you...." are not usually part of the MeldaProduction buying experience. ?

Yeah, I dunno. At some point, but what point? As you say, and as the devs have said, it's still up in the air. I would find it....out of character for BandLab to just pull the plug on CbB. Too many would see it as proof that the reason they put the 6 month validation in CbB was so they could eventually "force" the userbase to start paying for it.

I'm still in the phase of learning about orchestral arrangements where I'm working with free and cheap libraries/players. Orchestral Companions, Orchestools (VSCO-based), Spitfire BBC, etc. My velocities are still at 127, everything's on the grid, and I haven't gotten into articulations and the like. Once I figure out what I'm doing and what higher end libraries have to offer, I might invest. Now I'm still in my Soundspot/Dead Duck/MeldaProduction free bundle/iZotope Elements phase.

Their stuff is not all created equal. I think there are at least 3 different lines they acquired. I bought a bunch of their stuff when they were new on the scene and deep, deep discounting. Good for fast results, not so much for deep diving. Loop Engine is one that I purchased recently and am very happy with. The other ones that I keep around are the sound design-y ones. Venom can take any sound and turn it into an ambient wash, Dodge Pro is a powerful sequenced filter and dynamics processor. I bought them both as part of very low-priced bundles they were offering years ago. Thanks for reminding me, I have been neglecting Venom and Dodge Pro lately and they're good stuff....

Since I believe I got MPS 5.1 UE at the same time you did, I'm very interested to hear how this turns out.

One of the ones that does not, and explicitly recommends ASIO4ALL as a substitute is Ableton Live. I was amazed to discover that, especially given the popularity of Live as a program for live performance, presumably on laptops.

Yes. The first thing to do with any program when you save something and then when you reopen it it's corrupted is to check the integrity of your disk. Drives eventually go bad physically, some sooner than others, and while it's much less common than it was 25 years ago, the file system can get corrupted, too. The way to check is to go to My Computer, then right click on the drive and select Properties. From there, click on the Tools tab. Also, Windows Defender is good at what it does (although I have issues with how it does it), but if I'm having any mystery troubles, I also like to run Malwarebytes Free. Try those first, see if they help.

By crippled, do you mean that it didn't have all of the modules that Platinum did? CbB shipped with fewer modules than Platinum as well. It left out a couple of the compressors, such as the PC-2A. Can't remember the other one, maybe the Bus Compressor 4K or Channel Compressor 4K? It also had no Concrete Limiter. Artist, on the other hand, at least according to that chart, only had the Style Dials, with the Style Dials' "back ends," the PX-64 Percussion Strip, VX-64 Vocal Strip, and the TL-64 Tube Leveler probably hidden like they were in CbB (until we figured out how to unhide them). For people who were owners of Platinum and installed CbB, it would have looked and acted like exactly the same program, due to Platinum's extra goodies coming over seamlessly (in most cases). There were a LOT of extra goodies. One of the reasons that I started both the "Favorite Freeware" topics years ago was that CbB shipped with such a bare minimum of plug-ins. Especially in the area of instruments, it's lacking a bunch of Cakewalk-branded ones that even Professional came with.

Thank you for letting me know this. I wonder why Cakewalk Inc. left those features off the comparison list (or did I just miss them, or were they added after the list was made?). Plug-in Load Balancing is a big plus for me. Still not quite the "many" that Byron referred to, but an important feature to me. I once experimented with a challenging project on my 11-year-old laptop, changed nothing but turning Plug-In Load Balancing off, and it couldn't even play it. The dithering would also be if I ever got projects to the point where I wanted to render them for conversion. ? I'm not sure why it stirred controversy when I said I thought CbB was similar to SONAR Professional feature-wise. I didn't say "identical." And even now that HIBI has kindly enlightened me, for feature comparison purposes, CbB still seems to me closer to Professional than to Platinum. Nobody outside of BandLab knows what features other than the new GUI Cakewalk Sonar is going to have. I'm sure it will still have Drum Replacer, VocalSync, Plug-In Load Balancing, and the Pow-r dithering options, but what about bundled plug-ins? One thing that would be great would be if the Sonitus Suite could get a makeover and conversion to VST3. Whatever comes with it, I really hope it's not locked to Sonar. I use multiple DAW's and I don't like to use plug-ins that are tied to only one of them (I make an exception for the almighty Quadcurve EQ). My attitude toward bundled plug-ins is similar to @JohnnyV's, I think. Given a $300 price difference, I would also opt to spend the money on other audio tools.

Hah. You only think you do. Ever hear of The Mandela Effect? ? I never owned a version of SONAR in the X years, when I started it was still Cakewalk, then it became SONAR. I stopped using it around 2003 or so (SONAR 2.0 maybe?) and then didn't come back until CbB shipped, so I have nothing to go on but the old marketing materials on the website, old reviews, etc. When I first got CbB, I took a look at that page, with the comparative features and it looked to me like almost all of the things that separated Professional (sic) from Platinum were plug-ins, made either by Cakewalk or by 3rd parties. Since Drum Replacer looks and acts like a plug-in and shows up in Browser as one, I thought it was a plug-in, although the web page calls it a Core Feature, as it does half a dozen PC modules, which are plug-ins. After that, we wind up with the differences in "core features" amounting to VocalSync and Theme Editor. Much as I love Theme Editor, and will miss it if it's not going to be a part of Cakewalk Sonar, it's a separate program. Given that, if it's true, you might see why I came to the conclusion that CbB was closer to Professional than Platinum in features. I don't want to perpetuate misinformation if I can avoid it, so if I've got it wrong I want to know before I repeat anything that isn't factual. Someone just saying, "no, you're WRONG" without saying where I'm wrong doesn't help. What am I missing? This isn't just an academic question, the userbase is eventually going to be asked to start paying for Sonar, and it would be nice to know which version Cakewalk Sonar most resembles. Of course we haven't seen Sonar yet, so we don't know what features it will have that CbB doesn't.

Could you please elaborate? Byron kindly filled me in on how the various versions were actually called "Home Studio," "Artist," "Studio," and "Platinum," and that there were "many more features, not just plug-ins" in Platinum. Are those the things that struck fear in you? If so, I hope that you'll accept my excuse that I was getting my information from the Cakewalk, Inc. website, which according to Byron, got one of the names of their own products wrong. I'm really surprised that nobody ever caught that or alerted them. I also can't figure out why, if there were many more non-plug-in features, that they would have a chart that showed only 3, one of which also functions as a plug-in and another that has nothing to do with audio processing.

Thanks for setting me straight on that. I was misled by the very webpage you linked to, which calls the versions "Home Studio," "Artist," "Professional," and "Platinum." Did you ever point out their error to them back when the site was current? Do you see how I could have been misled into believing that there was a version of SONAR called "SONAR Professional?" Since your knowledge obviously eclipses my own, I beseech you to tell me what the "many more features" that were not plug-ins were. Please? The web page you linked to must be incorrect about this as well as the product names, because what it shows me is only three non-plug-in features that Profession..., sorry, "Studio" (sharp-eyed guy you are, how could their own website have gotten it wrong?) lacked in comparison to Platinum. Drum Replacer and Theme Editor, which were optional when CbB was first released (don't know if they still are), and VocalSync. On my systems, Drum Replacer installed as a plug-in when I tried installing it, so please forgive me for thinking of it as a plug-in.

So you consider suggestions to substitute a superior synth that you already have to be "noise?" Well, whatever. Using TTS-1 in Cakewalk will allow you to play back GM files and have them sound better than the way that has stopped working.

Going by their avatar photo, I'd say that Eden is female....

What do you mean by "beatbox?" That word has more than one meaning in English. Is it a virtual instrument? A piece of hardware? Sounds made with the mouth? Cakewalk has no "automatic noise suppressor." Why do you think that such a thing is the problem?

That's what I do, too. Inspector is only open for things that I can only do in Inspector, like use the arpeggiator, set clip colors, etc. I've always suspected that the Track Inspector is there because it can be nice for working on a laptop or other single-screen situation. Then there's the Craig Andertrick of having different strip modules in your Track Inspector and Console Views, but that's a pretty special case....

Oh how I wish that people would stop repeating figures like that. Cakewalk By BandLab, upon its first release was similar in feature set to SONAR Professional, a program that listed for $199.00 6 years ago. CbB was never "SONAR Platinum, but now FREE!" SONAR Platinum was a suite that bundled SONAR Professional with a huge pile of plug-ins. I think maybe half a dozen (if that) of the plug-ins that came with Platinum were included with CbB, and I believe a couple that Professional had that CbB doesn't. We can assign any personal value we want to CbB, but its closest antecedent sold for $199. If I were shopping for a DAW today, and had to choose between SONAR Platinum and SONAR Professional, I'd go with Professional, no question. I have all the plug-ins I need, and THEN some. It's a different scene now; many more companies are offering loss-leader freebie mixing and instrument plug-ins, many other people are using software tools that didn't exist back then to make free ones. I could comfortably do what I do with nothing but free software, it's just more fun to shop and get exactly what I want. ?

Good lord. If you could give us a hint about what VST this was so we can avoid it, that would be nice.

There's been no official statement to the effect that this is scheduled or foreseen. BandLab have kept the registration server for SONAR, which isn't even their product, alive for over 5 years since the demise of Cakewalk, Inc. And there's no end to that in sight either. Anything is possible, but based on the wisdom and good citizenship BandLab have displayed in the past 5 years, with zero, zip, nada, no unethical moves ever in regard to Cakewalk and/or the legacy SONAR userbase, I suspect that anyone who's using CbB now and wants to keep using it and not upgrade to Sonar will be able to do so for a reasonable time period, by which I mean "a matter of years." This is all speculation on my part. Past performance is no indication of future blah blah.... If by "at some point" you mean when/if BandLab divests the product line or goes under, well, anything's possible. As with any software, as well as food, water, and transportation, have a contingency plan. And as I've mentioned before, if for some reason you get caught out, you can always unplug your DAW from the Internet and set its clock back to a time when CbB was registered. ?