Starship Krupa

Watchers of this space may be familiar with my fear and loathing around Cakewalk Sonar's drum map system, which I have been beating my head against since Cakewalk by BandLab shipped 7 years ago. Usually I've just wanted to display the drum kit piece names over on the left and use the drum grid to compose/edit and have been amazed at the obstacle course of hassle and confusion I've faced on the way to that (simple, I would think) goal. This time, I took on something much more involved and that makes deep use of the utility of what drum maps were originally designed to achieve. And in the spirit of fairness (as well as gloating), I'll tell the tale of how I used a drum map to accomplish something really useful that might not be possible with other DAW's. That is, the mapping of a given MIDI note to whatever you wish to map it to, to and from a hardware unit and/or virtual instrument. The function that when I've ranted about the hell I've gone through just to get note names to display with a drum editing grid, certain beloved users would sound off with protestations of "drum maps is the most magnificently awesome way of being able to use my original Roland Octapad to drive the brain of my Casio MIDI drum kit!" Which. Wasn't. What. I. Was. Talking. About. At. All.😡 "Of course I don't use drum maps just to display the note names, for actual programming and editing I use an instrument map and the normal piano roll view." Yes, of course you don't, because IT'S A MISERABLE HASSLE. 🤦‍♂️ But this time, what I wanted to do, were I able to pull it off, would use the note mapping function to map MIDI notes Background: "why would I deliberately inflict this on myself" tl/dr: I've been a fan of A|A|S' products ever since the DAW I was using 10 years ago started including a bespoke 2 soundpack version of their A|A|S Player, which is a synth that allows you to use A|A|S synth preset packs ("soundpacks") without having to buy the full synths the soundpacks are designed for. There is absolutely no control of any parameter, delay and reverb (often too much for my taste) are baked in and will be there until you buy the synth(s) that the soundpacks were designed for. Most of the soundpacks include up to a dozen drum/percussion single hits. Kicks, snares, hi hats, toms. I've never quite understood what I was supposed to do with these. Load up an entire virtual instrument just to get one note out of it? At least I determined that multiple instances of A|A|S Player share the same already-loaded engine, so overhead isn't so bad. Although these single hits often sound as compelling and complex and unusual as I expect from A|A|S, I've tried making multiple MIDI tracks (kick, snare, hat, tom) and it was too clumsy to have 4 separate MIDI tracks for drums, and it also makes it harder to visualize what the patterns are. Also, it's not really feasible to use Step Sequencer to program patterns if there are 4 different MIDI or Instrument tracks. But what if there were some way to have 4 synth tracks driven by a single MIDI track for simpler editing? And what if I could use the drum grid and even Step Sequencer for editing? Turns out my hunch was correct: it IS possible, and a custom drum map from scratch is the answer. Rather than starting with a GM or Default or even "blank" drum map as I normally would, I started a completely new one, for the first time following the "New Drum Map" menu selection to the letter. I created entries for note 36 (GM standard for kick), 38 (snare), 42 (closed hat), and 50 (hi tom). I loaded 4 instances of A|A|S Player into Synth Rack (a feature I never use for anything but troubleshooting) and named them AAS Kick (huh huh), AAS Snare, AAS Hat (huh huh huh), and AAS Tom. Then I set the Out Ports for each of these notes to the appropriate synth instances, and lo and behold, it worked: Maybe I could get even fancier with it and have the drum map send patch selection info to the synths. That's for another time. At the moment, I'm just having too much fun opening the different instances of A|A|S Player and trying different sounds. I still need to load the 4 instances of A|A|S Player before applying the drum map, so I'll make an A|A|S Beat (huh huh huh huh) project template with everything loaded up and ready to go.

I took "we stopped using that 20 years ago" to mean that they stopped using it for active development 20 years ago. Not that they purged all code that used the library 20 years ago. The library that Glenn found was dated 1999. There's plenty of Sonar, both in the UI and under the surface, that dates back as far as 2005. I remember using a version of SONAR over 20 years ago that had the same Staff View as still exists in Cakewalk Sonar (minus the menu bar at the top, which seems to have been updated with the new vector UI). Dialogs and guitar fretboard and all else looks the same.

😄I knew that Audio Git would wind up with an Ozone Elements license before he could blink. I checked to see if I had any extras floating around, but didn't find any. I was kind of surprised.

I am (and always have been) impressed by the amount of love that the Sonitus FX suite still gets. It seems that Cakewalk, Inc. knew what it was doing when it bought the suite (was it the entire company?) over 25 years ago. My nderstanding is that they began life as a premium commercial suite, then Cakewalk bought up the suite for inclusion with their DAW. They are kinda homely by 2025 standards (and the UI's are tiny), and I have resisted usiung them because they are effectively "DAW-locked" and can't be used in other audio and video hosts. I like to be able to use the same processors when I switch back and forth between different programs. But when I've tried them, they seem to sound great and have good workflows (esp. given that they are now over 25 years old). The multiband compressor and delay especially seem to have a lot going for them. Craig Anderton likes them so much that he uses a DXi-to-VST wrapper to be able to use them in other hosts. I'd love to see them get more contemporary (flatter, darker, resizable) UI's, and ported to VST3. And yes, while we're at it, making the Cakewalk linear phase EQ and multiband compressor available would be nice. They're great processors and would make good additions to Sonar.

Right, there's even a name for this process, "comfort reverb," to help the performer relax and deliver a more natural performance, rather than be confronted with a dry sound in the cans (revealing every detail).

Absolutely. Simplest way is probably the one in the Creative Sauce video (the one that Mark linked to). Put your FX in the track FX bin, adjust to taste. When you have a good take, turn off the FX and export your track. SONAR (and every other DAW I can think of) doesn't "print" FX when recording, so when you record something, the file created on the disk will be completely dry. My guess is that the client has supplied a backing track for you to play along to, which you'll import into a SONAR project, then play your part and export your track minus the backing track?

Sonar's built-in arpeggiator comes from a long-discontinued Cakewalk product named Project 5. Project 5 existed alongside SONAR, then the company decided to discontinue it and incorporate some of its features in SONAR. I believe Matrix also came from Project 5. It was possible to create new patterns using Project 5, but when the feature was added to SONAR, the ability to create arpeggiator patterns was not brought with it. I'm a big fan of Sonar's arpeggiator and I agree that it would greatly increase its usefulness to have some way to create our own patterns, and I was as surprised as you are to learn that there is no way. Fortunately I was able to track down a library of 500 patterns created by a Project 5 user, and they work. Adding them to the menu increases the usefulness of the feature but is of course no substitute for being able to create our own. Yes, you are able to save patterns. Unfortunately, there is no way to create new ones or change the existing ones, which makes the save feature....puzzling. I think it saves the parameters such as octave, rate, and maybe latch state? As far as I know, the arpeggiator parameters can't be automated, which further limits its usefulness.

This video is done for use with Studio One, but I followed the first part of it and it works a treat with Sonar. All you have to do after you've set it up per his instructions is go into Sonar's Preferences and add the new MIDI device as an input, then it will be available as an input to any MIDI track. It's fun to map buttons to note 36 and 38 and use it with a drum VI.

I followed the Studio One guy's video and got it to work in about 10 minutes with Sonar. It's fun to map some buttons to notes 36, 38 and so on and then use it with a drum VI. Now I have the idea to fire this up while I'm actually playing Elder Scrolls Online, recording whatever MIDI happens while I'm in combat.

The biggest issue I've run into when trying to find a way to control audio software with a game controller is that there seem to have been multiple ways to do it with hardware that the original PC game port spec. The Sidewinder was Microsoft's own line, right? I skipped over that specific area of PC development because I preferred keyboard/mouse up until about a year ago when a friend gave me a PS4 controller with a broken trigger. I fixed the trigger with parts from Amazon and found that I really liked it, it especially helped me with Outer Wilds, which I was obsessed with playing at the time. The game port ones are the solutions that Google's AI tries to give me. Maybe because it was born after the XBox/PS3 USB type took over and doesn't remember there being any other kind. 😄 But I'm trying to use an XBox controller (and/or PlayStation controller). I think that the Fergo one you linked to is the most promising, here's a guy who got it to work with Studio One. I also found a great rant from the MIDI Manufacturers Association about the pitfalls of using the common game port to MIDI port hack (and using computers for music in general): https://web.archive.org/web/20081222191817/http://www.midi.org/about-midi/electrical.shtml "Designers of personal computers are not generally audio engineers and apparently have not heard of ground loops. In fact, given the noisy fans and screaming disk drives that go into the PC, it is a wonder they can hear at all." I'm sensing frustration there, MIDI Manufacturers Association. Sometimes when I feel frustrated I remember the serenity prayer, which helps me remember that I am powerless over other people's design decisions. 😄 I do hope that whoever wrote that has kept their musical career going into this time when reducing ambient noise is a design goal.

If you could post links to them, I'd most appreciate it. I switched to using controllers for gaming a year and change ago and at the time had the idea that it would be interesting to use one for DAW control, but never found a way to do it. I found out the hard way that Steam intercepts controller input and uses it for Windows if you leave the Steam launcher app running. It was causing trouble with non-Steam games so I turned it off. But I could move the cursor, click on stuff etc. Too clumsy and non-specific for use in a DAW, but if the controller buttons and sticks could be made to control plug-in functions like a KAOSS pad or whatever, that would most definitely pique my interest.

I am sooooo lucky. Someone near me has donated fully-functional Wacom tablets to Salvation Army twice over the last couple of years. One smaller white one and a larger dark charcoal one. Usually Wacom tablets in thrift stores are missing their stylii, but not in this case, matter of fact both of them came with extra nibs. I bought a Corel Painter Humble Bundle just because I'd gotten a Wacom tablet for $7. Later I got a larger tablet from Salvation Army (which had disconnection problems until I replaced its USB cable) and then Rebelle on deep discount.

Mm, not quite what I meant. I was specifically comparing those free licensed plug-in packages to Waves' entry level bundles. "Adequate" is different for everyone. One of my bottom lines is that with few exceptions (that Quadcurve EQ in Sonar is just too handy), I'd rather not invest time and effort on DAW-locked plug-ins. Plug-ins that aren't DAW-locked help me to have some familiarity across hosts I use. So right there, that puts me at least into a collection of bread-and-butter freebies. If I were certain that I'd only want to use them in one single DAW, then DAW-locked ones might not be a problem. The only basic category where I'd feel held back would be reverb. For me it's MTurboReverb or the Phoenix/Nimbus/Stratus algorithm under whatever name.

Still? In these times when so many freebies are available to cover the basics (and then some)? Kilohearts Essentials, MeldaProduction MFreeFX, Native Instruments Komplete Start....

? What do you think their primary concern actually is? As far as I can tell, their sources of revenue are licensing their copy protection to software companies and selling their dongles to software users. As far as I can tell, the bulk of their customers for both of these are working in the audio field. What am I missing?

Haven't tried them yet, but there are some interesting items here: https://voxsamples.com/collections/free-audio-plugins

Although it is unfortunate that you bought it expecting to get those iZotope packages and then didn't get them, you're probably right that nobody else, at least around here, cared. But all is not lost when it comes to free iZotope products, as kitekrazy said, Ozone Elements is regularly included in promos. Most recently, earlier this month anyone with a registered Focusrite interface could register a copy of Ozozne Elements. The deal probably didn't show up here because it's so common. See if this still works: https://go.mastering.com/optin1690400043647 If you can't find free iZotope Ozone/RX licenses right now, at least snag all the current iZotope freebies, along with the Plugin Alliance freebies. Th e PA freebies include Masterdesk Classic, which I personally prefer to Ozone Elements as a quickie mastering widget. The iZotope freebies include some individual components of Ozone Standard, such as Imager and EQ. Other than that, there's so much loss leader stuff out there that by the time you download, install, and check out the stuff available from MeldaProduction, Kilohearts, Plugin Alliance, Native Instruments, and iZotope, another Ozone Elements giveaway will pop up. RX is less common but not unheard of.

The single seat thing is pretty stingy. Even most iLok'd plug-ins allow 2 seats. But hey, it's their business There is a touch of redemption in the fact that you can keep your Waves licenses on a removable drive, like an SD card or thumb drive, so in theory at least, you can use them on the laptop if you tote the SD card along. That's much cheaper than having to purchase a physical iLok dongle, for which I give them credit. The only Waves plugins I've ever used are the many freebies they've given out over the years, and since they tend to run the same freebies multiple times, I have duplicate licenses for the ones I'd be likely to use anyway. Just in case, I keep the licenses on a micro SD card.

So far I've not had a single one "go bad" on me. I paid for WUP once to be able to update a couple of freebies I got. I think it was $14 to take two plug-ins from v. 9 to v. 11. I think the new feature that I wanted was the resizable GUI. Which has always puzzled me about the wailing and gnashing of teeth around WUP. Yeah, Waves are a little pushy about trying to sell it, but nobody's forced to pay for WUP. In the event that a plug-in breaks, you can jump in and WUP any plug-ins that have broken and have them updated to the latest versions. Seems fair to me.

The people to ask are MAGIX and Humble Bundle. I don't know, because I wouldn't install iZotope Elements, I have the full Standard versions of those products. In the past, I remember the Ozone products being omitted from the Humble Bundle Sound Forge, but they also made it pretty clear that this was the case.

It wouldn't hurt to give it an "Edit" button, with a good, full-featured MeldaProduction parametric EQ underneath. So you think Vojtech was taking the pi55 with MTurboEQ? I hadn't considered that, but yeah, given what longtime readers of the MeldaProduction forum remember about his public statements regarding things like this, it's either a goof or a capitulation. Maybe someone at the parent company was pressuring him and this is what he came up with to shut them up.😄 "MTurboComp is great, how about the same thing with an EQ? People say your stuff sounds good but they can't get past the UI." "It's an EQ, there's nothing more to it than a collection of filters in a box. All of our EQ's already have saturation, even the free one." "Pleeeeeeeeeease?" "Okay, if you'll be quiet and leave us alone." If anyone wants this sort of EQ, save your $9, go to IK Multimedia and get any flavor of T-RackS 6. Right now, the standard version is $50, the MAX version is $80, and the Intro version is free. They all come with Classic Equalizer, which is what MTurboEQ says it's trying to be.

I watched the tutorial and it seems like it doesn't do anything that you couldn't do for free with MOscillator and MEqualizer. What it does is wrap it all up in a nice easy to use package, with automated tests. Time is money and so is convenience. Kinda inspires me to try it with the aforementioned freebie plug-ins.

I wonder why H-Comp is in so many giveaways. It's a nice processor.

I don't think you'd even need MAutodynamicEQ to get it to null. Every control except for the "analog" knob is covered by MEqualizer, which is free to use. The "analog" knob seems to add a tiny bit of noise, so if you really wanted to nail it, I suppose you might also need MNoiseGenerator, another freebie. A more honest, straightforward way to deliver this plugin would be to just take MEqualizer, stick a couple more features on it, for instance modulators and the noise generator, maybe make it an 8 band EQ, and the 10 devices. MDeluxeEqualizer. It could go with my other fantasy MeldaProduction product, MDeluxeCompressor. Here's what their ad copy says about MTurboEQ: And: So what they're selling is a set of 12 "devices" for MEqualizer, but without access to the features that make MEqualizer such a powerhouse. The work put into MTurboEQ would have been better spent adding the 12 devices to MAutoDynamicEQ. I don't know who would want MTurboEQ. People who dig analog mojo and workflow aren't attracted to Melda products. Other companies (IK Multimedia, UAD) already have that covered, and they do a great job. Isn't T-RackS on sale right now for about $60? T-RackS looks so great, is such eye candy that sometimes I substitute with a T-RackS EQ or compressor just to have that pretty UI in my project. Also, their implementation of M/S is easier to operate than MeldaProduction's.

Supposedly it clones an FL Studio effect called Gross Beat. So you can do what Gross Beat does in hosts other than FL Studio. There are starting to be some more, but yeah, for a long time it was MRhythmizer and Stutter Edit. Cableguys TimeShaper appears to have a similar function? Option paralysis is a hallmark of multiple MeldaProduction products, including MTurboDelay.