Starship Krupa

Whoa. This just got me to finally download it and try it. These instruments sound REALLY good. I'm playing with Layers, which is orchestra sections. Now I'm really interested in looking into Cakewalk's Articulation Maps....

Soundpaint is my current fave in this category.

Essential, IMO. One of my Desert Island FX.

Bandlab have owned the Cakewalk/SONAR program longer than either Gibson or Roland.

Not sure I understand the question. TTS-1 is already multitimbral and we can already layer its sounds. Are you saying that for instance you would like to be able to set the MIDI channel of each TTS-1 voice to any channel we want so that we could send it notes on MIDI channel 1 and play both piano and organ (or whatever) at the same time? That's probably too easily done by just duplicating the MIDI tracks and setting them to different channels. Therefore not much incentive. If I'm not getting what you want to do, please fill me in.

Hmm. I'll take a crack at distilling/translating this. "I feel that buying a Nektar 61 (keyboard controller) and Volca Sample 2 (hardware digital sampler/sequencer) won't be as good as inputting notes from a keyboard into Cakewalk to trigger samples and sampled instruments. How do I configure Cakewalk so that I can layer multiple instruments, either by overdubbing or using imported patterns." Only an educated guess based on context.... Since it would probably be helpful in Edward's case, I think YouTube offers captioning in multiple languages? Try this:

In my experience, Kontakt Player seems to be more sensitive to wanting the MIDI track that's driving it set to output on channel 1. Sometimes I have to sacrifice a chicken or two to get it to either start making sound or start making sounds again after it mysteriously stops, and setting the MIDI track to channel 1 is the first chicken I sacrifice. Make sure the input to the MIDI track is set to your keyboard controller or interface's output, channel 1. Then make sure it's output is set to Kontakt channel 1. Sometimes I have to go back to the coop and create a whole new MIDI and synth track and copy the data from the old MIDI track. I don't know why this happens and why what I do makes it work again, it just does sometimes. It's like having an old car where you have to tap the accelerator a couple of times before it will start, then skip first gear because otherwise it will stall out. Then be sure not to turn off the wipers before you turn off the defroster. It makes no sense, but I need it to work more than I need it to make sense. It probably has something to do with how wonderfully versatile and powerful Kontakt is. But sometimes with great power comes great "I have no idea how the %@*& to get this thing to work." So, to the OP, try setting the MIDI input and output channels to 1, even though it shouldn't make any difference. The channel setting may not even be the "problem," but if setting it fixes it, who cares? (if holding the chicken in your right hand, shake it in a counterclockwise direction)

There's no reason to be running SONAR X3 these days. Install Cakewalk by BandLab. Leave SONAR X3 in place. You'll be running a much better DAW and have access to all of the FX and instruments that came with X3. If Auto Tune Evo still doesn't work, Cakewalk is currently supported. You can get help here on the forum and from BandLab's support staff.

This is definitely not how it's supposed to work. The Surround preferences don't mean anything here. You have left and right, and that's it. What's better to check is Audio/Devices/Driver Settings/Playback and Recording. Do you see the appropriate devices? Do you have it set to WASAPI (assuming that your DAC doesn't have its own ASIO driver)? What are you showing in your Hardware Outputs strips?

Um....yeah, no, not going to be anyone's priority to make the software able to create files in a format that almost nobody can record or play back. I mean....is this a joke?

I understand being on a budget, but you didn't mention any. Based on the prices I see, you'd probably have to spend about $30-$40 to get not really enough RAM on a not really fast enough computer with a spinning drive. Add another $40 for an SSD and you're up to $70 to end up with a system with specs from 12 years ago. Whatever you're trying to cook up with such old parts, how about a very capable, built like a tank system for just over $200 instead? Refurbished Dell Optiplex, i7-6700 (which is, BTW, the processor in my main DAW is an i7-6700), https://www.amazon.com/Dell-OptiPlex-7040-Bit-Multi-Language-Supports/dp/B07GNDFSB8/ Free delivery with Amazon Prime, plug it in and go. You'd be able to throw anything at that system. Video rendering, orchestral VST's, anything. It would be a real pleasure to use for slightly more peanuts than you'd spend on the pain in the a55 system.

See my quiz on "desert island" FX. I wrote out my list, then looked at it, all 15 of them, and asked myself why I have 20X that many. Yeah, some of those are one-of-a-kind sound design-y things from the likes of Glitchmachines, Freakshow Industries, and Unfiltered Audio, but the list in my "compressors" category is huge.

Yeah, I'm not so sure that having the default workspace being Basic is best.

Oh yes, this.

This, sadly. Sorry I didn't make that clear. I wonder what triggers Cakewalk enumerating available arp patterns.

Okay....it's set to the correct folder.

I've had this sort of thing happen on older systems with certain plug-ins that have animated displays but that don't take advantage of OpenGL or DirectX to render the display. This leaves it up to the CPU (by way of the audio engine) to do the display rendering. The sure sign is that when I close the plug-in UI, I stop getting so many dropouts. Sometimes, it seems like they don't even stop their CPU eating when I close the UI. The only solution I know of is the same as with any other resource-hungry plug-in: disable them one by one until you find the one(s) that's eating the resources. As far as tuning your system to be more tolerant....the usual. Experiment with plug-in load balancing, extra plug-in bufs, etc.

Okay, here's a mystery. I just got a new laptop and I'm in the long process of installing all the ancillary goodies. One of which is the Alesion arp patterns. I followed my own instructions, placing the folder in C:\Cakewalk Content\Cakewalk Core\Arpeggiator Patterns\ and restarted Cakewalk. They don't show up in the arpeggiator's preset browser. It's worked as it should on two other computers. What's going on?

Ah, this is something I do on my systems. I increase the pointer size and turn it yellow. Glad you found a solution! Happy to help fire the neurons.

Yes. The quiz is about third-party FX.

Wow, these replies are even more fascinating than I thought. And proof of diversity of technique: some categories that I used others leave blank and some categories I omitted others find essential (so please do fill in the blanks). I did miss Channel Strip. I sorta think of them as multi-FX, although I know that for many people, they're something you use on every track to add character. I use Cakewalk's Console Emulator. I'd probably go with the bx_Focusrite or the Lindell rack that houses their preamp, EQ, and compressor. I'd say UltraChannel, but it's really a multieffect unit. Sandwiching a bunch of FX between two transformer emulations doesn't make it a "channel strip," or does it? Lots of love for Fabfilter and Melda so far, almost none whatsoever for Waves (man, how times have changed!), and how can I be the only one so far to mention T-Racks? I couldn't help asking myself after I wrote out my list "okay, that's 20 FX, why do I have at least 15X that many?"

Scenario: in rehab for plug-in hoarding, you are sent to a desert island (with wi-fi for updates, of course) and given the choice of a single 3rd-party plug-in in each FX category. No suites, individual FX only. You can take individual plug-ins from your beloved iZotope suites, but not the whole suite. Which FX do you choose? For me, versatility will be an issue, so it's going to skew toward Meldaproduction. Reverb: MTurboReverb. Covers it all. Not as simple as just slapping Phoenix/Nimbus/Stratus on the reverb bus, but more versatile. Track Compressor: elysia mpressor. Sounds so sweet. Bus Compressor: T-Racks 670. Magic bus. Does M/S Multiband Compressor: MDynamicsMB. Versatility. M/S Precision EQ: T-Racks Equal. Plenty of bands and filter types. Character EQ: Lindell T-100. If I have to choose just one, this one seems the most versatile. Delay: MTurboDelay. See MTurboReverb. Covers it all. Chorus: Acon Multiply Pitch Shifter: kHs Pitch Shifter. The simplest possible, but it also works the best of any I've tried. Basic Filter: Soundspot Fat 2. Glitcher/Stutterer: MRhythmizer. Easier to navigate than Stutter Edit 2 Limiter: MLimiterX . Does the M/S Stereo Imager: OzSoft Xpander (it's a freebie, do check it out) Amp sim: bx_rockrack Vocoder: MVocoder. After a pretty exhaustive search, this is the one Saturation: Waves BB Tubes. Pretty nice freebie, I must say. Restoration: ReaFIR. Criminally overlooked and underrated, I've found no single plug-in that can do what this venerable freebie does when it comes to cleaning up camcorder footage or other noisy audio Clipper: T-Racks Classic Clipper Bonus round. As time goes on, you are allowed to expand with utilities and combos: Utility: Trackspacer. Edges out MAutoAlign because I won't be recording drums on the island. Multieffect: Unfiltered Audio TRIAD. Covers a LOT of ground in the realm of sound design. All-in-one Mastering: bx_masterdesk

https://www.meldaproduction.com/MTurboBundle22 MTurboReverb, MTurboDelay, MTurboComp, MTurboEQ, MTurboAmp. Good through the end of the year. Effective price is $318. However, for first-time buyers, sign up for their newsletter and get $10 credit, use a referral code (mine is MELDA1923165) and get 20% off. By my calculations, this would get you the bundle for $245. IMO, though, if the MTurbo line piques your interest, I'd suggest you check out the MEssentialsFX bundle first. It gets you MTurboReverbLE, MTurboDelay, and MTurboCompLE along with 7 other FX. With the current 50% off sale, it's $132. Apply the same new buyer discounts and it comes out to $79. Yikes. That leaves plenty of room to throw in the pro upgrade for MFreeFX bundle and get about 50 FX for under $100. The most useful MTurbos are MTurboReverb (the LE is fine for me, designing my own reverb algos is not on my list of things I want to learn), and MTurboDelay. Both of those are my "Desert Island" FX in their categories. The rest of the MTurbos are great, but haven't seen nearly as much use.

I guess if I had to choose only one that would be it. I can vouch for the sound design-y usefulness of the Unfiltered Audio range as a whole. I have SpecOps, Fault, Sandman Pro/Instant Delay, G8, BYOME, TRIAD, SILO, and Dent/Indent. G8 is the best gate ever. Dent/Indent is the one I use least, because Trash 2 has that covered. The rest are just great weird sound warpers of one kind or another. Collect 'em all!

That is a LOT of processors piled up. We each have our own techniques and styles, and there's no "wrong" way unless it doesn't sound good, but in your case, it's not sounding good (to you). The first thing I do if I'm getting unwanted noise or distortion in a plug-in chain is go through the plug-in rack one-by-one bypassing and then turning them back on until I find the one that's causing the problem. Unlike others in this thread, I'm less sure that you're getting too much level into a processor because your overall level is pretty low. -12dB is low. So unless one of the FX is boosting it too much for the next one in line to take, that's not a problem. I would record hotter, though. I examined "problem.wav" and had a hard time hearing the "distortion. Examining your FX chain....I will say that one should only ever use one instance of a de-esser on a track. That's best practice. Over-aggressive de-essing can create distortion and a lisping sound. I can't help but want to comment on your (long) FX chains. What you're doing is....unusual. 4 compressors is excessive. One fast one (Molotok or maybe MCompressor) to take the peaks off and a smoother one (LALA) for leveling should do it. MEQualizer is a great plug-in, but 3 instances of it on the same track? If you're feeling the need to de-ess, then de-ess again after going through 2 EQ's and 2 compressors, you've probably boosting the highs too much on one of the EQ's and are compensating for it with the second stage of de-essing. There's no reason to boost highs if you're just going to shave them off again with a de-esser. You are doing a lot of carving that might not be necessary. One or two 3-6dB cuts at the "honk" frequencies and a highpass can all be done with one instance of MEQualizer. Maybe also a lowpass rolloff at the very top. As a general guide, the fewer FX I can use to get results, the better. Each one comes at a price in fidelity, in the form of phase distortion, aliasing, etc. As for your de-breath plug-in, perhaps using a pop filter when recording vocals, then editing your vocal into phrases and trimming the clips to eliminate the breath intakes could get you better results without the need for yet another plug-in. Remember, when we're mixing, we're mixing, that is, the idea is to get multiple sounds to sound good together rather than sculpting each track into sonic perfection and then putting them all together. In a good mix, some if not most or all of the tracks are going to sound like hell when solo'd. This applies greatly to vocals and acoustic guitar, which carry a lot of unnecessary sonic information at the lower end. We have to solo for some tasks like finding and cutting the aforementioned "honk" frequencies and chasing down breath intakes, but most of the time, it's best to work with all the tracks together.