Starship Krupa

You're not missing a step, you're doing one that makes your tracks play at the wrong tempo. Why are you telling it to import at the project tempo rather than leaving the clip at its original tempo?

What you have been fiddling with is bit depth. Bit rate is the selection for 44.1KHz, 48KHz, 88.2KHz, etc. A good tool for checking bit rate and depth of files you're working with is the freeware MediaInfo.

If you right click on the Record button you will get an option to set the record mode to step. Off the top of my head, I can't think of a way to make it more front-facing, although there might be. How were you expecting to find it? Cakewalk is a huge and venerable beast, and for some things, you really do need to RTM, as you did. Have you downloaded a copy of the Reference Guide? That's a good one to have on your phone for when you're waiting in line or at the doctor's office.

Especially when bx_cleansweep is also free. Lamest PB freebie in years.

Support: "Where did you purchase the interface?" Erik: "From some sketchy dude in what looked like it might have been a meth house in East Palo Alto." I didn't read the fine print, but if it says "original purchaser," then I don't technically have the right to any of the licenses. Fortunately, Sketchy McMethhouse hadn't registered it. I'm fine with how the cards fell. If I ever have need for Studio One, I'll drop the 50 on the current Artist.

If there's a license for 5 or 6 somewhere in my account, I sure haven't been able to find it. These licenses in question where you "should" get the current version, are you sure they were referring to licenses that came with the purchase/registration of an interface? I always just figured that they handed out v. 4 licenses so that they would be immediately upgraded if the user had an interest in actually using the software. If I had the right to the version that was current when I registered the unit, that would be v 5.

That is the way it should work. Unfortunately, when I registered my Studio 2|4 back in February, what I got was a license for Artist 4. Obviously, at that point, 5 was the current version. I like Studio One, to the point where I was considering dropping the $49 to upgrade my Artist to 5 in order to get the VST support. Still waffling about that. I already have a secondary DAW in the form of Mixcraft.

Yeah, that designation is confusing, especially in light of the fact that many of their deals are free trials of services and bundles. It should more properly say "limited time offer" or "time-sensitive deal." Anyway, about Massive. I was psyched to get it, and I guess I still am, but.... The past few days I've been running through the amazing number of presets it comes with (apparently NI have released multiple expansion packs for it that are included in this version). No end in sight there, as so many may also be downloaded for free. They're not exactly inspiring me, though. I do not like "Car Alarm Trance" and most of the patches seem designed for that sort of thing, like the sort of "exciting electronic dance music" one hears in commercials for water parks. Every so often I need to take a break because I can't stand to hear another stacked unison sawtooth blast. I am hoping that somewhere in there will be some deep house/ambient fodder.

I can't say what's exactly going wrong in your case, but I have had it happen that I was accidentally using the VST2 version of an instrument on system A, then built system B and (as one does) installed the VST3 version of the instrument. At which point Cakewalk complained that the synth was missing when I tried to load a project (that used the same synth) from the old system on the newer one. This is even though Cakewalk is supposed to automatically substitute VST3's in when both versions are available. Apparently the rule (if it's a rule and not a bug) is that if you start a project using the VST2 version, your project is going to need to continue using the VST2 version. My guess is that it probably goes the other way, too. So check and make sure you have the same configuration of VST2 vs. VST3 installed on both systems.

Especially in light of: ? All I can say is....bring a laptop with the entire set on it so that you can mime to it when your Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 setup finally packs it in for good. Which will be during a gig, after which you will then be forced to learn a new program in time for the next one. I suggest you not even bother trying to get it to work under Windows 10. Even if you got it to the point where it seemed stable, there's no way you can test it under every condition you might encounter on stage. This almost seems like an anxiety dream: I'm up on stage to do a set and I look down at the screen and it's Cakewalk 9! And I forgot to put on trousers before I left home. And all of my teachers and the cute girls from high school are in the audience. If what you're doing with Cakewalk is playing backing tracks, and you don't like the complexity of the current interface, there's a handy feature called workspaces that you can use to hide elements of the program that you're not using in a given context. It's very customizable. There's also a free program that's purpose-made for that scenario called Cantabile Lite.

You can either drop Cakewalk, crack your wallet, and get a DAW that comes with a sampler or do what the rest of us who want an integrated sampler are doing: pick Sitala or TX16wx and wait for the Cakewalk devs to implement it (and crossing our fingers that they do it in such a way that we find it useful). To me, the rest of Cakewalk's features balance the fact that for now I have to bolt on a sampler. I have a reasonable expectation that this highly-requested feature will eventually be delivered. If it's a simple phrase sampler with some built-in editing that you want, Sitala works pretty well. You can drag Cakewalk clips directly on to pads from the timeline and/or drag and drop samples from Cakewalk's Browser. As long as you don't stew about "oh noes, mys DAW haz no samplur" it'll work. I agree with the first half of your statement but there are no guarantees about the level of impact a sampler will have on CPU resources, whether it ships with the DAW or not.

I'm not sure if I understand your issues completely. Are they that you no longer see a Start Screen, and Cakewalk is launching a web page every time it starts? If you want to see your Start Screen, select File/Start Screen. To make this permanent, go to Preferences/Customization/Display/Other and check Display Start Screen. As for opening a web page every time it starts, I hope support were able to straighten that out for you. That's a new one to me.

This of course has nothing to do with activation, online or otherwise, lest anyone reading this get that idea. For people who suffer unintended consequences during comping, I always suggest switching tools to the dedicated (Edit, Draw, Erase) ones rather than relying on the Smart Tool to do what you expect. Yes, the Smart Tool is great, yes, you can access features with it that you can't with the dedicated tools, but with that great power comes greater ability to screw things up. You can switch instantly using the F8-9 keys, and if you hold the key down while you're doing your editing task, it will even switch back to whatever tool you were using previously.

That's like AIR pricing.

That would describe me, and, well, color me PSYCHED to get a free license for it! Since I returned to making electronic music, I've been perfectly happy with the synths I've been using (Hybrid 3, Vacuum Pro, XPand!2, A|A|S Player, TAL Noisemaker), but there are certain ones that tower over the rest when it comes to reputation in the EDM world (Massive, Serum, and Omnisphere are the first that come to my mind). Having Massive makes many signature genre sounds available to me. I don't necessarily always want to use signature sounds, but every genre has them and they can trigger ideas. There's usually a reason why they became "signature" in the first place. Plenty of free presets around for Massive, which is less the case for the other synths in my collection. I know that there's a Massive X, which is the next generation, but hey, in terms of resource usage, give me the synth designed to run on systems that were state of the art 15 years ago. I've only browsed a dozen patches or so, but I see what the fuss was about. Some inspiring timbres in there. (sure am glad that the not-so-new Focusrite interface I bought had an unused serial number)

Duplicate post not welcome on forum. Kontakt 7 Player works great for me, latest version of Cakewalk.

Kontakt 7 loaded just fine by Cakewalk for me. If you're having trouble with it, post a question in the main forum.

That's a good thing to remember when people feel stung by seeing something they spent good money for go on sale for a fraction of the price years later. If I pay $35 for plug-in X and then 2 years later it's put on sale for $15, should I whimper? Would I trade back the 2 years of using it for $20? If so, how much did I need the plug-in in the first place? ?

As just such a user (Player only), I appreciate this. The library thumbnails with patch list browser on the right (complete with single-click auditioning!) will make KP7 much more of a go-to. I have some libraries that I'll probably only now hear all of their presets for the first time due to the clunkiness of browsing the old interface. I've always loved the sounds and functionality built into the Kontakt libraries I've downloaded, but detested the crud I had to crawl through in order to just call them up. This is brilliant. It even has a way to "favorite" presets in the library view. I love to play fine acoustic pianos and guitars have no interest in making them. Same with Kontakt instruments. For the more committed users, I'll send out hope that they are also in the process of making improvements to the under the hood UI in the near future.

Okay, finally. Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor Class A $9.99.

Next thing you know we'll be paying to sit in rooms and watch filmed performances by actors. ? (When moving pictures appeared on the scene, people who produced and acted in plays were quick to adopt the term "legitimate theater" to distinguish what they did from moving pictures. Which implied that movies were an illegitimate ("*****") art form.) Nothing new under the sun. Gorillaz had plenty of people pay to watch them as holograms the last time they toured. Computer-generated voice having huge hit? "Benny Benassi, "Satisfaction" You go to a big enough "classic rock" arena show and you end up watching Jagger or Clapton or Springsteen or whomever on the Jumbotron. As someone who's played and watched many live gigs over the decades, for me going to a "live" show is mainly about 2 things. First, checking out how the act presents themselves in "live" format. If their sound is based on electronic elements, how do they make those "live?" If it's a straight up rock band, do they do the songs the same as on the recordings, or different arrangements or energy level? Light show? Stage presence/moves? Everyone who plays "out" wants to come across as cool and entertaining (even if they claim otherwise, even if they do nothing but stand there working a mixer, that's their schtick), so what's their idea of that? Second, being in a room full of other fans of the music. That communal experience is HUGE, and it transcends "musicianship" or whatever. Everyone's there to share it, and to check out the above presentation. Maybe look over at the person next to them and smile when a favorite song comes up, and certainly dance in place. What do the other fans look like? Am I the only person over 50 in the room? Is my glowstick big enough? Neither of those things requires human beings being up on a stage playing musical instruments. I'm in a communal space watching a presentation that humans have put together for my entertainment. The form that entertainment takes can be many things. The process of doing one of these holographic shows requires a TON of human artistic endeavor. It's just not of a kind that we older farts can perceive and connect with right away. Someone had to program both the vocals and the stage moves of the character, and I bet there's a live puppeteer there so that she can do impromptu moves. I'd love to see the process behind how they project her. We easily recognize a "show" or "concert" as being a live, realtime performance by people playing instruments and singing. But that's not even necessarily what we grew up with. I grew up watching American Bandstand, This is Tom Jones, other variety shows, etc. The guest bands on those shows usually mimed to a tape backup. It's obvious, you go back and watch these performances and there are no amps on stage, not even cords coming from their guitars. The Who and Pink Floyd toured in the 70's with taped tracks to back them up. They wanted to present their music as it was conceived, with all elements in place whether they could be completely reproduced live or not. Also, where ELSE in the world are you going to see a 3-D hologram that represents a singing dancing anime girl? It's not like they're all over the place. "Oh, there's another singing anime girl hologram with a live rock band backing her up, can't go 5 feet without walking through one."

Remember, several months back, Cakewalk was named best free DAW for electronica by Computer Music magazine. That surely led to some uptake among EDM producers. That's great, given the popularity of those genres among younger music creators. Here's a thing: no matter what genre(s) you start out doing, if you branch out at some point (as I did from mostly straight-up rock type music into purely ITB electronic music), you'll likely keep using the same DAW. If someone starts using Cakewalk today for electronic music, then pivots to singer-songwriter guitar music in 5 years (and/or starts recording other people doing that), they'll find that it works really well.

I assume that "Directlink" is the mapping software that used to come with the Axiom. It's probably not needed in order to the Axiom to be able to control parameters in Cakewalk as long as each control is sending standard MIDI CC. There are multiple methods for setting up control surfaces in Cakewalk depending on what you want to do with the controls (transport and faders, or plug-in parameters, etc.).

In the event of a sudden apocalypse that somehow nukes the internet but leaves the power grid intact, CbB will work as it always has for 6 months. At which point, all you need to do to continue working with it is set your computer's clock back a year. And you can even leave it that way, because, remember no internet, therefore no internet time servers for Windows to contact. @scook would probably create a script to set the system clock back, start Cakewalk, then upon exiting, set the system clock forward again. Assuming phone lines still work, we could get this script via the revived Cakewalk dial-up BBS. Not to worry!

There's no call for forcing yourself to warp your head around any piece of software when there are so many great alternatives. You have a powerful enough computer to run any DAW on the market. Of the other two, Cakewalk will surely satisfy the needs of a singer/songwriter and then some. For that kind of thing, you want something with good tools for comping and mixing. I can record in anything, but give me Cakewalk when it comes to mixing time. As far as comping, Cakewalk has a full set of tools. It has a learning curve for comping, to be sure, but I don't know of a DAW that doesn't. I've never run into a comping task that I couldn't accomplish with Cakewalk's tools and workflow, but I still from time to time get into "flurry of Ctrl-Z's" trouble when using the Smart Tool and turned out it wasn't in the mode I thought it was. My more confident workflow with editing is to switch to the Edit or Draw Tool I need rather than relying on my memorization of what the Smart Tool is supposed to do in a given situation. That's my caveat: Cakewalk is great for comping if you remember to loosen your grip on the Smart Tool. Although I have a license for Reason Lite, I'm much less familiar with it because I couldn't get my head around it. I never even got as far as recording anything, so I don't know about their comping tools. No software, regardless of licensing model, is immune to abandonment. Sonar was payware up until 5 years ago, Cakewalk, Inc. had been around for 30 years and was owned by a much larger company. Then, poof. You're old enough to remember when WordStar, then Word Perfect absolutely owned the word processing market. The mighty may fall. A program like Cakewalk or Chrome that's not expected to earn its parent company revenue in the form of license fees isn't necessarily less "safe" than one that must constantly keep its user base updating in order to earn a profit and justify its existence. For that reason, I encourage people to remain at least familiar with one DAW other than their primary. At least familiar enough that if DAW A breaks for whatever reason, you can at least get tracks down with DAW B when inspiration hits rather than struggling to get it into record mode. There's some FUD about "will Cakewalk keep working if BandLab and its validation server goes away?" I have faith in both the Cakewalk devs, and then if there are legal issues, the world of hackers, that if that ever happens, a solution will be found.