Lee Jackson

I watched your tutorial, or at least the first 2 minutes of it. Sorry. The rest I figured out for myself. I got it working.

This has unearthed a larger problem: I have no MIDI devices. None whatsoever. I only had the MS GS Wavetable device on my laptop to begin with. Now, thanks to installing the latest CbB update, I don't have a damned thing showing up in my list (see attached). I've downloaded the latest Realtek audio driver from my laptop manufacturer (Sager) and installed it, just to be sure, and nope, it didn't put a MIDI driver on my system. I'm not going to be able to use TTS-1 without a MIDI driver of some sort. This is where I need some suggestions again, please.

No, I haven't tried TTS-1. It's got to be plug and play compatible, though. I'm going to need to assign GM parts in CbB, then import the exported MIDI file into Dorico for engraving. Will I be able to do this?

First off, don't judge me for using it, but I was using the Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth as an instrument on my laptop as a quick and oh-so-dirty way of prototyping songs. Now, for some reason, after the last upgrade it disappeared - I don't know if CbB is to blame, or if the recent installation of Dorico or NotePerformer is to blame. Anyway, not the point. I need a GM-compatible, down-to-the-bones replacement for it. Preferably something that's *really* plug and play, but wouldn't interfere with Dorico's *ahem* Generic ASIO driver. Would someone please recommend a fast replacement? I would be most grateful. Thank you!

After doing some more research (and talking with Sweetwater some more) I settled on a Korg nanoKONTROL Studio Mobile MIDI Control Surface. Got it for $161 including tax. I'm hoping I didn't screw myself. What is your opinion on this unit? From what I can tell, I should be able to access more than just volume and pan. Am I right?

Could you elaborate on this, please? Where are you seeing it, and what does it look like? I'd like to get a Studiologic SL Mixface, and it has a Cubase mode. Would that perhaps work with this? https://www.studiologic-music.com/products/mixface/

Turns out that my antivirus (Bitdefender) was the problem! It was being a bit too overzealous in its protection of my system. I whitelisted all the scan paths on both System one and System two, and voila! Problem solved, scan speed back to its normal peppy self. My thanks to the two of you for helping me out here - I really do appreciate it!

It's on *auto scan*, which only scans the new VSTs. It's supposed to do just a quick check of the rest of them to see if anything has changed. That's how auto scan works. It's not 2000, it's just over 1600, and it's not your call as to whether or not it's obsessive or not. You'd be surprised how quickly Waves Horizon, Plugin Alliance MEGA, and a couple of other packs add up. Besides, this auto scan used to run quickly, even with my large amount of plugins. It only recently began slowing down dramatically. Thank you for some helpful advice, at last! I'll do that and get back to the forum.

No, I haven't selected "Manual Scan." That would be shutting down the auto-scan. I have it set to "Scan on Startup." On System two, my scan paths are rather simple: just c:\program files\cakewalk\vstplugins and c:\program files\common files\vst3 . I've got a couple of additional paths added to this on System one due to some redistribution of VST DLLs, but nothing too weird. In short, IMHO it's nothing I'm doing that's causing the slowdown, if that's what you've been trying to get at. CbB admins, can you see if the programmers are tuned in to this thread? Is there anything you folks can do to speed up the VST Scans?

I already have both of those disabled.

Pray tell how?

I don't - Cakewalk is set to do a VST Search on each start. It's not doing a real one-at-a-time scan, or at least not that I can see. I get the "Searching for plugins" message, and then several minutes later, I get a count of how many plugins I have. Addendum: If I've loaded up Cakewalk recently, the search is cached an goes much faster - almost instantaneous. Give it an hour or two, though, and it'll be back to its old, slow self, especially on System one.

I have two computers running Cakewalk by Bandlab 2021.09. Both are experiencing extreme slowdowns during the VST Scan portion of the startup procedure. Here are my system specs: System one (desktop): Intel i7-5930K 32GB RAM VST Count: 1680 split between an SSD drive and an NVMe drive System two (laptop): Intel i9-10850K 32GB RAM VST Count: 220, everything installed on an NVMe drive. The only things I have in common on both systems is I have the Blue Cat freeware plugins and the Plugin Alliance MEGA subscription pack installed on both. The slowdown is not as severe on System two, obviously, but it is still ridiculously slow. This is a regression that I have noticed over the past few releases. Can something be done to speed up the VST Scan?

I am having a problem with certain MIDI preferences not persisting between CbB sessions. Specifically, my MIDI/Devices setting is not persisting. I have a USB MIDI interface with 4 out of 5 ports active. I've tried to activate the Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth in addition permanently, but the activation won't stick. When I exit CbB, I lose the setting. I have to reactivate the preference before I load up any song in which I want to use that device. Another preference that won't stick is the MIDI/Playback and Recording/Playback setting for "Prepare using: xxx millisecond buffers." That is set at 200 by default. I want to change the default to 400 due to some stuttering, but again this change has to be done every time I start up CbB. I have tried editing a template at Bob Bergen's suggestion on Facebook, and new files created using that template do appear using the edited preferences. However, when you save/close the newly created .CWP files, exit CbB, restart CbB, and reload the .CWP files, the preferences revert back to the original non-template settings. This is most definitely a bug and needs to be addressed. Please help, and thank you. EDIT TO ABOVE PARAGRAPH: The edited template was used without doing the exit/restart procedure. When I exited, restarted, and then tried to use the edited template, the preferences in the edited template had reverted - no Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth, no 400 millisecond buffers. The bug is not fixed by editing a template.

I don't remember what revision this used to be possible in, but back in the 90s, Cakewalk used to be able to show 6/8 time in the Piano Roll View "properly" (e.g., with two groups of six sixteenth notes on the grid and one bar separating the two when set to sixteenth resolution). Now, no matter what I try, I cannot get it to show that - instead, it shows 6/8 time as if it were 3/4 time, with three groups of four sixteenth notes on the grid and two bars separating them. I can force my brain to think around this weird presentation, but it is certainly not optimal. Can we please get a native 6/8 display in the Piano Roll View instead? Thank you!

Currently, Cakewalk by Bandlab does not natively read the presets provided by the very popular Plugin Alliance suite of plugins. You have to load them from a Windows menu. Can you please start reading Plugin Alliance presets natively?

Repeating a question I first asked on Facebook: Is there any way to get the piano roll view to highlight a 6|6 16th note subdivision under 6/8 time instead of highlighting 4|4|4? I haven't been able to find this in the help file anywhere. I started my song by loading my standard template, which is set to 4/4 time, then immediately changed the time signature to 6/8. That gave me something that looked like 3/4 time, and I haven't been able to make it really look like 6/8 since. Is there a solution?