Steev

Anyone here remembers and or still use Cakewalk Concrete Limiter ProChannel module pictured above left at the top of ProChannel. It's VERY musical sounding FX plugin. Even if the threshold is set higher than limiting kicks in, it adds a certain roundness and or sweetness to the audio. BTW, Concrete Limiter as a few other things I know, love, love, and REALLY wouldn't want to live without is and are no longer available in the new version of Cakewalk Sonar, including a PERPETUAL LICENSE. But that's OK, even though I'm not at all fond of "Subscription Plans", but in Bandlab's defence, the membership fee is at the same levels as it ever was for 30 years for updates, and a tad lower when they run special deal campaigns. And on the other hand, even though SPLAT lacks a lot of workflow enhancements of later releases since 2017, it still runs GREAT and supports ALL current day VST3 plugins like the latest Waves v15 series plugins and Ozone 10, and has no problem hooking up Melodyne Editor 5 thru ARA "Region FX" and loading faster than a speeding bullet! And as much as I like and am grateful for ALL new enhancements, SPLAT's A KEEPER!💪

A.K.A. SPLAT! My # freak'in 1 emergency backup and "Just in case I have problems with ANYTHING else DAW! It's as, or should I say MORE as ROCK SOLID as the day it was born. It might have took an update or 3 before some of the annoying new release bugs were flushed out, but even with annoying bugs it's been ROCK SOLID since SONAR Producer 4. 💪 Which I believe, but not entirely certain, was the year when Roland 1st introduced and bundled the TTS-1 DXi synth with it, and I also have many of the extra "Paid For" ProChannel modules, synths, and Dimension Pro DSF Expansion Packs and other tools and stuff from Cakewalk Pro Audio that are no longer supported or available. 👍👍 I also use SPLAT to open and work on ancient and older .cwp and .cwb projects, particularly with older Native Instruments VSTi synths that NI orphaned over the years.

BUT as long as you DON'T uninstall Cakewalk by Bandlab or any other version of SONAR. You WILL STILL have Cakewalk TTS-1 installed and it WILL WORK in the new releases of Cakewalk Sonar AND DOESN'T NEED REPLACING.

Well I have no serious issues to report with the new 2024.12 release, just SERIOUSLY NOTICABLE PERFORMANCE gains. It's like my old AMD FX 8370 CPU is on a very well-deserved vacation running. 50 Audio/MIDI tracks with 2 instances of Addictive Drums 2 using Alesis Sample Pad Pro as MIDI controllre., Novation Impulse 61 MIDI keyboard controller used for; 2 instances of Dimension Pro Cakewalk SI Strings Cakewalk TTS-1 ProChannel modules, various Waves, Universal Audio, Softube, and iZotope audio FX plugins. Audio processing maxing out @ 23%, Engine load maxing out 43%, "O" (zero) late buffers. Using 6.8 GB of 32GB RAM Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 gen 2 running smooth as silk @ 24/48 mix latency 4 ms After performing a glitch free 3-4 hour recording session, including audio mixing session in Bandlab Studio, it sounds like THIS! Not exactly my ultimate best, but certainly not bad at all for the time I put into it and spent 'field testing' Sonar. I am EXTREMELY PLEASED!

The TTS-1 hasn't been supported since before Roland sold Cakewalk to Gibson Brands. Nobody but Cakewalk really ever supported and developed DXi's because being they run off Windows Direct X Runtime components they weren't supported by Apple and couldn't run on an industry standard Mac/ProTools machine, and THAT'S where the BIG BOYS played and where the big MONEY was and free drinks & rides were for GIRLS. Ever since I can remember, from early Cakewalk Pro Audio DAW's all they way up to present day, always "defaulted' to Microsoft SoundMapper unless I manually changed it or it was disabled in Windows "Device Manager" and it would default to my audio devices MIDI I/O. I never even thought of using the TTS-1 as a default device. But I'm one of the 'ol schoolers who truly believes it's not really about what you use... It's how you use it... And the BEST DAW, and the BEST SYNTH out there are the ones you are most FAMILIAR WITH because then and only then do you know where all the sweet spots are and what you can or cannot do with it. If the TTS-1 crashes your DAW if added later on, than make sure you load it into the TOP of the rack from the beginning. You don't even have to use it, it's not going to hurt anything or slow you down if you don't, but it'll be there just in case you might and you will be prepared. And now that I think about it, I believe I've heard of it crashing a project being added late in the project decades ago. I believe the work around is to load the project again and then add the TTS-1 before doing anything else and you're good to go. It's more like a condition, which is not exactly a problem. Like using certain Native Instruments synths with certain Waves Synths and lock up ANY DAW and requires shutting the DAW down with Windows Task Manager then shutting down and restarting Windows again. I solved that condition by uninstalling all Native Instruments synths, Cubase, and Studio One from my computer with the Ashampoo Unstaller app, and ran the Ashampoo Registry Cleaner apps and only use CAKEWALK and REASON DAW's on my Windows computer, and only run ProTools DAW on my iMac. And the ONLY free software I'm interested in and use is CAKEWALK by BANDLAB. Which I still have problems wrapping my head around wondering WHY did Bandlab EVER give it to us for FREE in the 1st PLACE? I think, as far as some people's weird outstretched over exaggerated sense of "self-entitlements" is concerned, giving what was formally known as SONAR Platinum away for free might have done more harm than good, but not necessarily enough to RANT or complain about. 😆 GM is handy for EVERYTHING, like for laying down a sax track without having to deal with the unpredictable mood swings of a difficult sax player, not just messing around, particularly for SERIOUSLY getting down and involved in the creation of recording, sharing, and sequencing music composition and collaborating with 'other' people who don't know how to play these or any other musical instruments to download and mess around with in another room and or place in another time zone, as in on the other side of the planet. And as long as the music project stays in the GM realm, we can send a 30-40 track Cakewalk Project back and forth as a tiny little email attachment in less than 1 mb in size that will play and sound relatively the same in ANY DAW playing on ANY GM synth and retain the freedom to adjust the key of the project to accommodate the singer(s) range, and the tempo to accommodate the over all GROOVE. Without a defined General MIDI specification your DAW wouldn't know what instrument or voice was assigned to what MIDI channel, nor would it know what MIDI channel to assign to what audio channel in what key, time sig. and what tempo. All of Cakewalk Studio Instruments and as well as Studio Drummer 3 included with Sonar are GM compliant, they just don't have the full selection of instruments and voices as a standard GM synthesizer with the standard 128 instruments and voices. Microsoft SoundMapper which Windows OS uses to play a good deal of the music to all of the music that magically comes out of your computer and web browsers is 100% free GM synth and can even still be set as the "Default" synth in CbB or Sonar. Ever go to those MIDI DOWNLOAD websites and audition the .MID files? Well, if you are using a Windows computer, they are playing on Microsoft SoundMapper, as does all Windows system sounds, jingles and the music playing on 1000's of video games and such. However, it doesn't have a GUI it'll still work with Sonar and can be routed & output to audio channels and the sounds and voices can be manipulated with audio FX. It's not as good or as flexible as TTS-1 but few GM synths at any price point can compete with Roland's GM/GS or Yamaha's GM/XG, or Korg synths for easily nailing today's modern sounds. And I think it's also important to note the free and or trial software you repeatedly install and uninstall again and again can really clutter up Windows Registry "junk" files that lead a plethora of paths to nowhere and back again searching for program files that have been deleted and or left behind by the uninstaller and wreak havoc on your computer's performance and DAW's stability over a relatively short period of time, you will have to spend money on registry cleaning software, professional grade UN installation software, or pay someone to do the dirty work maintenance, OR simply buy a new computer and start the process all over again. And in the end, the result in the endless search for FREE ends up costing you MORE time and MONEY than it would have if you just dropped a couple of pesos on a good reliable synth in the 1st place and spend more time MAKING and or learning HOW to MAKE MUSIC. 🤣 GM (General MIDI) is a specification set of guidelines and rules that defines and assigns specific parameters for TRADITIONAL instruments to specific DEFINED program numbers (PG) and DEFINED control commands (CC) to specific defined control functions like velocity, modulation, envelopes, etc. It helps keep different voices and synths in their own defined places in sequence, so they play well 'together' and don't crash and burn each other down and take the DAW down with them.

Yes well, "All Things Must Pass". Our future is and has always been uncertain. And in this case of the TTS-1, I'm pretty sure Roland is as shocked as I am that it lasted so long, and as a result, they politely 'asked' Bandlab to not include it in future CS releases and Bandlab politely 'agreed'. The TTS-1 certainly outlasted my $1600+ Roland Fantom X which simply died from lack of use when it's memory backup battery died. I'm sure I could dig it out of the basement, replace the battery and give it a 'Firmware' flash update, and it'll breathe new life into it, but it won't recover any of my music compositions. But that's OK because they have all been moved into Cakewalk and the TTS-1 which has a duplicate SoundCanvas version, and concerning their future, all have been saved into duplicate libraries, on hard drives, CD's, DVD's, Google Drive, Microsoft One Drive, and some even published to BANDLAB.COM. 😁 And if for some reason my TTS-1 breaks, That would most likely be because the Windows Direct X Runtime Components it runs on got corrupted which is easier to fix then the old Fantom by #1 By registering an inquisition here on the BEST User Forum I've ever been to in over 30+ years, or... #2 Do a Google search to find out how to Quickly Resolve DirectX Installation Errors on Your Windows PC with These Simple Steps all by yourself and take the future of your destiny into your own hands. #3 Be CAREFUL and MAKE SURE you READ thru and FOLLOW all of THESE INSTRUCTIONS and follow ALL steps precisely, DO NOT Improvise, cut corners or take shortcuts, rely on any opinions or beliefs (not even your own) because if you screw it up, you will have nobody to blame but yourself.

I wouldn't rule that out. The new AD 2 GUI is VERY different, not just reskinned, a lot more added functionality. I also just opened a Cakewalk Project running Reason's Rack VST 3 plugin & noticed Reason's "Humana" synth plugin failed to load and I couldn't find it in the Reason Rack plugin browser. I added another Reason synth and Reason Rack VST works fine in Cakewalk Sonar. Then I opened the Reason 11 DAW and couldn't find the Humana synth there either. It' simply GONE, poof, VANISHED like the ProChannel modules! And so I went and logged into my Propellerhead account to download a fresh copy Humana synth again and they threatened me with a just 3 more days Black Friday 40% off upgrade to Reason 13 which was hard to refuse and I forgot to "just" download Humana, and I'm starting to get an anxiety headache because the Reason DAW is MASSIVELY HUGE! Propellerhead doesn't orphan or discontinue anything in Reason, they just ADD MORE synths and utilities to it, and may reinstall the same old Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable files that trashed Cakewalk's ProChannel? I think I'll leave well enough alone, I'm more than happy with Cakewalk Sonar as my main whip and I can do the same things with Dimension Pro and or Rapture Pro that I can do with Humana and at least dozen other synths combined in Reason and Native Instruments together. That being said, I really wish Bandlab would continue to develop and support Rapture Pro BACK in action which seems quite a bit less quirky in the new Cakewalk Sonar then it was in SPLAT. How much stuff do we need before we crash under the weight of TOO MUCH STUFF?

You can still get a GM/GS replacement DOWNLOAD for the TTS-1 at Roland.com on their "Legacy" synth page. Last time I checked it cost about $100 (US) for the VSTi version which looks really "Spiffy", sounds "GR8TE"! But........ Doesn't really outperform the TTS-1 as far as the ears are concerned. 🤷‍♂️ The Cakewalk TTS-1 isn't a sampler nor does it support samples. It is a DXi version of Roland GM/GS synthesizer with a Cakewalk GUI with about a dozen version releases of Roland SoundCanvas™ synth engines, capable of supporting 16 MIDI tracks in configurable to output audio to 2 tracks, 4 stereo tracks, or 8 mono tracks outputs to Cakewalk's mixer. Don't let it's cheesy looking DXi GUI fool you, combined with the Cakewalk MIDI sequencer, it's just as powerful and had a much easier and faster workflow with instant access to about a dozen versions Roland's highly acclaimed hardware Fantom™ synth/workstations, and being that the sounds/voices never leave the digital domain, it needs no audio or MIDI cables to hook/patch in, so typically sound's BETTER than a very pricy hardware Roland Fantom's audio stereo outputs only do having to be recorded in audio with 1 stereo, or 2 mono tracks at a time, and the sound quality will ONLY be as GOOD as your computer's soundcard/chip/audio interface.

If you already have the TTS-1 installed on your computer included with previous versions of Cakewalk DAW's since Roland introduced and included it with Cakewalk SONAR 4 and up, then you already have it so it and doesn't need replacing and it will run in the latest release version of Cakewalk Sonar.

Oh yea, I can only imagine how frustrating your job is in my worst nightmares just by reading thru some of the stuff I see here in the forums. The very place where I come from time to time to find quick solutions and also try to help others find quick solutions. And also, a place where my sense of wit & humor has gotten me in trouble from time to time. While I can ignore 90% of it to avoid getting angry or LMAO, it's like "TAG! you're IT!" and you may very well get blamed for the "Sharon Tate Murders" just because Cakewalk doesn't do exactly what someone wants it to do, exactly the way they want it to do it. 🤯 Everything was previously installed before I even upgraded from Cakewalk by Bandlab to Cakewalk Sonar with the exception of the new Addictive Drums 2 software upgrade. I've recently been going through hell with REALLY flakey Windows 11 updates on another computer which I basically only use to run Microsoft Office Pro 2021, home security, iOT, and Internet streaming & Google. I recently booted up to 2 "Blue Screens of Death" within a few months. 1st time I managed to reboot to "safe mode" and roll it back to an earlier install, and the 2sd time I had to use a Windows repair disk, and about 45 minutes later while it reinstalled Windows 11, I was almost kicking myself for not rolling it ALL the way back to WINDOWS 10.

Windows 10 Pro did not repair problems. And I also checked all other vendor's music and video production software I know that utilize C++ redistributable's. Sony/Magix, Steinberg, Propellorhead, etc. & so on and everything is fully functioning. And once again THANK YOU NOEL for providing this installation package. 🙏 It worked like a breeze and was infinitely easier and faster than digging though Microsoft's seemingly limitless and tedious pages of "FAQ's" before finding out where to download the stuff I need.

Yes, it fixed all 3. Only new software upgrade I installed recently another drum kit for XLN Addictive Drums 2. And they also updated their installer, Addictive Keys and changed/upgraded the whole GUI for AD-2.

Thank you, Noel. Uninstalling all Microsoft Visual C++ redists and running Cakewalk installer worked and I'm back to normal. 👍👍

Is there a way to rollback Sonar? I'm in the middle of working on 4 collaborations and have rapidly approaching deadlines. Trying to add a module to ProChannel crashes both Sonar and Cakewalk by Bandlab. I've lost sound output on VSTi synths. Thank God EVERYTHING works fine with SONAR Platinum, however that requires almost a complete remix. Correction, MOST modules in SPLAT show up in ProChannel When I try to add a compressor to ProChannel, it crashes SPLAT Cakewalk Sonar ver 2024.11 SONAR Platinum ver 23.8.0 build 30 [2017.08] . Glad all over_11272024_135315.dmp

Nope, no extra costs for Sonar with the normal exception of 3rd party plugins that's it, i.e. $150 per year subscription fee. Plus you get a lot more for the same price you would normally pay for SONAR Platinum upgrade in the ways of unlimited song project storage, Bandlab Studio which is an automatable 32 track mix editor with MANY FX plugins, fully customizable plugin chains, MIDI synths, pattern sequencer, a sampler, publishing services on Bandlab.com, Spotify.com, ReverbNation.com too, not too shabby mastering and what nots like 1000'S of free loops and samples if you are interested in that kind of stuff.. AND there's plenty of CONTESTS you can enter to win CASH and valuable PRIZES, get exposure, submit your BEST MUSIC get SIGNED to a RECORDING CONTRACT... Meet like-minded musicians throughout Planet Earth to share and COLLABORATE with. Not exactly the best synths in the Bandlab.com cloud mix editor, and latency can be a problem, depending on cellular signal strength, but the Sampler is FUN because I can all to EASILY record any sounds anywhere, ANYTIME with my iPhone and make & edit my own samples in one easy fell swoop with the Bandlab app installed on my iPhone using internal mics, as opposed to doing it the more complicated and harder 'import'/'export' way with Steinberg Cubasis with requires an IK iRig Pro and external mic and all that stuff. Also Bandlab.com automation doesn't support MCU (Mackie MIDI control) or HUI DAW controllers. But automation can be mapped in standard MIDI to knobs and faders on a MIDI Keyboard controller per mixing session. Bandlab does NOT store MIDI maps, nor will it record more than one track at a time. You can "Import" 32 audio/MIDI tracks from any DAW, and Bulk DUMP all tracks from Sonar at once I highly advise Bulk Dumping AUDIO from Sonar's BUSS/stem mixes ONLY as Bandlab is limited to 32 tracks and it's MIDI synths aren't all that great editing is abysmal to nonexistent. Only extra fees would be for "BOOSTING" which is essentially shelling out a few Pesos for Media BLITZING Song Promotion which pretty much buys you THOUSANDS of PLAYS @ very reasonable price points (whether your tune is worthy of it or not.) your song WILL GET A LOT OF ATTENTION! 😉

I don't know about Sonar being 'snappier' or 'faster' but I've noticed according to Cakewalk's 'Performance' meter it is easier on the CPU on both my AMD FX-8370 high performance workstation with 32 gigs RAM, Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 audio/MIDI interface set to 24bit/48 k/Hz. 4 ms effective recording latency/192 samples. Plugin "load balancing" turned on. Comparing CbB to Sonar on the same exact machine and same music projects between 50-60 tracks, Sonar uses around 20%-30% less resources, which is hardly noticeable because even though CbB uses 20%-30% MORE computer resources, the computer doesn't break a sweat because it still has pleanty of power to spare, so it has NO PROBLEMS running the projects smoothly and glitch free. 💪💪 Comparing CbB to Sonar running on my Intel i5 HP laptop 16 gigs RAM, Universal Audio Volt 476 set to 24/48 @ 12 ms effective recording latency, Plugin load balancing "ON" makes a VERY Noticeable DIFFERANCE! It won't or can't even get close to running 50-60 audio/MIDI tracks AT ALL. Never could, 😉 BUT, Sonar can run & record a 24 track project smoothly and glitch free running some fairly CPU hungry 3rd party FX plugins from Waves, Universal Audio, iZotope, etc. Just the way Cakewalk by Bandlab handles 16 track projects on the same exact computer & audio/MIDI config. Certainly, respectable to say the least. But having the ability to work with 8 more tracks is approx. a 30%+ PERFORMANCE BOOST. 👍👍 😂

Anyone else experiencing these problems? We all know what happened with a crash, but when Sonar locks up I completely lose control functionality with mouse, computer keyboard, Behringer X-Touch during recording and playback. I have to literally have to shut Sonar down with Windows Task manager and start the DAW all over again. It's autosaving so it more of an annoying 'buzzkill' than anything else and doesn't affect the projects which can be reloaded and opened exactly where I left off in my back up DAW's. #1 Cakewalk by Bandlab, #2 SONAR Platinum, both of which are ROCK SOLID. 💪👌 So I'm confident that, in due time, so will Sonar. I don't mind in the least going back and working on projects with CbB on my high horsepower computer/workstation which has little to no distinguishably significant or noticeable performance gains. Although I do notice and miss the active spectrum analyzer graphs running in ProChannel. But I DO NOTICE A HUGH DIFFERANCE in performance running the new Cakewalk Sonar on my older i5 (gen3) HP laptop with Universal Audio Volt 476 audio/MIDI interface! WOWZER! More tracks, and more 3rd party FX plugins running smoothy than ever before on the laptop when it was BRAND NEW! 🤯 NOW it can almost compete & maybe even win a fair fight or 2 iPad/Cubasis with the same Universal Audio Volt 476 audio/MIDI interface/ rig. (NEVER underestimate the power & stability of even the cheapest Apple iPad, just as you should never overestimate the power & stability of even a high-grade Intel powered laptop.) If my hexacore iPad was capable of running Sonar, I would have retired this 4-core laptop years ago. Move over my beloved, VERY IMPRESSIVE Apple iPad running Cubasis 3, there's a new sheriff in town for recording live gigs DIRECTLY into Sonar. It's still a good deal slower at waking up & getting on it's feet so to speak, but now saves me a lot of extra work & the time of exporting/importing, and having to COMPLETELY remix, select comparable FX and re automate Cakewalk projects on my BIG BOY workstation! 😍🙏 Other than that, I've come to expected bugs & glitches with ANY new upgrades over the years, and I have to say the new release of Cakewalk Sonar is a good deal more stable than many other new releases of new upgraded roll outs of DAW's in my experiences, and it's also been my experience that Cakewalk has always addressed these issues in a timely, much quicker fashion than any of its competitors. The fact that Cakewalk is one of the very few DAW's that supports backward project compatibility is just another saving graces that I've grown to REALLY appreciate!

Sounds like it could quite possibly be a system bottleneck in serial buss/system memory traffic jam to me? It's Windows set up and configured for high performance? If you are switching back & from DAW to DAW, would suggest rebooting your computer before trying Kontakt in Sonar, and see if that resolves the problem. Just because you shut down one DAW doesn't mean it doesn't leave stuff like samples and God know what else behind in your system RAM storage drive Cashe. ESPECIALLY if you are using an inexpensive- mid grade computer, then you most undoubtedly don't have premium grade matched sticks RAM. They would or could be running at 'close enough for rock-n-roll same speed and be recognized by the motherboard, but not necessarily same CAS configuration. And that could also not only cause a bottleneck, it could be causing a duel channel memory system to default to single channel mode making the bottleneck even worse, and you wouldn't even know it without bench testing it. Doesn't really matter how big, bad, & fast your 8 core or better CPU is if it's stuck in crosstown a traffic jam bottle next. So unless you paid at least $3k+ (US) for a high-performance computer/workstation specifically designed and configured for DCC, and NOT Gaming! Yea, I know quite a few of us like to play around with DAWs more than actually making music, but DAW's aren't actually games. They are more like TOOLBOXES then toys. I would seriously recommend looking into system memory RAM insuring you have high-performance "Matched Sticks" of Premium RAM installed, made by the same manufacturer and specifically approved and certified by the CPU and motherboards manufacturer, and at least 16 gigs of it. 32 gigs better, 64 gigs better yet, IF your motherboards support it. Aside and as well as upgrading from hard drives to SSD storage drives, system RAM upgrades are the most inexpensive, yet SERIOUS performance/stabilizing booster upgrades you can do short of upgrading your entire system. And as far as Cakewalk Sonar is concerned, I just ran my 1st DAW project without freezing tracks to see how far I could go without glitching or an audio engine dropout with my Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 gen 2. I was SHOCKED to reach 50 audio/MIDI TRACKS running 9 combinations of Cakewalk TTS-1, Dimension Pro, Session Drummer 3, XLN Audio Addictive Drums 2, 2 instances of Reason Rack "Fricktion" synths in the rack. 2 acoustic and 1 electric Guitars, Bass Guitar, and then I pressed the control key to duplicate the tracks & DRAGGED the AUDIO tracks into an empty MIDI tracks and as if by magic, Sonar opened Melodyne Editor and CONVERTED AUDIO tracks to MIDI tracks to be DOUBLED 2x to played as ReAmped double track'in in "StrumSessions", or Dimension Pro, or and number Reason Rack's 100's - 1000's of different guitar rigs & or ANY kind synths imaginable. The is NOTHING Native Instruments has or can do that PropellorHead can't, and Reason CAN DO many, MANY UNIMAGINAL things Kontakt never even thought of and DO IT EASY on the CPU & do it all...TROUBLE FREE, RUN in ANY & EVERY DAW! 👍👍😉💯 Vocals all on separate channels + aux tracks, all with Full array in ProChannel, N-Type assorted/selected per chan inserts. Waves, Universal Audio, Softtubes, Focusrite plugins in FX bins. 6 stem/grouped instruments buss mix plus UA Capital Chambers Reverb aux send, all treated with ProChannel PC4K comp, EQ, Concrete Limiter, Tube, N-Type to stereo Master Buss with Waves Magma Tubes and Ozone 10 in the bin. Sonar only consumed an average range of 30- 35% CPU with NO CORE ever peaking in the red AMD FX-8370 running steady @ 4.1 G/hz with occasional, Turbo Boost up to 4.9 G/hz. consuming an average 28% of 32 gigs. system memory = 10.4 GB. And WHAT did I record you mayhap be thunk'in? Well, just for snitz-n-giggles, I started to play a 'lil tune I couldn't have thought that I would NEVER EVER want to play again. And actually, HAVEN'T for over 30+ YEARS. But upon request from a very cranky old man who is very sick with cancer and actually used the "Please" word on me for the 1st time in at least 20 YEARS.... I thru up my hands, shook my head "Yea, AhHuh, Ok, so I gave it my best shot and SPANKED Cakewalk with "Stairway to Heaven" of course. And Cakewalk just seemed to stare back with a 'lil jiggle wiggly dance of it's CPU meters, it seemed to be say'in in soft taunting tones..... "Is that all you got 'ol Man?" 😍 And after I let it settle and rest a few days.. I'll spark it up, put my "mixing cap" on, most likely give it a wee tweak here and there with fresh ear, let it rest another day before putt'in on my "Mastering Cap" & upload it to Bandlab. I don't really want to knock ALL the flaws out of it because... 🤔 Well 'over production' is, or should be considered a sin, and in the words and infinite wisdoms of the great "Ray Davies" of the great wave of "British Invader Bands of the 60's" called "The Kinks"... "If ya take all the FLAWS out of Rock Music, then it's NOT ROCK MUSIC ANYMORE!🙏🏼

There has always been problems and issues with new version releases, particularly with 3rd party software catching up. ProTools is the WORSE in my experience for these issues to be resolved in a timely fashion. Not so much with Cakewalk, I found it to settle in and smooth out quite quicky, as the bakers and problem solvers not only pay attention, but they also actively participate in the users forums. And as far as 3rd party vendors are concerned, the only ones I've used and had experience with in the about list are Native Instruments who I have ALWAY had issues and problems with, and iZotope which I have had little to no problems with, until NI bought them out and dropped support for releasing Ozone 10 as a standalone mastering suite and only released it as a VST plugin and moved it OUT of iZotope's existing "Windows Program Files" folder which contains ALL my existing iZotope apps, and stuck into yet another newly created file location ALL BY ITSELF.😒 And Sound Forge Pro couldn't find it,. I use SF-P as my preferred Mastering software for DECADES and I use it in a different room 'environment' specifically tuned for "mastering" on an entirely different computer then I do using SONAR to record in acoustically tuned to record in. As an old school audio/MIDI engineer who started recording in the late 60's to TAPE, I have never even recommended to anyone to master their own music, if at all possible, get someone else experienced in mastering to do it. But that could be expensive, & apps like Sound Forge and Ozone changed all that, as each one by themselves made it quite doable and acceptable. But together running Ozone in Sound Forge Pro as a VST made it VERY EASY and FAST. Contacting and communicating with NI Support is somewhere between SLOW & TEDIOUS at best, to NON EXISTANT! I believe they expect you to give up trying, but I don't give up, and so in about a week or 2 I managed to squeeze the secrets of Windows Registry edits and new location in "Program Files" out of them with a stern warning that if I do registry editing, they can't be held responsible & could void my privileges and right to further support. blah, blah, blah,,, to which I replied; "FINE BY ME, your support SUCKS, so get somebody who knows what they are doing to send me the CORRECT steps, procedures, and info I need to do it myself or GIVE ME MY MONEY BACK, as I am more than happy with Ozone 9 as I am just as happy to NEVER give you another dime EVER AGAIN. And as it turned out, I'm not in the least happy or impressed with Ozone 10's new AI assisted auto mastering technology. And the differences, if in fact there are any, are no improvements over previous versions of Ozone's machine learning based auto mastering "Mastering Assistant". Which really is quite good, most certainly close enough for Rock-n-Roll, but I'm thinking not really better than Bandlab's FREE Mastering Algorithms. 🤣 But anywoo, I'm an 'ol schooler and I would NEVER EVER recommend running a mastering suite in ANY DAW strapped into Buss FX bin, for many and too numerous reasons to get into here, and I'm not going to get into it with any "Move Over Old Dawg, the New Young Dawg Is MOV'IN IN." Psychobabble here. I get more then my fill of trying to ignore that on Bandlab.com. 🥴 The #1 reason being is NEVER TRY TO MASTER MUSIC IN THE ROOM IT WAS RECORDED IN. My point is, NI you done SCREWED the NEWBIES POOCH AGAIN!

I'm an active member of Bandlab.com and have MUCH FUN jamming and collaborating with others from all around the world. And so I already did buy the yearly annual "Bandlab Membership" lease deal around last Thanksgiving. Believe me, you get a LOT more value & publishing services than just Cakewalk Sonar DAW. I never thought I'd live to see the days when technology could even make this possible. But I didn't really by Membership for twice the tracks, more plugins, more mastering presets, and free publishing services to other Spotify, ReverbNation to name a few bonuses, all of these are very cool and saves a LOT of extra work & time. I bought Bandlab Membership to give something back for keeping my favorite DAW alive, all the support they've been giving us FOR FREE. I don't have an overblown sense of self entitlement or self-worth as so many others do, I was feeling a bit guilty about being treated this NICE taking all they give without bring anything to the table. But I work out my music projects on my computer with a DAW and upload tracks, stems, and buss groups to Bandlab Studio for mix editing, as it's NOT really a DAW. It's an "editor" it doesn't run my 'can't live without 3rd party plugins and doesn't even have a buss section, and the fact that you can only record one track at a time is a deal breaker for me. And as good as Bandlab's mastering is concerned, it's certainly no Ozone. But Bandlab Studio does an AMAZING job, and does things DAWs can't do. It's as CROSS PLATFORM as you can get, It can run on and you can collaborate with anyone has an idea, an Android or iPhone, a Windows or Mac computer and record ANYWHERE there is INTERNET SERVICE! And that being said, I gladly joined and paid for Bandlab BEFORE Sonar was even released, so being able to download it for no extra money was "Just another one of the MANY PERKS", that I didn't even recognize as lease/ subscription deal. And being it is about the same as I had always paid for Updates in the old days, so that's not in the least a real problem for me. BUT.. even with CbB, the Sonar license DOES TIME OUT and reverts to "Demo Mode" every few weeks to a month and usually just automatically reports to the mothership & renews itself, so if you are not paying attention and have Toast Notifications turned off you won't even notice or know it's happening. USUALLY, but NOT ALWAYS automatically registers. That won't be a problem for me until December 2025 when Microsoft drops support for Win 10 Pro. And then it will become a 'condition' of dealing with offline activation. But I've lived thru worse.. ✌

I've been field testing Sonar 2024.08 now for a couple of weeks now and I'm really, really LIKING IT! 👏👏👍👍 And I do believe I would LOVEto BUY an "upgrade" license and own it like I do SONAR Platinum, simply for the reasons of not having to log into my Bandlab account to reactivate it every few weeks or month. 😒 Especially since my Windows 10 Pro computer will lose Microsoft support around December 2025 doesn't mean I'm going to stop using it, it means I'm going to stop tethering it to the Internet. And yea, I know all about offline activation, and that's just more of a PITA. I also know how to build or obtain KeyGens, but that kinda does go against the grains of my sense of 'copyright' ethics, because it gets too close to the borders of cheating & STEALING and I'm not a thief, nor do I like people cheating or stealing from me. And my FAVORITE thing about the new Sonar is the active spectrum analyzer being added to the ProChannel EQ. That's something I ALWAYS wished for, because it makes it really easy to visualize the EQ curves between channels, especially when ear fatigue starts to occur. When 2 channels in the same voicing spectrum run at the same EQ curves things tend to get muddy in the mix and just a slight barely audible adjustment shift can make things so much cleaner and clearer in the stereo mix buss. Coming late to the table I missed the issues of crashing on startup. However, I did have a few crashes which upon a bit of investigation and research were caused mostly by 3rd party VST Audio FX plugins but seemed to be resolved with "Load Ballancing". I haven't really noticed any increase performance other than the Reason Rack Plugin loading up and adding 16 MIDI & 16 stereo audio tracks into a Cakewalk project BLAZINGLY FAST! 🤯 For those who don't know the Reason Rack Plugin will run ANYTHING & EVERYTHING in the Propellerhead Reason DAW as a VST 3 plugin in any DAW that 'hosts' VST plugins and synths. Both SONAR Platinum & CbB would take a few seconds to add 16 Reason Rack tracks. Typically I only want to use ONE Reason synth AT A TIME, so make sure the "Only add the 1st MIDI & audio output is selected." in the Cakewalk dialog box while adding a new synth, and CbB remembered I always selected that for Reason Rack plugin. 1st time I open it in the new Sonar, Sonar didn't know that. But I'm running a very powerful finely tuned custom built computer/workstation that leans towards the side of being overpowered for a music machine DAW, and slightly over middle of the road grade of the Professional NLE "Video Editing". Plus I ALWAYS freeze tracks when done working with them. It's an old school practice, not as much for saving power to keep latency low, as it is for 'safety' reasons to avoid making the mistake of making adjustments and tweaks to track 58 when I meant to adjust or tweak track 59. i.e. SCREW UP the WRONG TRACK. And that can happen to the best of us. And things can get REALLY BAD when Somone else who doesn't know what they're doing and or never used a Behringer X Touch DAW controller sits down in the mixing seat and starts pushing buttons, twisting knobs, or whatever whilst mesmerized by watching the motorized faders dance around whilst I'm in the bathroom draining my bladder. 😵 I mean come ON, even the best of us do that from time to time, after a couple of beer or watnot. 🥴 Maybe we'll accidently hit the "Undo" button by accident instead of the "Save" button, they are right next to each other after all. Freezing tracks safeguards us from these problem/conditions as well as a host of others. And on my very high-powered computer it only SECONDS to freeze a track and 1/2 a second to unfreeze it, so it's really stupid not to as an extra layer(s) of precaution. I also had issues with adding DXi synths into the Synth Rack chain under VSTi synths, particularly when adding the Cakewalk TTS-1 with VSTi's already in the synth rack running would cause an immediate crash. However, in a new project, if I start off using the TTS-1 as the 1st synth I use it all works out great. I also understand the TTS-1 was 1st introduced, I believe with SONAR 4 Producer which of course is ancient as far as synth/instruments are concerned, so really, I find it quite a bit amazing that it still works at all. It never really got the credit or attention it deserved. Being it was bundled for free and being a DXi it's GUI is a rather simple, plain, and kinda UGLY looking Windows Dialog Box. But you can't judge a book by it's cover because LOOKS ARE DECIEVING. especially in the case of the TTS-1, Look under the hood, and you will find about a DOZEN versions of Roland SoundCanvas synth engine releases, which could be configured for 2(stereo), 4, or 8 channel outs and that's MANY more WIRELESS audio outputs than my beloved physical Roland Fantom X 61 hardware even synth had. I wouldn't be surprised to find that I'm the last person on the planet to still even use or even know it exists. And I do remember reading about TTS-1 not being bundled with the new Cakewalk Sonar by request by Roland. I don't blame them, they don't own or not affiliated with Cakewalk anymore and would much prefer "selling you" their new synth's with their new updated "SuperNatural" synth engine.🤣 But none of these are problematic for me. I can just add the TTS-1 to the Cakewalk Project first in line, I don't have to use it 1st, or at all just in case I might want to later on. Well I hope this info was useful to many 'users'. However, I don't think a lot of it would be useful to Cakewalk Staff and bakers who have little to no control over how 3rd party plugins react, But I gotta give the bakers KUDOS & HUGH PROPS UP! 👍👍 I can't remember EVER experiencing a NEW Upgrade/update version release that ran as smoothly as Cakewalk Sonar does for me. Especially with all the radical changes to the sound engine and handling of FX plugins!

I have to say I honestly really despised SONAR X1 when it was first released back in 2011 boasting it's new "Skylight" GUI. It was so radically different from Pro Audio 8.5 that it was like starting from scratch to learn how to use my favorite and most familiar DAW that I was so FURIOUS that I was inclined to protest and actually thought rather deep thought about asking for my upgrade money back. But I didn't, and simply kept using Pro Audio 8.5 as my main whip and gradually and painfully would spark up SONAR X1 every once in a while, to try get used to and learn how to use it as time allowed. And as typical with installing any new DAW's, it proved to be a bit unstable running on Win. 2K Pro. As did SONAR x2 which I was becoming a bit more familiar with over time, but having bit the bullet and finally upgraded my OS from Win 2K - Win XP running on an aging Intel P4 machine, I really couldn't be certain if my stability issues came from SONAR x2, Win XP, or my aging hardware. So by the time SONAR x3 Producer was released, I completed a new computer build based on AMD'S Phenom CPU and got a SHOCKINLY JAW DROPPING, EARTH MOVING boost of computer speed and horsepower. 🤯 And I went from despising SONAR to kinda liking it because it clearly handled recording audio better, but not nearly as much as Pro Audio 8.5, which contrary to it's name, was great at MIDI SEQUENCING, wasn't exactly very good at handling the tasks of recording audio. But it synced well with my G4 Power Mac running Pro Tools and NO DAW'S running on Windows computers could compete with that. And then SONAR x4 Producer came to age, and THAT was the GAME CHANGER that literally changed EVERYTHING! And that's when I started ignoring my Mac/ProTools rig, not completely though, but by that time, Apple SHOT THEMSELVES in the FOOT transitioning from OS-9 to OS-X with their introduction of brand new, built from the ground up CORE AUDIO sound drivers clashed & burned both ProTools & my MOTU 8 PCI audio interface to the ground. It set ProTools back about a year to recover, but as far as the MOTU was concerned, it was a rather pricy paperweight as far as Apple concerned because MOTU couldn't or wouldn't update the audio drivers for CORE AUDIO, but their Windows ASIO DRIVERS ROCKED SONAR x4 Producer to BLISS! And that turned my G4 Power Mac into an unsightly very expensive paperweight that was NEVER booted up again, and SONAR winner of ALL KINDS of AWARDS that led up to MIPA AWARDS was LARGELY and continuously arguably considered the WORLD'S BEST DAW! 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆. And sooo... Although Cakewalk continued to stay and remain ahead of DAW innovation, nothing really earth shattering happened in the world of DAW's until a stable x64 version of Windows 7 was born. But that wasn't REALLY a big deal for SONAR, because SONAR's x64 Double Precision Sound Engine ran perfectly fine, stable, and natively on a, x32 bit OS, as in Window 2K and UP! So nothing really earth shattering or mind blowing happened to SONAR until BANDLAB bought it, took over, rebranded it, and started GIVING IT AWAY FOR FREE! 🤯 And not only did Bandlab keep up maintaining excellent support and higher level(s) of innovation, but they have also actually made considerable improvements to not only the ease of workflow, but to the POWER & STABILITY of SONAR's x64 Double Precision Sound Engine as well. And for the relative price we used to pay for SONAR upgrades, is the same as it costs for Bandlab Membership.. The new & improved Cakewalk Sonar lives again. And it SOUNDS GREAT, Looks better and MORE POWERFUL... It Feels GOOD

Patience DAW Hoppa...?I was considering Studio One back when Gibson closed the doors on SONAR. I tried it, it was okay, not as innovative as SONAR, but kinda okay none the less. What I really didn't like that stopped me in my tracks was the sound engine was tiny and harsh compared to SONAR because it fatigued my ears after about an hour recording with my tried, true and trusty SONY 7506's Studio Monitor head cans. It wasn't the head cans because they sounded the same working with SONAR, Reason, & Pro Tools, never mind the 'learning curve' of trying to navigate around a new DAW that takes precious and frustrating time away from recording and actually 'focusing' on making music, and NO DAW can rival the power, stability, and innovation of Cakewalk at any price point. So be patient DAW Hoppa... I've always found it to be true that the absolute BEST DAW OUT THERE for you, is the DAW you are most familiar with. No wine shall be served before its time.. Be a tad less petulant and a wee bit more careful of what you wish for, because you will have the honor & privilege of paying for what you now receive for free SOON ENOUGH! ?

It's perfectly OK to import .mp4 files into CbB. Infact CbB has a video player that supports multiple formats of video. You can't edit the video, but you can edit and add tracks to the audio. .mp4 is not just for video anymore and is commonly used for higher quality audio stream file compression & multi-channel audio such as surround sound mixes and such,will work & play without any video channel. In fact, I believe Bandlab.com streams all music in the .mp4 format as does many other music streaming websites, and of course YOUtube uses .mp4 whether it contains any video or not. I believe you have a corrupted or audio file that is not compatible to CbB's project audio settings? Does the .mp3 or .mp4 play in your media player? Remove/delete the .mp3 or .mp4 from the project, save, close, & reboot CbB project and see if that corrects the problem. If it does Go to Edit > Preferences > File - Audio Data. Under File Bit Depths, check to make sure Import Bit Depth field matches the bit dept and speed of the project. Unless you've previously changed it, it should be set to CbB's default settings of 16 bit 44.100 k/HZ Check to make sure the "Original" option to import the files at their current bit depth is DESELECTED and OFF. Your .mp3 or .mp4 sound file will be up sampled to match your project setting before importing it back into CbB.

Cakewalk is STILL ahead of everyone else! Way, way, WAY ahead of everything else and have managed to stay there since SONAR was released. I know, I was there, and when SONAR 4 Producer was released, I pretty much shut down my Mac ProTools rig because I could FINALLY do everything I wanted to do in one DAW on one computer running Windows 2k. Up until then I used Cakewalk for MIDI composing/editing and ACID Pro for loop composing ProTools for audio recording and synced both computers together with MIDI MTC protocol to interface Windows to Apple to send MIDI/ACID loop sequences to the Mac & record them to audio tracks in ProTools where I started doing the FUN part. Lay'in down the JAMS with vocals and guitar tracks. ? SONAR 4 not only supported the BEST most advanced MIDI editing/sequencing I had ever tried, it supported ACID™ Loop technology, I no longer needed to use ProTools or ACID Pro, but I still had to use Sonic Foundry's Sound Forge Pro to "make" my own ACID Loops. And when I got enough of them together to fill a CD's worth of "Loop Packs", as an ACIDplanet.com ProZone member, Sony would release my Loop Packs & give me 49% of the take. But those days are over. And while I found ACID Loop™ technology was a rock the world game changer, simply by giving users the ability to treat and manipulate audio clips as if they were MIDI sequences, or as Cakewalk called them "Groove Clips", what really impressed me the most about ACID software was it ability to faithfully and reliably record audio tracks from beginning to end without locking up or dropping out on my Windows 98SE mid grade Compaq laptop. I could only record one track at a time, but Cakewalk Pro Audio couldn't do that on my much bigger more powerful full tower custom built workstation. But, as it turned out years later, that wasn't Cakewalk's fault, It was Intel's Pentium chips could cut the mustard, but AMD Athlon's could & their Phenom CPU could ROCK IT LIKE A HURRICANE. A fact I learned almost by accident, as an early computer builder, when I decided to try out AMD configs for my next build, simply because they cost only 1/2 as much to build as would Intel configs. and clearly had more brute horsepower & muscle than any Windows or Apple computer I had experienced to date. And just like Cakewalk, I have found AMD still does today, as my aging AMD FX8370 STILL clearly manages to compete and hold it's own with today's Intel i9's. The only disadvantage, if ya even want to call it that, is the AMD FX series CPU's aren't supported with Win 11. But that doesn't bother me yet, because I don't really like Win 11, and I LOVE Win 10 so I'm good to at least another year, and maybe for a while longer. However, I'm getting ahead of the point, looking at it from the brighter side of 2018, right around the same time my FX series CPU became downgraded by AMD Rysen tech, the plug got pulled at ACIDplanet.com, Bandlab appropriated Cakewalk from Gibson and graciously "pointed me to this new and improved Forum and invited me to check out & join Bandlab.com. If I wanted to, there was no pressure to, they would still let me use CbB for FREE, and I was still free to continue to check out Presonus Studio ONE to replace a no longer supported SPLAT. However, there was no need to. Bandlab continued to provide EXCELLANT support for CbB, and I can't help but feel, truly & honestly feel that Bandlab has taken Bandlab.com REALLY stepped up the game of publishing & sharing to a universe that FAR EXCEEDS any universe that ACIDplanet.com ever could or would orbit in. And not only does Bandlab let me keep 100% of profits from anything I may sell, Bandlab offers free Album authoring from .mp3 to .wav, Mastering, and downloads can be distributed directly from Bandlab. And Bandlab Studio/Mix Editor is MIND BLOWING, SHOCKINGLY POWERFUL! ??? Not only did I not expect to live long enough to see the day that this could even happen, I find it quite stunning that it is in fact even possible. In fact, I am so grateful for Bandlab's continued support and innovations, I began to feel guilty for freely accepting it for so long I gladly joined and signed up paid membership just to give something back in return, and ended up getting EVEN MORE GOODIES AND SERVICES making my workflow & life SO MUCH EASIER for a REDICULOUSLY LOW PRICE! I would like to point out that I found Studio ONE to be alright, as in good and or OK, it. I wouldn't consider it lovable although it is a very reasonably priced DAW,... BUT it is nowhere near as stable, advanced, OR as reasonably priced as CbB. S-ONE also kinda innovative, but not as forward thinking as it 'can' do anything that SONAR ' can't' already do, just does it differently. What I didn't like about it at all is it's lack of support for Mackie MCU protochol, it only supported HUI, which knocks out the Master Buss Fader and renders it useless on my Behringer X-Touch DAW controller. ? S-ONE'S sound engine is rather harsh and tinny for monitoring with & thru both of my Focusrite & Universal Audio interfaces compared to SONAR/CbB's Double Precision x64 sound engine. Please understand that I am referring to actively "monitoring" with headcans during recording sessions, not a mixdown of the finished Mixing Session which I would use near field monitors, I personally found S-ONE offensive in a way that I can't quite put my finger on and as such causes early ear fatigue. Even at low volumes with closed back headcans like the very popular Sony 7506's & Sennheiser 280 Pro's which are DESIGNED for long periods of studio recording and tracking at any volume.. Will a Presonus audio interface rectify this annoying condition? I don't know, but I doubt it and I WON'T be stepping down or away from my Focusrite & Universal Audio interfaces to find out.. ? They maybe gett'in on in years, but they DANG SHER ain't BROKEN. SONAR/CbB's Double Precision x64 sound engine was the first & ONLY x64 sound engine on WINDOWS computers that runs in the host, providing x64 processing power to a DAW running on an x32 OS, and sounds JUST as RICH & as GOOD as the rock-solid #1 Industry Standard ProTools, and Sound Forge Pro, which, does scores more than just make ACID Loops, combined with Ozone is still my #1 Mastering suite of choice fo mastering everything from skinny 'lil .wma, .mp3, up to 7.2 surround sound mixes and EVERYTHING in between. Only other sound editor I've ever found that can compete with Sound Forge Pro is BIAS PEAK which requires a Mac to run on.