Nigel Mackay

Just remember to run Bandlab Assistant as administrator.

1) Did you run Bandlab Assistant as administrator? 2) Did you run it in Internet Explorer or Edge? Those can give problems. Chrome is ideal, Firefox works with me. 3) Is there somehow access restriction on the templates folder? Try uninstalling and reinstalling Cakewalk.

Also a bit of a pain with VSTs.

Extreme right-hand side of the menu bar. Click on it for menu. Used to be called Lenses if that helps.

Try saving the Workspace.

Which DAW you use is irrelevant. You need (any) Pultec EQ -> (any) LA-2A type compressor that has the frequency adjust knob at the bottom -> (any) Pulteq EQ. Cakewalk doesn't come with any of them. I can tell you that the T-Racks LA-2A doesn't have that knob, neither does the Overload Gem Comp LA. The Waves one does.

Above the Browser, click on Plug-ins and check for how the plug-ins are sorted. Change it and see what happens.

You set the meters however you want them by clicking on the values and styles you want.

Look for it in the Tutorials section and on YouTube. Too involved for writing down. And the genre is irrelevant, the method is the same, only settings change, and you play until you like the result. "If it sounds right it is right."

Bandlab has two apps Bandlab and Cakewalk by Bandlab (CbB.) Confusing. The app Bandlab is designed for collaborating. It does have limitations, but might be ok for your needs. Regarding the Dropbox system I agree, it is not the most efficient method. Although all changes should be there. Before you do housekeeping on your Google Drive try being very disciplined with Dropbox. Synchronise using it. Person A does some editing. He deletes the existing file from Dropbox and then posts the new copy. Person B downloads, does some editing, deletes the copy on Dropbox, and posts the new copy. Oi, quite a painful process.

Firstly, get rid of the top row in scan paths. That is done automatically by Cakewalk. (Not Sonar ?) Play safe and check Rescan All Plug-ins and run Scan. Run Utilities -> Cakewalk Plug-in Manager. In Plug-in Categories click on VST3 instruments (VST3i). Look in Registered Plug-ins to see if they are there. Below the list click on Show Excluded. Look in Registered Plug-ins to see if they are there. If so, click on each one and click the Include plug-in button below the Plug-in Categories list. You can also check VST instruments (VSTi) in case you accidentally didn't select VST3 during installation. If still no success, run each installer again. You can always click on Cancel just before it actually installs. Make sure you selected VST3. (You can also leave VST selected, for just in case, but that is another story.) Make a note of where the VSTs are being installed. If any of these paths are missing from the VST Scan Paths list, add them. Play safe and check Rescan All Plug-ins before running Scan.

But it did work, in reverse. ? Was set to run as admin. Cleared it, and now everything works fine without admin. Cakewalk support are going to query it with the developers.

I did put them in a special folder now, but that is not the main problem. The problem is that BitBridge is set to run as administrator in Compatibilty. So you mus use Run as administrator to make it scan the VST once identified. That is why the registry is short of entries for them. Remove the Run as administrator from BitBridge and it all works properly. Seeing as they used to work, somewhere along the line BitBridge got changed.. @msmcleod Didn't you just have a post saying try setting BitBridge to run as admin that you deleted? Because that is what inspired me to look.

Cakewalk support have the same problem. Seems to be BitBridge, which is out of their hands.

Use Screensets. One zoomed in and one zoomed out. You could use a third with an interim zoom level. Not persistent across projects, but trivial to set up each time you need it.

@Matthew Sorrels Ran ProcMon normally and as administrator. The only difference is that files classified as VSTs have more registry entries than those that don't. But no access problems. In fact, if vstscan says a file is not a VST it creates a registry entry to say so. 1) I have experimented with making myself and administrator and running vstscan. It still says that the DSK files are not VSTs. 2) I MUST use run as administrator to have them accepted. And they work just fine in that session. 3) But if I exit and rerun Cakewalk normally, they are still listed but give an error if I try to use them. 4) As a standard user, if I use Run as administrator then the VSTs are accepted and I can use them in that session. 5) If I exit and rerun Cakewalk they are no longer listed. (Entries for admin and standard user are different in the registry. It all goes down to vstscan. Only accepts 32-bit VSTs if I use Run as administrator. I am in contact with support.

Maybe try unistalling and reinstalling Cakewalk. It just takes a bit of time, that's all. Backup your projects first.

I'll have a look at that. Windows sometimes quite easily gets confused about privileges and permissions and security.

It needs to be done the long way. ? (Very rough) Guide You should get all the music recorded, and written if using MIDI, before you do anything else. (Of course, you can do quick checks to see if what you are doing is feasible, but the problem is things don't sound the same when played alone or with the entire mix.) That is the tracking stage. Then switch to console view and, with all effects disabled, using Input Gain get continuous sounds to -18dB RMS and very peaky sounds (like snare drum) to -12dB PEAK. No need to be OCD about it. That is gain staging. Still with no effects, adjust the levels of all the tracks to get close to the sound you want. That is the dry mix. Now you start tweaking. Enable TH3. Set it for the sound you want, and then use the last knob level to bring it back to -18dB. Then EQ, compression, bring it back to -18dB. All the way through. That is part of the mixing stage. You will find that at various points through the music you will need to make changes. Make something louder during the chorus, fade something a bit during a solo, that sort of thing. You use automation for that. When the automation is finished, your mix is done.

Make sure you select the 2 "new" tracks before recording. Make sure you arm the correct tracks for recording.

Reinstalling Cakewalk didn't help. Running Cakewalk as administrator works, but this is not a good solution, thanks to manufacturers who put presets in appdata. I did try putting them in the Cakewalk folder, but still doesn't work. I have also checked folder privileges - OK. So it seems to be a Windows thing, not Cakewalk. Will have to experiment. ☹️ Thanks so far.

Most of my VSTs are in a folder on my E drive. E:\Data\Midi\VstPlugins\.... There I have sub-folders for Audio FX, VSTis, Samplers. Some VSTs are grouped in sub-folders based on manufacturer. There is no folder compression or anything like that going on. And no differentiation between 32-bit and 64-bit VST locations. The 64-bit all work, the 32-bit not, even though a folder might contain 32-bit and 64-bit VSTs.

@scook All of them. Not a single one loads. Mostly they are DSK. They are in a custom folder. Vstscan.exe is the latest one, dated 24/04/2020. V6.0.3.0.

Suddenly noticed all my 32-bit VSTs are missing. Checked in scan log. Discarded as NOT a VST plug-in. Or is it just me? Tried a Reset and Scan. Didn't help. Just realised, they have actually been gone for quite a while now. Maybe since the previous update.

Look for an autosave copy in the project folder, you might be lucky.