Jimbo 88

Hey Jerry, Just listen to this again and had a thought. You might try adding another string library that has some "wonkyness" or character to your long strings. The short strings and woodwinds sound perfect, not sure how you can improve on that. Your long strings can sound "too perfect" especially when they are in octaves. I would suggest not changing anything you do, but add something like Spitfire Audio's strings to your 1st Violins (or all your strings) at the end stage mixing process. They have some built in tuning and articulation issues that can sound cool at times. You probably could pick up what you need for free from them. I hesitate to make any suggestions because your compositions are just soooo great. Best!

Thanks guys, my strong suit is definitely not music mixing. When there are a lot of elements I have to learn how to give each it's own sonic space. That would solved the muffled or muddy problem. Thanks for the feedback.

Really cool! Love it! You amaze me by how prolific you are. I really love the synth rhythms behind the orch. What woodwinds are you using? VSL?

I can't believe... how many good songs are on this forum. Reminds me a little of Lennon or maybe George Harrison in the Traveling Wilbury's. NICE!

Having fun in my basement studio...

Hey just as a test, try switching the metronome from "use audio metronome" to "use MIDI note". It might give a clue to what is up...

I have a very similar story to the OP (and others in this thread) and when Cake and Gibson went down I headed over to Cubase. There are things in Cubase that are really great, I can't live without at this point, but Cake and the bakers are really stepping up. I spend more time in notation software these days. I picked up Dorico in the hopes it will be integrated with Cubase. But I still start every project in Cakewalk. Composing in Cake is the best. The occasional audio editing/mixing projects I do in Cake. I tried Studio One and I'm not sure what the advantages are. Anyways, my point is, I stepped away from CbB and into other DAWs, but I come back and spend tons of time on CbB...and it feels good.

The way I have done forever, probably outdated now...go to Preferences>File>Advanced and un-click "allow only one project at a time". Open both projects and copy the tracks you'd like into the target file. I have 2 monitors so I'd stretch CbB to fill both and have each file on it's own monitor just to keep things straight. I have always had heavy virtual instruments with tons of ram, so just to make this easier I would open the files in "safe" mode.

So I was trying to purge junk out of my basement a week back and found a box of high quality, unopened cassette tapes. Did not know what to do with them. Guess I can put them up on eBay. If i remember correctly (it has been many, many years) analogue tape gets sticky if it sits too long. Gums up pinch rollers. Why anyone wants to go back to that is crazy pants to me.

I have a system that helps me compose. You have to realize 1st that music is a form of story telling. Even if you are not using lyrics and doing an instrumental, you really are just basically telling a story... or describing an emotion...or a feeling. The difference between amateurs and pros is the ability to tell a story in their music. 1. What story/emotion are you trying to tell or portray ? Mentally outline how that works. Are you starting small and going big? What is your arc? 2. Pick a scale that describes that emotion. Note that the 1/2 steps in the scale give away the emotional sound of that scale. Example: If you want to sound "Happy" right off the bat, you are probably going to use a major scale and jump on the 3rd to the 4th. You might not want to sound happy right away so stay away from those two notes until you do. 3. You want to mix up intervals, but realize that small intervals sound intimate and bigger intervals are heroic or more powerful. So you start with these kind of concepts using math and theory to get started. Then let your ear and imagination take over. It is a lot like cooking, adding spices to tell your story. If you can't hear the melody, you just haven't thought of your story. Start with that. The rest will follow.

Ok forgive me, there is a lot to wade thru here, I might understand the issue, I might not. I do a lot of audio design, vo recording, sound effects etc..to picture or absolute time, then score (compose) music to picture (or even just the audio). I change tempos all the time. Some audio i want to stay right where it's at and other elements i want to follow the new tempos (tempi?). So the trick is choosing an element's time base. Is it musical or absolute. you can change that in the clip and track properties on the left. So let's say I have placed a musical audio clip in the timeline as part of the composition, say a rhythm guitar. It starts in measure "X", but now the tempo has got to change. I "bounce to Clips" the guitar part making sure the clip is exactly at the start and end of a measure. I can change the tempo any way I want, then time stretch the guitar part back to the end of the measure that it was at. I have done this many times always successful. If the time stretched audio is what I like.. I bounce it to clips again, cause i found that working with a lot of time stretched elements will cause apps to crash...this is true in Protools, Cubase, etc. What I think your are trying to do is create a scenario where CbB detects beats in all your audio clips and adjusts everything to match a new tempo...that might work if you convert all your audio to a groove clip. that seems to be fraught with issues. I have seen this work, but never always successful ...in many other Daws. I hope I helped and did not waste your time. Best! Good Luck.

CbB is fine if you are working music that is not to complicated. I actually prefer composing in Cake, it keeps my sketch simple and I can work quickly. If the project needs real, complex notation I export an XLM file into other software. I can make my compositions sound real in CbB, I have a tough time listening to my pieces in any notation software. As others have said, and I agree, Musescore is good....and free (big bonus). I use Seblieus because I can rewire it with CbB and Dorico because I feel that is going to be the future of pro notation programs. Big learning curves in all the notation apps. CbB is pretty easy to learn. maybe I'm biased 'cause I started DAWs on Cakewalk. Creating a Vocal and Piano lead sheet should work out fine in Cake. If you add other instruments other than keyboards you are going to need other apps, Staff View just does not have enough articulations . So do your project in Staff View and get good at it. When you need more, your experience will help you understand and move up into more sophisticated notation apps. Best!

Yep, just like them...bringing people together one tune at a time (Geetar Players and Fiddlers)

Ok, let's get this straight, I ain't no doctor, but have studied up a little on audio because of the work field I'm in, There is a theory that your ear generates tones and uses phase to tell you where things are. That is how/where tinnitus supposedly comes from. Anyway, to me, what you are describing is a form of that. Fatigue, age, wear and tear all play a part in that. Also I suspect wax build up or "dirt" for the lack of a better word, could be part of it. Things I would try: 1) take a long hot shower and cup your hand over your ear to suction out potential foreign substances, 2) Relax, and try natural things that might pop your ears ...like if you are a swimmer head to a swimming pool and spend time in the deepest end under water. Take a trip on an airplane(ha!) Good Luck, I'm close to your age and I hate things like these, cause you always worry they are permanent, but tend to not be:)

Do you think high schools would allow a "Rock" guitar player to stand in front of an orchestra? I wrote this medley arrangement for just that. What do you think? Would it work? Or cause a riot ? Might make Christmas concerts a lot more fun...

Special thanks to Cary Drake for Vocals, Harry Hmura (best know for his guitar work on the game "Halo")...Merry Christmas!

This sounds really good. I know those old cassette tape decks would add a lot of hiss and noise. Did you use any Izotopes noise reduction plugins? I can't hear any kind of noise that would ding my ear. The acoustic guitar has a little of that phasing sound, but if you had not said anything about an old cassette deck. I would not have noticed. --NICE

Hey so I started a podcast. Recorded and mixed in Cakewalk. The ripple edit is a God send for editing this thing. I love working with Cake and am so grateful for these forums. You can find it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or the Acast website here: https://shows.acast.com/almost-world-famous-original-music-jam I talk about original songs with a couple of other composers, audio guys and music teachers... Thanks everyone for all the help I have received over the 15+ years I have been hanging out here!!

I don't have a song to post, but what about a podcast with multiple original songs? The "Almost World Famous Original Music Jam" podcast. Recorded and mixed in Cakewalk. https://shows.acast.com/almost-world-famous-original-music-jam/episodes/christmas-is-almost-here

Yes to what john is referring to. Also make sure all your tracks are assigned to the master bus or the same output. You might not be monitoring your mix and it's outputs correctly.

Perhaps your vocals sound boom-ie because of your listening environment. You might have frequencies that boom out in your room. Try headphones and mixing down and listening to mixes in other places.

Try using the "workspace" function on the top right side. I'm sure someone can be more help than I.

No, audio quality will not suffer if all your setting and levels are set up correct. Usually the default settings. I send pic references for mixes all the time. I use to do it the way the others describe, it use to be the most efficient way with Cake doing the audio rendering and a video app rendering the picture. That rendering process was the quickest and I had more flexibility choosing the video format for my clients who mostly worked with Macs. But recent cakewalk updates have made that unnecessary. I wish I could help you with the codes thing, but I'm just a button pusher when it comes to that stuff. All I know now, is that I export a video file from Cake, choose export MPEG4 video and everything works...and works well. Thank you Cakewalk bakers again!

Man, I've been working on this dang software for almost 30 years non-stop and it never ceases to amaze me what I learn when I show up here.

agreed...I save multiple versions when I suspect I might wanna undo later. But It would be nice tho.