bitflipper

That would be a reasonable strategy. Open-back headphones are generally flatter than closed-back, and of course a flat frequency response is preferable if you're mixing on them. I don't mix on headphones myself, but if I did, it would probably be on a pair of Sennheiser HD600s. For editing, flatness isn't as critical. An inexpensive pair of ATH-M50s are fine for that. My go-to headphones (Sennheiser HD558) for editing are moderately Hi-Z. They generally work fine with my Focusrite interface. But back during quarantine I was trying to do some real-time online jams (never again) and wanted more volume. So I bought an inexpensive headphone amplifier. That turned out to be a fantastic investment. Turns out, even if your interface can deliver satisfactory volume, you may still be getting compressed peaks without knowing it. For a long time I'd assumed that headphone amps were audiophile snake oil, but I was so impressed by how much better the amp made the headphones sound that I bought a little battery-powered headphone amplifier so I'd always have the higher-voltage rails and higher current capacity even when outside the studio. And while the improvement is most dramatic with my high-impedance cans (Sennheiser HD650), it helps my low-impedance headphones as well. Bear in mind that while the broad consensus is that Lo-Z headphones are easier to get loud with, there are diminishing returns as you approach an impedance that requires more current than your interface can supply. The sonic effect is very similar to having insufficient voltage to drive a Hi-Z speaker. With a good headphone amp, you won't have to worry about either one.

^^^ Well, there ya go! I'll bet OP doesn't have one yet.

This is why everyone should grab a copy of the free tool AutoRuns from Systools and run it periodically. I recently noticed that the Pace driver was being loaded at boot, despite having uninstalled all products that use it. Not a big deal, as that driver doesn't actually do anything unless validating a license, but it's still irritating. And don't get me started on Acronis and its takeover of my computer.

Seems some of you have missed the point of the piece. It's about persisting with something despite knowing you'll always be mediocre at it. Let's be real: that describes the vast majority of us here. (Don't be offended. I am using the word "mediocre" in its literal sense. It comes from the same root word as "median" and "medium". If there are a billion musicians in the world and you are good enough to blow away 500 million of them, then congratulations, you've successfully achieved the rank of "mediocre".)

And in breaking news, the family of Marvin Gaye has copyrighted the Am chord. We're all screwed.

You might find that a quality dynamic microphone with a narrow pattern quite beneficial in non-ideal recording spaces. Here's one I've been using on stage for the past 3-4 years, primarily because its supercardioid pattern lets me place a vocal monitor right next to me on a stand. One day I put it up to record a quick 'n dirty vocal harmony while sitting at my desk, and was delighted at the results. It's now my go-to vocal mic for recording; my fancy condenser hasn't been out of its case in ages.

Good catch. I hadn't noticed that it was VST3. A reasonable hypothesis would then be that Konrad had been using the VST2 version on the old computer. If that's the case, then the Replace Synth function should be an easy fix. Of course, there's no problem installing both versions and that would avoid future hassles if he's got a bunch of projects to move over.

Well, that's a stumper. Assuming there are no plugins or automation on the track, that's gotta be caused by something external to the DAW. Might be helpful if you listed your entire signal chain, such as type of audio interface and anything that's in front of the interface. Is this an acoustic guitar with a microphone going straight into the interface, an electric guitar through an amp amp sim, and are there any pedals in the chain? How long is this clip? The envelope looks like a compressor kicking in. But if the picture represents, say, 10 seconds of audio or more then that's not it.

Well, honestly the most prudent course of action is to stick with what's working for you already. If you're just looking to relieve some GAS pains, maybe acquire some cool effect to play with instead. If you don't have any ValhallaDSP stuff yet, go there, close your eyes and randomly pick one. They're all great, and they're all 50 bucks apiece. The freebies are very good, too.

Yes, Adaptive Limiter was an excellent plugin and it would be great if Bandlab would bring it back, along with the CA2A compressor. Dimension Pro, too, as long as we're wishing. You never know. Lots of cool things are in the works. In the meantime, there are gobs of good limiters to pick from. If you don't mind throwing some bucks at it, FabFilter's Pro-L2 comes closest to the AL experience. By that, I mean a) great results with minimal effort, b) a friendly graphical interface, and c) efficient enough that multiple instances won't over-burden your CPU.

^^^ Best answer.

Yes. They are named after the project file with date and time appended, and have a .dmp file extension. Someone from Cakewalk can analyze them for you (probably only one is needed, since they're probably all showing the same problem). If you like, I can take a look at one for you, although the amount of information I can glean from them will be less than what's available to the Cakewalk folks. If you want to do that, post one of them to a public file server such as DropBox and sent me a PM with the link to it. Yes. It's just a way to edit aud.ini (%appdata%\cakewalk\cakewalk core\aud.ini) without having to exit Cakewalk and start it back up. When you click the Edit button, it'll bring up the file in a text editor (usually Notepad). Just add the new variable at the top like this: [Aud] ExceptionHandlingSeverity=7 DataDir=C:\Cakewalk Projects\Audio Data PictureDir=C:\Cakewalk Projects\Picture Cache PicCacheMB=500 PicCacheZoom=128 PicCacheLevels=2 EnablePicCacheThreads=1 ComputePicturesWhilePlaying=1 ... Don't worry about messing anything up. If you type it in wrong, it'll just be ignored. If you want to un-do this troubleshooting aid later on, you can either change the value from 7 to 1 or simply delete the entry. P.S. If you feel like taking a stab at examining the dump file yourself, here's an ancient post I made with some basic instructions for using Windbg to look into a dump file. It references the old exe name for Sonar Producer (sonarpdr.exe), but other than that everything's still applicable. If your googling skills are better than mine, I made another post on the old forum about troubleshooting plugins that, iirc, went into greater detail.

I bought MModernCompressor when it first came out, because that range control looked interesting. Turned out, dynamic range isn't something I even think about when setting up a compressor on individual tracks. I used it on a couple projects and haven't touched it since. I have two favorite compressors that cover every situation between them; the other dozen or so in my collection just take up space. That said, well hey, it's just 9 bucks.

I don't remember that. Coulda sworn I had Zebralette installed prior to buying Zebra. I'd gotten it when KVR had a one-synth challenge using Zebralette. I liked it so much that it convinced me to buy Zebra, which has since become my go-to synth for pretty much everything. But this was c. 2013-2014 and likely Zebralette version 1. I haven't used it since, because it's a subset of Zebra's functionality.

That's a hip venue in one of Seattle's hippest neighborhoods. Or so I'm told. I don't think they'd let me in - there may be an age limit.

When you say "Save in the Edit menu", I assume you meant to type "Save in the File menu". CTL-S does exactly the same thing as File -> Save. It is literally a shortcut key to the dropdown menu selection and executes the exact same code. If it works when the menu selection does not, it just means the problem is intermittent. File->Save does not close the program. That suggests an error during the save is causing the program to abort. First, check to see if there is a crash dump in %appdata%\cakewalk\cakewalk core\minidumps. Next, go to Preferences -> Audio -> Configuration File and see if there is a variable there named ExceptionHandlingSeverity, If it's not there, add it to aud.ini. Set its value to 7. This tells the program to be more verbose when choosing which errors to tell you about, which might result in a helpful warning. It's unlikely - but not entirely impossible - that this has anything to do with the use of Trillian. To see if there's an issue with it, try freezing your bass track before saving the project. If cakewalk aborts during the freeze, there could be an issue with corrupt Trillian sample files.

The browser still works pretty much the same way it did in X1. I had to bring it up just now to make sure, as I haven't chosen instruments or fx that way in a very long time. Nowadays, I select instruments via the Insert -> Soft Synth menu, which features a handy Favorites section for quickly selecting a previously-used Vi. This will probably suit you well, given that you use one instrument more than others and thus it will always appear at the top of the list. Note that in the above screenshot I am listing effects (sorted by vendor). Clicking on the little keyboard icon switches the display to instruments. Does yours come up blank, or is it just missing the particular instrument you're looking for?

Well, yeh, there was that particularly embarrassing episode. She wanted to be a pop star and instead became a meme. But it's television producers that forced acts to lip-sync, going back to the 60's. It was all for control, to assure consistent and predictable audio for broadcast. Here's a great band pretending to perform for TV. Note the wireless guitars, the phantom acoustic guitar, the incredible pickup patterns of the Beyer mics. You know it wasn't the band's decision to fake it - they were a great live band.

I've never used a USB mic, either. However, it's just an LDC with a built-in A/D converter. I don't know why it would necessarily sound awful. The Blue Yeti is very popular among podcasters, popularity that would seem unlikely if it really sounded that bad. This comment troubles me: Question for the OP: where is "anywhere"? Have you successfully used it with other audio recorders or DAWs? I ask because it seems that if it sounds OK with other software, it should sound exactly the same in Cakewalk. Whether the recording software is Cakewalk or Audacity or whatever, they're all receiving the same digital data from the microphone's driver. If it truly sounds different in Cakewalk, there must be a reason beyond "it's a crap mic". Now, I totally agree that investing in a good mic and interface is a good idea. But I am always reluctant to a address any problem with the too-easy conclusion that "you just haven't spent enough money yet". Everybody here knows how that logic can take you down a GASaholic rabbit hole.

FabFilter Pro-L Might also consider sonible's "smart" limiter, which is currently on sale for 49 EUR.

Sheesh, I feel so cheated when I hear a band that plays with backing tracks. OK, I can make an exception for solo acts because they're not trying to fool anybody. I can also make an exception for a band like Nightwish because it's unrealistic to expect them to show up with a full orchestra and choir. But a 5,6 or 7-piece wedding/bar band? They have everything they need to play it for real. A local casino used to regularly host a band that would take on the personas of different bands on different nights. To my amazement, the audience didn't question where the brass section was that everyone could clearly hear. I spent the whole time trying to figure out which parts were live and which were recorded. Needless to say, they didn't take requests or otherwise switch up their set list. Personally, I just wouldn't / couldn't do it. I make so little money playing in a band that it has to be fun or why bother.

Looking over the release notes...yawn...oh, wait a minute...Kontakt now has a ring modulator! I'll never use it, but cool. But... There is also a delay called Psyche Delay, which NI describes as "a stereo delay effect that produces a range of atmospheric ambient echoes and reverse effects reminiscent of the "backwards tape" sound of the 1960s." Basically, a delay with pitch modulation and reverse delay. I have a few delays already that can do that (my go-to is tkDelay) but it's neat that you can now do it right inside a Kontakt instrument.

This is probably true, or at least a good place to start. Unfortunately, the advice to "disable what is not necessary" is a deep dark hole that most users are unprepared to enter. Is "Device Association Framework Provider Host" necessary? How about "Microsoft Network Realtime Inspection Service"? It says Microsoft, must be important. If you look at a list of your computer's running processes, it will be full of mysterious names that even after googling may remain just as mysterious. And to make matters worse, Task Manager doesn't even list all of them. Sometimes, the worst offenders are hidden from you (e.g. interrupt servicing overhead). Which is not to say a performance analysis is so daunting that you shouldn't embark on it. Just do it cautiously, making notes as you go about any processes you've disabled that might turn out to actually be necessary. It's worth downloading a few helpful tools to make your investigation easier. In particular, Process Explorer and Autoruns are two free utilities that I always start with when running down performance issues. Another indispensable tool is LatencyMon. Process Explorer is a souped-up version of Task Manager that gives more detailed information and includes processes that Task Manager does not show you. It's a good place to start your googling adventure to simply identify what they are and to start building a potential "not necessary" list. Pay attention to the "Working Set" column, which shows how much RAM each process has allocated for itself, in addition to the CPU usage. Autoruns shows what processes are kicked off at boot time, and gives you an easy way to disable them. Again, run down the list and google them to figure out what they are and if they're truly necessary. LatencyMon shows you DPC latency, and I know of no other way to get this information. DPCs (Deferred Procedure Calls) are usually run in response to a hardware interrupt. They can be CPU-suckers, and they are normally hidden from view. LatencyMon will show which drivers are generating the most DPCs and how much overhead they're incurring. Often, the most egregious offenders are unnecessary or may even represent a broken I/O interface or failing disk drive. P.S. Yes, the size of your ASIO buffers is important, but research that 51% number first. And yes, kill that Dell crap.

Oh, the wisdom I could impart to my teenage self . Unfortunately it would have fallen on deaf ears. It takes a long time to realize how deep one's ignorance goes.